OTA

[alcuin]

It had been a while since anyone had randomly recognized Alcuin. He credited this in part to the fading memory of the city (despite the tabloid flair-up around the holidays), and in part to his decision to cut his hair. He'd also taken to wearing glasses, which were a prescription weak enough that he'd typically gone without them in the past, but he was spending considerably more time in front of a computer these days than he had when Anafiel was alive. Maybe it was a little Clark Kent of him, but he definitely wasn't noticed as much this way. And it wasn't even just being recognized, but he also got less attention. Which caused... more conflicting emotions than he would have anticipated.

In any case, this all resulted in his looking like a rather normal young man sitting at an outdoor cafe drinking coffee and reading a copy of Jon Ronson's new book So You've Been Publicly Shamed. It struck a bit of a chord with him, to be honest. He was glad he hadn't spent much time on social media last year. He really didn't want to know what Twitter had thought of him.

The cafe was busier than usual, perhaps due to the weather being nice, and it was a Friday just late enough for people to skip out of work early. He reached over and took his bag out of the other seat at his table in case anyone wanted to join him, as there were no more empty seats around.

Comments

[akatawitch]

Sunny had been about to leave, given the lack of seating options available, when she spotted the young man sitting by himself. It wasn't his solitude in the setting that caught her eye. No, it was the near-white of his hair, his pale skin. Oddly enough, it was even the glasses. She was rare, an albino without a vision impairment. Some were legally blind.

So she just wanted to see...

She adjusted the bag on her shoulder to tuck it closer to her body as she wove closer. "Excuse me..."

What exactly did she intend to say? She really didn't know.

[alcuin]

Alcuin looked up at the sound of her voice, meeting her gaze with his dark eyes. There was a clear tension to his body, too, just a note of skittish animal about him. But it appeared to be an automatic response because then he relaxed. She probably just wanted a place to sit.

"Hi, hello," he said. "Yes, help yourself to the seat, I know that it's getting a bit crowded."

[akatawitch]

When Sunny was little, some of her relatives--not her mother, because being a medical doctor she didn't have time for this kind of nonsense--said that her eyes were hazel because God ran out of the right color. She had of course wondered how it was possible for, y'know, God to be in that situation, but talking back to your elders just wasn't an option.

Still, now she found herself thinking, Ah. So that's where God put it.

"Thank you," she said automatically as she tried to think of a good, concise explanation for why she was more or less staring at him. "I'm sorry, I thought that you might've..." Oh, hell with it. "Thought you might've been albino, too."

But there were other things. His accent said almost as clearly as hers did that he hadn't grown up here. Lived here considerably longer than she had, but wasn't a native. That was interesting.

[alcuin]

Well that was actually a nice change, having someone stare at him for something completely innocuous.

He shook his head, with a little smile. "Afraid not. Just... well, as fair as one can possibly be, I suppose. If you were looking for a place to sit you're welcome to join me."

[akatawitch]

Sunny took the offer and sat down, her coffee on the table, bag by her feet where she could feel it against her leg. "You're probably even less common than me," she said. "Don't think I ever saw someone like you who wasn't blue-eyed."

[whispersoflove]

Anael had been ambling down the street, enjoying the slight breeze that ruffled his hair, when he spotted the young man outside the café. It had been quite some time since he had last seen him, by mortal standards, he supposed, and he beamed, pulling his hands out of his pockets as he made his way over to him.

"Alcuin!" he called out as he came close, smiling warmly at him.

[alcuin]

"Anael." Alcuin smiled warmly as well, going so far as to stand up so that he could offer him his hands.

[whispersoflove]

Anael happily took a hold of them and squeezed them in his joy to see the young man. "It's been too long since we last crossed paths." But he was glad that they had again. "How are you?"

[alcuin]

"Oh, I'm very well," Alcuin said. "I just finished exams. It was a busy semester." In truth he'd thrown himself into his schoolwork to avoid thinking of other things - the reemergence of media attention after the photograph of him and Hannibal in the tabloids, the encounter with a former client that had prompted him to cut his hair.

[whispersoflove]

"Then perhaps it was for the best we did not run into each other again for a while," Anael replied. "You got Anafiel's book back safely, I hope? I left it in your mailbox when you did not answer your door, one evening. I did not want you to deprive you of it for too long."

[benependente]

Juan was just sitting in this nice little café, enjoying his coffee, when a young man sat down a few tables away.

Now, that was a familiar face, Juan knew, but he couldn't quite figure out why. All he knew, somehow, was that it would be useful to remember.

It took him a while, but eventually, he did remember. So, he took his bag and his coffee and walked over to the young man's table.

