bakerstreet | rain, rain, go away

rain, rain, go away

the rain meme

Ah, rain—the precipitation that the whole world has a love/hate affair with. It waters the garden for free and ruins baseball games. It cools you off in the summer and it causes more ice and sleet to appear in the winter. Sometimes it is lovely and falls at a decent pace for a few hours, other times, it blasts the whole eastern seaboard away.

Poems and songs have been written about it, people have danced in it, others have cursed its entire existence, and still more refuse to go out and drive in it.

Now it’s time to roll some dice and see what the weather will have in store for you today.

directions

1. Comment with your character, series, preferences, etc in the subject.
2. Roll a number between 1-5 with the RGN for an intensity.
3. Roll 1-15 with the RGN for a situation.
4. Reply to other comments and play the scenario out!
5. Don’t catch a cold!

intensity

1. DRIZZLE ☂ It’s not too heavy or too light of a downpour, just enough to wash away stuff in the air, water the ground, and clean up the streets.

2. MONSOON ☂ It’s horrible and awful! Rain is coming down in buckets, no one can get anywhere, the wind is whipping everything about, and now the cable is out.

3. SHOWER ☂ Reminds you of early spring, doesn’t it? A nice shower to make everything all green and smell fresh again. Lovely.

4. FLOOD ☂ While rain is good, it can sometimes be bad. Grab a boat!

5. CATS & DOGS ☂ You’re lucky with this one. It’s not the worst storm in the world, but it’s still pretty heavy. Be careful when driving!

prompts

1. A DARK, STORMY NIGHT ☂ You know all those stories that start off with a stormy night before something goes wrong: a murder, an attack by ninjas, a crime. It is one of the best known clichés in the world, and you’re stuck in the middle of it.

2. HUMIDITY ☂ It’s that time of the year again when the humidity rises and the rain has two options: make it worse or make it go away. Good luck getting the latter.

3. GRAY RAIN OF DEPRESSION ☂ We all know this one. Stuck in the middle of no where, or right after an argument, or something that leads to angst, the rain decides to express someone’s feelings in a physical form, serious or over the top.

4. QUIET MORNING ☂ Nothing to do, nowhere to be… sometimes the rain is a welcomed addition to a quiet day. Gives you an excuse to stay in, curl up in a warm blanket and a book, maybe a loved one or a cup of hot chocolate. With sprinkles.

5. PUDDLES ☂ After it rains, what is the number one thing you have to do? Go put on some rubber boots and splash around of course!

6. SUDDEN STORM ☂ It might have been predicted, but sometimes storms just sweep in and do their thing with little to no warning. Hope you’re not outside.

7. THUNDER & LIGHTNING ☂ Loud, surprising, scary, ominous, comforting, fantastic to watch or listen to… some like thunder and lightning, others not so much. Of course, if this happens before a big confrontation, the universe is telling you something.

8. CAN’T GET WORSE ☂ You did not say that. You did not just say that. How many times does this need to be seen in movies and books before anyone learns?

9. STUCK ☂ No, no, no, no. This cannot be happening. What happened to the ten percent chance of rain? You forgot your umbrella and now you’re stuck in it!

10. RUINED PLANS ☂ You had all these wonderful plans to go outside, have some fun in the sunshine, do some errands, maybe a date… and the weather goes against them.

11. DANCING ☂ Sometimes rain is a cause for celebration, or you just feel like doing something spontaneous. Grab someone to join you and get wet!

12. RAIN BATTLE ☂ The most intense, important battles happen in the rain. Verbal spars, punching someone in the guts; it’s all dramatic and climatic. And no one slips.

13. DATE ☂ Aww, don’t let the weather ruin your date! It can be really romantic, being out in the rain, and it’s always fun to go with the flow.

14. A DAY INSIDE ☂ Sometimes, it’s just better to stay inside and enjoy something simple and easy like board games or catching up on TV shows, or maybe the bills.

15. WILD CARD ☂ Was there something I missed? Did you want to roll again or choose your own adventure? Go for it!

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He doesn't press, doesn't say anything else, but he nods to let Jim know he understood.

"After we get an idea of what's going on."

A little flustered, he pulls off his glasses and starts trying to rough up his appearance. With the glasses off, he looks... different. There's a quality to the blue of his irises that calls the eye and without the glasses to frame him...

It's a very different looking face for a second before he manages to ruffle up his hair and dirty up what was clearly his first-day-of-work clothes.

The eyes...

They brought to mind someone else with blue eyes, who knew him more fully than he knew himself, who he was carefully distancing himself from. "Smudge your glasses," he recommended. "And get a little more dirt around your collar. Then you'll pass. You'll look new, but you'll pass."

He does as Jim tells him to without a second's pause, glad that his little briefcase is already pretty ratty from what use his father had put it through years ago.

"Anything I should know when it comes to playing the part?"

