Log Title:
Spirit Guide or Free Ride
Characters:
Night Raven & Krista
IC Date:
5/29/2012
Location:
Chinatown
Brief Log Summary::
Night Raven stops a pick pocket and Krista offers to help him with his problem
Rating:
pg13
There is no TS in this log::
Yes
Post your log::
Chinatown and Little Italy - New York
Today in Chinatown, the non-tourist area, business is quite usual. Busy people doing day to day things amidst a swirl of Chinese dialect as merchants and buyers haggle in their normal routine. The bustle is enough that the series of popping noises from a back alley is most likely over looked by anyone on the regular street level in the area. Then again, when Night Raven stumbles out of that alley and puts a hand on the wall as if catching his breath a moment, he wouldn't know if the gunshots would of drawn any attention his way, or that he is running around in a mask at this time of day. Still, there isn't really much attention going his way and he doesn't seem inclined to measure the amount of gawking in his vicinity for the moment.
Presently he wears off the rack black sports jacket and pants - fitting but not tailored, along with emblemed t-shirt underneath and stylized black fedora. Hands covered in leather gloves, no skin showing on account of the ivory mask he is wearing. The only attention he does garner is the occasional odd look at his get-up - it doesn't relate to anything that might have gone on in the alley he came from.
Perched, unseen by those below, on the edge of an awning is the tiny figure of a girl. She watches the hustle and bustle of the local shoppers as they go about thier business below. She has a good vantage of her surroundings and her watchful eye misses nothing, not even the successful pickpocketing that a young man does to a woman as she leans over to inspect some fruit. She shakes her head but isn't set to do anything about it yet. Her gaze strays to the nearby alley when she sees movement within, her eyebrow arching up as a suited figure emerges. /That's odd./ she thinks to herself.
Breath caught mostly, the man takes a moment to then pat down the front of his suit and shirt. Almost like looking for a lost credit card or a cigarette lighter, something he misplaced on himself but again, as if dusting or searching himself. He finds a small hole in his shirt and shakes his head a moment. His course to the street proper and the nearby vendors places him right near the successful pickpockets. Whether mindful of them or not doesn't so much seem to be his concern as he really seems to be glancing around to orient himself in the present location. Unaware to him one such pickpocket has decided the masked man makes an alluring target, he is making an approach to bump him with a nonchalant look on his face. After spotting and marking him, the would be pick pocket focuses on some vendor wares as a distraction prior to the upcoming bump.
Curious of the masked stranger, pickpockets she sees everyday, the mini Krista slides down the fringe of the awning as he passes under her and lets go. She times it so she will drop down on his hat at the same time the pickpocket bumps into him, so her impact is less likely to be noticed.
Between shoulders bumping and something skewing his hate to the side, Night Raven realizes he is amidst some occurence and it certainly isn't a flash mob, not that he knows what those are. Betwixt this, instinct takes over from the masked man and before long he has a revoler aimed at a vital spot of the pickpocket, "Wrong move good sir." His spare hand pulls a small flash light like object and he's moving towards the pickpockets hand - which the pickpocket is lifting up to say, "I didn't take anything." "I know," replies the masked man, "I don't have anything to take, do I?" That hand being held up defensively to ward off the masked man's accusations meets with one end of the cylinder and the man winces briefly. As Night Raven pulls it away, the man seems branded somehow with a white and black emblem, mirroring the one on his shirt.
His hat is askew enough to realize the ivory mask is more like a helmet that covers the man's head, but between double bumps, his jacket is slipped enough that anyone behind him might notice his skin is covered in layers of scar tissue, almost zombie-like in its horrific appearance. He's unaware presently that his 'costume' is out of alignment as he focuses on the pickpocket.
Even though she was prepared Krista still slides across the hat at the jostling, and then the movement that follows. She clutches the top of the hat, where it makes the depression that marks it as a fedora, to keep from sliding off. Taking a breath at the near miss she carefully slides down to the brim and hangs her head over the side. A tiny feminine voice is heard in the masked guys ear "He took the wallet of the lady at the fruit stand too. Maybe he should return it." from her vantage the scars are obvious, but she is hardly one to comment on those, considering she has her fair share of them as well.
As if tiny voics in his ear were everyday, there is a favored nood towards the voice. Gun still to a vital point on the man, probably near his neck, Night Raven responds, "I think you need to return the wallet of the nice lady back at the fruit stand just the same." The pickpocket looks curiously shocked that the fedora man knows about that, as he just came from an alley. "Whatever you say, just stop pointing that at me." With a prod to the flesh, "What this," asks Night Raven, "Take out the wallet, show me you intend to give it back and this will return wince it came." The man goes to do as he was asked, side commenting something about the mark better come off his hand. Overhearing, Night Raven responds, "That mark of shame shall never leave your hand, it is for the world to know you are a petty criminal, that you have been stung by Night Raven."
Krista remains still for a few moments as the pickpocket moves away grumbling to return the wallet.
The lady is surprised when he taps her on the shoulder and hands her wallet back to her "I think you dropped this." She is thankful though understandably dubious about his explanation and moves away quickly after returning the wallet to her purse.
The shifting is noticeable this time and a tiny face with hanging auburn hair hanging to frame it appears over the brim of the hat. "I think the gun was a bit over the…" she then stops talking. Being on the masked man's hat is one thing but face to face, yeah it's a bit intimidating. She then points to his mussed up clothing.
