Chance Encounter in the Park

[hazlogs]

It is currently 19:51 Pacific Time on Mon Mar 28 2016.

Currently in Saint Claire, it's a sunny day. The temperature is 54 degrees Fahrenheit (12 degrees Celsius). The wind is currently coming in from the northeast at 9 mph. The barometric pressure reading is 30.18 and steady, and the relative humidity is 52 percent. The dewpoint is 37 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius.) For more detail, see: http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=98501

Currently the moon is in the waning Gibbous (Galliard) Moon phase (64% full).

Harbor Park -- The Meadow(#194RJ)

One of the last bastions of green left in the city, mottled and withered grass and weeds covers the earth like a badly stained carpet, with the construction work turning what is left into just bare dirt. The vegetation seems marginally healthier the further it is from the river and much healthier towards the central area of the park around the fountain. Construction work is ongoing here: a raised earthen berm about five feet tall is being built all around the park perimeter, with two breaks each at the Bridge Street entrance and the First Street end. Wooden posts are being erected at regular intervals all along the earthen wall, while tasteful iron gates and fences are being added at the entrances. Overpowering the scent of living vegetation are the exhaust fumes from a busy street to the west and an unpleasant stench from the Columbia River to the east. From the street view or river view, the park is now isolated, as if it existed apart from the city. People in tall buildings have an excellent view of any goings-ons for now, though. In the center of the park, a small glade of six tall trees and a flower bed surrounds the fountain.

The murky waters of the Columbia River flow swiftly along the east side of the park. Bracketing the park to the west is First Street and the city of St. Claire.

It's a chilly spring evening, right at that time when there's still a bit of light in the sky, but the streetlamps have just come on. Salem's standing on the back of a park bench, balancing there with his hands stuffed into the pockets of his jeans. From there the kid keeps a sentinel view of the park, the weirdo.

Linnaea doesn't take walks in the park as often as she used to, but tonight she's doing just that. The young woman has a messenger bag slung over her shoulder, one earbud in her ear, and is walking along the path from the street, towards the fountain... but not particularly fast, and a few times she stops to pause for a few seconds, looking around.

Linnaea is a petite young woman, just under five feet in height when she stands fully straight. Dark hair with auburn and even lighter blond highlights hangs in a braid slightly past her shoulders, with stray hairs that escape to form bangs and frame her face, and brown eyes. Her skin is fair but tanned, with freckles across her cheeks, and features that are not delicate so much as they are strong and simply there. She wears practical clothing, jeans and a brightly colored teeshirts, and sturdy looking slip on shoes.

(OOC) Linnaea says "Oh, and she's wearing a black teeshirt with baby groot on a rainbow."

Lily has got on a cold-warding lined leather jacket, black to match her low heeled boots and pants, and a white shirt with a few silver striped diagonally across her abdomen. She's not paying attention as one might expect of a girl her age with her nose pointed at an iPhone and busily perusing social media. It's a good thing she's on the sidewalk and isn't aimed at one of the streetlights.

Lily is a teenager, but she's the sort to look suspiciously older due to a skillful application of makeup, high end clothing, and hair always done up with style. She's got the look of a full-blooded Asian, though exactly from where is a bit trickier to say, but from flawless skin to raven hair to dark almond-shaped eyes she's got the telltale design. She's not a very tall girl, maybe reaching the low inches of five feet, but she's built on an athlete's frame. She's slender looking, but close inspection shows carefully cultivated muscles and lean sculpting that only a athlete could maintain. She's beautiful, there's no denying that, and could possibly be a model were it not for an aloof, cool air about her that leaves her a bit distant seeming.

Salem's eye doesn't linger on Lily any more than it does the other inhabitants of the park this evening -- many of whom are determined to enjoy spring even if it's not especially warm yet. Linnaea, though, catches his attention. He cocks his head slightly, brow furrowed as he watches her, mentally playing place-the-face.

Linnaea pays attention to neither teenager, though at one point she stops again, and shakes her head to herself, looking about in a slow turning three hundred sixty degrees. When she walks again, still slowly, and this time singing along (my songs know what you did in the daaaaaark), it's towards the outbuilding. The restrooms, all the way a perhaps impossible distance on the other side of the park.

Lily doesn't look to the other two. Why should she? She does pause in her walking though and stares at the phone. She squints closer at it and then rolls up her eyes with a none-so-quiet sound of disgust. Scowling, she begins to rapidly thumb-tap a response back to something she sees with one corner of her lip pulled up in annoyance.

The shoe drops; Salem puts a name to the face and hops down off the back of the bench, one sneakered foot making brief contact with the bench seat before he's back on _terra firma_ and heading toward Linnaea at a trot.

"...what an idiot." Lily mutters as she types and begins walking again, save her path is aimed right towards Lin and she apparently is utterly unaware of it. "Doesn't she know that color will just make her look washed out? No wonder she never stays married." Salem? Nope, she doesn't seem to notice he's there at all either.

