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 Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2011 10:07 pm
[ they call me mellow yellow ~ *sings* ]
Honestly, it had been a while since he had been to the main Destiny City park. Shocking to be sure, but with all that transpired - and the fact that winter was too damned cold and wet - Sheldon had been pretty much a hermit and only came out when needed; parental visits, school, work and food runs. But today seemed like a nice day, it was a bit nippy as spring liked to be but that wasn't something a light jacket couldn't fix. So, the green haired male had ventured out to his favorite sitting area and even grabbed himself some lunch at the nearby cafe.
Now, given smoking regulations, he had ordered his turkey sandwich and bottle of iced tea to go and set off to the interior of the park itself which seemed barred from such rules. He picked his way carefully, mindful of the other pedestrians strolling around and those sitting in the grass and especially those partaking in actual exercise - haha, the fools - to a less populated area that only a few people seemed to be trekking through.
Once picking his spot on the grass - he felt like changing it up a bit from the usual benches - he popped open his take out container as well as a cigarette.
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Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2011 10:13 am
Even running didn't hold its usual appeal for Dani, and that was really pissing her off. Everything she did lately, from the moment she woke alone in her bed to when she threw herself back in it, exhausted, reminded her of Parker and the fact that he was not part of her life anymore. Physically, anyway. She reached for her phone about a hundred times a day, searching for the little envelope icon that would mean a new text, but even if there was one, it wasn't from him. He was obviously still part of her life because the b*****d wouldn't leave her thoughts alone for a single day, but he was like some kind of horrible, dreary cloud.
This was worse than when they'd been apart for a month before after she visited his dad. Then, it hadn't been an official break-up, just kind of.. awkward. And she'd been in the wrong then, so she figured she had to give him time. This was entirely different because Parker was definitely in the wrong, and not only that, but he didn't want time. He didn't even want her.
He didn't want her at all. That thought, circling in the back of her mind, made her push herself even harder as she ran, feet pounding against the track, arms tucked to her sides to keep from taking out the slower runners as she went. Dani wasn't exercising that day, she was running; running until her legs and lungs burned, too hard for it to really be any use to her. The only problem was, she couldn't outrun her damn thoughts.
Frustrated and annoyed with herself, not to mention more than a little sad and pissed off about that too, she cut across grass and headed to a largely unpopulated spot of the park. What her plan was, exactly, she couldn't have said, but she got halfway to her destination and realized that she was having a really damn difficult time breathing.
No wonder, she'd been running since she got up.
She stopped abruptly, leaning forward with her hands braced on her knees, and gulped greedy mouthfuls of air. After another moment she just gave up, throwing herself on the grass and kicking her legs up; she watched the clouds swirl above her head, continued her labored breathing while she waited for her pulse to settle.
Hey, wait. That wasn't a cloud.
It smelled bad, too.
Only just then realizing that she'd actually flopped next to someone, Dani rolled onto her side, grass sticking up out of her powder blue hair as she frowned at the person beside her. Ew, he was smoking.
"That," she said, narrowing green eyes at him, "is going to kill you. And me. And is disgusting."
This knowledge imparted, she collapsed against the grass again, her arms spread wide at her sides.
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Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2011 10:46 pm
Sheldon had only gotten through half his sandwich by the time Dani appeared on the scene. In between smoking one of his cigarettes and consuming the food, the whole ordeal had been a nice drawn out affair. Not too bad for a random afternoon when someone didn't have a care in the world.
Though, the blue haired girl did suddenly interrupt that. Sheldon had remained as silent as he could, treating the girl like a deer; any sudden movement or noise would spook her and possibly startle her. Besides, any sudden shock would probably not benefit her with the way she was gagging for air and coughing - that was also why he didn't exercise, she looked exhausted and in pain from trying to be healthy, bah!
