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| You Can't Hurry Love; 5/24: Early-Eveningish (Ali/Simon) | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Apr 8 2015, 11:11 PM (259 Views) | |
| Wonder Man | Apr 8 2015, 11:11 PM Post #1 |
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Red Shades, Original Recipe. No really.
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[Continued from Hallway of My Lethargy] It wasn’t that far from that nondescript hallway to Ali’s Captain’s suite. That felt like a good thing. Not because he was worried about getting her there, and still less because it was any chore at all to be carrying her in his arms. It was more just that the more he thought about it, the more Simon felt like the idea of being somewhere behind a door - without anyone else who might need them, or want them, or even just possibly run the risk of happening to be in the same general space - grew in appeal. Not forever, of course. That definitely went without saying. But yeah… right now, a little space, and a little distance from other people, sounded pretty darn good. As long as it didn’t come with distance from Ali, anyway. That was something he’d do, if it was what she needed, but he definitely wasn’t feeling keen on it otherwise. That had something to do with the fact that he still wasn’t completely convinced he shouldn’t still be a little worried about her, for sure, but it wasn’t even just that. Even when she was obviously drained, and pretty clearly holding her brain together more because it was something she was good at than because it was something that, she was just amazingly easy to be around. He felt better for being with her, too, and Simon wasn’t quite ready to let that go just yet if he didn’t have to. He nudged the door panel so it opened, then stepped into the room, pausing once he was just inside to take a breath (it really was nice to hear the swish of the door closing behind them, closing them off from the rest of the world, even if it was only metaphorically). And also a little stock of the surroundings. They were the same as last night, except that he hadn’t really been taking much notice of exactly what was there last night (or this morning), so this felt a little like an introduction all over again. Over there, that was the kitchen. And the bed, back that way. But… yeah. Right now, that deep padded arm chair looked even better than either of those things, didn’t it? Pausing to glance down at Ali, in case she had any other inspirations, or suggestions, or even just any comments, Simon headed that way. He turned carefully once he was in front of the chair, and sank down into the cushions, careful to make sure it would be easy for Ali to curl around into his lap, if that was as okay with her as he thought it might be (and that wasn’t even just going on how okay with him it would be, it was just a feeling he had from the hallway, and from the walk over). “So, we made it,” he told her softly, once they were settled. “I don’t know about you, but I think it’s a definite improvement, as far as location goes.” |
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| Dazzler | Apr 9 2015, 09:54 PM Post #2 |
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I'm the best at what I do, and what I do is roller skate
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Simon? He could take her where ever he wanted. Any time he wanted. Somewhere less here and this? She was definitely all for it and, before Ali'd quite managed to figure out the whole letting him go and standing up thing, he was already taking care of that. Not that that was any kinda complaint at all. If he didn't mind, she didn't and he definitely didn't seem to so she just kept doing what she was doing - which was keeping her arms wrapped around his neck - and let him do what he did. Totally an Officer and A Gentleman type moment and, man, now that song was gonna be going all around in her head, wasn't it? Maybe a little cliche' (thanks, complete radio overplay) but she hummed a few random bars of the first verse all the same. Soft and not really trying for in tune, but didn't think he'd mind that, either. This felt like a totally and completely good place to be for maybe the first time since they'd got back to the Ops room. Right here, in Simon's arms, letting some've the kinda overwhelming pile of stuff in her head start to drain away. Or at least find a place in her head to settle itself. “Let me take you home.” he told her as the humming tapered off and faded away. Ali's answer, by way of agreement, was to tighten her arms around his neck a little more, briefly. Fit her head into the crook of his neck. Home. Felt like she was already there, and it wasn't anything at all to do with a room, any room or any place, on this big flying battleship. Didn't say that, though. Hell, right now she wasn't sure she'd even know how in any way that'd make even a little sense. But a room, a door, somewhere not in the middle of the hall, Simon, that sounded like the best thing ever. It wasn't even that far (but, hey, when you were at the point of napping in the hall, these things sorta slipped your mind) and they were back to her room (that felt more like their room, actually, after last night, and this morning), door panel swishing open and then closed behind them again. There was a little sigh of something really close to relief that she let out before Ali even realized it. It was a definite relief, though. That (probably totally and completely false) sense of being able to close everything out there off. Not for long. Not gonna be that lucky and, yeah, the whole conscience and responsibility thing that wouldn't let them anyway. But maybe for that little while. Recharging, it needed to happen and she thought maybe for Simon, too. Invulnerable only took care've the physical stuff. A little pause, just inside the door, and Ali took quick stock of the state've the room. Bed still not made, abandoned improvised wine glasses probably still hanging out in the bathroom. Guitar case over next to the door. Hadn't even had a chance to open it and see what Shinobi had picked out, but she'd do that later. The bed, rumpled sheets and all, was definitely tempting right now, but she decided against it almost as fast when Simon was done with his own room check and looked down at her. Dragging him into bed with her would always be way more than tempting, but right now, she'd be just as happy to curl up with him anywhere. And probably less likely to pass out again the second her head hit the pillow. So, just kinda smiled at him and left the choice in his hands. "I'm good with where ever," she told him out loud, in case he wanted confirmation and it looked like the big, comfy chair was the chosen destination. Excellent choice, even if she hadn't had much of a chance to spend much time in it so far. Definitely fit the requirements of both comfy and roomy and, right now, that seemed perfect. Actually, it was pretty perfect. Completely, and once Simon was settled she curled up against him, in his lap. Exactly the only place she could imagine wanting to be right now. “So, we made it,” he told her softly, once they were settled and her smile was back again. Maybe a little tired around the edges, still, but definitely there and definitely real. On this thing with this whole group? You absolutely didn't know what you'd run into just trying to get from one place to another. Especially with Tabs on the loose. “I don’t know about you, but I think it’s a definite improvement, as far as location goes.” "The hall's not gonna win any points for comfort or interesting interior design." Utilitarian, military modern, everywhere you looked. All she could say for it was that it wasn't covered in olive drab. "This? About a million times better," Ali agreed, fingers stroking light circles over the back of his neck. Then she leaned in, lips brushing against his, soft and light, before pulling back a little again. "I know you've probably got tons of places to be and things to do," she added, looking back up at him, "but I'd love it if we could call a temporary time out or something. So I don't have to give you back for a little while." Knew she'd have to eventually. Absolutely knew how this stuff worked. Hadn't been out of it so long as that. Also knew she'd be out like, well, a light at some point and wouldn't be good for anything but this until she'd had some sleep. But, until then? Yeah, just wanted him close by for a while if they could make that work and it was okay with him. |
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| Wonder Man | Apr 15 2015, 10:07 PM Post #3 |
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Red Shades, Original Recipe. No really.
