Caps For Sale

[puddledancer]

((OOC: Will match format if you're not feelin' prosey!))

The kitschy stall sits at one of the busiest corners of the city. No one knows how he's managed to keep it there for so long without being ousted by more ... er, lucrative ... businesses, but P.J.'s Emporium and its owner have been a questionable adornment on the street for a couple of years now. The racks are filled with old used issues of comic books and pages with ads featuring hero memorabilia, preserved in plastic bags against sheets of cardboard cut from produce boxes or reused manila folders. There are toys and figurines, too: cheap plastic or tin knock-offs of the city's heroes - you know the sort.

The eponymous owner, Peter Jason "P.J." Quill, can always be found sitting in a lawn chair in front of or beside his booth, reading a magazine or comic book, oldies music drifting up from a static-y radio chained to the leg of the booth. That band t-shirt he's sporting has seen better days, and the hems of his shorts are fraying. The soles of his canvas tennis shoes are starting to come detached. Clearly the money from that merch is going to rent and not too much else.

Once in a while he'll wet his whistle from a gallon jug of Country Time Lemonade and holler into the metropolitan abyss... "HERO MERCH, GET YER HERO MERCH HERE! I got'cher Pyrite Man, I got The Sheriff, E.T., Corporal Anglo-Saxon! Brand new Princess Lighting! Pretty sweet stuff, come check it out!"

Familiar faces on their way to work or coffee runs will get a broad grin, a tip of the head, and a "Hey, how are ya?" Otherwise, he has two modes: selling and slacking, and not much in between.

Comments

[kyley_b]

Kyle grinned, delighted. "That thing sucks," he said. "It's perfect. I'll take it."

He dug for his wallet, still looking pleased. "Tell me honestly: do people actually buy these? I mean, I guess kids would."

[puddledancer]

He laughed, glad that someone could appreciate good irony in cheap counterfeit hero toys. The comics behind them, for what it was worth, were genuine - he put his money into the stuff that would actually age well.

"Oh yeah. The bodega and dollar store crowd, they love 'em. Lets 'em give their kids hero toys to play with without breaking the bank around Christmas and birthdays and Kwanzaa or whatever." He gives a lopsided grin and hauls up a battered receipt book and a lockbox from underneath a crate of comics. "I also occasionally get well-meaning old aunts and grandpas who only know their favorite family kid is into 'that one in the gold tights' and wanna grab something on their way to a visit. ... Three bucks."

[kyley_b]

Kyle indeed has an appreciation for ironic hero things, considering in his spare time he flies around the city with a kite strapped to his back.

"That's sweet," he says honestly. He takes out three ones and hands them over. "You ever have any of the actual heroes stop by and get pissy about companies skirting licensing issues around their appearance?" Yeah, he works in Stark's legal department. He's seen such things.

[puddledancer]

"Once someone did, yeah. I gave them the phone number of that schmaltzy legal guy that does the stupid ads at 2 AM during the infomercials and said he was my lawyer."

P.J. scribbled out his receipt and traded it for the money, tucking it away in the lockbox. There wasn't too much in there, which might explain why he didn't seem afraid of having it stolen. "Besides, it's not like I make the things, I just sell 'em, and the business is legit. Keeps me in Spaghetti-os and rent, at least."

[kyley_b]

Kyle laughs - a high pitched cackle.

"Yeah, exactly, they go after the toy producers, but you know how irrational people are. Just swinging by and you see yourself as a shitty plastic misshapen Ken doll." He hasn't spotted himself, however, which is almost a little insulting.

"Rent in this city is fucking nuts."

[puddledancer]

He's got some Human Kites in there, man, you just have to dig. Or ask.

"It is. They're like, oh, hey, you want a refrigerator box to live in? I'll take your left arm as a security deposit and the leg for first month's rent. Great deal, you'll never hear anything lower."

[kyley_b]

"Yeah, and the roaches are pitched as your roommates." He shakes his head. "You know, sometimes I think about how like... this place is lousy with superheroes. All over the place. But if you're not whaling on some guy in a stupid costume, what are you really doing to help, you know?"

Yes, he thinks about such things. Too deeply.

[puddledancer]

"It is. I've talked to homeless folks who swear it's something in the water, or aliens, or a bit of both. I'm starting to wonder if they're not on to something."

Bit'a both. It rings in his own head, his own voice, but full of a joy he can't remember ever feeling. Not in the way those words sound. His brow creases involuntarily, and suddenly he feels ...

Lonely? Homesick? It's hard to say.

[kyley_b]

"Oh sure, blame the aliens." Says the alien. Or at least he thinks he is, here.

He watches PJ with genuine concern. "Dude. You okay?"

[puddledancer]

He shakes it off, squinting. "Yeah, uh - I think I just need to hop down to the bodega and grab another Caf-Pow. No big deal. Though, uh - can you keep an eye on all this for me for a sec while I do? I'll grab you one too."

The money he just forked over for the figure would cover both, after all.

[kyley_b]

Kyle waves a hand. "You don't gotta get me one," he says. "They have free coffee in the office. But yeah, go ahead, I'll keep an eye on it."

