Not Another Teen Dating Thread

[Lone Star]

Blake was sitting inside the main entrance of the Millennium Mall, tapping his foot. He had arrived fifteen minutes early by accident, not realizing that his teleporting Nikes would get him there much faster than anticipated. He had recently bought himself new clothes with his sudden availability of disposable income, and was clad in a nice leather jacket, blue jeans with a chain wallet, and a baseball cap bearing the name of his enterprises: Salazar Paranormal Investigations. However, his tastes in T-shirts had changed not, and he wore a Metallica album tee. He was awaiting his girlfriend, whose last date with her had been...unusual. His new friend, Corbin Hughes, had a date with Quo-Dis, the foreign exchange Ulti-girl. Personally, Blake was looking forward to something a little more mundane, and what better way to get to a girl's heart than through a shopping spree?

[Raveled]

Jessica Parker arrived bang on the dot for her date, but it took five full minutes to find a parking spot. Sometime she really hated her huge tank of a car, and never more than when she was walking past three empty spots marked 'compact only.' It was enough to make her want to fly everywhere in her climate-controlled armor, which could coincidentally travel faster than the speed of sound when needed. Of course, high-strength alloys didn't go with a red blouse, bell-bottom jeans, low pumps, and a black peacoat.

She caught a glimpse of Blake sitting at the entrance, dressed in jeans and another band tee-shirt. She broke into a run for the last few steps, pulling him into a tight hug and planting a kiss on his cheek. "Hey there, stranger," she said, putting a bit of space between them. "Business is booming, I take it?" She snatched the cap off his head and snugged it down over her own.

[Lone Star]

Blake grinned and put his arms around her waist. "Oh yeah! Be glad I didn't wear the T-shirt along with it. Or the fifty-foot neon sign." He suddenly pulled her into a passionate kiss, and while she was distracted, slipped his hat back onto his head. "So where should we start our shopping expedition? I don't know about you, but I'm hungry as a horse. Hungry as a hundred horses, actually." To illustrate his point, his stomach roared. "Oh my. This is critical. We need 200 CCs of nacho cheese, stat!"

[Raveled]

Jessica ducked her head as Blake pulled her close, and they ended up nuzzling rather than kissing properly. As they started walking into the mall, she took a step away from her boyfriend and trailed her hand down his arm until they were walking along, fingers intertwined. Part of her enjoyed the physical contact -- enjoyed it immensely -- but she had only seen Blake fleetingly since... God, since last December! That whole debacle with Quo-Dis and her mother. She felt hurt that Blake had just ignored her for two months and some change, and wasn't sure how to react, now that he just wanted to jump right back into things. Regardless, she was willing to give it a try.

"So how's life as a big adult," she asked, strolling alongside him. "Finding things outside Ivy League's confining walls more to your taste?" She hadn't agreed with his decision to drop out of Claremont, either, and the words came out more acrid than she intended. This whole date was starting out poorly.

[Lone Star]

Blake grinned. "Well, you know why I dropped out. I really just wanted to have time for my business. Besides, I'm teaching myself everything." He squeezed her hand gently, and stopped walking. "Jessica- I know you're upset at me. I really just want to explain why you haven't heard from me in a few months. I feel awful about it all, I really do." He wasn't lying- his brow was creased with worry. If Jessica looked a little closer, Blake's eyes were darker, and it looked like he hadn't had a lot of sleep. "There's been a lot of supernatural stuff happening around Freedom, and I've been on call practically since our double date ended. There are a lot of ghosts rising up and making trouble, and people don't know who else to call." Blake put his arm around her and held her close. "I really haven't had time for myself, and all I could think about was you. Things have died down, though, and I can finally spend some of the money I've been accumulating. I wanted to take you to the mall because, well, I wanted to apologize and make it up to you with a good time. Today's on me."

[Raveled]

Jessica thought about Blake's words for a long minute, the pair walking towards the food court, but eventually she took a step back towards Blake and slipped her arm around his waist. "I can't stay mad at you," she said, "especially not if you're out heroing. But you could drop me a line sometime, you know?" She stopped walking and turned to kiss him on the lips, taking her time with it. In fact, she took more time than she intended; another group of teens hanging at the mall stopped to applaud and catcall. Jessica broke off and burrowed next to Blake, hiding her red face. They walked along and the hecklers moved in the opposite direction, so before long she felt fine with showing her face again. "So what are we doing here then?" Her stomach gurgled suddenly and she quickly added, "Once we get some lunch, that is."

[Lone Star]

Blake held her close, his arm wrapping around her waist. "Good point. After we get some lunch, I was thinking we could get some stuff. Like...whatever you want. I was going to get some electronics, maybe some tools for doing some housework. Magic housework! I can animate simple objects now. My house is now clean! I have an army of mops, feather dusters and brooms at my disposal. It's fantastic, really." he said with a huge grin. Blake screeched to a stop in front of the Wetzel's Pretzels store in the food court. "My first stop. I've been craving one of these for ages." With that, Blake ordered two big pepperoni pretzels with extra marinara sauce. "It's an appetizer. Get whatever you want, honey." Blake said with a kiss on her cheek.

