The new beat (open)

[Elizabeth Tate Potter]

Elizabeth didn't like her name.

She liked Tate, it was a way to honor her mother in her eyes. After all-- there weren't many people she'd met that understood her at all. Tate had few problems or things that she had to worry about, so she worried about others with the same genuine concern of people twice her age worrying over their own problems. She was a sweet girl, honest to a fault that was uncanny in the world she lived in.

Most people called her naive. She didn't see it that way.

The sun was hidden behind some clouds but it didn't stop the hum lifting in her voice as she headed to work, the baker liked her well enough and that was enough to keep her going to work every day and smiling. Then again, Tate was always smiling.

Catching the smell of the other bakers and the distinct smell of dirt and animals she smiled and kept on walking, it was how the world was in her mind. She was born and raised in Manhattan. She didn't live in the drudges but she didn't live in the high class sod either. Her father was a frugal man and she loved him for it. Made living easier and made her frugal. She wasn't going to avoid the subject of money though it was her Aunt Marisa that always had her puzzled.

Her Aunt had come to them a little, off. People would always say her shouting and swinging brooms was just a phase of a woman who had lost something but Tate, could not agree. Her Aunt was missing a strong part of herself and now she was going to lose them too. If the cops got word that she was causing trouble again.

With a sigh she continued on her way, letting the breeze carry her dark hair over her shoulder. She didn't like to wear it up, seemed so confining that way. So she looked like a wild child with her long flowing hair under her hat, her brown shawl over her arms as she kept walking. The wind was picking up and it kicked off her hat.

She snapped back and jumped to catch it, letting out a ah-hah! of Success when she finally reached the wide brimmed hat that was more to keep the sun out of her eyes than to make a fashion statement.

[David Jacobs]

David Jacobs was not a happy person.

Everything in Manhattan seemed to be upside down, Mike was getting to everyone, and everyone hated it. No one could trust anyone anymore, no one could turn their back on shady characters. He hated knowing that there was something out there ruining his friends lives.

He felt bad for Les, who wasn't allowed to go outside at all without David or Sarah. Les didn't understand why he wasn't allowed at the Lodging House anymore, and he complained about not getting to see Jack. Oh of course, Les liked Jack more than his own brother. That irked David.

Then there was Sarah, poor innocent Sarah. She didn't have a clue to what was going on. Then again she didn't have a clue about anything. David knew that Sarah and Mike were seeing one another. He wanted to stop it, just for the sake of his friends, but no. Sarah claimed Mike was a good person, that he had changed. If she only knew...

David was the one suffering the most out of the Jacobs family. He had to listen to Jack complain about Mike, and then have him not do anything. He wasn't taken seriously by him, and that bothered him. David was the one that helped out the most during the strike, in his opinion. But Jack was the one that took all of the glory. He knew that if they survived this, Jack would be the one taking all of the glory...again.

He tried not to let stupid things bother him, but it was hard to. He was the type of person that got bothered by the littlest things, walks didn't help. His parents were too paranoid to let him out on his own, and he was sixteen years old, that was almost an adult.

David saw the young lady in front of him's hat be swept off her head by the wind. Ah, a distraction, he walked over to her to help her with it. He saw that she got it back, she looked familiar. He knew he had seen her before, but where at? He tapped her on her shoulder, "Are you okay, miss?" He said.

[Elizabeth Tate Potter]

She turned around at the tap on her shoulder and her eyes widened as she grinned brightly. She could almost swear she'd seen him around before-- she snapped her fingers and smiled. "David Jacobs!" He had been in her primary school classes. She had a governess now, since her father didn't seem to want her to go to school so often. A lot changed when you grew up, she was still as bright as she had always been. Sunny as the day was.


"I haven't seen you in ages! Not since-- well" she was still smiling, so soft and just genuine. And Naive, it was easy to see how she was not protecting herself at all. Just smiling and looking at him with the same innocent gaze she'd had when she'd been a child. But Tate was not a child anymore. She was a woman near marrying age-- and still just as bubbly.