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Post by Britt on May 3, 2010 5:14:52 GMT -5
The amazed look on his face could have been worth a million bags of that stuff. Ryden felt her excitement grow as he studied it and then finally looked back at her. Uh oh, her name...well what could she say? Technically her, now, middle name was her real name and her first name was her middle name. Farley was her last name, just the spelling have been changed....it couldn't hurt to just give a first name, right?
"Ryden." she stated, simply. "Just Ryden."
Then the two departed, Decker stashing away the bag. Looking up, she narrowed her eyes at his question. "I thought that would be obvious," she told him, shrugging. "I need money--real money...not the fake stuff I've been using...when you get in big with your cash, it's best to be using actual cash. Sure, you could say that I could turn a stack of bricks into a stack of gold bars, but I can't....as odd as that may be...I dunno, maybe I'm broken, or maybe I'm still learning, but so far, I can't change anything bigger than a loaf of bread." She paused. "Drug deals may be dangerous, but they're also very valuable. I want cash...and protection, in exchange for my services."
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Post by M-4-M on May 3, 2010 12:43:11 GMT -5
Julian headed back out of the alley. He did not have to work again until much later tonight which gave him an open day. He wanted to head straight home and stash away the large amount of cocaine he was now carrying. But he needed to finish up business here first and figure out more about the girl who had just introduced herself as Ryden. Julian replaced the cigarette box, now assuming she did not want any.
"Ok Ryden, I'm Julian but I think you know that already."
He wondered how long she had known about her ability and what exactly the limits were. She answered that as she spoke though which made him not need to ask. Ryden seemed worried her tricks might get her caught with money but he did not understand why. If she could make cocaine why couldn't she recreate a bill perfectly?
"I don't get it. you can make drugs out of gravel. So why can't you duplicate a fifty dollar bill perfectly?"
That just did not make sense to him. Why would she bother getting into this messy sort f business filled with death and drug lords...when she could just make money? If he had her power he would not be running around Detroit selling cocaine and getting mixed up with the wrong crowd. Julian was well aware that he was the wrong crowd and Ryden was the innocent one about to make a choice that could change her life forever. Even if she was lying to him, trying to create some elaborate scam.... if Julian ever found out he would find some way to kill her before he was locked up.
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Post by Britt on May 3, 2010 14:27:45 GMT -5
Ryden looked up at him, a twinkling showing in her hazel eyes. She nodded, following after him as he headed away from the alley once more. The look on his face led her to believe that he was pondering about her. It made her hesitant, but at the same time, she needed to keep up a front and looking nervous would not be a good thing here in the long run. Ryden needed to look and act like she was thick-skinned, like there was nothing that could ever drag her down. As he uttered his next question, her heart sank slightly, however that did not show through on her face. She smirked over at him, shaking her head.
"Of course I can do that." she told him, reaching into her bag and removing the rolled up strips of paper, all that remained of her "cash" from the past week. "How do you think I survive on the streets? But its not about that, it's not about the money really..." she sighed. "Besides, I'm far too afraid of screwing up serial numbers on the bills to try for the big stuff." The girl looked up at him. "I'm not interested in being rich nearly as much as I want adventure...a place...importance. This is just another stop on my trip. I'm not looking to make money, I'm looking to become somewhat of a value in many different industries."
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Post by M-4-M on May 3, 2010 22:23:45 GMT -5
Julian eyed her, still not entirely buying what she was saying. No one did this for the fun of it. He did not view himself as important either so how did this fit into her adventure? All Julian knew was that she was too useful to ignore. Finally he shrugged his shoulders as they made it back to the main street.
"Fine, you help me out. I'll see to it no one shoots you. But if you double cross me Ryden... you can be sure I won't be protecting you anymore. And I'll be the first in line to finish you off."
He replied with a hardened, unfeeling stare. Julian meant business just like he had with Vince. People trying to make a mockery of him pissed him off and they suffered the consequences. He arrived back at his motorcycle and hopped on, revving up the engine. He looked up at her, squinting as the sunlight hit his eyes.
"You coming?"
He asked, nodding to the tiny passenger seat on the motorcycle.
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Post by Britt on May 4, 2010 8:44:53 GMT -5
Ryden laughed at him, shaking her head. "Oh sugar," she said, threading her thumb underneath the strap of her bag, still smiling. "You can be sure there will be no doublecrossing..." she trailed off. "I'm not looking to get shot by anyone."
