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 Posted: Wed May 03, 2017 9:32 am
The bell rang clarion on contact with the door, and Clay entered first into the bar-style sandwich establishment. He kept the door in his grip, holding ot for Rhona, though his eyes crawled over the chalk-based menu over top of the bar. Each sandwich style penned out in stark white against the blackboard, each price handwritten next to the sandwich. In various blank spaces around the menu, more creative staff members filled in tomatoes with red chalk, lettuce with green charlk, and onions in purple. Fries sat in the far corner from the rest, rendered in yellow. And as the chalkboard pieces spanned the length of the bar, they featured a surfeit of sandwiches.
"Sweet," Clay muttered out loud. "They got so many sandwiches here." Clay himself eyed the meatball sub, looked to Rhona to see if she found something of interest, then strode over the old, over-waxed hardwood flooring to stand in line behind a greasy, middle-aged man.
"Hey, tell me what you want and find a seat? There's not a lotta room…" In casing the joint, clay noticed that the bar sat mostly full, and several of the booth-style seats were taken. A few tables and chars sat around unused, but one stood next to a table with a screaming child and the other must've been seating deaf people. Maybe Rhona would nose out a good one by a window or something. She seemed pretty damn capable; Clay imagined she could. Or she could do like she did in the hardware store and stage some kinda scene until one party vacated and the bus boys cleaned up. She was good at that, too.
Clay hoped Rhona left him the easy job of just ordering the sandwiches. Of course, it occurred to him afterward that they could just eat outside where a few empty benches sat, but he felt terribly hungry and hanger was on the horizon. He couldn't be trusted to think straight.
But he could be trusted to order a whole lotta food.sweenys_revenge i dropped the cat's treat bag on her head by accident and then the whole morning was Not Okay thanks pib
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Posted: Wed May 03, 2017 1:31 pm
Strickenized idk man I kinda like the title Rhona followed Clay in, noting again the young man's impeccable manners, which combined with his penchant for colorful language made for an interesting and yet delightful dissonance. It implied honesty as well as kindness that Rhona could get behind. She wouldn't have to be guessing what he was thinking during the date. He'd tell her without any flowery language to piece through. With Rhona's life, she could sure as hell use that kind oh honest simplicity. No ulterior motives, besides the motives of all who asked attractive people on dates. It was refreshing. With the din of the shop, Rhona had to lean up to speak closely to Clay's ear if she wanted to be heard without shouting. Once again, she became painfully aware of her stature as she lifted herself onto her toes and held onto his bicep for stability. She honestly barely heard herself as she made her request. "Tuna salad, if you would be so kind. I'll try and avoid the tiny banshee." And try she did. Unfortunately, sound tended to expand to fill the space that it was within, and there was no safe haven from the constant barrage of wailing. Rhona could usually keep her temper in check, but with the hunger pangs becoming demanding growls, she decided that being inside was just not an option. She might end up slapping someone. My god, was it so hard to take your kid home? They are clearly not happy, be they tired, hungry, in need of a change or just fussy. Why subject us to this torment? No. Inside would not work. No with the shrieking of a thousand tormented souls echoing off of the walls. She liked kids well enough -- wanted a whole hoard of her own -- but this was ridiculous. Rhona shoved the door to the patio open with an ample hip and was greeted with warm air and a gentle breeze. As soon as the door shut behind her, the pressure of the constant sound was lifted from her mind. She had known it was loud, but she hadn't really known exactly how loud it had been. She breathed a sigh of relief, slumping into a bench with the blessed silence. Besides that, it was a truly beautiful day. It was why she had chosen to go out and get her seeds. It had just seemed... so perfect. The sun was shining, there was just the lightest of breezes to cool the heat of the sun. It lifted her hair, sure to tangle it, but Rhona didn't care. The sun felt warm and comfortable on her skin as she lounged beneath it, and that was enough to offset the eventual painof having to unknot her wild curls.
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Posted: Mon May 08, 2017 3:28 pm
By the time Clay stepped up to the counter, he realized he was unable to suppress his s**t-eating grin. Luckily many of the sandwich makers stayed much too busy to bother commenting on it. So as Clay stepped forward, obvious smile and all, he placed the order for two sandwiches and stepped aside as soon as the cashier exchanged money with him. As a direct competitor to Jimmy John's, the shop specialized in fast-paced sandwich craft and nearly tossed his order at him not a minute past its placement. And that was just damn fine, he found, as the quick exchange gave him time to spot Rhona on her way out to the patio area. He wasted no time in chasing after her.
