( TICKET TIME ), victoria

There was only one good thing about the business district, and that was the number of parking tickets Pax could write in one day. Normally he didn't really take any pleasure in writing parking tickets because it was a lot of writing, and his hands tended to get tired very quickly -- but today it had been a choice between writing parking tickets, or office work. That was even more writing than a simple parking ticket, so it just seemed a whole lot better to be out in public writing parking tickets for a few hours. He wasn't any good at office work anyway. Sometimes he could get Felicia to help him out, but lately the chief had been giving him dirty glares for even approaching Felicia, so Pax had been trying to be good and stay away. At last until the chief's next day off when Pax could see if Felicia wouldn't be willing to help him write up and file police reports. She seemed to like that job since she was always doing it ... Or maybe she didn't have a choice. Pax had never really considered that idea before. Now that he was thinking about it, he had to admit she probably didn't like office work either -- but she was still better at it than he was.

That didn't necessarily mean he was any good at writing parking tickets. He would scribble down the offense in bad penmanship after deciding whether or not the parking meter had expired, and then he would actually study the ticket to see if he could read it -- he would probably rewrite more of them if Terry wouldn't find out about it. He didn't know what it was about his partner, but the man seemed to know exactly what Pax was doing when he was on duty, and apparently rewriting tickets was a no-no because it was a waste of tickets, and a waste of time. Pax's feelings were mixed on the matter. How could a person actually pay a fine later if they couldn't read what it said? But Terry had won that argument, and so Pax was forced to try and not rush through the ticket in hopes he could make it legible. It would be so much easier if the department would just pre-print tickets for him to go around handing out to people. That just made more sense to Pax, but thus far, no one else seemed to agree with him. Something about different fines for different offenses ... It hurt his head to think about it too much.

Back to the matter at hand, Pax was whistling to himself as he wrote another ticket and placed it beneath the windshield wiper of a car. He didn't understand these businessmen and women. Did they think they were exempt from parking tickets just because they made the city run? Or at least the three people he had ticketed thus far. He assumed they were bank patrons since he was near a bank, but that still didn't make a whole lot of sense to Pax. He would have thought that people at a bank would know better than to not put enough money into the meter -- bank lines were notorious for being long and slow. That was why Pax never went to the bank -- not unless he absolutely had to, and even then he would have to bring a snack or two with him just to get through the damn line.

His eyes studied the bank entrance for a moment, glad that he wasn't in there, and then turned back to the next vehicle in line. It was actually a motorcycle, but a vehicle was a vehicle, and the parking meter had ... Pax craned his neck to look at the meter. It was flashing at him with a bunch of zeros. Expired. The meter was expired, which meant the motorcycle needed a ticket. Pax flipped open his ticket book and scribbled on off, grimacing when he realized it was only half legible as he ripped it off the sheet. Well, the person would have to just learn how to read scribbles, thought Pax to himself. He moved to place the ticket on the motorcycle, but froze when he realized he wasn't sure where to put it .. there wasn't any windshield ... and there didn't appear to be a place for it go that the wind wouldn't take it away from ...

Pax stood there at a loss, ticket in hand, when he heard someone say something behind him. He glanced around with a quizzical expression. "Huh?"

There was only one thing that Victoria looked forward to this week, and that was to cash in her bi-weekly paycheck given to her by her employer. The rest of the week was just utter shit compared to getting her money after working her ass off at the Manga Café every other weekend. To say the least, it was the only thing worth looking forward too after all the crap she had to go through over the past few days. What kind of crap, you may wonder? Well for starters, Victoria woke up in some stranger’s bath tub that was filled with water, oreo cookies and glitter - one could only imagine the reaction she had even though she probably work up in worse places than that. Once the woman stepped out of the bath to dry herself with a towel, she noticed in the vanity mirror that she had several shiny Hello Kitty stickers all over her face which only made Vic look more and more like a complete nutcase. To make matters worse, the hellion’s hangover headache was excruciatingly painful, making it difficult for her to focus on leaving without stepping on the comatose and utterly wasted bodies sprawled all over the house from the stairs to the living room floor and kitchen table. Victoria was proud of herself for not stepping on some poor shmuck’s limbs and waking them up from their drunken slumber – it was quite an accomplishment what with all of those people passed out on the floor.

