[ORP] Welcome to the Real World

[Kitomyx]

Shawn was scared. Shawn was always scared. It was a way of life in the northern district of Ronth. The street kid had been born in the back allies of the city where one learned to be afraid very quickly. Fear was what motivated one to survive, and survive Shawn did. He had been doing so on his own for the majority of his 16 years.

Being paranoid and trusting no one had been critical concepts for living on the streets. You could never tell who wanted to give you a hand or stab you in the back, though it was more often the latter than the former. One might have assumed that in a city of heroes and villains, the idea of 'good' and 'evil' (or at the very least 'lawful' and 'unlawful') would be distinctly easier to differentiate. It should have been a relief to a paranoid civilian as an innocent bystander.

For Shawn Darrow, however, this was not the case. The way he saw it, there was no good or evil, just or unjust. There was only power and corruption - two things he was convinced went hand in hand. If a being was bestowed or gifted with inhuman power, what right did they have to use it in a world where no one else could protect themselves from it? Essentially, that made the rest of the world victims, and Shawn was one of them.

To the street kid, any being who had more power than they should have had and chose to use it (especially in public) was someone to stay away from. It didn't matter how helpless or nice that person seemed because he knew all too well how easy people were to underestimate and how quickly they could turn on you. That was dangerous enough for interactions with normal people, but super-powered beings?

Shawn didn't care if they called themselves 'The Helper of All Humanity'. He refused to believe they were what they said they were; or even what they thought they were. The kid just knew that anyone who claimed to be any kind of hero or villain had to be some kind of insane, and as a rule of thumb, insane people were dangerous.

So when one evening when he was searching for dinner and got attacked by a bunch of thugs for money he didn't have, he wasn't much surprised by the fact that they decided to beat on him anyway. He guessed they were probably frustrated and maybe even hungry like himself. But Shawn was a scrawny thing with almost no muscles except in his legs, and those were shot through with pain from having run him straight into a dead end, so he was hurting and wasn't sure how much more hurt he could take.

It was when he started mentally pleading that one of those dangerous, insane, super-powered beings would notice his predicament and interfere that the teen finally came to the conclusion that the world was insane, him included.  

[Souru]

"Hey >>punks<I send you packing with your tail between your legs?" came a young woman's voice out of the misty darkness.
Clowrey Eir, in her normal attire, had just stepped onto the scene. She had a large duffel bag slung over one shoulder, and her free hand laid on her waist as she addressed the thugs further:
"Oh--Didn't you hear me? I said scram!" she snapped. Her dull brown eyes were narrowed, and the lack of shine they held just made her stare darker...But the thugs wouldn't be deterred by one lonely 17-year-old, would they? Much less by a girl.

"Tch--who does the Tasean think she is...?"
"Y'know, we oughta teach her a lesson. One she won't forget!"

Clowrey stood there smirking at what felt more like an invite, than a threat. "Start teaching, then..." Egged on by her snarky attitude, one thug rushed forward without hesitation with fist ready to pound! She didn't seem to have any intent on moving out of the way! Not until the very last second...She leaned backwards, ducking just under the thrown fist and kicking one leg up to effectively stumble her attacker over his own two feet, whom kept going forward before crashing into a pile of garbage nearby.

"I give you...a D+ for the effort."
"Get her!"
"Oh here we go...!" The rest then launched themselves at her, refusing to let her escape their grasps after that insult...but each one were thrown off in just the same way. Without making a single offensive move herself, Clowrey dodged and blocked and countered their attacks with what looked like ease, moving fluidly between them until there were just one left. "I thought you >>rats<< were going to >>'teach me a lesson'<<--I haven't learned a thing except you guys couldn't hit a cow if it fell right on top of 'ya!" the adolescent laughed cockily in their faces, not noticing one of the fallen thugs kneeling up behind her..."Just shut up!" he shouted--a makeshift shiv was clutched in his fist, and he took his opportunity for a surprise attack...

"!!" Clowrey could be seen tensing up, and she dropped the duffle bag she had managed to keep over her shoulder the entire time until now..."You dirty--! Hah!" For the first time, Clowrey attacked back...Pivoting around, she slammed her knee against the side of his face. In his dizzying shock, she kicked the shiv out of his hands and launched another hit square between the eyes! He attempted to get back up after the kick, but had no chance to react before Clowrey took two quick steps forward and gave the final blow...or rather two--One to the crotch, and once more to the face! The thug, and this time...he was going to stay down for the rest of the night. The young woman turned to the remaining guy..."You wanna end up like your buddy over here?" she queried rather seriously this time.

