View source for A chase in the market

{{Log
| date=09/03/2018
| summary=Charles wants to go after a kid who beat him with a tire iron.
| cast=
* [[Charles]]
* [[Alma]]
* [[Zach Penn|Zach]]
* a fly-by from Rayne
| place_name=[[Eastern Market]]
| log=It seems that someone stayed up late last night, judging by the yawning
and scratching of the jaw as Charles shuffles through the abandoned market
pace. He's poking at any promising piles of trash left behind in the Market's
wake, just incase something interesting has been left behind.

Alma studies areas like this, particularly after the people have gone.
You get some interesting behaviors. Crows are pretty clever at getting lids off
things, though admittedly a Goffin's Cockatoo wuold be even better. Crows
aren't bad at dumpster lids. Gnawers like squirrels help too. Today she's got
some binoculars but she doesn't have all her gear. Still has those twigs and a
few pandanus leaf bits though. For some reason she's got a couple of books in
hand. Maybe relating to someone she hasn't bumped in to yet who is poking
around in piles of trash.

For his part, Zach's just passing through. The Eastern Market's a large
obstacle and when it's closed it's not worth the trouble to route around it.
Much easier to cut right through. He's an easy guy to miss, but that's much
more true in a crowd than when he's standing out as a lone figure amongst trash
and whatnot. His hands are in his pockets. His gaze is on the ground in front
of him - aside from the occasional sweep of his gaze around to ensure that no
surprises are afoot. His conscious attention is elsewhere, perhaps on a
shopping list, or the opening lines to his introduction to whomever he's off to
meet, or whether or not vanilla really is as complex as people say.

Rayne was on a shopping adventure for odds and ends for her shop, she looks
around the market, her hat is securely on her head. She lets her eyes move
around from person to person as she meanders the market, pausing at a stall
here and there to see if anyone was doing buisness today.

Charles crouches down infront of a promising trash pile and starts to
dig through it. Finding a discarded fast-food container, he pulls it out and
sniffs suspiciously at the contents before tossing it aside. More digging fails
to reveal anything of interest, so the Gnawer straightens up and wipes his
hands on his pants. Looking around, he catches site of Alma and offers up a
wave in greeting, before heading in her direction.

Alma was scanning the area for Charles, and she smiles when she sees
him and starts heading in his direction too. "Hey!" She holds up two books. The
main market area is pretty empty, and she can't help but notice the dude she's
got a question for. "Hey Zach!" She calls out, as if operational security isn't
a thing. Well, it isn't for her right now in a marketplace like this. Maybe it
should be? Who knows. "Got a question for you!" She projects her voice. Where
is Note? Probably flirting with Kai.

Zach looks up when he's hailed and the renewed scrutiny begins to
supply names to go with faces. Perhaps he presumes the books are for him - or
that the initial hail was also for him. He tilts his head, but doesn't bother
answering Alma at this distance. Instead he begins to adjust his course to
close on the friend-to-crows without accelerating. He can respond to the hail
when he's at a more conversational distance. Come to think of it, Rayne is
familiar too - his gaze lingers there a moment and then he starts more
carefully examining all of the other faces in the sparsely populated area just
to be sure that... no, no one else familiar here.

Rayne looks over when Alma calls out to Zach and her eyes raise slightly,
though she tries to stay out of the grouping for the most part. The woman
moves, and purchases some herbs and oils that she could use at her own shop,
exchanging monies and short conversation with the local vender

Charles slows as he reaches Alma and casts a somewhat wary look in
Zach's direction, then clears his throat. "Hello Ms. Alma. How are you today?"
He does not appear to have noticed Rayne.

"I'm okay for the most part," Alma says. "I found these books. want to
see? This one is about Amelia Earhart and I thought of you because goggles."
She offers the book to Charles. "And this one is about languages of Central
America. Queche is in there. My grandparents, well--maternal grandparents spoke
some of it. I didn't get anyway. Anyway, I thought you might like it. I didn't
see anything about Somali though."

Rayne looks over the bag and she turns to leave, shopping done for now.. She
offers a smile to Alma and Charles as she catches them on her way out.

Charles' entrance into relevance in Zach's inventory of people goes
smoothly. He slows his approach just a touch to let he and Alma progress in
their conversation before he starts with the talking. Language is a topic he's
interested in, however, and while he doesn't contribute to the discussion he
also exhibits a certain level of interest, perhaps familiarity. Also,
familiarity with Alma. Charles gets the 'Hail, friend of a friend' nod for now.

