Log: Angel/Garrison

[x-dominion.livejournal.com]

Garrison runs into Angel costume shopping, and over lunch, passes on valuable wisdom regarding parties, dressing up, and throwing up in people's laps.



“Don’t. Seriously. I know Halloween is coming up, but if you go down the route of the ‘sexy insert-profession-or-icon-here’, you will be frat boy fodder for the entire night. I speak of this as the member of a frat who has, well, foddered.” Angel’s hands jerked guiltily away from the sexy cat costume, at the sudden and unexpected appearance of Garrison’s voice over her shoulder. “I mean, seriously, forty bucks for a pair of ears, a tail with an elastic strap, press on nails and some cheap underwear?”

There was a faint blush to her cheeks as Angel spun around on her heels. “It’s not that cheap of underwear!” she protested immediately. “I mean, if you break it down it’s – oh, hell, it’s ten dollar underwear. That is really cheap. I can get more expensive underI’m going to stop talking right now.” She blinked up at him and still felt off kilter at his sudden appearance during her hunt for the Halloween costume to end all costumes. “So, uh, ‘sup? Sorry, I learned that from Kyle.”

“You shouldn’t use Kyle as a role model. Nice boy, but one day, he’s going to need to wear shoes to get ahead in life.” Kane leaned forward and pulled a package off the rack. “How about this scary ghost? One non-revealing white sheet, suitable for church dances and heavily chaperoned walks in the museum.”

“I went as a ghost once. I was three. And I ended up accidently getting locked into a maintenance closet in the church because I couldn’t see through the eyeholes.” She plucked the costume from his fingertips and placed it back on the shelf before it could contaminate her with its uncoolness factor. “Hey, look, a witch!”

“Considering the only witches I know are Amanda and Nico… actually, that costume makes sense. Also, you could use it as part of a lucrative career as a stripper.” Garrison held up the ‘witch’ robe. “Seriously, this is a witch’s tube top. You can’t practice dark arts with nipples flying everywhere.”

“That’s what tape is for!” But Angel immediately skipped down to the next costume. “What about the fire fi – no. Okay, you know what? I totally have no problem with the stripper witch nipple terrific outfit but I have a problem with skank ho fire fighter extraordinare. There’s professional pride there!” She turned back to Garrison and crossed her arms. “Okay, so except for a sack or costumes for three year olds, do you see anything better?”

“I think you need to think outside the box. Or, at least, outside of the pseudo-hooker outfits that seem to pass for Halloween costumes for women these days.” Garrison grinned at her. It was a chance meeting in Salem Centre, where he’d noticed the young red-head staring at the costumes contemplatively while he’d been in to pick up a few things, and couldn’t resist interfering. “C’mon, let’s grab some lunch and talk about it.”

The mention of food immediately brought a brilliant smile to Angel’s face and she happily hitched up her backpack higher up on her shoulder. “Lead the way, oh brilliant thinker, and I’ll be right behind.”

“I don’t know how comfortable I am with that. How’s the training going, by the way. Paige and I have come up with a couple of new scenarios for the new X-Men designed, well, to show we’re pricks, to be honest.” Kane pushed out the door and headed down the street towards the diner.

“So you want to know if you should make it harder? Oh, you totally should – if it’s for the other newbies and not, you know, me.” She snorted laughter at the look he gave her. “I’m kidding, though, I’m always up for harder training. It’s going pretty well but I think I’m starting to hit a point where I could use another push from you guys.” Which generally meant a week or three of her abusing various Jacuzzis and popping aspirin but it was always worth it.

“I personally blame Paige. I think she enjoys watching you guys get peeled out of impact cushions on a regular basis. I know that my own philosophy involves making at least one of you cry per session.” He said amiably, enjoying the last of the fall warmth.

Angel enjoyed the brilliant blue skies and the changing color of the leaves on the few trees around them as they walked. “Well, you were on a really good streak with me for a while!” she laughed. “Now I sometimes wait until I hit the showers.”

