Apr 05 16:26:36 108 PA - A Pleasant Meal
From Chronicles
Apr 05 16:26:36 108 PA.
SILVER FORK
At this very late hour, Gabriel enters Happy Days Inn just as the weather takes a really bad turn for the worse, with rain coming down in gobs. He does some probably unnecessary hustling of his little charge, then pushes her along to the entry to the Silver Fork. "Two please." The maitre de shuffles around a grease pen on a tablet before handing two menus to a waiting... waiter.. who asks, "Follow me, please." Gabriel looks down at Bella before following, glancing outdoors at the sudden storm. "You okay and ready for food, Miss Bella?"
Bella don't take much pushing. Soon as the sky breaks, she's moving pretty damn quick. Even finds a way to cover herself up more. "I hate the fackin' rain. Too damn wet." Bella's real careful in pulling her hood back after they're inside. "Yeah. I'm fine." Not really but better since they're inside. She shuffles with the good guy and the waiter.
Gabriel settles himself at a table, a two-seater with freely moving chairs, not bench seats. But before settling himself, he will of course pull out a chair for Bella, waiting to scootch her back in. "You've never seen rain until you've been in Southeast Asia during the monsoon season with a rifle and combat pack." There's a smirk in his tone.
"Yeah. Take yer word fer it." She ain't gonna be planning a vacation there. Wherever it is. Bella sloughs off her coat. It drops on the floor and she sits in the chair. "Why the fancy place anyways? Lotsa places gotta roof 'n spots ta sit."
Scootch goes the chair as Gabriel puts Bella where she belongs relative to the table. He then moves around and seats himself, wafting up his napkin in the process to settle it in his lap. He'd tuck it in at his neck if he were in his nicer gear, but such is not the case at the moment. Gazing at his menu, he's rude enough to not quite entirely look up as he asks, "So, you've been poking into the whole Titan problem?" At that, he does lift his head, and waves a hand around. "There's no one here to listen, go ahead and talk. Only people here are like that couple -" he points "- guy's too busy trying to talk his way into her pants."
Bella eyes over that way. And smirks. "Guys're like that. Ones't ain' make ya wonder what's up." Now she's eyeing Gabriel. Just a little and then a shrug. "The alien guy's some kinda trader. Mostly buyin. Nobody knows nothin' else really. Not even where he's at. Other guy sounds like he's more onna up 'n up. Theo's an ogre 'n hauls shit 'round. Guess he's pretty straight with people cause heard lotsa good stuff about 'im. Most everybody't knows 'im likes 'im. He's gotta big truck fer movin' stuff, gotta place ta store it. Saw his li'l house too."
"Alien guy? Which one's the alien guy? The R'Mar that was doing the scavenging? If so, yeah, no one can find him. What's Theo's place like? You think we might need to do a little breaking and entering, or does he seem clean? Gabriel sets his menu back against the table. "You been able to find anything out about those two bigwigs? The guys who were at the man's party the night before he died. They work for Titan. Tharen Stele and Argent Goodson are the names I got."
"R'mar don' wanna get found, I bet. Dunno 'bout Theo." She shrugs. "He's done lotsa movin' fer Titan. Sounds like all 'is work's with 'em lately. Maybe justa stooge. Still maybe's got somethin' ya wanna know." Bella shakes her head. "Nothin' 'bout the Titan guys." A smirk. "Ain't the sort ta be out inna Dregs 'r whatever."
Gabriel shrugs a little and goes back to reading his menu, speaking as he does so. "I thought maybe you could pull one of those mist things and creep around their facility. But... if not, well... then you can't!" He smiles and takes a peek at the menu with a defining eye. "Burgers look good tonight. I like the Maui burger. All sorts of good stuff on it." He looks over his raised menu. "What can I get for you, Miss Bella?" It's important, because a twenty-something waitress is homing in on their table.
Bella thinks real hard. For a second. "Sounds good ta me. 'N maybe I coulda looked 'round. Was just askin people fer now." She don't even look at the menu. "'N a beer too."
As he hands the two menus off to the waitress - who didn't even require a notepad - Gabriel asks, "Can you really do that? Mist in, rummage around, get out? Because I could buy you some more, ah... let's just say 'normal' clothing to make you look like you might actually belong there long enough to snoop and then get out without people noticing too badly. Those two guys... I think they're key. I'll take Miss Sage over and talk to Theo first. Maybe he's a straight-up good guy. She might be able to tell if he's lying, too. Easier on me. You want some new clothes?" He smiles and says, "I'm sure that I could get you a very fashionable business wardrobe, complete with a trench coat for the up-and-coming businesswoman."
