[Open] From the Bowery to Saint Mark's

[aly_brighteyes]

New York city is a good place for a girl of Aly's talents. So many people are constantly rushing from place to place or else gawping at the sights that it's very easy for a nimble-fingered thing like her to relieve them of a wallet here or there. Credit cards, she finds, are particularly fun and she's made some very exciting purchases at stores with such fun names as Trash & Vaudeville and Search & Destroy. Once she's assembled a better wardrobe, Aly quickly changes and stuffs her plainer clothes into the bottom of a shopping bag. It won't do to exult her victory while wearing clothes that a sharp eye in a crowd might remember.

Partially out of playfulness, Aly chooses a loud and colorful outfit. It's not the strangest thing she's seen in the area called the East Village but it's certainly eye catching enough that someone might easily be distracted into watching her clothes rather than her face. And all her knives are concealed within her many layers though to any onlookers, she's just relaxing at a bar seat eating chipped potatoes with sambal sauce.

She's adjusting to the changes in her Sight, learning to recognize the rolling heat lines that indicate someone who's passed through the rift and the starbursts that tell her someone is what Daine has explained as an alien. Plying those skills, she glances around the tiny eatery.

[[OOC: Open until the cows come home. Aly is in the East Village and feel free to find her in or walking out of the place.]]

Comments

[has_a_horn]

The guy that sits down next to her is probably pinging the hell out of her Sight, given that he is both very much non-human and has fallen through the rift recently. Outwardly, he doesn't seem all that strange. He's wearing an army-green jacket, a plaid shirt, and a scarf that he pulls off of his neck as he orders fries with sweet chili sauce.

His order given, he turns to her with a smile that's just a little amused. "Going for the cosmic biker look?"

[aly_brighteyes]

Her neighbor just about blazes in her Sight and it takes Aly a moment to adjust accordingly, doing the trick of her mind that dulls such things once noticed.

"Oh something like that," Aly agrees, putting on an indifferent air. "I like to make sure I'm unforgettable."

[has_a_horn]

"How's that workin' out for ya?" He tips his head in her direction, as if he's confiding a secret. He's not, but that's not really the point. "It's a burden, being unforgettable. I know from personal experience."

[aly_brighteyes]

"I'll let you know if someone comes up to me afterwards." Aly gives him the right kind of cheeky smile before turning back to her sambal frites.

[has_a_horn]

"You expecting to see me later?" Come on, that one was a gimme. He smirks and turns as his food arrives. And mm, yes, excuse him while he's distracted by yummy food for the moment.

[aly_brighteyes]

She shrugs daintily, as if trying to hide a pout of disappointment. "Well, as you've bothered to speak to me, I can assume I've made some kind of impression."

And if she needs to make herself disappear and be mousy and forgettable, she can be that too.

[has_a_horn]

Though a mouthful of potato and chili sauce he mumbles out, "Everyone makes some sort of impression."

And yes, Gabriel is very good at pretending to be unassuming and average.

[aly_brighteyes]

"I suppose everyone does," Aly agrees. She's nearing the bottom of her paper cone of frites and still hungry.

"But it's not always a strong one."

[has_a_horn]

"You suggesting I make a poor impression?" Because that's more or less what he's going for here.

And hey, if she wants him to buy he more frites, she's probably out of luck.

[aly_brighteyes]

She laughs a little and ponders the virtue of leaving her seat to get back in line.

"I never said that."

[has_a_horn]

He pushes his food aside, not terribly interested in having any more. They're good, but he's more into sweet than savory. "It's Gabriel, by the way. Since you didn't think to ask." He smirks just a little. "When did you come through the rift?" So...yeah, that's something he definitely noticed. It's not all that uncommon, but his sense of it is a little stronger, with her. He's guessing that's either because she came through recently or she's got other powers hidden up her sleeve. Or both.

[aly_brighteyes]

Well now. That's very interesting indeed. Coolly, her mind works while she lets "Aly Homewood" come to the forefront with a sudden shift from freewheeling comfort to nervous, darting eyes and a sucked-in lower lip. Her fingers drum nervously and she can't quite glance at Gabriel without quickly looking away. It's all the appearance of someone who doesn't want to be caught and has been.

