savetheearth | [Mission 3 - Nuisance] Action

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[Mission 3 - Nuisance] Action - open / Text later

[Action around Locke City]

It wasn't until recently that Anthony finally gained an understanding for exactly how destructive, and annoying, the strange little monsters infesting the city were. Sure, he'd caught the news here and there and watched the network, but from a distance it didn't seem so bad. That was right up until his hoodie was set on fire while he was sitting on a curb taking a break. The heat and flash of flame were noticed quickly enough that Anthony was able to pat it out before it caused more than a singe, but even so the threat was clear enough. Now that he was back on the street for the time being, suddenly everything was more dangerous that ever before. Exactly what he wanted to deal with right now.

He jumped up, spotting the tiny lighter as it fled into the bushes. Foolishly Tony gave chase, intent to stomp out the animate lighter before it could cause more harm and of course blundered directly into the now burning bush. He gave a shout of surprise and pain, hopping away as he was singed and lightly burned. The fire spread quickly in the still-dry plant, too fast for him to reasonably attempt to put it out. Someone was just going to have to call the fire department or bring an extinguisher, because he certainly did not have any way of doing either of those things at the moment. Besides, as soon as he spotted that lighter moving off again he was after it like a dog on a scent.

Once a threat was established and an 'enemy' detected, something clicked over in his mind that Anthony just couldn't quite turn off. A level of focused aggression that was almost frightening when he wasn't in its thrall. The opportunity for a fight became the most thrilling thing he could imagine, even if only against a lighter that was mostly harmless until it caught something on fire. Eventually he was really going to need to learn how to control himself.

Unfortunately for him self control was the furthest thing from his mind, so as he gave chase again, this time over park benches, rails, and even out in the road completely blind to traffic. Eventually he lost sight of the lighter, but worked up as he was he was quick to go after any further nuisances he encountered. A mob of toothpicks, the occasional pencil erasing crosswalks, running away from exploding Altoids. You name it!

[OOC: Basically feel free to bump into Tony (or nearly run him over) at any point in his adventure against madness! IDK I am so bad at open posts please help yourselves.]

[Text:]

Is it just me, or are these things getting worse? First lighters, then toothpicks and magical pencils? This is getting out of hand. Anyone got any tips for dealing with these things. A repellent, maybe?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Staying indoors was definitely the way to go if one didn't want to be accosted by sneaky lighters and exploding Altoids, that was for sure.

Luckily the taxi driver was paying enough attention to not hit the idiot kid who dashed out into the street, though there was a near miss with another car that skid past and was now also blaring a horn at him. Anthony, for his part, looked more than a little startled to find himself in that situation, almost like he wasn't entirely certain how he'd ended up in the middle of the road almost getting hit.

Then there was someone climbing out of the taxi, someone who knew his name? The confused expression turned to suspicion for a moment, until he recognized L's voice. Oh, yes, that was probably good advice. "Uh... yeah, probably--" He trailed off as he caught sight of the lighter sneaking along the other side of the street again, and promptly tailed after it. He was tiring though, so he wasn't going to be able to keep chasing after it for long.

Tony really couldn't help himself, in the back of his mind he knew he was acting rather crazy, but when that aggression hit he just couldn't ignore it.

Edited 2014-04-11 02:56 (UTC)

It was a good thing that Anthony was tiring; goodness knew that L didn't have the energy to run very quickly or for very long. His diet left a lot to be desired and as a result, he was frequently anemic.

"You... all right? Do you need some help?" L asked, already breathless, weaving through the stopped cars and after the homeless kid he'd talked to. Though he didn't care much for people in general, he'd committed himself to helping out the network's youth any way he could, in order to do his impressive preincarnation justice.

Did Anthony ever know that difficulty. Well, that among other malnutrition related issues, which could really sap the energy right out of you without warning. Adrenaline only lasted so long, and now that the "monsters" were more interested in escape than directly attacking him, the bizarre fight mode he'd echoed back was wearing off.

When the lighter ducked into a sewer drain, safely out of Anthony's reach he finally stopped, breathless, and kicked at the grate in impotent irritation. "Yeah..." He panted, finally taking a moment to actually look at L rather than darting past him like a snarling lunatic. "Sorry about that," Awkwardly he ran a hand back through his hair. "I haven't figured out how to turn it off when it happens. No one got hurt back there did they?"

L was close on his heels, and luckily, not entirely spent by the time Anthony gave up the chase and came to a rest at the curb. That wasn't to say that he cut a reassuring picture; despite the high quality of his grey trench coat, he looks haggard, thin, and even ill, a disheveled, shabby creature whose expensive trappings don't fit or suit him.

"I learned some new Armenian swear words," L offered with a blase shrug, "but no, no one was hurt. Was that the result of an echo? When did that start?"