Especially since the shrieking brat reached ear-shattering decibels as a not-so-loved-one tried to comfort her.
Clay elbowed his way out the door with both sandwiches in one hand, and a tray of drinks in the other. He hadn't known precisely what Rhona would like, so he picked up a bottle of lemonade and a raspberry Snapple for himself. Both the drinks and the sandwiches met the table as soon as he stepped outside, then he darted back into the building to retrieve napkins from the nearest receptacle. Eating in front of anyone hot often meant disaster for him in the form of a stained shirt, and while he accepted that he could not circumvent this happening, he could at least mitigate the damage. No one needed to know that Clay ate like s**t when he was nervous.
"Damn it's a nice day," he said at last as he took his seat. The metal chairs offered little comfort, though they soaked the warmth from the sun well. They almost felt like heated seats by the afternoon. "And I don't just mean the weather." He never once imagined he'd be picking anyone up from the hardware store, much less while carrying Raid, but now he sat across from a hot girl like Rhona for lunch under the noonday sun. He may as well have won a million dollars, ended the war, and developed a cure for AIDS all in a day. Though, he wasn't sure if any of those would impress Rhona.
"So, with this garden. How you go about planting that s**t? I can raise birds, but I never tried doin' s**t with plants. Is it hard?" As he asked, he unwrapped his sandwich and took a bite.
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Posted: Mon May 08, 2017 4:21 pm
Strickenized No Prob, life is hard, man! Rhona, clearly thankful for the food, abandoned all pretense and tucked straight into the sandwich. It wasn't until the implied compliment that Rhona finally remembered where she was and who she was with. And how she was supposed to be acting. She swallowed thickly, nerves scattering around haveing been sufficiently rattled from their holds. She had just been so hungry... she'd forgotten her manners, her wiles. Everything. She had slipped out of the persona that she had so carefully crafted to be so different from what she had been back into what she had been. Awkward. Strange. Unrefined. And to lose track of herself now of all times. On a date with one of the most unique men she'd encountered since... well since ever. Rhona dabbed demurely at her lips in an attempt to bide time while she returned to herself. "Thank you for lunch," she muttered blushing either from the compliment or the embarrassment that only she noticed. It is lovely. I was so tired of winter." Tired of being cold. Tired of being wet. Tired of not being able to grow anything on her fire escape. She liked looking out onto her garden in the morning. It was... comforting. She was excited to have the green back. "The only really hard part about gardening is the first bit. When the seedlings are so young, they can be a little touchy. They can only tolerate so much light or water. But then once they reach a month or so old they can take care of themselves. Then it's just making sure they don't starve or dry out. Of course, I've only ever done pots on my window sill and fire escape. I'll let you know what happens with the garden that weeds can get into." Wait... was he thinking that she expected him to grow anything? Not that she doubted he could do it -- anyone could pick it up if they tried but... it was a bit of a hassle and if you didn't like the ritual of caring for them. "Of course, for you, I meant that you could keep bowls of the dried variety out. Kind of like potpourri. Even herbs can be touchy if you don't have time to dedicate to keeping them pruned and healthy." She took another, more polite bite of her food before continuing. "What about birds? I've had cats and dogs, but never birds. What are they like?"
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Posted: Tue May 09, 2017 9:24 pm
If Clay noticed the blatant shift in her mannerisms, he didn't show it. Diving into food in such a manner hardly fazed him; having little regard for table manners himself, Clay couldn't criticize even if he wanted to. And, really, he didn't. Let Rhona dig into her sandwich in the most improper way possible. Hell, she might look pretty cute with a dollop of mayo on her upper lip. Though that thought went to other places…
"Don't need to thank me," Clay responded, puffing himself up a little. Even if his bank account constantly idled between double and triple digits, the time out was worth it. He didn't need to save money anyway; he was still young.
The meatballs tasted damn delicious, but he didn;t lose his place among the conversation for it. He tried to keep as much eye contact as he could while munching down. "Then after that, all you gotta do is water the bitches? Sounds tight. Wish animals were that way." That wasn't entirely the truth - Clay would be at a loss if he didn't have to visit his pigeons every morning and night, and spend the time to take care of them. Plants didn't really bond with people, not in the way that animals did. He couldn't just pet a flower and really have it respond to him. Or, at least, he didn't think so. There were those nutjobs out there who swore by playing Mozart music to their plants. Plants didn't have ears, but whatever.