"I...my name is Aly Homewood and, well, oughtn't that be something I shouldn't talk about among..." A pause that goes on for a nervous moment. "Everyone?"

[has_a_horn]

He shrugs, interested in the sudden change a single knowing question has brought out in her. "I doubt they care." And he can interest them elsewhere if he needs people not to hear something. He nods to the door. "We could find someplace quiet, if you're worried."

[aly_brighteyes]

"I've heard that people don't...care for different people," Aly says, making careful word choices.

She glances around the restaurant and nods, "Maybe that will be better."

[has_a_horn]

He chuckles at her extremely general wording, but nods back anyway. "True that. Come on." He reaches out, offering her the rest of his food while he gets up. "Outside it is, then."

[aly_brighteyes]

Aly still plays nervous, waiting a moment before grabbing the fries as if it's a furtive act. Then she follows the other man out. Hidden in the gesture of using her toe to rub the calf of her other leg, she adjusts one of her ankle sheathes.

Just in case.

"Where to then?"

[has_a_horn]

Don't think he doesn't notice the possibility of weaponry. He's going to keep himself as safe as he keeps her, wherever they end up. Number one is finding a place that's quiet but not too empty. He can definitely hold his own, but being careful usually doesn't hurt.

"There's a church down seventh." He tips his head in the appropriate direction. "Not far. Nobody hangs around churches Monday afternoon, so we should be free from prying peepers."

He starts walking that way, waiting for her to follow. He'd really rather not do the whole gilded church thing, but the only other place he can think of nearby is a park, and it is a little nippy out. Probably wouldn't be all that comfortable for the girl.

[aly_brighteyes]

"Back home, people are in the gods' temples at different times of the day, every day," Aly observes. She's not sure she understands the idea of only one god being so removed, but maybe that's just because she's so used to having one meddling in her life at all times.

"But it'll be safe?"

[has_a_horn]

He nods. He can definitely understand her perspective, seeing as he usually was the god meddling in people's lives every day of the week. Back in his heyday as a trickster god, people were at worship every day. "It'll be safe. The gods around here tend to stick to certain days. There'll be a few lingerers, but I doubt we'll find anyone that'll give us any trouble."

He lets them walk in silence for a little while before asking, "You didn't say...how long have you been in town?"

[aly_brighteyes]

"A few days," she replies. Two, really. Yesterday she had spent settling in and today she had spent augmenting her income and wardrobe to better pass quietly–save for her current outfit. That one is just fun.

"Long enough to get my bearings...I suppose."

[has_a_horn]

"You don't seem very sure about that one." He looks over at her, raises his eyebrows. A few days is enough time to settle in, but only if she'd had enough luck to run into the right people when she arrived. Either the rebels or Romac could have picked her up and given her a room, especially given the psychic energy she's giving off.

"Found a place to stay already? Or been set up with one?" As they turn the corner, he nods to the figure of the church- a predictably tall and white building planted in the center of the block. "Just there."

[aly_brighteyes]

"I've been lucky enough to run into someone I know from home," she replied, keeping vague.

"I imagine I'll be looking for a place of my own soon enough, as not to wear out my welcome."

[has_a_horn]

"That's lucky, finding someone from home." As far as he knows. He hasn't been here as long as some of the others, but he gathers that it does happen occasionally. He'd only just brought someone from Topher's universe to him a month ago.

"Or did you go looking?" He taps a finger to his temple, indicating psychic ability. If she has the skills he thinks she has, she definitely should know that he can tell more or less what she is.

[aly_brighteyes]

Aly raises an eyebrow at his gesture, genuinely wondering what he thinks she can do.

"Oh she found me dressed for a summer party in the middle of winter."

[has_a_horn]

He laughs at that. "That'd do it." He could go poking in her mind to figure out just who it is she's talking about, but he can wait to see if she's cooperative before he takes that route. When they reach the church, he pulls open the heavy door for her. It seems quiet inside, with only a few people milling about nearer to the altar. "Must have really rained on your parade, getting dumped into the snow." Is he amused? Yeah, he is. But only a little.