Noa Bellamy (sharpthings) wrote in remains_rpg, @ 2016-08-18 09:42:00 |
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Entry tags: | # 2019 [07] july, cherry chan, noa bellamy |
Who: Noa Bellamy and Cherry Chan
Where: UMCB District
What: Noa asks Cherry for some input on a project.
When: [backdated] 7/5/19, late afternoon/early evening
Cherry shut the door behind her almost as soon as she heard the sound of a motorcycle die down, a big grin on her face as she walked over to greet her friend. Only a day had elapsed since the last time they'd seen each other, but the fun of her birthday party seemed like it was light years away to the reality of today: more violence in the city, totally besmirching the name of the guys she knew and loved. She didn't regret a single thing about her time at the Dog Park, but the more she learned how it was for the rest of Austin, the harder it was for her to empathize and feel that sense of loyalty she'd once had to them. "Hey girl," she called out, leaning in for a hug once Noa had dismounted. God, it was good to see her! "I can't wait to hear what you've got in mind." “It ain’t anything big,” Noa replied as she returned the hug and pocketed her keys. “Small, really.” She was hesitant to lay it all out, but she trusted Cherry, she knew her friend wouldn’t turn around and turn her in. Street art probably wasn’t legal, strictly speaking, so she knew she ran a risk there. “I’m not even real sure it’ll do what I want, but I got a feeling that I need to do something.” Her own frustration with the rogues bled through into her tone, as she rifled for her phone and pulled up the image she’d snapped of the piece she wanted to do. “You familiar with street art? Not the gang graffiti, but the ones that have some kind of message to ‘em?” "Yeah. Not so much the idea behind it, so much, besides just wanting to say something, but I've seen a couple. Most of them were when we were driving down to Austin, actually. There wasn't a lot where I was living." Cherry liked the idea of a piece going up here, though, and if Noa was trying to say what she thought she was -- well, she could definitely get behind it. She gestured towards the sidewalk out front of the duplex. In the distance they could see a few groups of soldiers patrolling, supposedly keeping the streets safe for them. Cherry took their presence at face value despite her previous home; it made it easy for her to walk to the Capitol District and back, and that was really all she asked for. "Why don't we go for a walk and you can tell me more about this 'something'?" Noa let her eyes slide over the men on patrol before she nodded. “Let’s go this way,” she responded, indicating the opposite direction the soldiers were in. She didn’t know if they had the same authority to arrest that the APD would, but she felt safer without their ears nearby to overhear. Once they were a good distance away from the uniforms she held out her phone to Cherry. “I want to put that up, as a message to the rogues.” Noa knew at first glance it was a relatively vague statement, but she’d known some of the men that had splintered, and thought if they caught sight of it they just might understand where it’d come from. “There’s not a lot I feel like I can do, but I want to do something.” Less than a year ago they’d been men willing to follow Rodeo wherever he pointed them, but now that Vic and Bishop were trying to clean things up they were throwing their own kind of fit. It gave her some new perspective. “Call them out, I guess.” While they walked, Noa watched their surroundings, looking for the signs that the rogues had been through the district. “It might be stupid, but they’re messing with people I care about.” "Good! Someone should. You'll be better able to with this than me, that's for sure." Cherry lifted the phone up closer to her face, peering at the design on the screen. The message was vague, but now that she knew Noa's intent it made sense. Cherry couldn't rationalize or explain her own feelings about the current mess in the city, but she hoped that this little venture of Noa's could speak for her position on the matter as well. She shook her head and handed the phone back to Noa as they continued to walk down the street together, her friend's words still echoing in her head. "Maybe this wouldn't be so hard if we hadn't found people outside the Greenbelt?" she ventured after a moment. She had to guess that she was referring to that doctor at UMCB whose house had gotten vandalized, but even Cherry knew it was probably a sensitive subject, one that would require more of a delicate approach. "I mean, this stuff isn't any different from what they used to do. So why's it different now and why do we feel like this?" Chewing at the