And at the same time, Linnaea manages to barely avoid being run into by Lily. Avoid being by about three inches of coming to a dead halt and moving to the side, though not enough to the side to get out of Lily's path. The Gaian, at least, though, is paying some attention to her surroundings and where she's walking, and so she's able to walk and then stumble backwards. "Hey, watchit!" the Brit grumbles, accent pronounced even if her volume for the scolding of the teen doesn't rise above a modest conversational level. And there's some saving grace that keeps the stumbling theurge on her feet, a second glance spared for Salem.

"Whoops," says Salem mildly as he comes jogging up. He looks more amused than anything. Lily certainly gets another look now, but most of his attention's on the Gaian. "Linnaea, isn't it?"

Lily jerks her head up sharply as that belated warning indicator goes off in her head due to the near collision. Annoyance flashes rapidly to anger as she hisses out a, "You watch! Can't you see I was here?" And there is no tone of apology nor indication she believes she was at all at fault. "There's room over--" She begins to point towards the other side of the sidewalk, only to find she's pointing at Salem. She straightens up her back and squints at the other teen with her head pulled back, giving all the impression of an affronted high strung horse. Or perhaps more filly since she's still half leg. Then she looks to Linnaea. Then to Salem. She snorts once as there's indication they may know one another and so she moves to stalk right past the two and continues on her way.

Linnaea pulls a folding cane out of her messenger bag, unfolds it so she can lean on it, and gives Lily a distinct glare, although all things told, it's mild. But there's weight behind it. "Try walking on the right side of the path," the Brit offers to Lily, ever polite. Lin is, in fact, on her relative right hand side. "This is, after all, America." There's muttered grumbling, and then Salem gets a wholly puzzled look. "Yes. Linnaea Macey, but most people 'round here call me Lin if they've talked to me more'n once."

Salem grimaces at Lily and steps out of her way, unimpressed with her 'tude and a little scornful. The latter is obvious in the way he turns back to Lin, dismissing the other teenager as unimportant. "I don't think we've spoken more than a few times, no. Jack Salem. And yes, I /know/."

Lily leaves the two others to talk after a parting and dismissive-sounding, "Then why are you here?" She's clearly got more important things to do, like judge people online - and in person. The Asian-looking girl just keeps on walking with her boot heels clicking on the cement.

The departing teenager gets an irritated look and a head-shaking from Linnaea, before she turns back and manages words. "Okay, I really /have/ been living under a rock," Linnaea says, half to the air, and Salem gets a respectful but ever-so-slightly-dubious look from the Gaian. And then an up-and down observation, before she tilts her head up a little to look, and ask, "Come here often, then?"

Salem raises eyebrows. "Quite a lot, actually." He glances past her to note Lily's departure, more or less waiting for her to get some distance before he turns back to Lin. "Terminus keeping you busy?"

Linnaea nods. "Most of the time, yes. Terminus, and then uni, and the pack, and Terminus, and so it goes it seems. I've been trying to get out more, though, at least until finals, and I don't have any major projects right now at work," she lifts a shoulder, and moves over to sit on the park bench that Salem was previously standing on, rubbing at her knees. "I /should/ come here more, though."

Salem follows and leans against the bench, arms folded across his chest. "You should," he agrees. "But, believe me, I know how it goes, getting so much on your plate that..." He gestures vaguely, hand making a little circle in the air. "Difficult to fit everything in."

"And hard to prioritise, and re-prioritise, and re-prioritise again everything that there is to start with," Lin adds, with a bit of a grin. The cane is folded back up and shoved back away with a bit of a furrow of brow, rest from having stumbled backwards apparently enough to not warrant it being used anymore. "I'll figure it out, I'm sure. Coming here, the fountain, always helps me think. On either side, actually. I came here a lot as a cub, I came here a lot when I got back into town."

The halfmoon nods. "It's a good spot, especially these days." He scratches at his chin and glances upward. "Rude shitheads aside." He pushes off the bench, straightening up. "I apologize for interrupting you -- I just wanted to make sure I'd actually recognized you and, of course, say hello." He grins faintly.

Linnaea shakes her head quietly. "It's no problem at all," she responds, with a bit of a grin of her own. "Like I said, I've been living under a rock, and Charlene and my pack keep telling me I need t' not do that, and well. I can't not do that if I don't ever talk to anyone." She chuckles as she pushes to her feet, and looks around. "Plus, I'd never have recognised you, no disrespect or anything." Another look around the park, and the young woman angles back towards the outbuilding again, most likely for a out of the way to step sideways. "I'll see you around?"

Salem sketches a half-assed sort of salute, two fingers touching his forehead; his crooked little grin looks like trouble. "Most likely. Be seeing you."