Shawty Takes a Personal Day [Wulfen]

[Nina Stenet]

(OOC Note: I'm playing Shawty, Nina's NPC assistant, and not Nina herself in this thread.)

It's mid-afternoon on a day that seems to hint more of summer than spring. It's a good day to go to the park or simply enjoy the warmth. It's not a good day to hang out in an alleyway having a tense conversation. But that it's day and not night means that this little gathering is likely to go unnoticed by both the local branches of organized crime and the vigilantes - and interruption by either would be unfavorable. It's also the only day that Shawty has to solve this problem, at least without letting her job suffer. She cares about her girls, but they're not her first priority anymore.

The alleyway is full of a scattering of young people, looking all the way from 14 to 20 in age. About 15 of them in total, roughly divided in half between the boys and the girls. And the two genders are definitely divided - based on the way that they're arranged and the way that they're sizing eachother up, the girls are on one 'side', and the boys are on another. In the middle are two of each, all on the older end and probably the ones in charge of their respective groups, based on how they're talking to eachother and the fact that absolutely everyone else in the alleyway is paying very close attention to what's being said.

On the boys' side are two young men, the oldest, biggest, and roughest looking members of their group - ripped, shaved heads, tattoos - though the one doing the talking at least looks somewhat more intelligent than his companion. On the girls' side is a tall but thin-looking brunette with fierce eyes, though they don't hold a candle to the glare currently being displayed by the young woman next to her, who is doing the talking. Yet that young woman looks half the size of the guys she's facing off with, standing at only 4'9". Blonde hair, blue eyes, but rather plain-looking features - it's difficult to tell her age because her height would suggest that she's 12, but her clothing suggests 30.

"Well this doesn't concern you now, then," the young man says dismissively.

"Just because I left doesn't mean that I don't care, Rick," the young woman counters, her voice steady and unwavering.

Rick smiles cruelly at her, "Yeah, but you see, Shawty, that means that you're no longer a part of the equation, so what you say doesn't matter."

Shawty glares all the more intently, "I'm a part of the equation whenever I need to be. And I can still kick your ass."

"Hey, let's keep this friendly..." Rick says, holding up a restraining hand, but a mocking smile crosses his face.

"Friendly ended when your boys started threatening my girls!" Shawty says, her voice suddenly becoming angry.

But Rick laughs at her anger. "Threaten? They were just being... friendly."

"Well, they didn't like it," Shawty says, her expression becoming disgusted.

"So?"

"So I have a problem with that."

"That's your problem, Shawty, not mine."

"Well, you'd better make it your problem, Rick, or I will."

"Ooh, is that a threat?" Rick asks, his voice mocking.

Shawty's answer to that is simply "Yes."

But it's definitely not an answer that Rick likes, as his eyes suddenly narrow in anger, and he lifts a hand to give the little bitch what she deserves. But Shawty is both quick to spot the move and quick to act, ducking below the blow aimed at her face, and then grabbing the arm as it passes where her face used to be. She pulls on the limb, adding to the momentum of his intended blow and causing his balance to shift to one leg, to which she applies her other leg to throw him off balance. He suddenly finds himself landing on his stomach in the dirty alleyway, and Shawty is quickly on top of him - straddling his back. With one hand she pulls his forehead to lift his head up, and with the other she grabs her gun from where it had been hiding in her waistband - the click of her gun being cocked can be heard quite clearly - and she holds it against the back of his head. "Surrender," she says, clearly giving him an order.

The effect on everyone else in the alleyway is dramatic: weapons appear in the hands of everyone on both sides - each group has a couple of guns, and everyone else has knives. Fortunately, the fight between Rick and Shawty is so brief and distracting that nobody actually uses any of them before it's clear that Shawty has literally come out on top. Still, the tension in the alleyway is so thick that it's practically visible.

[Deleted]

On a nearby rooftop Wulfen was out practicing. When he was captured by Scarecrow and interviewed on things he didn't really know much about he had decided that he would put forth a greater effort to make himself better.

He was on the rooftop fighting an imaginary fight, Lupin was calling out attackers from different direction and what they were armed with, or if they were even armed. And Wulfen was countering the 'attackers' he kicked one in front of him and whirled around and punched one behind him wielding a knife. Then he elbowed one with a lead pipe behind at his left in the nose. Then before he could attack the next one he stopped.

He heard something, and whatever this something was didn't sound good. He moved away from where his imaginary fight was taking place. He moved over to the edge of the rooftop and looked aound. Then he moved to the next rooftop and then dropped to his belly when he saw what was going on.

