Somewhere on the Mainland; Sunday Early Evening

[totalwildcard]

You asked Harley, it was a pretty good Sunday, so far.

She'd started out her day with no plan, and yet by happy accident (and it was definitely an accident, and not someone somewhere making room in a shared schedule to facilitate things, or anything deliberate on the part of anyone directly involved!) she'd run into Marc, and that had sparked a simple and easy plan after all: to drive him to the mainland for dinner, at a restaurant she'd overheard someone talking about on one of her off-island jaunts earlier in the week. It was supposed to be a family-run, no-nonsense little Italian place, and exactly the sort of thing Harley was in the mood for, especially right now with the company she had.

So life was indeed pretty good!

And Harley's mood wasn't soured even by finding out there was actually no parking available right by the restaurant. After some searching, she'd managed to find a spot some blocks away - which was to say, she'd sniped it from right under someone's nose with a truly reckless move. Which had led to some blaring horns from other cars. Which was all good in Harley's book! She had more important things to be thinking about, anyway!

"And the tiramisu's supposed to be amazing," she was saying, as they got out of the car. "Like, 'someone's 97-year-old tiny little Italian grandma made it' kind of amazing. D'you think they'd let me order that for an app and not just dessert?"

(NFB for distance, for the one modded with permission + some NPCs)

Comments

[totalwildcard]

"So you're saying I'm a problem," Harley quipped, immediately, because she had to. Had to.

[hasaknightjob]

"For the right people," Marc replied. There was something like a grin.

[totalwildcard]

Which Harley repaid with a smirk. "Betcha never been as glad to be the wrong people," she said. Not that she wasn't finding her own special ways to be a problem for him as well.

Anyway, that said: "I liked your style, too. Efficient."

Which had not come as a surprise.

[hasaknightjob]

"Not my first rodeo," Marc said, shrugging it off. "Easy enough, dealing with guys like that."

[totalwildcard]

"Eh," Harley said, with a tiny shrug, "it'd been a while, I thought I might have gotten rusty."

Of course, now she was giving him a thoughtful look. Having said that, and in doing so having sent a thought pinballing through her brain to hit on half-forgotten details of their evening so far.

[hasaknightjob]

Now it was Marc's turn to look at her uncertainly. "What?"

[totalwildcard]

"You got a god on your case about it," Harley replied, with a moderate head tilt (for once), "didn't ya?"

Yeah. That.

[hasaknightjob]

Right. That.

"Not on my case," Marc said. And yeah, there was a glance out the windows in case of any errant breezes. "He was fine with it."

Which Marc did not sound wholly thrilled about, much as he was showing any emotions here.

[totalwildcard]

"Really, really don't care how he feels about it," Harley replied with extremely raised eyebrows, studying Marc. "Or about how he feels about showing up."

[hasaknightjob]

"He's not interested in you," Marc told her. Marc intended to do what he could to keep it that way. "And he shows up when he wants. He's a god. What are you gonna do?"

General "you" at the end there, not Harley specifically.

[totalwildcard]

Harley was going to answer from her very specific viewpoint anyway!

"Yell at him, for starters, if he gave me a chance to!"

[hasaknightjob]

"You're not gonna see or hear him," Marc told her. "Only avatars - "

Marc frowned as her words caught up to him. "What would you say?"

[totalwildcard]

"I don't know, to fuck off, probably!" Harley replied, spreading her hands. "And that whatever you're doing with me is none of his business!"

You could really tell she was serious when all the emphasis came out in full force.

[hasaknightjob]

Steven wasn't there to hear the conversation, but if he could he would approve.

"I was protecting somebody," Marc pointed out. He grimaced because he didn't like phrasing it that way but it still worked for all intents and purposes. "Kinda. That's his deal. Plus violence. He loves that. It's been - I can't remember the last time I did something like that. Of course he's going to put a word in."

The of course was as much Marc reminding himself as anything.

[totalwildcard]

"Well, I don't like it," Harley replied, "and he can fuck off instead of showing up and makin' you look -- uncomfortable."

Such as it was, with him and his expressions, anyway.

[hasaknightjob]

"It's how the deal works," Marc said. "I don't get a choice. He shows up when he wants, tells me what to do when he wants, I do it. Least it was just him - "

Marc shrugged. Not his usual shrug, more like he was shaking off something on his shoulders.

"He was just talking. It's fine."

[totalwildcard]

"No, it's not."

Harley was still eyeing him, that shrug included, but she didn't sound like she planned to argue about it much further than this.

Just wanted her feelings to be crystal clear, for some reason.

[hasaknightjob]

"Least he didn't ask me to leave?" Marc said. Which was a hollow upside since Khonshu could show up then and there and do exactly that, but it was the best Marc had to offer.

It was possibly also not the thing to say right before getting out of the car, but Marc very much felt a need to move and feel in control of his body and that was the only option he could think of.

[totalwildcard]

Harley had been about to point out their food was probably ready, but she still blinked in an '... okay then' kind of way when he was the first to move.

But it was fine.

For at least some definitions of fine, anyway.

She took a moment to tuck her newly confiscated gun in the glove compartment (there really wasn't anywhere on her where it wouldn't be extremely conspicuous for walking through town with), then moved to get out, too.

[hasaknightjob]

Marc stood by the car, shifting his weight on his feet as he scanned the rooftops he could see from the parking area. There was nothing. Not even an unusual breeze. Didn't stop Marc from feeling restless.

[totalwildcard]

Harley locked the doors, straightened up, took one look at him and exhaled a "Fucking fantastic" under her breath, complete with an annoyed glare up at the sky.

Just in general.

Actually out loud, she said, inclining her head towards the street, "Come on, let's go."

[hasaknightjob]

Marc needed a sec to remember what they were doing. "Right. Home."

Okay, he'd slightly lost what they were doing.

[totalwildcard]

"Italian place, then home," Harley supplied, already moving in that general direction, now. "No food's getting left uneaten on my watch."

That was a little half-hearted, if still accurate.

[hasaknightjob]

"Right," Marc said. His thoughts and body were both getting focused on the here and now again. "Food. We - we could go back to that place again sometime. Get you your dessert."

[totalwildcard]

"Have to have gone in the first place to go back."

Or something. They'd made it within like a block of the place, it counted.

"But yeah, we should."