"I can peek 'round." Bella's not real big on details. Even after the waitress walks away. The clothes thing gets a brow perked up. "New duds? Hey, ya wanna go shoppin' I ain' gonna argue. Don'tcha like my fancy clothes?" She's smirking and waving to herself.
Gabriel gives a humorous nod. "Very chice, yes, but perhaps we should get you something more businesslike and possibly a little more, ah... 'upscale casual' let's say. I promise, no clingy leathers." He winks in amusement. "Yeah, seriously, I'll get you some new clothes. Not blow the bank or anything, but get you something nicer than that. Maybe you don't feel like covering yourself up so much. You know, there's truth about clothes making the woman." He cants his head and sums her up again. "Yeah, then just top it off with a new coat to get rid of that rather ratty one? All of the night-owls will want to talk to you!"
Bella keeps the smirk. "Long 's coat's got some plates in't. Dunno 'bout clothes makin' me. Still gotta be somethin' ta show off." Her shirt ain't tight just cause it's probably a kid's size. "Still ain' turnin' down free shit." And really not when they're clothes.
There's a small chuckle. "I'm sure it wouldn't be expensive to put some steel plates in a coat.. but wouldn't a good chemical wash like mine be just fine? Keeps all the water out - even the Southeast Asia monsoon." He pucks at his jacket. It isn't even a weather jacket, just what looks to be common gear. Gabriel seems a little interested to see what the difference is.
"Dunno. It stop a laser or whatever?" Bella don't really know the difference. "Keepin' dry's kinda important, too. Dry. All in one piece. All good things."
Gabriel's eyes go slightly wide. "Your coat is armor against energy weapons? If so, good camouflage. If not.. then yeah, you should really just get a nice coat and a few sets of clothes. Hell, even if not the coat.. a few sets of clothes to wear underneath. At least you can walk into a club or something, give that rather, well, ugly thing to a bouncer, jump up on a bar stool and chat without being too out of place." He shrugs. "Seriously, despite how you look, the whole damn city looks weird. I doubt that anyone would see you as anything stranger. But really, it's partial plate armor?" A little confusion.
Bella nods. "Nothin' like a big clunky suit but it's somethin. Can find stuff like that 'round. Be a li'l protected 'n not be all showy 'bout 't." She waves a hand at the coat puddle on the floor. "That one's kinda used. Ain' pretty but was free. Guy't had it didn' need 't no more." Least Gabriel can guess why she's mumbling so much.
A hand is waved across the nearly-empty restaurant. "You know, absolutely no one is paying any attention to us whatsoever. You could probably yell at me without someone listening in." Gabriel smiles and shrugs one shoulder. "Here's a simple solution. We can get you some nice new clothes - not top fashion, but nice - get you into a chemically treated trench coat that you can walk around in, and I actually may have the ability to take that plate out of your current coat and put it into the new one. Maybe need to find someone who sews, too, but it shouldn't be a problem. I work with military things quite a bit, as you may expect. Gotta know how to fix things yourself, right?" The two burgers are delivered as he finishes his sentence - along with a bottle of Donovan's Fizz, the waitress smiling and saying, "On the house, Mr. Blaze, I'm sure that you just forgot to order it." The man chuckles and thanks her, before she inquires as to what it is that Bella wants to drink.
"Beer's fine." That's what Bella asked for before. She don't pay much mind to the waitress and keeps talking to Gabriel. "Guess so. Ain' real big on fixin stuff. Be handy since most stuff I find ain' new. So." She stops. Takes a bite of burger. Even chews it up. "Ya gonna take me shoppin fer what? Gonna want alla it all posed fer ya, too?" Bella grins at him.
"*Want* it posed for me? Only if you'd like a man's opinion," Gabriel answers very honestly. "As you may have guessed, I might not exactly be up on modern fashion, so I'd really only be able to offer an opinion as I see things from long ago. Some of these 'dresses' that the teenage girls - and up - are wearing? God, if they'd tried that in my time, their parents - father *and* mother - would chain her up in her room until she got it through her head that attractive and giving away the goods are two totally different things." He smiles at that. "So that's my offer - in just friendship. Couple of normal nice outfits for you, a treated trench coat that we'll find some way to put the plate in for you, and ah... pretty sure that you need some shoes, too. Nothing fancy, just shoes." He holds his hands out to his sides. "Thoughts?" Then he takes fork and knife to his burger - yes, utensils on a burger.
