Running [Blake, Lucas, Yuri]

Blake stepped off the Greyhound bus that he had been riding from Las Vegas for nearly 3 days now. He was cold, hungry, and bored out of his mind. He needed to find a place to warm up where he might also get some food on the cheap. He couldn't quite think of a place right off the bat, but eventually, he realized that he could get everything he needed at a bowling alley. Nachos, entertainment, and best of all warmth. He began searching for either a library or someone who could assist him so that he could go onto google to check for a nearby bowling alley or even an arcade. Hell, he'd take a hospital waiting room with a snack machine and a television if he could find one.

After a few minutes of searching, he managed to find himself an arcade and the smell of greasy nachos and hot dogs smelled to him like the ambrosia of the Gods at that moment in time. He knew he was running low on cash, and he certainly needed to ensure that he didn't starve to death. So he threw open the doors of the bowling alley and paid for the shoes he needed to play. He went straight to the counter for ordering. He looked at the menu and realized something. He couldn't afford anything more than a small bowl of nachos. The entry he had to spend to get into the bowling alley had nearly wiped him completely out.

He ordered his nachos and sighed. Not entirely sure why he had thought that he would be able to actually get a sustainable meal at such an establishment. He picked the nachos up from off the counter and sat down at a table where he did his best to eat the few chips he had been capable of paying for. He longed for a soda, or a water or something. But instead, he finished his meal and decided he was going to get his money's worth in the bowling alley. The half demon picked up a scarlet and gold ball from the rack and threw it down the lane, where he managed to hit the gutter pretty well. Bowling was never exactly his sport, and he really hated himself for even thinking that this would work out in his favor.

He collected his ball once again, and managed to hit a couple pins that time. He heard people arguing in the background, but he paid no mind.

Yuri was not quite yet sure how to feel about America, but the opinion as of yet was not a positive one. He had not a single American dollar to his name, and likely ruble would not work when it came to buying food. His stomach protested such a lack of food with a low growl, proliferating the feeling of emptiness that was beginning to set in. Times like these made thievery seem palpable, despite how it was the very thing that he left his home for. Perhaps his brother was just not thinking as far ahead as he was hoping he was. The next best thing came down to one of those places people threw their little coins into, though he never knew why. Gathering money from water was easy, crystalizing the water around them and bringing them out when no one was looking.

It took Yuri a few minutes but he eventually counted what came down to 10.43$, which was more than he had before and hopefully it could get him something in his stomach. Luckily a wallet also fell into his hands, though he wouldn’t admit to it ever.  Letting a few crystals of snow flake off from the wallet, he dug through and picked out a few bills, a single hundred and a couple tens. Luckily his ability to read English far superceded his ability to speak it.

The downsides of ignorance to American structure was that he ended up wandering into a building that didn’t really fit. A bowling alley, something he had never actually encountered within his life and the sudden scent was something that hit him suddenly. His eyes flicked over the room, catching sight of people rolling large colored balls down a lane and slamming into pins at the end. More importantly was the snack bar, which had food and people walking up to it to get some food. He considered the menu, nothing overly filling but it would work well enough.

”Give me the hotdog and a nacho.” He said accent tinging his words, also ordering what looked to be a sprite, drawing a few wry looks and taking his food haul, then settling down at a table to eat it. He didn’t quite yet understand you were supposed to be bowling here.

Lucas had been in Chicago a full two days, completely alone. That was a scary prospect for a thirteen year old, but being a little lonely in one of the US's biggest cities was better then having to deal with his home life.

Actually, he couldn't quite bring himself to call the Republic Palace a home.

He could let the thoughts of why he left run wild. He could have done nothing but feel sorry for himself, there was plenty to justify it, but he didn't. Lucas seemed to be completely content with how his life was going. Yes, he had nobody to talk to, but he had a personal bank account linked to the Belarusian Treasury, and a smart phone with plenty of music. The Son of the Devil was quite fine, if a little bored.

The boy had been hanging out in the old Knightwatch base he had discovered not forty eight hours ago. There were a great many things to explore in the top floor of the abandoned hotel, but after eating nothing but pizza while checking each room for trinkets left behind by the fractured hero group, Lucas was feeling stir crazy.

