The Gig [Finished]

[accalia]

And yest, as soon as Vic moves to pocket the deck of cards he suddenly finds Tony's hand is gripping his slender wrist. Fuck that man is silent when he wants to be, and fast!

Tony doesn't say anything out loud, but his face clearly says "really? over a fifty cent deck of cards?" writ large in letters of disapproval. His grip's tight, but not so tight that Vic can't twist free if he wants.

[yamikuronue]

Vic stares back up at him, his face determined, arrogant, stubborn. It's an answer, at least, more along the lines of "you wanna make somethin' of it?" than Tony would probably like.

[accalia]

Tony simply holds his grip, it's pretty clear that he would win without a contest if Vic tried to make something of it, but Tony's also simply holding the wrist in a hold that's pretty easy to break, heck he's not even putting much force behind the grip, and since Tony's known as a cop to the shop owner the shop owner's not even paying any attention to the two of them, Vic could break the grip and flee and get away with it.... except that Tony would know of course.

[yamikuronue]

He's a cop... but he's crooked. Or claiming to be. If he's so crooked, what's he doing picking a fight over a little thing like cards? wonders Vic, still caught in the moment, not moving yet. If he's not crooked and I know it, he'll run. I'll have to go for my gun, because he'll probably run. I won't have any backup. I'll have to shoot him.

Vic finds that... he doesn't want to shoot the man. Damn. I've gone soft, he thinks, his face reflecting a brief, eye-only wince. I'll have to fix that, and fast.

Taking a deep breath, he breaks the grip, sliding the deck into his pocket even as his left hand goes for his holster.

[accalia]

Vic sighs, puts his had back to his side and calls out to the shop owner. "Troy, put fifty cent on my tab for a deck of cards would you? i'll settle up tomorrow after i collect my pay from the office."

"Sure thing Tony. I know you're good for it." the shopkeeper replies as he serves another customer at the counter.

[yamikuronue]

Vic pauses, halfway through drawing his gun. What?!

"You don't have to do that." he says, quietly.

[accalia]

"You weren't gonna, and I like Troy." Is all Tony says to that, walking towards the door to outside once more.

[yamikuronue]

Vic trots after him, waiting until they're outside to blurt, "Liking has nothing to do with it."

[accalia]

"It has everything to do with it. I stopped you there because i like Troy, and i know how little he makes on sales. That fifty cents is important to him. I want to work with the family because i'm dirt poor, but more than that it's because i want to thumb my nose at Captain White and those he's infected with his graft. Troy shouldn't have to pay White's boys anything to get protected from thieves and worse, but he does, because otherwise White won't bother even sending an officer." Tony snaps, rather harsher than Vic's heard from him before, Tony's voice breaks oddly too, popping up a couple of octaves from where he normally talks. "I'll work with the family, but i'm not being indiscriminate. there are those that need protection and there are those that need the fat cut off them. and Troy needs protection, more than i can give him, but i'm going to give him ever dram or protection i can."

huh. so that's why Tony reached out to Giovanni... interesting.

[yamikuronue]

Vic stops dead in his tracks. "You're lying," he says, after a moment of staring. "Nobody thinks like that. Nobody gives a shit about anyone else, not really. You're after the dosh, so what's your angle here, playing like you're worried about his margins?"

[accalia]

Tony spins around to face Vic, his hand coming around as if to slap Vic. Tony stops the hand before it connects but it's clear he intended to knock Vic to the ground at least before he got himself back under control. "Because these people are barely making ends meet, because people like White, like my father think, thought, that they could do what they wanted just because they had money, because I'm sick and tired of having to climb and fight and scrounge just to keep my head above water when those rich cats plot to keep us down, to keep us in the gutter because it amuses them. I won't have it, and if doing this means i can topple some of them from their ivory thrones, then i'll do it in a heartbeat. but i will not do it by climbing over the backs of people who are in the same boat as I am. They're just as bad off and don't need me shoving them back down. And because I will not turn into my father, and if i let you steal that deck from Troy I would have. I am not my father, I am not the child he wanted, and i never will be."

With that outburst done Tony turns around once more and stomps off, moving fast enough that Vic would have to jog to keep up.

[yamikuronue]

Vic stays behind another moment, stunned into silence. Then he has to run to catch up, slowing to a jog once he's a few paces behind.

The world has layers, he always knew. He was at the bottom of the scrap heap. The only way to get up is to climb on someone else. That's how it works. You can't bring the whole layer up; it'll just make everyone above you richer and you'll still be at the bottom. Vic had long learned to keep himself from feeling bad for people he stepped on. If they wanted to get ahead, they were welcome to try themselves. They were probably just too lazy or stupid to figure it out. But deep down, there was something uncomfortable still about making someone else feel as bad as he'd felt, making them go home hungry. He tried to quell it by sticking to crimes where he didn't have to think about it: steal a sandwich from a store, not from someone else's hand. But this... Tony was acting like being on top was a crime in itself, like being successful was a failure. Vic had never seen anything like it.

[accalia]

Tony keeps up the pace for almost a mile, only coming to a stop because he's run out of land. He's come to the edge of one of the bays, nothing in front of him but a whole mess of rocks and water. With barely a pause Tony shucks his shoes and socks, rolls up his pants and continues storming out into the bay until he's about a foot deep, then he bends down and starts scooping rocks up from the bottom and throwing them as far as he can out into the water, which is actually quite a ways... and what's that Tony's muttering under his breth every time he throws? "I am not you, father"? it sounds a bit like that, but it maybe has an extra syllable? It's really hard to make out.

[yamikuronue]

Vic stops at the edge of the coast, watching this... breakdown, or whatever it is.

He's got to be crazy, he reasons, taking a few deep breaths. There's nothing to this, to any of it. He's just insane.

So why does it hurt deep in her chest?

He's a madman. Worse, he's a threat. He's going to get himself killed for some stupid noble reason.

So why can't she put it out of her mind?

Deep breath in. Deep breath out.

How am I standing?

Straighten the shoulders. Broaden the stance. Hands dangle uselessly by her-- HIS sides. Chin up. I'm a lad. I'm just an ordinary lad, part of the Family. There's nothing unusual about me. I blend in. I'm ordinary. Maybe even a bit stupid.

[accalia]

Tony spends about ten minutes hurling every rock small enough to be shifted deeper into the bay. When he finally runs out of rocks to pick up and throw Tony slogs his way back to shore and sits down heavily on a relatively flat stone near the waters edge. Tony's shivering pretty fierce, but at least that incandessent anger is gone from his eyes. Finally Tony speaks, his voice cracking between it's usual tennor and an alto.

"Did i actually hit you? or did i manage to stop myself in time?" Despite the cracking voice the question's pretty toneless, emotionally drained.