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

[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."

[electro_kinetic]

Noriko shakes her head, and reaches to smooth out her shirt and her hair, tucking behind her ear the one lock that's come out of place.

"I'm not going to ask what it is," she says. "So where to eat now?"

[cook_the_rude]

"This is your world," Hannibal says. "I do know some places in New York, but this is an alternative universe. Imagine me suggesting something that is really good in my world, but in yours, it is just a galumphing disaster in beige?"

[electro_kinetic]

"...Interesting way to put that," she says. "We'll give it a try, though. Since I don't eat out in Manhattan much."

[cook_the_rude]

"I cannot promise," Hannibal says, "that we won't be served spheres of lukewarm air, but we can risk it."

He turns to look for a cab.

[electro_kinetic]

"Well, we should be able to recover if we happen to get that," she says, and rattles her car keys at him in the case he's forgotten that they drove.

"I can drive us to a restaurant, you don't want to trust the cabbies around here."

[cook_the_rude]

"Are you certain you want to find another parking spot?" Hannibal says, cocking an eyebrow at her. "And if you don't, we might end up eating take-out in the car while double-parked in some tree lined side street."

[electro_kinetic]

"You are such a pessimist," Noriko replies. "There is plenty of parking around Manhattan, especially if you know where to look for it. But if it makes you feel better, then hail away."

She'll think he's being obtuse, but then what else is new. Unfortunately that ends with her standing in very plain view in public, something that after already being harassed isn't her favorite activity.

[cook_the_rude]

Hannibal looks behind and around while waiting for the familiar yellow to inevitably appear.

[electro_kinetic]

It takes a few minutes, and Noriko only barely shifts towards the road when a flash of yellow turns the corner; she's fidgeting with turning one of her earrings when there's a scuffle behind her and then pressure from an arm banded around her throat and dragging her backwards. She's better at screaming loudly than most people give her credit for, though, and the noise rings out as she stumbles, thrown off-balance by her heels and leaning awkwardly.

"Hannibal!"

[cook_the_rude]

Hannibal turns quickly, and follows Noriko and her attacker into the shadows of the next alley.

[electro_kinetic]

Noriko is only dragged partway into the alley, kicking down hard on the man's instep and resulting in a yell that makes her wince, it's so close to her ear. She tries to claw at the arm blocking her air, but gets nowhere, glowing dangerously bright as she charges up.

[cook_the_rude]

Hannibal advances quickly, one hand in his pocket.

[electro_kinetic]

There's a noise like a loud snap, and Noriko squeezes her eyes shut, and a bright flash envelops her and the man at her back; the searing smell of burning skin is sour as she takes advantage of her attacker's momentary lapse in concentration. Nori slips free, scraping her knees and leg on the rough concrete, coughing.

[cook_the_rude]

Hannibal closes the distance to the attacker, takes his hand out of his pocket and briefly, almost casually, slashes at his throat.

A spray of blood glistens in the distant light of a cab passing the mouth of the alley, and Hannibal gets a handkerchief from his other pocket to clean his scalpel while the attacker crumbles to ground, gurgling, and then falls silent and stops to move.

[electro_kinetic]

Noriko is silent.

She's just watched a man she considers a friend--possibly against her better judgement, conflicted as she is about Hannibal--murder someone for being rude to her at a concert. And he'd come prepared to do so, given the scalpel in his pocket. For a moment her glow is as small and flickering as a candle flame, and as telling of her shaken mood; her throat is sore and her knees and one calf are bleeding from the scrapes they'd earned on the ground, and Noriko stares at Hannibal, unsure of what to say.

[cook_the_rude]

"Did he injure you?" Hannibal asks, looking at her with worry. "Do you need a hospital?"

He turns the corpse over so it lies on its face.

[electro_kinetic]

"My legs are scratched," she answers, after a moment where, true, she is concerned, but then lifts her head to meet Hannibal's gaze, calm and unafraid.

She isn't afraid of Hannibal. Neither does she trust him much, but she won't act like prey; that's the first thing Noriko learned living on her own, to not act like prey. She doesn't intend to change now. "There are always broken bottles and glass on the ground. The cuts aren't deep, they'll heal."

She'd appreciate some help up, and the black stockings she had been wearing are now toast, but she can deal with that. There's nothing she can do about the bruise she'll have across her neck.