Violet scanned the food court , slowly circling it at a safe distance from the crush of people. As usual, the place was nearly full -- the lunch-hour rush was always like that. She was supposed to be meeting Dave here for lunch, but she hadn't seen him yet. Pausing, she tugged nervously at the hem of her lavender t-shirt, then fussed for a moment with her hair. She'd left her hair down today, and had already begun to regret it.

"Hey." And a tap on her shoulder.

He probably shouldn't have come up behind her like that.

He brushes a hand through her hair and smiles that boyish grin of his.

"You should wear it like this more often."

Violet jumped and turned around. The look of surprise on her face melted to a relieved-looking smile.

"Oh, you," she grinned and poked him, and resolved that no matter how annoying it was, she'd try to leave her hair loose more often. "...I was wondering how I was going to find you. There must be at least a hundred people in here. It's crazy."

"Yeah." He glances around. "What do you say we get something to eat and take it elsewhere? With less people. The park or something."

He's borrowing a car from a friend of his, on condition that he returns it in one piece and with a full tank of gas. Thus, he can take her places without worrying about how that arm of his is going to affect things.

You can drive a car with a broken arm, fortunately.

"Sure, let's," she smiled. Anywhere would be nicer than here. No people pushing, shoving, yelling... that sounded nice. The thought of it took her away for a moment, and she had to mentally shake herself.

"...So. Anywhere in particular...?" she nodded to the variety of small restaurants clustered around.

"Uh... chinese?"

What? There's nothing wrong with liking chinese food. Anyway, that seems to be one of the less crowded places, at the moment.

"Sure, sounds good to me - I'm starved," Violet smirked, beginnig to drift in the direction of the chinese restaurant, which was settled in between a McDonald's and a salad-bar-type place.

"Here, I'll get it. What do you want, and I'll bring it to you."

Sweet boy.

Also he's buttering her up, because he doesn't want her in a bad mood when he mentions the extremely stupid thing he did recently.

She doesn't suspect a thing, and thinks he's just being his usual nice self.

"Ummm... Chicken fried rice," she said, after a moment's deliberation, smirking at him and adding, "Please and thank you."

And we'll skip over the actual ordering and buying and wading through the crowd and jump to the part where they're sort of strolling out of the mall to the car that Dave's borrowing.

Bit of luck, that. Friend goes on vacation and doesn't need his car.

Eh heh.

Dave looped his arm through Violet's, by the way.

Violet let him take her arm, for some reason feeling just a little irritated, but uncertain as to why.

"Whose car?" Violet asked, nodding towards it as they approached. She'd be disappointed if he'd traded in his motorcycle, or something like that.

Aw, she's annoyed? Maybe he should have asked first. He probably should have, actually, considering the recent... fiasco.

"Friend of mine's." And here Sammie resists the urge to give this friend a name and thus gain another character. "Vacationing in France. 's long as I don't wreck it, I can use it. Helluva lot easier to drive with a cast."

He opens the door for her.

"Ohhh. 'Kay." She climbed in, smiled at him, and put on the seatbelt.
Good thng he hadn't gotten rid of the motorbike. It wasn't so much the motorbike that she liked, as riding on it with Dave. You can't hold on to someone when they're driving a car, not without dramatically increasing the probablility of an accident.

Dave's more likely to quit working at the theatre than give up the motorbike. He likes going fast and weaving through traffic and having girls'--specifically, Violet's--arms around his waist.

"So, to the park?" he asked, once he was settled and buckled in and such.

"Yep," Violet nodded and leaned back in the seat. "Sounds fine to me."

((blah, short. ))

((Stay on this thread or move to another in the park? This one's awfully short, don't think there's really a need to change.))

((Yes, let's stay on this one.))

Upon arriving at the park, Dave glanced at Violet and gave her one of his little-boy grins and cocked his head.

"Want to go find a table, or picnic on the grass, or what?"

He will get around to telling her. Eventually.

Aw. Can't resist the little-boy grin.

"On the grass, of course." Violet smiled back. She found picnic tables to be uncomfortable. When sitting on the grass, she could have all the space she wanted. Not that she'd want too much space,... not yet, at any rate.

"'kay then."

