Participants:
| Scene Title | Godzilla and Pomegranates |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Victor comes up with the idea for the first date. |
| Date | June 3, 2009 |
Description of location, if any.
True to what passed for an agreement between the two, Victor called Abby to ask her out. This time it's no movie, even if technically Abby was asking out that time and it wasn't a couple-date. Just a friend-date.
It's probably a very good thing that Vic is enough of a guy not to try to dissect what means what here. It'd be way too complicated.
Anyway the plan today is to have a picnic in Central Park. Is it original? Maybe not. It's budget, but it's got more class than ramen in somebody's apartment. And at the same time, he's gone to some trouble for this. Even though Vic has a gift for speed, that doesn't help him with his schedule. He JUST got out of class today, and so he's still wearing that polo shirt they make the cadets wear. The Navy blue one with NYPD Academy on it. The real funny part is somehow he got an honest-to-Yogi Bear picnic basket. Made of wicker. Waiting for Abby to show, he's laying down in the grass with his hands behind his head and knees bent, looking at the sky.
Psych appointments, work later, Abigail eases through the park with her jacket over a blue short sleeve blouse and a khaki skirt that hits down to her ankles. Red hair flipping around as she putt putt's through the park. One mechanic later and she's back on the road and only time will tell whether he was an honest one or not.
But Victor had called, to start the first date. So after refilling her prescription and some other errands after her up town appointment, Abigail was parking the vehicle, locking it up and making her way across the grass towards Victor and his uniform till she's leaning over him, peering down "Seeing any bunnies?"
Immediately Vic smiles, having obviously not noticed Abby's approach. He props himself up on his elbows a little and says, "Actually, I totally saw Godzilla. I swear. The clouds looked just like Godzilla." He sits more or less upright and says, "I actually did a uh…thing. Put thought into this today. I hope you like it. How's your day been?"
"Lots of talking with Dr. Yee. Working through things. Got more medicine, got some groceries and then, came here. I got work at three. Her messenger bag is slid off her shoulder to plop to the ground and ease down onto the grass. "How was class?"
"Actually it's a good class day. We're doing search techniques. I never realized you could hide so much dangerous junk on a normal human being. Without even getting like, down to underwear." Vic frowns and gives one of those looks of someone sharing interesting trivia, "Did you know there's actually a belt buckle that assembles into a working gun? It's insane." He pats the grass next to him in a gesture to invite Abby to sit and then reaches for the basket. "So uh…you don't have to answer this, but what kind of stuff do you talk about with Dr. Yee?"
Oh right. Beside him, cause they're starting this dating thing. So the red head moves, parking beside him, legs tucked under and the side which puts her leaning towards him. "Really? I wonder how many criminals have that" Or well, no, they just carry guns around probably, period. "What do I talk about with Dr. Yee. We talk about a lot of stuff. First it was my night terrors, and getting me on some drugs to help with the anxiety, keep me from falling apart. She specializes in post traumatic stress disorder regarding evolved individuals. A doctor I know who's a friend, pointed me to her. We talk about what happened on the island. What.. John Logan makes me feel, talk about my life and how to deal with things that pop up. Last week we've been talking about having no gift, about the guy who has my gift. She's helping me to get.. back to where I was before Staten and that'll take a while"
"Wow. I didn't realize we had our own specialists already. I mean it seems like the Evolved thing only really came out in the open a couple of years ago so it's kind of surprising that there's a therapist for it." Vic pauses, leaving the basket there for now and crosses his arms over his knees to look at Abby with some seriousness. "I don't know what all happened to you. I mean, just now, you mentioning this John Logan guy, first time I've heard the name. Was it real bad?"
"Her patients tend to be people who are evolved, and helps them to deal with the stress that comes from.. you know, like.. say, manifesting fingers into tentacles or the like, or you know" She doesn't know what the womans other patients do. It's impolite to ask. But he's looking serious and Abigail looks away, glancing around, up to the sky, back down as her arms mirror his but on her knee's. "Wasn't raped, before you jump to that conclusion. I got taken, from outside my place and brought to Staten Island. They wanted me for healing. Seems they got my name off the registry, and they shoved me in the basement of a brothel when I wouldn't voluntarily join them in their little illegal evolved fight ring."
