(no subject)

[duelo]

WHO: Derek Hale and OTA
WHERE: Various, but mostly De Chima
WHEN: November
WHAT: Catch all for November threads
WARNINGS: tbd, but probably some language? idk



PETMART

Between classes, they tend to put Derek to work at the pet store just restocking shelves, cleaning up after irresponsible pet parents leaving messes from their impatient animals behind, or just walking the aisles to see whether any of the customers need help. That's the part he's the least comfortable with but, more often than not, it's the part he's most often doing.

The longer he works here, training puppies and seeing how much people's dogs love them, the more he's been itching to see what it's like to have a dog of his own. The thing is, though, he doesn't want to do that when he's still living in government housing. Then he'd have to check with his roommates to make sure they were all on board with having a dog in the house and it just doesn't feel like the sort of thing he's in the mood to do.

"Are you finding everything you're looking for?" he asks a customer who's been standing in the same aisle with him for a few minutes now, looking at things but not necessarily actually taking anything off the shelf.

DOWNTOWN DE CHIMA

In the wake of his blow up with Vanya...and the one with Diego...Derek's trying to broaden his horizons again. Maybe it'll be good to meet more people, not to replace his friends, because he's trying to work things out with them still, but to expand his circle. He realized belatedly that if he doesn't have them, he doesn't really have anybody. There are a couple of people that he thinks he could probably be friends with if he actually tried, but how does one do that? Diego and Vanya just sort of...happened. It seems awkward to just say "hey, want to be my friend?" to someone, after all, and with pretty much everyone else, it almost feels like that's how he'd need to proceed.

So, he goes to cafes on his own sometimes. Once in a while, he just sits around people watching in them for a couple of hours if he has the time to spare. Derek can also be found running in the woods, awkwardly signing autographs for fans — a thing which he's starting to consider potentially charging for, because why not? — or wandering the kennel aisles of the local animal shelter just...to see what's there.

HEROPA; closed to Carol

There are plenty of people that Derek's sort of...bailed on lately. Carol is someone he's started jogging with on the boardwalk in Heropa after having run into her when he'd been doing so on his own — before which, he may or may not have been just checking in to make sure Stiles is still okay but, you know, without letting Stiles know that he cares whether or not the kid is still okay. It's been a thing for a little over a month, but when he'd been moping over losing Laura and fighting with his friends, he'd bailed on Carol.

When he heads to Heropa for a sunset jog, he's relieved to catch her doing the same. "Hey there," he calls out, jogging to catch up and then matching pace as he comes up beside her. "Sorry I've been kind of MIA. I'm glad you're still doing the same trail at the same time."

POUR DECISIONS; closed to Diego

A part of Derek is really excited to be getting back to the normalcy of his standing appointment with Diego at Pour Decisions after work on Friday evenings. ...another part of him is terrified that this is just going to end up in a re-enactment of their text argument only, this time, in person and with an audience. God, he hopes not.

Derek stops at home to change out of his uniform after showering the doggy smell off of him post-shift, and then makes his way to the bar with a quick warning text to Diego that he's running a little bit behind, but he's on his way. He's supposed to already be there by the time he manages to get out the door.

When Derek finally makes it, he drops onto the stool beside his friend and he looks over at Diego. "One of the 'dog moms' wouldn't leave," he mutters, giving finger quotations and rolling his eyes. "Sorry, man."

wildcard

(( or hit him with your own starter in de chima where he spends most of his time ))

Comments

[usaf]

Carol doesn't break her stride when she hears Derek's voice calling to her, glancing to the side as he falls in beside her.

"Believe it or not, my routine doesn't rely on your attendance," she teases, but she's smiling. She and Derek weren't exactly close enough for her to inquire as to why he'd stopped showing up for their jogs, but she'd been a little worried by the sudden disappearance.

"Everything back to normal now?"

Her way of subtly asking if he's okay.

[duelo]

Laughing a little in spite of himself, Derek feigns offense at that. "That really hurts, Carol," he jokes. It hadn't really occurred to him to let her know why like he had Jane, but then Jane had asked after him because he'd missed their meeting and he'd just sort of blurted out about his sister and the train. He kind of likes that Carol didn't ask and still isn't.

