Fishing

Who: Nate and Dodge/J.D.
Where: The Boardwalk
When: Evening

Nate was being aware of the time, whilst not looking like he was aware of the time. His general weekend 'orders' were clear, if vague - talk to people. Get to know people. Sound out people. The usual. recruiting for the Syndicate, even if that meant playing the long game. Get the small fry in on the ground floor and work them up through the ranks. He'd say that he'd been recruited himself, and he guessed he had been, but for him, it was different. The Syndicate didn't work like the DiGiovanni mafia - it wasn't a family business, by Nate was as family as it got. He was brought up into the Syndicate, for all he'd been sent away to school. He'd signed up the moment he'd returned, keen to follow in his 'father's' footsteps. And they'd set him to recruiting others because he was young, and personable, and because they trusted him to not get his head turned.

They didn't know him very well. They expected him to be a puppet, to go where he was told and do what he was told. None of them looked particularly deeply. But, then again, Nate never encouraged them to do that. He encouraged everyone to see what they expected to see and be happy with that. Which was why they let him out on a long leash. And it was why whist he'd spend all day doing the Syndicate's work, by 7pm he'd be at the library, and he'd wait there for two hours for her to show. And, if she did, then they'd see where the night took them. And if she didn't, at nine, the Syndicate would have his attention again. He was loyal, but he knew his priorities, and it was his life to lead.

But, for now, he was at the Boardwalk, seemingly enjoying the scenery. Occasionally stopping to chat to someone or other - sometimes someone he knew, sometimes someone new. And sometimes it would be just a few words, other times it was rather more than that. He'd picked up a couple of new boys to join his gym - always a great breeding ground for the Syndicate. get them in to learn boxing, and a few words in the right vein, a couple of weeks of encouraged violence and a sense of camaraderie and they were ripe for ideas. They wouldn't want to let their new found friends down now, would they. He'd seen it happen enough times to be wiling to play the odds. Peer pressure was a wonderful thing, not guaranteed, but enough that the chaff that refused was no real loss.

Dodge had left December, turning back around to face forward once he was sure which direction she'd been headed in and started down the Boardwalk back towards the Apollo and his empty apartment. His thoughts were drifting, but not to anything specific and he whistled to himself softly while he walked with his hands in his pockets and the breeze off the water blowing his hair, a feeling he was still getting used to.

Nate spotted the guy, around his age, maybe a little younger, just up ahead and clocked him as a potential target as he walked towards him. The approach he made was one he'd used many times before, and which he'd near enough perfected now. As they passed, he let a ten dollar bill flutter to the floor and then he walked on a step before 'noticing' it. Nate turned and picked it up, before apparently seeing the dark haired boy for the first time, seemingly coming to a conclusion that this boy was who had dropped the money and jogging the few steps back the way he'd come to catch up. He tapped Dodge on the shoulder. "Hey - I think you dropped this," he said, offering the money out to him with a helpful-type smile.

Dodge had noticed Nate, but didn't actually make indication of the sort. He'd sized the kid up out of habit, looking for a target, but passed on by without making a move to pick his pocket. It didn't really fit into his plan for 'low key'. When Nate tapped him on the shoulder, Dodge turned, but stepped sideways, out of range if a punch was coming on the heels of the tap. You only fell for that trick once or twice before you learned to duck and then be ready to follow up. When Nate didn't swing focused on the proffered money. He hadn't dropped anything of the sort, but that didn't stop him from reaching out for it. "How clumsy of me," he commented, though he hardly sounded upset with himself for losing what almost amounted to a fortune for someone like him.

Nate noted the movements, though he didn't show it either, just clocked the boy up as someone who could take care of himself. Always a good sign, though possibly it also meant that he wasn't as much of a fool as some of the marks he'd made. "Yeah, you should watch that - go throwing money round a place like this and you'll soon lose it," he said, pulling on the air of a friendly, open kid. "So - do I get a reward for bringing it back?" he asked, jokingly, eyeing a nearby soda stand which he figured would pitch the level at something that would give an in to sticking around and talking, but leave the other guy with enough change that it wouldn't be too much to ask for.

