Who: Nori Ashida, some random sketchy guy. When: Tuesday, 4 May, noon-ish. Where: An alley in Alphabet City, Manhattan, not far from Mutant Town. What: Nori is attempting to be off the antipsychotic drugs and control her mutation on her own, but that's not working out very well for her.
The several days since her ill-fated trip to Xavier's and her confrontation with Julian Keller had not been good to Nori. She'd fled back to North Salem and hopped the next bus back to the city, shaken and convinced that she could never really fit in at a place that fancy, not with students like that who'd probably treat her like she was garbage because of where she'd been for the past few years. So here she was again, back in the dirtier New York streets where no one asked too many questions and the cops didn't come nosing around too often, just outside Mutant Town. She'd avoided her old haunts except to pull out the money she'd stashed in her secret hiding place, and she'd avoided the people she knew. The uncontrollable episode she'd had outside of Xavier's that had scared Julian so badly had scared Nori, too, and she was more determined than ever to get off the Haldol and find some way to control her mutant powers on her own.
At this exact moment, she was huddled in an alley under a ragged blanket she'd picked up from the Salvation Army, trying to catch up on some sleep. Last night had been rough, as she'd gone without her meds all day for the first time yesterday, and the sporadic rain and the humidity in the air hadn't helped at all. She'd jerked awake every time she nodded off, with her entire body crackling with static, her muscles twitching uncontrollably. It wasn't good, but on the plus side, she'd still been able to control when and how she discharged enough to ground the current, which meant it hadn't harmed anyone else. Yet. She was growing to be cautiously optimistic about this control thing.
The bad thing about living on the streets (well, one of the bad things, anyway) was the lack of privacy. She'd chosen a fairly deserted bit of street for her stake, but there was still an opening at either end of the alley and anyone could come by. Mostly those who did were harmless, drunks or druggies just looking for a place to lay their heads or rest up 'til they could get another drink or another dose, once in a while a kid looking for bottles or scrap metal or other useful bits of trash. They gave Nori a wide and wary berth, and she pretended to ignore them, staying curled up under her blanket.
But it was just her luck that not everyone could leave her alone, and her reaction times were dulled by weariness and the uncontrolled surges of electrical power through her body. The first she knew of the man coming down the alley was the footsteps approaching her. She stayed silent as though she were really sleeping, but reached slowly down to pull out the folding knife she'd stashed in her jacket pocket, holding it in her hand in case she needed it to make whoever this was go away.
The footsteps didn't stop; she had to take action before she was hemmed in. Moving quickly, Nori pushed the blanket aside and pushed herself up into a wary crouch, the knife hidden in her hand. The man stopped several feet away, obviously startled, and held up his hands placatingly. "Hey, cool it," he advised. "I ain't gonna hurt ya. Look, I just wanna help, see? I'm from the shelter down the way." He smiled, advancing toward her. "We got room for ya. Why doncha come along wit me, we'll getcha some clean clothes, a nice bath, a hot meal, whatever ya want. Sounds good, don't it?" He held out his hand to her, still smiling a friendly smile. "Come on, honey, come wit me."
Nori was suspicious; in her experience, people from shelters only came around in groups and in the evenings, wearing their little name tags or a shirt that said the name of the shelter. They never came alone, and they never came into the alleys. The man was dressed nice and didn't look like a drifter, a drunk or a junkie, but there were so many alarm bells going off that she closed her hand tighter around her knife. "What shelter?" she demanded, taking a step back toward the other end of the alley. "Show me your ID or get lost."
The man's eyes got harder, though he kept smiling at her. "Come on now, sweetie," he answered. "I can help ya, see? Ya look like ya in a rough spot, and I can make it better. Don't make trouble now, just come along wit me." He advanced, reaching out fast to grab her wrist. Nori wasn't expecting that, and she twisted, trying to get her hand free, but his grip was strong. "I ain't gonna hurt ya 'less I hafta," he continued, definite menace in his voice now. "Cool it and come quiet."
She was scared and tense, and now that she was off the drugs, that was a bad state to be in. Nori's body jerked, electrical power surging over her skin, and the man dropped her wrist with a yell at the shock of it. "Hey," he began, but before he could get another word out, Nori shoved her hands out toward him, releasing the pent-up energy in his direction. The bolt of electricity sent the man flying with a scream clear to the other end of the alley, where he thumped against a wall and fell to the ground. He didn't get up.
Nori shuddered, feeling sick to her stomach, and she slumped against the wall, her body still shaking. The first thing she did once her hands stopped trembling like they were was reach into her pocket and pull out the bottle of Haldol, popping two into her mouth. It was dangerous on the drugs, but it was also dangerous off them, and she wasn't about to risk being snuck up on like that again. The antipsychotics, at least, kept her head clear, and if she was going to live in a dangerous place like this, that was what she needed.
She managed to push herself away from the wall after a moment to go over and check on the man, just to make sure he wasn't dead. She prodded his unmoving form with her toe, cautiously, and when he didn't stir, she crouched down to check. He had a heartbeat and he was breathing, so that was all right; he'd definitely have a headache and a lot of confusion when he woke up, but on the whole, she thought he deserved that. Still, she couldn't stay here now, and with a sigh she went back to gather up her blanket to move on.