Participants:
| Scene Title | Two Love Triangles Make a Star |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | A chance meeting between Delia and Toru leads to the forging of a friendship with the potential for social disaster. |
| Date | February 21, 2011 |
The Upper-West Side
They found Eileen, sort of, they pinpointed her location in a dream. When she woke up and kicked them all away, Delia remained behind, staying with her to keep her company for a little while. She's as stubborn as her brother. It only took a scant handful of fleeting dreams before the other woman convinced the dreamwalker that someone would be there and to get out while she still had the chance.
Delia didn't like it but she obeyed.
Skirting the edge of Midtown during daylight hours, the dreamwalker, hesitates before going in. There's supposed to be robots in there, she can't run. They don't know what happens to people after they get caught… do they disappear?
As she contemplates crossing the border to try to save her friend in the waking world, she chews her thumb and paces. Until she gets tired. This happens too frequently, so it's a good thing that she's got a pair of jeans on. She sits along the side of a ruined wall and looks into the forbidden area. Sylar is down there somewhere. The Midtown man… the guy that killed her mother. Apparently, he's the twin brother of Eileen's boyfriend. How awkward.
It's been well over a month since Toru was last in the Midtown ruins, but occasionally he finds himself wandering by. Trying to make some sort of sense of what exactly happened there. Or maybe just taking a shortcut across Manhattan, cutting closer to that desolate part of the city than many people would care to.
Whatever reason brings him here is all but forgotten, though, when he spots a familiar face, even if it is one he hasn't seen in some time. For some reason.. Toru has some positive recollection of the girl, even if they only did share a few brief meetings. Doesn't hurt that she looks nice. And that she's dangerously close to catbots, waaaait a second—
—"Hey!" He's several yards away when he waves arms at the girl, crossing them in a somewhat universal 'no!' gesture. "What're you doin' over there!? Don't do it, it ain't worth it!" He's almost reacting as if he's just come across someone about to jump off a bridge.
The yell snaps her out of her reverie and Delia blinks a few times before cracking a smile in Toru's direction. "Hey— " is returned, along with a weak assurance. "Not— oh you mean? No, I— I mean I'm.. I have a friend that-uhm- she needs help. So I was going to cut through to— but I don't think I can run very fast." The smile falters as she admits to her weakness, resulting in her blushing face turning back toward the ruins.
Shaking her head, she glances back at Toru and twitches her eyebrows. "What are you doing out here? Do you work around here?"
It isn't until he's actually within proper speaking distance that Toru realizes how he sounded just then, but he shrugs it off with a goofy little grin, rubbing the back of his head. "No, I just meant, uh —" There, he frowns. More like he's confused than upset, but really he just isn't sure how to say it without sounding crazy. Finally he settles on, "It's dangerous in there."
"I was just kinda goin' for a walk." Shrug. He's all dressed for staying out, anyway. Peacoat, hoodie under it, loosely-wrapped scarf and some gloves. He's clean, at least. Hair's a bit mussed, but that's normal. "Ain't seen you in a while, lady; didn't figure I'd run into you out here. Keepin' out of trouble?"
Not having too much outside contact, Delia's half hearted shrug comes off as uncertain and weak. "I guess that depends on what you mean. I uhm.. I sort of uhm.. fell into a bad situation after I woke up." A small titter of a laugh follows that and she places her hands into her pockets, giving Toru something of a one shouldered shrug at the same time. "I uhm… yeah. How've you been? You're good?"
Their last meeting was a little more surreal than this, mostly because it was in a dream. "I uhm— I need to— " Taking a deep breath, she averts her eyes from him and looks back into Midtown. "How's Amadeus?" She doesn't ask about Keira.
Toru isn't altogether certain that dream had anything to do with the real Delia. So uncertain, that for the moment he doesn't even think about it. It'll come to him later. In the meantime, he just takes that 'woke up' comment in stride, frowning just a bit in concern, but finally shrugs as well. "I'm aight, I guess. I ain't really talked to 'Deus in a while, I'm pretty sure he got caught up in that Dome thing.. since that's over with I need to get ahold of him, probably."
He frowns, shrugs again. "I mean, usually we'd do our own thang anyway, y'know? I'm kinda gettin' sick of that whole.. situation." Hands in pockets, he strides over to sit on that wall next to Delia, looking forward for a moment, just musing quietly to himself. "Look, can I put somethin' out there and have you not like think I'm a creeper or anything?"
"I hope he's alright." It's just a brief moment of concern. While Delia doesn't like the man they're talking about, she doesn't want to see him hurt or killed. She scoots over an inch or two on the wall, just out of politeness when he joins her, offering a smile at the same time. Her head is ducked down to look at the shell toes of her sneakers before she's glancing back beyond the border again.
The question, whatever it is that might make him sound like a creeper has her turning back. Her blue eyes find his darker ones and her eyebrows twitch down a little in concern. "Uhm… sure? I mean— okay, what's up?"
