Description: An old log taking place sometime before Aranha's Vendetta against Blackjack. Aranha discloses his reasons for his grudge against Blackjack and finds every attempt to be mean to the witch somehow turns around to bite him in the butt. There's even a wild chase.
In Southtown Village the Dancing Spider walks out of a cafe with a bag containing whatever he had bought from the store. Walking along he tries to keep to himself. Lately he has been trying not to be noticed. Those attempts fail and he's recognized by either fight fans, or fighter groupies.
The capoeirista takes it in stride occasionally signing autographs and returning greetings but for the most part he tries to retreat to complete silence.
That's one of the problems with being an up and coming fighter is recognition. It's only a matter of time before someone finds him again.
Well there he was, Naerose was totally looking for this one. He was good company, her one and only client and most importantly, he totally had her phone! So the suspicious blur of red fashion disaster strides up to meet said dancing spider. Dancing? The witch doesn't think she's ever really fought this kid. Actually come to think of it..
"Hey, How'd you get my phone Aranha? It was stolen." She points out, holding in her hand a red Helio.
"See phones these days have gps so when you dial 911 they can find you.. Well some phones or phone er.. hackers can use those to find phones.. But that doesn't explain.. "
"How you got my iphone!"
hHe might not have it right now, but he had it.. she already tracked that much down.
She approaches and he instantly regrets leaving the house. Of people Aranha has wanting been wanting to avoid for awhile, Naerose was on the top of the list. It was an unplanned occurance that Aranha didn't necessarily like. It did play into Aranha's hand as far as other things were concerned.
Aranha had been paid to gather information on Naerose in particular. And here she was coming right to him... Easy money. He just had to answer the question. "W-wait. Your iphone?"
Truth be told Aranha knew about the GPS system which is why he had got the list of names off the phone kept it off. He knew it could be tracked by making and receiving calls. But that it could be located with it off that was news to him. "But I don't have an iphone." Which is sorta true. He doesn't have it on him. "So is this why you came? To ask me about a phone?"
"Ah .. Yeah, do you know what that thing cost me?" Naerose asks with an incredulous look and adjusts her shades,
"Actually nothing, it was a company e- heahahahah! forget I said anything"
She is smiling big at Aranha and then deflates a little that he doesn't have the phone.
"Drat I was told I could have another if I didn't get that one back. Her typical red dress is in place, witches hat and shades, basically she looks like herself.
Company phone? That means a lot actually. He's already thinking about the fact that they'll be able to get phones and the possibility of jacking other members for their phones can be useful to get updates on Blackjack's roster but after pulling that off the first time, Aranha's not enthused about having to pull a similar stunt in the future.
"Forget you said anything? Ok." He shrugs and keeps it moving. "Here I was thinking that Elle sent you to look after me again. Am I wrong?" He watches and waits, every word is information to be collected and sorted in his mind.
"Huh? " Naerose says and is all like lifting her brow then shrugging, "You know I havn't talked to her for a little while, besides, she can be cold." The witch fixes her shades and looks at Aranha from head to toe and then she's like,
"You ahh, are you serious? I think you are a little obsessed with that whole Elle thing, you know that she's kind of mean right? I mean really mean, wouldn't you rather I dunno, just forget about it and do something else?"
It was actually because of that trait that made Aranha obsessed. Before it was just an obsession with taking Ayame down. But when she involved his sister the obsession shifted. It changed as Naerose chides him for his obsession Aranha frowns as he stares the witch, brown eyes to sunglasses.
He takes a deep breath attempting to compose himself and then when he feels he's capable of speaking in a neutral tone of voice he finally responds. "That fact hadn't escaped my notice especially when she busts into my hotel room to kick my ass and let me know that she had my sister kidnapped. Excuse me if I think your appearance is just another way for her fuck with me again. I think I've earned my right to be suspicious."
"Wait.. whaa?" Naerose asks, scratching her head under her hat, "So seriously? Elle took your sister or some chick named Ayame? Ahh, sorry but can I ask why? I mean, .. why? Why why why why why? " She grins a little and decides this is silly and decides to walk along with Aranha where ever he is going.