She doesn't just ignore it, either, though. That's...weirdly comforting. She noticed and cares but it's not like she's going to pry. She's being subtle.

So Derek nods. "I mean, as normal as it's going to get, I guess. I'm okay," he replies. "Did I miss anything especially exciting?

[usaf]

"You're a big boy; you can handle it."

Even though they're all stuck in this universe together, Carol keeps herself at arm's length from everyone. It's a defense left over from home, still reeling from Yon-Rogg's betrayal. If she doesn't let anyone too close, she can't get hurt like that again.

She gestures towards the beach they're running alongside. "Some pretty spectacular sunsets..." But she smiles. As far as she's concerned, there's no hard feelings, and they can fall back in line exactly where they left off.

[duelo]

"I'm glad you have so much faith in me." At least one of them does. He almost adds that latter bit before remembering that he and Carol are just distant enough that she might find a reason to be concerned about a comment like that being tossed out so casually.

Derek smiles a little at her response, nodding. "Yeah, Heropa does have some pretty great sunsets. De Chima has some pretty great sunrises," he replies. "We're going to have to start moving our jogs earlier if we want to keep catching them. I probably won't be able to make it as often once that happens," he adds, almost apologetically. He generally looks forward to these jogs, actually.

"I can't believe I work in retail hell. Jesus, I never thought I would actually have to work a day in my life and when I did choose to, I'd be my own boss and I'd be working with my hands. Not...training puppies and spouting a corporate party line while shilling dog food..."

He always thought he'd just have the luxury of living off the Hale fortune and spending his time protecting the humans of Beacon Hills. Maybe do some building or something in his free time. He'd always kind of wanted to do that. Workshop had been his favorite class in high school.

"Oh actually, speaking of jobs, did you decide? I just now realized I never actually thought to follow up to see if you decided to join the military here."

[usaf]

"I'm good at having faith in people." Maybe too good. It's gotten her into trouble before. But it never served her wrong with Maria or Fury, or even Talos. So maybe her track record isn't so bad.

"I could be persuaded to switch to De Chima sunrises." She's up early anyway, might as well start the day by being active.

As for her decision... "Yeah. I registered, and signed up to enlist. I have to go through two weeks of bootcamp first, plus two weeks of flight certifications, but after that's done, I'll be back in the skies." She still thinks it's a little silly that she has to get her pilot's license all over again, when they had assigned her the job of Flight Instructor, so they clearly knew she could fly.

"All that might get delayed by the whole world-possibly-ending thing, but... we'll see."

[deadlycurves]

There's still so many things going on, under the surface and behind the curtain, with his family. There are still nine thousand t hings on his mind, that he doesn't even know how to think of, or ignore either one, but at least one thing is going back to some kind of normal. Whatever could really be called normal in this place. Diego's there a little early, as always. He orders a beer and heads to the usual booth in the back they almost always take up residence in during these nights. The heads-up text from Derek is... well. There's an edge of wondering if he's just being petty, but it really is probably for the best, and was a good call on the werewolf's part, by all means. His eyebrows lift as Derek slides into the seat across from him, "I started without you," he says, lifting his beer to his mouth as if to punctuate the sentiment. "Dog mom?" he echoes, a twist of amusement on his face at the term. "Is that what they call themselves?"

[duelo]

"You usually do," Derek points out with a small smirk before looking around and waving over a waitress so that he can order his own drink. Derek turns his attention back to Diego and huffs a little laugh as he leans back against his seat in the booth, shifting to let one of his legs stretch out on the length of it.

He nods and rolls his eyes again, pausing his response to Diego to make his order. "Yeah, or worse, 'doggie mama,'" Derek explains, shaking his head. "Some of them do kind of treat their dogs like children. I hate to tell you, ladies, but dogs can only memorize a finite number of words to associate with actions or items, so your conversation is pretty much 99% one-sided."

Derek looks back up when the waitress returns and thanks her, smiling, before turning his attention back to Diego. "How's your work going?" It's such a stupid question, but Derek doesn't...really know just how back to normal they are and he doesn't want to step on nerves after just getting here.

