AMuseMeAMoment's RP Blog

A starter for any muse @amusemeamoment feels like playing

The scientist was resting on a bench in the middle of the now lonely park. It wasn’t one of those in the centre of a town- no. A small forest path lead to it only, during the day only kids and parents from the close neighborhood visiting this calm trimmed spot in the thick forests surrounding the local town.

Now it was nighttime however- the mercenary fully aware of the possible dangers Night could bring. However, she simply didn’t mind them- moreso, if anyone dared to come near, the woman was equipped with the proper gear to fend anyone- or anything off.

He happened upon the clearing where the scientist was resting on a bench. He figured she must also be homeless because why else would she be in the middle of a park resting on a bench at night. He approached her, not giving a crap if he was disturbing her.

Russell looks back at Francis as though wondering what he’s going to say or do once they’re out.

He then follows. He’s unsure if Francis wants him to but it seems like the most logical thing to do.

“Ehehe… no… I’m uh, I’m more used to nearly being killed by uh, by uh, by other humans,” Russell admits. He hopes that sounds somewhat funny despite how morbid that actually is, before he looks curiously at the stone.

He smiles back.

“Oh, I uh, I see…” that could definitely be useful in avoiding an event like this one again, “Thank you…“

“Oh, no, I uh, I won’t throw it away. That is useful. Thank you,” he adds then, before he nods, “Oh, it’s Russell. Russell Tolbert. I’m just a café guy usually. I don’t usually go stabbing zombies, or whatever that guy was, in the face.”

“Wow… I have so many questions now.”

    Francis stares intensely at Russell with an excited look.

    “Haha, sorry, when I hear something that sounds like a story- it’d be uncool to ask, right now.”

    He clears his throat and tries to step it down a notch.

    “Anyway, it’s nothing. The rock, I mean. If you have any questions about what you just went through, feel free to ask me. I’ll start off by telling you, the zombie guy was a man possessed by a demon. If you looked at him through that adderstone, you would see the demon instead of the guy. Neat, huh?”

    He grins, then seems to feel uncomfortable.

    “Well, it would be if it didn’t mean there’s a dead guy in front of you.”

Jess senses Kyana’s discomfort in asking the question, so he quickly reassures him, “No, it’s alright. We get those questions asked all the time.” Like, all the time. Everyday. “There’s not really a drug problem. There’s a high unemployment and homelessness rate, though. That’s why a lot of kids band together in groups, like us.”

“We’re not homeless, though,” Akilah clarifies. “But we do help some kids once in a while.”

As for Kyana’s other question, Rudy is the one to answer it. “Hell yeah he did, and he was an asshole!”

“Whoa, Rudy.”

“Hey, I’m using the right words here. He was a big douchebag! Hated every part of him.” She pauses, looking back up at the screen. “But not to the point that I want him dead. Just changed a bit, y’know?”

“A lot of disappearances and deaths have been happening here lately,” Brody says. “That doesn’t sound really appealing, but as long as you stay in town, you’ll be alright.”

Kyana is surprised to be hearing this. He is surprised that his father didn’t know, or if he did, that he didn’t tell Kyana about it. It seems like it would be kind of important to tell somebody that sort of thing. He decides to ask him about it tonight. He blows out a breath before saying,

“That seems like another good reason to stick to groups, I guess…”

He rubs the back of his head, still stuck on the fact that he heard this just now.

“So, in town is safe… Is there a place where this stuff happens the most?”

Out of town is so vague.

“Stop laughing, Kid. It’s not that funny.”

Yari kicks the back of Kyana’s seat, but the snickering wheeze coming from the front only continues.

“Damn… well I’m f-ed until my friends think to start looking for me… You seem to know a lot about this plane. Since I’m stuck waiting, do you mind telling me more about it?”

“Huh? Oh, it’s nothing. Some kid just asked me how to get below the floor. I suggested ‘the sewer’ after she said she couldn’t find any stairs and she just ran off, totally taking me seriously. Gosh, I hope she doesn’t hurt herself or anything. I don’t think I’d be able to sleep well if that happened.”

