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]

"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."

[hasaknightjob]

"You're your own person," Marc said, to show he understood. Or thought he understood, which as always was the more common option for him. "I wouldn't be an asshole and act like I get - I dunno. Some kind of claim."

[totalwildcard]

"Well ya could still get a little one," Harley muttered, apparently unable to help herself.

[hasaknightjob]

"That's not up to me," Marc said. As though she didn't know that.

[totalwildcard]

"I mean it is a little bit," Harley replied, "if ya don't want one."

She should stop talking.

But, she was Harley.

[hasaknightjob]

Now Marc was lost. Though for Marc being lost was actually an improvement on him incorrectly thinking he knew what they were talking about.

"Want one what?"

[totalwildcard]

"A little claim."

See, there she went again, talking.

[hasaknightjob]

Marc was still several laps behind. Whether there was facepalming going on inside of Marc's head would sadly never be known by him.

"On what?"

So much facepalming.

[totalwildcard]

Usually Harley was pretty good at just rolling with whatever catching up he needed, because it wasn't as if she wasn't used to having to catch people up to what she was on about - but judging by her face, this was too much.

"Do you remember what we were just talking about like five seconds ago?" she asked, incredulous. "Me! A claim on me!"