A Dare Plus A Hat Equals A Date

[Star]

They called them butterflies. Which was silly. Bloated, ice cold anacondas. Totally more appropriate. That's what his tummy felt like, inside. So silly, yo. It's No Thing. Just Do It. All that, right?!

Friday had come, and darkness fell, leaving him oddly cast in the yellow street light glow as he studied his bike. Thoughts tangented on whether or not to finish removing the ragged remnants of the fairings on the second hand bike, and he shook his head to take his focus off of all the little nuts and bolts that held the plastic pieces on. A full backpack was ungraciously tied onto the fuel tank in the front, since there would be a passenger.

A passenger, yo.

Honestly? It was the eleventh hour. Plenty of time to just Go To Dinner. Or a movie. Or Putt Putt. Or Bowling. Any of those conventional First Date Things. But they'd done dinner. And he wasn't conventional. And her?

Mental gears ground, and he studied his helmet. And the propeller hat. Because that was The Deal. Except it was way too small to fit over the helmet. Even with duct tape.

When Avis appeared, he juggled the helmet and hat, and swept an arm out in a bow.

"Milady! Your chariot awaits!"

This time? He got the accent. Because practice?

  2 suxx this time wheeeee!

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2014-07-11 15:21:30		Star rolls 4 to The Accent! PRE+Sub (10 Again)		5, 9, 1, 8		2 successes

[Avis]

Avis laughed nervously at Starcut's display, a hand appearing from it's pocket to hide her mouth. She'd appeared from the shadowed alleyway next to the Fourth Wall, dressed in black as had been requested.

Black shoes, black jeans, black sweatshirt. Box of paperclips in her pocket, cause she had a hunch the suggested mode of dress wasn't just for show.

"So, uh, you seen Cut anywhere, stranger? He's supposed to be wearing that hat, so you must've," she said, still fighting off an errant giggle or too.

What? Laughing was a good way to reduce stress. That's why so many people had nervous laughs.

[Star]

A wry smile lit his features as he pulled on the helmet, then held the hat atop it. Pictures are worth a thousand words, yo.

"Ta-da! The magician makes Cut appear!"

His own laughter? Just a little nervous. Enough to not even spare a thought as to their use of the old s'name. Because lots more.

"So. I'm thinking this," he continued. "One? You can hold the hat on me while we ride. Two? You can close your eyes and pretend I'm wearing it. Lastly, three? I'm gonna put it on, and we're gonna stay right here. Because, you know. We're totally doing this."

He grinned, ducking his head in embarrassment. Whoops. Don't get whiplash. So heavy with the helmet on! But totally serious.

"Yeah?"

[Avis]

"Um. Wait. What?" Avis asked, oh so suavely. "Isn't the bike, for, like, going places?" It wasn't so much shock on her face, more so confusion. With some surprise thrown in.

"And what do you mean doing this?" she asked, arms folding over her chest. "We're not doing anything."

[Star]

"Yeah, it is! We're totally going somewhere. Somewhere fun. Promise. I think."

Well, that wasn't quite the selling point he'd intended. But mainly because he hoped it was fun, but it was entirely possible she might think it sucked. He shrugged, and pulled off the helmet. He got the feeling they had just crossed signals, and bad. Think about it. Process the words.

"Or not? I thought we were doing something? Going on a date? Because you're here, and I'm here. And those numbers were options. Not, ummm. Not a sequence of events. Unless you're just messing with me? Come on. Let's do some fun stuff?"

Feels like a car wreck in slow motion, yo. The hamster wheel was spinning. She'd taken off work. That meant something. You didn't take off work because you had nothing to do, or just wanted a free meal. Right?!

He leaned towards his bike. Not doing the head bob again. Offered her the second helmet.

Held his breath.

[Avis]

"Well, no, we are doing something. Just, you said 'we're totally doing this', and I thought you meant, like, 'this' is what we're doing, 'cept we're not currently doing anything, sooo, um. Yeah. Ok. I'll just shut up and get on the bike," Avis said, arms unfolding so she could take the helmet and stuff it onto her head to hide her embarrassment. Confusion and embarrassment were not emotions that mixed well, and there were days when she had a hard enough time making herself understood without any of, well, what she was feeling now.

Thankfully, once she got on the bike, it wouldn't matter. The engine was too loud, the helmets muffled sound too well, and her mind would be busy occupying itself with visions of violent demise (like crashing and having 50+ paperclips gouged into her side) for her to have to worry about, well, worrying about miscommunication. And whatever Starcut had planned.