"I didn't think they paid that much attention to you." She murmurs and then reaches into her hat and pulls out a half eaten candy bar, takes a bite, looks sidelong at Aranha so he can see her eyes behind her shades,
"Man. You probably see them more than me."
"What? You don't know?" He seems genuinely shocked actually but if he actually knew that Naerose forgot that they fought, he wouldn't be. Aranha takes a breath. "Long story shortened... Ayame shows up at my house to rob me while my sister was in town. Ayame kicks my can. I get matched up against Ayame in the Seventh Circle. I take out my frustrations on her. Elle shows up at my hotel room and beats my ass, calls me a poser, informs me that my sister got kidnapped, and if I want to see her again to come back with someone to the Circle, Ayame and Marise fight against me and my partner and we lose but not before I take Ayame down again and put severe hurting on Marise. My sister is returned and here we are today."
After going through the story he takes on a sarcastically upbeat voice "And here we are today!"
The witch listens to this story and follows along, looking real thoughtful and then shes like Oooh.
"Yeah, that actually does make sense, but look, I'm probably not supposed to say this to you, actually I don't think it was personal. I can't really argue with you taking it personally, but I dunno, it ain't like I've been told anything." The witch shrugs a little more and then asks,
"Besides what would you do about it?"
As far as Aranha's concerned, saying what he's going to do about it to someone he thinks is probably a spy is not an option. Instead, he chooses to avoid the question completely. "If you got beef with me, then beef with me. When blood is involved it becomes another matter altogether."
At that point a silence comes over him again. His fists clench up so tightly that if he were lighter of skin the knuckles would be white. No admission that he's going after Blackjack but hell no one would be surprised if he did if they saw the look on his face.
"Hey, if you want beef, I mean join the club, I love steak, but I mean I see how you were upset about all of that." She says and then adjusts her hat a bit, sort of leans on her broom a bit.
"Well sorry about your sister, but hey, she was released right.. So it's all good." She smiles broadly.
There's a look of incredulousness as the witch speaks. He's absolutely bewildered by how the witch managed to completely derail the conversation to food. Truth be told it's making him hungry and it causes him to glance at the bag he brought out of the cafe. For the moment, he's putting it aside.
He still has questions of his own to ask the Scarlett Witch. For a moment, he's silent as he glances at the unwanted travel companion. Only when he's sure how to phrase his question does he speak. "If you know that Elle's such a mean person, why do you work for her?"
Of course food comes up, what could be more important than the motivating factor of food? The witch would like to know, except she can't read his mind so this train of thought never actually happens, instead she stops a moment then starts up again.
"You're really obsessed with Elle. There will always be people who want to kidnap people, I heard it's quite profitable in Mexico and I get my bunnynapped all the time. Anyway, however Elle is.. She is. And that's all I have to say about that."
Aranha stares at the witch as she responds to his question without actually answering the question. And based on how Naerose answered it's blatantly obvious that she isn't going to answer his question the last sentence putting a finality to that subject. In his eyes it's unfortunate since he's grabbing on to anything he can that will bring him closer to understanding why she does what she does and ultimately how to beat her.
However in that evasion Naerose had revealed other truths to him but there's only so far he can trust them. He never really viewed Naerose as a deep thinker. He resigns himself to defeat for now as far as that particular topic with a sigh and a pair of rolled eyes before speaking. "Whatever... So now that we cleared those matters... Why are you still following me again?"
The witch is a clear contrast to Aranha right now. Easy going, relaxed, laid back with her mind on his money and his money on her mind. She walks with ease, dragging the handle of her broom on the sidewalk and making a faint scraping noise, a faint and annoying scraping noise, but what are you going to do? Would the witch listen if you told her to stop? Probably not.
Then she answers the question, with a smile, with two brown eyes over the top rim of her shades and with a small point in the direction of Aranha's bag. The smile grows. Grows big.
