Entry tags:
History
Subject: Terezi Pyrope
DOB: Aug xx, 190x
Eye: white; Hair: black; Race: white; Height: x’x; Weight: xxlbs; Sex: F
Record:
Family wealthy, high standing in society. Long line of lawmen and judges on father's side. Father deceased. Mother spends most time in city. Subject raised by aunt: “Redglare” (alias derived from red-lensed glasses and harsh look), on family cherry orchard. Aunt highly eccentric, former suffragette; potentially mentally unstable. Investigate aunt further. Mother recently purchased family a “crest”: white dragon on teal background. Mother reported to believe crest is one belonging to Pyropes from before immigration to America. Claim of questionable veracity, but family reported to have long held crest’s accompanying motto: veritas et ultio (“truth and vengeance”).
Subject’s former best friend to be referred to as “V” throughout rest of file, for her own safety.
V and subject inseparable for many years, both allowed to be equally headstrong and unladylike by families. Once went so far as to steal V’s family’s new automobile for joyride. On ride, local child run down. Allegedly, V was driving and chasing child. V and subject returned to V’s home, where V allegedly refused to go back or to report the incident. Will question V further.
Subject may have been influenced by family motto or family’s long record as being the Law. Certain: subject used automobile to run over V. V lost one arm and was blinded in one eye. Families shielded both girls from any prosecution. Friendship between girls strained.
V later visited subject in subject’s home. Purpose of visit was purported to be friendly, but V threw battery acid in subject’s eyes once left alone with her. Subject was blinded in both eyes.
Aunt attempted to teach subject to handle new disability. Allegedly helped heighten subject’s other senses, but aunt obviously no longer capable of raising subject, as was recognized by mother. When mother returned from city, wisely sent subject to Egg’s School for the Blind, outside [CityToBeDetermined]. Both aunt and subject reported to have objected strongly.
At school, subject learned to read braille and cope with losing sight. Subject nonetheless resented new home. Subject ran away.
Believed to have headed into the city.
~
And that's my record. Yeah, I have a record. Not so Jake for a future copper to have a record, is it? But it turns out it doesn't matter, hurray! Because I can't join the force anyway. Because I'm a girl. [Editor's note: Women had been able to join the force for long before Terezi's time; but unfortunately, that's not what she was told.] I learned girls can't do a lot of things because they're girls, at that futzing school. Stupid things, like no playing cops and robbers, and no cursing. I've never been so happy to see the back of something as that place.
Hehehe, "see".
So yeah, I ran off into the city. They won't find me. The people round here don't talk to coppers. Never thought I'd be happy to know so many hoods. Dressing like a boy helps too, heh.
Not so good, the way that write-up goes on about how "V" "allegedly" this and "allegedly" that. Allegedly nothing. She did it. She deserved to be punished, and no one else was going to. ...I wish I hadn't done it though, to be completely honest. I guess if I feel that bad about bringing a criminal to justice, I'm not cut out for the law anyway. I've got to work on that. I had thought maybe it was just because we knew each other so long, but, well. We're even now though.
Anyway, that's as far as the "official" story goes. I'll have to fill in the rest of the blanks for you myself.
~
I took up residence at a local park. I knew better than to try setting up on one of the benches--any decent city takes vagrancy pretty seriously. The cops would have taken me in before long, and if I didn't get sent to some reform school, they'd just send me back to Egg's.
I couldn't be sure of staying hidden in the bushes, since I can't exactly keep an eye out anymore (hee), so I took up in a tree.
Yeah, a tree. What? I found one that I could climb to a decent height and that had a decent crook to stick myself in. I was kind of taking my life in my hands at that point I guess, trying to sleep up that high and just sitting on a branch. Good thing I've never been much of a restless sleeper, haha.
I managed to get some odd jobs here and there, delivering messages and running simple errands. I suppose there was one... helpful thing I learned at that futzing school--a lot of people look down on the blind. Think they're less than "able-bodied". You want work, you need to spend a lot of time proving you're capable of wearing your pants where they belong. But keep your hair tucked up into a hat and the brim pulled down and no one ever wonders if you're a blind girl. You're as good as the next kid.
Anyway, the point of all that was that I managed to get enough money to buy food. Not enough, of course. Never enough. But it kept me going.
