bakerstreet | SWS - The memeing

1. [ Gradually falling asleep on the tube. ]

2. You really don't wanna go there.

3. [ Headphones in, softly singing in Spanish. ]

4. [ In bed, squinting against sunlight. ] Morning...

Okay, look. Ginny doesn't usually bother people just because she smells magic on them. She understands the need to keep to yourself when you're just going about your day. Sometimes you just want to collect your bat wings or feed your undead children in peace, you know? And it's important to respect that.

But not everyone feels that way. Which is why tonight, at an ungodly hour, Ginny is scooting along subway seats to sit next to a guy who doesn't seem like he'll register her at first.

Just like he hasn't quite registered the group of moderately large, angry-looking guys at the far end of the train car. Seeing as this guy fell asleep, or appears to have fallen asleep.

Just not before Tweedle Dum and co. over there had managed to get a glance at his eyes.

Ginny's slid into the seat nearest the stranger - whose eyes she didn't get a chance to see yet, but whose scent is also unmistakably wolfy - and one converse shoe nudges against the nearest one of his. "Hey. Wake up, buddy." Her voice is a whisper, although it's a pointed rush of one.

It's not crowded - in fact the carriage is almost empty, save for the men a little further along and the blonde woman across from him. That's certainly a contributing factor to how easy he's finding it to doze off. As far as Gabriel's concerned, he's still got another half hour on this train before he has to change over, and while he doesn't normally indulge the urge to fall asleep, this time his eyes are just a bit too heavy.

Until he feels someone nudge him, hears someone's voice. It's a bit startling falling asleep alone and waking up to someone next to you, but in a second his eyes are open again and he's taking in a short, sharp breath of surprise as he comes to.

"I'm awake, I'm up." He rubs a hand over his eyes, already protesting being conscious again. The young woman isn't someone he recognises, but the tone of her voice tells him she might need something. "..Everything okay?"

Ginny's already about to launch right into a hushed warning, anticipating that this guy's gonna wake up either innocuously startled or already set to fight. So she pauses, eyes a bit wider and mouth an open 'o', when he asks her if she's okay. The whole expression relaxes right back down into something warmer a moment later.

As far as first impressions go, that's a pretty good one, dude. "Not really." She's splayed into the seat adjacent to his casually enough, one arm on the back of her low subway seat, twisted towards this guy. She's pretty damn close to him and it's all one hundred percent for show, because she's hoping that no one at the other end of the train car feels like beating up a werewolf and a young blonde woman, but hey, weirder things would have happened to her if that's how this plays out.

"You've gotten some attention from the guys over there." Said hushed, expression attentive but forcibly relaxed - she doesn't sound or look panicked. Douchebros like that? Smell fear like blood in the water. "Don't know when your stop's supposed to be, but mine's next, if you want to leave before they decide they're done just shit-talking." There's enough tension in the air that Ginny's pretty sure one of those idiot's stiletto blades would be necessary to cut through it.

Her proximity is a little odd at first, but Gabriel doesn't cringe away from it. He's too groggy to really process it as anything other than a stranger not quite knowing what personal space is.

But then he actually processes what she's just said and he's making himself pay attention. He's surprised he hasn't heard what they're saying, but then the subway isn't exactly the quietest of places, nor did he think he had any reason to listen to their conversation.

Now that he knows he was - and still is, judging by the look he receives when he glances their way - his guard goes up, hands instinctively curl into loose fists as he sits a little straighter.

"As is my luck," he replies, matching her volume and tone as he turns back to her, "my stop is nowhere near here. Still, I might take you up on your suggestion."

"No hard feelings either way. Might be worth scooting while you can, though."

Looks like time's up for whispering to each other, though. The four members of this city's worst-dressed gang are slouching in their direction, even as the train's PA system announces the next stop is coming shortly.

"What's up." Says the nearest one. It's clearly not a question.

"You should get the fuck out of here," says another, shifting antsy behind the tallest one. Of all of them, he looks the most eager for a fight.

Ginny generally tries to get consent before she uses the powers that she has to activate, but beggars and choosers, etc. And truth be told, this one is so passively triggered that it's second nature by now.

"Actually." And she squeezes the stranger's shoulder like they're best friends. The free-floating motes of her awareness gather, flow from him to her - I'm me - and easy as breathing, she's got his name. "My friend Gabe and I are just about to get off on our stop."

She feels her heart slowly ratcheting up her throat. One of the boys keeps reaching for his pocket, like a nervous tic. Ginny overcompensates in the face of the very reasonable fear that they might actually get jumped, leans against this stranger's shoulder, aggressively relaxed. "C'mon." Her mouth curls up higher on one side, eyes on the closest one in the group, the one with arms crossed tightly but who hasn't taken an extra step forward yet. "We'll be gone in like, three seconds."

