the burn don't work and the buzz don't help; Lanny & Ryan (Orca Bay)

by Javier Escarra, (25 days ago)

Victory was so close. Javi could taste it on the salt-breeze air. He had to actively concentrate on preventing himself from fidgeting with impatience as the cop warned him again about the dangers of the bay and made sure to keep his facial expression neutral. He had the goods, he just needed to make a clean escape. If he could answer these final questions, he could head back to the road and use the cover of the buildings and the distraction of the ambulance to disguise his direction, then head back to the parking lot and –

Officer Sohmers tailed off mid-sentence and muttered something that Javi couldn’t quite catch over the noise of the ambulance. He turned to look in the cop’s direction and spotted the glowing yellow headlights of a tall vehicle trundling down the road. Javi didn’t know the front of Lanny’s car well enough to recognise it, but he could add up contextual clues. The direction and speed of the vehicle, the relative quiet and the cop’s reaction all told him that this was his ride. Presumably Lanny had gotten tired of waiting, or maybe he wanted to scout out the action. Whatever. As long as he parked up round a corner somewhere, Javi was pretty confident he could find him. It wasn’t like there was much around here.

The bronco was reducing speed, though. Seemed a bit amateur of Lanny to try and rubber neck as he drove past, but whatever. At least he wasn’t dumb enough to pull up by a cop.

Like a car crash in slow motion, the vehicle creaked to a stop on the road right in front of Javier and Officer Sohmers. The cop was staring right at Lanny, which was just as well because Javi couldn’t keep the incredulity from his face. Javi had sometimes been described by teachers and social workers as ‘a loose cannon’, but he was pretty sure he had never torpedoed a situation quite so completely by just opening his mouth, which is exactly what Lanny proceeded to do.

To his credit, Javi’s pause was brief and he managed to rearrange his face quickly.

“Hey, Uncle Lanny.” He added as much weight as he dared to the relational moniker, hoping Lanny would get the message. “What up, man? I thought mom was sending Uncle Miguel.” Javi turned back to Officer Sohmers and dropped his voice to a stage whisper. “Dominican but totally Michael Jacksoned so we don’t talk about him much. Well,” he brought his voice back up to normal levels and started moving decisively around the bronco, hoping to take advantage of the cop’s apparent surprise. “It’s been real. We’re cool, man. Like I won’t report you for being late or for the unnecessary interrogation or nothing.”

Without waiting for an answer, Javi pulled the door open and slipped inside, wrinkling his nose a little as the distinct aroma of stale beer hit him once again. He leaned as far across Lanny a she dared to call through the open window on the driver’s side.

“Later, officer!” He leaned back in his chair and added to Lanny, “Yo, hit the pedals, bro. Don’t you know there’s bad company around here at these hours?”

~CrypticSilvers~

by Lanny & Ryan, (21 days ago) @ Javier Escarra

Oh, if only James could see the scene playing out between his little brother and the small army of government vehicles piling in along that lonely bay road, he'd have been equal parts impressed and absolutely furious. Lanny himself further craned his neck to get a better look at the firetruck that was now joining the party, tailed closely by some tactical utility vehicle with 'RESCUE' plastered across its side in reflective lettering. Crystal-blue eyes swept back to Javier and Ryan then, crinkling in both delight and curiosity alike at the chaos unfolding, while wondering what Javier had done or said to instigate it all.

"Javi, hey." Without missing a beat, nor seeming to sweat a drop of worry over the presence of the cop now staring incredulous daggers at him, Lanny caught on seamlessly to what the kid was trying to pull. The little lines of amusement that creased the corners of his eyes carved a little deeper, "Ahh well, you know how it goes. Miguel was busy, so she sent your favorite uncle instead." He reached and pulled on the inner door handle as he spoke, prepping the passenger side as the kid delivered a daring pseudo-reprieve to the officer before climbing in.

Lanny's blatant insertion of himself into the conversation aside, the man's single utterance of the boy's nickname caused the full reality of the situation to come crashing down on Ryan. Javi, not Harvey. Oscarra probably wasn't even his last name. The kid was a lookout, and he'd been playing him the entire time. Even with the ambulance quickly encroaching, he'd heard every word the two had shared, and his initial look of surprise eventually melded into something more serious as he dropped his gaze from Laurence and turned it on Javier. Javier was good - the very street smarts that Lanny had clued in on had served him exceptionally well here. "You're making a mistake, Javi." Ryan's tones held gravity as he answer Javier's cheekier farewell, "Laurence isn't any uncle or a friend, to you or anyone else."

If the situation had been a little different, Ryan would have pulled the weight of his authority and searched the vehicle right then and there. He'd have used the rules of his own playbook to detain Lanny and take the kid downtown for his safety. But that cocky grin told him that even Lanny wasn't dumb enough to have any contraband in his vehicle right now, and he was just egging the officer on, daring him to make a mistake that would get him demoted to radio duty for the next month or two. In the dark world of corrupt officials and politics that he played in, Ryan simply didn't have the leverage to act in this instance; especially not when the full might of Atroe's rescue team was now arriving and in need of guidance for a situation that Ryan was now 99% sure was false.

