Clarice Fong | Blink (The Gifted) (andyoumissit) wrote in saveatlantisic, @ 2018-04-20 20:11:00 |
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Entry tags: | *diana, *hannah, clarice fong |
”If you go down in the woods today….” Angelus singed-songed every so quietly to himself as he walked down the streets of Atlantis. The familiar tune brought a sinister smile to his lips as he wandered, picking up bits of information as he walked and ventured into stores, restaurants, and bars around the city. He kept a close eye out for anyone who might recognize him, but so far he seemed to be blending in very well. From his scouting, only Fred, Buffy, and Faith were here from Sunnydale and Los Angeles. Three people he couldn’t wait to reconnect with for very different reasons. Too bad his precious demon spawn wasn’t here.
So many people, so little time, he thought while passing by a larger group of people. There was so much he wanted to do here, but he needed to play his cards safely for now. The agents who had brought him here wanted something, and even though he wasn’t the type to play well with others - okay,, maybe he did with others in the hot poker and sharp knives kind of way - Angelus wasn’t about to bite the hand that fed him a soulless vacation. Not yet, anyway. For now, he’d just enjoy himself with a tasty meal or two before making his presence known. He humed the children’s tune to himself far too slowly than probably intended, and smiled to himself when he caught sight of who could be the perfect dinner date. ”You’re sure of a big surprise….” So far the training regime was kicking her ass. Clarice thought she might have it more under control given the life she lead, but there were differences between intense physical training and just being on the run and under stress all the time. Definite, exhausting differences. And yet she already felt more powerful, a lot less defenseless than she’d felt before when all she’d had on her side was… portals. Occasionally unreliable portals, even. In any case the thing was that she was no longer just eating out of an understandable degree of gluttony after eating the bare minimum to survive for years; now it was that and also the need for even more energy. So of course she had spent the last few days running up her restaurant bills once dinner time came along. Right now, she needed sugar. And the meringue lemon pie from Float Back was the very ideal of what she had in mind, since the bakery was closed. Clarice dragged her tired, tired feet off to the place, wielding a bag of muscle relaxing bath oils from the mall and completely unaware that someone was following her around. Watching the girl as she walked, Angelus doubled back and made a few turns outside of her line of vision so that he was soon walking in the direction towards her rather than following her. He pulled out the phone in his hand and pretended to be talking to someone on the other end of the line. “Yes, Mom, I’ll be by the house later. You know I’ll never be able to resist your chicken cassero--” Just as he was finishing the fake conversation, Angelus ran into the girl he’d been following, causing her to drop half of the bags she was carrying. “Oh, I’m so sorry,” he said, giving an Oscar-worthy acting performance of concern. “Really, I’m so sorry,” he said again and put the phone back to his ear. “Mom, I’m going to have to call you back. I love you, too.” He put the phone in his pocket and quickly started to work helping the girl pick up her dropped items. Now that he was close, he could practically smell the blood pumping in her veins. Mmm. “I should really pay more attention,” he said. “Are you alright? Is anything broken?” He asked, nodding ot her bags. As per usual Clarice wasn’t interested in what the man coming her way was saying on the phone, only to stay out of his path. However, as hard as she had tried, he ended up running into her anyway as if some kind of force had moved them onto a collision path and there was nothing she could do about it. When she dropped the bags Clarice groaned, stopping herself from berating the man while he apologized ten times in under a minute. She leaned down to pick her stuff back up, rolling some bath oils back into the bag. At least he was helpful as well as apologetic, as opposed to useless and apologetic which was somehow infuriating, normally. “Yeah,” Clarice snickered humorlessly. “You really should. I’m good, it’s all good.” Clarice stood up, pulling the bags, and gave the man an awkward smile as she prepared to walk away. Well, wasn't this one feisty. Angelus could appreciate a little fire as it only made boring interactions more amusing. As she started to walk away, he easily caught up to her. “Could I make it up to you by chance? I haven't been here very long at all, and I'd hate to make such a bad first impression.” “I'm Liam,” he said with a charming smile. It was the second time he'd given out the name he'd gone by as a pathetic human, but it made things easier for now. “I was about to stop and pick up couple things for dinner. Could I treat you to something sweet?” He sure wanted something extra sweet. Anywhere