Difference between revisions of "Log:Bad Luck, Bro"

April 2, 2017

Lucky and Hex meet up for the first time

The Olde Market

There's still a chill in the air, even at this time of year. The weather has been doing strange things; thanks, global warming! But it doesn't stop the casual shoppers who go to the Market, looking for... whatever it is one looks for. The place offers a variety of things -- martial arts studios, pagan supply stores, curios shops, crafts stores. You name it. Lucky's currently outside one of the little eateries, the dark-skinned elven looking man apparently having himself a piece of caramel cheesecake, looking contented in his t-shirt despite the chill in the air.

This is Hex's king of place. Bartering galore! Even at the places that don't generally barter. Hex can't help himself. And sometimes they'll make an exception for him just to get them out of their shop.

And so the Elemental is strolling down the street, whistling off-key. He's sweating a black sweatshirt, a pair of black jeans, and has a canvas messanger bag, strap diagonal across his chest. It looks... rather full. Hex has made out pretty well, and with only minor travesties.

And he's definitely Lost. A Lost with a decidedly high Wyrd, no less. He's pale, with silvery eyes. His 'hair' is made up of pale, flickering shadows, like you'd expect from a will 'o the whisp or something likewise etheral. Pale scales trace along his neck, disappearing beneath his sweatshirt. And then there's the wings. They're made out of the same thing as his hair, pale shadows, and are constantly shifting - hardly useful for flight, but there nonetheless. Most of the time.

Hex spots the eatery, his stomach growling, and then spots the other Lost sitting outside it. Another! He heads in that direction. At which point, a biker who isn't really paying attention rides right into him. He goes flying a few feet, knocked off his own feet, and lands sprawling across the ground. The biker runs over his arm, like a speed bump, and then keeps pedaling on.

Somewhere up ahead, a bird feels the need to go. It lands in the middle of his t-shirt. Hex sighs.

Lucky watches as the bike messenger speeds past, barely paying attention to the fact that he just ran a man over. A man who's currently laying in the middle of the sidewalk, possibly with an injured arm. Jumping up from his seat, he calls after the biker, "Yeah, everyone saw that, asshole! Don't worry, you'll get yours!" He even flips him the bird, for good measure. Because it's pretty much all one can do.

Moving over to Hex, Lucky kneels down beside him, sighing at the mess. "Jesus, man," he tells the ... very nearly fae. And the nervousness there shows. But no Fae would have allowed that go to unpunished. "You alright?" Grabbing a napkin from a nearby table, Lucky tries to help clean the downed man up a bit, though on that black it probably only makes it worse.

Hex just lays there a moment, resigned. He's accidentally stumbled over once. He doesn't even seem bothered. It's almost like he's used to it. Finally, he's pushing himself up, even as th at other Lost is hurrying over. He's not focused on the Lost, though, he's focused on his messanger bag. He opens it open, looks inside, and sighs. Inside are a couple of random objects - what looks like an old fashioned Russian doll in a doll, a Asian-styled chess set made of ceramic, a couple of wooden carvings. And, you know it, they're all broken. Well, it looks like the bicyclist might pay after all.

He grumbles. He'll ask around the market later and find out who he is. Right now, there's another Lost dabbing at him with a napkin. And of course it makes things worse. "I'm fine, I'm fine. A little bruised, that's all." After all he's been through, he'd have to be missing a limb to be truly concerned.

And there's another thing odd about Hex. When Lucky moves closer, his Mantle? Well, it seems to disappear. Hex doesn't seem to have a Mantle, minself, and now Lucky doesn't, either.

He pushes himself up a bit more and glances at Lucky with those silvery eyes. He smiles wryly. "I'm Hex." He doesn't bother explaining the name.

Lucky winces at the ruined bag of... whatever-it-was. Dolls and such. "Man. I'm sorry." He shakes his head, offering Hex a hand as he stands up. "Come on. I'll buy you something to eat. Trust me," he tells the unlucky scaly shadow dude. "We'll make sure at least one decent thing happens to you today." He nods over to the seat across from him. "I'm Lucky," he introduces himself, offering a bright smile. "You like cheesecake?" There is nothing in the world safer than cheesecake.

Hex shakes his head and smiles wryly, obviously used to this sort of thing. He reaches up, taking Lucky's hand, and pulls himself up off the ground. He'll be a little bruised, but that's nothing. His grip is firm, although not overly strong, just confident. Despite his obvious bad luck, the man is who he is, and he's okay with it.

And he can't help himself. As Lucky introduces himself, he actually laughs. It's a genuine laugh, somewhat light. "Lucky." He looks over at the man and offers a smiles. Now that he's smiling for real, not just wry or sheepish things, there are dimples. "Are you sure you want to be around me? You might have to pick a new name."

Still, he's moving to take a seat. He moves carefully, a bit hesitent, but when nothing immediately breaks or goes drastically wrong, he starts to calm down a little. His stomach rumbles, "Cheesecake sounds good. I had a hard time at breakfast, and then the second breakfast, so I /am/ a bit hungry. I'm new to town."