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Alright, if the word of the moment was ‘good with wherever’, then the armchair seemed like a pretty decent wherever to be good with to Simon, who might not have been tired by a strict definition of the word, but who still definitely wasn’t feeling alert enough to parse out his own logic for circular loops right now. It met with Ali’s approval at least (he had that from the way she curled up readily against him, once chair seating had been achieved), and that was about all that seemed like it mattered right at this instant. So that was that. They’d made it, which he announced (unnecessarily or not), and Ali was smiling again. Little bit tired, and a little bit incandescent than her normal one. Come to think of it, part of that might have been that she wasn’t outlined by the soft, subtle background glow that helped her stand out from the rest of the world right now. That thought wasn’t entirely comforting, but the smile was still a real one, and even run off her feet and out of power glow juice (or more appropriate term for it), she was still just about the most gorgeous thing he’d ever seen. And they were here now. Out of the way of the rest of the world, however temporarily. Simon had to admit that he kinda thought that was a definite improvement on the most recent iteration, location-wise. “The hall's not gonna win any points for comfort or interesting interior design,” she agreed, which was definitely encouraging. Tired as she clearly was, she still had her taste, and… actually, you know? He wasn’t going to keep worrying before he knew he needed to. He was just going to settle into the chair, and let his hand drift in slow, easy movements up and down Ali’s side, and be grateful that she was okay, and that he was with her. ”This? About a million times better," [she] agreed, as if speaking his thoughts. Her fingers drew gentle circles at the back of his neck as she did, and even if they might not have had every last part of their usual sparkle, her eyes were warm when they turned up to his. “Yeah,” Simon murmured softly in answer, but that was all he had time to say before she’d leaned in and pressed her lips lightly against his. Yeah. That was kind of an exponential seal on that million times better, wasn’t it? It didn’t last, but right now, it really didn’t have to. The briefness was part of what made it special, in some way Simon couldn’t really have explained, even if he’d wanted to try. “I know you've probably got tons of places to be and things to do," she added, looking back up at him once she’d pulled back again, “but I'd love it if we could call a temporary time out or something. So I don't have to give you back for a little while.” Simon smiled, and nodded back at her. “I can do that,” he said. “I want to, in fact.” A temporary time out sounded like pretty much the best thing he could have imagined right now. At least if it was one that was with Ali. Thinking about that, he lifted one hand to stroke the long, silky strands of her hair where they were falling over her shoulders, cocking his head to one side and watching her for another second or so before adding, “Consider me yours for the next little while.” For starters. |
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| Dazzler | Apr 16 2015, 06:46 PM Post #4 |
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I'm the best at what I do, and what I do is roller skate
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Contrary to her kinda poor choices in napping locations (hey, exhaustion, it made you do really weird things), the hall was definitely not her preferred hangout spot. Utilitarian, military drab. So not her style and not gonna win any points at all for comfort or trendy interior design. SHIELD. No sense of style. Also? Not at all her preferred hangout spot with Simon. This? Nice, comfy arm chair where she could curl up with him and just...maybe let everything settle in her head a little bit? Definitely about a million times better than anything the hall had to offer. Even more so with him here, now, warm and steady and solid against her. Made it a little easier to breathe again. Or catch her breath, maybe, after all the running around and...everything that was going on. “Yeah,” Simon murmured softly, more...subdued, maybe, than she was used to but not exactly a surprise. She wasn't up to throwing a party here, herself. Kissing him, though - soft and light and brief - that she was definitely up to. Always. Because she could and she wanted to and she'd missed him, as silly as that probably sounded. Right now, it didn't feel that way even a little. Maybe it was just the tired and the day talking. Some've that, definitely, but...yeah, it wasn't really all of it. He probably had tons of things to do - hell, she had a few herself, when she could give it a shot without falling asleep in the middle - and other places to be, but right now? If he could manage time for a little time out, she'd love that. She hadn't wanted to let him go to begin with, even if crap happened and she'd done it anyway because she needed to and Johnny needed her to, she definitely wasn't ready to give him back yet right now. He smiled and nodded and that went a long way to making things generally better, too. “I can do that,” he said. “I want to, in fact.” That was two of them, then. There wasn't one, single thing she wanted more right now and that feeling was just reinforced when he reached up, palm stroking along her hair and doing more to make her wanna relax than just about anything else she could think of. Or at least anything she had the energy for for a while. "Excellent," Ali pronounced it, with a smile of her own, because it was. Definitely good and good to know and she let her eyes kinda drift closed briefly as Simon tilted his head. She could feel him sorta watching her, but not in a worried way or a 'wait, I changed my mind' way. Or she didn't think so. More a thinking way, she thought. “Consider me yours for the next little while.” Yeah, she liked that, too - considering him hers - and her smile widened a little as Ali opened her eyes again, little bit of a teasing glint there. Might not be quite up to her normal standards, but she wasn't that far gone to totally useless yet. "Mmmm...definitely liking the sound of that, but," she kinda faux-warned him, fingers still tracing those light little circles over the warm skin at the back of his neck, "you might wanna be prepared for negotiations for longer contract terms. Fair warning." A girl had to try, at least. "All your people okay?" she asked next, quieter and more seriously since, yeah, there'd been the thing with Mockingbird, whatever that'd been that'd had the other woman that upset, even though Tigra'd said she'd be okay. And the thing with Hank Pym. No clue how to even feel about that, but she hadn't known him, either, except as the guy generally responsible for her almost five year stay in that Hellhole in Marysville. Simon had known him as somebody more than that, though, and so had the rest of his team. And Jess' team. And Mantis, who she was pretty sure had been an Avenger somewhere in there, too. Yeah, the hits had just kinda kept coming so...if he wanted or needed to talk about any've that, she was at least good for that, still. |
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| Wonder Man | Apr 21 2015, 11:15 PM Post #5 |
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Red Shades, Original Recipe. No really.
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A temporary time out it was then. He could do that. He wanted to do that. Even more than he had already when Ali smiled back at him, and called it, “Excellent.” Yeah. That was kind of how he felt about it too. Or about her, and being here, with her curled up in his lap. Maybe a little drowsy; he could see her eyelids dropping down toward closed as he stroked her hair, but there wasn’t anything wrong with that. If she felt comfortable enough to go drifting toward sleep, well he’d rather it was on him than back out in this hallway. In fact, he’d kinda rather it was on him than pretty much anywhere else he could have imagine. Call it a suspicion - it was a feeling that was sneaking up on him, though, that said that this was exactly where he wanted to be right now, whether Ali was asleep or not. As long as she was here. So yeah, she could consider him hers for the next little while. Ali’s eyelashes fluttered again when he said that, framing the striking blue of her eyes as they opened. Gorgeous. Tired though she might be, there was nothing dim about the way something in them seemed to sparkle. It wasn’t the glow, like he’d thought it must be until he’d seen her like this. It was the smile they held in them, the one that had grown again, still managing (even now) to twinkle with what looked like it might hold mischief. “Mmmm…definitely liking the sound of that, but," she kinda faux-warned him, fingers still tracing those light little circles over the warm skin at the back of his neck, "you might wanna be prepared for negotiations for longer contract terms. Fair warning.” Simon laughed softly, not bothering to do anything to temper the dimple that practically flashed itself when he grinned back. “I can certainly do that,” he promised, lifting one hand to move away a lock of hair that was threatening to slip down over her eyes. His fingertips brushed lightly over her cheek as he did, and he kinda found himself idly toying with the idea of admitting that he’d never really been any good at negotiations (which was actually true), so if she wanted to just hand him a pen, he’d sign whatever she wanted on that contract right now. It might not have been quite that that she’d been meaning though, or the time to have that kind of conversation. So when she spoke again, while he was still toying with the idea, asking “All your people okay?”, in a voice that had lost the slight hint of teasing it had been holding, it seemed like it was something that would wait easily for a little while. “Yeah,” he replied, shifting the arm that he still had wrapped around her to gather her a little closer, and tilted his head a little, considering what to say. “At least, as much as they can be, under the circumstances.” Some of which Ali knew, others she might be able to guess at, or at least be kind of aware of, even without all of the details that he didn’t need to go into right now, since they weren’t his to share. Some though, he could say, and he had a feeling Ali would want to know. “Bobbi’s doing a whole lot better, I think,” he told her, with a faint smile that owed something to the news he couldn’t tell Ali, and something to do with Mock and Hawk’s ideas about coping strategies, which he probably couldn’t do justice to trying to explain right now. “She and Hawk always do better when they’ve got each other,” he said instead, shrugging away the smile as the rest of the answers to Ali’s question came back to the fore of his mind. “Jen’s taken what happened in DC pretty hard,” he continued, expression serious. Not that that was information that would probably surprise Ali, if she knew Jen at all, or even if she’d got some of the details of what had gone down there, and how it had. “And Jess too.” He paused, thinking that over, then shook his head. “Well, hard doesn’t even begin to describe it, with Jess.” Peter had probably been the nearest thing she had to family. Except Carol, and Carol… well, it wouldn’t do him, or anyone, any good to be thinking about Carol right now. Simon shook his head, clearing that thought away, and met Ali’s eyes again in silence for a moment. “And Greer,” he said after that, before falling silent again, looking for the words he could say about his friend that wouldn’t be a betrayal of what she was still wanting to keep private. “She… isn’t having an easy time,” he settled on, “but she’ll come through it all the same. She always does.” That would have to do, for now. Nodding to himself, Simon lifted his eyes back from the point of no space in particular they'd ended up drifting into, and looked at Ali. "How about yours?" he asked. "How's Johnny?" |
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| Dazzler | Apr 22 2015, 10:27 PM Post #6 |
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I'm the best at what I do, and what I do is roller skate
