Description: Cammy tries to explain the error of his ways to Damnd. She should have saved her breath...
Another night in Metro City, reigning over his personal kingdom of drug addicts and hoodlums. Damnd sits in his half-burned upholstered chair, smoking a blunt as he relaxes in the early morning light. He's not with his gang, this time, instead staring out over the water. There's a pensive look on his face, as he reflects on the route his life has taken. A smile spreads across his lips. For a little bastard child from Jamaica, he's done pretty well for himself.
Cammy is about to ship out - well, as far as Glow is concerned, anyway, there might be some vigilantism in her own time, you never know. In any case the blonde soldier is no longer patrolling around the slums with the rest of Delta Red's finest, so the locals can relax, knowing that there are no redcoats coming after all.
But she has a few loose ends to tie up. One of them is Damnd. Being a terrible judge of character sometimes, partly due to how Guile kicked off on him, she plans on being gentle. There's the faint click of boots on asphalt as she lands behind him - who knows from where she jumped from, and then she slowly walks over to him, footsteps loud. And she stands by his 'throne', looking out at the water with him for a bit. "Good evening, Damnd." she says, amiably enough. "It's a nice night, no?".
Damnd, stoned out of his mind from a night partying, doesn't notice Cammy until she speaks up. He slowly turns that huge head of his to look at Cammy, blinking behind his blue shades. The glare of the rising sun shining off the water, he grins widely. "Hello dere, girlie. You're not one o' dem Delta Red girls, huh? I already had to deal with some o' youse." He remains seated, not looking particularly alarmed - Cammy's on his turf, not the other way around.
"Yes, I did hear about that." Cammy says, a little disapproving. "I'm one of them, yes.". She points to the red triangle badge on her uniform. "But never mind. I'm not here to hold a grudge or anything. There's no need to set all your minions on me.".
She peers at him then, and realises he's stoned. Which doesn't help. "I was just going to talk to you about Glow. I don't know if you know, but Duke has changed his mind about the glow trade here. You hear about that?".
Damnd frowns at this revelation, as he sucks through the blunt and exhales a big cloud of marijuana smoke in Cammy's face. Hopefully Delta Red doesn't drug test! "What, he did? Don't you be tellin' me dat he's backin' out, mon. Dat would be terrible for biddiness." He looks a little tense at this statement, despite the weed - if there's no more Glow, it's back to dime and penny work.
"Yeah, he did. I was speaking to Billy Kane as well, not sure if you know about him? But we've agreed that the glow trade is no more. I was just hoping you wouldn't think that was such a bad thing.". Cammy blinks at him. It's kinda hard to see the good in a great big hulking brute like this. Especially now, when he looks narked. But he looked so sad when Guile gave him abuse, she's sure he can't be /that/ bad.
"I mean, glow is terrible, it messes people up, real bad. Can't you just stick to weed? Nobody really minds about that, I'm sure. Some uptight cops maybe.".
Damnd snorts at this, scowling angrily at Cammy. "Stick to weed? You know how much I make off an ounce of weed? Fi'ty bucks. That's sellin' to eight different people, maybe more, for a lousy fi'ity bucks. About de same goes for coke, crack, heroin, meth. Unless you be pickin' up huge amounts. It's a lot of work. Do you got any idea how much I was makin' off Glow?" He stands up quickly, excited. "I don't care what people wanna do. Nobody is makin' anyone use Glow, or anyt'ing else. It's called freedom. And you gots the freedom to die, just like you gots the freedom to live!"
"Well, /I/ don't get paid that much money, you know." Cammy says, taking a step back at the angry scowl. "And I risk my neck all the time! I'm sure you'll be fine. And, well...".
She sighs as the freedom argument is brought up. She's not unsympathetic after all, she had the usual spiel when swiftly inducted into Delta Red about the whole Defending The Western Way Of Life, and freedom is supposedly a part of that. "Well... I'm not entirely unsympathetic." she tells him cautiously. "Though I think Glow is too much, I mean its poison! But in any case. I'm a soldier, I don't make policy, when soldiers do that it's called a coup. Maybe you should just vote for someone who wants that, mm? I mean you're American, no? Thats how things are done around here.".
Damnd waves his left arm about, as he begins to rant. "Voting? Nobody dat dose drugs vote. We're de disenfranchised, de oppressed, de under represented. All dem fat farmers from the Midwest don't want poor people doin' drugs, so dey ban dem. Dat's why weed is banned. Dat's why opium is banned. Dat's why cocaine is banned. I'm a grown ass man! I can do whatever I want!"
