Steppin' to the bad side (Ch. 2: Day 1)

psikeout · Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2010 1:35 am

The old trimotor aircraft touched down without event.

Maybe it was actually surprising. The flight was not that long, and Rock's clunker of a plane had made it safely... despite one engine failing in flight. "That's why we got two more," the monkey had said of the matter, flip as ever. But one way or another, they had made it, their luggage was unloaded, and carted to the curbside, where before them the group found the sprawling, towering, disorienting vertical urban mass known as Grand Metropolis.

Rock was in the middle plucking his luggage off of a rolling cart when his eyes were snared by the amazing skyline. The duffel strap he clutched in his fist slid down and thudded quietly against the concrete as he spaced out, mismatched eyes sweeping briskly to and fro. He'd never seen Grand Metropolis in person. The place made Spring City look... incredibly small. Even Central City paled and looked dated compared to the futuristic structures. In short, there was a lot to absorb.

It only took him a few seconds to snap his mind back to current events and cut himself off from his involuntary skyline memorization trip-out, though. With a shuffle and shift, he heaved his dark grey duffel up, tucked his head and arm through the strap to hang it across his back, and glanced back toward Tank and the others.

"Guess this brings our transaction to a close," he observed thoughtfully, with a quick raise of his brows. "You guys gonna be able to find your way to the event?"

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Mie · Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2010 2:18 am

Perhaps contrary to convention, Jam merely assisted and unloaded as mostly non-vocal help. It seemed that their... unique night together hadn't particularly bonded her to any of their clients, although she had since been more prone to casual conversation with Mako than with any of the others.

When at last it seemed time to part ways, with her overstuffed backpack hefted onto her shoulders, she silently observed the labyrinth of buildings and neon with a muddled blend of foreboding and excitement, knowing that they were all about to traipse unwittingly into its open maw. With nary a gunshot, emergency vehicle siren, or scream to be heard, surely Westside Island couldn't be the OK Corral it was said to be.

Casually leaning back towards their party's pair of natives, punch-hued primate discreetly muttered a question likely to be on several peoples' minds; "So how much of the stories're exaggeration?"

Tau · Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2010 3:03 am

Juneau had since disembarked from the aircraft and was standing quietly as surveyed his surroundings. He'd been asleep most the flight only waking shortly before touchdown and had since waking seemed a bit displeased with his new surroundings having already collected his belongs, though his purple traveling companion remained unseen since the night before.

"... Large city...... ...Already miss pumpkin hill.. " He'd sigh as he mumbled to himself lowly before shaking it off right about the time rock asked his question in general and would turn his attention towards the simian. " Eh..? Event..? " For various reasons Juneau hadn't bothered to keep a radio active for his stay in pumpkin hill, instead had preplanned ( Though booking the flight itself was some what.. less planned, at least from who any way. ) his time and reason before hand prior heading to the new island mostly oblivious to current events.

Seafarinhare · Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2010 5:40 am

The raccoon disembarked the ride in a similar fashion as those previous. He had been hugging his luggage the entire way, though, so there was little fussing involved. He simply slung his backpack(albeit stuffed to capacity, and looks like more of a ball than it really should) over his shoulder with his arm through one of the back-straps.

After a second or two, his attention was also taken by the futuristic skyline.

"This must be where they filmed Uber Swine: The Movie." He noted to no one in particular. Then looked at Rock as he seemed eager to split was now that his job was done. Hoji was inclined to let the man who paid answer the query however, and simply elected to smile at their pilot with some parting words,

"Thanks for the ride."

Rachel · Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2010 8:11 am

The griffin exited the plane, grateful to have made it to Westside island. But less then thrilled now that they where there. Jack was born here, and lived here until her mother died. Grand Metropolis was a sight she hadn't seen in some time. Jack was clearly apprehensive as she glanced around the impressive skyline. She attached her badge to the inside of her vest and then picked up her duffel bag and slung it over her shoulder.

"I know my way around. Mostly." She offered. It'd been a very long time, but it's not like city blocks up and move.

She looked towards the primates and tipped her hats towards them as her farewell, before turning her attention towards the impressive skyline. She remembered how little she liked all the lights, the city was constantly lit, even in the dead of night, it was like the sun never went down.

Greens · Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2010 1:02 pm

His arms crossed tightly, Tank nodded upon Rock's inquirey, but was too distracted to answer him immediately. Such towering spires of man-made wonder were truly awe-inspiring, even to a giant like himself. Still, for the first time in a long time, he felt... apprehensive. Maybe even a little overwhelmed by the city and its reputation. But before thoughts like that invaded his synapses, he nodded again (mostly to himself this time), puffed from his nose and steeled his nerves.

"Yeis, thank hyou," he answered finally, uncrossing his arms to shake hands one last time. "Good lawk, and keep sehf."

The mole's expression was a little difficult to read at first, but capped off when she breathed in deeply, and sighed out of only one corner of her mouth for the sole purpose of making the sigh long enough to be really satisfying. Likewise heaving her big ball of a knapsack on her shoulders, all she could give Jam was a special kind of cringe a child might give her mother before handing over a report card with an oversized 'D' stamped in the middle of it. The cat groaned quietly.

"Just try to stick to a group," he answered vaguely, proving even his own sense of humor was muted to an extent in the face of his home town. "And don't look like you're not from around here." "Whiiich should be easy enough," added Caz. She probably meant it as a compliment.

