OOM: Concert, part 2

[electro_kinetic]

The stage itself is backed by a huge screen, big enough to nearly be an IMAX presentation, and the orchestra is in front, chairs empty. They're fashionably close to the starting time, because Noriko hates being late, and she didn't want to be too early: tucking her free hand in her coat pocket she walks with Hannibal, trying to keep her heels from clicking too loudly on the floor.

The seats printed on both tickets are quite good, being the center of the closest balcony, where the sound will blend and amplify without too much distortion, and a clear view to both the screen and the plalyers, but before they see any of that, there's the lobby to get through.

"Wow," Nori says, looking up at the starburst lights. "This place is pretty huge."

Comments

[cook_the_rude]

When the applause dies down after the last piece before the intermission, Hannibal stands and offers his hand, politely.

[electro_kinetic]

Noriko gives him a look askance at that, lifting her chin and cocking her head. "What?" she asks.

[cook_the_rude]

"Let us get up and have a little something," Hannibal says. "It's the intermission."

[electro_kinetic]

"You want me to eat with you," she says. "For real."

She remembers how that usually goes, Hannibal.

[cook_the_rude]

"To sip some orange juice or nibble a canapé, prepared by others," Hannibal says, far too polite to roll his eyes.

[electro_kinetic]

"Oh please," she says. "You know you don't want any of that and if we're getting dinner after this neither do I."

[cook_the_rude]

"Then let us just -- perambulate," Hannibal suggests.

[electro_kinetic]

She's not quite sure what exactly he wants to do with the walking, but before she can voice a comment about not showing her off like a poodle, she shrugs.

"Sure. Walking."

[cook_the_rude]

"Among people," Hannibal says. "I the lobby."

[electro_kinetic]

"Oh, how scandalous," she says. "Really."

[cook_the_rude]

"Yes, of course," Hannibal says, barely not shrugging.

[electro_kinetic]

"Lead on, then. I'll be your arm candy," she says. "Assuming you want that."

[cook_the_rude]

"I definitely do," Hannibal says, offering his arm again.

[electro_kinetic]

"You are a very strange man," she says, but takes his arm, rising to her feet gracefully, with the practice of a woman who's walked in heels quite often.

They are getting several looks for the obvious disparity in their styles and meins, but Noriko ignored most of them.

[cook_the_rude]

"So, let us have a look around the lobby and collect astonished glances until the bell goes," Hannibal says, threading his way out of their row and towards the exit.

[electro_kinetic]

"Long as you don't try anything stupid," she says, and walks with him.

[cook_the_rude]

"Define stupid."

[electro_kinetic]

Nori stops for a minute, and considers how to say what she means. "Don't try murdering anyone where I have to watch you."

[cook_the_rude]

"Define murder," Hannibal says, now grinning at her outright with his long, pointy teeth.

[electro_kinetic]

"How about we stick with the legal definition," Noriko says, eyeballing Hannibal and that grin. She's aware that he wants her to trip up and say something that will let him taunt her about it, but Noriko isn't in the mood to be circumspect with her words and on-guard.

She isn't really in the mood to tell him that the jackass from earlier doesn't deserve a good beatdown either, but she isn't sure he needs to die over it. "I took the care to get dressed up, I don't want to have to burn these clothes. Besides, everyone here seems just fine. Polite, even."

[cook_the_rude]

"Except the rude man we had to have removed," Hannibal reminds her.

[electro_kinetic]

"You know as well as I do that one person out of this many was just going to be an asshole," she says. "It was just bad luck that we happened to be sitting beside him. Or in front of him, rather."

She doesn't mind defending someone's right to say what they want, but it rankles a bit when what they said was actively belittling her. "If you're gonna go after everyone who's made a point of calling me a freak you're gonna be really, really busy. As in impossibly so." She gives him a pointed look and drops that conversation, refusing to pick it up again until the bell to return to their seats has rung. The rest of the concert passes thankfully uneventfully, and Noriko begins to relax as the music and images blur through her head; by the end of it she's as relaxed as she'll ever get in Hannibal's company barring something extraordinary happening. But all in all, dinner is ahead and the evening has turned out nice. She can forget one random dickhead making stupid remarks.

[cook_the_rude]

"I don't," Hannibal says innocently, "plan to run a food truck here. But it's always a tempting idea."

[electro_kinetic]

"I'm concerned that my first thought to that is what you'd name a food truck here," Noriko sighs, giving Hannibal a look somewhere between mild concern, amusement, and horror. "And not that you'd get caught doing it."

She stands, and rolls her ankles in turns, hearing them pop as the theatre empties, the chatter of the other patrons leaving turning into a dull background noise. "I am not eating at a food truck tonight, though."

[cook_the_rude]

"No, we're not," Hannibal says. "And I'm sure I'd come up with a name if needed."