Fuck, fuck, fuck. This...escalated fast. Looks like her intuition wasn't wrong.

For the sake of the story she's just spun, Gabriel stops himself turning to her in surprise. No one's called him Gabe since he lived at home, and were they not in a very delicate situation, he might have let himself enjoy it for a second. And then wonder how she knows his name at all.

No, that doesn't matter right now. They need to be careful here. He needs to be careful. He doesn't know if they're all possibly armed or if it's just the one. He's mindful not to make too much eye contact, instead trying to work out the best way to get them both out of this unscathed, or at the very least, the young stranger out of this. That's what has Gabriel more nervous right now.

They're approaching the stop in the next thirty seconds give or take, so Gabriel tests the waters by slowly getting to his feet and taking a step forward. It's not an aggressive motion, but he's still mindful to put himself between Ginny and the men confronting them both.

Despite their posturing, a couple of the guys move back as Gabriel does, but the one closest to them doesn't budge. So Gabriel addresses him directly, eyes on him but his attention split between the others and the slowing train itself, hands at waist height. Hands that say 'I don't want to fight you' but a wide stance that says 'You'll lose if you do.'

"Come on. Be smart about this. There's going to be a lot of people at this stop, you'll only give yourself more trouble by doing this here and now."

The thing about the names is that it's not always 'correct' in the strictest sense of the word. Ginny's met people who've lived under different names for so long that they just feel that new one more, and that's what she'll read off of them. It's possible she read Gabe from him because that, at his core, is what he is - what he wants to be to someone.

It's equally possible she heard Gabriel echo out of him and just shortened it to sound familiar. Who's to say?

Gabe gets up and Ginny watches him sharply, stands just a second after he does. This is actually her stop, after all, and even if it wasn't she's not one to stick around when shit goes south like this. These guys are no good. Fidgety, scared people are never good. They're volatile. They make dumb decisions.

Like threaten a goddamn werewolf right as everyone's approaching a crowded subway stop. (Seriously, though. They're both standing now and he's at least half a foot taller than her? More? Not fair. Save some good genes for the rest of us, please.)

"You really think no one out there would be on our side about taking out the trash?" Says the closest one, but he still isn't budging.

Ginny, by now, is realizing that even as they're barely edging towards the still-unopened door, that this guy Gabe is...keeping as much of his body as possible between her and the shitheads threatening him. He's...trying to keep her safe?

Not how Ginny expected this evening to go. Good on you, chivalrous dude.

The train's significantly slowed. Ginny's just thinking this might end nicely. She's starting to sidle across, obligingly staying behind Gabriel, when-- "Look out!" She yelps instinctively.

Because Twitchy McShithead behind the calmer dude in the very front has finally come forward, a fist flying out.

The comment gets no reaction from Gabriel, asides from maybe a narrowing of the eyes and weary exhale. He gets far worse at home, this is nothing, nor is it anything he can't handle.

He'd just prefer to handle it somewhere other than a busy train or station platform. A naive part of his brain rings with the suggestion that having witnesses might be a good thing, but it's silenced by the rational and by past experiences. Witnesses mean very little when most of them side with the assailants anyway.

As things tend to in situations like this, the next few seconds pass by very quickly. Gabriel sees the movement from the fidgety guy almost as soon as he hears Ginny's warning. It's not a punch that's thrown with much thought or precision - to the surprise of absolutely nobody - and so it's easy for Gabriel to catch the guy's fist without much effort and twist it back in one fast, fluid motion.

There's a sharpcrack that accompanies it, but the wrist isn't broken. Badly fractured maybe, but it's enough to make at least that guy back off and to make the others think twice about following their friend's example.

"I told you, we don't want trouble." Gabriel says again, lowering his voice as he closes the gap between himself and the ringleader. Only by a few inches, but it's enough. "This is your last warning. Back off, and get your friend to A&E. If you follow us, he won't be the only one needing a cast."

Jesus Christ! Ginny's hands jerk up towards her face, only redirecting at the last second, with the force of how much she instinctively wants to squash the alarmed shriek building up in her lungs. She manages to stay quiet under her own power, though, even as Gabe 'Evidently, I Lift' Starling manages to grab a guy's fist mid-air. It's like he didn't get the memo and he's currently living through House of Flying Daggers while the quartet in front of them struggled through their rent-a-cop tutorials.

Ginny's got a spare few spells that would be useful, here, if everything keeps unspooling the way it already has. She's gripping at her cross-body bag a bit too tightly, and she can feel her magic tightening its hold on her - like her skin's shrunk, like she's wearing a wetsuit.

