You know they put a man on the moon simply to prove that we all need a place to go

[stillaboyscout]

It's been a fairly quiet Black Friday in Chicago, at least for a select few.

Chance Adams hasn't been out in quite some time, and she's enjoying the brisk Chicago air. She's at Grant Park at the moment, smiling to herself as she watches the kids play. She misses her family a little, sure, and she sure as hell didn't eat any turkey yesterday, but

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[thehighestwing]

Mike McGill, have a crazy tineh blonde girl to the face.

Phoebe is also just walking the streets, doing her thing, like she do.

She's one of those people he's pushing past, apologizing immediately as he does. One of her shopping bags drop and she goes eep.

"It's okay! Totally my fault. Didn't really look where I was going, either. It's all this shopping. Has me crazy. Guys are really hard to shop for, yanno? Holy long ass tacos and the butt of a donkey, but I'm almost done. Maybe I should just get them boxes and have them pretend their space ships. Boys love that, don't they?"

... the narration apologizes for her, belatedly.

[justashitmagnet]

The minute she drops the bag, Mike goes down to get it. "No, no, it's my fault," he quickly begins to apologize. "I'm sorry, here..." he picks up the bag and hands it to her.

"Um, I don't know what boys like, it's been a while since I've been one," he says finally in response to her question. "Sorry. I guess I fail again."

Oh Mike.

[thehighestwing]

Phoebe takes the back from him with a bright smile. "Thank ye! You are verra kind. It's totally okay, I promise. Wasn't watching where I was going and no harm done, yeah?"

She wrinkles her nose at his answer. "I don't know why I call them boys. They're really old brotherthings, but still. Shouldn't expect you to know just because you're a guy, too!"

Inspecting him closely, she asks, "Are you all right, mister?"

Phoebe is often up in everyone's grill.

[justashitmagnet]

Mike just kind of stares and nods. "Um, yeah. No harm done. None at all."

And then he just continues to stare. What else is he going to do? "Um. I guess I should, but I'm kind of out of touch, I guess. I don't get out very often." Literally.

And then he gets on his tippy-toes to get a little more away from her. It's not that he's scared of her... except for the part where he kind of is. "Um, yes, I'm fine, thank you," he says quickly. "Are you all right, ma'am?"

[lovemeipromise]

Michael is limping through Grant Park. He's trying to hide the fact that he's limping, but it's not quite working so well. The last wanderer he killed put up a bit of a fight- shapeshifters are annoying, but he's dead now.

He's carrying a violin case (it's what he keeps the bits of his sword in when he's not using it), so it kind of looks like he got into a horrible accident at violin practice, but whatever.

One of the kids playing rams into him and he staggers back, hissing in pain.

"Watch it," he growls.

Hi, Chance. Have a pretentious vengeance angel.

[teenytinyteme]

Chance frowns at the kid yelling at other kids. She is not a fan of bullies, even bullies that are clearly injured. "Hey mister, pick on someone your own size," she snaps at him.

She figures that she's safe, because, uh. Even with her GIANTASS WINGS (that are conviently hidden under a jacket) she's way smaller than him. So of course he wouldn't pick on her. Nope.

[lovemeipromise]

Michael stares at the girl, quirking an eyebrow. He steps away from the children to avoid being smacked into again and says, "If you call that bullying, I have to wonder what you would have said if I'd backhanded the little brat. Thankfully, I'm a bit too polite for unnecessary violence."

He saves that for wanderers. And the occasional demon.

....It's a good thing that he never keeps his wings out unless he's about to kill. It's unbecoming for anyone to catch a glimpse of his true nature but the ones whom he strikes down.

[teenytinyteme]

Chance just scowls at him. "I wouldn'ta SAID anything," she snaps. "I would have just bopped over there and punched you in the balls. You don't hit little kids unless you're a stupid asshole."

Michael may be too polite for unnecessary violence, but Chance is not. She's not polite at all if she can help it, and she's definitely not polite to jerks like him.

[pplrunincircles]

Elizabeth has not seen Mike since the Zombie. The Zombie was before the plagues, before Josef, before the fire. It was a long, long time ago. Her hands are bandaged still. They'll be that way for at least a week or two. The only reason she left Josef's apartment (it was very very difficult to do) was to fetch cake. He made dinner last night so apparently that means she should buy him cake. It's in a bag which is wrapped around her wrist.

It's been so long since she's seen him but she can still smile. It's a wide smile of relief. Part of her feels like too much has changed, and she can't possibly act like it hasn't but then she starts speaking, and it's easier than she ever imagined.

