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Post by Samantha Lobo on Sept 8, 2016 18:39:24 GMT -7
Samantha sat neatly in a side street, back against the wall and looking on the verge of dozing. A bag of chips hung loosely in her hands, alongside other deserted bags. All in all, not a very strange sight, except maybe the fact her current resting place suggested she was a runaway.
No, the strangest part of it was the tremendous dogs next to her, five in all. Her hands half-mindingly patted the monstrous mutts and they responded accordingly, laying next to her with all the patience in the world.
She didn't seem to want to move, except to shovel more food in her mouth, but she didn't seem to notice the suspect scene she was creating for anyone who'd dare to approach.
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Post by Carlos Johnston on Sept 8, 2016 20:27:48 GMT -7
Emerald City was surprisingly beautiful, considering the reasons why Carlos was there in the first place. When he heard of uncontrolled super attacks on the mayor and rampant poverty in the slums, he expected at least parts of the city to be a flaming wreck of destruction. Instead, the city seemed to be continuing on as normal, and the young teen found that quite admirable.
He had just finished a business deal and had decided that walking the few blocks back to his penthouse suite would be a nice first step to orientating himself with the area around his new home. Donning a pair of shades and a nondescript baseball cap, he walked with an air comprised of equal parts confidence and curiosity. It was his taking in the sights that allowed him to notice a most curious one.
A girl down a side alley, surrounded by what could've convincingly be claimed as the offspring of Cerberus himself, acting as though she hadn't a care in the world. He turned immediately and started to approach her.
"Well, hello there," he called out, maintaining a short distance from the dogs but starting considerably closer than most people would dare get. He waved and smiled, his intention of having a conversation clear.
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Post by Samantha Lobo on Sept 10, 2016 18:11:12 GMT -7
As the man approached Samantha, her pack took notice first. Immediately, the rather calm canines raised their heads and snarled, a black Doberman even standing and looking as if he were seconds away from devouring this human.
Samantha was up in seconds, abandoning her snack, "Jack! Mimi! Gara! What did I tell you!?" She barked, pulling her lips back in a slightly more terrifying display than the actual dogs, "You can't do this...no biting!" It was like a spell was cast, the dogs lowered their heads and respectfully laid back down.
Satisfied, Samantha turned her attention to the man...he wasn't familiar. "Most people would run away screaming." She growled, smirking at some unknown memory before straightening her face back out, "Who're you?"
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Post by Carlos Johnston on Sept 11, 2016 14:34:10 GMT -7
Carlos watched the monstrous dogs with amusement, fear obviously nowhere to be found within the boy. Their compliance to their master, though, changed that amusement into curiosity. He wondered on what the odds would be. Slim to none, as it was still far more likely that the girl before him was just out walking her dogs that had been through extensive behavior training, but he had learned that he should never ignore the chance, no matter how small.
Her statement and accompanying question made him realize he was still wearing the sunglasses and hat. He took off the sunglasses and smiled. "I'm not most people," he said with a shrug. "My name's Carlos Johnston. I'm new in town, but you might've heard my name if you've watched the local news the last few days." He considered explaining further, but decided against it. If she knew, she knew. If she didn't, a quick Internet search would do him more justice than he could himself.
"Anyway, enough about me," he said. "I love your dogs, and I've got to know how you get them to listen to you like that."
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Post by Samantha Lobo on Sept 11, 2016 15:44:01 GMT -7
Samantha tilted her head at the introduction, leaning forward slightly. Carlos? How the hell was she supposed to know him from the news!? "Mm-hm, whatever Carlos." She answered, giving a brisk nod to this really strange boy.
The question about her dogs surely caught her interest, but not in the good way. She looked almost angry at the question...or was that fear? Regardless, it was gone in an instant, it was just an innocent question, you're fine. "Don't know, don't care." She said rudely, patting one on the head, "They've listened to me as long as I can remember." She let a self-satisfied smile crossed her face, accompanied by a softening in her voice, "They respect me, I'm a pack leader."
Her eyes caught his, "Why the hell are you asking anyway?" The sharpness returned, "Got a mutt you can't control?" She seemed tense, as if hoping the answer was "yes".