Then she fell silent, her eyes flickering away from him. Testy, just like her. It was odd how much the two had in common, except he did not hide it the fact that he did not trust easily. In a way, she wondered how people would feel if she tried to walk around like that, glaring at everyone and making sure that they knew that at the drop of a hat, she'd kill them. But she wouldn't kill them. She couldn't. Her hand tightened around the strap of her bag, the bag that contained items that could become weapons in seconds. Ryden was not capable of killing...at least, that's what she thought of herself, desperately hoping to pretend like everyone she had once hurt did not exist. There was a moment where her eyes stared off into the distance as the right one blinked, turning her whole face as she tried to keep the movement unnoticed. Then, at that moment, Ryden realized that he was talking to her. She glanced up quickly, nodding.
"Yeah, let's go," she said, smiling despite herself, regaining her composure.
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Post by M-4-M on May 4, 2010 16:39:25 GMT -5
Julian just nodded, looking to the road ahead. He would never shoot her, just burn her to a crisp. The only reason he carried a pistol in the waist band of his jeans was because people would find it strange if he did not. Then they might start asking questions. Guns were so out of date, he preferred to use his natural talents to influence people. She did not respond right away causing his eyes to flicker to her. She had one strange expression on her face right now. But she seemed to recover from whatever she was thinking and got onto the motorcycle.
Julian took off from the sidewalk quickly and sped down the busy streets. He weaved between cars expertly and earned a few middle fingers flying at the pair. People sitting in traffic hated it when a motorcycle whizzed by the hour of cluttered cars they had been forced to suffer. That was one reason to get a bike instead of a car in the city. But then lightning cracked overhead and rain started to pour down on them. Okay so maybe a car would not be so bad right now. Julian was drenched in minutes and was forced to slow down as the rain pelted his face like tiny bee stings. He really did not want to bring Ryden to his house...but it was the closest place to drop of the insane amount of cocaine he had on him. The drop off point he had been heading to was a good twenty minutes away and he could not suffer the weather that long.
Another loud crack of thunder boomed overhead as he pulled into his narrow driveway and into the garage. He parked the bike and turned to Ryden who was soaked to the bone. He could nto help but grin.
"I hope you like the rain..."
He managed to say while laughing. Already he was loosening up around her. Drug dealers could joke around too right? He got off the bike peeled off the leather jacket sticking to his arms. He tossed it onto a nearby workbench and realized the sleeve of his t-shirt was pushed up. It revealed a tattoo of a white dove on his upper arm. He quickly tugged down his sleeve to cover it. People had the habit of asking the meaning behind tattoos and that was one question he did not want to answer. Sure any of the other tattoos lining the inside of his left forearm were fine to ask about. But not the one his shirt usually covered.
"Follow me, seems like the weather isn't going to let up, so you can learn more about your new profession."
He said with a smirk still plastered to his features. Julian opened the side door of the garage to head to the house, his jacket in one hand.
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Post by Britt on May 4, 2010 19:02:23 GMT -5
The ride was not something that Ryden would ever say that she enjoyed. Within seconds the two were soaked to the bone, flecks of rain stinging as they touched Ryden's face, stabbing her skin. She flinched, keeping her head down as her wild brown and blonde hair flew all around her face, attacking her. She kept her breath steady, her eyes forced shut by then so that she could avoid getting the droplets of water into them. Finally, after what seemed like ages, she was relieved of the torrential downpour, as the motorcycle pulled into a garage. She pulled herself out of the seat and blinked the water away, wishing desperately that she could change her clothes into something dry...well...she could try. She had never transformed clothing before. She tried once, but the jeans she had been trying to transform were too big...
Ryden was far too busy attempting to dry off. She did not pay much attention to him as he busied himself, taking off his soaked jacket. Instead, her hazel eyes settled upon the bag that she had forgotten to close on the trip, revealing the brand new paper soaking wet. She cursed, rather vulgarly, and zipped it up, shaking her head as she glanced up. He was talking to her. She nodded, pressing on after him, assuming that they had ended up in his house. Now it was time to get on her guard. As she followed him, she reached into the outer pocket of her bag, making sure that the old water gun was safely placed there, ready to be transformed if need be.
"Yeah, I'm interested," she said absentmindedly, forcing the item into her waistband as she walked, transforming it fully behind her back into a revolver...and a round chambered.
