the colorful and confusing girl

who: eben and chloe
where: around town
when: early morning

Chloe had woken up ridiculously early due to a stiff neck, the sound of water dripping, and what were definitely stomach cramps. She was too hungry to not leave the house any more, especially now that it seemed like her bathroom was leaking massively (which Chloe discovered with some mild cursing on her part as she went to pee) and it would probably actually be warmer outside of her apartment than in it. She had positioned whatever containers she could find underneath the worst of the drippages, and then just decided she would just worry about it later.

She'd slept surprisingly well considering the news broadcast she had fallen asleep to. A combination of sheer exhaustion and lack of nearby voices had meant she hadn't dreamt, which probably had more than a little bit to do with that. So Chloe actually felt pretty okay, by her standards at least, and figured she wouldn't spend another day cooped up.

It was time to go shoplifting. Heck, if anyone caught her she'd just convince them that they hadn't. It was just a case of finding a small enough grocery store. There'd have to be a couple open on a sunday, right? Even in backwater small-town USA.

She pulled on clothes, including her oversized green hoodie with the deep pockets, and stomped out of the house in the boots she had stolen a few truck stops back. They were dark blue Dr. Martens and very slightly too small, but she figured they were water & cold proof enough for that not to be an issue. Plus they looked awesome.

It was early enough in the AM that there weren't many people around, which gave the clenching feeling in Chloe's head and chest some relief, and the weather was like, weirdly warm. Now she just had to figure where to look for some dinky grocery store, and she chewed on a strand of long red hair as she walked, her jeans dragging slightly in the fresh-melt even with the added height of the boots.

Eben happened to be out wandering around. He hadn't been able to sleep, which wasn't necessarily uncommon for the chaos elemental. Sometimes he was just a little too buzzing to actually do that, so he went for walks sometimes when he couldn't find something he could spend his creative energy on at home. Today happened to be a fabulous day outside and everything, so he'd gone for a kind of longer walk than he might normally have done.

He had his camera with him, and was snapping off shots of various things that caught his eye. Like the weird icicles that were growing other icicles that were melting onto other ones that were coming off of the awnings on buildings. Or the sky, which was kind of just nifty at the moment. He snapped a shot of a crow, dark black and blue against the kind of greyish melting snow. And then he caught a flash of real color, and he set his sights on that.

Or more specifically, her. He cracked off a few shots of her walking, of her chewing on her hair, and looking around like she wasn't quite sure where she was headed. Either that or she was looking around like she was waiting for ninjas to ambush her from behind some poor bastard's hedges. He just kept shooting, taking frames of her life and documenting them, and he didn't make much effort (or any) to hide what he was up to, and as she walked within earshot, he looked over the top of his camera, bright blue eyes standing out in the morning light. "You are gorgeous." he told her.

Chloe spazzed. She'd heard the little buzz of thoughts brimming in the back of her head but hadn't been able to see where they were coming from, so when they zoned on her from right by her shoulder, in the form of a vaguely gothy teenage boy? Yeah. Spazzing. She flinched backwards slightly and looked at him through her tangled waterfall of hair, scowling. She could hear that he was thinking exactly what he said, but that didn't make the weirdness of it any less so. She didn't like comments about her appearance, mental or otherwise. They unnerved her.

"What the hell are you doing? Are you taking photographs of me? Stop it!" she snapped, the scare he'd given her making her forget that her persona for this town was meant to be good and quiet and dull, blinking rapidly. The last thing she needed was her photograph showing up on someone's Facepage, or MyFace or what the hell ever those things were. That'd be real fucking incognito.

"Yeah, I was. I can stop if you want me to. You're just...bright." he said, making a show of looking around. "And everything else is dull. I really appreciated it." he told her, totally honest. But then that was Eben. He was a pretty on the level sort of person. "It's beatiful, especially with things as they've been lately. I was looking for a little beauty and found a whole lot--I just wanted it documented." he explained, tone laid back and good natured. "I didn't mean to startle you or whatever. Sorry if I did." he offered.