[Raveled]

Jessica waited while Blake got his food and walked around the edge of the food court, smelling the food scents coming off each franchise stall. She stopped outside of Wok Works and ordered a bowl of noodles swimming in sauce. She let Blake lead the way to a table, pondering how to answer his proposal. "I really appreciate the gesture," she said, "and I'm sure another girl would be blown away by the offer." At least, the women in sitcoms and comics would be; the only women she actually knew -- Mara, Miss A, Dr deHavillard, her own mother -- all shared her own problem. "Unfortunately, I'm rich. Like, amazingly rich. Like, own my own car rich. Like, couldn't spend all my money if I tried." She opened her chopsticks and started rubbing the wooden sticks together to remove the splinters. "So I don't really need you to buy me stuff. But I appreciate it."

[Lone Star]

Blake shrugged, then suddenly grabbed the back of her head. He could hardly care if there were onlookers- let them look! Blake kissed her passionately, letting his lips linger on hers. His head rested in the crook of her neck after the kiss, and he scooted a little closer to her. "Sorry if that was a little random. But I did miss you a lot. And...well. I figured I'd offer because I like to do nice things for the girl I love."

[Raveled]

Jessica was surprised by the kiss, but she recovered towards the end to return it. She shrugged lightly, dislodging his head from her shoulder, grinning despite herself. "Try that again," she warned, "and you're going to get a mouthful of noodles." She stuck her chopsticks in said noodles and started twisting them around. "I'm sorry if I come off like a stuck-up rich girl. I do like it when you buy me things, Blake, but that's because it's you buying things for me, not because I really need things. Understand?"

[Lone Star]

Blake grinned and took a big bite out of his pizza pretzel. "Of course, honey. I gotcha." He gave her a little breathing space, and dipped his pretzel in marinara sauce. He stole a quick look at her, and blushed deeply. He loved her a lot. "So it was pretty cool meeting Mara. She seems really quiet, though. Not that that's bad, or anything. I can hardly believe we met at that restaurant- what are the odds? So how are things at the Lab, speaking of which?"

[Raveled]

Jessica shrugged, looking down at her noddles, still gathering them around her chopsticks. "I don't know how much talking to regular people Mara does, you know? It seems like she always has her nose in some project or another. It was a fight to get her to go out to the movies, and it was just luck we ran into you at that cafe." She paused and thought for a second, then added, "Well it wasn't lucky for the criminals obviously, but I think everyone else was happier that we were around.

"So yeah, the Lab. Things are going great! Getting a lot of work done, and it's inter-disciplinary, too. I don't know if you ever heard of Miss America, but she works there, too. Fantastic woman with computers, light years ahead of me. She's helped a lot with optimizing my suit's processes. I mean, they were pretty good before, but with her tweaking them and refining them, the sky's the limit!" Jessica lifted her chopsticks out of her bowl to reveal that she had twisted every single noodle into one huge ball. She raised her eyes to meet Blake's and snorted out a laugh.

She dropped the pasta ball back into her bowl and started teasing the strands apart. "So, um. How's the business going? Keeping Freedom City safe from ghoulies and ghosties and everything that goes bump in the night?" She lifted a much smaller portion of noodle and ate them up, slurping in a few trailing bits.

[Lone Star]

Blake grinned as she showed him her ball of noodles. "Hey, I'm glad someone can help you with your suit. God knows I can't. But hey, if you ever need a love potion...I'm your man." He kissed her on the cheek slyly.

"Well, like I said, there was a huge rush. There's been a lot of supernatural activity around town lately...there's probably a magician who's letting the restless souls back onto Earth. I'll need to do more investigations to be sure...but these things don't just happen." His face became serious as he thought about it. "I was going to maybe get Corbin and Nick Cimitiere to come with me whenever I track this guy down. I'm not even sure what kind of magic this guy is using...but I'm thinking it's either necromancy or some sort of voodoo. I don't get involved with the dead myself- that's more Nick's bag. But whenever I find this guy, I'll be able to rest easy."

[Raveled]

Jessica swallowed her noddles and washed it down with some soda, as she listened to Blake. "So, are we talking total zombie apocalypse? Because there were a lot of dead men around Halloween, and I'm still not sure what was going on, there." She stabbed at her pasta, thinking for a moment. "On the other hand, I never got a chance to test out even half of my zombie-capture traps."

[Lone Star]

"I believe that was Baron Samedi, although I'm not certain. No, this is probably just a necromancer. He might be drawing power from the phantasmal energy, which is fairly concerning. Yeah." His hand went to his forehead as he sighed. "I really have no clue what to expect. I mean, he could have any number of magical defenses. Blah, I'm worrying too much." His arm slipped slyly around Jessica's waist. "Love you."

[Raveled]

Jessica wigled in her seat and patted Blake's kneed. She looked into her bowl, giggling and giving her boyfriend sidelong glances. "We have a weird life, you know that? You're talking about how it's 'probably' not a god, just a run-of-the-mill, pull folks from the grave and make 'em dance, necromancer." After a moment her smile faded and she squeezed Blake's knee. "Still, be careful out there. No offense to Nick, but messing with the dead is ten different kinds of creepy."

