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 Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 10:29 pm
Ever since he'd sat down at the Ebola table in the dining hall - it seemed like hours - Sue'd had a vacant, unwavering stare on him. He'd tried to ignore it, he really had, but after about four bites he found that he couldn't stand chewing with those eyes on him.
Sure, Sue could have stayed hush about it. That's how he normally dealt with people - glaring and grunting when prompted, but otherwise, keeping to himself and pretending them out of existence. But dammit, he'd tried that already, and it wasn't helping! All he wanted to do was eat his meal in peace, and--
Oh god damn it, that was it, he was doing something about it!
... Sort of.
To his reasoning, the only thing to do in such a situation as this was to fight fire with fire, so Sue drew down the corners of his mouth and stared harshly back across the table. That would have to get the message across for the girl to mind her own business! And if not, well... he'd stare back. Until she stopped. Or forever, whichever came first.
But forever was already starting to feel like a long time, and she didn't seem to have noticed his irritation yet....
For normal folk, maybe the answer here would be to speak up. Cut it out, maybe, or you look like a ******** frog, staring like that. But Sue had his own ways of addressing issues, and today, his solution was to pick a tater tot off of his plate and ping it toward the girl's face, aiming right between the eyes (though, tater tots being an imperfect missile, it was quickly veering off-course.) If food bouncing off of one's face wasn't enough to deliver the message that one's actions were not appreciated, well, Sue just didn't know what would.
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Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 10:52 pm
Oh, what pretty hair! It reminded Piper a little of eggplants, and she did dearly love eggplants. Not the taste of course, but the way they were shaped! Such odd things, they were so interesting! Interesting, kind of like pomegranates were interesting, but those tasted much better...
It was the mind of Piper, filled with useless thoughts and running from one subject to another rapidly, though outwardly she appeared as if she were as empty as an old barrel. Her eyes blinked minimally and her mouth stayed open in a semi-O shape as she leaned her head on one hand. It was nothing personal, staring down this eggplant dinner companion, just a consequence of catching her attention for the span of a few seconds.
"Oh," the soft plunk of a tater-tot against her shoulder brought the empty-headed teen back to reality. Her eyes quickly scanned around for whatever it was that had hit her, though it appeared that the offending tater-tot had bounced off of her body and into the floor before rolling away to hide. Finding no evidence on the ground, she glanced quickly up at the ceiling, pondering the likelihood of something falling on her. Plaster? Hm, there wasn't much up there. She stared a moment longer before she grew quickly bored with the average-colored ceiling, finding it no where near as interesting as the boy she vaguely recalled now.
"Do you like eggplants?" she asked, surprisingly nonchalant for someone that had previously been staring so in depth at her unwilling companion. Her eyes looked a might more perceptive and a small, childish smile had formed on her lips. What was that about staring, again?
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Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 11:03 pm
Sue's eyebrow was lifted way, way up high by the time that Piper brought her attention back down from the ceiling. This girl was weird. Capital W, no excuses, weird. And Sue usually didn't mind weird, but it was under one condition - that it stayed the hell away from him. Across the table? No, no, my friends, that was far too close for comfort.
"Eggplant? You're asking me about god-danged eggplant?" Sue asked, astounded and somewhat exasperated. He'd made up his mind to move to a different spot, right then - but then he got a look around, and saw that he was too late. All the other spots at the table were filled.
He was trapped.
"....... No," he answered, far more mildly than he'd begun. He stabbed a piece of meat with his fork, prepared to take a bite, then sighed and set it down. "Why," Sue began simply, "did you ask me about eggplant?"
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Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 11:21 pm
As she awaited his answer, Piper simply sat calmly, one hand twirling a stray piece of her unruly blue hair - probably an attempt to resist leaning across the table to touch his instead. If she'd been sitting next to him, he might not have escaped her touches, but leaning across all the food didn't seem very appealing. She had her fork in her hand, though she didn't seem as if she had touched her food much. She'd poked at it a bit, eaten a few pieces, but it was probable that she'd likely forgotten she was supposed to be eating in light of this new discovery.
As he questioned her choice of topics, she simply continued to smile at him, even tilting her head a little as she waited patiently for an answer. She didn't seem to notice his exasperation, or the desperate glance around for empty seats elsewhere. She simply continued to smile, watching him as if he were the most interesting thing in the world.
"No? Hmm." She frowned slightly at his answer, lowering her hand from her hair and tapping her fingers against the table in a nonsensical rhythm. "I suppose that's fair, they're not very tasty, but they do have the most unusual co -- what?" Her eyes swiveled back up to watch him from where they'd been staring at her dancing fingers, for a moment appearing as if the question was lost on her. "Because you've got such pretty hair," she replied finally, offering that same innocent, childish smile.
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Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 11:29 pm
That one....
That one took a few moments to process.
