[PRP] Just Trying to Eat Here [Alexis/Fox]

[demon_pachabel]

Some people were simply sensitive to magical folk. As in 'THERE IS A PERSON HERE THAT IS TOTALLY MAGIC AND THEY ARE DISTURBING THE PEACE AND-' those kinds of phone calls. Every time Fox took one, she sighed deeply.

Most of the time, a simple search in the system pulled up nothing. This time, however, it had been to Fox's surprise that someone came up. A serious someone. Fox took a deep breath. She definitely was glad she wasn't the one having to respond to that.








How in the living ******** all had she ended up here? A simple suggestion. 'Hey, we know you're still a little broken, so why don't we ease you into your utter terror by having you come see a terrifying magical kid in action? It'll be fun'. It hadn't seem fun. Especially as the car pulled up, Fox couldn't help but feel like this person just...kind of wanted to eat their lunch in peace. Never the less, she followed the other officer out of the car.

Very carefully. But trying to not look like she was ready to let her inner coward send her running for the hills.

Daekie

 

[Daekie]

From a metatextual perspective, Alexis might have been the safest person of severe magical ability to ease into not-being-frightened with, or at least one of them: they kept their aggressive abilities tightly controlled as of late, and aside from the sudden influx of discomfort and fear everyone experienced in a certain radius, there was little chance they'd attack an officer of the law. They were trying to be better, as it was - and with that came a certain lack of unmeditated violence.

It was a little disappointing, sure, but they were trying, and if they ever really wanted to get the urge to fight out Wick was around (technically) - he was old enough, he knew enough; even with his leg as it was, he still posed a threat, because he was analytic. They weren't. And they could call up all the waves and force they wanted, in the safety of the Court.

But this wasn't the Court -- so there was no need for violence. Any of their magic they could put away, Alexis had done so, and maybe it was almost two PM but they really wanted some stuffed french toast. It was unhealthy, it'd probably clog their arteries; but they'd run until they'd almost collapsed, earlier, and it was a reward of sorts, but -

Alexis saw the car coming from their window seat, stiffened slightly, and pushed their food away, putting their hands in their jacket pockets and sitting and waiting. It might not have been for them, but honestly, that chance was low. The anxiety aura seemed to invite those calls.

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

Inside, the officer that Fox had accompanied started asking around: Has this individual started any problems? Who made the call? What was the problem? Through a wash of wishy-washy answers, nothing was actually set straight. Fox crossed her arms and sighed. So they'd been called out there because people were being flighty spooked creatures.

"So did they do anything?" Fox inquired and one woman, hiding her mouth behind her hand, shrugged, "Depends on what you mean," she answered and Fox frowned. She'd been on the other end of calls before for arbitrary reasons (AKA the color of her skin). "I see a young person trying to enjoy a meal, does anybody have any complaints that can be substantiated?" Another slight murmur of discontent.

"Well, they..." one woman looked over in Alexis's direction and already the other officer was halfway over. Fox frowned and made quick strides to follow after him. Without invitation, the officer took a seat while Fox stood, obviously displeased, not far behind him.

"We got a call on ya' kid. You been bothering anybody?"

Fox sighed deeply behind him. "Nobody has actually said they were bothering anybody, Curtis." she said firmly, but didn't toe in too far simply because of seniority. Still, she was having a hard time believing that Alexis, who didn't exactly look threatening, was behind the rapport she'd read on the way out.

Daekie

 

[Daekie]

"Dunno what you mean, Officer," Alexis said politely -- a little too politely, actually -- and smiled, showing every single one of their (very sharp) teeth...before seeming to catch themself and shrink down again; shoulders tight, their fingers playing with their braid, all tension. The worried slant of their brows said a lot, and none of it was very good; it said they were afraid, and angry, and clearly focusing on something else (although what was unclear).

"'m not botherin' anyone. Just wanted to have lunch. If 's a crime -" they shrugged, and the water in their glass rippled, pinging against its' constraints but never escaping - "I'll leave. If they wanted me out, they don't gotta call the cops on me. I can take requests like anyone else, yeah?" Alexis' eyes remained slanted down at the table, dark and strange, and the officers near them felt a little on edge.

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

'Little' on edge was 'rather' on edge for Fox, who wasn't sure why the feeling suddenly kicked in. Anxiously, she glanced around at the other patrons of the shop, frowning. Then she looked back to Alexis.

Gingerly, Fox placed a hand on their shoulder. "They don't have any cause to make us expel you from here. They don't have a legal right to kick you out if you're just eating in peace either," she offered helpfully, then shot a slightly sharp look at Curtis. Curtis frowned at Fox's expression. "Officer Bliskiss is right. Nobody been harassing you then?"

Fox would have happily pointed out that the two of them were interrupting as she removed her hand, not keeping the contact for much longer than would have categorized as 'okay, stranger danger touch'.

Daekie

 

[Daekie]

Alexis flinched away from Fox's hand, because of course she'd touched them and of course they couldn't control their reaction; the water in the cup rippled stronger, steady and regular, but never reached the edge or tipped the glass in any direction at all. "D-don't. Touch me. I don't like it." Not from cops, anyways. I've had enough of your s**t. But they knew better than to say any of that, not with the way the officers looked at them like they needed to be collared and muzzled, not with the way their toes curled into points inside their mussed-up dirty sneakers.

"Nobody's harassin' me. I'll leave, though." They pushed against the table and moved to standing; and oh, they were smaller than Fox, tiny and lithe, eyes bright, still cast down at the table. Their braid had started to come undone. "If someone got freaked out enough t'call you," and their voice was clear, scornful, a little stronger than it had been, "I don't think I'm gonna stay either way. You want me to pay for my food?"

