undergrounds | I feel it in the air

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I feel it in the air

[A July catch-all! Pick an option and say hello, or start something more specific in the comments. Hit me up on plurk if you want a specific starter!]

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Option One
Nancy had gotten her start picking pockets as just a child. It was so easy, when you were so close to the ground, to look in purses, to bump into people and distract them while your friend grabbed their wallet or their iPod. Picking pockets wasn't hard at all, if you knew what you were doing.

Shoplifting had come next, as it often did for teenage girls looking for a quick high. It wasn't that for Nancy, unfortunately. It was a way to make money, to get what she wanted. Slide an important object into her purse and no one was any smarter. Wrap a scarf around her neck and pretend she'd been wearing it when she walked in. It was cake.

And okay, yes, it was a great way to get a quick high. This was what brought Nancy to Spittalfields market. It was a busy afternoon, the stalls were bustling, and no one was paying any sort of attention to what a petite girl like her was doing. So a few pieces of jewelry here, a few wallets there- tourists were idiots. They saw the 'Beware Pickpockets' signs and instantly checked where they kept their valuables. Easy marks.

Besides, she had to make up for the first week or so of the month when she'd been holed up in her flat, escaping the Hunt.

Option Two
The Thames was beautiful at night. The lights reflected off the surface, you couldn't tell how dirty it was, either. You could walk along, cross over bridges, watch people stumble home from clubs. There was a lot of time to think, too.

Of course, down by the water anywhere was where you could find her sort. A pair of fish-nets and high-heels, tiny dress. She hadn't had much luck in pubs earlier that evening, so now it was time to wait till bar close, when men started stumbling home, desperate for a woman. That, also happened to be when many vampires chose to feed. And that's where she made the real money.

Option Three
"I'm tired of having these bloody conversations!" Through grit teeth, a petite ginger paced quickly in front of the tube station. "No- no, you stop it.- Stop talking, and let me explain you devil!" On the other end of the line, a man prattled about, his condescending tone loud. If Nancy had been paying attention to him, he assumed so, unaware that, mid-way through his diatribe, she was rolling her eyes.

Finally, she'd had enough. "Listen here; I'm about to get on the tube. I can't talk. I'll come over before work tonight, talk with him- yes, yes, you'll have it, I got it all sorted, you'll have your potions!" Nancy nearly tosses the phone into her purse, violently pressing on her touch-screen to end the call.

"Bloody bastard."

Option Four
Wild card. Make your own, drop me a line, whatever. A few private starters in the comments!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

If only there was some fun place where you could go for pizza and bring children so that they could run around and play and leave the adults so they could have some quality time drinking wine while the kids spent quarters on useless tickets. Oh and animatronic animals. But too bad, because if there were places like that, they were not on Nancy's radar.

What was on her radar was the delicious chain-restaurant Pizza Express. Classier than a pizza-hut, but nowhere near some artisan brick-oven flat-bread joint, it had good pizza for decent prices. And was good for groups.

Which brought us to the two young adults, Nancy and Heiji, and the hoards of children they'd managed to summon with them. Just getting them to sit down was hard enough.

"I'm really sorry if they've overwhelming." Or rob half the restaurant blind. "I told them all to be on their best behavior, but..." They were prepubescent boys. Things were going to get broken.

A harried waiter passed by, giving the two of them a look.

"Did we make a huge mistake?"

"Uh, I'm thinkin -- hey! Don't put that on your face!"

Heiji's cousins had turned out to be four young girls that looked somewhere between ten and twelve, dressed in brightly colored dresses and skirts. One of them was trying to balance a plate on her nose, but she reluctantly put it back on the table in front of her when Heiji caught her. He sighed.

"Believe me, I understand. The struggle is real. Anyhow, like I was sayin', these two over here are Sakura and Tsubaki, and that's Kiku and Ume." Sakura was apparently the one with plate-balancing aspirations. Kiku was the only one waiting politely in her seat; Ume was playing with a condiment shaker by sliding it across the table.

"I've been dealing with this many kids for a while, but not often in public." She shook her head, curls settling over her shoulders.