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That laugh. She loved hearing Simon laugh, especially right now and especially when it was accompanied by one've those killer dimples and that show stopping grin of his. Made her feel about a hundred times better, just like that. Better and settled and all the good things that came really easy with him. With being able to curl up in his lap and take a little time out. When was the last time she'd even let herself do that? With anybody? A long damned time. “I can certainly do that,” he promised, reaching up to push some stray hair out of her face, fingers warm as they brushed along her cheek and making her heart do that fluttering thing in her chest. Also proving he might not have the greatest sense of self-preservation right now, but it was all good. Like she'd told Tigra earlier, down in the pseudo daycare with all those incredible little kids, no plans at all to break Simon. Not in a million years. But, hey, negotiations. Could still be a lot of fun. Once she didn't feel like an empty battery pack, anyway. And once things were...less this. Whatever the word for this was, right now, where it felt like a messed up mass of confusion and shock and trying to get things to process. Like aiming for a note she couldn't quite hit without knowing why. Too damned much had happened since she'd left him in the OPs room and that kinda brought her back around to serious again. Wondering if his people were okay? A lot of this stuff would've hit them hard, especially. Simon included. “Yeah,” he replied, the way he kinda pulled her in closer confirming what she was thinking as his head tilted consideringly. Watching his face, Ali linked her arms around his neck again, gave him a gentle squeeze while he sorted out whatever he wanted to say next. “At least, as much as they can be, under the circumstances.” Yeah. Which...probably wasn't exactly okay at all. Just because they were all kinda used to the crap didn't make it any more fun to go through. “Bobbi’s doing a whole lot better, I think,” he told her, with a faint smile and she sent him back a matching one. Good. Definite relief there, as shook up as the blonde had seemed after they got back. “She and Hawk always do better when they’ve got each other,” Simon added and, yeah, she got that. How that worked, even if what she'd seen of those two made them look like total opposites. "Kinda gotta think they're doing it right, then," she commented before his smile slipped away again, already telling her some've the rest probably weren't hanging in there quite as well. “Jen’s taken what happened in DC pretty hard,” he continued, expression serious and Ali nodded, tilting her head to rest against his shoulder again as she listened. “And Jess too.” He paused, thinking that over, then shook his head. “Well, hard doesn’t even begin to describe it, with Jess.” She'd kinda known them both, years ago. Not well, and she and Jessica Drew hadn't really hit it off at first, but yeah. Peter, that'd be hard as hell for both of them. Once she was less dead on her feet and more useful again, maybe they wouldn't mind a stop in from her. Just for old times sake. “And Greer,” he said after that, then going quiet again. Oh man. “She… isn’t having an easy time,” he settled on, “but she’ll come through it all the same. She always does.” Tigra definitely seemed like the type. Someone who'd hold it together, no matter what. "You guys are really close, aren't you?" It wasn't a question exactly. That same conversation down in kid land had made that friendship clear. And, y'know, if Tigra liked her or not, oh well. Wouldn't be the first person, wouldn't be the last. Shit happened. She was obviously a good friend to Simon, though, and Ali could appreciate that. "If there's anything I can do," she offered, stroking her fingers over his shoulder as she looked up at him, "Not that most've them know me much or at all, but still, we're all in the same boat here." Or the same big, stolen, flying battleship thing. And she knew what it was like to feel betrayed and lost, like everything solid had just been blown out from under you . And to be confused and heartbroken as hell when it came to people you thought you knew and the things that they did. A little shrug added in there, since yeah. Still random offers of help and support from relative strangers. "If anything comes up, the offer's there." That that definitely went for him, too - especially him - she kinda hoped went without saying. Ali was considering saying it anyway, but Simon was nodding and beating her way too damned slow thought processes to the punch. "How about yours?" he asked. "How's Johnny?" Letting out a still worried sigh, Ali shifted just a little, so she didn't have to turn her head quite as much to see his face, brows drawing downward. "Johnny's still pretty messed up." And probably would be for a while. He'd known Peter Parker since practically before either of them could shave. "But I handed him off to Sue and Reed and then kinda put a little bit of a bug in Crystal's ear when I ran into her and Medusa and Black Bolt." Yeah, it was kinda risky, but she totally had a plan. Really. "They'll be fighting ten minutes in," she admitted with half a smile and a little bit of a gleam in her eyes, "but it'll be good for him and it'll take his mind off things a little." And Sue would keep it from getting totally outta hand. So he was okay-ish, at least for a little while and Ali let her eyes close again, sorting through the others with the solid, steady presence of Simon close to her. "Lois is hanging in there with her team. They seem good for her," she started again, thoughtfully, as she went through the list in her head. Totally glad of that, it took a load off her mind in a lotta ways. "Julian griped at me a while about being stuck on clean up detail, then wandered off to his friends. Tabby and Ric got back in one piece and they're under orders not to blow up anything, or anybody, important." Would that take? Not a clue, but Ric would try and they could hope. "Bobby is...a total and complete mess," Ali added, worried crease in her brow replacing anything close to a smile. "Kinda knew that, but..." There was trailing off for a short pause while she gave her head a small shake. "Didn't have a clue he was that bad. That completely blindsided me," the former singer admitted. It was like all this had just...totally and completely broken him and turned him into somebody she barely recognized. "And Shinobi took off this morning, did I tell you that already?" She remembered tracking him down not long after, for a quick drive by hug, but right now that was all kind of a blur of meetings and changing plans and adrenaline that her brain wasn't cooperating in sorting out. "He took a stripper and one've the jets, so he's probably on an island somewhere by now," Ali mused, opening her eyes again and turning them back to Simon. Still a little sad about that. He'd been her best friend though a hell of a lot of crap. But this wasn't his thing and she'd known that going in. Just like he'd known when it was time to go. "I should probably remember to tell Rogue about that, too, huh?" she asked, lifting her hand to brush along his hairline, near his temple. "Don't think she'll miss the stripper, but they probably need to know about the jet I'm guessing." |
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| Wonder Man | Apr 28 2015, 10:03 PM Post #7 |
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Red Shades, Original Recipe. No really.
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Yeah, he kinda thought Ali had the right of it there. Whatever they were doing Bobbi and Clint were doing something right, even if Simon knew he wasn’t alone on the rest of the team who’d been living with them for this long in wondering about exactly what that was that they were doing every now and again. Whatever it might be, it did seem to work for them, and today seemed like it had turned into yet another example of that. The Bobbi he’d seen had been doing a whole lot better than the one he’d expected, after what other people had been saying. That might have had something to do with time to get out of a bad situation, and get some space back in her head, but it probably had even more to do with time with Clint. However it worked, it did seem to with those two. Then there were the others. Both the ones on his team, and the ones that weren’t, but were his friends. Like Jess, who’d been hit hard by what had happened in DC. Like Jen, but with Jess, hard didn’t really even begin to describe how she was taking it. Peter had been more than a friend and a teammate for her, especially through all of this. Then there was Greer, who was harder to find words for when he came to describe how that was to Ali, just because the ones he chose had to be picked carefully to skirt around the things he knew his friend wanted to stay as her business and no one else’s. That was her choice, though he was still hoping that choosing to tell the others was going to turn out to be a case of when and not if for her, so all he could do was stick to the outline. She wasn’t have an easy time, but she’d come through, the way she always had, and the way he kinda thought she always would. “You guys are really close, aren't you?” Simon half-started, surprised by the question, and glanced back to Ali, trying to gauge whether there was anything in that question more than the simple statement it sounded like. He hadn’t even stopped to consider whether there might be until now, and maybe he should have… but no. There wasn’t anything like that in Ali’s look, or at least not that he could see, so he nodded simply. “Yeah.” Greer was… Greer. Probably the closest thing he’d had for a best friend since Hank, and… things that might sound more complicated than they were or really ever had been, if he tried to explain them, so probably better not to. At least not right now, and anyway, he really didn’t actually feel like there was anything in Ali’s question, or how she was looking at him, that suggested that was something she expected or wanted. He couldn’t help but think that might be yet another reason that she was amazing. “If there's anything I can do," she offered, stroking her fingers over his shoulder as she looked up at him with an expression that made it more than just a standard expression of something that was the right thing to say, “Not that most've them know me much or at all, but still, we're all in the same boat here.” Simon nodded, tightening his fingers against her side for a second to say how he felt about that where words didn’t feel quite right. It was an offer even he kinda was having trouble picturing Greer taking up, but that wasn’t something that he needed to say. The thought counted, and the genuine meaning behind it. “If anything comes up, the offer's there.” Simon smiled briefly at her, shifting his arm to kind of pull her in a little more for a quick hug. “Thank you,” he said sincerely. “I’ll pass it on, definitely.” After all, you never knew. He’d been… well, kinda maybe just a little… call it confused, when Greer and Bobbi had both opted out of his team this morning and volunteered for the one that Ali had been on, especially after the way the whole team (excepting Jen) had been acting in Greer’s room this morning, but neither of them had said anything, and getting to know Ali on that mission could only have been a good thing. That was what he was assuming, anyway, and it definitely wasn’t something that anyone needed to be thinking about right now, so Simon moved his brain onto more of the things that did. Like Ali, and her people, and asking after them. Especially Johnny, after the way he’d looked when he’d last seen him at the Debriefing room. Ali sighed at the question, but though she frowned too, it looked like it was at least equal parts thoughtful to troubled as she moved slightly, twisting around to be a little closer to face to face. “Johnny’s still pretty messed up,” she said, sounding steady, but not really happy. Simon rubbed her back gently, letting her go on speaking without interruption. ”But I handed him off to Sue and Reed and then kinda put a little bit of a bug in Crystal's ear when I ran into her and Medusa and Black Bolt. They'll be fighting ten minutes in," she admitted with half a smile and a little bit of a gleam in her eyes, "but it'll be good for him and it'll take his mind off things a little.” Matching her half-smile for half-smile, Simon inclined his head. “That sounds familiar,” he replied, before frowning slightly as he heard what he’d just said. “I may have lived with Hawk and Mock too long.” More their style than it had ever been his, but… yeah. He definitely got how that could work for some people. “Lois is hanging in there with her