Neeva and Marc have a nice chat
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𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰 — 05/12/2021
Marc might not have been the most social of the Banditos for various reasons personal (and, he'd argue, practical), but he - like many - could appreciate a good skatepark. And that was the plan for today.
He was very aware of what his vibe must have felt like to others - but he'd found that in a park, where everyone was already floating, wiping out, and zipping by each other as a rule, nobody would really notice a little vertigo here or there. Parks were places that felt normal. And besides, he'd brought the gloves.
Today, he'd brought the BMX bike; his blades were packed tight in a bag, along with a pair of Dr. Steppers and several snacks. A few totally-good-natured threats to any wandering eyes had kept it there.
Some 'ditos had dared him to figure out some dances on this thing. And while he wasn't THERE, he was absolutely ready to practice on the quarter.
But after wiping out a few times a break; he'd retreated to his bag and sat down to poke through it and fish out some snacks. He'd found a little bag of pizza chips earlier on, weirdly crammed between the bullhorns and base of a Vendy. It seemed suspicious; he'd even checked the seams to see if had been re-sealed (and he'd know; he'd done it plenty of times, himself). But nope - good old Vendy-original packaging. Finder's keepers.
So with Stepper in hand and pizza-chip bag ready to pop open, he sat on the edge of the park - still at a distance from anyone else with the same idea - to watch the others. Because hot damn, pizza-flavored chips. Someone was a genius...
Neeva — 05/12/2021
Much like Marc, Neeva was hesitant about visiting public places, but there...she could watch and chat without having to worry about getting too worked up in any way. She wandered the area upon skates and carried an energy drink with her, but it had been unopened for the moment. She had watched as Marc tried some tricks with the BMX, even if he hadn't much luck with it.
"Hello."
A quiet greeting from the hat-wearing Dito staring down at him with a nonchalant tone and an equally relaxed expression. "Oh. You have those." She indicated the chips as her interest, though now she wondered... "Are you the one leaving them by the vendys?" Neeva asked, while she finally opened her drink with the expected sizzle and faint splatter from it being mildly shaken as she wandered.
She'd wipe off her fingers and sought to sit somewhere nearby, removing her skates for the sake of giving her feet a bit of air.
𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰 — 05/12/2021
He didn't jump exactly - she was too quiet for that. But he started all the same and turned, offered her a somewhat awkward half-wave and an uncertain smile.
She was at the rave. Or at least - those ears had been, he was pretty sure. The colors had been bleeding a bit, but...
"Neeva, right! Oh hey, if you're sitting...c'mon over, pull up a...concrete." It was a somewhat lame finish, but he'd owned it. More or less. After a moment, he patted the space in front of him and waggled the chip bag in his other hand. "I won't eat the whole thing. Got a Dr. Stepper if those are your things, too."
But then she'd said something curious.
"Yeah. Just crammed into it like it was a stash of fonk ready to be picked up. Thought it was at first, y'know? ...Wait, this is a regular thing?" Should she sit nearby, he'd hold the open end of the bag out to her.
Neeva — 05/14/2021
"Oh, if you are sure." She would take the invitation with a grateful nod and tugged at her hat, drink set next to her hip. She stared forward at him, but reached forward to accept one of the chips. "Thank you, I have not made lunch yet." Soon, but only until after she was done getting some fresh air. "I have my energy drink, but that is thoughtful. Thank you."
Since he didn't seem the person leaving them behind, it meant the big guy was doing it. She would have to seek Zeta out again. "Yes, there has been one every few nights...perhaps longer. I am sure others picked them up when I have not."
𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰 — 05/14/2021
"Well they're probably not poisoned or anything. Fresh and Vendy-sealed, double-checked!" He ate a few chips himself. If they were going to get obliterated by poisoned pizza chips, they'd at least go down, together. "It's not LUNCH, y'know, despite theeeee...Pizza. Part. But. It's not nothing."
She reached for one, then, and something curled at the fringes of his vibe-sense, enough for him to slightly frown at first. It was something he - in his drug-stuffed and jive-dulled state at the rave - wouldn't have noticed, at least not to this degree, to pinpoint it coming from her.
He quickly tried to pretend he hadn't, and she gave him enough ammo for that, anyay with her next observation.
"You staking out that vendy or something? What do you think's up with that?"
Neeva — 05/14/2021
"What a way to poison us." A rather easy way, really, who could resist? She couldn't, and she happily munched on the first couple of chips, only to wash it down with a drink. "I once got a bag of potato...flavored ones, but baked potato. It was a disappointment, but then I had all dressed." She enjoyed them. Oblivious to what he sensed from her, she continued to chat away.
"I do not know, but yes, I have. Maybe it is the cop." While Nee had an idea, she was going to keep quiet about that whole ordeal, as she had promised Zeta. "I wonder if he has anything in his station that gives good food." Like a special vendy.
𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰 — 05/14/2021
He did snort at that. "I'd die full of pizza. Think I'm okay with that!"
"Potato-potato chips?" His brow frowned as if in offense that such a thing existed, but he'd laughed anyway - just another little brief bubble of a laugh. "I'd kill for an all-dressed bag right now though." Metaphorically. Probably.
"Cop feeding Banditos." He shrugged with a little 'huh' - but something about that idea did bring a little smile to his face, almost in spite of himself. "Saw that guy at the UG party...thing the other day. I can see him doing it. If he's not eating them himself - that was the thing, he was just...INHALING pizza. He'd better not be holding out on us, the way he was going at it!"
He settled back a bit, popping a few more chips. After a moment, he added, slightly venturesome, slightly tentative.
"...I don't see you out here much. But I don't...get out here much, either. Not when it's crowded. Were you here to watch today? Or were you planning to play?"
Neeva — 05/15/2021
"Hm, yes, me too. Only real pizza, not chips." Chips were great, but they lacked the best thing of the actual food: The melted cheese. "Yes. I am hoping the next time I try that vendy, it will give me something better." Actual all-dressed chips, maybe BBQ. As Marc talked off the cop and the UG party, she nodded along.
"I wish I had been there, I have not had pizza in a long time. I could make it, but...it isn't the same." Maybe she'd go snooping around for the source. "I am surprised he was there, at a party. Was he just keeping an eye on all of you?" Seemed a very police-y thing to do, even if he was joining in on the food.
She dusted off her fingers, and went for another drink. "Oh, I usually do not. I stay around the Research district mostly." It was safer, to a point. "I have been very bored, though, there is so much gaming I can do until I need to start going about more than just at odd hours of the night. I was just going to skate around. What of you?"
𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰 — 05/17/2021
"...kind of. He sorta' showed up, went after as much food as he could and like. Pontificated about Factions Being Bad for a while." The capitals were slightly stressed with dismissive bobs of his head and a pinch of his fingers in over-exaggerated emphasis...before he shook "Like. I know that, pops, but you're one guy, and sometimes life sucks and then you're a Bandito, you know? Don't haul that to a birthday. Not exactly hyped already about the birthday boy being able to ditch the 'Ditos and join one of the big two, anyway, y'know?"
She had accidentally triggered a Ramble, it seemed - but it was a raw one, of surly resentment and ultimate resignation, if not helplessness. He'd at least seemed aware by the time it veered into anger about Dante and rather quickly buried the rest in a cough, curling back in on himself somewhat.
"...it would've been nice, having you there, I think. Was really good pizza. Wish I brought the bike, he'd found a good park, but I brought other stuff!"
He did angle his head somewhat, when she'd mentioned being bored. "Me, too. Skating around, 'mean, except...with the bike. I kinda'...wait 'til the people thin out a little. But that also means the people thin out, a little, yeah? I know what it's like, being bored with that. "
Neeva — 05/17/2021
"I assume he was just seeking to get some food." Neeva couldn't blame him, that's why she went to most parties. More the food and less the people, but it meant she didn't have to worry so much about keeping food in her pantry. "Yes, I understand. I wonder if he knows how it feels, but I doubt it. He is just a cop and likely does not have a vibe."
Or any worries about actual faction issues. He was not bound to any of them.
"Do you want to leave the Banditos?" It was a quiet question, but she wondered if the anger stemmed from that. Getting to go to somewhere that might be better. "That is kind of you. Perhaps I will go to the next party, and make it all the brighter with my presence." Her dreary presence. "It is nice...when you get here at an hour where there's no one else." Likely at some stupid hour in the morning.
"It is how I get most of my exercise, and when.."
𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰 — 05/17/2021
He almost, almost spoke up about the cop's vibe, and demurred at the last moment. Better not to go down the rabbit-hole of how he knew - even though he seemed ready to burst and tell anyone who would listen, anyway.
"Do you want to leave the Banditos?"
"...I don't know." It was a weird, quiet moment of honesty, spoken after a moment of rather serious thought.
"I'd like to not be hard-up for cred every other month. But I don't want to...spend the rest of my life fighting like they do, either. 'Least the 'Ditos have more fun than Squares, right? How about you - I MEAN. Not that. we're talking about leaving...but it's the Banditos." A milder 'what're you in for?' in a way!
Another moment, a small fidget, a rather sudden interest in that fidget, and a quiet slip of "Not sure they'll have me, anyway," seemed a little unintended.
"Yeah. Next party! Or rave. I'd definitely be more sober at a regular party!" Don't think he'd forgotten - he was a little embarrassed about that!
"Yeah. Same, really, I try to do that. Easier to go out at night though, after people clear out a little." Then a thought. "Just an early riser or not really a crowd-person!"
Neeva — 05/17/2021
Neeva was quiet as she listened, as she ever was and she finished off more of her drink. "Where would you go, if you did?" She certainly could agree about the creds. Surviving on vendybars didn't always bother her, because it meant the money went to her cat and she was happy if they were happy.
As it should be.
"It is a long story. I did something I should not have, so I am here. I imagine most people do not know." She hoped so anyway, but no one ever brought it up. "I do not think they would have me either, but it is fine. The FM leader asked me to dance, I do not know what to think of that."
It smelled like a trap, but she wondered if humoring him could be used to her advantage.
"Why do crowds bother you?"
𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰 — 05/20/2021
"...I don't know." He rolled his shoulders, stretched somewhat. "Used to be Mafia when I was a kid. Well like. Family-of, not gonna...do full-on Mafia stuff when I'm like. Eight. Imagine that!"
Though maybe she could - he'd tilted his head, a little hum nearly trailed into a question, head angled curiously at one thing she'd said. But then she'd breezed right into the next and THAT snapped him right out of it - who could leave THAT alone?!
"Hold on, hold up, you...and Frankie-frikkin-Valentine?! What did you do, how did you score THAT dance!"
"Why do crowds bother you?"
"Lots of things. Some of it's just...it gets to be a Lot. Like people are playing like ten different songs at once and you can't get away or pick out the song you actually want." It was a weird explanation he wasn't sure entirely worked, but even music-lovers would think a cacophony like that was Too Much, he'd figured! He shrugged, picked at some chips. "Vibe kinda...is not really a people-vibe, either." He tried to play it off as if he was unbothered; he wasn't very good at it at all.
"What about you?"
Neeva — 05/21/2021
The mention of being former Mafia surprised her, and Nee's expression displayed it for a moment. "That is...something else." She now wondered over his family, the reasons why he was here and not still there. Prying wasn't likely, still. "I taunted him on Stepbook and he offered, but he has not sent me a message."
She felt he likely wouldn't, which wouldn't really bother her.
"Ah, yes, I understand that. I am.." She was quiet a moment, and tugged at her hat. "My vibe is not good for people either. If my emotions are out of check, it will cause loss of my vibe." Controlling it, someday, was likely a much desired change.
𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰 — 05/21/2021
He nodded quickly. "Yeah. Yeahitis, it's not...something I tell people." But then he did smile, and ventured an elbow nudge should she be in range of it. "You gotta get like. Video evidence of that one if it ever happens. People IN the Mafia'd kill to get a dance with that boss. Probably have!"
He frowned, then, as she tugged at her hat and explained a little more about her vibe, and a pang of understanding struck him involuntarily at his heart and throat. He swallowed.
"Like...any emotions? Even the good ones?" His tone and his expression was somber and empathetic - it appeared he'd already guessed, anyway. He tugged at one glove; it had been a fidget at first but now he looked down at his hands. "That's...I'm sorry." Were there any trainers for that kind of thing? Hell if he knew.
