Kidd Spring Park
It's later at night… Not so late as to be considered a crazy time to be out, but late enough that the sun has set and the heat of the day is beginning to dissipate.
Corey left Brett's place on foot a little while ago, out for an evening run. Of course, his runs almost inevitably include an 'off-road' component. He is, after all, a practitioner of that odd, acrobatic running discipline known as Parkour. Thus, as he runs now, it's with a grace and fluidity that's quite feline in its way… all without the slightest trace of supernatural enhancement. But, obstacles are no barriers to him. Small walls near walkways? Cleared like hurdles. The jungle gym? Merely a place for him to swing and slide like a monkey as he passes up and over it with ease. Picnic tables? Passed over palm-over-palm as his legs swing effortlessly over top and he lands without breaking stride to move on to the next obstacle.
Indeed, the man's a veritable human pinball, bouncing off of this, that, and the other thing on his way towards the woods.
~
Tch, tch! It should always be considered a crazy time to be out when it's after dark. That's when the crazy people come out to play!
Tonight, the crazy isn't filled with bright colors. She's not sporting neon, or spandex. She's wearing a pair of faded black jeans, with basket-weaved patching. Around the waist is a rope belt, and her top is a black blouse with a pink floral print tank top beneath it. The blouse is left open and tied up around her chest, and her hair? Well it's in a hundred teensy braids and pulled up into a high side ponytail.
"An' here I go again on my own! Goin' down the only road I've ever known! Like a drifter I was born to walk aloooone~. An' I've made up my mind, I ain't wastin' no more time. Here I go— "
Stopping dead in her skipping along the path, she squeaks, "COREY HART!" Then she starts to run at him full speed, intent to tackle him to the grassy area of the park.
~
It really doesn't matter how fast Corey's going. Ronnie can, will, and does move faster. The shout is about the only warning he gets, and, really, it's only enough to have him turn his head before — "WHAUGH!" — he's absolutely tackled into the soft earth with 100 lbs of crazy vampire piled on top of him.
"Ooph!"
He coughs a couple of times in an effort to catch the breath that was forcibly knocked out of him and blinks up into Ronnie's delighted face. "Ronnie," he coughs again. "Heeey… Long time no see." He'd pat her on the shoulders, but his arms a pinned. "Y'mind getting off?"
~
Wall dancing Corey Hart makes funny noises when brought to the ground! Ronnie actually giggles, then gets up off'a him. "You're still like, totally alive! Well I mean, like, of course you're totally alive, 'cuz if you weren't alive you'd be like way dead." Beat. Beat. "Or like, totally undead. Undead is cool. Hey! You seen any bunnies around here? I was totally looking for Coco, 'cuz she like knows all the cool bunny spots, but I can't remember what park I met her in or anything like that. You don't know Coco do you?"
After the ramble, she pokes at his nose. "You're like, not wearing the nifty sunglasses I bought'cha for at night. Like in your song!"
~
Corey shakes his head slowly. He still doesn't know Coco, though he recalls the name from the first time he met Ronnie here.
Note to self: Stop running in Kidd Park.
He takes in the rest of her ramble, still trapped beneath her, and debates just how to answer. Then, she 'beeps' his nose. And he blinks.
And then he wiggles, trying at least to free his arm. "Sunglasses. At night. Right." One arm comes free and lays on her shoulder, then the other. "I, uh, didn't wanna get 'em messed up, y'know? 'Cause…. hey, they were cool. 'Specially the green ones." A beat. "I've totally worn those."
Not a lie. He did wear them. In the 80's, even… Before he was ten.
He offers his usual, charming smile and attempts to roll her gently to one side so he can at least sit up. Fangbanger, he is not. So, this?
This is incredibly awkward.
~
"But it's in your song, dude. The sunglasses at night thing. I remember. Corey Hart wears his sunglasses at night!"
Ronnie is not a monster though, and he asked to get up. So she gets up, and suddenly from nowhere (you really don't want to know where) a pair of sunglasses is whisked out. Almost as though she carries them on her person for just such an occasion. As she forcibly helps him to his feet, she plops them on his nose. "There ya go!"
Without skates this evening, she can't skate around him. She can slowly circle him though, and she double-nods her head. "Hey! I like totally almost had a pet a while ago. I was at the mall, and this puppy came up to me, and I got it a pretty collar, but she didn't like being named Frankie, or Freddie, or whatever I was gonna name'er, so I offered to call'er George, and she ran away."