team. They seem good for her," [Ali] started again, thoughtfully, whether because she was working on keeping her thoughts in some kind of order, or just because the idea that Mortis had found a place that worked for her on Spooky, under John of all people could take a while to wrap your head around, Simon wasn’t sure, and kinda thought he didn’t need to be asking right now. “Julian griped at me a while about being stuck on clean up detail, then wandered off to his friends. Tabby and Ric got back in one piece and they're under orders not to blow up anything, or anybody, important.” With a slow nod to each of those, Simon went back to slowly rubbing her back, finding something that felt like it might be a knot at the back of her shoulder, and gently working at it with his fingertips. Julian… that was good to hear, because god knew he and his friends had already been through more than anyone should have to deal with in entire lifetimes (man, and he should definitely check in on Risque and Siryn before too much longer, or at least with the people who’d been looking after them, because that mission had definitely pushed both of them more than he’d have liked to do in an ideal world). Tabby and Ric… that sounded like it was probably a couple of the kids who’d been at Marysville - maybe some of the ones that had gone out with Jan and Clarice today? He wasn’t entirely sure, but the news sounded good, at least, so that was probably what mattered. ”Bobby is...a total and complete mess," Ali added, worried crease in her brow replacing anything close to a smile. "Kinda knew that, but..." There was trailing off for a short pause while she gave her head a small shake. "Didn't have a clue he was that bad. That completely blindsided me," the former singer admitted. “He’s been hit with a lot,” Simon agreed softly, summoning a picture of Iceman as he’d been… well, for nearly a couple of years now… to mind. He’d tried, a while back, to see if he couldn’t do something to help the guy, for Hank’s sake. Probably not as hard as he should have though, but it had been Psycho’s business, and it was all too easy to kinda just let yourself feel reassured by telling yourself that Remy and Rogue - or possibly even more likely, Sue - would have done something if it was really as bad as it sometimes kinda looked. “That whole team has, and not just today,” he added, kinda a little abstractedly. Not much of an excuse, or it didn’t feel like one, looking back while seeing it alongside someone who had fresh (well, fresher) eyes on all of this, but… yeah. It really wasn’t the Iceman he’d met back when he’d been an Avenger, and still less the one that Hank had talked about being an X-man with, was it? "And Shinobi took off this morning, did I tell you that already?” She had, and Simon gave another nod to say as much. She hadn’t said very much about it that morning, when she’d found him, but she had said enough to know that was what had happened to put that look that had been on her face then. Now, the expression she was wearing as she lifted her eyes back up to him didn’t have quite that lost look she’d been wearing then, but you definitely couldn’t call it happy, could you? ”He took a stripper and one've the jets, so he's probably on an island somewhere by now," Ali mused,"I should probably remember to tell Rogue about that, too, huh?" she asked, lifting her hand to brush along his hairline, near his temple. "Don't think she'll miss the stripper, but they probably need to know about the jet I'm guessing.” Smiling softly - hard not to, when the soft brush of her fingers felt as good as it did against his hair, like a reminder that for now the day really was on hold - Simon shrugged that idea away for the moment, moving his fingers to find another knot in the muscles on her back that he could work at. “At some point, I’d think,” he said. “I don’t think it’ll be high enough on anyone’s priorities for the next while, at least.” Rogue, last he’d seen her, had looked like she’d be dealing with plenty for the next twelve hours that would clock in above misplaced jets in terms of needing attention, but Ali was right, the information probably ought to get to someone who might need it at some point. “Are you okay with him being gone?” he asked though, tilting his head a little to get a clearer view of her expression, the better to see how she was really holding up after all of this. “You two were close.” That wasn’t a question, because it really didn’t need to be. They had a bond, that had been pretty clear, and whether she’d expected that it would happen or not (he’d kinda got the feeling that she had), that couldn’t be easy to deal with him being gone. |
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| Dazzler | Apr 29 2015, 08:21 PM Post #8 |
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I'm the best at what I do, and what I do is roller skate
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Yeah, he and Tigra, they were close. It was more a kinda rhetorical question slash observation and she didn't need Simon to confirm that. The cat lady had done that well enough down in the nursery, but he did, looking maybe a little surprised or taken aback or something there as he looked back at her. Not totally sure what that was about, but he didn't say and it didn't really matter. Not right now. All she was trying to get to was that, well, if she could be any kinda use to anybody, it was a standing offer. They didn't really know her but, hey, they were all dealing with the same kinda crap here and some've what'd happened to day had to hit hard. So, yeah, there it was. Standing offer and it was okay either way. Ali tightened her arms around him as he pulled her in, hugging him tight for a second. Never any kinda hardship to do that, especially right now. “I’ll pass it on, definitely.” That totally went for him, too, and she hoped he knew that by now, even if 'by now' was all of a couple've days or so. With Simon, it felt bigger than the time it had all fit into. Especially sitting here, with him, like this. Curled up and feeling...not content, because she wasn't sure that was possible yet. Not with everything still swirling around, kinda unabsorbed and all over the place. Something close to that, though. Easier, maybe. Things were easier, just for having him there with her, arms around her, gentle fingers rubbing her back and making it suck a little less to talk about how Johnny was still a mess, but in good hands. And how she'd kinda accidentally on purpose put a bug in Crystal's ear to go see about him. They were kinda a big, messy...mess (yeah, brain not really cooperating with the word variety, repetition was a go) together, but right now she kinda thought that'd be a good distraction for him. Simon's own half-smile said he got the pseudo-logic there. Maybe where almost nobody else could figure it out. “That sounds familiar,” he replied, before frowning slightly like he was trying to figure out where that came from. “I may have lived with Hawk and Mock too long.” A quick smile, because he could make her do that, even right now. "They've kinda got the whole opposites attract thing going, huh?" He was all fun and bows and crazy arrows and she was more serious and smack it into submission and get the job done. Ali wasn't sure she got that sorta thing, exactly, but it seemed to definitely work for them. She'd seen a little of that for herself down in OPs. The smile faded away again in favor of thoughtful as Ali went through the rest. Lois was hanging in with her (definitely kinda intense) people and Julian had been gripe-y about Sentinel cleanup duty before wandering off to his people. Ric and Tabs, well, they were okay, under instructions to keep mayhem to a minimum, and hopefully off showering and eating and not causing mass mayhem. Simon was nodding to all her various rambling, possibly about people he hadn't even met yet in the case of Ric and Tabby, the pink haired woman mused, but he was good that way. At listening and definitely at working out that knot he'd found at her shoulder that made it feel like years of tension were turning loose and draining out slowly. Ali gave her shoulder a roll and let out a soft sigh of relief, even if she didn't entirely relax just yet. She'd stopped by to see Bobby, too, and there hadn't been anything at all relaxing about that. Totally blindsided her, actually, and that didn't happen as often as you'd think. “He’s been hit with a lot,” Simon agreed softly, and totally and completely right about that. “That whole team has, and not just today,” he added and she nodded, closing her eyes for a few blinks and letting her cheek rest against his shoulder. "Yeah, they have," she agreed, kinda wondering - not for the first time the last few days - if she hadn't left, if she'd stayed instead've running off to the other side've the country...would that've made any difference at all in how it all went down with the X-Men? "Everybody has," Ali added, quietly, still kinda thoughtfully. Mostly thinking out loud, "but, y'know, I don't think Bobby was ever cut out for this. Any of it, even before things got entirely crazy." Definitely gonna talk to Rogue later, but for now she set that aside. Except, speaking of, had she told Simon Shinobi took off this morning. It was all kinda of a blur right now, but he nodded, so she must've got that in with the quick, drive by hug she did remember. Probably another thing to put on the list of 'talk to Rogue about later'. He hadn't gone alone, because that wasn't how Shinobi worked. They were missing a jet and a stripper and, while she doubt they were worried about the stripper (well, Remy might be but she sure as hell wasn't gonna ask Rogue about that), kinda probably needed to know about the jet. Simon smiled and her own lips curved up a little again to match that, fingertips brushing through the soft hair at his temple as his managed to find another of those knots she hadn't even realized were pulling her muscles tight until he started working them out. God, that felt good. “At some point, I’d think,” he said. “I don’t think it’ll be high enough on anyone’s priorities for the next while, at least.” Yeah, no kidding. Not with everything going down today and Rogue and Remy probably sinking into the middle of it. Maybe she should see if she could throw some help their way once she was something closer to up to par again a little later. “Are you okay with him being gone?” Simon asked, pulling her outta those thoughts and her eyes to his face, her palm coming to rest lightly against his cheek. Was that something he was worried about? “You two were close.” Not a question, but she nodded to confirm it all the same. Not ever something she'd deny, or that she'd be ashamed of. Shinobi sure as hell deserved better from her than that, even if he'd swear he didn't care. "Yeah, for years," she answered quietly, still kinda thoughtfully. "He's one've the best friends I ever had." Maybe that sounded sorta strange, considering who and what he was. She'd never had any illusions about that. Her illusions had been more about who she was, or what she'd thought she could be, but she was pretty sure Shinobi had known that all along, too. "He gave me a place to be," or maybe just a place to hide, it was hard to say and she wasn't sure Simon wanted or needed to hear all that right now, "when I was trying to put myself back together and didn't know what the hell I was doing. And I don't think I'd have made it through Marysville without him," she admitted, eyes meeting his as she tilted her head up again and thumb stroking over the smooth, warm skin of his cheek lightly. "This? So not his thing, though. He came here for me and I'm kinda surprised he stayed as long as he did. I knew he wasn't gonna hang around, and he knew I wasn't gonna leave. So, yeah," Ali continued with a little bit of a smile again, "I'm okay with it. A little sad and, you know, kinda replaced by a stripper," since that did bear mentioning, her generally pseudo-offended dignity said so, even if she'd been the one to leave that hole for him to have to fill and to have practically handed him the stripper to fill it with, "but not heartbroken or anything. It was never that sort of thing with us." This sort of thing, the one she felt when she looked at Simon. Definitely still scared the hell out of her her a little, but yeah. Surprisingly easy to get used to. |
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| Wonder Man | Sep 6 2016, 07:03 AM Post #9 |
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Red Shades, Original Recipe. No really.
