Whitzz/544K-RP-Datasets huggingface dataset:
Thread: Perfect Stranger (SevenxBathos)

Nick watched as Michael's eyes made a slow descent to the table, but he knew it wasn't because there was something of interest there - Mikey was avoiding his eyes. Nicholas lowered his head a little, cocking it to the side to get a better look at his friend's face, analyzing him for information, though it came out moments later anyways. Nicholas' features registered no reaction at the intial mention of Bianca, he merely continued to watch Michael in a patient sort of silence, awaiting the completion of his explanation - and when it came, Nicholas slowly sat back in his seat, as though some invisible hand had guided him back, and he stared at Michael for a moment longer. His expression remained benevolent enough, but there was an odd little twist in the one corner of his mouth and a tiny divet near his right eyebrow - an unpleasant little quirk in a perfectly chiselled face. Ah. he said finally, but said nothing more - there was scarcely the time for it anyways, because moments later the door was opening, and the scarecrow silhoutte of the police Chief stood in the doorway. For a long moment, he regarded the two men with hard, lamplight-sized green eyes, and then he jerked his head towards the hallway, You're free to go. Crowman said, but the way he said it made him sound vaguely like he was swearing at them - it was something of an accomplishment he put his eyes onto Michael, I personally would have kept you here until tomorrow afternoon, but not everyone has the kind of connections you do. Consider yourself lucky, Mr. Jones. His eerie gaze shifted over to Nicholas then, and for a long, long moment he simply stared at him, unblinking Nicholas looked back at him, and almost in unison, both men cocked their heads very slightly to the left. Then Crowman looked back to Michael, You can pick up your possessions at the front desk. he added coolly, about to turn to the hallway again, but pausing to add, And until Mr. Chance decides whether or not he's going to press charges, we'll be holding your car in impound as it turns out - the big, grassy area you left it on wasn't a designated parking space. For future reference. He gave Nicholas one more hard look, and then he dissappeared from the room, leaving the door open a few seconds later, and Brian appeared, glancing back a few times in the direction Crowman had gone, Let's go before he finds some reason to give us all a rectal examination. Brian said, and looked at Michael, Hullo Michael. Do me a solid, will you, and next time you feel particularly hostile, could you please punch someone who isn't an election candidate?
Thread: Perfect Stranger (SevenxBathos)

So that's why all the fuss, Michael chirped with forced mirth, but his own voice was a distant, tinny murmur in his ears. Even the skinny cop with the stick up his ass, who would have filled Michael with a borderline unhealthy sense of paranoia on even the best of days, was reduced to a meaningless peripheral detail. At that moment, sitting in a holding cell at the Echo Park police station, hit with the news that he was indefinitely without wheels and possibly staring down the barrel at probation revocation and a brand new assault charge, probably in the second degree, Michael only had eyes for Nicholas. He opened his mouth like he wanted to say something, but he promptly shut it again. Whatever he had to say, he doubted Nicholas wanted to hear it. He wasn't sorry for what he did, that much was already clear. He wasn't sorry Bianca was gone. He was only sorry that Nick might be in pain--and that point was still a little unclear to Michael--and there wasn't much use in saying so. Michael got to his feet with a groan. His shoulders and back made loud protestations against the metal chair where he'd been sitting for the past several hours, in the form of sharp, obnoxious aching. He rolled his shoulders, twisted left and right to the tune of a cluster of audible cracks, and then took up point in the shameful march out of the detention center. When he retrieved his belongings from the front counter, it wasn't until he'd signed his name and poured his wallet, multi-tool, and Chapstick out of the clear plastic bag that he remembered to toss the clerk a wide, playful grin and a wink. So, Michael said, turning back to Nicholas and Brian, grin still in place, though the corners of his eyes were creased with something not unlike pain. Either of you headed to Inglewood tonight?
Thread: Perfect Stranger (SevenxBathos)

