Anything But Numb

[Harlequin]

Though she hadn\'t thought of it herself, it came as no surprise to the singer that her host kept a diet similar to that of his other half – he aged like a cat, why wouldn\'t he eat like one, too? Alec didn\'t seem too concerned – or familiar – with what the kitchen had to offer, which could only lead Morgaine to believe that she ate like a snake –

"I\'ll order chinese," she said quickly, not wanting to travel down that avenue of thought. She cleared her throat, realizing that she was, in fact, quite parched. So, on her way to the bedroom (after rising, and setting her guitar carefully on the coffee table), she detoured into the kitchen, to join Alec, where she requested that the snake woman reach her down a glass from one of the cupboards she\'d been poking around in, so she could get a drink from the tap. Once her request was met, (with a bright \'thanks\' for Alec), Morgaine filled and emptied the glass twice before she was satisfied.

"You kids want anything?" she asked, as she set the glass down on the counter and crossed the room once again, headed for the bedroom, "Or are you happy with...uh, what you\'ve got here?" She didn\'t want to mess up their diets, or anything, "\'I\'ve got the menu kind of memorized," She admitted guiltily, pausing to lean against the counter in order to hear both of their answers.

[Existentially Odd]

Tau, who\'d followed Morgaine once he spied her heading for the kitchen - he\'d been busy deciding whether or not his head was adequately repaired enough to move around before that and had come to the conclusion that he was fine (especially since the ice was more just water being barely contained than ice, now) - was baffled by her statements, as per usual.

"What is available at Chinese?" he queried, figuring that Chinese had to be a food place but not knowing what there was on offer.  Once Morgaine had finished skulling almost all the water the sink had to offer, he moved in behind her and concentrated on pulling his watery plastic bag out of its tea towel to tip the contents into the sink.  He glanced over his shoulder towards the other two women in the room as he listened for his answer, concentration divided but certainly not lacking as he tidied up his ice pack.

[Harlequin]

Morgaine laughed; she liked his way of putting it, though she realized it was out of ignorance. She stifled her laughter quickly, however, and arranged her features into a more subdued smile, not wanting to cause offense, "I\'m sorry." She took a deep breath, and arranged her features into a more subdued smile, "From a Chinese restaurant," she elaborated, "Is what I meant. She saw a glint of recognition in his clear blue eyes, at that, and her smile widened, "So you know what the food is like?" she ventured.

At his slow but slightly pained-looking shake of the head, she turned her eyes on Alec, who seemed slightly more worldly, even if her diet didn\'t exactly correspond with the human pallet (though Morgaine was still unsure on this point), "You wanna take this one? I don\'t know how to explain it without making it seem really, really gross."

Then almost immediately after, she amended, "Ah, fuck it. I\'ll just take you out, Tau. There\'s a place I know not far from here. Walking distance," she amended, "I mean, if you wanna walk seven or eight blocks."

[Existentially Odd]

Finishing with the plastic bag and tea towel, Tau turned a delighted grin Morgaine\'s way.  "I would love to walk seven or eight blocks," he asserted, proving that not only was he keen for any sort of physical exercise that might crop up, he was just as keen to avoid riding on her motorcycle (should she be about to offer that).  Two feet on the ground was exactly how he liked things at this stage and he was pleased that she had offered that option up first.

He took a few steps towards the gap between bench and fridge that was the exit out of the kitchen but stopped when he was about even with Morgaine, a wry expression on his face as he cast a pointed look at his bare chest and down his long body.  "I will need better clothing than this, will I not?" he queried, knowing the answer would be affirmative but unable to stop a cheeky, hopeful grin that said he rather hoped she\'d tell him going half naked and without shoes was fine.  "Do you want to come and tell me what I should wear, to be safe?" he chirped, waggling his eyebrows playfully.

[Harlequin]

Morgaine liked what he had on juuuust fine, but she doubted the rest of the world would agree. She sighed mournfully, and gave him a baleful once-over, her eyes, when they returned to his face were twinkling with mirth, however, and she shrugged.

"Why? You wanna match?" She put on a mocking valley-girl falsetto as she said this, putting a shrill emphasis on \'match\', before letting a grin spread over her face, head canted to match his playful expression. "Why don\'t you just wear that shirt you had on earlier? That was pretty sexy," she said mildly. The fashion demon inside her snapped and snarled at the suggestion, but she stayed quiet; all of her other suggestions either involved less clothes or ruined clothes, and she simply couldn\'t see Tau in a faded T-shirt and leather jacket. The plain shirt had looked good.

