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Post by DARRIN "MOOSE" MOORE on Mar 20, 2013 17:29:04 GMT -8
tagged: open. date: april 29th, 2012, around 4pm.notes: notes. Downtown LA had a whole lot of particularly fancy areas. There were places where you couldn't so much as get into a building without an invitation, places where expensive conferences were held, and places the average person couldn't even dream of living. Of course, Downtown LA also held Skid Row. Most people didn't like to think about Skid Row and it's occupants, and for a fairly good reason--it was absolutely packed with homeless people. The problem was bad enough that anyone could legally camp in Skid Row at night, something that was normally against the law. Most of the homeless shelters and outreach programs were based in there, and so it was little surprise that was where Moose ended up after his release.
As a rule of thumb, those who got out on parole were those who had places to go. That was how the system was supposed to work, but in a system as packed as the Californian system was, how it was supposed to go wasn't often how it actually went. Technically his parole officer should have had a firm address to check in with Moose at, but with no firm address available, he was forced to take Moose's word--and the bit of logic that Moose was going to have a hard time hiding if he did need to be hauled in. Moose was perhaps the least stealthy person on the earth, and he was going to draw attention pretty much anywhere he went.
Skid Row might have been where he lived, but it wasn't where he spent most of the day. Moose still had a little bit of hope, and he did his best to get what work he could. Technically, anyone could have hired him, but no one was going to. Mostly it was odd jobs--loading and unloading being the most likely of those. Technically those were entirely under the table. He wasn't listed as having any jobs, but if they had too many loads coming in and not enough workers, they'd give him some money to help load and unload for a few hours.
It was with that money in his pocket that Moose had stopped in the little park, settling down on a bench to watch people go by. There was really no way to miss him--he was six foot eight, three hundred pounds, and built like a tank.
He had some money, which was nice--maybe, just maybe, he'd get himself some new clothes. The ones he had were ragged and didn't fit quite right. They looked a bit too small, having belonged to a man far less muscular then Moose currently was. Plus he was pretty sure that he'd gained another inch since he first went in, but it was hard for him to tell--he could really only judge by the fit of his clothes. |
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RHIANNON CHOU
Civilian  
FASHION DESIGN MAJOR
two things a girl should be.
Posts: 113
MINI INFO - GENDER: Female
MINI INFO - D.O.B.: 05/28/1992
MINI INFO - OCCUPATION: Fashion Design Major
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Post by RHIANNON CHOU on Mar 25, 2013 17:50:47 GMT -8
tagged: moose. time: april 29, 2012 - 4:00PM. speech: rhiannon. notes: please pm me if there are problems. If there was a God out there, Rhiannon was this close to finding herself a way up into heaven to personally wring the big guy's neck. This close, because just her darn luck, her (idiot) roommate had forgotten to lock the door to their suite in the dormitories and some mongrel asshole had made off with her sewing machine. A few days before cram week for finals, no less! Needless to say, Rhiannon was in a pinch, and a trip to the Los Angeles Fashion District was in order. She wasn't particularly a big fan of the Fashion District (which was somewhat ironic, she knew) because of its close proximity to the notorious Skid Row, and usually, she would not have been caught dead there without at least one other person. But desperate times called for desperate measures, and it just so happened no one was available today.
And that was the story of how she ended up dragging a sewing machine in a box behind her along the very edge of Skid Row. This was why she wanted someone to go with her, so that she could get an ride to and from in order to avoid this situation entirely. Taking a bus to Fashion District was one story, and taking a bus back to Otis with a few bags full of yards of fabric was another, but a sewing machine with all of the necessary extra peripherals was something else entirely. Even dressed down for once (oh, the horror, the fashion design major in her lamented) and looking relatively ordinary aside from her pink hair, Rhiannon was still afraid that she was going to get mugged at any given moment, or worse... other things. Other horrible things that were better left unstated. That was one headline she'd rather not make...
But the journey was almost over. Almost. There was a stop here that a bus that went pretty close by the Otis stopped at every half-an-hour or so, and the plan was to take that bus back and call it a day. Except not, because when Rhiannon got to the bus stop that was by the little park that was in Skid Row for whatever reason, there was a little notice taped there that stated that the exact bus she needed was not in operation today and would not be again until tomorrow afternoon. "Oh, my god, you've got to be kidding me, are you serious?!" If she had been close to strangling the big guy in heaven before, she really was going to do so now. What, she would probably be shot dead anyways if she didn't get out of here by sundown. She sat down on top of the box with a distressed huff, and pulled out here phone in hopes that maybe she could bribe (read: beg) someone to pick her up before it'd get dark.
Except before she even managed to check who was on her speed dial, Rhiannon had looked up and... oh, shit. Because there in the park not a far ways off was someone who made it look like the giant from Jack and the Beanstalk had walked out of the book and straight into reality. (Okay, maybe that was a slight exaggeration, but the reason for the comparison was definitely still valid, because that guy on the bench might as well have been two heads or so taller than her, she was sure.) She was frozen on the spot, trying to figure out if it was a better idea to run or to stay still and just look back down. Unfortunately, in her state of panic, Rhiannon had forgotten that she should have just stopped staring in the first place. |
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Post by DARRIN "MOOSE" MOORE on Mar 31, 2013 15:37:03 GMT -8
tagged: open. date: april 29th, 2012, around 4pm.notes: notes. Moose was not the most observant of people. While he could and did notice things, he wasn't one of those eagle eyed observers who might have seen the pink haired girl coming from a mile off. Not Moose though--she was not too far off, stopping and staring before he finally noticed her, eyes wandering over, drawn by the pink hair. It was pretty distinct after all. It wasn't like that was going to be easy to miss.