Aranha knows there are several possible ways of handling this. There's running away but he knows from prior experience that she can fly on her broomstick. One has to wonder how fast she is and for how long she can prolong it. There's also just saying no but that's probably going to end with her following him to his place and quite frankly that wasn't all that appealing to him.
Instead Aranha chooses the mean route. After all, as long as she's with Blackjack she's guilty by association as far as he's concerned, out of the loop or not. He reaches in the bag and pulls out a muffin and chomps down on it. It's practically gone in three bites. Then he reaches into the bag and pulls out a danish which also meets a similar fate. He then reaches in and pulls a bottle of vitamin water and takes it to the head chugging the liquid so obnoxiously loud that it could be heard from across the street.
After that he hands her the bag, only thing left in it are napkins and crumbs. And what does the traceur/capoeirista have to say for himself?
"BUUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRP!!!!"
Crumbs.. Crumbs.. CRUMBS??!
Crumbs are totally edible <|8).
The gift is accepted, sorted through and crumbs are sucked up and then the bag is totally clean when it is handed back.. Er.. what happened to those napkins..?
"Thanks!" she says brightly,
"So what are we doing today?" The question comes with a smile and a look of utterly and completely not getting it, not getting it at all.
That definitely didn't work out how Aranha planned it and Aranha was pretty sure that wasn't what Nick Lowe or William Shakespeare meant by being cruel to be kind. Then again he wasn't intending any kind intent. By now though, he's figured out somewhat how Naerose works.
He waits for them get close to an alley taking note of where food stands are and then he points. "I hear their beef sandwiches are good." If Naerose turns around Aranha's gonna take off in the opposite direction and then take to the fire escapes and rooftops in an attempt to completely ditch her..
Of course she looks, of course! and he runs, she looks back. He's running. She watches for a moment with a somewhat surprised and curious look. Not upset or bothered by any means. She shrugs a little. Does she go toward said beef stand? Does she have any money to spend? No.
"Huh," she says, then is on her broom and turns it on to one of two speeds, 'Stopped' and 'OMG you're gonna crash!'. In an instant she is by the fire escape, side saddle on her broom (cause that's how she rolls) And then hops off to the fire escape. It takes hardly any time at all to make that ground considering she goes straight diagonal and it can't be that far.
"Oh oh, Is this a game? Will it end well?"
If Aranha had any say it wouldn't end well for the witch at all. Aranha's good at ditching people who follow him but most of the time the people he's trying to ditch don't have flying brooms which can take a more direct path to him. Aranha doesn't have an advantage in speed but he's picked up one thing by watching Naerose pursue him. He has the manueverability advantage over her.
Up high and on the rooftops there's too much open space for him to lose the witch and so he's going to have to go back down to the alleys and so he leaps off the rooftops dropping straight to the ground before rolling to spread the impact and reduce the loss of momentum. After that, it's a matter of going through winding alleys rebounding off of walls, hopping over crates and other assorted debris.
If Aranha looks back he'll see a witch hot on his tail. She doesn't wait long, she watches him go and she's sure, this is a game. COOL. So she jumps off, hops on her broom side saddle and swerves around a trash can and a light post and then manages a hair pin turn and then.. and then, with a big grin the red witch closes on Aranha and and..
Watch out for that... Recycle bin..
Naerose, Naerose of the city, red as she can beee.
Bad things happen when Aranha has prolonged contact with the witch and it's only a matter of time before things turn out bad. Man do things get bad for the traceur. Aranha exits the alley but with the enclosed nature of the alley he doesn't quite see those kids playing marbles on the side-walk.
Aranha thinks he might find freedom in the form of sliding under the car ala Tony Jaa in Ong Bak, or vaulting over it but one of the kids are a little too enthusiastic about shooting the marble and it rolls under his foot just as he's about to plant his foot...
And Aranha goes flying head first into the side of the car. Good night, Irene.
Log created on 16:06:41 01/10/2008 by Aranha, and last modified on 17:58:20 04/14/2008.