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Post by M-4-M on May 4, 2010 22:07:15 GMT -5
He started laughing again when the girl broke out into a series of curses. She had a mouth like a sailor. Julian lead the way into his house, opening a back door that had a finished wooden staircase leading down into the basement. He clomped down the stairs into the kitchen area of the lower level. It was rather dark with brown and tan tiles, and dark wooden cabinets lining one wall. The other half of the basement had a large area rug, couch and television. But they were headed to door at the base of the stair case, which lead to the unfinished basement. Julian unlocked the door and let Ryden in, then shut it behind her. He sat down at the table and pulled the bag of cocaine from his jacket.
When he looked over to her he realized how tense she seemed. He had no idea what she had expected. A room full of his cronies covered in tattoos, carrying machine guns? Her confident facade had faded quickly and Julian could sense Ryden was out of her element. But for now she was one of his own so he wasn't going question her motives.
"So, here we have the cocaine you just... well, created? I guess that's what we'll call it. If you want my protection it means you work for me. So you can't just make cocaine, you need to be able to do everything."
He nodded for her to come closer, hinting at the empty chair next to him. He pulled a square piece of glass from the other side of the small table, and a razor blade. Julian poured some of the white powder onto the glass and started seperating it into small piles that would weigh about a gram.
"This cocaine is pure, which I don't sell pure drugs it gives less profit. You break a bag like this into one gram segments. Then put on the scale and throw some baking soda on there until its about 3 grams. People will buy that easily for.... about $300."
Julian slid the glass and drugs over to Ryden.
"There ya go, first job, helping me break this down."
He grabbed another razor and piece of glass and poured more of the powder onto his own slide.They had at least four hours before any of his buddies came around to collect bags to sell for the night. He figured that was a good thing, Ryden seemed a little shaky at the moment. Julian did not want a useful asset like her getting scared off.
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Post by Britt on May 5, 2010 10:33:29 GMT -5
Passing through the house, Ryden studied everything she walked by. Decker seemed to have loosened up a lot. He was walking casually, with a bounce in his step. His house was great, nice and comfortable. It was simple and laid back, a typical guy's house. Part of Ryden envied the house, but it was not like she wanted one of her own. If it was up to her, she would have a house in every state and stay there when she passed through. After they had gone down the stairs, they arrived at a locked door, which he opened for her and it led to a room she had been expecting to see...his workshop. This was better than she expected. It was just the two of them, alone. No chances of dying yet. She slipped her bag off of her shoulders, making note that she needed to wait for the damn paper to dry out so that it could be useful again. Looking up, Ryden readied herself for his explanation.
"Oh, I can do that," she nodded. "How hard can that be?" Ryden chuckled, feeling the gun's particularly cold temperature against the small of her back. She took the seat he indicated and waited for him to lay out the items on the table. Ryden had never been apart of a deal like this before...it was going to be interesting, for however long she ended up doing this for. He went on explaining the process, something that Ryden did not really care about, but she nodded anyway, making sure he thought she cared sincerely.
Taking the glass and cocaine that she had just created, Ryden set to work, breaking it down just as he had instructed, staring down at the powder on the table before her, almost disgusted that she was this close to the stuff. Glancing over at him, Ryden shook her head. "So I take it I'll be on the sales end of things too?"
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Post by M-4-M on May 5, 2010 20:41:38 GMT -5
Julian worked quickly, already creating a stack of tiny pouches on his end of the table. He noticed the gun Ryden had but said nothing. He did not expect her to trust him, he did not trust her.
"Yea, everybody does everything. Each person gets a couple streets to cover, usually not far from night clubs. The whole rave crowd seems to like our stuff so I have to make sure a few people are down there each night."
They worked in silence for a bit after that but Julian's curiosity got the best of him.
"So really, what makes your sense of adventure bring you here? Why not... sky dive or something?"
He knew his reason for being here, it all made sense. Julian had been the one buying the drugs in the past. Just minor stuff like marijuana He had dabbled in a few other things but never got hooked. But as a troubled teen he had seen dollar signs int he drug industry and quickly found his own niche within it, marketing cocaine.
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Post by Britt on May 6, 2010 8:42:35 GMT -5
Nodding, Ryden slid over another finished pouch, her tongue between her teeth in concentration. She stared down at her fingers working, her thoughts lost in the pattern they created. It was like she was a machine, her joints didn't shake, her face was looking ahead, not moving. It was amazing how something like this could end her shakiness for a small amount of time.
"So I guess I'll be out there tonight, then?" she asked, pursing her lips as she looked up from the work for a moment, her hands still working as if no distractions had interrupted them. "I look young...that's the only thing. She looked at her distorted reflection in the pane of glass in her possession for a moment, wishing that she could change the appearance of living things. Unfortunately, none of that worked for her and she doubted it ever would. She then glanced back up, realizing that he had spoken at the same time, breathing out, the girl allowed him to finish.