else on the street, at night, Clarice would have felt threatened. A dude walking with you when you had already made it clear that your interaction was over was never good, and something women - mutant or no - had a lot of experience with where she came from. Here, however, Clarice only rolled her eyes and continued to look forward. “Look it’s okay, alright? It happens, don’t worry about it.” He’d gone and introduced himself. Clarice sighed, looking up at him out of the corner of her eyes. “Clarice. Welcome to whatever the hell this is.” Obviously she was also looking for something sweet to take home and eat in her pajamas after a nice hot shower but this Liam guy wasn’t part of the plans any more now than he had been when she’d decided to do it. However, out of sheer tiredness (mental and otherwise) Clarice didn’t have her antisocial defenses all the way up and so as not to create a ‘whole thing’ she sighed and slowed down. “Alright, fine, I’m going to Float Back for lemon meringue pie you can join I guess.” Angelus chuckled. “Yeah, whatever the hell this is, is a good way to describe it. How long have you been here?” He asked. “I’ve only just arrived recently myself. But it’s a pleasure to meet you, Clarice, even if under the circumstances of me being a klutz” Clarice, Clarice, Clarice. How much more perfect of a name could she have? If he’d had her tied up somewhere, he would have made every single Hannibal Lecter reference imaginable, but he kept those thoughts as only thoughts. For now, anyway. “Float Back, it is. I’ve actually never been there before, so you’ll have to tell me what’s good. I do love a good lemon meringue pie, though. What about a good cherry? I just love cherries.” He wasn’t exactly sure what he planned for this little outing, but Angelus was primarily looking to get to know some of the people here. Test the waters to see how he could interact with them. If he got a nice little meal on the way home after their stop for dessert then that was just a lucky bonus. “Uh, not long. Weeks. Hasn’t been a month.” Clarice replied distractedly. She was still unsure whether to give this guy the time of day despite sort-of inviting him along on her meringue pie run. He seemed to polite, too pleasant, and Clarice was just not used to that. “Uh huh nice to meet you too…” She had already forgotten his name, but shot up a smile instead, trying not to make it noticeable. Shrugging, Clarice looked forward and then snuck a look at the map in her device. “I haven’t either, actually. I know they have good food but every place here does.” Clarice shot him a look when he mentioned cherries, trying not to think of the typical association between cherries and stuff because it was probably not what he had meant. Maybe he just really fucking loved cherries and was excitable about food. She was too, only inwardly most of the time. “Love a cherry pie. I’m sure they have it too!” Sneaking another look at the map, Clarice made a turn. “Almost there.” Fresh, Angelus thought to himself. This one was still fresh off the press and didn’t seem to have quite gotten her bearings of the place yet. From where he stood, that was a point in his corner. Even though he was still learning his way around here too, it helped that she was learning too. “Good. I’ll have to give it a good bite to see how it tastes,” he said and smirked to himself as she was busy looking over the map. As soon as they were on their way again, he was back to his wide-eyed and cheerful expression. God, that was fucking annoying. Thankfully, she was right and they had been almost there. They walked inside the place, and he carefully looked around to make sure there wasn’t anyone there that he knew from home. For all he knew, Fred could be there stuffing her face with something or other. The girl did like her food. “Ah, there they are.” Angelus pointed to the pies on display and once they were at the counter, he told the clerk he’d be getting both the lemon and cherry but with the lemon being packaged for her and the cherry for him. “It’s the least I can do,” he said. Clarice said nothing to the biting comment. This guy was weird. Then again, spend enough time away from most people and they were all friggin’ weird. Clarice hated making assumptions so she let it go and continued walking along the much taller man with the slightly silly expression. Man, to be this excited about anything. As a courtesy Clarice had let him go ahead first, and she tilted her head when he ordered both pies; she hadn’t been expecting that. Clarice tapped his arm lightly. “No no no, seriously, that’s really not necessary just for bumping into me.” She turned to the clerk. “I’ll pay for the lemon one, thanks.” Alas, the clerk had already joined both pies into one bill, which would make it a chore to undo this order and register two new ones. Clarice shrugged, turning to Liam. “Okay, I’ll pay you back; hang on.” As the clerk went to get the pies into take-out containers and a bag, Clarice checked the price and pulled her money out of her back pocket. No, she still didn't carry a wallet. Might never do it, actually. With an awkward smile, she held out the