2013.08.05 - Double, Double, Toil and Trouble?

Well, Rain's pretty flexible as far as her healing goes. She does do house calls and has agreed to meet the man here, on some Gotham street corner that has seen better days. She was one of the transients here once. She still fits in. Being homeless as long as she was doesn't really leave you. You remember how to walk, how to act, where the spots are... Though, tonight is a beautiful full moon, with a clear, dark sky. Stars glimmer like diamonds woven into a queen's dress. The majesty is lost on the gritty, street lit streets below.
Once, fireflies dwelled there. Now there are street lights. Where actors once showed up to visit shows of their movies, street walkers pad along. Most of them would be pretty, if addiction, bad habits and violence hadn't gotten the best of them. A night's companionship is bought and sold with the sway of hips, with a faint smile. Rain politely smiles and waves at one in passing. "Hey girl," The woman chuckles and waves. Being a healer in an area like this comes with perks. Sorta. There's a quiet understanding, at any rate. Rain keeps her jacket on close, though, looking scruffy as ever. She finds the meeting place and waits. Peering here and there. It seems they're meeting by the abandoned theatre. Meanwhile, just in the alleyway, a man shoots up and forgets this reality in a white haze.
In the old ticket booth, a figure is suddenly lit by a cigarette lighter. "Hey...over here!" It's Anthony Corallo, aka 'Tony Ducks', sometime-pimp, sometime-gambler, all-time creep, but his face looks pale and his dark hair is askew and sweaty. He's been stabbed. "You didn't see anyone out there, did you?" he insists. "You didn't see anyone following me?"
... Rain's not always fond of her clientele, but it keeps her ear to the ground as far as the streets go. And when your roomie's a detective, well. Never hurts. Besides, before she had a room, this was her livelihood. Rain pauses, seeing Tony Ducks. Ugh. She has a good pokerface as far as this goes. She looks over her shoulder and shakes her head. "I didn't see anyone besides Paula," She remarks. "Granted, there's been some sneaks, but - how bad is it? C'mon, let's - get you sat down till I can mend this," She will move over towards him. She looks down the alley way. "I don't /see/ anyone," She remarks. She seems sure of it, anyway.
"I've got money. I know how this works." Tony whines. "I just...I can't go to the hospital, I've got warrants. BS stuff, but you know, I've got warrants." He's been shivved pretty good, in his side, almost in his back. He might live, or he might have gotten something important nicked inside him. Magic needed? Very possibly. There's a satchel underneath the old half-broken chair he collapses into that he tries to cover with his feet. "I've got money." he adds lamely.
"..." Rain pauses at his whining. "It's fine. Do I look like a judge?" She smiles a little. She tries to put on good bedside manners, as it were. She frowns, looking at the shiv. "Geez, they got you pretty good. And um, there's nothing in that satchel that's gonna poke me if I kneel down to look, is it?" She peers at him. "Look, we'll get you fixed first. I can't get payment from a dead patient," She states simply. "Now, let me look at your side and stay still, please." She'll take a look to see if mundane first aid will work. Otherwise, she's going to cheat and stare blankly for a moment. Her magic, thankfully, requires no gestures or vocalizations. The downside is, it takes a little time. And there's no glow. She's a dang fine stealth caster.
It's definitely a dangerous wound, especially since he's aggravated it by running halfway across town. No first aid kit and nod of heroin for this one. "That sonofabitch, he..." Tony Ducks lapses into delirium for a moment and mutters to himself blankly.
Across the mouth of the alleyway a tall shadow moves. In another age he might have been a Poor Knight wandering from village to village, or a maverick Ranger bringing justice to the west, but in these fallen times, the dark age all around, the best he can do for knightly armor is a top-notch Goodwill sport coat and a pair of shined shoes. The six shooter is the same, though. He stands at the mouth of the alleyway for a moment, almost meditative. His face is illuminated in a scarlet, ominous glow as he draws on the hand-rolled cigarette in his mouth. Then he starts heading down it.