"... You think I like eggplant because they're the same color as my hair?" Sue echoed, tying the conversation threads together with fumbling disbelief. How much more ridiculous could you get? In fact, he had to say it! "That's ******** ridiculous! That's like saying that because you have blue hair, you must like...."
Pause.
Blueberries? Everyone liked blueberries. But what other kinds of food were blue? Bleu cheese... wasn't actually blue. There were lots of sodas and candies that were blue, and jello of course, but that was cheating. Blue, blue, blue.......
"... Well okay, you have a bad hair color to make my point," Sue grouched, "but it stands anyway!"
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Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 11:39 pm
"No, there was a perfectly good chance you wouldn't like it, actually," she replied pleasantly, as if the tone of his voice wasn't apparent to her at all. It probably wasn't, in fact. "I was just inquiring, it's interesting to know!" What use knowing whether or not someone else liked eggplants was to her would be hard to guess, mostly because there was absolutely no reason other than her random interest.
"You're right, my hair is the same color as a lot of delectable things." As she spoke, the vague frown returned, accompanied by a creased 'V' between her brows, indicating (hopefully) deep thought. Then, with a triumphant flash of her smile, she raised a hand to her hair. "Cotton candy! It's sweet, but I've never been very fond of the texture myself," she drawled out, in a light and airy voice that seemed to suit her beyond reason.
It seemed as if the whole point of what he was trying to get across was lost upon her, as she was much more interested in associating hair colors with foods at the moment.
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Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 11:50 pm
Sue was boggled - absolutely boggled, I tell you! It was like holding a conversation with a three-year-old. No - at least the three-year-old would have an excuse. This was supposed to be a school for the gifted, not the special or mentally deranged!
... And yet. Sue was trapped. And he had a feeling that letting the conversation drop would just lead to more staring, which could well push him to derangement. The only way to get this to end was to eat enough dinner that he could properly excuse himself, and damn it, that was exactly was he was going to do. Sue picked up his fork again, stuffed his mouth full, and chewed determinedly.
"Cotton candy doesn't count," he determined growlingly through his mouthful. "It's colored. Gotta be something that's blue naturally."
Maybe if he got her thinking too hard on that, he could escape the need to continue the conversation. Maybe.
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Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 9:32 am
"Oh," she muttered quietly, the frown returning to her lips and the 'v' drawing her brows down once more. She fell silent for a few moments as she tried to think of something that was naturally blue that she didn't like, but that seemed to be impossible. As with many things, the subject quickly grew boring, and thus her mind began to wander again.
"You know if you eat too fast, you could choke," all traces of her frown and short-lived dejection had vanished, and she'd sprung right back into her previous mood. She had absolutely no idea that poor Sue wasn't enjoying this conversation, but then, she probably wouldn't have been able to tell if he was.
"I'm Piper, I play the flute," she chirped finally, offering her hand across the table. She had to lean a little forwards in her chair to even manage it, using her other hands to help her balance on the edge. Where as Sue seemed to be rather large, Piper was petite. It probably didn't help her lose the child-like image.
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Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 4:05 pm
There was something to be said about telling people not to choke. Namely, that when you sprang it suddenly on someone whose full concentration was bent on stuffing as much food into their mouth as possible, it was a self-fulfilling prophecy. Especially when you followed it up by asking one of the most dangerous questions known to mankind.
"HRRRK!" His fork slammed onto the table, and Sue began coughing. A few indelicate hacks cleared his airway (at the expense of the clean tablecloth, to the boy's chagrin), and Sue struggled to find the proper expression of disgust as he grabbed his glass of milk and downed half of it in one gulp.
Only when the glass was set down did the boy announce his name, with a surly hunch in his back and a curl in his lip. "Sue," he answered in a vaguely threatening voice, daring the girl to make fun of it. Of course, if the name didn't get her, than the stonily-delivered admission of his gift might: "I like cats."
He did not take the hand.
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Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 5:38 pm
As soon as he made the first choking noise and slammed his fork down, Piper realized that something was wrong. At first, it simply looked like he was doing some kind of odd interpretive dance, but before she decided to join him she did take a minute to get a closer look. That's when she realized, in fact, that he wasn't dancing at all! He was choking! My, what a strangely accurate prediction that had been. Other than slightly widened eyes, and a small 'o' shape formed with her lips, she didn't really seem that affected. In fact, she simply watched him, as if she were more interested in what was going to happen than.. his well-being.
Once he replied to her, however, her momentary stun faded and she was back to her usual chatty self. She smiled and withdrew her hand, as if she'd never been offended at all, and propped both elbows on the table instead. "Sue? That's such a delightful name!" Perhaps it had never passed her mind that it was female's name, or perhaps she was simply more accustomed to stranger things in her own mind. Any train of thought she had about names was quickly stomped out, however, as he admitted his passion (and gift) to her.
