Fate, destiny, and comic books (Delilah!)

[DAN OWENS]

There was something almost unsettlingly soothing about antique shops, in Dan's opinion. Maybe it was in the way they usually smelled just as old as the items for sale, or the fact that no matter where you were across the country, they never really seemed to change. And yet, they were always eerily different at the same time. It was downright creepy. Still, he couldn't help but feel lured towards them whenever he walked by; it was a nice change, he supposed, from the deafening mess that was the city, but that was hardly why he came. The fact of the matter was that they sold some pretty great comic books (if you could find the right store), and there was one in particular which he wanted more than his college diploma.

Detective Comics #27. That was his mission for today, as it had been his mission for the past seven Thursdays before now on his time off; locate and purchase the comic book of his dreams, preferrably by swindling the thrift store owner out of the approximately one million dollars the it was actually worth. If he got his hands on the thing, it would probably be all to easy. Dan had a theory that the old ladies who ran these sorts of stores never really knew what they were selling half the time, and thus, it was a lot easier than normal people thought to buy really expensive things for really cheap, if only you were good enough at pretending that what you wanted to buy didn't actually interest you all that much. It was a method he'd used many times growing up, each instance managing to walk out of the store with an exceptionally valuable ring for one girl or another without spending more than ten dollars a piece. Hopefully the same rule applied to comic books. If he could even find the damn thing, that was.

Pushing his way through a particularly moth-eaten rack of jackets from what must have been the seventeenth century, Dan couldn't help but cough rather rudely as he emerged on the other side. Where the hell were the comics, anyway? This place wasn't that big. They had to be around here somewhere... eyes peeled for the slightest sign of anything resembling Batman in the slightest, Dan weaved his way through several more aisles of grubby-smelling clothing before he found it. There it was, the Holy Grail of every antique store: the old, green rubber box filled with assorted books, postcards, and other such useless riff-raff. Occasionally, however, one would find a comic book. Sometimes even a rare one. That was usually when it became clear that the rest of your life would mean nothing, because you had already found the meaning of it that one, small little book of colored pictures and talk bubbles, but it didn't even matter that nothing else would ever live up to that moment because you already held the meaning of life in your hands. Or at least, that was what he'd heard back in high school. But the kid who told him that had also been pretty stoned at the time, so Dan was still rather skeptical about the whole thing. Even so, it couldn't hurt to look.

Dan was so absorbed in his hunt for the original Caped Crusader that he didn't notice the sounds of someone fiddling with an item behind him. Continuing to dig ferociously about the bottom of the plastic bin, his eyes grew suddenly wide as the corner of what appeared to be a very old-looking comic book caught his eye. "Ah-ha!" he cried, wrenching the thing upwards. In doing so, however, he managed to stumble backwards and straight into a girl standing behind him. Instantly, he turned around to apologize, dropping the comic in the process (and noticing rather angrily that it was a new edition, one that actually happened to be sitting in his room at home). "I-uh-sorry 'bout that. You should really watch where you're going, Blondie," he nodded in the girl's direction, offering what he hoped was a warm smile her way.

[DELILAH PUNZEL]

Delilah usually tended to avoid going into quaint little antique shops. They awoke her inner buyeverythingisee demon, and since Delilah was putting all her money into food and student loans, she didn't need to buyeverythingisee. However, as she was window browsing, a shimmer caught her eye. It was similar to the glint of hope you see over a barren horizon. Fleeting, but there all the same. Mentally locking her wallet, Delilah walked in.

It was as if she had stepped into a new world. Or, in her case, an old world. A world she had once known very well, and that she had referred to fondly as "Hell on earth". To Delilah, it felt as though she had gone back in time and stepped into her attic prison. All the dusty furniture, trunks and assorted items gave off the same odor of mothballs and passing time. They had the same dark vibe. Frankly, Delilah wanted to get the hell out of there. She had moved all the way to New York to get away from her attic and there was no way she wanted to relive it.

And then she saw it.

Just over a few rows was her glimmer, and the beauty of it took her breath away. Delilah floated over to the tiara, and gingerly took it in her hands. Obviously, it had seen some hard times and had lost some of the original jewels. But it was still...perfect. The silver frame was thin and spindly, stretching delicately between the interlocking diamonds and rubies. Delilah knew that if it happened upon her blonde head, she wouldn't want to take it off.