"My vibe is..." It trailed in a little gasp of nerves. He stopped fidgeting.
"It's not...a normal vibe. Any of these really 'normal' though?" Haha, Marc. Haha. He was sure funny, all right. Funny, funny Marc. Stop stalling. "It copies...and it takes. But like...only when people are around. I don't really like...keep it?" It was low and almost confessional; for many, vibes were sacred and this was abhorrent. But this - at least to Marc - might've also seemed the seeds of another idea. He looked down, quickly, fidgeted with his gloves again. "It's not exactly something you whip out at parties, y'know?"
Neeva — 05/21/2021
"Hmm, maybe I will. I wonder if there is an ulterior motive." Trusting any side was risky, even the Ditos, but Mafia moreso. She'd seen the arguments on Stepbook, and that generally made her wary. "I must be mindful." She had patted his arm at the nudge, but went for more chips.
"Yes, but it does not bother me. It just seems to bother others." If only they knew. Nee would take strange looks and comments over angry ones. "It is fine." She'd offer to the apology, but quieted when he mentioned his own and she looked thoughtful. "Only temporarily...when you take them, can you control them?"
𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰 — 05/22/2021
"Yeah, true. Wary's good. Hopefully he's the kind of purple that only really gets riled up if you're Orange or something! Or maybe he's just as wary of you! Scary Chaos 'dito and all!" He did manage another little smile there - The-Frankie-Valentine, scared of a kid or two! It could happen.
"Like...with me? Once they hit me? ...I don't even know what I'm copying half the time if I'm not like...aiming to take stuff. If I do aim...I gotta figure it out fast. It's easy if it's like...elements. Pokemon, Avatar stuff. Lightning goes boom, fire goes woosh. Lucky guesses there."
"If I'm copying or taking, it stays in as long as like...food stays in? Maybe? I never keep anything for long afterwards...whether I'm trying or not. If I can figure out the vibe by then, I can...try. Otherwise I hold onto it til it's gone." He shrugged, somewhat lamely - it was the best explanation he could conjure up for something that was outright bizarre as far as he was concerned. He did suspect she might've picked up one of his stray thoughts on the matter, and after a moment ventured a... "What does yours do?"
He may have already sensed...something. But it was better to ask!
Neeva — 05/22/2021
"Perhaps, but it might be for naught. He hasn't messaged me and I am not going to ask around for when I can message him." Just to avoid anyone bothering to fuck with her. Besides, she didn't want to look like she was too interested in the dance, incase they suspected her of ulterior motives in return.
"Oh, I see. Atleast elemental things are simple." She wasn't surprised, because in comparison to others, they seemed to be. Her drink was finished off. "Do some vibes last longer with you than others?" She was curious, still, but if he seemed concerned, she would back off. "It does many things. It conjures ectoplasm, makes people feel dreadful and, if I touch someone while I'm using it, it makes them see things."
She wouldn't explain what, because she didn't want it to be revealed, incase someone saw use in abusing something so useful.
𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰 — 05/22/2021
"Yeah. Good point! Heh...stick that all over stepbook if it happens. Or at least shoot me a text or something!"
She'd asked after his vibe, then, and he frowned - but this time it was a thoughtful frown more than fearful or dreadful. "Found it's like...food. Some I feel really good afterwards and they stick around and just...settle, and I'm thinking about it for the rest of the day. And some just, uh. ...disagree." He mimed something with his hand, quickly flushing downward. Maybe a tiny raspberry for emphasis. "And pass right through really quickly. Like a bad burrito or something. Except...vibey."
And then, she finally spoke of her own in a little more detail, and he clasped at his hands, then elbows, nodding. "That's what that was..." It was vague, possibly more to himself. "It felt spooky." He raised both hands. "I didn't take anything! It's just...feelings. Can probably copy it a little if we keep sitting here." Then lowered them, his own voice trailing into an empathetic hum. "But...yeah, I guess if that's what you've got, I don't blame you for, y'know. Doing the things I do and stuff."
A beat, then he continued somewhat more awkwardly. "...can I try?"
Neeva — 05/23/2021
"I certainly will."
Neeva chuckled dryly, but quieted when he explained what the vibe-eating was like and she'd nod. "A shame they are not always great." To be expected with some vibes, she was sure. "What happens if they do not agree with you? Does it affect you physically?" It seemed the questions were endless, but it was new and intriguing. Thankfully, no one was eavesdropping.
"You can sense them even if they're not being used?" Must be handy, too, knowing a little bit of what he might be getting into. Atleast regarding those with feelings. "Yes, it is better this way. No one asks much either, I like that." When he asked to try, she looked over the groups and back again.
"Probably....not here. If something goes wrong, you might draw attention."
𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰 — 05/24/2021
The questions were endless, true...but Marc didn't seem to mind. If anything, he was easing into the conversation a little easier, more animation beginning to lace his gestures, more notes slipping into his voice. She wasn't running away. She had a vibe that...might have been as 'wrong' as his own. And she was helping him put some of these thing into words that he'd not yet been able to - apart from with Nina, and she'd had more things to worry about than harboring a vampire!
"I've never...thrown up a vibe yet, but I've felt like it!" No matter what he'd pictured, it inevitably looked really weird in his mind's eye. "You know that feeling when you REALLY have to and just choke it down anyway? That's...it. I don't wanna know what happens. Especially if it's like...fire or something that explodes, you know? Like what if I burp up a fireball and wipe out the nearest Waffle Noms or something?!" He'd laughed, but it was the kind of laugh that also thoroughly believed something like this was possible and was hellbent on preventing it from happening. Not the Waffle Noms!
"So I kinda like...choke it down and home it won't like...make me dizzy. Give me a migraine, stomachache. Puke. Imagine puking a vibe. I've tried dancing it out before but it only just amps up whatever's already in there."
"You can sense them even if they're not being used?"
"Yeah! Kinda! Like...you know that feeling right before a storm where you just know?* It's like that, except...vibey." He slumped slightly. "Okay, yeah, that was kinda' lame. But it's true! Be around enough vibes and you start to feel how different they are. Like with you, it was just...a spooky feeling."
He did sit up a bit then (while none-too-discreetly polishing off his own snacks!). "Really?" It was legitimately hopeful. "We should try it around something like...really, really funny or cute or sad or something. See if what I'm thinking works and you get to...do something about it, you know?"
Neeva — 05/24/2021
With her can now empty, Nee looked for the nearest bin to throw it away at, but didn't bother to get up just yet to do so. As long as she knew where it was. "That sounds very annoying." Simply because Marc likely couldn't just swallow it down with some water and call it a day. "Hm, no one would ever forgive you if you do that." The loss of the Waffle Noms would be too much. She might even become a little upset.
"That is unfortunate. A shame you cannot find out what they are before you absorb them." When he explained the sensation, Neeva nodded quietly. "That makes sense." But now she wondered over what some vibes felt like. Fire-based ones, probably sensations of heat..
It was then she'd finally stand, careful on her roller skates and she'd take a moment to keep her balance. "Yes. I would like a moment without it." A break, it could be called, she wagered. "Where to?"
𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰 — 05/24/2021
"Not the Waffle Noms!" He snorted. "They can't get me, I'm already a Bandito! What are they gonna' do, banish me twice?" Realistically, though, he'd probably get dance battle'd to death!
"Most things I can laugh at myself about, you know?" Like his height. Or his own anxieties, or sensory processing. "Learn to live with it, anyway, make it work...It's just that. Making this work means I gotta...not-make-people work. Burping up a bad vibe can be really, really funny or scary or -" and he waved a you-said-it hand at Neeva with a nod. "-annoying. But who else is ever gonna' know that, you know?"
When she expressed that it was a shame he couldn't figure out the vibes he'd ambiently soak in, he did animate some more, with a "RIGHT? Like especially the gross ones. 'Cos there ARE gross ones. Like...hair? Eels? VIBE eels?! Like I'm rolling around, start dancing a little to my earbuds and then suddenly EELS."
Neeva rose then, and Marc followed suit, gathering his bike and bag back up. How to invite her home without sounding like...well. That. Like he was aiming to do something Nina'd probably never let him hear the end of.
"One of the warehouses? I know a coupla' shops over by the tattoo place are empty."
Neeva — 05/24/2021
"They will send you to another faction and just have them banish you for them." It was in jest, but she made it sound like she truly believed this to be an outcome. "It is not fun, I can imagine. Being isolated is the worst." She would knew, she understood. But, Marc's didn't go under the radar if he simply shut off his emotions forcefully.
"Vibe eels." Neeva certainly didn't look like she could handle, and the thought along almost made her cringe. "May it never happen." She said with a sigh, and she tapped one of her skates against the ground. "Yes, so long as you don't drag me there to steal my creds. I would be very unhappy and you would not like it either."
𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰 — 05/25/2021
He snorted. Then realized he did. Flushed. Let it happen anyway. Maybe it was her deadpan, maybe it was the odd sense of loner-camaraderie, but laughing came a little easier, then.
"It is." He finally admitted, sobering - and then jerked his head in a 'follow-me' motion.
"Place I'm thinking of is right by the tattoo parlor." And then he smirked, adding quietly. "Whatever you've got for me...it can't be worse than the eels, yeah?"
---
It wasn't a long trip back to the Research District, and the place was hardly short of warehouses, but Marc appeared to have one particular one in mind. Down the road from the tattoo parlor and a left into a shoddy row of warehouses and there they were; he pried open a noisy and rusty door, green and weathered with age, and walked his bike into it with no fear or hesitation, whatsoever.
Marc very much did not appear to worry about being ambushed.
this one appeared to be His Warehouse, fit with a frankenstein-assembled creations of Vendy-electronics and accentuated with presumably stolen speakers, small furniture and other odds and ends. There were signs of others that came and went in the forms of freely discarded snacks. Posters of island musicians and steppers slathered and peeled off the wall (covered neatly with Practice Throws) and the building smelled like bagged carrots, must and mildew.
The center was clear and the floor was strangely finished in places, scuffed with wheel and shoe-marks; this seemed to at one point have served as a practice space. Among other, likely shadier things.
He pulled his bike into the corner of the room, before whirling about with his hands splayed in a rather knowingly pathetic "Ta-daaaa! Training space, dance studio. Probably alive if the smell's anything to go by. And all your creds are still here. Should we...Idunno." He waggled a gloved hand and shrugged.
Neeva — 05/27/2021
"Oh, I have been around there. I got a tattoo, but I am waiting a bit to have it colored." When he asked if it was worse than the eels, she just shrugged. It likely was.
Neeva had skated along as they went and once they got to the warehouse, she peeked over her shoulder. Since Marc didn't seem so hesitant, she decided to follow his example and headed inside. The electronics grabbed and held her attention, and she wheeled around to look at everything.
"It is an interesting spot you have." She would comment after, and turned to face him, braced on the backs of her skates. "It could use a bit of cleaning." Neeva would tease, and headed over to him, as she eyed that gloved hand. "How do you want to do this?"
𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰 — 05/27/2021
"OH. OHHHHH. You met Nina! I hope she wasn't too. Well. Hope it was fun! Lemme know what y'got sometime when you're done, she's good!" Nina's texts made a lot more sense, now. Inwardly he wished he could've seen it - Nina butted heads with a lot of people, but Neeva already invited a different sort of reaction.
Could'a been interesting.
---
He stepped further in, hands still splayed in a flourish. "Staked it out with a crew a little while back!" It was...kind of proud? Though he added a 'yeaaaaaaah' when he kicked up a cloud of dust by upsetting a gutted speaker, mid-repair and abandoned, perhaps in a frenzy of addressing all of the other projects nearby. There was no sign of that crew now, but this didn't seem to bother him too much on the surface; Banditos came and went where they pleased, after all.
"Used it for vibe sparring and dancing. Well. They did the sparring part. I kinda'...tried to see what I could do. This one girl swung around a couple years back, she could do ballet on a bike and a few of us wanted to try it. I can't...ballet on a bike but one day I'll figure out something...dance-y." It was a small smile, though it might've gotten lost as he'd shoved a few things aside with his foot to clear out even more space.