inside of her cheek, Noa pondered Cherry’s words as she slid her phone back into her pocket. It was just one opinion, but it bolstered Noa’s resolve to know that at least one friend thought maybe she’d make some kind of dent somewhere in the mess. She knew she couldn’t create revolution, but she was beyond sitting on her hands. “Honey, if I had all the answers,” Noa started to say, then smiled a little helplessly. The Hellhounds hadn’t been good men, and she’d known that. But she’d been protected from their anger and the despicable things they’d done. It hadn’t ever been turned around on her; it hadn’t be turned around on people that mattered to her. “Pete has something to do with it, for me.” It felt okay to admit that to Cherry, who gave her a knowing grin in response. “But I suspect I was getting tired of it after Rodeo left without a backwards look.” She hasn’t talked about their former Dog King much since his exit, and the time since he’d been gone had helped her identify more of his faults. “Burnin’ this city was always his agenda. It ain’t Bishop’s or Vic’s, as much as they followed his lead.” But she figured that Cherry knew that too. “I guess we’re just waking up to things.” "I guess so. I always knew they weren't up to good out here, and for a while it was kind of sexy." It was a weird kind of fucked up turn on, Cherry was well aware of that, but it was the truth and there was no point in hiding it. "But things are different now." She paused as they turned a corner, mulling things over to herself, before she added, "Like the future isn't so hard to imagine anymore." Noa nodded, and glanced around the street again. She’d always been the kind to look forward, but she couldn’t disagree that it was easier to imagine these days. “Any recommendations on where I should put that?” She could talk about all the things she’d ignored for years, but she didn’t want to forget her task at hand. "Actually, yeah." Cherry appreciated the change of subject, too; it helped to make her feel a little less guilty. Sure, she hadn't been the one out wrecking the city, but she'd encouraged and loved many of those men. "How about…" Just a couple of feet away, growing larger as they got closer, was a nice stretch of wall on the side of a still-abandoned building. "Right there?" “Could work really well, sweetheart” Noa mused with an appraising eye. The surface was smooth enough for her to adhere the pieces that would need to be adhered, and though they were the only two people on the street, she thought there was a good sign of the traffic that the route usually got. “You know how often they send a patrol this way?” Some of it would probably be guesswork, but if she had a benchmark, she’d know what kind of time she’d be working with. But even if Cherry didn’t have an idea, Noa would still go ahead. It was a good spot. "They patrol pretty regularly all over the district, I think." Cherry had never given it much thought, but she'd walked around a fair amount between UMCB and the Capitol and had never been alone. And I stick to city curfew, so I'm not sure what it's like at night." She wished she could be more helpful, but moving in with Mina had meant a return to trying to follow the rules. "What's the worst that could happen, though?" “The cops could pick me up,” Noa said, a level of nonchalance. She had already weighed every risk, and even though she never thought that she’d rather run into a pair of uniforms - their reaction would probably be safer than the men that she was trying to call out. “It’s a misdemeanor, I suspect.” She’d been caught once before, in Florida, but she’d been a minor then. Pulling her phone out again, she took a picture of the wall for reference. She had already memorized the way to get back later, but just in case. “I ain’t going to be making trouble for you, honey.” She knew that her friend was trying to make an effort to stay on the right side of things. “They won’t come knocking at your door if I get myself into a tight spot.” Noa put her phone away as she glanced back down the street both ways. As much as Cherry wanted to help Noa, she knew she had too much on the line now -- living with UMCB women and working in the Capitol -- to risk getting caught. As close as she and Noa were, she had to keep herself safe. The reassurance was very much appreciated. "I trust you," she said. "I'll help if I can, but I know you wouldn't ask anything I couldn't give you." “Think I got what I needed. We can go ahead and walk back,” she said with an easy smile, the anticipation of her plan buzzing just beneath the surface of her skin. “I appreciate you keepin’ the secret, too.” Cherry grinned over at Noa, the look of one conspirator to another. "I can't wait to see how it looks once it's up." |