RP: Bad Mood
Date: Saturday, October 15, 2011
Characters: Rico Balderas, Brendon Collins
Location: Brendon’s house
Status: Private
Summary: Rico is in a bad mood. He hopes Brendon makes it better.
Completion: Complete
Something had to be done. Rico wasn’t a very patient person under normal circumstances, but his patience was so close to snapping recently that he knew it was becoming a dangerous situation. Hell, he’d actually spent a couple of hours on Google trying to find out if he’d be justified and found not guilty if he ended up beating the assholes to death. Not that he planned to kill anyone, but that option certainly sounded good at times like this. Thinking and doing were two different things, after all, and a large part of the Google time had also been spent researching situations like his and trying to find out what options he had, if any.
There were some, but most of them involved publicity and making a huge fuss in a way that would potentially put a target on not only him, but Lucia, his family, his partner, and Brendon. If it was just him at risk, Rico would consider raising hell in every way possible. It wasn’t, though. His daughter was in high school, and he knew she’d support him whatever happened, but he couldn’t put her through the public scrutiny. Brendon had a successful bar, and there was no way Rico’s jeopardize that, either. As for his parents, well, Mama had embraced him after her initially worries and concerns about their religion, but Papa was still a little uncertain, even if he, too, had been supportive. And Lupe, well, they never talked about it, but Rico knew she’d had her own dealings with publicity, so he’d never force her to go through that shit again.
It might be easier if the majority of people hadn’t been supportive. Then he could just hate the entire department. It wasn’t that way, though. Most of his colleagues either hadn’t said anything at all about it, which he preferred, or they were supportive in a sincere sort of way, or they were pretty ridiculous in their attempts to make him feel comfortable. Like being gay or bi or whatever he made him need platitudes and petting. He’d known there was a big risk by going to Pride. Guys from the force were patrolling, after all, and there had been protestors against the event raising a fuss that had led to more police presence. Rico just didn’t think it was anyone’s business who he loved or fucked since that didn’t affect his work performance at all.
Some of the guys disagreed. Well, not just guys, since he’d had more than one female in the department make rude comments around him. And if it was some religious stance, he could understand it, even if he wouldn’t support it. Religion was personal and people took it seriously sometimes to a point of hating everyone and anyone different or they just had beliefs that he might not agree with but they could live and let live. The ones making him reconsider his vow not to beat colleagues into a bloody mess were just being assholes and homophobic bastards. The ‘decorations’ on his locker were something he could handle. The muttered comments and not so muttered remarks were annoying but expected. Sparring that became even more physical was something he hadn’t really thought about but he probably should have. The black eye and busted lip he got yesterday during a sparring session with someone he’d always sparred with was a reminder not to take shit like good working relationships for years for granted.
Today, though, someone had gone too far. He’d dropped by the office to finish up a report, and, when he got out to the parking lot, he’d found Sally with a broken window and several obscene words spray painted across her. The parking lot was open and didn’t have cameras, since he never bothered using the covered parking that charged a monthly fee, and he didn’t know who could hate him so much just because he liked dick to vandalize his car. The ‘cocksucker’, ‘go to hell, fag’ and ‘fuck you, queer’ were things no one had the balls to tell him to his face, but they weren’t such cowards when they had an empty lot and bottle of spray paint in their hands.
The worst part was that cops had done this. Maybe just one, but even at that, people who had taken a vow to protect the community hated a portion of it enough to lash out at their own co-worker. How the hell could they be trusted to work the streets? He’d heard about the raids before, about some of the guys’ focus on gay neighborhoods and clubs, but it had never really hit him just how dangerous that could be to have guys like that going around with guns and a license to hate.
The other bad part was having to call it in and deal with his anger and frustration while patrol came out to write up a report. Photos had been taken, and he was just damn glad the patrol officers hadn’t said a word about him or the words on Sally’s body. If he’d even been looked at wrong by one of them, he thought he might have snapped. He was really close to it anyway. The investigation would likely go nowhere, since the department wouldn’t want the press if it leaked that one of their own was the target of hate crimes within the department, but it definitely made him more aware that something had to be done.
Whether there was something he could do that wouldn’t make things tough on his loved ones or if it was better to just resort to a little violence of his own, well, time would tell. He planned to do his own investigation, though, and find out who had done this to Sally. And that person, or persons, wasn’t going to get away with it. He made that promise to Sally as soon as Bogg and Murray left the scene. When he realized that he needed to calm down before he did something stupid, he left downtown and headed to Brendon’s. It was Saturday, and Rico just hoped he was at home. He’d take Sally to that mechanic he’d met earlier in the year on Monday, get the woman to take care of her, but, right now, he needed Brendon so he didn’t end up doing something he’d regret.