Then she looked at the price tag, and instantly hated it.

Shit.

Distraught over the tiara, Delilah decided to look around some more before leaving. Maybe she'd find an amusing old picture that would take her mind off it. After a few steps, Delilah saw him and froze. It was as if her heart had dropped to her stomach. Fear, but accompanied by an odd sense of euphoria. Rapunzel was suddenly clear in Delilah's mind, desperately wanting control. It took all of the poor girl's concentration to keep Rapunzel from taking over, and she was horrified to find her fingers and toes twitching against her will.

Not good.

Delilah focused all her energy, then squashed Rapunzel from her mind. Yeah, that's how it's done, son! She had no clue why Rapunzel would freak out so much, and it weirded her out. Before Delilah had time to comprehend her thoughts, though, she got knocked into. "Oh my gosh I'm so sorry!' Delilah grimaced, always blaming herself for things. Her frown instantly turned into a grin, though, as it always did.

"I-uh-sorry 'bout that. You should really watch where you're going, Blondie." Blondie, huh? No one had ever called her that before. Had a nice ring to it, though.

"Oh, no. I think it's you that needs to watch where they're going. I could have been seriously damaged!" Delilah mock gasped, returning his smile. "And the name's Delilah."

[DAN OWENS]

Dan cleared his throat instinctively as the girl apologized. Unable to discern exactly what it was she'd done wrong, he blinked at her several times before deciding maybe it was best not to question the whole thing and simply nod in agreement. That usually worked well in these sorts of situations. Then again, these sorts of situations were usually filled with large, smelly old men or frail little old ladies--in other words, people he wanted to get away from as fast as his legs could carry him. It wasn't very often that he managed to bump into people his own age while sober. And especially not people of the attractive-female variety. He looked the girl up and down once, quickly, before realizing the frown was gone from her face almost as fast as it had appeared; so maybe he hadn't needed to say anything, after all. Good. He'd never liked reassuing people that things were his fault.

Chuckling slightly at her gasp of what appeared to be horror, Dan chose that moment to bend down and whip the fallen comic book from its resting place on the floor. He then proceeded to hold the thing behind his back for a moment before oh-so-slyly tossing it back towards the bin from where it had come. There. Dan Owens: 1, Potentially Embarrassing Obsessions: 0.

"Damaged?" he scoffed lightly, raising a brow as he took the oppertunity to look her over once more. She was probably right. The girl looked like she wouldn't last ten seconds in a carnival funhouse, for Christ's sake. Still, it was usually best not to mention such things upon first meeting someone. "Seems to me you can handle yourself pretty well. You're lurking about a antiques shop, after all, and it doesn't get much sketchier than that. This isn't a safe place for the delicate type," he smirked slightly, offering her a small, only slightly apologetic shrug.

As she introdced herself Dan nodded again, extending a hand for her to shake. It was only once the hand was actually hovering there between them that he got the sudden urge to shove it back into his pocket; people didn't actually shake hands during introductions. God, this shit was so much easier when he was drunk. Names were at least optional then. Still, he kept the hand in the open, if only because it would have looked like he suspected her of having some sort of flesh eating disease if he'd retreated at this point. "Right. Like the song," he smiled again before introducing himself, glad the name rolled off his tongue much easier now, what with all those years of practice. "And I'm Dan. Pleasure to almost knock you over, Delilah,"

[DELILAH PUNZEL]

Ever since Rapunzel had come into Delilah's life, she'd been convinced that she was going a little crazy.

Of course, that a perfectly reasonable thought. If you heard voices in your head, your first explanation should be insanity.

But surely, Delilah wasn't packing up for the cuckoo shack, yet.

Delilah certainly felt charmed by this Dan character. There was no doubt he was handsome, and he seemed like he could be an ok guy. But then her thoughts turned to Blake and Delilah instantly felt guilty. It wasn't all Delilah's fault that she had fallen for a guy who seemed to be obsessed with making sure she stayed safe. Delilah actually thought it was sweet to know that someone she just met cared about her that much.

Then, Delilah was shaken back to the present by Rapunzel. "Delilah, don't do it..." Rapunzel's request was quiet and faint, and Delilah had no clue what the "it" was. However, it was nice that Rapunzel had said something, otherwise Delilah was sure she would have remained lost in thought for several more minutes.

