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ysabetwordsmithThis poem came out of discussions with dialecticdreamer. It also fills the "Glas (blue-green-gray)" square in my 9-1-19 card for the Arts and Crafts Festival Bingo. It has been sponsored by fuzzyred and ng_moonmoth. It belongs to the Shiv thread of the Polychrome Heroics series. This poem comes after the story "Entanglement" by dialecticdreamer and my poem "This Knife's Sharp Constancy," and directly before "The Man Who Keeps His House in Hand."
Warning: This poem contains some intense and controversial topics. Highlight to read the warnings, some of which are spoilers. It includes an interrupted shopping trip, troubled youth, teen self-endangerment, smoking, vulgar language, extreme stupidity, attempted mugging, refusal to be mugged, delicate and indelicate negotiations of dominance, a dazzling display of knifework, threats of violence, complete butchery of street cred (well deserved), Shiv's self-image is more than a little bent, retroactive fretting over social dynamics of the conflict, and other challenges. If these are sensitive issues for you, please consider your tastes and headspace before reading onward.
"Parts You Didn't Even Know You Had"
[Tuesday, October 13, 2015]
Shiv had the honor of escorting
Elisabeth around Omaha for
a shopping trip, because she
wanted to explore and she
needed someone to help
carry her packages.
It was a brisk fall day,
but his jean jacket
cut the wind very nicely
and he'd been promised
lunch in return for his time.
"You wanna start here,
or hit the Old Market first?"
Shiv asked as they walked.
"Start here, if you know of
any good stores," Elisabeth said.
A gust of wind peppered them with
dust and leaves and paper trash.
It held a whiff of cigarette smoke,
which made Shiv smile and
Elisabeth wrinkle her nose.
Then the two boys smoking in
a doorway stepped into the sidewalk.
The older one was dressed the same as
Shiv, jeans and jacket over a white T-shirt.
The younger one had darker hair and eyes,
with a blue windbreaker over a blue shirt.
"Wallets!" the leader snapped, beckoning.
Shiv just rolled his eyes. "You picked
the wrong target, you idiots. Beat it."
And just like that, it wasn't Elisabeth
standing beside him, it was Boss Finn.
"Let me handle this, Shiv," she said evenly.
"Welp, I tried," Shiv said with a shrug.
"You sorry fucks are screwed."
"Whaddaya mean by that?"
said the younger, slower tough.
Boss Finn shook off her coat.
"Look, boys, we're just out
holiday shopping," she said.
"Why don't you head off and do
something useful, like litter cleanup?
It pays by the ounce, and there's
a collection container two blocks --"
"Shaddap!" said the taller of the two.
"And hand over your wallet!"
Boss Finn traded a look with
Shiv, snickering. "Are they serious?
My kids are scarier than this." She
began patting the pockets of the coat
draped loosely on her shoulders.
"I know your kids," Shiv mused,
taking a large step to one side.
He pointed toward the poster for
the community cleanup project.
"Guys, you'll get more money
out of that than out of the lady."
Boss Finn smiled warmly at him.
"Thank you, dear. Now, let me do
a bit of litter cleanup around here, too."
She shrugged, and Shiv caught
her coat neatly as it fell free.
He could feel the metal, but
she had the knife cupped
in her hand, invisible.
He could have stopped
the fight with his superpowers,
of course, but that was a last resort.
Boss Finn had given him his orders.
"You shoulda give it up when
you had the chance, bitch!"
said the leader. A switchblade
flicked open in his fingers.
Shiv hadn't even known
that Boss Finn's eyes
could turn to glas.
Storm warning received,
Shiv sidled behind her.
She was even scarier than
Dr. G, and he didn't want
to get in her way when
she was this pissed.
"Now I'm gonna cut you,
and your boyfriend too."
The thug was still clueless.
The butterfly opened its wings,
dazzling gold in the autumn sun.
Boss Finn must have spent
the summer practicing while
Shiv was out of town, because
it blurred too fast for him to see,
forming a brazen shield in front of her.
Shiv could see the moment when
the two hoodlums realized that
they had made a serious mistake.