In another era, Rain might've been a village healer. Something slightly more important, anyway. Deemed unworthy of her mom's coven, she seems to have taken to freelancing anyway. She nods as he mutters. Well, then. Time to start casting. She seems unaware of the Poor Knight wandering their way. She would be deeply sympathetic, surely. For now, she goes quiet, concentrating on mending the wounded man's well, wound. It takes her several minutes, and she looks completely, utterly zoned.
Tony's probably zonked, mumbling as she works. "You really had to run...?" A soft sigh. That satchel worries her a bit, but as long as she doesn't get close to it, well. She should be fine. Tony is pretty skeezy, all in all, trying to play the various mafias and such against one another. He pays his dues, mostly, but this time he probably mouthed off or chose not to. Rain's not unfamiliar with the phenomenon. A small time thug who thinks he's far more than he is. If only he had any idea. Regardless, neither she nor he might notice the Knight coming their way. "Almost done, promise." Her magic is pretty strong, all things considered.
Jonny Double stops several feet from Rain, and he's looking at her when he addresses her patient: "Looks like you found that bruisin you were cruisin for, daddy-o."
Tony experiences a surge of adrenaline and grabs a gun out of the back of his pants, shaky and sweaty in his slippery fingers. "Get away from me, Double!"
"Cut the gas." Jonny says. "This kitten going to be your ticket out from under this? You tell her what's in the satchel?"
"I will kill you and I will not even blink!" yelps Tony Ducks.
"..." Rain looks up, when Jonny arrives. It distracts her for a moment. "... he has not," Rain admits, looking to Tony, concerned. He's pretty much healed, though - the distraction has caused a pause. "It it something I should be aware of?" She asks. She seems confused by Jonny's metaphors. She watches him and Tony for a moment, puzzled. "I apologize if I am interfering with your business," She holds up her hands. She does have pistols at her hips, if - and only if - Jonny bothers to look closely at her waist beneath her jacket. It's really hard to spot. She doesn't exactly expect Tony to be forthcoming, not really. And he pretty much acts as expected. "Please don't kill anyone in front of me. It's a bad business," Sigh.
Jonny Double says, "Listen, nosebleed, I'm not the one that made you a kebab, you know that. I don't mind if you live, if that's what you want." To Rain: "I don't guess we've been introduced. Jonny Double. Private investigator. I know you've got more than enough heat for yourself, but would you mind very much taking the iron off Tony there? Guns make an awful racket and I got sensitive ears."
"Don't listen to him, this guy...aaahhh...." The pain surges back into Tony's body, the pistol wavers.
"That's fine," Rain pauses. "Please put down the gun or I can't finish. Once I'm done, you two can talk like reasonable gentlemen." She offers a compromise. She looks to Jonny. "Pleased to meet you, Mister Double. I go by Rain. My real name's rather embarrassing, so I apologize." She remarks. She nods and will take the pistol if Tony relinquishes it. It's probably enough to convince him to set them down, so she can finish healing him. "Look, you don't want to die, none of us wants a gun fight..." She offers. Rain will take it then, as it wavers. "Now, please sit." And she will continue her spell, though she looks dazed as she does. If Tony says anything further, she ignores it. Tony's probably in pain anyway. "And I am fairly certain none of us wants to deal with a gaggle of grumpy Gotham cops," She grunts softly.
She might almost feel sorry for Tony, if he weren't such a creep who thought so highly of himself. Oh well. It's a living.
Jonny Double says, "I like rain. Cleans out the clouds." Tony half collapses, like the gun was a puppet string holding him up. In a way, it has been, his whole life. "No, no heat tonight, right Tony? Especially not tonight, with what you've got in the satchel."
Jonny steps closer. "Her mother hired me to find it." Tony makes no reply. "They'll never catch the guy that got her unless they have it." Now it seems like Tony /can't/ reply, like he doesn't have a good answer. "Think, Ducks. Maybe you weren't real gone for that daisy, but she wasn't just another car on the freeway."
