Closed RP Mechannibal

This RP is currently closed.

Sam nodded at his appreciation for stormy weather. She wouldn’t say, but she had never minded a good thunderstorm. Especially when it was close, and you could feel the thunder vibrate in your chest. Maybe that was one of the reasons she liked metal and alt-rock so much– the way the bass kicked in her chest when she turned the volume up was reminiscent of thunder vibrating;

Or it could be because it was one of the last things she had to remind her of Joshua, but she didn’t want to think about that.

She grinned at his offer to help with renovations and shook her head. “While your offer is appreciated, I would say it’s probably not a good idea for us to see each other again, even if it is a work thing. You are attractive as hell, but I don’t think I want to ruin this afternoon by seeing you again if you catch my meaning. Besides, I already finished all the renovations. Took me almost a month, but we actually open tomorrow. It’s why I chose today to come out and have the Bug looked at. Last day before I’m too busy for a while.”

She sat up straight in the passenger seat, leaning forward ever so slightly, her moto jacket falling open over her green hoodie. They were different than the ones she actually wore for patrol. This leather jacket had a decorative front, with buttons and studs, and her hoodie was much thinner than her usual grey one, with a much higher neck that fully covered the red Kevlar and Gore-Tex suit she wore underneath her clothes at all times. Less generic clothing, and more personality, and she wore them with ease, looking very much comfortable in them.

She let her hair fall forward around her shoulders, the tangle of fluff finally winning the fight she’d been having with it. She snuck another look at him, smiling. She hoped he didn’t ask about why she didn’t want to see him again, but she was ready to explain exactly why if he did ask. She turned her head fully back in his direction, deciding, essentially, “fuck subtlety”. It really was too bad she couldn’t have a relationship– he was, as she had already put it, attractive as hell.​
 
Todd visibly relaxed a little in not-quite-relief as she listed the same reasons he would’ve had for her in her shoes. Attachments were a risk for him, after all. It was one of the reasons he didn’t give himself aspirations, at least not ones that could root him in one place.

Saved him disappointment later.

Of course, if anyone, he’d love to have a long-term relationship with someone who found him attractive, and who he found attractive as hell in return. His clothes weren’t as vibrant as hers, dull grays, browns and blacks that he really only mixed up with blue if he felt like he needed to pretend the outfit was formal. It hid the minimum two long-sleeve shirts and long underwear that always padded out his figure and never provided quite enough warmth. The only time he advertised the scarecrow physique was on patrol, the long limbs and rail thin body that could be tossed around like a ragdoll but hid an underlying strength.

He remembered the red suit under her clothes, though. It wasn’t likely they’d cross paths on patrol unless he got a lead into Elliott, or she edged into the warehouse territory where he was currently stripping Leo Vasquez of usable assets. It’d be better, he thought, that he only thought of her as the glowing, smiling gym owner, and she only knew him as the nearest mechanic on Vik’s day off. But he’d keep his eyes open for a vigilante with vibrant red curls, and his nose open for the traces of autumn and anger.

“I agree. One afternoon of harmless fun, and once you get your Bug back it’ll be end of relationship.” He snuck another glance at her, sidelong again with the same genuine smile. “Congrats on the new place, by the way. It must be nice to see that much hard work finally paying off.”
 

Sam gave him a smile in return, shifting in her seat again to draw her left leg up under her right. She seemed to have a hard time sitting still, though it seemed less like an anxious energy and more like pure energy. It was a restlessness, like sitting still didn’t suit her and she was meant to be running across building tops or down hiking trails or just doing something.

“Thank you. It’s really funny. If my car hadn’t broken down, I’d be in Philly right now doing something else. I never would have found the place. I would have driven right through Pittsburgh and kept on going. I broke down right outside the old place on my way into your guy’s shop. The old owner was there putting up for sale signs and he helped me tug my car to the side of the road. I looked at that building and I just kind of knew. It just clicked into place for me, like you in those clothes did.”