He smirked as the leader blanched,
knife going lax in his stunned hand.
The shorter one took a step back.
That moment of weakness was
all it took for Boss Finn to pounce.
"You see, boys, I work with knives
for a living, and your little letter-opener
doesn't scare me one bit," she said.
"So let me make this abundantly clear:
if you ever threaten me or my family
again, I'll cut off parts you didn't even
know you had. Are we crystal?"
"Y-yeah," the leader stuttered.
The other just backed away,
searching for an escape route.
"Good," Boss Finn said
with a nod. "Now get!"
They got.
Shiv watched
as they ran away.
"That was entertainin'
for a Tuesday," he said.
He had gotten just a glimpse
of the edgier teenager that
she once had been.
A sigh, then Elisabeth
reclaimed her coat and
put her knife away.
"How much trouble have
I made for Boss White?"
she said. "I suppose that I
should have let you handle it,
but they just made me so angry."
Shiv shook his head. "You haven't
made the trouble," he said. "It's
our duty as the host city to keep
things smooth. We didn't."
That would be a mess
to sort out, but at least he
didn't have to do it himself.
"I really should have let you
handle it," Elisabeth said.
"I just didn't want to risk
you getting hurt."
As if he could have.
It was oddly nice that
she worried about him,
though, like it mattered
if the muscle got roughed.
"Nope," Shiv said. "You're
the visiting boss, so once you
took offense at them fools,
then you had every right
to handle it your way."
"All right, what do we
do next?" she asked.
"Shopping trip's over,"
Shiv said with regret.
"Now we double back
and tell Boss White that
someone disrespected you."
"Lead the way," she said.
"I'll trust your judgment."
"I don't have judgment,"
Shiv protested, staring at her.
"I am the poster child of bad ideas!"
Elisabeth just chuckled. "Yet you
managed to stay out of the fight,
and nobody actually got hurt."
She'd butchered their street cred,
but Shiv didn't have to mention that.
"Okay, you got me there," he admitted.
"Year or two ago, I would have piled
into them with both knives going."
"That's the thing about growing up,
Shiv," she said as her hand trailed along
his shoulder. "Sometimes you discover
parts you didn't even know you had."
* * *
Notes:
Harland Adamson -- He has short brown hair, brown eyes, and fair skin with freckles. He has a heart-shaped face with a Cupid's bow mouth. He is 16 years old in October 2015, when he moves from Lincoln to Omaha, Nebraska. Harland typically hangs out with his best friend Boyd Osborne. They commit a variety of petty crimes together. Harland is tough and strong, but very stupid.
Qualities: Good (+2) Friends with Boyd Osborne, Good (+2) Strength, Good (+2) Tough
Poor (-2) Dumb as a Box of Rocks
Boyd Osborne -- He has short dark blond hair, hazel eyes, and fair skin. He is tall and skinny with a long face. He is 17 years old in October 2015, when he moves from Lincoln to Omaha, Nebraska. Boyd typically hangs out with his best friend Harland Adamson. They commit a variety of petty crimes together. Boyd relies a lot on his speed. He's good at survival in general, but very bad at victim selection in particular.
Qualities: Good (+2) Fast, Good (+2) Friends with Harland Adamson, Good (+2) Survival
Poor (-2) Victim Selection
* * *
This map shows the large-scale neighborhoods of Omaha, Nebraska. This one gives a closeup of Downtown showing the Old Market. A great deal lies within walking distance.
Blues Moon is in North Omaha, a rough neighborhood which has what we might politely call a colorful history.
The Old Market includes a wide range of shopping, entertainment, and other activities.
The hoodlums failed utterly in their victim selection. Shiv looks like trouble on the hoof, and Elisabeth Finn moves with grace and confidence, neither of which imply easy meat.