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

Curtis recoiled in Fox's stead when Alexis flinched, reactive because seriously Fox, do a barrel roll dangerous criminal here. Fox frowned. "Of course, I apologize for touching you without permission," a lesson from her father: always be polite. She'd waited a few too many tables on her quest to be where she was then and customer service by then had been ingrained. Curtis frowned at Fox.

"I'll take care of your meal, I apologize for the inconvenience." Fox fished a notepad out of her pocket and hastily scribbled down some information on it. "If you do find yourself being bothered by people who will waste our time," she looked to Curtis who just threw his hands up in the air and walked back to the group of concerned looking civilians to start taking statements (or something, Fox wasn't sure any statements were needed), "feel free to give this number a call and I'll come out to set things straight."

Daekie

 

[Daekie]

Alexis looked up at her, scrutinizing, curious; the tension on their face faded a little now that they were standing, and they just looked annoyed and surprisingly tired. Maybe that was just their default; on file they'd looked exhausted as well, although their eyes had been normal and green, not strange-dark abyssal. (The tension with no source ratcheted up a few notches when their eyes were on her. It was kind of disquieting.)

"Haven't seen you around, Officer. Want to walk and talk?" They grinned, sort of sardonic. "Ain't as dangerous as I look, promise, I've got me some impulse control. Mercer'd kill me if I ******** up, anyways, and I'm not into that."

demon_pachabeI

 

[demon_pachabel]

Fox glanced towards Curtis, who looked back at her and motioned with a hand. Curtis didn't seem thrilled by whatever silent exchange had just happened, but Fox rolled her shoulders back.

"Jeremiah would? Sounds like between yourself and the Chief," she was assuming, "your 'trouble' is already being taken care of without needing me and Curtis out here." Still, Fox wasn't above walking with Alexis now that the matter was more or less being settled. Fox carefully counted out some bills to leave on the table to cover the meal (as she'd said she would) before motioning with one hand to the door. "Shall we?"

She shot another glance inwards on the way out. Something just didn't feel right and she didn't like that her guard was going up for seemingly no reason.

Daekie

 

[Daekie]

They shrugged. "'s more complicated than that, but yeah, basically." Alexis certainly didn't seem like the sort of nervous wreck who'd break a water main and hospitalize an officer in near-feral desperation -- but time did funny things to people. Still, though, less than a year...? It seemed unlikely, to say the least.

"Hope you won't complain if I don't wanna take your hand and go skippin' cross the fields...not my sort of thing." They followed Fox semi-obediently, quiet when they walked. And as soon as they were outside, the door closed: "You looked like you had questions. What's up?"

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

"No? Darn. There go all my plans for the day." Fox snapped one finger to add to her joking statement. Once outside, her hands went into her pockets and she seemed to relax into a more casual state of being. Perhaps having her fellow officer around made for a need to keep up appearances more strictly. Not that she wasn't serious, but Fox had no need to be stuffy.

"Well. Not so much questions so much as observations." Fox admitted. Alexis was a sharp one, though. Probably from having so much suspicion thrown at them all the time. "I read your file. It was very detailed, but I can't shake this feeling that it's wrong despite documentation to the contrary. Does that sound weird?"

Daekie

 

[Daekie]

Alexis moved to chew their lip - stopped - heaved a heavy sigh, and dragged the nails of their pointer fingers across the inside of their thumbs, letting the skin go white-pained behind it. "Long story short, all technically true, I'm from a parallel universe and I replaced whatever Alexis was here." They were smiling, but not like they thought it was funny, not really. More like they'd finally been let in on a joke that had always been at their expense. "You don't have t'believe me, Officer. But I didn't wake up with magic when I was seventeen. I got magic two weeks after I came here and we found a dead girl's foot."

Alexis laughed, short and raspy and bright, and it wasn't funny at all.

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

"....."

Fox listened, but it was obvious that whatever Alexis said made no sense to her. This was perhaps the strangest bit of information she'd been told her entire time she'd been back in Ashdown. The woman who grew up with magic being normal thing thought that information was odd.

Quietly, she pressed X to doubt, but only to herself.

"A dead girl's foot? Which girl's foot?" She'd never heard of anything like this (but she'd also definitely missed her mark for such a thing by being native to another reality). "Where did the other Alexis go?"

Daekie

 

[Daekie]

"She doesn't exist here, you wouldn't know," Alexis shrugged. "And whoever used to be here ain't anymore. They made a ********' mess of things, and I'm -" a brief moment of painfully keen weakness, wanting, self-loathing - "Trying. T'make it better. But hey." They smiled at her again after the brief lapse, all fangs, rolling their eyes with a huff. "Who knows? I'm probably just crazy, right? Got too deep in the Magic Kool-Aid and it dyed my eyes n' rotted my brain."

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

Lord those teeth were scary. People weren't meant to be made all out of sharp teeth and Fox only realized now that it may have been Alexis' presence that threw up that feeling of unease. Was it justified unease? Fox wasn't sure.

"I've yet to see a magic Kool Aid that does anything like that," though there were officers who heard rumors of 'magic street drugs'. Until they saw an actual provable case of it, Fox wasn't about to make that her default answer. "At least the eyes. The Brain rot has all sorts of other physical symptoms and you seem a bit too healthy looking," Fox paused, they were kind of..fishy after all (literally), "to be on anything that I'd suspect you'd rotted your brain out."

As far as Fox was concerned, Alexis was just trying to separate themselves from a past riddled with mistakes and remake themselves. Therefore they were the 'new' Alexis that replaced the 'old' one (but they were still physically the same person). "Just because you have a record doesn't mean you're an absolutely ******** up psychopath."

Good people could come from bad things.

Daekie