I'll Show You Around (Adam.)

[Odion Martins]

Odion was sure he had done this at some point in the last seven months, he just wasn’t sure when. It was almost like getting drunk, but without being drunk the next day and it was a much happier feeling. He couldn’t remember everything on the trips, but he often wrote things down while on them or simply took a trip back in time to see what his initial trip was like. In any case, he knew of someone who could help him take another ride.

Waiting outside of Lani’s apartment wasn’t easy, knowing that it wasn’t Lani he would be seeing. Odion took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Being back in America wasn’t easy, and trying to recover lost memories had taken a toll on the young man. This wasn’t something that any substance could fix, but at least he could dull the pain.

Odi knew someone who knew someone else and this was the place they wanted to meet. Odion wasn’t going to complain or suggest a different location because no one needed to know about him and Lani unless they already knew for whatever reason. In other words, he didn’t want to be suspicious. Apparently it was for convenience sake, as he had been warned that he wasn’t the only buyer today. This seemed unusual, but it was a risk he would take, and unless it went badly, he could easily undo it with his powers.

Sitting on a bus bench, Odion was seemingly staring at nothing, though he was watching someone from the corner of his eye. A blond man – not the dealer. Still, maybe it was the other buyer. Odion didn’t say or do anything. It was a bus stop, he wasn’t exactly suspicious looking. Taking out his phone, Odion checked the time and realized he was still pretty early. Oh well, it was better to be early for these sorts of things.

Odi opened his jacket and took out a pack of cigarettes. Not his favorite drug of choice, but it would do for now. Once the fag was aflame, he cast a careful glance to the other man in the area. He didn’t seem to be going anywhere either.

[Deleted]

Adam was running out of stash and his little green grove wasn't producing yet so he was getting his goods from a specific somebody over there. Or actually, he'd be coming over here because he knew a guy who called a guy and he was pretty flexible, willing to meet at any place that the customer wanted….so long as it was generally out of the public eye. Secretive shit and all that, right? Well, it was no problem because Adam here was a seasoned veteran of secrecy! If the dudes wanted him to keep quiet, then Adam would be as quiet as a mouse!

Now, Adam wasn't completely stupid, in fact he liked to think of himself about as smart as the next Einstein because of all the awesome shiz he did on on the netz all the 24/7. Yup, and Adam got himself quite the collection of comments and supporters who thought he absolutely knew what he was smoking! Well, Adam was gonna be smoking something real good soon…assuming the fixer wasn't stuffing the grass with actual grass.

Sometimes they did that…..pissed him off real good.

Adam was sitting with his bum on a bench just outside his apartment, just seemingly waiting for the bus and idly drumming his hands on his knees as he waited. No, that wasn't annoying at all! Of course, he was getting into it, so the drumming quickly left his knees and extended to the arm of the bench and the seat next to him. There was a little bit of clapping. All going to the rhythm of a song with a good drum line.

His eye caught the flash of flame as his bench companion lit up a cancer stick. "Then things'll kill you, you know?" he said absentmindedly. It was clearly none of his business but….well, try telling Adam to stay out of anybody's business and he'll call you a sell-out….because that made perfect sense.

[Odion Martins]

Odion was only slightly annoyed at the drumming going on beside him. Everyone had their own freewill and if he didn’t have to be waiting here for a specific reason, he would be taking his own freewill and promptly leaving. Some people just didn’t know how to sit still. Contrastingly, he was sitting tall and with perfect posture, under the impression that he could live as long as time itself if he took care of himself properly. His time control had always been his friend, but lately it was backstabbing him.

“Yeah, it’s not an everyday thing for me,” Odion said, taking a drag through his nose, holding it, and letting it out his mouth. He glanced down at the little white stick, and flicked the ash to the ground. “Is it bothering you?” He wondered, though he had no intentions of putting it out if it did. Now he leaned forward with his elbows on his knees, eagerly watching as a bus came closer. Perhaps this blond would be getting on it and leaving him alone.

But when he didn’t get on that bus, or the next one, or the next one, Odion had to wonder and assume. By that time he had finished most of the cigarette and had flicked the butt to the curb. “Do you normally sit on bus benches for no reason?”

[Deleted]

Adam only regretted not bringing down his drumsticks to assist with his Carnegie Hall level drumming out there at the bus stop, though it'd help if there were more options for him to hit the sticks off of, like a trash can or a bucket or something. No doubt the dude next to him was just in total and complete utter awe at his awesome skillz, so much he just couldn't say anything to commend him for his superior ability.

