[Open] Deceased

[Bodie Hart (DELETED 9028)]

The reaction received was far from surprising, her clumsiness had gotten her into and out of many sticky situations over the years. All she was looking to do was buy herself a few moments before attempting to stand, letting her body get it's **** together after the exertion and subsequent spectacular stumble. The guy didn't help, he was clearly less than impressed with her spastic acrobatics leaving Bodie feeling remarkably small. He'd opted instead to try and collect a fallen blanket that left her wearing a genuinely apologetic expression and expelling the barest of winces in an effort to convey this. It was a decent blanket, one that was clearly important to save and she got that. Bodie was no stranger to hard times, mostly of her own making if she was being entirely honest and it was no walk in the park getting yourself back out of the gutter. Turning around proved to be a mistake, her head whipping around quickly enough to make the world spin. Bo was just in time to watch the woman who belonged to the fallen rags scrambling to get away, flinching at the way she hid herself like she was ashamed or... Terrified. Had SHE terrified the woman? Seriously? "Crapola, i'm real sorry. Honest, I was just trying to get the **** out of dodge." No reply came for a short while, it was like the woman couldn't hear her or was too stunned to respond. Bodie didn't press it, no point she figured, just help clear and get the hell out of the alley. It was a simple enough goal in theory but her fingers shook as they tried to grasp up the rags that had missed the worst of the grime, her own boot half sunk into one of the muck puddles. Clumsily she bundled some of them to her chest, trying to ignore the smell and dirt. She needed a shower anyway, right?

She was about to present them, almost proudly and was in the process of dragging her sorry *** to standing when the woman gasped. Loudly. Her words made Bo flinch, automatically her hands flying into the air in a show of being unarmed. To no one's immediate surprise the bits of fabric she'd collected flew up in an arc over her head, Bodie watching in dismay as they fell back towards the ground. It wasn't a conscious decision to go after them, her body just lunged into action, grabbing blindly and coming up short. She presented the lesser bundle to the woman as if it were some proudly proffered peace offering. All being said and done it was only about ten seconds, and in ten seconds she couldn't even pretend to have a modicum of grace. "Hey, hey it's okay. I ditched the dickhead, seriously. I got a rad head start and he wouldn't want to play in front of all those people anyway. You're safe, no one here is going to hurt you. Right?" Her head nodded back towards the mouth of the alley where people walked in the distance, totally ignorant to what was going on in the shadows. The next movement had her looking towards the man who she had initially barreled into, blindly hoping he'd offer support in trying to calm the woman who clearly couldn't afford to cut and run without her stuff. "Can I get you a coffee? Take your stuff to the laundromat?"

[Otto Elias (DELETED 8999)]

Otto Elias raised an eyebrow at the woman who’d come crashing in. One person, he could deal with no problem. Two? That was a bit of a different story. He didn’t do crowds, big or small, unless he was looking to clean out everything but lint from their pockets. Woman number one had long ago been ruled out from this, especially with the instructions of his mother still weighing down his shoulders. He’d caught the blanket, so that had to count for something. And maybe he would have been able to suggest the purchase of a meal and a trip to clean her belongings like the other woman had if, of course, she hadn’t come barrelling in like she had. The other woman. Was she an option? Otto looked her over quickly, carefully, as if he were assessing her as a person and not a money maker. She had some kind of necklace on (jewelry was always good), and if she could offer to buy the other woman a coffee, she had to have the money to do so. Could Otto do that? Swipe her of her valuables and be as far, far away from the strangers as possible? Probably. He wanted to.

His gaze, however, turned to the first woman, who had been stripped from her rags as she was collided into. Her clothes were in a condition far worse than any pair of distressed jeans Otto had ever owned. He knew he had clothes lying around what he called his home - men’s, women’s, children’s. All different kinds of people hung around there. He could get her a new outfit, one warm enough for the colder months to come. He could offer her a spot on the carpeted floor or a spare mattress or couch cushion. If there were any left. He was pretty sure there were.

Otto was not good at comforting but he could try his best. It’d count as helping too, right? “No one’s coming,” he nodded, turning to the panicked woman after casting a quick look back where the alley led out to the street. However, he halfheartedly believed his own words. Someone was always on his tail, so a person, even one who wasn’t after the other woman, could show up at any given moment. “We’re good. Here, take your things.” He offered the blanket out to the woman once again, hoping that this time, she’d actually take it. An offer for coffee was made. If there was one thing Otto loved more than cigarettes, it would be caffeine - from coffee or energy drinks, it didn’t matter. But he wouldn’t tag along if he wasn’t invited. He’d done enough help for the woman already.

[Annie Botwright (DELETED 8863)]

Annie did not want to accept the charity, but her current state made her feel like she needed to. Coffee could be good, she supposed, because it was warm. But she did not want to go with this stranger. The smell of her was still on, clinging to her, and that was intense enough. The first stranger offered her one of her rags, the one he had saved from a puddle and she took it with a nod and a full second of eye contact. That was polite, right? She pulled it around herself tightly and then loosened it immediately after. His scent flooded her senses and she covered her mouth and nose with her hand. She was sure if she was alive her stomach would growl.