Charles catches sight of Rayne as she leaves, a brief uncomfortable
look flitting over his features, before he returns his attention to Alma and
claims the books with a gracious nod. "Thankyou. I will enjoy reading these.
I'm afraid I'm not at all familiar with South American languages. The ones I do
know are European is origin, asside from Cantonese." Charles glances over at
Zach, hesitates for a moment, then extends a grubby hand in greeting. "Hi. My
name is Charles."

"Central American," Alma corrects. "Queche is spoken in Guatemala and
other places around there. But you should definitely--I mean Peru, knots as
writing!!" Alma stops and considers Charles bag for a moment, estimating how
heavy the books are and how much weight he'd want in a bag. While she's
thinking of this Charles greets Zach. Oh hey, Zach is close enough to hug. She
goes in for a side because she is still thinking with her hands. hand. "Zach!
Charles." She looks at Charles. "Charles! Zach." To Charles--He's the friend I
mentioned for if I go splat you give him this. these. maybe." She touches her
notebooks in her vest pockets. "He's one of the more--most? sensible people I
know around here." To Zach, "He's a judge. He's helping me understand things
about judges and choices." She looks at Charles warily, "Look," She tilts her
head at Zach. "He knows about stuff like this, so don't get grar at me for
saying that much--dammit I'm being arrogant again, aren't I? Fuck!"

Zach weathers Alma's somewhat haphazard greeting with experienced grace
(and with one arm tied up behind Alma's back, no less!). There's some...
curiosity, as Alma discusses Charles' vocation, but he's polite enough to keep
it off his face; just not good enough at hiding his thoughts that they remain
hidden. "Zach Penn," he says, shaking the offered hand as soon as he's done
returning Alma's hug. There's wariness in the way he introduces himself, like
maybe he's waiting for the introduction to turn sour any moment. It doesn't
slow him down any, at least not in demeanor.

Charles opens his mouth, closes it, and opens it again, as Alma's greeting
unfolds. His handshake as a result, is somewhat haphazard, but he does his best
to collect himself and manage the ritualistic greeting. After his hand is
returned, he gives his head a slight shake. "Are you quite alright, Ms.  Alma?"

"Yeah?" She puzzles at Charles. "For the most part? Ask him for
corroboration since self report is not always the best way of knowing these
things but I do think the behaviorists flipped their shit way too much about
that." Alma started out in psychology, see. She didn't specialize in behavioral
ecology until post grad. She hmmms, "Supposed to use more words" She says to
herself. "Right. and in order." She just gave herself a pep talk.<br />

"Got a question for you Zach." She look off at the sky while she
considers how to ask it without soundling like whatever Charles thought she
sounded like. "What written language conveys the most information in the
shortest amount of space? I want to write a tiny scroll letter. And Note can
fly it to someone if I need her too. Assuming she's still around. And No," She
gets defensive. "I am not being melodramatic, god it's like..." And then she
notices that Zach is his usually calm self, in fact, she appreciates that about
Charles too. "Uh, yeah. anyway. I'm reacting to Emma. Sorry. You are not Emma."

"Emma.... Durov?" Zach snorts derisively, "Yeahno. Nothing like." He
has to think about the question about languages though. "Oiii," he verbalizes.
"Chinese is pretty compact - most ideogram-based languages will be. But it'll
also depend on the content of the letter. Some languages have pretty nice
vocabulary options for expressing certain concepts... and then some others are
like German - where you just start gluing nouns together until you've roughly
described the thing you want to talk about." He shrugs. "Like with all things:
it depends, I guess?" He knows he's not being super helpful. "Don't know that
you're going to save a lot either way though, unless you're writing something
really huge. For most letters you'd be talking like a line or two here or
there, I'd bet."

Charles scratches at the front of his shirt as the two converse. "You do get a
lot of variation in languages and the words available to describe concepts and
ideas. I speak German, Philipino, Spanish, French, and Cantonese."

«Can you help me translate my letter to Chinese when I'm done?» She
asks Zach. She's kind of chipper for being able to switch to Spanish. «I only
know English and Spanish», She explains to Charles. «I envy you guys».
«I'll try to write my letter in a form that it easy to translate, succinctly.
I've read some translations of classical Chinese poetry where the book shows
the idiographs next to... Have you read» ''19 Ways of Looking at Wang Wei''--«Holy shit! That's a [https://www.instagram.com/p/BkdcC_sApHF/?taken-by=feral_detroit mockingbird]!». She squeees and grabs Zach's arm and
points with her other hand. ohshitohshitohshit. It's not a rare bird per se,
but she's never seen one in Detroit before.