[deadlycurves]

Diego's face scrunches in disapproval at the even worse terminology that Derek has come to live with in his government-assigned job. "I guess the fact they can't talk back is maybe part of the appeal?" He has no clue, he won't pretend to understand people like that. He shrugs at the question. "Same as always. Kids think they're slick because they take things without security tags on them." He shakes his head. "I was stopping bank robberies by grown men before I was a teenager, this job is the biggest joke." he scoffs, taking another sip of his drink on that note.

[duelo]

"Maybe," Derek says, shrugging and picking up his drink, taking a sip. It's kind of stupid if that's the appeal, Derek thinks. Then again, what does he know? He's never had a pet. Maybe it becomes the appeal.

He gives his friend a sympathetic sort of smile. "I know the feeling," he replies. Not that he doesn't kind of enjoy what he does, but all the same, it is a pretty big downgrade to go from fighting to protect people's lives to teaching yipping puppies to sit, stay, and come when called.

Derek shifts again so that he can lean his back against the wall, propping his other leg up. He's not really sure how to progress this conversation, now. They're both guarded. Well, Derek is. He just sort of assumes Diego is, as well. Trust has been broken to some degree on both sides, neither of which came from a malicious or intentional place, but the damage is done. Now they both have to work to fix it and he has no idea where to begin. Should he bring up the elephant in the room? Ignore it?

He decides to take another drink and put it off a little bit longer.

[deadlycurves]

Derek lets the conversation lapse into silence and Diego isn't sure where to take it. He's never had to recover from a fight with a friend-- even with Patch, it was never exactly like that. Mostly, he just was too persistent with his own refusal of allowing her to not be part of his life in some way or another, but he doesn't know how to translate that into the friendship he has with Derek. They aren't they same, at all, and it's his relationship both friendship and otherwise that he pulls from the most to figure out how to navigate people at all. Just doesn't help in cases quite like this. Truth is, as easy as things had been before, there still wasn't a lot of history between them to fall back on. They didn't actually know each other as well as it'd felt like they did. Now that he's here, in this situation, in this moment, Diego kind of hates that it had been so easy to befriend Derek, because now he's just at a loss of where to go from here. "So... nothing else besides work going on lately, I take it?" A bad segue, but a segue all the same.

Petmart

[the_horror]

Ben had things on his mind. Klaus was either missing or ignoring him, and the way Diego made it sound, he was just ignoring him, and that bothered him. Maybe he shouldn't let it bother him, but it did.

So instead, he was out doing some shopping. Star and Izzy needed some things, so that was what he was here for. He hadn't pick up anything yet though. Instead he found himself in the middle of a row, just staring at cat towers like he needed a new one or something.

He didn't need one. Star had two. He should be in the snake and reptile department maybe, but that didn't seem right. Maybe if he--huh? He looked up as someone spoke to him. He blinked, looked to the guy then to the pet things a moment after. Distracted.

"Oh, um..." Ben was in his leather jacket and hoodie again, but under the hoodie was a hot pink boa looking thing. Fuzzy. If Derek was careful he might see to beady black eyes blink at him from one end. Otherwise it was limp. "I'm actually not sure what I'm looking for."

This guy, he was sure he had seen him before. At the party? Just at a distance. Maybe?

[duelo]

For a minute, Derek wasn't sure that the guy heard him, but then he actually looked up and Derek was surprised to find that he actually recognized him. "You're one of Vanya's brothers, right?" he asked before he could stop himself. "Ben, is it?" Allison had pointed them all out to him at the birthday party, but she hadn't introduced him to anyone. Neither had Diego, come to think of it, and Vanya had politely told him to fuck right off, so Derek has a visual recognition of them all, but had yet to meet Ben or Luther. One down, he supposed. One to go.

"Uh, I'm Derek," he introduced himself even though the obnoxious tag pinned to his shirt also said as much. "Looking for a cat?" he asked, lifting his eyebrow. They were, after all, in the cat section. In his peripheral, he noted the pink but never actually looked to see if it was anything other than a scarf or something. "I know more about dogs, but I know enough to help out with pretty much anything else..."