Closing his eyes for a minute, Toru tilts his head back a little, still a little uncertain if he should even proceed. But! He does. "Well it's just like.. I guess what I wanna say is I kinda see why he was so crazy about you. I dunno what it is." He shrugs, helplessly. "I mean, I ain't gonna go stalkin' you or anything but.. I'unno, you kinda got this.. kinda.. thing."
As if hoping it will illustrate his point, he holds gloved hands up, making a vague O-shape. "Like.. like I dunno. You're easy to talk to. I don't even know why I'm sayin' all this, right? But bein' around you, I kinda.. guess I feel like it's alright to just talk."
It's probably the shampoo, it smells nice.
"Oh!" Cracking a much easier smile, the redhead nods quickly and focusses all of her attention onto Toru and lifts her hand to wave it dismissively. "So what you're saying is…" Turning to the young man, Delia gives him a very serious expression and reaches for one of his hands with both of hers. "Toru, will you be my friend?"
While the delivery seems like it should be a punch line or some sort of bad joke, there's an honest quality to the question, like underneath it all, she's serious. She does let go of his hand though and shrugs both shoulders this time. "I get it. And thanks, I kind of like talking to you too."
Toru raises eyebrow with the hand-holding, but he plays along.. and actually cracks a smile at the request. "I didn't mean it like you gotta make nice and agree if you don't mean it, y'know?" Not that he's being self-deprecating, he just wants to make sure Delia isn't just being polite. "I mean.. if you mean it, then it'd be nice havin' someone around who isn't tryin' to get me killed." Or whose pants he isn't trying to get in.
He pats Delia's hand once his is released, looking down at her with an awkward kind of smile. Being nice to people is still sort of weird on him. It doesn't fit too badly, though. "I guess what I'm really trying to say is.. there's robot cats in the ruins and they won't play nice just 'cause you're pretty." He wrinkles his nose. "At least I don't think they will."
"I won't try to get you killed. Promise." She makes a lot of promises these days, eventually she's going to need a book to keep track of them all. Dipping her hands back into her pockets, she gives a sidelong glance to the border again and lets loose a long sigh. "So… you're not living in Amadeus' van anymore?" A leading question if there ever was one but seeing as Toru admitted to not seeing the other man in a little while, it's quite possible to come to the conclusion that they're not room mates… even if she has prior knowledge.
"I was going to try to find an apartment or something, you know? But I might just move back home— flue scare and everything." It's delivered like she doesn't want to risk catching it when the opposite is actually true, she's racing to those who have caught it.
Shaking his head, Toru bunches his shoulders up a bit, warding off an imagined increase in the cold. Keeping the blood pumping, anyway. "I sorta.. it doesn't work real well in winter, you know? In summer it's cool 'cause you don't have to spend all your time inside, but in winter you pretty much gotta pick between freezin' on the street or freezin' in a shitty van. There's blankets at least, but it ain't that much better without heat."
He shakes his head, pulling a hand out of his pocket long enough to tousle his hair. As he slips it back into his coat, he slides a little closer to Delia. Friendly, like. And warmer. "Anyway, I met this guy a while back and he's lettin' me sleep on his couch on account'a I told him my place was in the dome. I guess he feels bad for me for some reason, I dunno. I'm tryin' to figure out how to keep him from kickin' me out now that everything's all over with, but he ain't been back to the place so I don't even know what the fuck."
"Sounds like a really nice guy, why don't you just tell him the truth?" Tilting her head toward the Japanese man, Delia's eyebrows raise up a little on her forehead questioning. "I mean, it sounds like a pretty simple problem. He let you have a place to stay when we didn't know it was ever going to come down, right? Now that like… everything in crushed in there, at least in the middle, it'd be hard to go back to." She shrugs as though she's just offered the solution to the problem.
It's also a little strange that she's sitting on a wall talking to the guy that's living with a guy that she's relatively fond of while she's living off the dime of his ex. At least, she's assuming ex, he did skirt the fringe of All and not once did Mister Logan refer to him. Reaching out again, she links her arm with Toru's and hugs onto it tightly. "Want me to talk to your room mate? You said that I'm pretty easy to talk to." Now she's teasing a little bit, the smile and sparkle in her eyes as she looks over at the mop of hair beside her is telltale enough.
Toru blinks, looking down at Delia with a surprised smile. "It's— it's kinda complicated, you know?" This would be way more awkward if Toru was aware of the whole.. love triangle business. "I dunno. I don't really.. it ain't gonna impress him if I go sayin' I live with a dope dealer in a van. I kinda wanna try and have a normal— thing. If I go tellin' him that he's just gonna feel more sorry for me or think I'm a dumbass and feel more sorry for me."
Frowning, he turns to rest his head on top of Delia's, eyes closed in thought. "We don't really talk much, he's out a lot of the time an'.. I like having time to myself. Don't gotta worry about keepin' warm. Gives me time to worry about everything else." He lifts his head up, works his jaw from side to side, looks back down at his new lady friend. "I don't mean to drop all this on you, I just.. I ain't really in a good place right now. He probably wouldn't mind me bringin' you over, though. Since you're lookin' for a place, I mean— hell, I dunno, maybe he collects strays."