I didn't have a plan beyond getting away from Egg's, which was a mistake. All I knew was even if I managed to get enough money together for a train ticket (I never would have), if I went home my mother would have just sent me straight back to that futzing school again. I had nowhere to go. I was hungry, got rained on, and just generally started looking like a street kid I guess. Which I guess is what I am. Hehe, a Pyrope, a child hoodlum. I stopped getting work. I'd always had some slight trouble because apparently not looking someone in the eye proves you're a little criminal, out to nick all the notes to the baker's down the street. And topping that off with looking how I must have? So eventually I had to try my hand at begging.
Push the brim up, stash your aunt's glasses, and look sad. Now you're a pathetic wreck who needs help. I got run off by the cops a few times, but I actually made a better living begging than working. I mean it's not a line of "work" I'd recommend, but, well... let's just say it's a good enough deal that there's competition.
As a beggar, the cops aren't really the ones you've got to worry about. I would never have guessed this, but apparently it's the other beggars. I had a few disagreements over who got what corner. Sometimes violence was actually threatened! Against a poor blind girl! The sheer outrageousness of such a notion. Worse, sometimes violence occurred.
To them, mostly.
You know that bit from earlier about how Aunt Redglare "attempted" to help me "handle" my new problem? She was teaching me to sense my surroundings. To be able to fix in on where people are and guess what they're trying to do. I'd always been as good as the next person in a scrap, and we were determined that losing my sight was not going to change that. After all, you don't need eyes to throw a punch or to kick a shin. Hehe, I won't pretend I won every fight. What do you expect? I'm blind, not a prize-fighter. But I put up enough resistance that only newbies to the "business" tried hassling me. (And for full disclosure, being blind might have actually helped me here; otherwise I wouldn't have been carrying a folding cane with me everywhere I went. Long weapons are very useful!)
My abilities in fighting (and running, when the law was inevitably called in) apparently got me some attention from other parties as well. A kid approached me about helping out some friends of his. Apparently they'd been having some trouble over who could be where--just like I had been--and... well, long story short, I found out I'd joined a gang.
I'm not exactly proud of that. I might even go so far as to say I was futzing angry with myself. My family's always been on the side of the Law; sheriffs, lawyers, judges. And then there's me, a beggar (though to be fair, at least that's honest!) and member of a gang of young crooks (this... less so. Far less so). I should have turned them in. It's what anyone else in my family would have done. But I'm weak. They were pretty decent sorts, aside from the whole criminal problem. And they had a hideout that they let me stay in. The roof hardly leaked at all. And, well... they weren't really hurting anybody. A few pockets picked here, a few odds and ends swiped there... They were just trying to take care of themselves, like me. Damn it to hell, we ended up friends. They didn't even care when they eventually found out I was a girl.
Not long after I joined (it wasn't entirely intentionally!), we were in turn approached by a small time bootlegger we knew as S. Grub. (What a name, hm?) He wanted some kids to pose as lookouts around his warehouse, pass messages to his buyers. We had no idea what we were getting into.
First of all, his security was nonexistent. We were supposed to fix that. With the power of our imaginations, I suppose. Second of all, when he got raided--which frankly I'm surprised didn't happen sooner than it did--he blamed us. Third of all, we were not paid enough for all of this bushwa. Fourth of all, he got us noticed by the guy whose territory he was horning in on--"Bec" Noir.
Noir... you know what, if you haven't heard of him yet, you travel in better circles than me, and ought to stay there. Anyway. Big cheese. Mean. Does not take kindly to upstarts like Grub--and by extension, us. Last I heard of Grub, they were fishing him out of the lake. The juice joints he'd been selling to? Shot up. Yeah. We ran back to our neighborhood, tails between our legs, and laid low. And word got back to us that we hadn't moved too fast, either. Noir was even looking for us.
Last I heard, Bec Noir didn't know who the kids that had been working for Grub were specifically. We felt safe enough in our own neighborhood. At least until I discovered one of us was going to sell the rest out to Noir in the hopes of being "forgiven" himself. Evan was always a special brand of stupid. Noir is not known for his forgiveness. Neither are Pyropes.
I strangled the kid with my cane.
The gang split up. It was probably the safest move. Not only did we present a smaller target, but we couldn't turn on any of the others this way. We went different ways, to different neighborhoods. With any luck, some of us ended up outside of Noir's territory.
Me, I intend to do some thinking. I'm not sure what to do with myself at this point. I never wanted to be a crook, but I can't work for the law. I don't know.