"You say that like you don't wanna be around me," Lucky tells him in return, the smile just as warm and bright. "You might actually end up having a better day than you thought you would!" Lucky pulls the chair out for the other man, testing it for reasonable stability, looking for anythin sharp. That sort of thing. If this one is cursed, then anything could happen. Best to be careful about these sorts of things. "I'd ask how you came by that name, but it seems pretty obvious."

Lucky hands Hex the menu, letting him look through it. "Anything you want, man. I cashed in a decent little lottery ticket earlier, so I've got some to spare. And I've eaten hre before. I think we can rule out food poisoning, accidental stabbings, or sloppy scaldings." In fact, Lucky will pretty much make sure of it. The scaly guy is basically a trainwreck, and if there's ever been a person more in need of a little luck, Lucky doesn't know him. "And hey, I'm new here too," Lucky tells him in turn. "Still trying to get my bearings. But, you know. It seems nice enough. Once you get past the fact that it's... a little weird."

smiles sheepishly at Lucky's first words, shaking his head, "Oh, it's not that. It's because you're nice, and I won't want to..." Ruin his life. He shakes his head, "Just be careful, ok?" He looks a bit skeptical about the thought of having a better day. Sure, there are Contracts. Magic! But it usually fails around him, especially when focused on him.

There's a soft grunt at the name comment and he shrugs, offering Lucky another wry, rather sheepsih grin, "Yeah. I don't remember when it started. Back when I was a kid. I have a new name now, but I still go by Hex." Thankfully, he's in a different state than his Fetch and he was always lost in the system so it doesn't really matter.

At Lucky's optimistic words, he seems a bit hesisten, a bit cautious. "Um. Something easy. That's served in a plastic basket. And doesn't require any silverwear. And no fish, those bones are hard to get out." And there's always a bone. The way he states it all - yeah, the bad luck isn't a new thing. It's something he simply accepts as part of his life.

He seems friendly enough, though, and nods, "Yeah, I'm the same way. I'm trying to open a shop. Everything's final, and I'm getting things all situated. It's..." He pauses, glancing at Lucky, then shrugs, "I wanted to try saving a /place/. Like I told Oberon, I like traveling, like meeting new people, but I get lonely. I want... something more solid. And I think I might be ready to do it." Without destroying everyone's lives. "Things have gotten better, you know?"

"Are you opening a store or proposing?" Lucky asks him, with a raise of an eyebrow. "I mean, I'm flattered, but we barely know each other. Might wanna at least buy me a drink or something first." Lucky flashes him a grin. "Settling down is the easy part. It's staying there that's the hard part. Things always tend to change, the wind never blows the same direction for long."

Though he thinks about the man's order specifications carefully. "Ok," he agrees. "Burger. Fries. Shake. Cheesecake. None of those require silverware, they'd damn sure better not have bones, there's very little scalding liquid involved with any of them. I think it's probably your safest bet." Lucky doessn't seem particularly concerned about the man's bad luck. If his name is to be believed, he tends to come out on top in these sorts of sitautions. Besides, it's way more likely to hit Hex first, which makes the other man inherently useful. Which the smile on Lucky's face shows all too well. "So you're opening a store?"

Hex blinks at Lucky's rather flirtatious words. It's clear that he's not used to it. He's most used to people telling him to go away, or at least go to the back corner where he can't cause any significant aharm. He hesitates, then offers a shy smile. "Um, a store, but I could buy you a drink." Ok, so the whole joke is half lost on him.

At the talk fo settling, he admits, "I've never tried it. I just... well, I've been running a stall for a bit, here and there, different places, and I thought that maybe I could turn that into a /real/ thing. Like a permanent thing. So I'm going to open a pawn shop. I bought the builty, took all of my savings. And now everything's getting transported." Wait, didn't he say he traveled a lot? Everything's getting transported? Did he have a secret hoard somewhere?

He smiles again at Lucky's idea about food, nodding, "Ok, yeah, that should work." Nothing bad has happened in /minutes/. He's starting to relax. "So, what about you? Why're you here?"

"Came looking for a..." Lucky stops, thinking about what he's supposed to say here, the pristine black glove on his right hand holding his drink while the tattered leather of the left taps idly on the table. "I guess you'd call her a business acquaintance," Lucky tells him. "Came here, and then ... nada. Nobody's heard from her. So I figure i'll start looking around. See if she's in over her head, or bailed, or something."

Lucky orders the aforementioned stuff for Hex, adding it to his own bill, before looking back at the other Lost. "Alright. So moving from a stall to an actual place sounds like a step up in the world," he agrees. "What, were you running like, one of those produce stand things? Or like, one of those mall kiosks with the cell phones and stuff?" And then, as an afterthought, "Damn. Phone. I should look into that maybe." And then, by way of explanation, "Mine is... old. Not really industry standard anymore." By about a decade or so. "Doesn't even have a touchscreen." Or text messaging where you don't have to hit the number pad so many times it's basically an endurance trial.