Vic's privately a little proud of himself for not managing to say something stupid like Well That's Good when Abby says she wasn't raped. Six months ago he might've, when he was a little more innocent of some things. Now he's a fair listener. "I wish I could've helped you." he says, letting that be his contribution as true as it is. His face screws up a little and he supposes, "I was around there. With that fight ring, I remember hearing about it. I even went in there. That's where I finally found Sylar." Sigh. "If I'd known… Did you find out how they managed to get into the Registry? I'm on it too."
"Some cop somewhere, that's what they told me. They'd use it to get healers." It's much easier to talk about it, a few months down the road. No needing to grabby grab for her pills and chug the bottle. "They did some stuff, when folks came looking for me. Guy who has my .. has god's gift, Logan caught him looking and did some stuff to him. Then he did some stuff to me after I hit him with my bible. Got shot.. twice. Then they moved me. But eventually, folks came and they just.. laid waste to the place and .. we were out. They got me home and …" Abby shrugs. "I know, you sometimes don't believe me on stuff Victor, you think it's far fetched, but.. it isn't. I'm a really bad lier, and half the time I can't keep secrets worth anything"
"I'm coming around to that, Abby. I just need you to be patient with me on that stuff, believing you. Because like, if you see it from my point of view? Giving me the straight scoop on anything was exactly the last thing that would ever happen." There's no real apology in Vic's voice about believing Abby's crazy stories. "But I made a decision about it, when you and I started talking again. I basically think I was using it as a kind of…I dunno. Way to get back at you? If that makes any sense. Because it made me mad, being out of the loop especially when it came to my sisters. And Sylar. I couldn't understand how you guys could cover for the guy that killed my sister. I guess what I'm trying to say is I don't think you're a liar." He finishes that with a somewhat contrite look. "I hope you forgive me for it."
"If I couldn't forgive you, I would be a very unchristian woman Victor" Abby smiles openly, before gesturing to the picnic basket. "Thank you, for the apology, now… Whats in it boo boo?"
"Fruit!" Victor announces with a grin, pulling the basket around. "Today I'm going to learn what your favorite fruit is." He starts taking examples of what he got out of the basket. "I got one of each. Green apple. Red apple. Green pear. Red pear. Banana. Mango. Kiwi. Pomegranate…" Vic gives Abby a significant look at this, "…I had trouble finding a pomegranate. Had to go to six different places." Then he continues, "Peace. Plum. Nectarine. Tangerine. Orange. Grapefruit…I hope you don't like grapefruit. I left out lemons and limes. I had like this big list too, but these were all I could get. There was more, but my fruit-finding skills need work. Also!" He pulls out an unopened pack of paper plates and napkins, and plastic wear, "We can do this civilized. So you don't have to get sticky fruit junk all over yourself."
"Do you want me to tell you up front, or are you wanting to find out through trial and error?" Pomegranate. She'd never had one of those before. THe red ;leathery fruit is picked up, rolled around in her hands and her fingers press in to test it's yielding. "Never had one of these before, have you?"
That's where Vic shakes a finger in an aha manner. "See, you've never had a pomegranate. How do you know that's not your favorite?" It's a good pomegranate. If he was going to base a date off of this Vic was damned sure going to get fruit as perfectly ready to eat as he could manage. He turns more or less facing Abby, letting her check it all out. "You can tell me if you like. That doesn't ruin or change anything. But if you care to make a game out of it, one of these is my favorite fruit. Probably not the same thing as you'd pick. The way I roll though is if we're dating, I want to learn about you. So I figured I'd start with fruit."
"Nectarines. When they're not quite soft yet. Peaches are a close second, but they're fuzzy, never did like eating the fuzz. But nectarines" Abigail nods, passing the pomegranate over. "Fruit is a very good place to start" Abigail murmurs. "Shall we start cutting and finding out if the pomegranate trumps the nectarine? or so I can see what your favorite is?"
Vic hmms. "Nectarines. You know it's funny but I THOUGHT it'd be peaches. Because you're so Georgia it hurts." He looks like he finds himself very amusing for saying that. Then picks up the red pear. Holds it up next to his face and looks with heavy significance at Abby. "I. Love. Red pears. When they're going soft?" He goes slack-faced, as guys only usually do when very drunk or in the throes of orgasm. "I don't know why. Green pears just aren't the same. If you get the right pears you can get me to perform tricks for them. Like a dog."