It takes Charles a moment, then he slips into a faintly accented Spanish. «I
do believe that you may have had too much caffeine today, Ms.  Alma,»he says,
then his head snaps up, as he catches sight of movement at the very edge of the
market. «If you will excuse me,» he says, then moves away at a brisk pace,
intent on whatever managed to catch his attention.

<div class="ooc">
<<DICE>> Alma rolls perception + alertness, difficulty 8  to Charles<br />

<<DICE>> 2 successes (2 4 6 9 10, Specialty: No, Willpower: No)<br />

Charles pages: Okay. Charles spotted the guy who beaned him on Thursday and is grumpy.
</div>

Alma watches Charles head off. She recognizes that kid in the distance
and a certain look in Charles's eyes. Before Zach can answer her, perhaps, she
interupts him. He's probably used to being interrupted by Alma. She calls
after Charles but he ignores her, intent on his purpose. "Oh hey," She tells
Zach, "I need to tell him something." She runs after Charles.

<div class="ooc">
<<DICE>> Alma rolls dex + athletics, difficulty 6 <br />

<<DICE>> 1 success (2 2 3 4 10, Specialty: No, Willpower: No)<br />

<<DICE>> Charles rolls dex + athletics, difficulty 6 <br />

<<DICE>> 2 successes (7 10, Specialty: No, Willpower: No)<br />
</div>

«I could, yes,» Zach answers, after a bit of consideration. He
follows the conversation into Spanish - but his accent entirely transforms and
it's here that the fact of his English being unplacable is highlighted. His
Spanish is immaculate, natively fluent, but odd to the American ear because of
it's continental structure - Castillian Spanish. «I suspect he can as
well...» Zach says as Charles starts off at that pace. Zach squints, perhaps
wondering if he said something off, but doesn't pursue or interfere with Alma's
pursuit. He instead ambles along, letting whatever happens there happen.

Charles has a minor head start and that seems to be all he needs, as he
ducks out of the market area at speed and around an old building. By the time
Alma gets to the same area seconds later, he is no-where in sight and there are
a number of directions that he could have gone in.

<div class="ooc">
<<DICE>> Alma rolls perception + alertness, difficulty 6 <br />

<<DICE>> 5 successes (2 5 8 10 10, Specialty: Yes, Willpower: No)<br />
</div>

Alma stops where she last saw Charles. She can hear some echoing of
scuffles at first but those quickly fade out. Maybe too quickly, she thinks. So
she slows a little and scans the area. She steps over to where some grass is
moving and notices a fresh area of crushed grass from someone running. She
sighs and starts to follow. "Fuck!"

Zach is some distance back now, confused, curious, but not showing any
signs of urgency. He keeps tabs on Alma's progress, and generally strolls her
way unhurriedly. Slow and steady something something gets the worm.

<div class="ooc">
<<DICE>> Charles rolls perception + alertness, difficulty 6 <br />

<<DICE>> FAIL (1 1 3 6 6, Specialty: No, Willpower: No)<br />

<<DICE>> Alma rolls perception + alertness, difficulty 6 <br />

<<DICE>> 6 successes (2 7 8 10 10, Specialty: Yes, Willpower: No)
</div>

She's no longer running. The overgrown lot here has plants at waist
height, some taller. She's likely to miss a turn if she goes too fast. Some
chagrin shows in her face. She's out of practice at this stuff, and she's out of
place for light tracking. She's been away from cloud forests for a very long
time. She thinks she hears a pheasant take off. Something flushed it.

<div class="ooc">
"Over on the East Side, nestled in some of the vacant lots, these beautiful
birds go about their business clucking and, in some cases,
ducking" [https://www.detroitvideodaily.com/2012/05/islandview-village-pheasants-keep-life.html]
</div>

Zach's attention remains on Alma. This is perhaps the first time he's
seen her pursue something mobile like this - which of course makes it an
intriguing event. He glances to either side, keeping a sense of what's going on
and where she might be wandering into but honestly this area of town is pretty
desolate when the market isn't open. Hands go back into pockets.

Charles simply doesn't notice that he has been followed and assumes
that Alma has given up the chase. Still, how he is remaining hidden in
waist-high grass is anyone's guess. And then, there he is, popping into
existence like a jack-in-the-box at the far end of the lot, a few steps away
from re-entering the road.

<div class="ooc">
<<DICE>> Alma rolls dexterity + athletics, difficulty 6 <br />
<<DICE>> 4 successes (3 6 6 10 10, Specialty: No, Willpower: No)
</div>

Alma sees Charles and jerks in to action, "Charles!" She dashes off,
almost flying through the air.