Yup. Was a great friday. She clicked the helmet strap closed and then climbed on behind the Last Starfighter (which really wasn't a comforting name for someone you were trusting to operate a high-speed vehicle).

[Star]

Crossed signals? Yep. And bad, too. Not only was she not thinking he meant what he meant? He'd totally thought that she thought he meant something else. Inception issues, yo. Big, cold, butterflycondas roiled over in amusement.

"Oh. Yeah. You're right. Sorry. We're having an 'It's A Thing' moment, yeah? My fault," he offered.

Way. To. Go.

Like her? He retreated to the safety of the bike. Soon, it was just wind whipping at them, and the soft roar of the motorcycle and wind. Again, he took it slow, opting for city streets rather than the freeway. It would take a little longer, but he didn't want to freak her out. Besides, late night no traffic. He dog-legged down to Folsom, then took the straight shot southeast to the edge of the city by Mcauliffe Field.

The angel inside was almost distracted enough by the blur of passing lights to ignore the warm weight at his back.

It'd been tricky to figure it out, but every good magician is well acquainted with Thorough Planning.

He cut the lights on an empty side street, and pulled into the parking lot of a warehouse style building clearly marked G&D Landscaping. The bike coasted to a stop, but he didn't kill the motor.

"OK, hop off?" he said over his shoulder. "I'm, umm, gonna stash this behind those trees. And don't want to, you know. The branches."

Because gentleman.

[Avis]

Avis felt like pointing out that she didn't fully understand what "it's a thing" meant, but there was no point. Talking wasn't getting them anywhere. Might as well quit while they still had a semblance of understanding between them. So she just held tightly to Starcut and tried not to think about the feeling of rushing through space with no control, just inches away from flesh gouging, bone crushing pavement. A few times she unconsciously let the Last Starfighter know that he took a turn too quickly for comfort, her arms digging into his abdomen on such occasions, but not long enough to cause any serious interference.

And, eventually, they got to their destination. Alive. So she couldn't complain. Ok, that was making promises too soon. A landscaping building? What the hell was this? Avis took her helmet off and quirked an eyebrow at Starcut, then realized it was dark enough that he probably couldn't see it.

"K. I'll, uh, be here," she said, deciding to give him a chance to explain in his own way. She trusted him that much, at least.

[Star]

"OK. Hang on."

Totally glad he'd stuck to streets and not the freeway. The bike lurched into the underbrush, and the sounds of rustling branches and soft muttering filtered threw. Then silence. A few feral sounding growls. Dragging sounds. More rustling, and muttering, and finally a soft, dull sound that sounded suspiciously like a foot against bark which blended into a mewl of pain.

He appeared out of the darkness, a light shaped blob of head suspended over a dark henley black jeans. Moonlight reflected off of his tennis shoes, and the straps of his backpack dug into his shoulders and twisted the shirt crooked.

The propeller hat proudly topped the ensemble.

"Hey! You, uh, still... OK."

He shuffled over to her, pulling out his phone and checking it quickly.

"OK. Ummmm. Yeah. OK. So, over there?" A thin arm stretched outward, back towards the back of the building and brush he'd hidden the motorcycle in. Suddenly? He wasn't so sure about this. It had seemed like a great idea, at the time. The words tumbled out, stilted and disjointed as he considered he'd Really Messed Up and she'd think he was just crazy. Or stupid.

"There's a fence. And. Ummm. OK, there's a fence, and past that, there's train tracks. We've got, like, five minutes to get over that fence and jump on it. OK?"

Train surfing, yo. The first date of choice. Well. Part of the first date of choice. Because all that stuff like dinner where you flutter your eyes at one another and try to impress? No thanks, yo. If you like someone? See if you have fun. Not the kind of fun where you tell lies to get laid. Legit fun.

"You, uh. You in? We could always, ummm, go to Firehouse again."

[Avis]

"Train hopping?" Avis asked, eyes widening in surprise in the moonlight. "If we're doing that, there's no way you're going to keep the hat. Just letting you know."

She wasn't opposed to the idea. Just, why would Starcut want to do that? He probably had some other surprise cooked up, knowing him. So, looked like they'd have a train to catch. That would be better than the bike, at least. A vehicle that huge, and traveling on it's own specified track? Seemed much less likely of crashing. Who ever heard of trains crashing anyways? But, five minutes wasn't a whole lot of time, and if they were going to try and catch the train, she wanted enough time to get a running start. The one thing she did know about trains was that you didn't want to get anywhere near the bottom of them when they were moving, so falling wasn't going to be an option. Not unless she wanted to become the reverse Striker. Which she didn't. Duh.

"Lead the way, since it sounds like you've been here before."