It's Monday by the time Verna gets to calling her friend back. Marie sounded so terrified on the other end that, well, Verna had to. Otherwise, she could have pretended to forget getting the call (because who wants to suffer through an annoying babysitting routine eh?)
But it's been eating at her. However much of an annoying prat Marie can be, Verna has a conscience.
So, after work, as she's sorting the mail and thinking of other household duties that need doing, she decides to put them off to ease the worried mind a bit. Her phone gets dug out of her purse, and Marie's contact info accessed, and then...
Ring.
Ring.
Ring.
dririmancyRather than going to messages, the phone is picked up with the welcoming (in spite of caller ID) and dulcet tones of a snapping -
"Who is this?"
That isn't Marie. That's Jon Marc. Her live-in boyfriend of who knows how many years, sounding clipped and more like a marine than actual marines sound.
Verna Gardner"Uh, it's Verna?" she says, and it comes out quite surprised and a little annoyed. Well hello to you, too.
"Where's Marie? She told me to call..."
Verna Gardner[Perception + Empathy!]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 4, 5, 6, 7) ( success x 2 )
Verna Gardner[Perception + Awareness!]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (2, 5, 5, 8) ( success x 1 )
dririmancyDead silence. Ticks by. One two. Three four five.
"She's out. And she's done with that call center bullshit, so don't bother calling. It just stresses her out."
He apparently remembers Verna's name but not that she got the job of her dreams (and at least her friends were happy for her, are happy for her).
He's lying. She's not 'out.' Or at least he's being dishonest. Listening to Jon Marc's voice- cold moving under her skin, a sense of wrongness. She's felt hunches like that a few times, but they don't always mean anything (that she ever finds out).
And, click.
Verna GardnerOh, God. Someone's boyfriend is pulling the controlling jerk trick. Ohh, let's separate a woman from her friends so she's nice and dependent. Where have we seen this before? Like, everywhere?
She dials the number again, getting increasingly angry at Jon Marc for taking her friend's phone and pulling this crap.
Ring.
Ring.
Ring.
dririmancyIt rings the same number of times, before Jon Marc answers, belligerent (with a click of teeth, slobber), "What?"
Verna Gardner"Jon Marc, where is Marie? She asked me to watch her kid this weekend. This has nothing to do with the call center, I don't even work there anymore," Verna says, and she's got her Big Girl voice on -- the kind of take no bullshit tone that she can suddenly pull.
The kind she once turned to an undead trespasser.
dririmancy[Ladeela.]
Dice: 2 d10 TN6 (6, 6) ( success x 2 )
dririmancyJon Marc sucks in a deep, deep deep breath, and then exhales in a rush. "We don't have any plans this weekend," he says, and he sounds suspicious, sullen, as if the only reason Marie might want the kids to have a babysitter is that he and she might have plans. "She's out. She left her cell and I picked it up. Said she was going to see a friend earlier." Beat. Vicious, "Happy?"
Verna Gardner"No, I'm not. You could have told me the truth," Verna says, and hangs up. Ugh. Men.
And ugh Marie for going for a man like that.
Verna Gardner[Perc + Alert!]
Dice: 6 d10 TN9 (1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 6) ( fail )
dririmancyThe rest of the night passes without note (unless Verna decides to make any other phonecalls).
The next morning, there's another gift on her windshield. This one isn't a dead bird, but a flier for a dry cleaners. Apparently the appropriate graphic for a dry cleaners is a smiling cartoon telescope, and it's written mostly in Spanish.
The next evening, once she returns home from work, that same flier is shoved under her door.
Verna GardnerThe choice of graphic causes her brow to raise a touch, but people leave horrible little fliers on your windshield all the time. It's at least less nasty than a dead bird.
She grabs the flier and throws it away whenever she gets the chance, and gives a similar treatment to the one shoved under her door.
Verna's not a litterer. She likes (needs) things to be very neat.
dririmancyWednesday.
The sky is darkening, that twilight not dark yet time when light and dark don't know what they want to do. Verna has parked her car, and this is when she gets a text.
From Marie's number.
Hi. Im so sorry.
Verna Gardner[Perception + Alertness!]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 6, 6, 8, 8, 10) ( success x 5 )
Verna GardnerVerna gets the text notification as a little tone coming from her purse, and goes to retrieve her phone. Marie.
Is it really her? Or that lying jerk Jon Marc? She presses the "Call Contact" button in order to find out.
Ring.
Ring.