If Moose had gotten upset every time someone stared at him, he'd have been mad pretty much all the time. As it was, it took a lot of staring for someone to rile him up with that alone. It was just too common--everyone stared. Most looked away if he cleared his throat or drew attention to it, but even those that didn't had long ago ceased to bother him.
It was immediately obvious at the slightest glance that the girl was not from skid row. Everything about her screamed it. For one, someone of her age and build would have lasted about thirty seconds in a homeless shelter. For another, she was wearing clothes that fit and weren't at all dirty. For yet another, she was towing some big box behind her, and clearly had no experience in hauling things around--an essential skill when you were homeless and had to bring everything you owned with you. For Moose, that amounted to what he had on him right then, which was next to nothing. An ID hidden in a pocket, some cash in another, and little else. He wasn't big on material possessions--they just slowed him down in the long run, meant there was more to take.
Which begged the question of what, exactly, she was doing there. Cutting through, obviously. He sincerely doubted she had any business in skid row, even if this was pretty close to the edge. A thought occurred to him, and after a moment of glancing around he spotted it--yep, it was a bus stop. She was looking for a bus. Only there wasn't going to be a bus, which meant she was shit outta luck.
Well, her out of luck was his in luck. Moose was used to working on the barter system. You scratch his back, he'd scratch yours. The box she was sitting on was obviously too heavy--the signs of her having dragged it around were obvious enough--and he was more than capable of lifting it. He stood up abruptly, towering to his full height as he approached her before bending down to pick up the box.
He was under the assumption that she was going to hop off it, but if she didn't, that really wouldn't stop him. The box by itself would be lucky to strain him at all--even her and the box looked like it would take only a minimal effort.
"I'll carry it for you." Quick and easy, his motivations obvious enough to anyone who knew him. He'd carry it for her, and she'd feel obligated to tip him when he delivered the box--which meant he'd get a warm meal that night. |
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RHIANNON CHOU
Civilian
FASHION DESIGN MAJOR
two things a girl should be.
Posts: 113
MINI INFO - GENDER: Female
MINI INFO - D.O.B.: 05/28/1992
MINI INFO - OCCUPATION: Fashion Design Major
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Post by RHIANNON CHOU on Mar 31, 2013 18:34:24 GMT -8
tagged: moose. time: april 29, 2012 - 4:00PM. speech: rhiannon. notes: please pm me if there are problems. It was true that even in her most simple clothes stood out like a sore thumb here in Skid Row. Leggings and an oversized floral sweater (that might as well have been a tunic top on her) were something that Rhiannon would never dare to show up to class in (oh, no, she learned that the hard way) because of how normal and less-than-fashion-conscious it was, but here in the middle of the land of hte homeless and potentially dangerous, she might as well have been wearing something straight off of an Alexander McQueen runway. Minus the makeup because she had on a minimal (for her) amount right now, but what good was any of that going to do if she was, you know, probably going to die in a few minutes? (Aside from making her a better-looking corpse, but that was not something she wanted to dwell on too much.)
An internal alarm went off in Rhiannon's head when she realized that the giant man in the park was looking back at her. A little too late too, because she didn't even have time to look away before the man started to lumber towards her -- good lord, he was terrifyingly huge. And he was probably going to snap her spine in two, wasn't he? Nope, today was not the day to die, no definitely not! Or maybe it was, because the man (holy shit, Rhiannon was not one to curse -- how unladylike! -- but this man's sheer size definitely warranted it) was right in front of her and was literally towering over her. Rhiannon let slip a short shriek when the man suddenly bent over and picked up the box she had been sitting on, and she immediately moved to jump off it. Except she ended up falling off and landing on her rear on the sidewalk.
Maybe it was actually fortunate that she had ended up falling instead of landing squarely on her feet, because had she not, Rhiannon would have ended up running far, far away and left the sewing machine behind -- and probably ended up deeper in Skid Row, in retrospect. (Clearly, today was not her most intelligent of days.) That, and she would have missed the other saying that he'd... carry the box for her...? Wait, what? Rhiannon looked (way, way, way) up at the man who was now carrying the box with her sewing machine as it it weight nothing, looking dumbfounded for a good solid few seconds before she said, "... Well, uhm... t-thank you?" No, really, how else was she supposed to react? Hit him with her purse? Throw a shoe at him? No, all of those were dumb options and would probably get her killed. Still, that had been a terribly said thank you there, so Rhiannon reiterated, "No, seriously, thank you, uhm... yes, definitely, thank you." Well, still terrible, but slightly better. Slightly.
She winced as she stood up, muttering to herself, "Oh, sweet Jesus, because now is totally the best time to be breaking pelvic bones..." Rhiannon was exaggerating, of course, though she wasn't exaggerating when she noted to herself that the man carrying her sewing machine was still terrifying as all hell, and should he get violent or in improper in any way or form, she was going to run for the hills. And then go beg all of her professors for an extension. Better that than being scarred for life, or worse, dead. But if this giant of a homeless man (he certainly looked homeless) was going to continue being a gentleman, then she saw no reason to not accept the help. Who knew, maybe if he did help well, she'd consider giving him money to get himself a meal, or maybe two if he ended up being really considerate. She wasn't generous by any means, but she had been raised to be a proper lady. Mostly. "So... is this something you do often? Help people, I mean." Well, it was a valid question. |
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Post by DARRIN "MOOSE" MOORE on Apr 1, 2013 10:49:37 GMT -8
tagged: open. date: april 29th, 2012, around 4pm.notes: notes. If Moose got upset every time someone shrieked at him, he'd have been upset a whole lot. Even so, it was a bit off putting, and it took him a moment of mental preparation to get over it. She wasn't just afraid, he told himself--just surprised. That was it. There wasn't anything wrong with him or anything--just surprise.