[the_horror]

He didn't mean to be so spacey, but his mind was somewhere else entirely. When he was recognized though he smiled, and as the other offered a name, he held his hand out to him for a shake. "Ben, yeah. I think I saw you at the party, before it went all pearshaped."

Was it good to bring that up? Not really, but he did see him there at least.

"Oh, I um... no. I mean not really. Star has a lot of stuff already. I was more looking for something for someone a bit different." He reached up to pet the boa softly and it's head uncurled, lifting to press into the hand, then turn to look at Derek. A tongue flicked, like a snake.

It looked like a thin snake with pink fur really. "Um, something for a snake to play with."

[duelo]

"Yeah...I heard about that," he said, but Derek left it at that. He hadn't asked Vanya or Diego about what happened beyond whether everyone was okay and some gentle prodding that hadn't led to much and, so, he'd dropped it. He certainly wasn't going to press one of the siblings he had just met.

His eyebrows shot up when the pink boa Derek had mistaken for a scarf actually looked up and flicked a tongue like a snake. "Okay, well, that's not a species I know anything about but if you're just looking for toys? Uhhhh...follow me," he says, drawing out the stalling word as he tries to remember which part of the store the reptile things are. He's not over there often, just often enough to restock the shelves when no one else is around to do it and it needs doing.

Derek leads the way and starts in front the supplies aisle, silently counting to himself. Supplies like tanks and heat lamps, food for the reptiles that didn't require live feed; freezers for the frozen mice and fridges for dead crickets, tanks for live crickets, and accessories for reptile tanks and amphibian terrariums. He's got it. "Just this way," he adds before moving to the correct aisle. "I don't know that we have a ton of toys, so much as just...stuff that you could put in his...? Her...? ...tank. Maybe we start there?"

Downtown De Chima - Cafe

[detectivedwloki]

There's a man seated at one of the cafe tables, dressed all in black, sleeves rolled up to reveal tattoos on his forearms, and he's taking notes. Writing with a pencil in a traditional paper notebook, crossing things out then making more notes. There are other visible tattoos on the side of his neck and on his fingers; all related to various spiritual or religious symbols, the most obvious being astrological signs and a small cross on his hand.

A waitress stops by to refill his coffee and he gives her a distracted smile and thanks before intently scribbling more notes.

[duelo]

A part of Derek has been trained to keep himself aware of his surroundings at all times, so he can't ever really turn off the fact that he's constantly scenting the air and looking around as furtively as he can. There aren't a lot of people in the cafe at the moment beyond the employees, so it's not hard to notice the man dressed in all black, nor his tattoos, or the fact that he's hard at work.

But he doesn't have a lot of time to think on it before the waitress refills the man's coffee and then comes to Derek's table to take his order. His attention shifts to her and he gives her a smile, ordering a sandwich and some coffee. When she wanders away again, Derek goes back to surveying the room before turning his attention to the door. He's always been one of the types to watch the door if he can. Never have your back to the door and all that.

[detectivedwloki]

So intent is he on his notes that David doesn't notice how close the coffee cup is to his hand - until he accidentally bumps it and hot coffee spills partly over his hand and then the notes, soaking the paper.

"Shit...," he sucks in a breath and hisses out a string of swearwords. "Fuckfuck fuck!"

De Chima

[helpdesk_hero]

It's been a while since David's actually made their previously arranged running appointments. Mostly since just before the change of the month. Sure, David had given him a warning message with no real answers, but it had been something. And now here he was in his running clothes, a week and a half later, waiting near the woods at the usual time and place for their morning runs. No warning, just David standing there, leaning against a tree, eyes closed, seemingly relaxing as he waited.

What for is, of course, obvious. His lips quirk in a smirk as he hears someone approaching and opens his eyes to nod at Derek.

"Sorry I've been away. Figure you could maybe pick a harder run this morning as punishment for me."

[duelo]

Honestly, it's been a while since Derek has made their running appointments. Most of October had been sporadic, the latter two weeks of it being a total wash between the train and all the moping he'd done after being dragged back off of it. When he'd gotten the message, all he could send back was "ok" and feel like an asshole for not having thought to give David the same courtesy. At least one of them wasn't being a self-absorbed asshole.

