Ren "THE RAPIST WITH BONY HIPS" Valin (renvalin) wrote in light_of_may, @ 2010-01-31 16:39:00 |
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Entry tags: | 2009-07-02 |
Bears aren't good for comfort sometimes
Who: Ren and Imogene
When: Sometime around 11:30am-ish
Where: Outside Dog-Ink
Tired of being poked and prodded and questioned by various emergency workers who couldn't understand that she was fine, dammit, Imogene slipped away and wandered over to where Ren was sitting, in a state of apparent shock, staring at the smoldering building. It took a good few minutes of her standing there and being thoroughly ignored before she grunted and sat down heavily beside him. "Hey, you're not going to run back inside again, are you?" She could almost understand it. The shop was important to him. But he was still being an idiot - everyone got out, everyone was alive and in various states of recovery. She'd gotten off light herself, with only an unpleasant tension in her lungs, tattered clothes, and a banged-up shoulder. "Because I'll hit you if you do. Don't think I won't."
Ren flexed his fingers as Imogene's voice broke the semi-silence he'd purposely subjected himself to. There were bandages covering both his hands, though the burn marks had already started to heal themselves. Being a were had its advantages, even if the entire setting could be considered an immense disadvantage. They were calling it an accident right now, though Ren knew better than to believe that. His door had been locked, and the downstairs doors hadn't budged when the others attempted escape. Ren wasn't stupid, even if the police apparently were. They didn't have any evidence, and that in and of itself was enough to make this entire thing that much worse.
Very slowly, Ren turned to look at Imogene, pulling the blanket that had been given to him up over his shoulders. He didn't have any damn clothes right now, considering the fact that his boxers had been unceremoniously ripped in his sudden transformation. The blanket was the best anyone had managed to do for him so far, and it wasn't something he was particularly thrilled about. Gratefully, it was hot as fuck and he didn't really even need the clothes... aside from the fact that he was technically breaking the law, he supposed.
"There's nothing to fucking run back into," Ren snapped, his eyes sharp as he stared at her. "It's fucking burned down, Gene."
It was probably a good thing that Imogene didn't give a flying fuck when it came to nudity. She just didn't see the big deal, and since she already knew Ren was a were, she hadn't even questioned why he was naked. After all, she'd be in the same boat if she'd bothered to change the whole way, instead of just enough to get the door busted in. As it were, the tattered shirt she hugged around herself didn't leave much to the imagination, and she'd had to tie up the pants to keep them on. "Well, I don't know how damned crazy you're feeling. And you've still got your hide intact, mostly." She paused to cough harshly and spit on the ground, glowering over at an EMT who was eying her with concern.
"So, did you piss someone off, or is this just some more fucking stupid-ass prejudice? It's not like I've been advertising that we're supernaturally inclined or what not. I ain't that stupid." Like Ren, Imogene hadn't believed for a second that the whole fiasco was an 'accident'. Accidents didn't start fires in kitchens when the only person in the apartment was asleep. Accidents didn't take the care to jam all the doors well enough that a reasonably fit were had trouble getting out. And she knew well enough how people loved to burn their monsters - it was traditional, or something. Symbolic, to see the 'unnatural' creatures burned at the stake. It'd been how Alo died, and why she'd left home, but apparently it followed her even out here, where the supes practically paraded their abilities through town. At least it wasn't her mother on the line anymore, but she still had to watch out for her own sake.
"Fuck, Gene." Ren shook his head, rolling his eyes back in exasperation. "Who the fuck isn't mad at me at any given point in time?" He heaved an immense sigh, the sound bordering heavily on being genuinely irate all over again. He was doing his best to seem sound for now, to act like he was taking this better than he was.
"I don't fuckin' have anything anymore, Gene." Ren gestured to the building, the top half almost completely burned away. "I. Don't. Have. Anything. I don't fucking care about prejudice or any of that shit right now." He turned away from her, teeth clenched as a pounding headache started to overwhelm him. "Fuck!" he shouted, his heart pounding as the anger returned anyway. "I don't want my fucking hide! I want my fucking shop back! Nobody even really fucking seems to care about that! I don't have a wallet, a phone, a pair of fucking jeans... I don't have anything anymore."
She was about to snap at him over the absurdity of telling her about having nothing, but after a quick glance over at the police she shut her mouth. Wouldn't do to have anyone overhearing how she was a homeless teenager. So far she had avoided too many questions, at least, and managed to claim that she'd lost her ID in the fire. It'd be quite a few more months before she was eighteen and properly independent. Instead she rocked back on her heels and just stared at him for a moment. "Just wanted to know if there's anyone whose ass I should be kicking soon, 's all. Suppose it could've been one of the rest of us." It wasn't like she was famous for her ability to get along with everyone.
Something poked her in her rib and she glanced down, loosening her arms from where they'd been clamped around her middle. A subconscious protective posture she'd adopted as soon as she was outside and everyone was accounted for. Well, damn. In all the chaos she'd entirely forgotten about that book she'd picked up and, apparently, held onto for the whole ordeal. Leaning over, she wordlessly tapped Ren's shoulder with his sketchbook, holding it out for him to take. He hadn't lost everything. "You got insurance though, yeah?"
Ren turned to look when he felt the tap on his shoulder, his mouth hanging open as he took in deep breaths to try and calm himself. Being angry wasn't really going to help anything, even if it was his natural state of existence. "Yeah, I got insurance. Not that it fucking matters." He took the sketchbook hesitantly, letting out a sigh. He was confused about why she had it, what she was giving it to him for, but figured she must have felt bad... or was worried about it. He didn't know. "Why'd you grab this?"