Of course, he couldn't quite convince himself of that in the long run. He knew what he looked like. He looked like an intimidating homeless man who was probably also a criminal. No one was going to think anything but that when he looked at him. If his size didn't make him seem intimidating and dangerous, the scar across his face did. It was the sort of scar that practically screamed he was a criminal--anyone else would have had it fixed in a much less messy way then he had. Of course, that hadn't been his fault--it had simply been the result of having too much else for the surgeons to deal with, and a gash on his face (not affecting the eyes or nose) was simply very low priority. By the time they'd gotten around to dealing with it, it had already started to scar quite badly. It just made him look even more dangerous, and he'd had a hard time acting like it was a bad thing for most of his life--after all, it kept people from picking fights with him in prison.
Moose let out a small grunt in response to her first question. Of course he was going to carry it. Carrying the box was really zero trouble for him, and it wasn't as if he had better things to do with his time. He'd already checked the places he knew and found no work, which meant he was free for the whole day whether he liked it or not.
He didn't quite catch her mumbled comment, glancing down at her in confusion as she picked herself up. It obviously wasn't directed at him--if it was, she almost certainly would have spoken up. Or repeated it. Or something--anything at all that might have made it a bit more clear than it was.
Moose wasn't quite sure how to answer the only question that seemed to require an actual answer, but inevitably he simply answered honestly. He wasn't one for sneaky manipulations and subtle word changes. Instead, he was the kind of person that would just tell you exactly what he was thinking.
"Yeah, guess I do. I mean, it's better to help out, right?" Realistically, he probably should have stopped there, but he carried right on. "I mean, real works basically impossible to get, but people always need work done. Most won't do it, but they'll let you do it if you ask." He explained with a shrug. There was no getting normal work without having an address, and no way to get an address without normal work. |
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RHIANNON CHOU
Civilian
FASHION DESIGN MAJOR
two things a girl should be.
Posts: 113
MINI INFO - GENDER: Female
MINI INFO - D.O.B.: 05/28/1992
MINI INFO - OCCUPATION: Fashion Design Major
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Post by RHIANNON CHOU on Apr 2, 2013 16:01:32 GMT -8
tagged: moose. time: april 29, 2012 - 4:00PM. speech: rhiannon. notes: please pm me if there are problems. Even if she knew, Rhiannon wasn't about to apologize for screaming. What, it was a completely and totally justified reaction! How would anyone else react to suddenly being loomed over by a giant, much less getting lifted into the air by one? (Okay, lifted into the air by proxy, but whatever.) Especially if the giant looked like they could smash your head in like a watermelon -- no, a strawberry. Because with muscles like that, this man probably should just squish her skull like a ripe little strawberry -- okay, no, no more thoughts like that. Just no. Stop. No morbid thoughts.
Though, why hadn't he done that? Squish her skull in like a strawberry, that was. (Okay, no, little Miss Chou, just stop.) There was literally nothing stopping him from doing so, and Rhiannon was rather obviously not the sort who could put up a good fight even if she tried. She probably reeked of money, and mugging her was sure to earn some homeless bum a pretty penny. (Today, that "pretty penny" would be somewhere in the neighborhood of four-hundred dollars, give or take twenty -- five hundred if you were going to sell the sewing machine too.) Although... maybe this homeless man wasn't as much of a bum as she had initially thought. He couldn't be, if he was willing to help her out instead of oh, you know, leaving her in an alleyway to die and rot? (She really needed to pull out her playlist of happy, positive songs after all of this was over.) Maybe he was a nice homeless man? Still scary though...
"Well... yes, I suppose that is true," Rhiannon replied with a nod when the giant man explained why helping people out was better. "I mean... I-I guess I'm just not used to people helping out that much anymore, because people where I go to school, well... we kind of end up trying to outdo each other a lot, so most people see helping others as being counterproductive." She paused to shift her bag over onto her other shoulder, clasping her hands behind her back before she added, "So, it's actually kind of nice to get some help. So... uhm, yes, thank you again." Even if it did seem awfully odd and maybe a little bit shady to be getting help from a homeless man, but Rhiannon was in very, very desperate need of help right now. So if this man was going to offer it, she was going to take it, at least until she deemed it unsafe to do so any further. "Do you think you can walk me to Union Station? Or at least to a bus stop that has a bus that will go to there?" Either one would do, really. |
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Post by DARRIN "MOOSE" MOORE on Apr 2, 2013 17:15:08 GMT -8
tagged: open. date: april 29th, 2012, around 4pm.notes: notes. Moose probably could have popped her like a grape if he'd wanted to. He was big to begin with, a product of his genetics more than any upbringing, but all the working out had certainly helped later on. Working out had given him plenty of muscle, and while he was far from a trained fighter, he was still absurdly strong and had a decent idea of how to use it. He'd done his best to avoid full out fights, but prison had still prevented plenty of opportunities to throw his weight around. He'd worked moving boxes around as part of his sentence, and those had been particularly heavy--even so, he'd been one of the most efficient at carrying them, simply because of his pure brute strength.
For all his time in prison, the thought of mugging her didn't occur to him. He simply wasn't that kind of person--or more specifically, he wasn't that kind of person any more. Once upon a time he had been, but that was a lifetime away for him. Currently, he was doing his best to avoid violence and crime, and mugging a young girl would certainly fall into both categories. Even if it would have gotten him some food, it likely would have landed him in jail as well, and that wasn't a worthy trade off.
