/flips subject titles into the trash

[speedofnaked]

WHO: Terra & OPEN
WHERE: The City
WHEN: Tuesday, May 24th, between the hours of 7am and 7pm.
WARNINGS: I DON'T KNOW. SAP?
WHAT: Esperchan. Doing... things... literally just roaming around town all day so just about anywhere you want it to be, it can be. Except central park because haha walking around Illidan's back yard, no.
WORDS: yes...

Comments

[inthirds]

What a coincidence! Zelgadis wasn't entirely sure how to go about being a boyfriend, let alone catering to the girl variety. Of course, he had a kind of coach he could (and did) express a need for, but...well, he had to figure things out for himself, didn't he?

Getting up late and finding himself alone wasn't the greatest starting point, but then, when had his life ever given him anything but lemons? To the lemonade stand with you, boy. By which this tag means go out and do something.

So he does. He's not completely at a loss, at least; he had that (sadly tilted to the lecherous) awareness picked up from life with Rodimus and Zolf, which, of course, held very little water when he wound up traveling with actual women. But those women were crazy, and hardly helped in situations like this. Couples were pretty impossible to ignore in such a populated city, though, so he could glean some ideas. It was all a lot of touching, though...And he wasn't exactly the most touchable, much to his dismay. He needed something else

[speedofnaked]

It was hard not to notice Zelgadis; he never dressed time-period appropriate, or weather-appropriate, so even without the blue skin or weapons or face masks, he tended to stand out in crowds. For Terra, it was even harder - she didn't even need eyes to notice him.

It made it easy to spot him long before he noticed her, and for the moment Terra was a little hesitant to make her presence known. It wasn't often that she saw him out and about, and Terra was curious about his habits. She was curious about a lot of things, really, but it only got worse where he was concerned.

It wasn't really stalking.

[inthirds]

He wasn't exactly sure what he was looking for, so naturally he wound up paying more attention to things that interested him. Particularly the drafting tools that were on display in a campus book supply store. He had a habit of scratching at his cheek or stroking his chin with consideration in situations like that (for all the good it did), musing about this or that. It was nice to see some familiar items, but the measuring systems were foreign. He'd have to get back into the habit of studying up. With the City going to hell and back every other day, though...

The green hair was hard to pick up on first glance, reflected on the glass, so there was a slow double-take. He could've just imagined it - he seemed to do a lot of that in her regard, after all - but something told him to pay more attention. He turned around and blinked.

"Terra-?"

[speedofnaked]

Caught, there wasn't much Terra can do but smile and hold her hand up in a stationary wave for greeting, dropping it as she cut through the milling crowd. It wasn't too difficult to get close to Zelgadis himself, since there seemed to be a practical bubble of empty space around him. He stood out, and people who stood out were usual imPorts, and it was never wise to get too physically close to them.

"Hey." The smile was etched more deeply into one cheek than the other, and her gaze drifted from his face to the window. "What're you looking at?"

[speedofnaked]

The woman, with her unusual green hair and her moderately more mundane sundress, was leaning against the wall partition between two separate shop windows. She looked like she could have simply been a punkish girl with a penchant for hair dye, but there was something different about her. If one had the ability to sense the sort of thing, there was an aura of power around her - of great magical strength - and something else entirely.

What it was, though, was certainly not clear from her stance or appearance. When Terra caught sight of someone watching her in return, her gaze shifted from mundane couple-watching to meet the stare of her starer, a look of mild confusion to her features.

She didn't recognize the girl with the doll, but there was always a chance that she recognized Terra instead; her head tilted a little in curious invitation, eyebrow quirked.

[speedofnaked]

There was something about the way the girl approached that had the hair rising on the back of Terra's neck. Perhaps it was the doll. Perhaps it was the blood on her clothing. (Probably it was the blood.) Either way, she felt a little on-guard when she finally spoke.

The way she says it... Terra thought, looking the girl over, is she...?

"... Import," she answered, slow and level. Terra didn't think she stood out that much, but being deemed as foreign was better than being strange.

[incywincyhero]

[ Spidey's swinging through the city, less with a particular goal in mind than keeping his finger on the pulse. He does a triple somersault in mid-air (causing ooohs of admiration from a couple of lucky office workers who look out the window at exactly the right moment) and, as he rights himself, notices a familiar flash of minty green. Could it be? Is it she?

Pre-empting the Beauty and the Beast earworm about to take hold of his brain, he spread-eagles and lets himself drop. Less than three stories from the ground he bounces off a flagpole, snags a lamppost and does a loop-de-loop around the top bar. Momentum thus killed, he lands almost soundlessly on the post itself ... five feet above Terra's head. ]

Terra, hey! I haven't seen you in a while, kiddo.

[speedofnaked]

[ The question over who would play Beauty and who would be Beast in this encounter is one that would come with some debate, were it to be brought up. It's the sound of her name that draws her attention, and Terra cranes her head back with a hand held up to shield from the sunlight. The streets aren't empty, so there's some obligatory quiet ooh, look! murmurs. Someone is probably taking cellphone video.

You know. City as usual.