Chloe backtracked slightly and looked down at herself. She was kind of bright, wasn't she? Fuck. It had never occurred to her that having orange hair hanging down to her shoulderblades and a bottle green hoodie was kind of like making herself a beacon for anyone who wanted to find her, and there was no doubt people wanted to find her. The guy seemed fairly genuine though, in a weird kind of way. She wasn't picking up lies on his brainwaves, anyway.

"Err. Well, okay just... don't... put them on the internet or anything I guess. Sorry, I just figure that I'm new in town and don't know anyone and don't want to like. Be laughed at. Or anything." Oh hi, awkward failure conversation skills. Chloe bit her lip and frowned slightly. She was going to suck at school tomorrow, no doubts about it.

"Oh, you wouldn't be laughed at." Eben assured her. "But I promise I won't put them up on the internet. I don't have it at my house really anyways. And, I don't make a habit of putting my prints up there. Everyone just steals them if I do, so I keep my portfolio hard copy only." he said, and he raised the camera again. "Can I get a smile?" he asked, giving her a bright, sweet smile. "Just once?" Even if she kind of had a face that looked like it was made to pout. And she was frowning, so it was close, but not quite the same. He made a mental note that he'd have to get her to pout at him at some point, just so he could keep the image. It'd be great. He could even see it in his head. Her looking up at him and giving him this adorable little pouty expression. Girls with cheeks like hers were the ones who could pull that off best. It had to be on the right face, and the right face was rare.

Chloe caught that thought, and frowned harder, resisting the urge to display her disgust too openly - and suck her cheeks in. She was not about to start pulling faces for some boy she barely knew. Not ever. She couldn't let on that she'd heard what he'd been thinking about seeing her pout, though, because yeah, that would be exactly the opposite effect she'd be going for.

"A smile? Uh," she gave a sort of half-grin that probably looked more like a confused rabbit in headlights than anything else, and then shook herself. What the hell was she doing? "Look uh, I don't have the time, I have to...go...somewhere else." she waved a hand at the horizon, knowing full well she didn't know exactly where she was going, but the awkward she was giving off was almost painful.

Eben took the opportunity to get her attempt at a smile even if she didn't pull it off. "Somewhere else, huh? That eager to get rid of me? Have I offended you?" he asked, somewhere between curious and concerned about that idea. He didn't know what he might have done, and while he was sort of used to a certain amount of the population finding him strange and wanting to wander off someplace he wasn't, he wasn't entirely positive that this girl was reacting to him so much as something else. What, he didn't know, but she seemed really skittish and such. But he wanted to be sure it wasn't something he was doing specifically.

Yeah okay, somewhere else had been pretty weak. She didn't want him to think she was a jerk, or that he had hurt her feelings or whatever. She was just hungry, and it wasn't like she could invite him for a burger when she had literally no money. Not that she'd want to, either, one-on-one conversation could be pretty weird and intense when one party could read the other's mind.

"No, no, sorry, it's not you. Not offended. Although honestly being photographed doesn't make me all fuzzy and comfortable," she added with a slight eyebrow raise, thinking that she kind of was offended by the 'pouty' thing, but she couldn't exactly say that, "I'm just... I have to go and get groceries for my Grandma and she's not well and I don't want to keep her waiting for stuff, you know? And yeah. But um. I'm Grace. Hi."

"Oh, I'm sorry." he said immediately. "I don't mean to like, keep you up or anything." he apologized. "Nice to meet you anyways, Grace, a name that suits your look, most certainly." Even if it didn't go with her manner, so much. "I'm Eben. I'm guessing you're new in town, and I might see you in school? Unless you're in college already. I know I'd remember you." he said, knowing full well he would have.

Chloe shook her head, again catching the thought about her manner and internally kicking herself for being such a loser. "I start tomorrow. And no, no, I'm not in college. I'm going to be a junior. I should be a senior but I was sick so I came to live with my Grandma and now I have to repeat," She rattled that off a little too quickly because she had her 'backstory' memorized kind of like a shopping list, but she figured he wouldn't have any reason not to buy it. She'd already been freaky awkward enough as it was, "I'm kind of...terrified. Actually." And she only let that slip because he seemed fairly nice and hadn't thought anything actively mean about her. One non-hostile face come Monday morning wouldn't be a bad thing.