For a moment Dodge pulled himself up to his full height and his expression slipped from slightly sullen to that which used to rule the streets. Before I died. He took a long moment to inspect Nate shrewdly, just like he would with any boy who came to join his crew. Folding the bill in half, Dodge tucked it into an inside pocket of his jacket, and nodding in the direction that Nate had looked. "Sure, what the hell." He didn't need all the money anyway, though half of it would lend towards a nice gift for Maddy's birthday. Being sure to keep sufficient space between them the started in the direction of the stand.

Nate walked easily, having no poor intentions towards Dodge whatsoever. In fact, having no real intentions towards the guy at all right at this moment other than making sure that he could stick around long enough for a conversation and coming across as the kind of guy that he could be friends with. There'd be no hard sell, there'd be no twisting of arms - some people might take that approach, but Nate wasn't them. He wanted people to want things. He wanted people to always think it was their own idea. Then they could offer up their souls for whatever they could get. And so often they did. And, Nate considered, at the end of the day, it wasn't a bad deal. You could do well out of the Syndicate, as long as you were on the inside. "Thanks - name's Nate," Nate said, offering his hand as they reached the stand.

Dodge didn't take Nate's hand. He was eager for company, willing to make good to keep up the intention that the money was his, but he wasn't stupid. This guy wasn't a street kid, not by any means, which meant for now, he couldn't be trusted. Still he gave Nate a nod and a less stern face. "J.D.," he answered, the new name still sounding odd, like his mouth wasn't used to forming the sounds. At the counter he made his order, attempting to seem casual about it, then waited for Nate to make his.

Nate took his hand back with a little acknowledgement of 'J.D.'s' declination shake - looking mildly and momentarily disappointed, but not offended as he turned to made his own order and accepted the glass before returning his attention back to J.D. again. "That stand for anything?" he asked, with open curiosity, just a guy getting to know another guy with no ulterior motives whatsoever.

Dodge paid and tucked his changed back in more than one interior pocket before taking his glass. "John Doe," he answered with a shrug. There wasn't any harm in explaining what his name meant since the explanation meant absolutely nothing.

Nate raised an eyebrow and smiled a little. "Really? that's an unusual name," he said, wondering what the kid's real name was. Because no way was that a birth name. Nobody was actually called 'John Doe'. Then again, street kids - as this one definitely appeared to be - went by all sorts of weird and wonderful names, so whilst Nate's comment, demeanour and expression gave that he was intrigued by it, nothing about him suggested that he thought the guy was lying, or bullshitting him. Hell, Nate didn't really care what the kid wanted to call himself - just as long as he could get him onside.

"Really? I'm pretty sure there's a large number of bodies buried with the same name. I'd say it was a pretty damn common name," Dodge said but it wasn't pointed, just a comment. "What's Nate short for?"

"Lots of people may die with that name, but I doubt that they're born with it," Nate countered, not taking offence at all. "And it's short for Nathaniel," he said, not offering his surname, though if he did, at this juncture, he'd be likely to give his former name of 'Lyons'. It was what was on his birth certificate, after all. He hadn't been 'Konovich' until he'd turned eight.

"Does it matter? What matters is the name you die with, that's what people remember," Dodge pointed out. Nathaniel. He hadn't come up with that one when he'd tried out all of his new names. In his head he tried it, but it didn't fit. Not like J.D. did. "You go to the high school?"

Nate could definitely get on board with that sentiment. He intended that people would definitely remember the name he died with, when he finally agreed to succumb to mortality. "Too true - very definitely," he said with a laugh. "I like that, not thought about it like that before, but - I like that." He visibly relaxed, getting more into the conversation. "And yeah, I go to the high school, I'm in my senior year. So, not long left to go. I take it you got out early then?" he said, phrasing that in a way that wouldn't come across like he was making some grand assumption that J.D. was some uneducated waster.

Dodge shrugged. He'd spent two days thinking about death, even though it was nothing more than a persona that died, not himself. Without thinking he reached up to adjust the fedora, but it wasn't there and he had to settle for running a hand through his hair. "Never started. Private tutoring or whatever you call it." He left out words, but it was obvious that by you he meant rich kids. Still, despite his lack of formal schooling, Dodge wasn't stupid, not by street kid standards or by most students. He didn't know history or trigonometry, but he could read, write fairly well and he was good with the math enough to count up his earnings.

