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 Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 1:01 pm
One thing was for damn sure: Chuck E. Cheese had never been able to swing himself around a pole like that. And he definitely wouldn't have looked so good doing it if he tried.
... I means. Strippers are immoral and wrong. Naked woman flaunting their bodies on a stage are inappropriate, especially for high-school aged children. Sue, you are not allowed to look.
... Sue, stop looking.
Sue, you're making an idiot of yourself, stop.
"Uhhhhh." In such an intelligent manner, Sue was attempting to communicate his appropriate chagrin and embarrassment for the situation he'd led Imogen into. He was also attempting to apologize for the fact that his eyes seemed to be glued on the stage, and assured her that this was no reflection of the interest of his current company, but rather a shocked reaction to the lewd display set before his poor, tender eyes.
Yep. Totally.
He snapped out of it right around the time that the server came marching over, a bitchy expression on her gold-painted lips. "You kids got ID?" she demanded.
It was at that moment that Sue grabbed Imo by the wrist and bailed, straight out the door and up the stairs. Not the most smooth of exits, probably, but at least in the end, he had the decency to know he was where he shouldn't be. "s**t," he stated empathetically once they were out. He looked to Imogen, bewildered. "Since when do strip clubs serve pizza?!"
As though that were the sole indecent piece of this encounter.
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Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 1:32 pm
She barely registered the angry woman with the gold lipstick. There were other women whose very job was to draw the eye after all and like her friend she couldn't tear her eyes away for a while. Sue was again her hero as he suddenly grabbed her wrist and they hightailed it out of there. She almost wished they'd stayed in the pretentious Mezzaluna simply because then they'd never have gone through the double black doors and seen...
"I, erm, I don't know."
Imogen HAD known people could bend like that really she had. Hell, sometimes she bent like that, not that she felt like volunteering that information right now. Ever seen an acrobatic Lindy Hop? But she'd never ever seen anyone bend like that naked or around a sodding pole and she now knew that those made all the difference in the world somehow.
And oh ******** she was with Sue! She was with someone she liked and wanted to be better friends with and who she wouldn't blame for never ever wanting to go anywhere with her ever again after this stupid, this huge blunder off the path. She'd loose a friend because some people liked to watch people do the splits vertically while they munch on pepperoni pizza.
She was so busy wrapped up in her total shock and obvious embarrassment that she completely missed the curb and tripped.
This. Could not. Get worse.
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Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 2:09 pm
In any sort of comedic date movie, that would have been the moment. The perfect scene - Sue would catch Imogen just as she was about to stumble. Overcompensating, he would pull her right into his arms. They would meet eyes; breathe gently. Maybe laugh nervously, maybe lock lips, depending on the director's choice.
But yeah, no. Sue was still lost in a mental world full of half-naked girls doing fleshy acrobatics. He didn't even notice that Imogen had stumbled until it was already too late to do anything to steady her. "Hey, whoa!" he exclaimed, reaching out feebly.
It had been a nice thought, anyway.
"You okay?"
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Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 2:42 pm
"I'm fine. Trust me, fallen over my own feet far more than I care to admit." Whenever a girl she liked walked by or when she threw too much enthusiasm into a move or when she was too busy focusing on her feelings to mind her own feet. She laughed, a feeble shadow of her usual laugh, trying to get back to being lighthearted. Imo picked herself up and herself off before looking at Sue again.
"...well this has been a really weird and embarassing trip so far, hm?" This was his chance to agree, cut and run. She wouldn't really blame him. She'd not blame him but then have to go find icecream with which to drown her sorrows.
He'd been right - what the hell was up with a strip club serving pizza?? Damnit.
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Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 2:47 pm
"Yeah."
Yeah, he believed her when she confessed to clumsiness? Yeah, it had been a really weird and embarrassing trip? Or was it to that unspoken suggestion - yeah, he did want to cut out, right then and there? There weren't a lot of ways to put a positive spin on yeah....
But then Sue looked at her, grinning. He was sheepish, for sure, but unapologetic. "Beats hanging around in a hospital room though, don't it?"
Now was her chance to either agree and keep going, or give him a look like he was crazy (which he probably was) and make her own escape.
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Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 3:58 pm
After a moment, Imogen grinned back brightly.
"And the food will be better too, when we actually find some."
She'd have hugged him in a heartbeat but Sue did not seem the hugging kind and she didn't want to be one of the 95% of people whose face he wanted to break in. Assuming she wasn't already. Maybe she had been at Barren Hell just by default but she was kind of hopeful she wasn't now.