Bella shrugs. "Dunno. Been awhile since I got all fancied up. 'N that weren' much neither. Ain' tried ta get people lookin't me so much since. Shoes're good. Not gonna walk 'round barefeet alla time." She has utensils too. They're called hands. Work pretty good for getting burger to her mouth. Just little bites are made.
After neatly putting a piece of burger into his mouth with very proper use of a fork - and chewing and swallowing - Gabriel asks, "Just how warm does being warm help you, Miss Bella? I mean, I still think that we should get you into something that you can walk around in and quite frankly not look odd, but I'm curious."
"Don' matter much. Cold. Hot. One's same 's th'other." More shrug. "Not gonna freeze. Don' really burn neither. One good thing 'bout all this I guess." Bella smirks. "Course, don' mean I wanna run 'round nekid."
Gabriel pokes an amused fork across the table at Bella. "Oh? You draw some interest and conversation. And creepy, disgusting men who like nude young girls." An eyebrow arches. "Um.. also as I've discovered here, maybe women, too. But no, we'll get you some nice stuff. In fact - if there's time when we finish up here, there's a place back along the River Walk that I think's still open. You can at least browse for a while. Taking out the plate and putting it in a new coat, though, that will admittedly take a few days. So - y'know, just don't give anyone a reason to shoot an energy weapon at you!"
Bella smirks around a bite. "Ain' real worried 'bout gettin shot." She doesn't try to give lots of people reasons to shoot her. "Gotcha thinkin 'bout the other stuff, huh? Don' bug me none." Even more smirk. "Ain' creepy, it's normal. When somebody ain' tryin'a get somethin's when I get creeped out."
"Heheh. I must really creep you out then, huh Miss Bella? Would it help if I told you that I was teaching Miss Monique how to read and write, also asking for nothing in return? She's a lovely young woman if you'd like to talk to her and confirm my story." Gabriel dabs at his mouth with the napkin before setting it back in his lap. "I'm not perfect. I do my best to do good things, I do my best to help people who need help, or who want help. It doesn't take much to keep me in a nice life, after all the training that I went through - and odd life experiences." He then sighs. "But I don't pretend to be perfect, I don't pretend to be some kind of glowing Jesus figure. Someone needs killing, I'll do it. I'll kill 'em if he's unarmed and sleeping, then I'll walk away and not feel very bad about it. Yeah, I'm prone to snap judgments. I'm just a human man." He shrugs after having set his silverware down. "In the long times between those violet times, I do my best to do what I think that God would ask of me to be a good person." It's at that moment that he remembers that it's polite to tuck his small crucifix necklace beneath his shirt.
The thing don't really bother her most times. He's across the table. Before that he weren't really any closer. "Ya do. Means yer crazy 'r a really good liar. Dunno what ta think." The whole selfless nice thing is pretty damn strange. For her. "But thanks."
Gabriel offers an upraised hand. "Well, if you trust Miss Monique, you could at least have her, or someone like her, do one one of those mind-scans on me to tell you if I'm inherently bad or not. Exactly why I'm not worried about you - I'm not in the habit of taking absolutely complete strangers back to my home without at least knowing little bit about them, y'know." He nods sagely. "You'd been evil, things would be different. Happily - you're not!" As he cuts into his burger again, his eyes focused on the ground, he says, "I'm sure that it may seem strange having come from where you did, but people do good things just for the sake of doing good things. Miss Sage, Miss Erica, they're like me. But without the penis." He sticks his tongue out at the off-color joke.
Bella snickers at the joke. No tongue sticking out though. "Makes 'em better. Havin' a prick makes most guys one. Gotta swing't 'round some way." She remembers her beer and sips some. Must be a fancy place since it's in a glass. "Ain' all that worried 'bout ya. Even if yer weird."
"I can accept weird, as long as no one's thinking ill of me," Gabriel admits. His burger and soda are disappearing rapidly. In fact, he's on his second bottle. The young waitress really seems to know him on a friendly level. Still, "I don't get to eat here much. Being a 'good guy' doesn't pay very well." He chuckles at that, having emphasized the 'good guy' part humorously. "I just got back from Minnesota though. Lots of killing bad guys. Made some decent money off of it, though. Magic is... well, I guess I just can't understand it enough to appreciate it. However - I'm bright enough to know that magic's range is almost always a lot shorter than mine, and that if a mage loses his hands, he can't cast." The man nods and winks. "Came in handy."
