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The Kwik Stop | Monday Afternoon

After his chat with Atton yesterday, Flick was pretty determined not to give off any brooding vibes again. Not for awhile, at least. He'd give it a week or so before he was comfortable with brooding for a public audience.

Today, he was without classes so today, he was in town. And today, while in town, he was pretty determined to come back with a few things that were not his. There were tons of oblivious people in this town who wouldn't realize that a teenager bumping into them or distracting them meant they were going to lose some important belonging whether it be a phone or a wallet or a piece of jewelry.

This really worked better when he could wear a coat or something to slip his winnings in but it was still too hot for that. So, he'd gone with a hoodie that still felt too hot but it had pockets. He was leaning against the corner of the Kwik Stop, looking like some loitering teenager. If he'd smoked, it would have made him ~~look like he was attempting to imitate Jay and Silent Bob~~ look even more convincing but smoking was gross.

So, he was just going to stand there and wait. He'd bought some water from the Kwik Stop and was taking a few drinks from the bottle every so often. Even thieves needed sustenance.

[Open! If you want him to try and nick something from you, definitely let me know. If you wanna catch him, that's cool too though he's an excellent pickpocket. If you wanna just talk, of course that's fine too!]

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Éponine happened to be passing by on her mail route when she spotted the boy outside the Kwik Stop, and hid a tiny smirk; even 180 years later some things didn't change, and that particular ploy was familiar. Her brother Gavroche was good at it, and she'd learned it herself from Montparnasse (who'd probably taught Gavroche too, now that she thought about it) and people still fell for it to this day.

She thought that was funny. She supposed she shouldn't think so but, well, it was.

So when she decided to go inside and get herself a drink -- because it was warm out and she had a couple of hours yet of going up and down all these stairs with a fairly hefty bag -- she did her best to stay out of reach and pointedly kept an eye on him. And raised an eyebrow as if to ask if he'd had any luck yet.

What? She was curious. Habit.

Flick almost ignored her. Almost. He wasn't used to being recognized for what he was (people in New York were dumb as crayons, apparently) and he almost wanted to be stubborn and ignore her.

But, he didn't. He noticed the distance and wasn't about to move because that would just look threatening and he'd had that happen to him before as a kid. He knew what it could do to you and he wasn't going to do it to someone else.

Flick shook his head. No luck yet. Not a lot people out and about today. And if she was asking him about this sort of thing, he was going to incline his head and return the question.

Same could be said about a lot of the bourgeois in 1830s Paris, really.

She'd been tensing to react just in case he did move, so if you knew what to look for you might be able to see her just barely relax when he didn't. She shook her head instead, by way of an answer -- not that she was actively looking for a mark, but keeping an eye out for possible targets was still too much of a habit to break.

"It'll be nice, won't it, when it gets colder, d'you think?" she asked, one hand on the door handle. And wearing a coat wouldn't look too weird, all that.

"I'm counting the days," Flick answered, glancing up at the sky and the too bright sun. He had to blink. Maybe he'd put sunglasses on the list of things he'd be looking for today.

"It's too hot to do anything but sweat." And, well. "And stand here, drinking water."

Because that was all that he was doing, of course.

Oh, of course that was all he was doing. Éponine laughed briefly.

"And me running all over the place!" she exclaimed, and tugged at the strap of her mailbag. "You might be more clever than me today, that's for certain. I've half an idea to go in there and lie down on the floor in front of the cold drinks until they make me leave."

Honest employment was not without its disadvantages, if you asked her.

"That bad?" He gave the bag a cursory look and half smiled. One hash mark in the column against a real job, there. He didn't want to kill himself running around doing things for people he thought were ungrateful anyway.

His cynicism ran very, very deep.

"Honestly, I think you'd be able to get away with laying there for awhile. I don't know if I've seen a cop around and I've been here for months. I'm beginning to doubt their existence."

Which was a good thing even if he wasn't going to let his guard down that much.

"Not so bad, only a bit annoying sometimes," Éponine said, feeling somewhat compelled to defend her job. Or at least her decision to get one. "I'll be glad, too, when it isn't so hot any more."

Though she'd agree about people being ungrateful; she was just used to not caring if they were, so long as she got paid.

"D'you suppose they really don't exist? Or that they've just got better things to do than bother people for no good reason?"

"What better things to do?" Flick had to ask because it wasn't like this island was being overrun with crime. "If they exist, they're either really good at their jobs or they sit around on their asses all day, navel gazing."

He was going with the latter simply because there were still thieves on the island as evidenced by this conversation.

"Ah, that's the question, isn't it -- better for who, exactly?" asked Éponine. "So much the better for me if the cops don't come around to tell me I've no right to sit down for a few minutes and rest, goodness knows." To be fair, about half the time it happened at home, she really hadn't been doing anything shadier than that, but her family had a reputation.

She gestured toward him. "Or you, just for leaning against a building."