She gave him a genuine, not entirely flirtatious grin. She hadn’t really had anyone to tell that story to since she had decided to stop and stay. The first few days, she had questioned why she had done it. She’d been on a mission, one eight years in the making. She had completely wiped out several large branches of Slate that he had established and then she was off to Philly. Or at least, she thought she was. The gym had been a dream she'd had for a long time, once she realized she could pull double-time as a "superhero".

She forcibly pulled her thoughts away from that and threw another quip in Todd’s direction. “You sure you’re not taking me to a deserted warehouse? I mean, there are way worse people who could be my murderer, but I’d still ask if we could at least have lunch first before you did kill me.”​
 
Todd couldn’t help looking down as she mentioned how the clothes fit him. He agreed with the sentiment, more from the aspect of comfort than than appearance. He wasn’t self-conscious by any stretch, but he was pleased to hear she liked the getup.

She changed the subject, like it was bothering her. He laughed a little, considering something awful in his mind. But okay. With an opening like that he really couldn’t help it.

His voice shifted slightly, becoming a shade dramatically dark.

“Why, Ms. Walsh, I’ve offered to have you for lunch, haven’t I?” He gave her his best wicked smile. It didn’t last long; he broke down into a chuckle, and shook his head, his voice returning to normal as he flicked his blinker and turned for the last minute or two of the drive.

“Listen, I know it’s a rough neighborhood, but I promise this place is the real deal. Maybe if we get thrown out fast enough, we can make a warehouse stop after.”
 

Sam couldn’t help the slow and flirtatious grin that crossed her face. She wouldn’t say. No, she wouldn’t. She absolutely could not say it. That was too much, too brazen. But then, Sam had never been one who was anything but too much. So with that, she parted her lips and said, “Mr. Fowler, you could eat me any day.”

The suggestiveness in her voice was in no way subtle or hidden. There was no mistaking what she meant by this. The temperature went up ever so slightly as Sam felt a light flush grow over her cheeks. The grin stayed on her face as she turned her face away, looking out the front window. He wasn’t wrong, the neighborhood was a little rough-looking, but that didn’t bother Sam. She’d been in worse parts of Columbus, and she thought back to a particular incident when–

No, she didn’t. She didn’t think about it. That would definitely kill this unusual and good mood that Todd had put her in. Instead, she watched his hands on the steering wheel, watched them flex when he turned the wheel.

“No, I trust you. I’ve been to seedier places than this before.”​
 
Even as a joke – or a flirt – Todd had never gotten someone to give him permission before. It was a good thing he could play off the momentary chill as a reaction to the innuendo, the shift in his features as for just the barest moment he let himself consider it.

She turned her face away, and into that moment of liberty, he murmured, “Be careful what you wish for, Sam.”

He kept the eagerness out of it by a fraction, just enough to make the lingering danger part of the flirt and not a threat. When she looked back at him, he would have the sharpened teeth back under control, would be letting the warmth of her embarrassment distract him from the achy bones. The danger was past, had never actually been there outside a moment of temptation that he had beaten.

She still might see the slight flex as his fingers relaxed on the wheel as they reached their destination.

Fortune Palace was in a strip mall with a Goodwill on one side of it, and a TJ Maxx on the other. From the front, it didn’t look very big at all, but regulars – including Todd – knew that it was deeper than it was wide. With a bit of showmanship, Todd slipped the Malibu into its spot at the dead center, perfectly aligning the lines on either side of the car. He knew from experience as a passenger it was a rare trick. Arlo had been physically incapable of parking in a single parking spot. Then again, he also drove a Ram, so maybe the incapability was physical.

“We landed!” he announced, cheerfully, as he turned the old engine off.
 

Sam couldn’t leave well enough alone. As they parked, their destination reached, she unbuckled and immediately leaned over toward him, close enough for her hair to brush up against his shoulder and for him to feel her breath against his cheek. With an impish smile, she said in a voice so soft and low that it was almost a whisper, “I said. What I said. If I wanted to be careful, I would have turned down this entire thing, wouldn’t I?”

