savetheearth | Mission 8 - Face your Demons

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Mission 8 - Face your Demons

Who: Anthony Sparado and NPC Luca
What: Painting L's boarding school/base
When: Some time on the 28th
Where: Willow Bridge Boarding Academy, Locke
Warnings: Not really any at the moment

L was out for a change, which was good, he needed to get out more. Break away from his responsibilities and have a little fun. Whether or not that's how the evening would go Tony couldn't say, but that left the academy mostly empty and eerily quiet. It was still daylight, so Shou would be asleep and Tony didn't like the idea of dealing with an irritable vampire all night. No, he'd leave him to sleep, besides there were other things he could busy himself with.

Painting still needed to be done, he'd started on some of his gift to Shou (sunsets, since he wouldn't be able to see them anymore), but there was so much space to cover otherwise. Maybe he'd snag some help.

He recalled that Luca had been hanging around, though Tony had kept his distance for now. Things were understandably awkward, all things considered, and facing the guy who shot you in the face was always going to be uncomfortable. Especially after everything had quickly dissolved into insanity immediately after.

He kind of did owe the lizard an apology. Maybe. Hell he didn't even know. Where was he, anyway? Time to go on the hunt.

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Luca knew that he was very lucky to have a safe haven since nearly killing that Tony kid with a lucky shot. He didn't know if it was good or pathetic that they saw him as harmless enough to let him near their stronghold, but even if its keeper was severe (and, like many others, very attached to Tony), he treated Luca well enough and had given him a job to earn his keep. Menial tasks like scrubbing toilets, fetching coffee and fixing leaky pipes wasn't very glamorous, but it was better than being dead, and at the end of the day Luca was willing to do quite a lot to save his scaly hide. If that meant taking orders from the people he'd been formerly trying to destroy, that's what it meant.

This evening, he was mopping the boys' bathroom floor, webbed feet occasionally slipping on the slick tile. Maybe if he finished in time, he could go play video games in the computer center, something he loved and was allowed when he'd put in a satisfactory day's work. Back when he was working for Albero, he'd had to work a lot harder for even half of that sort of privilege.

In a way it kind of worked out for Luca anyway, considering the sting on the Mafia had gone rather well it was entirely likely the kid would have been left stranded at best, or dead given the current situation. The Numbered weren't cruel, they just didn't trust him. For obvious reasons.

Tony spent some time searching around, he knew a few of Luca's usual chores, and knew where he wasn't (around Shou's area, because again no one wants to wake a sleeping vampire). Upon passing the bathroom he heard a slap that sounded like someone was in there, Luca slipping perhaps, or simply the mop itself, and he poked his head inside.

"Hey, there you are. You busy?" Well, with anything more important than mopping anyway.

It was, truly, the best of all possible scenarios for the chameleon kid. He stiffened when he heard Tony's voice, nearly dropping his mop when he glanced up with his bugged-out eyes and confirmed the identity of the person who'd come to find him.

"Hey... hey man, uh..." he fumbled. "I mean I'm busy, but that guy, uh, the L guy... like he gave me a list of people to drop everything for if they needed something, and you're on it. So. Uh. What do you need?"

Everything about Luca's manner was nervous and twitchy. Not having spoken to Tony for any particularly long amount of time since the shooting, he was perpetually on his guard waiting for unfinished business to rear its ugly head.

"He gave you a list?" Yeah, that sounded like L alright. Tony snorted a laugh and held up a paint can, creeping from around the corner he was peeking around. "Well if you'd rather do somethin' other than mop all day, I could use some help painting."

Really, the kid looked like he was about to drop his tail again at any moment, so Tony thought it best to try to act as casual as possible. He had no real hard feelings toward the chameleon, getting shot was pretty well expected all things considered. He was the one who gave chase, after all.

"Yeah, list. He loves lists. Don't let this get back to him, but... heh he writes like an epileptic hummingbird or some shit. I can't read it most of the time, but it seems to make him happy and when he's here so much, uh... keeping him happy is a pretty important rule."

He seemed hesitant when Tony offered to let him assist with painting. "If you want to have something painted, you could just tell me and I'll do it. That's my job title, pretty much... do what you guys don't want to."