[ngl, I'm kinda loving this thread]

Edited 2014-04-15 06:15 (UTC)

Looking Clark over, he tried to think of what could be changed and what couldn't. He stretched out one foot and scuffed both of his shoes. Shoes wouldn't be so clean. It was followed with a bump - just a bump, but that simply, he had Clark's wallet, which he then held out to him. "Put this in a front pocket or tuck it inside your waistband. This is something you learned early because you got pickpocketed at least twice in your first week," 'Jim' said, giving him background as easily as breathing. "Now you're suspicious of everyone. Don't let anyone too close. Resources are precious. Don't share except with kids. Kids need it more than you do."

He motioned, then, to Clark's shoulders and neck. "Your back hurts, you're tired; shelters have turned you away because you're not a woman or you're not a man with a child. You're new in town, so you're still finding out where you can go for food or showers. You slept in your car but it got towed, so now you're stuck sleeping wherever you can find a place. So far, you aren't addicted to drugs or alcohol. If someone offers, be tempted, but say no. You aren't that far down yet. Got it?"

((Here, Superman, learn to be homeless from this shell-shocked ex-Army guy! It's great.))

[this needs to not be bizarrely adorable]

While he was putting that dirt on the collar, or perhaps while knicking his wallet, he might notice that Clark's wearing a layer underneath his clothes of something else.

That said, Clark listened to him, shifting his stance and his expression. He's actually pretty good at it, almost as if he has some sort of experience with this kind of thing, and musses up his hair before reaching into his briefcase for a tattered old white baseball cap that he pops on.

"How's it look?"

It was another interesting detail. Glasses that weren't glasses. An extra layer under his clothing. Whomever this Clark was, he had more to hide than he let on. If things got tricky, 'Jim' would have no problem with a confrontation. But he hoped it wouldn't come to that.

"The hat helps," he said, then nodded. "All that would be better is more beard growth, but that can't be changed. Let's go."

"If it wasn't a priority, I'd say we could just wait a couple of hours," he admits with a tired little smile that doesn't quite break character.

"Three o'clock shadow's almost literal for me."

But he settles his belongings in his briefcase and nods towards the church to Jim.

"I'll see if I can talk to one of the sisters and I'll meet you back here when we're done."

"I'll see if anyone talks to me." But then he went on toward the church. The food mission was in the basement, and he knew exactly the door to head for. "I'll tell them," he started quietly, "that I showed you here. It might give us both an in."

This was feeling more like a mission - more like what he was good at, what he was used to. He was settling into the role.

He opened the door to show that the room was already crowded, full of a low hum of discussion, but mostly of people staying to themselves. Behind the food line, there were nuns in casual clothing, dipping soup - vegetable beef today - into bowls and distributing them with small sandwiches. Pimento cheese, it looked like. Two sandwiches and one bowl of soup per person, accompanied by water, milk, or apple juice. All in all, it smelled good - and 'Jim' was only glad that his stomach didn't quite manage to growl. He'd not eaten since the day before. He was overdue.

Clark came in shortly after him, huddling close but not too close to 'Jim' as he tried to remember everything the other man had told him. He'd been a lot of places, traveled more than most, but he'd never been terribly good at blending in. Always one step behind as he tried not to get one step too far, he's more grateful than he can really explain that Jim's helping him.

He starts looking around, shifting his vision to look past walls and boxes. He looks for spaces where it looks like something's been moved or removed, holes.

He leans over to whisper to 'Jim'.

"Second closet down the hall. Looks like something large was removed."

Second closet down the hall. Luckily, that was where the bathroom was. He could easily make an excuse to go check. With a nod, he picked up his tray, holding it in one steady hand while he picked up a glass in the other.

"You're a new face," said one of the sisters, looking across at Clark. "Welcome to the mission."

"Found him in a bus shelter, hiding from the weather," 'Jim' said, his tone a few shades away from being short. "New in town."

"Well thank you for helping him find us," she said, and even passed over an extra sandwich for them both. "We're glad we can help."

"Thank you, Sister."

Clark's always been a loner, so the shy act is easy enough. There's a tight lipped smile, guarded and tired, and a nod in greeting before he gets in the line. Given how perceptive the sisters are, he figures that he might have to come here a couple of days to really figure out what's going on without disturbing the operation.

He'll have to figure out some quick columns he can fill in with in between, a think piece or two on Superman, maybe, though he hates using his alter ego as a crutch for his new job.

The soup was thick and hearty and he carried it over to an unoccupied end of a table. People were filtering around, finding places to sit as others stood. He was watching, planning. Not many went back to the bathrooms, but some did from time to time. Easy enough to time a trip. And the priest was moving around, touching a shoulder here or there, giving a kind word or having a short, friendly conversation.

Bustling, but there seemed to be no ill tempers. All the better.

Clark eats the soup, because there's nothing wrong with it and there's no greater sin in a farm family than to waste food, and settles close to Jim. He looks around and takes his cues from some of the others, focusing on his food with the occasional conversational look passed to Jim.

He also looks up to see who goes down the hallway and if anything's moving in the rooms. Nothing seems to be--

Wait. Something's moving down the hall, no, in the next-- are they coming in through a hole in the floor?

That change in attention was enough to have him sitting up a bit straighter. "Something happening?" he asked under his breath, spoon midway to his mouth. Just a casual question.