By the time he was slowly inching his sandwich container to his side, the girl plopped herself on the grass beside him and began to complain. Maybe he should have taken the chance, clicked some sticks together and had her scamper off in a frenzy. Sheldon took one look from her face to his new cigarette and then back at her, "Wow. Really? No one has ever told me!" He feigned gratitude, "Thank you!" He puffed out a big cloud of smoke for good measure.
"Better than dying from asphyxiation or whatever ill things running can get you." Not being able to breathe would suck, even though it was a bit on the ironic side since well, lung cancer and all. But it totally beat spraining and ankle or getting mugged in the woods as you ran by.
Oddly enough, Sheldon chose to join her by laying his back against the grass. It was a relaxing position after all.
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Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 11:28 am
This conversation wasn't worth the effort it would take to sit up again, so Dani didn't. She simply stayed where she was, chest rising and falling with each burning, unfortunate breath -- made all the more difficult by the close proximity of the smoke. Normally she would have gotten up and walked away, but she could feel the ache of her poorly-executed run from her lungs down to her calves. Besides, if she turned her head to the side, she couldn't smell it as badly.
"I guess that means you're just an idiot," she said reasonably, fighting to steady her voice and control her breathing. It was working, sort of. "Because emphysema is so much better than being out of breath from running too hard. And tar in your lungs is awesome. Not to mention everyone wants to lick an ashtray while they kiss their boyfriend."
Despite the sarcasm in her tone, the words were delivered in a deadpan, almost uncaring voice. She clearly wasn't as worked up about the entire situation as her words seemed to suggest.
"Then again, you're a man. So I guess the whole idiot thing goes hand in hand with your unfortunate state of being."
Also said pretty calmly.
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Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 12:55 pm
This was kind of nice in its own strange way, even though he was pretty much being lectured by what could possibly be a health but. Though, who wasn't these days besides him? Sheldon simply rolled his eyes, trying his best to not be as much of an a** and exhale a little to the side that wasn't where Dani was laying. It couldn't be helped if she still smelled the smoke and it was too late now, she was already affected.
"Ee, probably am really," Sheldon agreed trying his best to shrug against the ground. Fighting her on this would just be terribly bothersome and something he didn't want to get into. Blahblahblah, lung cancer. No use worrying about it, too bothersome. "I'd just hate to kill myself from over exertion, seems like an ironic way to go." he chuckled, flicking a few ashes off his cigarette.
"I figured girls would just get used to the flavor," he added in oddly, maybe a little curious on the subject. "You guys always put on lipstick and lipgloss and whatnot, doesn't that have a weird taste to it?" Probably not as poignant as cigarettes, but hey, he had some very nice smelling ones when he had the money for them. Course, Sheldon had no experience with kissing too many girls these days as he had gone down a very bitter road.
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Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 1:12 pm
Dani considered the question of lip gloss, trying to recall if Parker had ever complained about it. She didn't tend to wear it, herself, or even lipstick; she was more of a chapstick kind of girl, generally berry flavored. She wore make-up when they went out, but she had nice skin in general and there was no point in sweating it off while she ran, so she actually didn't apply many cosmetics. Still, she had definitely glossed up her lips a few times before their dates, but she didn't think Parker had complained.
"Lip gloss is different from cigarettes. That's supposed to taste good. Cigarettes are just... gross." She twisted her hands in the grass, pulling up tufts of it as she did.
Parker would have commented that everyone was going to die anyway, so there was no point in fighting against it as hard as she did by being a health freak. He had, in fact, and she'd come right back with the retort that prevention would help her live longer, not forever, and that was the goal. She didn't want to have that conversation with this guy, though. She didn't even know him. She definitely didn't want to relive old talks she'd had with her ex-boyfriend with some complete stranger.
"And no, girls won't just get used to the flavor. That's like saying a girl will get used to kissing you if you never brush your teeth. Um, no, still disgusting." She made a face at the thought. "And you don't eat lip gloss, so it's not all over the inside of your mouth. Cigarette taste is everywhere. And it makes your teeth yellow. Really attractive."
She lifted her hands, opening her fists so that the grass would float down and away. If the wind picked some of it up and dropped it on Sheldon, well, that hadn't been her intent.