She leaned away, taking with her the burst of heat that came off of her. This time, she wasn’t embarrassed or anything of the sort. She was just passionate. Sam was passionate to the point of it being a flaw instead of a trait. It was one of the few bits of herself that she had never been able to conceal. It was the reason her anger was so intense, the reason her flirting had just escalated steadily throughout the car ride, and it was the reason she couldn’t help herself. Even if it was all play and no bite, she couldn’t help the way she threw herself into it.

She shifted back and away from him, back into the passenger seat of the car. That had definitely been straddling the line. She couldn’t bring herself to care that much, since he hadn’t seemed to care the entire way there. Hopefully, he’d let that one slide too.

She waited for just a moment, to catch his reaction, whatever it was, before going to push the door open.​
 
She was close. For just a moment, there was less than a breath of space between the two of them. The soft volume, the moment of intimacy, was incredible. He hadn’t had someone this close to him, alive and breathing, since –

Ever.

Something that wasn’t the cold crawled across his skin in the moment of near-intimacy, washed in her scent, the sounds of her voice and heart and breath, washed in the heat. Fuck. Fuck, this was a mistake. One that he couldn’t bring himself to actually regret, just yet. Just about everything about this was new territory.

He refused to decide whether he liked it in the confines of the car. He wore his grin like an idiot, but his eyes took on just a hint of that sharpness again. A little harmless fun, that’s all it was. It’d be dangerous if this was something more permanent than that. Today was harmless fun, despite the unusual burn in his cheeks.

“Just know that I don’t bite. I’ll swallow you up.” He didn’t go for sexy so much as dangerous, because dangerous seemed to be working so far.

But again, he couldn’t keep it together any longer than it took to land, and he burst out laughing again as he popped his own door open, letting in a breeze that started to dissipate the gentle warmth that had built over the course of their ride.
 

Sam grinned at his response and followed him out of the car. She sauntered, not walked, up toward the door of the restaurant, looking back at him. Before she opened the door, she said just loud enough for him to hear her, “I imagine you would.”

Her voice was low, and she quirked her eyebrow, unabashedly looking him over. Her eyes were a little warmer than they had been before, a different kind of warm. It was unfortunate that she meant everything she was saying. In fact, this was the most attraction had felt for someone in a long time, the most connection she had allowed in even longer. If she had met him at a bar, or anywhere else really, she likely would have tried to take him home with her for the night. She was a bit disappointed that that couldn’t happen.

She backed up to the door, backward, so she could keep eye contact. In the same low voice, she finished with, “Too bad, though, about the biting. I’m kind of into that.”​
 
He watched her, meeting her heat with a cold – not vacant, but the kind of crisp, sharp chill of a clear winter day. Something that was entirely new, but still animal, reacted to her pace, to her tone. He closed his door, and made sure to lock the car, and then moved with his own steps set to stalk, slowly, as if concerned he might startle her. He kept the pace as he closed on her, as she backed away, until her back brushed the door.

He leaned down beside her neck, so close that he could almost taste her, her scent filling his entire world. He breathed deeply, and waited a dramatic moment, mouth opening as if to speak.

And he didn’t say a word. He clicked his teeth together, a threat, a warning, or a flirt, right there beside her throat. Then he pulled back, and took the door handle to tug it open with a polite gesture, suddenly all human manners again except his eyes and the new growl under his voice.

“After you, Ms. Walsh.”
 

Sam watched him move toward her with a fluttering sensation in her stomach that grew and moved up to her chest as he leaned in so close. She was drawn into the moment as he clicked his teeth next to her neck. She felt her insides melt and heat rise to her cheeks, far more this time than any of the small blushes she’d had before.

It took everything in her at that moment to not grab his shirt and pull him down and into a kiss. Oh, this had been a bad idea, hadn’t it? She was just realizing how much of a problem this actually could turn into. She had been disappointed she couldn’t take him home with her.