He flipped through the pages briefly, looking over everything he'd done in the last handful of years. It wasn't everything he'd ever done, but it was something - and the sentiment sank in, even for someone as insensitive as Ren.
"Then you'll get a new shop. Start over. You're an ass, but you're not going to give up just because some bastard tried to fuck you over and failed, right?" Imogene stood back and shrugged, glancing over the wreckage. "I don't fucking know. It was there. Guess I figured I might as well get something out, since I didn't have anything of my own to grab, and it weren't as if you were gonna miss the magazines or anything." But truthfully, she had seen Ren work. He was damned proud of what he could do with a pen and a needle, and he had every right to be. She sure didn't have a skill like that, but Alo had taught her to respect the things folk made by hand and put their hearts into. She probably wouldn't have gone out of her way to find it, but it'd been right there, and not any trouble at all to save. "But now you got something, right?"
Ren closed the book and tucked it under one arm, not really sure what else to do with it. He turned to head toward the EMTs, intent on asking for something to wear. They had to have something. "This bastard... if I ever find out who did it," he said, glancing over his shoulder to Imogene as he walked, "if I ever find out who did it... I'll grind their faces into the fucking pavement until their bones are nothing but fucking useless mounts of powder." And he meant it. When he reached the truck, Ren engaged the nearest person immediately, demanding to be given something for his trouble. He was giving them hell on purpose, swearing and gesturing wildly back toward the burned building behind him.
Imogene grunted and crossed her arms again and watched him, huffing a little as he harassed the EMTs. That man was utterly hopeless, but if he needed to yell, he might as well get it out on someone who wasn't her. She waited until he seemed to have cooled down a little before walking over to stand next to him. "Hey, where are you going stay? I mean, you got someone around or anything?" Somehow she doubted he had any family or good friends, assuming she'd have met them by now if he were at all close to them. "I mean, Austin said I could crash with him for tonight." Probably wouldn't put up with her beyond that, though.
Ren grabbed the medical gown that was handed to him with fury in his eyes, turning back to Imogene as she asked where he was going to stay. "I don't fucking know yet, Gene. I'll probably sleep in my goddamn car, just as soon as they find my keys in the mess of my shit. Or... what used to be my shit, I guess." Ren sent a ridiculously pained glance toward what used to be his home, his eyes widened, red around the edges. "I can't fucking believe this happened. What... what the fuck did I do to deserve this?" He looked back to Imogene, as though demanding she answer him -- and give him something meaningful.
"Well... damned if I know. Probably nothing." Imogene looked back at the wreckage and scowled to herself. "Last time I saw something like this I know for damned sure it weren't deserved. Wasn't... there that time though. And you came out of it alive. We all did, I mean." They'd never found Alo's body, and she still wasn't sure the old man had died in that fire, but it hurt. Especially now, when it'd nearly happened to her, too. It hurt that the people she'd thought of as her friends, her community had tried to kill the man that'd been so important to her. Because he might have been a witch, and they didn't even have proof. And that she hadn't been there to do anything about it. Then again, it hadn't really gone any better this time, when she was present. "Friend of mine has a shack, down by the river. I can ask if you want to use it for a bit, but it's out of the way. And she might be, uh, upset if she finds you there without warning."
"No," Ren said, dropping the blanket to pull on the gown. It would have to do for the time being. Eventually he would get his jeans back, get a new card, get some damned shoes. "I don't wanna stay in some stupid shack. I'll just curl up in the woods if I have to. I've been through worse shit than this. You don't even want to fucking know." He remembered suddenly that he didn't have any cigarettes and sighed, putting his hands on his face for a moment. "Shit. I want a fucking smoke so goddamn bad."
"Well I for sure don't got any. Ask one of the cops or something." One or two smelled a bit like smokers. She hadn't been paying much attention. "And you'd better be fucking careful out there, what with what's been running around those woods lately! You want to live long enough to beat on whoever did this? You don't do anything stupid. Maybe you can get a hotel room or something. They've gotta have something set up for people in your situation, y'know? And it's not like you don't got money in the bank or whatever." She grumbled and glanced towards the river, wishing she could be so confident about staying outside again. "And if you've been through worse, stop fucking moaning already."
Ren turned a cold set of eyes on Imogene, stunned by how nasty she was being with him. "Look, you ungrateful bitch... I'm the one that just lost his fucking business and home all in one fell swoop. Why don't you try being nice? I gave you my fucking couch to sleep on and let you eat all my fucking hotdogs without complaint." He turned away from her and stalked off, furious with her attitude in this particular moment. Normally it wouldn't even have bothered him, but today... He couldn't take it as well as he could dish it, not right now.
For a moment, she just stared after him. "Huh." So Ren did have a breaking point, after all. Of course, on some level she knew she should probably apologize, or at least feel bad, but quite frankly she mostly just felt numb. He'd cool down. Eventually. She hoped. He still owed her this week's pay, after all - and why was that even occurring to her? It wasn't important right now. With a frustrated huff she turned to stalk off, not even in the mood to find Austin and take him up on his offer. He'd be busy with his kid, anyway, and he didn't need a surly teen to deal with on top of this all. Of course, Ren probably didn't realize she'd been trying to be nice, so she could forgive him some of the attitude. Reassurance and kind words didn't come easily to her. For the first time since she left home, the bear found herself wishing that her mother was here. She, at least, was good with words.