"Cats?" she said excitedly, leaning farther onto the table and putting her head in her hands. If she leaned any more, she'd probably end up laying on top of it. When Piper was engaged in conversation with someone, however, she typically liked to get as close as possible. It was a lucky thing, really, that there was a table between them. "I adore kitties! I once had a kitten named Ripples, but mom decided that we should give it to my cousin." She frowned suddenly, as if she only remembered that as she was speaking about it, but then returned her smiling, vacant stare to him. One can't imagine why her mother wouldn't want her to have a kitten.
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Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 8:26 pm
Yes, one could. Sue was imagining all sorts of reasons that a girl like this shouldn't be trusted with an impressionable and vulnerable young kitten. For one, if it started choking, she'd just sit and stare at it. (Not that Sue would have wanted her help anyway, of course. Then he'd have probably denounced her for being overexcitable and prone to kitten-smothering.)
"Whatever," he grumbled to her compliment of his name. Compliment meaning "compliment", meaning that he was 99.95% certain it was sarcasm. But he was used to his name being made fun of - at least Piper moved on from it quickly. It wasn't as though he could chalk her too many points lower, anyway.
Taking another - smaller - bite of his food, Sue frowned at the girl hovering halfway over the table. "You're gonna grow into a question mark shape if you keep bending like that, y'know," he informed her.
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Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 12:53 pm
Sarcasm was a device very far out of Piper's realm of verbal and/or mental gifts. Not only was she incapable of being sarcastic, she was often incapable of telling when someone else was being so. Thus, the idea that she had offended him with her statement over his name hadn't dawned on her, and his grumbling words were pushed aside as lingering irritation at his own mistake. She'd have liked to think that most people would have a bit of an aftershock after nearly chocking to death.
"Do you really think that's possible?" she gasped out suddenly, her eyes widening as she turned her head around quickly to look at her own spine. Oh, he was right! What if she got stuck this way? She shifted quickly to push herself all the way back in her seat so that her back was pressed against the chair and otherwise perfectly straight. Being so small and short, it now meant just her toes were on the floor - not a feeling she was altogether comfortable with. "There," she announced, a pleased smile on her face as she turned to look back up at him. "I wouldn't want to be deformed, that would be a tragedy!"
She swung her feet back and forth a few moments, her hands folded in her lap before her, and her eyes taking on that distant look that seemed to suggest she might just get lost in her mind again. Then, from no where, she looked back up at him. "Why are you so big?"
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Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 1:27 pm
Tragedy, she'd said?
Chewing one a mouthful of peas, Sue felt the inkling of an idea rise. A terrible, horrible, cruel idea, one that might just be over-successful given what he'd seen of the girl so far... but an idea nonetheless. One that might just get him some peace.
This had to be handled the right way, though. This wasn't really Sue's area of expertise, mind, but he thought that he'd spent enough time trapped between the Dynamic Duo of performers living on either side of him that he might be able to channel something, just this once.
"Drank milk when I was a kid," he answered with a grunt. "Eat a lot of big foods, y'know, think big thoug-- Uh-oh." His attention was suddenly arrested by the form of the girl on the other side. His eyes widened in alarm (or at least sort of bugged out - Sue wasn't exactly a gifted actor here!), and he dropped his fork onto his plate. Half-standing and leaning over the table, he whispered, "I think... it's too late. Don't you feel it? Your neck's all curved now!"
It was terrible, terrible. A look was on Sue's face that no human had ever been the target of - sympathy. Pity. Surely, that was not an emotion he could fake?
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Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 2:33 pm
It didn't actually take a brilliant actor to convince Piper, not even of the most ludicrous, crazy ideas. She was gullible by nature, perhaps more so than any other soul around her, to degrees it almost seemed absolutely impossible. Thus, when he dropped his fork and leaned over the table, her eyes widened in childish alarm. All thoughts of their previous conversation had vanished and all she could concentrate on were the words he was whispering now.
"Oh!" she exclaimed quickly, her hands reaching up to clamp down on either side of her neck, her eyes widened as far as they could possibly go. It would have been comical if she didn't look so completely serious. Actually, that may have made it even more amusing to certain onlookers.
She jumped up quickly from her chair, her teeth kneading worriedly at her bottom lip. "Ohh, what should I do?" Her voice was a worried squeak, and she was shifting her weight where she stood.
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Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 3:49 pm
... Okay, scratch all previous impressions. This girl was the best dinner partner ever.
"You've gotta bend it back!" Suddenly and fully into the drama now, Sue rose from his chair, bumping his glass with his excited gesturing. "Just sort of push it up straight until you hear a pop, and that'll fix it. Assuming it's not too late!"
Seriously? Sue was going to hell for this. There were lots of excuses for him to be going there already, but when he was going through the check-in, the first thing the devil behind the counter would say was, "You convinced a naive girl to pull off her head for your own entertainment", and then Sue would be cast into the very hottest fires.
But hey. Earth was a pretty good Hell as was, and at least he could get a few kicks while he was here.
"Just make sure you get it straight up," he instructed her, "or you'll just bend it worse!"
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