street fights

who: december and jessie
where: just outside the boardwalk
when: mid day

December knew there was shit going down. That much was stunningly clear, and the rumor mill was running rampant to help that idea out. She'd gone for a short walk, just to see what she could see, and she hadn't even had to go three blocks. There was a street fight going on, or a brawl more like it. She climbed a set of steps up to a business so she was out of the way, and sat down to watch it. It was fascinating, in a weird way. She couldn't even tell who was on what side, it seemed just like one big free for all. Maybe it was.

Jessie was more than a little surprised at the serious uproar going on around her. She did her best to stay out of it, keeping close to the stores on the streets and not making serious eye contact with many people. It wasn’t like she was scared of the fights going on, she knew how to handle herself in one if she needed to, but the fact of the matter was that she didn’t really want to fight right now. And it was concerning seeing these fights just..everywhere she went. The whole reason she was out anyway was because she needed a few things for her new room, otherwise she’d be back home pronto. And the shop she wanted to go was a little further away than she would have liked on a day like today. In an attempt to keep herself out of any one particular fight, Jessie found herself just outside the boardwalk. She’d been meaning to come here anyway, but was hoping she could come with her dad and Becky so she hadn’t ventured down here as of yet. All the same, she sort of wished she hadn’t come down here right now because the fights weren’t any better here. She stuck close to the wall of some sort of magic shop, thinking it might just be more effective to turn around and go home. This was seriously insane.

From where she was standing, she could see one other lonely figure separated from the chaos on the streets and made a beeline straight for the same spot. Once there, she gave the girl there a smile, a little surprised at first by her appearance but doing her best to not show it. “Hopefully you weren’t waiting for someone to come along so you could punch them like those guys...” JJ said, attempting a joke even if it fell short.

December looked up when someone was speaking to her, and she blinked a moment, before she looked back at the fight. “That wasn’t the goal so far.” she admitted. “Right now I’m just trying to stay clear.” Which was probably more difficult than it should be, but oh well, that was how the world was working today, apparently.

Jessie gave the girl another smile. Well, at least this girl didn't seem to want to punch her or start a fight in general. She'd definitely take that on a day like today. "I'm Jessie, but you can call me JJ if you want. Or Jessie, I answer to both." She gave a quick glance out at the brawl again before turning back to December. "So you know of any reason why this is going on or are you in the dark about it too?"

"So your name is Jessie and you answer to Jessie too. Novel." December said, smirking faintly and rolling her eyes a touch. But it wasn't as pointed as she normally would have been. With as much violence flooding the streets as there were today, she was slightly less inclined to start shit. "As for reasons...seriously clueless here. I have no idea. And I haven't heard any good theories either? Like I heard they were happening, and went for a walk to check it out, but no one's said anything that makes any damn sense. It's just...so far as I can tell...a bunch of street kids trying to fuck each other's shit up good."

Jessie wasn't exactly pleased with the way this girl poked fun at her, but today she was inclined to not think much of it. Plus, maybe saying she answered to her own name was a little stupid, even if she was just trying to break the ice. "What, you mean you don't wanna jump in and ask them why they're beating the shit out of each other?" She asked, grinning back as she tried a different 'breaking the ice' tactic. "Do you answer to anything?"

"Hadn't been thinking the 'leap into the fray' method was the best one." December commented. "And sure. I answer to 'December' and 'Mistress' but let's just go with December for now." she said, deadpan, wincing slightly as she saw one guy get punched squarely in the nose, and while she wasn't close enough to hear the crunch she knew it would have made, that didn't mean she didn't see a nose-breaking hit when she saw one. She'd seen Ethan do it enough times when they were kids.

Mistress? Ok, that was a little weird. Maybe more than a little weird. Again, JJ tried not to think much of right now, but that was a little more difficult to subdue. Looking back over at the brawl, Jessie moved to lean against the wall of the business, watching the fight as the boy who'd just thrown the punch was tackled by another boy, in either retaliation or pure good timing Jessie wasn't sure. "This is crazy..." Someone could get seriously hurt or worse and from where Jessie was standing, there didn't seem like much of a way to stop them.

