Ultimate One Universe RPG: OOC Thread

[UltimateRPGs]

Since Question is more a B level a character, I'm going to approve you now, Hound.

 

[Hound55]

Oh, incidentally. I'm aware there's no Spider-Man yet. My sample post was just that, a sample.

 

[Johnny Blaze]

No worries. Figured that was the case anyway.

 

[Belvedere]

Would Punisher be considered a 48-hour character? I'm not going to apply for Frank, I had intended to apply for Danny Rand earlier on though which would then encompass Luke Cage too, but had to head out.

Might not be able to get my application up until tomorrow, so just wanted to clear up whether I ought to do it now or if I had time.

 

[Johnny Blaze]

If he's a 48 hour character, it's for either Byrd Man or MB to decide. Personally, I'm on the fence whether Frank would be considered a marquee character.

As for Danny Rand and Luke Cage, I can always replace them with two other characters.
In Danny's place I'll use Kasper Cole. And in Luke's place I'll use Peter North.

 

[Byrd Man]

Hehe. Peter North. There's gonna be plenty of shots being fired...

But uhh, I say it's up to you, JB. If Belve wants to throw up and app, and you're fine with changing it then change it and let him apply for Danny.

 

[Johnny Blaze]

Yeah, I'm cool changing it. In fact I just edited White Tiger and Maverick in Cage and Iron Fist's place.
If you want to play Danny Rand, Belve, by all means go for it.

 

[Johnny Blaze]

After careful debate, I think I've found the perfect character base for the UOU Frank Castle's personality...

Spoiler

 

[Hound55]

Fan-freakin'-tastic.

 

[Belvedere]

Character Name: Daniel Rand

Alignment (Hero, Villain, Walking the Line): Walking the line.

Character Speech Color and Font (actually say what it is, like Blue Comic Sans): Dark Green, Bold Verdana

Powers and Abilities: None at the moment.

Character Origin/Backstory: Wendell Rand was a businessman. Not a very successful one. He fathered a child out of wedlock with a woman he met at a Christmas party and never saw again. She in turn gave the child away, but not before naming the child Daniel and placing him under the protection of the state. Growing up white in a part of town that wasn't hardly made for an easy upbringing for Danny, he got into and lost more fights than he'd ever care to admit. When he wasn't getting into scrapes he was bouncing from one group-home to another or become acquainted with the local law enforcement department by attempting to boost cars off the streets of Harlem.

Whilst in a particular group-home, Daniel meets a boy, several years his younger, named Carl Lucas and takes a shine to him; he’s bright but suffers from an almost crippling need to impress. At every turn he attempts to provide for him and set an example for Carl, although the two often find themselves at odds. When Daniel is sixteen he attempts to burgle the Hell’s Kitchen home of Jeryn Hogarth, a retired lawyer caring for his elderly mother, who rather than pressing charges offers the boy a stable home. Daniel accepts on one condition: that Carl be allowed to join him. Now twenty-three, Rand is a college dropout turned courier working odd jobs, legal or illegal, on the side to put food on the table. He dreams of the day that greater things arrive on his doorstep, little does he know that they are a lot closer than he might think.

What Makes This Version "Ultimate": He’s a tough as nails twenty-something with no prospects. The one thread that runs between this Danny and 616 Danny is his loyalty to those around him, the dysfunctional family he’s constructed for himself and how he balances that against his ambition. He’s a no one, he doesn’t matter at the moment, but through pure strength of will he’s going to make something out of nothing. The question is, what side of the fence will he fall down on? At the moment in time the character doesn’t know and neither do I.

What can you bring to the RPG: Posts. Regular posts.

Provide a short sample post as your desired character, in three paragraphs or more:

Czzt-czzzt. Czzt-czzt.

From my inside pocket I feel my cell phone vibrating. I pull my bike aside and reach into my pocket, glancing down at the name on the screen. It read was Jeryn. We hadn’t spoken for close to a month now, something about me being a bad influence on Carl. For a few moments I contemplate ignoring the call but reluctantly press the phone against my ear and mumble gruffly down the phone.

“This had better be good…”

Instantly I can tell this isn’t a social call.

“You know I wouldn’t call you unless I had to.”

