In the Streets–– Day 1 (February 2, 2317)

[Hwin]

Tucker noticed the crowd was beginning to break up as he got farther up the path and closer to the bridge. Rapping himself up in his own thoughts again, Tucker blocked off everything else (a problem he’s working on fixing), causing him to run into a almost nicely dressed guy. Both ending up on the floor, Tucker felt ready to throw him a punch if needed…but decided to wait a moment and see if this guy might say who he was.

[Misty]

(I lied, ya'll; she's got four brothers, not three)


Unlocking the door to her family's bottom floor apartment, Analise pushed through the door. Jacques scurried in after her, and she locked it behind them.

"Analise!!!" A tiny boy's voice yelled from somewhere in the apartment as Bandit, her beautiful-as she called him-mutt came bounding around the corner to meet her. It was one of her favorite sounds, that high-pitched voice that would one day be deep like Jacques's. "Analise's home!" His voice squeak on 'home' as he appeared around the corner, running after Bandit.

"Joey!" She knelt to swoop the five-year-old up in her already apron-filled arms. "Were ya a good boy while we was gone at work?"

"Yes!" He replied. "I always is! Ya always ask, but I always is!"

"Hey."

Analise glanced across the tiny living room with its one couch and tv to look at the next two in line, George the fourteen-year-old, and John the twelve-year-old. Then came Jacques who was sixteen. And she was first: eighteen. George was the one who had spoken; John was standing beside him, somewhat behind. Odds were, she could tell from looking at them, George was going to ask for something-money-and John was in on it, but not quite bold enough to ask himself.

"Woul'ja give us five bucks?" George said, just as she'd suspected.

"What for, George?"

"Me 'n John is gonna go see a movie."

John nodded in affirmation.

"Leech, leave Analise alone," Jacques hissed. "We isn't workin' so as ya'll can go waste our money. 'Sides, she's tired. You'd be too if'n you worked 's'hard's she does."

"Fine, but be careful," Analise lectured as she pulled her wallet out of her back pocket. "If'n ya'll is gonna be usin' the money for somethin' other than the rent, I want it put to use, not stolen. Got it?"

"Sure." George took the money she offered him-a twenty seeing as they might want snacks or something too. The movie was cheap, seeing as it was low tech. Snacks were the pricey things.

"Where's mom?" Analise questioned.

"Dunno," George shrugged.

"She gone somewhere," John added.

"So long." George and John disappeared out the front door.

Jacques shook his head as Joey buried his face in Analise's shoulder, simply satisfied to have her home again.

[Kabitha]

"Oh sorry dude!" Rab said, picking himself up off the ground. Great, just great. Today's my running-into-people-day for sure! "I'm not usually this..... clumsy I guess. Sorry about that. I'm Rab, by the way. What's your name?"

------

Thy spat the apple seeds out in the direction of the market. People were still swarming around even though the sky was getting darker. I really need to get going 'fore all the peoples leave, she thought, jumping down from the wall. Back into the crowds she headed, weaving this way and that, peering over peoples shoulders at the different stalls. Seeing a man arguing with a small group of women about his carrots, Thy headed over. Acting like another passerby watching the quarrel, she leaned causualy against the crate containing the carrots.

"Ah, but no! Deez carrots are da best.... No matter vat you say!"

"Ay happen ta disagree, Mister! Ay bought a kilo of yer carrots yesterday and now, all a ma children sick!"

"Ah, but dis musn't be true! Deez carrots are good, vite good."

"Marissa," another lady cut the angry one off. "I always buy my carrots for him--"

"Ya'll are mistaken!" Marissa butted back in.

Thy grinned and slipped five carrots into her coat pocket. Lilly wove in between her fingers, wrapping herself around the plumpest carrot.

-----------

Cyrus kicked a rock and looked up at the darkening sky. No rich Royale had appeared. I might as well go grab something to eat, Cyrus thought as he turned down the road leading toward the market.

[Hwin]

(I was talking about Rab. Sorry about that, I meant to say his name somwhere so you would know)

"I'm Tucker." Tucker answered as he picked his hat up from the ground. He wasn't used to Subterreans being this ready to share their name and he had almost given out his last name but desided against it. "I'm sorry about that...it was mostly my fault, I wasn't thinking about where I was headed." He went on, "I haven't seen you in this part of town before. Do you live around here?"

[Kabitha]

"Well...." Rab thought about saying he was a Royale and decided against it. "Sorta. I wasn't born and raised here if that's what you mean. But now I just wonder around mainly. Though I usually sleep more in the center of the Subterrean part. How about you?"

[Anwen]

Lita decided to get out off the bridge. "It was nice talking to you Enthia." She said quietly. She turned and tried to bypass the Subterrean square. She decided to say hi to that girl she had met a little over a week ago, Analise. She had met her as she(Analise) was leaving work, and had seen where she lived. She hurried over and knocked on the door.