Pause.
"I guess people and pets totally don't like me. Maybe I'm too scary? But I'm totally trying, see? Wil Wheaton said I should be more ladylike and not wear such bright colors. This is good, right? It's black."
You will now hear messages on channel <Public>.
~
"Yeah," Corey says with a lopsided smile. "Yeah, it is. But, you know… Um…" How to explain this one?
He takes a moment to dust himself off. "Well, I go by the name Coleman, now. Not Hart. 'Cause… um… you know. Incognito. So, if I wear the sunglasses at night" He recoils just a little in surprise as she suddenly pops a pair on his nose. "it's like a dead giveaway." He blinks through the dark lenses, a hand coming up to pull them down slightly and peer over the top of them. "Um. Thanks."
Then, she's on to babbling about 'Frankie the Dog' and he can't help but break out into a huge grin. Crazy vampire or not, teasing Brett about that was just so much fun! "Frankie… George. Was a 'she', huh?" This, for some inexplicable reason makes him grin just that little bit wider. What? Brett's cajones weren't visible that night when he was a coyote? Oh, that part of the story just makes it all that much funnier. At least he now knows the girl isn't inclined to check out butts. Not dog butts, at least. "Gee. I'm sorry she got away. Maybe you'll have better luck next time."
Though, really, he hopes that, if there is a 'next time, it's a real animal she's after and not a shifter.
"Uh!" He looks quickly at Ronnie's clothes as she indicates the reason for her more demure dress. "It looks okay to me, yeah. Black. With just a bit of pink. It's, uh, great. Yeah."
His expression just settles into a lopsided smile now.
~
"Coleman's a silly name. Hart is a real rock name! You shouldn't hide! I mean, it's totally not cool to hide when you're famous!"
Then she leans in, almost conspiratorially. "I'm famous, y'know? People forget, but I totally am." A stout nod or two happens, and she just smiles when he peers at her over the top of the glasses. "You gotta keep wearing them, Corey of my heart! You're a total babe-o-rama with them!" Oh, if a vampire could blush? She definitely would be. Fanning herself too, but she's too punk to do anything of the sort thank-you-very-much.
"Well duh 'course Frankie was a she! S'why I went and got a totally kick-ass pink collar for her! I wouldn't put a pink collar on a boy puppy, that's just silly."
Then the big OH-MY-GOD moment happens, and he compliments her! To Ronnie it's a compliment and it makes her smile as she twirls around. "I thought so! Thanks! I tried to look pretty for you!" Chances are it's what the staff at the Carmilla left out for her though.
~
Uh-oh.
This? This is not so good.
That the vampire has a crush on him is pretty evident. What's equally clear to him, though she'd have no way of knowing, is that he's up to his neck in it if she ever meets Leigh and realizes that he really wants start dating that cop. Formally. And thinks that he's just been leading her on. That would be BAD.
And it would, no doubt, break the vampire's heart. Which might be an unhealthy situation. For him. Or Leigh. Or both. Or even Ronnie, herself, if the wrong things happen and the wrong people get involved.
"Oh. Hey. That's great, Ronnie. Really." His smile remains lopsided, now. Man, she knows how to make things awkward.
He slides the sunglasses off his nose, now, holding them loosely in his fingers. "But, y'know, it probably wouldn't be a good idea for us to, like, flirt too much. 'Cause, uh, y'know… people might get the wrong idea, hey?" He winces now. For such a charming guy, he sure doesn't know how to deal with this sort of thing gracefully.
"I mean, well, you're the coolest vampire I know," he says quickly. He doesn't mention that she's one of only two vampires he's met… and the only one that's female. That's not important. "No question. I mean, you're totally cool. But, you know, you got Will to worry about and all this other stuff going on. And, uh, I know how famous you are. I'm always hearing about you." From Brett, but that's not the point, either. "I mean, you gotta be pretty busy."
~
A crazy vampire is far from being able to read minds or tell what's going on in the noggins of the breathers she interacts with. She could glamour him, but that's not very fair and Ronnie's not really a bad sort. Crazy, confused, not at all right in the head… but she's not evil.
Even so, one can likely see the little chink, chink, crack of her fragile little emotions.