Everyone lives like that, right at the edge of something ugly, for those few moments where Gabe steps forward and the ringleader stares him down. One guy moves like he's gonna go at it, too, but the front one puts out one large hand and stops him.

"No, it's fine, guys. Fuckin' chill." There's a general agitation from them, a shifting like hyenas pacing behind the bars at a zoo, but the head guy stays firm and no one crosses the invisible barrier his arm makes across the train cab. "Gives us time to buy ourselves some silver. For next time."

Ginny bites back any warnings on how that probably won't go as well as they think, if they stay this unorganized. Probably best not to give out hints. Instead, she presses close up against Gabe's back. Her fingers feel slightly shaky and numb when she adjusts her bag again. "C'mon." The train's finally at a full halt. The doors will open in just seconds. "Let's go."

And, hopefully, they get to walk right off the train without any more flying punches or gross bravado.

The guy's casual comment about going out to guy silver could have been a threat and nothing more. And yet it's the only thing that really makes Gabriel want to react. He's lucky they had none on them now, but the idea that someone like him in the future might not be so unfortunate sends a rare shudder of utter loathing through him.

It's only when he feels Ginny move behind him, hears her urging him to walk away that he finally backs down, only breaking eye contact with the men once they've put some space between them. Making sure Ginny's off of the train first, he follows close behind, pretending not to notice the way people are looking out of the window at the two of them. At him. Pretending he can't hear the muttering before it's muffled by the rest of the people boarding. Watching until the doors close again, he takes a deep breath and turns to Ginny.

"I'm sorry about them, about..all that. Are you alright..?"

Ginny sighs deeply as soon as they're off the train. Other people staring, murmuring, she can handle. Coming that close to an actual fight, that sensation of being at the cliff's edge of seeing at least one person get their face beat in, has her nerves jittery and her heart feeling wired. Spare energy pumps through her whole chest and out to her fingertips, and she isn't too sure where to redirect it aside from running a hand through her hair and thinking she should probably be better at this, by now.

Distractions are good, honestly. Not being alone on the train platform, and knowing that Gabe at least got out of this without more than some ugly words thrown his way, is also good. That's worth breathing out some of that anxiety for. "I'm fine." She says, and she means it, even if her hands still feel jittery against the strap of her bag.

She looks this guy up and down - he's... Muted, a bit. She's got a friend like that herself, used to pressing himself down into a 2D version of himself. Gabe might be fine, or he might not be, but either way absolutely zero of what just happened was 'okay'.

"Are you okay?" She says, even as she's turning to start walking away from the platform, still sticking close to Gabe. "Even though I'm pretty sure just by asking that I'm inviting you to lie, since no one wants to tell a stranger that they're rattled."

Which is as good a segue as any, right? "I'm Ginny, by the way." And she's tilting closer to him, holding out a hand to shake. "Last time I checked, Lycans can't do my name trick in return." Which is sort of like an apology for creeping into your personal headspace for your name, right? Sort of?

The question of whether or not he's okay is easy enough to answer, and he does so with a shrug and an absent scratch at his beard, as though she just asked where he wants to go eat. Like he doesn't care, however much he does really. Occurrences like that rattle him not because of the threat to his safety, but because they still happen so regularly.

"I'm fine. Guys like that- well. I'm used to it." Pushing his hands loosely into his pockets, he gives her a small, sincere smile and a nod. "..Thank you for waking me up though. That probably would've gone very differently if you hadn't."

He's nowhere near his stop, so he figures he may as well walk with Ginny while she's happy to talk to him. One hand reemerges from it's pocket long enough to shake hers.

"Nice to meet you. And that was going to be my second question; I'm assuming you getting my name right wasn't a lucky guess?"

'Used to it'. That's another thing in the 'absolutely not okay' category for the day. "No problem. I try not to let assholes sneak up on other people with that stuff." Metas have to stick together, et cetera. Ginny's is a hidden attachment to the bizarre and the paranormal, of course, unlike Gabe. She gets to walk around in the open and most normal humans wouldn't ever spot it.

Except of course on days like today, when she broadcasts the weird to, well. Fellow weirdos. (And honestly? It's easily one of her favorite kinds of day for just that reason. She like meeting the different flavors of other spell casters, Lycans, you name it.)

So yeah, that's fair when Gabe calls it out. "Nope, not a guess." Touching his hand is a process. Information lights up and offers itself for her, and Ginny has to pointedly look away from it, the risk of distraction a very real one - like deliberately trying to not turn to watch movement in the corner of your vision. The sense of him swirls tighter on its own axis. ...Might as well let him know that part, she supposes. "Touching your shoulder earlier gave it to me." Which is timed unfortunately well with letting go of his hand.

"--Didn't you say your stop wasn't for a while, though?" Shit, so she might've saved him a black eye, but now he's short a ride.