Then yelped a "THERE it is, sonsofbitches better not have broken it-" and dove right into a particularly untidy mass of junk before producing a small boombox with a handle, adorned with glittery candy-colored vinyl stickers (and by his slightly perplexed look, those had been new additions since he'd last found it). He flipped it on; the static and buzz of its feeble antenna searching in vain for stepper waves was evidence enough that there was enough battery for them, and he flipped the source to discs and tapes and set it down, trusting whatever was left inside.
Today's choice seemed to be a leisurely drawl of nineties neo-psychedelia breakbeat, and he'd kept it on low for now. Was this old-people stuff? Easy to count, no words to memorize. Not bad...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf73xqZvk6k&ab_channel=DSoTM
He was wandering freely back to Neeva and would've almost forgotten to stop himself, but that warning lick of that 'spooky' vibe curled around his senses and slowed his steps again.
"I was thinking that...Idunno. If you were comfortable showing me what it was, we could do that? Andifyou'renotthat'sokay! Otherwise. Yeah. Like...dance a little maybe? So I'm not just...rawr, eat-it-up. And I just go for it." He waggled his hand. "Nothing that'll hurt, it doesn't hurt, nothing that'll take it for good or anything!"
He trailed, flushing, feeling somewhat lame. "Whatever you're comfortable with, y'know?"
Neeva — 05/28/2021
"Your crew?" Neeva asked curiously, though now she was concerned she'd walked into something that was likely going to result in her losing a lot of creds. However, it also sounded like they were off doing their own things now. "Of course. Are they gone now? Is it just you?" He'd mention Nina, but their friendship could've been no different than her relationship with the Tattooist. "I am sure you will someday, with time and practice."
She looked to his bike, as if considering what sort of dances he could do with a bike. When he went for the next bit of junk after his exclaimation, she headed over to see what he got. "Ah good! I am glad it still works." When the music played, it was certainly different than what she'd been expecting. Still, it was nice.
When he wandered back up, Neeva held up a hand and tilted her head slightly. "I would not mind, either way. I have not danced with someone else for a very long time." For obvious reasons. "What would you prefer to do?" She'd ask curiously, relieved that pain was likely not part of the whole process.
𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰 — 05/30/2021
"Yeah. Well. Kind of a crew. People who stick around long enough that we say we like each other, or something like that. But you know banditos. One got wrecked in a dance battle like last month and the rest kinda' come and go. I stick around. Lodge at Nina's."
The music picked up. He bopped a little, tried to find a casual beat in the songs, smiling a little even as he flushed. "We dance! Together. Maybe?" Oh, boy. "We...We make something up. You don't need to remember anything that way, y'know? I lead, you lead, we both lead. We're not battling, not asking you to like...fight, get any of that refined mafia shit out, or know any crazy steps or anything like that." He hoped that sounded reassuring and not...entirely mad.
"Me? Gloves on right now. Especially if we..." And he flicked both eyebrows...tried awkwardly to mimic a two-person dance. "And when your vibe gets going...if it's not going and wiping the floor with me...vwoop! Gloves off! And I break before anything too weird happens."
And he smiled, continued to dance...finally fell into some sort of step that seemed easy and comfortable to ease Neeva into. Should she choose to take his hands, he'd lead her into a rather genuine, if a bit silly dance. "Show me."
Neeva — 05/30/2021
"Hm, this is true. I hope you find more that stick around." Neeva wasn't sure if she could promise that, not yet. Besides, sticking around herself meant she'd subject others to her vibe that couldn't just absorb it and not be affected. Just to be safe, she removed her blades, even if she was left in socks.
Dancing with them wasn't hard, but doing so with another person was and she didn't want a twisted ankle as part of the equation. "I would like that." She had her own gloves on, expectedly, and she'd hold her hands out. "Ballroom?" A suggestion, since he was miming a two-person dance. "Are you sure you want the gloves off? You might see things you don't want to. Everything else is just....emitted off of me." No death visions.
Neeva allowed herself to be eased into the dance and she offered a rare smile, a hint she'd be letting go. As they continued, her enjoyment grew, but so did the feeling of dread and should it continue past that; the ectoplasm seemed off her body to add to the dreary scene. It was as one anticipated in appearance; a drab gray, twisting and offering a horrifying hint to the scene.
𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰 — 06/05/2021
"Me too. Heh. I don't...always run away from people!"
Emotional vibes were fucked. They always were; if he'd not had his own and experienced (or had been ostracized for) worse on the daily, he wouldn't have entertained this in the slightest.
But in her wariness - in that smile and in her slight resistance to even let that vibe go at all - he saw himself. He'd GOT this.
"Gloves off." It was small, but then he repeated with an easier and slightly-more-confident smile. "Gloves off. Or like. Maybe one off. I can take quicker that way." He slipped one off at first...and then took her hands, heart hammering. One glove on, one off. It was entirely unscientific- if not a little more than half-baked; it just seemed like any vibe effects wouldn't hit quite in full-blast this way.
"Right. Yeah, here I am, here we go. Nobody's dead." He splayed his hands demonstrably. Still alive! "Show me those...ah. Spooky things!" A moment, and then added with a pantomime shudder, "And remember that whatever you're about to throw at me, 'least it's not the eels!"
And should Neeva allow, they worked their way into a little dance - in sock feet and shoes in a grungy little warehouse, to the music of tinny and tiny speakers. It would've been almost sweet had their aims not been so spooky, and indeed he'd led with care and skill and no doubt years of training.
He couldn't tell exactly whether his heart or that slight sheen of sweat was his own nerves yet, but already the dread twisted and curled around his guts, flicking at the edges of his mind, already ominous and greedily suggesting that this was only the beginning, that far worse was to come, that he shouldn't move, shouldn't keep going, shouldn't be near her, that this was going to only end in horror...
His reflexive response was to hug Neeva, keep her away from this even though rationally it was obviously hers in the first place.
"Fucking hell Neeva..." was a murmur that might've been more of a whimper than he'd wanted. "You weren't. You weren't kidding."
Who in his right mind would want this taken into him? What would he do, where would it go, would it kill him? Of course it would, nothing this horrible would let him out of this alive...
The other glove of his was off; if hers were too, he'd seek that skin-to-skin contact. And should he find it, he would take.
Neeva — 06/06/2021
"Someone will stay." Neeva was sure he had solid friends regardless, so long as he was careful. She nodded to the decision of just one glove, because it was easier that way. "You have survived." She said in jest to his demonstration and sighed slowly, head tilted. "No, not the eels. Though, they are not as appealing in appearance." What eels she knew of looked pretty interesting, like the moray. To the dance floor!
She continued to smile, though not in a way that overlooked what he was likely feeling. It was nice, despite what it imposed on others, to dance without too much concern. She still worried though, because if he saw things, there was no real reason he'd want to stay.
"No, I was not." It was an apologetic statement. "Are you sure?" He reached out, and Neeva would only stop him with words. Her bare hand was held out, but placed in a spot where he'd have to reach out and offered the chance to back out if he wanted.
Rigby — 06/13/2021
marc: "Heh. S'pose so. S'pose I have!" Where people would report general tickles of vertigo, dizzying feelings of falling or flying when close to him in general, that was when the vibe was at-rest.
But there was dancing here; there was dancing, music, fear, curiosity, will, hunger. And so he turned it on. And as they danced, two things would come into play -
Firstly,* that he knew his stuff; *there was evident training in his steps, even when he made to loosen up and gently invited her - and himself - to cut a little looser than before.
"No, I was not. Are you sure?"
"Yeah. I'm sure."
It had probably occurred to him that eating vibe ghosts was probably not a very good idea. Several times. Did he want to hang onto these? Would they feel weird? Would he be able to use them or would he just be...filled with ectoplasm and terror for a few hours?
"But gotta see it through, right?"
He took her hand - and what had once been a vague sensation, a lightness of being, something dizzying many wouldn't even bother to articulate, faintly curious and hungry tugs on so many peoples' vibes and sixth senses to take or to mimic, roared to life, greedy and supping at whatever it could and whatever she'd released.
If any manifestations, if any goo or spirit-like shapes left her, they would be drawn into him, right through that point of contact. The feeling ebbed in the pauses between steps, flowed as they'd moved.
He shook, he shuddered...and he did his best not to let it show. It was a stubborn effort to show that she wasn't freaking him out, he wasn't freaking himself out and that he could take it. Even though manipulator vibes were always, always weird, and he struggled with his own emotions on the regular without other vibes rummaging around in his. He was strong, he was good. Look at him!
He also wasn't particularly good at it; he'd eventually slow and release, his hold snaking back to an arm around her back - no skin contact, all supportive. Very hesitant. The tape wheedled on in the background.
"How're you feeling?"
Neeva — 06/14/2021
"That is what is expected of us as Banditos." Better than the rest when it came to handling things and scraping by; simply because they had to. The unspoken invitation helped and she smiled again, even if she herself was unsure about everything. He said he could handle, but she worried he was walking into something that might be too much.
"Yes."
They did get that far, afterall.
The ectoplasm had seeped off her as the dance continued, but she was mindful still. Her hand was offered, held, and she hoped he wouldn't be immediately overwhelmed with either visions of death or any spirits that might make themselves known. The ectoplasm went from their first host and to Marc, while the concerned expression on her face worsened. Perhaps this was a bad idea.
Marc stood strong through it regardless, and she was quietly impressed through it all. Her hand moved to his shoulder when his arm met her back, content to keep herself steady a little more. "I am....not filled with visions." She couldn't see them now, spirits or otherwise. That was a relief. "How are you? Do you need to sit down? Practice the new vibe?" Perhaps with another dance, with her or otherwise. It might mess with her differently, since she'd be getting the brunt of the despair from him, but if he wanted to take it - might as well make use of it, right?
"Just....do not grab me if you do. It will make the visions worse."
𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰 — 06/26/2021
See it through. She was right. She wouldn't be here, he wouldn't, Nina wouldn't, otherwise.
And finally he broke, reaching instinctively to withdraw and grip his elbows, just for a moment to sort out what he just did, what he was seeing... Then tentatively reached back out again, but to hold her in a dance increasingly subdued.
"I am fuckin'...Wow." He wasn't sharply overwhelmed, but it had been something like a slow seep, or slurp through a straw. And as the new host, he was reeling from a very strange feedback loop of vibe, of visions and ectoplasm. He blinked, shut his eyes tight, pressed a spirit-soaked palm to one of them.
He did smile though in spite of it all once he met her eyes again, hearing that he'd taken enough to free her up. "Good! Good...Just. Woah. How do you even deal with it all of the time?" His tone wasn't afraid necessarily...but it was small and it was sad and very, very sympathetic.
And he was thinking very quickly among it all. If he could pull, he could push. Could he cough out a vibe? Unlike his hopeful occasional plays at vibe-psychometry, he'd never tried. Where would he put it? Or did he just have to wait it out?
"How do you...I wanna' practice. What do you do with it? 'Mean. I don't want to blast it back into you or anything!"
Neeva — 06/27/2021
When he split away just for the brief moment, Neeva reached out for some of the ectoplasm to see what it was like on the opposite side. She'd never asked before, and found it as cold and oily as she anticipated. The return to the dance was as seamless as expected. "You are alright?" She asked when he pressed his hand to his eye, eyebrows tensed downwards.
"I just got used to it, when dancing, singing, things like that. It is...quieter when I do not do those things. Non-existent if I am keeping everything down; like emotions." Neeva would explain, as she moved a hand to rest against one of his shoulders. "I have a vibe cat and when she is with me, there is nothing there. She negates it, though I do not know how." Simply by existing possibly, and her little brightness vibe.
"We could, ah.....do things with the ectoplasm, the dread. I will be mindful and not come in contact so I can avoid the visions."
𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰 — 06/28/2021
"I will be all right. It's just...takes a little getting used to, y'know?" Well of course she did, Marc, duh. He felt a little silly even saying it - but he felt the need to, all the same. Reassurance for himself, reassurance for her!
She did go on, explaining exactly how this vibe crept and slid into her life, and her joy. His hand moved to cover hers, sympathetically - nearly. He'd pulled on one of the gloves again - he'd not wanted to hit her with her own vibe. How else could he comfort?
