neutral_omens | (no subject)

Time: August 8, 2000
Place: In the gardens, then the pool room.
Status: Public- Shadow, Pepper, others
Summary: Shadow mopes, then gets invited to play pool.

Shadow went beyond the regular part of the gardens and found a bench secluded off behind several thick rose bushes. He resisted putting his head in his hands, because it seemed too maudlin and cliché, instead leaning forward and putting his elbows on his knees.

He stared morosely at a tree, feeling like shit. A part of him was disappointed in the way he had acted at the bar… but truthfully not a very large part. How else was a man supposed to act when suddenly faced with his wife’s murderer?

His thoughts drifted to another time when he’d been reduced to such rage for Laura. This one had ended better than that… the others had fought back physically (and one with a knife) and hadn’t had a small pregnant woman to come to their rescue. Shadow had paid the price for that… the price now was at once much less and yet, in a way, heavier.

He missed Laura. He missed the life they had had together before the robbery and he missed, too, his dreams in prison, when he had known that she was waiting for him.

He missed his rock solid belief in her love.

No. He wasn’t going to let anger with Loki ruin the peace he had made with that, and he wasn’t going to sully his memories of Laura with jealousy. He had forgiven her. She had loved him. She would have been there for him when he came home- she’d told him that she had broken it off. It had just been a fling. She had needed someone. She’d been alone and lonesome.

You were alone too, a small voice whispered in his mind. Shadow quashed the thought.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Pepper let Shadow keep his secret. She didn't want to pry if he needed to handle it on his own. She understood that need well enough.

When he asked about the place, she pursed her lips for a moment and considered. She was supposed to be careful about what she said to people, especially ones she didn't really know, but then she thought of Adam, how he kept it all to himself and how difficult that was for her. If she put anybody in the same position, she'd be just as bad. Besides, she had a feeling about Shadow. He wasn't going to hurt any of them, she was certain of it.

"This is a safe place," she began carefully, trying to think of how Adam might word it. "You see Adam... well, Adam's...." She still couldn't say it. Even after all this time. She would have to try a different tack. "You know 'bout the Apocalypse? End a the world thing? 'Bout who was s'posed to get it started 'ccording to the Bible? Well... that's what Adam is."

She thundered through the next part to avoid any sort of negative reaction to it. That wouldn't get them anywhere. "He didn't do it. When it was happenin', you see, Adam stopped them. Told them no, said that it was wrong to punish people for jus' bein' people, and that he wouldn't let it go through. So it didn't. And everythin' was fine for a while, but..." This was the part that Pepper had a hard time with. "...he says it's happenin' again. Or that people are tryin' to make it happen again. So that's why we're all here. To be safe and ready when the time comes." She took a deep breath once she'd finished. It felt like she given some sort long, involved lecture, like the ones she attended at uni.

...

This was why Shadow was generally content when people told him not to ask questions; the answers to the questions often turned out to be complicated and alarming. He’d accepted a lot in the last few years- believed a lot , but this was a little hard to wrap his brain around.

A host of gods, angels, and other supernaturals gathered together in a hotel awaiting the coming (second coming?) of the apocalypse under the supervision of the antichrist himself, who looked more like a young cherub and acted more like an ordinary English boy than the son of the devil?

He blinked a couple of times at Pippin. “And… who you?” he asked finally.

Her? What about her? She was... well, she was...

"I was with Adam the first time," she told him. "Went up against War with a sw-" she had to stop midsentence and amend the description, "a stick tied together with some string. And it destroyed her at the time. Which is why she wasn't so glad to see me at that barbeque..."

It occurred to her then, that maybe he was inquiring about something else. "Oh, I'm nothin' special, not like some of the others 'round here. Just a regular ol' human." She smiled. "What about you? You got wings hidin' in that back somewhere? Spells your goin' to cast on me to make me forget that this conversation ever happened?"

"Nope, no wings," Shadow answered. It was nice, actually, to meet another human who had experiences as strange as his own. "And I can't do any magic spells or anything. Except this."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a 2p coin. Holding it in his right hand he held out both hands, palms up, showing Pippin his empty left hand and the coin resting on the tip of the second and third fingers of his right hand. Then, holding the coin in place his right thumb, he turned his hand so the palm faced down and held it above and to the right of his left hand.

He put the coin in the center of his left hand, then palmed it back into his right as he took the hand away, closing his left hand as he did so, making it look like the coin was still in it. He tapped his closed fingers with the index finger of his right hand three times, then, slipping the coin into his right sleeve he showed her both palms again, now empty.

“Nothing up my sleeves either,” he told her, pushing up first his left, then his right sleeve in demonstration, palming the coin back into his left hand again.

Pushing his sleeves back down again he slid the coin into his left sleeve, reached forward, empty hand clearly visible for a moment, and pretended to pull the coin out of Pippin’s ear.

Pepper applauded appropriately after the trick was done. She'd seen that one a few times, but never so well performed. She really wasn't sure where the coin had gone that time around. Impressive. "Ah, so you are a wizard. I might have known..." She snatched the coin from him and turned it over in her hands a few times.

"Would you be willing to teach that to me sometime?" she asked as they started walking again, heading toward the front door.

Shadow grinned shyly at the applause, secretly proud to be able to impress someone with his tricks.

"Sure, I could teach you," he told her, reaching forward to open the door for her. "I'm still learning myself, from books mostly, and sometimes I try to make up my own."

He let her lead the way, as he hadn't been down to the basement yet.

Pepper is sort of surprised when he opens the door for her. First of all because she's not used to men doing things like that for her, being such a tomboy through her youth, and secondly because she was constantly surprised at how much of a gentleman Shadow was. She just wouldn't have figured a big lumbering guy like him for that kind of behavior. "Thanks," she said ducking inside, and waiting for him to follow.

"So that's why you worked in a library: all the coin trick books," she joked on her way through the lobby, finally reaching the staircase further back that led to the basment. "But you makin' up your own? That's fantastic! So then we'll have to pick some time during the week where you can teach me. That sounds like it'd be brilliant."

"You've found me out," Shadow answered, chuckling. "I needed to work there so that I could have them long enough to actually learn anything."

They made their way down to the basement and found not only a very nice pool table with a good selection of cues and a comfortable looking couch but a mini-bar as well. Shadow went looking for a beer.

"Can I pour you anything?" he asked Pippin.

Pepper walked over to the rack and picked a pool cue, grabbing some blue chalk from the edge of the billiard table while Shadow went over to the mini-bar. "Still actin' the bartender, even when you're off duty, eh? All right then..." She thought for a moment, then told him, "Well, seeing as you are the bartender, I bet you usually pick the right drinks for people. Got that special sixth sense? You pick it." Pepper liked letting people chose drinks for her a lot. It let her try new things.

She started pulling all the balls out of the pockets and sending them to one end of the table so she could set them up. "You want to break, or should I?"

((edited pour vous, my dear ;D))

“Well, normally people just tell me what they want...” Shadow joked, chuckling. He took two glasses from the shelf and considered the fairly impressive array of alcoholic beverages before him, glancing at the red-haired, freckled girl at the pool table before making his choice.

In response to Pippin’s question he pulled out his handy 2p coin again and held it up. "Call it," he told her. "Winner breaks."

He flipped the coin.

She grinned. "Well, isn't that borin'. Good thing I usually dun't know what I want, then. More fun for you." Especially when she was little. She'd been that kid who always changed her mind about what she wanted for dinner five times.

"Tails," she said automatically. It was her favorite side to call, she never knew why.