And that's just downright weird.

Laughing, Delilah shook Dan's hand. "Yep, the song. I would say the pleasure's all mine, but I'd be lying. Personally, I don't like being nearly knocked over when first meeting someone." Smirking, Delilah tried to look around Dan to see what he could've been looking at. "Here for anything in particular, Dan?"

[DAN OWENS]

Well, she was certainly able to have a good laugh about this little incident, and that was definitely a good thing. Dan had met far too many girls more willing to bitch someone out for bumping into them than laugh. Delilah's type was certainly a breath of fresh air.

He let out something between a sigh of relief and a chuckle as Delilah's hand grasped his. Maybe he lingered a bit too long on the handshake, and he silently cursed himself for it, because she probably already thought him the sort of creep to bump into a pretty girl on purpose just to ask her out; damn her good looks. It was always easier talking nice to the ugly ones. At least then you could make it clear conversation was all out of pity.

"It's a nice name," he added simply. And it was, something about the way "Delilah" rolled off the tongue just made it that much more worthwhile to say; besides, not too many people were called that. It was a cooler name than Dan, anyhow. More noticable. Which, he knew full well, could also be a very bad thing.

Laughing, Dan replied easily, "You don't? See, I always assumed it'd be fun and surprising. Guess I'll keep that in mind next time I want to introduce myself to someone," he shrugged. At the sound of her question, however, Dan visibly hesitated. Oh, I was just looking for this really old comic book. Sort of a hobbby of mine. Right. Because that would go over real well, he was sure.

After waving aside a very serious urge to tell her he had a train to catch and should probably have been on his way about an hour ago before bolting out of the store, Dan began what he thought was a rather clever explanation. "Not really, no...just browsing... What about you? Got your eye on anything?" change of subject. That was a guaranteed no-fail.

[DELILAH PUNZEL]

Rapunzel kept stirring. Delilah could tell that she wanted to appear in front of everyone, because for one, Rapunzel didn't care. When she wanted to tell Delilah something, she told her. See, Delilah did have a pretty sound control of her mind. Rapunzel never really fought her for control, she just kind of resided there, probably because they were so much alike that Rapunzel didn't feel the need to take over. But all these stirrings were worrying Delilah. What had made her suddenly stronger? Was she going to try and take over? And the last question, that was more Rapunzel's then Delilah's, was it Eugene? Was that her prince?

Delilah surpressed the slight blush that wanted to creep into her cheeks. What was she thinking? Gosh, it did NOT matter if she ever found "the prince" or "Eugene" (Rapunzel practically fumed at that), because for one, Delilah could be crazy. However, she had a feeling that there were other people like her, therefore, a Eugene or Prince must exist somewhere. But...did it mean that they had to be her "true love" or whatever? I mean, Delilah was pretty happy with Blake at the moment.

"Oh, well, I just saw something in the window I wanted to look at. I really hate shopping in these places, cus I always wanna spend all my money. That and paying for college does not mix." Delilah laughed slightly. Oh, money. The thing that made the world go round. "Do you go to Barrie?"

[DAN OWENS]

"Ah, so you're one of those types," Dan chuckled, unable to resist the urge to wrinkle his nose at her slightly. It was all in jest, of course, and there was still a smile on his face as he unscrunched it. In fact, he sort of liked that she was admitting to coming her often. It was..refreshing. Not many people his age were willing to admit they spent their freetime in thrift stores; or at least, not the ones he hung out with. "Can't get enough of the mothballs smell, huh?" he added, still teasingly, as he took a mocking wiff of the air around him.

He actually quite liked the smell of antique shops and thrift store-type places--they reminded him of the past, of old boxes of photographs stored in the attic and that ratty old stuffed bear sitting in the bottom of his closet. Of course it was for those very same reasons that Dan tended to avoid such places for any reason other than to scrounge up an old comic of some sort.

At the mention of college, Dan instantly perked up a bit. It hadn't even occured to him that this girl might go to school with him. She just seemed so...fragile. Definitely someone he would have noticed if they'd run into each other before. He nodded. "Yeah, I'm a senior. Almost outta there," he smiled charmingly. "I take it you go there too, huh?" She couldn't be older than a sophomore. There was no way. Still, he wouldn't say anything; girls always hated when you tried to guess their age once they got out of high school. Dan had, unfortunately, learned so from experience.