Brian gave Michael a look of utter exasperation, Yes. That's why all the fuss. Brian replied snippishly, tugging on his jacket and lifting his wrist to look at his watch 2 a.m. You managed to make a powerful enemy tonight, Michael, so let's just hope he doesn't consider you important enough to waste any time on, yeah? Otherwise, you might end up facing much worse things than a little jail time. Research, and then punch, alright? He huffed a breath out his nose then, and looked over at Nick, I'm going home, Nicholas, he said, and then his features shifted, changing his expression into something vaguely embarrassed, Molly baked you cookies this evening. She thinks they'll make you feel better. Brian put a hand on Nicholas' arm then, adding gravely, I'm sorry. Nicholas looked equally grim then, Perhaps she won't have mistaken the powder detergent for sugar this time. Nicholas said, with a touch of hope, and Brian simply patted him on the arm again before leading the way out of the building. As they walked, Nick added casually, I'm headed to Inglewood tonight. Nothing makes me feel alive like getting shot at, after all.
Thread: Perfect Stranger (SevenxBathos)

Michael laughed, short and humorless. I can do that for ya, and you won't even have to change zip codes. He nodded tersely to Brian when they parted ways in the parking lot and followed Nick to his car, wondering silently to himself whether Nicholas had actually intended to visit Inglewood that evening or if he was just saying it, so Michael would feel like less of a burden. Michael didn't deserve to feel like a less of a burden after the stunt he'd pulled, but that didn't mean Nick wouldn't be his same, unfailingly considerate self, anyway. And if he was headed into Michael's neighborhood, what did that mean? He was going to belly up to the bar at his favorite little dive and drink himself into a stupor, most likely. Michael mused on that one until they were on the highway. It was a short trip to Michael's place in the dead of the night. Rush hour traffic could bump the time to upwards of 45 minutes, but the way the roads were now, dark and desolate, it wouldn't take more than fifteen. You just say the word if I'm crossin' into chick flick territory here, man, he finally said, when the silence and the hour and weight of things not said got to be too much for him to hold. But if you need me right now, we can grab a bottle of somethin' and, I dunno, hang. Swap sob stories. Chase some tail. Whatever.
Thread: Perfect Stranger (SevenxBathos)

The drive to Inglewood was an uncharacteristically quiet one in the dead of the night, the city seemed unusually quiet, utterly lacking the sound of heavy techno music or the flashing lights of some rave party that normally disrupted the air - but when they could have used the noise, it was no where to be found. It left both Nick and Michael submerged in a silence that gradually became almost painful, until Michael broke it, Nah, Nick replied finally, giving his head a small shake, It's been a long day, you know? He glanced over at Michael, then back towards the street, I think I'll just head back to my place - get some sleep. he lied, rubbing at his eye with the heel of his palm, I need to prepare some information for an upcoming job anyways, I've been procrastinating - I'm a bad little consultant. I have to go to Russia next week, to this little division just east of Moscow, you wouldn't believe how many vowels they put into the city name Zheleznodorozhny. I'm not sure how they'll even fit the entire name on my plane ticket, nevermind what a souveneir coffee mug would look like. He blinked hard at the windshield, for the first time showing an edge of weariness, The guys I'm meeting with are insisting on taking me to a show afterwards. he added grimly, pulling into the side street that Michael lived on, The circus, of all things. They told me I have to see the ice-skating bear. It wears a beanie, Michael. Russians are crazy people.
Thread: Perfect Stranger (SevenxBathos)

Michael laughed at Nick's discomfort with, of all things, the circus . Although he wouldn't ever, under any circumstances, admit to it, the circus was one of Michael's favorite childhood memories. He would have jumped at the chance to go to the Russian circus. Of course, only if he was traveling alone and there were no cameras around and Michael paid in cash so there was absolutely no way a paper trail could lead back to him. He'd also introduce himself as Paul and wear large sunglasses and sit in the mezzanine. He had a hard time sympathizing with Nick on these kinds of things, anyway. The guy was going to Russia for a job for fuck's sake. That shit was glamorous and no two ways about it, and Mikey suspected Nick knew it, too. As they pulled up to the house, Michael said between snickers, Well, man, enjoy your fire eaters or whatever. And, uh, I guess you'll have Brian call if Mr. Politico makes some kind of decision, so ... Michael pushed the door open, but lingered a moment, watching Nick for any indication that he didn't want to be alone. After a thoroughly awkward silence, he cleared his throat. Yeah, okay. See ya. He ducked out of the car and shut the door behind him, giving the roof one solid good night tap before he headed inside.
Thread: Perfect Stranger (SevenxBathos)

