If it's a bad day, you try to suffocate

[lasttimeilost]

Chicago's a rough city to be in any day of the week, but for some people it's rougher today than it has been in a while.

Leon Warner is laying on his side in a puddle from the rain yesterday, protecting his head from the poorly-aimed kicks of the group of larger boys around him. Oddly enough, he didn't ask for this fight, it just came to him, and

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[aliensurrogate]

Gwen Cooper is very pregnant. This is obvious to anyone that happens to glance at her, which is precisely why she's been hiding out in the Tower, and only leaving when absolutely necessary. Unfortunately her state induces cravings, and Gwen has more than a few, including Nacho cheese chips and Mint chocolate chip ice cream. Since she can't find either in the fridge, she's ventured out, hoping not to be seen

[lasttimeilost]

The boy on top of Leon punching him in the face pauses, and Leon's heart sinks. This is not what he needs right now, and he recognizes the voice, too--there aren't too many people with an accent like hers in the Chicagoland area, at least not people who would be running around intervening in fights.

And now he's stuck. Because if he lets on that he knows her, it could get worse. He doesn't know exactly how, but telling her to back off just seems like it could get very dangerous very fast. She's just some pregnant lady, after all.

So instead he stays quiet and tries to figure out of he can wriggle out from underneath the much larger boy's weight that's resting on top of his chest. He has a bit of time, because Gwen's shout has slowed all the boys up. They clearly don't know what to do, because they're not really used to being shouted at by pregnant women. Actually, they're not used to being yelled at in the middle of a fight at all.

"...Or what?" the one sitting on Leon says simply.

[aliensurrogate]

Or I'll shoot doesn't seem like the best way to handle a fight between teenage boys, even if they are all beating up on one. Leon isn't defenceless either, but right now all Gwen sees is a helpless kid in need of her assistance. She's always been this way, even before pregnancy, but she's gotten worse since her own desire to protect her child extends to every other child.

Or puppy. Or homeless man. She's not really discriminating right now.

"Or I'll call the police," she says triumphantly, having finally found a viable solution. "And I'll call my husband over and have him watch you until they arrive." It's a complete fabrication, but she's rather proud of it. "So bugger off before I do!"

If that doesn't work, she might have to flex her muscles a little more. She wouldn't actually hurt any of them.

[lasttimeilost]

On the ground, Leon winces. He's not entirely sure how well that's going to go over with this group of kids. It's not like they're fearless or anything, but a pregnant lady threatening to call the cops and her husband doesn't seem very threatening to him

[yourwonderings]

Jo's not going to immediately recognize Vaughn. It would be hard to with his face covered by damp grass. Of, Michael Vaughn. The things the Rift does to you. She is, however, in a hurry to get to work and nearly trips on him. It has her jumping over him.

"Jesus," she says under her breath, pushing the hair out of her face.

That'll teach her to trust an alarm clock. She takes a few steps back, eyes widening slightly once she gets a good look at him. "Vaughn?"

Crap. She kneels down before him and nudges him from the side so that he'll flip over. "Michael!"

[stillaboyscout]

Vaughn moans as he's rolled over and shouted at. His head hurts. Why does his head hurt? And why is he all wet?

He opens his eyes slowly. Is he hungover? Shapes are blurry at first, but slowly everything falls into place as he blinks a couple of times.

"Jo?" he asks. And then there are things above her head, trees and there's green at the edge of his vision, and it must be grass or something. He's in a fucking forest. "Where..." he shuts his eyes again, trying to ignore the pounding headache that is sending white bursts of pain to the nerves behind his eyes.

He's a little slow this morning, Jo. You'll have to forgive him.

[yourwonderings]

Yeah, in retrospect, shouting at a most-likely-unconscious man wasn't a good idea. The concern won out over being reasonable. Jo's often led by her impulses, what can the narration say? She winces at the reaction, and definitely lowers her voice when she speaks next.

