in the devil's territory (open4all)

[GOOGLE]

Penelope chewed on her nails as she sat in silence next to some stranger who, by no fault of their own, had prevented Penelope from getting off at the right bus stop. She berated herself internally for taking the window seat, she should have known better. Normal people would have just stood up, said excuse me, and exited the bus. Penelope, however, felt it was rude to make someone, so now she was sitting at a bus stop in the red light district waiting for a bus to take her back to the 'nicer' part of town. She wasn't really from New York, but seeing how the streets out here were conveniently poorly lit and how people masked their identity with hoods, she gathered it was a bad part of town. Not too mention the promiscuously dressed women walking around. Not that she should really be judging any of them, since her over-sized hood was up in order to cover-up her unusual appearance and she was certainly not a perfect person herself.

Penelope was so distracted staring at the road, looking for the bus that was supposed to be arriving, that she didn't even realize some guy had walked up to her. She was all of confused until he asked for all her money. "B-But I only have enough for the bus..." She murmured digging into her pockets and showing him. He took it anyways. Some change was better than no change, apparently. She whimpered slightly, but tried her best to hold in the tears. The bus would be there soon, and she had just been mugged of her last change. It was ironic, since she had left her purse in the hotel, so as not to get mugged. Worst. Villain. Ever.

[SAVAGE]

Unsavory business had brought Marie to the state named city, business that had, by this point in time, been taken care of. With time to kill, she'd gone off to the Rusty Bucket. She always enjoyed burlesque boys and girls and their sultry, refined looks. She'd spent maybe two hours in there, chatting with people, enjoying drinks, and the dancing women on stage, before deciding it'd be best to at last leave. Walking out into the Deuce, she stopped to look around. Women in too short skirts and too long heels walked around; unshaven men sauntered the streets. She crinkled her nose in disgust.

Having taken in her share of sights, Marie began to walk to the bus stop. At it, there was a girl with incredibly long blonde hair, and in front of her was a man. She shifted her sunglasses before taking them off so she could better see, tucking them down the front of her shirt. Money was handed over and the man walked off and the girl stood there practically shaking in her boots. Going against everything she stood for, Marie took after. In a matter of moments, she had caught up, grabbed the man by the back of the shirt, and had him thrown to the ground. She stood over him, grabbing the money that had just been taken, and walked back over to the little blonde girl.

It was at that point Marie noted the girl was familiar. She frowned. "You're the shittiest bad guy ever, you know that?"the woman stated, holding the money out. "Don't just hand it over," Marie chided, grabbing the side of the cyborg girl's face, stretching her cheek with distaste.

[GOOGLE]

Penelope's eye watered, she tried to blink it back, but eventually her lashes sprung a leak. Frustrated, she wiped her cheek and pressed her palm gently into her singular eye. It did not do much for her, but it did prevent her from noticing the approach of someone else, someone familiar. Penelope nearly jumped out of her skin when the voice piped up. "M-Miss Auguste, erm, Savage?" She mumbled, blinking up at the older woman in surprise. Savage was part of the Kollective, but it wasn't as though Penelope had planned on seeing her here, like ever. She was certain she had almost never spoken to Miss Savage one-on-one, although Penelope was certain the Kollective member had absolutely no interest in poor little Google.

"M-My change!" Penelope exclaimed, surprised even more. Villains weren't known for their generosity, but Penelope tentatively took her bus money back. Staring up at the other woman in absolute awe, Penelope murmured sheepishly, "I-I'm sorry, but thank you, thank you very much." She winced but didn't shy away from Savage's little pinch on the cheek. She was used to being in uncomfortable situations. Not to mention she was a doormat and Savage could likely punch Penelope in the face, and Penelope would be the one apologizing. "I'm sorry," She apologized compulsively, "I just, I didn't think he would take it. I mean it's just a couple of bucks." Penelope jingled the change around in her hand. She slipped the returned change back into her pocket and tenderly rubbed her cheek.

"Um, forgive me if this is rude, but this is quite a coincidence." She cleared her throat before shyly adding, "W-What are you doing in the big city?"