Then it happens. All the pretty little tears that spill down her cheeks? They're not bloody tears like a regular vampire would have. They're normal. Almost human. If she had to breathe, there would be a sniffle.
"Right. I'm totally like, super busy. So busy that I have to get back. I mean, there's a whole lotta MTV to watch, and bunnies to find, and where'd I leave my Coco?" No, wait. She asked him that already.
Things might get a little dangerous. Once she's had time to sit down and think about how angry she is. Right now though, the crazy 80's vampire is just moving toward the swings.
~
Aw… crap.
"Oh, hey. Heeey… Don't be like that…" Corey says, wincing as he moves towards her, as if she were a human girl, rather than a crazy vampire. See, his big problem is that he's not really good at lying — unless it has to do with being a shifter.
She starts off towards the swings and he debates whether he should follow. But, see, his mamma raised him right. And undead or not, the vampire's still a girl, and he's not supposed to make girls cry, if he can avoid it.
Damn it.
"Ronnie!" he calls after her. "Ronnie, wait!"
Against his better judgment, but completely in keeping with his guilt complex, he jogs towards her. "C'mon… Just… Hang on a minute."
He slows a little as she nears the swings. "Ronnie, I'm not trying to hurt your feelings. An'-and I know I have, and I'm sorry." He's also beginning to babble just a bit, speaking a little faster with the hope she'll hear him out. "I'm really sorry. But, see… Look, my mom always said it was wrong to lead a girl on. It means you don't really like 'em, you don't respect 'em. And I don't want you to think that about me. I do like you. I mean, I like you, I just don't… Aw! C'mon. Please?" He pats his pockets, looking for a handkerchief. The best he can find is a blue and white dew rag he sometimes wears at the worksite to keep from sweating too much. So, it's a little musty, but it smells like him, to be sure. He extends it towards her. "Here. Let me wipe your eyes, anyway."
Especially since her tears aren't bloody.
~
Very little reaction happens from the vampire as he talks. Ronnie just continues her trek to the swings. She's got no intention of leaving the park until she remembers where she was when she made the bunny go swimming and drown out its evil. She does intend to go swinging though.
Settling herself onto the swing so gently that the chains don't even jostle, she blinks at him. "I'm crying?" A hand reaches up and she wipes some of the moisture from her cheeks. "Oh." Blink. "Oh!"
Dipping her head away from him, she avoids the dew rag for all of two seconds. Then she reaches out to snatch it and wipe at her own eyes. "You're just a Corey," she explains with a tear-stained smile. "I can't lose another Corey. I gotta like, totally collect them. Y'know, I met them once. The Corey's. They were pretty cool. They liked to party a lot though." A double bop of her head, and she tucks the dew rag into her pocket.
"You should go, Corey Hart. I'm like, totally getting super-duper hungry, and I can't find any bunnies. You may taste like swamp, and be like barf-o-rama to taste, but if I get hungry enough I might wanna bite, and I don't wanna hurt you."
~
Okay. That's clear enough. He doesn't really wanna be vamp food.
"Oh, okay," he says, taking a step back from her. He'll get a new dew rag sometime. "Well. Hey. Look. No one said you had to lose me, okay? I just can't date you. It wouldn't be fair."
Another step or two away from her. "But, uh… Hey, if you ever need help hunting bunnies, you let me know. I'm always game for a hunt."
Especially, when he's shifted. But, that's something else again.
A beat.
"Um… Have a good night, Ronnie. I'll see you around."
And, with that, he turns and lopes slowly away, back towards Brett's.
~
"I don't date, silly," Ronnie says, giving him a really strange look. "Last time I dated, I wound up in California, and I don't remember how I got there." Reaching up to scratch her head, she giggles. "I just like flirtin' 'cuz you're really hot and you're totally a Corey." Obviously the word 'Corey' means more than just his name the way she says it. It likely equates to calling someone a 'hottie' these days.
"Thanks for goin'," she yelps after him. The hunger pains hit, and she hops off the swing and runs speedily away in the other direction. Heck, he's the only swampy person she actually really likes. Well him, and Coco. 'cuz Coco gave her skates. She doesn't want to slip up and eat him accidentally. That'd make Wil Wheaton really, really angry.
Still, hanging in the night as she runs, strains of Pat Benatar's Heartbreaker can be heard.
