Description: The Platinum Playa decided to holla at the Dancing Spider about the heists of his past and to inform him about the way things work in Southtown. They even have time to discuss eyewear.
A light skinned African American steps out of an alley way, counting the money as he steps out. His brow is sweaty from one would assume was from physical activity and he has a towel draped around his neck. Sure counting his money out in the open at this time of night may be considered somewhat foolish, but he was also quite confident in his ability to take care of himself. The money he was counting was in fact a testament to his ability to fight.
After being satisfied with the money he had counted, he glances around still keeping his wits about him. He didn't know when that damn red witch would show up and try to take her cut of his winnings.
Clap. Clap. Clap...
"Not bad Mr... well, I guess we'll stick with 'Aranha'. That's what you like to be called these days, is it not?" says a deep baritone voice from within the shadows of the alley from which Aranha came as he steps out onto the sidewalk. Moonlight glinting off of his bald head as he speaks, the lubricious Mr. Big takes a few steps toward the pit fighter as he reaches for the cane propped under his arm and begins to walk with it at his side, it's tip clacking against the pavement lightly as he strolls. "Not /great/, but good enough for those mooks inside, right? Good enough to make a few quick bucks..." he adds, offering nothing in the way of introduction or explanation, instead taking for granted that his reputation will speak for itself, which is most likely the case.
The clapping begins and Aranha stops at dead halt and turns towards the origin, The actual alley he came out of as he pulls out those Oakley Thumps of his, on. It would be fairly premature of him to actually turn them on especially since a fight hasn't started, but getting ready for that possibility is not a bad idea. And given Mr. Big's rep, he'll probably be leaning toward flight anyway.
"The World Warrior finalist? To what do I owe this honor?" He brings his right elbow across his abs and rests his left arm on top of it while the left hand touched his chin as he took on a more thoughtful expression before it curls up into a slight grin. There's no smugness in it but rather taking on a bit of an easy going manner. "I thought small timers like me were beneath your notice. I guess I should take the fact that you were watching in the first place as a compliment."
His breaking from an inscrutable frown to a faintly pleased smirk as Aranha speaks, it's obvious that the capoeirista is starting off of the right foot with the crimeboss, even if his comments might be slightly tongue in cheek. "Well, I wasn't actually here to take in the fight, but watching punks get the shit beat out of them never really loses it's fun, does it?" He asks with a wolfish grin. Slowly walking towards Aranha, Mr. Big's can continues its rhythmic clacking in time with his pace.
"Nah, I came to have a little chat with you, Spider." Mr. Big explains in the cool even tones of a deadly man speaking with complete confidence. "Some friends of mine informed me about some of your heists while you were in Metro City. The word is you got some skills, kid. Skills that aught a make you more of that cash..." he says with a nod to the stack of bills in his hand, "...than fighting can, and a lot less painfu- Hey, are those them MP3 playing sunglasses?!" Mr. Big breaks off suddenly, his cool even tones fleeing for a second as his voice rises with curiosity and he steps in for a closer look.
Aranha isn't stupid and while he's not the best of fighters he is extremely observant and even with televised footage he's able to tell where his place is in comparison to Big. Plus even if Mr. Big wasn't as good a fighter as he was, he knew better than to mouth off at him because of his knowledge of his connections. Mr. Big had juice in Southtown and Aranha had no real connections to call upon in Southtown.
"What can I say? I like to dance. Even if sometimes they're dancing to the wrong song." He shrugs for a bit still keeping his laid back demeanor. It would be hard for someone to get a read on the nerves he's definitely feeling right now, what with his poker face, cultivated through years of practice as a gambler. "The skills, they're still there but I haven't dealt with 'acquisitions' for awhile. Had you not specified directly I would've assumed it was my ability at playing cards." He smirks slightly at his joke before letting go back to relaxed. "I'm curious though why would bring that up?" And then the subject suddenly changes to the sunglasses. "Yeah they are. Oakley Thumps. I like the design of these better than the newer models."
