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 Posted: Mon Jan 19, 2015 3:39 pm
It was getting late, and Erik "Oddy" Corlione was glad to wrap things up and bar the theater doors for the night, lock the chains, and stretch. Movie Theaters weren't the most profitable venture, not counting the over priced snack bar (he was trying to think of a way to up the ante on this, but so far he'd managed to keep her afloat, and living above the building didn't hurt. He also hadn't had a chance to get in touch with Quenton again, which was a shame, but one benefit to pretty much every other public gathering place being repeatedly attacked meant he tended to get a bit more traffic from people with a sense of self preservation. He looked around again, covering a yawn with the back of his hand, and then stuffed his hands into the pockets of his sheepskin lined coat. The coat was almost unusually dignified for Oddy, but then it had been topped off with Rainbow fingerless mittens and an double knit scarf that looked like a film strip, and the words "Rocky Horror Picture Show" in careful stitches. He was about to head for the side stairs which lead up to the living space above the theater when he spotted an tall lanky figure with familiar long pale hair. Even in the dark, his spectacularly bright eyes were almost clear even from a distance, and the Senshi of Ink rocked onto his toes and waved a hand enthusiastically as he pocketed the lock to the theater keys with the other. "Quenton! What's up? Looking for a late night feature of something?" He'd been about to jokingly suggest "Killer Tomatoes" but Quenton was maybe more "Cassablanca" or "Maltese Falcon" type. The theater was locked up and he was sleepy sure, but for a buddy, pft, all hours were open hours. Never mind they technically barely knew each other. BUDDIES.
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Posted: Mon Jan 19, 2015 7:38 pm
The day had been like most- a blur of colors, medications, locations, and then he'd gotten to the safehouse that was more or less the best housing manageable at current since the apartment was a no-go for sleeping with how much powered life was attached to it by way of the Negaverse. One look at the place on the floor he'd been using and the General's arrow wound he bore from the early part of the month ached. Deep ache that leeched into all the rest of the side, then his spine, then hips and finally he just left. Walked away from the place before every welcoming the world faded to monocular vision, the soft voices from inside tents he never knew, or the too deep kiss of fire and falling against a uniform at last, broken to the core. Walking didn't chase the thoughts away, but it made them less consuming with the attention needed for streetlights and car dodging. The cold bit through the holes in both his Henley and his jeans. He'd forgotten his coat in the rush to just leave the lonely place. Where do I even go at this hour? There's no one to call. I can't call Stroud, she messaged something about a new live-in. So he walked, just walked for lack of much thought available in exhaustion for what exactly he should do. It was aimless, but touched on addresses he'd learned here and there through the city. He hadn't expected, in gravitating towards some bright lights of a marquee, that'd he'd find anyone he knew so late. A theater? It must be too late for showings; there's no patrons leaving. He works here? What else would he do, closing the very doors. Very Astute of you, Thraen. "Odysseus," Quenton crossed, coming to conversational distance as the other lifted his hand in recognition. He pulled his left hand from pocket to lift in likewise greeting. "It's been a while." "Getting off work? I shouldn't keep you. I didn't know this was where you were."
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Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2015 4:29 pm
"Yeah sorry, this is where I am a lot." Oddy ran his fingers through his hair and shrugged. "It's been cutting into my superman time but it is what it is." He gestured vaguely around the side of the building and added. "I was just gonna go put some hot cocoa on or something, heat up some leftovers maybe. Wanna come up?" Quenton looked... well he looked flat out exhausted. It was in every instinct to take him by the shoulders and steer him up the steps to feed him and put a blanket on him, though he limited himself to moving forward to but an encouraging hand on Quenton's arm to encourage him to follow.
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Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2015 4:54 pm
"I...only if its no trouble. You don't have to invite me in. Some cocoa would be appreciated if you have extra. I was mostly just walking to avoid sleeping. Or to get myself exhausted enough that when I did sleep aches wouldn't matter. Nothing so grand as having been working all day." "Semester is started again, graduate school at last. I can't decide if that means more or less time myself for 'being superman'. " It took those moments for the gears to process the motions, Oddy's hand guiding, directing, and what he was saying, but it DID all click. "You...live here? At the theater....building. Are you the owner/operator, and not just an employee?"