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Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 12:28 am
"I always figured some of them would taste like.. cosmetically or like... fake or something," Sheldon explained with a little wave of his hand. He tapped his cigarette again after a small huff of smoke escaped his lips. His head began to rock left to right as he continued to lay in the grass.
"Then again, they flavor everything these days ... even cigarettes mind you." Hm, Miss Prissy-Pants? Besides, he might one day find a girl who didn't care or was a smoker herself. Sheldon smirked at his revelation. She probably would have a rebuttal on it, so it really was a lost cause to mention. "But at least I have all my teeth," he also wanted to point out. "Missing teeth I think is way worse." God, this was such a weird conversation to have with a complete stranger. Enough to make Sheldon's brows pull together in a very 'what the hell?' type of face. How did he get dragged into this?
His brows pulled tighter as a few blades of grass began to sprinkle down upon his head. Thankfully his mouth was closed at the moment but one still landed dangerously close to his lips. One almost took out his eyes. "Awesome." Was his first comment, running a hand down his face to get the bits of green off - his hair was a lose cause at this point - "I like grass, but not this kind." Oh, he was trying to be clever, how cute.
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Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 10:22 am
Frankly, Dani didn't care if they flavored cigarettes to imitate cotton candy. Aside from the fact that she didn't really like cotton candy, they would still be cigarettes and they'd still be blacking her lungs, damaging the mucus membranes of her body, and potentially causing cancer. Really, they were just making it so that killing yourself slowly was a friendlier process, and probably more expensive, too, if you wanted to fancy flavored ones. Seriously, what kind of idiot bought into that market?
She turned her head, brow furrowed. The minty-green haired one at her side, apparently. Well, him and billions of other people, otherwise the industry would have failed a long time ago. Sometimes, the sheer stupidity of people actually impressed her.
"You have all your teeth -- for now," she said forbiddingly. "If you're lucky enough to become a little old man, they'll probably all fall out and you'll get like, a horrible rattly cough and who knows, maybe they'll even have to cut out part of your throat so that you can breathe through a hole."
She forgot what those were called. Trach... something. Whatever. They were gross and creepy, and whenever she saw those people on commercials she shuddered. Didn't everyone? Who seriously wanted that?
Because she was looking at him, she noticed him brush the grass off his face, and she felt a brief pang. It wasn't enough to have her openly apologize, however; he'd been the one to decide to lay down next to her instead of get up and go his own way, after all. If she thought about it, she was kind of glad for that, because having some conversation was better than none at all. Why, she hadn't even thought about Parker in a couple minutes!
... s**t.
"Grass, like.." She trailed off, then frowned again. "Weed, right? It totally fits. It's people like you that get the rest of us stereotyped," she added, rolling onto her side and propping herself up on her arm. "They're like, oh, so-and-so fits the stereotype so everyone in Destiny City must. Why make it so easy on people? Seriously."
She rolled her eyes. (No, she didn't fit any stereotypes at all.)
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Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 4:03 pm
Sheldon was now getting just the slightest of impressions that the blue haired girl was verbally attacking him. Wow, Sheldon, where did you get that idea? Oh, I don't know... this whole conversation maybe? He frankly didn't just get up and leave as he had been there first, but he really hadn't planned on getting lectured today on the benefits of leading a healthy lifestyle or his own choice of it.
What the hell?
Taking the last drag of his cigarette, he took the remaining filter as he sat up and put the thing out in the empty part of his sandwich box. He would have normally flicked it away but he was in no mood to get her going on littering. He dusted his hands off a bit on the legs of his jeans and looked down as the girl re-situated herself on the ground next to him. "Yup, weed." He answered, not feeling up to talking about his dental hygiene or tracheotomies. His teeth were fine after all, he went to the dentist and everything.
Sheldon clasped his hands together and let them rest on his loosely in his lap as he stared at her with lazy eyes. "What stereotype? You think I'm down trotten and live in this park?" He had to honestly ask, "I have a job, I go to school, I'm really not a deadbeat," well, not that much of one... he still lacked a real goal in life but not everyone had to when they were 20.