Because he might be on his break, but he's not the sort to ignore somebody who needs a hand.

[puddledancer]

"Thanks, dude," he says, getting up out of his chair and pointing to the little hole-in-the-wall a few doors down. "Back in a jiffy."

As he jogs over, his broken shoe flopping and slapping against the concrete, he runs the strange feeling over in his mind. It was like he had - not a family. Not friends. Something that was a mix of both. And in his life, he'd always kept the two strictly separated. Friends were for fun - like going drinking with Richie and playing drunk Pictionary on Friday nights - and family was for nothing but trouble and long phone arguments with his uncle.

He got a to-go packet of aspirin along with the Caf-Pow, gave the bodega cat a scritch between the ears, and downed the pills while he was still just inside the doorway. One of the tabloids on the rack near the door stared back at him with a familiar pair of eyes...

He jogged back as fast as his ragged footwear would allow. "Hey, wait a second, do I -" A pointed glance at the merch and back. "Do I know you from somewhere?"

[kyley_b]

That broken shoe is a little heartbreaking, so Kyle decides he can slip a twenty into the cash box real quick. It's not much, but it's what he can manage.

The Human Kite is one of those heroes who just has his regular face showing all the time - he covers his hair (mostly) but otherwise it's one of those situations where it's shocking nobody in his life has put two and two together.

Kyle blinks at PJ and smiles. "I don't think so? I work at Stark Industries, so I pass by here a lot."

[puddledancer]

He would be totally shocked when he found it, later. Normally he goes home to find his box shorter than expected, not over. The shoes are definitely high on his list of things that need replacements, but he'd use the rest to get some groceries.

At Kyle's denial, he uses his thumbs and fingers to make a diamond and hold it up to frame his face, squinting. "You're sure?"

[kyley_b]

Framing him with a diamond shape makes it even MORE obvious that this skinny ginger twentysomething is a dead ringer for one of the city's more ridiculously themed heroes.

Kyle tries to think of where else he might have met the guy. "Uhm. I dunno, do you go to Temple Sholom over on East 16th?"

[puddledancer]

Yeah, no, this is totally the Human Ki-- oh God, he's Jewish. That makes the name just shy of ... oh, man, okay, it's okay if you appropriate it for yourself, right? P.J's eyes widen and he fails to suppress a snerk as it escapes through his nose instead.

"Nah, but uh ..." He gives him a 'dude-cut-your-bullshit' grin and a wink. "I've been known to fly a kite or two in the park on my off hours. Maybe that's where I saw you."

[kyley_b]

It is absolutely a fuck-you of a name.

Kyle gives P.J. a look for a second - it briefly crosses his mind that maybe he's hitting on him - but then total understanding crashes over his expression. Kyle has virtually no poker face, and the only reason he's managed to have a secret identity at all is because he's just nobody in his daily life.

"Oh. Uhm." He glances up and down the street. "...yeah. Maybe. It's the hair, isn't it?"

[puddledancer]

As far as P.J. is concerned, this is the coolest thing ever. He's actually privy to someone's secret identity. When Kyle looks around, he holds up his hands and shakes his head. "Whoa, hey, don't worry, dude, your secret's totally safe with me. I mean, c'mon, I sell bullshit hero stuff, who'd believe me?"

He winks, then realizes he has a question to answer. "Mostly? I mean, also, your eyes." And his nose, but good Lord, as dumb as he is, even he knows it'd be pretty tasteless to say something like that to a Jewish guy.

[kyley_b]

"I dunno. More to the point, I'm not really certain anybody would care. Not exactly Captain America."

Kyle's eyebrows lift, but he cracks a smile. "You know, you're literally the first person to ever say anything. My boyfriend has no idea. You know this means I totally gotta keep an eye on you in particular, right? Like if somebody graffitis your shop or something, I think I'm morally obligated to hunt them down and lecture them."

[puddledancer]

"I mean, you don't have to be. Anyone who makes a difference is worth caring about, dude." He firmly believed that: kindness was something his mother had instilled in him from day one, even if he was still a bit of an asshole sometimes.

"And only if it's like, a super cheesy afterschool special kind of lecture, you know? If you keep doing graffiti you're going to fall in with people who do The Bad Drugs and your teeth will fall out and you'll end up homeless living in a ditch under the bridge and DIE ALONE before you're thirty type stuff."

[kyley_b]

That statement gets Kyle's whole face to light up. "You're right." There is a reason, after all, why he pursued law in addition to super heroing.

"Oh, I can do that! I'll just channel my mother."

[puddledancer]

"HA!" P.J. beamed. "If you do, I really wanna see that. There's always something super-extra funny about kids impersonating their parents."

[kyley_b]

"My mom's from Jersey" he says in a conspiratorial tone. "So she's you know, kinda got the accent."

He looks at the action figure again, smiling sweetly. "Thanks again, dude. For this, and for being chill. I do owe you one."

[puddledancer]

"Your secret's safe with me," he winked. "Anyways, don't mention it. You have a good one, yeah? Stay cool. What is it they say? May, uh ... the wind rise to meet you and have your back, or whatever."