Mugging is violent crime that undermines the quality of community life. Muggers tend to be young, stupid, lazy, and violent. Conventional advice tells people to submit to whatever an assailant demands of them rather than run or fight. The problem with this is that it places the victim in a subservient role to someone who has already decided to hurt them, thus encouraging further abuse. People also mistakenly insist that it's only about the money. It's not. It's also about your self-image, self-respect, ethics, sense of security, and view of society -- all of which can get seriously damaged if you make the wrong choice (which does vary). Statistics on rape indicate that resistant tactics like running and fighting have only a small chance of worsening the injuries but a large chance of successful evasion. Training improves the chances of successfully resisting both sexual and nonsexual assaults. Consider that criminals seek easy targets; if more people resisted, the risk would grow higher, and thus discourage crime. Here are some thoughts on how to deal with a mugging.
Expressions of dominance appear throughout the animal kingdom, and the dominance displays among criminals use many of the same techniques as other great apes such as chimpanzees. These agonistic behaviors are actually intended to discourage fighting by convincing the opponent to back down. A butterfly knife is exquisitely suited to this purpose, for several reasons, hence its popularity among wild young things. 1) The clatter and flash of a knife in motion can provide psychological intimidation. 2) It gives a concrete demonstration of the wielder's speed and dexterity, both highly relevant should a physical fight ensue. 3) It's also an excellent weapon in a knife fight due to its versatility and the fact that it cannot collapse like a folding knife, although the flourishes are more for intimidation than use during the fight itself.
Note also the much more subtle and delicate negotiation of dominance between Boss Finn and Shiv. (Compare this with affan, the situational authority of Cani in World Tree.) They each have their reasons for taking charge or stepping back, but they quickly come to an agreement on the matter and then present a united front to the enemy. This alone should have clued the petty thugs to scram. See the Mama Bear trope regarding why she chose to stand up to the threat instead of running. See Hidden Badass for the thugs' perspective, since the audience already knows better than to mess with a Finn. This is followed after the fight by Boss Finn addressing her relationship with Boss White.
Glas is a quintessentially Celtic term that can mean blue, green, gray, or silver -- or any combination of those colors. It has mixed connotations of something beautiful but changeable and potentially perilous. This makes a lot more sense if you know that it actually means "sea-colored." Here's a discussion of the same word borrowed into Welsh. The closest English translation is "hazel."
street cred
slang One's reputation, credibility, or authenticity in relation to the people and culture of an urban environment. "Cred" is short for "credibility."
The new political candidate has a lot of street cred, which has really invigorated young voters in this district.
I just feel like she lost some of her street cred when she started taking her music mainstream, you know?
n. credibility on the streets. (Streets.) If I drove a ride like that, I’d lose my street cred.
dialecticdreamer. It also fills the "Glas (blue-green-gray)" square in my 9-1-19 card for the Arts and Crafts Festival Bingo. It has been sponsored by fuzzyred and ng_moonmoth. It belongs to the Shiv thread of the Polychrome Heroics series. This poem comes after the story "Entanglement" by dialecticdreamer and my poem "This Knife's Sharp Constancy," and directly before "The Man Who Keeps His House in Hand."Warning: This poem contains some intense and controversial topics. Highlight to read the warnings, some of which are spoilers. It includes an interrupted shopping trip, troubled youth, teen self-endangerment, smoking, vulgar language, extreme stupidity, attempted mugging, refusal to be mugged, delicate and indelicate negotiations of dominance, a dazzling display of knifework, threats of violence, complete butchery of street cred (well deserved), Shiv's self-image is more than a little bent, retroactive fretting over social dynamics of the conflict, and other challenges. If these are sensitive issues for you, please consider your tastes and headspace before reading onward.
"Parts You Didn't Even Know You Had"
[Tuesday, October 13, 2015]
Shiv had the honor of escorting
Elisabeth around Omaha for
a shopping trip, because she
wanted to explore and she
needed someone to help
carry her packages.
It was a brisk fall day,
but his jean jacket
cut the wind very nicely
and he'd been promised
lunch in return for his time.
"You wanna start here,
or hit the Old Market first?"
Shiv asked as they walked.
"Start here, if you know of
any good stores," Elisabeth said.
A gust of wind peppered them with
dust and leaves and paper trash.
It held a whiff of cigarette smoke,
which made Shiv smile and
Elisabeth wrinkle her nose.
Then the two boys smoking in
a doorway stepped into the sidewalk.