“I know. I watched the tape.” Kane paused. “I mean, I was told by other people without the benefit of video confirmation in any way what-so-ever.”

“I tried for so long to get a camera into the boys changing room,” Angel sighed mournfully. “Maybe one day I’ll broach the idea of a mutual swap or something.” She blinked and looked at Garrison. “Uh, maybe you should ignore that!”

“Alright, I’ve already violated about twelve different parts of our code of conduct, so I’m not saying anything else.” He nudged the diner door open and held it for her while she walked into the diner. He could see Mister Patel notice them and nod before they slipped into a booth.

Angel immediately folded herself into the seat; somehow sitting comfortably cross legged even at a booth. She immediately started to flip through the menu but she’d eaten there before and pretty much knew what she was going to order – a full pizza – so her attention was mostly on Garrison. “So now that we’re not violating anymore codes of conducts for the time being, how’re you? I mean, I’m at the mansion on the weekends and when I train but I feel that I’m never there now that I’m at college.”
God, that was still so weird to her. College.

“I have been ridding the world of villains who violate interstate laws regarding the manipulation of local commodities markets. It’s kind of like being Batman, if all he needed was a whistle-blower, fifteen accountants and enough lawyers to put OJ on trial.” Garrison sighed. “So, my tickertape parade as the savior of New York is likely on hold. What about you? You stepped closer to being one of New York’s fire fighting finest?”

“Eeehhh.” Her hand waivered side to side for a moment. “I still put in the time and the training but I don’t know if that’s where I really want to be or do. On the other hand, I feel like I kind of have to in the sense that, hey, I don’t burn when they send me in so I’m needed. I’m not feeling pressured either way and I’m still at “intern but not really” stage, so I’m just sort of coasting there. Between that, college and the, well, you know, I don’t want to make a full commitment and then have to break it off. But! I do get my own badge!”

“They should not be empowering you. That leads to frightening places. With fire.” Kane nodded to Mister Patel as he came over. “Can I get a cheeseburger and fries, side of gravy, two pickles.”

She beamed up at him. “I’ll get the meat lovers pizza with extra sausage and cheese plus a side of fries and a large coke.”

“She’ll take the heart attack for dessert, man.” Kane said as Patel left with the orders. “So, I’m going to need to simulate you setting fire to the whole state to burn that one off.”

“Look at these hips! I’m fine until I get old. So, you know, like 23. I totally dread losing my powers just for the whole food thing. I’d balloon enough that you could put me in the Thanksgiving Day parade, you know?” She glared at him. “You’re still going to make me set fire to the whole state, aren’t you?”

"I will, but only if you stop asking me to look at your hips. Because, there’s a word for teachers who do that. It’s ‘felons’.” Garrison leaned back in the booth and grinned. “So, Miss Angel, what are you doing for Halloween that involves an unfortunate outfit?”

Angel wrinkled her nose at him. “I’m going to my first big party on campus. My roommate got an invite and wants to bring me but I need to look, well, not like my mother made me an outfit in the laundry room over the weekend previous.”

“You know what, Angel, and creepiness aside, whatever you wear isn’t going to look like your mom was involved.” He said with a slightly placating gesture with his hands. “Just don’t go out of your way to pour on the bra-panty-ears costume. You’re pretty enough that you can wear anything and get the guys flocking around you. Don’t overbait the trap.”

“… thank you,” she responded, tucking her hair behind her ear. Which was, again, slightly pink. “I think I just – I don’t know! I want to look like I know what I’m doing and, you know me, I don’t actually know what I’m doing! So it’s not even that I want to look sexy but just, well, awesome.”

“But you don’t know what you’re doing.”

Angel pointed at him. “I hate you. But that’s kind of the point! I don’t know what I’m doing but I want to find a good costume so I can pretend that I do know what I’m doing! I mean, I could go as an actual fire fighter but that’s cheating. And … it would probably not be good to dress up as the other thing. Hilarious, though.”