Nate know what he meant by that - and what he really meant by that. "Honestly? you're not missing much," he said, sounding like he really meant that - though he didn't. Though he rarely ever showed it, Nate appreciated the importance of a good education. His grades told the same lies that he showed to the world - said that he was a mediocre student at best who didn't really care for school. But he worked hard to ensure that he got those grades and only those grades. Had he wished it to be the case, he could have got a whole lot higher. "There's more to be learned in life than they can teach you at school - or so I've always figured."

"I didn't think I was missing anything. I would have showed up otherwise," Dodge pointed out. Patrick was a con man. If he'd wanted Dodge to go to school, Dodge would have gone to school. "Yes and no," he said taking a sip of his drink. "Depends on who you're learning from."

Nate looked interested at that, mirroring sips of his own drink as J.D. drank his, aware that reflecting someone's body language back at them was a good way of silently communicating. "Yeah? Who did you learn from?" he asked, then rolled his eyes at himself. "Like I'd probably know, but - you get what I mean, right?" he checked, again going for a phrasing that was more likely to get him the information without it seeming like he was prying too much. Just a dumb jock with naive curiosity.

Dodge didn't answer right away, just watching Nate wondering what the hell was so interesting to this guy that he kept asking questions. Was he actually trying to learn something about different lots in life or was he that bored? "There used to be a crew that ran around, I was with them. Learned everything I know from them." It was vague, but mostly honest.

"Nice," Nate said, sounding very much like he believed it, and the picture of interest. "That must be nice - that kind of life. Instead of locked up in a school room all day, learning dry facts that you'll probably never actually use ever - no matter what they tell you. Never really believed that line, the whole 'this will be important in later life' bullshit. Me, really - I figure that I can read, and I can do math and the rest of my life? well, that's smarts they can't teach you, right?" he said, going for the angle he figured could be most related to.

Nate hit the chord he was going for. He'd just described the life that Dodge lived for years and the one that for now Dodge was hiding from. "It's quite the life," He added with a smile before taking another drink.

Nate took a sip at the same time and took a couple of paces away to sit on a low wall. It put him at a lesser height than the other guy, which went with the fact that the attitude he was projecting was very much one of a student-like fascination. "So - what's it like?" he asked, encouragingly. "I mean, getting out there. Nothing and no one holding you back, right?"

Dodge raised an eyebrow at the question. "There's still rules of sorts. Helps if you know the people making them." Which Dodge and his crew had been. "But if you do it right, you can run the city." Another thing he'd done. There was a slightly nostalgic tone to his voice, but Dodge shook it away. "Makes for a short life span though."

Nate kept his real opinion on that one firmly to himself. He knew who ran this city - and no way was it some street kid, or even the overlord of some street kid. The echelons of power went a lot further up than that. But, if this guy wanted to believe that he'd had, or been involved with, true power, then neither was Nate going to disabuse him of that fact. in fact, it could be an incredibly useful thing for the future. If this guy was one who could feel like a kingpin with a nickel crown. "Yeah?" he asked outloud, sticking with the dumb interest angle. He didn't go for wide-eyed, that wouldn't hold with the persona that he'd have to play in the future, but a school kid longing for more in life, for a bit of adventure and a walk on the wild side? that he could pull off, no problems at all. "Sounds.. Well, a whole lot better than most things - and you're still breathing, right?"

Not really, Dodge thought. "When it's good it's great. When it's not you're starving or bleeding," Dodge pointed out, moving to sit on the edge of the wall, his legs stretched out in front of him. "I'm breathing, but who knows for how long right? And the gang I was with? They're not around anymore. It's what happens when your leader stops breathing."

Nate winced. "Shit, sorry man - that. okay, yeah, that blows," he said, with an air of sympathy from a guy who didn't really know what it was to lose someone. As it was, he'd seen people die, he'd watched people bleed. People he knew, even. He just didn't much give a damn, save for the fact that he found it strangely fascinating. To see someone broken that way, to watch them come apart. He could fake it with the best of them, but he'd never actually felt it. "So - what do you do now?" he asked.

Dodge shrugged. He hadn't lost a friend, just a title. "Can't spend too much time being torn up about it when the next day it could be you." Nate's next question was a good one and one that Dodge didn't really have an answer for. "Still figuring that out."