"Naw, just not a lot of guys make informed decisions. I like to inform! The very basis of democracy is presenting information for decision making. But those government mules like to keep that shit from you, you know, and propoganderize all over the place to brainwash you into believing their bamboozling. But they don't know, that I know, that they know that I know that they're up to something, mind you me." Adam took a breath. "Now, don't you feel a lot more informed and, as a result, smarter?" Adam flashed his bench partner a smile, completely serious.

By the time the next two busses passed them by…Adam had the suspicion that this guy next to him might be hanging out for the same reason he was. But Adam, you know, was all about the down low and subtlty so of course he wasn't going to out himself as a buyer, naw, he was going to go for a much better line of inquiries. "You normally do the same thing?" he asked him back.

[Odion Martins]

Odion had listened to Adam’s speech in it’s entirety with a straight face. Most people didn’t spew such nonsense, but it seemed like today was Odion’s lucky day. He blinked the tired out of his eyes and wondered at how someone could string together the words ‘propoganderize’ and ‘bamboozle’ into one statement. Odion held his fag between two fingers and let the smoke escape upwards. “I already knew those things.” Hence why he was here to begin with, and besides, he wasn’t here to argue. They didn’t know it, but he was here for the same reason Adam was.

“Not really,” Odion said, his accent sharp, “buses are disgusting.” He would rather walk if given the choice, no matter what the weather entailed. Now this was getting more and more curious by the second. Still another bus came, and Odion cast the blond a long look. Someone stepped off the bus and looked at the two of them, a knowing smile on her face.

“Good, glad you’re both here,” she said, her hands in her pockets. Odion gave a small smile and a polite nod of the head. She must’ve been the one he was waiting for, and since she was talking to both of them so openly, this blond bloke was probably here to get hopped up as well. “Let’s start with you blondie,” she said, not waiting for the other man to follow her into the alley nearby. Odion only stared at the other buyer – hopefully there wouldn’t be any funny business.

[Deleted]

If nobody told Adam to shut up, he likely wouldn't….actually, even if someone told him to shut up, he would probably just start ranting even more about how they were just trying to keep him from speaking against the man and they had to hurry up and find the mind control devices before it was too late and they became drones, unwilling to even think for themselves, much less speak.

But…but this guy, he had a head on his shoulders, he knew what was on the up and up. "Awesome, man! You know what's up and that make you my best friend!" At least for the night, because Adam already had a best friend. Adam put his hand into the air as if he was expecting some skin flapping his way.

"Yeah! They are! But sometimes that's the only thing a lotta dudes have to get from point A to point B, you know, but what does the man do about it? Nothing! They just let them get even more disgusting while the go off spending the taxpayers money on a new parking lot for city hall! As if the dirt wouldn't suffice for those cheap bureaucratic bastards."

Adam could have continued, but his rant was interrupted by a pretty something with hot hot lips. "Anything you say, ma'am." She could tell him to get on his knees and a whole buncha other things, make him her willing slave if she wanted. Adam had a bit of a weakness for the sexy ones. "Brb, man," Adam bid his bench companion with a two-fingered salute, and followed the pretty lady like a moth to the flame.

[Odion Martins]

Odion only smirked and chuckled to himself. This guy had interesting ways of making friendships, but Odion took at as the grain of salt that it was. Anyone who was so willing to make friends with a stranger couldn’t be trusted, and Odion certainly wasn’t looking for friends.

The blond kept ranting about the man, and Odion nodded in agreement. Yeah, there was a lot of things the government did in order to keep itself alive without thinking about the people involved. Odi finished off his cigarette and blew out the last of the smoke. “That’s why you have to work around it,” Odion agreed.

As the blond and the girl left, Odion got up to stand and stretch. The nicotine was edging its way through his system and it felt good. He had a small amount of cash in his pocket and watched the deal that was going on, wondering how long they would be. The blond guy seemed happy as pie, and hadn’t even noticed that the girl had nicked his wallet immediately after he had put it back.

Odion wondered if he should do anything about that, but it was too late to decide. The girl was looking his way and signalled him towards them. He had glad he didn’t have his wallet or anything of value on him and he approached casually.