"But yeah, c\'mon, I gotta put my guitar away, anyway," She pushed away from the counter, and beckoned for him to follow her back into the living room – so she could fetch her guitar, as promised – and then into the bedroom, as if the whole thing had been her idea in the first place.

[Existentially Odd]

Tau\'s eyebrows arched at the flippant reference to him wearing something \'sexy\'.  He understood the human desire to be thusly labelled and felt a surge of satisfaction, even while it intrigued him that Morgaine would compliment him like that.  He wished to explore this excited, fluttery feeling and followed her eagerly - only pausing to give Alec\'s arm a squeeze, smile and tell her he\'d be home later, he supposed.

Once in the bedroom, he made a show of extracting the jumper he\'d had on from where he\'d tossed it, and smelling it to check it was still clean.  He hadn\'t had it on all that long before he\'d come home, so it didn\'t smell of body odour, just the coffee house where he\'d met Morgaine and a little bit of her.  He pulled it over his head and watched his companion re-sheath her guitar in its case.

"Are sneakers alright to wear or should I wear nicer shoes?" he enquired casually, gaze lingering on the curve of her shoulder, admiring the way her arms went about their business, muscles and tendons straining haphazardly.  She moved very gracefully, he thought.

[Harlequin]

"Uno momento," Two crisp snaps punctuated his question as Morgaine flipped down the clasps on her guitar case, effectively sealing the instrument inside. She flipped a piece of hair out of her eyes as she rose from her crouch, turning to look at him as she did.
 
"Sneakers\'re fine," she said, after a moment\'s consideration. She preferred a man in better shoes -- she really preferred a man in big black boots, but, once again, couldn\'t see a pair of face-stompers looking right on him -- but it had never been a huge concern. Plus, they\'d be walking, and nice shoes were often not conducive to such and, well: "You only only have to be as well-dressed as your date, right?" She grinned, joking, and knowing that she\'d look underdressed next to him, in her faded jeans and motorcycle boots; though she\'d at least worn a hole-free T-shirt (relatively plain, too; a pale pink number with a realistic painting of a buffalo skull printed on the chest, advertising a band called Great Big Sky). At least he\'d ditched the suit jacket, so she didn\'t feel like a total scrub.
 
Absently, She checked her pockets for her wallet and cell phone (check and check) and then gestured for the door with one hand while the other gathered up the errant strand of hair and tucked it back into the confines of it\'s claw clip, "Shall we?" she said, with a great deal more gusto than when she\'d said it the first time that night.

[Existentially Odd]

He wanted to compliment her in return when she told him he only had to look as good as she did - he really wanted to tell her he thought she looked sexy as well - but even though he opened his mouth to say something, nothing came out.  He just ended up looking a bit like a fish that had died mid-gasp, before she gestured towards the door and he realised that the moment had passed.

With a snap of his jaws (there was no real sound to it beyond a slight click of his teeth, though), he closed his mouth and followed her out of the apartment.  He plucked his beeper, wallet and keys from the table by the door, called out a farewell to Alacer and closed the locked portal behind him.

He was pleased to find that Morgaine moved swiftly and without hesitation down the stairs and out to the footpath before she turned in the appropriate direction and continued striding along.  She seemed to have a great deal of energy - or maybe she was just really hungry and eager to get to where they were going.  Either way, he kept pace with her happily, a smile touching his lips as he looked around at the gathering darkness.

"How do you know where to go so well, if you have not been in the city all that long?" he enquired curiously, after the silence had stretched comfortably between them and he\'d had cause to wonder how she was so clever when she was barely any better associated with the metropolis than he was.

[Harlequin]

The dead-fish expression caused little more than a raised eyebrow from the singer, but she was too busy growing hungrier by he second to comment, and just head for the door, instead. Morgaine had never had the patience required for taking long, leisurely strolls, and quickly became annoyed with anyone who insisted on such a pace -- so she was glad that Tau accepted and adopted her more brisk walk (not that it would be difficult, with those long legs of his). One was also less likely to get robbed if they looked like they knew where they were going, and walked with a purpose, and Morgaine did not want to get into the habit of getting robbed.