Most people would have been scarred by such a traumatizing and confusing experience yet Victoria Tomoe wasn’t quite like everyone else. She was by far used to waking up in the most peculiar of places in the midst of a sea of unfamiliar faces; waking up in a bath tub with oreos and glitter was nothing compared to what she has experienced in the past. It was quite sad but true none the less. The only thing that bothered Victoria that day was when she received a text message from someone she didn’t know, claiming that they were ninety-five percent sure that they had eaten food naked together the other night : now that was traumatizing. Of course, it wasn’t the first time that miss Tomoe received strange and disturbing texts messages from complete strangers and, unfortunately, it wouldn’t be the last. Thankfully, technology created a wonderful feature that allows cell phone users to delete messages and contacts from their phone and block the number from which the message came from. In other words, the “delete” and “block” feature – pretty amazing, right? Besides, Vic couldn’t afford to be bothered by such silly and stupid things, especially not with all of the issues she has trouble dealing with.

At any rate, the black haired woman put all of that behind her and decided that it would be best to focus on what she was going to do with her well earned money. Considering the fact that Victoria was trying to turn her life around by cleaning up her act, she couldn’t allow herself to spend it all on alcohol and parties since she now had to pay for university and study material. Blowing it all on drugs and weed was also out of the question even though it would be quite difficult to ignore the urge to smoke a good old blunt after a day full of stress and frustration. Still, Victoria made an oath to herself that she would do whatever it took to turn her life around and prove to Philip once and for all that she wasn’t a crash and burn waiting to happen, nor was she a lost cause. Victoria would never be able to forgive herself if she broke that sacred promise, not to mention she would rather kill herself right there and then rather than face Philip with eyes that mirrored disappointment and disdain. Vic had to commit to her decision or else what was the point in acting all confident in front of Philip and promising him that she would change in order to prove him wrong? She had to do this ; she could do this despite what most people thought.

As Victoria considered simply cashing in her paycheck at the bank and deciding what to do with it later on, she noticed a rather dumbfounded looking police officer with a parking ticket in his hand with a face that just said “just what the hell am I supposed to do with his now ?”. The cop look absolutely ridiculous and Victoria couldn’t help but laugh a little before suddenly coming to the realization that she had come across that man more than once. Pondering a little longer, the dark haired wild child remembered where she saw his face before: he was one of the officers who frequently got in between her and her bar fights, not to mention the times when he busted her for buying drugs off of some punk drug dealer in an alley on numerous occasions. As a matter of fact, the police officer was also there when she found herself dozing off in the staircase of some apartment complex reeking of alcohol and weed.

”Could you look even more like a dumbass?” she inquired in a half-mocking, half-joking voice. Like clockwork, the police officer turned to her with a quizzical expression written all over his face …which only made him look more stupid than he already seemed. Honestly, what kind of cop was he? Sighing loudly, Victoria walked up to the police officer and grabbed the parking ticket. ”For fuck’s sake, you really are hopeless. I think all of those donuts went to your head and killed the few brain cells you had left” she drawled harshly while putting the piece of bubblegum she had been chewing up until then on the parking ticket. Afterwards, she waved the parking ticket in front of the cop’s face and glued it to the seat of the motorcycle. ”See? Was it that difficult?, Vic inquired while folding her arms. ”You need learn how to be more creative.”

A mocking tone startled Pax out of her momentary reverie. Turning around, he actually was at a loss as to who the person was. For one thing, Pax came across a lot of people on a regular basis. He still had a hard time remembering the name of his landlord, and the man had been his landlord for going on four years now. Secondly, anyone that spoke to Pax in a tone that was less than, well, nice, almost always took longer for him to remember. He tended to block out people that were mean or rude, mostly because in his little world, such people didn't deserve to be remembered. But there was something vaguely familiar about the girl. He just couldn't remember what -- and he was having an even harder time concentrating given her tone of voice. He was trying to decide if there was a reason for her to be so mean to him -- had he offended her? Was this her motorcycle he was trying to find a way to pin a ticket to? He supposed if that was the case, that was a fairly good reason for her to be upset, but she didn't need to take it out on him.