Something’s wrong. I’ve known Jeryn Hogarth for the best part of a decade, he’s the closest thing I’ve ever had to a father and I’d be damned if this wasn’t the first time I’d heard fear in his voice.

“It’s Carl. He’s hanging around with the wrong crowd; it’s only a matter of time before they’ve got him peddling drugs and carrying a gun, Daniel. We’ve tried everything, we’ve even tried getting the police involved, we don’t know what else to do…”

He falls silent and I know, as if it were ever in doubt, what he wants me to do. Carl had always had brains, he’d always been the one going places and both Jeryn and I knew that. When he asked me to leave, I didn’t put up a fight, I packed my bags and left Hell’s Kitchen for good. Carl needed strong male role models around him, ones that would set him on the right path. That was something I could never be.

This, though? This is more my area of expertise.

“I’ll handle it, Jeryn.”

I shut my phone and jump back onto my bike, turning round and pedaling fast. Hell’s Kitchen it is, then.

***

With crowbar in hand I make my way towards the group of guys assembled outside of the liquor store that I used to frequent. Amongst them is Carl, his skinny frame is recognizable straight away, looking somewhat sheepish but eager to impress. As usual.

As I make my way towards the crowd I see his eyes meet mine. Before his associates have a chance to realize I’m bearing down upon them, I level the crowbar against one of their backs and set upon the rest of them before they know what’s hit them. They all fall, every one of them, without landing so much as a glancing blow on me.

I grab Carl by his shirt and drag him away from them, pointing down the road towards Jeryn’s parked car waiting to take him home. He shoots me a dirty look as he goes. Maybe not now, maybe not tomorrow, but he'd thank me for this one day.

“Next time it won’t be a crowbar,” I say with a smile, pointing my index finger at the boys haunched over on the sidewalk, bending my thumb as I do so. “Do you understand me?”

The boys groan, nodding in agreement. Satisfied that they’ve learned their lesson I walk away, nodding at a few sheepish shoppers carrying their goods back to their cars.

I watch from a distance as Carl gets into the passenger seat. Jeryn looks at him with those "I'm disappointed in you eyes" I've been on the receiving end of a thousand times. Without so much as a word, he starts the car and drives towards me. Stood against my bike as he approaches, I wipe my crowbar clean against my jeans before temporarily placing it in my waistband. Hogarth and I exchange a brief nod before the call rolls off into the horizon. Guess that's the closest I'll ever get to a thanks.

 

[Byrd Man]

Danny is APPROVED!

 

[Johnny Blaze]

​

Character Name: Logan

Alignment (Hero, Villain, Walking the Line): Hero

Character Speech Color and Font (actually say what it is, like Blue Comic Sans): Georgia Bold Crimson

Powers and Abilities: Logan is a mutant with incredibly powerful healing factor, as well as animal senses. Logan's healing factor has ******ed his aging. So much so that even at almost 200 years old he physically looks like he's only in his 50s. The healing allows him to recover from almost every known injury. He also has advanced hearing, smell, sight, and taste due to his animal nature. Logan also has claws that extend from his hands.

Logan's bones were also coated with the impenetrable metal adamantium, rendering him basically invincible.

Character Origin/Backstory: The man known as Logan was born James Howlett in the Canadian Rockies in the early 1800s to a fairly well off family. His father and mother loved him, though his older brother Victor was jealous of the new baby. When baby Logan became boy Logan and still received all the attention, something snapped in young Victor, and he went after James.

On that day, both of their mutant powers emerged, and Victor's ferocious nature almost overwhelmed James, and in the battle, both their mother and father were killed. At the sight of their bodies, James's claws emerged, and he was able to fight off his older brother, who ran, laughing at what he had done.

From there he adopted the name Logan and became a street rat, drifting south into the United States of America, becoming a cowboy, and eventually fighting for the Union in the America Civil War, because he believed no people should be in chains.

From there, Logan continued his violent ways, believing he was an animal and animals were born to fight.

He traveled the world learning every conceivable way to fight, from Japan to Africa. He fought in World War I, World War II, and Korea earning the nickname Wolverine and before being approached by a man saying he knew what Logan was, and he was with the Government. He wanted to recruit Logan to a team that would help the burgeoning mutant population.

