13409/You're being followed!

You're being followed!
Date of Scene:	21 November 2022
Location:	The Narrows - Miagani Island
Synopsis:	Karai helps Veronique avoid the police, and offers her a place to stay.
Cast of Characters:	Veronique Lalonde, Shredder

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Veronique Lalonde has posed:
    Veronique is in a panic. The urge to dash and dine lead to an urge to smash and split. Calories success being a domino to carats. She thought she had been fast enough, all juiced up after her meal, quick enough to avoid the sensors and cameras. The only positive thing she can say, while running along the street and nearly colliding with everyone she meets, is that she at least wore the mask. Her sweats, dark and toasty for a chilly Gotham, still have glass dust debris on them, twinkling like diamonds themselves. Her initial velocity to get out of the jewelers had tugged back her hood, but the simple bandit-esque mask had stayed thankfully in place. And her rabbit-esque headphones covering her ears, trailing thin and thick cables, are swept back giving her the illusion of wind-sheer.

    The damned streets are so wet, her sneakers are having a heck of a time finding tread. Also pilfered, they're more stylish than professional, and make the worst squeaks, like she's ona basketball court indoors. Behind her are sirens and shouts from law enforcement and civilians alike. The gum in her mouth has very nearly lost all it's flavour, much like her initial glee at the satchel of stolen shinies. She does not know this town well. All these damns streets are the same. She has to pause at a corner and whip her head wildly about, looking for salvation or a sign from a merciful deity. She pants heavily, and as her speed bleeds, she radiates an intense heat flash, nearly flash-boiling the moisture within a meter of herself. "Haaaa!....Haaaaa!...Fuck!"

Shredder has posed:
    Oroku Karai had been on an investigation of something completely unrelated. Gotham held many opportunities for the Foot. Disorganized organized crime, squabbling mafia bosses, a gang called the Bat Family which assigned itself as the city's protectors. The city is a mess, making ninja work a bit easier.

    She was just heading back from her recon when the dash down the street catches her attention. Upon a roof's corner, she pauses, and leans forward on one knee to observe. At least for the moment.

    The kunoichi's first priority was to watch the pursuers, learn how they tend to operate in this town. The heat flash draws her attention back, though, looking at the sudden steam that puffs around the girl. Well, that changes things. Someone with powers, clearly a little new at her craft. She steps forward off the edge of the building, dropping one story before catching a brick window ledge. A leap off freom there to wall unit air conditioner, and from there to a fire escape that betrays her presence with a slight creak of the metal. She wears a black out fit, steel shin guards and pauldrons, and a red scarf around her neck.

    "Bite off more than you can chew?" she asks.

Veronique Lalonde has posed:
    Veronique whips her head around to the question, and her rapid chew-chew of her that blue-green mishmash of gum between her pearly whites pauses, clinging to an incisor as she regards the stranger. It would charitable to call the expression on the girl innocently surprised. It's more hand caught in the cookie jar. Her abrupt head movement causes her rough makeshift earphones swivel up, in almost a parody of a troublesome hare. Whatever they are, they didn't come out of a box like that. The product of cosplay or an amateur gadgeteer. The muscles in her thighs flex, like she's about to bolt again. And that causes discomfort after already having come to a stop.

    There's sounds further down the way Veronique came, commotion and chase, but she doesn't turn away from the stranger that rather awesomely must have just appeared or scaled a respectable height. Not a cop. Not...a bat, probably. Oh gawd, is it one of those crime fighting folks? "Oui." she quips and fidgets and her feet to a little soft-shoe, indecisive of where to run next. "I mean...no! I mean what's it to you? It's not my fault, right?" she wrinkles her nose and starts chewing furiously. "I gotta...I gotta go...I gotta go." The bag of stolen loot jingle jangles as she tries to shoulder it more securely. Major stranger danger in her eyes as she view Oroku with fear and trepidation.

Shredder has posed:
    Karai hops down onto the uneven alley pavement, not taking any ready action for an attack. "What you need is something that is more interesting to draw their attention," she says. She pulls a few smoke pellets from a small pouch on her person. She looks away from Veronique, around the corner and down the street at the approaching law enforcement. "Watch."

    She flings a small collection of pellets at window across the street. They break the glass, and a puff of smoke explodes from the window. "Fires are more important than thieves," she says, glancing over her shoulder at the rabbit-headphoned girl.

Veronique Lalonde has posed:
    Veronique's head tilts, curiosity getting the better of her fearful anxiety, to watch what karai is up to. The other woman is quite nimble, and that's inspiring and arresting to someone like Lalonde. "What?" she asks dumbly, and follows the movement and the direction she's meant to pay attention to. Her jaw chews furiously, turning the gum to a dozen different abominable shapes. The shattering of the glass makes Veronique wince and the gum drops from her mouth to become a part of the scenery. A flinching of her muscles, as if the sound itself with so sharp as to do more than tickle her eardrums. The sight of things being broken serves up a double-ended delight of sensations though. A plus on the visuals and a neg on the sound. Her eyes widen as does her mouth. She'd cheer at just the vandalism, and there's a second where her thinking catches up like a tortoise rounding on the hare. "Oh!" she breathes and grins widely and nods enthusiastically. "Fire are more important!"