“You need to relax, lady.” Kane raised his water glass to her. “Find a costume that’s fun for you, and the awesome will come with it. Have a drink or two. Dance too much. Have fun. That’s what’s supposed to happen. You do that, and you’ll be fine. Trust me, I did the same thing at your age.”

“But what if I don’t drink? Or what if I end up doing the robot and nobody does that dance anymore?” Angel buried her head in her hands for a moment. “Why is this so much harder than when I was just in high school? I mean, I sort of live with these people, too, it shouldn’t be different.”

“God, have I mentioned how much I love not being young?” He shook his head. “It will be fine. At worst, you’ll throw up in someone’s lap, dance around without your top on, and karaoke badly. You’ll bounce back.”

She raised her head slightly to peek at him through her fingers. “I’ll bounce back from throwing up in someone’s lap? That’s possible?”

“Yup. Because you will do it. I did it. Women still want to date me, break it off for no reason, and then legally bar me from approaching within fifty feet of them, so I must be doing something right.”

“…what about that whole barring thing? Wait, don’t answer that, I don’t think I’m old enough to know yet.” Like a trained hound, Angel’s head whipped towards the kitchen as their food suddenly appeared. She watched like a starving hawk as her pizza was placed on a standing tray next to their table and her fries and drink placed in front of her. It smelled fantastic and, since she had no heat consideration to worry about, immediately pulled two pieces off the pie and onto her plate. “So, know that I have some reasonable expectations of the evening, the question still remains of what to wear. I’m a girl, we worry.”

“I understand that.” Kane tried not to wince as she inhaled a couple of blisteringly hot pieces of pizza. “I say you go with something honest. Something fun, but isn’t specifically designed to cover as little of your breasts as possible in the name of being a ‘sexy’ anything. Sexy is about attitude, and you’ve already got that in spades.”

Well. She’d thought it was always a bit of an odd attitude but, well, Garrison tended to be right a lot. Though she’d never actually say that. Angel waited until she could speak without molten cheese making a break for freedom. “Dude. So, attitude and knowing what I can do – which are some of the things some of the time! – “ She stared at him. “Do you think I could go as a superhero? Because, well, …”

“Why not? The best way to hide what you are is to do it up front.” Kane shrugged. “I’ve gone to a couple of parties as a Mountie. But, if you’re going to go as a superhero, go with the sixties ideal. Short skirt, some kind of stupid mask, go-go boots; that’s my choice.”

“So, in other words, I should look through some of the closets at the mansion?” she asked, hugging her caffeine close to her chest. “I mean, I’ve seen some of the pictures in the database and, whoo, the material I could find if things had just been left behind. Except for anything that Hank wore. Ever.”

“Leave Big Blue alone. He was young.” Kane took a chomp out of his cheeseburger and chewed thoughtfully. “Eww cood taawk tu Lurrna.”

Angel didn’t even blink or pause. “But she’s like a million feet tall! I don’t know if I could borrow anything from Lorna but, you know, she’s been around for like a million years. She might know where the good stuff is hidden. Man – I’d kill to go as Professor X. You think he’d loan me a wheelchair, a blanket and some Earl Grey?”

“I don’t know, but I’d buy you the skull cap.”

“No one would know who – oh, screw it, I can’t not not do it now!” Angel pointed a droopy piece of pizza at Garrison as she tried horribly not to giggle like a mad woman. “I’ll get the wheelchair, you get the skull cap and screw the whole ‘looking sexy’ thing! I’ll be the hit of the party! Especially if the wheelchair has a cupholder.”
She paused.

“Er, don’t tell the Professor that I don’t think I’d look sexy dressed at him.”

“I can’t imagine a situation without guns to my head that I’d bring that up.” Kane put a fry in his mouth and munched it down. “Even then, I’d be likely to lie.”

“You, sir, are a gentleman and a scholar! I think you get a second badge for that.”

“Eat your pizza. It’s safer that way.”