"C-C-Coffee," she blurted through her fingers, "But not without him. If, if he wants to." She glanced at him extremely fleetingly and did the same to the other girl. She was desperately thirsty, and hoped it would do something to help. Though she knew it wasn't what she needed. She let the day drop a little so it was more loose around her shoulders, and so that the smells of the two strangers were slightly less suffocating. Wait. She had been rude. Quickly, she added; "Please! Thank you!" Even her words were rushed and clumsy.

Her feral and skittish nature made her like a stray cat, and she was entirely sure it was down to her hunger. Her first night alone as a corpse had been clearer, but each hour made her worse. She tried to remember why it was clear then, before her throat ached and her body starved, but all memory had been repressed. Perhaps the person who did this to her had done something. Or perhaps she had done something instead. Food she had found since she had either vomited back up or simply found it useless. It was terrible, being dead but still able to waste away. Suddenly made paranoid by the thought, she checked herself for rot under the blanket. At this point the decay would not be a surprise.

After her sudden attempt at politeness and brief checking of her body she looked back at the boy, doing her best to silently plead to him to come. He seemed safer to her, whereas the woman was a loose cannon. She was hopeful that he would say yes because in that moment in was very easy for her to look desperate. She widened her eyes and even pushed her knotted hair out of her face. She of course did not realise she was being crazy; or that dragging the stranger into it was inappropriate. These things she had sailed beyond on week two in the cities alleys.

[Bodie Hart (DELETED 9028)]

Her bundled offering was ignored, she understood that she'd clearly the woman but damn. She was no big bad, after all she was trying to help but clearly this person has seen some **** and her reason for being wary. Instead of arguing the point or trying to force the rags into her hands Bo dumped them onto the guy. He'd managed to earn her trust, were they friends? Had he been trying to help her when Bodie had come barrelling onto the scene? "Coffee." She repeated softly, ensuring she kept her hands clearly in view in front of her, letting them drop into a relaxed position against her thighs. "He can come too, that's cool with me. There is this place nearby that is real laid back, anyone welcome if you can pay. I can." It was true, it was a dodgy cafe but the coffee wasn't bad and the staff didn't ask questions. Bo liked people who didn't ask questions, question askers were always so suspicious. Bodie wasn't rolling in it but she worked hard to keep a roof over her head and had saved a decent chunk from her last few jobs to keep her floating while she searched for a new one in this city.

This damn city, it had already been a total trip.

Considering the way Bodie had experienced life she figured she ought to be more patient and understanding with Rags McGee and friend, there were times where she hadn't been much better off. She'd been pretty lucky to have friends who caught her when she fell, who made sure she got back on her feet soon enough. Did this woman have no one to get her back on her feet? Was she alone in the world? Probably. The rushed politeness surprised her, it was clearly an afterthought and the way it was offered was almost childish in nature. Made Bo think of parents telling her to say thank you, and please, the constant reminder living in the back of her mind so that when she forgot she'd blurt it in much the same manner. Sheepish, apologetic. "Nah man, it's the least I can do." She assured, head shaking and following the gaze to the dude. Was he going to let down the awkward team and make a break for it?

[Otto Elias (DELETED 8999)]

Not without him. Otto Elias was wanted? It wouldn’t have been the first time, although the context was a bit off. He took it as both a compliment and a note on how the woman trusted others - which he assumed was rather quickly. However, her behavior towards the other woman made his judgment flicker in doubt when she didn’t so as much as glance towards the offering of the other rags that had been dropped. Odd. He could work with it. What he couldn’t work with, however, was when all the said rags were being dumped into his arms. He fumbled to hold them all at once, only dropping two. He frowned down at the pile in his hands. Most of the material was thin, worn, and dirty. And it smelled. His nose wrinkled and he fought the urge to let them all fall from his grasp right away. “You really need all these?” he asked, nodding down at the bundle. “I think the one you got should be good. After a wash.”

At the offering, Otto shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. “Yeah. Coffee sounds good,” he agreed. He didn’t need to see the desperately crazy look on the woman’s face to know that she wanted him to tag along. That much was made obvious by her previous statement. “I can pay,” he added. There was some cash in his back pocket. There would probably be some cash in the back pocket of the person ahead of him in line to the cafe counter, too. Either way was an option. Whoever wanted to pay. Which one was the right thing to do and which wasn’t didn’t really concern him all that much.

Otto wouldn’t stay long, though. That was decided as soon as he agreed. Aside from not really wanting to become great friends with the woman he’d stumbled upon and the woman that stumbled upon him, Otto had left the safety of the indoors to do his job. He only had so much time to set out for the edges of the city to capture some good pictures in the peace of no one else’s presence but his own. Hopefully nothing else would come up. Not his mother, not a raggedy Ann he was indebted to help, and most certainly not Queen Clumsy and whoever or whatever had been after her.