Kazz · Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2010 4:54 pm

Mako was in nothing if not a unique situation. He felt like a child in a candy shop, what with all the things to see and the environment around him... problem being there was a renegade with a machine gun somewhere, or possibly many places, in the metaphorical candy shop, waiting to blow his little sharky face off if he put his hand into the wrong jar.
Okay, bad metaphor.

His bag was light, and he had noted that one could pack a great deal lighter when one had an aversion to wearing clothes more bulky than a pair of shoes. He hefted it over one shoulder without much problem, and breathed out, seeming ready to take on the city...

Until Ace gave his advice, however, and he groaned.

"Ohhhh, I'm so screwed."

Perhaps he was feeling a bit airsick or disoriented, but perhaps it was simply the fact that he had rarely, if ever, been off of South Island in his life, and was simply not looking forward to a nice round of being mugged, or worse. Even his sense of adventure faltered a bit.

He looked at the others from whom his own little troupe was splitting, gave a halfhearted little grin and waved a bit.
"Uhhh," he tried, "see you at the punch-fest? Maybe?"
Mako: wizard with words.

psikeout · Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2010 11:15 pm

"You too," said Rock to Tank with a nod and parting handshake. He knew he was going to run into him again later... although he really hoped it wouldn't be where he thought it might be. (See: In the ring.)

And with that, and a nod to the shark (the very same one he'd enjoyed freeing from a tank in an underground crystal geode what seemed like ages ago by that point), he started walking, map in hand.

"I think we've all been worse places," the primate reminded his three companions (at least two of whom would get what he meant) as he started walking toward the railed-off edge of the sidewalk. When he got a little closer, however, he began to realize that where there should have been street, there was none, even though there was a limousine parked not far away.

He soon realized that they were standing atop a building—that the airport terminal structure they were in had just let them out onto a gigantic, drop-off-area terrace of the building, where flying, hovering, VTOL vehicles collected and deposited their passengers. Peering off the edge, he soon realized that they were about 40 stories up, and were only able to see the upper half of the skyline prior. The city was roughly twice as vertical as it had looked a minute before.

"Guess we should've chosen 'ground' floor instead of 'main' floor," he mumbled as he looked off the huge drop.

Mie · Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2010 11:46 pm

"S'pose we have," replied Jam in a casually distracted tone as she shuffled cautiously towards the roof's edge, and glanced down, looking minimally affected.

"Might've been around this same altitude, too."

With an impish grin to no one in particular, the sore thumb of a monkey jerked away from the 400-foot drop, and began moseying in the general direction of an elevator, stuffing her hands into the pockets of the oversized hoodie she'd slipped into about half-way through their flight.

"Le's go see this big, bad city."

Sheff · Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2010 11:55 am

Sheffer was entranced by the view. Having been a resident of Central City a majority of his life, he thought he'd seen the best a metropolis could offer, as well with its size. But the hedgehog realized, looking over the edge of the surprisingly tall building, that Grand Metropolis was huge. He was more amazed by this sight then the other numerous locales he'd visited over the past few weeks put together.

Peering down at the small line that was a street hundreds of feet below, he hesitantly backed away after a moment, fearing that a certain shark's clumsiness could infect him at any time with him teetering over the edge like that. He turned around when he managed to put a few feet between him and the drop, finding the beaked Sheriff.

"You lived here once?" he asked, still in astonishment. "This place looks amazing!"

All thoughts of potential crime had apparently left his mind for the time being.

Greens · Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2010 7:00 pm

"Pheh." Half a laugh and half a scoff. "Not in this lifetime," he muttered just long enough for him to hear himself. Nonetheless, he stepped alongside the two monkeys into the elevator, silently praying that there wouldn't be two-hundred other people below them waiting to use the same lift.

And while Caz did the same, she seemed to busy herself otherwise as well. "Okay, okay, hold on," she said, un-tidying herself in a great number of ways (wrinkling her windbreaker, ruffling her mane, getting those furrowed brows just right). At last, she set her eyes straight forward, regardless of whatever may actually stood ahead of her, looking very uncharacteristically... menacing. At least for a moment.

"...How's my hair."

"Lovely."

Mie · Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2010 7:50 pm

"Wait -- that's what you meant when you said, 'don't look like you're not from here'?" asked the strawberry red simian with no shortage of amusement to her tone, as she paused in her search for some kind of "ground floor" button to evaluate the disheveled mole.

"Does looking like you just stepped out of a closet really deter muggings?"

Greens · Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2010 7:56 pm

"Probably not," she admitted. "But it makes me feel like it might!"

psikeout · Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2010 8:16 pm

Rock was still lagging behind the others as they got on one of the many large, tubular elevator platforms located just under the shelter of the rest of the structure. He seemed fixated on the humongous drop.

He looked over the edge, glanced at Jam, Ace, and Caz, then back to the edge again. He grasped the railing and blinked a couple times as he stared down, and licked his lower lip like he was about to say something. It seemed like something was drawing him, and it took every fiber of his being to just tear away from that rail, but he eventually did so, and jogged to catch up.

"I love these skyscrapers," he commented tellingly. Before he could say anything else, though, he jerked back with a start just from looking at Caz.

"Whoa—you already get mugged?"

Mie · Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2010 8:23 pm

With a supercilious raise of her brows, Jam smirked to Caz.

"I guess if I thought you'd already been picked over, I wouldn' wanna waste my time, " chided the monkey, as she jabbed at a large button labeled with a G, before turning her attention to the whiter primate. "She might be onto somethin'."

Steppin' to the bad side (Ch. 2: Day 1)

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