[SAVAGE]

She looked at the tiny, hapless girl before her with her wild blonde hair and her funny head gear. This was not the shape of a villain. This girl was a welp, a defenseless child, and she did not belong at the Young Masters'. Savage's thoughts weren't bitter in the least, just her own observations. She almost felt bad for the girl, being nothing more than a sheep being thrust amongst the wolves. Alas, such was life, and the blonde child would either make it or break it or go somewhere inbetween. "Either or is fine. Maybe Miss Auguste - less identifying," she stated dismissively, "I don't care if you call me Marie either." She wasn't much of one for formalities. She was, after all, Savage, not Princess.

The girl's bemusement earned an almost feral grin. It dawned on her that she could not recall the blonde's name. She'd seen her a few times although she'd never really taken note of her. "I don't know who you are. Sorry," Marie stated. It was better to just say it out right than go on pretending she knew who the girl was and end up hurting her feelings later on. She personally hated it when people couldn't remember who she was and spent an entire conversation not knowing her name only to at last state it. "You're welcome though."

She rubbed behind her ear in thought, listening as the girl stammered and whimpered. The blonde was a sheep, a mouse, a rabbit, a deer - and she continued to compare her to all sorts of prey animals in her mind before at last settling on a doe. This seemed like the type of person to walk into a street and stare at an oncoming car seconds before being hit. "A couple of bucks, huh? And what about if you need something to eat or drink? What if you need something for a couple of bucks but because you went and gave it away, you don't have it anymore?" she scolded. Kids! They never understood the value of money! Not that Savage herself much did. If she really, really wanted something, she just took it.

"What am I doing here?" Savage repeated. She rubbed her chin in thought and then ran her hand to the nape of her neck, lifting her hair up. "Business matters, I guess. Don't know what else you'd call that shit. What are you doing here, doe eyes? You know, besides being robbed."

[GOOGLE]

Penelope felt her mouth fall open in surprise. It was okay for her, weak little Penelope Ford, to call the legendary Savage by her first name? Well, the little cyborg may have just short-circuited from surprised had it not been the genius Kranzberg who maintained her mechanical upkeep. She was, however, at a loss from words. Her little mouth opening and closing like a gasping fish out of water. Eventually she found herself remembering how to form articulate words once more and finally murmured, "W-Well okay, Marie." It felt weird for Penelope to even think about referring to Miss Auguste by her first name, nevermind actually doing it.

Penelope was not at all deterred by the fact that Savage did not remember her or even know her name. In fact, quite the opposite. Penelope had not been expecting to be recognized or remembered, she never was, but was more than content to continuously remind Savage about Google's existence, if need be. "Well I'm, um, Penelope. But like, my alias is Google. I-I don't care which one you call me." She would habitually twiddled her thumbs whenever she was nervous, and this time was no different. She tried to occupy them otherwise with smoothing the front of her sweater, but it only worked for about five seconds. Penelope remained quiet, albeit fidgety, as Marie scolded her for her naive behavior. She should have known better in the first place, Penelope of all people, knew what it was like to be taken advantage of by others. Her current situation was largely the fault of her trusting nature, after all.

"I mean, I didn't think about it like that." Penelope replied thoughtfully, but added, "Well I have more money at my hotel room. But I mean I do need this change to catch the bus, to get to that hotel room. So I suppose I'll try harder." Whatever that meant. Try harder at what? Not sucking at life? Yeah, let's try that. She would never be especially intimidating, nor bad to the bone, but Dallas kept telling her she wasn't entirely useless which was apparently why the young masters even bothered with her. She glanced up from her entwined fingers to look at Marie again, "Oh that's cool." Penelope was curious as she didn't know what "business matters" entailed, but she felt it would be rude for her to pry.

"Oh me?" She should have expected that question, but she hadn't. She frowned out of habit, as though even thinking about it brought up negative feelings. She sighed heavily, "Visiting family...you could say."

[SAVAGE]

Oh god, the girl seemed absolutely horror struck by the prospect of calling Savage by her given name. She grimaced the tiniest bit and wondered if the child was going to short circuit. That'd be fun to explain. 'Oh, her? Yeah, I told her call me Marie and then she exploded and shit. It was pretty awesome - except for the fact she exploded.' She rubbed her neck and pinched the back of it before dropping her arm down. Well, it did feel nice to be admired like this and Marie supposed it was a good thing if the blonde was absolutely awe struck. It had to mean the girl looked up to her, right? Which, while nice, also made her feel momentarily awkward because damn, how many people had ever looked up to Marie? She'd always been the bitch who got into fist fights, won people's fear more than their respect, and tended to intimidate everyone by merely standing with her hands on her hips.

