A Bitter Pill To Swallow

GRAYBRIDGE, 25 OCT 2023
Caine and Sloane Department Store
It all happens so quickly. One minute she thinks she has a chance of getting through to the guy and the next minute she's dodging shafts of flying glass as they hurtle toward her. The corner of her eye catches Eva and the man going outside while at the same time, a scream comes from the back of the store.

Shit, Someone's hurt.

Stepping on the crackling glass is unavoidable but she still tries to pick her way through the slivers of what used to be the storefront windows and doors and finds Mike grabbing his arm.

"Mike! Are you okay? You're bleeding. What the hell just happened?" Checking herself over quickly for protruding glass fragments she's relieved to see there are none. A jagged slash has torn one of her sleeves and a button is missing from her blouse but otherwise, she's okay. "Let me get you a towel. Sounds like help will be here soon but we should stop the bleeding right away."

GRAYBRIDGE, 25 OCT 2023
Episcopal Cathedral of St. Javelina, Basement

Augusta sites between them, using her slim body as a thin shield between the blond and "Tim". She points out Dave to her and says, "That's Dave. He helps people who have been victims of violence, or have a hard time controlling their anger. You're safe, I promise."

She stands up. "Hello, everyone, my name is Augusta, and I have a problem with my temper. It happens whenever I'm confronted by violence, or injustice. It rises up and overwhelms me, turns me into something I'm not, or wasn't before. "

A different night, a different storm. Augusta is naked in the rain, but her body is not her own. A powerful, savage form, an oni of fierce build, she stares into the glass window of a liquor store, at the demonic features staring back at her. She smashes the glass and with a howl runs into the night, past the beaten body of a man. Streetlight reflects off the silvery metal of a gun just past his twitching fingers.

"This group has helped me understand that my anger is a part of me, and it is something that I control, if I'm mindful. We all just witnessed violence outside, but we're all okay. No one is hurt, no one will be killed. But we need to reflect on what we saw lest it consume us. This woman is likely afraid, and so too is this man who attacked her. I acknowledge that fear, and my understanding. "

She sits.

GRAYBRIDGE, 25 OCT 2023
Episcopal Cathedral of St. Javelina, Basement
Following Augusta's example, Brock decides to speak up, since he's already familiar with these kinds of introduction rounds. "Hey people," he says. "I'm Brock. I'm a metahuman and so is my girl, though she's not here today. Anyway, yeah, I don't really know much about violence but we do piss each other off sometimes and Mr. Draven - this group, I mean, sorry - has been giving us some really good advice and stuff. So yeah, that's why I keep coming. Also to see crazy shit happen. Like today."

With Brock having finished, the blonde woman seems to decide to go next. She clears her throat, then says, "Good evening. I'm Tanya. Tanya Gable. I, uh, can't say I really know much about metas and powers and temper issues and all that. I'm mostly just here because I was wondering if maybe you need a volunteer to help out with the meetings." Her eyes are now turned to Dave.. "I could set up before and clean up after. I could probably make coffee or get donuts as well." She bites her lip. "Whatever you need."

Rain drizzles from Eva’s nose and chin as listens to the man she soon enough learns is Danvers. Her hair is plastered to her face as she nods. "I know him — I know Draven. You don’t have to go!"

The sirens are close now, and the woman can see the red and blue lights flashing, coming down the rain-soaked street.

"I can take you to him! Alright? Can you hold it together long enough for that? It’s not that far…"

GRAYBRIDGE, 25 OCT 2023
Caine and Sloane Department Store
Melissa has no trouble finding a towel to press against Mike's wound. She also knows where the store keeps a first aid kit, so she could try to treat the wound. Glancing at the other customers in the store, huddled behind a high shelf for safety, they don't seem to be injured.
"This really hurts," Mike complains as Melissa presses against the wound. "I don't know what happened. Is this guy robbing us?" His eyes go wide. "Where is Eva? Is she okay? She didn't get hurt, did she?"

"And risk hurting more people?" Danvers asks Eva outside. He shakes his head with a conflicted expression. "I'm not in control. I don't want to hurt anyone."

Police cars with blaring sirens and flashing lights turn the corner onto the street that Caine and Sloane is located on, forming a perimeter around the ruined storefront and the two people talking outside of it. Eva also notices an armored vehicle with the TANC logo on its side among the patrol cars. A woman climbs out of it and starts talking to one of the policemen as the rest of them, guns drawn and pointing, begin to order Danvers and Eva to get to the ground with their hands behind their heads.