Logan was taken to the X-Force, a task force designed to locate and protect mutants while also eliminating anti-mutant threats. In order to become stronger, X-Force gives Logan adamantium to coat his bones.

Logan and his team took out many a target. Compounds of anti-mutant terrorists, leaders of aggressive anti-mutant states, as well as putting mutants in protective custody.

That is until one of the team found out the truth. They were really part of the Weapon X program, and were being send to destroy the program's enemies, and round up mutants. This sent the team into a rage, and they destroyed the facility, freeing any mutants left.

Ashamed and broken, the team split up, and Logan went into seclusion, acting as a protector of the weak everywhere he went. He fought for mutant kind, the poor, and the oppressed.

But now it's been three years since Logan has popped his claws, after saving the small Tibetan town he now lives in from an attack by a warlord. He lives in peace among the monks, protecting them from a future attack.

But Logan's past is about to catch up with him, and mutant kind will need him once again.

What Makes This Version "Ultimate": Logan is tired of conflict. He's not the normal berserker we're used to seeing, and instead only fights when he's called to action by his sense of morals. Also, he's more of an old man in this reality. His healing factor doesn't ****** aging as much as his 616 counter part. Also, no amnesia. He knows everything he's done in his life.

I also have some of his enemies and adventures from his exile to tell.

What can you bring to the RPG: A new twist on a classic character, bub.

Provide a short sample post as your desired character, in three paragraphs or more:

I push my horse to the max, speeding across the small plane, before reaching the mountain which houses my small village. The storm is approaching quickly, and I need to warn them to batten down the hatches. The old girl speeds up, knowing what our situation is.

The climb up takes slower, as it always does. The path is narrow, and one wrong step from her will send us both tumbling down, and only one of us is walking away from that. Luckily, she knows the path better than I do.

We reach the top quick enough, and I tell the village elder what's on the way. And he in return, he tells me I have a visitor. Leading me into the village common house, I'm greeted by the face of someone I haven't seen in decades.

"Hello, Logan."

"Wraith. What do you want?"

Been 48, so you're Logan is approved!

 

[bkhedr]

EDIT: Added Golden Aura to the power set.
​

​

Character Name: Robert Reynolds. The Sentry

Alignment (Hero, Villain, Walking the Line): Hero

Character Speech Font and Color: Sky blue verdana for Robert and the same in bold with black parenthesis for the Sentry

Powers and Abilities: Despite having been empowered over a year ago, the full extent of the Sentry's powers and abilities remain a mystery, even to him. What he is certain of is that he possesses superhuman strength, stamina, durability and stamina as well as flight and enhanced senses.

The most unique and perhaps significant of his powers is the so called Golden Aura which surrounds him when his powers are in use. The Golden Aura naturally functions as a force field, deflecting attacks and absorbing damage, but it can also generate heat and light. It can also have a calming on those around the Sentry, cooling anger and easing anxiety, though this aspect of the aura is most effective against weak or not yet fully formed minds (like children). It has only a nominal effect on fully formed minds or strong wills. The aura can also have healing effects but this takes time (1-2 hours continuous exposure for minor wounds, 8-36 hours for major wounds) and requires that the Sentry not use his powers for any other purpose and focus intently on healing those around him. (He is at the time of the start of the game, unaware of this application of the Golden Aura).

What makes the Golden Aura truly unique is that it seems to be a two way life battery of sorts. Basically when there is an abundance of life in the area, or if that life is threatened; the aura grows in power and intensity and the rest of the Sentry's ability are enhanced accordingly. The greater the life force and/or the greater the threat to that life force; the greater the aura. Hence life empowers the aura (ie: The Sentry) to defend it. (The Sentry is not aware of this)

On the other hand, should there be a large scale loss of life in the Sentry's proximity, or should one of the Sentry's friends or allies be killed; this will have a corresponding negative effect on the Golden Aura. If, for example, the Sentry is on a super team going into an epic battle, and one of his allies is in mortal danger, the Sentry's power will ramp up to defend that individual, but should he fail and that individual be killed, then the Sentry will suffer a corresponding dimming of his aura and power level. (Again, the Sentry has not yet discovered this aspect of his Golden Aura)

In general, while I intend to get him ahead of the others in terms of his development as a recognized hero (I want to try to set him up as the first internationally recognized face of the new generation of heroes <sorry Superman>, the fact remains that he, like most of the rest of them, is still testing the extent of his powers.