“Y’know, most people laugh at the whole ‘mistress’ thing. Do you not come with a sense of humor, Jessie?” she asked. Just because it happened to be true in her case didn't mean she hadn't been trying to make a joke. "And yeah, it is crazy." she agreed. "I figure there'll be a lot of dead kids by the end of the day." she added, shaking her head slightly. "This doesn't seem to be slowing down at all. Any of the fights I got into as a kid petered out pretty quick. Whatever was causing the trouble subsided, or people decided they didn't really like feeling pain and shit, so they called it good after one round. But this doesn't look like that. This looks...I don't know. A lot more serious, I guess."

"Nope, no sense of humor here. Think I was born without the ability to have one." Maybe she should have laughed at the mistress thing, but she didn't think it was that funny. Just kind of weird. Either way, Jessie was making a good job of being pretty weird herself right now, it seemed. "I wish there was some way to stop this. Or even know what it's about." December was right, the fight just seemed to keep on rolling. It was troubling to say the least. Part of her wondered if calling the police would do anything, but according to Roy they probably wouldn't do squat for a bunch of street kids fighting. Even so, the last thing she wanted was someone to die from it. "Guess calling the police won't do any real good either..."

December shrugged. "Considering this shit's been going on all day? Do you really think they haven't been called at some point?" she asked. "The problem isn't that it won't do any good. The problem is that they probably already know, and the street kids in this city out number them. By a lot. Plus, where would they even take them? Jail? So they'd have overflowing cells full of kids still fighting? There's not really an answer there."

December made good points. The police probably already had been called. And with nowhere to take them, what were they supposed to do? They likely felt either as helpless as she did, or apathetic to the situation. "It's just hard watching this, especially at the rate it's going..." Hard knowing that one or more of these kids might not make it out alive. It made her really want to do something, but she was just at a loss for what. "Just wish there was more I could do than the whole lot of nothing that's coming to mind right now."

Shrugging, December kept watch on the fight. "It's the law of the jungle, or whatever. Only the strong survive. You realize that this shit goes on all the time, just usually people don't see it this blatantly, right?" she asked, an honest question as she watched JJ out of the corner of her eye. The girl didn't look like a street kid either. So she was guessing she wasn't.

"I know that fights go on all the time. I got into one with Mud a while ago, but it wasn't like this. It wasn't a brawl or a free-for-all or whatever this is. And there was a reason for it at the time. This just seems senseless." Jessie looked back at December. "Do you see fights like this more often than fights with a reason?"

"Honey, whatever a chick like you had with anyone, it wasn't like this." December said. "What did you do, just hit him or something? It ain't a fight til you get hit back." she said, judging JJ on her clothes and general well kept appearance. She was definitely willing to bet she didn't know shit about an actual fight. "As for the fights with or without a reason...just because we can't see what the reason is doesn't mean there isn't one." she said. "In fact, I'd be willing to lay money on the fact that there's a damn big reason. Otherwise they wouldn't keep at it, it wouldn't be so wide spread. It'd just be one scuffle and then it'd be over. Naw, something's going on. We just haven't been told what that is."

That was a little insulting. Jessie could handle herself in a fight, even if Mud hadn't hit her back. She was getting a little tired of people thinking that she couldn't handle herself or that she was so lost up in the ivory tower that she didn't live in that she couldn't see the ground. It was really annoying. But Jessie didn't say anything about it yet, instead just pushing past it for now to think about the good points December made. Even if she had called her Honey, the girl made some good points. She fought the urge to ask December how many fights she'd been in and instead looked back out at the group. "Hopefully no one gets hurt worse but the way they're going...kind of seems like a hopeless wish."

"Oh, this ain't going to end without someone face down in the gutter. Probably several someones." December noted. "And it'll suck for them but I bet it doesn't trump the Drake getting lit up like a fuckin christmas tree. I heard more about that shit than this. Which is just kinda fucked up." she observed.

