Zoie - Ouch My Head/Log

From Masq
Thanks to Oswald for GMing

Anyone who can hear the traffic coming off of I-25 through Albuquerque can hear the collective roaring of motorcycle engines as about two dozen bikers speed their way into the city. Just another biker gang coming into town, or some might think, but then they spread through the back streets and begin to filter their way throughout the city, headed for different parts of the Warzone. Those who dare to follow the menacing hum of modified engines also hear distant, muffled screams of terror...

Joel is wandering into the area, accompanied by Katie... his hands are in his pockets and he's at her side but a little ways away from her. The pace is unhurried, and he seems to be looking around for something, wary but not afraid to be here. And then... engines and screams of terror. "Shit, what the fuck?" Joel is surprised, and frowns at his companion. "You hear that right?"

Nicolas is also in the area, although not the same as Joel and Katie. He's apparently doing some investigatication. By the looks of it. But the sounds of the bikers approaching certainly gets his attention. Head turning, he's looking around for what is going on. "Yeah," Katie says, stopping briefly to try to get a bearing on where the sound is coming from. "That can't be good."

Ulysses isn't actually sticking his nose in anything, considering he actually lives around here- he just doesn't have the good sense to leave the streets in fear or panic, instead all thats offered is a mild sense of curiosity when the sounds rattle through the streets and the air. Only his continued meandering shows any signs of interest in what is going on.

Zoie skips into the area, literally. She skips. Her eyes widen as the bikers go by and her head starts to turn back and forth. She tries to watch each one as she watches them. Then there comes the scream of terror. Zoie blinks a bit to that before she stares in confusion. "Did they crash?"

Most of you can't really tell exactly where the strange noise is coming from, save for Zoie, Ulysses and Nicolas, though Zoie hears it coming from an alley opposite where the other two pick something up. Nicolas and Ulysses both hear something like the ragged gasping and yelping of three older men - they sound distressed. Ulysses picks up the occasional trickle of garbled Spanish, coming from a darkened basketball court not far away from here...

Nicolas looks concerned, the yells of older distressed men, well they set is AAPR alarm bells ringing loud and clear. He makes into a run towards the sounds of their concern, hoping he's not too late. And also sadly realizing he only has like 30 min. Sad.

Ulysses meandering continues, perhaps with a slightly quickened pace, if anyone was to observe, his eye's narrowing, a slight frown growing across his features. Fiddling with a tootsiepop in his hands, he makes his way towards the Alley first, becuase even though he may be the only one that hears the spanish, there is no way for him to understand what is being said after all, and the sound of pain is seemingly more important in the short term.

Zoie has probably never watched the horror movies. That is why she is willing to move towards that alley. Surely there was /something/ heard down that alley. She starts to walk down that direction as her eyes move to study the shadows.

"Zoie? The hell are you doing in the Zone?" Joel is too busy being floored by this, like he just found a unicorn in Costco, to notice the specifics of sounds and locations. "Hey, shit, what... where are you going?" Nicolas and Ulysses can look after themselves, Joel is making the first mistake of the day by following the blonde girl certain to get murdered. The look he casts to Katie is wordless, but seems to say, 'we'd better go after her'.

In mirror to Joel, Katie also starts heading after Zoie, with a quickened step. "Hey, don't go into dark alleys, Zoie. Ever.. and never go into any alley in this parts, even if it's lit up like a Walmart parking lot.. For you, maybe avoid alleys completely."

Zoie is about a third of the way into the alley when, before anyone can react, roughshod boots dash out from behind a dumpster towards Zoie. In the half-light, a leering figure in a sleeveless leather jacket, covered in tattoos, swings a tire iron at the side of the blonde's head, catching her in the temple. It's only a glancing blow, but the veins are close to the surface and the bleeding begins freely.

Meanwhile Ulysses comes upon a grisly scene of his own. Four similarly tatted-up freaks are standing around three old Latino-looking homeless men who lie on the ground with their shirts flipped over their arms and heads. One of them is trying, as efficiently as possible, to hobble them one after another with a sledgehammer, crushing their kneecaps with the blows one by one.