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Post by Carlos Johnston on Sept 11, 2016 20:24:22 GMT -7
Carlos smiled when it was obvious that she had no clue who he was. It had been a while since he'd spoken to anyone who didn't know his name, and he always found it slightly enjoyable while it lasted. "So I told you my name," he said playfully, with total disregard to the venom in her voice. "Aren't you supposed to tell me yours in return?"
Dogs randomly listening to her for no reason she knew of for a while certainly sounded exactly like the kind of strange that he was used to, but nothing said so far confirmed or denied anything one way or the other. He decided to reserve judgement for later, but he was certainly interested in finding out one way or the other.
Her question on if he had a dog made his smile suddenly seem mask-like. "I've always wanted one, but never was able. Mom was allergic." He cleared his throat before returning to normal. "Besides, I move around too much anyway. I'd hate to drag a dog to a new city every month. I don't even know if I'd have enough time to take care of one properly, either, so I just admire them from afar."
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Post by Samantha Lobo on Sept 12, 2016 5:32:00 GMT -7
Samantha paused for a long while, almost looking like she wasn't going to heed his advice before, "Samantha...call me Sam."
She smiled at his admission he couldn't have a dog, "Hmph, you're missing out, nothing's more reliable than a dog." She looked around, ignoring him for a second, "I lived my whole life here, it's fucking crazy I haven't died yet." Her voice seemed like this was for herself more than him, "My parents wanted to move after that dragon, but I'm still here, there are some things I guess I can't let go."
She provided no further explanation and leaned down to grab her snacks, it was frankly amazing she was still hungry, given there were a couple of bags crumpled up together.
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Post by Carlos Johnston on Sept 13, 2016 17:31:00 GMT -7
Carlos grinned when Sam finally provided her name. For a moment, he had been worried that she wouldn't. "Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, Sam," he said happily. He didn't have too much experience dealing with people, but something about the scene before him had him convinced that he was pretty lucky to have gotten the kindness he had.
Her following statements managed to get him to drop his smile, though. From what he understood, events in the city had been insane. That was why he was there, though. People in town were in need of help, and he had considerable means to provide it.
"Don't worry too much about it," he said, "I'm sure your parents will be rushing to get back to town once I'm done here."
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Post by Samantha Lobo on Sept 13, 2016 20:00:45 GMT -7
Samantha sighed resigningly, her parents return, yeah...like that was happening any time soon, "You know, somehow I really doubt that." She chuckled toward herself, "Why would they come back at all?" They likely didn't know she was here, and she was in no hurry to tell them.
She shook herself out, "So, what brings you to Dragon city...'cause I can't guarantee I'll protect you if something new attacks." There was an element of truth to her statement, but she chose to disguise it as a cocktail joke.
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Post by Carlos Johnston on Sept 16, 2016 18:29:58 GMT -7
"Well, wouldn't they come back for you?"
Carlos thought it was a perfectly innocent question, but the concern in his voice was clear. He was aware that some parents left their children to fend for themselves, the reasons astoundingly varied from case to case. No matter how many times he heard somebody tell their tale of their experiences with it, though, he couldn't seem to understand how somebody could do that. He hoped for Sam's sake that it was something different, but he couldn't imagine what it could be.
He smiled again at her joke, though. "Oh, I'm here to help fund the reconstruction efforts," he said without hesitation. "I'm a little late to help with the last dragon attack, but from what I've heard, Emerald City deals with dragons fairly regularly, yeah? On top of that, I heard that a gang called Pandaemonium is causing trouble, so it seemed the city was in dire need of assistance. And if that's not enough to keep my hands full, I'm gonna be going around to different parts of the city before long, see what else needs to be done."
He shot Sam a thumbs up before continuing. "And no need to worry about protecting me, I've got enough cash I could throw money at any problem and still come out on top. I've always wondered if I'd be able to bribe a dragon, anyway," he joked.
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Post by Samantha Lobo on Sept 20, 2016 16:53:17 GMT -7
In a lapse of attention, Samantha let her lips pull back at the question, her teeth seemed diffrent...and it was gone, "It's...complicated..." She hissed out, "Point is, I'm alone and fine." They didn't know she was here, and for now, she wanted to keep it that way.
