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Post by cuddlecookie on Jul 19, 2010 16:24:38 GMT -8
~RIFFRAFF... STREET RATS~ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - I STEAL ONLY WHAT I CAN'T AFFORD yeah, that's everything! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - A new city and time for a new meal.
Hope stood by a broken light pole in the market place of this new city she stumbled into. The people around here had called it Kaleva and marketplaces seemed to be a famous thing now a days. Hope should of figured this, after all Peony was the richest and the only city not destroyed by the war. It seemed that everyone else was forced to take a huge economic and technological step back. The city was infested with people from what seemed like all corners of the world. People were selling, others where buying, some yelling and others laughing at some type of enjoyment. Though even with how naive Hope was, she knew within every one of these souls everyone was struggling. The world had entered the phase of dog eat dog and it was soon time to have to fend for yourself.
Grrrrrrrrr!!!
Hope looked down and pressed her hand to her stomach, just as it vibrated and growled angerly. She frowned to herself and leaned against the light pole trying to recall the last time she was able to feed herself. By her memory she figured... 2 cities ago. This was awful-- why hadn't she and her sister take what money they could before their apartment in New York was bombed? It was hard enough not having her sister around. Hope was literally checking city after city for her older sister, Natasha. With THAT quest she was having as much luck with finding her as much as she was getting food for herself everyday. THAT was slim to none. She stuffed her hand in the pocket of her shorts and frowned-- she was out of money...
She was going to have to steal this time around... something completely aganist her morals-- but hey, she had to feed herself right?
Hope glanced around for a cart of food. There were some restaurant like carts selling noodles and such but Hope figured she could never get away with stealing a full meal. She decided she could manage with a loaf of bread and live off of that then try and make some money after she got something in her stomach. She sighed and untied the black ribbon choker around her neck, pulling her long dark brown hair up and tying it in a messy bun with the necklace. The spiral pointed charm glittered in the hot sunlight, making rainbows flicker in random spots around her. She pushed herself away from the pole she was standing by and glanced around-- spotting a bread cart near a dead end corner. Hope blew a hard sigh from her pale lips, making her bangs fly up awkwardly.
"Damn street rats!!" the merchant was yelling as he grabbed a little boy by the arm. The child was skinny, just about as skinny as Hope was but you could see the child's ribs poking out. The merchant took the bread from the child and threw him to the ground. "You come back when you got some money! Got it!?"
The little boy glared at the man and ran off towards Hope, crying heavily as he passed her. Hope turned to see which way the boy was going, seeing him run to another corner that was leading to a network of tunnels. The boy had stopped by an even smaller child-- a girl-- that looked worse than he was. They were orphans.. no doubt.
Hope glanced back to the bread cart-- a frown forming on her lips. The merchant man was big and seemed to have eyes like a hawk. Now that she saw two starving children her mind wasn't only set on getting food for herself but getting food for the children as well. How the hell was she going to manage that? This guy looked like he was ready to cut off the hand of the next person to steal from him. Hope brought her hand up and wiped the back of her hand across her forehead to rid herself of the sweat. She was going to need some help...
This wasn't going to be as easy as she thought...
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Post by kaleb on Jul 20, 2010 9:25:28 GMT -8
  How long has it been since Kaleb last ate? Was it a day? Okay so there are people in the world that have gone much much longer than that, but for Kaleb that was like an eternity. Seeing as he was a 6’7” muscular guy that walks practically everywhere, gets in a few fights, and has a large amount of metal in his body he goes through food like a malfunctioning garbage disposal that never stops putting food into god knows where. So since Kaleb was the never ending pit of food devouring after a day of walking from one city to another Kaleb was in desperate need of food and seeing as not many people liked feeding a giant of a guy for free that only left Kaleb to steal some food, which honestly he wasn’t very good at.
Since Kaleb isn’t the best at sneaking around since he basically attracts attention wherever he goes. Most of the attention was because of his looks. If he didn’t have such towering height, burn scars, and generally intimidating appearance he would actually be a good looking guy with his piercing blue eyes and thick dark hair. However most people can’t get past the fact that he looks like he would probably be able to beat the living crap out of just about anyone so they never see that he actually isn’t that bad of a guy. He doesn’t lie; he just speaks his mind even though he barely speaks at all. Kaleb is just a guy of little words, but when he does speak he gets the point across.