Edited 2017-08-24 02:47 (UTC)

Gabriel can appreciate that, not just on a personal level. Where he can he tries to intervene when someone else is in trouble - or just about to be.

"Well, the world could use more people like you."

Ah, so it was the shoulder touch that did it; he'd assumed back on the train that she'd only done that to make it more believable that they knew each other. Then again, she could have given any name and he would have played along, but it was nice to know he was speaking to someone a little more like him.

When Ginny mentions his stop, Gabriel nods, but doesn't look all that bothered about it.

"Yeah, mine was Kensington, but it's fine; there'll be another one at some point. That failing, there's always taxis, or walking, God forbid."

A thought strikes him then, though he hesitates a second or two before voicing it. One hand comes up to scratch lightly at his beard, almost as an unconscious, nervous gesture.

"um...Feel free to say no- well, obviously you can say no, you can do what you want, but-" Okay, come on man; use your words. "If you don't mind, I'd like to buy you a coffee to say 'thank you' properly. If you're not busy or anything, of course."

Smooth.

'Well, the world could use more people like you.'

That's...such a sweet thing to say. Ginny's entire face does a little ripple of surprised appreciation, because she's touched beyond quite knowing what to respond with. She typically uses her powers for her own amusement or for getting paid - it's her job, quite literally. So she doesn't generally have people saying stuff like that about just her...her.

She's saved from having to figure out how to reply to that when she gets an escape into another, far less awkward conversation: navigating someone else being incredibly awkward.

Ginny's smile is a slow, steady thing to come back. By the time Gabe's done asking, she's basically beaming. "I think I can make time for that." She says, slowly nodding her head. She comes back a bit closer just to nudge Gabe's shoulder with her own. "I know a nice place just down the street, unless you had anything in mind. I'm not too picky." She is...so incredibly, unfortunately serious about that, man. Literally everyone has better taste than her.

Edited (typo!) 2017-08-25 03:04 (UTC)

While Gabriel's a little surprised she actually accepted the invitation, he still smiles right back, his own face brightening up in it's own way. While he isn't completely jaded about the state of the world, being reminded that not everyone is completely terrible is a nice bonus.

And Ginny's rather pretty, which is always a plus. Not that this conversation would be going any differently at all were she not conventionally attractive, but it's a nice addition.

"Oh, no - nothing specific." For someone who loves tea and coffee as much as him, he's woefully ignorant about the more independent coffee houses. Forgive him, for he is usually in need of caffeine and Starbucks is everywhere. "'The place down the street' sounds great."

Ginny's smile becomes a toothy grin, and she smacks lightly at Gabe's arm with the back of her hand. "Are you making fun of me?" ''The place down the street' sounds great'. This guy is a whole lot more amusing when they're not staring down a group of Lycan-haters on the subway. (Isn't literally everyone though? Don't Lycan-haters sort of bring the entire group down just by existing?)

Ginny will happily steer them down the block and up the slight hook of a side street, tugging him along to a, yes, independent coffee house. "I do a lotta business here." She says as they cross the threshold. It's a slight step up and then you're walking across exposed wooden floors and metaphorically punched in the face with the scent of espresso and cardamom. Or maybe physically punched in the face, it's pretty powerful stuff.

There's enough chairs and tables that walking becomes a serious concern, but the path to the counter to order has been well-cleared by guests needing caffeine. Ginny gives a wide berth to a guy whose skateboard has apparently earned its own chair at his table, side-steps someone with an improbable amount of luggage jetting out into the narrow aisle, and finally wades up to the counter.

"Please don't tell me you're a decaf kind of guy," she says. Her grin gives her away that she's probably kidding. "I've already got one of those in my life, I don't know if I can handle another."

Gabriel's immediate instinct is to apologise and assure her he wasn't making fun of her at all, but it dawns on him just as fast that she was probably being rhetorical.

Either way, he doesn't have much time to ponder it; before he knows it he's being lead off of the train platform and down the street, eventually arriving at the place. 'The place down the street'. That's just what it is to him now.

He's braced for the smell to hit him - it's not quite as bad as going past, say, LUSH, but it's pretty intense nonetheless. For the most part he's able to avoid the chairs, though he does catch his foot in the strap of a bag and stumbles a little. Of course he apologises to the bag's owner before catching up to Ginny as if nothing's amiss, smiling broadly at the decaff comment.

"No, no - caffeine's fine with me. Couldn't get through the day without it."

With a gesture to say Ginny should order first, he places his soon after and pays, joining Ginny at the first table that becomes free.

SWS - The memeing

Gabriel Starling | OC

1

I knew I had this icon for a reason

a surprisingly appropriate icon for this trying time! he just wants to sleep

#letGabesleep2k17

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