Ulysses unwraps the tootsie pop, a morbid curiosity still in his eyes as he walks forward- such scenes being something out of the movies to be honest- the violence itself not quite moving him to action, approuching rather obviously, and curiously, apparently alone?

Zoie might have responded to Joel and in turn, Katie. However, she's gotten another item to worry about. Zoie gives a squeal of pain, not unlike if you would try to butcher a small pig. Yeah, it's that attractive a noise. The beautiful blonde puts a hand to her head as her body falls towards the ground. A thud offers to the impact of this as blood is pouring from her fingers. Head wounds bleed a lot, even superficial ones.

Nicolas pose jumps perhaps as his player has to depart. he apparently did worse on his perception check than he thought, but well enough to avoid getting a blow to the skull or anywhere else. He instead runs off in the direction of noises only hear hears. Damn crazy reporters. And players that have to get to RL needs.

They knew alleys were a bad idea! Joel jumps a bit in surprise as a tattooed badguy pops out of nowhere and clobbers Zoie... apparently the tire iron is not enough to deter him from starting to run to her side. Well, actually, she's pretty, but it seems to be her foe he's more interested in. Sorry Zoie. The intention seems to be to get between her, and the dude with the tire iron. "Get the FUCK away from that woman, you piece of shit!"

Katie again follows Joel, running toward Zoie and her attacker.. Joel's probably quicker, ngl. "Get away from her right now!" Katie backs up Joel's words too, she's like the perfect side kick.. "Or you're gonna get fucked six ways from Sunday with yer own tire iron."

Zoie's assailant blanches at Katie's completely unabashed threat, as if he never expected such courage from someone who looks so much like a victim. "F-fuck you bitch! El Brujo gonna take you all!" He swings, and combat begins!

Meanwhile, in the basketball court, Ulysses' approach is definitely noticed as the four other bikers turn around and immediately begin to circle him, chains, brass knuckles and sledgehammers in hand. "I got dibs on this faggot," one of them says, filed teeth flashing in the streetlight. They jump, and battle begins!

It's pandemonium in here! However so far, the good guys are ahead! As Katie and Zoie keep a lookout and try to bandage themselves up, Joel decides he's had enough of ol' boy here and clocks him one good! He staggers back, snarling, as his nose snaps back into place, though he still looks hurt. Uh oh. Weird. Meanwhile Ulysses surprises the crap out of his assailant, first by dodging and then by landing a solid one-two strike on him, leaving him to stagger back, confused and bloodied.

Oh and dead, extremely DEAD, as his neck snaps under the weight of Ulysses' hammer blow. Whoops, silly ST! The other three bikers howl with rage and fear, and pounce. A new round beginneth!

Joel seems to have decided that he's had enough of this guy's shenanigans, and he swings once, JUST once, and the force of the blow actually sends the biker flying into the wall with a loud crack, blood staining the brick.

Meanwhile, Ulysses gets a knife jammed up in his guts, but he takes it like a BOSS and, dodging the swing of a hatchet, lets fly a death-dealing throatpunch that brings another man down.

"I warned him," Katie says, as she sees the biker hit the wall and crumple to the disgusting ground. "He shoulda ran when I tol' him." She is still hanging onto Zoie's arm, to keep her from skipping off into more danger.

Zoie isn't really skipping. She's ripped her outfit to wrap something around her head. She's bringing the 80s back with a headband. Ooooh yeeeah. "What the.." For a moment, it's like she's going to swear. Then she just sort of stares at Joel. Then the green of her eyes flit back to Katie.

Joel watches tire iron guy go crunch into the wall with an impassive expression on his face, wiping blood off his hand and onto his jeans. "Stupid ass mother fucker," he accuses the victim, then walks up to start searching for a wallet. "He's not dead... quite. He's pretty crunched up." There is no particular pity in the tone. "You guys hear something?" he ponders Ulysses' fight, but doesn't seem inclined to go run down the street to check it out.