"That's...Neeva, I'm so sorry." He wholeheartedly meant it, too. "A vibe that keeps you from dancing, that's cruel." Like the Vibe, the Groove itself decided to come down upon this girl in particular as a cosmic joke.
He did snort though, not unkindly, when she mentioned her cat. "It sounds just like what cats do, yeah? Just by being weird little cats." And then faked a shrug, though even the slightest hint of musicality and levity let slip some of the ectoplasm - which was such a weird and indescribably wrong feeling that the jokey shrug tapered into a slight shudder. "And a vibe too. I guess!"
"Yeah! Show me! Er. Tell me what to do, where to put it. Unless you like...want it back?" GOD, hope not. "Receiving end of it? Can I just make it...float?" He waved his hands rather ridiculously and smallishly in a vaguely demonstrative way in emphasis. "I can't exactly bin a vibe." Could he? He'd always assumed he couldn't! Just let the effects wear out and pass through like the morning's breakfast.
Neeva — 06/29/2021
"Hm, yes, I do." She certainly did, no questions there!
Neeva accepted the hand, and she smiled at the gesture, having little need to keep the deadpanned display. "I am sure I am not alone in this, I am sure there are many who would lie about such things or pretend to be vibeless to avoid it. I thought about it for a time, but I did not think the risks were worth it." People would be too violent, even about pseudo-jamdeafs. "It is nice, my cat. She makes it bearable, I could dance at home and she'd do away with it all."
If anything, there was that.
"But yes, a good vibe to go with my own. Even if things played a cruel hand for me, they gave that as an apology." Perhaps. What to do with the ectoplasm...
"You can make it float, yes. You could even have them swirl around you as you dance, like a very macabre addition. If they were not so strange and unconventional in appearance, I am sure they would appeal visually." Maybe they would still do so, depending on the company.
𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰 — 07/04/2021
For someone without an innate vibe of his own, he was getting better about feeling when he'd taken others, and what each felt like in comparison to the other - especially compared to an absence or his hunger and what each meant. This vibe swam and slipped, curdled and chilled. It all seemed ready to burst at the slightest lowering of his guard...but he couldn't help but smile when Neeva smiled anyway. That was nice. That one thing convinced him they were doing something good, here.
He would spin her in a little low-energy couple of steps - should she allow! It was for science, totally. Just...enjoying a dance without spooky stuff crawling out of you. A noble cause!
"Yeah. Yeah I see, better to pretend not to have one at all. Still...it's cruel." There was no more appropriate word for it. "Thank god for a matching cat!"
He'd slowed the tentative dance, then.
"I wonder if I can...bin a vibe this way. If it's something physical like that. I take," - it was more polite than 'leech' 'suck' or 'eat' - "I...let some ghosts swim for a bit. And then they're gone?" Somewhere, a Remi was probably cringing instinctively and didn't know why. "Find that goth kid, or like...a Sisters of Mercy Joy Division crowd or something!"
He clapped his hands together, rubbed them...parted with some slight reluctance from Neeva (he didn't want to spook her with her own vibe after all! That'd just be weird! ) and waited for the song on the grungy little tape to change up. "'Kay. Little spooks. Um. ...ready for a show?" And...he would dance with a slight quizzical am-I-doing-this-right look at Neeva, fully intending to will the manifestations to swirl (he'd hoped it was just by Thinking Swirly Thoughts Really Hard) and dance the ectoplasm right out of him again.
Neeva — 07/05/2021
Good, indeed! Though, Neeva did worry a bit over what he likely saw, regardless as to how non-panicky he seemed. She allowed the spin and twirled into it with no lack of grace, despite how unused to that she was. The urge to steady herself pointlessly had been high, and her fingers twitched as a result.
"There are worse things." She had lived with it for a while now, afterall, and she was more concerned about reactions to her or how people would feel rather than the vibe itself. The vibe could be downplayed if she didn't dance, but....people were another issue entirely. "You could try." How would it hurt? "I would like to see how it goes." Witnessing such an experimentation sounded interesting.
She stepped back and nodded to him, while she sought something to lean against. "I am." A smile followed, and she'd tug at her sleeves. As he danced, the ectoplasm would twist and swirl as he likely encouraged them to by thinking about it. "How do you feel?" It was concern, mostly to ensure he wouldn't be overwhelmed by any sensation that'd likely follow.
Rigby — 07/11/2021
marc: Every time you tried running from horror, from fear and death and truth and dread, it had a way of whirling back around to grab you by the throat when you expected it.
This vibe was in good company. His breaths were measured, but it was the measured and practiced approach of one who'd dealt with grief and no small amount of panic attacks.
"It's not mine..." He was somewhat aware of how weird that sounded, and he squeezed his eyes shut. "My feelings, I mean. The dread, the death...When it's not mine, when the feelings aren't...it's weird. It's choking on Jello except instead of Jello it's just...memories." It sounded absolutely insane and so he flushed and stopped there, instead opting for a little smile after a moment. "Gonna' be fine though." An impulse was to force the vibe out of him, and he tried it sharply - but it only manifested in a quick, dreadful pulse; his eyes snapped open with a "SORRY, sorry, I'm sorry - nononononono, Neeva, didn't mean that!" He'd done something similar after a taste of Nina's vibe once and it took out all of their building's windows in one go. At least this was just a second of a bad day and nothing that'd take the warehouse down around them!
But he didn't want to look away from the ectoplasm. They were lovely, in a way. Not conventionally lovely, true, but lovely all the same.
He tried to will them further up in the air, a neat little twist that was almost balletic - and despite the pervasive mood that these kinds of manipulation-vibes could bring, that did excite him anyway, and he looked frantically at Neeva with an "OhmigodIdiditlookatthat," not even bothering to hide the emerging, excitable smile. Could he make them dance? He rolled his shoulders and head again, eventually bringing the motion into a small contained dance of his own, to the beat of the grungy little tape in the background. And carefully (but no less curiously or excitably), he ventured they copy what he was doing. "Who y'gonna call~" was a little rhythmic murmur, and he couldn't help but smile anyway.
"You know...they aren't bad at all. This part at least." He was still trying to breathe and think through the rest, the foreign feelings jockeying with his own, all struggling under his own mental attempts to sort it out and categorize it so he could use them properly again. "They're really rather beautiful, y'know? Like I can see why people think they'd be freaky and all! Cos like. Death. They think they know what it is and don't want anything to do with it, yeah? But...really, look at them-!"
Neeva — 07/12/2021
Neeva made sure to avoid anything that might set off his panic attack, even if it meant she just stood there and watched. As he spoke, she listened and reached up to tug down her hat a little more. A repeated action, but it kept her a little grounded. "Of course.." She offered gently, and glanced down at her shoes a moment, only to relax once more when he said he'd be fine. Just as she was about to speak again, that dreadful pulse hit her and she flinched. It was undesirable there, felt stronger given his prior dancing, and she shook her head.
"It is alright, I just need a moment..." To try to feel less of that sudden cold feeling, and she grasped one wrist with the opposite hand, though the sinking feeling in her stomach took a little longer to get rid of. "It is just a feeling." It was the thoughts that were worse, but she wouldn't mention this. No one cared to hear it, the inner voice reminded her, as the vibe lingered a little moment longer.
As Marc experimented with the way that ectoplasm moved, Neeva offered a smile to his infectious excitement. "It seems like it is easy for you, it comes naturally. It is one thing to take a vibe, another to use it so easily. You could do so much with this." It was meant as encouragement, while more salty thoughts remained with her. Mostly, how everyone else was missing out by making him feel he had to hide it. He could do so much more than some of them, with their mediocre vibes. Well...mediocre to her.
"Despite your nervousness, this is something I think people should accept. It is something great. Sure, some people can make electricity or fire, but imagine someone showing up to take it and do things they have never tried."
𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰 — 07/27/2021
"It is just a feeling."
A weird pang was unexpected, his step stumbled and a few of the ectoplasmic globs took the opportunity to whisk away into the air, vanishing with cheeky little mental screeches stabbing right through their heads. She was probably used to saying stuff like that.
"Yeah. Yeah...it's just me, just a feeling, nothing's here, you're safe in the carrot-house." He did approach slowly once more, would take her wrist with a tentative, gloved hand. Didn't ask after more, not yet. "Just the vibe, yeah?
"I mean it's yours too - you could do so much with this! I'm just the weird vampire kid. Like a mirror, you know? All this stuff? Mirror! It's all you, all this! It's beautiful!" It was meant to also be encouraging, though there was still his cutting himself down in the middle of it, and that didn't feel quite right. It never had - and he was sure even the mere thought would summon a phantom Nina out of the blue to give him shit about it! But then he did falter slightly as Neeva went on, but it was a curious falter. And he was listening, really listening. He'd hardly blinked anyway, but he'd not blinked at all as he focused on her; if a stare could be vulnerable and hopeful despite the blinking, he'd managed it easily.
Cos coming from her it made sense. And it seemed to calm him down.
"Hey...maybe they'll get it one day. Once they stop kicking the shit out of each other long enough to notice!"
Neeva — 07/27/2021
"Yes, I am." So far, though Marc hardly seemed a threat and she doubted anyone else would show up. She kept her arm still in the new hold of his hand, and nodded again. "Just the vibe." She agreed again, as she turned her attention to the ectoplasm in the air.
"I could, to an extent. I can make people feel and see things, but then that is it. It is only a danger to emotions. As an attack, it is...useless, in a way. I could stop them, but they are able to get back up again and keep going." Unlike if she had used electricity or fire. "But, you can take and use what you want. I think that is better, because how would they fight back if it is gone?" Even temporarily.
Neeva patted his hand with her free one. "One day, yes."
𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰 — 08/11/2021
"Idunno...I've seen people use emotions really badly. You get someone with a fucked-up head in control, and you can destroy something beautiful, y'know? And I mean really fucked up, like...faction-war style fucked-up." He rolled his free shoulder and managed a little smile at that too. "Y'know, you have a good point." He may have done it a few times in rather improvised defense of Nina's shop - but he wouldn't have admitted that so freely.
"You wanna go get some Wafflenoms?" It was slightly blurted out after she'd patted his arm. He reined it in by rambling worse. "I mean maybe not...now but. Soon. I have like...the chips from the bag and some of that cherry licorice but I don't have any real food here 'cos the guys always take it, and I don't want you to dance hungry or something-!"
Neeva — 08/13/2021
"Oh, yes, there is that to consider." Neeva said, a little concerned. That level of 'fucked up' certainly didn't sound appealing! "I would like, if I could use it more offensively. Just to make sure I do not have to worry about too much retaliation." Perhaps someday, but she wasn't banking on it. She didn't use it, and didn't trust most people to know about it.
When he offered food, Neeva raised her eyebrows. Not in surprise, but in consideration. "Like ri-." When he elaborated they didn't need to then and she nodded, only to look for the junk food he mentioned. "I would like to go, anytime. I like waffles, and they top them well. Do you keep real food at all, or just snacks?"
𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰 — 08/18/2021
He did brighten somewhat. "When the cred's flowing, I can get real food!" But when did the cred really 'flow' for any of them! It was a dark little truth about which he continued only after a moment. "Just...y'know. If I'm dry and got nothing to sell, or the roommate's shop's not doing so hot, it's Vendy noodle cups for like a month. Lots of those. Just makes the Wafflenoms better when you go, y'know? And like...that crap instant coffee that isn't even remotely like real coffee, like...who ever asked for that? Some...sadistic vendies, that's who asked for that." It almost threatened to bubble into a ramble, but he wisely clamped it down into that low-key playful grumble. "And taking friends to the best noodle vendies doesn't have the same excitement about it!
"We...can go now? Beats the chips, right?"
Neeva — 08/18/2021
Alas, the downside of being a Bandito, having to rely on random jobs or the contents of someone else's wallet. Though, the latter wasn't always so bad, so long as one didn't get caught. "I wonder if I can get work for a week or so just to be able to have some." Atleast Marc and his friend had the tattoo parlour!
"What do you sell?" She asked curiously, but listened to his grumbles with an understanding nod. "It is a shame, that." She offered a faint smirk, and once it faded, she'd adjust her sleeves. "It does not, no. Still, it is atleast....something. We can go now, if you like. I can help pay, I have sold some of my hats recently."