Ring.
dririmancyThis is a moment of acute clarity for Verna Gardner. Marie or Jon Marc has texted her (using Marie's phone) and there is a homeless man (he comes here, occasionally; this is a dark, dark world) sleeping in the fore-shortened front yard of the neighboring apartment building, big-bellied and curled around a shopping cart. The homeless man's cat (and he's a clean homeless man, never tries to talk to any of the women around or panhandle with people who might be uncomfortable, moves on eventually) pricks its ears up out've his shopping cart and stares fixedly at something.
A dog.
A dog wandering down the sidewalk without an owner or any sign of an owner. The dog is weaving this-a-way, that-a-way, not as if it's curiously drawn by scents, but as if every time it tries to go one way its body falls the other way. Limping, the dog: a wire-haired dachshund. This is a moment of acute clarity for Verna Gardner, and even if she knows nothing about animals, she can tell at a glance that (although it is small [short stubby legs a sprout of wild facial hair]) it's not right, it's filthy, and there's what looks like blood, matted.
It starts to sniff the ground, ambling (erratically) toward Verna's door.
Ring.
Ring.
Ring.
Voice mail.
Verna GardnerVerna squints at the dog, why is it pawing at her door? But then, there is Marie (or whoever that is) to respond to.
Is this really Marie? Sorry for what?
dririmancyIm sorry about you know who. Want to meet at 1Up tonight or tomorrow?
The dachshund is at her door now, sniffing. Circles around and under her wheel and she can see its body waggle back and forth. Waddle. That's the word, waddle. There's an old hairless patch on its flank. She'll notice that took if she looks out the window, right before it leaves her line of sight.
She'll hear it though, snuffling, wet panting, a wheezing whine and a little mini growl-yelp.
dririmancyThat text is followed quickly by
Ill explain in person ok?
Verna GardnerWhat the heck is up with that dog? It's under her car? Whining at her? Well, ugly feral dogs do not get much sympathy. Especially when they're weirdly interested in her. What, did she roll around in something dead without realizing it?
Sure, I'll go to 1Up. Just no more strip clubs, okay?
Tonight's fine. I have nothing planned.
dririmancy[Hup!]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 3, 4, 6, 7) ( success x 2 )
dririmancyOk great. What time? 8 ok or too early?
Silence. If Verna peers forward through her windshield, toward the last known direction of that little growl-yelp, she'll juuust see the dog's rear quarters wiggling into view and then --
nails clickclicking against aluminum
-- it jumps onto the front hood of her car, scrabbling for purchase but finding it, growling, growling, spittle (or is that foam? - no. it's spittle) flecking from its teeth which are visible. It sniffs at the glass of her windshield snorting like an old man which would be comical (perhaps another time) with that old St. Nick beard, except for how the bloody patches amongst all the tangled filthy gleam wet. Or maybe that's spit too.
Verna GardnerVerna doesn't respond for a while. There is a dog that looks like it's right out of a zombie movie crawling on her windshield. She honks the horn. Yells at it too. "Go away, mutt!"
Sorry, there's this dog bothering me. 8's fine. I'm off work by then.
dririmancy[Bark?]
Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (1, 4, 6) ( success x 1 )
dririmancyNo further texts from Marie so eight o' clock it must be.
The dog loses its purchase on the hood of her car and slip-scratches a couple of inches downward and then regains its balance, plants its short stubby legs in and starts barking at Verna. Unceasingly. Teeth flashing between the bloodied muzzle, eyes bright with canine hunting madness or canine hunting fury.
Verna Gardner[Charisma! Shoo, doggy, shoo!]
Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (2, 4, 5) ( fail )
Verna GardnerShe shrugs her shoulders. There's really nothing to do about the dog other than to start the car and try to nudge it off with some inertia.
Which, she does. No dog is holding on for long, especially if she hits the brakes suddenly. This could be rather unfortunate for the dog, but it looks positively rabid, and Verna's no idiot.
dririmancy[YELP.]
Dice: 6 d10 TN9 (6, 7, 7, 9, 9, 9) ( success x 3 )
dririmancyThe animal isn't happy when the car starts to nudge forward and it stops barking for a second that feels like heaven, no shrill raspy as a brillopad bark bark bark bark bark bark bark and when Verna slams on the breaks the whites around its eyes show. The animal does go skidding, is gravity-flung, toward the edge of the car, but almost as soon as it disappears from sight it's back. Back at the driver's window, teeth snapping against the glass, leaving a streak of gore behind. Dachsunds are funny looking dogs, but they're brave and relentless and they were bred to take on vicious wild animals in close-confined dark places. It's looking at Verna like she's the vicious wild animal and it'd just love to get in a close-confined dark place with her.
Verna GardnerUgh, tenacious little mutt. Well, off with the kid gloves then.
She's just going to drive around for a little bit, because the dog cannot continue to hold on, and she is emphatically not getting out of the car as long as it's around. Maybe hit somewhere to eat before going to 1Up? Sounds like a plan.