Seeing as Kaleb isn’t good at sneaking around and extremely hungry he decided that it would be best to head toward the seemingly busy marketplace in the town that he stumbled upon. Kaleb figured that if there were more people around then maybe the attention wouldn’t be drawn to him because of so many people around. However Kaleb was wrong. When he entered the marketplace people gave him looks that ranged from frightened to curious, all of the emotions behind the looks seemed to tell people that they should stay away from this guy even if it meant pressing against sweaty people in a busy marketplace. Well this just destroyed Kaleb’s chance of getting any kind of sneaky work done today, maybe there would be someone nice enough to give him at least some bread or something because honestly Kaleb could eat a water buffalo at the moment.
There was a vendor on the corner and Kaleb made his way over to there just in time to see a scrawny little boy get scolded and run back over to a scrawnier little girl. Even though Kaleb’s memories were gone and he didn’t have much experience with kids, he knew that this was wrong. Children shouldn’t be deprived of food, that was just wrong on so many levels. Now Kaleb was certain that this vendor wouldn’t hand over some bread to a guy that looks well fed because he just turned down a starving little boy. Somewhere deep in his gut there was a feeling other than hunger and it was determination. Those little kids needed the food more than Kaleb did and plans were already forming in his brain. This seemed to happen a lot though, plans and scenarios playing out in his head ready to make any move. Maybe it was something from his past or some weird glitch in his brain developed after the memory loss.
Scouting the area Kaleb saw another person that didn’t look too happy with the fact that the kids were practically starving. Not even thinking really Kaleb walked over to the girl with his hands shoved in his pockets and his head ducked down, trying to not attract attention. When he reached the girl Kaleb cleared his throat and hoped that he didn’t look like he was about to mug her or attack her, because for some reason he got mistaken for things like this. Hey Kaleb said in his deep calm voice. You wanna help me with something? Kaleb asked and nodded over to the pathetic looking kids.
*WORDS -- 694
*STATUS -- finished
*TAGGED -- hope
*OUTFIT -- this one :]
*NOTES -- grawr ;]
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Post by cuddlecookie on Jul 20, 2010 11:07:21 GMT -8
~RIFFRAFF... STREET RATS~ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - I STEAL ONLY WHAT I CAN'T AFFORD yeah, that's everything! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Hope scratched her head absently as she looked around for someone that might be of some sort of help. Everyone seemed less than willing to help her get food for two starving children... much less for herself. She knew they all had their own starvation to deal with but as it seemed.... at least they had money to pay for the food. This made Hope check her pockets again, literally pulling out the inner pocket like cartoon characters do when they realize they're broke. Hope sighed and pushed the inner pockets back into her shorts. How was she going to manage stealing some food? Her small size already worked to her advantage but she would need some sort of distraction... something that naturally caused a distraction...
That's when she noticed that a good majority of the marketplace was staring in her direction. Hope blinked her long lashes at him in a confused manner and shyly looked behind her. They weren't looking at her-- they were looking at this 6 food sky scraper walking around the marketplace behind her. Hope's eyes widened, their golden color sparkling.
He was perfect!
He was super tall-- something that was already grabbing everyone's attention. His hair was a dark brown, similar to hers, but seemed to be naturally straight. He had crystal blue eyes that seemed to pierce the soul and not that she was noticing but he was beautiful. He was perfect for causing distractions. The only thing that would make this even more perfect would be if the merchant was a woman. Though since the merchant wasn't a woman Hope would have to try and grab this boys attention...
That soon proved unnecessary since the boy was walking straight to her. Hope could just imagine what she must of looked like. Some random girl, looking like a street rat, wearing the same orange tank top and shorts she was wearing a few days in a row. Her legs still bandaged up from when she nearly fell off the side of a building. The memory brought her thoughts away from the boy walking towards her to Tarran... the adorable deaf cyborg that saved her life. Thinking about him brought a little blush to her face. Thankfully the heat already made her cheeks a little red so the blush wouldn't of been noticeable.
"You wanna help me with something?"
Hope looked up, being reeled back into reality by the sky scraper's voice. He needed help with something? Hope glanced in the direction he was nodding his head in. The two orphans were sitting huddled together, the little girl looking down and looking to be on the verge of tears while the boy tried to calm her down. Hope's eyes softened into a worried look and fell back on the tall boy.