<div class="ooc">
<<DICE>> Charles rolls rage, difficulty 5 <br />

<<DICE>> FAIL (1 3 7, Specialty: No, Willpower: No)
</div>

Charles turns to face Alma and there is a flicker of clear irritation
on his features, but that doesn't last long. "Ms. Alma, is there something that
I can help you with?"

Zach, still trailing a good ways behind, continues to slowly close now
that the chase is ended. He's still unhurried, but drawing nearer as time goes
on.

Whew. Alma pauses when Charles reaches her. She catches her breath
pretty quickly. She very calmy says, "Yes." she nods calmly. "I was hoping to
talk to you about restoritive justice. It's something I feel that you could
find useful in your role as a judge."

Charles's nostrils flare and he scowls at the Mage. "Ms. Alma, I'm
afraid that I'm busy at the moment. We can talk about it later. Unless it is
something critical, I really should get going."

"Charles, it's extremely important, but maybe I've jumped to
conclusions about you based on the situation here. Are you, in fact, going
after that kid who bashed your head in? If so, we need to talk now." Her lips
are pressed tight in a flat line.

<div class="ooc">
<<DICE>> Charles rolls rage, difficulty 5 <br />

<<DICE>> FAIL (1 1 9, Specialty: No, Willpower: No)
</div>

Charles grits his teeth and glowers at Alma. "Ms. Alma, you are not
above me in station and I am an adult. What I choose to do is my own concern."

Zach frowns as he sees the tension ratcheting up - even just a little
bit - and moves into something not quite conversational distance but close
enough to fake it if he pushes his voice. "Everything okay?" The question is,
in fact, intended for both parties.

Alma takes a slow breath. "Charles, Judge. You are not above me in
station, but I respect and listen to you. Everyone is my teacher. Please tell
me what you hope to accoplish with that kid? Bash his head in? That would not
be equivalent. He cannot recover from a head injury like that. Do you have the
power to heal him?"

<div class="ooc">
<<DICE>> Alma rolls manipulation + psych, difficulty 5 <br />

<<DICE>> 1 success (1 6 8, Specialty: No, Willpower: No)<br />

<<DICE>> Charles rolls rage, difficulty 5 <br />

<<DICE>> 1 success (4 4 10, Specialty: No, Willpower: No)
</div>

Now, now, the anger and the Rage starts to creep in to Charles' voice
and posture. He straightens up and just stares at Alma, jaw set in a hard line.
"You are not listening to me, Ms. Alma. What I choose to do in this is not your
concern. Someone who terrorizes the helpless for the sake of personal power is
not someone I want on /my/ streets and I will do what I have to, to keep him
from preying on others."

Close enough now to make out what's being said/discussed, Zach frowns
and steps in to a more conversational distance, positioning himself equidistant
from the two of them. He doesn't repeat his question. He doesn't add to the
conversation for now. But he does listen.

<div class="ooc">
<<DICE>> Alma rolls manipulation + psych, difficulty 5 <br />

<<DICE>> 3 successes (2 5 6, Specialty: No, Willpower: Yes)<br />

[POOL] Alma spends 1 points of Willpower. Reason: Automatic Success
</div>

Alma considers what the Metis has to say. "I agree, I would not want
someone terrorizing helpless. If you look at the work Second Stories does, you
can see work that reduces the amount of violence in a community better than a
punishment based model of justice. If your goals are an overall reduction in
the helpless living in a morass of violence, consider your methods. killing or
harming someone can bring out more violence from peers, onlookers... you risk
causing more harm to the helpless."<br />

"I agree I am not your boss. I thought we were friends--or friendly
aquaintances. I like hearing people share their choices with me. I get to take
those in to consideration when I make my own." She backs up a step or two. Her
posture turns relaxed. Then tension in her face slackens. She's neutral. She's
flat footed. She does not look prepared to run.

Charles heaves a heavy sigh and shakes his head. "Ms. Alma, I like you,
and some of what you say has merit. But, not everything is as simple as you
believe." With that, he turns and starts to walk away.

Alma gets the jitters and starts breathing. 10, 9...
<div class="ooc">
<<OOC>> Alma says, "in other words, Alma absolutely totally for real does not
follow Charles. She's calming herself"
</div>

Zach was, perhaps, about to say something. Instead, as Charles starts
to walk off, he bites down on it. He turns to Alma next, offering he a hand to
guide her in the other direction, now and again casting a wary eye after
Charles, but otherwise holding his peace.
}}