"Hey, hey. Calm down!" Cammy says, a little worried as he's getting excited, hands raised, palms towards him. "You can vote, maybe you should.". And she shakes her head. "But weed, well. The government here might care about it but it's not worthy of international attention, I don't care about weed, sell as much as you want. I'm sorry to hear about your problems with farmers! But Glow hurts people, even more than anything else. It makes them hurt people. Doesn't that bother you? Weed just makes people fall asleep pretty much.".
Damnd continues to pace back and before, waving his arm and puffing his blunt. "It makes dem hurt people? So does coke! Heroin makes people steal! Booze makes people hit dere wives and kids, smash around in de cars!" He looks at Cammy, exasperated, stopping his pacing and pointing. "You just don't want me to make money! You're de fun police!"
"No, I'm not!" Cammy protests, aggrieved. "And heroin is bad too. And cocaine.". Maybe she is the fun police. "I guess a lot of these things aren't as bad as they are made out, Sherlock Holmes smoked opium after all. But thats by the by! we're getting distracted. Glow is /very/ bad, you know that. I mean, would you take it?" she asks. Maybe he would, at that.
"If you want more money can't you join the NDP or something instead? You're a big guy. I'm sure you'd do well, and I guess you don't mind a few bruises.".
"I have taken it! For de Devil's Tournament! I kicked ass!" Damnd says, more than a bit loudly. "I'm not no professional fighter. Dere's no fun in de NDP. I'm a biddiness man! And if you ask me, you a narc. You just don't want poor people having fun! You is classist."
"I am not classist!" she says, flushing hotly. Her posh accent already got her teased, a lot, by the more uncouth soldiers in the army. "I got on very well with Billy Kane, and he's from some London slum. And I'm not a narc.". Cammy looks down at her uniform. "I'm a soldier. Special forces. That Glow stuff funds international, violent cartels. Bad people. Like Duke. He was throwing grenades at peoples mothers! He's somes sort of prince of hell! You can't be supporting people like him, surely. It's not worth a few dollars.".
She points at his 'throne'. "You seem quite happy living cheap anyway, how many dollars do you need?".
"Living cheap?!" Damnd shouts, now really irate. "LIVING CHEAP?! No one wants to be poor, lady! If I could, I'd have a big mansion and a bunch of hookers, but de IRS wants to know where my money is from!" He stalks towards Cammy, getting up in her face. "If Duke wants to rape de Queen of England, I don't care, as long as he makes me money!"
Cammy doesn't back away from /that/, she's a soldier dammit. She swore an oath. It even mentioned the Queen! "HEY! I'm trying to help you!" she tells him, frowning, her blue eyes staring resolutely back into his. "There's no need for that. I'm sorry; I didn't mean it that way. I don't want you to have to stay poor, I really don't.".
She sighs. She thought Damnd would be much more receptive than this! She reaches up, puts her hands on her head, thinking hard. "Mmm. ...maybe you could be a mercenary. You could join the Ikari or something." she says slowly, pondering alternative occupations for poor, poor Damnd.
Damnd shakes his head. "No way. I'm a kingpin. It's what I know. I've been involved in drugs since I was little - even when I was a baby, my mudda used my diaper to smuggle heroin at de airport. I'm a dealer, it's what I do. And if you can't see dat, den what do you know?"
"Okay. I guess you can't help how you were raised. But just leave the Glow out of it!" Cammy says, a little exasperated. "It doesn't really matter anyway, I mean Duke and Billy Kane are going to stop the Glow trade so there'll be no suppliers. I just wanted to talk to you, try and persuade you not to resume it.".
She sighs, now she's feeling rather sad. Maybe Damnd is an enemy after all. Another Billy Kane. Maybe less smart. "Please? My orders are to stop the Glow trade. I'd hate to have to come back with Lita and Major McCoy and everybody else and for things to get ugly. That would make me sad.". She seems quite genuinely disappointed, maybe even upset. Poor Damnd. Why won't he see the error of his ways?
Damnd tosses his spent blunt to the side, and puts his hands on his hips. "Without any Glow, dere is no Glow trade!" He turns off to the side morosely, suddenly depressed. "I guess I'll just have to go back to de old biddiness. You, you get outta my sight, before I do somethin' I might regret." He stalks back over to his chair, and slumps into it.
"Okay..." Cammy says, a bit confused, and shakes her head. Before backing away a little. She tried. And failed, spectacularly. "I'll see if I can find some work for you maybe, that pays. Fighting work. I won't force you to be poor, see!" she calls out to him, before she wanders off. She's had enough of the slums.
Log created on 07:55:53 05/18/2012 by Cammy, and last modified on 09:44:52 05/18/2012.