She narrowed her eyes as he talked about helping the town, how could a human help with that? "What, can you breath fire or something, 'cause I assure you, a tiny human will do jack shit against a dragon." She knew mentioning supers rarely went well in polite conversation, but she wanted to say this, if only for his reaction.
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Post by Carlos Johnston on Sept 21, 2016 12:20:48 GMT -7
Carlos's smile turned apologetic as Sam replied, but he was watching her closely. There were plenty of warning signs, and the unnatural smile all but confirmed it, but there was still reasonable doubt. It would do no good to make an assumption and be completely wrong. The same could be said about a response to what she said. He decided to forego unnecessary comforting, mostly because he didn't have enough information and it seemed to be a taboo subject.
Her question on his potential powers elicited a small, polite chuckle. "I can say I certainly can't, but don't underestimate your average person who just happens to have an extremely large wallet. Not every super has actual powers. There are a those with mechanical suits and the like, you know. Not that I'd be going around in something so obvious. First people that would be suspected of being those guys would be the rich."
His smile took on a certain cunning for a split second before returning to normal. "Besides, don't worry, you won't be hearing tales of how Carlos Johnston decided to tackle a dragon on the news. I'm here to do charities and the like to help people. I'm smart enough to know that dragon slaying should be left to those with a chance not to die."
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Post by Samantha Lobo on Sept 23, 2016 8:52:11 GMT -7
Samantha snorted at the mention of metal suits and such, yeah, she'd seen them a lot...they never seemed to contribute much in the fight. She forced these thoughts down and just gave a shrug, like a teenager would, "Guess you're right...although I would barely call them supers...more like brave humans."
She tilted her head as he went on to reassure her he wouldn't fight a dragon, instead he'd leave it to those who wouldn't die. She never saw someone human being...trusting...to supers. "Y-you're surprisingly nice to supers." She mumbled, face softening, "Most people would be all, "Those bastards aren't human! We can take care of ourselves!" You know, something fucking stupid like that."
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Post by Carlos Johnston on Sept 23, 2016 18:28:25 GMT -7
Carlos grinned at what Sam said. Granted, she kept referring to people as humans, which meant that she saw more of a difference than just powered and unpowered. However, combined with the fact that she referred to those in suits as brave, it practically screamed that his suspicions were correct. It may have just been circumstantial evidence for all he knew, but everything added up. Not that he was going to say anything about it. On the slight chance that he was wrong, he could easily insult there girl.
"Brave is certainly the way I'd see it, but i think most people would be inclined to say that they're stupid. 'How dare they try to act like one of them!' and the like. But that's alright. It's not so much about acceptance, or being feared, or whatever else. If I had that kind of power, what people thought wouldn't be important. It'd be about what I thought, and how I acted to bring about the changes that I want. How about you?"
He smiled knowingly before turning to face away from Sam. "Also, it's a lot less that I'm nice to supers, and more I know what they can do. Five times, while I was at various cities helping with charities and such, the cities I was in were attacked by dragons. How people can survive one and not understand how supers are necessary is beyond me, but I'm sure they can come to learn, given time and proper guidance. But it's not as though supers are this alien race bent on unpowered destruction. People with powers are still people, albeit people with a greater need to try and shape the world in a positive way."
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Post by Samantha Lobo on Sept 24, 2016 13:31:33 GMT -7
Samantha nodded knowingly, "Yep, that's exactly what they'd say except you know, with more BS." She blinked as he suddenly turned the super conversation to her, "W-well...um...Secretly...I'd just do what I want." She lowered her head and gave a crooked smile, "Most people would say that with that power, you could...no...should turn the world into a better place. Hehe...I couldn't give a damn."
The mutts raised their heads quizzically as her sudden drop in mood reached them, but she continued, "You know, protect my friends, get stuff I needed...not a villain...I'm not a bitch, I just don't feel a reason to be a superhero or whatever their calling it today." She startled, she barely talked this much to her own friends, let alone a stranger!
She tilted her head again as a strange sort of suspicion rose in her chest, "You know a fucking boatload about them, you got a super buddy or something?"
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