"You like them when they're going soft? and I'm not Georgian, I'm Louisianan. far different accent and none of the sweeping colonnaded mansions and daughters of the south. Nope. More like daughter of the bayou" But she reaches out for the red pear, takign it gently from his hand, and grabbing a knife sos he can start to gut it up with deft effeciency born through a couple years in a restaurant and at the bar cutting limes and lemons.
"Whatever. Georgia. Louisiana. You're all the same." Vic says in a teasing tone, taking the pomegranate and using a plastic knife to open it up. Nice thing is it's one of those rare clean fruit that doesn't run juice everywhere. He more or less just breaks it open and uses a paper plate to put the seed-pockets on. "You saying they don't have peaches in Louisiana?"
Well isn't //that an interesting fruit. The peace being dissected on her plate, and the pomegranate revealing it's treasures, the red head reaches over, poking at the seeds and it's covering. "So.. you eat the seeds?"
"You can. They don't hurt you. But what I like to do is like kinda break them open with my teeth and get the juice, and then I spit the seeds out." Vic takes a cluster of pomegranate seeds and pops them in his mouth, demonstrating. He works his teeth and it's almost like he's competing in the chewing-gum olympics. After much nimble toothwork, he turns and spits the seeds away into the grass, then turns back to Abby and smiles. And his teeth and lips are pinkish purple now from the juice.
"that is some strange fruit" Abigail points out, but after passing over some pear to him, she takes her try at the strange fruit. A small clusters of seeds picked up gingerly, afraid she'll burst them and slides it onto her tongue. She tries to do what he did, what she thought her did, mashing them against the top of her mouth and a whole host, eventually though, she's picking the seeds off her tongue. "Not as good as a nectarine, but it's interesting"
Vic shrugs, "I like it because it's strange. Sometimes we need strange." He takes the offered pear and bites. And actually pauses to enjoy. He really does love red pear. "Mmm. So. Good idea?" he asks, reaching for nectarine, because he's going to make sure Abby gets her favorite.
"This is a good idea" Abby nods. "Nice follow u after everything today so far" This si the most that she's smiled lately, more often than not it's the other way around. "Who'd you steal the basket from though? I can't imagine that you just have it laying around for random interesting first dates"
"This girl in my class? She had it. It's hers, so I'm borrowing it." admits Vic with a grin. He leans in close to Abby to whisper as if keeping a secret, "She's trying to prove to the rest of the class I'm not gay, because supposedly I'm too pretty to not have a girlfriend. Here." He holds up a sliced, no-stem section of nectarine.
"are you too pretty to not have a girlfriend?" The nectarine is taken, biting down on it and severing the slice in half. There's thoughtful chewing before she offers up the other half for him to have a bite, or eat whole from.
"What do you think?" counters Vic, smirking. "I just hope I'm not too boring for you." He opens his mouth to eat it from her hand, only trying for a bite. Nectarine's her favorite after all.
"Victor, this is literally a first date. I've not had any others. This sets the standard yes for the next tow?" When he's done taking his bite, her leaning forward before he can pull away to lay a hesitant kiss on his cheek - as if she's not sure whether she really should have done that or something else. "I'm enjoying it. A lot.
Vic's a gentleman about the kiss. He just takes it with a smile. "I'm just trying hard not to over think it. And I thought hey, it's the park. It's wide open. It's lunchtime. And if you and I have anything in common it's that unexciting normal stuff is very welcome. Got any ideas for number two?"
"Not yet but I'll consult with an expert and see what they suggest for us" There's a trade off, or suggestion of trade off, pear slice for nectarine slice again. "Come on, you can lay back, I'll lay back and we'll try and find Godzilla again yeah?" That and she wants to enjoy this, and not think about what's gone, and about the dark parts of life right now. She wants to give Victor an honest chance, at all this.
It does rather seem like Vic lives in a world of light, doesn't it? In spite of being no stranger to those dark things that grab at everyone. He nods and takes one big sigh, laying back in the grass and looking up. "Hey Abby?" he says, eyes on the sky. Then reaches a hand down to hold hers. "Thanks."
"You're welcome Victor" Settling her hand in his, stiff for a moment, but eventually it relaxes. Human contact. He was right. She needed it. "Thank you too"