He could understand competition, in a way. It wasn't quite the same as what she was talking about though--in prison it was about asserting yourself and establishing a pecking order, knowing who was in charge of who. Moose had mostly kept himself apart from it, but there was no way to completely divorce yourself from it. It would always find a way back.
Moose was a bit dubious about the idea of dropping her off at a train station--she obviously couldn't lift the box by herself. She'd been dragging it to get there, after all.
"Sure. You live far from the bus? Or the train?" Because if she did, it would just mean more dragging, and he was eager to avoid it.
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RHIANNON CHOU
Civilian
FASHION DESIGN MAJOR
two things a girl should be.
Posts: 113
MINI INFO - GENDER: Female
MINI INFO - D.O.B.: 05/28/1992
MINI INFO - OCCUPATION: Fashion Design Major
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Post by RHIANNON CHOU on Apr 2, 2013 23:45:41 GMT -8
tagged: moose. time: april 29, 2012 - 4:00PM. speech: rhiannon. notes: please pm me if there are problems. She paused a little when the homeless man asked here where she lived. Why would he need to know that? But then again... it wasn't like there was much he could do even if he did know. Otis was a school, and therefore a crowded area. There would be a lot of people, and it wasn't like she had to tell him exactly where she lived. Just the general area -- and even if he did follow her in, it wasn't like he could get in without a key. But then again, he had been pretty nice so far, so maybe it was okay if he knew? Rhiannon quickly decided a quick compromise as to how she would answer, and answered. "I live in one of the dorms at Otis campus, so it really... oh."
Right, even if she did take the bus back to school, there was still going to be what was approximately a half-mile walk back to her dormitory. Which really wasn't much of a problem -- well, it wouldn't of have been, had it not been for the fact that she would need to drag the box behind her the whole time. And that was after a bus ride that could be anywhere between an hour to an hour-and-a-half depending on which bus she boarded. "... Well, actually the bus ride itself will take about an hour at least," Rhiannon admitted, biting the inside of her lip for a moment. "An hour and thirty minutes if the transferring buses takes a long time, uhm... so, no, the bus itself isn't that close to where I live." A pause, and then she continued, "I'm taking the bus from Union Station though, the second bus, it will take me back near Otis..."
She glanced up over at the box that the man was now carrying for her, and immediately, she found herself dreading the prospect of having to drag it that final half-mile back. But maybe -- no, there was no way she was going to not regret it if she didn't ask him to carry it for her that last half of a mile. With a bit of a sigh, she silently conceded defeat in her head as she admitted, "Okay, you know what, I lied, it's actually pretty far from where I live either way. So... would it be alright to ask you to carry it back to my dorm for me? I promise I'll buy you dinner and give you money for food tomorrow or something if you do, and also give you extra for bus fare too, so please?" Oh, boy, she sincerely hoped her mother and father would never find out that this was where a part of her (rather generous) allowance was going this month... |
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Post by DARRIN "MOOSE" MOORE on Apr 3, 2013 17:24:10 GMT -8
tagged: open. date: april 29th, 2012, around 4pm.notes: notes. Moose had lived in California his whole life, but his LA geography was particularly sketchy. Mostly he stayed closer to the city center, preferring the hustle and bustle of people. It was fairly rare he went so far from the center, and what little he knew about Otis (wasn't it down by the water?) was that it was fairly far away. Mentally he was trying to work out where it was, but thinking about it was just giving him a headache--he probably had known beforehand, but that information was lost to him. Somewhere far enough away that it would be a very long walk, anyway.
Not that a long walk would stop him. Moose frequently walked for hours, and the prospect of a four or five hour walk was really not terribly daunting to him. Most would have panicked at the thought, but Moose was entirely content to simply walk for five hours to deliver a sewing machine. His time was not particularly valuble as far as he was concerned.
Of course, it didn't seem that the girl actually had that in mind. No, she had the bus in mind--a bus, and then a walk. Much shorter. The mention of food and pay was more than enough for him to decide, no more convincing needed.
"Sure." He responded quickly enough, not wanting her to do that thing again. She kept doing it--going off into a big rambly tangent trying to convince him of things, when the offer of food that wasn't total shit was more than enough to convince him beyond any reasonable doubt. He shifted slightly to hold the box better.
"Just lead the way. Dunno the way to Otis, and I'm not the best with buses." Best to be upfront about that, in case she decided to let him take charge. He'd carry, she'd lead. Easy enough. And at the end of the night, he'd have food and money waiting for him. |
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RHIANNON CHOU
Civilian
FASHION DESIGN MAJOR
two things a girl should be.
Posts: 113
MINI INFO - GENDER: Female
MINI INFO - D.O.B.: 05/28/1992
MINI INFO - OCCUPATION: Fashion Design Major
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Post by RHIANNON CHOU on Apr 4, 2013 20:31:02 GMT -8
tagged: moose. time: april 29, 2012 - 4:00PM. speech: rhiannon. notes: please pm me if there are problems. It was true that Otis was pretty close to the beach, as far as Rhiannon knew. It wasn't that far to go to Marina Del Rey, and if she went a little further, she would end up right in Santa Monica. All in all, the location was objectively not all that bad. However, that didn't change the fact that it was still a long, long way to travel from where she was now, and even if the sun was no longer going down as early as it did during the winter now, the fact that was that it would be starting to get dark or even well on the way to being dark by the time she got back. Needless to say, Rhiannon was in a great big hurry to get back to her dormitory with every passing minute now.