The older one was dressed the same as
Shiv, jeans and jacket over a white T-shirt.
The younger one had darker hair and eyes,
with a blue windbreaker over a blue shirt.
"Wallets!" the leader snapped, beckoning.
Shiv just rolled his eyes. "You picked
the wrong target, you idiots. Beat it."
And just like that, it wasn't Elisabeth
standing beside him, it was Boss Finn.
"Let me handle this, Shiv," she said evenly.
"Welp, I tried," Shiv said with a shrug.
"You sorry fucks are screwed."
"Whaddaya mean by that?"
said the younger, slower tough.
Boss Finn shook off her coat.
"Look, boys, we're just out
holiday shopping," she said.
"Why don't you head off and do
something useful, like litter cleanup?
It pays by the ounce, and there's
a collection container two blocks --"
"Shaddap!" said the taller of the two.
"And hand over your wallet!"
Boss Finn traded a look with
Shiv, snickering. "Are they serious?
My kids are scarier than this." She
began patting the pockets of the coat
draped loosely on her shoulders.
"I know your kids," Shiv mused,
taking a large step to one side.
He pointed toward the poster for
the community cleanup project.
"Guys, you'll get more money
out of that than out of the lady."
Boss Finn smiled warmly at him.
"Thank you, dear. Now, let me do
a bit of litter cleanup around here, too."
She shrugged, and Shiv caught
her coat neatly as it fell free.
He could feel the metal, but
she had the knife cupped
in her hand, invisible.
He could have stopped
the fight with his superpowers,
of course, but that was a last resort.
Boss Finn had given him his orders.
"You shoulda give it up when
you had the chance, bitch!"
said the leader. A switchblade
flicked open in his fingers.
Shiv hadn't even known
that Boss Finn's eyes
could turn to glas.
Storm warning received,
Shiv sidled behind her.
She was even scarier than
Dr. G, and he didn't want
to get in her way when
she was this pissed.
"Now I'm gonna cut you,
and your boyfriend too."
The thug was still clueless.
The butterfly opened its wings,
dazzling gold in the autumn sun.
Boss Finn must have spent
the summer practicing while
Shiv was out of town, because
it blurred too fast for him to see,
forming a brazen shield in front of her.
Shiv could see the moment when
the two hoodlums realized that
they had made a serious mistake.
He smirked as the leader blanched,
knife going lax in his stunned hand.
The shorter one took a step back.
That moment of weakness was
all it took for Boss Finn to pounce.
"You see, boys, I work with knives
for a living, and your little letter-opener
doesn't scare me one bit," she said.
"So let me make this abundantly clear:
if you ever threaten me or my family
again, I'll cut off parts you didn't even
know you had. Are we crystal?"
"Y-yeah," the leader stuttered.
The other just backed away,
searching for an escape route.
"Good," Boss Finn said
with a nod. "Now get!"
They got.
Shiv watched
as they ran away.
"That was entertainin'
for a Tuesday," he said.
He had gotten just a glimpse
of the edgier teenager that
she once had been.
A sigh, then Elisabeth
reclaimed her coat and
put her knife away.
"How much trouble have
I made for Boss White?"
she said. "I suppose that I
should have let you handle it,
but they just made me so angry."
Shiv shook his head. "You haven't
made the trouble," he said. "It's
our duty as the host city to keep
things smooth. We didn't."
That would be a mess
to sort out, but at least he
didn't have to do it himself.
"I really should have let you
handle it," Elisabeth said.
"I just didn't want to risk
you getting hurt."
As if he could have.
It was oddly nice that
she worried about him,
though, like it mattered
if the muscle got roughed.
"Nope," Shiv said. "You're
the visiting boss, so once you
took offense at them fools,
then you had every right
to handle it your way."
"All right, what do we
do next?" she asked.
"Shopping trip's over,"
Shiv said with regret.
"Now we double back
and tell Boss White that
someone disrespected you."
"Lead the way," she said.
"I'll trust your judgment."
"I don't have judgment,"
Shiv protested, staring at her.
"I am the poster child of bad ideas!"