It was too late to regret any of that now, however. She would just have to reign herself back in a bit. Maybe a lot. Food would definitely help with that, and so she gave him a somewhat nervous smile and walked into the restaurant.

It was very similar to other Chinese restaurants she had been in before. The place was much deeper than it was wide, which was a small surprise, but one that was appreciated. There were enough people in there for Sam to immediately cool herself off, her heat retracting as she stepped inside. She would have to be a bit more careful inside, around these people.

Honestly, she wasn’t sure why she hadn’t been more careful with Todd. She knew she was letting herself have the day, letting herself feel normal with an attractive guy who was also very normal, but part of her began to wonder why, even from the beginning, she hadn’t been that worried about him finding out.

She looked up at him. What was it about him? She never felt safe or open around people. The fact that she immediately reigned everything in the moment they had stepped inside the building was a testament to that. So why him? Had her subconscious mind noticed something that her conscious mind hadn’t? Was there something he had said or done? Not that she could recall. Something about him had inexplicably made her feel at ease enough that she had been able to ask whether he was flirting with her. Something about him had made her get in the car with him. Something made her feel safe enough to use her power without concern.

She wanted to know what that thing was.​
 
She had turned red, and he felt a flush in his own face as he watched her go inside. But he didn’t miss the nervous smile as she passed him by. Too far. He’d gone too far with that. Was she nervous because they were supposed to be playing, and he’d made it too serious, or because there was some instinct in her hindbrain warning her this was a predator?

If he hadn’t already established that they wouldn’t be going home, he wouldn’t have taken it so far. What was he thinking? She was pretty, and funny, that was what. He’d let himself forget for a second what he was. She had no way to know – what she was doing really was harmless fun. But he was a breath away, less than an inch, from something he’d regret. He swallowed hard before he followed her in. He had to calm down, or this would get dangerous. Not for him – well, maybe for him, but mostly for her.

It was a good thing they were getting food. He strode up to her, then slowed to keep pace at her side, not letting his sudden self-consciousness show beyond the warm smile he kept putting on.

There was a waiter at the host table, and Todd held up two fingers with a quiet, “Two, please.”

They were led to a booth in the not-too-busy restaurant, and the waiter took their drink order before disappearing back into the kitchen. Todd ordered a root beer with no ice – if he was doing this for flavor and not by necessity, he wasn’t going to have it cut, and the ice would just agitate the cold. Once Sam was settled, he’d be ready to set upon the buffet with the ferocity of a one-man high school football team, and hopefully, Sam would be able to match him with the same.
 

Sam watched Todd with a sudden intensity that she hadn’t before. Something in her eyes was sharper, but she still had a flirtatious smile on her face. She tilted her head forward a bit to hide it from the waitress as she gave a drink order of a Coke, also with no ice. Ice and Sam never got along. It didn’t last very long in her vicinity. She had learned to drink most things either very fast, or warm. Not that the warmth bothered her. Room temperature was still cold to her feverishly warm body.

She tilted her head to the side and squinted a bit at the man across from her. The nervousness of their almost intimate moments was gone, and she was back to an almost even, but still playful, expression. Then, she leaned back and dug into her pocket for a hair tie. She found one in her jacket pocket and she wrapped it around her hair, a few curls around her face escaping before she had even really gotten it up. As she twisted her hair up and out of the way in what approximated a ponytail, she spoke in a low voice, to make sure that no one heard her.

“I liked that, by the way. But you shouldn’t do it again. Not unless you want this afternoon to become an evening. Got me?” She flashed that sharp look up at his eyes, gold meeting blue, and continued, “Because I will make it a fucking night if you do. Now, are we eating or what?”​
 
Sam was watching, and because of that, she might notice the new tension underneath Todd’s facade of calm warmth. Maybe the slight shift in weight when she mentioned she liked it. He’d liked it, too. He didn’t like that he’d liked it. Going forward, it was harmless play, no touching involved at all. Not that he’d touched, but he’d come close, too close.