He turned tail and ran...

Clowrey grabbed her duffel bag once more, and came towards Shawn. She appeared concerned and reached out a hand for him to grab. "Hey, you okay bud--!!" She pulled back and grabbed her side suddenly! Pulling her hand away again, she noticed blood...from when that guy got one lucky stab in. "Oh, oww..." Clowrey winced, "serves me right for getting cocky...Oww, it stings now..."

 

[Puck the Devil]

Eyes shut tight and body gone rigid to brace itself against the oncoming assault, the street kid started violently at the unexpected voice that cutting through the tension. He jerked his head to get a glimpse of his savior, though he wasn't quite sure whether to feel relieved or dejected.

It was a girl; around his age, in fact. She seemed pretty ordinary wearing jeans and a purple hairband, but the oriental nature of her white top gave him a tiny ray of hope. Perhaps she knew karate or some other kind of martial art. If not, he couldn't see how either of them would get away from the thugs unscathed.

Worse yet, even as he regarded her, the girl was still provoking these random strangers in a back ally dead end. Shawn had to admire her gall, but what kind of teenage girl did that? What kind of person did that? A recklessly foolish one, that was what. Maybe this time around the attack hadn't been his fault, but he wasn't always blameless. Sometimes he was as foolhardy as the girl was being when he felt fed-up with life.

Of course, those occasions never ended well, and he doubted this one would fare much better. He tried to mouth silent words of warning to the young girl - evidently Tasean by the look of her, but Shawn never liked to assume - and hoped that she would understand his body language if nothing else. It seemed to be in vain; either she wasn't seeing him or she chose not to. He swallowed hard.

When the goons began to react to the young woman's goads, Shawn wanted to sink into the corner and not look until it was all over. Sure, he would street fight once in a while, but in a situation this hopeless, it seemed like pure stupidity. His stomach was empty, he had no energy, and he had just been saved from moments of merciless mutilation by an ordinary girl. Could things get any worse?

As Fate seemed to enjoy reminding those who begged the question, a new revelation popped into Shawn's head. What if the girl did manage to save him? Most people would have been able to live with that, but how could he just let her take them all on her own? If she did end up saving him somehow, he would never have been able to face her. How could he thank her?

And worse yet, she would forever believe he was a wimpy moron from Ronth, likely a waste of her time to have even considered saved in the first place. His prayers had been answered and this was how he repayed whoever had granted them? How ungrateful he was.

Well, that settled it. Shoving aside his fears, the teen forced his legs to move in the direction of the girl and the punks closing in on her.

Oh. The fight was over. Had it really been settled that quickly? Maybe she did know martial arts. Now he wished he would have watched.

The mysterious girl was still standing as she approached him, offering a hand until she withdrew it to clutch at her side. It was bleeding. Shawn was horrified. This filthy place was nowhere to get a wound! What would they dress it with?! How would they keep it from infection? They had to get her to a hospital, but what money would they pay to get her in? He sure didn't have any...

"I'm fine. You should take it easy, though," he urged her, offering her his neck to drape her free arm around. "There should be a doctor's place somewhere near here...do you think you can walk a little?" It didn't really matter what her answer was. He would carry her if he had to. "You can use me as a crutch..."

Thank you, he said mentally, not yet ready to speak the words out loud. That was incredibly brave. And selfless. The least he could do in return was get her to a medical expert where they could clean and treat her wound. Not many people would stick their necks out for some homeless idiot without the guts to protect himself.  

[Souru]

"Ah hah--I'm injured, not crippled!" Clowrey replied, trying to keep upbeat. "I can walk just fine, if this doctor isn't too far...This isn't the worse I've been through anyway. Not by a long shot..." Her smile turned wry for a moment, as though an image or a memory had just flickered through her mind. She began to flinch a bit as the wound continued to sting, "But, if you wouldn't mind terribly..." She reached for her bag again, stretching it out for him to take. "It's a gentleman's >>duty<<, job, to help carry a lady's burden, no?" the young woman smirked with a teasing gleam in her eye. "Lead the way, and I'll follow.
My name's Clowrey, by the way. What's yours?" Despite having gotten stabbed, she did her best to make light of the situation and not focus on her pain. After all, she wouldn't be a very good heroine if she complained and whine about a 'little' bleeding, now would she?