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Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2015 5:14 pm
"Family business." Oddy beamed. "My great..." he paused, apparently trying to jump through the mental family tree than waved it off. "He's not doing great, so I took over because, you know, hey... movies right? I don't know if we'll sell, but if we don't I thought it would be fun to try and make it more of a dinner and a show experience... but it would cost us some seats and some room because then we'd need room for food prep and licenses and stuff... but imagine booking a movie night to show up in fancy dress or period costume and watch Bogart on the big screen." It was a pie in the sky dream and it might just turn into a mess but he was rather hooked on the idea. "Definitely no trouble. Come upstairs, take a load off! I've even got some Lobster tails I think. They're not as awesome as the ones my mother makes but they're pretty good for something from a bakery." He steered Quenton toward the steps if the tall boy would allow it, grinning from ear to ear, revitalized by the presence of company.
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Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2015 4:42 pm
"Have you considered getting a license to serve alcohol? You could craft beer, ale or cider on site. I went to an arthouse theater in Ohio that had a tap list. Dinner and movie seems like an excellent idea as well. Would you be doing the boxoffice and the cooking? " It seemed like a lot for one person, compared to box office, usher and projectionist. If Oddy performed all those he was superman in his off hours from senshi business as well as on. I wonder if he has taken uniform at all recently. It seems like it would be so easy to just stop. So much of life crowding in, enough to deal with outside of running empty paths on the offchance of finding youma, agents or mirror senshi. Just living.
Just accruing scars from slips in a kitchen or rollerblades. Exhausted just from earning a living. Missing friends just because of working forty to fifty hours a week.
Nevermind the rest.
Very maudlin, Thraen. You didn't have friends to miss in the first place. Quenton moved as directed, taking the stairs with care usual to the dizzy or sleep deprived. He waited paiently, looking back at the near street and buildings while Oddy worked the door. "Do you have roommates? Not that it's hard to keep quiet to not disturb anyone."
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Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2015 5:20 pm
"Ooh, that sounds brilliant!" Oddy, if possible, perked up even more, as though he were actually drawing power from the exciting ideas. "But maybe you should hold off until you actually have some of my cooking before you ask me that part. I've got a couple staff, not a huge one, but enough that I haven't, you know... dropped dead yet. No roomies, but I thought about it. Then again It would be harder to actually power up if i had one and they, you know, DIDN'T know about that, and for some people it would be kinda weird to have a room over a theater. Especially if I actually opened the doors and did a late night show." He did an amused little dance step as he lead Quenton up the steps on the side of the building to a small landing, paused to spin the key ring on his finger (it was his best impression of Doc Holiday and the Cup from Tombstone.) and open the door to a apartment with considerably dated trappings, and decorated with an almost predictably 'Oddy' sort of decor. Movie posters, standees, books, DVDs, and colorful mismatched furniture. "Make yourself at home!"
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Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2015 12:48 pm
What energy even at day's end. Where does it even come from? Entering the space of another was always strange. Maybe more private to hinm than the other person. Oddy certainly seemed to put no specific anxiety upon it. Does he even have such nerves in him? Is he capable of anxiousness? If so, Quenton nor Thraen had ever witnessed such of the other man. Not in life, not in dreamed possibilities of a future that may or may not come to pass. The sculptor entered, quietly, and stood at what passed for the foyer and looked around. He wrapped his arms around his own waist, careful not to touch anything or disturb the air of the place. Even breathing was shallow. It was blessedly warmer than the outside or the safehouse, both physically and spiritually. Here was someplace personalized and showing signs of happy habitation. "It's very you." "Have you lived here long?"
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Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2015 1:13 pm
"Yeah, since I came back to DC." Oddy called over his shoulder, heading into the kitchen area to rattle through the cabinets and refrigerator. "You want some coffee or a soda or something?" He offered. "Milk? Juice? Uh.... Oh hey there we go. There's the sauce. Let me get this warmed up. There's plenty." He rattled more pots and pans and wandered past with his arms full of tupperware and boxed pasta. "You ok? You look really wiped out." Oops. Had he already asked that or had he just thought it? Oh well. Conversational glitch in the matrix. Whatever.
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Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2015 1:26 pm
"There were a lot of people taken prisoner by the Negaverse at the beginning of the month. When we found the survivors, there was some fighting. I took some minor wounds, that's all. " Is he just giving options to give options or is the hot chocolate off the table now? It must be. Most things would take making. Quenton looked to the kitchen "Just water, if you have an extra glass. Tap water is fine. I can get it..." "If you can tell me which cabinet? " Quenton finally moved, following towards the kitchen where the host's presence defaulted the space to 'safe' and 'alright to be in'. He didn't just start sifting cabinets, though, so as not to pry or take liberties. "Or I could just stay out of your way, if that's preferred. " I don't really know his comfort levels with someone else in his space. Does he often have others over? He's usually seemed very social. Or socially capable, anyway. This is so damned awkward. I am so damned awkward. This shouldn't be this hard, I've been a teaching assistant and now to be a graduate assistant. If you can teach, Thraen, you should be able to carry on a perfectly normal conversation having dropped by on a friend unexpected. Say hi. Head out. Regular people do this all the time.