"Uh, sorry?" Those were the only words Pax was really able to get out, his mind still trying to sort out what the proper reaction was to this sort of thing. It wasn't very often that he was attacked verbally. And even if this was her motorcycle, she couldn't really be mad at him for handing down a ticket. That was kind of his job. When meters ran out, tickets were handed out -- Pax might not have passed his officer's exam with flying colors, and he might have cheated a little on it, but that didn't mean he didn't know some of the basics of the law. And one of the things he knew best, when it came to the law, were tickets. Not by choice, of course. It was simply something he was required to do on a regular basis since people didn't necessarily trust him to do anything else ... not that Pax blamed them. He wasn't exactly the best cop on the force ... Nor was he really brave, or reliable. He just made do with the safest, least bloodiest aspects of police work possible.

At the mention of donuts, Pax frowned. He wasn't sure what they had to do anything, especially since he didn't eat them regularly. However, he had heard something about donuts before, but he just couldn't remember where. Maybe she was talking about someone else on the force? Did someone else look like him that ate a lot of donuts? It was possible. Pax didn't know the names of all the people on the force to begin with. There were just too many of them to try and bother with. Some of them weren't even worth getting to know because they were either grouchy, getting close to retirement, or downright mean. But she had mentioned donuts, and Pax felt as though he ought to know something about donuts ... but what? "I take it you're not a fan of donuts?" he asked finally. It wasn't a good question, nor did he think that was the point of her words, but Pax really wasn't sure what else to think at this moment. She was just so ... blunt. That didn't seem like the precise word he was looking for, but it was a close second. "I don't eat them a whole lot, but I suppose if you eat a lot, they go to your head ... I'd think more to your hips, but I could be wrong."

His eyes widened in horror as the girl took the ticket from his hand, her words still as biting as ever, and placed a piece of gum (from her mouth, no less) on the seat of the motorcycle with the ticket on top of it. For several seconds, which quickly turned into a full minute, Pax didn't know what to to or say. Yes, the idea was rather ingenious, but at the same time, he was pretty sure there were rules about that sort of thing -- so the policeman part of Pax, the part that had been drilled into him against all odds, quickly shot forward, ripping the ticket off the seat, and peeling the piece of gum off before it had time to set. He breathed in relief as he realized it wasn't leaving behind that sticky residue, but then his eyes settled on that piece of gum, his face twisting into a grimace upon realizing it was still in his hands. "Oh, ew," he groaned, dropping the gum on the ground and wiping his hand on his pants. He sighed upon realizing his pants would need to be cleaned after this, and turned his eyes back to the ticket he had been laboring over a moment ago.

It was still a bit wet from the gum, but not badly enough that it would need to be rewritten. His eyes scanned the motorcycle a bit, and finally, Pax poked a hole through the corner of the ticket, attacking it to part of the ignition. That would have to do -- he just hoped a breeze didn't blow it away before the rider came out to get it. Now that the ticket was settled, Pax turned to study the girl again, deciding that she did look familiar to some degree. "You shouldn't have done that -- I could lose my job! And ... do I know you from somewhere or something?"

Alright, so maybe Victoria could have been a little nicer with the police officer. Calling him a “dumbass” wasn’t the best way to initiate a conversation, nor was it smart considering the fact that he was an agent of justice. Victoria knew policemen well enough to know that the man had every right to arrest her for “insulting a police officer” or something along those lines – she didn’t know the entire police handbook by heart for crying out loud! She knew who he was and what he did for a living but that didn’t stop her from mocking him even though the point of the entire conversation was to help to poor guy out. Honestly, Vic couldn’t just ignore him and leave him there with that stupid look all over his face as he held that parking ticket in his hand , not after all the times he stepped in between her and whatever danger she put herself into after a night of drinking and partying. Though she would never dare admit it or say it out loud, Victoria owed a lot to the officer even though it was his job to preserve peace and prevent chaos from erupting. It was rather strange and mind boggling at the same time since he always stepped in at the right time to save her ass.