Character Origin/Backstory:

Robert Reynolds was born in a small town in Ohio in 1984 to a lower middle class household. His father was an ex marine who took a security contractor job in South America where he died in 2000, leaving the 16 year old Robert alone with his Mother, who did not take the loss well. Though she continued to care for her son, the rest of her life is marked by escalating health troubles brought on primarily by grief.

Robert had always been rather shy, timid and unassuming, even before the loss of his father. He seemed content to let the world go on around him while never trying to change anything about it or make his mark in anyway. Its not that he had a negative attitude, its more like he didn't think he had anything of value to offer.

As a young man, Robert had few friends and tended to be a loner who focused on his studies when he wasn't daydreaming about the stars and other worlds. His mother His one high school crush, a pretty young blonde named Lindy, showed hardly any interest in him and by the time he left his small Midwestern town to continue his studies at NYU he had hardly made any social connections worth noting.

Despite his apparent lack of ambition and perhaps due in part to his lack of a social life, Robert, now preferring to be called Bob, proved to be a fairly bright and capable undergrad student who acquired a degree in general sciences. Regretfully, this accomplishment was marred by the death the untimely death of his mother. With her gone, Robert had no reason to return to Ohio. He arranged for and attended the funeral, then sold the family home and returned to NYU as a graduate student. The choice to continue his studies was fairly easy to make. He had the money to afford it and could think of nowhere else to go.

Fives year would pass with Robert making a modest life for himself, first as a graduate student, then as a research assistant in the Faculty of Science. He was just good enough at his job to get by and had become more or less an invisible part of the faculty by the time his life changed forever.

It was a hot summer night and Bob was busy prepping an experiment for the next day when the lab was suddenly filled with a burst of light that seemed to come from nowhere. The light blinded Bob and he felt as though his whole body was burning up from the inside. Then he heard the voice, or at least he thought he did. Something seemed to be speaking to him, rocking his skull and making his teeth rattle with every syllable.

"You....." He thought he could hear the voice say through the pain "You are the one I seek....."

Then in an instant the pain was gone and Bob slumped into unconsciousness.

Bob was awakened the next morning by an annoyed professor who had walked in to find him sleeping on the floor of the lab with the prep for the day's experiments still incomplete.

A dazed and confused Bob could only apologize and request a day off when he realizes that there is no physical evidence whatsoever of his half remembered ordeal.

Bob had pretty much decided that the whole thing was a bizarre dream brought on by fatigue when his new powers first manifested themselves. He was just lucky he was already back in his apartment when his body began to glow with a golden aura. At that point Bob instinctively knew that he had been changed somehow and that he now possessed great power. He knew about meta humans, everyone had heard about Captain America and the JSA, but in recent times new heroes and villains were starting to appear, most without explanation. It was all too much to ignore.

That was one year ago. For one year Bob has kept to himself, done his job and worked very hard not to attract undue attention to himself. Now 27 and with a year of secret use of his power under his belt, Bob is ready to reveal himself to the world and for the first time in his life, he is ready to try to make a difference.

What Makes This Version "Ultimate": Lots of things. For starters, he's not crazy. There may or may not be a Void, who may or may not be Bob. He's not married. He hasn't built Cloc. He's not the Golden Guardian of Good. Right now Bob is just an unassuming guy who was given monumental power with very little explanation for reasons he cannot fathom. He does not understand the nature of the power or its limits but he feels compelled to use it. I chose this character because I've been looking for an opportunity to play the Sentry but am not interested in building off the current continuity in any way (Damn you Bendis!). Getting to Ultimatize the character to suit my preferences is just a bonus.

What can you bring to the RPG: An experienced gamer who knows his stuff.