Marc might not have been the most social of the Banditos for various reasons personal (and, he'd argue, practical), but he - like many - could appreciate a good skatepark. And that was the plan for today.
He was very aware of what his vibe must have felt like to others - but he'd found that in a park, where everyone was already floating, wiping out, and zipping by each other as a rule, nobody would really notice a little vertigo here or there. Parks were places that felt normal. And besides, he'd brought the gloves.
Today, he'd brought the BMX bike; his blades were packed tight in a bag, along with a pair of Dr. Steppers and several snacks. A few totally-good-natured threats to any wandering eyes had kept it there.
Some 'ditos had dared him to figure out some dances on this thing. And while he wasn't THERE, he was absolutely ready to practice on the quarter.
But after wiping out a few times a break; he'd retreated to his bag and sat down to poke through it and fish out some snacks. He'd found a little bag of pizza chips earlier on, weirdly crammed between the bullhorns and base of a Vendy. It seemed suspicious; he'd even checked the seams to see if had been re-sealed (and he'd know; he'd done it plenty of times, himself). But nope - good old Vendy-original packaging. Finder's keepers.
So with Stepper in hand and pizza-chip bag ready to pop open, he sat on the edge of the park - still at a distance from anyone else with the same idea - to watch the others. Because hot damn, pizza-flavored chips. Someone was a genius...
Neeva — 05/12/2021
Much like Marc, Neeva was hesitant about visiting public places, but there...she could watch and chat without having to worry about getting too worked up in any way. She wandered the area upon skates and carried an energy drink with her, but it had been unopened for the moment. She had watched as Marc tried some tricks with the BMX, even if he hadn't much luck with it.
"Hello."
A quiet greeting from the hat-wearing Dito staring down at him with a nonchalant tone and an equally relaxed expression. "Oh. You have those." She indicated the chips as her interest, though now she wondered... "Are you the one leaving them by the vendys?" Neeva asked, while she finally opened her drink with the expected sizzle and faint splatter from it being mildly shaken as she wandered.
She'd wipe off her fingers and sought to sit somewhere nearby, removing her skates for the sake of giving her feet a bit of air.
𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰 — 05/12/2021
He didn't jump exactly - she was too quiet for that. But he started all the same and turned, offered her a somewhat awkward half-wave and an uncertain smile.
She was at the rave. Or at least - those ears had been, he was pretty sure. The colors had been bleeding a bit, but...
"Neeva, right! Oh hey, if you're sitting...c'mon over, pull up a...concrete." It was a somewhat lame finish, but he'd owned it. More or less. After a moment, he patted the space in front of him and waggled the chip bag in his other hand. "I won't eat the whole thing. Got a Dr. Stepper if those are your things, too."
But then she'd said something curious.
"Yeah. Just crammed into it like it was a stash of fonk ready to be picked up. Thought it was at first, y'know? ...Wait, this is a regular thing?" Should she sit nearby, he'd hold the open end of the bag out to her.
Neeva — 05/14/2021
"Oh, if you are sure." She would take the invitation with a grateful nod and tugged at her hat, drink set next to her hip. She stared forward at him, but reached forward to accept one of the chips. "Thank you, I have not made lunch yet." Soon, but only until after she was done getting some fresh air. "I have my energy drink, but that is thoughtful. Thank you."
Since he didn't seem the person leaving them behind, it meant the big guy was doing it. She would have to seek Zeta out again. "Yes, there has been one every few nights...perhaps longer. I am sure others picked them up when I have not."
𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰 — 05/14/2021
"Well they're probably not poisoned or anything. Fresh and Vendy-sealed, double-checked!" He ate a few chips himself. If they were going to get obliterated by poisoned pizza chips, they'd at least go down, together. "It's not LUNCH, y'know, despite theeeee...Pizza. Part. But. It's not nothing."
She reached for one, then, and something curled at the fringes of his vibe-sense, enough for him to slightly frown at first. It was something he - in his drug-stuffed and jive-dulled state at the rave - wouldn't have noticed, at least not to this degree, to pinpoint it coming from her.
He quickly tried to pretend he hadn't, and she gave him enough ammo for that, anyay with her next observation.
"You staking out that vendy or something? What do you think's up with that?"
Neeva — 05/14/2021
"What a way to poison us." A rather easy way, really, who could resist? She couldn't, and she happily munched on the first couple of chips, only to wash it down with a drink. "I once got a bag of potato...flavored ones, but baked potato. It was a disappointment, but then I had all dressed." She enjoyed them. Oblivious to what he sensed from her, she continued to chat away.
"I do not know, but yes, I have. Maybe it is the cop." While Nee had an idea, she was going to keep quiet about that whole ordeal, as she had promised Zeta. "I wonder if he has anything in his station that gives good food." Like a special vendy.
𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰 — 05/14/2021
He did snort at that. "I'd die full of pizza. Think I'm okay with that!"
"Potato-potato chips?" His brow frowned as if in offense that such a thing existed, but he'd laughed anyway - just another little brief bubble of a laugh. "I'd kill for an all-dressed bag right now though." Metaphorically. Probably.
"Cop feeding Banditos." He shrugged with a little 'huh' - but something about that idea did bring a little smile to his face, almost in spite of himself. "Saw that guy at the UG party...thing the other day. I can see him doing it. If he's not eating them himself - that was the thing, he was just...INHALING pizza. He'd better not be holding out on us, the way he was going at it!"
He settled back a bit, popping a few more chips. After a moment, he added, slightly venturesome, slightly tentative.
"...I don't see you out here much. But I don't...get out here much, either. Not when it's crowded. Were you here to watch today? Or were you planning to play?"
Neeva — 05/15/2021
"Hm, yes, me too. Only real pizza, not chips." Chips were great, but they lacked the best thing of the actual food: The melted cheese. "Yes. I am hoping the next time I try that vendy, it will give me something better." Actual all-dressed chips, maybe BBQ. As Marc talked off the cop and the UG party, she nodded along.
"I wish I had been there, I have not had pizza in a long time. I could make it, but...it isn't the same." Maybe she'd go snooping around for the source. "I am surprised he was there, at a party. Was he just keeping an eye on all of you?" Seemed a very police-y thing to do, even if he was joining in on the food.
She dusted off her fingers, and went for another drink. "Oh, I usually do not. I stay around the Research district mostly." It was safer, to a point. "I have been very bored, though, there is so much gaming I can do until I need to start going about more than just at odd hours of the night. I was just going to skate around. What of you?"
𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰 — 05/17/2021
"...kind of. He sorta' showed up, went after as much food as he could and like. Pontificated about Factions Being Bad for a while." The capitals were slightly stressed with dismissive bobs of his head and a pinch of his fingers in over-exaggerated emphasis...before he shook "Like. I know that, pops, but you're one guy, and sometimes life sucks and then you're a Bandito, you know? Don't haul that to a birthday. Not exactly hyped already about the birthday boy being able to ditch the 'Ditos and join one of the big two, anyway, y'know?"
She had accidentally triggered a Ramble, it seemed - but it was a raw one, of surly resentment and ultimate resignation, if not helplessness. He'd at least seemed aware by the time it veered into anger about Dante and rather quickly buried the rest in a cough, curling back in on himself somewhat.
"...it would've been nice, having you there, I think. Was really good pizza. Wish I brought the bike, he'd found a good park, but I brought other stuff!"
He did angle his head somewhat, when she'd mentioned being bored. "Me, too. Skating around, 'mean, except...with the bike. I kinda'...wait 'til the people thin out a little. But that also means the people thin out, a little, yeah? I know what it's like, being bored with that. "
Neeva — 05/17/2021
"I assume he was just seeking to get some food." Neeva couldn't blame him, that's why she went to most parties. More the food and less the people, but it meant she didn't have to worry so much about keeping food in her pantry. "Yes, I understand. I wonder if he knows how it feels, but I doubt it. He is just a cop and likely does not have a vibe."
Or any worries about actual faction issues. He was not bound to any of them.
"Do you want to leave the Banditos?" It was a quiet question, but she wondered if the anger stemmed from that. Getting to go to somewhere that might be better. "That is kind of you. Perhaps I will go to the next party, and make it all the brighter with my presence." Her dreary presence. "It is nice...when you get here at an hour where there's no one else." Likely at some stupid hour in the morning.
"It is how I get most of my exercise, and when.."
𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰 — 05/17/2021
He almost, almost spoke up about the cop's vibe, and demurred at the last moment. Better not to go down the rabbit-hole of how he knew - even though he seemed ready to burst and tell anyone who would listen, anyway.
"Do you want to leave the Banditos?"
"...I don't know." It was a weird, quiet moment of honesty, spoken after a moment of rather serious thought.
"I'd like to not be hard-up for cred every other month. But I don't want to...spend the rest of my life fighting like they do, either. 'Least the 'Ditos have more fun than Squares, right? How about you - I MEAN. Not that. we're talking about leaving...but it's the Banditos." A milder 'what're you in for?' in a way!
Another moment, a small fidget, a rather sudden interest in that fidget, and a quiet slip of "Not sure they'll have me, anyway," seemed a little unintended.
"Yeah. Next party! Or rave. I'd definitely be more sober at a regular party!" Don't think he'd forgotten - he was a little embarrassed about that!
"Yeah. Same, really, I try to do that. Easier to go out at night though, after people clear out a little." Then a thought. "Just an early riser or not really a crowd-person!"
Neeva — 05/17/2021
Neeva was quiet as she listened, as she ever was and she finished off more of her drink. "Where would you go, if you did?" She certainly could agree about the creds. Surviving on vendybars didn't always bother her, because it meant the money went to her cat and she was happy if they were happy.
As it should be.
"It is a long story. I did something I should not have, so I am here. I imagine most people do not know." She hoped so anyway, but no one ever brought it up. "I do not think they would have me either, but it is fine. The FM leader asked me to dance, I do not know what to think of that."
It smelled like a trap, but she wondered if humoring him could be used to her advantage.
"Why do crowds bother you?"
𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰 — 05/20/2021
"...I don't know." He rolled his shoulders, stretched somewhat. "Used to be Mafia when I was a kid. Well like. Family-of, not gonna...do full-on Mafia stuff when I'm like. Eight. Imagine that!"
Though maybe she could - he'd tilted his head, a little hum nearly trailed into a question, head angled curiously at one thing she'd said. But then she'd breezed right into the next and THAT snapped him right out of it - who could leave THAT alone?!
"Hold on, hold up, you...and Frankie-frikkin-Valentine?! What did you do, how did you score THAT dance!"
"Why do crowds bother you?"
"Lots of things. Some of it's just...it gets to be a Lot. Like people are playing like ten different songs at once and you can't get away or pick out the song you actually want." It was a weird explanation he wasn't sure entirely worked, but even music-lovers would think a cacophony like that was Too Much, he'd figured! He shrugged, picked at some chips. "Vibe kinda...is not really a people-vibe, either." He tried to play it off as if he was unbothered; he wasn't very good at it at all.
"What about you?"
Neeva — 05/21/2021
The mention of being former Mafia surprised her, and Nee's expression displayed it for a moment. "That is...something else." She now wondered over his family, the reasons why he was here and not still there. Prying wasn't likely, still. "I taunted him on Stepbook and he offered, but he has not sent me a message."
She felt he likely wouldn't, which wouldn't really bother her.
"Ah, yes, I understand that. I am.." She was quiet a moment, and tugged at her hat. "My vibe is not good for people either. If my emotions are out of check, it will cause loss of my vibe." Controlling it, someday, was likely a much desired change.
𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰 — 05/21/2021
He nodded quickly. "Yeah. Yeahitis, it's not...something I tell people." But then he did smile, and ventured an elbow nudge should she be in range of it. "You gotta get like. Video evidence of that one if it ever happens. People IN the Mafia'd kill to get a dance with that boss. Probably have!"
He frowned, then, as she tugged at her hat and explained a little more about her vibe, and a pang of understanding struck him involuntarily at his heart and throat. He swallowed.
"Like...any emotions? Even the good ones?" His tone and his expression was somber and empathetic - it appeared he'd already guessed, anyway. He tugged at one glove; it had been a fidget at first but now he looked down at his hands. "That's...I'm sorry." Were there any trainers for that kind of thing? Hell if he knew.