"The fight wasn't anything, really...Back home, in Tasea, most everybody is expected to be able to defend themselves to a degree. My home is just one of those small working towns, y'know? So no worries."  

[Puck the Devil]

"And that's a stab wound, not a paper-cut!" Shawn retorted. "Quit playing it off like you get carved up every day." He didn't mean to come off so strong, but he was still a little shaken by the recent turn of events. Perhaps he felt a tad bit humiliated at the predicament the girl had found him in, which didn't improve his mood, but he wasn't about to admit that in a hurry.

Nevertheless, he softened his tone, swallowing his hurt pride and mild resentment. "There should be a small medical clinic less than a block away, but I don't know how deep that wound is and walking with it is only going to open it up more. They might have to transfer you to a bigger hospital or something once we get there."

In truth, the reality of what could have happened to the girl had she been hurt worse still weighed heavily on his shoulders. He wasn't used to feeling responsible for the safety of others - out here, it was kill or be killed, and you usually only looked out for number one. Now he felt indebted to her, though, and he wasn't so sure he liked it. Not only did he feel like it was his fault she'd gotten hurt, but he had no idea how in the world he would ever return the favor. Well...that could come later. Right now there was a more pressing matter.

As she spoke, Shawn idly wondered what the worst the girl had been through was, at least according to her own standards. He saw a new expression pass over her features for an instant, suggesting to him that it was a strong memory and not something a newly-met stranger such as himself deserved to ask about. He opted to keep his mouth shut; at least until she was patched-up and feeling better.

Taking her bag to sling over his other shoulder, he would have accepted it without comment had the girl not mentioned 'a gentleman's duty'. A corner of his mouth upturned in a wry half-smile in response to her smirk. "Do I look like a gentleman to you?" he asked rhetorically, his voice thick with amused sarcasm. "And I don't know much about where you're from, but I've never seen any kind of 'lady' do what you just did."

He shook his head in retrospective disbelief. "Coming out of nowhere completely unarmed to face down a group of thugs in a deserted back alley? Taking a stab-wound for a good-for-nothing, downbeat homeless stranger? Yeah, that's real lady-like." Realizing she was joking, he silently appreciated her good humor as they continued to walk. It kept his nerves at bay as he grew increasingly more worried.

What if more thugs came along before they reached? What if she bled too much before they got there? Would they make it in time? God, he hoped she hadn't already gotten infected from the filth in that alley...

She was talking to him again. Right, needed to keep focus and stop worrying. Still, he watched her wound warily as they continued on. "Clowrey. That's really...exotic," he commented thoughtfully. "I'm Shawn Darrow. I used to go by the nickname 'Shadow' with a friend of mine when I was younger. Heh, I know it's lame, but with a boring name like 'Shawn', anything seemed better."

Clowrey must have been in such pain, and yet she still did her best to keep a positive attitude. Shawn found himself admiring her more and more just as his guilt deepened. This was all his fault, but she didn't seem to blame him one bit. How strange...and here he was used to people glaring at him simply for being a street urchin.

"Tasea, huh? That explains it," he murmured, the men's assumptions from earlier confirmed. "Exotic name, reckless bravery, abnormal kindness toward random nobodies..." He started out sounding serious as he spoke, but his words told another story. His irked sarcasm from earlier was starting to creep back into his tone. "Does 'most everybody' in Tasea have all those traits too? Are concepts like pain and fear driven out of your mind at an early age? 'Cause around Ronth, you won't find anyone like that, and for good reason. You never know who you can trust."

Shawn turned his gaze to meet Clowrey's with a certain degree of sternness. Her efforts to cheer up only seemed to have made him feel more responsible and at fault than ever. "Clowrey, don't think I'm ungrateful, 'cause I'm not, but listen to me. I don't know who you think you are, but it's stupid as stupid gets to just jump in a street brawl like that - no matter where or for what reason. For all you knew, I could have been just as bad or dangerous as those guys you beat up, if not worse."

"Take it from an idiot with experience. The least you could have done was armed yourself with something - anything - and maybe brought someone else along. But you're a girl and it's already really late. What would your parents say?!" Oh lord, her parents...he hadn't even considered that. They'd want to kill him for sure if they found out what had befallen their daughter thanks to him. He swallowed and tried not to think about it as they pressed on.

