(no subject)

[continuousgroaning]

WHO: Tina Belcher and YOU
WHERE: Various places throughout Maurtia Falls + a wildcard option
WHEN: Throughout the month of October
WHAT: Tina makes some Poor Decisions in pursuit of a boy and somehow ends up joining Team Skull. Oops?
WARNINGS: Teenage Hormones and Angst in spades, will edit if needed. If you'd rather do brackets/actionspam I will match.

Narration/scene-setting

It began, as some of Tina's worst decisions had, with a boy.

Tina felt like she'd spent far too much time away from the game, away from the pursuit of boys, of working to catch glimpses of butts and abs. This wasn't sitting well with her, because as much as she'd grown since being brought to this place, part of her has missed the chase, the way she'd just leapt from boy to boy without a care in the world, relishing the attention she'd get for however long it lasted before turning back to Jimmy Jr. or whichever other boy was next on the docket. Of course, she could potentially just go back to her ex- she'd had to stop herself from asking if he'd be OK with some no strings attached making out several times- but being attached meant she wasn't free to pursue, and anyway, she's not 100% sure he'd take her back.

So when she was sure a boy named Jody in several of her classes was looking her way appreciatively, that was all it took to turn the flirting on. He was at turns responsive and distant, finally admitting he'd been thinking about asking Tina to join a club he'd recently become a part of that was looking for more members, but wasn't sure she'd be interested. It was harmless stuff, he'd told her- they would get up to some mischief, but were also doing public art projects and hung out together. Like a team, he'd said. Tina was intrigued- perhaps she could weave it into her volunteering at the Endeavor Center. Do something to improve these teenagers' lives, and have a team her own age, since the one she'd been building had been affected by Port-outs and the general mayhem happening in this world.

She was a little put off by the name- Team Skull- but overall they seemed to be decent, if sometimes rough, people, and she hung out with them a few times before they asked her to become an official member.

And that's when the trouble started.

It was nothing too serious- graffiti, littering, skipping class and the like- but Tina's desire to let her bad self show, her satisfaction in letting out some of her anger at this place for taking away her mom and some of her close friends, was at war with her inherently good nature. She also had to find excuses to not wear the distinctive uniform in public.

She responded with confusion and anger at first, relishing the chance to do a little bad, then, once her innate goodness won out, becoming determined to persuade the Skull members to quit and do something better with their lives.

The Residents of Maurtia Falls #001 will notice her being moody and bringing home teenagers she barely seems to know in order to feed them burgers once a week or so. Later on, they might catch her sneaking out late at night wearing a baggy oversized hoodie and a red cloth obscuring her face, returning at odd hours.

Out in the wild, during her nightly ventures she can be found attempting to clean up the messes she helps her new "friends" make. In the daytime, when said minor crimes are in progress, she has the skull bandana over her face, though her distinctive thick glasses amd yellow hairclip may still make her stand out. She alternates between active participation and trying to sabotage or at least talk her cohorts out of their antics, with little success.

In the other Porter cities except for Jeopardy, she continues her duties with the Good Neigh-bours Therapy Horse company, for she's flatly refused to neglect her horse in any fashion. However, sometimes she can be found sneaking around places she clearly doesn't belong, perhaps looking for a new target for some "art".

In general? She's a confused mess.

Comments

Closed to Iris West

[continuousgroaning]

One of Tina's few havens is her visits with her big sister, where she can turn off her back-and-forth, her doubts, her uncertainty of how to escape this mess. Iris has continued offering help with her writing, and Tina's brought her several papers for her college prep writing course. She's written her own original fiction, though it's still kind of derivative and the characters are obviously based on people Tina knows, and some personal pieces where, just like in her diary, Tina reveals some of her inner worries- chief among them that she'll be 16 soon.

Closed to Archie

[continuousgroaning]

Visits with Archie are also some quality time away from her troubles, though Tina knows if anyone would have any advice on how to deal with her situation, it would be him. He'll likely be able to see how moody she is, at any rate, and how she has a lot weighing on her mind.

[h2no]

He sees it almost immediately; Tina isn't particularly good at hiding how she's feeling. There's been a lot going on, recently. Far too much. Archie couldn't pin down a singular reason even if he'd actively tried to.

So he just keeps his tone neutral, smiling lightly and raising a hand when he sees her arrive.

"Yo, T. Good week?"