Katie looks back at Zoie, "What? Did you think Joel was a push over? He's gotta deliver pizzas for a living. Gotta know how to defend himself. They are easy fuckin' targets, it's like dial a mugging."

Zoie puts a hand to her head and then looks from one to the other. "I um... no. I think that Joel can do anything he wants if he wants to do it." She stares at them a bit disoriented. "So um... hi."

Now that your own combat is over, you hear the sounds of fighting and yelling coming from a nearby alley! Something else is going on!

Joel is still rifling through the man's pockets, with no respect at all for the (nearly) dead. He finds a wallet full of cash, pocketed, and a baggie. "Hey look, cocaine," he notes. Then in a different pocket, he seems to find a strange little book. There is a moment of staring at the puddle of blood glowing on the ground, distracted, then he looks curiously at his new find to see what lies between its covers.

"Do ya'll reckon we should go see what's going on with that caterwauling?" Katie asks Joel, as she is standing there keeping Zoie close and theoretically safe.

Zoie watches as Joel starts going through the man's possessions. "Joel!" It is a sound of semi-righteousness. "You shouldn't steal. It's bad. Bad Joel." Then she turns towards the sound of other combat. "Um... maybe?"

"You also shouldn't fucking try to murder strangers with a motherfucking tire iron. I'm an agent of karma," Joel informs Zoie, without looking up, and without any apparent shame. The book is looked at with interest, then he pockets it. "Didn't Nicolas and Ulysses go off that way? They're fine... probably." He tilts his head to listen to said caterwauling, as though trying to determine whether it belongs to acquaintances or strangers.

Katie apparently trusts Joel's assessment to if other people might need help. "We should probably get Zoie out of here. She got clocked in the head, might need a doctor. This ain't the place to play doctor."

Zoie is bleeding and her hand is caked in it. It is one of those moments that she's starting to figure maybe she's imagining things. Yep. Joel is at the coffee shop. They are having a cup of coffee and... holy mother of hell. Zoie whimpers and puts a hand to her head.

Joel looks at the victim for a long moment, then takes a few steps away. There's a glance at Zoie, and for the first time a flicker of something like guilt, but he starts walking toward the erstwhile commotion and yells out, "Everyone okay over there?"

"Your rather fucking loud." Ulysses mutters as he stands with more than a few rather large blood stains and what seem to be knife wounds covering his body. "Just fuckin lovley though." He states rather matter o factly, burying his hand into his pocket to pull out a rather crushed tootsie pop, staring at it hard once again, apparently a little upset over the condition of his sweet treet. and by stand, I really mean leaning against a wall, he has like 6 knife wounds in him after all, rather painful

Katie takes poor, head wound Zoie, and starts to guide her away from Ulysses and Joel and the whole bloody mess. "Let's go.. there's nothin' more to do here but get in more trouble. How's your head feel?" She puts her arm around Zoie's shoulder and keeps her close.

"It hurts." Zoie offers lightly before she looks where the guys are. "We shouldn't just leave them. I mean.. really. We should make sure they are okay. I think I'm fine. It just hurts and bled a lot."

"Jesus fucking /CHRIST/!" Joel hisses when he spots Ulysses, hurrying over to go speak quietly to Ulysses... he seems to be trying to shield the man from the view of Katie and Zoie, sparing their delicate senses perhaps! "Get her to the doctor," he agrees with Katie. And for Zoie, "We'll take care of these people." Ahhh euphemisms.

Ulysses holds out the Tootsie roll to Joel, sighing slightly as he stares at the man, expectantly. "Can you unwrap this? I'm kind of busy.. trying to.. well you know stand." He mutters, eyes narrowed as he glances to the two uh.. men with slightly oddly bent necks. "If you don't mind?"

Katie shoves Zoie forward, so she'll have to look where she's going or risk tripping, and they are going away. "They are still standing, meaning they can handle whatever the fuck else is gonna happen. We're leaving.. You need to get cleaned up. Why don't you tell me all about how you're nevering coming into the Zone again, or how you now have an acute phobia of alleys?"