When Terra recognizes that super-distinctive costume, her shoulders slump, a little ashamed. It carries in her voice, but not as obviously. ]

Hey, Spidey...

[incywincyhero]

[ The greetings past, Spidey comes to the sudden and uncomfortable realization that he swung down here and pounced on Terra without the slightest idea of what he wanted to say. "So how's the pink, flying monster schtick been going for you lately?" That'd be sure to go over well. ]

... How's it hanging?

[ In the background, someone snickers. ]

[speedofnaked]

[ Nervous hands smooth down her sundress. ]

Pretty okay. What about you? I haven't seen you around since--

[ And not even finishing that sentence because awkward. Is she supposed to apologize? She feels like she should... ]

/forces out tags like woah

[afriendtosell]

John's been searching the city for answers today. The Porter is a hot button topic -- part curiosity, part rumor and legend -- but no one seems to know anything concrete about it. Worse still, there's an undercurrent of...it's an almost palpable sense of fear running through the underground, like they're expecting something but have no idea as to what it may be.

The knowledge that another event like the one that turned him into a seventeen year old sprog for a week had a chance of happening soon set John on edge. He despised having the very essence of his freedom -- choice -- taken away from him.

Naturally, planning what to do next was best done underneath a street lamp at dusk, when most of the city was getting ready to shift to the nightlife scene.

/collects them with care

[speedofnaked]

It was right around then that Terra was planning to make her way back to her apartment, for being out after dark usually led to meetings with a certain individual she would rather like to avoid. She wished she had followed Zelgadis's advice more carefully, all those months ago. She didn't even have contract with the demonic Illidan, and yet he seemed to hound after her footsteps.

It was for this her senses were focused less on the sight of streets lightening under bright lamps, or the hazy colorless dark sweeping overhead. For this, the sounds of the city were mostly ignored. Instead, Terra's attention was more focused on that other sense, where her skin would tingle and her muscles tighten. The world itself was mostly empty of magic, so sudden blips of presence like Illidan would be easy to detect.

In so looking for that specific sensation, Terra missed completely the man beneath the street lamp. It was only after she'd passed, five or six long paces on heeled shoes further down, that she stopped to look back over her shoulder.

/finally able to tag again. weddings are hell.

[afriendtosell]

John ran over his plan of action twice before he noticed that the back of his neck had broken out in gooseflesh. He didn't move, but subtly sent out a pulse of his second sight to try and feel out if he was in any immediate danger. The pulse traveled quickly, bouncing off of every inanimate object in the vicinity until, unsurprisingly, they settled on a source of power nearly a magnitude above his own.

He should have known that his day was going too well. He cursed underneath his breath, then started channeling a free-form hex into the palm of his head, ready to be loosed at the nearest sign of danger.

When he turned whomever it was, he was all smiles. "Do I got something on me face, luv?"

He ignored the overall form of the young woman -- worse than anything, he knew he couldn't trust anyone he wasn't already familiar with.

was it a nice wedding, though?

[speedofnaked]

The girl -- for even at nineteen, Terra didn't quite have the build of a woman -- looked a bit startled, turning where she stood to face John front to front, rather than leave her back exposed like that. The prickle only seemed to get worse, hair standing on end across her shoulders and arms. Unlike many she'd met, the power of this man was not laid clear to her; it was like the prickling start to a rain shower, and not knowing whether that was all it would be, or if torrential rains and the crackle of thunder would follow.

And with the number of times she'd nearly been killed for underestimating, she wasn't quick to dismiss it as nothing.

"No," she answered, her hesitation and wariness clear in her soft voice. "You startled me."

[ridi_arlecchino]

Whereas Terra had an upswing of mood, Harley was fighting against a downswing due to her closest friend in the City just having been 'ported out. She still had other friends here, and even an invitation to spend time with Andy and Pam later that night, but it wasn't quite the same.

She was on her way to the nearest gardening store when her eyes caught sight of the woman with green hair. Harley felt a vague familiarity there that seemed to extend beyond her memories of the Joker. Her face took on a thoughtful look as she simultaneously pushed out a friendly greeting.

"Heya!"

If nothing else, she was direct.

[speedofnaked]

It took Terra a long second to realize the greeting was aimed at her, so her turn was a little slow, but it was easy to identify who had made the call. Voice and face were both familiar, but Terra couldn't quite place her...

"Hey," she called back, her eyes wide for her surprise and confusion, but her tone and smile were both warm. It was right on the tip of her tongue who this woman was, but the epiphany was being cruelly elusive.

[ridi_arlecchino]

"Don't I know you from somewhere?" Harley asked, coming to a stop next to the woman with a little bounce. She gestured animatedly towards Terra's head. "I never forget a mop of hair like that!"

[speedofnaked]

She returned with a nod, eyebrows creased for concentration. If it weren't for the fact Terra knew that voice from somewhere, she would have simply assumed that she was just another one of those Crabhammers, loitering about in the City after the battle.

"From the communicators?" One of Terra's hands fiddled with the hem of her dress for something to do, still thinking. "I recognize you, too..."