"Oh, damn, that's a helluva lot easier. ******** growing things, I was never good at it anyway. Uh, not entirely, just I got no business growing anything." Clay considered that a sufficient backpedal to excuse him from any unintended insult.
He swallowed then, and thought back to the differences between the birds he kept over his lifetime. "Well there's pet-birds, and there's food-birds. And food-birds aren't that much work. You only gotta make sure they're fed and got fresh water, and enough room to exercise and stay occupied. Toys and s**t help. And cleaning out their cage is a damn mess but it's better than having it stink like unwashed a*****e. Really you just gotta worry about the exercise and the quality of food you're feeding 'em, cuz that all goes into the meat you get out. I dunno if that's anything like raising tomatoes, though.
"Pet birds take more work, I think, but they're more fun. You usually gotta clip their toenails and their flight feathers so they don't go flying into ceiling fans or some s**t. But usually you can get 'em to dance to whatever you play, and some of 'em can learn to talk. I had a sun conure once who would cuss anybody out. Fun as s**t, too. One time I took 'im into this grocery store and let 'im ride around on my shoulder. The staff never ********' knew he was there until the cashier asked if he was fake. I was like, the hell you thinkin'? Who the hell goes around with a fake bird on their shoulder? This b***h is real.' You shoulda seen the look on her face."
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Posted: Wed May 10, 2017 1:51 pm
Strickenized Somewhere at some point, Rhona had learned -- and she had no way to prove this but she believed it -- that women instinctively found men who could provide more attractive. And not only that, but Clay was what Rhona wished to be; unabashedly himself. Trouble was that Rhona was still trying to figure out who Rhona was. The honesty of the statement made Rhona laugh, a bright, high sound like the striking of a symbol. ******** growing things indeed. Most of her plants were fairly low maintenance, and the only touchy plant that she owned was an orchid which, to be fair, wasn't exactly flourishing. Ivies and ferns took care of themselves, you have to try and kill a tomato plant, and herbs really only needed to be pruned to be healthy. Rhona wiped her lips, realizing, with a light blush, that she had smudged some mayo on her lip in her race to fill her stomach. She supposed that she really had been hungry... "Sometimes I want to assassinate my plants too," she confessed in a conspiratorial voice, leaning forward as though it was some big secret. "Most days it's a nice routine, waking up early to water them, make sure they're pruned and healthy but then some days... some days it's more of a hassle to wake up so early and dedicate an hour to the ritual." She sighed deeply, cracking into her lemonade. "But then when it's done I look around at all the green and I think maybe I can keep them alive for another day." She considered the comparison of birds to tomatoes for a moment, taking a long sip of her drink. Wasit the same? Only in that the "food" she fed the crops affected the fruit that they bore. If she used too many chemicals in the fertilizer, the tomatoes often came out tasting a little bit... off. In the end, she decided that there wasn't enough similarity. Keep a tomato alive was way less work, it sounded, that keeping a bird alive. Even a birds for food. It was all terribly interesting for Rhona, and as Clay answered her questions, ten more sprouted in it's place. If she was silent, it was because she was sitting in quiet contemplation to see which question demanded to be asked with the most urgency. And with so many voices ringing out like out of control press reporters in her brain, it was difficult to triage her curiosity. "I read somewhere that birds were like... insanely smart. Is that true? Do you run into trouble keeping them entertained and active when they are stock?"
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Posted: Wed May 10, 2017 8:49 pm
Clay leaned in when Rhona did, interested in the shared secret she chose to divulge. He smirked back at her, ready with a rebuttal of his own. "Maybe they oughta grow their damn selves." Clay felt the same about his pigeons sometimes, though the birds remained in cages by his choice, not their own - if they retained freedom, Clay figured they'd have gone to hunt a long time ago. Eating seeds all the time can't be that great. Rhona's plants were kind of in the same way - she could hate them for their dependence, but she was the one that put them into pots and agreed to look after them. For as much of an agreement as there is in looking after plants, anyway. Clay felt fairly certain no one was going to call Plant Control on Rhona if she let her collection die off.