change to Liam. Angelus wasn’t surprised by her insistence to repay him, but he simply shook his head. “I insist,” he said and waved off the cash she was trying to hand over to him. “Besides, if we hadn’t run into one another - or if I hadn’t run into you - then I wouldn’t have what looks to be a delicious cherry pie, would I?” His voice sounded completely innocent, but there was a small glean there that people who knew the real him would know well if they saw it. There was a lot of fun in toying with the old hats, especially when he knew how to push their buttons, but he did enjoy getting to know some newbies too. Sighing a little, he looked at Clarice. “I can’t wait to get you home and eat you up.” Angelus paused and laughed lightly, holding up the pie in his hands. “Everyone likes a good pie, right?” Yes, it was all about the pie. Yummy, delicious, blood-soaked pies. “So, ready to go?” There wasn’t much room for argument in the way he brought up their leaving together, but before he began walking, he waited to see if she would try to get out of having him around for company. He could already tell she was itching to get away from him, but it wasn’t as if he really cared. Closing her eyes to stave off annoyance, Clarice shoved the change into her pocket and sighed. “Okay, fine. Thanks!” Waving to the clerk, she made to leave, though the sigh and what Liam said while looking straight at her made Clarice stop in her tracks and stare. She felt a sort of unease that by now she’d learned to trust in full. She stared up at him with suspicion. “Yeah everyone does.” When he asked whether she was ready to go Clarice bolted for the door and held it open for Liam, fighting the urge to open a portal right then and there for herself and the pie. But they were back to walking together and there was nothing she could do. “So which tower are you on? We might not be going to the same place.” It was adorable. Her obvious distaste of him and wish to get as far away from him as she could. It was a very written all over her despite the pleasantries being exchanged. Angelus knew he was pressing her alarm buttons, yet she still pretended to go along with the charade of niceness. He liked this girl in the patronizing kind of way Angelus liked some people, but he sort of wanted to snap her neck for not kicking him in the balls and making a dash for it. Could anyone really have blamed him? He'd given her so many reasons to bolt, and she was still here. “Oh, I have to drop this off somewhere before I head back home. Someone's expecting me. It's not far if you'd like to tag along,” he said and glanced at her curiously. The truth was that Angelus was famished and nothing in this pie was going to satiate him. If the girl was stupid enough to go with him, he'd make her his meal. If not, he'd find another. It was fairly simple to pick out the locals versus the ones who'd been brought here. “Or let me know what tower you're in and I'll drop by sometime to pay you a visit.” Women in the world tended to go along with things much more so when their alarm bells rang, as a way to keep something terrible and violent from happening to them. Doubly so when they were mutants and wanted by the authorities; even in a place where that was no longer the case. She could have opened a portal, had thought of it actually, but some sort of tangle in her brain kept her from doing so. “Nah, I have stuff to do.” Clarice replied quickly, a faint smile on her lips. It was a good thing she had asked for separate bags or she might not even keep the pie. She made no mention of her tower when he made no mention of his. Slowly, and preferably before they got to this darker part of the path, she started to peel off of his side. “So, uh, take care.” “Of course,” Angelus said with a nod. He was sure she had about as much to do as he did but rather just wanted to get away from him. Not that it much mattered to him; he was glad to get to know her more later another day whether she realized it or not. Watching people was an old past time of his, and Angelus was very good at it whether it was at night when he was more free to roam or even during the day when he had to stick to the shadows. “It was good meeting you, Clarice.” He started to back away and gave her a small smirk before he turned. “Be seeing you.” At that, Angelus began walking away. Shortly after he was out of sight, the cherry pie was tossed in the garbage, and he was off in search of his next meal. Someone he didn’t plan on engaging in conversation with or buying pies for again. It took all Clarice had not to take off running, but she wasn't smiling anymore. "Yeah. See you around." She didn't stop walking backwards while facing him until he disappeared from view, and even then Clarice opened a portal back to her room instead of walking the rest of the way just in case. She needed to work on her survival skills. She could have disappeared much sooner. Once she'd dropped the pie in the counter of the communal kitchen, Clarice went to the directory to check who and where this Liam man was, just so she could avoid him, only to find out there wasn't a Liam listed at all. Weird. |