Anthony wasn't one to judge on looks alone, he knew better than that. After all, he wasn't exactly the most impressive or reassuring figure himself. Scrawny, thin, and dressed in ragged worn clothing: some of which very recently singed thanks to a particular lighter. He wasn't especially tall, and his hair was a sandy-colored mess that hung in his eyes. Well, sandy colored and just a tad on the unnatural side, as balancing dye in white hair was more difficult than expected.

Still, L wasn't exactly what he expected, he wasn't sure what he expected really of course but not this. Tony felt a little bad making him run, he didn't look suited for it at all.

"Heh, you really never know what you'll get, do you?" Echoes sure were weird. Tony just sort of thunked himself down on the curb, still puffing. He'd been running for a bit now. "It first happened when the snake attacked, I got too close and this," He gestured vaguely at his head, grasping for the word. "Just kicked in when a scale fell off near me."

Appearance-wise, the two young men definitely had something in common. And L was well aware that usually it meant that someone had fallen on hard times.

"How long have you been getting echoes? Since before the snake, I assume..." he continued to sum up Anthony's appearance

L was quite right about that, but Anthony had already hinted as much. His appearance simply solidified the fact. And, had he not already spoken with him about L possibly purchasing a business, Tony might have thought the guy was in the same kind of situation as himself.

"I had one a long, long time ago. Didn't know what the hell it was, thought I was nuts-" He paused, suddenly intent on motion out of the corner of his eye, but with a force of will he covered his head with his arms and ducked down. If he ignored them, maybe he wouldn't be so inclined to try to chase them out in the middle of the street. "Still not sure I'm not, but what can you do? Snake's when I started gettin' them again, though. What about you?"

"How long ago?" L inquired, seamlessly stooping down beside Anthony at the sudden shift in stance. "Mine was twelve years prior to my more recent and closely spaced ones. What did you get back that made you think you were crazy?"

Tony peered at him from beneath his own arms, uncertain. Even knowing that he probably wasn't crazy didn't make it any easier to talk about, certain habits were difficult to abolish once they'd been well established. Last thing he wanted was to be locked up in some hospital somewhere. "'Bout nine years ago, when I was a kid," He paused, hesitant, and shifted uncomfortably. "...Monsters." L probably wouldn't believe him anymore than anyone else had, not that Anthony expected him to.

"Monsters? Like the snake?" L asked. "If others could have seen it, then it would have been proof you weren't crazy, right?"

As someone who had been locked up in a hospital for several years, L wasn't always particularly conventional in the way he interacted with others. An example of this was how comfortable he seemed immediately broaching very, very personal topics without even batting an eye.

Also, as obsessively as he stalked the network, there wasn't much anymore he was programmed to automatically dismiss.

"Mm, not completely the same," It was hard to describe, but he just had a different feeling about them. "But you know? Monsters. Ugly, fangs and claws and vicious, that sort of thing." He just shook his head helplessly, giving a little shrug. "Yeah, but no one else saw it, so I never had proof. There wasn't even another body." Wow way to be cryptic, Tony.

Living the way he did Tony was used to unconventional. Besides, a lot of homeless people weren't exactly the most mentally stable, so he tended to encounter the unusual more often than not. It didn't bother him, even if he was a little put off by how casual L was about probing about personal information.

Not that it really hurt anything at this point. Anthony had nothing to lose, after all.

Stereotypical monsters, it sounded like. L bit his lip, looking odd, but somehow managing to not look skeptical, which might have helped at least slightly given that Anthony seemed to be struggling slightly with the requested explanation.

"So... where are you right now? Staying, I mean. I think that maybe you look hungry and if you have a moment to stop chasing toothpicks... I could buy you a sandwich or something?"

It had been a blur, the memory and events that had triggered it. Remembering more details than bloody claws and fangs, their snarling voices and the body falling, was simply asking too much. The lack of skepticism helped, as Anthony was already bracing against it, shoulders stiff and tense in expectation. Why would L believe him, after all? No one else had, hell he didn't even believe himself most of the time.

The subject change was welcome, this was really more than he'd talked about the whole thing for many years and it still wasn't easy. "Huh? Uh, nowhere I guess," He looked genuinely surprised at the offer, but he wasn't about to turn down a meal. "Yeah, I think I can pull myself away," A wry smirk. "Long's I'm not holding you up from anything?"

"Nothing that can't wait, no. I just think that this is a conversation that's better held... not on the side of the curb."

It was a subtle hint that he wasn't through with his questions, but he wasn't going to chump out on his offer for a sandwich.

"You've got a point." Not getting harassed by murderous toothpicks and iPods was also ideal. He drug himself up from his seat and idly brushed off some dirt before flipping up his hood. Limiting his range of vision would help to curb his aggression toward the unusual threats.