"It's not so scary here." Eben promised. Even if it kind of was sometimes, but he didn't want to scare her more, and if she was worried about school, that was non-scary. That had nothing to do with the vampires that had rolled through town, or the werewolf attacks or the demons that had hit them up on the school trip. He smiled at her, a serene sort of expression. "It's a small school, there're a lot of nice people. did you know your way around town?" he asked, thinking if she was new-new, she might not. And if she wasn't new, she would have been in school already.

Chloe visibly reeled when she heard that. Vampires and werewolves and demons.....what the fuck? Demons? Demons? That was... well either the kid was insane (which she hated herself for thinking and pushed it down. He wasn't insane. You could tell when someone was insane - their thoughts didn't come through crisp like that, they were wavery and uncertain and at weird volumes. Chloe never ever ever wanted to falsely accuse anyone of that, even internally) or this town was beyond fucked up. Which would kind of explain why Drew was on some secret mission here. And that set off a whole new level of alarm bells because, Drew? Her Drew? Fighting DEMONS? Yeah... okay... that was not awesome. She doubted his mojo could do much against a freaking Agent of Hell.

She tried to recover it though, get her shit together and just deal with the conversation at hand, even if her colour was draining. She could think about Drew and werewolves and demons and vampires later. Oh God. "Well. Not scary is good. I... I know where my Grandma's place is. And the school. So yeah. Landmarks. Woo," she said, aware that she was fucking this up massively and being weird and obvious. Ugh, nice going, Chloe.

In Eben's world view, he watched little lines of chaos blossom off of the girl in interesting ways, and he had to wonder what had just happened. Also, without warning, the bulb in the street lamp nearest to him, which wasn't even on at the time, popped loudly with a bright flash of light then it went dark, and the white globe surrounding it turned a little black in one area. Eben barely noticed that, though, more interested in the girl. His head had canted to the side as he regarded her, curiosity clear in his eyes. "What just happened?" he asked, sort of not quite catching on that she might have no idea what he was talking about, and most likely wouldn't.

Chloe jumped when the light blew, and looked back to Eben aghast. Weird was just coming in all kinds of flavours right now. "I think, um, the light blew? What do you mean what just happened?" she kind of gathered he wasn't talking about the light (although that was uncanny) and more about her - he was thinking about her anyway, in terms she couldn't quite understand, and she figured her clammy spazz routine was something he was catching on to. She gritted her teeth. "I'm confused. I just...I just want to go get some stupid groceries okay?" snapped Chloe, not really meaning to get antsy but she felt a little cornered by Eben staring at her and the magical popping light and oh, y'know, the little fact of demons.

He didn't say anything for a good few long moments, then made a decision. "I can take you to the nearest one if you want." he said. "I can help you carry things." He didn't have anything better to do, after all, and even if she was a little abrasive and such, she interested Eben. And really, abrasive wasn't a personality trait that really was enough to turn Eben away. He was aware the world worked because it took all kinds, and he generally accepted that as the way things were. Plus, she looked a little frazzled and she'd said she was scared, so he didn't really think leaving her to her own devices was the best plan ever. So, he'd offer, anyways.

Chloe grimaced. No. As much as she didn't want to spend an entire afternoon looking for the grocery store, she couldn't risk taking Eben with her to shoplift. She could nudge him to think that she was just paying for stuff sure but... it would be dangerous. And then there was that word swimming around in his head. Interesting. Interesting was bad.

"No. No, you don't have to do that. It's very nice of you to offer but, it'll be really dull. You're busy taking pictures and stuff and...no. It's fine. If you could just point me in the right direction and I'll be on my way?" she said, trying to sound like she was grateful but didn't want to trouble him rather than outright brushing him off.