He watched he two groups, he knew they were gangs, and he could tell that a fight was about to take place. He didn't know how bad of a fight it would turn out to be. So he decided to simply wait, he watched and found himself somewhat routing for the little girl. He noticed that all the men were on one side and all the women were on the other side. He wondered if that was how the gangs were set up, or if that was just a coincidence. He felt a slight bit of joy when he saw the little woman take down the big guy. Wulfen resisted the urge to jump and woop for her. instead he kept quiet

When he saw the knifes and guns being drawn he figured he should do something about it, he knew that standing up and acting like he was Batman wouldn't end well for him. So he decided to try something different. It was something he had read in a book somewhere before.

He shrunk away from the edge of the rooftop and made sure they couldn't see him and shouted. "Please don't kill one another, oh and if I were you big guy I would surrender. She beat you fair and square." He then tossed a nearby pipe off to his left and made sure it feel down a fire escape and landed in a dumpster. Causing a few of them below to look in that direction. He then moved to the right of the rooftop and made his way across to the rooftop opposite of him. He wasn't going for fear, rather confusion, fear would be a nice end result, but he would rather make people think there was either more then just him or that he was someone else. 'Please work' He thought laying down on he edge of the rooftop with the sun behind him.

[Nina Stenet]

When a sudden shout interrupts the silence, Shawty cringes internally. She has no less than three guns held by teenage boys who may or may not actually know how to use one pointed at her right now. Fortunately, nobody startles badly enough to fire unintentionally. Her own hand remains steady as she keeps her primary focus on Rick, knowing that one of her girls will tell her if this interruption becomes more important than paying extremely careful attention to his movements.

She doesn't want to kill him if she doesn't have to, but if he tries anything stupid then she'll have to - the wrong movement on his part could be him reaching for a weapon or trying to knock her off. She only hopes that he knows that she's faster at pulling a trigger than he is at doing any such thing.

But instead he's in the mood to talk. "What's going on, Shawty?" he asks, referring to the voice.

"No idea, but it sounds like he's on my side," she replies calmly. Around them their respective sides stir a little. The level of fear and uncertainty in the alleyway has skyrocketed, but it's having a positive effect - most of them are now more interested in figuring out what's going on than they are in fighting each other. But they also take a cue from the words of Rick and Shawty - the girls start to look more confident while the boys look a bit more uncertain.

There's a pause as Rick quickly considers the alternatives to complying with Shawty's demand, as he really doesn't want to have to give up. However, he is very well aware that the young woman on his back is quite willing and able to blow his brains out if he makes the wrong move. He lifts his empty hands a little and says, "Fine, I surrender."

As poor as Shawty's opinion of him is, she knows that Rick's word can be trusted. Well, at least in this matter - he'll leave instead of fight this time. So she immediately climbs off his back and hides her gun in her waistband. Small and thin as she is, you'd never know to look at her that she was armed unless you already knew - she's rather good at keeping it concealed. She rejoins the girl that she was standing next to before.

Rick climbs to his feet, making feeble efforts to brush the dirt off of his clothes as he makes an attempt to save face by saying, "It doesn't matter anyway. You can't stop what happens when you're not around."

Shawty glares at him in a somewhat threatening manner, but remains silent this time. Rick smirks at her before gesturing to the boys to leave the alleyway. The girls watch all of them like hawks as they start to leave, but it looks like nobody will get hurt or killed today.

[Deleted]

Wulfen keeps an eye on whats going on in the alley below. He can tell that the little woman is the leader of the women. Or at least its appearing that way. And that she's just better then the poor guy she just beat. He hears her say that he's on his side. "Well you did attack her so I kinda am!" He shouts down at them, he then rolls across the rooftop towards the other end.

He listens and hears the guy surrender. 'He's not a stupid as he looks.' He thinks.

'He does look rather stupid.' Lupin says.

He watches the woman let the man up and then hide something, probably a gun, but she's not pointing it at anyone so it didn't really matter at the moment. But he still kept a mental note of it. He then watched the boys leave.

'Wait did I actually scare them?' He thinks bewildered.

'It appears as though you did.' Lupin says to him.

Then he looks down at the women who all stayed behind. Wulfen keeps an eye on them for a few seconds making sure that they aren't up to anything. He also has to think about what to do now. He figured that he could go ahead and quickly practice his observational skills by trying to see what they do before they do it. Like who's about to walk where, and who's about to talk, etc. He keeps bis position and then realizes that if he doesn't want to be covered in sweat later on when he goes out without the mask he needs to move. So he gets up and as stealthy as he can manage he moves to a shady spot on the rooftop then he sits on his haunches and watches he group down below.