"Right, so Sakura, Tsubaki, Kiku and Ume. That's Charley Bates over there-" she pointed at the boy who looked like he was plotting something. He was. But he kept making small talk with Kiku and Ume to cover his tracks. "Georgie," a boy with dark red hair who was hunched over his phone. "Georgie, put the phone down, or I'll take it from you!" He shoved it in his pocket with a grumpy sigh. "And Jason." Jason was urging Sakura to balance the plate.

"I should just be glad Dodger wasn't able to make it."

This was a nightmare. It would be a miracle if it didn't all end in tears. "I'm startin' to think we shoulda invited more adults."

Ume covered her mouth to keep from snickering a little as Georgie got in trouble. Schadenfreude at such a young age...

Meanwhile, Heiji returned his attention to the menu, reasoning that since they were at Pizza Express, they might as well at least try to order some food. "So. What should we order? It's my first time here, so I'm relyin' on ya to make some expert recommendations!"

Sakura was now trying to get Jason to try and balance a cup on his elbow, through some convoluted line of reasoning that likely no adult would be able to grasp.

"Jason, be civilized!" Unfortunately, playing referee was taking more work than she'd originally figured. Get some boys in front of girls and it was all games and trying to show off and oh here was Georgie teasing Ume, getting Charley in on the act.

"We're going to get kicked out of here, I swear it." SHe shook her head. "I'd say get some appetizers, the dough balls are delicious, and maybe a salad as well. We can split a few pizzas, the boys will eat anything. How does that sound?"

Heiji sighed with relief. "Yeah, that sounds good, these guys aren't too picky, so -- "

"I want ham!" announced Sakura loudly, startling Jason. Kiku tried to shush her for the sake of decorum, but it was really too late at this point.

"Uh. So maybe we should get at one with ham," said Heiji. Ume was getting a little red-faced at the teasing and buried her face in the book she'd brought -- which just so happened to be one of those ones about the boy wizard.

The waiter came by the table, looking like someone approaching a demilitarized zone. "R-ready to order, then?"

Nancy rubbed at her eyes. "Right. Stop bothering Ume, she wants to read- we'll see what we can do about the- oh, hullo." And now she's looking at the already harried waiter. Gritting her teeth, she reaches into her purse and pulls out a platinum card that is not hers by any way, shape, or form.

Then, she smiled, looking into the waiter's eyes. "I'll tell you what- bring whatever it is they want out, and we'll give you a nice big tip, yeah? I'd like a glass of wine to start us off, though, and he would, too." She gestured at Heiji. The waiter nodded, and started taking orders of the kids and Nancy relaxed.

"Don't worry, I've got the tab." There had been absolutely no magic involved in that interaction.

"Wine and pizza, huh?" said Heiji, giving Nancy a brief wink. "Classy."

He sipped gratefully at the glass once it arrived. It was pretty good, considering this was a chain restaurant. And once the kids had made their orders, they quieted down just a bit, having had an actual Adult listen to them and take down what they wanted. At least until Tsubaki started making funny faces at the boys.

"You deal with this all the time? I don't know how ya do it."

"You should see girls' night with Kenzi." Pizza and wine from a box. Also, tequila shots.

The waiter had brought over the full bottle of wine, and Nancy was already merrily sipping at her glass. "I don't live with them anymore, but yeah. They tend to be well-behaved for me, once they get past the trying to show off thing. Which... They're still in the middle of." She looked pointedly at Georgie.

"Y'know what helps?" She raises her glass. "Lots of wine." And gin. And whiskey.

"Oh? You know Kenzi, huh?" He raised his glass in turn, clearly happy just to have something to take the edge off a bit. Hopefully he wasn't setting any terrible examples for these young and impressionable youth. Sakura was now peeking over her menu at Georgie, watching him and then ducking down and pretending not to have been when he turned around.

"Small world! Here, lemme get that for ya." Once Nancy's glass was mostly drained, he poured them both some more. "You think we got any other acquaintances in common?"

At least they weren't making out. At the very least.

"Yeah- she's been my best friend for years now." Though Kenzi was five years older than her, Nancy acted far older than both girls half the time, so it worked out. Plus, Kenzi just got pretty much everything Nancy had to deal with. She knew about her real jobs, Fagin, everything. It was nice, having a confidante like that. And someone who happened to be great at snuggling when you need it.

