pepper

Who: Feo and Pepper
Where: Outside the One More Round
When: Evening

The hollering had first started outside her apartment. The mixture of fraught and fierce raised voices piqued Feo's interest immediately. Something good was going down.

Who: Maddy and Pepper
Where: Pepper's Place
When: Afternoon

The dream was alien, a half-remembered, impossible scene. A desk, a screen, bright and clear, showing a page. She didn’t know what she was looking at, yet in the dream, it all made sense. The screen – it was all about the screen. And within the dream, she could read the words that normally she would have struggled with.

She read the words, taking them in. The page updated itself every few minutes adding more as she read. Different people, different places, all with their short messages.

Who: Pepper and open
Where: A street cafe, midtown
When: Morning

Nice days were few and far between in the city. Spells of nice weather were almost unheard of, and the city appeared to be taking advantage. And if the city was taking advantage, then so was Pepper.

Some enterprising businessman had decided that, even though it was January, since he open a cafe, and the sidewalk in front of it was wide, if there was blue skies he was going to put some of the chairs and tables outside, even though it was clearly not a usual arrangement. Still, Pepper decided she liked the idea, it was novel – at least, it was novel to her mind, where nice furniture belonged inside and the pieces usually found out on the street were generally dirty and broken and lost down an alleyway or used as beds for the homeless. To actually sit outside, sipping a coffee, on an intact chair, by an intact table and watching the world go by, on purpose, amused her. And it put her in a great mood, even though her collar was turned up against the fact that, sunshine or no, it was still January, and the air was cool against her mostly bald head.

It was unlike anything. Like flying whilst all the time standing still, though with no ground beneath feet that didn’t exist. There was no person there, just sight, no sound or touch to complement it and the world laid out below.

Who: Pepper
Where: Sixth Street Bridge
When: The wee small hours

Pepper was curled up in a small ball within the wooden crate that served as her bed, a couple of dirty ragged blankets her only bedding. It wasn’t much, but it was her home and she was rebuilding it. She’d used to have more, once upon a time. but then that man had come and evicted her, taken her spot, thrown her out and destroyed her stuff. She’d reclaimed it with the help of Dodge and his gang, and now, she was back, putting together a home once again, albeit on the streets.

Who: Maddy and Pepper
Where: Sixth Street Bridge
When: Afternoon

The little 'neighborhood' under the bridge was kind of daunting. It was the people with nowhere to go. The people who felt they had no choice but to live in whatever nook they could find in the middle of winter by the water. Maddy thought it was kind of ridiculous. If you tried hard enough, you could find a place. She had. Roy had. But it wasn't something she was going to bring up to Pepper, who, of course, hated taking charity from anyone. She got that, she totally did. Still.

Who: Dodge and Pepper
Where: Dodge's stoop/under the Sixth Street Bridge
When: Midday

Who: Dodge and Pepper
Where: Dodge's street
When: Late morning

Pepper walked with Maddy along the road to the Kitten Club as far as where it skirted past Dodge's place, and then she peeled off, complaining to the other girl about something in her shoe, even though Maddy knew full well that she was looking for Dodge. She didn't say anything though and Pepper sat down at the side of the road, in the gutter, fiddling with her right shoe and trying to figure out what she was going to do to find the boy.

Who: Maddy and Pepper
When: Morning
Where: The Soup Kitchen

Who: Pepper
Where: Under sixth street bridge
When: Morning

Pepper's eye still throbbed, but she ignored it as she watched him, watched the man who'd given it to her. Watched him placing things, making himself at home - in her patch. That was her patch. He might be bigger, and stronger, older - but it was still her patch. But he'd thrown her out on her ear like a street rt and now here she was, cowering behind some garbage cans like one, unable to face him alone.

Who: Dodge and Pepper
Where: the park
When: Midday

Dodge had started off his morning dealing with business, fencing a few items to cover food for the week and then he'd half skipped off to Maddy's tower room, her duck tucked under his hat still, ready for a big show of giving it to her.

Who: Arden and Pepper
Where: Fontaine Park
When: Late Afternoon
  
  
Arden was beating up a tree.

And she must've looked like quite the sight, because respectable people approaching her in the park shot her appalled glances and moved to the other side of the path as they neared. All in all it was a smart move on their part. Her face was scrunched up in a fury that was as much feral as it was childish. It was the kind of expression that came with snarls and growls before you found something's sharp canines embedded in your leg.

Who: Pepper and Roy
Where: Under sixth street bridge
When: Early afternoon

Roy had just gotten done with some bitch work for the DiGiovanni's, number running or...whatever. Some package got delivered to some guy and that was about all he knew about it. But it meant he had the rest of the day off, too. He wasn't due to the garage til tomorrow, and generally, he'd been having a shit few days. Like getting sick. That wasn't at all helpful, really. As far as positive things went, that didn't make the list. That made the 'this sucks a lot, it can stop any time now' list.

They blossomed in the night sky, all around the world, some from organised, official displays, some from back gardens and on street corners. The patterns they made left imprints against the blackness, long after the lights themselves had faded. The bangs ran in ears, competing at times against the ringing of bells, pealing out over the night, a cacophony of light and sound that heralded the celebration of this momentous event.

It felt like it was happening all at once, in so many different places. It felt spontaneous, joyous, like the best thing in the world, like nobody had ever lived before her. And really, had they? It didn't feel like that anymore. It felt like it had been a life half lived, and only now could anyone appreciate the beauty and joy of life. And there were others there, right there, appreciating it as well. She could feel them, almost touch them.

And all the while, the fireworks continued.

Who: Laura and Pepper
When: Morning
Where: Under the 6th st bridge

The big black car slowed, splashing through a large puddle as it pulled off the street and stopped. For some time the two people in the front seat sat talking, sometimes animatedly, or at least the passenger, who was by far the smaller, was animated. Some of those hanging out around the bridge were probably beginning to get a little nervous by the time the kid, wearing a slightly too large sailor's pea coat and a cap pulled down low, got out of the car and closed the door just a little too hard.

It was for the greater good.

He turned over the next page, looking at the lists. Pig farmers, dairy farmers, sheep herders. They'd all done what they'd been ordered. They'd all opened their gates and walked away. everyone had agreed that it was the right thing to do.

Who: Pepper and Helena
Where: In the Ghetto
When: Just after dusk.

Who: Pepper and Louise
Where: Sixth Street Bridge
When: Morning

Who: Pepper and Dutch
Where: The streets
When: Morning

Pepper sat under the shelter of an store awning, watching the rain fall in the street, listening to the sounds of someone else's party dwindling nearby. She'd found a party hat in the gutter - which she was not wearing, it was sat by her side looking damp and decrepit - but she did have a streamer laid around her neck. Her own little new year's celebration - kinda. She's spent some time with friends, seeing in the new year. Midnight under Sixth Street bridge, it was good as anything and probably a lot better than going to some fancy pants party that was probably boring as anything and all about appearances anyhow.

She scrubbed a hand over her shaved head, then pulled on her cap against the rain, and to keep the cold off as watched for people wandering home. She liked people-watching. Knowing who was going where, seeing who. Sometimes she talked to them - other times she played the game of seeing whether she could unnerve them by staring. She wasn't sure which one she'd pick this time - it all depended on who walked past next.