The glow of a smart phone screen was revealed from the boy's jacket pocket. His fingers rapidly darted across it's surface as he searched for something to do. Unfortunately, there wasn't exactly a large amount of options for a kid to go have fun alone in this city.

Movies? He didn't even look old enough to get into a PG-13 screening. Go Cart Track? Had to be supervised by someone eighteen or older. Library? It was a good thirty minute drive, as the one in this district had been hit by a metahuman a week ago. It seemed the only thing that seemed vaguely fun was the bowling alley, which may have had a few arcade games too.

Lucas shrugged, then put his phone back in his pocket. He wore his normal attire, a red shirt, black jacket, dark wash skinny jeans, red converse, and fingerless gloves. A little emo, some would say, but in truth he never saw it that way. He put his earbuds in, then walked out the door.

The bowling alley wasn't too far, so he decided to simply walk rather then get a cab. Besides, he had just heard about one of his favorite bands releasing a new album. By the time he was a dozen feet onto the sidewalk, he was listening to it with a kick in his step.

The city of Chicago was probably the most shabby place he had ever seen. It was like New York when it was only partially rebuilt. It just seemed like nobody was paying much attention to it anymore. People were homeless, the roads were deserted, and the metahumans of the underground took what they pleased.

It was not at all a safe place to walk alone, yet here he was, walking alone.

As luck would have it though, he arrived safely at the bowling alley in around fifteen minutes, paying for a pair of shoes to get access. Once inside, he saw a rather dirty and failing business, hanging on by the skin of teenage allowances.

Oh well, the food still smelled pretty good. He walked over to the snack bar, taking in the large amount of options on the menu.

"Wooooow, you guys sure got a lot of stuff. For a bowling alley anyway. I'll take a large french fry, a large onion ring, a chili dog, um, a, um, pulled pork sandwich? You have pulled pork here? Wow....... Oh and a large unsweetened ice tea." Lucas said, eyes not even momentarily flicking to the cashier, instead being locked on the menu board. The cashier wrote Lucas' order down, mumbling about having to get the friers heated up. Lucas just paid and walked off, grabbing a golden ball before looking for a place to play.

"Hey! Who wants to bowl with me?! I don't know how to do it." Lucas yelled off, his voice echoing. He got a few side looks, but nobody grabbed. Most likely because they felt his approach to getting a partner to bowl with was a bit abnoxious.

Blake had continued his game. He hadn't been doing it for very long, when a couple other teenagers had walked into the place. He continued throwing the balls down the lane; finding it was slightly less exciting as it was with friends. He liked the competition, the sport, the exhilaration of succeeding over an opponent. There was simply no sport in this.

He got a couple strikes, which he felt proud of but mainly missed his shots for a gutterball. He was starting to get extremely bored. He didn't quite know what else to do, his water supply was getting low and he didn't feel like he was going to get too far without liquids.

Suddenly, one of the kids who had come in earlier ordered a hot dog and a soda, he didn't mean to do it;
but his mouth started watering at the thought of food. He so very much needed food, but he forced himself to turn away and throw the ball down the lane.

Suddenly, he heard a voice. Someone wanted to play a game. The victory screen came up on his board, and he turned to see the emo looking teen. Normally; he'd stay away from such an eccentric person. But then he noticed that the boy had something Blake needed. The ability to purchase large amounts of food. He seemed to radiate money, the demeanour alone was what he felt constituted the assumption that he would have some form of money on him.

”I’ll join you for a soda, kid.” Blake said smiling friendly and extending a hand out to shake, hoping that he wasn't coming off too strongly.

Once sitting down, Yuri would begin to bite into his hot dog which tasted a little too good for your bowling alley hotdog. He however just chalked that up to the fact he had not had food in a long while, feeling more like he was easting the food of the gods than processed meats. He took note of a child walking in alone, and then proceeding to buy a large order of food, comparatively to his own at any rate then loudly stating that he needed people to play a game with. Shoving the last bit of his hot dog into his mouth, Yuri stood up and considered answering the rather open invitation. It wasn’t as if he had anything better to do, and he knew as much about the game as anyone else did.