So when the big guy agreed to help be her box-carrier, Rhiannon smiled brightly and clapped her hands together. "Thank you so very, very much, sir!" she said, sounding considerably less nervous and much happier now. "Give me just a second to look up what the alternate route to Union Station is, then we can be on our way." She fished her phone out of her bag (when had she even put it back in again?) and pulled up the internet on the little device. "Let's see... do they have anything on the site about this...?" the girl murmured to herself, tapping her fingers against the screen every now and again. As she scrolled through the information on the website, she addressed the giant of a man next to her, "By the way, is there anything in particular kind of food you want later? I mean, since you're helping me so much, I might as well treat you to something extra nice, right?" It was the polite thing to do.
A few moments later, and Rhiannon exclaimed, "Aha, there we go!" She looked up at the man and said, "The website says that there should be a bus that stops at the stop a couple of blocks down that can take us straight to Union Station today. It comes every twenty or so minutes, so if we go now, we'll have maybe like two or three minutes to spare before the bus gets there, I think." She was about to turn around to start walking again when she realized that she had forgotten the most basic rule about meeting people for the first time, and very well almost smacked herself in the forehead. "Oh, no, I am so sorry, I totally forgot! So, uhm...!" Usually, she would have held out her hand at this point, but the thing was... as much as she was willing to pay this guy to help her out, she wasn't willing to shake his hand. At least, not until he washed them. Who knew where they might have been? "Name's Rhiannon, but you can call me Rhi as well! It is very nice to meet you, by the way." |
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Post by DARRIN "MOOSE" MOORE on Apr 5, 2013 8:19:52 GMT -8
tagged: open. date: april 29th, 2012, around 4pm.notes: notes. It had been a long, long time since anyone had called him sir. For that matter, he wasn't sure he'd ever been called sir. It wasn't as if the guards would call him it, or the other inmates. Maybe someone had said it at a soup kitchen or a shelter, but they hadn't meant it--it was just a placeholder word for something else. 'Move up sir' maybe. But it had never mattered before, had never been said with any genuine feeling, and it made him mentally pause as she called him that. Sir. Was he a sir? He supposed that sure, he was a guy, but that wasn't quite the same thing. He certainly didn't feel like a sir. He wasn't noble or rich or anything that normally got associated with sir-ness.
He watched in light confusion as she went away on a... a what? A phone, he guessed. He saw people with them, chatting away or doing what she was doing and looking things up, but they were as foreign to him as a spaceship would have been two hundred years ago. He had no experience with cellphones, had never so much as touched one. He knew other people used them, and had a vague idea of what they were supposed to do, but he preferred to keep away with them. They weren't an option anyway--they cost money.
While her question and offer about good food or preferences was appreciated, Moose really had no idea what he actually liked. After all, he'd spent most of his life eating prison food. There wasn't a whole lot of variety, and you certainly didn't get types or choices.
"No, whatever is fine." He responded, absolutely not picky in the slightest. Realistically, he would have eaten anything. He'd never even had a home cooked meal. Not once in his entire life. He ate out when he had money and was feeling desperate, but he never ate out anywhere with quality. No, it was more like McDonalds or Taco Bell, neither of which he had any feelings for.
If Rhiannon had offered her hand, he wouldn't have known what to do with it. Hand shakes had never been a think for him, and the fact that he wasn't exactly the cleanest meant that he wasn't exactly jumping up and down to touch other people. Names, though, he could deal with. He never jumped to give his own, but if someone else was going to start it, there was no reason not to give it.
"I'm Moose." Just Moose. Which wasn't even his real name, but Moose felt more like a real name to him then his actual name did. "Nice to meet you to." He jerked his head in the direction she'd indicated previously before starting to walk. "Have to get going or we'll miss it." |
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RHIANNON CHOU
Civilian
FASHION DESIGN MAJOR
two things a girl should be.
Posts: 113
MINI INFO - GENDER: Female
MINI INFO - D.O.B.: 05/28/1992
MINI INFO - OCCUPATION: Fashion Design Major
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Post by RHIANNON CHOU on Apr 7, 2013 2:25:42 GMT -8
tagged: moose. time: april 29, 2012 - 4:00PM. speech: rhiannon. notes: please pm me if there are problems. Whatever was fine, was it now? Rhiannon tilted her head, and pondered exactly what it was that she would buy for food later to give to the man helping her. Not knowing what to get was actually harder to work with, because there was a lot Rhiannon could get for him. To order in pizza, or get Chinese takeout? Or should she actually try saving some money and cooking some of the groceries she had brought back to school from home last week? She supposed she could, but... there was like one thing she could cook. Which... was really just stir-fry with rice. And glancing over at the man named Moose, Rhiannon wasn't even sure that she had enough food to feed him. (Who knew how many times what she ate he would eat?)
But saving money would definitely be smart now, so... cooking it was. She'd just have to hope, she supposed. Rhiannon had only just made that decision when Moose mentioned that they should get going if they wanted to catch the bus. Ah, right, right, of course! "That would be a good idea actually, yes," the girl replied as she started to walk as well, taking mind to not completely walk ahead of Moose, but kind-of-sort-of next to him. "Okay, then, uhm! Any food allergies? Or things that you can't eat for any reason?" Who knew, maybe he was allergic to things like bokchoy or daikon radishes or bamboo shoots? Better safe than sorry, she didn't want to be accidentally responsible for a death from an allergic reaction or something like that. That, she decided as she looked up to check to see if they were at the bus stop yet. A street sign told her the name of where they were, which was close to the bus stop.