[continuousgroaning]

Tina's clearly tired when she meets up with Archie; they badly need to catch up, though she's not sure she's quite ready to share with him what was going on.

"Oh, just... tired," she mumbles. "I've been having some late nights. Uhm, with... some extracurricular activities." There's a pause before she bursts out, "Okay, okay, it's not that but I think I've done something really stupid and I'm not sure how to fix it."

... Okay, that felt good to get out.

[h2no]

He raises an eyebrow at her claim of just being tired, clearly seeing right through it immediately.

Ah; there it is.

"Think that's par for the course for everyone nowadays," he says with a light shrug, though not dismissing her concerns. "You wanna tell me what's up?"

Maurtia Falls, crime in progress?

[detectivedwloki]

David Loki, former detective, had come to Maurtia Falls to check out the local law enforcement and see if the police station were hiring. He wanted to get back officially into detective work as soon as he could.

So he happened to be walking by when he saw some possible petty criminals at work, wearing suspicious bandanas.

"What's going on over there?" he called out as he approached; the voice of authority.

[continuousgroaning]

Tina had been acting as lookout on this particular "art project"; her fellow Team Skull members were busy preparing to paint their logo on an empty storefront, though there was an argument over who was best at it, and Tina had let her mind wander.

To be fair, she had a good excuse- there was a cute boy sweeping in front of the restaurant across the street, and leaning over to pick up trash. Very distracting.

And when they hear an authoritative voice calling, the other Skulls take one look at the adult man approaching them and run off. Tina, however, is frozen on the spot, and her response is her usual groaning noise.

"Uhhhhhhhhhhhh..."

[detectivedwloki]

"Seems your friends ran away and left you. You want to answer me now? What are you doing?" Loki frowns toward the girl, stern but not yet too aggressive.

He puts his hands on his hips, clearly displaying the police badge clipped to his belt.

[continuousgroaning]

This just causes the groaning noise to intensify. Tina's frozen for a moment as she spots the badge, knowing there's a chance she's just gotten herself into huge trouble.

"I... uhm..." She gestures to the storefront, which the other Skulls thankfully hadn't gotten around to actually painting yet. "I didn't actually do anything, to be fair, sir."

( out in the wild )

[squadgoal]

[ bow had been heading back to maurtia when he spots her furiously scrubbing away at the wall. and wearing a . . . bandana? around her face? earth people are just weird sometimes. ]

Do you need some help with that?

[continuousgroaning]

[Tina is startled at the sound of the voice and drops the sponge she's holding; turning to the sound of the voice, she adjusts her glasses.]

Uhm... maybe. Uh, please. Scrubbing graffiti off is harder than I thought.

[squadgoal]

Sure thing.

[ bow peers into the bucket to grab another sponge and starts scrubbing. ]

Sooo. What happened here?

[continuousgroaning]

Thank you.

[Tina picks her sponge back up and also resumes cleaning.]

There's... this gang, I guess, calling themselves Team Skull. They don't do much, just vandalism and littering, but I... [She bows her head.] I knew what they were up to and didn't stop them. So I'm trying to make up for it.

Out in the Wild, cleaning up crew

[golisolation]

[For all Team Skull is full of idiot morons doing idiot moron things, Guzma's not as stupid. Don't be fooled, he is pretty dumb at the best of times, but Tina didn't pull a fast one on him. He let her join, but it's not because he truly believed her dedication. Something was up, he just didn't know what exactly, but needless to say, no wool over his eyes.

Just all over his body, because the nights in Maurtia Falls has gotten way too cold, and he's bundled up like he's ready to scale Mt. Everest, and not like he's dealing with the low 50s that he is. Okay, that's a little bit of an exaggeration, but he's definitely got ear muffs on, a scarf around his neck (pulled up to his nose), a coat that's not his normal short-sleeve Skull hoodie...not to mention the salandit that's laying around Guzma's shoulders. His head peeking out from the collar of the coat to watch Tina too.

Anyways, the point is, Guzma's no fool, and he's aware that Tina hasn't fully embraced the chaotic ways of Team Skull, but he didn't expect to come across this. He's not even mad, just amused. As she's trying to clean up some graffiti, he approaches her from behind, silent and likely undetected with how busy she seems to be with trying to wash away her paint-related sins.]

Ain't a fan of that one, huh?