"Huh... yeah, I thought about picking some of those up," Mr. Big says as he touches his own sunglasses, "But I figured the sound quality probably wasn't all that. Those little earphones don't look like they get that much bass..." Pursing his lips as he gives the sunglasses some thought, Mr. Big suddenly shakes his head at his lack of focus and gets back to business. "Anyway, I'm kind of disappointed you didn't come to me directly and speak to me concerning these... skills of yours. And I don't mean inviting me to a poker game," Big clarifies with a smirk. "See, guys like you and me," Big adds as he points first at his own chest with the butt of his cane, then at Aranha's. "We never change. It's in our blood. There's no retiring from this."
"The sound quality isn't bad and even with them lagging behind the skullcandy ear buds in sound quality, it's nice to not have to worry about getting strangled with your audio equipment when you're in a fight," saying as he touches them for a moment. Sounds like Aranha has had a bit of experience with that.
When Mr. Big gets back to business Aranha likewise gets back to business. "Well, I apologize. I didn't think I needed to, seeing as there wasn't as much..." He touches his chin and then looks downward pausing for a moment for a touch of drama before continuing, "As much pressure to use those skills. Even still, forgive my ignorance about the way things are done here. I'm kinda new to Southtown." Yes, respect is the theme for the evening especially since he isn't trying to shake things up.
Nodding slightly as Aranha speaks, Mr. Big strokes his goatee thoughtfully for a moment before responding. "I see. Alright Spider," the Chrome-Dome Don says with a purse of his lips, "I'll do ya a favor and letcha slide on account of ignorance. But just so I'm sure you know the score, the Syndicate gets a piece of all the action that goes down in Southtown, at least of piece of anyone's action that knows what's good for them," the Diamond Don clarifies with a predatory grin that shows off his brilliant white canine teeth.
"Plus, when you're in the line of work that you're in... sorry, /were/ in... it's just common courtesy to introduce yourself to the top dog and let him sniff ya out a bit, ya feel me? Anyway, if you start to get that itch like I know you're gunna start to get, you best come pay me a visit first. We'll work something out." Reaching into an interior pocket of his fur-lined coat, the Platinum Player draws out a platinum business card case and flips a card out. "Furthermore, if you get tired of scraping knuckles for chump change, you come pay me a visit. We'll work something out then too." Snapping the card, a simple business card that has nothing but a single cell number printed on it, between two finger as he hands it over to Aranha, Mr. Big waits silently for the capoeirista to take it.
His expression smoothly goes from relaxed to neutral in less than a second as he extends his hand out to take the business card. He remains quiet for a few moments looking it over before slipping the card into his white pants. "You are truly a generous man," he says with such neutral expression and dead pan it's damn near impossible to tell if he's being genuine or being sarcastic. Truth be told Aranha isn't even sure himself. "Anyway, it was nice speaking with you but I should probably be on my way. I'm sure we'll keep in touch."
After business is dealt with, Aranha takes off with a sudden burst of speed to another alleyway, running up the wall to get him high enough to reach a fire escape. From the fire escape he quickly scambles up and launches himself up on the railing of the fire escape and then uses that to precision leap up into the branch of a tree. From there, he leaps up to grab onto a flag pole. It takes less than an instant for him to muscle himself up and then leap up to pull himself up to the roof top. From there he begins to leap from rooftop to rooftop as he makes his way to where he rests his head.
"Hmm," Mr. Big grunts in faint amusement as Aranha takes the card and thanks him. Watching the man quickly climb his way to the rooftop in an even more graceful manner than his namesake could probably manage, a smile grows on the gangster's mouth as a chuckle creeps to his lips, a chuckle that quickly grows into an amused laugh. Yes, Mr. Big is quite generous. Quite generous indeed. "Pull the car around Unosuke," Mr. Big says simply into a cellphone produced from his coat pocket as he steps onto the sidewalk and waits for his black sedan to arrive.
Log created on 22:58:59 07/09/2007 by Aranha, and last modified on 10:35:42 07/10/2007.