Nate took a sip of his drink, this time not waiting for the other guy to do the same. "That's gotta be hard - kinda, I don't know... like having your life path figured out then suddenly, boom! You wake up and it's not there any more. Must be disorientating," he said with the same air of sympathy, trying to see it from J.D.'s point of view, or that's how he presented himself anyhow.

Dodge had to laugh at that. "It's not a life path or whatever. There's no luxury of a life plan. Sometimes your standing changes, and either someone else steps up or the order shifts itself." He glanced over at Nate. "Don't go leaving your nice digs just to try a life on the street. Just you know, enjoy whatever you have." Dodge made a vague gesture in Nate's general direction.

"Path - not plan. There's a difference. Or, well, in my head there is," Nate told him. "To me - a life plan is having everything set out in advance. So, you know where you're headed for next week, next month, five years from now. A life path isn't anywhere near as specific. It's having a vague idea about how you're going to spend the rest of your life - however long that will be. Like a comfort zone. Knowing where you are and knowing that's not going to change and getting some comfort, being able to relax some, because that's it. you know the risks, you know the rewards, and as long as you keep within the rules and the boundaries, that's all going to work out. That's what you lost. Not some unachievable bullshit 'career path' or whatever they try and tell people about that ninety percent of the population's never going to get a look at anyway and, frankly, does just fine without. That's what got taken away from you."

There was a moment where he considered that, then shook his head. "You don't get comfortable. Reasonably so I suppose, but you don't just...relax." Though in his time Dodge had done a good job of relaxing within the means of his schedules. "But I suppose I know what you mean, at least about risks and rewards. Losing that is hard, but what can you do? People die."

"So - what now?" he asked, sounding like he was just making conversation, with no suggestion that he might have any kind of personal interest in the answer. "Now that you're planless - what does the future hold?"

Dodge frowned a little, taking a drink so he could delay answering. "Whatever I want suppose," he finally said. Obviously there were limits, and Dodge still wasn't the type to work. He would continue to do what he did as Dodge, just trying to do it differently.

"True," Nate agreed, leisurely. "The whole world at your fingertips. To do whatever you want. Out there on your own," he added, making it sound both a wonderful opportunity and something really big. Possibly scarily big, for there to be an ocean of possibility with no real direction.

On his own. It was a thought that had weighed heavily on Dodge for a few days, that he was without his crew or his friends and thus very alone, but what Nate was saying was different. It hadn't come to him, but for the first time since he was ten he really was on his own. Prior to then he'd always had someone backing him up, Patrick for most of that time, but later Roach and the boys. The frown didn't deepen, but Dodge's internal concern did a little. What would he do without his crew? "Something like that yeah," he said noncommittally, too lost in his own thoughts to elaborate more.

Nate sat there in silence for a moment or two, just watching the other guy, and then he checked his watch, downed the rest of his drink and stood. "Well - I've gotta get going. Places to be," he said, apologetically, figuring that this was a good point at which to leave this little conversation. Give the guy something to brood on.

Dodge looked up a little surprised at the exit, but then stood as well. "Don't we all?" he commented, smiling but it didn't quite reach his eyes. There was too much going on in his head to really smile and tease like he normally would have. "Good to meet you Nate," he said, but didn't offer his hand to shake.

Nate kept his hands in his pockets himself, though he noted the lack of curtesies. "You too, J.D." He gave the guy a smile and turned and walked off, stopping after a couple of paces, as if something had just occurred to him. He turned back. "Oh, and hey - if you feel the need to fill any of that new found spare time of yours? There's a gym down at the corner of 10th and Broad that I hang out in. It's a bit of a dive, but they're good there. You should come one day. I'll leave your name at the door, they won't give you any hassle," he suggested, not pushing it too much,making it sound like an off the cuff idea from a guy who was clearly a sporting type and who had enough money to make the suggestion.

There was a moment where Dodge raised an eyebrow, but then he just nodded. "I might check it out," he said, though he guessed he probably would. Or he would from the opposite side of the street just to see what it was all about. Dodge could hold his own, but what did he want with a gym? "Thanks," he added with a nod.

Nate shrugged, easily. "No problem - hope to see you around then," he said, before turning back and walking off. The offer had been made, the bait and hook were set. Now he would settle in for the long game. It was always one he liked, especially since he could never be sure of the outcome. It was all part of the game, the challenge, the thrill of the hunt. Today had been a good day. And now he'd head to the library and hope it became a better one.