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Yeah, all in all, all things considered, that thing about the missing jet, and the missing stripper? That could probably go into that pile of things that definitely weren’t unimportant, but also weren’t high on anyone’s list of priorities right now. In Simon’s mind, at least right now, that was kinda the same place he felt about Bobby Drake, and any question marks there about how he was, and whether he was cut out for this life (there’d probably been plenty of people ready to say the same thing about him over the years, after all, and he was still here). Not unimportant, but just not really all that high on his own priorities right now. Right now, he, Simon Williams, would much rather know about other things. Not about a stripper, or a jet, but about how this amazing woman in his arms felt about the part in that situation that was real, and mattered. Her - well, call it friend for now, unless she gave him a better word that was closer - friend had gone this morning, and he didn’t need any kind of unusual perceptive ability to know that that was a big thing. Was she okay with that? With him being gone? They’d been close, that much was obvious, so.. that made it a thing that seemed big enough to be a priority. Ali nodded, but didn’t start off by saying anything, except in the way that her hand did feel like it was saying something, resting against his cheek. She looked… well, she looked like she was stopping to think about that, and he really, really liked the way she did that. Like she was taking the question seriously, and wanting to have an answer to that, instead of just dismissing it, and shutting the question out. “Yeah, for years," she answered quietly, still kinda thoughtfully. "He's one've the best friends I ever had.” She didn’t seem all that tense, considering that by a lot of standards, he was kind of prying over a line into pretty intensely personal stuff here, but Simon kept his fingers working smoothly at the semi-knot-like things they were finding in her back all the same. Not getting any signs that said it was unwelcome, and he was pretty sure he would have noticed if there had been, because it just wasn’t at all hard to give his full attention to every little detail about Alison Blaire. But yeah. Even as personal as this was getting, she just didn’t really seem like she was any tenser than was kind of inevitable from exhaustion. That - was kinda of amazing. Especially in a place like this. “He gave me a place to be,” she continued, as Simon nodded to let her know she was definitely good to keep going, if she wanted to, while he kept up the long, slow movements of his hand across her back, “when I was trying to put myself back together and didn't know what the hell I was doing. And I don't think I'd have made it through Marysville without him," she admitted, eyes meeting his as she tilted her head up again and thumb stroking over the smooth, warm skin of his cheek lightly. Christ, she really was amazing. Probably not exactly the most appropriate time, but Simon couldn’t help himself anyway. He leaned forward, catching her lips with his own for the briefest of kisses, before he pulled back enough that he could see those amazing, honest, brilliant blue eyes again. It was a weird way of saying ‘hey, I’m really glad that he was there, then’, and he knew htat, but he didn’t quite know how to say that with words, either. “This? So not his thing, though. He came here for me and I'm kinda surprised he stayed as long as he did. I knew he wasn't gonna hang around, and he knew I wasn't gonna leave. So, yeah," Ali continued with a little bit of a smile again, which didn’t seem particularly forced, which was really, really good to see, “I’m okay with it. A little sad and, you know, kinda replaced by a stripper,” and okay, he was totally going to have to raise an eyebrow to that right now, because she pretty clearly did already know that that was a thing that was absolutely not a thing that could or had ever happened, without him or anyone else telling her that, “but not heartbroken or anything. It was never that sort of thing with us.” Simon nodded again, watching his fingers as he let them trail upward to trace the line of her collar bone out from the base of her throat. He envied women, sometimes. For things like this, that involved what things really were, and which ones were going to be the sort of things that got their hearts tied up like that, and which ones didn’t. They always seemed to just have a way of knowing and being certain about things like that. It had never seemed that easy to him, but they always seemed to. Good for her, though. He’d - well, he’d really hate it if she’d been hurt like that, by someone she cared about. Just call it at that, huh, and not go on and read more than he probably needed to into an honest answer to an honest question. “You are replaced by a stripper the way China White is replaced by methadone,” he said anyway though, a half-smile coming up to hover at about the level of his dimples, before being replaced by a (pretty minor) frown as he reconsidered the details of that analogy. “The way I understand how that works, anyway.” Just going to put that out there quickly, because he didn’t want Ali to get the wrong idea about what kind of ‘Hollywood experience’ he’d actually got in his time there. Not that. So not personal anecdotes talking here. But… …okay, he had been around long enough to not keep digging his own holes though. Stopping that, and just smiling again, letting it go and letting the really simple, easy smile that kept coming to his face whenever he looked at her come through to the fore. “I’m glad you didn’t leave,” said Simon Williams. Because that was just the honest truth. |
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| Dazzler | Sep 6 2016, 09:29 PM Post #10 |
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I'm the best at what I do, and what I do is roller skate
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Shinobi, yeah, she was definitely gonna miss him like crazy. Years ago, he'd been her safe port in a hell'uva personal storm. He'd taken her in and gave her a place to belong while she tried to put herself back together. If you'd ever met Sebstian, his dad, or dealt with him, then what she had to say probably sounded hella weird. Or maybe delusional. But she'd never, ever had any illusions about Shinobi or who and what he was. He wasn't his dad, Shinobi was way farther down that scale of reprehensible, but he sure as hell wasn't a white hat, either. He'd always - always - been good to her, though. Shinobi Shaw, Black King of the LA Hellfire Club, whatever else he was or wasn't, was one've the best friends she'd ever had. Without him, she'd have probably never survived the Special Pine and Beet Scented Hell that was Marysville. A lotta that was things she'd never tried to explain to anyone else. Hell, she wasn't even sure she could've until she started spilling it out to Simon, as she pressed her hand to his cheek and his fingers worked some sort of serious magic that started unknotting knots back there she hadn't even realized she had. Easy. It was crazy easy to talk to him. To want to as he watched her like he was really listening. Funny how many people actually didn't do that, but Simon did. Gave it his complete attention and that was extraordinary all on it's own. Like the kiss that came at the end of that last sentence. Not a long one, not right now, but totally and completely welcome. Sorta put the punctuation mark on her idea that he understood what she was saying and how she was trying to say it. Kissing him back, that was totally and completely easy, too. Effortless. Then she added the rest of the answer to what he'd asked. Absolutely she'd miss Shinobi and they'd been close, for years, but this was not his scene and it'd only been for her that he'd come here at all. And that he'd stayed as long as he had and helped as much as he did. Well, for her and because he was totally sick of being hunted by giant, purple killer deathbots, too. He always sided with his own best interest and she was absolutely knew that and was okay with it. The same way she was okay with him leaving to go follow his own stars (or, you know, his own nude beach, ridiculously expensive hedonism, and umbrella drinks), stolen jet and stolen replacement stripper and all (yeah, he could totally lift his eyebrow at that, and she could shoot a twinkle of a grin at him a little bit in return, but it was completely true). Sad to see him go, but not heartbroken. It'd never been like that with them. It'd never been like this with them, Ali amended, at least on her end of things. The way butterflies fluttered around in her stomach as Simon Williams looked at her and nodded, fingers sliding up, tracing her collarbone and leaving little tingly points of light. Which would've probably totally been literal light if she wasn't currently in the same energy category as a used up glowstick. Eyes half closing, because man, she really did like how that felt, his fingers tracing along her skin, Ali tilted her head toward his shoulder, humming softly in just the pleasure of that feeling after a day like today. “You are replaced by a stripper the way China White is replaced by methadone,” the amazing guy she actually might end up falling asleep on before this was over (cliche, maybe, but sue her, she was comfortable and considering he'd found her napping in the hall he kinda had to have a clue it could happen). That was a compliment (and Ali was absolutely sure it was a compliment and a kinda awesome one) that deserved more than just sleepy humming at him, so her eyes opened again and she gave him the very best pleased (and maybe just a little tiny bit teasing for the way he was frowning, kinda like he couldn't exactly figure out how those words had happened) one she could manage. For him, the former singer thought she could manage pretty well, even right now. "Well, she was a seriously cute stripper. And totally sweet. So there's that." Shinobi, so much better taste in well built blondes than his dad. “The way I understand how that works, anyway.” Simon threw that in pretty fast. Pretty sure he meant drug related comparisons, not strippers since, one) she wasn't that tired yet and, two) seriously, he'd have never managed a best friendship with Hank-ster without getting at least one or two strippers tossed his way (possibly literally but, hey, that was Hank). That half smile made her own go a little wider still. "Not exactly an expert here, either," It'd been around the club. Not just heroin but pretty much anything you could imagine, if you wanted. She never had. One, totally involuntary experience with being drugged out of her brain and cast in a low budget, mutant-centric Gladiator rip off. was more than enough to end any lure that sorta thing ever had for her, "but I think you've got a handle on it." And there was that smile again. God, she did love his smile, among a whole lotta other things about Simon. It made everything just a little bit better, just by being there on his face. “I’m glad you didn’t leave,” said Simon Williams and Ali's smile went all kinds of soft at the edges. Man. Just...man. Sweetest guy she'd ever met, no lie. "Me, too," she agreed, shifting a little and tilting her head to press her lips to his cheek. Let them linger there a few heartbeats, just because. "Not even a little tempting to take off." Not even a hard confession to make as she pulled back enough to meet his eyes again. Neither was the next one. "I'm exactly where I wanna be," Ali added, since that was totally and completely true, too, fingers sliding back to slip through the soft, short hair at the back of his neck. Yeah, definitely where she wanted to be. And she didn't mean the giant, flying thing she'd snatched from SHIELD. |
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| Wonder Man | Sep 8 2016, 09:43 PM Post #11 |
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Red Shades, Original Recipe. No really.
