Description: More from a forgotten past, Naerose talks to forgotten people in forgotten days with forgotten forget forget forget. The Red witch may not know what has happened, but time does not forget. Or something.
Chinatown. One of the hangouts of Naerose Delphine, the Red Witch, who was not very involved in the whole affairs around southtown, but even so she was here now. But why? Amongst the thugs at the moment, in an alley, Naerose is on a mission. She's trying to hire them, but unfortauntely..
"Cash up front!" one demands.
"Fellas fellas, this is a job with payment on delivery, see you gotta totally get me the re-"
"Cash up front!" the same one repeats.
"Aww come on, be reasonable, I'm trying to offer you a job here." Naerose replies, dejectively.
She was totally biting off more than she could chew. In the middle of the day, in an alley with three thugs, rather weak looking ones at that, but Naerose never did know how much strength she herself possessed.
Drake, on the other hand, has been busying himself trying to clean up the streets. Not a great deal one guy can do on his own, but that's not ever been known to get in the way before. At least in his mind. He's covered a fair patch of Southtown's eastern area, and has worked his way into Chinatown, where it seems a little low-key at the moment. Good enough for him. Means he gets to take a breather.
Or does he?
The young fighter spies a horrifically familiar hat, surrounded by rough-looking sorts. Drake... well, he just sighs. Gloved hand sets to his face momentarily, and when it lowers again, he's put on the 'game face' as he begins marching towards the group. He'll let his weary body rest later.
"Damnit, look over there, someone is coming!" cries one of the thugs, "Lets scram!" And they did, givnig Naerose a shove, but all and all she is soon left alone. That was awful. Terrible! She'd never been so scared in her life, as long as she could remember (which was understandably short). Though the relief is short lived too, soon she sees who is coming. Drake.
First thought was to run, but then Naerose changes her mind, smiles toward the familiar face and just stands there, leaning on her broom, reaching into her hat and poling out a pokey stick. It was like smoking, only candy and much more dorky. Not to mention, how did she even have any of these left? It was luck that she didn't empty the box.
Drake pauses briefly when the gangers appear to be scattering, but seeing Naerose still there, he resumes. "Now what brings you to this neck of Southtown?," he asks. The tone he uses isn't precisely conversational, but it isn't necessarily threatening either. It's just direct.
Naturally, he comes to a halt before her.
She could lie, she could weasel, but the truth was so much better and besides, she wanted to see the look on Drake's face. "Well actually I was looking for someone to hire to do a little job for me, not you mind you, someone you know, totally more rough and tubmle and stuff.. " Naerose reaches into her hat and pulls out a tape recorder. "See I want someone to go get hired by Blackjack. Now that Elle is back and record the kind of work she wants them doing. You know me, always the journalist. Also I want to expose her for mean person she is. That way at least you can know anyone who she does hire has been warned. Oh yeah, and Elle totally hates her work being exposed. Anyway, I need a thug to do it." Naerose finishes and takes off her shades, careful to close her eyes first, cleans them on her fluffy sleevse and replaces them on her face.
"By the way , what are you doing these days?" Naerose asks.
The information she rattles off has Drake paused considerably. For a few long seconds, he simply stares at her. Finally...
"So let me get this straight. You want to expose your old boss?"
"Ahh, Yes," Naerose replies, in just as straight a manner, "But don't get me wrong, that isn't like the goal, that's just a maens to an end, see, I want to form something like the er.. ideal? Of what she had. A group of proactive individuals who involve themselves in world affairs. Only unlike her group, who all hated each other, believe me I know, I want an actual group that works together, brought together by common interest, goals and mutual respect. Like totally different. Anyway, the problem is, she's competition. People who might be drawn to the ideal could be swayed by her for well, money. I wanna make sure that the only people Elle has any chance of getting to go along with her are the sort of people that I wouldn't wanna be in the same room with anyway. Hence why I need someone to go get hired by her and sell me the tape of their conversation." Naerose adjusts her shades and watches Drake. To be fair she was only telling him all of this because Drake had hated Elle before. Perhaps there was an ally here, but at the worst case she didn't see him running off to tell her old boss on her.
She's got him pegged that far, at least. However, Drake started to look fairly pleased with her. Until she referred to Elle as "competition". That rendered him somewhat deadpan.
"So... you're still looking to do nice'n illegal things, like... what was it, weapon trafficking? Drugs?" His fists set to his hips, looking particularly displeased.