"Whats not to say there isn't a stereotype about you also?" He didn't mean to be glib about it, but he asked in as calm and lazy manner as he usually talked. There were a few that her could categorize her in.
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Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 8:03 pm
Dani hadn't bothered to reposition herself, which was to say that she was still looking at him with the same unimpressed expression, one fist propping up her chin with the elbow gouged into the earth, the other hand absently plucking at grass. Sure, it wasn't her job or duty to go around and try to educate people on living healthy lifestyles, but what else were they going to talk about? As far as she knew now, his hobbies included: laying on the ground, smoking cigarettes, and smoking weed. She did two of those things never, and one of them only exceptionally rarely. Common ground was the basis for any conversation, so she was only talking about what she knew.
Unoffended, she lifted her free hand and pointed one unpainted fingernail at him. "I meant the stereotype of being a lazy stoner. You pretty much look the part, and I'm not even going to bother saying no offense, because people only say that to try to look like less of an a*****e." She waited a beat. "I figure you look equally like an a*****e no matter what, so what's the point in wasting my breath?"
Except she'd wasted a lot more breath to explain herself than if she'd simply said "no offense" to begin with. Well, whatever, Dani.
"Anyway, sure there are stereotypes about me. People assume I'm some empty-headed bimbo because I have a pretty face and big breasts. Because physical appearance has so much to do with your brainpower." She rolled her eyes again, resuming plucking grass and dropping it back onto the ground. "I'm just saying, why make it easy on people? I dress like a complete girly girl most of the time, but I bet I could take you in a wrestling match, easy. I'm not a total brainiac, but I'm going to graduate in the top ten of my class and look totally good in the yearbook."
Getting a little impassioned about it, she curled her hand into her fist and shook it in front of her. "People are always looking at you and expecting something, and most of the time, like, society just gives it. And it makes it harder for everyone else who, you know, is actually three-dimensional to prove that they are, because there are people who fit the stereotypes so well and don't even bother trying anymore."
She gave him an expectant look.
The look said prove me wrong.
"I'm Dani, by the way," she added, apparently deciding that he was worth and introduction. She offered her hand to shake.
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Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 11:28 pm
If he were any different sort of person, Sheldon would have taken that look to be some sort of challenge, but he wasn't that sort of person - ee, given the mood he might have but today was not one of those days. And she did bring a few points that he really couldn't argue with her on. "Aa, the lazy stoner," he sighed bopping his head about in a weird sort of nod. "I do look the part, I try so hard... all that prep work, years of practice," he joked... kinda. "But eh, not like its entirely not true either. Sure, I do stuff but I'd rather not." Sitting, like this was really nice.
Pulling his legs in, his hand began to reach around for his bottle of ice tea. "People are assholes no matter what though," he reasoned after taking a swig of his drink. "I mean, why do you have to prove yourself in the first place? Sure you have nice ...." He looked at her and paused, refraining from waving a hand at her body for his point - he had an open bottle in his hand anyways, "... assets. Who cares if you have those assets and a perfectly functional brain to go with it? People are going to pigeon hole you into some category anyways."
Making sure to cap his bottle, he continued with his drawl of words, "And they're just going to put you in another one because you're trying to prove you have the capacity to think and all." There was no escape in Sheldon's eyes, which well... helped with why he didn't fight his stereotype all too much. There were enough stoner ones to go around anyways that he could fall into a few of them and not look like a complete loser, even though well that didn't always work.
"Sheldon," he finally offered, completing the mandatory hand shake of greetings. " And I totally think you could take me in a wrestling match too, though." A five year old could, but he wanted to have some dignity intact.
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Posted: Wed May 04, 2011 1:46 pm
Arguing with Sheldon was proving to be really dissatisfying because he just, well, didn't really... get into it. Dani like passion! Fire! She liked to feel like she was conversing with someone who was going to stand up argue for what they believed in. Sheldon seemed like he was just going to lie there and kind of calmly tell her why he disagreed with her, and then... chill.