He watched as she pulled her hair up, nodding like he was listening to her with a close-lipped smile. Without the hair to frame it, her face was small and heart-shaped, rounded at the edges, but not an ounce of fat.

As that thought could be either the predator or the admirer, he put it away as quickly as it came.

“Yes, ma’am, understood loud and clear.” He made an effort to look sober and gave a sharp salute, before letting his grin show again. The smile was harmless, if she wasn’t afraid of it. “I’m willing to bet lunch I can get more in than you.”

It was a bet designed to pay for lunch, of course. He could clear this restaurant out completely if he wanted to, but he could also pace himself when it came to normal food. Even if it was by a crumb, he could keep behind her pretty easily no matter what her appetite was, as long as she didn’t eat at a snail’s pace and hadn’t been kidding about the size of the bill.
 

Sam’s flirtatious smile became a sharp grin, the grin of someone who knew they were being challenged and believed they would win. She leaned in close and said in a playful tone. “I’ll take that bet. I can afford to lose… but I probably won’t.”

She stood up and made her way over to the buffet, looking it up and down with a watering mouth. She had eaten that morning, but it was never enough food. It was never enough, not ever. So having a real lunch again, and likely on someone else’s dime, well that was a dream come true for her on most days. Today was a weird day, but still. She felt the desire to just start loading up on something other than her usual food, a desire she felt anytime she went to places like this.

She picked up one of the large plates at the end of the line and then with a bright and truly happy smile, she started loading up. She filled half her plate with fried rice, then got scoops of cashew chicken and General Tso’s, her plate growing heavy as she kept scooping. And scooping. And finally, when her first plate was full, she took it back to the table. She did not sit down when she set it down, but instead walked right back over and picked up a second plate. This one got a single scoop of white rise, and then a heaping helping of chow mein, followed by an ungodly amount of mandarin chicken.

This time when she got back, she sat down. That was probably enough for the first pass. If the goal was to get kicked out, Sam thought she could probably pack in about three more passes. Just enough of everything to be a problem.​
 
Todd stood by while Sam loaded up her first plate, and set at the trays with gusto. His first pass was always proteins – however much chicken, beef, pork, and ribs he could cram into a space, sampling everything, if a full serving could be called a sample. Then, while he was at it, he served himself a bowl of soup, and picked out a full plate of sushi. If he’d ever been squeamish about eating something raw, he’d been cured of that by necessity a long time ago.

Finally, he balanced one of those styrofoam containers of sweet and sour sauce for dipping at the edge of the first plate, and came back to find Sam had definitely gone for ‘more is better’ from the outset. His own smile grew sharper as he realized just how much he’d be able to eat while keeping with the spirit of the challenge. Maybe he would just get sick of eating long before she was done.

The sodas were set at the table by the time they were finished. Todd slipped into his seat and unwrapped a pair of chopsticks, and waited for her signal to start, like it wasn’t just a challenge but a race. It wasn’t, he was definitely going to enjoy this, but it was only fair to give her a second’s headstart.
 

Sam set about arranging her plates. As soon as Todd got back, she gave him a look, eyeing his own mountain of food. Oh, she was actually going to be able to eat as much as she normally would, and he might not even bat an eye. But then, she knew that he knew she was a meta-human by this point. She had decided that was okay with her, given how she would never see him again. Maybe she should have been a little stricter with herself, but she couldn’t bring herself to think too hard about it while food was in front of her.

Todd looked at her, chopsticks in his hands. It took her a moment to realize what he was doing. Then, a grin crossed her face and she picked up her own chopsticks, separating them and grasping them in her left hand. Then she gave him a nod, a cue to start, and she tore into her plates of food. She didn’t bother being pretty while she ate. She simply tore into the food, picking up mouthfuls of rice between proteins, until all but the noodles were gone. It took a little longer than it might have otherwise, but that really didn't mean much when you ate food faster than someone who had been starved for weeks.