If not for the mask, one might see Night Raven's face contort in mild surprise just the same. As if he had assumed the voice was indeed just in his head for the moment and when the tiny face appears haning down over the brim of his hat he is caught in that surprise just the same. "Oh, perhaps," he ponders and takes the pointing at his clothes as an indication to put the gun away. It goes into a pocket or slips up a sleeve or vanishes in thin air, one or all of they above. "I think he got the point. But you are a curious one, aren't you. Are you some sort of spirit guide then, the Raven sent you as a guide? With the Gianni family trail going cold, you will point me in the right direction?" These are asked covnersationally and, so long as she remains perched, he will walk down the street with the tiny woman there as if this was everyday.
Finding that she isn't going to be swept off the hat, Krista relaxes and brushes aside the hair dangling in front of her eyes. Nothing like crazy talk of spirit guides to eliviate the intimidation factor "Is that what you want? Some guide from the great beyond to help you find someone's long lost great grandfather?" she looks a little perplexed as to why anyone would want that "And who's Raven?
Turning his head up just slightly, its as if Night Raven were looking through his own hat to see the whole person up there. "What I want," he ponders himself, deadpanned voice. "What I want presently is a new lead on the Gianni family. Some red and blue fly-man showed up and blew my last lead, let the heat apprehend him." That's he's serious want at the present, as if there are no other long or short term life goals of any sort other than the one track. Then he looks back to the street level, straightening his hat (makeshift tiny woman carrier), and making sure they don't run into pedestrians either. "The Raven is my spirit totem, yes. That's about as much as I can say on that topic. If you're not sent from beyond, then who did send you?" There has to be some higher purpose to her perching on his hat, or at least he is making that presumption.
"Oh Raven as in the native american god of," she pauses "I can't recall of what." she just gives a shrug at the other question "Well if some higher power sent me I wasn't told about it." she won't deny him his beliefs, she doesn't know he could be right ""Apprehended? As he is in jail?" Krista questions, her brows arching upward, "Because I might be able to help you with that?" she pauses in throught "Breaking into jail isn't illegal? Is it?
"Highly," responds Night Raven to the last of the questions, "Penal code 22.152.a places breaking and entering into a prison as a federal offense. You interested in attempting this illegal activity?" He's just as serious, "Because I was thinking I would have to find this fly man to figure out where the police took my lead so that I could go in and find him. I mean, the Gianni family has connections with former soviet block Russian mobsters and heroine imports, they're the ones I'm after." That's everyday news apparently, he keeps walking, the head turns up. "Its death, god of death - but not god, merely a spirit assocaited with death and the passing from our world to the next. The Raven walks with the dead as the journey to the next world."
Krista makes a hmming noise and she moves out of sight for a moment as she sits up to give the situation some thought "Well there are only so many places he can be held." her face comes into view again, "If you can find out where he is being held I can /assist/ you in getting in and out undetected. But that's as far as I am willing to go. I'm not going to be doing the attempting myself." she nods then at his summation of Raven "A raven tried to eat me once. Boy did he get a suprise."
"Then perhaps you are a message for me, you have surprised even death and I find myself surprised the same." His demeanor doesn't quite indicate full on surprise, but Night Raven seems genuine in his words. "I'll gladly take the assistance, once I discover his wear abouts. Perhaps you can help with the blue and red suited man too. I think he works for the police, which would explain the red and blue. Full body suit, large fly eyes, some bug on his chest, black lines for style all over the suit. Stops villians with sticky rope trick, doesn't like anyone shooting the one's he is after either."
"You mean Spider-Man?" her eyebrow arches "That's the only person I can think of who would stop a bad guy, has a bug on his chest and shoots sticky stuff." Krista has lived in Manhattan for a year now, certainly long enough to have seen his pictures in the paper and seen footage on the news. "I'd try Riker's Island first, that's the biggest prison nearby. That's going to the trickier so hope he is in a local jail still. Where was he apprehended?
"Spider man," says Night Raven slowly, unfamiliar with the name, still walking causally through Chinatown. "Joe was apprehended near W 47th and 11th Ave. Part of the area formerly known as Hell's Kitchen. I guess part of the area still assocaited with that name, near the warehouses." Slight tilt of the head again as he looks up, "Would that land someone time on Riker's Island, I was under the impression that was, higher security, or does everyone tend to end up there?" It would seem for being up on crime families, he's out of the loop on the criminal system in NYC.
Gripping the hat brim to keep from sliding when he head tilts she just shrugs "I don't know. I guess that would depend on the crime, if he got bailed out." Krista points in the direction they are heading "Turn left two blocks and you will be in front of Manhattan central booking. My room mate was arrested a long time ago." she waves a hand "She's straight now, no law breaking for her anymore." she quickly says before he gets ideas "She told me that anyone arrested in Manhattan is processed through there. He probably won't be there now but maybe they have a record of where he was sent?"
"That is good information," he says, "I don't know if I can go in like this, maybe tonight." He shrugs, either is good for Night Raven, then, "If you're not really my guide, we may have to part paths here. Let me know how to get in touch with you, we'll figure out how to get me into that facilities when we have a clear path of what facilities those are." Suggesting if she leaves a number he can call her maybe.