Can't chase what he can't see, after all.

"Right. After you." Well if he got a sandwich out of it, Tony could answer a few more questions he figured.

"There's actually a cafe less than a block away," L said, straightening, that settling the matter in his mind. "It's not my favorite, but I guess it's important to pay attention to competitors and what they're serving."

Slipping his hands into the pockets of his dark coat, he started walking in that direction.

"Great, I'm beat," He'd been running around like a lunatic for a while now, and almost getting smashed by traffic was more than enough to have subjected him to more adrenaline than was probably healthy. Suffice it to say he wasn't up for a long walk. "It can't be that bad, can it?"

Tony followed after, sticking himself as a sort of shadow to L. Partly to try to remind himself to not go chasing after things, and partly out of the habit of trying to remain hidden.

"Not that bad, no. Certainly good enough for our purposes... hunger's the best relish, you know?"

He shuffled along in front of the young homeless man until they arrived at a small cafe that was, while independent, well-established enough. "After you," he prompted, standing aside and waiting for Tony to get the door. It was heavier, with a handle that read "pull", and for whatever reason, L seemed to expect the other youth to open it.

"Hah, you're telling me. Sometimes that's the only relish I get." He tried to make a joke of it, but the statement carried the bitter sting of truth to it. But, he wasn't going to dwell on it or complain about it, not much he could really do right now anyway.

Huh? How odd, but Tony didn't say anything of it, just shuffled to the font and held the door for L. He had a small semblance of manners, he wasn't completely removed from society after all. Weird that the guy had almost seemed to expect it, but he wasn't about to complain. He as getting a free meal out of the deal after all.

L shuffled by, without a thank you or even a nod of acknowledgment, but by the time they came to the counter and L was digging through his coat pockets for some cash, it was probably pretty obvious why the door had posed a problem. Though his index fingers and thumbs seemed to move and bend normally, the rest of his fingers were stiff, atrophied, and seemed to be in the way more than anything else.

He gave his coffee order quickly and quietly, noticeably asking for a great deal of sugar, before glancing aside at Anthony and waiting for him while he carefully peeled a $100 dollar bill away from a rubber-banded roll of them and placed it on the counter.

A little rude, but whatever, Tony wasn't the sensitive sort by any means and someone having lax manners wasn't going to get to him any time soon. Besides, again, free coffee. Can't complain about that! Although it definitely became clear why L had waited for Tony to get the door, though to his credit he managed to only cast a quick curious glance and not stare.

Yes sugary coffee, good. The kid certainly didn't have a taste for black and also ordered some kind of ridiculously sugary concoction that sounded delicious.

When all else failed, L knew better than anyone that money talked, and could win over people when charm and good manners were nowhere to be found. He accepted his change, stuffing it clumsily back into his pocket.

He made his way over to a table, fingers finding a paper napkin and beginning to methodically tear it into strips as he waited for the coffee to be brought to their table and for Tony to join him.

Money, or in this case a delicious sugary treat after a lot of running around like a lunatic. Goodness knew Anthony could use the energy and calorie boost after all of that fruitlessly chasing lighters around.

Tony followed, then fussed around with his chair until he found a comfortable compromise with being able to watch L and having his back to a wall so that he could more easily watch the rest of the coffee shop as well. The teenager was wary anyway, and everything going on with this numbered business had only served to make him more so. Something told him it was only going to get worse with time.

"So..." Yeah, total master of conversation, this one. Maybe he'll just leave it up to L and his awkward questions instead, that was easier to deal with than trying to lead a conversation himself.

It was behavior that L recognized, having cultivated an appreciation for good angles and nearby mirrors for the sake of being aware of what was going on around him. L considered telling Tony to relax, but then decided that he somewhat liked the young man's vigilance, and left it alone.

L tilted his head, blinking, expression slipping into something blank and vaguely unimpressed when Tony started a sentence and simply trailed off without saying anything.

"Are you worried this looks like a date? Don't be. It doesn't look like a date, because it isn't."

Sometimes, saying something was in fact monumentally more awkward than saying nothing at all.

Their coffee arrived, set before them by a cheerful barista who left them, swiftly and blithely, to their continued awkwardness.

Tony blinked at L owlishly, somewhat taken aback by that statement. What even?

"Uh, well I wasn't until you said that. What."

Sometimes silence definitely is better, now he was just going to sit there and make confused faces for a little bit. L please. He did manage to thank the barista before she escaped leaving them to the most awkward statement in the world.

"Why would I think this is a date?" It actually wasn't a date, right? Because Tony didn't remember singing up for a date. He didn't remember signing up for a lot of things though, so who even knows anymore.

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[Action!] sorry about my slow lately

[Action!] Don't even be sorry it is that time of year

[Action!] Man is it ever. Springtime slows XD