Though only thirty-three years old, Nick had been doing his consulting job for roughly a decade, and during that period of time the frequent long distance travel had become a part of his every day life. Something so foreign and glamorous to others had become the norm for Nicholas, and very occasionally, getting on airplane after airplane could get - tiresome. Some days, he just wanted to stay in one place. I can handle the fire-eaters, Nick said, putting an arm over the back of his chair to lean down and look at Michael as he got out of the car, I'm just wondering how unhappy the bear is going to be with skates on. I wouldn't want to be the one to put the skates on it, you know? He leaned back a little then, and looked back at the windshield, Yeah, Brian will be on standby in case Chance decides to press charges he'll know what to do. Nick said, But I think you'll be alright. I don't think Chance will want this sort of thing to go public anyways. He gave a nod as Michael lingered by the car, and then continued to watch him until he made his way to his front door and dissappeared inside. For a long moment, Nicholas sat in the driveway staring at the house, and then he let out a long, slow breath he looked down at himself then, and took another look at the stains across the finely pressed shirt, and he sighed. Nicholas didn't go home and go to bed instead, he drove to Mr. Kobayashi's, a rundown old sushi bar that had been built ages ago within Inglewood, run by a Korean man - and his wife - who pretended to be Japanese for the sake of falling in line with North America's more recent obsession with Japanese culture. Nicholas wasn't a big fan of sushi, but after having stopped in once years ago, he had discovered the alcohol was cheap, and the place was open twenty-four hours a day, due to the fact that the bar was an integral part of the man's house. That, and Mr. Kobayashi didn't like wasting any portion of the day he wasn't even sure if the man ever slept. So that was where Nick ended up, sitting at the worn - but sterile - bar in the ghetto part of Los Angeles, chin propped on his fist, several empty beer bottles near his elbow, and his eyes half-focused on an old tube television propped above the bar he wasn't entirely certain what was playing at that point, but it didn't really matter anyways.
Thread: Perfect Stranger (SevenxBathos)

Michael closed the front door behind him with a loud slam, fully intent upon walking straight into a scalding hot shower. Possibly followed by a ritual burning of the bright orange county property currently offending his skin with its presence. But he hesitated instead, turning to look out his darkened window at the car still idling in the driveway. It was an inexplicable feeling that washed over him, as he couldn't even see through the front windshield against the brightness of the headlights, but he felt suddenly like Nick was not as 'fine' as he had sworn, and that he was an asshole for ever accepting his claims in the first place. He decided to put it from his mind and shower, anyway. His hair wasn't even dry before he caved, but he spent another few minutes debating how big of a tool he'd come off as if, when he called, Nick was actually asleep in bed like he'd said. It would take some real finesse to come out of that one looking good. Ultimately, he decided to go with his gut, flipped his mobile phone open, and pressed send. Nick naturally, was the most recently called number. He answered on the fourth ring. Ssssssssup? came his friend's disturbingly chipper voice. Michael held the phone away from his ear briefly, eyeballing it as if it had somehow betrayed him, put him through to the wrong dimension or something. He then put it back to his head. Uh, hey, buddy. It's me. You, uh. What are you doing?
Thread: Perfect Stranger (SevenxBathos)