She had to admit though, Moose was a curious name. How many people named their children after an animal? Rhiannon wasn't all that sure, but she supposed that... it suited this man. Well, Franken-Moose would probably have been better because of the scar across his face (she had noticed it before, to be fair, but hadn't really exactly taken a good look until just now), but she supposed no one could have predicted that part when someone was just a baby. "I'm not sure how we're gonna do this, but I don't feel like eating out tonight, and I really might as well kill two birds with one stone, so hopefully you're okay if I just cook up something really fast at my place." Well, it would really be the shared kitchen of the entire dormitory, but whatever, it still worked. Next semester though, she'd have a little studio apartment. |
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Post by DARRIN "MOOSE" MOORE on Apr 12, 2013 15:54:37 GMT -8
tagged: open. date: april 29th, 2012, around 4pm.notes: notes. Moose had not in a home cooked meal in a long, long time. In prison he'd had mostly heavily processed food. None of it was fresh. When he'd gotten out, he had so little money that what he did get was rarely very good. Super cheap fast food or whatever he could get from the supermarket at a discount. Soup kitchen food didn't count as home cooked either--it was mass produced with cheap ingredients, and while he was thankful for it filling his stomach, it absolutely did not count. Technically, even before he'd been in prison, he didn't know about home cooked food. If he'd ever gotten any, he had no memory of it, so he effectively might as well have never had any sort of home cooked food at all.
He glanced down at the question of food allergies, a little pain in his head blossoming in it. Did he have allergies? Had he had allergies? He might have. It was giving him that little pain in his head that told him that yes, he was trying to remember something, but no, he wasn't going to remember it. Unlike most people who could remember things they'd forgotten, Moose wouldn't ever get those memories back. He could repair them by finding things out again, but the part of his brain that had held that memory was damaged forever. He gave a little shrug. "Don't think so. I'll eat anything though." That was a 'literally' everything too. He'd yet to encounter something he wouldn't eat. Hell, he'd eaten food that was a tiny bit moldy, or food that had been in a dumpster. Something like food being badly cooked was not going to even register on his rating as gross.
"Cookings fine." Better than fine, but he wasn't the most eloquent of people. The word 'fine' was going to have to do as they finally reached the bus, with Moose more or less sliding behind Rhiannon. She was just going to have to lead the way, because Moose's experience with buses was minimal to nonexistent. He had a rough idea of what to do, but good god, he wasn't going to take the lead, and his arms were full anyway. |
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RHIANNON CHOU
Civilian
FASHION DESIGN MAJOR
two things a girl should be.
Posts: 113
MINI INFO - GENDER: Female
MINI INFO - D.O.B.: 05/28/1992
MINI INFO - OCCUPATION: Fashion Design Major
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Post by RHIANNON CHOU on Apr 16, 2013 3:07:26 GMT -8
tagged: moose. time: april 29, 2012 - 4:00PM. speech: rhiannon. notes: we can time skip the bus ride if you want. "Alright then, that makes things quite a bit easier then!" Rhiannon chimed, looking up so that she could beam a smile up at Moose. "I'll do my best to make sure that it tastes at least okay." She knew that she could make what she had in mind easily enough, but at the same time, she was also aware that she still wasn't good enough at cooking in general to not accidentally burn something every now and again. Well, at least the rice wouldn't burn, thank anything and everything that there was actually a rice cooker in the communal dorm kitchen. There really wasn't any way to go wrong there, usually. Unless you were terribly inept, but she liked to think of herself as more than capable of not ruining rice with a rice cooker out of all things.
There really wasn't much of any sort of wait at the bus stop, to be honest. By the time Rhiannon had started digging her wallet out of her purse, the bus was already almost there, and once the red light became green, it rolled right up to the stop. Rhiannon didn't particularly enjoy boarding the dingy orange buses of the Los Angeles Metro system, but she supposed this, as it was in many cases, something that she would simply have to deal with. It was either that, or walk back to Otis, and the latter was never going to happen. Nope. not a chance. "I'm paying for both myself and the guy behind me," she told the bus driver, and when he gave her a funny look, she gave him a less-than amused expression before shoving the bills and coins into the payment box. The bus was empty for the most part, so Rhiannon was pretty sure that Moose could find somewhere to sit -- though had it been more cramped, they might have had an issue. They got lucky today, Rhiannon supposed.
She herself took a seat where she didn't have to be next to anyone, and Rhiannon let go of a breath that she hadn't even known she had been holding. "Ah, I hope I never have to end up getting stuck there alone again," the girl sighed to no one in particular. Shifting a bit in her seat, she fished around in her purse for something, a bit of a crinkling sound being made until she pulled out what looked like a hard candy that was wrapped in a pink-and-clear wrapper. "... Do you want one?" Rhiannon asked, looking up at Moose when she was halfway doen unwrapping the candy. "They're lychee-flavored, so I'm not too sure if you'd like them, but... I'm technically not even supposed to be eating candy, so if you want any, you can have as many as you want as long as there's still some in the bag." It was good candy (at least she thought so), but she was so not going to just eat the entire bag on her own. |
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Post by DARRIN "MOOSE" MOORE on Apr 17, 2013 16:35:35 GMT -8
tagged: open. date: april 29th, 2012, around 4pm.notes: notes. Rhiannon could simply have cooked a whole lot of white rice and Moose would have happily eaten it. He ate a lot, had nonexistent standards about what was and wasn't tasty, and had absolutely zero idea of how much a meal would cost. Most people knew, for example, that a steak was going to cost a whole lot more than noodles would. Moose had no idea. He'd never really gone shopping for himself, and what little shopping he did was through a prison commissary or using the prison economy. To say the least, the prison economy had a much different set of standards. Artificial scarcity meant some items were worth hundreds of times their actual value, where other things were relatively easy to get and thus cheap by comparison. He had no idea about calories or anything--generally when he did have enough money to go someplace with food, he would end up in a fast food place, asking what was filling but cheap. He really had no standards beyond that. As long as it filled him up and was relatively easy on his wallet (or stack of bills, considering he didn't really have a wallet), that was fine with him. At the very least he wasn't a total lost cause--he understood the importance of budgeting, and not just spending all his money the first day he got it. As tempting as it was, one week with no money at all had taught him to save at least a bit for emergencies and things he absolutely needed.
