Welcome to Gaia! ::

Freddie rolled his eyes as he tried to place the name, as if the answer was written somewhere on the back of his thick skull. It still didn't ring a bell, so he shrugged and let it go. "Freddie."

It used to sound like such a cool, masculine name to him, but lately it occured to him it was right up there with Sam and Joe in the category of potential unisex names. At least that saved him from changing it... but the thought made him stuff the rest of the cake in his mouth. Unfortunately while he struggled to chew he was unable to even attempt push the conversation along.

What he really needed was a stiff drink, but fattening treats would have to do for the moment.

"Mmph." Freddie's mouth was still full, so he nodded. Once he swallowed he was left with nothing on the table but a nearly empty glass of tea and a salad that was getting very soggy. And he still felt hungry. All that chewing should have bought him enough time to come up with something else to say, but no...

He should have just made fun of her beak from the get go.

"So... You know many of the people here?"

Maybe then he'd know who to avoid and who to go after. Less embarrassment that way. He still couldn't believe the encounter with the blue haired girl had gone so badly. People who dyed their hair crazy colors were, in his experience, supposed to crumple the minute you said something mean. Nothing on the island made sense.

Freddie pressed his fingers on the crumbs left on the plate. Once he'd gathered enough he licked them off. "They're a li'l too what now?"

He could fill in the blanks with a few choice words of his own, but once he had nothing else to get off the plate he turned his full attention to Bia.

Freddie nodded slowly. He could understand what she was saying, sort of. They were freaks, anyway, so they were very different. He glanced back to the line, but maybe it was time he cut himself off on the cheesecake.

He looked back to Bia. "You don't talk much, do ya?"

"Huh... I'm not much of a talker, either" Freddie said, shocking as that little revelation may be. He could say plenty when it was for the sake of working someone up to tears or violence, but beyond that... He didn't want to verbalize half the things that ran through his head or bothered him.

"Kinda makes things hard." That summed it up well enough.

He stared at the soggy salad, went so far as to poke it with his fork, but it was a lost cause.

Freddie nodded slowly once again. He didn't realize he was blushing (blushing!) until he felt the heat on his cheeks. What the hell was he doing? Real men didn't blush! Especially not in front of strange bird women. He pressed his hands against them as if that could hide it.

"I... uh..." He should have excused himself, but the last attempt he'd made at a hasty retreat in the cafeteria had ended disasterously. As it was, he was too motified to move.

"I'm gonna get s'more cake." Freddie announced abruptly. He rose and hesitated. If he ran over, it'd be just as obvious he was embarrassed as if he'd run for the door. Damage control, then. He had to sound casual. "D'ya... Do ya want anything?"

That didn't help. She had feathers for god's sake, why should he be flustered all of the sudden? Hormones, maybe.

"Kay." Freddie walked to the line, slowly, painfully aware with every stepped that at some point he had started to sweat.. What if it soaked through the white t-shirt? Would the uniform shirt over it hide it? Would it be noticable? Why was he worrying so much about it? He didn't worry about such things, he didn't blush...

He put some cookies on a plate, and as he took another piece of cake he knew he was just going to make himself sick off it.

He already felt sick. As he walked back to the tables, all the reasons for why this could not possibly be anything but some sort of funky hormone imbalance ran through his head. She was black, she had freaking bird features, her boobs weren't even that big... His were. He barely kept himself from groaning out loud. This was insane.

Sweat beaded on his forehead as he laid the plate of cookies down in front of Bia.

"There ya go." He practically gasped the words. As he moved back to his own table he realized that, just as he feared, his shirt was already plastered to his back.