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 Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2013 11:18 pm
It wasn't such a stretch to say that Amarus avoided the cafeteria like the plague: the few times she'd been forced to consume anything from the place she'd regretted it not immediately after but as she was consuming it. However, there were important and unusual situations, where she just had to enter the cafeteria. This time, it was on a dare. A dare to consume the cafeteria's meatloaf.
However, as she stood in line waiting to acquire said dare-food, she realized how ridiculously expensive it was. Under her breath, she muttered: "I should have told them to buy it for me, or... maybe the lunch lady forgot to lock the back door?" She then cast her eyes upwards, looking for any sign of a vent she could maybe sneak into and drop down and then steal some. Or send a mini to do it?
Her brain was full of schemes. She stood, flat-footed, an inch or two above the ground; it was as if she liked to think she was still alive, as tangible as possible until about her mid-calves, where she started to fade into transparency. Her lotus-aura, a pink-purple glow that flickered faintly over her skin, produced her calming aura, despite the actual aura smoke being odourless and colourless to anyone nearby. It was the smoke that calmed and disoriented, not the glow itself.
Every time she turned her head, the bells in her hair rang.
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Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2013 11:27 pm
"I hear it's gnome meat," Muttered a disgruntled voice behind the ghost. He was shorter than her, even if her feet had touched the ground, freckled with the heavy-browed, simian features of a face only a mother could love. Roaches skittered from the sleeves of his worn and muted pinstriped jacket, cascading around his tray and under the sneeze-guard to the waiting cafeteria food on the other side.
The burly cafeteria lady didn't seem to notice.
He glowered incredulously down at the quivering, steaming lumps of mystery meat behind glass. "And they get that for free. Wooden Nickles, the lot of it! Damn sick of this malarkey. Highway robbery is what it is."
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Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2013 3:54 pm
"I never particularly liked gnomes," Amarus added in response to the voice, before even really registering what was being said or who was saying it. She turned her head slowly to look at its origins: he was short, and very freckled. She recoiled internally from the roaches, espeecially when they seemed to head towards the food. "No bet is enough to pay for... this, though I'm sure they would add, ah, texture to our meal," she added darkly, her face devoid of expression. Her mirror-silver eyes seemed equally blank. That was often the way she appeared when meeting new individuals. Force of habit.
"I'm not entirely sure what you just said, but I agree wholly, I suspect... I was just thinking about what it would take to, ah, acquire some unlawfully in order to satisfy a bet I've made. Acrobatics? Stealth? I wonder what would be the most efficient way to obtain some..." She left her statement hanging, implying: without paying the exorbitant sum. Thinking, she glanced back at the unwholesome cafeteria lady, and then back towards the seemingly brutish short boil.
"I am Amarus, Lotus Eater, and if you have any suggestions I am happy to hear them." Well, he seemed like he might be unscrupulous enough not to mind contributing to theft!
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Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2013 11:11 pm
"Enzo Valentino, Hooligan." The little reaper murmured, leaning in to try to spy past Ginger's hairy elbow on the other side of the glass. "And if you don't mind rat spit I got some ideas..." He wrinkled his nose, "Lotuses taste any good?"
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Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2013 7:43 am
Amarus sighed. "If it's for the good of this cause, then I guess I can learn to ignore rat spit," she agreed, with only a second of hesitation. Oh well. Rats... she could tolerate them this one time, right? "Hooligan, so your appearance really does fit the bill, then," she added, with the corner of her mouth slipping up into an amused expression briefly before her face melted back into the mask of indifference it seemed to default to.
"The flower? I don't know, it's more my heritage than a current diet," she attempted to explain. After all, it wasn't so much what she did now as that she had been in a place where the Lotuses were so abundant or important that they had essentially seeped into her spirit. After she died, wherever that might be, she had become one of the Lotus Eaters of lore. "But my essence appears to be faintly sweet," she added in, thinking.
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Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2013 11:19 am
At the remark on essence, Enzo grinned, "Oh I'll bet it is. Sweet, that is." He gave her a playful elbow and a wink. "Roaches, thems easy, I mastered them when I was a kiddo," He gave a little whistle, and the creeping bugs crawling up the cafeteria tray-line lined up in front of him. The whistle dipped into a tune and with a twirl of his fingers the insects all straightened up and began to twirl in a little dance as well.  "s**t all you can do with roaches. Except harass your sisters, aheheheh. Rats, though...." Ginger had glanced to the dancing Roaches, although it was unclear if she approved or if she was actually concerned for their hygienic well-being with the food so close. Enzo gave another whistle, and the upright bass behind him began to thrum and a few dark shadows darted behind the sneeze-guard glass.
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Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2013 11:43 am
Amarus could not tell if she should be impressed or disgusted, because she definitely felt a little bit of both. Not at Enzo, specifically, but definitely the dancing insects. At the same time, she seemed to be immune to the wink, and stared straight at him with the same expression she already had. "I have been many things to many individuals, but sweet is never one of them," she added, as though it was just an established fact. Her expression did soften again, though, and she seemed to smile?
"I have always preferred birds," she added. "But I can see how rats would be useful, so long as they don't get into my baking," she added.
