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Saturday night. Nico has left her apartment because her roommate has friends visiting. Or perhaps family. The woman speaks nearly no English, and Nico speaks no Chinese whatsoever — aside from 'nihao' and 'xiexie' and a few other niceties that keep things polite in their home. It's a cool evening in March, and Nico has a peacoat wrapped tight about her for warmth as she walks along the streets of Chinatown, mostly peering into windows and occasionally stopping in doorways to inspect the menus of restaurants, see if there's anything she can afford. But mostly she's wandering aimlessly, a teenaged girl out on her own in New York City. Because that's not a recipe for disaster.
*
For Tommy, out and about is a normal thing on any day of the week, and doubly so ever since the mischief with Mojo has started up. Doing recon to make sure there's nothing crazy going on in the city, checking on the teammates to make sure that none of the /others/ have gotten kidnapped recently. This time around? It meant a visit to Chinatown to check on Ava, who was indeed found at work— and then? A free evening laid ahead.
Well. Almost free. A speedster's stomach is never empty, and after the run over he's definitely hearing it complain. So, what's the most effective way of finding good food? Ask a local. It works all around the world, if they speak a language you to — so when he spots the be-coated young woman wandering alone, well. The platinum-haired teen bundled up in a zipped-up leather jacket and with jeans over his legs starts heading in her direction. Sure, he could get there instantly…. but he's trying /not/ to show off the powers. Not yet. Not unless he needs to. While he normally loves the attention? Drawing the unwanted sort was the last thing he wanted right now.
Besides. He was hungry.
*
There are no jeans protecting Nico's legs — they are bare from the knees down. This might explain the way she wraps the peacoat about herself. She's got to be cold like that. She's aware enough, though, that she hears footsteps and turns to see the young man approaching her. She pauses, then, letting him catch up, for all that she might appear a little wary.
*
"Hey, hey!" Tommy starts, waving a hand once he gets in earshot. "You live around here, by any chance?" …yes, he's making the assumption that she speaks English. A throwback to the time he comes from, where the vast majority of immigrants do; it might be a heavily accented version, but with all the time he's spent in New York over the years? He can interpret the various dialects of accented English pretty decently.
*
"I do," Nico replies. Her English is nearly unaccented — there's a touch of something, possibly simply a regional accent from elsewhere in the US. Certainly it's not the accent one usually associates with Chinatown. "Can I help you?" Her skin is pale, as though powdered, and her eyes circled with heavy eyeliner.
*
Nope, definitely something out of place here. It's an accent he's heard before — that comes from running all around the country just because he /can/ — but not one he's immediately able to place. "Yeah, actually — and maybe yourself at the same time. I'm starvin', and I'm hoping to find a new-and-awesome place to get a bite; you know any that're still open?"
*
New and awesome? Everything's new to Nico — she hasn't been here so long. "I only came to New York recently, but my roommate… she's Chinese, and knows the city far better than I do. Not that I understand a word she says," she adds, half mumbling the statement, a hint of vexation coming to her eyes. "Still, I know where she eats." She gives an address — a place where she's seen the roommate go in for long hours of eating and talking and whatever else. Drinking, Nico suspects. The girl seems to come home soused from those gatherings, more often than not.
*
"Oh. Well. Damn. Welcome to New York, though! Home of the world's craziest… everything, these days. It's like you can't turn a corner without a giant robot deciding it's a good time to rob the local bank or something." Tommy quips, lips curving into a bit of an amused smirk. "But hey, at least it doesn't get boring, right?" Pause. There's a nod to the address given, and a grin, "Hey, thanks — rule number one, the locals always know the best places for grub. You hungry? My treat if you want; call it a reward for good directions. Or a punishment for bad ones." Wink.
*
Nico laughs softly. "My roommate has friends visiting, and I didn't want to stay in the apartment and listen to them talk for hours." It's a one-room apartment. She couldn't have slept if she'd wanted to. "So I'll take you up on your offer." She pauses a moment before offering her hand. "I'm Nicolette Minoru. Nico."
*
"Don't blame you. /Especially/ if they're speaking Chinese and you don't… although it can be fun to try and figure out what they're saying. Especially if you're getting it wrong, because then it's probably /hilarious./ Saw it in a movie once, when people did lip-reading to the same effect." ….motormouth? Yes, yes he is. Offered hand is taken and shook cheerfully, before he starts to head off — he might not know specific places, but he knows addresses /well./ "Tommy Shepherd; not Thomas, not Tom, /definitely/ not late for dinner, just Tommy. Nice t'meetcha, Nico. So, where're you from before-here?"
*
Nico's eyes flick westward. "California," she says after a moment. "It's nice to meet you, Tommy. Thank you for dinner — whether it's a feast or a fiasco." She smiles again, the corner of her mouth twisting. "My first date with a gaijin. I will have to fill my diary with all the details." Her head tilts slightly as she starts walking back the way she came, toward the restaurant her roommate seems to like so much. "The movie. Singing in the Rain?" She remembers something similar from that movie… if not exactly what he describes.