"This?" He glanced around, up and down the street and the back to her. "This is naturalistic observation," Flick reeled off without hesitation. "I'm here for science."

He was not but it sounded good. "How am I supposed to get myself familiar with this place and the people if I don't immerse myself? I can't check things out from high powered binoculars all the time."

He never did that. Too much work.

Éponine snorted at the 'for science,' but with a quick grin; lying smoothly on the fly like that was a skill, and she had to appreciate it. (Even if it might be obvious. The audacity to do it was also a skill as far as she was conccerned.) It was the sort of thing Gavroche would do, so the grin was slightly wistful.

"Bah," she said, waving a hand dismissively, and only in part because she wasn't entirely sure what binoculars were, "of course there's no other way to do it. There's some things can't be learned from books, after all. And I don't know about here, but the cops at home, they don't care about things like that, only that it's an unsightly mess to have someone standing there."

Pent-up bitterness? Just a bit. Oops.

"So really, what's it matter if they're here or not here, sleeping on the job or lord knows what else, long's they leave you alone?"

"Touche," Flick allowed with a nod. He took another few sips from his water and frowned when he noticed that he'd finished it. He wouldn't be able to stand here too much longer without getting another one. Way too hot.

"But, if they're getting paid for sitting on their asses, then maybe I'd like to apply," he joked, chuckling quietly. "A paycheck for laziness? Even I'd get up early to do that."

Probably not since it meant being an authority figure and he had no desire to do that. He'd seen what it had done to other people around him. "But, even if they were around and visible, they'd still leave me alone. I'm good at making that happen."

"Catch me doing that!" exclaimed Éponine, indignant. She might have self-loathing issues but even she wouldn't go that far. (Well, unless it guaranteed her a chance to get back at her father, which wasn't going to happen now.) "No, thank you, I'll leave that to other people."

"Are you, now?" she had to ask, curious -- if a bit skeptical.

"Many have tried..." He let that trail off because he figured she would know the rest.

He considered elaborating but elaborating might mean opening himself up more than he was ready to do right now. "Cops can't bother you if they don't think you're doing anything wrong. They're not as smart as they like to think they are."

If he wasn't going to elaborate, she wasn't going to ask; she didn't think the information would be so valuable as to be worth the effort or risk.

"Or as all-seeing," she added with a sly smile, and also didn't elaborate further.

"I'm sure they'll threaten that they are," Flick said, shrugging one shoulder lazily, "but yeah, they're not. The whole 'I've got eyes everywhere, you can't escape me, I'm watching you, boy' is such a pile of bullshit."

Safe to say he'd heard that a time or two in his life. From several different people. "Distract them with something pretty and you're golden."

Want him to get caught trying to nick Hannibal's ... something?

Definitely! He'd go for a wallet or anything technological, of course. Barring that, expensive sunglasses or something.

Hannibal didn't generally drop by the school on a Monday, but he wanted to do one last check with Portalocity and phone the farmer's market as a courtesy before he and his students invaded tomorrow.

He had his iPad with him, too, tucked ~~securely but enticingly~~ in a side-pocket of his bag so he could check that the setup would work for Anna if she couldn't join them.

Finally, there was something interesting. Most of the people that had come by hadn't been carrying anything worth even trying to steal. But, Flick knew the outline of an iPad when he saw one and that was good enough to have him pushing away from the building.

He stayed behind Dr. Lecter for the moment, not even realizing that this was one of his professors. He had other things on his mind at the moment.

Call it finely honed instincts ~~of a serial killer always on his guard~~, but Hannibal noticed when someone took notice of him. Particularly if they decided to follow him.

He called up the quick image he'd gotten of the young man's face, and raised an eyebrow to himself. Was there something so urgent Flick couldn't wait until tomorrow morning?

Well, he wasn't looking for cooking tips. He wasn't that desperate to learn how to cook noodles just yet. Maybe in a few years when he'd gotten old and decrepit.

But, not yet. Of course, he didn't really know just who he was following and how observant he was. Apparently, not everyone was as dumb as crayons on this island.

He kept his distance, taking in the bag that the iPad was in and trying to figure out the best possible way to go about this. He had so many techniques that sometimes he got distracted figuring out which one to use.

He lightened his step a bit, trying to be as quiet as possible (even if that was futile).

Old and decrepit? It was a really good thing Hannibal couldn't read that.

As Flick started sounding sneakier, Hannibal got suspicious this wasn't about anything legitimate. It probably wouldn't do to pull a scalpel on a student, but fortunately he did have an advantage in reach and weight if it came to anything.

Meanwhile, he kept walking, curious.

And if Flick saw a scalpel, he'd probably be off like a shot, down some dark alley and disappearing just about as quick as he'd appeared. He didn't want to die. Not before he got to do a few more things in his life.