Unfortunately, he didn’t seem to remember her from the look on his face when Victoria pulled him out of his stupor. She was rather surprised that he wasn’t able to remember her face after all the times he busted her for disturbing the peace and drug use. Victoria wasn’t exactly the kind of woman that people tended to forget, and not in a good way. Her destructive lifestyle, callous attitude and foul language were unforgettable yet this man was capable of doing the impossible. Victoria wasn’t aware that such a person existed…though that wasn’t necessarily a good thing. Either the officer had incredibly poor memory, was beginning to develop Alzheimer’s or was one of the biggest airheads she had ever met. With how things were looking, the hellion opted for airhead theory yet at the same time, she couldn’t exactly form such an opinion based solely on the ridiculous look written all over his face. But at the same time, Victoria couldn’t help but think that this man was a complete idiot when he started ranting about the comment she made on donuts. Was this guy for real? How could the city of Tokyo allow this man to be a police officer when he wasn’t even capable of sticking a god damn parking ticket on a motorcycle? Running her hand down her face, Victoria looked at the police officer with a somewhat exasperated look ” In your case, I think they went straight to your head. Might I suggest laying off the donuts for a while? I think it would help a lot.” she said, emphasising on the “a lot “.

She furrowed her brows when he began freaking out over the fact that she had used her gum to stick the parking ticket to the seat of the motorcycle. What? Was it that horrible? Victoria thought that getting a parking ticket was frustrating and bad enough, never mind the fact that she resorted to using her apple flavoured chewing gum to make sure that the little bugger didn’t fly off in the wind. The gum wasn’t really the issue here: it was trying to figure out how to place the parking ticket on the motorcycle so that the owner in question would see it. ”Hey! I wasted a perfectly good sour apple flavoured gum for that ticket! she cried, obviously not pleased with the fact that the officer carelessly threw her gum away even though she glued it to the parking ticket with good intentions as opposed to malicious ones. With an indignant “humph”, Victoria shook her head and looked at the man, wondering what he was going to do next. She didn’t have any more gum in her possession so using another piece of chewing gum was out of the question. Besides, he would probably freak out once again and throw it away. Seriously, why did she have to stop to help him? Why couldn’t she simply have ignored him and kept on walking? Why, why oh why?

” You know, this isn’t getting us anywhere. “ she pointed out. ” I don’t know about you, officer, but I don’t want to be here when the owner of this motorcycle comes back from his business with the bank because I imagine he’ll be pretty pissed when he sees you trying to put a parking ticket on his motorcycle. “. Victoria tilted her head to the right to look at the entrance of the bank before glancing back at the police officer. When he basically asked her who she was, Victoria raised her eyebrows lightly and laughed . ” I’m surprised that you don’t remember me.” she said with a smirk on her face before continuing. ” You’re always there to save the day whenever I get into trouble – you know, bar fights, drug use , vandalizing after drinking way too much. “. The list of infringements went on and on but Victoria decided to spare him of her colourful and diverse criminal record. ” I’m Victoria, Victoria Tomoe.”

phase i: catch a falling star

chosen one, a star of power has fallen from the sky. it has been brought down by an imbalance in the universe, and you are destined to wield it. this star will grant you a specific power, and with it you will be able to protect the planet. but beware, with great power comes great responsibility, and great temptation. chaos is lurking in the shadows, and it too craves your power. but if you are strong enough, you will find all five pieces of your star... and perhaps then destiny will choose you to be part of the crystal kingdom.

UNLOCKED POWER: DEATH

congrats! victoria is all set for phase i. have a question? just pm me!