Zoie is pushed by Katie as she tries to crane her neck to look behind the other woman. "Huh? Well.. you were in the Zone. If you can be here so can I, so unless you are like never coming back in here." She then smiles sweetly. "Did you hit your head too? I don't have a fear of alleys."

Joel watches Katie and Zoie take off, and poor Ulysses... Joel is not being helpful at all in the unwrapping department. Nor is he being gentle. Ulysses is getting shoved into the nearest alleyway hidden from sight, hopefully not somewhere where he'll be tripping over bodies.

Ulysses grumbles as he is pushed along forced to not enjoy the sweet tastey goodness of a lollipop. "What the hell are you doing..?

Ulysses grumbles as he is pushed along forced to not enjoy the sweet tastey goodness of a lollipop. "What the hell are you doing..?" Ulysses exclaims, almost a little suprised at Joel's less than loving bedside demeanor- or alley side.

"I didn't come here alone." Katie points out, a little sharp in her tone. "And I'm not the one who wandered into alley and got brained by a crow bar. I can lear from other people's mistakes, and you should learn from yours. You're not the type of person that hangs out here, and you never want to be."

Zoie thinks this over for a few moments. "I was just walking, Katie. I was looking for apartments and one was listed as being for rent around here." She looks up at the other woman for a long moment. "Why were you here?"

"I thought you lived in a Cabin with Cassanova?" Katie says, and keeps a wary eye out as she guides Zoie out of the zone. They do look like easy targets, very easy targets, which draw many unkind eyes in this part of the city. It's not something Katie's not unaware of, and there's that practical level of threat about her. The same sort that she leveled on Zoie's attack that made him blink, and she carries enough presence about her yet that it's giving the Zone denizens pause. "You can't live out here anyhow. That's not gonna work. You can get raped or killed out here, usually both."

Zoie frowns as they move. "I'm not the type to get raped or murdered." Then there is a sigh. "There is this horrible waste of flesh that he won't get rid of. She like totally came into the house and was like... not nice." This may be the heaviest insult that Zoie has rendered to anyone.

Katie is ushering Zoie through the not safe part of the Zone, which is pretty much all of it.. She's got the other girl under her arm, and protectively against her body. Zoie's got a makeshift headband torn from her clothes across her head, soaking up some blood from a wound. Katie looks unharmed, she also looks like she shouldn't be messed with. Her face is set in hard lines, and her eyes are dark, scanning the street as she moves as she talks with Zoie. "We'll find you an apartment... an apartment you can afford, because you are totally the type to get raped and murdered.. don't you watch the news? It's always the pretty blonde girls who turn up missing."

Zoie stares at Katie for a moment. "I'm already looking for a new place. Raine is just a.. a.." She can't say the curse, even if she really really wants to. "She's just the last straw you know. Then I tell him and he.." She shakes her head more. "Yeah.. I'll find an apartment and I'm sure it will be pretty and mine, you know?"

Nathan's beat up old Ford truck, which is totally here, comes cruising up the street at an appropriately safe slow speed. Nathan and Damian, who both look a little bloody and frayed themselves, are within. Nathan pulls up near the women and rolls down the window, calling out "Hey, we're just coming from the ER- you need a ride back there?"

Damian leans from the passenger seat to see Katie and Zoie, and waves while Nathan does the offering.

"I got a place you can stay, baby," Some homeless man with a bottle of gin sitting on the side of the street offers Zoie. Which clearly makes Katie's decision, as she looks toward the truck.. "Uh, sure, that'd be mighty kind of ya'll." Zoie is not getting a vote, as Katie steers her toward the truck. "You two look like you're having a night too."

Nathan motions Damian to squish up against him. It's gonna be a cozy drive. "Just another summer Friday in the zone. I think it's true, hot weather brings it out in people." Whatever 'it' is.

Zoie opens her mouth as if she's about to protest, but then she's tucked into the the truck or about to be. "It is very nice of you. I hope that we are not putting you out or anything like that." She flutters her lashes, but it is not a flirtatious gesture. It's more like the mild concussion clearing of her vision flutter.