"Hey, it's you. You helped me fight that zombie like forever ago." Oh, that's right she got in an argument the last time she saw him. Oops! It hardly seems important now. Whatever it was about. "I'm... it's really good to see that you're still... you know. Alive and stuff. What with the blood water and the frogs falling and the lice. The... you know...

[justashitmagnet]

Mike just stares at her. "And... I'm glad you're alive," he said back. That is... weird.

And then his eyes fall to her hands and his jaw practically drops, but he manages to keep it together. "Your hands..." he instead says weakly. "It wasn't the fire... from the..." He bites his lip.

"Do you need help with that?" he finally asks.

[pplrunincircles]

Elizabeth smiles at him when he says that.

"I'm pretty glad about that, too. It didn't- You didn't-" She presses her lips together in a frustrated, kind of frown. "I was going to ask if the plagues didn't treat you too horribly but I guess they kind of were a huge, terrible disaster for everyone. I don't think anyone has a worse time than... anyone else. It's sort of hard to compare or anything. I guess I just meant that I hope you're okay, too. Alive is only the first... step."

Her face falls when he mentions her hands, and she tries instinctively to pull them back into the sleeves of her coat. "N- no." She looks back up at him, taking in a deep breath to calm the panic in her heart. "It was... a different fire. I'm okay though."

Elizabeth holds up the bag. "You mean help with this? No, not really. It's kind of heavy on my wrist but I don't want to keep you from going wherever it is you were going... and I don't have to go too far."

[justashitmagnet]

Mike shakes his head. "I... had it better than others, I'm sure," he says quickly. "I mean, I barely came outside after that first day... I just locked myself up in my room and didn't do anything at all." With his door that has a lock. Thank God for that thing.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to call attention to--I'm sorry," he quickly apologizes. "I just... you're okay? Okay. I'm just..." He's failing at words, and he knows it too. He closes his eyes for a minute, trying to figure out how to do this without getting awkward all over everything, because clearly his previous tactics failed.

"No, I'd like to help you--I mean. I'm not going anywhere, and if it's not far than sure it's not far out of my way anyway. If I was going anywhere. Which I'm not. I--" he winces. "Will you just give me the bags, please?" he asks finally.

[ohboythepipes]

Danny is down by the Pier. He's looking for a monster to kill or ya know... anything interesting really.

He walks past Trinity, happy to go along his way without ever saying a word to her but then she makes a sound, and he turns to look at her.

"..Did you just howl? Cause I met werewolves before and you sure ain't no werewolf."

[omnomnomface]

Trin looks at Danny miserably for a moment. "No," she lies, and then takes a long swig of tequila.

And then raises her head to the sky and howls again--softly this time, not as loud, but he can probably hear it. When she's finished, she sits back and sighs.

"Have you ever been in love? I have. Like, loads and loads and fucking SHITLOADS of times. I think. I mean, it wasn't real love, but it felt like love every time, you know? It hurt like real love."

[scrtnvrwntd]

Russell would really like to know what the hell is up with this freakish hell-town. But as it's obvious that no one he knows has any answers, he's being forced to "enjoy" Thanksgiving with his fosterfamily. Who are taking some time to enjoy the lovely temperate weather in Grant Park.

Russell's honed in on the kids, and has made an alliance with one of them ("Hey, my parent's'll stop bugging me if I say I'm playing with you guys. Ley me in and I'll teach you how to put guys in a half-nelson." "OKAY!"), and is now tossing a football around.

After a while, he catches Chance watching, and waves. "You in?"

[teenytinyteme]

Chance has been watching this guy the whole time, and she kind of blushes as he waves at her. "No thanks," she says, shaking her head vigorously even though secretly she kind of would like to play with him.

"I'd probably, like. Break every bone in my body and deflate the ball all in one go."

[scrtnvrwntd]

Russell stares at her like she's just answered him in diophantine equations.

"Uh... duh," he says, like this is a normal thought process. "That's what makes it fun? Come on."

And with that, there is a football heading her way.

As about five of the kids gang up to tackle Russell and bury him under a giggling pile of children.

[teenytinyteme]

Chance catches the ball with a yelp, and then stares at Russell being buried under a pile of kids. What now? She never really watched sports as a kid, barely knew how to play even the simplest of games. What was this supposed to be?

"Um, I caught it!" she reports to Russell with a minimal amount of panic in her voice. "What do I do now?"