Keeping Ill Company

Loud. Very loud. Gasper Cloude didn't like the shopping district because of this. There were so many people bustling about, it made him uneasy. Then again, everything seemed to make him uneasy these days; between Valerie, or "The Wicked Witch of the East" as people were calling her, defecting from Oz and taking a number of good men, two drug labs getting hit in less than a week, and now patrol beetles crawling on Oz territory, Gasper had plenty of reason to be on edge. But he didn't need to be calm here; he just needed to have product, and a weapon. Some new buyer for some vicatan, some high school girl. Gasper's partner at the school told him she was looking for a dealer and referred her to him, so they set up a meeting in the shopping district; keep the girl from going to unsafe parts of town, and it got Gasper away from the chaos at home. Win-win, assuming this wasn't another one of the Witch's tricks. He tapped his foot, restless, but patient, as he stood on the street corner waiting for his buyer.

Dolores's hands were sweating. She was nervous, terrified even. And she could feel herself going through withdrawal. She was out of oxy, and she wasn't supposed to be for another week, so she wasn't able to get a new prescription anytime before then. Still, she needed something. Could she cope with the pain? Technically, yes, but why should she? She took pain away from everyone she could, she earned this. She was worth it.
Part of her wanted to go home, to not go through with this. She was making a deal with someone from East Diamond, illegally buying drugs that she was already getting addicted to. She knew this was wrong, it was stupid, if she got caught, things would go south in a heartbeat.
But another part of her just wanted her god damn pills. And that part was just a little bit louder.
Hoodie up and head down, she approached the street corner she was supposed to meet the dealer at. There was a thin, hard eyed young man there, who saw her approaching. She stopped a few feet away from him and looked at him with nervous gray eyes. "H-hello..." She said nervously; she wasn't exactly sure how to start this sort of interaction.

"Cut the niceties." Gasper snapped at the kid. She was new to this, that much was obvious. He allowed himself to breath a slight sigh of relief; if Valerie was going to attack him during a drug deal, she would send someone who had an idea of what they were doing. "You the buyer?" He asked, knowing fully well that she was.

Dolores flinched at the man's curt manner, but nodded. "Y-yeah. I am." Her hands were sweating as she kneaded her fingers in her pockets. She could feel her tongue dry up in her mouth and her breath tighten in her chest. She was so anxious, almost panicking, but she had to keep her head with this kind of man; he was dangerous.

Gasper nodded. "Good. I hate this part of the city." He pulled a small, brown paper bag out of his satchel and held it up. "Fifty pills, as agreed. I hope you have the money."
He couldn't help but eye the girl up and down; she wasn't the normal kind of person he dealt with. She wasn't a hard ganger needing to relieve the stress of Mocca City, nor some uppity white collar prick needing some kicks. No, she was a developing addict, someone who he'd get the unfortunate privilege of watching her turn into a junkie. She was dangerous, if only to herself. Not that he cared; people destroying their own lives with drugs was how he made a living. He wasn't judging her; there were plenty of worse people for him to pass judgement on.

Dolores nodded, pulling several hundred dollars of cash out of her pocket. She had do dip into her college savings for this, but it was her money. What she did with it was no one else's business. Fuck them. She didn't have to explain herself to anyone else. She walked towards the man and pressed the money into his hand, reaching for the bag of pills with her other hand. "Thanks." She muttered.

A smirk slid onto Gasper's face as he took the money, allowing the girl to take the bag of pills. He quickly flipped through the bills, ensuring that it was all there. "Don't mention it, kid. Been a pleasure doing business with you; look forward to it in the future." Once he was sure he had it all, he looked up at her, smiled, and waved at her before walking off. No point in lingering; he had things to attend to back at home.