GRAYBRIDGE, 25 OCT 2023
Episcopal Cathedral of St. Javelina, Basement

Dave continued to loom over the would-be mugger, hands on the man's shoulders keeping him planted firmly in the metal chair, "I'm so glad you could join us this evening, Timothy Allen Judge of 1158 Knightsbridge Ave." He roughly massaged the mugger's shoulders menacingly. "I hear you've recently been a victim of possible meta-violence... Could you tell us a little bit about how that made you feel?" Tim looked up at the neanderthallic man holding him in place and swallowed hard. "That wasn't a rhetorical question."

Poor Tim swallowed hard and tried not to cry, "I...I don't know..."

"Well, let's dig a little deeper into the MEAT of the issue..." Dave growled into Tim's ear.

"I...I don't like how you said... 'meat'.", the trembling in his voice uncontrolled. He looked from Augusta to Kaminski to Tanya with pleading eyes. Tanya,at least, had some kind of sympathy for Tim. An awkward silence followed that Tim felt he had to fill. "Right now I feel like a little bitty worm on real big hook..."

"There we go. There's a good break through!" Dave slapped Tim's shoulders with a wet thwack, sending droplets of alley water spraying. Tim jumped at the volume of Dave's voice. "You feel out-of-control. That's good. That's good." . Clearly it was not good.

Dave addressed the others who've mostly been where poor Tim was, at least control-wise, at some point. "It's about not feeling 'in-control'. Kaminski feels like his partner, Anna, makes all the important decisions without him. Augusta feels like her demonic anger removes her sense of being in-control. You,Tim, are out hustling money from strangers in alleyways because you don't feel like you have a sense of control. Probably financial if you're mugging people. This group is about facing that lack of control and finding ways to deal with that.
He looked at Tim and at Tanya, "So I'd definitely like to have the both of you back next week. Tanya, you're welcome to volunteer your time here. Is it for a class? Court mandated community service? You don't have a ’support group fetish' or anything, do you?" he asked, completely deadpan serious.

GRAYBRIDGE, 25 OCT 2023
Episcopal Cathedral of St. Javelina, Basement
"Uhm, no?" Tanya replies, clearly taken by surprise by the question. "No fetish here. Is that a thing people have?" She considers this for a moment. Then she reaches into her jacket and pulls out a piece of paper that's been folded multiple times. It's wet around the edges. "But, uhm, yes. I would need you to sign off on the hours I'm doing here." Lowering her voice, she quickly adds, "For the court."

Tim, shrunken in his seat, asks meekly, "Uhm, can I go now? And could I maybe get my wallet back? And my phone." With each question, his voice goes even quieter. "And my keys?"

"Mike, press that against the wound," Melissa says as she removes her hands from the towel and turns to look outside. A stab of blinding pain unexpectedly blasts across her forehead. "Agh!" she cries out, clutching her head, but then it's gone in an instant.

"What the hell ...." Suddenly she can see Eva and the strange man outside as her vision penetrates through the shelves and other store debris that is between her and them. "No," she says, rubbing her forehead and staring at the two outside the store. "He's not robbing the store. Eva's ok. Her clothes are wrecked but she looks unharmed."

Turning back to Mike she shrugs her shoulders. "Apparently I can see through things."

This is an odd development but Melissa is focused on the man with the TANC ankle bracelet. She doesn't want him to get away but with the cops coming she's not sure what to do. She can't approach him because for some reason the man has an aversion to her. Her best bet she thinks is to talk to Eva later about the man and find out what she can about him. Maybe Eva can convince the man to help her get Belinda out of the TANC or at least find out why she is in there in the first place. But first she would have to be nicer to Eva.

GRAYBRIDGE, 25 OCT 2023
Caine and Sloane Department Store
"You haven’t hurt anyone here," Eva says to Danvers as the rain starts to soak her to the bone, not really knowing about Mike’s bloody arm back in the store. Before she can say more, though, the police — and TANC — are on the scene.

Red and blue lights reflect in the bedraggled blonde’s eyes as she fights hard against an urge to run. Run. RUN, her every instinct is telling her, that part of her she doesn’t really understand yet, that she hasn’t unlocked, even with Draven’s help. Memories of a dozen narrow escapes flash at the edge of her memory. Fences climbed, alleys run down, windows jumped through, closing armored doors rolled under. Her chest heaves in the rain as her breath is coming hard now. Her adrenaline is pumping — but she raises her hands and slowly gets to her knees.

"Friends of yours?" she asks the man beside her as many guns are pointed at them. Glancing at him, she adds, "I’ll get ahold of Draven."

GRAYBRIDGE, 25 OCT 2023
Episcopal Cathedral of St. Javelina, Basement

"You'd be surprised at the types we get around here." Dave took the paper from her. Given her first experience with this particular support group, it was unlikely Tanya would be surprised at all. He scribbled something at the bottom of the paper with the pen she provided. Lacking something solid to write on Dave chose Tim's shoulder, making sure to dot a couple of 'i's that did not exist in his name forcefully enough to elicit a yelp from poor Tim. "Here you go, Tanya. 8pm prompt." Dave had never been prompt in his life.