"Afraid of heights," she admitted. "But it's not only about my sense of adventure. Until I really grow up, no one will take me seriously. I want to be in with the right people, the ones that mean business...and I'm just a damn bored teenager."
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Post by M-4-M on May 7, 2010 22:08:13 GMT -5
Julian continued to work and was almost halfway through the bag now. The stack of bags on his side of the table easily doubled Ryden's. He felt her eyes on him and realized she had asked him a question.
"Yep, and because you look so young you can take the corner closest to the 18+ club. People your age will be more willing to approach you than one of my older guys."
This was going to work out great for business. A pretty young woman like Ryden marketing his drugs to young men wanting to hit on her. Then he could shift his other guys downtown further near the 21+ bars. Julian was quite interested to see if he would notice an increase in sales with Ryden advertising the product instead of some shady looking man. This partnership certainly would be interesting. He finished knotting another bag shut when she mentioned heights.
"I'm pretty damn sure I'm not the right crowd. But hey, I'm not gonna argue with someone who can make rocks turn into cocaine. So...when did that whole thing start? You know, the changing things?"
He wanted to know when it all started for her, the powers. His had developed late compared to the couple other metahumans he had met. They had both mentioned it happening around 15 or 16. Julian had not discovered his strange ability until he was about 21. But since then he had spent hours upon hours practicing and finding out every twist to his amazing power. By now he knew his limitations and strengths. He wondered if Ryden was still learning new things, maybe she could change more with her power than she thought.. that could be useful.
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Post by Britt on May 8, 2010 8:46:29 GMT -5
Ryden chuckled at his response to her, thinking back to what friends she had back home during the times when she was considered normal. They had always had those jokes about hookers and saying that one another "stood on the corner" to get the cash they had. It was an inside joke and not many people would really understand why they would say such things to each other. But it brought Ryden back for a moment before she drifted back to the present.
"Sounds good," she said, nodding. "And I'm allowed to carry a weapon right?" she questioned, "Because I really don't want to be on those streets alone with zero protection."
Shifting the conversation, Ryden watched as he pushed over another filled bag. It bumped gently into the pile and she pushed over another of hers into her own pile, listening to him ask her another question. Without looking up, Ryden thought about keeping that to herself, but then she thought, whats the point? She didn't have to trust him. "Twelve," she responded casually. "But I hid it for three years because of my parents."
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Post by M-4-M on May 9, 2010 20:15:20 GMT -5
"Of course you can carry a weapon. Only idiots run around unarmed. But don't worry I'll be supervising tonight."
Julian said, he had no plans of leaving her alone to run off with the money she made. It didn't seem like she wanted to take off but who knows. Ryden still needed to prove herself. He was shocked when she said she was only twelve when her powers emerged. Geez, what the hell had taken is so long? This left him to assume her power had reached its limit.
Hours later Julian had sent a few guys off to different streets to sell for the night. That left him and Ryden arriving near the flashy nightclubs where young people crowded to get in the doors. All of them were loud and dressed in next to nothing. Bouncer said who could go in and who had to head home. A few girls wearing too much were turned away while a ditzy looking redhead behind them was welcomed into the crowded building. Julian parked the motorcycle further down the street outside a small mini-mart. He trned to Ryden "You ready?"
OOC: wanted to flash forward a bit
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Post by Britt on May 10, 2010 14:48:04 GMT -5
Ryden felt embarrassed as he snapped at her, raising her eyebrows, she shrugged somewhat. "I didn't know if you trusted me yet." She murmured, turning away and looking down at her hands as they worked. He seemed like the type of person that should have been in charge, belittling others because he really was more experienced than others.
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The next few hours passed quickly. Ryden grew steadily more and more comfortable in the man's presence, finally opting to relax somewhat and put the gun back into her bag. Part of her wished that Julian would leave her alone for a while, but no such luck. Finally, his guys showed up and he went them off in different directions with the drugs. They had been amazed at his find and were kept in the dark as to how such a treasure had been acquired. After everyone had gone, Ryden and Julian set off for a part of town that the girl hated. It was the part of town that she didn't like to set foot in. She looked extremely young and her fake ID would probably not be very believable. If anyone were to look into it, she could probably get into some trouble. So the girl stayed out of it.
"Yeah." She replied, stretching her legs out as she felt the cold metal of the gun in her waistband. "I'm always ready."
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