A Dime a Day and a Few Black Eyes (Open!)

[Specs]

"Yeah, I see your face," nodded Specs, looking at him curiously. "Just 'cause you wanted to date Tag before doesn't make you a bad guy. But anyone who does that to anyone's face is... well, they need to get beat up too."

[Leo]

Leo blinked at him. "We're gonna need more guys than Skittery if we wanna get back at those guys. And I'm going to need a lesson on fighting." He admitted, his face hurting him. He didn't fight much. "Maybe we can get Jack to help. He's a great fighter."

Leo was pretty uncomfortable with fighting violence with violence. But nothing else seemed to make sense.

[Specs]

"There's Mush and Race too," said Specs. "If you aren't friends with any of 'em, now you are."

[Leo]

Leo nodded. He was friendly with nearly all the guys in the house, but he usually kept to himself. Plus he spent most of his nights working the bar at Irving Hall, so he didn't get to socialize much.

"So...what do we do? Where do we find all these guys? Isn't it kind of ridiculous to ask them to enter a fight, just because some guys jumped me?"

[Specs]

Specs shrugged. "You make a case well enough to Jack and you'll have all of Manhattan behind you. And if they've been doing this to you for a while..."

[Leo]

Leo shook his head, mumbling again in Spanish. "I'll think about it. I do not want anyone else to get hurt."

He looked at Specs. "How has it been going? Are you and Tag happy?"

[Specs]

"Should be fun," chuckled Specs, quite unlike himself. "Us boys really haven't done anything together in a while..." Once he realized Leo's question, he looked at him awkwardly.

"Y-yeah, we're good. No big arguments..." Except for about Skittery, but that's another story for later...

[Leo]

Leo nodded, glad to hear it. "So...how do we get the word out? Start in the bunkroom and go from there?"

[Specs]

"Best place to start," replied Specs, shrugging. "Word gets around fast... especially when it's about a fight."

[Leo]

Leo was still pretty uncomfortable about all of this. How could he ask any of these guys to fight those racist pigs and get hurt?

He led the way into the bunkroom anyway, his dignity be damed. He wanted those guys to pay.

[Moonshine]

Moonshine was lounging on his bunk, whistling idly when Specs and a guy he didn't really recognize walked in. But the guy looked pretty bad. "Heya, Specs...and...oh, man, what happened to you?"

[Leo]

"I was selling in Central Park when this group of guys who have been hassling me for awhile now jumped me. Told me to go back to Mexico." Leo explained, touching his face lightly.

[Racetrack]

"Are we gonna fight? Can there be fighting?" Race asked hopefully, jumping up with a kind of un-Race-like eagerness. He'd been sitting by the window, smoking a cigar and letting the smoke drift outside--which totally wasn't the same as smoking inside. Despite his promises to Rae, all he'd been doing for the past week or more was raking in money at the wolf traps, losing it at the races, and thinking about Sapphy. He needed a distraction, a risk, something with danger and adrenaline, and a fight for a good cause sounded like just the thing.

[Leo]

Leo glanced at Race. "You wanna fight?" He shook his head again, muttering more Spanish. Looks like Specs had been right.

[Racetrack]

"If it's for a good reason, sure!" he said cheerfully. Granted, he usually hated fights and hadn't actually been in one since the strike, but he'd been a Brooklyn newsie for seven years, for God's sake. He knew how to fight. "Someone should tell Jack. And Mush, I guess," he said a bit doubtfully. Mush certainly had the muscles for it, but Race had never known him to actually fight anyone.