He didn't really want to jump down and go. "hi!" this soon after a situation that could have been alot worse then it was. Not dressed like an urban werewolf. He never actually knew what the reaction to his appearance would be.

[Nina Stenet]

Actually, that Shawty had a gun to their leader's head at point blank range was probably the more convincing part of the situation to the boys, but that some unknown person above them was also siding with the girls made it that much worse. They leave quickly, not really wanting to stick around, but Shawty knows that this is far from the last time her girls will have to deal with them.

Once the last of them is out of sight, the tension on the air dissolves completely and several of the girls that had looked so tough before suddenly just look rather relieved. Shawty turns and glaces around at all of them, before turning her attention to the young woman standing next to her. "He's right, you know," she says very seriously, "I can fight a battle or two for you, but you're going to have to figure out how to deal with them yourself."

The young woman frowns, "I know, but what are we supposed to do? It's not like anybody can grow up any faster, and nobody has your talent."

"Well, I can keep giving you money, Clar, but I can't quit my job or take very much time off right now. You're going to have to deal," Shawty replies, though she doesn't sound completely happy about that. She really does still care about 'her' girls, but she can only protect them so much without giving up something even more important.

"And what if we can't?" Clar asks.

"Then the gang ends," Shawty replies.

That shuts Clar up for a moment, but then she asks, "You're sure you can't come back?"

"Now, let's not have that argument again," Shawty says quickly, but then she pauses before adding, "Look, you take everyone back and I'll come by again in the evening and we'll talk some more. I want to go investigate the guy on the roof."

"Fine, then," Clar replies, before turning to the rest of the girls and saying, "Let's go!"

As they start out of the alleyway, Shawty heads over to the fire escape the pipe rolled off of and starts climbing up. She doesn't bother trying to keep quiet, knowing that if the guy is watching he won't miss the fact that she's headed up, but she also isn't that noisy - these things tend to creek a lot but she's rather small and light. She's also in excellent shape, and is only barely breathing hard when she reaches the top even though she practically ran up them. She looks around for the source of the voice the moment she reaches the top, already pretty certain about who it is even though she's never met him.

[Deleted]

Wulfen kept watching and listening to the women down below. He felt somewhat amused at how it all turned out. He didn't care what caused the boys to run he finally didn't have to actually go out and fight anyone for a change.

He listened to the women talk about their problems and started to wonder if he could possibly help them. After all judging by what he just saw, The women weren't hostile. Or rather they weren't out to hurt anyone. Plus it sounded like they were having trouble with the other gang. He figured that maybe he could offer to help out. But he didn't want to give the wrong impression so he kept quiet and still.

He saw them start to leave...... All but one of them, he watched the little woman go up the fire escape. He sniffed the air and then grinned when she reached the top of the fire escape. 'It worked!' He thought. She had gone up to where he was before. He was now on the opposite rooftop. But it didn't look like she was hostile. So he quickly and quietly moved over to the rooftop she was on and sat down on a small stool like bump on the roof, he was leaning forward slightly and letting his legs dangle . "I like how you handled that." He said kindly with a grin. He wondered how she would react to seeing someone dressed like he was sitting behind her. He hoped it would be non-confrontational.

[Nina Stenet]

Honestly, Shawty isn't really trying to hunt him down. Actually, her only goal as she climbs the fire escape is to see if he's still up there and see if he's willing to talk if so. Now, if she wanted a confrontation, she would have tried taunting him into joining them down in the alleyway while her girls were still there. And if only because he has the advantage of being higher up, she's guessing that he won't stick around if he actually doesn't want to talk.

When she's reached the top, she turns toward him instantly when he speaks - clearly she's not lacking in good reflexes. Her expression is very serious, but calm as she glances over him and replies, "Thanks. Wulfen, isn't it?" There had only been a few possibilities for the interjecting voice. Young adult male lurking on the rooftop - either a vigilante or someone being odd for another reason. But the odds of the latter were probably even lower given the sheer odds that they would just happen to be there to catch the conversation - a vigilante, on the other hand, would make it their business to be there. But she doubted that one of the more experienced vigilantes would have handled it that way, and she thought that she recognized that voice, she she was guessing it was this one.

Though she is calm, she isn't fully at ease. Her opinion of any vigilante is rather mixed, and she's not about to trust that his compliment means that all is well. Then again, she's always been a rather cautious person, and if his behavior continues to confirm that she'll gradually become more comfortable. "I appreciate the effort, but I wish that you hadn't done that," she adds as she steps out onto the roof. She doesn't come very close, but she does walk away from the edge and places herself within easy talking distance, opting to stand rather than find something to sit on.