Mostly I want to stop hearing Evan gurgling.
DOB: Aug xx, 190x
Eye: white; Hair: black; Race: white; Height: x’x; Weight: xxlbs; Sex: F
Record:
Family wealthy, high standing in society. Long line of lawmen and judges on father's side. Father deceased. Mother spends most time in city. Subject raised by aunt: “Redglare” (alias derived from red-lensed glasses and harsh look), on family cherry orchard. Aunt highly eccentric, former suffragette; potentially mentally unstable. Investigate aunt further. Mother recently purchased family a “crest”: white dragon on teal background. Mother reported to believe crest is one belonging to Pyropes from before immigration to America. Claim of questionable veracity, but family reported to have long held crest’s accompanying motto: veritas et ultio (“truth and vengeance”).
Subject’s former best friend to be referred to as “V” throughout rest of file, for her own safety.
V and subject inseparable for many years, both allowed to be equally headstrong and unladylike by families. Once went so far as to steal V’s family’s new automobile for joyride. On ride, local child run down. Allegedly, V was driving and chasing child. V and subject returned to V’s home, where V allegedly refused to go back or to report the incident. Will question V further.
Subject may have been influenced by family motto or family’s long record as being the Law. Certain: subject used automobile to run over V. V lost one arm and was blinded in one eye. Families shielded both girls from any prosecution. Friendship between girls strained.
V later visited subject in subject’s home. Purpose of visit was purported to be friendly, but V threw battery acid in subject’s eyes once left alone with her. Subject was blinded in both eyes.
Aunt attempted to teach subject to handle new disability. Allegedly helped heighten subject’s other senses, but aunt obviously no longer capable of raising subject, as was recognized by mother. When mother returned from city, wisely sent subject to Egg’s School for the Blind, outside [CityToBeDetermined]. Both aunt and subject reported to have objected strongly.
At school, subject learned to read braille and cope with losing sight. Subject nonetheless resented new home. Subject ran away.
Believed to have headed into the city.
And that's my record. Yeah, I have a record. Not so Jake for a future copper to have a record, is it? But it turns out it doesn't matter, hurray! Because I can't join the force anyway. Because I'm a girl. [Editor's note: Women had been able to join the force for long before Terezi's time; but unfortunately, that's not what she was told.] I learned girls can't do a lot of things because they're girls, at that futzing school. Stupid things, like no playing cops and robbers, and no cursing. I've never been so happy to see the back of something as that place.
Hehehe, "see".
So yeah, I ran off into the city. They won't find me. The people round here don't talk to coppers. Never thought I'd be happy to know so many hoods. Dressing like a boy helps too, heh.
Not so good, the way that write-up goes on about how "V" "allegedly" this and "allegedly" that. Allegedly nothing. She did it. She deserved to be punished, and no one else was going to. ...I wish I hadn't done it though, to be completely honest. I guess if I feel that bad about bringing a criminal to justice, I'm not cut out for the law anyway. I've got to work on that. I had thought maybe it was just because we knew each other so long, but, well. We're even now though.
Anyway, that's as far as the "official" story goes. I'll have to fill in the rest of the blanks for you myself.
I took up residence at a local park. I knew better than to try setting up on one of the benches--any decent city takes vagrancy pretty seriously. The cops would have taken me in before long, and if I didn't get sent to some reform school, they'd just send me back to Egg's.
I couldn't be sure of staying hidden in the bushes, since I can't exactly keep an eye out anymore (hee), so I took up in a tree.
Yeah, a tree. What? I found one that I could climb to a decent height and that had a decent crook to stick myself in. I was kind of taking my life in my hands at that point I guess, trying to sleep up that high and just sitting on a branch. Good thing I've never been much of a restless sleeper, haha.
I managed to get some odd jobs here and there, delivering messages and running simple errands. I suppose there was one... helpful thing I learned at that futzing school--a lot of people look down on the blind. Think they're less than "able-bodied". You want work, you need to spend a lot of time proving you're capable of wearing your pants where they belong. But keep your hair tucked up into a hat and the brim pulled down and no one ever wonders if you're a blind girl. You're as good as the next kid.
Anyway, the point of all that was that I managed to get enough money to buy food. Not enough, of course. Never enough. But it kept me going.