"Take it easy," she advises, cupping the back of his neck with her hand and ensuring he doesn't get up too fast. Does he have a concussion?

Jo really hopes he does not have a concussion.

"How many fingers am I holding up here?" she asks once he starts to come to, wiggling three of them.

[stillaboyscout]

Vaughn had actually been thinking about getting up, but he realizes that's probably a bad plan. Sometimes he's not as dumb as he looks.

He opens his eyes again when she asks her question. His vision is fine--no concussion, thank goodness. "Three," he says, his voice much stronger than it was now that he's had some time to actually wake up. "I'm fine, I just." Can't remember how I got here. Don't know what happened to me last night. Possibly got drunk, even though I don't remember drinking at all. "I'm fine," he repeats instead of going with any of those options. "My head just hurts."

Also the two dollars he had in his pockets are gone, but he doesn't know that yet, and probably won't. The mugger pretty much picked the incorrect victim last night.

[lefttogive]

John picks up the back-pack, since he, like Jo, nearly trips. He looks up and sees the group of larger boys. Something about it makes red nearly flash before his eyes. He sets the backpack down once more on top of the trash bin before he calmly approaches the flock of bullies.

That's all they are.

He's going to use all the force he has to shove the boy off of Leon. The one currently punching him in the face. His hand will fist on the back of his collar and lift him up off the ground.

"Problem here, gentlemen?"

[lasttimeilost]

There's blood in Leon's eyes, but he can feel the weight of the other boy being lifted off his chest. He's going to curl up into a ball so that they'll have to yank him back into that position again, should this guy go away. Which he would like very much, though he's not going to say so. He's more polite than that.

All the boys are confused, needless to say, and more than a little scared. Especially the one who's being lifted up. "Nnnnnnno," the boy stutters, and if Leon didn't feel like his eyes would fall out of his head, he would have rolled them. A lot. Because that is convincing. "Nnnno problem hhhhhere." There's a pause as the boy scrambles for something else. "Sssssssiiir." It's practically an afterthought, just anything to make this weirdly strong man let him go so he can run far, far away from here.

[lefttogive]

Sorry, Leon. John doesn't plan on going anywhere. And he wouldn't exactly be apologetic about it. His gaze hardens as he releases the boy, loosening his grip on the shirt's collar and nudging him aside. He can run as far away as he'd like, as long as they leave this kid alone.

Jesus, the kid's bleeding from his eyes.

Once they're alone--if they're alone--John's going to ask, "You okay?"

[lasttimeilost]

Oh, the other boys are gone, as soon as they can run in a pack. They'll whisper later about the crazy guy that stepped in, but for right now they're just running on pure fear.

Leon, on the other hand, is trying to do a damage assessment, slowly sitting up. Well. His eyebrow is split open, which would account for the blood in his eyes. "I'm fine," he says almost absently, swiping the blood away with the back of his hand before shaking his head like a dog trying to shake water off its body.

To go along with his eyebrow, his lip is split nicely, and he can't get the taste of blood out from between his teeth, no matter how many times he spits into the puddle he's sitting in. His left eye is swelling nicely, but it won't be such a horrible black eye that he can't see, which is good. Those guys kind of sucked at fighting--well, really, just the one pummeling his face. They could kick plenty hard, and that means he probably has some amazing bruises along his ribs

[uponthewires]

Anne's just passing through. She's finished her latest ballet lesson, which was more rigorous than usual. Her feet hurt. She's still wearing her pointe shoes and she can't wait to get home and soak up her legs in warm water. She's a bit disheartened by how poorly she's doing in class. She's either not thin enough, or graceful enough, or tall enough.

And Madame Soleil always lets her know it.

Seeing Scout giggling, however, might improve her day infinitely. All the other times she's come across the demon, it's been under less-than-ideal-circumstances. She wonders if she'll recognize Anne.

Tentatively, she starts walking over to her, waving a bit shyly with a small smile on her face. "Hi!"