The person seems to be talking to themselves more than to the man in blue. From outside, muffled yelling can be heard. It sounds vaguely like the father from earlier.

lightheartedlich:

The man’s head snaps around to face the source of the yelling, perhaps a bit too quickly by human standards. Realizing it’s most likely just the father having found his child and berating her for doing something risky, he decided not to interfere with someone else’s parenting.

He glanced at the person in front of him. “I think she’ll be fine. Children always have a way of bouncing back. Thanks for your time!”

The sewer was one way to get underground, but he doubted it was the only one. If this place really was a mausoleum, there was bound to be some way of reaching the actual grave from within its walls. He recalled seeing a gate that might very well be what Olivia had been looking for.

One problem, though. It was in an employees-only section of the bank.

"You're welcome."

The metal gate sits behind the counter where three tellers are seated. They are all occupied with the early morning crowd. The woman that the father had been speaking to is now glowering down at a stack of crumpled papers as a nervous looking man tries to smooth them out as fast as he can. To get behind the counter there is a wooden rail off to the left side with a gate that sits at about upper thigh level on a person of average height. There are security cameras facing outwards from behind the tellers.

The building spreads out into a left and right wing area. In fact, the structure looks a lot like a church. Fortunately, this town is too small to have security guards stationed at the bank. No one at the bank seems to find the man in blue suspicious aside from the person he just talked to who seems to be mumbling something about whiplash and is rubbing their own neck.

They go to the sub shop, which is named The SubMarine. It’s a pun, because the owner of the shop is a former marine and he makes subs. Could things in Em Auri get any weirder? Probably.

The kids share subs and thank Kyana again for getting them the food. Jess offers to get some money to pay him back, even when Brody tells him that there is no need to. “But it’s a kind thing to do,” Jess replies. “Really, I don’t mind!”

“I don’t think Kyana’s going to accept,” Akilah admits as she bites into the sub she’s sharing with Rudy.

“Aw. Okay.”

As the kids eat, a TV is hung up on the wall and is playing a news broadcast. It seems innocent so far, with reporters giggling and laughing about an animal shelter that had a public ‘dog circus’ with dogs doing little tricks through hula hoops and jumping all around. It is fun to watch.

Then a red strip comes across the screen, the words in bold, BREAKING NEWS.

“Seventeen year-old boy Bradley Johnson has just been found dead in his bedroom by his mother,” the reporter announces, showing a picture of a boy with messy hair and a beanie on the screen. “It appears to be an attempted suicide as told by our investigators, who found remains of an unidentified drug scattered around Bradley’s body.”

Rudy’s eyes widen as she looks at the screen. “Hey,” she says, “That’s Butch.”

“Butch?” Brody repeats.

“Yeah, Butch!” She glances at Kyana. “One of the kids who bullies us. Or– bullied us.”

“But he hasn’t ever gotten into drugs,” Akilah says. “And he always seems just fine.”

Kyana is surprised to learn that the kids know this Bradley Johnson guy. He might have been in Kyana's grade at the new school. The boy dies right as Kyana is transferring in? That doesn't bode well.

"Unidentified drugs" seems to stick out to him. Not because drugs were unusual for the dead boy as the ukulele girl pointed out, but because they were unidentified. It strikes him as odd and he can't quite figure out why.

"Is there a drug problem in this town?... Uhh… I mean probably not… It's a small town."

Kyana rubs the back of his head thinking maybe it wasn't the best idea to ask a bunch of kids that kind of question. He tries to backpedal a little.

“Uh nevermind… did that guy go to the local high school?”

Russell can’t help but start inspecting himself as well on noticing how Kyana looked under the lighting.

Geez, he looks a bit more messed up than he had previously realised. He most likely had been caught up too much to realise before.

He would need to clean himself up as well.

Russell eyes his hand for a moment before he takes it and shakes it. It would be impolite not to.

“Oh, yeah, sure, we can uh, ehehe, we can head out if you need to,” Russell briefly ponders if that’s the best idea. Well, if anything suspicious happens, his fellow members will quickly see out of the windows. He goes to open the door so that he can go first.