When he broke the silence between them with a question, Morgaine listened, and shrugged when he was done, "I live in this neighborhood, too," she admitted, "in one of the less, uh, savory areas." Truthfully, the Chinese place she was thinking of was close to the halfway point between their two residences (though it was slightly closer to his apartment than hers), so they would begin to get into the seedier part of town, but not into the truly scary, bars-on-the-windows bits, "And I eat out a lot." Morgaine wasn\'t a total disaster in the kitchen, but she -- like most young people -- had an inexplicable aversion to cooking for herself -- though she\'d eat anything anybody else cooked.

[Luna Moon]

At the mention of Chinese Alec wrinkled her nose. "I can take other foods but that stuff is just nasty to me. I don\'t like egg-rolls." Alec smiled as they walked out the door and returned to her room. She looked at the rats in the cages and sighed, "Not tonight little guys." she could almost swear she saw them become more relaxed.  

Alec watched the small mammals in the cages and grinned like a cheshire cat. "I know what to do tonight." She turned and walked out her door and to the balcony door. She looked at the screen for a moment before going back into her room for a piece of paper. She came back with some tape and a slip of paper. She taped the note securely onto the security screen before opening the door just enough to get her snake form\'s head through. Alec looked around the apartment to make sure no one was still there and took off her clothes again.

More quickly this time, she transformed into the large snake. Alec slithered out the door and down the balcony onto the ground below. She hoped Tau would read the note and not lock her out. Her note read: Gone out as a snake for a while. Please don\'t shut the door all the way.   Alec Her only hope now was that she wouldn\'t get into trouble.

[Existentially Odd]

"I did not know that this was not a very nice part of town when I first came here - it was all that my brother and I could afford, with what he stole and what I earned working at the gas station - but I have since got many odd looks when I tell people where I live, especially at work," he explained, surprised (and pleased) to find that discussing himself and his past with her felt so good.  Usually, it just pained him to think of Jedrek, but Morgaine had agreed to the title \'friend\' and that was deeply reassuring.

He gave a wry laugh as he pictured the condescending expressions on the faces of his Oligarchy co-workers - lesser beings on the ladder and in the scheme of things than he, but knowledgeable enough to disbelieve he lived here in this part of town.  Their attitude always became not-so-subtly superior once they had it confirmed, as well.

"Usually, they ask me if I actually earn any money for being an Oligarch and when I tell them that I do and that it is plenty, they say they cannot understand why I do not move away.  I do not bother to explain to them.  When my brother and I came to the city, we had nothing and the apartment had about the same - two beds for us to sleep in.  The rest of the furniture we created by using plastic crates we found at the back of shops.  I use all my money to buy better furniture now but I\'m afraid to move away, in case Jed comes back to visit and he cannot find me.  This city is big and even though the possibility of him returning is very slim, it exists, so I cannot just move out of this area, no matter how rough and cheap it is."

He nodded at the end of his explanation, as if agreeing with his own reasoning, his story spoken steadily and in a tone of pure logic rather than uncertain justification.  He didn\'t talk of such things with anyone, but he believed Morgaine to be different; well, she was his friend for a start and he was happy to open up to her.

[Harlequin]

Morgaine listened intently to is words, keeping her eyes on his face (for cities were cities and sidewalks were sidewalks, and her feet knew the way). Ami had told her what he\'d said about his brother, but it seemed more real, now, coming from him. She\'d seen that it was hard for him to adapt to this crazy world they inhabited, but to do it alone would have been nigh impossible. She admired his strength. Also, his genius; milk crates as furniture! Brilliant!

She put a sympathetic hand on his arm when he\'d finished speaking, letting the lingering touch speak for her, somehow sure he\'d understand (she\'d been wrong before, though). She hadn\'t known the love of a brother, but she knew what it was to lose someone.

"I don\'t think it matters where you live,\' she said, "As long as you\'re living a life you love. If that makes any sense." A pause, and then, "I live in a motel." A chuckle, and then she elaborated, "When we got to the city, we were just planning on staying a week, so checked into a motel, and then got offered a gig at Risk." She shrugged, "The rest is history, I guess. We still live in the motel; I think it\'s because we\'re not wiling to admit to ourselves that we\'re staying here, for awhile, anyway."