He had even, once upon a time, tried panhandling. It had gone terribly, as most people would expect. People wanted to give money to someone who looked down on their luck, not someone who looked like a hardened career criminal in between stints in jail. While Moose was absolutely trying his hardest to stay on the straight and narrow, there was no way to get that across to the average person, and he'd given up on panhandling after walking away with less than five dollars for a days begging. Considering it had cost him a spot in the soup kitchen line, it hadn't paid off at all.
Moose didn't quite fit on the bus. They simply weren't built for people of his size. He eyed one of the early seats before deciding that there was absolutely zero way his legs were going to fit, and heading for one of the sideways seat. It wasn't exactly easy for people to get around him, but at the very least his knees weren't grinding into a seat in front of him, which was a welcome relief, especially since he was still holding the sewing machine in his lap. It left him sitting perpendicular to Rhiannon, just behind her.
The candies left him mystified. He honestly, genuinely didn't know what they were. Candy? He knew what candy was. But Lychee? That was unfamiliar enough he didn't even feel the painful pang of a forgotten memory. It was just entirely alien to him, and he reached out, taking the little candy and slowly unwrapping it. At the very least he knew not to eat the plastic, and he popped it into his mouth, beyond confused by what he was tasting. |
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RHIANNON CHOU
Civilian
FASHION DESIGN MAJOR
two things a girl should be.
Posts: 113
MINI INFO - GENDER: Female
MINI INFO - D.O.B.: 05/28/1992
MINI INFO - OCCUPATION: Fashion Design Major
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Post by RHIANNON CHOU on Apr 19, 2013 1:22:50 GMT -8
tagged: moose. time: april 29, 2012 - 4:00PM. speech: rhiannon. notes: fast-forwarding to when they get to otis. The truth was, Rhiannon knew absolutely nothing about prison economics or whatever it was called. Because to be fair, she didn't need to know, and had no intention of ever landing herself in a situation where such knowledge would even be of any use. She was, after all, a law-abiding citizen, and short of something terribly and awfully unfortunate happening, she would always get to keep her freedom. Freedom, after all, was the only way that she was going to get... well, her way. Oh, and if she had her way, someday, she'd have her own little atelier and boutique in New York, and perhaps even her penthouse suite in the most upscale part of the city. But for now, this would have to do -- but she definitely made plans in advance.
Needless to say, she was a little spoiled -- okay, fine, more than just a little spoiled. That in itself should have beeen pretty evident with the fact that she could just up and decide to offer a homeless man what would probably be more money in one place than he had seen in a long, long time just for simply carrying a sewing machine in a box for her -- and basically offering him the rights to an entire bag of candy if he wanted it. "If you like it, you can have the rest of the bag," Rhiannon said as she plucked one of the candies out for herself. "Like I said, I'm not supposed to be eating candy, so I'm only going to have one." One, because just one candy wasn't going to make much of a difference. And no one at school was here to see her eating it, and therefore, no one would know any better or try to call her fat for eating anything that was more than rabbit food. (Besides, no one only ate like that.)
The rest of the bus ride itself went by quickly enough, and the transfer of buses at Union Station more or less went smoothly without a single hiccup -- unless you counted people staring being a hiccup, but the thing was, there was a lot to stare at. Not to mention that Rhiannon didn't exactly mind being stared at -- she liked to leave an impression, after all. The trip back to Otis from Union Station was shorter than usual, and her phone played a short little jingle the moment she stepped off the bus some time later, which turned out to be a text from her roommate saying that she wasn't going to be back tonight. Okay, good, she wouldn't have to explain Moose to her then. "Otis is this way," Rhiannon said, walking towards one of the street corners. "We can take the sewing machine up to my room, and I'll grab stuff to take to the kitchen so I can make us dinner. I'll need help with the rice sack though." |
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Post by DARRIN "MOOSE" MOORE on Apr 22, 2013 16:00:20 GMT -8
tagged: open. date: april 29th, 2012, around 4pm.notes: notes. The idea of 'only eating one' was absolutely foreign to Moose. It was even more foreign then the taste in his mouth, the only thing even slightly similar being a rare strawberry hard candy someone had smuggled in. The thought of having food and not eating it was slightly more alien then the thought of aliens coming down from the moon to visit, and it took Moose a whole lot of effort not to stare.
He didn't even like the candy all that much, but he took the little bag anyway. He could work his way through the candy bit by bit, but most importantly it'd be a nice thing to have on days when food was less of an option--a bit of sweet to distract his mouth from the fact that he wouldn't be getting any food. It was a sad sort of reminder, but he took a candy out of the bag carefully, popping it into his mouth. Definitely too sweet for his taste--it was probably the first thing he'd ever thought of as a food he didn't 'like', but he'd still scarf it down given the option. They weren't exactly nutritious, either, but that was just... well, fine.
When they finally, finally arrived, Moose was just happy to be off the fairly cramped bus. He didn't mind having to carry the sewing machine (it wasn't that heavy), but just being in the enclosed bus wasn't exactly his favorite thing. No, he was far too happy to be out, stepping onto the ground with a faint sigh of relief. He shifted, making sure he was keeping a good hold on the box as he followed after.