*
Tommy grins as the accent's placed with her revelation. "The Golden State — home of beaches and big-time stars in Hollywood. Nice place, though it's been a while since I've been out there." Maybe a few months? He's not sure. "..and sure thing, it's the least I can do." Then those green eyes twinkle just a bit. "What's a guy-gin?" Better to ask before making assumtions, afterall. Nonetheless, arms fold behind his back and the sidewalks are traversed; at least until reaching the restaurant in question. That's when he shows /some/ semblance of manners and hops over to hold the door open for her. "I think so, it's been a while since I've seen it though." …and he's watched quite a few from various decades.
*
"A white boy," Nico replies, a twinkle of amusement in her eyes.
The interior of the restaurant is cinderblocks painted glossy off-white, a green stripe running around the large room at waist height. Everybody else in the room is Chinese. Nico can tell this, even if Tommy can't. In a corner a group of old men are playing Mahjongg. Behind the counter, a man is chopping up a bird of some sort — a duck, perhaps a chicken. A woman looks up from the register as the bell above the door jingles. She shouts something at the pair in Chinese.
"I think I know why my roommate likes this place so much," Nico murmurs.
*
"/Oh./" Tommy replies with a laugh, flashing a little wink in her direction. "Well, might wanna be careful with the 'D' word. My girl has her jealous moments."
Nope! Tommy doesn't have the slightest clue how to differentiate between ethnicities; accents? That's a little easier; his places him squarely as a Jersey boy, for example. He takes his time looking around the place, face lighting up; places like this can definitely be interesting. Even if he's sure to miss out on a lot of the nuances. The shouting woman gets a wave from tommy as well, "Heya miss! Table for two?" It doesn't hurt to try, afterall.
Then there's an amused look over to Nico, "Location, location, location?"
*
There's another shout in Chinese from the woman, and then a younger man comes out from the kitchen and points at an empty table for two. "You sit there," he says, not fluently, but at least in English. "I bring you good food. You wait."
Nico regards the man, then bows her head briefly. "Xiexie," she says — one of those few words she comprehends, as she moves to take the seat. A shrug toward Tommy. "I suppose, if lots of Chinese people like coming here, the food is probably good." Though she, personally, feels a certain discomfort in here. They'll know she's Japanese, after all. Not the best thing to be in a Chinese restaurant, less than twenty years after World War II.
*
"Thanks, I trust your judgement." Tommy replies to the fellow who comes out to direct them — English, fluent or not, is appreciated. He could've dealt with pointing and other signed responses, too, but this helps all the more.
That done, he moves to take the seat across from Nico, nodding towards her. "Yeah, good and more importantly? Authenthic. I mean, that can be hard to find in this city… a lot of imitation places pop up here and there and it makes a guy think he's gotta run over to Beijing in order to have the real thing."
Yes, he's being serious about that. She probably doesn't realize it, though!
Either way, an easy and practiced smile is flashed in her direction. "So, you said you just moved out this way, huh? Why'd you move — miss the seasons or something?"
*
"I had a falling out with my parents," says Nico, "and I decided to get as far from them as possible. I guess I could've tried Australia, but that seemed excessive. New York should be far enough." She's flippant with her words, but inwardly she can't help but think, 'I HOPE it's far enough.'
It's only a minute before the man brings out two plastic bowls of soup — the smell is pretty good, lots of vegetables and what appears to be bacon. Boiled bacon.
*
"Ugh, don't get me started on parents. The ones I grew up with were total losers; pretty sure they think I'm dead. Pretty sure I don't care." Tommy replies, crinkling his nose up in disguist a bit at the thought of the Shepherds. At least they're probably, hopefully not his real parents. And maybe the new ones can be stopped from being horrible.
"At least you found a soft enough landing spot; what with having a roommate and everything. Finding a decent place in this city is /tough/ on your own." When the food's brought out? The fellow from the kitchen earns a grin of thanks, and Tommy's not about to hesitate to dig in. Speedster appetite comes before any notion of manners. "Mmm." he starts happily, taking another spoonful before using real words. "You need to try this — I think we're definitely leaning more towards feast."
*
Nico has already started in on hers, and is quick to agree with Tommy. "You wouldn't think soup with boiled bacon would be quite so good," she says, alternating between mouthfuls of soup and sips of water. Soon enough a platter of fried rice is presented in turn. Nico pauses a moment to watch the rest of the customers, then scoops rice into her bowl as they do.
"Mine are evil," she says a few moments later, glancing around. She's had nobody with whom to discuss this. Nobody in the room is likely to report back to the Pride, right? "Them and their friends. I couldn't handle it. I had to get away."
*
Tommy's not far behind at all; at the very least keeping up bite for bite, and possibly ahead in the terms of cleaning off his plate/emptying his bowl. It's easy when it comes to good food, though not that hard even when the food /isn't/ great. At least for him, especially after he's been running. "See what I mean? Trust the locals. It'll get you far."