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That was more than enough thinking about that, wasn’t it? He was definitely better off working his way back to that line Ali had been trying to pretend she was trying to sell bout being replaced by a stripper. No doubt at all in his, Simon Williams’ mind, as a representative of mostly intelligent and well-adjusted straight male minds everywhere, that that was about as real as methadone being a replacement for high grade heroin. ”Well, she was a seriously cute stripper. And totally sweet. So there's that,” Ali retorted with a grin, right around the time his brain (probably befuddled by the the fact that it did belong to a straight male, and it remembered exactly enough details of the woman in its arms to consider the comparison at length) caught up with the reality of how the metaphor side of the analogy it had just trotted out there might sound. Yeah, better throw out a little disclaimer to that point, hadn’t he? He definitely did not want to give her the impression he was taking that from life, especially since they’d both spent enough time in LA to have had the option put on the table, as it were. So you know, just how he understood it, in very much the secondhand sense. Right. “Not exactly an expert here, either,” she shot back with a widening grin that she very definitely was an expert with. He liked all sorts of things about that smile, particularly the way it was turned up on him- “but I think you've got a handle on it.” Okay, definitely back up to a full on, full dimpled smile back at her, then. They were agreed on the important things, like not really knowing about the ins and outs of the realm of injectables (which wasn’t really feeling like a surprise either, even if he had kinda wondered a little - okay, more than a little - to begin with, back when Hank was completely fur-over-heels for her and they’d run into her at that one party. That had actually turned out to have the kind of explanation he’d thought Hank was kinda naive to be insisting on at the time, hadn’t it?). Also, and far more importantly than that, they had verbal agreement that stripper, however cute and sweet she might be (not necessarily the traits he’d expected to be the basis for a Shaw’s selection as a traveling companion, but Ali definitely had both of those things in spades, so maybe that was another expectation he should be revising), was in no way a replacement for her. At all. Ever. And here she was. She was very much still here, and he? He was really glad she didn’t leave, which he was going to tell her right now, because it really didn’t feel at all like that was too much to go ahead and put out there. “Me, too," she agreed, shifting a little, but only so far as a pair of soft lips pressed against his cheek, spreading a warm comfortable feeling that didn’t have anything to do with temperature. She definitely was more than welcome to keep doing that, as much as she wanted, and hopefully she didn’t mind him smiling a little more all over again, and turning just enough after she pulled back that he could look at her while he was doing that. “Not even a little tempting to take off.” Well, she might rethink that if she’d seen some of the notes Puck had left them about some of the PR issues that were starting to build up on them, Simon reflected for a moment. Not altogether seriously, though - whatever Greer and Bobbi thought they might have been trying to hint at this morning, he was at least a thousand percent certain already that a tough challenge wasn’t something that was going to put Ali off. You could see that, in everything she’d put herself into here. “I’m exactly where I wanna be,” she said, and man, the way her fingers were slipping through his hair like that? Definitely spreading that warm feeling even further. “You know, I kinda think I am too,” Simon told her, slipping his hand back around her waist so he was holding her closer, then letting himself just enjoy the moment. How often did you really get ones that felt as uncomplicated as this did? “So… a stripper who’s both cute and totally sweet, huh?” he did have to ask though, after a second or so. “Here.” taking his hand away for a moment, so that he could gesture vaguely downward, in a way that was intended to indicate the Strip Club, even if they weren’t actually above it any longer. Still Long Island Sound, that was close enough to make the point about Queens and the boros in general. “You know, I really might have been underestimating Gambit all this time,” Simon continued, wrinkling his forehead a little as he tried to come to terms with that idea (not for the first time this twenty four hours, either, which was actually not making it easier), “I wonder where he found her?” He was pretty sure that the other members Psycho hadn’t really been kidding when they said the man was actually involved in the running of the hideout’s peculiar choice of front operation. It certainly fitted with the persona the man liked to project - but ‘cute’ and ‘totally nice’? Yeah, that was a little more surprising. “Right, not really important,” Simon recalled after a moment, catching up how much of a tangent he was pulling himself down, and refocusing on what was important. Not to mention much more interesting than any stripper, however unusual, as they’d just established. “What can I do for you here and now though, Gorgeous?” he asked. Man, even tired - and she still was looking a little sleepy on all of this, even if it wasn’t worrying him in quite the same way it had been anymore - that name wasn’t even the tiniest bit of exaggeration. Totally, incredibly, every little piece of gorgeous that someone could be. |
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| Dazzler | Sep 9 2016, 02:42 PM Post #12 |
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I'm the best at what I do, and what I do is roller skate
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Stolen strippers and stolen jets and high end drugs of choice on the LA (or HFC) scene - and their agreed on mutual lack of practical knowledge there (at least voluntary practical knowledge; kinda made her wonder if Simon remembered the crazy, drugged up girl she'd been when he and Hank had run into her at that LA party she barely remembered) - all aside, yeah. She? Was totally and completely glad she hadn't left, too. As much as she'd been sad to see Shinobi go (even knowing it was an inevitable thing), leaving herself? It hadn't seriously crossed her mind at all since...well, probably since she'd popped out with Ariel to go help with the Utah evac. Seeing that and getting to be even a little part of it had really been amazing and it'd made her remember who she'd been, before the LA HFC and all the time she'd thought she'd lost that Ali - the one that'd been more than a pretty, shiny, self-centered ornament. That, and then guy right here that she'd made herself comfortable with (or, you know, on) and that was amazing and amazingly easy to just be with and talk to. Simon. It was absolutely effortless to look at him and have no problem admitting she hadn't been even a little bit tempted to take off again. Complete with a kiss planted on his cheek, totally just because she could and she wanted to. Yep, exactly where she wanted to be. In a whole lotta ways. “You know, I kinda think I am too,” Simon told her, slipping his hand back around her waist so he was holding her closer, and she shifted a little bit again, to make that easier for him if she could, tightening her hold on him right back. Couldn't last, not right now. Totally knew that, too. Million and one things still needed doing (PR related catching up and finding out what the hell Terry was up to that had Puck leaving them a complete symphony length's wad of post-its that she hadn't had a chance to read through yet, pitching in with whatever and where ever she could once she recharged to help out with all the things that wouldn't stop just because the fighting had, making sure Tabs didn't wreak too much havoc on the unsuspecting), and dealing with and getting through. But, yeah, definitely not worrying about that for whatever time they could steal here before duty called again. Decompression was something she needed and she thought Simon could probably use, too. There was a lot of emotional stuff to deal with and, like she'd said, physically invulnerable didn't mean the emotions wouldn't wear you down if they had a chance. And...she wanted to be there for him for that, too. “So… a stripper who’s both cute and totally sweet, huh?” Simon asked into the comfortable silence after a little bit and Ali grinned at him again, nodding and fingers still sifting through the short hair at the nape of his neck. Chablis was absolutely both of those. The other one? Not so much with the sweet part. “Here.” taking his hand away for a moment, so that he could gesture vaguely downward, toward where the strip club would've been if they were still hovering over that and not out over water. Where, if they'd been knocked outta the sky during this thing today they wouldn't have made yet another giant crater of mass destruction in the city. “You know, I really might have been underestimating Gambit all this time,” Simon continued, wrinkling his forehead a little as he tried to come to terms with that idea and looking amazingly hot doing it, though one've her own blonde brows kinda winged upward at that, “I wonder where he found her?” "Well, yeah," Ali started with, if not a normal sized grin, then what she thought was a pretty decent one for somebody who'd been napping in a random hallway not that long ago, "It's Remy we're talking about." Which, yeah, his codename was Gambit. "He's sneaky and I think he kinda likes it when you do that." Even tired, she could still manage a little teasing twinkle in her eye for him for that. "And,no clue where he found her, but I approve of Gambit's taste in strippers. Chablis totally gave great lap dances, too," she threw in, because it was absolutely true. A good skill deserved recognition. With a little polish, Chablis would've been a massive hit in the LA Club. If, you know, it wasn't a pile of rubble. Okay, definitely overtired, since that was a lotta random information she was throwing at him in that little bit of pause for the question 'I wonder where Gambit found such a nice stripper?'. But she was comfy and waiting for all the residual adrenaline to drain out and, yeah, talking to Simon was something she absolutely liked. Definitely hoping to be able to do a lot more of that in the future. “Right, not really important,” Simon went on, dismissing that tangent and probably saving himself from getting the entire, seriously rambling retelling of Amazing Haircare Adventures with Strippers and Scary Russian Ladies to save Jean's hair from whatever the hell they did to it (she was kinda going with strip mining, from the way it'd looked) to turn it green. “What can I do for you here and now though, Gorgeous?” he asked and her smile went soft all over again, fingers stroking down along the warm skin at the back of his neck. "You really are just the sweetest guy ever," the former singer informed him softly, since that was totally and completely true and he should absolutely know that. "And you're already doing it. This is definitely so much better than hallway napping." Leaning in just a little again, she brushed her lips over his cheek one more time. "I'm just kinda waiting for all the leftover adrenaline to wear off and give everything a chance to settle in my head. Then, a little sleep, a little ambient noise, I'll be ready to jump back in again," Ali assured him, lifting her eyes back to up his. "Right now, though, I'm definitely liking the company and the conversation and, you know, that question works both ways. What do you need right now, Handsome?" She wasn't so far toward passing out that, if there was anything she could do for him, she wouldn't give it her best shot. |
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| Wonder Man | Sep 10 2016, 07:13 PM Post #13 |
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Red Shades, Original Recipe. No really.