To put this plainly, this sucked. Arson and street riots...It was bad enough that the city seemed to be fighting against itself, it didn't need any help from anyone else. For once, just once, Jessie had hoped that there would be nothing like this. No arsons, no fights, no crimes. Just a day where no one had to deal with anything unpleasant, but she knew better than to expect that even if it was a nice thing to hope for. "It is wrong. There should be equal coverage of everything that happens in the city, but it doesn't go down like that." She'd heard enough of that in the past few days to know for certain things didn't happen fairly in the city, even if she wanted them to.

"That's because the whole place is corrupt. Including everyone at the paper. They're gonna print what they want people to read." December said. "And it ain't gonna be about dead street kids. That's far to uncouth or some shit. And tomorrow, they'll probably find something glittery to talk about, so they can say 'look, see? Everything's fine!'"

Jessie didn't want to believe that was what was going to happen, but with the way things were going in this city it seemed like pessimism was winning out over optimism. Still, she had to hope that when she got home, her father would have something to say to her that would turn this situation around. Maybe he'd have an answer or a suggestion, a way to bring light to the things happening that aren't getting coverage in the papers. "Too bad we don't have the resources or we could put out our own newsletters with information in them that we think is important. The stuff that doesn't get covered, like fights between the street kids..."

December turned her attention back on JJ. "Aren't you just the naive little ray of sunshine." she said. "Even if that happened, even if someone tried that? You don't think they'd let you live, do you?" she asked. "Someone would get pissed off right quick, and you'd be a page six chalk outline before you knew it." she said. She had clients in both mob families. She knew all about that shit. “There’s a reason it’s like the way it is. There’s people with power, and people without it.”

Ok, enough was enough. Jessie was damn tired of being called naive. "Look. I get it. I know that it's that way for a reason. I'm not an idiot. But that doesn't mean I can't hope that someday things will change or get better. I know that there's probably no way in hell I'll ever get to a point where I could make a newsletter of my own, but what's the harm in just saying it out loud? You don't ever just hope for things to change? Are you completely happy with the way this city is?"

December arched a brow at the outburst, but she didn't actually appear pissed about it. "Let me tell you something." she said. "You know who likes optimistic little dreamers like you?" she asked rhetorically. "Creeps. Predators. Guys who troll around looking for some stupid, bright little angel to soil. You're like a walking target. Plus, you are a little dumb. I mean, please. You talk like you know shit, but you're a princess. Maybe not crime family caliber princess, but to people like me, or them?" she said, making a gesture to the fight. "You've got everything. You're clean. It's clear you washed your hair last night. You've got clothes that fit you, so they aren't hand me downs. I'd say that you probably aren't rich at all, but you're taken care of. You've got a family somewhere, people who'd be pissed or worried if you disappeared. People who probably keep you from shit like this. Which would be why you're stupid about it. It's just probably a shame that when you find out the truth, it's gonna crack that sunshine you've got shining in JJ-Land down pretty damn hard." She for once wasn't actually trying to be insulting. She was more calling it like she saw it, making a judgment on what she saw and what she'd already heard. "Don't give attitude if you don't get something. It's offensive to people like me."

Maybe she wasn't trying to be insulting, but it sure felt like an insult to Jessie. She was sick and tired of this. "You know what? I'm pretty much done with people lumping me into one group. I'm trying to look at things from a non-group perspective, but apparently that's all I keep getting. It's Us or Them and apparently, I'm one of Them. So maybe I should just leave." She had things to do, things that did involve going back to a family that kept her from street fights and creeps. December was right, she had a family to get back to and they were looking pretty damn good right now. "And for the record, you don't know anything about me. You assume you do. There's a big difference. So in all honesty, I don't really need you to tell me something." Jessie stuffed her hands in her pockets, letting the fingers of her right hand close around the knife her father had given her and took a few steps away from the building's safety. "Here's hoping you stay out of the fights, December," She said, glancing back at her for a moment before looking ahead again.

"Stay with your own, Jessie. If you keep slummin it and shit, it'll get you killed one day. Or something'll happen that'll just make you wish you were dead." December said after the girl, unperturbed by her second flare of temper. Then she dismissed her and looked back to the fight.