"My vibe is..." It trailed in a little gasp of nerves. He stopped fidgeting.
"It's not...a normal vibe. Any of these really 'normal' though?" Haha, Marc. Haha. He was sure funny, all right. Funny, funny Marc. Stop stalling. "It copies...and it takes. But like...only when people are around. I don't really like...keep it?" It was low and almost confessional; for many, vibes were sacred and this was abhorrent. But this - at least to Marc - might've also seemed the seeds of another idea. He looked down, quickly, fidgeted with his gloves again. "It's not exactly something you whip out at parties, y'know?"
Neeva — 05/21/2021
"Hmm, maybe I will. I wonder if there is an ulterior motive." Trusting any side was risky, even the Ditos, but Mafia moreso. She'd seen the arguments on Stepbook, and that generally made her wary. "I must be mindful." She had patted his arm at the nudge, but went for more chips.
"Yes, but it does not bother me. It just seems to bother others." If only they knew. Nee would take strange looks and comments over angry ones. "It is fine." She'd offer to the apology, but quieted when he mentioned his own and she looked thoughtful. "Only temporarily...when you take them, can you control them?"
𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰 — 05/22/2021
"Yeah, true. Wary's good. Hopefully he's the kind of purple that only really gets riled up if you're Orange or something! Or maybe he's just as wary of you! Scary Chaos 'dito and all!" He did manage another little smile there - The-Frankie-Valentine, scared of a kid or two! It could happen.
"Like...with me? Once they hit me? ...I don't even know what I'm copying half the time if I'm not like...aiming to take stuff. If I do aim...I gotta figure it out fast. It's easy if it's like...elements. Pokemon, Avatar stuff. Lightning goes boom, fire goes woosh. Lucky guesses there."
"If I'm copying or taking, it stays in as long as like...food stays in? Maybe? I never keep anything for long afterwards...whether I'm trying or not. If I can figure out the vibe by then, I can...try. Otherwise I hold onto it til it's gone." He shrugged, somewhat lamely - it was the best explanation he could conjure up for something that was outright bizarre as far as he was concerned. He did suspect she might've picked up one of his stray thoughts on the matter, and after a moment ventured a... "What does yours do?"
He may have already sensed...something. But it was better to ask!
Neeva — 05/22/2021
"Perhaps, but it might be for naught. He hasn't messaged me and I am not going to ask around for when I can message him." Just to avoid anyone bothering to fuck with her. Besides, she didn't want to look like she was too interested in the dance, incase they suspected her of ulterior motives in return.
"Oh, I see. Atleast elemental things are simple." She wasn't surprised, because in comparison to others, they seemed to be. Her drink was finished off. "Do some vibes last longer with you than others?" She was curious, still, but if he seemed concerned, she would back off. "It does many things. It conjures ectoplasm, makes people feel dreadful and, if I touch someone while I'm using it, it makes them see things."
She wouldn't explain what, because she didn't want it to be revealed, incase someone saw use in abusing something so useful.
𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰 — 05/22/2021
"Yeah. Good point! Heh...stick that all over stepbook if it happens. Or at least shoot me a text or something!"
She'd asked after his vibe, then, and he frowned - but this time it was a thoughtful frown more than fearful or dreadful. "Found it's like...food. Some I feel really good afterwards and they stick around and just...settle, and I'm thinking about it for the rest of the day. And some just, uh. ...disagree." He mimed something with his hand, quickly flushing downward. Maybe a tiny raspberry for emphasis. "And pass right through really quickly. Like a bad burrito or something. Except...vibey."
And then, she finally spoke of her own in a little more detail, and he clasped at his hands, then elbows, nodding. "That's what that was..." It was vague, possibly more to himself. "It felt spooky." He raised both hands. "I didn't take anything! It's just...feelings. Can probably copy it a little if we keep sitting here." Then lowered them, his own voice trailing into an empathetic hum. "But...yeah, I guess if that's what you've got, I don't blame you for, y'know. Doing the things I do and stuff."
A beat, then he continued somewhat more awkwardly. "...can I try?"
Neeva — 05/23/2021
"I certainly will."
Neeva chuckled dryly, but quieted when he explained what the vibe-eating was like and she'd nod. "A shame they are not always great." To be expected with some vibes, she was sure. "What happens if they do not agree with you? Does it affect you physically?" It seemed the questions were endless, but it was new and intriguing. Thankfully, no one was eavesdropping.
"You can sense them even if they're not being used?" Must be handy, too, knowing a little bit of what he might be getting into. Atleast regarding those with feelings. "Yes, it is better this way. No one asks much either, I like that." When he asked to try, she looked over the groups and back again.
"Probably....not here. If something goes wrong, you might draw attention."
𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰 — 05/24/2021
The questions were endless, true...but Marc didn't seem to mind. If anything, he was easing into the conversation a little easier, more animation beginning to lace his gestures, more notes slipping into his voice. She wasn't running away. She had a vibe that...might have been as 'wrong' as his own. And she was helping him put some of these thing into words that he'd not yet been able to - apart from with Nina, and she'd had more things to worry about than harboring a vampire!
"I've never...thrown up a vibe yet, but I've felt like it!" No matter what he'd pictured, it inevitably looked really weird in his mind's eye. "You know that feeling when you REALLY have to and just choke it down anyway? That's...it. I don't wanna know what happens. Especially if it's like...fire or something that explodes, you know? Like what if I burp up a fireball and wipe out the nearest Waffle Noms or something?!" He'd laughed, but it was the kind of laugh that also thoroughly believed something like this was possible and was hellbent on preventing it from happening. Not the Waffle Noms!
"So I kinda like...choke it down and home it won't like...make me dizzy. Give me a migraine, stomachache. Puke. Imagine puking a vibe. I've tried dancing it out before but it only just amps up whatever's already in there."
"You can sense them even if they're not being used?"
"Yeah! Kinda! Like...you know that feeling right before a storm where you just know?* It's like that, except...vibey." He slumped slightly. "Okay, yeah, that was kinda' lame. But it's true! Be around enough vibes and you start to feel how different they are. Like with you, it was just...a spooky feeling."
He did sit up a bit then (while none-too-discreetly polishing off his own snacks!). "Really?" It was legitimately hopeful. "We should try it around something like...really, really funny or cute or sad or something. See if what I'm thinking works and you get to...do something about it, you know?"
Neeva — 05/24/2021
With her can now empty, Nee looked for the nearest bin to throw it away at, but didn't bother to get up just yet to do so. As long as she knew where it was. "That sounds very annoying." Simply because Marc likely couldn't just swallow it down with some water and call it a day. "Hm, no one would ever forgive you if you do that." The loss of the Waffle Noms would be too much. She might even become a little upset.
"That is unfortunate. A shame you cannot find out what they are before you absorb them." When he explained the sensation, Neeva nodded quietly. "That makes sense." But now she wondered over what some vibes felt like. Fire-based ones, probably sensations of heat..
It was then she'd finally stand, careful on her roller skates and she'd take a moment to keep her balance. "Yes. I would like a moment without it." A break, it could be called, she wagered. "Where to?"
𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰 — 05/24/2021
"Not the Waffle Noms!" He snorted. "They can't get me, I'm already a Bandito! What are they gonna' do, banish me twice?" Realistically, though, he'd probably get dance battle'd to death!
"Most things I can laugh at myself about, you know?" Like his height. Or his own anxieties, or sensory processing. "Learn to live with it, anyway, make it work...It's just that. Making this work means I gotta...not-make-people work. Burping up a bad vibe can be really, really funny or scary or -" and he waved a you-said-it hand at Neeva with a nod. "-annoying. But who else is ever gonna' know that, you know?"
When she expressed that it was a shame he couldn't figure out the vibes he'd ambiently soak in, he did animate some more, with a "RIGHT? Like especially the gross ones. 'Cos there ARE gross ones. Like...hair? Eels? VIBE eels?! Like I'm rolling around, start dancing a little to my earbuds and then suddenly EELS."
Neeva rose then, and Marc followed suit, gathering his bike and bag back up. How to invite her home without sounding like...well. That. Like he was aiming to do something Nina'd probably never let him hear the end of.
"One of the warehouses? I know a coupla' shops over by the tattoo place are empty."
Neeva — 05/24/2021
"They will send you to another faction and just have them banish you for them." It was in jest, but she made it sound like she truly believed this to be an outcome. "It is not fun, I can imagine. Being isolated is the worst." She would knew, she understood. But, Marc's didn't go under the radar if he simply shut off his emotions forcefully.
"Vibe eels." Neeva certainly didn't look like she could handle, and the thought along almost made her cringe. "May it never happen." She said with a sigh, and she tapped one of her skates against the ground. "Yes, so long as you don't drag me there to steal my creds. I would be very unhappy and you would not like it either."
𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰 — 05/25/2021
He snorted. Then realized he did. Flushed. Let it happen anyway. Maybe it was her deadpan, maybe it was the odd sense of loner-camaraderie, but laughing came a little easier, then.
"It is." He finally admitted, sobering - and then jerked his head in a 'follow-me' motion.
"Place I'm thinking of is right by the tattoo parlor." And then he smirked, adding quietly. "Whatever you've got for me...it can't be worse than the eels, yeah?"
---
It wasn't a long trip back to the Research District, and the place was hardly short of warehouses, but Marc appeared to have one particular one in mind. Down the road from the tattoo parlor and a left into a shoddy row of warehouses and there they were; he pried open a noisy and rusty door, green and weathered with age, and walked his bike into it with no fear or hesitation, whatsoever.
Marc very much did not appear to worry about being ambushed.
this one appeared to be His Warehouse, fit with a frankenstein-assembled creations of Vendy-electronics and accentuated with presumably stolen speakers, small furniture and other odds and ends. There were signs of others that came and went in the forms of freely discarded snacks. Posters of island musicians and steppers slathered and peeled off the wall (covered neatly with Practice Throws) and the building smelled like bagged carrots, must and mildew.
The center was clear and the floor was strangely finished in places, scuffed with wheel and shoe-marks; this seemed to at one point have served as a practice space. Among other, likely shadier things.
He pulled his bike into the corner of the room, before whirling about with his hands splayed in a rather knowingly pathetic "Ta-daaaa! Training space, dance studio. Probably alive if the smell's anything to go by. And all your creds are still here. Should we...Idunno." He waggled a gloved hand and shrugged.
Neeva — 05/27/2021
"Oh, I have been around there. I got a tattoo, but I am waiting a bit to have it colored." When he asked if it was worse than the eels, she just shrugged. It likely was.
Neeva had skated along as they went and once they got to the warehouse, she peeked over her shoulder. Since Marc didn't seem so hesitant, she decided to follow his example and headed inside. The electronics grabbed and held her attention, and she wheeled around to look at everything.
"It is an interesting spot you have." She would comment after, and turned to face him, braced on the backs of her skates. "It could use a bit of cleaning." Neeva would tease, and headed over to him, as she eyed that gloved hand. "How do you want to do this?"
𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰 — 05/27/2021
"OH. OHHHHH. You met Nina! I hope she wasn't too. Well. Hope it was fun! Lemme know what y'got sometime when you're done, she's good!" Nina's texts made a lot more sense, now. Inwardly he wished he could've seen it - Nina butted heads with a lot of people, but Neeva already invited a different sort of reaction.
Could'a been interesting.
---
He stepped further in, hands still splayed in a flourish. "Staked it out with a crew a little while back!" It was...kind of proud? Though he added a 'yeaaaaaaah' when he kicked up a cloud of dust by upsetting a gutted speaker, mid-repair and abandoned, perhaps in a frenzy of addressing all of the other projects nearby. There was no sign of that crew now, but this didn't seem to bother him too much on the surface; Banditos came and went where they pleased, after all.
"Used it for vibe sparring and dancing. Well. They did the sparring part. I kinda'...tried to see what I could do. This one girl swung around a couple years back, she could do ballet on a bike and a few of us wanted to try it. I can't...ballet on a bike but one day I'll figure out something...dance-y." It was a small smile, though it might've gotten lost as he'd shoved a few things aside with his foot to clear out even more space.