Rain smiles at that. "Yeah," She remarks quietly. She goes with it. There's a pause. She looks to Tony and then to Jonny. She'll finish mending Tony's wound and back off. She clearly has no interest in getting in the man's way. She seems curious, peering at the man with dark purple eyes. She doesn't seem to want to fight, not in the slightest. Though, this talk of what Tony has concerns her. She frowns faintly, once the man is mended. He's probably still weakened though. She reserves her good spells for, well, y'know.
She looks between them, Tony wordless in his guilt. That awful satchel sitting beneath his chair like a tell-tale heart. "Nah, man..." He might mumble. "The hell's a daisy?"
Jonny Double half-crooks a grin. "You know, a daisy. A peach. A kitten. A dame. A girl. You might be able to get some money with it, sure. The guy who bumped her is a big wheel, he could keep you quiet with what he finds in his couch cushions, if he got tired of sending knife guys and gun thugs after you." Jonny gets closer, leans over with his hands in his back pockets, his sport coat rumpled. "Rain, you think Tony Ducks is the kind of fellow could pull off a big blackmail score?"
The two get it. Rain ohs softly. She frowns and looks to Tony, frowning. As she considers the two men, she shakes her head. "Not really. I don't think he's prepared to fight off trained assassins. All it takes is one good hire and a bit of bad luck, then you're off to the next life." She pauses. "I don't want to be mean, but ... this is way above your league," She remarks. She is quiet, watching as Jonny gets closer.
Tony's probably good and spooked, looking angrily at Rain. "You said you weren't a judge!" And really, Rain isn't a good judge of character, but she knows ability when she sees it. She shrugs helplessly. "I call them as I see them. Do you even know ... the sort of force the guy who killed her has? You should plan this stuff. Granted, I think it's a lousy business all around, but short of changing people's nature..." Well.
Jonny Double says, "You know what I think. I think Tony knows what happened to that girl was a raw deal. So raw it bled. I think Tony's..how'd you put it?...I think his nature is not what he thought it was. And maybe even if this was his big ticket...he'd give it up if someone would just swear to him that what happened to her was going to be made right." Jonny puts his hand on the satchel and Tony grabs his arm in a white-knuckled vicegrip.
It's a long pause. Finally: "Swear." Tony manages.
"I swear, dad." Jonny says. "I know my groceries."
"I think you're right," Rain admits quietly. She lets go of the more cynical tinges of her neutrality. Though, some of Jonny's sayings confuse her. "I'll keep an eye out while you two chat," She stands and moves to do just that. "Sounds like a bad business all around. Wish I could say that was unusual around here," She frowns faintly. A soft sigh at that. "Well, do know that I won't get in your way. I - prefer things be set right." She offers. Even though she is painfully aware they often aren't.
There's probably relief on Tony's part as he swears to it.
Jonny Double emerges from the alleyway a few minutes later and stands next to Rain. He's carrying the satchel almost casual, like it belongs to him. Tony Ducks, as the Bible might say, is going home by anther way. "You must be one hell of a sawbones. I saw a switchblade slinger get him solid, and now he's walking again." He offers her a hand-rolled cigarette from a cheap case. "I'd dump that shooter. Ducks got careless with the bullets and one or two might get dug out of a wall or a thug by an enterprising young CSI nerdlinger with something to prove."
"... yeah, I'll - dump it somewhere," She frowns. "I figured so," Rain tilts her head. She looks to Jonny, seeming curious as he emerges. She smiles faintly at his compliment though. "Thanks, I cheat a bit." She wriggles her fingers. "I could've done a bit more, but ... that would've taken time and more concentration, honestly. I always do a good job, whatever level of care is needed." She sighs softly. She doesn't question Tony's going home by another way. She's no judge. "And you saw him get got? That's impressive. He was asking me if either of us was being tailed. I told him the truth," She remarks. "I apologize for our meeting being a bit rough."