[This is far from the first time he's dealt with grunts who weren't entirely confident in the group's aim, nor if they fit in. It likely wouldn't be the last time, neither.]

[continuousgroaning]

Ah!

[Tina yelps when she hears a voice behind her, throwing the sponge she's holding out of reflex; it lands several feet behind them. She turns to peer at the man, sort of recognizing the voice. Guzma, she thinks.

Her mind scrambles to find an excuse.]

Well, uhm... I'm... not a fan of graffiti in general...

[She almost facepalms at herself for that one. Almost. Way to try and blend in.]

[golisolation]

[The reaction is a good one. He cherishes any time someone reacts with fear to him, even his own grunts. Just a good fluff to the ego, ok? As she struggles, Guzma keeps his eyes on her, waiting.

Her answer kind of surprises him, but not entirely.]

Yeah? Got a problem with certain art forms?

[He turns his gaze from her to the attempted clean up of hers.]

Or maybe you ain't fully understanding that this is art. That it's got meaning behind it, even if it ain't particularly skillful.

[continuousgroaning]

... It might have a meaning I can't see, but... it's still vandalism.

[Tina curls her hands into fists, willing herself to be brave. She's made the choice to go this far, and she knows she has to see it through, no matter where she ends up.]

And I... I can't bring myself to be okay with that. Yet.

out in the wild

[krookedcop]

[Nanu is a detective at heart, and with as closely as he watches Team Skull and his... friendship(?) with Guzma, he can't help but notice Tina falling in with them. Team Skull is almost an obsession at this point, he realizes. Poor Tina. Where did that peppy, burger-flipping girl go? He rounds a corner, clinging to the brick walls as he tails her...

And sees her cleaning up after a Team Skull "rager" held in an alleyway. It was chosen for its unsecured wifi and shielding from the elements.]

It's dangerous to go around by yourself, you know. It's why Guzma's grunts usually go in twos or threes... And they usually hide their faces.

[continuousgroaning]

[Tina's hyper-aware of her surroundings after several run-ins by this point and tenses when she thinks she hears someone approaching; however, she relaxes when she sees that it's Nanu, enough to hang her head a little.]

... yeah. But somehow I don't think they'd be happy to know I'm undoing all their hard work, so... I went solo.

[krookedcop]

[He crosses his arms]

So why bother doing this? Not that I think what you're doing is bad, per se. [He doesn't really clarify if he means being part of team skull or doing the clean up afterwards]

But it's a little pointless, right? Spend all day messing something up and all night trying to undo it.

[continuousgroaning]

[Tina wrings her hands.] Being bad felt pretty good in the moment, but now all I feel is guilt. So I... I had to do something to make up for participating in this. Even if it is pointless.

In general

[monster_san]

[Fuu is still hard at work trying to keep herself from being gloomy about Hikaru's being sent home. She hasn't seen Tina lately, and that's something she wants to rectify. Tina is a presence comforting for her familiarity and her normality, a good sort.

So it's a little surprising to see her lurking around the side of a bank. Fuu tries out a few explanations of what she might be doing there and decides to go for the likeliest one.]

Hello, Miss Tina. Did you lose something around here?

[continuousgroaning]

[Tina lets out a gasp of surprise when she hears Fuu's familiar voice. Of course she should have guessed she'd run into people she knows; not for the first time, she's seriously wondering if she's made the right choice.]

No, uhm, unless you count some graffiti as something... heh... heh...

[And that earns a literal facepalm at herself.]

I know how that sounds. I just... heard some kids at school talking about how they were going to graffiti a building and I thought I'd see if I could find it. Maybe clean it up.

[monster_san]

[Some graffiti? Well, there has been more of it around lately; Fuu's noticed it. It irritates her, honestly. There's no need to go around causing extra trouble when they clearly have enough of it already.

Tina's manner is a little strange, but sometimes people are awkward when you find them in strange places, and she's generally straightforward--so Fuu doesn't as yet have actual suspicion. It's just Odd.]

Oh! Well, that's very civic-minded of you. [She smiles and looks a the wall.] It looks like this wasn't their target, though. Did you hear them say which building they were going to vandalize?

[continuousgroaning]

Mmm, no... so I figured I'd check places I'd think would be likely targets. Of course, since I'm not the kind of person who goes around spraypainting buildings, the bank was the first and only place I could think of.