Somewhere on the Mainland; Tuesday Evening

[totalwildcard]

It had already been feeling like kind of a great day to get the hell off the island. And when Harley happened to run into Marc ("happened to run into", "one of them had had gone looking for the other", po-tay-to, po-tah-to)? That just made it into a great day to get the hell off the island and drag him with her! And since it turned out there was roller derby out on the mainland? That had settled where to drag him to.

Right now, that dragging was literal -- wait, well, no. It was physical? Point was, they'd left the car a few blocks away, and Harley was pulling Marc along by the hand towards what she was pretty sure was the correct building - yanno, even before she saw the people filing in through the main entrance, sporting various unnatural hair colors with a general alternative sense of style about them.

It made her squeal with excitement. "Oooooo you can practically smell the sweat and broken noses already!"

(NFB and for the dragee!)

Comments

[totalwildcard]

There seemed to be no imminent threat of that, at least!

Although Harley was maybe starting to push what was socially acceptable in public, with the kiss. Just a little! And it wasn't her fault! He knew how into it she could get, and how devour-y.

[hasaknightjob]

Marc hadn't forgotten where they were. So he wasn't amplifying what she was doing, but at he same time he was still kissing her back in kind. If needed he'd pump the brakes before it got too much.

[totalwildcard]

So far, Harley wasn't trying to jam her hands down his pants or nothin'?

But that still didn't stop a sudden voice from behind Marc's back, together with a tap on his shoulder. "Come on, can you take the PDA somewhere else?"

[hasaknightjob]

Marc wasn't trying to start anything. For the most part he was fine with doing his thing and if other people tried to start stuff - eh. He had nothing to prove, he could move on.

But this was somebody touching him when he wasn't aware they were there. Which meant instinct took over. Marc whirled around, automatically going to grab the hand in question with a firmness which said this could be a handshake or a lot more painful.

"Problem?" he asked. Not upset, but not easy going either. Again making it clear there was a choice being presented about how that question could be answered.

[totalwildcard]

It was a guy, younger than them (horrible how mid-twenties counted as younger than them enough to mention), looking startled at having his hand grabbed like that. "Whoa, hey, you don't have to get like that! We just didn't come here to watch you suck face with your girlfriend!"

Harley had taken a few seconds to catch up with how Marc had been there and then he hadn't -- well, okay, the back of him had still been there, but you know what she meant! Anyway, now she was leaning past Marc's shoulder to point an accusing finger at the guy. "Hey, you mind your own business, buster! No one asked ya!"

[hasaknightjob]

Since the guy was already backing down, Marc let his hand go. He had nothing to prove and didn't do random violence for the sake of it.

"How about you move over," Marc said, gesturing to either side of him and Harley, "and we can all go on with our lives."

[totalwildcard]

"I'm just saying," the guy tried, yanking his hand back as soon as it was free, "you're taking up space in the front row, man."

Was it useful that Harley was sticking out her tongue? Probably not. Especially with how the guy kind of had a point, with how many people have gathered around the track while they'd been... distracted.

[hasaknightjob]

Marc once again pointed to either side of them.

"Space," he said. Sure it might require jockeying with the other people there but that wasn't Marc's problem. "Go nuts."

[totalwildcard]

"Where?" the guy said, repeating his gesture right back at him.

Meanwhile, the commotion had already caught the attention of someone at the edge of the crowd. Someone in a yellow vest that said SECURITY on the back - but they couldn't see that quite yet.

[hasaknightjob]

"You could've found a spot in the time you've spent talking to me," Marc pointed out.

[totalwildcard]

"Come on, man, you're being uncool," the guy tried.

Which was about when the person in the SECURITY vest (hey it actually said it on the chest of said vest too, just smaller!) pushed through the crowd to them, asking what was going on and what the issue was.

At which point Harley piped up with, "This guy's bein' an ass! We were just minding our own business!"

[hasaknightjob]

"Just having a conversation," Marc said. He gave the guy who'd tapped him on the shoulder a look. "Right?"

[totalwildcard]

The guy stammered something vague and unconvincing.

Which in turn made Security look unconvinced. "Y'all know we're adhering to safer space principles here, right?" they asked.

"Everyone's totally safe!" Harley argued, with a flail so wide that it almost knocked the drink out of some poor innocent bystander's hand.

[hasaknightjob]

"I'm just standing here," Marc said. "That against the rules?"

[totalwildcard]

"If you're making other people feel unsafe while you're doing it?" Security replied, looking from him to the guy, with more of an unspoken question.

The guy looked like he was about to protest, then just held up his hands at the last second instead.

[hasaknightjob]

"Thought someone was trying to mess with - " there was a brief falter over the next two words " - my girl here. We cleared it up. Nobody's trying to start a problem."

[totalwildcard]

Too bad - or maybe for the best? - that he couldn't see Harley's face go all 'exclamation point question mark' behind him.

The guy, bless him, made a strangled indignant noise, but said nothing because he apparently really didn't want to get back into it. Security... looked dubious, but like they were willing to let it go for now. "Okay," they said, slowly. "Cool. But don't give me a reason to come back here."

[hasaknightjob]

"Just here to watch some derby," Marc said. He didn't see Harley's expression and may have purposefully been avoiding putting her even in his peripheral vision just in case. "Not interested in anything else."

[totalwildcard]

"Sure, just keep it that way," Security told him, and with one final nod, went retreating back into the crowd.

Which, incidentally, was what the guy was doing now too, because it was not worth it to stick around in this part of the audience.

[hasaknightjob]

Once they were both gone, Marc finally turned his back to the people behind them again.

"You okay?" he asked Harley. Not that she couldn't handle her own, but still.

[totalwildcard]

"Uhhhhh yeah," Harley replied, having mostly got her face under control again. (The eyebrows were still kind of doing a thing, but don't worry about it.) "Totally fine! Extremely cool!"

Okay maybe that wasn't super natural, either.

[hasaknightjob]

Marc grimaced. He'd worried about this.

"Sorry," he said. "I don't - I don't think I own you."

[totalwildcard]

Harley's eyebrows did some more stuff. Namely, they were going up again.

"Whuh?"

... Sometimes you tried to say 'what?' and 'huh?' at the same time. It got messy.

[hasaknightjob]

"'My'," Marc said, stressing it to show the word itself as what he thought was the issue. "You're not my anything. I don't own you."

[totalwildcard]

"Oh."

That sounded disappointed. But Harley was doing her best to recover from it, shaking her head like what she was about to say was obvious or something, really! Honest!

"No, of course I'm... not your anything. That'd be -- silly."