"I think we've made some progress, Tim. Don't you?" the big man patted Tim on the shoulders roughly. "I think you should continue exploring that. So I'll need you to be here for at least the next few meetings. Times and dates are listed on the board outside." Dave dropped Tim's soggy phone into his lap followed by his wallet and keys. "Don't be late."

GRAYBRIDGE, 25 OCT 2023
Episcopal Cathedral of St. Javelina, Basement
Tim takes the first chance he gets to slink out and leave. It's up in the air if he's going to be more scared to come back here or to not come back. Tanya stays behind and, after giving Dave her number, helps clean up, asking a couple of questions as they're working, mixed between asking about what she should bring for the next meeting - "Donuts? Sandwiches? Cookies?" - and what kinds of people usually show up to these meetings. Brock also sticks around longer than he usually does. Maybe he's just not interested in getting home to his girlfriend just yet. Though his reason might also be related to the way his eyes follow Tanya far more than they do Dave

Just when they're finishing up, Dave's phone chimes with an incoming message. As he is occupied with that, Tanya says goodbye at that opportunity and heads out. Brock takes that as his cue and leaves at the same time, leaving just Augusta and Dave behind...

GRAYBRIDGE, 25 OCT 2023
Caine and Sloane Department Store
The clean-up of the situation is suprisingly quick and efficient. The police pull Eva and Danvers apart, a paramedic finds his way to Mike, everyone present gets quickly questioned separately on the situation.
Interestingly, Eva and Melissa both have the impression that the police aren't all that interested in the answers they have to give, like the questioning is more a formality than anything else. With the empty promise that they're going to hear back about the investigation, the police withdraw. When they do, Danvers is gone, disappeared somewhere in the questioning process, along with the TANC vehicle.

The thing that is left to do now is to let Dave know about this...

"Eva, why don't we go to the employees' break room so I can lend you my coat? You're practically naked." She wanted to get the low down on the strange TANC guy and she wasn't devoid of feelings either even if she didn't necessarily like the woman.

"Come on. It's down that way," she says assessing the woman's state of undress while urging her to follow with a gently placed hand on her shoulder. "I'm curious about that guy with the ankle bracelet. I couldn't help but notice you two talking a bit before the cops came. And speaking of them, did you get the feeling they weren't really all that interested in our answers to their questions?"

GRAYBRIDGE, 25 OCT 2023
Black Lips Books

Augusta nestled her coffee in her hands, sitting at her favourite table. The evening rush was mostly tweekers from Graybridge community college cramming on some research project that involved a lot of doodling in the margins while pretending to read Descartes, and a quartet of octagenarian women reliving their cozy mystery dreams. Augusta let the fumes from her coffee tantalize her senses, and ignored the furtive glances from the nerdiest of the tweekers. The soothing sounds of Wet Leg played through the bookstore speakers.

Dave was the other patron, and was dreamily eyeing the rapidly aging tuna burrito with artisan mustard and garlic aioli like he was a starving man with no money. Augusta knew better than to offer to spring for food, after the sharp look he gave her the first time she said she would. People were always saying that she "had a tone" just before they acted against their own best interests.

"What was that about with that guy?" she said, as the door opened, and two more people entered.

GRAYBRIDGE, 25 OCT 2023
Caine and Sloane Department Store
Watching from the store's foyer as the detectives leave, wondering just what this was all about, Eva turns to Melissa when the woman offers her jacket. Glancing down, she sees that, indeed, her clothes took a beating in the glass explosion, and that there's bare skin showing through torn fabric in more than a few places.

"Uh, thanks, yeah -- maybe I should," she says, following the other woman to the back room. When they arrive, Eva nods. "I'm curious about him too. He asked me to deliver a message to a friend, to someone I know."

When Melissa mentions the strange behavior of the police, Eva shakes her head slightly as she tries on the other woman's coat. "Yeah, I caught that too. I think they were just there accompanying those TANC goons. All they wanted was that guy -- his name might have been Danvers -- back in custody."

Checking her pockets, Eva swears. She needs to get hold of Draven ASAP, and isn't sure if she still has minutes on her phone... her phone which she now discovers she left at work.

"Listen, I've got to head back to Black Lips, I left something there after my shift. I can comp you a cup of coffee for lending me your coat if you want. Deal?"

GRAYBRIDGE, 25 OCT 2023
Black Lips Books, Later
Coming in the entrance is Eva and Melissa. The former at least looks like she's been through the wringer tonight; her hair wet, tangled and unruly, she's wearing what is clearly someone else's jacket, and her dark tights, the ones clinging to shapely legs going all the way down from beneath her coat, are in tatters, sliced and splitting and unraveling.