"Hello. You know, I just spent half an hour trying to figure out why you look so familiar, but I finally got it. Royal Albert Hall, benenift concert, about a month ago. You were there, surely? Hard to tell with the short hair and the glasses, but it has to be."

He knew a little more, of course. This was Alcuin Delauny-something, former prostitute now turned psychology student, with a lover three times his age.

But while his thoughts were less than charming, his manner and his smile certainly were.

[alcuin]

There was a brief note of tension in Alcuin's body at first, a reaction to being recognized, but then he realized that the man didn't seem to know who he was. He relaxed.

"Yes, I was there," he said, offering a polite smile. "But I don't think we met...?" Though there was something familiar about the man's features. Alcuin couldn't place it.

[benependente]

"I didn't have the pleasure, no," Juan said, charmingly. Oh, he could be when he want to. "Juan Borgia, pleasure to meet a fellow Ravel enthusiast. May I join you?"

[alcuin]

Borgia. Well, that explained why there was a note of familiarity to him.

It was only a flash, but there was no mistaking that the name meant something to Alcuin, and that his downcast eyes immediately after suggested he preferred to hide the reaction. He certainly wasn't going to say anything about Cesare.

"Of course," he said, looking back up then and gesturing to the seat. "My name is Alcuin. It's a pleasure to meet you, Juan."

[benependente]

Juan was accustomed to his name meaning something to people. If not for himself, then either the person was charmed by sister, fucked by his brother, or known by his father. He doubted the latter, possibly the first. Most likely, though, this whore knew his brother. Typical.

"We don't bite, you know," he said with a smile. "Just call me Juan and forget my last name."

[harrowgate]

It was a certain comment on Felix's frame of mind that he noticed the title of the book before the young man holding it. The last months had been a series of extremely private emotional thunderstorms, hurt and anger packed down in his heart and suppressed, eating away at him. In all of that time, he had thought of Alcuin frequently, but had not contacted him. Alcuin still bore the label of 'Shannon's friend' in Felix's mind, and he could not know whose side the young beauty would take.

Felix had paused with his cup and saucer on his way to find a table, just to scan the title of the book that had caught his eye. Darkly, he wondered if he mightn't need just such a manual before long. Only then did he realize that he recognized the elegant white hands turning the pages.

"Alcuin?" he asked in surprise.

[alcuin]

Alcuin glanced up the voice, and immediately relaxed into a smile when he recognized the man speaking to him. "Felix," he said, and took off his glasses as he closed the book with his other hand. "How nice to see you."

[harrowgate]

Perhaps Alcuin hadn't spoken to Shannon. Felix wasn't certain how he felt about it. A part of him did feel rather uncomfortable that Shannon's friends were so few.

Yet how could Felix resist a smile like that?

He drew out the chair opposite Alcuin, and slid himself down into it. "I assure you, the pleasure is all mine. You've changed your hair. It's positively transfixing."

[alcuin]

Alcuin immediately brought a hand self consciously to his hair. "Really?" He sounded almost hopeful, as if he'd been waiting for some sort of affirmation.

[harrowgate]

"I never lie about personal grooming," Felix answered, suppressing a smile. If it was that easy to make Alcuin happy, it cost him nothing. He leaned back in his chair, set his saucer down, and kept his cup in his hands for occasional sips. "It brings out your eyes and highlights your bone structure. You might be stunning people in the street and not even realizing," he confided with a teasing glitter in his eyes.

[im_torchwood]

Jack didn't follow the tabloids and he only had social media flagged for posts about strange phenomena he might have to follow up on. Weevil sightings and things like that. Today all he knew was he wanted a bottle of water and a bite to eat. There was literally only one chair open and the guy occupying the table was handsome so Jack bodly made his way over.

"Is this seat taken?" he asked, charm coming off him in waves.

[alcuin]

Alcuin looked up at the voice, and found himself losing his own for a split second at the sight of the man, who looked like he'd stepped out of someone's mental image of Prince Charming.

"No... no, it's not," he finally said, and slid a thumb into his book to mark his place.

[im_torchwood]

"Mind if I join you?" Jack asked as he sat down without invitation. He put his sandwich down but took a drink of water to quench his thirst before he decided to say-

"I'm Jack."

[alcuin]

"Not at all," Alcuin said, and this time, he actually closed his book. He also took off his glasses and set them down on top of it. "I'm Alcuin. It's a pleasure to meet you, Jack."

[im_torchwood]

"Alcuin...that's French, huh?" he asked, playing up the American facade. He'd found most people bought it easily and that made things easier on him.