Amarus' attention was immediately drawn first to the bass, and then to the sneeze-guard. Tilting her head, bells ringing, she regarded what was going on with mild fascination. "That bass ... sounds great," she mumbled, actually smiling now. Okay, so there were some communication barriers... but all in all, this was kind of fascinating.
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Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2013 11:53 am
"Birds is tricky," He mumbled, concentrating on the task at hand, tapping a finger to replace his whistled commands as The Boss took up the musical slack. "Got their own songs, see. Except pigeons, they're dumb as nails. Once they get in the air they're hard to- we aughta' scram," He suddenly patted an arm around her waste, leading her back out of line and away toward the tables as a quick pace.
Behind Ginger's back, three rats struggled to carry the slabs of mystery meat, scrambling across the linoleum around the food line towards them.
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Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2013 12:18 pm
"I couldn't hold a note even if it was bound and gagged and handcuffed to me," she answered, "So birds and I seldom have occasion to disagree." Amarus was not terribly happy to be led away, especially not by the waist, but she merely expressed her disapproval via a cold stare, and then got distracted by the excitement of what was even happening?
Amarus merely let herself follow Enzo's lead, peering back over her shoulder briefly to watch what was happening. And she suddenly felt the need to clamp down on rising laughter, as she realized what was happening. "That is not sanitary at all," she said. Once she felt they'd gotten far enough away, she actually did laugh.
And, at least now, the awful frigid facade that accompanied first meeting the Lotus Eater had eased up and fallen away. Much less pokerface.
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Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2013 5:34 pm
"You saying it was sanitary to start with?" He pulled a pair of milk cartons from the pockets of his pants as they sat, "Don't even eat lotuses. Amarie the Daft Dora, more like aheheheh." He straightened his jacket, set his hat to the side and gave his hair a good swipe- not that it did much good with his black oily mop. "You like pigeons? I can get you pigeons. Rats with wings is all they are. Stupider though."
One wall-eyed, distantly focused rat leaped onto the table, setting a pair of paper plates down in front of each of them before two more delivered the meal.
The Boss balanced behind his reaper, providing the appropriate series of notes to keep the rodents in line.
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Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2013 9:20 pm
"True," Amarus agreed. The meat was probably barely edible, and less meat than it was edible even. She tilted her head as he produced two milk cartons, not sure when he had acquired them, or how cold his pants could possibly be-- wasn't milk one of those things that could spoil? She wouldn't know, she didn't drink it very often. Her diet was incredibly lazy, and she pretty much only drank water.
She had no idea what he was saying before he started to ... was that laughter? Something about Amaries? Amarus just watched him, head tilted, bells ringing faintly every time she moved. "Um, no, that's okay, Muka is bird-like enough for me... pigeons I can live without," she said. "What would happen if you attached wings to rats? Superior pigeons?"
Would rats be good at flying? She wondered, briefly: maybe if you gave rats wings, all they would do is fly into walls in confused, fat, ratty dazes. Well, at least the rat had plates. And the other rats brought the meatloaf.
"Do you like dares, Enzo?" Amarus asked, the corner of her mouth quirking up in a smile. "I will trade you one secret, if you can keep your meatloaf down longer than I can."
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Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2013 10:24 pm
Enzo thought for a moment on what a RatBird would possibly look like.  He immediately snorted with laughter. "Leave actual rats with wings to them egghead mad scientists," He wove a hand dismissively and for a moment, pondered his stolen meal. The milk, thankfully, was still cold. He hopefully had just swiped it while they had been in line, or via one of his furry little friends. At the mention of a dare, he raised a thick eyebrow. "I was just debating if this was swallow-able... but secrets, you say?"
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Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2013 10:32 pm
If Amarus could have seen Enzo's thoughts, she would have been terrified: ratbirds were somehow the worst parts of both creatures combined, in a way that would have haunted her non-existent dreams for decades to come.
And she remained blissfully unaware. But at least whatever he'd seen had amused him. "Mort is the only scientist I know, I don't think he'd bother with that," she admitted. She was definitely not even distantly related to anyone who would be called an "egghead mad scientist," unless that was referring to her narcotics experiments with cookies.
She brushed her fingertips along the side of one of the cold milk cartons, and looked down at it, then up at him as if to ask: I'm not really sure if both of these are for you, or one is for the rats, or they're all for the rats, or what?
Her faint smile turned into a full, wicked grin: "Yes, a secret-- but only if you can put something equally valuable on the line. What good is a bet if only one of us has anything to gain?" Amarus suggested, with a shrug, her grin still in place.
That meatloaf looked... disgusting.
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Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2013 10:37 pm
"A tough brawd. I like that," He rested his chin on his hands as he smirked at her calculatingly. He glanced down at the questionable, stolen meat. "You insinuatin' I aint got secrets of the juicy sort? I happen to be head of the Student Radio Club. Secrets is my bread and butter. "
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Posted: Sun Feb 03, 2013 8:43 am
The glint in Amarus' eyes only seemed to intensify for a moment, before she toned it down and tried to compose herself, leaning back in her seat. "Just the opposite," she said, "if I thought you didn't have anything to offer, I wouldn't have suggested the bet."
She paused.
"So it's a deal?" she asked, the corner of her mouth quirking up again. She leaned forward in her seat, trying very hard not to look the meatloaf in the eye or it would sense her fear.
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