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Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2015 2:35 pm
"Oh the glassware is in the cabinet to the right of the sink, go for it! While you're over there could you open the cabinet over the stove and get out the stuff for cocoa? I'm just trying to get the pasta sauce warming up but setting up for desert can't hurt right?" He seemed to just sort of assume Quenton would, or could, stick around that long. "Jeeze, sorry I missed it, that sounds really awful. I guess I need to check my phone more, I could have tried to arrange to have someone cover for me. Are they ok? How about you?" He paused mid stir of the sauce and pointed the wooden dripping spoon accusingly at Quenton. "When's the last time you sat down for dinner? You look like an exhausted piece of linguini."
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Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2015 3:26 pm
It took a long moment of thought, sifting sleepy days, weeks, months back and back for when the last time the implied meaning for 'sit down' dinner was. "I sit down when eating at my desk often enough. But you don't mean an apple and a tea. " Fishing out a glass and then rummaging the cabinet for the requested fixins didn't take any more effort or brainpower than walking, so thought continued on back to even the last winter. "Last February. An old friend turned commissioner, and brought food to my studio to talk over the master molds for custom counter-tops. Tea business. But we ate sitting together at the worktable." He hadn't seen Alex in as much time. Had it really been nigh on a year? Small wonder their already brief relationship hadn't gone anywhere. Much like friendship with Oddy- "When was the last time we spoke, Odysseus?" He paused in perfect stillness in the asking, cup poised beneath the still-off spiggot.
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Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2015 3:36 pm
"Hm, been a while. It was at the Diner." He hmed softly, trying to calculate how much time had passed. New Years Had. "Sorry I guess I really didn't think about how much time had passed. My bad huh?" He flashed an apologetic smile, brow creased. "I guess I kinda dropped the ball. Maybe I should see if I've got the budget for an extra pair of hands around here." That was one of the problems with having taken on the theater. He loved it and what it represented, but it wasn't giving him much time to do what he had come back here to do. But then it had been even longer since he'd seen Corvus. He sighed and made himself busy getting pasta into the water as it started to boil, retrieving a colander from a hook and setting it beside the sink. He could put it into the sink right before he drained things but for now it was ready. "Apple and tea is a snack, not dinner." He added, wagging a finger at Quenton. No wonder he looked so burned out. "I'm going to have to give you a standing order to come past here at night to get fed. Sheesh." Tea... having a cup of tea with Quenton sounded tip of the brain familiar but it just wouldn't come to mind. Had he been supposed to meet him for tea and forgotten? Oh he hoped that wasn't it... he'd feel terrible.
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Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2015 4:50 pm
Spiggot turned, water acquired. Quenton stayed there, thoughtful himself in the answer. The sudden presence near, much nearer than he expected, of the other man setting the colander hard buy elicited a physical jump and startle, though no expletives. He just blinked at the finger wagging, not quiet processing until a moment later. At least you only spilled in the sink. There was water all over his hand. "It is no whole fault of yours- I haven't made enough effort over the half year." June? July? It was summer, in the park where I learned his name. Corlione. Jokes about Mafia. Pancakes. "Sorry. I'm always jumpy, anymore. Apples are mostly what I eat. Whatever the meal. They're fast and don't need cooking or refrigeration. I don't have kitchen, really. Do you cook every night?"
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Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2015 4:59 pm
"If I can I try but if I have guests I've been reheating stuff from the family." He gestured at the sauce. "As it has been repeatedly pointed out that I have a cast iron taste tongue or something and things that taste ok to me do not always taste ok to other people." He flashed another apologetic grin. "You should come by, you can't live on apples, and I like having company!" This was probably obvious, but oh well. "Besides you could clearly stand to take in a movie. You can kick back, grab a giant bucket of popcorn and some milk duds, enjoy a film and glue your teeth together. But for right now it's Spaghetti and Hot chocolate and some leftover pastry. I mean know filled pastry doesn't keep super well but" He sighed dramatically as though speaking of some heavenly object. "Lobster Tails."
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