"If I wanted somethin' bad ta happen ta ya, it would." Maybe that's Bella reassuring him. "Don' know magicy shit. But I bet yer right. Gettin' magicked ain' somethin' I try ta do. Kinda like gettin' shot. What 'bout jus' cuttin of 'is head? Oughtta work too."
Gabriel raises his eyebrow and smirks again. "You keep offering me friendly but veiled threats. I wonder why that is. I wonder why you think that I'm impressed..." his words trail off and his smirk turns into a genuine smile. "I'm a little curious though, back on another subject. You're eating and drinking. I was under the impression that... these kinds of foods weren't palatable options."
Bella smirks. Or maybs it's a grin. Sort of in between. She shakes her head, too. "Betcha hear all kindsa shit. Don' make it right. Can eat whatever I want. Just don' gotta do it." A shrug. "Kinda like breathin."
"Fair enough," Gabriel says as he empties the last of his soda and pushes away the not-quite-clean plate before him. "I don't mean to rush you or anything, because obviously there's all the time in the world - but like I said, there's a spot on the River Walk open this kind of night. You interested in roaming over there right now?" He holds a hand out. "Assuming it's not raining?"
"Long as we ain' gonna get drenched. Sure." Another sip goes from her glass. "Ain' no rush. Sides, stores close. Not like I can' eat later." Now her tongue shows up. Just to lick a little suds of her lip. There's a thought behind it, too. "Yeah. Can get some real food later."
As Gabriel begins to fill out the bill and leave some credits behind for the nice waitress, he chuckles. "You know, you keep talking like that, and some day, someone's going to take a unique interest in what you're saying." He then waves his hand around the room - where many of the couples are indeed beginning to roam away, hand-in-hand and giggling - "Of course, not in here. Give me a moment here, Miss Bella, just to get things tidied up. Real nice place down there called 'Hubba Hubba' probably caters to someone of your age." He looks up and smiles for a brief moment before finishing up. "There we go." The ballpoint end of the pen is quickly struck against the receipt.
Bella's brows perk up. "What'd I say? The burger jus' weren' good 's ya said't was." Even if nobody here'd take what she said a wrong way, that comes out quick and easy. Still a little worried. Then she's straight to annoyed. "My age? Know yer old 'n dusty 'n all but ya don' gotta make me sound like a kid."
"My mistake, apologies, you're a fine, upstanding young woman," Gabriel says with a dip of his head. He stands and does the right thing - he moves around to scootch her chair out from the table. "I didn't mean to say that you were a kid. Not at all. Just poor choice of words."
"Uh huh. Like the hoof thing." She's not gonna let him forget about either one probably. Bella stands up and grabs her coat. She swallows herself with it and waves a cuff. "What kinda stuff's the place got? Since ya been there."
Gabriel shrugs. "I've only been browsing in the area. Y'know kind of wandering through, seeing what I think my girls would like. Nice stuff. Casual and classy. Not cheap. Not fancy, though. You should look nice if someone looks at you, but it won't be like a giant red light rotating above your head shouting, 'LOOK AT ME!'" He smiles. "They're full service, too. Everything you could want, unless of course, you want to go and dress like a flashy tramp?" He winks.. and wonders? But he's pretty sure about it.
Bella makes a face. One that looks like her burger is tryin' to get back out. "No. Ain' plannin on doin' that 'gain. Like ya said, don' gotta have everythin' hangin' out ta get eyes on ya."
Assuming that Bella will actually stand, Gabriel would then do the appropriate thing - attempt to put a gentle hand on the small of her back and guide her out of the restaurant. It's just the way that things are done, after all. "Don't forget your coat." As they exit - whatever positions they may be in - he'll gaze out the large pane-glass windows of the Happy Days Inn. "Good, good. Looks like the rain is gone. Stars are out and everything. I think we're safe to get over to the west side. You ready, Miss Bella?" He'll hold the door open, of course.
"Yep." That's after she flips up her hood. Just in case. "Le's go 'n see what kindsa not trampy stuff they got." A flash of smirk from under there and she's walking out.