"Hah, yeah, don't tell him that. He'll have a fit and spend a month learning to write perfectly." And then he'd probably forget to eat again, all that hard work lost. Besides, just let L be if it made him happy it was good. "Not been too hard on you, yeah? I know everyone's still kinda tense about the whole," He gestured vaguely at his head. "Thing."

Tony frowned at that, kid seemed a little reluctant. Not that he could blame him, out of the frying pan into the fire, he probably thought he'd end up killed if he refused. "It's not like that. C'mon, besides, I need something to do. Sitting around too long I'm gonna start getting itchy."

The job was really too big for one person alone anyway, and really he felt bad making the kid into their slave.

"Ugh. No, uh, his intensity's kind of... intense. Don't mean anything by it but it scares me a little. But he's not been hard on me, man. Especially considering..." it seemed like neither of them could just say the "thing" they were currently skirting around.

"If you're sure," Luca replied carefully. "What did you want to paint? Most everything has at least a basic primer coat and... like 'L' doesn't seem like such a big fan of color. Thought that was all we were doing for painting."

"If that isn't the truth. He's a good guy, though. Once he warms up to you," Which admittedly took time and certain people. Luca would probably never be in that club, but he could be less an awkward stranger and servant and maybe eventually part of the team. "Yeah... I get you." They didn't need to say it, they both knew what they were not talking about.

"Yeah, well, the rest of us do like color and this place is drab and depressing. Don't you think?" It felt like a hospital, a really dingy one. Or run down school which was technically what it was. "Besides, Shou lives here now and if he doesn't get some color he's gonna go nuts and I for one don't want to have to bring him the truckload of ice cream it'll take to cheer him back up."

Luca blinked a couple times, as if finding the possibility that L could warm up to people strange and kind of unbelievable. "Huh. I'll... take your word for it. For now I'll be content with not pissing him off." While Luca knew that L wasn't superpowered, was actually relatively frail, he knew that he was similar to Tony when it came to his network of much stronger people who would kill to protect him.

He seemed guarded, as if wondering whether Tony's question was a trap. "It's... I mean it's not very colorful. Depressing, I guess, but it kind of is anyway when you're not free to come and go. Just saying." After an awkward pause, he added "I like painting, you know. Had high marks in school for art and shit when I was a kid."

Man, those buggy lizard eyes sure were weird when he blinked like that. Fortunately Tony was getting used to unusual looking sorts. Torin, Alex when he was around, even poor little Anthony. He'd never been very judgmental to begin with, but he definitely had to readjust how he saw people in the several months he'd been Numbered. "Yeah, it's probably for the best. Just keep your head down for now, the others are still kinda riled up. You know how it is."

Tony actually wasn't angry over being shot, everyone else took it more personally than he did. He knew he'd chased the kid, hadn't given him any other choice. Honestly had his stupid predator instincts not taken over he would have let the kid go. He did kind of grimace a little at the mention of not being able to leave. "You're kinda like a prisoner here, aren't you?" He frowned, scratching at the back of his head awkwardly as he turned to lead the way. He knew how that was, and granted his own imprisonment had been far less friendly, but even so... "You even got anywhere to go, man? Family or something?"

If they were keeping him from his family...

"Good, 'cause we're gonna paint some sunsets. Place needs some color and Shou doesn't get to see the sun anymore."

Some of the irony of being so anti-Numbered as to side with Albero was the fact that Luca had ended up more freakish-looking than a lot of them. "Yeah..." he sniffed, wiping his nose briskly on his sleeve. "Yeah, I know how it is. Can't say anyone would have cried in Albero's camp if it'd been me, but... I mean I can guess how it is, anyway. You got your friends and guardians, I get it."

Luca got that Tony wasn't furious about the shot. It helped, of course, that he had survived, with flying colors and healing powers. "A prisoner? I've been in prison. Some things are the same, some things aren't... not worried about dropping the soap here, heh." He attempted a joke as he trailed after Tony, his feet making slapping noises against the tile floor. "Nah, no family. You swear off all that when you join the Mafia, they become your new family. Disowned a long time ago, anyway. Shou's the vampire?" he asked uncertainly, at the mention of the subject they were going to be painting. It sounded like therapy bullshit, paint a sunset, but it sure beat scrubbing toilets and mopping.

"They wouldn't even care?" He seemed troubled by that. Why sign up for a gig that was likely to get you killed if there weren't even any benefits to it? Unless looking like a mutant lizard man had some kind of perk that didn't involve dropping your tail in a panic. "You don't seem like such a bad guy. They'll warm up." Eventually.