And they go and they find a convenient spot on the grass, and settle down to eat their food, and Dave gets a funny look on his face. Cagey, like he's got secrets all of a sudden. Nervous.

"Um, Vi...?"

"Mm?" She looked up, just after having put a forkful of rice in her mouth. She hurriedly chewed and swallowed. "Ahem,... sorry. What is it?"

Blink. Frown.
"...Is something wrong?"

He shrugged a little.

"Um... you know how I was worried that... I'd put you in danger, kind of... because I was stupid?"

He really has trouble expressing himself sometimes, doesn't he.

"Well... you're not. I mean, I'm sure you're not."

Yes. That sounds good. Sort of.

She frowned, confused. And then a disbelieving look crossed her face, and...

"Dave... What've you done now?" she said slowly and quietly.

"I, uh... summoned the goddess...?"

He looks like he's waiting for her to yell at him and possibly insult him and cuss him out. At the very least, he expects a lecture.

Dave didn't have to wait very long. It only took Violet a moment to process what he'd said. Her jaw dropped, ever so slightly.

"You did what!?"
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Violet just yelled at him. No quiet, restrained anger this time.

"What were you thinking?!"

He flinched and looked miserable.

"I know it was a stupid thing to do, but it worked."

Sort of. He's going to try to avoid mentioning the whole 'He owes Fortuna a favor as-yet-unnamed' part of proceedings.

"But - but - ..." she sputtered, incredulous. "Look, aside from that being something that you knew was a completely imbecilic thing to do, - and I asked you not to,... and..."

She stopped yelling - Violet found rages difficult because she couldn't keep a train of thought going. She covered her eyes with her hand and forced herself to calm down and breathe. Her only experience of gods came from books,.. and unreliable though that information might be, they all said the same thing - gods didn't give something for nothing.

"What happened..?" she asked calmly.

"The... thing... worked and she showed up and we... talked, I guess, only she did most of it, and she said she'd leave you alone and then she was gone."

He's still avoiding mention of the favor.

He doesn't much want to think about it, anyway.

"And... she said she'd be keeping an eye on me."

"Oh, great, now she's watching you," Violet said, still not looking at him. "You're sure that's all that happened? ... There wasn't anything else, or anything that she said..?"

Not that she wants there to be something else, but she needs to know.

Pause.

"... she offered to tell me what you really think of me..."

He didn't accept. He'd rather hear that sort of thing directly from Violet, for one thing.

"...And...?"
She didn't look worried by this at all - merely a little more irritated. There was nothing that she thought of Dave that she wouldn't tell him about, or that he couldn't figure out on his own...

"Didn't ask her to elaborate. Figured she was just as likely to lie as she was to tell the truth, and anyway... I thought I knew enough...?"

Thought. Past tense.

He's worried that it's changed, or changing, because he's done so many stupid things lately.

"...Okay." Violet shrugged. Nothing to tell him, except...

"...That was a really dumb thing to do..." she muttered. She was glad he'd gotten out unharmed - and had somehow managed to get her out of the way, as well. But she wasn't going to tell him 'it's alright'.

"Yeah. I figured that out about two seconds in."

And then there hadn't been anything else to do but go with it, because he can hardly tell a goddess 'Sorry, I've changed my mind. Would you please go away now?'

"Mmm."
Violet leaned over, resting her forehead against her knees.

"Why'd you do it, then?"

"... because I'm an idiot?"

At least the boy can make fun of himself. And he does learn from his mistakes, kind of. He's not going to go making Asher angry again, for example.

She didn't deny what he said, but it did earn him a smirk.

"You're my idiot. So don't do any more dumb stuff like calling on goddesses." She gave him a stern look. "Alright?"

"Yes, ma'am."

He almost saluted, but changed his mind and tentatively put an arm around her instead.

"Your idiot indeed. All yours."

Violet looked up at him, smirking. She looked like she was going to say something unamused and unkind, but instead...
She tickle-attacked him.

Yay for ticklefights!

He grinned and tickled her back.

Let's see. He's bigger than she is, and stronger, and possibly more experienced with wrestling sorts of situations...

I'd say it'd be a good guess that he'd have her pinned and helpless fairly rapidly, wouldn't you?