| Details for Over Dressed |
| Summary: | Angelus, who isn't quite sure what the Muggle fashion is at, runs into Nell in St. James' Park. |
| Date: | April 4, 1940 |
| Location: | St. James' Park |
| Related: | — |
| Characters |
 |
Angelus might be more open to his displeasure with Muggles and Muggle-born, but that doesn’t mean he stays out of the Muggle world completely. In fact, that may just be one of the reasons he’s out in St. James’ Park. There’s an air of superiority around the boy as he hangs out in the park, finished with his errands. He leans against a tree, one booted foot crossed over the other as a smirk paints his features, his royal blue eyes watching the few people passing nearby in the light of the sun. Now, the blonde haired boy is dressed in Muggle attire, if a bit outdated. The suit is of fine quality wool, the beige slacks rather snug, tucked into knee high boots, with a scarlet coat embroidered with gold around the edges and which the coat-tails hang behind him. He certainly looks royal, even if the fashion doesn’t quite reach the date. In fact, the youth stares at a couple of kids playing, shifting as he eyes their attire.
And the daily life of the park is going on as usual. Children playing, pushing large circles around with a stick, nannies pushing around strollers containing, hopefully, babies, distinguished older gentlemen with monocles and impressive mustaches holding the arm of overweight ladies, a gardener passing by with a mule-pulled cart full of hay… hey! Well, yes, hay, but also hey, because from said hay, hey! A young girl, previously hidden under the vegetal cargo, suddenly jumps out, with the agility, determination, and impetus of a pirate! Ahoy! Ha! Get it? Hay, hey, ahoy… okay. Sorry. Anyway, the hay-hey-ahoy girl lands on her feet, relatively-well-off middle-class muggle clothes covered in strands of dried grass. She doesn't even stop to dust herself off, only glancing backwards very quickly to notice that the gardener didn't notice her escapade. Needless to say, she hasn't seen what's in front of her, yet (the general direction of Angelus, of course), because all she did up to now was looking down during the jump, and back towards the gardener…
Angelus hasn’t recognised anyone for the moments he has been here, nor has anyone come over to bother him. He can’t help but smile, not some ‘better than you’ smile, but a genuine, grateful smile. There’s some level of interest on his face as he watches the other children play, but the thought of joining brings out a tiny flicker of distaste. How can they be happy with such a simple life? He rolls his eyes. As he shifts against the trunk of the tree, Angelus blinks, straightening, his blue eyes locking onto a familiar face. Really? A sigh escapes him even as he regards Nell. Gel turns his head away suddenly quick, eyes turning to the side as he focuses on who knows what in the distance. He can’t be recognised here. Especially not by that housemate.
Nell rushes onwards and raises her gaze to meet… Angelus? Angelus?! "How do you handle such a complex situation? What is the best and safest way to keep The Secret and interact with a fellow in-the-know without alerting muggles? How is discretion best applied?" are questions that utterly fail to to bother Nell before interacting with Angelus, since, well, act now, think maybe later. Maybe. "Oh, hi!", Nell says, instinctively, and a bit embarrassedly, since, hey, she's still a bit confused as to how to handle this Angelus guy, after all that has happened and all she has heard. And, by the time she is done being confused, this elusive 'later' time must finally have come, because a vague feeling associated with all those interrogatives mentioned earlier finally catches up with Nell, so she has to try for a save by adding, "…young boy whom I have never met before, but looks interesting enough to interact… with." She looks at Angelus, who, in turn, will maybe still be gazing in the distance? As for Nell, after that, no matter what Angelus is doing, glances downwards, very quickly. She realizes that she's still covered in hay. So she looks back up at Angelus with nonchalance, while dusting herself off. With nonchalance.
A heavy sigh is released from the boy the moment that Gel is addressed by Nell. Sparks. Acting cool and relaxed, his chin lifting with importance, Angelus looks down his nose at the girl as he regards her carefully. A smirk slips against his lips, only to tug out almost immediately by an amused smile and he curses himself for it. How do you act cruel and angry to someone you like? “Nell,” he says with a chuckle, his eyebrows twitching. Apparently Gel isn’t going to play the game of just having met. A hum escapes him as he glances to the side, looking for something as he gives himself a moment of thought, before a truer smirk flicks onto his lips and he glances back to her. “So. Do you hate me too?” And after a pause he adds in, “What’re you doing?”
"Shedding the last traces of my latest adventure.", Nell says, picking the last conspicuously visible (at least to her) piece of hay from her clothes, pinched between index and thumb, extending her arm, and letting it fall on the ground, in an attempt at being classy which might have been considered acceptable, had her hair not been full of leftover hay. She looks up his nose (no, not the nostrils), and then looks at the ground for a bit, and, in an unusual move for her, she thinks a little. "I… I don't think so, no. I mean, I'd be lying if I said I didn't consider the possibility…" She scratches her calf with one shoe, "but I guess that I saw what hate can lead to, and I'd rather not go down that path." She then looks up and points at the direction the cart left in. "Oh, my original plan was to come here to the park to play. I was thinking something adventurous. With pirates, possibly. Hence, why not starting by reaching the Island of the Three Skulls while stowing away in a merchant ship?" Well, despite her attempt to say that in a serious and not really excited way (attempt which breaks down progressively as she gets further and further into the sentence), the subject of the sentence is probably destroying any semblance of classiness she was trying to put up earlier (assuming, that is, there was any left). "But if you want to do something else…", she says, her attempt at keeping cool and unexcited returning abruptly with the turn of the sentence. "…I mean. If you have to ask that question, I suppose, there's something you want to tell me?"