"I think— you just need a little more faith in people. They can surprise you a lot of the time, Toru." There's encouragement in her voice, also a silly smile on her face, better than the previous ones that she's been giving him. A rapid blink gives her blue eyes a bit of a sheen before Delia looks away and back toward the blackened road that leads to midtown.
"Thanks," the cracked murmur that slips out from the smile that's turned bittersweet precludes any waterworks that just might turn the scene uncomfortable. "Thanks for asking, Toru, I don't want to impose though. Maybe for a visit or a movie night… but not— I couldn't. I don't have any money and I don't know if I ever will. All the things that I know how to do to make money are sort of— well I need to be registered to do them properly. I couldn't ask you guys to support me while I figured my life out."
Looping his free arm around Delia's shoulders for a moment, Toru gives her a quick kiss on the top of her head — almost like an afterthought — and pulls his head away almost shyly. "We're in the same boat, lady." His own smile is forced; it isn't a terribly pleasant line of thought. "Since me and— I— some stuff— went down, I— well." Hard to explain without naming names, but if nothing else, Toru doesn't like to kiss and tell<3~
"… pretty much I used to have a decent job, then I pulled a stupid stunt and the old boss don't want anything to do with me. I been pretty much doin' delivery jobs. Food mostly. Usually you can find people don't care about registration business, and even if it's just a few weeks, money's money. I ain't had trouble eating yet, at least."
"Yeah…" Heaving a deep sigh, the redhead gives a slight shoulder shrug and shakes her head lightly. "Student nurse," she says of herself. "Dad went on the run and I had to go too… I was going to register… but." Delia leaves out some large chunks of details, just like Toru, happy to let him assume whatever it is he wishes about her.
"I was living with my brother until he manifested, then things went a little bad and here I am…" She still looks much too clean to be someone living on the streets. "It started out really nice, you know? My dad put me up with this guy that I sort of… you know." The blush on her face is the blow on the cover of her 'secret' crush. "Ended up cheating on my boyfriend, I havent' seen him in forever anyway. Once since I woke up from the coma." She stops and catches Toru's eyes for a moment before closing her own and lowering her head. "Sorry, don't want to lay all this on you."
"It's always good until things go a little bad," Toru mumbles, nuzzling Delia's hair with cold nose. "'Least if you register you can have a future, right?" Hand grips shoulder for a moment before he pulls it away again, arms back to his sides. "Don't worry about unloading, I guess that's what I'm here for, right?" The smile at that is less forced. "I ain't really in favor of registerin'.. but sometimes I guess you gotta do stuff you don't agree with if you wanna get to a point where you can fix stuff."
He pulls a hand out of his pocket to ruffle Delia's hair gently, looking down at her with a sympathetic smile. "Come on. Nick hasn't been in for a few days, he probably won't be back tonight, and if he is I'll just— say somethin'. We can get a pizza on the way. I'll like.. fuggin' braid your hair or somethin'." He may be getting his ideas of what friends do together from too many teen movies. "It's just getting kinda quiet in there."
Furrowing her eyebrows, Delia shifts her gaze in the direction of the Corinthian before looking up at Toru again. "I— I don't know. I really should stay, for my friend. I can reach her here… unless you live really close by, I won't be able to reach her. Listen… I'm uhm… I still have my room with that guy. He never comes around that much, you maybe want to go there instead? We can do all the same stuff— except we can order room service."
She shrugs one shoulder and widens her eyes slightly, trying to hide the grin of mischief on her face. "That way we'll both have company and I won't have to explain to your room mate why he's got another homeless person on his couch."
It actually takes less time for Toru to decide on response to that offer than it does for him to stop himself from answering too enthusiastically. Clearing his throat, he nods and says, "Oh right, yeah, your friend." That detail, he had genuinely forgotten about. Woops. Hey, it's not his friend. "Yeah.. I'm up in Brooklyn, so it is kind of a hike if anything goes down."
In point of fact, he's perfectly willing to go now, judging by how quickly he stands up. And holds out a hand to help Delia, should she need it. "I mean, y'know, as long as you're sure it's okay. Homeless people and all, right?" He lifts his other hand to rub his chin. "I don't look that bad. Been' shavin', anyway. You never know how good a real bathroom is 'til you don't have one anymore."
Taking his hand only long enough to pull herself up, Delia nods quickly in agreement. "Oh, I know… I only had to deal with it for a week or so but back home, they don't have very many amenities. I feel bad for staying as long as I have been, because I'm sort of soaking up the luxury, you know?" Another long stare is given to the ruins, rather past it, as the redhead licks her lips and muses quietly. "Brooklyn, huh? Maybe if I find a way to make some money, I could find a place in Brooklyn too."
Taking a few steps ahead of the young Asian, Delia turns to look at him with a crooked smile and quips lightly. "C'mon, I'm at the Corinthian for now. We just have to make sure that we don't trash the mountain of diamonds before the King gets home."