[Lone Star]

Blake nodded, and moved his hand to cover hers. "You know I am, Jessica. It just comes with the job, though. I'm sure this guy'll be a pushover. Zombies are relatively easy to take down. Largely considering that they're "Romero" zombies, not "28 Days Later" style ones, usually. Most necromancers don't know how to slow down the process of necrosis, so you've got board-legged zombies staggering towards you." He laughed a little. "I have found one way to beat those kind of zombies. Stairs! I ran up a flight of stairs to take a shot at them, and they couldn't get up. They were falling all over each other and tripping. It was pretty awesome."

He kissed her on the cheek quickly. "So you ready to hit the shops, my sweet Mall Warrior?"

[Raveled]

Jessica stirred her remaining noodles slowly, then suddenly faster, until they were all mixed into a ball again. She stuck her chopsticks in it and they stood upright -- for maybe a whole second. Then the arrangement overbalanced and fell to the side. She frowned and tried it again with the same result. She considered trying again -- maybe flattening out the bottom? -- but decided against it. She wasn't at the mall to build pasta balls after all, so she left it.

The young woman stood and stretched, casually draping an arm over Blake's shoulder. She gave her boyfriend a wide, self-satisfied smile. "That's supposed to be your move," she said, moving her hand down his side to just under his ribs. "If you're not gonna try to put the moves on me, I'm gonna make you sit through clothes shopping."

[Lone Star]

Blake winked at her. "Oh, right. I almost forgot!" He turned to face her, and put one hand on the back of her neck. His face slowly moved towards hers as his other hand snaked around her waist. A phantom of a grin lingered on his face as he kissed her lovingly.

He broke the kiss, smiling. "So where do you want to go first, babe?"

[Raveled]

Jessica felt her whole body tingle with the kiss. She didn't press into it, but she didn't pull away, either. She let Blake take all the time he wanted; when he pulled back, she felt warm, energized, with goosebumps over her skin. Maybe that was why she got a vague feeling of unease, but when she glanced around it was obvious what was wrong. The lights throughout the whole mall had dimmed to a much softer, more intimate level. The young technopath blushed harder and waved a hand through the air, returning the lights to their earlier levels.

She pushed her face against Blake's shoulder, trying to bury her head in his arm. "Buy me a mask," she said, her voice muffled, her tone flat. "Or a Halloween costume. Or a hole that I can pull in over myself, maybe."

[Lone Star]

Blake put an arm around her, and watched the lights grow brighter again. "Uh, Jessica?" He smiled like a maniac, and put his arms on her shoulders. "This is new. Awesome?" His chest thumped as he grinned in awe. This was certainly a surprise. "Babe, don't be shy!" Blake's Converse trainers stepped back and he looked deep into her eyes. They were eyes he had beheld many times before- he never got tired of looking into them. "I'm so happy for you, honey." A quick peck on her lips, then another smile.

[Raveled]

"It's not new. I told you, it happened around New Year's; supervillain, chemical weapons, and now I can hear machines. Talk to 'em, too, but I'm usually in more control than that. I just... slipped." She didn't ponder what had made her lose control, but it was nice that there was someone who still regarded the whole situation as strange and wonderful. She'd had to learn to live with it all the time, and the novelty had worn off awhile ago.

Jessica moved her grip to Blake's arm and pulled him towards one of the larger, anchor stores. "I said you'd have to sit through clothes shopping, right?"

[Lone Star]

Blake put an arm around her shoulder, and smiled at her. "For the male race, yes, Jessica. I will tolerate clothes shopping with you. What exactly are we looking for?" Even though there were thousands of things Blake wanted to do more than clothes shopping, it was with Jessica, which made it more than worth it. "Lingerie? Because I could totally go for that."

[Raveled]

The comment sent Jessica's mind in an... interesting direction, and she worked hard to keep the reaction off her face. She succeeded partly by raising a hand to rub at her ear and cheek, and pulled Blake into the department store. "Shoes first," she declared, heading in that direction. It wasn't hard to find the section; it was filled with industrial-looking shelves filled with all sorts of footwear, far more than could be considered practical; Jessica couldn't imagine needing that many different kinds of shoes. She picked up a pair of boots with spike heels that looked like they laced up to the knee, dangling them from one finger. The young woman looked between Blake and the boots, suddenly giggling. "I guess if you have a 'Helga of the SS' fixation, now's the time to speak up."

[Lone Star]

Blake raised his eyebrows, and whistled. "You know, I never really was into leather, but whatever floats your boat, Jessica." He grinned madly and pecked her on the cheek.

"How are things at the Lab?" he said, sitting on one of the chairs the department store had no doubt put for men to wait while women did shoe-shopping. Something else weighed heavily on Blake's mind. He was still nervous about whoever, or whatever was creating the supernatural disturbance around Freedom City. He tried not to let it show on his face, but Jessica probably noticed. His hands went to his face, and he tried not to look quite so stressed out.