Because, that mutt may be little, but it looks like it wants to have Verna for dinner, and it looks diseased, and to heck with rabies shots.
dririmancyThis is not the dog's lucky day. Verna pulls forward and then swings out into the street proper, and the dog slips and slides off, hitting the ground hard.
Does she look in her rearview mirror to see what happened to it? Her car doesn't bump up as though she ran over it; at least there's that (though given its state, that might've been a mercy).
Dinner awaits. And 1-Up. And Marie.
Verna GardnerShe does look into the rear view to see what happened to it, because she is morbidly curious. Maybe it's going to try to follow her car?
In any case, she heads to dinner. Which turns out to be Wendy's, because while Dr. Andrassy pays well, he doesn't pay that well, and she does have student loans to pay back.
Ahh, doesn't the thought of her boss bring a smile to her face? Doesn't it bother her too? The way she feels toward the man just isn't right.
dririmancyHer rear-view mirror tells her: the dog is still alive, limping down the street. Barkness now, but still as erratic. Its ears prick up as it sees something else it wants to bother and it goes careening toward the mailboxes. A danger. Maybe its owner will find it. Probably not.
The 1Up. Blake Street. Little gated entrance in front of which sits a man on a stool with his arms crossed over his chest. A bar. The lighted sign above the man's head has a green mushroom cap [m04r power!]. Mario!!!! This isn't just a bar. This is also an arcade. They ask for ID at the door and if somebody's underage it's out with the wristbands.
Down some stairs.Through a door.Down some more stairs.
The bar proper where the walls are lined with classic arcade machines and the bar's generous with walls of liquor, seating for those who've come to chill, tables with huge, heavy blocked giant Jenga games and and and and other boardgames and and and.
There's Marie. Marie in a hoody, nursing a pint and a plate of nachos over by one of the giant jenga machines, jingling some coins in the palm of her hand. Verna knows that it's Marie because she knows how Marie looks, duh. But there's also a very distinctive manicure, the nails long enough to make picking some things up problematic, tonight coloured in a rainbow theme. Her hood is up, dark hair peeking through.
Verna GardnerVerna is not underage. Young, but not that young. She still gets carded (which everyone does) and gets out her driver's license. She's a regular to this place, but it doesn't matter. The rules are the rules.
Down into the bar with arcade noises, then. Nice to be meeting Marie in a place that isn't a den of sex and misery, isn't it? She wouldn't mind running into Dr. Andrassy here, not at all. No, that would be very nice.
Oh, Verna! Focus!
"Marie! I made it," she says, over the sound of pinball machines and video games as she walks up.
Verna Gardner[Percept + Alert Diff 7!]
Dice: 6 d10 TN7 (2, 3, 7, 8, 8, 8) ( success x 4 )
dririmancyMarie looks quite wholesome even when she has a lot of make-up, like she does tonight. A lot of make-up. Her skin is a clear peaches and cream and her eyes are a blue not unlike the colour of eyes Verna's boss has (but why would she think about the colour of her boss's eyes? Tsk) and she doesn't need that much foundation but there it is. Verna's eyes are sharp even in the lighting of the arcade, lighting and pew! ping pewpewpews casting a net of people having fun all around, and when those Jenga boards come crashing down it's bowling-loud, and she can see the shadow of the bruise Marie's covering up on the side of her jaw and something on her neck too. Harder to notice with the hair and the hoody but it's there.
Marie. Marie's eyebrows that are plucked into elegant wings and that dark hair usually blow-dried and teased into waves and she's a young mother, certainly. Two kids. Rocket and Cleolinda. At least they can go by Rocky and Cleo. Or RJ, which is what Rocket likes to be called. Cleo's only three.
The kids are, unsurprisingly, nowhere to be seen.
Marie smiles her hello and says, "I'm so glad you came. How are you and how's work? I feel like we haven't talked in ages!"
[Manip + Subt.]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (3, 6, 7, 8) ( success x 3 )
Verna Gardner[Percept + Empathy]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (3, 6, 7, 8, 8) ( success x 4 )
dririmancyThere's something brittle about Marie's tone. She's putting on a good face, circling around something that's preying on her.
She's still terrified. Eyes dart to the door just a little too quickly, shoulders are just a touch too hunched. She's doing a good job of putting on a good face, but Verna's doing better at noticing signs.
Verna GardnerOh, Marie. It's that no-good lying sack of Jon Marc isn't it?
She knows something is terribly wrong here, but Marie is trying so hard to not let Verna know it. Wouldn't be good to go into this gunning for the truth just yet. Instead, Verna smiles back and goes to give her friend a hug.