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Okay. Okay… now, there had been a lot of surprises, a lot of crazy twists in the last twenty four hours or so (hell, even the last week, easily), and a lot of them had been significantly more twisty, surprising and miraculous than this particular one. But all the same, Simon did think he’d kinda got his brain to a sticking point here, with the consideration of strippers. Well, a stripper. A stripper who was a combination of ‘sweet’, ‘cute’, and ‘employed by Remy LeBeau’, not to mention located (well, originally) in the remnants of Queens. What could he say? Color him a little surprised, not to mention caught out by having apparently really underestimated Gambit all this time. Yeah, okay, he probably deserved that eyebrow. And if he didn’t deserve the moderate but extremely attractive grin that came from the pink-haired woman currently using him as a lounging post… well, he’d be happy to claim it anyway. “Well, yeah," Ali started with[…], "It's Remy we're talking about.” Simon inclined his head to one side, one corner of his mouth sneaking upward ironically as he acknowledged that as a more than fair point. “He’s sneaky and I think he kinda likes it when you do that.” “I know he does,” Simon agreed without particular rancor, since he’d been (mostly) resigned to that reality for quite a while now. Not exactly his ideal for ease and manner of dealing with the situation - the crisis - they’d all been trying to combat for so long now, but you couldn’t deny that Gambit had been effective. Or committed, whatever front he might put on in 90% of interactions. “And he still gets me at least half the time,” he had to admit. Well, Ali had seen that last night, with Steve’s son- but it was done, and it hadn’t been the disaster it could have been, so he wasn’t going to let himself even start to frown there. Instead Simon flashed that half smile (with dimple) just a little again, and added, “Clint’s at more like 85%, so I could be worse.” They’d made that work today though, when it counted. That was just how it worked, with both those two, however ready to aggravate people around them they might seem on the surface. “And,no clue where he found her, but I approve of Gambit's taste in strippers. Chablis totally gave great lap dances, too," she threw in, because it was absolutely true. Oh, now, that was a far, far better thing to be considering than Gambit or Clint. Eyebrows lifting in an invitation to elaborate, should Ali care to say something about just she came to that tone of experience she was using, Simon flashed another grin down toward her. “She did, huh?” he asked. He definitely liked that image in his head. Even if it was kinda morphing into something where the roles had been recast, so that Ali was in the sparkly thong, and he… “Right, not really important,” he reminded himself after a second, out loud so that his brain wouldn’t be allowed to ignore it. Or at least not important right now, because he definitely did think they’d have to revisit that image later. Probably more than once. But no, that really wasn’t the question right now. The question right now was what he could do for her own gorgeous (if probably still pretty tired) self, and that was what he’d put to her (tempting as it might be to follow up on when she’d been sampling the Devil’s Playground wares). Now, what was that particularly gorgeous smile for? Not to mention the utterly delicious caress brushing over the back of his neck. ”You really are just the sweetest guy ever," the former singer informed him softly, apropos of Simon-wasn’t-actually-entirely-sure-what, but he was happy to keep doing it if it meant her voice would keep sounding like that when she talked to him, “And you're already doing it. This is definitely so much better than hallway napping.” And another little feather of a kiss accompanied that, just like that. “An excellent compliment,” Simon retorted in tones as sincere as he could manage - even if there was still a little amusement filtering through there at the edges. Not exactly what you might call flattery, in the normal run of things, but in this case… yeah, no question that he felt like he’d won one of those Power Ball lottery draws they used to have back in the day. “I’m just kinda waiting for all the leftover adrenaline to wear off and give everything a chance to settle in my head. Then, a little sleep, a little ambient noise, I'll be ready to jump back in again," Ali assured him, lifting her eyes back to up his. Simon met them, nodding, and gently stroked one hand down her side in answer. That would help with the adrenaline, right? It was certainly helping his own state of mind. Really, really gorgeous. And the way she was looking at him… “Right now, though, I'm definitely liking the company and the conversation and, you know, that question works both ways. What do you need right now, Handsome?” “Absolutely nothing at all,” Simon answered promptly, grinning at her in a way that was maybe just a little conspiratorial as he added, “I’ve got my hands full, you see.” Those that he shifted just a little, so he could bring her closer again, and place a kiss on her very attractive temple. No, definitely quite occupied right now, and he planned to keep busy with that for as much time as they needed to fulfill that list she’d just put for her own immediate plans. Conversation had been on that list too, hadn’t it? Well, considering that she was pretty definitely one of the easiest people to talk to that he’d ever met, that he would be absolutely happy to keep going with. “So, ambient noise? That something with your powers too?” he asked, cocking his head back to the other side so that he could look at her, while thinking back over what she’d told him last night about her powers working like a transducer. He hadn’t forgotten that. He hadn’t forgotten anything about last night. How could you? |
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| Dazzler | Sep 11 2016, 02:22 PM Post #14 |
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I'm the best at what I do, and what I do is roller skate
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Seriously. Gambit It was all totally in the codename. Simon was a smart guy, he had to have at least some suspicions Remy kinda liked it when you underestimated him. “I know he does,” Simon confirmed (see, totally smart) in the tone of somebody who'd, yep, known Remy LeBeau for probably a few years now and was mostly resigned to that being something you dealt with when it was Gambit. “And he still gets me at least half the time,” the amazing guy she'd made herself comfortable on admitted. "Then I think you're still way ahead of Rogue," Ali pointed out, though she definitely remembered how Remy had been totally being Remy last night and was glad all anybody came outta that with as a little shell shock and brain overload “Clint’s at more like 85%, so I could be worse.” Simon added with a half-smile and a flash of dimple that Ali couldn't have not smiled back at even if she was ten times tireder than she was (though sorta thought she'd probably be unconscious and not smiling at anybody then, but details, not important). "See, now, I was thinking you have to be just about at the top of the Very Best category." Nothing but the truth, even if it was a little bit off topic. So were strippers, probably, and trying to explain the general awesome that was Chablis. Definitely cute. Definitely sweet. Not a clue where Gambit had found her, but Shinobi would take good care of her, polish her up a little, and give her something better than being stuck in a rundown strip club in Queens. Also? The bubbly little blonde gave amazing lap dances. Seriously, like she'd told Jean (and, man, she needed to track her favorite partner in Adventures in Strippers and Black Market Hair Care down to at least say goodbye before the other woman got her Pseudo-Punk butt back home), it'd been at least a little tempting to keep her. “She did, huh?” he asked with a lifted eyebrow of definite interest that Ali thought also definite encouragement. Since, yeah, he was a straight male and all and girls and lap dancing and...well, kinda self-explanatory. "Absolutely," Ali nodded, eyes twinkling a little, like the grin she sent right back to him. "but not quite as good as mine." Just to, y'know, get that info out there. For later, maybe, when things weren't as crazy outside this room, she wasn't totally exhausted, and they wouldn't need to steal time away from stuff that was more pressing. Now, Simon was giving her a perfect reminder of why he really was the sweetest (along with hottest and most gorgeous) guy she'd ever met. He was already doing every single thing she needed right now and this? Curled up with him and more comfortable than she'd thought was possible just a little while ago was so hugely superior than conking out in random hallways. Right now? Definitely all she needed or wanted and Ali decided to seal that with another brush of her lips over his cheek. “An excellent compliment,” he told her and, see, he totally got how that worked, complete with sincere voice with just a little bit of amusement threading it's way into things. As it absolutely should. A little humor didn't make the compliment even an ounce less serious. If he didn't mind (and Ali was really hoping he didn't and didn't think he actually did; he didn't seem the 'humor you for the hell of it' type), she'd stay right here, in his arms and his lap, for a little longer. Until the leftover adrenaline that always hung around at the end of this sorta thing (hadn't really forgotten how that worked, even years after the last time) wore off and all the things whirling around in her head settled a little more. Then, a little sleep, a little noise, she'd be recharged and ready to jump back in head first again. Simon nodded to show he totally understood that, too, one warm palm skimming along her side and making her wanna hum all over again as her own fingers brushed along the back of his neck. Yeah, definitely liking the company and the conversation. And the closeness. That was amazing all by itself. Also, she wasn't so far gone that that question didn't work both ways, or that she wouldn't want it to. If he needed something right now, Alison Blaire knew, without any kinda doubt at all - stuff whirling around in her head or not - that she'd find a way to make it happen. Especially when his eyes were on hers and he was giving her that look that he was right now. Might not be able to totally interpret it, but she absolutely liked how it felt turned her way. “Absolutely nothing at all,” Simon answered promptly and grinning at her again in a way that she definitely was a fan