Angelus watches the girl as she speaks, looking her up and down, his lips twisting at the hay clinging to her even as the amused mirth flashes over his features. The royal, superior air fades as he simply lets out a chuckle, shaking his head. “Here,” he says as he steps closer, reaching out to her so that he might be able to pull a few pieces of the hay from her hair. While he does this for her, Angelus intones, “I thought you’d be furious,” is said as if it were a casual old conversation. “I would have thought Madeline would have been dying to tell you about all my misdeeds I’ve done to her.” He rolls his eyes, drawing his hand away, and moving to adjust this own red and gold jacket. In a lower tone, leaning closer to Nell, he says, “By the way. I’m dressed a little too out of fashion, aren’t I?” A sigh escapes him. “I could of sworn I had it right this time.” A smirk flicks across his lips. “Don’t let me stop your fun. If you want to play…” He trails off, head tilting to the side and he shrugs. He turns away from her, his eyes searching the ground until he finds a long stick. He gives it a whip through the air and turns casually back to Nell. “Can a swashbuckler journey along with you?”
Nell pitches, "Swashbucklers are in high demand this season. Our standard pay is one bottle of rye whiskey every day. Loot is split according to the captain's unappeasable whims. If parrots are found, I get first dibs.", she says, counting on her fingers and increasing the number at each sentence. "Don't be so negative. We could say that… your clothes will make a nice period costume!", teases Nell with a slight smirk. "Well, off to the bird's nest it is, then!", exclaims Nell, before pivoting on one foot, 270 degrees (why take the shortest path when you can go a panoramic route) and moving to face the tree, still being at Angelus's side, though. Before starting to climb, though, she adds, "By the way. Yes, I've heard those stores involving Maddie. But, since you mention them… I guess you want to give me your side of the story?" The tone is not accusing, or derogatory. She's actually asking what happened.
Angelus inclines his head, his blue eyes focused on Nell as he listens to her talk. A light grin tugs out across his face, and he nods to her as if this was all serious and he would be obligated to pay the Captain. A short laugh escapes him, and his teeth flash as he smiles toothily. “Okay, but what if I want to be Captain.” He blinks, shifting on his booted feet as he glances down to himself, adjusting his outfit before releasing a sigh. “Costume,” he murmurs out, his lips giving a twitch.
Angelus spins, and follows her gaze to the tree, his eyebrows arching. His head tilts back, defensively bringing back his self-importance as he takes a step toward it. “Well, climbing has never been one of my strengths,” he says honestly. But he does reach up after studying Nell, and with a little more effort, climbs up onto the first branch. He lets out a breath as he turns his gaze to Nell. He glances away from her, frowning, when she mentions ‘his side of the story’ and sighs. Humming quietly in his thoughts, his shoulders lift and he glances back to Nell. “What’s there to say? I was mean to her, rude. I don’t like her,” he says simply. He shifts awkwardly on the branch, fixing himself so that he sits on it, and looks down to the ground below. “I don’t want Mug, um,” he hesitates as he remembers what world he’s in, “-to be mugged. That would…be…annoying,” he finishes a little more slowly and just shakes his head. Clearly he was trying not to mention ‘Muggle’ in the mundane world, and he just ends up chuckling at himself. “Okay, that was dull.” He rolls his eyes. Letting out a hum, he tilts his head and stares to her. “Do you want to go to one of those, um, those moving picture things. Film?”
Nell settles on the first branch as well, next to Angelus. She studies him with a mixture of curiosity and surprise after his admission. But she says nothing. After a little while of giving him this kind of look, she just looks straight ahead of herself, away from Angelus, and, letting her legs swing freely from the branch she's sitting on (a low one, thankfully), she eventually replies, "Yeah, being mugged would be annoying. Definitely." Tick, tock, tick, tock. The double pendulum of Nell's goes on for a few more beats, when all of a sudden, she turns towards Angelus "We could do that, yes! I love movies!", and, with a swift turning movement it's hard to follow, she's first spin-falling backwards, then dangling from the branch, holding onto it with her hands only, and then… she lets go, landing neatly on the ground. She looks up at Angelus, more cheerful now, and waits for his next move.
Angelus avoids looking toward Nell again after his honesty. An occasional flicker of his gaze, frowning, as he starts to glance at her, but he then glances around the park instead. It’s when she moves suddenly that the boy sweeps his arm swiftly towards her, reflexively grabbing for her as if she were falling. Halfway between a grunt and a gasp escapes him, his heart thumping in his chest, but his stomach unclenches when he realises this was part of the girl’s plan, lowering his head to stare at her with a slight, “Heh.” “Sparks,” he lets out, shaking his head. As his hand touches his chest, as if he can calm his heart, he cringes with annoyance that he reacted so foolishly. “Yea,” he says, much more meekly as he carefully hops down. “You pick which movie.”