Characters: Rico Balderas, Brendon Collins
Location: Brendon’s house
Status: Private
Summary: Rico is in a bad mood. He hopes Brendon makes it better.
Completion: Complete
Something had to be done. Rico wasn’t a very patient person under normal circumstances, but his patience was so close to snapping recently that he knew it was becoming a dangerous situation. Hell, he’d actually spent a couple of hours on Google trying to find out if he’d be justified and found not guilty if he ended up beating the assholes to death. Not that he planned to kill anyone, but that option certainly sounded good at times like this. Thinking and doing were two different things, after all, and a large part of the Google time had also been spent researching situations like his and trying to find out what options he had, if any.
There were some, but most of them involved publicity and making a huge fuss in a way that would potentially put a target on not only him, but Lucia, his family, his partner, and Brendon. If it was just him at risk, Rico would consider raising hell in every way possible. It wasn’t, though. His daughter was in high school, and he knew she’d support him whatever happened, but he couldn’t put her through the public scrutiny. Brendon had a successful bar, and there was no way Rico’s jeopardize that, either. As for his parents, well, Mama had embraced him after her initially worries and concerns about their religion, but Papa was still a little uncertain, even if he, too, had been supportive. And Lupe, well, they never talked about it, but Rico knew she’d had her own dealings with publicity, so he’d never force her to go through that shit again.
It might be easier if the majority of people hadn’t been supportive. Then he could just hate the entire department. It wasn’t that way, though. Most of his colleagues either hadn’t said anything at all about it, which he preferred, or they were supportive in a sincere sort of way, or they were pretty ridiculous in their attempts to make him feel comfortable. Like being gay or bi or whatever he made him need platitudes and petting. He’d known there was a big risk by going to Pride. Guys from the force were patrolling, after all, and there had been protestors against the event raising a fuss that had led to more police presence. Rico just didn’t think it was anyone’s business who he loved or fucked since that didn’t affect his work performance at all.
Some of the guys disagreed. Well, not just guys, since he’d had more than one female in the department make rude comments around him. And if it was some religious stance, he could understand it, even if he wouldn’t support it. Religion was personal and people took it seriously sometimes to a point of hating everyone and anyone different or they just had beliefs that he might not agree with but they could live and let live. The ones making him reconsider his vow not to beat colleagues into a bloody mess were just being assholes and homophobic bastards. The ‘decorations’ on his locker were something he could handle. The muttered comments and not so muttered remarks were annoying but expected. Sparring that became even more physical was something he hadn’t really thought about but he probably should have. The black eye and busted lip he got yesterday during a sparring session with someone he’d always sparred with was a reminder not to take shit like good working relationships for years for granted.
Today, though, someone had gone too far. He’d dropped by the office to finish up a report, and, when he got out to the parking lot, he’d found Sally with a broken window and several obscene words spray painted across her. The parking lot was open and didn’t have cameras, since he never bothered using the covered parking that charged a monthly fee, and he didn’t know who could hate him so much just because he liked dick to vandalize his car. The ‘cocksucker’, ‘go to hell, fag’ and ‘fuck you, queer’ were things no one had the balls to tell him to his face, but they weren’t such cowards when they had an empty lot and bottle of spray paint in their hands.
The worst part was that cops had done this. Maybe just one, but even at that, people who had taken a vow to protect the community hated a portion of it enough to lash out at their own co-worker. How the hell could they be trusted to work the streets? He’d heard about the raids before, about some of the guys’ focus on gay neighborhoods and clubs, but it had never really hit him just how dangerous that could be to have guys like that going around with guns and a license to hate.
The other bad part was having to call it in and deal with his anger and frustration while patrol came out to write up a report. Photos had been taken, and he was just damn glad the patrol officers hadn’t said a word about him or the words on Sally’s body. If he’d even been looked at wrong by one of them, he thought he might have snapped. He was really close to it anyway. The investigation would likely go nowhere, since the department wouldn’t want the press if it leaked that one of their own was the target of hate crimes within the department, but it definitely made him more aware that something had to be done.
Whether there was something he could do that wouldn’t make things tough on his loved ones or if it was better to just resort to a little violence of his own, well, time would tell. He planned to do his own investigation, though, and find out who had done this to Sally. And that person, or persons, wasn’t going to get away with it. He made that promise to Sally as soon as Bogg and Murray left the scene. When he realized that he needed to calm down before he did something stupid, he left downtown and headed to Brendon’s. It was Saturday, and Rico just hoped he was at home. He’d take Sally to that mechanic he’d met earlier in the year on Monday, get the woman to take care of her, but, right now, he needed Brendon so he didn’t end up doing something he’d regret.