And she'd thought Parker was bad when it came to sedentary lifestyles. Sheldon didn't seem just physically inactive, but... mentally inactive, too!
After a brisk shake, she grunted and sat up, crossing her legs. Her frown was disapproving, but as she braced her hands on her knees, she mentally debated the merits of continuing the conversation.
"Just because people are going to do something anyway doesn't mean you have to make it easy for them," she said finally. "I'd rather like, you know. Make an impression and be remembered because I fought back than just fade into the background."
A fate worse than death. Right? Right.
"And yeah, you've got height on me but you're like, totally languid." She waved a hand at him, gesturing with a few short sweeps. "I bet you wouldn't even put up a fight, which makes it totally not worth it to prove my point. Since we've both acknowledged it anyway."
But if for even a moment she thought he was just humoring her, well. She'd prove it to him. That was Dani for you.
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Posted: Mon May 16, 2011 1:04 pm
Fire was definitely not what Dani was going to get from Sheldon, there was really nothing to ignite anything inside him these days aside from new games. But, she had already come to this conclusion as it was. Because even as she frowned at him, his own expression remained clam and pretty blank only shifting when he decided to take a drink from his iced tea.
"Well, I guess." He paused, trying to find a good choice of words. None really came. He thought about congratulating her on her efforts to stick out of the crowd, but would she consider it mocking? From this small conversation as it was, it was obvious the girl had the passion that Sheldon deeply lacked these days. He might as well just indulge her with something though, "still just seems like a lot of work when you'll eventually fade into the background anyways." He shrugged, "something new will come along to steal the spotlight, right?"
Unless you were like Ghandi or something. Was Dani aiming for that kind of attention and remembrance?
"I thank you for not trying to prove that other point though," he added with his attention not even on her anymore. It had moved to staring at his shoes, as one of his feet had begun to fall asleep. "I've had enough bruises this year alone..."
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Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2011 9:15 am
There was just no reasoning with this guy. He was determined to be lazy and hopeless about everything, and he didn't even seem to care that people were going to forget who he was! That nobody would even care if something happened to him. Sure, that was a stretch -- someone would probably always care -- but if you didn't live a life that forced people to remember you, chances were they weren't going to go out of their way to do it for you.
She reached up and fluffed her hair, frown growing as she did. Well, whatever. She could waste her breath trying to convince this guy, or she could find something they both liked to talk about. Ever since her triumphant return from the dead (hah, sarcasm.) she'd realized that she actually... didn't have a lot of friends. And that was both lowering and embarrassing.
She really needed to get out there more.
So, dropping her hand, Dani leveled her gaze on him once more. "I don't go beating people up for the fun of it. If you're getting bullied," she added, blue brows drawing down, "you ought to take some self-defense classes. Or get a strong friend."
So saying, her lips quirked up into a smile and she lifted one arm, flexing. "Like me."
She was only half serious. Dani wasn't against pounding someone who deserved it, but she wasn't looking to be recruited as a guard dog.
After a beat, she asked curiously, "Why are you staring at your shoes?"
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Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2011 12:34 am
Move your big toe, Sheldon told himself even though his inner voice was currently Uma Thurman. Go blood circulation, go! "Foot fell asleep," he simply told Dani, not looking up at her even when the pins and needles began to ripple through his foot making him hiss lowly.
"Aa," he began to touch on her earlier subject. "Something tells me that self defense classes wouldn't do much with what goes bump in the night." He had no idea how to phrase it; who else really knew about youma, senshi and negaverse agents besides those who were one? Were they even common knowledge outside of the news or even normal people outside of their magical magical-ness? Though, the way he had phrased it made him sound a little stupid to be honest.
"A strong friend would be cool though, especially one of those girls in short skirts." Sheldon, typical male behavior was beginning to surface! He let it pass, most of those girls had magic. That was awesome.
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