Admittedly, Tony would probably be more annoyed had he died, but what was he going to do about it then? After all, really, it had more to do with his stupid temper than Luca. He should have known better. "Have you?" He rose an eyebrow at that, pausing to get a good look at Luca. Kid barely looked any older than he was, maybe even younger. The hell was he doing in prison? He scoffed a dry laugh, it wasn't much of a joke but he appreciated the effort. "Pfeh, yeah, no one's gonna do anything to you here, dude." Other than make him work for his room and board. More frowning, deeper concern, but he didn't even know how to broach that subject. Family was important to Tony, but he understood being tossed aside. His own family never would have, but everyone else had.

Yeah, he kinda understood.

"Yeah, he's the vampire." Yes, therapy sunsets deal with it. It'll be good for you.

"You gotta understand... them's the breaks, until you make it higher-up. That takes years of doing what you're told, and then you get status and respect, but you gotta be willing to die for your boss. And you gotta be ready to prove it in a second. If I'da... you know, done what I was supposed to and come back... I woulda slid up the chain of command a little. Not a lot, but... I dunno. I never made it far. I just knew it had to be better. If they do warm up to me, you think there's room for promotion, here?" he asked, with a weak laugh. "All I ever wanted was a little respect. Didn't get it at home when I was a kid and my dad would drink, didn't get it in juvie, didn't get it with Albero in charge... shit, I just must be the kind of guy that no one respects. Sucks for me."

He continued to shuffle after Tony. "M'good at painting, y'know. Probably the only thing I'm good at. Before I dropped out I even won a couple awards. Sunsets should be fucking easy."

"Hn..." Yeah that sounded like the mafia alright. It occurred to Tony how grateful he was he'd never fallen into that. He could have, very easily, but he'd managed to keep his head up enough to stay out of jail and stay out of that kind of mentality. Hungry as he was, he wasn't wiling to kill for it. Or die for it. "Maybe, who knows. They're definitely not gonna ask you to burn down a building on their behalf though," He said pointedly. "I don't think so, but I think you might be going about it the wrong way." Of course Luca had no reason to listen to him, but maybe he could try... "I kinda know where you're coming from, dude. I got tossed aside most of my life, disregarded and treated like garbage. Got pissed, basically told everyone to fuck off. Didn't do me a whole lot of good either."

The fact he wasn't dead had a lot to do with being a skillful coward and luck. "Are you? Great. I'm not real great, done a little bit here and there but not much opportunity for practice when you live on the street. Why'd you stop?"

Organized crime had power and mystique attached to it, and it had a way of attracting driftless delinquents. Poor Luca had been just the type to fall into it. Troublemaker, lack of purpose and focus, just couldn't cut traditional school.

"No shit? That you, too?" Luca asked. "Yeah, if you know what it's like... that's the only way to describe it to someone else. Guess you found your luck eventually, by the looks of it."

Tony, after all, seemed to have some measure of that much-coveted respect that Luca wished for so fervently.

"I stopped because I got busted for selling drugs at my school. Juvie and community service doesn't leave a lot of time for coloring pictures, and you think that there was high demand for that kind of thing with Albero? Hell no."

The upside to being a selfish coward with a side of fear of hurting people had kept Tony out of that area, thankfully. Otherwise he very well may have been standing where Luca was now.

He chuffed a rueful laugh. "Dunno if getting shot in the face counts as 'lucky', but sure." Don't ask him how, he still doesn't know why anyone puts up with him. Maybe he's endearing like the family pet or something.

"Yeah, I suppose not. Not if you don't want to get your face broken in I wager anyway. Well, now's your chance. And if L gives you shit about the bathroom just let me know, I'll tell him I borrowed you for the day." L wouldn't argue with Tony after all.

It was funny how life worked, that way. Personality, being in the right place at the right time, meeting the wrong people... all of it converged in a unique combination to put both young men where they currently stood, but where they'd started hadn't been so terribly different.

"Getting shot in the face isn't lucky. Surviving that shit... that's winning the fucking lottery."

He blinks his big, bulbous eyes at Tony when he implies that he has that kind of sway over L. "Must be nice to tell your boss what's what sometimes. How can you work for someone you aren't scared of?"