"I was so bored when they wouldn't let me get up or anything, I started seeing things in the ceiling tiles like they were Magic Pictures. You know, where if you make yourself go cross-eyed you can see a white sailboat?" Ah the Destiny Memorial sailboat, a memory of an irritation that'd stay with her for a long time. Imo didn't do well when cooped up for long. Back to idle chit chat as they continued on their quest to find a decent place to eat.
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Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 5:37 pm
Sue pondered, but quickly remembered - "Oh yeah! The teacher in third grade had two of 'em, I remember. One was dinosaurs, and the other... well, everyone said it was a mountain, but I couldn't see it." He used to get so damn frustrated about that stupid picture, too, as he recalled....
Bah. Not the sort of story Imogen wanted to hear though, probably.
"So, what're you gonna do now that you're out?" Sue asked. "You've got what, a week until school starts? Gotta fill the time somehow, right?"
More to the point - gotta fill the time. It didn't matter how or with what, at least not for Sue right now. He'd been getting out to talk with more people since getting out of the hospital than he'd had probably since starting high school. It was pretty much anything to get him out of that little hotel room, to keep him from thinking back too much to Barren Pines. If Imogen was anything like him, she'd probably be keeping herself busy, too.
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Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 6:05 pm
"Anything to keep my mind off what happened. Only one close friend survived along with a few house mates and girls from my dorm floor. No one else. So I think remembering what happened to everyone else too much would break me. Besides, doesn't make sense that it was organ traffickers, I don't even want to know what drugs they gave us to make us forget so much time... so I'm drawing a veil over Barren Pines." She'd heard that expression in films before, mostly old ones, where ladies said they'd drawn a veil over memories. It meant they were ignoring it entirely. Might as well as never happened because they weren't going there anymore. She gave up. She'd tried to get her memories back of the latter half of the year but all she got was headaches for her trouble.
"I plan to get school sorted, go dancing, see what films came out... just get back to living really." She shrugged. She only really knew Sue and Aggie now, because even if she tracked the others down none of them had been really close to her. So making some more friends would be nice but she expected that'd be easier once she got to a school.
"You?"
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Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 6:49 pm
Drawing a... what? What the hell did that mean exactly, drawing a veil? After a few moments of puzzling, Sue ended up just giving up and jotting it down as nonsensical. If it was important, Imogen would clarify - but hey, look, shiny new subject to talk about!
"Sounds nice," Sue commented, but didn't bother specifying to what part. His eyes were going forward again, searching out signs on the street.
None of them were looking promising. And Sue was starting to get hungry.
"... It's gotta be pizza, doesn't it." Not a question, really, but a listing off of requirements. "And it's gotta be somewhere we can sit down. None of that street vendor crap. And," he glanced at Imogen, this time a bit apologetically, "affordable." Which meant that expensive little bistro on the corner there, where the waiters were wearing suits? Yeah, probably not.
"Anything else?"
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Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 7:09 pm
"It doesn't have to be pizza but affordable would be good as would inside seating." She remembered the pasty place, which was a shopfront where they'd put in a hatch with a huge hot plate to keep the premade food warm and to sell it from. That got dismissed as quickly as the bistro, which she didn't spare a second glance for. Those pasties this late at night would be overdone from sitting so long and sitting down inside would be good. Besides, they'd have to go back past Antonio's and Imogen wanted to give that place a wide berth.
"You didn't say what you planned to do before school? Going to relax or...?" She asked again as they turned the corner. This street just had an Indian restaurant, Tandoori Nights and and Chinese simply called Yum that Imo gestured to. The first had a gold rimmed glass box with the menu inside while the second looked like some sort of tackily decorated all-you-can-eat buffet. Could have a look if Sue liked the look of either. It payed to be flexible after all.
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Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 8:10 pm
Relax? Wouldn't that be nice....
"I've got some friends to find," Sue answered, a touch grimly. Then, perhaps realizing that that was opening a can of trauma that Imogen didn't need, he qualified: "Cat-friends, I mean." Not that that meant anything else to Sue; Stripers and Mackie had been with him through Hell already, but they hadn't come back with him. They might not have fought to defend him like Nibs, but they had done everything they could - been lookouts, been scouts, been constant reminders of how to fight and what he was fighting for. Many strays might come and go without his knowing their fates, but he couldn't let those two be among them.