[Hwin]

"Well, not really. I move around alot..." Tucker answered, wondering what to say next.
---------
(If I cant post with Jordan yet, please tell me and I'll delete it!)

Jordan quickly finished drying the once dirty window and ran into the old shop.
"I'm finished!" She said, out of breath, holding out her hand for pay.
The man at the counter grunted and gave her a sharp look. "Aha! I neva said I was gonna pay ya!"
"W-what?! Yes, yes you did!" Jordan frowned, thinking of all the wasted work.
The shop keeper sorted through his money, laying it on the counter as he finished counting his daily income before going on. "Now, scat! Bafa I call de cops on ya!"
Jordan had been eyeing the cash the whole time and finally desided that she would get her pay, and picked up an extremly small portion of it, running out of the store as she did so. "I did deserve it...right?" She mermured to herself as the shopkeeper yelled and ran after her. But his legs where to small and she got away quickly, just as Jordan thought would happen. But as she turned the corner she found herself on the ground with two boys, one around her age and the other a little younger. "John, George!" Jordan gasped ast he stollen money scattered everywhere and the once far behind shop keppers voice now became louder and louder.

[Kabitha]

Cyrus sped up as the cold November wind hit his back Good thing I already found my shirt for the winter, he thought. Suddenly he heard a noise down one of the alleys. Money! he thought instantly as the clink of coins echoed. Like a shot he was heading down the alley..... and tripped over some boys and a girl laying in the road. He did a face plant, but made no mind to the blood running out of the cut over his eye and tried to jump back up again, but somehow tripped over them again.

------------

"We have something in common then..... Where're you headed?" Rab asked.

[Misty]

Analise sat with the book open on her lap, squinting at the pages as she tried to put the letters together. Was that a 't'? And when it was next to the 'h' it wasn't the same as it normally was...

Ugh...

She rubbed her temples to ease the small throb that began to pound behind her eyes as all the letters began to run together into a mash of bugs on the page. These lessons with herself were getting harder and harder as she grew more and more impatient. Numbers she could read; those were a necesesity everywhere for everything. Abbreviations for menu foods and drinks she had memorized the shapes and connected them to the foods; those were a necesity for work. But it was so hard to just be able to look at the letters and put them together into inteligable sounds. And here-or rather, in the upper parts of the city-there were three year olds that she'd seen doing it. Why was it so hard for her to do if a three year old could do it?

Faint pounding thumped in the background, but she hardly noticed it as she blinked, shook her head, and pulled the book closer to her face as she squinted at the squashed bugs and watched them seperate to form back into letters.

"Analise!" Joey's tiny voice squeaked against the pounding in her ears and the thudding coming from somewhere. "Analiseeeee!!!" He ran up to her and grabbed her arm, pulling on it to get her attention.

"What," She replied, looking up grudgingly from the book. "What is it, handsome?"

"There's the door! Hitting someone! There's someone hitting the door!"

Setting the book down, Analise stood and grabbed a small switch-blade knife on her way to the door. She flipped it open and held it behind her back. Joey held on to her leg as he peeped out from around her, and Jacques watched from the near shadows. Analise opened the door halfway. She glanced outside and opened it the rest of the way.

"Hello," she greeted as she looked up at the girl with the big green eyes and the wavy reddish-brown hair.

[Eya]

Few now lingered at the sluggish stream. A chilly breath of wind softly curled about Zylle face, convincing her to finally get a thin scarf from her purple pack. After wrapping it snugly around her neck and loosely about her face so that only her eye-area showed, Zy leaned forward against the handle of the cart and pushed the cart around. Back and forth, back and forth; like a pendulum swinging at on the bridge. With her expressive eyes cast down at her things and assessing her situation (of which she was reminded of by the cold winter air), she isn't really paying attention to her surroundings. I just can't stay in the alleys, can I? I mean, there's GOT to be a way for me to sleep under shelter tonight.

[Anwen]

"Hello," Lita answered. "Do you remember me Analise? I met you on my walk a little over a week ago. I thought I'd pay you a visit. In case you don't remember, I'm Litonya." She smiled and waited for an answer.

[Hwin]

(Tucker)
“Nowhere in particular, but I normally stay with a good friend who lives around here when I visit.” Tucker thought for a moment. This guy seemed nice, not the type to go around stealing peoples belongings and didn't seem to know how to use his fists all that well either. Letting out a long breath Tucker continued, “If you don’t have anywhere else to stay at the moment I’m sure my friend would be glad to help you out…and I’ll be there too for some time.”
Now, if Rab did except his offer, Tucker would just have to keep an eye on him. If anything happened to his “almost little sister”, Jordan, he would never forgive himself.