Elisabeth just chuckled. "Yet you
managed to stay out of the fight,
and nobody actually got hurt."
She'd butchered their street cred,
but Shiv didn't have to mention that.
"Okay, you got me there," he admitted.
"Year or two ago, I would have piled
into them with both knives going."
"That's the thing about growing up,
Shiv," she said as her hand trailed along
his shoulder. "Sometimes you discover
parts you didn't even know you had."
* * *
Notes:
Harland Adamson -- He has short brown hair, brown eyes, and fair skin with freckles. He has a heart-shaped face with a Cupid's bow mouth. He is 16 years old in October 2015, when he moves from Lincoln to Omaha, Nebraska. Harland typically hangs out with his best friend Boyd Osborne. They commit a variety of petty crimes together. Harland is tough and strong, but very stupid.
Qualities: Good (+2) Friends with Boyd Osborne, Good (+2) Strength, Good (+2) Tough
Poor (-2) Dumb as a Box of Rocks
Boyd Osborne -- He has short dark blond hair, hazel eyes, and fair skin. He is tall and skinny with a long face. He is 17 years old in October 2015, when he moves from Lincoln to Omaha, Nebraska. Boyd typically hangs out with his best friend Harland Adamson. They commit a variety of petty crimes together. Boyd relies a lot on his speed. He's good at survival in general, but very bad at victim selection in particular.
Qualities: Good (+2) Fast, Good (+2) Friends with Harland Adamson, Good (+2) Survival
Poor (-2) Victim Selection
* * *
This map shows the large-scale neighborhoods of Omaha, Nebraska. This one gives a closeup of Downtown showing the Old Market. A great deal lies within walking distance.
Blues Moon is in North Omaha, a rough neighborhood which has what we might politely call a colorful history.
The Old Market includes a wide range of shopping, entertainment, and other activities.
The hoodlums failed utterly in their victim selection. Shiv looks like trouble on the hoof, and Elisabeth Finn moves with grace and confidence, neither of which imply easy meat.
Mugging is violent crime that undermines the quality of community life. Muggers tend to be young, stupid, lazy, and violent. Conventional advice tells people to submit to whatever an assailant demands of them rather than run or fight. The problem with this is that it places the victim in a subservient role to someone who has already decided to hurt them, thus encouraging further abuse. People also mistakenly insist that it's only about the money. It's not. It's also about your self-image, self-respect, ethics, sense of security, and view of society -- all of which can get seriously damaged if you make the wrong choice (which does vary). Statistics on rape indicate that resistant tactics like running and fighting have only a small chance of worsening the injuries but a large chance of successful evasion. Training improves the chances of successfully resisting both sexual and nonsexual assaults. Consider that criminals seek easy targets; if more people resisted, the risk would grow higher, and thus discourage crime. Here are some thoughts on how to deal with a mugging.
Expressions of dominance appear throughout the animal kingdom, and the dominance displays among criminals use many of the same techniques as other great apes such as chimpanzees. These agonistic behaviors are actually intended to discourage fighting by convincing the opponent to back down. A butterfly knife is exquisitely suited to this purpose, for several reasons, hence its popularity among wild young things. 1) The clatter and flash of a knife in motion can provide psychological intimidation. 2) It gives a concrete demonstration of the wielder's speed and dexterity, both highly relevant should a physical fight ensue. 3) It's also an excellent weapon in a knife fight due to its versatility and the fact that it cannot collapse like a folding knife, although the flourishes are more for intimidation than use during the fight itself.
Note also the much more subtle and delicate negotiation of dominance between Boss Finn and Shiv. (Compare this with affan, the situational authority of Cani in World Tree.) They each have their reasons for taking charge or stepping back, but they quickly come to an agreement on the matter and then present a united front to the enemy. This alone should have clued the petty thugs to scram. See the Mama Bear trope regarding why she chose to stand up to the threat instead of running. See Hidden Badass for the thugs' perspective, since the audience already knows better than to mess with a Finn. This is followed after the fight by Boss Finn addressing her relationship with Boss White.
