Who: Octavia Blake and Diego Hargreeves What: Random Encounter Where: On the sidewalk When:< Midday Warnings: Nah Status: Closed, Complete Gdoc
Octavia knew that things were getting a bit tense. That was a bit of an understatement. Tenseness kind of ran its course with her and the rest of her family. The dreams were a pain in the ass. She hadn't had one yet. Then again, she'd been staying up a lot lately. It was bound to catch up with her soon. Her worry, unfortunately, was still on Raven.
She'd decided to head out for a walk with no clear destination in sight. Hell, she could've ended up at the Squirrel to see Daryl or at the garage to see Stiles. Something. Except that she wasn't even thinking straight or paying attention to what direction she was going in.
Hell, her mind was still on what her and Bellamy had done. That damn seatbelt that had come through from the dreams. The one that could've made her lose her brother. There's a bit of an unmovable force that she runs into and she looks up giving a sheepish smile. "Sorry."
Diego had been distracted by a text, his focus on his phone and not the world around him. He was usually hyper aware of his surroundings. Octavia caught him in a rare moment of complete distraction. He jumped back, hands up in an instinctively defensive gesture.
Seeing that the person in front of him was a young girl, and a complete stranger did little to convince him to relax, though he drew a breath and let it out. His eyes darted around the area, as if looking for someone or something, but no one he knew was around, which meant he had to deal with this situation on his own.
There was a time he would have shut down completely, been absolutely unable to utter even a sound in the presence of a complete stranger. Years of therapy had helped him with that, and he was able to give her an awkward smile.
“It’s all right.”
If her mind hadn't been elsewhere then she wouldn't of run into the stranger. Everything that had happened recently was on her mind. Though, now that she paid attention to the man in front of her she was pretty sure she'd never seen him around.
She didn't think that she knew everyone in the OC, but some people had been there before and left. Then they came back. Or maybe this guy was like Raven and had gone on some kind of research and then come back home. She really shouldn't of been trying to figure the guy out.
"I should've been watching where I was going. I'm normally pretty good at paying attention to the people and places around me. At least you didn't have to break my fall," she teases.
That got a smile out of Diego. “I am glad,” he told her. And he was. He would have caught her fall, probably. Most likely he would have. His reflexes were pretty good for that sort of thing.But it was probably for the best it hadn’t come to that.
She seemed nice, friendly at least. That made it easier for Diego to talk to her. He didn’t react well when someone seemed rude or abrasive. She didn’t set off any of his alarm bells, though, and while he probably couldn’t stand there and maintain a full fledged conversation, he could handle a few exchanges back and forth.
He had made a lot of progress. His therapist would be proud of him for talking to someone, a random stranger like this.
"Last thing you need is to try and catch someone."
There's almost a teasing tone to her voice when she says it. She was a pretty nimble person and that was shown a lot of the times especially when she went on her hikes. Something that drove her brothers absolutely crazy. This guy before her didn't really seem the talkative type, but that was okay. She had friends like that too.
"You just move here recently? Not trying to be invasive, just curious. Mainly because I know a lot of people in the OC."
“Came back,” he told her. “From Miami.” He wasn’t talkative, but he was holding his own. Of course she couldn’t know how impressive it was for him to be having a conversation at all. Hopefully she didn’t notice that he absolutely avoided making eye contact. He was still working on that one.
“Grew up here, though,” he added. He’d left the OC when he’d pursued a career in boxing.
"Must've been nice."
Octavia can't remember a time where she'd gone outside of the OC. Which meant that she knew most of the people, or at least some, who lived there. She went to school with some of them and ran into a few on her hikes. It really all depended where she went.
"Sounds like my family. We grew up here," she tells him with a bit of a smile. "Or, at least, I did."
Diego nodded. “It is a good place to grow up.” He was a few years older than her, at least. It was possible he knew her brother, but neither of them made that connection. He had no reason to ask if she had an older sibling.
“And a nice place to come home to.”
"It is a good place to grow up," she says looking around where they were for the moment. The general place was somewhere that they could enjoy the view. Everything that stood out around them. The OC was a beautiful place all on its own.
"I bet. Especially being away from it for so long. So, you managed to get yourself settled in pretty good then?" If it was an invasive question, then he could tell her to stop and she'd stop. “And if you grew up here, then you know some of the good places to eat too.” There were a lot of good places in the OC, after all.
Diego nods. He did know the best places to eat. Especially The Silent Dragon and Squirrel Creek. Both of those were relatively new, though. And he was biased because one was his best friend’s place and the other was his best friend’s mentor’s place.
“I have a place with my best friend. He’s a chef, owns The Silent Dragon.” Which he figured answered the question about the best places to eat. He’d recommend Daryl’s place too, but obviously his number one loyalty was The Dragon. Because it was Eliot’s place and because Diego worked there too.
"I've not heard of The Silent Dragon."
Though, if it was a newer establishment then she wouldn't have heard of it. The Squirrel, however, she'd heard of. If only because one of her big brothers worked there.
"I'll have to visit it sometime, when I'm not at the Squirrel. One of my big brothers works there," she tells him with a smile. "I'm sure that it's a great place though. Especially if it's run by your best friend." Also meant that he was probably biased, but there was nothing wrong with that.
Diego nodded. He was starting to feel overwhelmed by the conversation. Still holding his own, but he was probably going to need to excuse himself. He needed to get somewhere quiet. Away from people.
But he was doing all right. Holding his own. He wasn’t freaking out. It was progress.
“You should. Try it, I mean. Eliot will feed you well.” He smiled a little smile. “I should go. I have...things to do.” Which meant, he really just needed to get away from people. No matter how nice they were.
"I will, thank you."
There was a part of the teen that was sure something was going on, even if she didn't know what. Even though she wanted to help him, she knew that she was a stranger.
"Sorry again for running into you," she tells him with a soft smile. "It was nice meeting you." Even if she didn't really know him, that didn't mean it hadn't been nice. He was easy to talk to. She’d have to visit The Silent Dragon and probably even drag her brother to it. One or both of them.