Pax really didn't understand why she kept going on about donuts. Was he missing something here? Was there some sort of underlying meaning about donuts that he didn't remember, or should know? Nothing sprang to mind, although considering this was Pax doing the thinking, it probably wasn't a surprise. He had never really been quick on picking things up before now, so picking something up now would have been a little out of the ordinary. "You must like to talk about donuts -- am I supposed to know something about them? I mean, they're good every once in awhile, I suppose, but I'm not a big donut eater. I think I eat them once a month or something ... So am I missing something about donuts? Was there a big news broadcast about them? Oh, wait! They're healthy now, right? They always come out with a new food being made healthier. I don't know if that sounds good though. Without sugar, I doubt donuts would be any good ... Unless you're talking about something entirely different when you say donuts. Either way, I'm lost. Definitely lost. What's the deal with donuts again?" He glanced at the young woman, figuring that she would have to tell him now. At least, he hoped so.

He blinked at her next outburst, his eyes going to the ground where he had dropped the gum. He opened his mouth as though he was going to offer to look for the fallen piece of gum, but quickly decided against it. He didn't think it would be a very good idea to offer to look for gum that was now on the ground collecting dirt. The chances of her wanting that piece of gum back were probably pretty slim, and it seemed really silly to even bother. Pax might not always be quick on the uptake, but he liked to think he had a little common sense now and again, and today common sense happened to kick in for a moment -- a very brief moment, but all the same, dirty gum couldn't possibly be salvageable even with the thirty second rule. "Uh ... I can buy you another piece if you want. Or a pack, I guess. I think gum only comes in packs these days, right?" Pax glanced around, his eyes seeking out the nearest sign for a convenience store, or even a corner store, but nothing really jumped out at him. Considering the area of town he was in, there probably wasn't one close by.

A part of Pax was actually amused by the woman's action -- a small part, of course. Were he not still standing by the motorcycle, or even on duty, he would probably find the whole thing amusing. After all, gum was something he had used to use when he was back in school pulling pranks on people -- once he had even stuck it on the stop of some jock's head. It had taken that fellow almost the entire day to realize it was up there. No one had wanted to tell him for fear of annoying the larger guy, and Pax was kind of proud of that fact. It had been one of the better days back then. Of course, now that he was a man of the law, Pax was supposed to be a little more serious. He didn't always achieve that, but he certainly tried. He was kind of proud of himself for having taken the gum off the seat in the first place -- any other time and he might have left it there for the owner to find it ... His conscience probably knew Terry would find out sooner or later, and that would just end badly.

Pax was jolted out of his next thoughts at the girl's next words. His eyes went back to the motorcycle as her words sank in, and he could feel himself beginning to panic a little. She had a very good point. Sticking around probably wouldn't be a good idea. He could at least move a few cars down and hope to be done with the block by the time the owner came out. So Pax quickly moved away from the motorcycle, moving to the next parking meter, but only giving it the barest of glances. Truth be told, he was a little nervous now and didn't really care about finding a few more parking meters that had timed out -- he really just wanted to keep moving. But Pax couldn't move too far away, for the girl was finally answering his question, and a small light was turning on in Pax's head. As she related supposed incidents that she had been involved with, he felt as though he might remember who she was -- but the name sealed the deal. Breaking into a grin, Pax replied, "Victoria! Right, the one that my partner is always grumbling about. I think he does all the fight stopping. I just speak up for you to him. He doesn't like you very much. Says you're trouble. So how are you? Staying out of trouble?"

Why on earth did she have to mention donuts? One would think that the guy would just get a clue and talk about something else since the entire point of bringing up donuts was to mock him. It was the typical insult that anyone would use against a police officer; it was essentially a stereotype. Either the officer was good at ignoring her childish insult or he was simply that dense. Victoria was having a hard time believing that someone could be that dense yet she couldn’t help but to lean towards that conclusion after conversing with him and observe him stare at that blasted motorcycle as if it were some great riddle he had to solve. Then there was the fact that he kept going on and on about her remark about him eating one too many donuts – it was beginning to drive her insane. All she wanted to do was shove a big donut in his mouth so that he’d shut up about the stupid things. Why was he telling her these things when she obviously did not give a damn about the words that were coming out of his chatterbox? Dear god almighty, why was he asking her these questions about the fucking donuts!? She didn’t know! And she sure as hell didn’t care! ”Jesus Christ, would you please shut up already?” she said harshly, obviously annoyed with his pointless rambling. ”I don’t care about the donuts, alright? Just forget that I even mentioned the word “donut” she drawled, rubbing her temples gently to ease away the growing headache she had.