[Misty]

"Watch it, ya little clutz-" George began to growl as he whirled on the person who had banged into him, his face a snarl of annoyance, but stopped short. "Oh, Jordan." Gently taking her hand, George pulled her to her feet. "John!" He turned on his brother. "Her money's flyin' away!" John pounced after her money. George turned back to Jordan, his voice softening. "I'm sorry; are'y'okay?"

~~~~~

"Yes, of course," Analise replied, her expression lightening into a soft smile as she pushed the blade of her knife back into its sheath with her thumb on the back and slipped it into her back pocket. "C'mon in," she invited as she opened the door wider for her. "Jacques, go start the fire; it's gettin' cold in 'ere."

Jacques slunk down into the shadows seeming strangely apprehensive about coming into contact with Litonya in any way. He kept his gaze low... Almost as if he were... Ashamed..? He knew her from somewhere. Had he done something to her? Her brother couldn't have. He was a good boy. He was harshly cynical and passionately angry, but he couldn't have. How? When? Where?

"So," she lead Litonya near the fireplace as Jacques adjusted the logs and lit the fire with a fire starter. It had a few problems flaming in the beginning, but after a couple of trigger pulls, the fire sparked from the barrel and he lit the logs. "How'r'ya these days? What've'ya been up to?" Jacques retreated from the room as she spoke.

[Hwin]

(Jordan)
Jordan, ignoring her brused and cut hands, realized that the shop keepers voice was just around the corner she had just turned. But slowly, the huffing and puffing began to become faint, and Jordan finally desided that he had given up and turned back around.
Now, she finally took time to notice the collision she had caused.
In front of her was John and Goerge, the ones she had planned to meet at the theater. Scattered around was her money. Although before she had time to get up and see if John and George where ok and pick up her money, a guy ran out, tripping over them and landing on his face.

[Misty]

(Guys, really, are ppl seriously that clumsy in real life? Rab ran into Lordenthia, Tucker ran in Rab, Jordan ran into George, someone else ran into Jordan; how often do you run into or see other people run into each other, yet people keep doing it in a course of like 10 minutes here)

[Anwen]

"How am I-" Lita remembered that Analise wouldn't know that the day after they met, her brother Jerek had died. Memories of that day flooded back to her. Jerek had been ready to work earlier then her, and left on a errand before she started working. That afternoon, she was just getting off work when Mr. O'Shea told her that her brother had been killed in a car accident. She could hardly bear to see his lifeless body laid out in front of her. She cried on until evening, when she read her Bible and found consolation.
"I-" She decided just to let it out. "My brother died since I saw you last." She said, sighing, head down.

[Misty]

It's okay, Hwin, you don't have to change it. I just mean, as far as meeting ppl goes, we should plan with someone else's character's creator on how to go about it as opposed to just running into them; it runs smoother. In real life, if I were to run into somebody I didn't know I would say sorry and keep going. But since the boys know Jordan it's all good.


Strange... Analise watched Litonya phase through different emotions. Sorrow. Remorse. Mounrning. Confliction. As a skilled waittress, she was an excellent sign-catcher and emotion-reader. Litonya couldn't decide whether she wanted to tell her everything or whether she wanted to keep it all to herself. But Litonya could tell Analise; Analise would care if no one else did, that she promised. "Litonya, I'm so sorry," she said, her eyebrows bent in sympathy.

"Jacques," she called to her brother who was still lurking in the shadows like a ghoul wishing to be unnoticed with its hideousness. "Bring us some warm sweet tea." She knew that Litonya's throat was probably tight and her throat probably burned with unshed tears. Warm sweet tea always helped sooth the pain, with both its carressing warmth and dose of sugar. He silently brought her two mugs and retreated once again to the darkness.

"So recent," Analise said, handing Litonya one of the mugs. "So recent... Is there anything I can do for'ya? Money, odd jobs, I'm sure Jacques would be glad to help out too." He shrunk further back into the corner but nodded. What was wrong with him? He would be fine doing some extra work for someone, especially a girl who'd lost someone who must have been so dear to her. She could tell he wasn't against the idea. But something about this girl brought out a skittish side of him, which was strange; Jacques was never skittish of anyone, even the biggest guys on the block who looked as though they could squash him.

[Anwen]

"Thank you for your offer, Analise." Lita said, sipping the tea. Analise sure knew how to sooth someone. "I don't really need money, or jobs to be done for me but;" She paused then said, smiling sadly, "Having a friend to talk to makes things a whole lot better."

She pushed her mourning away and was herself again. She noticed a little boy peeping from behind Analise's chair. "Hello there." She said. "M'name's Lita." She said, slipping out of her ordinary good grammar. "What's yours?"

[Eya]

I might as well go back to the alley. Zy-fire quietly and meekly wheels back her cart to where she had come from. Throwing a glance at her former house, she decided that it couldn't possibly hurt to see if whether she can find something inside the she can still bring something along. Zy shoved the cart into the darkest corner of her alley and covered it with a ratty canvas she found nearby. "Alright, TALLY HO!", Zylle hoarsely yelled, her throat just having found its use after a long while.

(Should I move the following paragraphs to the Living Units section? I have a slight idea of a plan to get Zylle back to living in her own home again.)

Now crouching at the shadows of the doorstep, She mentally retraced her previous approach to her home. I must have been painfully visible. Black pants, lavender top, flaming orange scarf, flapping green jacket tied around the waist and sticking up hair. Fine show I made. *facepalm* I should flatten it. Zy fishes out a close-toothed comb from her pocket and runs her slightly greasy hair flat. "That should do it," she murmurs as she checks out her image at a puddle close by. Her hair, unused to the falling down position, looks like a flame which is excessively blown back. Better than earlier. It was like a flag saying, 'Look at me! Look at me!'

Her house is a two story medium-sized building with no lawn whatsoever and alleys running by its two sides. It stood back-to-back with Mr Wolfer's office building and the front doorstep directly landing on the tiny sidewalk. Her mom's windowsill lilacs hunched over reddish-brown because of the lack of TLC. Zylle listened carefully for signs of life from inside. It stood dark, empty and alone, all the windows boarded up and the door laced with padlocks and chains. She tested all the boards of each window, being 7 in all. Starting from the left: first, really tight; second, same; third, looser and has a wider gap than the others; fourth, same as the first; fifth and sixth, boarded up tight but very carelessly; seventh... YES! It seems as if whoever locked up her house ran out of materials and used old fence posts to cover up this window. Zylle looks around. Looks secluded and safe enough. She clawed out the rest of the posts and scrambled inside.

[Kabitha]

Rab grinned. Alright! Now I won't have to sleep in the cold.... plus I could get to know this guy better..... and maybe help him in some way. "Sounds great Tucker, thanks a bunch. Are you going there now?"

--------

Cyrus grabbed for some coins, wiping some blood out of his eye as he reached. I wonder how much meat costs these days, he thought.

[Hwin]

Tucker almost suprised himself by asking this question. Usually he kept to himself and didn't go offering a place to sleep to people...but this guy seemed differnt then the rest of the Subterreans. "Yeah, I am, so just follow me." Tucker said, starting in the direction of Jordan's place. "But I want to know," He paused in his steps. "Are you really a Subterrean? Cause you sure don't act like the rest of us."

[Kabitha]

"Oh um...." Rab thought fast. "No," he finally admitted. "I'm actually a Royale. I ran away since Royale life was....... annoying." He turned faintly red.

[Misty]

Analise smiled at Joey as the attention shifted to him. He hid behind the corner, peering out with half his face and his fingers curled around the corner. Bashful flirt, Analise thought, the laughter that swelled in her chest not bubbling beyong there. "C'm out, Joey," she urged. "Come say 'hi' t' our guest."

Joey inched around the corner and put his hands behind his back, pressing up against the wall as he grinned sheepishly at them. "Hi," he said, his young voice in its high pitch.