Outside the cafe, Francis turns to Russell, but seems to hesitate before ploughing ahead.

"I'm not saying you should try to be a weird secret demon hunting vigilante or anything-- You don't really seem the type anyway-- but this is a useful tool."

He holds out a flat bean-shaped stone with a tiny hole the size of a pencil eraser. It is roughly the size of Francis' palm. He smiles sheepishly at Russell.

"You'll probably want to forget this whole thing, but if you see someone acting weird, you can check them and even warn people to stay away from them."

He seems to hesitate.

“Stop laughing, Kid. It’s not that funny.”

Yari kicks the back of Kyana’s seat, but the snickering wheeze coming from the front only continues.

What was so funny about his plane?

She was a masterpiece.

“..I think she’s done her time.. she deserves to rest.” The man bit down on his lip, glancing at the plane once more. Admittedly he would give anything to climb back into her cockpit, to fly her at least one more time. He’d give anything to just fly again.

He tilts his head in confusion upon hearing the question.

    He puts an earbud in and unfastens a walkie talkie from his pants. He turns away and walks a small distance from the stranger and speaks into the device.

    “Hey guys, I’m a little lost. I’m at the Air and Space museum.”

    He realizes he forgot to push in a button. He presses the button with the music notes on it and a loud doodaleedle doodaleedle blares through the earbud into his ear. He cringes and tries to turn the volume down, but changes the radio channel instead. Low-pitched deep voices begin to rumble his eardrum and he rips the earbud out. He turns to the stranger.

    “Hey. You. Do you know how to work one of these things? An annoying guy told me, but he talked too frikkin’ fast.”

Russell gazes around. It seems that he noticed the guy talking before actually seeing him.

He’s quiet and hangs back, relieved to see his fellow staff member notice them and point Kyana out to their new guest. He rubs at the back of his neck. He remains quiet while they exchange their greetings.

His eyes widen and he looks down towards Kyana’s leg. How had he not noticed that that before?

“I mean, it might be a good idea,” he only says quietly, “To like, clean up…”

He rubs at the back of his neck before looking at Francis. Maybe he should have been speaking just a little bit quieter.

“Well, uh, I’m not sure ‘helped’ is uh, ehehe, is uh, the right word,” he says, “I guess, I more like, ehe, witnessed it?”

He fidgets.

“Sorry, I’m kinda, kinda, shaken…”

The scrape on Kyana’s knee is barely noticeable, but in the cafe lighting, it is clear to see that Kyana and Russell are both grubby as heck from the events that transpired in the alley. Francis claps Kyana on the arm and says,

“At least wash your hands, dude.”

Kyana rolls his eyes and goes to find the bathroom. Francis turns and holds out his hand to shake Russell’s.

“I’ve been there. Haha, yeah. It’s rough. I’m Francis, by the way. Do you mind?”

“Sure!” Jess replies. “We know a place down the street. We make jokes about the name all the time. It’s called, Hairy Fruit Factory. We don’t know why it’s called that, but there are a lot of hairy fruits in there.”

“I found hair on the floor of the bathroom once,” Rudy chimes in, in which the kids give her a look for. “It wasn’t nice.

“Anyway, yeah. Thanks for payin’! You don’t gotta, though. We’ve got our own money. We can go to this nice deli downtown. There’s a really good sub-shop there and it’s got some hella good stuff. You can eat just about any sandwich combination you can think of!”

“Like a ham and cheese sandwich!” Jess exclaims.

“Yes!” Rudy replies.

“My fist smothered by mozzarella and then deep fried!” Brody exclaims as well.

“No!” Rudy says.

Is Kyana enjoying the company of these kids? No? Yes? Both answers are valid for their own reasons. Whenever their odd, humorous shenanigans will stop, he’s probably going to be stuck with them for some time. They seem to know the town a lot, after all.

“Well, we should be going,” Akilah sighs. “I’m getting hungry. We’ll lead the way, Kyana. And I think you should tell your dad, too.”