Nick wasn't exactly sure how many beers he'd had, and he couldn't be certain what else he'd had between them either, but by the time Michael called, there were several overturned shotglasses surrounding the army of empty bottles and Mr. Kobayashi was now sitting beside him, yelling at the television in Korean and on his third beer. Neither of them heard the cell phone during the first few seconds, but eventually it's ringtone could no longer be ignored. I never meant to be so bad to you, one thing I said that I would never do. Nick ignored the way Kobayashi eyeballed him for having anything by Asia on his cell phone, too drunk to even be embarrassed about it, and he lifted the phone to eye level, staring at it for a long time, even squinting while he worked out who was calling. While Mr. Kobayashi continued to shout at the soap opera on the television, Nick finally stopped seeing double long enough to see what the caller ID said 'Mikey' , Nick said, and Kobayashi fell silent while he answered the phone, lifting it close and hissing out Ssssssssup? There was a long silence over the phone before Mikey responded, and Nick slouched against the bar, hanging his head a little to stretch out some of the muscles in his neck and back, Um, Nick said, Nothin'. I'm not doing anything. A lot of nothing, all up in here. He looked around the building then there was no one else there, of course. Everyone else seems to be doing something. Nick said, and then looked at his watch it took a lot of focus for that particular action as well. It was 330 a.m. Like sleeping, I guess. Sleep sucks anyways.
Thread: Perfect Stranger (SevenxBathos)

Uh huh, Michael said, slowly and with a certain level of suspicion drawing out the two syllables. All right, well. You just enjoy your nothin' and I'll talk to you soon, okay? Bye. Mikey hung up the phone before Nick could get a word in, because now he was officially in a hurry. Oh, and an asshole, as he had previously feared, because Nick was fantastically drunk. Or high on something, and both scenarios were a little hard to swallow. But either one meant he was not okay. He knew exactly where Nick would be, or at least had a pretty good hunch, considering how bombed he was and their proximity to Nick's favorite little dive. There was the problem of transportation to consider, however, so as soon as Michael clicked off the line he put a call into a taxi service and requested a car. He hated doing it, considered it a huge waste of money, but he couldn't very well ask Nick for a ride in this case. It was just over twenty minutes before he arrived at the bar, dressed now in the same jeans as before--he only washed them every so often--and a snugly fitting gray t-shirt featuring Captain Beyond. He still needed a shave, but he was less menacing with the cartoon Captain depicted on his chest. The first thing Michael noticed, upon arrival, was the little Korean guy who ran the place, settled on a stool next to Nick. Nick, who was merrily guffawing away at the television--Michael noted distantly that it was a late night infomercial, and not a particularly funny one--with Mr. Kobayashi. The Korean looked at him when he walked in, and Michael looked back. Kobayashi's face was stern and disapproving, as if it were somehow Michael's fault that Nick was in the state that he was. As if Nick weren't a grown ass man fully capable of making his own decisions. As if it wasn't Kobayashi himself who got Nick drunk in the first place. The Korean looked at him as if all roads that led to Hell first started with Michael and then, after a beat, he was laughing again with Nicholas. Michael's mouth twitched like he wanted to say something to defend himself, but he knew Kobayashi would feign innocence in the face of confrontation, so he kept it to himself, plastered on his own ridiculous grin, and bellied up to the bar with Nick. Hey, man. Looks like you've been ragin' it up in here. You need a, uh, ride home? That is, when you're done with your ... program?
Thread: Perfect Stranger (SevenxBathos)

Nick stared at the phone for a long time after Mikey had hung up, but eventually he forgot precisely why he was looking at it and ended up discarding it onto the top of the bar, refocusing on Kobayashi and the television. It was a well-known fact amongst their circle that Nicholas Godwit had a tendency to be a little behind the times due to the frequency of his travels, and his particular personality, he usually had zero patience or time for things like television, radio, or even internet. In fact, the extent of his relationship with technology seemed to be limited to his blackberry, which held his schedule and let him check for messages beyond that, he was more likely to throw a computer at someone to catch their attention rather than e-mail them. So, really, television was pretty novel to him. Especially while drunk. He just couldn't remember why it was funny , he just knew that at some point Mr. Kobayashi had started laughing, and it had caused some strange giggle-loop that had them both snickering at absolutely nothing, merely laughing more because, at that point, the sound of laughter was also funny. By the time Michael arrived, Kobayashi was also wasted, but much more aware than Nick was - presently, Nick had gained a slightly rosy tint to his cheeks, and somewhere along the lines, his tie had come off and had ended up around Kobayashi's head. When Michael spoke, Nick turned 180 degrees on the stool and lifted his arms up in the air like he had just scored a touchdown, Michael! he enthused, and lowered his arms, We have beer. I had beer. There's more beer though, if you want some. And vodka. Kobayashi added gravely, and shot Michael another of those looks, Very much vodka. Yes, very much vodka. Nick agreed, having completely disregarded his friend's question near his elbow sat a bottle of vodka, the contents of which had been significantly diminished over the course of the previous hour and a half, I got to thinking that it was such a waste, all the alcohol on the, um, top of my head. And shirt. I figured I should make up for it. By drinking some. Kobayashi too, see? He's got my tie on, I think it works for him. Kobayashi shrugged and flipped his head to the side so the tie swung around Nicholas did another shot of vodka, which had been sitting at the ready on the counter, and as politely as possible, licked a trail of it off of his wrist from where he had unsteadily spilled it.
Thread: Perfect Stranger (SevenxBathos)