"I can help with the rice." He knew what rice was at least. "Just tell me where you want things." |
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RHIANNON CHOU
Civilian
FASHION DESIGN MAJOR
two things a girl should be.
Posts: 113
MINI INFO - GENDER: Female
MINI INFO - D.O.B.: 05/28/1992
MINI INFO - OCCUPATION: Fashion Design Major
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Post by RHIANNON CHOU on Apr 23, 2013 12:07:26 GMT -8
tagged: moose. time: april 29, 2012 - 4:00PM. speech: rhiannon. notes: please pm me if there are problems. "Alright then, follow along please!" Rhiannon said, a cheerful little lilt coloring her voice. In her head, however, she was already pondering how she was going to explain Moose to anyone they would pass by. It was a Sunday, so the people who worked at the front desk of the dormitory entrance would be off work already. Her roommate was gone for the night, and chances were, people would be all cooped up in the actual classrooms working on their projects when one took into consideration how close finals were. The problem would be how to explain it in case they passed by anyone she knew -- the solution to which, Rhiannon supposed, was to not explain at all. Yes, that would be a good idea. Play that queen bee card she didn't have, why the hell not? Had to start earning the rights to one somewhere.
There would be stares, questioning looks, and all of that lovely stuff, Rhiannon already knew, but... she supposed it was another lesson in developing a metaphorical iron skin. Otis seemed to like throwing a lot of that sort of thing at her. And she wasn't even properly armored (read: dressed to the nines) today to deal with that. She sighed -- what had to be done had to be done, she supposed. Reaching the dorm would be a relief, but the actual room was where she let go of the breath she had been holding. Because in the midst of her familiar frilly, undeniably and ridiculously girly side of the room, she had already mentally checked out. In her mind, the day was over -- even the thought of having to cook enough food to perhaps feed a small (or medium-sized) family or walking Moose to the bus stop later didn't change that notion. The worst part was over, and that was what counted.
"Just set the sewing machine down on the chair in front of the desk,"Rhiannon said, kneeling down next to her bed so that she could crawl halfway under it to drag out a bag of rice. She wasn't even sure why her parents insisted on getting the big sack, she hadn't even gone through a third of the massive thing yet. "And this, you'll have to carry down for me into the kitchen in a bit, just a second." She stood up and went over to the mini-fridge that she shared with her roommate, but was primarily occupied with her things -- her roommate, in exchange, had most of the freezer to herself. After gathering up everything she needed, Rhiannon said to Moose, "Okay, now we can go to the kitchen." She supposed she would make the maximum quantity rice that a single rice cooker could hold. Hopefully, that would be enough... |
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Post by DARRIN "MOOSE" MOORE on Apr 24, 2013 18:46:09 GMT -8
tagged: open. date: april 29th, 2012, around 4pm.notes: notes. Moose had made it all the way to the dorm, and all he could think was that it was very, very pink. He'd brushed off the stares at the looks, well aware that he looked horribly out of place on a college campus. He hadn't minded when people gawked. But the room? Yeah, he was minding a little bit. It was just very, very pink. It was more pink then he'd ever seen in his life, and for several long moments, he simply stood there, holding onto the sewing machine, gawking around.
It didn't help that Moose didn't really didn't know what a house was supposed to look like. He'd never been in one. He had a rough idea from the occasional bit of TV. He'd never been in one though, and all the little details were interesting to him. Wasn't there supposed to be a kitchen? Maybe it was somewhere else. Maybe that thing--the word escaped him for the big box thing--was it? Who knew.
Rhiannon talking snapped him out of it, and he moved over, setting the box down where it was indicated. He moved over to the kitchen, reaching down to lift the bag of rice easily. The Kitchen? That was one of those things he had a rough idea about it. That was where you made food, right. He'd thought they were in the house, but he supposed it was different here. Slinging the rice sack over his shoulder, he gave a little nod.
"Just leave the way." He said with a little shrug. |
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RHIANNON CHOU
Civilian
FASHION DESIGN MAJOR
two things a girl should be.
Posts: 113
MINI INFO - GENDER: Female
MINI INFO - D.O.B.: 05/28/1992
MINI INFO - OCCUPATION: Fashion Design Major
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Post by RHIANNON CHOU on Apr 25, 2013 2:45:16 GMT -8
tagged: moose. time: april 29, 2012 - 4:00PM. speech: rhiannon. notes: time skip to when the food is ready? Truth be told, it was not incorrect of Moose to assume that that a dormitory was not like a house. For one thing, there was a communal kitchen on the first floor, one that was free for anyone to use -- although, that being said, people rarely ever used it. The cleaning staff still kept it... well, clean though. "Actually, let me grab one more thing," Rhiannon said, and walked over to her desk to close her laptop and slide it into a sleeve before gathering it up with everything else. "Okay, now we're good to go," she said. The dorm room had a door that was self-locking, so there was no need for her to pause to manually lock the door. A blessing, seeing as her hands were full.
"Just... set the rice on the counter," Rhiannon said once in the kitchen. "I can handle the rest -- or at least, I think I can. I'll tell you if I need help." It took her a few minutes to set up everything she needed when she remembered exactly why she had brought her laptop down with her. She retrieved the laptop from the sleeve and then said as she flipped the screen back up so that she could type in her password, "I don't know if I'll be very good company when cooking, so... feel free to use my laptop? Uhm... let me see what there is to do..." She flicked her finger across the touch-pad a few times and opened up her browser. Maybe... sure, why not? "How about you play Boardgame while I cook? It's a really weird game, but it's pretty funny sometimes." Rhiannon typed in the address to the website before she returned to actually making food. Now then, just how was she going to go about all of this...? |
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