[Deleted]

Wulfen blinked in surprise at hearing someone he had never met knowing his name. "You've heard of me?" He asked straightening up somewhat. He thought of how she could possibly know then he sighed. "You heard the interview didn't you?"

'Please don't bring up the virgin comment.' He thought.

He looked the woman over, he found it kinda weird meeting someone who he's taller then. Or at least in this manner. He took a guess at her heritage looking at her hair and eye color. But he didn't say anything out loud. He took another glance at her and saw that she was alittle tense, and decided to try not to do anything that sent the wrong message. He kept his own body language was relaxed and friendly. But still ready to react.

"Sorry it was the guns that caused me to step in." He said. "I figured that I could at least get them to point them at me instead of you." He looked at her and couldn't help but ask. "Where did you learn those moves?"

[Nina Stenet]

"Yep," Shawty confirms easily. But she's unlikely to talk about certain select portions of the interview, unless he gives her a good reason to be mean. Instead she comments, "I was a huge fan of VerMillion's before... you know." Given that he was interviewed by the woman, she's guessing that he knows exactly what she means by that and needs no further explanation. But naturally, she wasn't about to miss the 'new show', if only so she could hear for herself how the woman was doing. That it also introduced her to a new vigilante she'd not heard of before was just a bonus.

When he explains why he intervened, she frowns slightly. "The guns are exactly why you shouldn't have. People who are still getting used to them have a bad habit of pulling the trigger when they're startled," she says very seriously. And, needless to say, that would not have gone well for her. "And I already had the situation under control," she adds, looking just slightly pleased with herself. She's not one to brag about her skills unless she's trying to taunt or intimidate, but yeah she has to admit that one was pretty good. Then again, Rick is a small fry compared to some of the people bothering Dr. Stenet lately - if she couldn't totally humiliate him then she wouldn't be the one for her job.

She frowns in thought when asked about where she learned to fight, as that question has a somewhat complicated answer. "Brothers, playground in elementary school, lessons from older girls in the gang, a few YWCA classes, practice, experience..." she lists off, finally shaking her head and saying, "Let's call it 'self-taught with a lot of help'. I learned those moves because I had to." She actually had a hard time taking lessons from anyone. Some of the more general things like how to keep your focus helped, but when it came down to actual moves most of them ended up having to be adapted because they assume that your opponent will be roughly your size. Fortunately, she's always had a very good fighting instinct and was able to adapt. It also helps that guns are just as effective in a short person's hands as they are in a tall person's.

[Deleted]

Wulfen nodded. "I wouldn't say I was a fan. But I listened to her before hand." He said. "I'm not sure what I would call myself now." He added with a slight of grin.

He listened to the woman talk and tilted his head in understanding. "Right... I didn't actually think it through." He said. "I just wanted to act before they opened fire on anyone." He said. He looked at his feet. "I'm trying to get better." He looked at her. "Especially after what happened." He said.

Wulfen couldn't help but grin at how she learned to fight like that. "Well you're pretty good at it." He said. "I took a few classes but they didn't really last long. I left one that was to aggressive based, and the other sorta started to charge to much." He looked at his feet. "I sorta just slightly modified what I knew." He finished.

[Nina Stenet]

Shawty shakes her head a little when he says why he acted when he did. "They weren't going to shoot: I had Rick," she says, calm in spite of just how dicey the situation she's recounting was, "He's their leader. They wouldn't risk him, and they knew I'd shoot." And she says it so matter-of-factly too. She doesn't take the thought of killing someone lightly, but on the other hand she doesn't hesitate an inch at the idea of doing it when it's necessary. It wouldn't be a big loss to the world if Rick wasn't in it, but then again it would be a big loss to his mother.

And her expression shifts to an odd mixture of sympathy and amusement when he talks about getting better. "Good idea," she says simply. She has to admit that hearing the vigilante so humiliated in such a public way was entertaining, but then again she has to admit that he was caught in a bad situation. She knows that she would have done better, but she's guessing that he's had a much softer life than the one she's had. And for that he's lucky, really.

"Thanks," she says easily to his compliment, before listening to him explain about his own experience. She frowns a little at it, but doesn't comment on whatever it is that she doesn't like. Instead she fold her arms in front of her and asks, "How good are you, really?" All she was able to gather from the interview is that Scarecrow caught him alive, though in spite of VerMillion's opinion on that she doesn't assume that means that he's terrible. Pretty much anyone could lose to anyone pretty badly, depending on the exact situation - being 'good' is all about minimizing the number of situations in which you'd lose. Nobody can eliminate the possibility completely.