Funny indeed, and really quite lucky on Tony's part. He could definitely be in a worse situation than he was now. Grumpy but alive.

"Hah, and the temper that got me shot in the first place?" But he did understand where Luca was coming from. He shouldn't be alive, logically, honestly he should have been dead a while ago. As distressed about what he was turning into as he was, Tony had to admit it sure came in handy when he was getting his face handed to him in pieces.

"He'll understand you can't do two jobs at once," Tony reasoned, blinking in confusion at Luca's statement. "Why would I work for someone I was afraid of?"

"The temper... shit, I can't speak to the temper. But it's probably better than being a doormat like me when there aren't guns involved."

Luca shook his head, shoving his hands in his pockets. "I don't know, man. There's a lot I don't get about it. I get hierarchies, like... a pecking order. The strongest and smartest sit at the top and the grunts, like me, well... we're expendable and we sit at the bottom and we're lucky for scraps. Seems like someone who can survive a bullet to the face would be closer to the top than the bottom."

'It's a real headache, I'll tell you that. Dunno, dude, I've always been a doormat. Now I'm just a doormat with a death wish."

The demon didn't exactly change the fact that he was scared to death most of the time, and really wanted to run more often than he'd like to admit. But his loyalties kept him there, with all the people who have been so good to him he can't throw that in their faces by chickening out. Even if there are days he'd really like to.

And other days when he forgets he's not as tough as he likes to try to act and he goes and gets himself in trouble. In the form of bullets to the face. "That's the kinda thing you wanted, to be expendable? No, dude, that's messed up. No one's 'expendable' for any reason. And I'm not on top of any kind of food chain I just try to do my part is all. I don't think that's too much to ask of anyone."

"What I don't get sometimes is how someone like... well, him," Luca said, lowering his voice. "He's closer to the top, right, but you could totally beat him up if you wanted to. But you don't. I'm pretty sure I could, too, but I know better. It's like... the pieces don't add up until you put them together, or something. I dunno."

His bugged-out eyes stare into the distance. He's not the brightest little lizard mutation in the world, but he does think about things, or try to to the best of his ability.

"Do your part, huh? I guess I'd better do my part too, even if it's just... heh, mopping floors ad painting pictures. Gotta remember how lucky I am not to be dead."

"Pfeh, a stiff breeze could beat him up. But beating him up isn't going to get you anywhere, that's not how you prove anything other than you're an asshole who beats up a dude made out of toothpicks. It's not just a matter of who is bigger and stronger, man. We look after each other because we want to, not because we're expecting to get anything out of it. You ever had a friend or someone you cared about just because?" It's a little sad, really, to start to understand why Luca thinks the way he does. His life has probably all been a matter of who was bigger and stronger, and not a whole lot of unconditional caring.

What a terrible thing.

"Hey, it helps, yeah? And even if L doesn't express it well he appreciates it in his own way. He's just not really good at talking to people without pissing them off." It's a magical skill L has of being really, really strange. "'Course I'm glad I didn't kill you, I'd feel like shit."

"Nah, man. I'm not really a friend kinda guy," Luca said quietly. "Just not having bad enemies is good enough for me. But he looks out for you, yeah? Even if he's kinda..." he grasps for a word, has a difficult time coming up with an appropriate descriptor, and ultimately just lets it drop.

"That's cool. Real touching. You're lucky and shit. And hell, I'm glad too; even if I'm just a janitor now it beats being dead."

"Why not?" Seemed lonely, and Tony knew far too well what that was like. Maybe that was why he was so eager to make friends now that he had the option. Well that and building a small family out of them. "Intense?" Intense is a good word to describe L. "Yeah, he looks out for me. And I look out for him, goes both ways yeah?"

He pauses and shoots an uncertain, side-long glance at Luca. "Are you making fun of me?" Don't make fun that's rude. He's trying to be honest with you here dude. Or at least make things a little more comfortable. "At least no one's gonna off you just for pissing them off here." Most likely?

"Yeah, I guess it does go both ways."

Luca shrugs a shoulder, wiping at his slitted lizard nose with the back of his hand.

"Nah, not making fun of you. Just saying the truth. Sorry if it pisses you off, or whatever... dunno the piss-off culture around here yet."

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Mission 8 - Face your Demons

NPC- Luca Dantonio

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NPC- Luca Dantonio

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