    And at, the girl almost sprints down a street before blinking and turning back to Oroku. She takes some tentative bouncing heel steps towards her. "Where? I gotta...We...gotta get away!" She clutches her satchel and kneads at it. Pained to even suggest what comes next. "I...could share. A little. I didn't much...I mean I didn't 'find' much...accidentally."

Shredder has posed:
    "Now you wait, they will have people coming from another direction to cut you off," Karai answers calmly. She can't be any older t han Veronique, but she has the confidence of someone much older. "Lose the mask, lose the headphones." She looks back at the slowing police.

    "Fire! Call it in. Clear the building, these Narrows apartments are never up to code." The group descends upon the building across the street. "Now we go back right past them," she suggests. A bold strategy to be sure.

Veronique Lalonde has posed:
    If Veronique wasn't already staring, her eyes would be bulging with such a wild suggestion. "What?!" Her mouth twists and forms all manner of shapes as she gasps and sputters and only offers forth half-baked noises that should be words. There's something that other girl's demeanor though, that's taffy for her soles. And if there's something that wins out against indecision, it's the confidence of another. "I...Rrrrrrrr!" Panicking, the red-head reaches up to remove her headphones with trembling hands. Some can be folded away, but to follow Karai's strategy, she has to collapse them entirely and tuck them inside her hoodie. The removal of the mask feels like she's going to have to strip down to her unmentionables, but in for a pound, in for a penny. She anxiously swipes it up and off her face and jams it irritably into a pocket to reveal a frightened and flushed freckled face of a girl that's in her teens. Veronique presses her trembling lips together and stiffly stalks on over to walk up next to Karai. "I don't wanna get caught...I don't wanna..." she whines under her breath. She's just begging to bolt, give in and chaotically superball over everything. Her breathing is probably quite loud next to someone so gifted in being stealthy and covert. "Are you suuuure?"

Shredder has posed:
    The ninja adjusts her ninja-to blade, pulling it down from her back and refastening it to her sash on her side. She doesn't look back at Veronique, but waits for the group to be fully invested in checking on the fire. "And we go. Gawk at it while you walk by, like you're really curious about the smoke. People who mind their own business look suspicious." She doesn't give any further explanation, but starts walking out onto the the street again in the opposite direction that the bunny girl came sprinting from, looking horrified at the terrible situation. A few people come out of the building attended by officers, coughing. "We were just sitting and watching TV," one of them said. "I don't even know what blew up, it came from the kitchen I think."

Veronique Lalonde has posed:
    Veronique almost reaches for the ninja's hand or wrist. Not as part of a grand deception, but as a comforting mechanism. Or perhaps to ensure she's got a human shield between her and her consequences. As such, her fingers simply spiderwalk in mid-air before falling into step and trying to mimic her mysterious companion. Sirens and shouts make one of her eyelids twitch as she tries to shut out the sharpest or most piercing tones to afflict her senses. She can certainly hear a lot. It's a real circus of noises jumbling together of the rubberneckers and concerned neighbours.

    Veronique does as she's told, and doesn't avoid scoping out the smoke and disturbance as they try and fake it until they make it out of there. It feels very, very odd not to be going away from some trouble she's started, doubling-back feels alien. She mumbles, "Jeez, yeah, I wonder if it was a grease fire and just went up. I had cousin who worked with a grease fryer one time and...boy of boy, tabarnac, gros gros probleme...yeah." She swallows hard, throat dry and sneaking sidelong glances to the ninja's demeanor to try and parrot like an amateur. She tries not to fidget, the fabric of her clothing feeling coarser, the smell of the smoke making her throat constrict, ears threatening to ring.

Shredder has posed:
    Karai glances down at Veronique's hand when the girl takes her own, and cocks an unexpected eyebrow at the maneuver. The smoke that catches scent doesn't smell like a grease fire, it smells more like a firework. She continues to lead up the street, and then turns the corner away from the action.

    "There," Karai says, looking down at her hand, as if an unspoken 'you can let go now' is present. "So I'm guessing you are new to this whole thing," she speculates. "Given that you act like a scared rabbit just walking past the cops."

Veronique Lalonde has posed:
    Veronique releases her tentative grip and shoves it into the pocket of her hoodie. Her other hand boops it, meeting it her other hand mirrors and makes her more symmetrical within it's opposing pocket. Her jaw hinges a little, grinding her teeth, but only a little. It's a bit too intense for her to handle too long if she's too enthusiastic about it. "Nuh-uh." she says defensively with a sniff. It's all absolutely audacious to refute, standing there in clothes that still carry obvious debris from her knee-jerk heist that you wouldn't need a detective to point out. "I am not scared." she adds, and then ruins things further by casting a worried glance over shoulder. It's hard to meet Karai's eyes when she glances back, anxious and perturbed she can't act as cool. "Maybe I don't like cops." She shrugs. "So maybe I am new. But I didn't think it would be hard at all. I wanted it, it was pretty, and I deserve stuff like everyone else. What am I supposed to do? I don't make big bucks like some big snooty lawyer or rocket scientist. I didn't hurt no one...probably."