Victoria would never speak of donuts again. Never, ever again. Whenever she will see someone eat a donut from here on out, she will forever think of the policeman she saw in front of the bank one day and get a major migraine just thinking about it. Donuts will never be the same after this day. If only Vic could have known that making a snarky remark about cops and donuts would cause her head to ache so badly, she would have never made the comment in the first place. The troublemaker would have opted for another insult, yes, but she would have stayed away from the donuts at the very least. On the bright side, he stopped talking about the donuts and looked just as lost as Victoria was at the moment. What a relief. Of course, then he had to talk about the gum. Was the gum really relevant at this point? Why should it matter? Oh, right, Vic almost forgot that she had whined about losing a precious piece of her sour apple gum ; he favourite flavour. She had exaggerated – it didn’t really bother her that much but she did feel a little irked about wasting a good piece of gum. Blinking at the officer for a moment or so, Vic sighed lightly and shook her head, waving him off. ” Eh, don’t sweat it. It’s just gum after all.” she said in a tone of voice that oozed nonchalance. ”Besides, I’d feel pretty damn awkward letting a police officer buy gum, of all things, for me”/. Yeah…she didn’t exactly want to be seen in a department store with a police officer who wanted to buy her a pack of gum. That was all kinds of weird, even for Victoria. What if someone she knew saw her? How would she explain why she was talking to a policeman? Her so called friends would never let her live it down : cops were supposed to be the bane of her existence with all the shit she stirred in bars and night clubs.

More than glad that the cop listened to her warning, Vic followed him to the next parking meter and glanced at the motorcycle a couple of times, wondering if the owner was going to show up any time soon. Shrugging slightly to herself, she decided that it wasn’t her problem. If the owner was going to get pissed at someone, it was going to be at the cop, not her. Still…switching to the next parking meter wasn’t bound to fool the owner of the motorcycle – surely he would come to realize in mere seconds that he was the one responsible for sticking a ticket to his motorcycle and come marching right on to them with the intention of questioning the policeman about the reason behind the ticket. Vic could literally picture it inside of her mind…and it wasn’t pretty. He should move several cars down from the motorcycle, just in case.

Victoria smirked at the cop’s reply. ”He should join the club because he’s not the only one who hates my guts” she drawled with a hint of humour . When asked her if she was staying out of trouble, she simply laughed and ran a hand through her black locks of hair. ” I couldn’t stay out of trouble even if I wanted to, I’m afraid. But you’ll be happy to know that I’m trying”. It was true, she was trying her best to change her life around even though it wasn’t exactly easy to accomplish. ”I was heading to the bank so that I could cash in my cheque, she said while taking her cheque out of her hand purse. ” but I ran into you and got side-tracked”. Shrugging once more, she tilted her head to the side and glanced at the entrance of the bank. No signs of the owner of the motorcycle ....yet. "You should probably move further down the street - the owner will most likely spot you after he sees that ticket."

It had to be that time of the month. Pax might not be terribly versed in the ways of women, but he almost always knew when they were on their monthly business, and this girl certainly sounded as though she was on her period. Well, there was also the chance that she was just that mean as well, but Pax would rather believe it was that time of the month. He didn't see why anyone would be mean to him of all people. After all, he was a nice guy -- a police officer. In some ways he was a hero, and as a hero, it made more sense for people to like him, and to be nice to him ... Unless they were irate about a purse being snatched and Pax having been unable to run after him ... or something else. That had only happened twice -- Pax tried to warn women beforehand that he wasn't qualified for long distance running, but very few ever listened to him. He didn't get it. Didn't they understand that running with everything he had on his uniform was like running around with a few weights in his pockets?