"Ouch, Officer Ryan, that hurt." This was Lanny's parting remark to the officer before he rolled the window up and hit the gas, sending a small shower of loose pebble and mud pinging against the bronco's undercarriage. Red and blue lights flashed in alternation across his still-grinning face as he drove past the various emergency vehicles, heading for the road that would take them back into town. "Got a lecture from Sohmer's, did you? Haha, damn!" He slapped one hand against the steering wheel in a mix of celebration and adrenaline for the drop that had been pulled off, "Ballsy work to get the whole squad rolling out here, but damn, did it work!" He glanced in the rearview, as if savoring the last look of chaos as the flashing lights and sirens began to fall into the distance, "You did great kid, really saved my tail. How'd you pull that off, anyway?"

the burn don't work and the buzz don't help;

by Javier Escarra, (10 days ago) @ Lanny & Ryan

Even more flashing emergency vehicles were arriving, each one attempting to pull Javi’s attention away. His teachers always said he could never focus on anything important and got distracted way too easily, but in Javi’s defence, literally anything was more interesting than math. It was a lot easier to ignore the chaotic wailing and disco lights here than it was to ignore the clouds out the classroom window, simply because Lanny and Officer Sohmers were putting on such a show. The police officer could honestly sell tickets to his face, because watching him go through the emotions as he put it all together was something else.

Deep down, Javi felt that old, familiar spark glow. That feeling he had only ever had whenever he pulled off a job for his old gang. A feeling he hadn’t had in well over a year and had thought for most of that year that he’d never have it again. The feeling of pride – of having done something well, for a change.

That spark withered under the officer’s stony stare and sputtered out completely at his heavy words. Javi dropped his gaze and shrank back a little in his seat, his mouth feeling suddenly dry. This was what he was supposed to be here to avoid. It was supposed to be a new start in a new town where the police and teachers and social workers didn’t already have predetermined conceptions about him and he was far from the people in his old life who might influence him. That’s what they’d promised him when they discussed early release. Somehow Javi had messed up his fresh start within about five minutes.

Of course he had. It might be a new town with new faces, but it was still the same Javier who messed everything up.

Lanny made a passing jibe at the policeman and shot off, briefly pinning Javi to his seat. He had no idea this hunk of junk could even accelerate that fast. The blonde Russian, who hadn’t messed anything up at all and so hadn’t had his spark of pride extinguished, grinned animatedly. Javi adjusted himself quickly, not wanting to look like Sohmers’ words had gotten to him. He did sit up a little taller in his seat when he realised Lanny’s words weren’t just self-congratulatory, but also overtly praising what Javi had done, and wanting to now how he did it.

“I like, had to improvise and all on account of having no prep time, man.” He couldn’t resist a pointed look in the driver’s direction. “So like, I was watching the road and this police car comes up…”

As he relayed the story, his personal misgivings melted away and his voice became more animated as he noticed Lanny was actively listening. When was the last time Javi had talked and an adult had just listened, instead of trying to ‘read between the lines’ or ‘understand his behaviour’ or whatever other psychoanalytical bullshit was trendy that week? Javi found himself dragging the story out a little by relaying the verbal back-and-forth in detail instead of simply summarising it, buoyed by every minor expression in his listener’s face.

“…And then you rolled up,” he concluded, “And like, you could see him like, figuring it all out then. Cops, man. Dumb as fuck. If I had prep time, he’d’ve been walking away clueless.”

~CrypticSilvers~

by Laurence Zelkovii, (5 days ago) @ Javier Escarra

All Ryan could do was watch the door slam close, severing his chance to help the actual victim of tonight's patrol. He'd allowed himself to get too distracted, too focused on catching Laurence, and too lax on those little warning signs that had been there from the beginning. A younger Ryan would have cursed under his breath, or dared a sharp retort back at Laurence, but years on these gray streets had taught him when and where to spend his energy.

The only silver lining in this instance was the reaction he'd caught from Javier before the old bronco had sped off. The way the boy's gaze had abruptly broken away from his hardline stare, and the way he seemed to melt back into the seat, as if it make himself smaller despite the victory that Laurence was now reveling in. Maybe the kid was just nervous about getting in trouble, or maybe the officer's warning had hit a buried nerve.

Whether they had or not, Lanny seemed oblivious to it. Officer Sohmers soon fell away into the distance, swallowed up by the darkness and flashing lights as Laurence weaved half on and half off the gravel road to get around the emergency vehicles. He'd been too busy focusing on their success to pick up on the brief deflation of Javier's mood, and by the time the boy had shaken off that gut-punch of guilt and pulled his mask back up, the man had turned a still-grinning face to meet Javi's pointed remark. "Eh, consider that a test, and you passed with flying colors." He leaned over, throwing an elbow towards Javi's arm.

As the boy went on to regale him with how he'd outfoxed the cop, Lanny was indeed offering Javi his near complete attention, when he wasn't otherwise glancing to the long stretch of dark highway that led back into the city. A few hearty chuckles and nods were thrown in, with the kind of energy to suggest he was actually invested in the story, rather than simply feigning interest for the kid's sake. "Dude, that look was priceless; I don't think I've seem him that pissed in a good while!" Lanny shook his head, memories of past encounters with Ryan flashing through his mind, "I can just imagine him bouncing from pier to pier, trying to find that body."

His fingers drummed against the steering wheel, expressing the last fumes of adrenaline. The city lights were washing over the car once more, more prominent now that the sun had fully set as they'd rolled back into Atroe. "I suppose that means I owe you some more money?" The bronco rolled onward, treating stop signs as suggestions and speed signs as decorations as he navigated the old roads towards the foster home. "And maybe a small bonus, just for the look on his face when I rolled up." The grin came back again, lingering briefly before sobering away. "But really kid, that was some top notch work. We could use skills like yours." He offered, his tones leagues more open and friendly than they had been upon their initial encounter. And yet... there was something in the tenure that carried a hint of gravity. Or maybe it was the simple fact that Lanny's dimple-baring grin had finally gone away. Or, maybe it was nothing at all.