Then yelped a "THERE it is, sonsofbitches better not have broken it-" and dove right into a particularly untidy mass of junk before producing a small boombox with a handle, adorned with glittery candy-colored vinyl stickers (and by his slightly perplexed look, those had been new additions since he'd last found it). He flipped it on; the static and buzz of its feeble antenna searching in vain for stepper waves was evidence enough that there was enough battery for them, and he flipped the source to discs and tapes and set it down, trusting whatever was left inside.
Today's choice seemed to be a leisurely drawl of nineties neo-psychedelia breakbeat, and he'd kept it on low for now. Was this old-people stuff? Easy to count, no words to memorize. Not bad...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf73xqZvk6k&ab_channel=DSoTM
He was wandering freely back to Neeva and would've almost forgotten to stop himself, but that warning lick of that 'spooky' vibe curled around his senses and slowed his steps again.
"I was thinking that...Idunno. If you were comfortable showing me what it was, we could do that? Andifyou'renotthat'sokay! Otherwise. Yeah. Like...dance a little maybe? So I'm not just...rawr, eat-it-up. And I just go for it." He waggled his hand. "Nothing that'll hurt, it doesn't hurt, nothing that'll take it for good or anything!"
He trailed, flushing, feeling somewhat lame. "Whatever you're comfortable with, y'know?"
Neeva — 05/28/2021
"Your crew?" Neeva asked curiously, though now she was concerned she'd walked into something that was likely going to result in her losing a lot of creds. However, it also sounded like they were off doing their own things now. "Of course. Are they gone now? Is it just you?" He'd mention Nina, but their friendship could've been no different than her relationship with the Tattooist. "I am sure you will someday, with time and practice."
She looked to his bike, as if considering what sort of dances he could do with a bike. When he went for the next bit of junk after his exclaimation, she headed over to see what he got. "Ah good! I am glad it still works." When the music played, it was certainly different than what she'd been expecting. Still, it was nice.
When he wandered back up, Neeva held up a hand and tilted her head slightly. "I would not mind, either way. I have not danced with someone else for a very long time." For obvious reasons. "What would you prefer to do?" She'd ask curiously, relieved that pain was likely not part of the whole process.
𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰 — 05/30/2021
"Yeah. Well. Kind of a crew. People who stick around long enough that we say we like each other, or something like that. But you know banditos. One got wrecked in a dance battle like last month and the rest kinda' come and go. I stick around. Lodge at Nina's."
The music picked up. He bopped a little, tried to find a casual beat in the songs, smiling a little even as he flushed. "We dance! Together. Maybe?" Oh, boy. "We...We make something up. You don't need to remember anything that way, y'know? I lead, you lead, we both lead. We're not battling, not asking you to like...fight, get any of that refined mafia shit out, or know any crazy steps or anything like that." He hoped that sounded reassuring and not...entirely mad.
"Me? Gloves on right now. Especially if we..." And he flicked both eyebrows...tried awkwardly to mimic a two-person dance. "And when your vibe gets going...if it's not going and wiping the floor with me...vwoop! Gloves off! And I break before anything too weird happens."
And he smiled, continued to dance...finally fell into some sort of step that seemed easy and comfortable to ease Neeva into. Should she choose to take his hands, he'd lead her into a rather genuine, if a bit silly dance. "Show me."
Neeva — 05/30/2021
"Hm, this is true. I hope you find more that stick around." Neeva wasn't sure if she could promise that, not yet. Besides, sticking around herself meant she'd subject others to her vibe that couldn't just absorb it and not be affected. Just to be safe, she removed her blades, even if she was left in socks.
Dancing with them wasn't hard, but doing so with another person was and she didn't want a twisted ankle as part of the equation. "I would like that." She had her own gloves on, expectedly, and she'd hold her hands out. "Ballroom?" A suggestion, since he was miming a two-person dance. "Are you sure you want the gloves off? You might see things you don't want to. Everything else is just....emitted off of me." No death visions.
Neeva allowed herself to be eased into the dance and she offered a rare smile, a hint she'd be letting go. As they continued, her enjoyment grew, but so did the feeling of dread and should it continue past that; the ectoplasm seemed off her body to add to the dreary scene. It was as one anticipated in appearance; a drab gray, twisting and offering a horrifying hint to the scene.
𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰 — 06/05/2021
"Me too. Heh. I don't...always run away from people!"
Emotional vibes were fucked. They always were; if he'd not had his own and experienced (or had been ostracized for) worse on the daily, he wouldn't have entertained this in the slightest.
But in her wariness - in that smile and in her slight resistance to even let that vibe go at all - he saw himself. He'd GOT this.
"Gloves off." It was small, but then he repeated with an easier and slightly-more-confident smile. "Gloves off. Or like. Maybe one off. I can take quicker that way." He slipped one off at first...and then took her hands, heart hammering. One glove on, one off. It was entirely unscientific- if not a little more than half-baked; it just seemed like any vibe effects wouldn't hit quite in full-blast this way.
"Right. Yeah, here I am, here we go. Nobody's dead." He splayed his hands demonstrably. Still alive! "Show me those...ah. Spooky things!" A moment, and then added with a pantomime shudder, "And remember that whatever you're about to throw at me, 'least it's not the eels!"
And should Neeva allow, they worked their way into a little dance - in sock feet and shoes in a grungy little warehouse, to the music of tinny and tiny speakers. It would've been almost sweet had their aims not been so spooky, and indeed he'd led with care and skill and no doubt years of training.
He couldn't tell exactly whether his heart or that slight sheen of sweat was his own nerves yet, but already the dread twisted and curled around his guts, flicking at the edges of his mind, already ominous and greedily suggesting that this was only the beginning, that far worse was to come, that he shouldn't move, shouldn't keep going, shouldn't be near her, that this was going to only end in horror...
His reflexive response was to hug Neeva, keep her away from this even though rationally it was obviously hers in the first place.
"Fucking hell Neeva..." was a murmur that might've been more of a whimper than he'd wanted. "You weren't. You weren't kidding."
Who in his right mind would want this taken into him? What would he do, where would it go, would it kill him? Of course it would, nothing this horrible would let him out of this alive...
The other glove of his was off; if hers were too, he'd seek that skin-to-skin contact. And should he find it, he would take.
Neeva — 06/06/2021
"Someone will stay." Neeva was sure he had solid friends regardless, so long as he was careful. She nodded to the decision of just one glove, because it was easier that way. "You have survived." She said in jest to his demonstration and sighed slowly, head tilted. "No, not the eels. Though, they are not as appealing in appearance." What eels she knew of looked pretty interesting, like the moray. To the dance floor!
She continued to smile, though not in a way that overlooked what he was likely feeling. It was nice, despite what it imposed on others, to dance without too much concern. She still worried though, because if he saw things, there was no real reason he'd want to stay.
"No, I was not." It was an apologetic statement. "Are you sure?" He reached out, and Neeva would only stop him with words. Her bare hand was held out, but placed in a spot where he'd have to reach out and offered the chance to back out if he wanted.
Rigby — 06/13/2021
marc: "Heh. S'pose so. S'pose I have!" Where people would report general tickles of vertigo, dizzying feelings of falling or flying when close to him in general, that was when the vibe was at-rest.
But there was dancing here; there was dancing, music, fear, curiosity, will, hunger. And so he turned it on. And as they danced, two things would come into play -
Firstly,* that he knew his stuff; *there was evident training in his steps, even when he made to loosen up and gently invited her - and himself - to cut a little looser than before.
"No, I was not. Are you sure?"
"Yeah. I'm sure."
It had probably occurred to him that eating vibe ghosts was probably not a very good idea. Several times. Did he want to hang onto these? Would they feel weird? Would he be able to use them or would he just be...filled with ectoplasm and terror for a few hours?
"But gotta see it through, right?"
He took her hand - and what had once been a vague sensation, a lightness of being, something dizzying many wouldn't even bother to articulate, faintly curious and hungry tugs on so many peoples' vibes and sixth senses to take or to mimic, roared to life, greedy and supping at whatever it could and whatever she'd released.
If any manifestations, if any goo or spirit-like shapes left her, they would be drawn into him, right through that point of contact. The feeling ebbed in the pauses between steps, flowed as they'd moved.
He shook, he shuddered...and he did his best not to let it show. It was a stubborn effort to show that she wasn't freaking him out, he wasn't freaking himself out and that he could take it. Even though manipulator vibes were always, always weird, and he struggled with his own emotions on the regular without other vibes rummaging around in his. He was strong, he was good. Look at him!
He also wasn't particularly good at it; he'd eventually slow and release, his hold snaking back to an arm around her back - no skin contact, all supportive. Very hesitant. The tape wheedled on in the background.
"How're you feeling?"
Neeva — 06/14/2021
"That is what is expected of us as Banditos." Better than the rest when it came to handling things and scraping by; simply because they had to. The unspoken invitation helped and she smiled again, even if she herself was unsure about everything. He said he could handle, but she worried he was walking into something that might be too much.
"Yes."
They did get that far, afterall.
The ectoplasm had seeped off her as the dance continued, but she was mindful still. Her hand was offered, held, and she hoped he wouldn't be immediately overwhelmed with either visions of death or any spirits that might make themselves known. The ectoplasm went from their first host and to Marc, while the concerned expression on her face worsened. Perhaps this was a bad idea.
Marc stood strong through it regardless, and she was quietly impressed through it all. Her hand moved to his shoulder when his arm met her back, content to keep herself steady a little more. "I am....not filled with visions." She couldn't see them now, spirits or otherwise. That was a relief. "How are you? Do you need to sit down? Practice the new vibe?" Perhaps with another dance, with her or otherwise. It might mess with her differently, since she'd be getting the brunt of the despair from him, but if he wanted to take it - might as well make use of it, right?
"Just....do not grab me if you do. It will make the visions worse."
𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰 — 06/26/2021
See it through. She was right. She wouldn't be here, he wouldn't, Nina wouldn't, otherwise.
And finally he broke, reaching instinctively to withdraw and grip his elbows, just for a moment to sort out what he just did, what he was seeing... Then tentatively reached back out again, but to hold her in a dance increasingly subdued.
"I am fuckin'...Wow." He wasn't sharply overwhelmed, but it had been something like a slow seep, or slurp through a straw. And as the new host, he was reeling from a very strange feedback loop of vibe, of visions and ectoplasm. He blinked, shut his eyes tight, pressed a spirit-soaked palm to one of them.
He did smile though in spite of it all once he met her eyes again, hearing that he'd taken enough to free her up. "Good! Good...Just. Woah. How do you even deal with it all of the time?" His tone wasn't afraid necessarily...but it was small and it was sad and very, very sympathetic.
And he was thinking very quickly among it all. If he could pull, he could push. Could he cough out a vibe? Unlike his hopeful occasional plays at vibe-psychometry, he'd never tried. Where would he put it? Or did he just have to wait it out?
"How do you...I wanna' practice. What do you do with it? 'Mean. I don't want to blast it back into you or anything!"
Neeva — 06/27/2021
When he split away just for the brief moment, Neeva reached out for some of the ectoplasm to see what it was like on the opposite side. She'd never asked before, and found it as cold and oily as she anticipated. The return to the dance was as seamless as expected. "You are alright?" She asked when he pressed his hand to his eye, eyebrows tensed downwards.
"I just got used to it, when dancing, singing, things like that. It is...quieter when I do not do those things. Non-existent if I am keeping everything down; like emotions." Neeva would explain, as she moved a hand to rest against one of his shoulders. "I have a vibe cat and when she is with me, there is nothing there. She negates it, though I do not know how." Simply by existing possibly, and her little brightness vibe.
"We could, ah.....do things with the ectoplasm, the dread. I will be mindful and not come in contact so I can avoid the visions."
𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰 — 06/28/2021
"I will be all right. It's just...takes a little getting used to, y'know?" Well of course she did, Marc, duh. He felt a little silly even saying it - but he felt the need to, all the same. Reassurance for himself, reassurance for her!
She did go on, explaining exactly how this vibe crept and slid into her life, and her joy. His hand moved to cover hers, sympathetically - nearly. He'd pulled on one of the gloves again - he'd not wanted to hit her with her own vibe. How else could he comfort?
"That's...Neeva, I'm so sorry." He wholeheartedly meant it, too. "A vibe that keeps you from dancing, that's cruel." Like the Vibe, the Groove itself decided to come down upon this girl in particular as a cosmic joke.