And, because Pax was also an understanding fellow, he felt it was also his duty to lean toward the girl and stage whisper his next words. "Do you need Midol? Because I have some if you do." His mother had actually instilled that particular little habit in Pax when he was in high school -- he couldn't remember the exact reasons for it, only that it had something (vaguely) to do with him looking more understanding to the opposite sex by carrying something "vital" around. Personally, he would have thought money would be more important than Midol, but it was certainly a lot better to carry around a small bottle of pills than tampons -- his mother had tried to get him to carry those around once, but Pax had managed to stand up to her and say no. Several times, actually.

Straightening back up, Pax studied the dark haired girl, deciding that what she also needed was probably a hug. She didn't look as though she got a lot of them. He could spot a few wrinkles in her forehead, although that could just be because of the way her face was all screwed up right now -- was it a frown, or a scowl? They both looked alike as far as Pax could tell, and he knew it was wise not to mention wrinkles to any female regardless of her age. He'd probably just end up running for his life anyway, and he still had a few parking meters to look over and write out tickets for ... Not that he really wanted to do that. Ticket writing, while better than running after purse snatchers, was also tedious and gave him hand cramps. It was when he was faced with such "tantalizing" options that Pax wondered why he had bothered to be roped into following his father's footsteps. It didn't really make any sense given his dislike of violence, and exercise, and work in general.

"Are you sure you don't want gum? It's not like it costs that much ... And I don't think it'd look bad if I was buying it. I'd appear like I'm helping you out -- community service of some sort." Okay, maybe not quite community service, but in his eyes, he'd be doing a good deed, and he could find a way to brag about it to the guys down at headquarters later. With a lot of exaggerating ... buying gum probably wasn't high up there with walking a little old lady across the street, but maybe if he mentioned who the girl was, Terry could back him up a little bit. Of all people, Pax figured his partner would remember Victoria and the sort of trouble she was usually in and find it in himself to speak up on her behalf ... unless he held a grudge against her for being so troublesome. Hmm. Pax would have to figure that out before he mentioned her name around his partner -- it wouldn't do to end up getting in trouble for helping her out if Terry didn't like it. That would only make Pax's life miserable with the number of lectures he would be subjected to later.

Luckily, thoughts of impending lectures were put out of mind when Victoria spoke again, allowing Pax to return his attention to her -- at least for a short while. "Oh, that's good -- that you're staying out of trouble. If you stay out of trouble, we won't be called to the bars a lot -- not that we don't want to see you or anything, it's just ... well ... there's all that smoke, and it makes my eyes water -- and Terry always looks like he's going to pull a gun and shoot someone when we're in one." Not to mention the sort of people that frequented bars weren't exactly friendly ... They always gave Pax dark looks like they wanted to bash his head in or something ... And he didn't think he was exaggerating when it came to that. Not that much anyway.

At her next words Pax blanched a little more, glancing over his shoulder just in case the owner of the motorcycle was somewhere nearby. He didn't see anyone, but that didn't mean the guy wouldn't show up sooner or later. "If you see him, tell me so I can run -- because I'd probably get chewed out if I actually didn't finish checking meters. You don't know the guys downtown -- they have ways of knowing when I'm doing my job and when I'm not. I think they have spies ..." Pax glanced around as though he could spy one of those spies as well, but again he didn't spy anyway. Still, he did step over to the next meter a little more quickly in order to check the time. When he found it was fine, he moved to the next one, glancing at Victoria over his shoulder as he did so. "If you're here to cash a check you might want to do it soon. You never know how long those lines get during this time of day." Which was true, since Pax almost always walked in at the wrong time of day. And if she went to cash it, perhaps he wouldn't be distracted and get in trouble for that gum fiasco a moment ago... "And don't cause any trouble in there -- I might be a mile away and I'd hate to have to run back here 'cos you put gum on something... or... something," finished Pax lamely. He frowned, shook his head, and turned back -- but not without noticing something on the ground. "I think you dropped something, too."