If at all he had a choice, anyway. And if he could get his nerve together and go back to the scene of Barren Pines. He'd kept finding excuses, though, everything was just so busy recently....
And now wasn't the time to be thinking about that, anyway.
"Chinese place is out," Sue answered, wrinkling his nose and shaking his head. There was no way she could drag him into a Chinese buffet. Half of them claimed to be Chinese, but then had the cheapest, most foul-smelling sushi bar in the back, just to make him sick. (Granted, Sue's experience was based on the two Chinese buffets he'd visited in all his life - but the memory had stuck.)
The Indian place, on the other hand.... "I've never eaten Indian food before, I don't think," he mused, giving it a little more attention. He wasn't always one for trying new things, but being hungry sure helped motivate him. "Is it any good?"
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Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2010 3:31 pm
Imogen tried to think of how to sum up something that varied so much. This place looked like it'd serve the usual popular dishes rather than the more unusual that you usually only found in more expensive Indians or actually in India. Not that that was a bad thing.
"I like it, there's all sorts of different things but I only go for the milder dishes myself or the sweeter...oh. Though you'll have to try it next time I think. They look full." The closer they'd wandered to the place, they could see over the half-frosted front windows to see that every table was full and it looked like a family of four was waiting to be seated. The popularity meant the food was likely good, but the wait for a table wasn't so desirable.
"Do you want any help finding them? Your cat friends?" As she'd said she mostly just planned to relax so she had the time. She wasn't very good with animals but if they were Sue's it only seemed polite to offer. Cats were important when it came to Sue. Simple as that.
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Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2010 4:27 pm
Sue's voice hardened. "They'll... turn up."
Sue would have liked to have said yes, of course. He wasn't proud, or an idiot; the more people looking, the better the chances of finding them. And even more to the point, he would have even liked the company, going back to that place....
But at the same time. He couldn't ask it of Imogen. He wouldn't even ask it of Yahya, his closest friend. Because he didn't know if it was safe. That place still screamed danger to him, like there was a reek of residual evil that shadowed it. When he went, it would be alone; or it would be with a Zodiac. He couldn't risk anyone less capable.
Time was dragging on now, and Sue was starting to wonder at how poor their luck must be. First Barren Hell, then the hospital, and now they couldn't even find a place to eat? There was something to be said for the question of whether they lived cursed lives, really....
They turned another corner. This was just a bare alley, though - all back doors and trash in the gutters, with the occasional sound of something shuffling through the debris. Sue moved closer to Imogen, instinctively, but did not falter.
"I'll have to try the Indian place sometime, I guess." Keep the talk moving, light and unworried - just in case Imogen was the sort to spook at places like this.
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Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2010 4:46 pm
"Sorry." Sorry she'd offered, sorry she couldn't help or just sorry his cats were lost? Could have been been any of them. Her turn to make an ambiguous statement. Imogen's gaze dropped to the pavement so for once there wasn't any real clue how to take it.
"Indian food can be really nice. Korma is probably the most popular curry I think - most people I know will eat that even if they don't like anything else." She perked up as they entered the alleyway, head going up. She didn't spook or get actually nervous but she was obviously alert even as she chatted back to Sue. She just felt wary. Imogen felt a bit stupid paying such close attention to rustling noises except...she'd lost a year of her life to Barren Hell and even if she couldn't remember zombies and monsters there, she was still changed for it. Likely they all were changed somewhat, if some more than others.
"We're almost back to where we were." She sounded kind of amused.
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Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2010 7:07 pm
"Are we?" Were they? Just how long had they been wandering around for, anyway? Long enough that Sue's stomach was chewing on the rest of his intestines, maybe, but....
They made it to the end of the alley. And not so far away, just as Imogen predicted - the pizza parlor they'd turned down in the first place.
Sue stood and stared for several long seconds. Then walked up to the window to stare a bit more. "Well, bleep me," he swore at last, confused and disbelieving. They'd really just walked in a big circle. Rejecting every restaurant along the way. Who's great idea had it been to go walk around and look for someplace else to eat, again?
(Yes, he knew it was his. But his pride needed a bit of rescuing, so let him live in his delusion, eh?)
But you know... as long as they were here anyway. There wasn't much noise anymore. At least two of those parties from before had cleared out. It was just late enough that the restaurant had hit that perfect level of being mellow. So....
"... I see open tables."
Sue glanced at Imogen. He seemed to be trying very hard to keep a smile off of his face.
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