With the way Dr. Lecter was walking, Flick was getting the feeling that he was just going to have to do a quick snatch and grab here. It wasn't like he was showing any signs of slowing down and he wasn't a girl so Flick wasn't going to lower himself down to flirt just to get close.

Nope, he was thinking this would be the good old fashioned way so he picked up a little speed but stayed back, keeping his eyes on the bag though he moved them around every so often just to check out his surroundings.

It didn't seem like Flick was going to start anything any time soon, and Hannibal debated simply turning around and asking him what he was doing. It was generally much more interesting to wait and see, though.

As they approached the school grounds, he stopped and pulled out his phone, looking at it as if he'd received a text.

It took some time to figure out how to get something as large as an iPad out of a bag without being obvious about it. He figured he was going to have to do a bump and grab of some sort.

So, he uncapped the water bottle he'd been carrying and got a little closer, deciding he'd try a little 'oops, sorry I spilled something on you, let me help you clean it up' and hope that gave him the time to grab the tablet.

Since Dr. Lecter had stopped, Flick took advantage of that and actually started the whole thing by bumping himself completely intentionally into Dr. Lecter's shoulder to start the distraction and then started bobbling the water bottle to try and get it spilled.

Hannibal gripped Flick's shoulder - to steady him, of course - and fended off the water bottle with the other hand. There really was no call to spot his suit!

Flick was pretty quick on his feet when it came to things not going his way. It happened often enough so when Dr. Lecter actually avoided the water, Flick improvised.

He dropped the water bottle, acting as if the fending off had knocked it from his hands and feigned surprise.

"Sorry man, I must have been distracted," he said, rubbing his brow in confusion. "Don't know what I was thinking."

Flick was totally in control of his thought pattern though so with the distraction (albeit not a good one but one took what they could get) planted, he tried to use his quick hands to grab the tablet in the bag.

Easier said than done.

Hannibal had some idea what he was thinking, though he hadn't yet determined the particulars.

"Apology accepted." For now. Then, as if he'd only just seen him, "Ah, hello; Flick, isn't it?"

He wondered if Flick were brazen enough to continue once he'd been identified.

It caught his attention, at least and he stopped for the moment. He wasn't used to people remembering his name. Those that did, they weren't on this island.

"It is," he said slowly, looking up at Dr. Lecter. "Good memory. But, I do have an unusual name."

"Several of the students do," Hannibal agreed. Between Flick and Sparkle, not to mention some of the names from other worlds, standard names seemed to be in the minority.

"No classes today?" he asked politely.

Edited 2013-09-10 02:56 (UTC)

"None until tomorrow," he answered carefully. "Just out doing some walking. Getting my daily dose of physical exercise! The heat is exhilarating."

And he was being sarcastic because the heat sucked.

[And forgive me if I disappear as it's getting late here but I'm totally good with slow play!]

"That is certainly one word for it," Hannibal answered dryly. He gestured at the dropped water bottle. "A shame to have dropped your bottle. I have water, if you'd like some?" He reached for the flap of his bag, raising his eyebrows in question.

[np at all! sp is good! :)]

Flick was beginning to think he'd either been discovered and was almost being played now. Typically, he would have excused himself and beat a hasty retreat but he didn't do that just yet.

"You keep water in your bag?" he asked, glancing down at said bag. His mind worked quickly and he looked back up. "Not afraid it's going to spill all over whatever might be in there?"

"Not at all; that's what thermoses are for." Hannibal set his bag down and pulled out said thermos, offering it to Flick.

"You always offer up water to random students that happen to bump into you on the street?"

Yep, it was just a random accident that he'd run into Dr. Lecter. Totally accidental.

Of course it was. Completely accidental.

"When they're walking in this heat and no longer have water, I do." Hannibal raised an eyebrow at him. "It would be poor form to let you drop from dehydration."

"Not something everyone would do," Flick said, tone holding some suspicion. It was only natural when someone was nice to him. "Or they have an ulterior motive and want something from you."

"Or they're a doctor and would rather not waste their day taking students to the clinic," Hannibal pointed out.

"Fine," he said, reaching for the thermos carefully. He took a moment to step back though, giving them both a little personal space.

Safe to say he wasn't going to be taking anything from his professor today.

"That's nice of you. Thanks."

"My pleasure." Hannibal nodded at him. "Was there anything else you were looking for?" he asked, maybe just a touch overly innocently.

Flick took a few sips from the thermos and then passed it back to Dr. Lecter.

"No." Of course there had been but he knew when he was beat. He just didn't like that it had happened. Obviously someone was smarter than Flick had given him credit for. "I'm on my way back to my room now. Getting out of this heat like the good guy I am."

"A very good idea." Hannibal took the thermos, closed it tightly, and put it back in his bag. "I'll see you in class tomorrow."

"Yeah." He gave Dr. Lecter one last look before he walked past him and headed back to the dorms.

Empty handed.

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The Kwik Stop | Monday Afternoon

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OOC

Re: OOC

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