"Interesant... avem aceeaşi idee?" she wondered in her fluent Romanian, "I have same idea as you." she told him, her English not exactly on point and the Romanian accent coating her words heavily. "You... tall. Can make distraction for merchant. Me? I little, perfect for stealing." she smiled to him and tilted her head to the side, her eyes reflecting a child with an evil plan.
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Post by kaleb on Jul 20, 2010 14:22:39 GMT -8
There was just something about these little kids that pulled on Kaleb’s heartstrings. It just seemed all too familiar, like he was used to seeing things like this on a daily basis. It was probably something with his past. The reason Kaleb thought this was because even though he has been travelling around for 2 years searching for his past he hasn’t really seen that many children to be honest. Yeah it sounds weird but the places that Kaleb has gone aren’t really places that little children like that should be. Sure there have been kids in some cities but they didn’t look so… desperate. They didn’t look like these poor starving kids and for whatever reason Kaleb had to help, he just had to.
Honestly Kaleb was glad that this girl had agreed to help him. It would be so much harder for him to try and steal some food because he was such an attention stealer. The girl seemed to have the same idea that Kaleb had. Since she was so small Kaleb figured if he could make a good enough distraction she would be able to grab plenty of food for the kids and hopefully some for themselves. That sounds exactly like my plan Kaleb said with a slight grin before he turned away from the girl and made his way over to the bread cart his ice blue eyes locked on the man that ran the little stand.
Once he reached the stand the man looked at Kaleb cautiously and Kaleb just glared at the man. The easiest way to distract somebody was to scare them that way they only concentrate on their safety and nothing else. So if Kaleb could get this man scared enough the girl could run over and grab food easy as pie. Now all Kaleb had to do was scare the living hell out of this jerk of a merchant that wouldn’t even let a starving little boy have a piece of bread. This was going to be easy, easier than Kaleb was comfortable with. He wasn’t uncomfortable because of the fact he was stealing, but because he was already thinking of multiple ways to scare the living hell out of this guy, all of which were rather frightening.
Can I help you? the man asked, looking at Kaleb like he wasn’t sure if he could pay or not. He had good reason to doubt because of the ragged look of his clothes, but Kaleb guessed the guy couldn’t risk shooing away someone that might have money to buy his bread.
I was wandering if I could have some bread Sir, Kaleb asked I his deep voice, glaring at the man at the same time.
Can you pay? the jerk of a guy said rather haughtily, something that didn’t sit well with Kaleb.
I was thinking that maybe I could get a discount Kaleb said nonchalantly, knowing that by now the guy was going to start trying to shoo him away.
I don’t hand out discounts. So if you can’t pay then I think you should leave
Naah I think I’ll stay here and hang out for a while Kaleb said as a smirk crossed his face making his eyes light up dangerously.
I suggest you leave now the man ordered firmly, like he could somehow be a threat to Kaleb.
Uhhhhhhhh. No. Kaleb said the smirk on his face growing, making him look like he was taunting the man, which he was.
I warned you the man said before pulling out a rifle and pointing it at Kaleb. Leave. the man demanded again, but nobody looked twice at the site of a gun being pulled out, only a few wary glances.
Wrong move Kaleb said grabbing the rifle with his right hand and bending the gun like it was made out of rubber and shoved the guy back. Quickly he strode around the booth before the man could even get up and leaned down grabbing his collar. It’s not smart to pull guns on innocent people Kaleb said calmly. Okay so this was over the top maybe, but at least he was giving the girl a perfect time to raid the stand while the guy was lying on the ground scared to death at Kaleb’s hands.
*WORDS -- 716
*STATUS -- finished
*TAGGED -- hope
*OUTFIT -- this one :]
*NOTES -- grawr ;]
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Post by cuddlecookie on Jul 20, 2010 15:12:42 GMT -8
~RIFFRAFF... STREET RATS~ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - I STEAL ONLY WHAT I CAN'T AFFORD yeah, that's everything! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The boy gave Hope a sly grin, agreeing with her plan. Excellent, they were on the same page. This made Hope smiled back to him. Their little alliance was reminding her of her sister in a way. For this short time she and the boy were sort of like partners in crime! Hope felt over joyed that she was going to be able to feed those poor children. She was still a little hesitant on the whole stealing matter but she was going to have to get over her peaceful nature. Stealing was going to become a good thing once she get's those children fed... at least that's how she looked at it. So in a way her peacefulness wouldn't be corrupted in any shape or form, the children would get to eat, SHE would get to eat... and all was good... yeah... it sounded perfect!