~~~~~

Anger boiled in George's chest as the pathetic little street pest dodged out to grab at Jordan's money.

"Little street rat," he growled as he grabbed the newcomer by the back of his shirt and jerked him to his feet, hardly caring whether it joked him or not. "Wha'd'ya think your doin', pathetic scum bag?" He snarled as he turned the newcomer to face him, holding onto the front of his shirt now. "Thought you'd get a free handout did'ja? How could you stoop so low? Does she look like she has money to spare, mangy rodent?" He shoved the newcomer away with a warning fist in his chest. "Find a job like a respectable human being an' quite takin' it from people that don' even have enough money for themselves."

If the heartless mongrel was smart he would take George's words seriously, that was, if he didn't want to get hurt.

[Kabitha]

Cyrus glared at the boy. "Didn't know it's hers," he muttered. And people have to eat anyway! She's not the only one who's hungry, he thought angrily. He survaided them all coldly and turned to leave. Then he turned back and tossed the few coins he had managed to grab on the ground. He pulled his ski hat off and shoved it in his pocket. "Better find someone's rain bucket and wash my face," Cy said out load as he headed out of the alley.

[lordenthia]

Enthia was rather pleased with himself. He had managed to sneak away without anyone noticing. He got very awkward around people and decided that it would probably be best if he left before anyone else came. Plus the fact that a melody had popped into his head and he wanted to write it down.

As he approached his hovel, he realized that something was wrong. The door was open. He cautiously proceeded to enter the small building. His piano was smashed to bits, and on the wall there was a note:
"Don't think that we have forgotten you, Enthia. There is still redemption for you among the brothers."

Enthia looked at his piano and started to grow angry. He picked up his only chair and smashed it down on the floor with a shout. He then stormed angrily out of his house, hoping to cool off a little.