Sample Post (provide a short post of at least 3 paragraphs and 1 line of dialogue for your character):

Late night. NYU School of Sciences, Main Physics Lab

"How's the current looking Bob?" Professor Imes asks from across the lab. The professor is dressed down, in a golf shirt and khakis but he wears safety goggles. He peers into a safety glass display at what appears to be a simple piece of black stone. The stone is held up by three thin metal arms at the base and has electrical wiring wrapped around the top of it.

"Steady Professor." Bob replies after checking the electrical readout.

"Good." The Professor nods "Any reaction from the sample yet?"

A pause, then Bob shakes his head "No. Nothing yet."

"Nothing?" The Professor presses, giving Bob a somewhat disappointed, but almost hopeful look.

"Afraid not." Bob confirms.

"Hmph." The professor huffs in defeat before allowing himself to drop into his chair. He keeps his eyes on the strange black stone as he absentmindedly reaches for a ball point pen on his desk and sticks the non writing end in his mouth. Its something Bob has seen him do many times and he knows it to mean to that the Professor is fresh out of ideas.

"Should I discontinue the current?" Bob asks

"Hmm? Oh yes, yes my boy thank you." The professor says before turning his attention back to the object of his curiosity. "I just can't figure it out Bob. The sample is clearly emanating some kind of unknown radiation in small quantities but I can't for the life of me figure out how or why."

He leans back in his chair, the pen still in his mouth.

"8 months of study and all we've been able to conclude is that the radiation is non harmful, beyond that, well its a curiosity." He says while Bob listens in silence "Maybe its time we gave this puppy up after all eh? The Dean won't be happy about it but those boys at Metropolis University have been on my case about getting a chance to study it since March and I'm running out reasons not to let them have it."

"Don't give up yet Professor." Bob says reassuringly "You'll figure it out."

Bob had no idea if the Professor actually would, but he had grown quite fond of Professor Imes in the years he had been working for him. In fact the Professor was probably the closest thing he had to family in the world and couldn't just let the older man's defeatist remarks pass without offering some kind of support.

The Professor smiles at Bob, the action accentuating the wrinkles on his face. "Yes. I'm sure you're right my boy-"

BRRRRRRRIIIIIIIING
BRRRRRRRIIIIIIIING
BRRRRRRRIIIIIIIING

The sudden and unexpected alarm cuts the Professor off mid sentence and makes both men jump.

"The fire alarm!" Bob shouts over the din of the still ringing bell.

"Come on!" Imes instructs as he gets up and heads towards the exit to to the lab. In the hall beyond a few faculty and students are already making their way out in a hurried but orderly fashion.

Bob follows the Professor out of the building and into the open courtyard that is the heart of the campus grounds where they join hundreds of others in gasping at the terrible sight of an on campus housing structure ablaze with students trapped inside.

From the panicked snippets of conversation around them the pair quickly realize that the sprinkler system in the dorm did not activate automatically as it should. Both the the base of the structure and the fire escape, are now awash in flames, preventing any escape for those trapped inside and the fire department is still minutes away.

"How did it spread so fast?" The Professor asks out loud. He's not really expecting an answer but when he gets no response at all he looks over his shoulder in surprise "Bob?"

***

Inside the dorm, students in various states of undress, some wide awake, others obviously having just been roused from sleep, are moving in a state of panic. A few try to fight the rapidly spreading blaze with little success. Many are coughing or crying. Some are on cell phones. Everywhere there is fear. Most students, realizing they have no other options, make their way to the roof of the burning structure.

On one floor, a third year political science student named Jane helps a younger colleague to her feet and orders her to head up the stairs. "Come on! We need to get to the roof!"

Jane is keenly aware that they have fallen well behind the others as she takes her dorm mate by the hand, and leads her through the smoke towards a staircase. They've nearly reached it when part of the roof in front of them collapses, blocking their path. Now the girls find themselves trapped on all sides by flames and though Jane strains her ears she still can't hear sirens approaching.

The girls huddle together, getting as low as possible and crying when one side of one of the flaming walls simply falls away to reveal the night sky beyond.

"Whu? What?" Jane blurts out in disbelief as she throws her head up, then her eyes widen as her feeling of disbelief grows stronger still. Its night out, but she has to squint and cover her eyes from the glare of a light so bright it practically dulls the flame.