Damian pops open the passenger's side door and was about to just get out and let them take his place buuuut the hell with it, he's not one to pass up the offer from Nathan. Good thing both men are skinny, though there'll be a hell of a leg tangle. "You okay?" he asks Zoie while they're getting shut up in the truck.

Katie crams Zoie up against Damian, and she takes the door for herself. It's cozy times indeed! "She took a blow to the head, she's not all here," Katie says of poor Zoie. "I doubt she's gonna remember any of this. She might need a doctor, but ain't any of those worth going to here in the Zone."

Nathan says "Well, we just took somebody to the ER, we can swing back that way, make sure nothing's broken at least. And D here can, um... look at it meantime." What /do/ you do with a concussion, anyway? Never mind. Nathan's driving!

Zoie smiles towards the guys. "I'm sure it is fine. It just rattled me a little bit, you know? Like I think I saw birds or stars or something." She smiles an settles in against Katie, pushing the girl a bit closer to the door. Strange men though.

"I can take a look, if you want," Damian offers, but doesn't throw himself into unwanted action, "If nothing else, the hospital might still be a good idea. Hits to the head are bad things."

"Do ya'll know each other?" Katie asks, as Zoie cuddles up against her. Katie's arm goes back around her protectively. "Can bring her to the Apothecary. I got a first aid kit there and can clean it up to get a look. Bled a lot, but head wounds always do, right?"

Nathan says "No," either in response to whether he knows her- or Katie really for that matter- or whether he's going to bring her to the Apothecary; either works. "I think she'd be better off with an X-ray." And he's driving, so we're going to the hospital! If Katie wants to duck out immediately and hail a cab to the apothecary once his back is turned, he will not know the difference.

Zoie frowns. "I don't really want to go to a doctor." Or answer questions to what happened. Then she looks at Katie and shakes her head. "I um.. yeah, I can just go back to the store. I think the idea is to monitor so I don't fall asleep."

"Just get looked at," Damian urges gently while they drive, "If it turns out to be nothing, then great."

Nathan says, "It's not like anybody's going to make you file a report if you don't want to. ER doctors are too busy to care how you got hurt most of the time anyway."

Katie isn't going to roll out of the moving truck, into the zone, so she'll take her chances on the hospital. Maybe she'll just spirit Zoie into a cab before x-rays happen! "Zoie, this is Damian and this is Nathan. They are friends of Joel, though I don't know them as well. They are good people."

Zoie perks at the mention of Joel. "He's my hero tonight. He totally saved me from the man. He was like superman." Yeah, someone has a concussion. She grins and then pulls out her phone to text someone before putting it back in her pocket.

Damian says, "Hi, it's nice to meet you. And nice to see you again, Katie. I'd ask how you are, but. You know."

That should be a pretty interesting text. Nathan brings the women to the ER over any concussed objections, and then his player has to afk for a little bit! Feel free to continue to rp around him :)

Katie also takes out her phone, to send a text or two.. but she's quick about it. "It's good to see you again too, Damian.. wish it were better circumstances, but we've always had bad luck, right?" A nod to Zoie, and she agrees, "It's good Joel was there."

Zoie smiles her best cheerful smile that she can muster. You know, with the blood on the side of her face. "It is good to meet you too. I'm sure we've seen each other. I'm just not good with names and right now, even worse."

Nathan says, "No problem... almost there." "You probably should get it scanned," Katie says, trying to peer at Zoie's head a little. "Are you hearing any ringing in your ears or feeling dizzy at all?" Seems she's subscibed to Nathan's plan of ER fun for Zoie. Nathan knows what is Best.

The ER makes happy happiER. "We can make sure you guys have a ride back afterwards, if you need, I think?" Damian says

Zoie concentrates on teh question. "I feel dizzy, but I don't hear a ringing right now. When I first got hit, I did." She then smiles at the men. "That would be nice of you. I'm Zoie, by the way." Yes, she's re-introducing herself.

"I can just catch a cab," Katie says, obviously not wanting to hold them up. "Ya'll don't have to hang around. Last time I was in the ER it was like four hours of doing nothing."