I didn't have a plan beyond getting away from Egg's, which was a mistake. All I knew was even if I managed to get enough money together for a train ticket (I never would have), if I went home my mother would have just sent me straight back to that futzing school again. I had nowhere to go. I was hungry, got rained on, and just generally started looking like a street kid I guess. Which I guess is what I am. Hehe, a Pyrope, a child hoodlum. I stopped getting work. I'd always had some slight trouble because apparently not looking someone in the eye proves you're a little criminal, out to nick all the notes to the baker's down the street. And topping that off with looking how I must have? So eventually I had to try my hand at begging.
Push the brim up, stash your aunt's glasses, and look sad. Now you're a pathetic wreck who needs help. I got run off by the cops a few times, but I actually made a better living begging than working. I mean it's not a line of "work" I'd recommend, but, well... let's just say it's a good enough deal that there's competition.
As a beggar, the cops aren't really the ones you've got to worry about. I would never have guessed this, but apparently it's the other beggars. I had a few disagreements over who got what corner. Sometimes violence was actually threatened! Against a poor blind girl! The sheer outrageousness of such a notion. Worse, sometimes violence occurred.
To them, mostly.
You know that bit from earlier about how Aunt Redglare "attempted" to help me "handle" my new problem? She was teaching me to sense my surroundings. To be able to fix in on where people are and guess what they're trying to do. I'd always been as good as the next person in a scrap, and we were determined that losing my sight was not going to change that. After all, you don't need eyes to throw a punch or to kick a shin. Hehe, I won't pretend I won every fight. What do you expect? I'm blind, not a prize-fighter. But I put up enough resistance that only newbies to the "business" tried hassling me. (And for full disclosure, being blind might have actually helped me here; otherwise I wouldn't have been carrying a folding cane with me everywhere I went. Long weapons are very useful!)
My abilities in fighting (and running, when the law was inevitably called in) apparently got me some attention from other parties as well. A kid approached me about helping out some friends of his. Apparently they'd been having some trouble over who could be where--just like I had been--and... well, long story short, I found out I'd joined a gang.
I'm not exactly proud of that. I might even go so far as to say I was futzing angry with myself. My family's always been on the side of the Law; sheriffs, lawyers, judges. And then there's me, a beggar (though to be fair, at least that's honest!) and member of a gang of young crooks (this... less so. Far less so). I should have turned them in. It's what anyone else in my family would have done. But I'm weak. They were pretty decent sorts, aside from the whole criminal problem. And they had a hideout that they let me stay in. The roof hardly leaked at all. And, well... they weren't really hurting anybody. A few pockets picked here, a few odds and ends swiped there... They were just trying to take care of themselves, like me. Damn it to hell, we ended up friends. They didn't even care when they eventually found out I was a girl.
Not long after I joined (it wasn't entirely intentionally!), we were in turn approached by a small time bootlegger we knew as S. Grub. (What a name, hm?) He wanted some kids to pose as lookouts around his warehouse, pass messages to his buyers. We had no idea what we were getting into.
First of all, his security was nonexistent. We were supposed to fix that. With the power of our imaginations, I suppose. Second of all, when he got raided--which frankly I'm surprised didn't happen sooner than it did--he blamed us. Third of all, we were not paid enough for all of this bushwa. Fourth of all, he got us noticed by the guy whose territory he was horning in on--"Bec" Noir.
Noir... you know what, if you haven't heard of him yet, you travel in better circles than me, and ought to stay there. Anyway. Big cheese. Mean. Does not take kindly to upstarts like Grub--and by extension, us. Last I heard of Grub, they were fishing him out of the lake. The juice joints he'd been selling to? Shot up. Yeah. We ran back to our neighborhood, tails between our legs, and laid low. And word got back to us that we hadn't moved too fast, either. Noir was even looking for us.
Last I heard, Bec Noir didn't know who the kids that had been working for Grub were specifically. We felt safe enough in our own neighborhood. At least until I discovered one of us was going to sell the rest out to Noir in the hopes of being "forgiven" himself. Evan was always a special brand of stupid. Noir is not known for his forgiveness. Neither are Pyropes.
I strangled the kid with my cane.
The gang split up. It was probably the safest move. Not only did we present a smaller target, but we couldn't turn on any of the others this way. We went different ways, to different neighborhoods. With any luck, some of us ended up outside of Noir's territory.
Me, I intend to do some thinking. I'm not sure what to do with myself at this point. I never wanted to be a crook, but I can't work for the law. I don't know.
Mostly I want to stop hearing Evan gurgling.