"Its ok."Their savior says "You're going to be ok."

​

​

 

[Johnny Blaze]

You're Sentry is approved, BK.

 

[Johnny Blaze]

*ahem* So...been over 48 hours with no competition for the Punisher...

 

[Batman]

What, you can't just approve yourself?

Spoiler

Punisher is...

 

[Johnny Blaze]

Olive juice.

 

[bkhedr]

Many thanks for the approval JB. Now will you approve this I wonder?

(If you haven't already figured it out. If I'm approved, then Sentry is the avatar of life Thanos is out to kill).

Alignment (Hero, Villain, Walking the Line): Villain

Character Speech Font and Color: Just bold for William, but impact for Thanos

Powers and Abilities: As William, he has no powers. He is a good fighter with no understanding for the concept of a fair fight.

As Thanos, he possess the following (taken from the Marvel Wiki)
Thanos possesses the superhuman strength, endurance, reflexes, and agility. His skin in nearly invulnerable, particularly against heat, cold, electricity, radiation, toxins, aging, and disease, and he can survive indefinitely without food or water. His mind is also invulnerable to most forms of psychic attack, and can project a psionic blast of energy as well as blasts of plasma/cosmic energy from his eyes and hands.
Thanos is a genius strategist, adept in sciences far beyond Earth technology, and possesses some mystical knowledge.

Character Origin/Backstory: William Mathews grew up in a broken home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. His father was the quintessential abusive drunk and his mother an uncaring ****e and a junkie. Mathews grew up a problem child, getting into fights and expelled from multiple schools. With no guidance at home, young William turned to different role models, criminals.

Working his way in and out of jail his entire life, Mathews was seemingly headed for a life behind bars. Unfortunately that end was cut short on a balmy August night when William participated in a bank job and seemingly snapped, killing two civilians, his three partners in the crime, and three cops before finally being taken in alive.

William received the death penalty after a short trail, and was pushed through the system quickly to be facing the electric chair in December. Before a small group of people, William Mathews was killed by electrocution in the evening of December 31st, 2011.

On Friday, January 13th, 2012, William Mathews opened his eyes to the bright lights of Los Angeles, disoriented and frightened. He knew what had happened to him, but the memories were...blurry. Almost like they happened many years ago. But one thing was clear. William remembered being electrocuted and dying.
So how in the hell is he standing here now, alive, and on the other side of the country?

With nothing more than just the ragged clothes he had on, Mathews has set out into LA to try and discover the answers to his burning questions....

What Makes This Version "Ultimate": This version of Thanos is the avatar of Death that has been around since Life and Death began, and has no connection to the Titans or Eternals. Thanos is a powerful sentient force of destruction that possesses mortals deemed worthy of Death's blessing. Every one-thousand years a Thanos emerges, with the purpose to kill Life's avatar and send the universe to it's Mistress' cold embrace.
I got the idea from reading the Thanos Imperative and Carnage's Annihilation Wave story in the OE game.

What can you bring to the RPG: A villain.

Sample Post (provide a short post of at least 3 paragraphs and 1 line of dialogue for your character):

The sky burned and fell to the Earth. Mountaintops blew apart, scattering debris for hundreds of miles, as magma erupted from within them. Seas, lakes, and rivers began to grow hotter and hotter, slowly killing the animals living in them.

The Tyrannosaur bellowed as the trees shriveled around it. Suddenly, a giant torrent of bright energy engulfed the "King of the Dinosaurs" and wiped it from existence. The large purple being walked towards the dark scorch mark where the animal had once stood in defiance.

"Stupid creature", the humanoid sneered, cosmic fire still streaming from his eyes.

"You resistance is foolish. For I send you to a better place.. To my Mistress' loving embrace."

The being casually walked the landscape as the world went to ruin around him. He was Thanos, the "living" avatar of Death, and he was as old as time itself. Thanos smiled and inhaled deeply from his nostrils, enjoying the sweet scent of destruction and doom.

He lifted his right hand and loosed an energy blast at a panicking heard of hadrosaurs, turning them to ash. Thanos walked through the dinosaur remains as the ashes blew away into the hot, howling wind.