It's not her usual greeting. Maybe that's enough to tell Marie that Verna knows something, but it's a softer way of saying it.
"Hey, I'm glad I came too. We haven't talked in far too long," she says, whether or not Marie accepts the hug.
dririmancyMarie accepts the hug (flinches [briefly]) and it may dampen her smile for a moment, but she soldiers on. Once Verna steps back, or takes a seat, Marie nudges the plate of nachos near her again and then plunks a couple of quarters down. "Agreed one hundred percent. So uh, first round is on me and I'll get the first games too. Before we..." Marie trails away. Brittle-determined repeats, like she's trying to stay focused on Verna, not just come spilling out with her own problems (discomfort moving beneath her skin), "So you! What's new? Is it still a really boring sounding heaven to normal people at your new job? Did René do anything else weird?"
Verna Gardner"René is always weird.
Verna Gardner[Strike that. It may be true, but there is more to the post than that -_-]
Verna Gardner"René is always weird. I swear, any time I express any interest in my work at all, he goes all sourpuss on me," she says, and grimaces in imitation.
She slides her way into a chair, and waves away the nachos. "No thanks, I already ate," she says, and then rewinds the conversation a bit. "Before we what? You were about to say?"
dririmancy[NPC willpower.]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (3, 5, 9, 10) ( success x 2 )
dririmancy"About... I said I wanted," to explain person. But maybe Verna's going to let her get away with - ? A confusion of emotions. Marie slowly pulls the nachos closer to her and delicately pulls a chip out from the center, where the cheese and meat and vegetables have melted and fused into a delicious chip-sog inducing glory. Her eyes are lowered, the delicate shells of her lids flickering, and then she seems to find something in her. If it's not steel, it is at least forged.
"To talk. I'm," and she lifts her eyes from the chips to meet Verna's, quiet hunted voice. "I'm leaving Jon Marc. He doesn't know yet. My brother's coming by on Saturday while he's at work and we're clearing out the house and going. I'm leaving him a note."
Verna Gardner"Good. He's horrible. And the kids, you really don't want to expose them to that," she says, not coming out and explicitly saying what she means. She just knows.
"Of course I'll watch them for you, if you're finally getting that man out of your life. Don't worry about that," she says, and puts a hand over Marie's. Maybe Verna was thinking about turning Marie down, but that was before she realized what was going on. Her friend needs someone to protect her kids when escaping from an abuser.
She probably first called right after that bruise was created, poor thing.
dririmancy"Thank you," she says, as sincere as Verna has ever seen her. Marie can be something of a pain (she giggled for weeks, indeed is still giggling, or would be if this weren't such a serious time, over Verna's distress at being caught ogling naked women and gittin' hugged by her boss at her boss's sleazy strip club of choice), but she means well. Most people do, right? (Your mileage may vary.) "Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you," relief, like a flood. Marie puts both elbows on the tabletop and touches her fingertips to her forehead, breathes in deep, and then meets Verna's eyes again.
"He wasn't this bad until recently," and here's that pop-laugh of distress that Verna heard on the phone on Sunday. "I know everybody says that but it's really true this time. He started... I don't know," flatly. "I think he got into some stuff that maybe his brother in law gave him. Danny, the cop." Her tone is curdling, like all cops are the enemy. "I just..."
"Thank you. You don't work at the call center anymore and and he's never been to your place so I think..." Pause. "Just ... Thank you."
dririmancyooc: er, make that: at being caught by her boss ogling naked women and gittin' hugged by one of the dressed ones at her boss's sleazy strip club of choice
Verna GardnerIt's good to see one of her friends from the call center actually doing something responsible for a change. They may enjoy taking advantage and giggling at her misfortune, but there is something of a shared bond when a group of people go through the same horrible thing. Verna knows all the bad bosses, all the terrible stories, more of the gossip than she'd like.
And here Marie's man is getting hopped up on something and beating her, and letting her kids know that is proper behavior.
"Don't mention it. Really, don't. The fewer people know the better," she says, putting her voice down a notch, as if to emphasize that this plan is their little secret.
"Want to go play? Forget for a while?"
dririmancyMarie smiles. The smile's not as hopeful as it could be. Should be. She still hasn't taken down her hoody and she's not going to for the rest of the night, keep her hair over one side of her neck. But it's a smile and it's as sincere as her thank you. Her perfectly done-up eyebrows rise.
"These quarters aren't just here to look pretty," she says, standing up with a little ankle dip and a hip cock that's pure attitude. "Let's do this."
"And... and I'm buying you at least one drink tonight. You're gonna need it. RJs being a little monster this week..."
...And so the night goes. Play. Forget for a while. Sometimes that's the grown up thing to do.
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