"Penelope, huh? That's cute. Got any nicknames - Penny? Nelly?" she inquired. Marie rather liked the name. It seemed fitting for the girl. She should have been called Fawn though - that would have been even better, what with that timid personality and that big doe eye. What was even going on with that? She'd never considered why Penelope had one eye. Her gaze looked the cyborg over, stopping at her hands as they twitched and fidgeted, and then back up to the girl's face. She kind of wanted to tell her to stop being such a damn pansy, but that'd probably just traumatize Penelope even more and Savage wasn't entirely sure what she would do if, by chance, Google began to cry. She'd probably feel like a massive bitch.

"See, kid? You'd be stuck here if it weren't for me. And this is the last place you wanna be stuck, Penny," Savage stated. She looked around to emphasis it and made one sweeping motion with her hand. "All sorts of fuckers lurk in the alleys. You're their kind of girl, Penny. Cute, hapless. Damn, you're lucky you're not being dismembered in one of those alleys right now."

She was half saying it just to traumatize Google, maybe teach her a lesson, but there was another part that meant it. Really, it wasn't that likely. She was a lot more likely to be robbed (obviously) than taken and molested. Although given she was a cyborg, some asshole might feel inclined to dismember her and sell the parts. She'd heard horror stories of that before!

Marie noted that Penelope didn't feel much obliged to talk about her reasonings. She didn't push it. "What hotel are you staying at? I can go back with you. I haven't gotten a place to stay tonight," Savage stated. Really, the girl seemed like she'd get robbed by a maid of Savage didn't go with. "By the way, what's with your eye?" She tapped at the bandages without considering how little Penelope might feel about it.

[GOOGLE]

Penelope honestly preferred her full name to any nicknames, she thought it just sounded better that way--however, she would be damned if she told anyone else what to call her, viewing the whole idea as rude and obnoxious. So instead of saying 'just Penelope' she smiled shyly and began a short ramble, "Oh uh, people call me a lot of things. Dallas--or Kranzberg--um he calls me Penpen, sometimes. But Penny is fine. Or Nelly." Basically she could call Penelope 'ugly bitch' and the little cyborg would accept it just fine and dandy. Of course repeated calling of that particular nickname would soon enough cause Penelope to cry. Of course, she would apologize for being so daft and unable to control her tears, because after all, crying is her own fault! What a champ she was, complete without any sort of self-esteem. Damn, Penelope was seriously lucky for Savage to have even been here.

"I-I know." Penelope quietly admitted, but Marie didn't seem to hear her (and apparently Penny had become the nickname used for this one). Penelope opened her mouth to inform Marie that she wasn't a big fan of cuss words, but thought better of it as the older woman seemed to be on a tangent. God forbid she ever interrupt another human being. She was horrified by the tangent however. The little cyborg--who had not always been a cyborg--knew more than enough about undesirables and what they do to meek girls such as herself. Her big eyeball teared up, but Penelope fought her hardest to blink the salty tears away--succeeding for once. She was not interested in crying in front of the Savage. "Y-You're right, I will try to be more careful." She managed to say in a shaky voice, her face having paled a few shades.

Penelope would never dream of turning Savage away (even if it was an imposition, honestly), so she immediately nodded. "Of course you can stay with me." Penelope was already making arrangements for Savage to take the bed, and sleeping on the floor herself. Penelope had been so lost in thought she didn't even notice Marie's finger poking her face (she did kind of have a major blind-spot). She jerked her head back slightly and blinked up at Marie, her incredulous surprise was obvious in her expression. Penelope rebounded easily enough though, clearing her throat, "Um I lost it in my accident, before I was turned into a cyborg." She did another delicate 'ahem' to keep the emotion from slipping into her voice, it wasn't exactly an easy thing to talk about, "There's a cable or two in there now. It's really gross and creepy." She muttered, embarrassed by her own appearance once again.

At this point in time the bus had arrived and Penelope found a seat for the two of them, urging Savage to take the window seat, because the window seat was the best seat. "My hotel isn't that far, a couple stops maybe." Soon enough she had launched herself into another ramble, "The only reason I didn't get off was because someone else was sitting next to me and I didn't want to make them move so I could get out." She shrugged her shoulders and sighed, sometimes her insane amount of manners could be a real hindrance.