Shredder has posed:
    Karai offers a mock frown. "No judgment here. Sometimes you have to make your own way. I'm Karai," she introduces herself. "I've spent my whole life trying to make sure that there's enough to go around for people. Helping them get what they want. Getting what I want. You got people?" she asks. "Stealing is a hard life to go through by yourself."

Veronique Lalonde has posed:
Veronique pouts out her bottom lip as she listens. It becomes more pronounced as she gives the question some thought. "Well...None really. Once maybe but not no more. C'est la vie." she offers her best nonchalant shrug. "Once I figure out what I'm doing wrong it'll be easier." She runs a tongue along her gums. "The people I've got is me and that's it. No one can keep up. Well, thanks for that back there Karai. What do you mean you've been trying to make sure there's enough to go around? You're not one of those goody two shoes I don't think, right? Otherwise you'd be pushing me into the back of a squad car or beating my ribs in with a phone book." She clutches at her satchel of stolen things.

Shredder has posed:
    There's a smug huff at the proposal that Karai is any form of hero. "No, Not a goody two shoes. I am far too practical to be some hero of any sort. But I'm familiar with what it is like to feel isolated. Perhaps not in the same way as you, but we all need family. I help lead a family, a clan. You might like it. We don't frown upon people using their talents..." she looks down at the satchel and back up again. "As they see fit."

Veronique Lalonde has posed:
    Veronique grimaces at Karai's reaction, but inside she's pretty relieved. Putting her feet in her mouth is dangerous. "That sounds like a big family." The girl frowns and kneads at her bag a bit more. "You don't?" Some shuffling, thinking and raising up a finger to start chewing on the end of a painted nail. "I was in the hospital awhile...and then the lab place..." she rips her chewtoy from her mouth and straightens. "But anyways. I'm...kinda unsure what to do next. Too much fresh, well sort of fresh, air. You're like the Mom? Well, maybe I should check it out with you if that's alright. I don't have plans. I don't even know what to do with this stuff really. It's not like I can buy a burger with a band of diamonds. I don't have a buyer lined up but I couldn't just...leave it there sparkling and stuff. Do you have a place I could rest my heels then? I don't know if I can do much but short spurts until I fill my stomach with something betterer."

Shredder has posed:
    "The mom?" There's a little blush of frustration. That just ruined her whole image! Karai shakes her head. "Um, I suppose. I'm not really a mom, maybe big sister. But yes. As long as you can be understanding of other people. A lot of people who are part of our family are outcasts to society. Mutants, rebels, young and old. Can you live with that?" she asks.

Veronique Lalonde has posed:
    Roni chews on her bottom lip. She might have mistook the source of Karai's frustration, and blink-blinks as she listens further. It's quite odd to be this focused, but it's not every day you're saved by someone helpful. "I never had any brothers or sisters. Foster parents, who were...whatever, but never a big family." She clears her throat and rolls her shoulders, giving her hips a bit of a side-to-side to loosen the tension. "Oh I could live with that. Oh yeah." Another thought hiccups into her head and she side-eyes. "Mutants? Like maybe if they can do strange stuff that's not their fault?"

Shredder has posed:
    Yes, like those mutants," Karai confirms. "We welcome people with powers, without them, deformities, and what ever else may separate them from society. I'll be clear, you can't claim yourself as part of the family out of the start, but you are welcome to come join us for a spell, and we can see if it's the type of place for you. And you don't need to feel that you have to share any of your spoils from today's adventure," she adds. What's your name?"

Veronique Lalonde has posed:
    The girl blurts out her name without thinking it over. "Veronique. Lalonde." Blinking rapidly and frowning. First rule of stealing club is not to just let that stuff out, but at this point her track record isn't exactly air tight. "I understand." she thinks and stretches out her calves with each step. "So...I mean, it sounds like 'da fam-ily'" she does a bit of a mafia impression, badly, with an edge of thick quebecois escaping. And reverts back to a more chirpy tone. "But not. But I get it I think. I'm a stranger, and you've got your people. Yeah, I get it. I would like to go back with you if it's as understand as you say, for sure." She sniffs and searches in her pocket for another piece of unchewed gum. Her hands pat her satchel, brushing off more glass dust. "It sounds like a kind of orphanage or center. I've been in a bunch of those, and they're pretty strict. Any rules I need to follow while under your roof?"

Shredder has posed:
    Karai starts leading down the way to a parked car, a black Mercedes. "Yes," she says. "Don't be an asshole to anyone else there. Other than that, anything goes." She opens the car door, and gets in the drivers' side.

Veronique Lalonde has posed:
    Veronique stares at the car. Her eyes playing along the lines, liking what she sees. "Don't be a butthole...got it." she murmers and then zip-scoots blurs her way over to the passenger side to slow down and open the door eagerly, but with some gentleness. Huffing and puffing, her breath nearly fogging the window. "Anything goes should be tattoo'd on my...shoulder."