Then they're comparing parents and.. "Well, how evil are we talking here? Like, won't let you date the handsome… gaijin?" There's a look to make sure he got the word right. Fast learner. "…kind of evil, lock you in a room under the staircase and feed you through a hole kind of evil, or summon a horde of demons to let loose on the city kind of evil? 'cause… there's totally varying degrees. Like, a diet coke of evil and regular code, then an evil vodka that just knocks you on your ass." Mind you, he's trying to be funny — he doesn't have any idea how close he might be. "But, y'know. Similar shoes. I got the hell out of my folks' place and haven't looked back." …well. Except the occasional times he's gone back to steal from them. But that's a different story altogether.
*
Nico smirks slightly, but gives a small nod to acknowledge that Tommy's pronounced the word correctly. And then her brows furrow. "What is Diet Coke?" she asks, looking confused. She understands the concept, though, and waves her spoon as she explains, "I saw them murder a girl. Not much older than me. Well. My parents didn't commit the murder, but they were right there, and they let it happen."
*
"Diet Coke, you know, like Coke but half the ta— uh… never mind. Must be a regional thing." Smooth thinking, Tommy. Then what's she gonna think when she doesn't find Diet Coke in stores here? …oh well. Then comes the story. And it's followed by speechlessness. Because, well, Tommy /thought/ he knew bad parents, but suddenly his own treatment feels like the aforementioned not-quite-good-enough cola. "Whoa. Seriously?" There's no 'did you call the police' or anything like that — at his core, Tommy thinks of himself as a 'self-first' individual. It may not come out in actions, but it does in words sometimes. Or lack thereof. So self-preservation getting-out-of-Dodgeness? Yeah, he gets that. "…shit, Nico. That's…" he trails off, unable to find the right word to fill the blank. "Do they know you saw it? They don't know /where/ you went, right?"
*
To be fair, Nico is unlikely to go out in search of Diet Coke. Or regular Coke. She drinks tap water, for the most part. It's cheap.
"They know I saw it," she says, "but I don't think they know where I am. I… took something that belonged to my mother before I left, and I think she'd have a hard time finding me without it." She's not sure about her father. She knows her mother used the Staff of One as a focus for her magic, but her father? No idea at all. "At least, they haven't showed up looking for me yet."
*
If Tommy were his more magically-inclined brother, he might recognize the idea of magical foci; but he's not, so he goes with… "Like a GPS, or something?" Did they have them in this time period? It's the only thing that makes sense to Tommy, even if the twinned memories don't agree on it.
"It's a good thing they haven't come looking, though… they don't sound like the type to play nice because you're their kid. Cops not an option, wouldn't believe you if you tried, I'm guessing?" Tommy asks, watching her. Gears turning in the back of his mind. Oh, he has ideas. Few of them are good, but he's hardly known for being the king of /good/ ideas.
*
"A what?" Nico asks, looking confused once more, but again, she lets it slide. More important things. "Their organization has plants everywhere," she says. "In LA for sure. I couldn't go to the police there. If they didn't have somebody here I'd be very, very surprised. So I live in Chinatown, because white people can't tell the difference between Japanese and Chinese."
*
"Gotcha." Tommy answers, making a bit of a face. "It sounds like they're powerful people and big-time enemies to have." the speedster starts, furrowing eyebrows for a moment… and deciding to throw caution to the wind. His form blurs for just a second, and in his hand is a Mahjongg tile that wasn't there before, which is shown to Nico. "It'd probably good to have some… talented people on your side, yeah?" He's preparing for a freakout. Hoping it doesn't come to that. If it doesn't? A pen and paper are coming out of his jacket pocket even as the men playing with the tiles start to get confused about why they don't have a match for that tile over there. Address and phone number are written down, offered towards Nico. "Trouble shows up? You call this number. Start with the address you're at as soon as I pick up, expect me there within seconds."
*
Nico looks down at the paper, then up at Tommy. And then she nods. Yes, she can piece this together quickly enough. "I think we should talk more, Tommy," she says as she tucks the paper into the pocket of her peacoat. "You are not the only one who has these little secrets." Hers just can't easily be shown without people getting a serious eyeful. "But if any trouble shows up before we can talk, I promise, I will call."
*
The revelation that he's not the only one with those secrets? That just draws a grin from the boy's lips. "That's what the address is for." Well, technically it's there because he's used to providing the two together for /other/ purposes. Especially when offering it to a girl. But this way, he sounds psychic!
"You know, I showed you mine, you can show me yours without prying eyes." There's a cheerful wink to that — Tommy Shepherd does not stay serious for too long. Just doesn't happen. "But until then? There's always good food and good conversation."
*
Nico nods, flashing a smile. She's still worried that her parents will be coming for her — but this is New York City. She couldn't have gone long without finding SOMEBODY who might understand. She's known that.
And it is good food. Nico is growing full, but she's eating better now than she's eaten in quite awhile. Not just because she doesn't have much money. Her level of stress hasn't left her very hungry. "I look forward to it," she concludes. "Thank you, Tommy."
*
"Sure thing, Nico — thanks for good directions and better company." Tommy replies — he'll handle paying for dinner, because, well. He said he would. Plus, just before running into her, a bit of pickpocketing led to a nice score. So he might as well share the wealth - feel more like Robin Hood, less than some hoodlum. Even if the latter is more likely true.
*