“Here’s the same for you,” she said, slipping something into his pockets. Odion slipped the money into her hands with a smile. He could tell by scent alone that she wasn’t holding out on him. “You boys have fun,” she said, walking away from them, just in time to catch the next bus. It was like something from out of a movie.

Odion looked over at the other guy with a smitten look on his face. “You should watch yourself around pretty women,” he said, producing Adam’s wallet. The girl was tricky, but Odion was trickier still.

[Deleted]

That was the thing that everyone underestimated about Adam, that because he couldn't keep his big mouth shut and always had an opinion about everything, didn't mean he didn't know how to keep a secret and obviously couldn't be trusted. But what was that old saying? The best place to hide a tree was in a forest? Something like that. Adam like to think that his ramblings, however authentic and full of wisdom they may be, masked the shit he was really trying to say. Or rather, they misdirected the listener away from the really confidential information he was trying to hold and protect in his noggin.

"Yeah, yeah! Work around it, because, you know, if you try to work against it, the man'll just hunt you down and smack a cease and desist on your ass, shut you down before you even start. That's why you gotta find the backdoor, you know, the secret entrances that're gonna make the man's "woman" squeal and squirm like a sexy lass. You get what I'm saying?" It wasn't complicated, not by a long shot.

And yes, Adam loved the man's woman metaphor, because he considered himself a tried and true ladies man and this pretty dealing chick was pure proof of that genuine fact of life, yes siree! He had her practically eating out of his hand, bet she couldn't wait 'til Adam was out of his stash again so she could get another chance to chat him up. Adam left the scene of the deal feeling rather pleased with himself, nodding and thinking himself on top of the world.

Unfortunately, no, he did not notice a thing about his wallet until the ginger boy returned and waved it around in front of his face.

"Whoa! When the hell'd you get your hands on that!?" Adam exclaimed, patting his pants for the characteristic bulge that was clearly absent. "Nah, no way a pretty chick like that lifted my leather so easy, it's gotta be a trick." Adam pointed his finger aimlessly to prove his point. Then it hit him and that pointed finger went straight towards his buying companion. "I got it. You're, like, one of those meta-people again and you got some sort of teleporting power or levitating thing to take it right outta my pocket!" Definitely the levitating thing, just like his roommate, the sneaky bastard. Those meta-guys probably all knew each other. Hell, Adam wouldn't be surprised to find out that Lani himself had set up this little prank. "Alright, fess up! My roomie told you to do that, right? Man, am I gonna give him a piece of my mind!" Adam pumped his fist into his hand as if he were expecting to fight a fight…and probably lose.

[Odion Martins]

Odion nodded a couple times in understanding, a smirk on his face. He himself was a fan of the backdoor method, but there was no point in saying so – this bloke could talk enough for the both of them.

“She stole it,” Odion said with a shrug, “I stole it back.” It didn’t really matter what was in here, the redhead wasn’t in the mood for pickpocketing today. Now that he had his next fix, he wanted to be by himself. He wasn’t sure why he bothered stealing the wallet back, but this bloke knew what his face looked like and if Odion was going to be blamed for stealing something, he didn’t want any part of it.

Odion raised an eyebrow, and then laughed. “Yeah okay, you do that mate,” he said, shaking his head. “You really think I’d make a deal for prank’s sake? When I steal your wallet, I won’t make it so obvious.” And though he could be deceptively charming, it wasn’t always the money he was after. “Now, I don’t know about you, but I think it’s time I leave.” He had what he needed.

[Deleted]

She stole it? That beautiful innocent looking bombshell? This ginger must be mistaken! "Aaand what proof do you have that the pretty lady was the one who stole it and not you? Huh? For all I know, you're just saying that! It's just a he-said-she-said situation here!" Even though she hadn't actually said anything. "Sooo!" Adam snatched his wallet back from the guy's hand and crossed his arms like a boss. "Prove it!" he dared. Because the guy obviously couldn't!

But of course Adam was not being listened to. How dare his intelligence be dismissed so easily! So simply! It was an offense of justice! "You think I'm just gonna let you get away with this!? Well think again! I know your face! I got it memorized here in this little noggin of mine I'll find you! Wherever you go, I'll find you!!" Somehow, yup. Adam was going to stalk this guy, he was gonna….figure out how to hack into the video cameras at the ATMs, right! That was it. And eventually, this guy will have to show his face and when he did, Adam was going to get him!