Heat poured into Michael's face, fast enough that he thought he could actually hear the rushing blood flooding into his cheeks, and even as far as the tops of his ears. He looked at Kobayashi, not because he cared about Nick's tie--he did not give a flying fuck about Nick's stupid tie--but because it was someplace to look other than at Nick who was ... Obviously, Nick was drunk and in an altered state, because the way he drew his tongue across his wrist was obscene . Criminally obscene. Mothers would draw their small children away in a blind panic. Churches would protest. The Republicans would pass laws about it, if they caught wind of this. And if Michael suddenly felt like the room was closing in on him and the heat had bumped up a few degrees and his clothes were suddenly ill-fitting and wrong , then it was only because he was uncomfortable. For Nicholas. He was uncomfortable because Nick would hate to know that he had behaved so badly in public. He cleared his throat, took a deep breath, and did a double take because Kobayashi was smirking at him, the bastard. Okay, Nick, Michael said, possibly an octave higher than his usual range. You've had enough and your friend here--cue Michael's hostile glance at the Korean--needs to get to sleep some time tonight. Slowly, as if he thought knew this was all going to end painfully for him, Michael slid his arm around Nick's shoulders and tugged him away from the stool. Let's go, man. You can sleep it off at my place.
Thread: Perfect Stranger (SevenxBathos)

Kobayashi was watching Michael with a detached sort of interest, the tie hanging stupidly against his temple, his expression serious in comparison to the silk neckwear he had turned into a jaunty headband. Nick, however, didn't seem to be focusing on much of anything, but that was probably due to the fact he'd had far too much to drink by that point, and focusing on anything was virtually impossible, as the world had doubled. As he was pulled off of the seat and onto his feet, Nick pursed his lips and looked skywards as though deep in thought, even while being led to the door, Um, he said, and then shrugged his mouth, No. I don't want to sleep. Let's go somewhere. Um. Let's go to a waterpark. Or bumper cars. We should go on bumper cars. Do they - I mean, are there even any bumper cars here? I don't think there are, actually. Are - hey, Mr. Kobayashi, are there any - thingies - Go sleep. Kobayashi said, tugging the tie off his head and flinging it in their direction it landed on Michael's shoulder, Get sleep. And you Michael, you shave! You need to shave! No I don't need to sha - oh, Michael. Not me. Nick said, rubbing at his clean-shaven face, and then peering over at Michael, who was currently in very close proximity he raised a hand to touch inquisitively at Michael's jaw, Hey, wow, you do need to shave. That's kind of impressive. Was that there earlier today? I don't remember it. You're like a wookie. That's a man-beard, right there. Wait, what was I talking about?
Thread: Different in every way [Echo and Relic]

Aieric, one of the humans from the camp upstream, could hardly believe his luck. Truth be told he had been doing little more than scouting today, his keen eyes and ears wary for any and all signs of...Well, whatever it was his superiors had told him to be on the lookout for. Sometimes it was cavalry, sometimes tracks, and in this case? Well, his orders were literally Find anything and everything, and fuck it up. Something that, truth be told, Aieric was rather good at. And in this case? Well, he had found a lovely bathing beauty, sporting a tail and ears. Slowly, surely he made his way to the stream, he pausing at the side, sword slung over his shoulder, just waiting for her to see him.