Now that he's been back into the swing of it, though, Derek goes to the same general area out of habit and he grins a little to himself when he sees David there again. Carol didn't ask questions. Maybe David won't either.

"Nah man, I'd just be punishing us both. You at least gave me a heads up. I was just holing myself up to throw a week and a half-long pity party for myself. So I guess it's welcome back to both of us," he replies with a grin, picking up his pace again a little to close the gap between them a little faster. He doesn't ask where David's been or why because that only opens the door for reciprocal questioning and Derek just does not want to unpack that right now. "Been running on your own or just a break?"

[helpdesk_hero]

"Just a break," David says, and his tone definitely says 'I'd rather not talk about it' because he's still not sure how to address the whole protective not-boyfriend-wereraptor thing, so it's better not to talk about it at all. Instead he waits until Derek is close and pushes off the tree and stretches very briefly.

"And who knows, later we could see about a bit of sparring. Haven't had that practice either. Been too busy with psychic training."

[duelo]

"Same here," Derek says, equal parts taking the cue for the sake of taking it and just not showing any interest in pressing for more information because he doesn't want to share either. It works out well for the both of them.

Once Derek reaches David, he joins him in stretching. "I haven't done anything except go to work and go home, man, so I could use that, too, if I'm being honest." Boy could he... If he was worried about Allison bruising his pride while he was upset with her, imagine being fully cognizant of the fact that he'd be getting his ass whooped not because he was emotionally compromised, but because he was just bad at it after a break.

"How's that going?" he asks, a small, satisfied grunt escaping him as he loosens his body from a particularly satisfying stretch in his calves.

Woods

[iminthebook]

Harry wanders a lot, using his teleport power to take him to new places to run and exercise, and also to keep an eye out for useful plants and herbs. This could explain why, this morning, a tousled looking Harry is kneeling in a sweatshirt, sweat pants, and tennis shoes, and carefully examining a small growth of Feverfew.

The plant is rare enough to find it outside of an herb shop, and the sight of it, right at late bloom is exciting. He carefully is clipping some when he hears an approaching person and glances up. Seeing a familiar face, he smiles.

"Oh hey, Derek. Fancy meeting you here." His hands are deft and careful as he manipulates plant clippings into a small container.

[duelo]

It isn't often that Derek sees anyone out here, if only because it's so big. He's run into a couple of people in passing, but the instances are few and far between. To say that it surprises him not only to run into someone out here, but to run into someone he actually recognizes would be putting it lightly.

"Hey, man," he greets as he moves closer, narrowing his eyes in concentration as he tries to figure out if he recognizes the plant. He doesn't. The Hales had plenty of botanical knowledge as a family but, like how to be a leader, it had fallen within the boundaries of skills Derek figured he could outsource or wouldn't ever need.

Mom and Laura weren't supposed to die. Deaton wasn't supposed to pick a new pack.

Such was life, he supposed. "What's that?"

[iminthebook]

Harry finishes carefully gathering some of the plant clippings, and holds one plant up as he tucks the other clippings into a container. "Feverfew. It's an herb good to treat fevers and migraines, and when used magically, to treat magical illnesses as well."

He puts that one away, then stands and brushes off his pants, not really trying to clean them since he will toss them in the laundry when he gets home, but he nods.

"I tend to keep my eyes open when I go running, so as to find new herbs and places I can find them."

Harry is glad to see Derek. The other man seems steady, and good at heart, and has a good head on him. All good things, in Harry's estimation.

[duelo]

Derek lifts an eyebrow. Feverfew. He wonders if that's a thing back home. "I've never heard of that one, but it sure sounds useful," he comments.

"I've never been all that good with the botany thing," he replies. "My mom was pretty good at it and a couple of my cousins were. It was never really my forte, though. Only plants I can recognize on sight are poison ivy, wolfsbane, and mistletoe and not a damn one of those is useful for helping people where I come from."

At least, not unless the people needing help were werewolf hunters, he supposed.