As he spoke, a kid walked past with his tray carefully held in two hands. 'Jim' reached out and dropped a triangle of sandwich onto the tray with the other sandwiches that were already there. He got a wide smile in return, but only barely seemed to see it. His mind was elsewhere.

Clark nodded and huddled in close as if he was nervous about something to whisper.

"The room in the back. There's either a sewer grate or a basement down there and people are coming in through there."

There were too many layers and this particular skill was one he hadn't quite learned his way around completely yet, but he'd seen enough.

"Watch my tray."

That was all he needed before he stood and walked back toward that hallway, where the bathroom was, as if the urge had suddenly struck. What he didn't do, though, was go to the actual restroom. Instead, he listened carefully, flexing his left arm. It had been a while since he'd put it through its paces. It seemed like now was going to be the time.

He could hear the movement from where he stood, but he needed them to get a little farther away from their entrance point. Now was not the time to allow a retreat.

His mind tried to run through the reasons. Missions were pointless theft targets. There were rarely enough funds in place to make it profitable. So why steal anything large from a mission?

What, he wondered then, was nearby? That, he hadn't paid attention to just yet. He was going to soon.

There was a soft whirr of servos from his arm as he flexed his fingers. It was time to act.

One of them moved towards the door, muttering to his friends.

"Don't just take the whole thing again. They're starting to notice that!"

"Man, those are some tiny ass bags. I'm not breakin' my balls to find that shit."

"The fuck you aren't. I heard one of the sisters is thinkin' of calling the cops."

It was his right hand he used to slowly, silently turn the door knob, but then his silhouette in the doorway gave him away. He stood there, letting them see him, before he moved in and acted.

This was easy. This was what he knew. The first one, he caught by surprise. All it took was one hit and he was down. The second got in a single punch and then he was down, too.

The third got creative, pulling the board they'd used to lift and prop the door to the underground and striking at his head. He lifted his arm and the board struck it and shattered, flecking his hair with splinters that he didn't even notice before he had the guy in his grasp, dangling by the neck as his hand tightened.

And somehow, without a fuss being raised in the rest of the church, Clark was there beside him, voice soft when he spoke.

"Jim, let him go, please." Not so much pleading as requesting politely, firm in his belief that his new friend would do as he'd asked "We should find out what all this is about and it'll be easier if he can tell us."

The voice wasn't one of the usual voices that called him off. The words were in the wrong language. He was called a name instead of just being bluntly ordered.

For one moment, his arm quivered as he fought between instincts - to follow orders or to continue the mission. But the thought came through. This wasn't a mission. This was like a mission, but it wasn't a mission.

He had taken this upon himself.

Slowly, he let go, the robber dropping first to his feet, then to his knees. Unconscious, but alive. "Need to find tape," he muttered. "Tape their wrists and ankles so they can't get away."

Clark nodded.

"I've got a small roll of duck tape in my briefcase, in case the corner comes off," he tells Jim as he leans down to get it out of the ratty old leather bag. He holds it out to Jim a moment later with a half-smile, absolutely nothing changed between before and after Jim had singlehandedly taken out three men.

"The other one, I'll just use my tie. Ma hated that one anyway."

He pulls it out of the briefcase as well and pads over to the first man Jim had knocked out, taking care to tie the knots tightly enough to hold him but not too tightly so as to inhibit circulation.

"Now we just have to figure out what, exactly, they were smuggling in the food crates. It sounds like they hadn't pulled them out yet."

'Jim' was an old hand at that. Within just a few moments, he had them securely taped and laid out alongside one another, military-precise. "I heard one say something about bags, not wanting to look for all of them."

"I heard-- Saints preserve us," whispered a nun from the door. "What is all this?"

"I heard someone sneaking around while I was on my way to the bathroom." Easy explanation. "Came in, they were climbing out of the floor."

The priest who came up behind her at her gasp of shock took in the scene and then shifted his weight, looking as if he was going to say something scathing;Clark moved faster than any normal human to catch his hand, squeezing just a little to make him drop the knife that he'd been about to use on the poor, unsuspecting nun before looking the man straight in the eyes. The priest almost looked like he might start yelling when Clark covered his mouth and turned to the nun, who seemed absolutely horrified that the father had been about to murder her.

"Sister, if you could perhaps call the police. I... I think it may be a necessity at this point."

"I-- I think you're right, young man," she managed, stammering from the shock of it all. "I'll... go take care of that call."

'Jim' moved to the priest Clark was holding, taking his arms and taping them just like he had the others. It was, unfortunately, the end of the tape, but that was good enough. It had done what they needed it to do.

But with all of that done, he shook his head. "I have to go," he said. Before the police arrived, he had to be gone. They'd recognise him from DC. The world had to know about that now. And Clark...

He pushed past Clark, ignoring the nuns as he went. He'd not really eaten, but he'd survived on less before. He couldn't be where the police were.

But Clark was turning around with him, following him, no, running with him side by side.

Given what he'd done, given what the nun had seen, given the fact that his face wasn't exactly something he wanted in the papers (words yes, pictures no)...

This was one news story he'd need to leave to someone else. It wasn't like he couldn't claim he'd gotten lost getting there, after all. New city, new bus routes... he'd milk Smallville all he could.

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