[crashiscoming]

Scout has hazy memories of the bad times. She remembers the endless cold, but isn't sure if that has more to do with the dark, wet memories crowding her head.

But Anne is in there, somewhere, a fuzzy picture in a sea of black, and so her face lights up. "Hi!" she cries, jerking one of the chains so the swing spins sideways so she can look Anne straight on before spinning away and then back again.

"Swing?" she offers, because who is she to keep all this fun just for herself?

[uponthewires]

Anne's smile turns into a beam at the positive reception. She is never sure what is going to be a bad trigger, and she certainly doesn't want to upset Scout again. She's important to Robin, and despite their infrequent encounters, she's become important to Anne. For reasons she can't quite explain. It just is.

"Definitely," she says with an affirmative nod, sitting down on the swing next to her, smile still on her face.

"High up?" Anne asks, as she starts swinging and spinning around on it herself. The higher she goes up, the more she laughs.

[crashiscoming]

Scout has that effect on some people. She likes Anne, either way--perhaps not exactly 'family', but something important. Nice, perhaps. She knows Anne helped her, even if she doesn't have the best grasp as to why or how.

Scout nods. "High up!" she replies, and giggles as she starts trying to straighten herself out so she can swing as high as possible. She likes swinging, likes the mindless motion that leaves her room to reach for the sky. The effect on Scout is very similar to the effect on Anne--she starts laughing, sounding almost human and happy. If she wasn't covered in blood, you might think she was a regular kid swinging.

you get all my kids apparently :x

[willnotbemine]

Trinity is going to stumble right into Lena, who's finished a quick meeting with one of the informants the Crowbar likes to keeps in its retainer.

The meeting was held at the alley across from where Trin was dropped off, and Lena was trying to be as inconspicuous as possible while going back to the bar. The lack of subtlety is going to take a backseat to the concern once she sees the blonde doesn't look good.

She looks far from good.

"Hey," Lena says softly, reaching out to steady her by the shoulders. "You okay?"

I approve of this. So. :D!

[omnomnomface]

Trin shifts the weight of her body from the balls of her feet to her heels, and almost falls over in the process. She's still pretty damn disconcerted, and right now she's kind of upset.

"I... I don't know," she admits, not exactly focusing on Lena. "I mean. I woke up in this Dumpster and I can't find my boyfriend and I can't find a phone and Isaac was gonna skip town today so I don't know if he's looking for me or he might be gone already and I gotta find a phone but fucking CELL PHONES there are no more public phones I can't find one!"

She's crying by this point, which makes her head hurt even more than it already did, and it also doesn't much help her messed-up sense of balance. She's rocking, practically, as she cries, just to stay upright.

[willnotbemine]

Okay, there are waterworks.

Lena can deal with waterworks. It's more important to find out if someone assaulted her, if anything happened that led to her waking up in a dumpster, but first she has to wait till Trinity is calm enough to answer those questions.

"It's okay, it's okay, we'll figure it out," she rushes to say, her hand sticking into her pocket in search of her cellphone. Once she finds it she hands it over to Trin. Never mind she was just cursing them, it's one way to reach... Isaac. Whoever he is. "You can call him with my phone."

Lena pats her on the shoulder comfortingly.

[omnomnomface]

In her defense, once Lena hands her the phone, Trin does try to calm down. She takes big gulping breaths and wipes her eyes.

"Okay," she says, shakily pressing buttons. Her hands are trembling, but she does manage to punch in his number. "Okay, okay, okay," she keeps repeating, and then she holds the phone up to her ear.

"Okay, okay, okay," she repeats, and then her face crumples up and she starts crying again.

"Not available?!" she screeches at the top of her lungs in between gasps. "NOT AVAILABLE?" She turns to Lena. "He has to be available, he's leaving soon, he's skipping town!"

And then it hits her. "He's... skipping... town," she stumbles to the curb and then she sits down, still holding Lena's phone. "He left meeeeeeeee!" she wails.