Hex shrugs at Lucky's words. He doesn't ask questions. He's way beyond asking questions. Business associate is good enough, although there's a glint of curiosity in the man's silvery gaze. That might be more about who Lucky might want to meet than about who Lucky is acutally meeting. Until he hears the last bit. He wets his lips and says, "Missing? What's her name? I could ask around." New to town, incredibly unlucky, just a weedy little pawn store owner, and yet... he says it in the manner of someone who's pretty sure he could do it.

As Lucky continues, he shakes his head, smiling wryly. "I ran a stall in the /market/. Now and then. I moved around a lot. But now I think I want to take it over /here/. I've collected a lot of things, I'm good at bargaining, I think maybe... maybe it'll work for me."

At the comment about the phone, he actually laughs. It's light, but genuine. "Yeah, I have to pick my new one up tomorrow. My last got eaten by a dog. And the one before that by an alligator. And the one before that got struck by lightning." A pause, then he adds, "Always get the insurance." Because, you know. Things happen.

He pauses a moment, silvery gaze studying Lucky. "How... how are you so cheerful?" There's not judgement there - it's an honest question. He's always seeking to better himself, and that's a trouble area.

Lucky shrugs. "Because shit always gets better," Lucky tells him, by way of cheer. "I mean, it can sometimes get a fuckton worse before it gets better, and 'better' is pretty subjective. But it'll never stay the same. No matter how shitty it looks, there's an upswing around the corner, even if it's just a little one. So you can't take any of this shit too seriously." Ah, the eternal Dawn. "You juAt gotta nut up and suck it up through the bad parts."

At the mention of the phone, though, he has to laugh a little. "Well, if I had a number, it wouldn't do any good to give it to you. You'd just lose it. Gonna have to figure out how to find you. Especially if you're gonna go off looking for Luna, too. Doesn't do me much good if you find her, and I can't find you." Though the other part does interest him. "What kind of things do you collect? And what exactly is it that you have for sale?"

Hex smiles wryly and shakes his head, "Does it? Seems like it stays the same, to me. Seems like no matter how hard we try, nothing changes, and we're all kind of screwed. By just existing." Ah, the Dusk comes out. Yet, at the same time, it's obvious Hex hasn't /stopped/ trying. He's a Pilgrim. He's still stribing, even if it's pointless. What else is he going to do?

He snorts at Lucky's works. "Yeah, just walk it off." Says the man who was just run over by a bicyble and then stepped on, pooped on, and otherwise carrying on his day as per normal. "Working through, though, that's what I do. None of us stand a chance, really. We're doomed from the get-go. And some people, they just give up. But I think... why not? If you're going to go out, go out with a bang. Make a difference. Make things better. We don't have very long, so why not?"

He shrugs, then snorts, "I don't lose things. That's the opposite of what I do, really. I collect things." At the mention of Luna, he files the name away, nodding. "Tell me more about her. Who am I searching for?" At the last question, he just smiles. "Everything. I have a fondness for gold, but I have a little of... everything."

Lucky thinks about Hex's words, smiling. "Sure, we might be all fucked in the end. The end isn't really the important part, though. It's the -journey-. The getting there. I mean, yeah, so what if the plane crashes? It might not. Then again, it might. What's important is that we do what we can, while we can." Somewhere, there's a middle ground there. Maybe.

When asked about Luna, though, he gets a bit more contemplative. "She'll be pretty nondescript," he tells the man. "Probably. But that's not really what you wanna look for. Look for someone who's always watching. Someone who shows up at just the right time -and- the wrong time. And," he adds, pointing at his eyes, and his gloves, "Look for these. They're pretty much a dead giveaway."

Though he does brighten at teh mention of the shop. "Gaining things and losing things are two sides of the same coin. Nothing ever gets magicked up out of the ether. It all comes from -somewhere-. Even if that somewhere isn't entirely obvious. But I think we might be able to do some business, sometime," Lucky tells him. "Assuming that you've got something interesting."

They're opposites. Hex a beacon of bad luck, Luck a beacon of good. Hex is resigned to that bad luck, Lucky sees potential. Yet Hex isn't lost. Despite seeing the worst in everything, experiencing it, there's something there. To make what time he has worthwhile. In a way, the fatalistic Dusk has more hope than many Dawns.

He nods, listening to Luna's description, then shifts his gaze down to Lucky's gloves. Then back up, meeting the man's gaze. He doesn't ask any questions. He simply says, "I'll keep my eyes out. In return, you look out for an Asian guy named Hakuri. If you catch him selling emotions, stop him." Hex said he'd make it so, so why not expand the network. He smirks, "Eyes and ears, more valuable, sometimes, than anything else."

As he talks about business, Hex, smiles sheepishly, "Well. Well, I have everything. This side and the other side. If I don't, I can find it. It's what I do. So, I figured.. do what you love, right? Life's short. And will probably end horribly, so do what you do. So I'm going to try it."

Dawn and Dusk are opposites, yet there are similarities noentheless. And then there's food. W hat could go wrong?

Lucky laughs. "Selling emotions, huh? I'll keep an eye out." Passersby probably think it's some kind of drug thing. "But alright. I'll come browse your wares, sometime. See if I find anything to my liking. Pretty sure that I can get some schmuck to come off a class ring or something. If he's dumb enough."