When she finally got down to her noodles, she paused for a breath and looked at him. She finished a bite and then took a long drink of her Coke before asking, “What do you think? You regret this yet?”

As she said it, she wasn’t sure if she meant the bet, or if she meant the afternoon entirely. Maybe both. Her eyes stayed warm as she asked it though, with no trace of nerves or worry on her face. She had a bit of a glow about her now that she had some food, almost as though her body had decided that she deserved to look healthy again as it worked away on processing it.​
 
Todd did eat at the pace of someone who’d been starving for weeks. He did focus on only one flavor at a time – orange chicken, General Tso’s, sweet-and-sour, and so on. By the time either of them stopped long enough to take a breath and a drink, he’d set the chopsticks aside and picked up the first spare rib.

He grinned, kept eye contact, and bit into the rib. He intended to bite down and pull the meat off with his teeth, the way a normal person. Unfortunately, he misjudged, and there was a crack of broken bone. He took the remaining piece of meat away from his mouth, half-hoping that it’d be mistakable for a burnt part – but no, the snapped end of the yellowed bone was visible through the reddish meat and sauce.

He twisted his mouth at it, not quite frowning as he chewed, then shrugged and smiled at Sam. He saw her glow, saw the happiness in her face as she actually treated herself, and with it came a new layer of beauty over the coyly pretty face. He had no idea what caused her appetite, but was satisfied to know it wasn't the same thing as him, anyway. She’d known there was something up with him. If she thought he had the unnatural talent of biting bones apart, it was better than figuring out the rest. He took another bite, this one quickly and deliberately snapping the bone underneath.

He chewed it thoughtfully, swallowed, took another drink, and then simply declared, “I regret nothing.”
 

Sam heard the snap. Todd made a face, but then kept chewing, and when he bit into the rib again, the same crunching snap happened. She paused then, freezing for half a beat before continuing to scarf down her noodles. That gave her time to think before she said something stupid.

She had a chance to either acknowledge this or to ignore it much the same way he had been ignoring hers. Teeth strong enough to bit through bones like that wasn’t a human thing. Not a regular human thing, anyway. It could be a meta-human thing, though. It explained why he hadn’t called her out on her powers and may have even explained why she felt safe enough to let go around him. Sam hadn’t met many other meta-humans, but she always felt more comfortable around them.

Maybe it had been when he moved her car. Sure, it wasn’t big, and he had put on a good show, but maybe something in her had clocked it at that point. Maybe it was just an aura that meta-humans had, that allowed them to recognize each other. Whatever the reason, something in her brain had clearly clocked him as “something else.”

Before she decided to address it, she got up and refilled her plate, this time also grabbing soup, crab rangoon, as much teriyaki chicken as she could fit, and a tray of sushi. As she rejoined him, she gave him time to refill his own plates if he wanted to, and then she asked softly, “So then. You know what I am. And I can guess you’re the same. Different, but one of us. Am I right?”​
 
He saw her freeze, and for just a second he wondered if the ramifications of what might’ve happened outside had hit her with that second snap. It’d been an honest mistake to begin with. Maybe she’d realized, and when she got up to get another plate of food she wasn’t planning to come back. It wasn’t hard to force himself to be fine with that.

He didn’t watch her, but he did listen as he went back to work on the food. The bones slowed him down a bit, but it’d be a shame to waste them now that he’d gotten started. Even through the snapping and crunching, he could tell that Sam didn’t sound like she was leaving. She sounded like she was walking around the buffet again, like nothing had happened, like nothing was wrong.

When she sat down he blinked at her, still surprised she was still here as he switched out his empty plate for the soup. When she asked her question, relaxed and smiled. He couldn’t help it, not when she asked in that tone. And there was no denying it now.

“Takes one to know one, I guess,” he confirmed, in the same soft tone. After a sip of his soup, he added, “Yours seems way cooler, though. Figuratively, anyway.”
 
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