”I would like to do the bowling…with you.” Yuri offered not as conscious of his accent as he should have been, offering a small smile. He looked down to the shorter male through thick glasses, then turning to the other that had joined him. While he did not mention bowling, he did say something about a drink, which sounded way different than bowling. ”Soda? I thought we were doing bowling?” Yuri then question seemingly confused as he looked around for someone to illuminate the conundrum of how bowling turned into a soft drink.

The approach of two males who seemed much older then him (physically and actually) was a bit intimatating for Lucas. He had thought older kids didn't like to hang out with people his age, but maybe that was just his social anxiety tallking. He started kicking his foot nervously, though he was quite unconscious of it. The red headed kid said he would play for a soda, and the other one seemed to have a thick Russian accent. Lucas had never met an actual Russian before, despite being a fluent speaker. He decided against revealing that just yet though, too weird.

"Uh, ok, go get one and we'll play. You can also have some of the food i ordered. I'm not going to eat ALL of it, i just wanted a selection. Name's Lucas by the way." Lucas said, trying to play it cool. Anybody with eyes could see he was stressing, though. He laughed nervously, then went to get a bowling ball.

"You're welcome to anything too. We can play a a three way game." Lucas said to Yuri as he set up the game, shooting his first shot soon after. It got all but two pins in, but he was simply getting a feel for how it moved. Next time he would make the strike outright.

Blake picked up a single nacho and popped it in his mouth. He grinned and patted the younger boy on the back. He smiled as he picked up one of the bowling balls, a pink smoky swirl pattern on it. ”If you don't know how to play; it's the simplest game in the world. You just pick up a ball and…” Blake threw the ball down the lane. ”Throw!” He said and turned around before he could see his ball travel to the gutter. The computer above the lane yelled loser and it showed the pins laughing at a sobbing bowling ball.

”...that's how it's done…” He muttered under his breath turning red at the sight of the sign. He didn't like being called a loser.

The other male seemed more interested in food than the proposed bowling game, though perhaps he was just really hungry. Yuri was not one to judge when it came to that, so all he did was nod as the younger male gave his name. Committing it to memory, he tried to recall how exactly one played this game and if he even learned about it. Lucas appeared as if he knew what he was doing, and Blake followed suit with a throat that veered right into the gutter. It looked simple enough, so he nodded and picked one of the bowling balls that came down . ”So, something like this?” he asked in English, throwing the ball down the line is a half decent throw, colliding with the pins resoundingly.

Most of them were knocked down, leaving only three standing close to one another, close enough luckily. It came down to a spare, which he didn’t know f that was actually good or not. If knocking all the pins down was the goal, he did manage that. ”How was that?” He asked, stepping back and looking at the two.

Lucas had figured the older kid would dominate, because usually that was the case with physical games. However, Blake didn't seem to be very good at this game. The Russian kid, on the other hand, was. He knocked a bunch of the pins in on his first try, then finished it off. Lucas unconsciously clapped.

"Good job!" Lucas said in Russian, feeling the ice had been broken enough to use the kid's native tongue.

At this point it was Lucas' turn, so he grabbed his ball and stepped up. He knew pretty much every detail about how this thing moved across the bowling surface now that his mind had scanned over it a few times. He rolled his ball down slowly, but steadily, and just like that, it knocked over all the pins like dominos.

Speaking of dominos, Lucas took the time to cram an entire slice of pizza in his mouth in only a few seconds.

"Nice shot." He said to the Russian sounding kid, impressed. However, when the even younger boy clapped Blake felt the blood rushing to his cheeks slight in embarrassment.

Lucas said something in Russian and Blake turned to him. "You speak Russian?" He asked surprised by the new twist. He was starting to feel like he was maybe not the smartest one in the group, and while this wasn't a surprise; it was just another thing to be self conscious about.

Stuffing a large slice of pizza in his mouth, and moved forward to toss his ball down the lane. This time; managing a strike. He took a large drink off his sprite and sat back down swallowing hard. "So uh,
you guys have anywhere to stay tonight?" Blake asked, more just trying to make conversation.