Shaking her head, Naerose replies, "No, she can have all of those jobs. I'm not worried about jobs, she's totally not going to be after the same work I would be, in fact I'm pretty sure we'll be at odds if ever we meet, but she might take some of the same people. See the thing about Elle you have to remember is she'll take neutral minded and even some pretty good folk who are just on hard times. Diversity has always been something she's sought to a degree and now is no exception. I think starving her of those well minded people is important cause they give her certain ahh, lets see the word is.. crediance? No, umm, prestige? Well something like that. They make her look better than she is. Won't make a difference in most cases, but how many times have you seen Blackjack employ deciet? And who believes a pack of liars anyway? Elle totally realizes this too so she deliberately hires some people who aren't totally bad. Those are the people I'd be competing her for and those are the people I want to starve her of," Naerose states.
"The plan is simple, I take this tape recording, collect sound bites, do a quick ad about her being a dirty employer and use the sound bites to prove my point. I'll totally make her look worse than the hamburgular!"
Drake turns his head slightly to one side, then to the other, eyeballing her. "Just explain this to me. Why do you want to collect people? What's stewin' around in that hat of yours?"
A frown. She was pretty sure she'd covered this, but apparently not. So adjusting her hat, Naerose starts again, well for the first time.
%t"It's simple really. A group of people who through social networking try to gather and share information about world events, like the old jinchuu tournement, or even this happening to southtown, I'm sure there were signs, we can see these signs, pose ourselves to affect what happens for the better, get involved before the fan gets hit with any stuff." This time Naerose just watches Drake to see if they are even remotely on the same page.
She skirted it, as far as Drake was aware. And even now, he has to take what he's hearing with a grain of salt. This is Naerose, after all. "So, something... philanthropic?," Drake poses. "In that case, good. I'm glad you're trying to do that."
And so, she earns a tiny smile.
"Thanks for not thinking of me as a thug," he adds dryly. "I'm doing what I can to save the citizens'n property here, though."
"It isn't that," Naerose admits, "But if I tried to hire you to get dirt on elle she'd never fall for it." Blunt , but very possibly true. "You know though Drake, I could probably like totally use your help. I know I got nothing to show for it now, but maybe I'll show up and we can talk again later, soon, maybe at your beach house or something.." It wasn't truly what Drake thought, Naerose knew people needed to get paid for work, but at least it wasn't going to be dirty work. She still leaves the last part out. "Anyway, I need a sponsor with a lot of capitol." As she spent her last five dollar bill on that really cheap tape recorder.
"Hey, way to trash gratitude," Drake chides. "And that's assuming my house is still standing after this. I've not been to the beach at all since this whole thing started!" Momentarily distracted by the thoughts of what might be, he adds, "Damn well -better- be standing...," under his breath.
"Anyway, I'm too high profile for her to go for. It'd be an obvious scam. But listen, in a time like this, you may not even need money to motivate people." Drake takes a single step closer to her, more confidentially. "A lot of people are losing their homes, some even losing family'n friends. Money might not be some people's top priority right now, you know?"
Clearly Drake knows something she doesn't know, because Naerose has a look of someone who just doesn't get it. In part because she spent so much time buried in trying to revive Blackjack that she missed most of what has happened to Southtown. In fact she missed it until the very day she was fired and then suddenly. Oh right, world around her. What else could motivate people besides money and how would she get it?
"Like what?" Naerose asks, then offers something that motivates her, " Food? "
Drake nods once, bangs a'bob. "Food. Shelter. Some people might even do it if it seems like they'll get friends." There's a momentary pause before he decidedly includes, "Don't take advantage of people, though. They might be desperate, but that doesn't give you a right to, y'know, mistreat'em."
After another beat, he smiles sheepishly. "I probably don't need to lecture you about that, considering where you came from..."
"I dunno yet, I need to work some things out before I can offer much of anything really, I mean friends, I guess, I dunno, the people I'd ask might or might not want to be my friend, hard to say," Naerose puzzles with herself and then says, "So I'll pay you a visit if your house is still standing after this is over, okay?" Biiig smile.
Ah, shucks. It looks like she's really trying to do good now, and it's enough to get Drake to warm up to her. At least a little for now. "Yeah, sure. Just be careful - if you haven't noticed," which he suspects she may not have, "it's a warzone out here. So keep yourself safe, eh?"
Log created on 14:48:52 05/06/2009 by Naerose, and last modified on 22:49:04 12/19/2010.