His voice softened again, though it had a distinctly concerned quality to it now, suggesting that there was more to Shawn's scorn than his guilt. He was no longer looking at her, but staring straight ahead as he talked. "You know, the more you tell me that back there was 'nothing' and that I shouldn't worry, the more I know I have to. Either you're brushing it off or you're just putting up a strong front, which I know all about. Whatever the case, it's just making me more uneasy to know that you worry more about others than yourself, so maybe you should just shut up the rest of the way or I may have to knock you out myself and just carry you."

It was a harsh warning on the borderline of sounding like a threat. Shawn had a hard time getting it out and was uncomfortable doing so, his face heating up as he stared ahead and refused to look anywhere but at the girl. Still, he knew he had to be firm because evidently this girl didn't know about the 'look out for number one' rule here in the streets of Ronth, and if she didn't learn to look out for herself first, who would?

They neared the medical clinic soon enough and Shawn quickly explained the story to the person at the reception desk. They agreed to take a look at Clowrey's wound immediately, and the boy was grateful. He looked to his 'heroine' with an impassive expression. "I'm sure 'back home in Tasea', 'most everybody' is expected to go for an examination independently with a brave face. But here it's not uncommon for a concerned citizen to accompany a patient. Want me to come with you?" Though he did his best to keep his expression unreadable, his eyes stared back at her meaningfully.  

[Souru]

"Well, maybe not every day...Gah! >>Chill< Clowrey replied, a bit of a laugh in her tone. "The shiv was a tiny thing...Two inches at the most! I won't drop dead, okay? I promise." She let out a sigh at his comment about a hospital transfer, thinking about how much she'd get in trouble...One for getting lost, one for walking into a fight, and one for being stupid and getting injured in said fight. 'Black Blood can just chalk up another detention slip for me. Might as well go for a record.'

Clowrey walked steadily next to him, her hand still putting pressure onto her wound. She was trying to be careful not to make any sudden movement or jerks, and keep the pain minimal. She still appeared quite calm, though flinched once in a while..."Being a gentleman has nothing to do with looks," Clowrey chuckled, "Your actions speak louder than words or appearance. And hey, I clean up pretty nice I'll have you know!" Unaware of his worries or fears, Clowrey continued to joke along as they walked. She was oblivious to his tension, and that probably made him all the more irritated about their situation...

"My mom chose that name...It means something like "ravines" or a "valley" or something...I don't really remember, honestly."

Even as Shawn's turned more serious, his tone hardening, Clowrey didn't seem to notice at first...and responded to him rather light-heartedly. "Hmm, no--not really," she said, "I'm just a stubborn, tomboyish, blindly charging idiot like that." She chuckled at her own joke, but as he continued on...:
"Whoa, hey! My being a girl has no bearing on my being able to fight or who I am." Now Clowrey was getting a little ticked--Who was he to reprimand her like this! It was grating to get scolded by people she knew, and now some stranger--whose a** she JUST saved--was doing it too?! Seething for a moment, the young woman seemed about ready to punch him! But her face suddenly softened...He wasn't looking at her anymore, she noted. ">>I see<<," she started in Tasean, "I should listen to my guide, right?" The out-of-place rhetoric was barely a whisper...But Clowrey said nothing else after that.

When they got into the clinic, Clowrey still hadn't said a word until Shawn spoke first. She looked up at him from her seat and smiled a bit; "I'd like that."

They got into their examination room, where Clowrey was asked to take off her shirt to check the wound out. "Sorry," the examiner said to Shawn, "but I'll have to ask you to step o--"
">>No<<, it's fine. He can stay."
"Oh...I see. Well, if you could remove your shirt please."

Silent, Clowrey unbuttoned her outer s**t and stripped off the dark tee beneath, careful to not disturb her wound too much. Her chest was wrapped up, but it couldn't hide her scar.

A long, thin and winding scar stretched from her left shouder and across her chest...it trailed downwards, the rest of it hidden by her jeans as it continued on towards her right hip. She had a few other minor scars, but they were small and barely noticeable--probably from falling or running into things. But this one scar...it was vibrant, almost reddish. The paleness of her flesh only worked to exeunate the vividness of that scar more. This scar...
She was looking at Shawn, silent still.

The doctor, a bit taken back by the sight cleared his throat nervously before checking out her stab wound. It wasn't too deep or wide, and had hit no organs or major arteries; she was lucky she wasn't infected and was cleaned and quickly patched up with at most 9 stitches. Afterwards, they were in the waiting room...Clowrey drank a cup of water calmly, before suddenly asking:
"Shawn, what's the worse feeling in the world? For you..."