"Well, Stiles, obviously." She shook her head. "You know Abby, too, from her party- oh, thank you." She was able to drink wine like it was water.

"Hmm... who else..." Who else had he met at the party. Suddenly, it struck him. "Oh, d'you know a shortypants vampire? Irish accent, sort of blondish hair? Little broody?"

This was Heiji's impression of Cooper, apparently. He'd met several people at the party, but Cooper had sort of stuck out as an oddball.

"Oi!" She gently smacked his arm, even as she laughed into her wine glass, trying not to snort any out her nose. "That's Cooper! Nearly ran me over a motorcycle, when I first met him- he's lovely, though."

Her laughter died down somewhat and she was able to take another drink of wine.

"Really? He ain't too good at trivia, though." Yes, clearly that was the marker by which all individuals should be judged.

"You say he almost ran ya over? Was it during a run?"

Tsubaki was now stealthily reaching over to poke one of the boys and withdrawing instantly as soon as they looked toward her.

"He did," she said almost fondly. "But it wasn't- I was coming home from work when I ran into him. Gave him an earful and took the air out of one of his tires." And then that was that.

Heiji laughed in surprised delight; Nancy, you just went up several notches in his book (mixed metaphors, ahoy). "Bet he was steamed about that! But he totally deserved it if he almost ran ya over."

[I think Belmont's busy with other threads at the moment, so rain check on the awkward supernatural conversation?]

"That he was, and that he did," she raised her glass in approval, before drinking more of it. "He's a sweet heart, though." If you got past the fangs. "Laughed about it, later."

[sure sure. whatever works <3]

"Seriously? Him?" If it sounded like Heiji was a little disbelieving, well... he kind of was.

At last, the pizzas had arrived, and as the harried waiter set them out on the table, Heiji's cousins exclaimed happily at the bubbling cheese and delicious smells. Maybe this would keep them out of trouble for thirty minutes or so?

"Okay, now be nice. Leave enough for everyb -- " Too late. It was now a pizza free-for-all, with countless little hands grabbing for slices at once.

Nancy groaned. "Please just make sure everyone gets a piece. That's all I'm asking," she said, rubbing at her temples with her fingers. Time for more wine. She tops her glass off, before signaling for another bottle for her and Heiji.

"Yes, him. He's an interesting sort, but no worse than anyone I've dealt with before." Cooper was a good friend. That's what mattered.

Heiji took the wine with thanks, patting the frazzled waiter on the back as their companions all started to dig in.

"Well, I guess if you're willing to vouch for him. He's actually not one of the weirdest dudes I've met around here." He tried a slice of pizza, and to his delight, found that it was pretty good. "Hey, I might come by here again sometime!"

"I am." And she would vouch for Cooper. For any of her friends, really. If you were on her good side, there wasn't a thing she wouldn't do for you.

"it's good, isn't it!" She said excitedly, biting into a pepperoni slice herself. "Yeah? Aright then, who's the weirdest dude you've met here. Stiles doesn't count."

"Sasuke," said Heiji without hesitation. "Guy got into a fight with me over a tomato plant at the grocery store. It was weird as -- " He stopped, considered his current company.

"Uh, it was weird. Plus, I don't think he has any friends. And he looks like he cuts his hair by himself. After about three bottles of wine."

"You know Sasuke!" Nancy starts laughing, tossing her head back at the ridiculousness of it all. "He's impossible. Can't carry a conversation to save his life. Rude, too." SO RUDE.

"He's not like us, is he?" She hoped not.

"I know, right? He's such a weirdo! He used to work at this hardware store, so I visited him while he was clerking. Worst customer service ever, and actually..." He rubbed the side of his temple with one finger.

"Actually, he kinda is. But only recently, I think, and his control is pretty bad. He's one of them metahumans." Heiji lowered his voice. "But don't tell him I told you, okay? He gets mad at everything."

"You know," Nancy took another sip of wine as she thought about this. "I think he's the first metahuman I've met. That I know about, mind you." Curious and curiouser, but she shrugs immediately.

"I wouldn't dream of it. If I never talk to him again, it'd be too soon."

I feel it in the air

p-i-z-z-a gimme pizza! (for heiji, featuring lots of kids)

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