Again, it took a second for Eben to answer her. "...if that's what you want." he said. He was never one to force his company on anyone, after all, so if he wasn't wanted, he wasn't wanted. "It's up that way." he said, pointing back the way he'd initially come. "Walk til you hit third street, and then turn left. It's a couple blocks down, but you should see it right away." he said. "Hard to miss and all." Since it was a small ass town, and it was one of the biggest buildings on the street.

"Okay," said Chloe, breathing slightly easier than she had been previously now that he had backed down from coming with her, "Thanks. That's really nice of you. I - maybe I'll see you at school tomorrow?" she felt bad for making him think he was unwanted. She didn't want to put bad feelings on anyone. She just couldn't risk bringing him along. She couldn't even really risk making friends - mild acquaintance was what she was aiming for here.

He nodded, though thought she was probably just being polite. "I'll be there. Have a good rest of the day, Grace. It was nice meeting you, and sorry for upsetting you." Since he'd seemed to at various intervals spanning every thirty seconds or so. He smiled at her anyways. "Good luck with everything." he added, then turned to head off, trying to find something else that might stand out to him, but he thought he'd already caught what was going to catch his eye for the day.

Chloe felt like a complete bitch for making Eben feel bad and being... well... crazy. She made a face at herself thinking Why do you suck so much, Chloe?... and then made a decision. Really, it was for his benefit as well as hers. "Hey um, wait..." she called, running a few steps after him, "You - you can come with me if you like. I mean it, I was just being an antisocial jerk before," she said, smiling slightly. But in her head? She was doing something else. She was projecting the words "boring boring boring, nice, but boring, don't want to spend time with her" hard into Eben's head, and it made her skull ache slightly, but it would be worth it not to hurt his feelings. And it wasn't like it was a huge drastic thing she was changing. Not really. Just correcting his first impressions.

It wasn't something that really took, though he looked really really confused for a few moments. It was hard to entirely alter a strong opinion that had been enough to stop him on the street, and Eben was a sort who didn't think anyone was boring. In his mind, everyone was special. Everyone had something. He actively looked for it in people. Hell it was one of his main ideals in life he held onto really strongly. So he wound up frowning, and looking at her, confused, not sure what was happening. So much so that he didn't answer her. He eventually shook his head and rubbed at one eye, looking around again like he still wasn't quite sure what happened. He tried to smile for her though. "I'm sorry...what--what did you say?" Another lamp post gave up the ghost, and a third up the street, really just a manifestation of him not having a tight grip on control in the first place, and then dealing with what she was attempting. It wasn't deliberate, it just happened.

Chloe winced as the lights popped and she felt the resistance come from Eben's mind. An not-nice feeling, like her brain was a square peg being mashed into a round hole. She didn't like that - and while it had happened before it was never with something she figured should be easy, and what with the popping lights and all, Chloe was kind of freaked. She took a couple steps back and twisted a few strands of hair nervously around her fingers and into her mouth. She scanned his mind do see if she could find a thought that explained what was happening with the lights, but he seemed oblivious to it, which of itself was bizarre. Everything about this encounter had started to become a level of freaky Chloe wasn't exactly comfortable with.

"Nothing. I didn't say anything, forget it, just forget it," snapped Chloe with panic underlying her tone, but no real venom. She backed away from Eben, shooting a different thought this time - 'don't follow her leave her alone, forget all about this, forget it and don't follow her' - and then turned on her heel and sprinted the way he'd directed to the grocery store. Trying to get him to forget their entire encounter was ridiculous and wishful thinking and wouldn't work, she didn't have the power to do that, but hopefully she could at least confuse him into not being sure exactly how things had gone down.

Confused he most certainly was. Again, he was a little staggered, not quite sure what was happening, and one of the globes from the lights actually came loose and shattered on the ground right behind Eben. That wasn't what had him wondering, though. No, it was his eyes on the blur of color Grace was, and he reached up, a headache forming. What the hell had that been? Such a beautiful girl...such a strange encounter. Staggering a few steps, he didn't follow her, but he was left feeling disturbed--a feeling that really didn't mesh well with Eben Willows.