Glas is a quintessentially Celtic term that can mean blue, green, gray, or silver -- or any combination of those colors. It has mixed connotations of something beautiful but changeable and potentially perilous. This makes a lot more sense if you know that it actually means "sea-colored." Here's a discussion of the same word borrowed into Welsh. The closest English translation is "hazel."
street cred
slang One's reputation, credibility, or authenticity in relation to the people and culture of an urban environment. "Cred" is short for "credibility."
The new political candidate has a lot of street cred, which has really invigorated young voters in this district.
I just feel like she lost some of her street cred when she started taking her music mainstream, you know?
n. credibility on the streets. (Streets.) If I drove a ride like that, I’d lose my street cred.
Feedback
Date: 2019-12-27 05:06 am (UTC)Re: Feedback
Date: 2019-12-27 05:44 am (UTC)https://ysabetwordsmith.dreamwidth.org/12145018.html
:D I'm glad you enjoyed this. I look forward to seeing the Feathering results later too.
(no subject)
Date: 2019-12-27 08:00 am (UTC)Yay!
Date: 2019-12-27 10:21 am (UTC)Shiv needs more people to stick up for him.
And Lincoln's rejects need to learn that Omaha is not the place to move to.
Re: Yay!
Date: 2019-12-27 11:12 am (UTC)Re: Yay!
Date: 2019-12-28 09:39 am (UTC)Which will probably be alarming for Boss White, because he can perceive mental damage, even though he's not a healer. He knows what Boss Blaster has been telling him about the lead in Lincoln, so if he reads two brain-damaged idiots, the connection will be concerning.
(no subject)
Date: 2019-12-27 08:21 am (UTC)I need to go see her again.
I know that the male side of the Finns speak Gaelic... whence the Boss' heritage?
And... I concur with Urso Major there. Major "see your six, and raise ye thirty" move there... *evil chuckle*
Yes ...
Date: 2019-12-27 08:32 am (UTC)Aww.
>> I know that the male side of the Finns speak Gaelic... whence the Boss' heritage?<<
I'm not sure, she started out as
>>And... I concur with Urso Major there. Major "see your six, and raise ye thirty" move there... *evil chuckle*<<
No shit.
That story was one of several that I included in a college paper.
(no subject)
Date: 2019-12-27 04:39 pm (UTC)People are gonna learn that Boss Finn is not someone you mess with.. quickly. Although, she's gonna end up earning the nickname of 'Finn the Knife' at that rate, because you know those two are going to completely misunderstand her comment about working with knives for a living...
Thoughts
Date: 2019-12-29 08:33 am (UTC)LOL no, it makes me laugh and I wrote it!
>>People are gonna learn that Boss Finn is not someone you mess with.. quickly. <<
No shit.
>>Although, she's gonna end up earning the nickname of 'Finn the Knife' at that rate, because you know those two are going to completely misunderstand her comment about working with knives for a living...<<
*laaaauuuugh* That misunderstanding was intentional.
(no subject)
Date: 2019-12-28 11:55 am (UTC)Yes ...
Date: 2019-12-29 08:15 am (UTC)*Shivers*
Date: 2019-12-28 01:41 pm (UTC)Re: *Shivers*
Date: 2019-12-29 12:22 am (UTC)Yeah, anyone who threatens a Finn will find themselves facing Boss Finn and a world of pain. Can you imagine those boys' life on the street after that? They are so doomed.
(no subject)
Date: 2019-12-29 10:12 pm (UTC)Thank you!
Date: 2019-12-30 10:24 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2024-07-30 02:07 pm (UTC)Do NOT mess with the mama bear.
Thoughts
Date: 2024-07-30 06:46 pm (UTC)LOL yes. :D I couldn't resist.
>> Do NOT mess with the mama bear. <<
No shit. If they hadn't backed off, she really would have cut them -- nothing immediately lethal, of course, just a few stabs to sensitive nerve clusters. Nobody's going to keep waving a knife with a hole in their brachial plexus.
Shiv knows this. It's why he backed way off, even though he's a skilled street fighter. And when a badass is backing up? You should figure it's because of an even badder ass and follow suit.