Thanos sighed and smiled, "Ah...I do so love a good extinction event."

 

[Johnny Blaze]

Interesting...I would approve you for it once you get a sample post up.

I'll send you a PM with the snippet of ideas I had for him, and you can go from there however you wish.

 

[bkhedr]

K. I'll start working on a sample post.

 

[Batman]

Just gonna leave this here...

 

[Carnage27]

Just gonna leave this here...

Sexy.

 

[Johnny Blaze]

Just gonna leave this here...

Did you ever know that you're my hero?

 

[Eddie Brock]

First Cap post coming soon. This is the first week of class, so free time is hard to come by.

 

[bkhedr]

Sample post. I'm going to take my time turning William into Thanos.

​

The girl couldn't be older than 18. She's dressed in all black and has multiple face piercings. William had spotted her from some distance away, sitting in the dirt by the bus stop on a dusty road just outside LA proper. The city's smog engulfed sky line dominates in the distance behind her.

She notices his approach out of the corner of her eye and looks up at him as while holding her hand up to her brow to shield her eyes from the sun. Her eyes linger for a moment, no doubt, because of his worn clothing, then she turns away.

By the time William has reached her the girl has lit up a cigarette and is taking a long drag. As he get closer, he cannot help but notice the Egyptian ankh tattooed on the inside of her slender wrist

"Hey." William says when he gets close enough. The sun is behind him and he's casting a shadow across her upper body and face.

She gives him a look custom made to discourage further conversation, then takes another drag of her smoke.

"You waiting for the bus?" He asks, ignoring the hint, as he lowers himself onto the dust beside her.

This prompts another incredulous look. "What are you high?"

William grins "If only."

There's no fear in her voice, no concern for who this man might be. This girl had either been through a lot or was too naive to know any better. Whatever the case his response actually makes her grin back.

"Got one of those for me?" William asks, gesturing towards her cigarette. He's gotten a grin out of her and he's not about to let that pass without at least getting a smoke.

"Sure thing man." She says as she reaches into a small leather bag sitting at her left and pulls a pack of Black Death brand cigarettes.

Now both of them are smoking on the side of the road.

"So what are you doing out here?" She asks him

"You first." He says

"Just..." She begins then pauses as if she's not sure what to say "Just on my to LA. To start a new life." She looks away from him and towards the city. She doesn't offer anymore information.

"Yeah..." William nods "Me too." He takes another drag. It suddenly occurs to him that he hasn't been around a female who wasn't a prison guard in years and he realizes that he's in no hurry for the interaction to come to an end.

"So..uh...you wanna head in together?" He asks somewhat casually, as if he doesn't care what the answer is.

"You planning on trying to rape me or something?" She replies.

"What?" William appears genuinely shocked "No. No. You've got it all wrong!" He says as he shakes his head and moves his hands back and forth in a 'no way' motion. In truth it had never occurred to him. William had been many terrible things in his black life, but never a sexual predator.

He needn't have been concerned because she responds by giving him a playful punch on the shoulder "Just kidding man!" she half laughs "Goddamn are you up tight?"

William seems momentarily stunned by this but he quickly recovers and relaxes once more. He extends an open hand "I'm Bill." He doesn't think to use a fake name.

She shakes his hand in an exaggerated manner "Tara. Nice to meet you Bill."

A bus appears on the horizon, speeding towards them. For William it has arrived too early and he looks at it and keeps his eyes on it when he talks.

"Well Tara. I had hoped to have the opportunity to get to know each better before telling you this, but I've gotta be honest with you." He turns his head and looks her in the eyes. "I don't have any bus fare."

"Great." she mutters "I just friended a homeless guy."

"Hey!" He snaps before catching himself. He doesn't know why but he doesn't want to scare her off and when he continues his tone is back to friendly "I'm no bum. I just don't have anything on me right now but I can take care of myself. Spot me till we get into town and I'll take care of the rest."

It was true enough. William had no doubt that he'd be able to get his hands on a decent amount of cash in short order. Tara give no indication of what she's thinking as she climbs to her feet and dusts off her black pants.

"Just so we're clear, you'll owe me bus fair and a smoke." She finally says.

"You got it." William replies.