of, too. “I’ve got my hands full, you see.” And, in case she missed his point, he demonstrated by shifting her a little closer, lips pressing warm against her temple in a way that sent a little shiver through her all the same. "Definitely not the first time I've been called a handful," she teased, flashing him another grin (she'd owe him some better ones later in place of the tired ones she had now, but she'd absolutely make good on that debt; he made it amazingly easy to want to) and winding her arms around his neck. The better to hug him for a few heartbeats. “So, ambient noise? That something with your powers too?” he asked, cocking his head back to the other side as she eased back to see his face again. "Yeah, part've the package," Ali confirmed with a little nod. She'd told him about being the amazing, walking transducer last night. And how she 'felt' sound (man, still hard to explain that to other people who couldn't and didn't) and could store it, but they hadn't had time, or attention span where there were other, amazing feeling things going on to do a lotta details. "It's..." she started, trying to pull out the words she wanted to kinda get it to make sense without having to pull out more Hank-type words she didn't have even a tiny chance of coming up with right now. "It's like a big chunk of the recharging process. Not just my powers, but me, too." Which probably made zero sense, since even she didn't totally understand it all. They'd tried to explain it to her at Project Pegasus, during all the tests and analysis and poking and prodding, but she'd been a little too pissed at being basically held against her will as a sparkly guinea pig to listen like she should've. "It takes rest, too, to totally recharge once I use up whatever I have stored." On top of whatever sound she could draw outta the environment right then, but that by itself wasn't always enough to get through whatever was going on. "But I really need outside sound sources to start rebuilding the stockpile," Ali explained, watching his face to see if she happened to wander off into 'No, really, no clue what you're talking about. "I'm definitely a little outta practice," she added, totally stating the obvious as her smile turned sorta lopsided, "and it'd been years since I used my powers before the camp breakout, so today took a little more effort and my stores are close to bottoming out. And, well, completely hitting bottom with that? Not an experience I really ever want again." The proverbial worse than death. Death, at least, Ali was pretty confident she could recover from a lot easier. |
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| Wonder Man | Sep 12 2016, 12:58 AM Post #15 |
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Red Shades, Original Recipe. No really.
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So this - apparently wine-themed - sweetheart of a stripper gave ‘great lap dances’, did she? Color him intrigued. ”Absolutely,” Ali nodded, eyes twinkling a little, like the grin she sent right back to him. "but not quite as good as mine.” “Well, that’s because you definitely are at the top of the Very Best category,” Simon told her, blithely turning her own words on her with conviction that would have been perfect on this particular category even if she hadn’t confessed her skill. In fact, he didn’t actually need to imagine another woman with her to think about this, did he? Some of the things she’d been doing last night… “Still…” Simon did hear himself saying out loud though, before he caught himself enough to remind his brain and imagination that this was probably not really important. At least not right at this moment, where other things, like what he might be able to do for Ali here were definitely higher on the current list of priorities. Those other images could be put back on his new and apparently infinitely-expanding List of Things to Try With Ali later. As it turned out, what he could do for her right now seemed to consist of listening to the kind of compliment that could really light a guy up inside. And also one about being better than passing out in a hallway. That one he had to designate, teasing just a little, as ‘excellent’, but as most of the rest of this gorgeous, amazing, completely unique woman’s seemed to fall under ‘keep doing just what you’re doing, and we’ll chill out here while waiting for a reboot’, there wasn’t really too much else for a Wonder Guy to do. Except answer in kind when she went and turned his question right back around on him. Wow. She was pretty much the definition of ‘wow’, he was completely convinced of that, too, but yeah, for right now, maybe he’d put off telling her that again (not for too long, it was definitely on a pretty permanent high priority loop on his head, but sometimes message placement was just as important as message content). For now, he’d just let her know that there was Absolutely Nothing At All she could do for him right now. Since, you know, his hands were just a little full right now. With her. Definitely business he liked to be occupied with. “Definitely not the first time I've been called a handful," she teased, flashing him another grin that said she was definitely taking that in a good way, and maybe in other circumstances, that kind of teasing would definitely have gone right back into putting all sorts of Ideas in his head, but right now those would also probably be better off being diverted to the Other List. Instead, even if he was dimpling back at her (because he didn’t know how to stop, and didn’t even want to try), Simon flipped the conversation back again toward… well, ‘conversation’. And also to something that she’d said in all of that that he thought he’d maybe got lined up with what she’d been telling him about her powers last night. So that thing she’d mentioned about ambient noise… “Yeah, part've the package," Ali confirmed with a little nod. See, he really hadn’t just been thinking how hot it was when she talked about transducers and bandwidth, after all. Even though it definitely had been. “It’s…” she started, looking extremely good as she did that ‘turning the words over in my head’ thing. “It’s like a big chunk of the recharging process. Not just my powers, but me, too.” Right, because she stored any kind of sound that was around, like she’d said, Simon thought to himself, nodding slightly as he put that little fact together with what she was saying safely into his own mind, then worked on tackling the other side of what she’d said. Not just her powers, but… her. Said in the way that said that her powers weren’t just some kind of addition built on to her operating systems, but something that permeated through every aspect of what it was to be herself, with nothing to separate that. She sounded like she’d just accepted that, too, rather than being terrified about it. Another completely amazing thing about Alison Blaire. Should he tell her that, again? Because he wanted to, a lot, but explaining why he thought that might take a little work, and he didn’t really want to interrupt the flow she had going here. “It takes rest, too, to totally recharge once I use up whatever I have stored.” Simon nodded again, a little more forcefully this time, to say not just that he was following, but that he agreed. His energy stockpile was, theoretically, pretty inexhaustible, but going for too long with too many things to do and concentrate on and he tended to start to fritz out too. Definitely knew that one. “But I really need outside sound sources to start rebuilding the stockpile," Ali explained, looking at him like she might be checking on whether he was keeping up. Simon smiled back at her, then ducked his head down. “Like words, on your skin,” he murmured, using one hand to brush the hair away from her neck so he could say that directly to some of the skin in question. He absolutely remembered that from last night. “I’m definitely a little outta practice," she added, as he lifted his head back up again so he could look at her, and wasn’t that just about the best looking self-deprecating smile he’d ever seen? He really thought it was, and he was definitely returning it, right now, “and it'd been years since I used my powers before the camp breakout, so today took a little more effort and my stores are close to bottoming out. And, well, completely hitting bottom with that? Not an experience I really ever want again.” No kind of drama-chasing hyperbole there, either. You could see that in the way she’d said it, and the way she hadn’t said it. At least if you knew what to look and listen for. She’d really been there, the way way fewer people in this line of business really had been (at least before all of this, anyway). Simon didn’t answer immediately this time. Not with words, at least, because something like this, he definitely needed a little moment to think before he could figure out how to answer that like he wanted to. Talking about it wasn’t something he’d done for a long time, or recently, but it did seem like speaking might be helpful for Ali right now in more than just the psychological sense, so he wanted to do it. But he wanted to get it right, so first, he shifted his weight in the chair, leaning back more against the support and gathering Ali so she’d be right there too, a comfortable (and comforting) solid presence resting on him. “Yeah, I absolutely hear you there,” he said finally, once he was sure she wasn’t about to move back or do whatever she needed to to be more comfortable, and he’d got his head tilted so it wasn’t difficult to see her face and eyes as he spoke. “Been there, taken the couple of years to get myself back out of it and together again.” Right, pause there, to check if she was looking at him like he was doing the dramatic hyperbole thing, because being the guy that ‘died’ for two years, while definitely a big deal in his own life, wasn’t always something that other people had heard about. “Together again in the literal sense, I mean,” he clarified. The old school literal sense, but he was pretty sure Ali would get that. “It was more than that if you count the time it took to get my head together enough-“ pause there to flip head to the other side, as if to indicate they were back to dealing with the metaphorical in this part,“-to deal with dealing with it instead of completely freaking out every time I got somewhere where it could happen again.” And there were still a few people who’d been around then - one less, and one more today, come to think of it, but never mind that - who could probably speak to ‘completely freaking out’ being a mild way of putting it, when he’d first been back. He’d been terrified. |
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3:32 AM Jul 11