Hope watched as the boy turned away and started walking toward the bread stand. She decided to wait a little. If she followed the boy then the merchant would of noticed her just as much as he was noticing the sky scraper boy. Hope leaned against the broken light pole casually as to not draw attention to herself as she listened to the conversation the boy and the merchant were having. So far is was a decent conversation... sort of. Hope looked over her shoulder to see what was happening. All the could see was the back of the merchant's head. He was tall and fat but he wasn't nearly as tall as the boy-- maybe a head shorter. The boy was glaring at the merchant and this made Hope giggle to herself. The guy was a good actor, she had to give him that. He was totally blowing the situation out of proportion and that was exactly what they needed.
Once the merchant's attention was fully on the sky scraper boy making a scene, Hope decided to move in. She moved away from the pole she was leaning against she started walking silently towards the Merchant's stand. Her eyes made contact with the boy, narrowing slightly as if to warn him not to take note of her at the moment. Doing that would give them away and they could get in trouble for sure.
She moved toward the man and ducked down, sneaking in behind his stand and waiting. The conversation between the boy and the merchant carried on, telling Hope that she had gone unnoticed. She smiled to herself and let out a sigh of relief, pushing her tiny body onto her knees and looking around. She caught the eye of another merchant and her eyes widened, their golden color flashing to her surprise. She instantly moved her finger to her mouth, telling him not to speak a word. The man made a face like he wasn't going to listen to her. She clasped her hands together and started silently begging him which made the man smile, shrugging his shoulders and turning away as if he never even noticed her. Hope sighed and smiled to herself-- glad to see there were still good people in the world today.
Hope looked up and payed closer attention to the conversation going on. The boy was saying he wasn't going anywhere. Hope shrugged to herself and started grabbing the longest loafs of bread from the top rack-- knowing full well the merchant would but the older bread in the front to get rid of them first. She grabbed one for the little girl and another for the boy. Looking at how long the loafs where, she figured this would be hard to carry out of here unnoticed. Hope frowned and looked around the area behind the stand where she was. There was an old brown leather messenger bag under the stall, Hope figured it belonged to the Merchant. She smirked and decided to steal that as well, grabbing it and quickly going through it's contents. She found a wad of money, mostly dollars and a couple of 50s but Hope figured she could manage... any money was good nowadays. There was also a bottle of wine in the bag-- old wine. Hope shrugged and kept it in the bag and started loading it with the large loafs of bread, grabbing two more for herself and for the boy who was helping her steal at the moment. Once she was sure the items wouldn't fall out of the bag, she pulled the strap over her head and onto her shoulder, standing up into a crouch so the merchant wouldn't see her.
Just as she started moving she heard a click click! of a gun, causing Hope to trip and hit the stand hard. It fell over and the Merchant looked down at Hope suprised.
"Street Rats!! The both of you!!" The merchant yelled, walking around the fallen cart to get to Hope, who was laying in the dirt. She quickly got up and jumped onto the cart, jumping off and quickly grabbing the boy's hand.
"Run!" Hope gasped breathlessly and started running herself, tugging the boy away from the scene as the merchant started to chase after them. She pulled the boy through the network of tunnels she noticed earlier and pulled him around a corner, pressing him to the wall with her hand and pressing herself close to him. The merchant passed them, completely unaware of their position. He cursed in anger and ran away back to his cart out of frustration. Hope sighed and giggled, looking up to the boy with a huge smile on her face, "We did it, yes!?" she was nodding her head, looking overjoyed.
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Post by kaleb on Jul 23, 2010 15:40:54 GMT -8
Honestly Kaleb stole food like this all the time, not always as a team like right now. It didn’t really faze him to steal food like this off of people like that creep of a merchant. How could anyone let little kids like that starve? Surely that man could have spared a few slices of bread for some starving kids. Even though Kaleb looked like a cold hard statue most of the time he did have a soft spot for certain things, starving children just happened to be one of them. Maybe in his past life he had the same soft spot or maybe it was some kind of new found kindness, but either way Kaleb had to act on that need to help those sad little faces.