Jonny Double says, "I'll probably live. So, some kind of magic or mutant power then? What's your tale, nightingale? You say you don't judge, but a guy like Tony Ducks, that stretches the point, doesn't it?"
Rain quirks an eyebrow. "I - am a witch, strictly speaking. My story's not that exciting. I had a degree in Electrical Engineering. Sprouted magic powers, and well, holding a 9-5 job doesn't work so well..." She shrugs. She smiles at his last question. "Yeah, it does. He probably did deserve to bleed out. Thing is, it's usually a good way to find out who is trying to kill who and what's sold where. Curing an overdose... well, then I know someone's dealing something lousy, you know? Not all of them are completely bad. Just - I'd say about 50/50." She remarks. "Trouble is, I suspect unless you change people altogether." She shrugs. "I dunno. How about you? I haven't heard most of that slang - ever."
Jonny Double chuckles, "Keeps things fresh, if you talk like a hood they'll come back like a hood. If they don't know how to come back, they come back straight, dig?" He smokes meditatively for a moment. "I think you're on the level, you can't really change people, there's no magic strong enough for that, other than money. Listen, I appreciate you keeping Tony from airing out my insides, I consider that a big favor and I won't forget. If you get yourself in a bind that dos pistoles can't blast your way out of, I want you to give me a ring. I get across to Gotham more than anyone would like."
"I see," She smiles faintly. "I think I understand," Rain will try to, anyway. She seems more the nerdy type. "No... it's an unfortunate truth, in a way. In another, it's a good one because people sometimes surprise you." She shrugs. Then a smile. "I'm glad I was able to." Really, she does seem relieved. Having /two/ patients might be a bit much. "I'm happy you were able to help set the truth straight." At his offer, she looks to him and nods. "You seem trustworthy. I will remember that. I used to be homeless, until a couple of weeks ago, so- I'm pretty familiar with the place. It's good for business, sad to say." It seems to pain her. "Be sure to let me know if you need a bit of healing or divination. I get the feeling it's for a good cause."
Jonny Double blinks, "You seem to be doing well for yourself so far. I won't lie, there's been a few weeks here or there where I was sleeping in the back seat of my car, but there's always someone worse off." he says.
Rain tilts her head. "Yeah, that's true." She pauses. "Well. To be fair, there's always someone who gets knifed or shot and doesn't want questions asked. They usually spill the beans anyway. If it comes to that, let me know. I can at least... help with a hotel a bit. I figure it's paying it forward for when someone let me have a couch when the shelters or my usual haunts were full." She smiles to him. "It's irregular work, but. I have a bit more steady gig now. I still feel compelled to come here and ply my trade a bit. I suspect I won't be the same after being out here for months."
Jonny Double puts his hand in his pocket, leaning back. "Doing the right thing has a zing to it, I bet you'll keep coming. Like you say, you can't change who someone is." he says around a grin. "What's the gig?" See, some slang has survived to the present day?
Indeed it has. She smiles at him again. "I help someone who was stuck in time catch up. I keep an eye out on the streets for him, too. I get a room by his office." She pauses. Rain sighs softly. "You'd probably win a good chunk of money on that bet." She looks to him, nodding at his grin. "I work on keeping my magic up, too, though I'm no Gandalf or whatever." Tolkien's pretty old, anyway. "Honestly, I wouldn't sleep in your car around here. There was some sort of Triad shootout or something. I forget who. Usually it's the Italians or Irish going at one another," She frowns.
Jonny Double says, "I've been in the passing lane for a while now, the only nights I've spent in my car have been on stakeouts at least since April. All right, Rain. I need to agitate the gravel." That seems to mean leave, in context. "Stay dry." he quips.
Rain smiles at him. "I understand. That's good to hear, I think," She considers. "And be well. Stay safe." She waves to Jonny. She will let him go without protest and find her own way off into the night.
Category:Log