For some reason, Kyana doesn’t say much about going to the sub-shop, just that it is no problem. As they finish stacking the last box in the ‘box room’ (about an hour later), Kyana nods in agreement.

    “Okay, I’ll be right back…”

    He runs upstairs, thinking he remembers hearing the heavy clop of his father’s shoes go up not too long ago. There’s a reluctance in his step as he thinks about how much he doesn’t want to eat more take out food. Not even from a well-spoken-for sub-shop. He figures he ought to let these goofy kids get what they want for lunch, since it is his treat, but he was hoping to make lunch for them himself. He’s a little disappointed.

    He spies his dad sitting in a swivel chair at a desk they had managed to haul up the stairs and into a bedroom. He is pouring through some papers with an open box at his feet. Kyana knocks on the door frame, but his dad doesn’t turn around.

    “Yes?”

    “Dad? Are you working?”

    “Yeah. I wanted to go through a few things… Did you need something?”

    A few things. Yeah right.

    “Oh. Yeah, I’m treating the neighborhood kids to lunch. There’s some sandwich shop they want to go to. You wanna come?”

    “I see… No, you go ahead… I still have a lot to look over.”

    “It’s lunch time, Dad. You should eat something.”

    Mr. Mosi finally turns around. He looks a little tired. Kyana frowns. He can’t believe his dad has started working again already.

    “You can bring something back for me.”

    “Okay, what do you want?”

    “What do they have?”

    “Pretty much anything what do you want?”

    The dad gives an annoyed sigh. He straightens the papers in his hands, turns back around and says,

    “A meatball sandwich, then.”

    “Got it.”

    With that, Kyana grabs his wallet from his own room and tromps back down the stairs. On the way down, he nearly trips on his own feet.

    “Watch it.”

    He grinds out between his teeth to the 6th step of the staircase. He returns to the ‘box room’.

    “Okay, um… my dad’s busy, so… Let’s go, I guess.”

“Stop laughing, Kid. It’s not that funny.”

Yari kicks the back of Kyana’s seat, but the snickering wheeze coming from the front only continues.

The person was slim, with a black hoodie that covered most of his head, with his hands stuffed in the front pocket. However after a few short seconds the person seemed to soften, slumping in the shoulders before turning his attention back to the aircraft to stare at it wistfully once more.

“..she’s quite beautiful, isn’t she?” The stranger finally asked after an awkward silence between the two. He had a very obvious english accent, though he was quiet and soft spoken.

“She’s only one of a couple that are still around today… only one hundred were built.” The word ‘miracle’ could be heard from under his breath in a mutter.

    “Eheheh, Neat. Heh. Not big on bombs, but-”

    He takes a moment to calm himself before he half turns to the guy and gestures to the plane.

    “It would be better if it was flying. Don’t you think?”

    At this moment, he faces the hooded person. He pauses a moment before changing the subject.

    “Ah man, I forgot which museum this was. Do you know?”

Russell nods and he turns so he can start heading back to the café. He still can’t believe he had done that. He keeps an even pace so that Kyana can keep up with him.

He tucks his hands into pockets. He tries not to think about what had just happened. It’s probably just as well that he’s already vomited; there’s nothing left in his stomach to throw out.

He keeps looking back to make sure that Kyana is still following. He thinks about asking more, but decides not to.

He makes it back to the café and opens the door, offering for Kyana to go through first.

“I uh, ehe, I hope your friend is here.”

“Um…”

Kyana glances into the café. He seems uncomfortable with going back inside.

“Oh… Yeah… He’s right there.”

He points at a red headed boy who is talking loudly to the person manning the front counter. It is easy to hear him saying things such as “green hair” and “tall boy.” The person spots Kyana and points. The boy, Francis, turns and sees him too. He thanks the person at the counter, then walks up to Kyana shaking his head, saying,

“It’s always more with you.”

Kyana shrugs. Francis looks him up and down.

“Dude, your knee is bleeding. Go wash that thing!”

Francis starts to pull Kyana towards where he assumes the bathroom is, but Kyana pushes him away, a little pink in the face.

“Lay off, I said I’m fine.”

Francis seems to notice Russell.