Since Kaleb was used to stealing food this kind of adrenaline pumping situation wasn’t much of a rush for him anymore. He could keep a calm face like he did every single day during a heist that he had just pulled. Hell Kaleb could probably keep a straight face during a massacre of some sort. It might not be a great skill to have, the skill of being practically heartless and emotionless in some seriously emotional and frightening situations. It’s most likely that in his life before Kaleb was as stony as he is now because even when he woke up in the hospital he could keep a calm face and keep his emotions in check as easy as it was to breath. Something like that couldn’t have been something that someone with no memories could just pick up, it would have to be engrained in their very being to be like this, it wasn’t something that could be learned in seconds.
Even as the girl grabbed his hand and started to drag him away from the stand where she had apparently gathered enough food for the kids and hopefully the two of them Kaleb’s face was unreadable. He kept a steady pace as the girl lead him away from the stand. It was quite easy to keep up with her seeing as both of his legs weren’t even human but machines covered in fake skin. Honestly Kaleb didn’t really care where she was leading him or if it was some kind of trap because he knew that he would be able to overtake such a tiny, seemingly harmless girl. Of course Kaleb knew better than to judge people based on their appearance, more than once he has run into some people that looked harmless and turned out to be the exact opposite.
When the girl finally stopped and pushed him against the wall his face was still as unreadable as ever. The calm front that he usually had was a good defense mechanism; even though it was unnerving to most people it was good for him in his opinion. It was better that people not know what he was thinking so they can’t manipulate his lack of experience, well knowing his experiences. So when the girl looked extremely pleased with the fact that they just got away with stealing food for themselves and the children all Kaleb did was nod his head and say Yeah, we did. Sure other people would probably be having the same reaction as this girl was, happy and proud but Kaleb kept it all locked up at risk that someone could later use that emotion against him.
So are we going to feed those kids or what? Kaleb asked, ignoring his own growling stomach.
*WORDS -- 588
*STATUS -- finished
*TAGGED -- hope
*OUTFIT -- this one :]
*NOTES -- grawr ;]
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Post by cuddlecookie on Jul 24, 2010 12:24:14 GMT -8
~RIFFRAFF... STREET RATS~ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - I STEAL ONLY WHAT I CAN'T AFFORD yeah, that's everything! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Hope's eyes focused on the boy in a confused manner. Her smile faded slightly and now she looked to be more shy then earlier. She was wondering why the boy wasn't happy to have gotten food for those children. Maybe he was one of the many that was used to stealing now a days? Then again he did seem rather confident in distracting the merchant man during their plan. Hope tilted her head to the side and decided it was best to just be herself and not judge him. Not that she ever would judge him. People were people, her mama taught her that and she planned on being just as gentle and loving as her mother was-- no matter what.
She nodded to him and made a show of the messenger bag filled with bread and wine... and money but she figured for her own good at the moment that it would probably be better not to tell him until she was sure she could trust him enough. Even in times like this where poverty was normal at every corner of the world, she wasn't going to mind sparing the boy a couple of dollars. "Yes, we should go..." her gentle smile returned, making the jade in her eyes sparkle with an innocence. It was obvious that the girl CLEARLY belonged in some sort of relief organization like.... The Red Cross.
Hope walked out of their hiding place in the alley way and started in the direction she remembered seeing the children hiding in under the stone paved bridge. The silence between herself and her companion for the moment was killing her though. So she decided to strike up some sort of conversation. "So, what is your name, străin?" she asked him, her first language-- being Romanian-- finding it's way to leaking into her sentence when she didn't know the English word for stranger.
"My name is Hope. Hope Belski." she looked at him and smiled with a child-like shyness. Sometimes she hated her name but most of the time she loved it. Her named proved to be symbolic of who she was as a person. All the bad times at home seemed to fall on Hope's protection. Her sister protected her and so did her mother. In a way Hope was the hope of the family-- hope for a better life. This only made sense at the time since Hope was so young but even now she still acted the same. She went around giving people some sort of salvation when she stumbled upon a person that needed it. She wasn't the type for being greedy and making people fend for themselves.
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