He did snort though, not unkindly, when she mentioned her cat. "It sounds just like what cats do, yeah? Just by being weird little cats." And then faked a shrug, though even the slightest hint of musicality and levity let slip some of the ectoplasm - which was such a weird and indescribably wrong feeling that the jokey shrug tapered into a slight shudder. "And a vibe too. I guess!"
"Yeah! Show me! Er. Tell me what to do, where to put it. Unless you like...want it back?" GOD, hope not. "Receiving end of it? Can I just make it...float?" He waved his hands rather ridiculously and smallishly in a vaguely demonstrative way in emphasis. "I can't exactly bin a vibe." Could he? He'd always assumed he couldn't! Just let the effects wear out and pass through like the morning's breakfast.
Neeva — 06/29/2021
"Hm, yes, I do." She certainly did, no questions there!
Neeva accepted the hand, and she smiled at the gesture, having little need to keep the deadpanned display. "I am sure I am not alone in this, I am sure there are many who would lie about such things or pretend to be vibeless to avoid it. I thought about it for a time, but I did not think the risks were worth it." People would be too violent, even about pseudo-jamdeafs. "It is nice, my cat. She makes it bearable, I could dance at home and she'd do away with it all."
If anything, there was that.
"But yes, a good vibe to go with my own. Even if things played a cruel hand for me, they gave that as an apology." Perhaps. What to do with the ectoplasm...
"You can make it float, yes. You could even have them swirl around you as you dance, like a very macabre addition. If they were not so strange and unconventional in appearance, I am sure they would appeal visually." Maybe they would still do so, depending on the company.
𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰 — 07/04/2021
For someone without an innate vibe of his own, he was getting better about feeling when he'd taken others, and what each felt like in comparison to the other - especially compared to an absence or his hunger and what each meant. This vibe swam and slipped, curdled and chilled. It all seemed ready to burst at the slightest lowering of his guard...but he couldn't help but smile when Neeva smiled anyway. That was nice. That one thing convinced him they were doing something good, here.
He would spin her in a little low-energy couple of steps - should she allow! It was for science, totally. Just...enjoying a dance without spooky stuff crawling out of you. A noble cause!
"Yeah. Yeah I see, better to pretend not to have one at all. Still...it's cruel." There was no more appropriate word for it. "Thank god for a matching cat!"
He'd slowed the tentative dance, then.
"I wonder if I can...bin a vibe this way. If it's something physical like that. I take," - it was more polite than 'leech' 'suck' or 'eat' - "I...let some ghosts swim for a bit. And then they're gone?" Somewhere, a Remi was probably cringing instinctively and didn't know why. "Find that goth kid, or like...a Sisters of Mercy Joy Division crowd or something!"
He clapped his hands together, rubbed them...parted with some slight reluctance from Neeva (he didn't want to spook her with her own vibe after all! That'd just be weird! ) and waited for the song on the grungy little tape to change up. "'Kay. Little spooks. Um. ...ready for a show?" And...he would dance with a slight quizzical am-I-doing-this-right look at Neeva, fully intending to will the manifestations to swirl (he'd hoped it was just by Thinking Swirly Thoughts Really Hard) and dance the ectoplasm right out of him again.
Neeva — 07/05/2021
Good, indeed! Though, Neeva did worry a bit over what he likely saw, regardless as to how non-panicky he seemed. She allowed the spin and twirled into it with no lack of grace, despite how unused to that she was. The urge to steady herself pointlessly had been high, and her fingers twitched as a result.
"There are worse things." She had lived with it for a while now, afterall, and she was more concerned about reactions to her or how people would feel rather than the vibe itself. The vibe could be downplayed if she didn't dance, but....people were another issue entirely. "You could try." How would it hurt? "I would like to see how it goes." Witnessing such an experimentation sounded interesting.
She stepped back and nodded to him, while she sought something to lean against. "I am." A smile followed, and she'd tug at her sleeves. As he danced, the ectoplasm would twist and swirl as he likely encouraged them to by thinking about it. "How do you feel?" It was concern, mostly to ensure he wouldn't be overwhelmed by any sensation that'd likely follow.
Rigby — 07/11/2021
marc: Every time you tried running from horror, from fear and death and truth and dread, it had a way of whirling back around to grab you by the throat when you expected it.
This vibe was in good company. His breaths were measured, but it was the measured and practiced approach of one who'd dealt with grief and no small amount of panic attacks.
"It's not mine..." He was somewhat aware of how weird that sounded, and he squeezed his eyes shut. "My feelings, I mean. The dread, the death...When it's not mine, when the feelings aren't...it's weird. It's choking on Jello except instead of Jello it's just...memories." It sounded absolutely insane and so he flushed and stopped there, instead opting for a little smile after a moment. "Gonna' be fine though." An impulse was to force the vibe out of him, and he tried it sharply - but it only manifested in a quick, dreadful pulse; his eyes snapped open with a "SORRY, sorry, I'm sorry - nononononono, Neeva, didn't mean that!" He'd done something similar after a taste of Nina's vibe once and it took out all of their building's windows in one go. At least this was just a second of a bad day and nothing that'd take the warehouse down around them!
But he didn't want to look away from the ectoplasm. They were lovely, in a way. Not conventionally lovely, true, but lovely all the same.
He tried to will them further up in the air, a neat little twist that was almost balletic - and despite the pervasive mood that these kinds of manipulation-vibes could bring, that did excite him anyway, and he looked frantically at Neeva with an "OhmigodIdiditlookatthat," not even bothering to hide the emerging, excitable smile. Could he make them dance? He rolled his shoulders and head again, eventually bringing the motion into a small contained dance of his own, to the beat of the grungy little tape in the background. And carefully (but no less curiously or excitably), he ventured they copy what he was doing. "Who y'gonna call~" was a little rhythmic murmur, and he couldn't help but smile anyway.
"You know...they aren't bad at all. This part at least." He was still trying to breathe and think through the rest, the foreign feelings jockeying with his own, all struggling under his own mental attempts to sort it out and categorize it so he could use them properly again. "They're really rather beautiful, y'know? Like I can see why people think they'd be freaky and all! Cos like. Death. They think they know what it is and don't want anything to do with it, yeah? But...really, look at them-!"
Neeva — 07/12/2021
Neeva made sure to avoid anything that might set off his panic attack, even if it meant she just stood there and watched. As he spoke, she listened and reached up to tug down her hat a little more. A repeated action, but it kept her a little grounded. "Of course.." She offered gently, and glanced down at her shoes a moment, only to relax once more when he said he'd be fine. Just as she was about to speak again, that dreadful pulse hit her and she flinched. It was undesirable there, felt stronger given his prior dancing, and she shook her head.
"It is alright, I just need a moment..." To try to feel less of that sudden cold feeling, and she grasped one wrist with the opposite hand, though the sinking feeling in her stomach took a little longer to get rid of. "It is just a feeling." It was the thoughts that were worse, but she wouldn't mention this. No one cared to hear it, the inner voice reminded her, as the vibe lingered a little moment longer.
As Marc experimented with the way that ectoplasm moved, Neeva offered a smile to his infectious excitement. "It seems like it is easy for you, it comes naturally. It is one thing to take a vibe, another to use it so easily. You could do so much with this." It was meant as encouragement, while more salty thoughts remained with her. Mostly, how everyone else was missing out by making him feel he had to hide it. He could do so much more than some of them, with their mediocre vibes. Well...mediocre to her.
"Despite your nervousness, this is something I think people should accept. It is something great. Sure, some people can make electricity or fire, but imagine someone showing up to take it and do things they have never tried."
𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰 — 07/27/2021
"It is just a feeling."
A weird pang was unexpected, his step stumbled and a few of the ectoplasmic globs took the opportunity to whisk away into the air, vanishing with cheeky little mental screeches stabbing right through their heads. She was probably used to saying stuff like that.
"Yeah. Yeah...it's just me, just a feeling, nothing's here, you're safe in the carrot-house." He did approach slowly once more, would take her wrist with a tentative, gloved hand. Didn't ask after more, not yet. "Just the vibe, yeah?
"I mean it's yours too - you could do so much with this! I'm just the weird vampire kid. Like a mirror, you know? All this stuff? Mirror! It's all you, all this! It's beautiful!" It was meant to also be encouraging, though there was still his cutting himself down in the middle of it, and that didn't feel quite right. It never had - and he was sure even the mere thought would summon a phantom Nina out of the blue to give him shit about it! But then he did falter slightly as Neeva went on, but it was a curious falter. And he was listening, really listening. He'd hardly blinked anyway, but he'd not blinked at all as he focused on her; if a stare could be vulnerable and hopeful despite the blinking, he'd managed it easily.
Cos coming from her it made sense. And it seemed to calm him down.
"Hey...maybe they'll get it one day. Once they stop kicking the shit out of each other long enough to notice!"
Neeva — 07/27/2021
"Yes, I am." So far, though Marc hardly seemed a threat and she doubted anyone else would show up. She kept her arm still in the new hold of his hand, and nodded again. "Just the vibe." She agreed again, as she turned her attention to the ectoplasm in the air.
"I could, to an extent. I can make people feel and see things, but then that is it. It is only a danger to emotions. As an attack, it is...useless, in a way. I could stop them, but they are able to get back up again and keep going." Unlike if she had used electricity or fire. "But, you can take and use what you want. I think that is better, because how would they fight back if it is gone?" Even temporarily.
Neeva patted his hand with her free one. "One day, yes."
𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰 — 08/11/2021
"Idunno...I've seen people use emotions really badly. You get someone with a fucked-up head in control, and you can destroy something beautiful, y'know? And I mean really fucked up, like...faction-war style fucked-up." He rolled his free shoulder and managed a little smile at that too. "Y'know, you have a good point." He may have done it a few times in rather improvised defense of Nina's shop - but he wouldn't have admitted that so freely.
"You wanna go get some Wafflenoms?" It was slightly blurted out after she'd patted his arm. He reined it in by rambling worse. "I mean maybe not...now but. Soon. I have like...the chips from the bag and some of that cherry licorice but I don't have any real food here 'cos the guys always take it, and I don't want you to dance hungry or something-!"
Neeva — 08/13/2021
"Oh, yes, there is that to consider." Neeva said, a little concerned. That level of 'fucked up' certainly didn't sound appealing! "I would like, if I could use it more offensively. Just to make sure I do not have to worry about too much retaliation." Perhaps someday, but she wasn't banking on it. She didn't use it, and didn't trust most people to know about it.
When he offered food, Neeva raised her eyebrows. Not in surprise, but in consideration. "Like ri-." When he elaborated they didn't need to then and she nodded, only to look for the junk food he mentioned. "I would like to go, anytime. I like waffles, and they top them well. Do you keep real food at all, or just snacks?"
𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰 — 08/18/2021
He did brighten somewhat. "When the cred's flowing, I can get real food!" But when did the cred really 'flow' for any of them! It was a dark little truth about which he continued only after a moment. "Just...y'know. If I'm dry and got nothing to sell, or the roommate's shop's not doing so hot, it's Vendy noodle cups for like a month. Lots of those. Just makes the Wafflenoms better when you go, y'know? And like...that crap instant coffee that isn't even remotely like real coffee, like...who ever asked for that? Some...sadistic vendies, that's who asked for that." It almost threatened to bubble into a ramble, but he wisely clamped it down into that low-key playful grumble. "And taking friends to the best noodle vendies doesn't have the same excitement about it!
"We...can go now? Beats the chips, right?"
Neeva — 08/18/2021
Alas, the downside of being a Bandito, having to rely on random jobs or the contents of someone else's wallet. Though, the latter wasn't always so bad, so long as one didn't get caught. "I wonder if I can get work for a week or so just to be able to have some." Atleast Marc and his friend had the tattoo parlour!
"What do you sell?" She asked curiously, but listened to his grumbles with an understanding nod. "It is a shame, that." She offered a faint smirk, and once it faded, she'd adjust her sleeves. "It does not, no. Still, it is atleast....something. We can go now, if you like. I can help pay, I have sold some of my hats recently."
Moderators: AJ_89 Steven (played by Robo-Craig) QnQ Hide Miyagawa (played by Monoclejack) Chroma (played by lewsey)