GRAYBRIDGE, 25 OCT 2023
Dark Lips Books

"Who?" it took Dave a moment to refocus on Augusta when that tuna burrito was singing its siren song. "Oh, Tim? I don't think he's a bad guy per se but he's in a bad place in his life and just needed to be reminded that there are far larger fish out there than him in this large pond. And speaking of fish..." He decide to give in to his worse nature and retrieve the tuna burrito and a scalding cup of coffee, acid black, from the counter leaving behind a wad of soggy greenbacks. "Where was I? Oh, Tim..." a puddle had formed on the table and below from where Dave had dripped frigid Graybridge rain. "Like a lot of people this side of the bay, Tim's probably having a rough time of it otherwise I don't think he'd be out hustling or mugging people. I think what he needs is a helping hand. The bruises Tim will have by the morning stand as a testament that not all 'helping hands' are gentle hands.
Dave took a big bite of the questionable burrito and shook his head in affirmation that it was a good choice. "Oh, that's good." he gestured at Augusta with the open end of the burrito, artisanal mustard drops stuck in his moustache "Man, it took me a LONG time to come around to eating fish or seafood again. I was so sick of the ocean." Her quizzical expression reminded him that he'd missed something. "Oh, did I not tell you that story about being stuck at the bottom of the Mariana's Trench for three years?"

The gentle tones of the Lip's door chime and the loud hiss of the rain outside cut that budding story short when Eva and her friend Melissa rolled in. Dave nodded at the two and raised his meaty hand to attract their attention. "Woah, you take a bath with the blender again?" he asked Eva, his eyes surveying the damage to her leggings and the ill-fitting coat hiding the worse of it.

Melissa's eyes light up at the mention of a message. "Will you do it? Take the message to your friend, I mean? Because Belinda, my friend is there. You might know her from the hair place?"

Grabbing a plush seal-colored faux fur coat from a hook among many other hooks holding less impressive jackets she hands the garment to Eva. "There. That should be much better," she says helping the disheveled woman into the opulent fur. "You don't want any creeps giving you the roving eye. Um ... do you need to need to call someone. Thought you might be rummaging for a phone. You can borrow mine, and sure a cup of coffee sounds great. "

GRAYBRIDGE, 25 OCT 2023
Caine and Sloane Department Store - Earlier
Knowing she probably needs to add minutes to the cheap plan that she uses for her cheaper phone, Eva nods. "Yeah, I'm going to pass along the message for sure. And I might just borrow your phone for this -- I don't know if mine can make calls. But I need to get his number -- it's saved in my contact list."

GRAYBRIDGE, 25 OCT 2023
Black Lips Books - Now
"Yup," Eva says to Draven as she makes straight for his table, feeling absolutely stupid and awkward in front of him, her coworkers and some patrons she recognizes because of her messed-up hair, ridiculous jacket, and shredded leggings. "Friend of yours, I think, by the name of Danvers? Can we sit down? It's great that you're here, David -- I was just about to call you. He told me to give you a message."

The ridiculous-looking blonde makes eye contact with Augusta as well, giving the other woman a nod as she pulls a chair up to the table.

GRAYBRIDGE, 25 OCT 2023
Black Lips Books

Augusta scooches her chair with an elegant move, making room for the two ladies. She just adores Eva's larger than life vibe and gives her a big smile, then another one for Melissa who she mostly kind of knows from around. "Hello, you look like you've had a night of it. That jacket is really something. Is it a Miranda Dunn? "

She leans forward a little creating a sense of intimacy. "You know, Dave runs a support group for people who," she glances at Dave to include him, "have experienced the effects of violence. He's really helped me come to terms with the way Greybridge is becoming. You know?"

GRAYBRIDGE, 25 OCT 2023
Black Lips Books
Eva looks at her jacket, further embarrassed, and says, "Uh, it's a loaner from Melissa here. There was an... accident... at the store she works at, and my clothes kind of got trashed."

When the much slighter woman leans in close and lowers her voice, Eva's heavily eyelinered gaze is steady on her. She nods just slightly. "Yeah. He's... helped me before."

GRAYBRIDGE, 25 OCT 2023
Black Lips Books


Augusta senses that maybe this is such a time that the large daunting woman needs Dave. She returns the nod, and says, "I'll be back in a little while. I simply can't resist looking at new books no matter how many hundreds of hours I've spent here."

She gets up and patting Dave on the arm, refreshes her coffee at the counter and then heads to the historical fiction section to try and discover why Jean Auel was so popular in prior decades.

The fight in the rain disturbed me again. I want to let her out and fight. Why am I like this? How did this happen?