"But I know what you\'re talking about, with money. We\'re making more than we know what to do with, at Risk. Mostly we just buy new gear. Ami found a cheap stand-up bass somewhere, and she\'s been locked in her room with it for days." She laughed, and changed the subject.

"I didn\'t know you used to work in a gas station. That must\'ve been the dullest job ever!" And a colossal waste of his limited time, but she didn\'t add that.

[Existentially Odd]

He smiled gratefully at her sympathetic words and spared a very satisfied glance at her reassuring touch.  He was surprised by the urge he had to lift his hand and take hers into his and keep a hold of it, but figured that would be too forward and he\'d probably be reprimanded for it.  When she changed the subject back to his first ever job, his grin shifted to something a lot more predatory - yet his cheeks suffused with the colour of a sudden blush.

"Well, it was, because I was hired to work the night shift - which nobody else wanted to work, but that was exactly why I walked straight into the job, with no other work experience and barely any experience as a human, either.  The thing was, it taught me a lot about how to act and even talk and... well," he broke off momentarily, the blush seeming to increase as he debated saying the rest.  After a moment, he decided she would likely find this detail about him interesting as well and that she was certainly worldly enough to handle it - she would probably even laugh!  He still couldn\'t meet her eyes but he took a breath and continued.

"My boss used to like to come in whenever I worked my shift and she liked it when it was quiet - she would close the station up and uh, take me into her office and have sex with me.  She was married but she said she liked me better.  It confused me and I was terrible at it because I\'d never done anything like that before, but she taught me everything she wanted me to do," he laughed self-consciously, recalling the mixed emotions and thoughts he\'d had at the time and how he\'d reacted much like a cat when initially stimulated (flipping her over quite roughly and just banging away until he climaxed).  Cougars didn\'t mate for pleasure but for species survival and he didn\'t have the very human drive to rut for the fun of it as his utmost instinct.  He came to understand it eventually, though, and even sort of enjoyed the lessons he learned; he definitely found he missed the regular release after he left that job, anyway.

"I wouldn\'t say it was dull there!" he finished with a laugh, shaking his head shyly and forcing himself to look at Morgaine.

[Harlequin]

Sensing a good story behind the grin (though it was the sudden flush of color that interested her more; the schoolboy blush on the grown man\'s face, looking both out of place and innocently adorable), Morgaine raised a brow, a put her listening face on.

As he spoke, her expression went from interested, to wide-eyed \'oh-no-she-did-not\' shock, to utter hilarity. Though, of course, he wouldn\'t see any of them, since her refused to look at her face. She understood, though; it was always weird, talking about your first time. It got less weird, but she supposed he hadn\'t had the time. Beside that, the brown-skinned vixen was too busy laughing her ass off to care overmuch. Head thrown back, the girl more or less cackled, "Oh. My. Lord." she enthused when she was done, trying to catch her breath, though the grin was still splashed across her tattooed mug "Really!?" She took a few deep breaths, "Yeah, no, not dull at all, I\'d say!"

She could picture him only too well, unsuspecting, young, and innocent, working the register in a little blue vest – while from the shadows, an entirely different kind of predator stalked, red-painted claws outstretched. "Well, you gotta learn sometime, I guess." She found herself hoping – in an abstracted kind of way, of course. Really – that his boss been a good teacher, when suddenly she stopped dead in her tracks, hand over her mouth, though the most devious grin yet spread across her face underneath it, unable to be contained

"You know what women like that are called?" she asked slowly, jogging a bit to catch up, "The ones who go after younger men?" at his perplexed shake of the head, she spit out, trying very hard not to burst out laughing again, "Cougars!"

[Existentially Odd]

He blinked rapidly, his expression one of disbelief initially - and then he couldn\'t resist joining in with her laughter.  "Really?" he asked, despite himself and unsure about whether he should be offended or merely fascinated by this fact.  Why would people have come up with such a name?  Because older women regularly stalked younger men?  It had to be to do with the predation thing... but it was rather insulting in a vague and undefined way.

"Well," he uttered after he\'d calmed his short-lived laughter, "she wasn\'t that much older than me... but I suppose she did stalk me like a cat.  She liked to prowl in and push me down on her desk so she could pounce on me, anyway!" he grinned, falling silent momentarily as he pondered asking his next question out loud.  After a few moments, he plunged ahead.  "People... they have sex a lot, don\'t they?  Just for... fun?"