[Deleted]

Wulfen looked at her and nodded. "Fair enough." He said. "I guess if I had stopped to look closer I wouldn't have reacted." He said. "I thought things were going to get alot worse quick." He finished. Then he grinned. "You got to admit though, it was well done."

He looked around and said. "I have a friend who helps me out." He said. He didn't elaborate on who his friend was. It was always rather hard for him to explain Lupin to others. Unless they find out on their own.

H nodded in welcome when she thanked him on his compliment. Then he thought about how good he really was. He didn't want to say he was the best simply because he was talking about himself. "Well..." He started. "I guess I'm pretty good." Then he thought about his answer. "I'm really good when I know what I'm getting myself into." He rubbed the back of his neck looking at the woman. "I wasn't prepared for facing Scarecrow. Otherwise I would have been able to fight my way to....... Well maybe not safety. But I could have gotten away." He said in a conversational tone.

[Nina Stenet]

Pondering that for a moment, Shawty shrugs and says, "Well, I guess you couldn't have known all that by looking anyway. Slightly different situation, and that would have saved my life. It was a gamble, and it turned out okay." Okay, she can recognize that he was only trying to help, even though he put her more at risk than she already was in the process. "But keep in mind that even boys like the Crime Kings aren't stupid or crazy enough to want a fight, if the sides look fair," she notes, if only to give him a good rule of thumb for judging a situation like that in the future.

She's not going to ask him to clarify about his 'friend' - if he's going to be that vague from the get-go, she's going to assume that he doesn't want to say more. Instead she focuses her attention on the answer to her question, and it causes her to frown. "You weren't prepared for Scarecrow?" she asks with a disbelieving raise of an eyebrow, "But he was one of the first ones! I mean, I'm not sure that I could take him, but I'm not running around on rooftops in a costume either." And she'd have thought that anyone choosing to do such a thing would know that they were liable to run into the likes of that man or worse. The only reason why she personally was willing to work for Dr. Stenet in spite of just how likely Dr. Stenet is to run into that sort of person is because you really only need to last about three seconds when you're protecting Dr. Stenet. She can do that much.

[Deleted]

Wulfen felt a smile cross his face as he listened to her talk. "Well let me tell you." He said. "You are one of the only two people to actually talk to me and say thanks." He laughed abit. "Most people just run." He paused abit. "Maybe a werewolf wasn't the best thing to base my costume on.." He nodded in response to the woman's comment about the other gang. And even though he took what she said seriously he couldn't help but laugh slightly. "Crime Kings?" He asked. "I guess imagination isn't their strong suit."

He thought some about what she said and nodded. "Well I knew of him, and about him. But I just didn't know what he looked like." Then he paused. "Though looking back I shoulda known." Then he looked back at her. "If I had known I would meet him that night I would have been a tad bit better." He held up to fingers in the universal sign for small. "A tad bit." He sighed. "But that's why I was up here. I was training myself on a rooftop a few buildings over." He said with a look off to his right.

[Nina Stenet]

Shawty's forehead wrinkles a little at that as she comments, "That wasn't a 'thank you', it was a 'I'm not mad'." She recognizes that he was trying to be helpful, but he didn't actually succeed in being helpful and she's not one to give people gold stars just for trying. She'll just recognize that he's a good person, while shaking her head and wishing she was talking to a more effective person.

Though she does have to smirk when he laughs at the name of the other gang. "Yeah, anything mental isn't their strong suit. It helps if you know that they're referring to Crime Alley, not crime in general, but still..." she says, shaking her head. But her smirk vanishes quickly when she explains, "Of course, they don't have to be smart to be a really big problem for the Sirens. I left them about five years ago - so did most of the group I grew up with. The girls we left behind aren't as good at 'diplomacy' as we were. The Crime Kings are just one of the gangs not taking them as seriously anymore. I try to keep an eye on them, but... Well, I can only be one place at a time and my job is more important." She frowns and shakes her head again, clearly concerned, but there really is only so much she can do about it.

As he tries to explain why he wasn't prepared for Scarecrow, Shawty frowns. But fortunately for Wulfen, she doesn't see the need to point out past mistakes. Instead she says, "If you'll take my advice, fix that. Not just for Scarecrow - for all the rogues. If you're going to be a vigilante at the very least, you should know who they are, what they look like - in and out of costume if you can - and what their basic methods are. Being able to fight is good, but knowing who you're fighting is better. You can win on that." She did that herself, even though her only likely interactions with them is likely to be in her role as a bodyguard. Of course, you never know what Dr. Stenet will need help with next.