She asked about his pigeons again and Clay sat back, considering. "Yeah. Yeah, pigeons ain't stupid. Some of those squawky ******** almost figured out a way to get out of the coop. I had to repair it like three times in a month before I finally said '******** it' and added some metal reinforcements. They don't wanna sit in a cage all the damn time, and I don't blame them. If there weren't so many of 'em, I'd clip their wings and let 'em chill in my digs, you know? My roommates would flip a b***h, though, and I'm pretty sure I'd get my a** busted if they called animal control. This s**t ain't zoned for that many birds, I don't think.
"Lately I was thinkin' about setting a few of 'em free. They're running outta space to get comfortable. Some of 'em started fighting each other. Ain't that some s**t?" Clay scoffed, and took another bite out of his sandwich. He wiped away some of the excess marinara sauce that collected around the corner of his lip on his recycled brown napkin. "Guess you don't gotta worry about your wisterias trying to take each other apart.
"It's also like… Working two jobs, I don't got all the time I need to keep my bitches entertained, you know? They need someone actually there to take care of their s**t, and that ain't me all the time. Can't get my roommates to do a damn thing for 'em, either." Now he was just complaining, and even he didn't want to hear about that.
"So uh, yeah. That's pretty much Clay's life with birds."
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Posted: Thu May 11, 2017 10:10 pm
Even if Clay didn't think what he was talking about was terribly interesting, Rhona though it was the end all be all of earth's wonders. Birds were such uncharted territory for her that anything to do with them was so far beyond it her was laughable. To hear those secrets unlocked... it had her undivided attention. And so did the mention of Clay's implied law breaking. It made Rhona's smile turn slightly wicked as she sat back and purred, "Oh, a bad boy, are we? Isn't that what all the ladies want?" Her wink flashed like lightning and if Clay wasn't watching carefully enough he might have missed it. Holy s**t what was Rhona even doing? She'd had one night stands in the precious months, trying to figure out what new monster she was, but those were all fleeting, sometimes incoherent interactions. She couldn't pick a face from a line up if one of her partners spat in her face. She didn't have to try. And honestly, save for her losing herself once when she began to eat, she didn't have to try here either but... it was different. When had she become so easy going and flirtatious? Or was this just something that Clay was bringing out in her? Were these actions incited because she wanted him to watch her? To notice what she was doing the same way she noticed each flash of emotion that played across Clay's face as clear as day? Or what it his impossible honesty that pulled something hidden but no less essential from Rhona? His question cut her line of introspection blessedly short. "Well, plants can compete for space but it's much less bloody and very easily fixed. Something tells me War of the Birds isn't as simple as putting some birds some where else." They were living things after all... right? So were plants but they weren't capable of thought. Which made the infinitely easier to deal with. Rhona doubted she could keep anything that depended on her more than an orchid alive for very long... "But if you set them free, will they be able to fend for themselves? Why not just do a mass cull. You thin the ranks and get sustenance."
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Posted: Fri May 12, 2017 9:32 pm
s**t, he could he respond to that? As much as he wanted to be, Clay didn't exactly have the experiences to back up a bad boy reputation. Sure, he saw all the movies, and didn't have all the respect for the law that any standard citizen would, but without homies… Nah, he couldn't just blunder around tagging s**t and stealing the stereos out of cars. He needed a lookout for that. But maybe he could lift a few stories from when his dad was young and cool. "'Course it is. Ladies be all over this s**t," Clay finished, gesturing to himself as smugly as he could.
Rhona's next suggestion caught him off guard - not because he never considered it, but more precisely because she considered it. Obviously keeping pigeons for food intimated their murder, but to hear her call it out so blithely as culling the flock left his eyes wide with shock and a measure of good spirits. He knew plenty of girls who wigged out at that sort of thing, though it seemed Rhona wasn't shy of getting her hands dirty. Or speaking about those kinds of deals, at least. "Nah, I can't do that just yet. Don't have enough cans, and canning's not in season 'til fall or some s**t. Right now, we barely got the growing season started. I dunno when shops start getting their jars in but it's not right now. So unless I decide to throw a goddamn block party, I'm gonna be out all that meat." He shrugged, then sat back in his chair with his sandwich in hand. Briefly he considered offering squab subs, but that idea just sounded weird.
He wasn't trying to be weird.
"You know what, we could do some kinda food truck deal. You know? You got the vegetables, I got the meat. We'll get the bread from somewhere. Maybe somebody you know's into baking or some s**t. And then we all just put that s**t together and open us a food stand. Then we just gotta advertise and we get people runnin' to buy our s**t, and it's seasonal so we just gotta do our thing 'til we're outta resources. Make some ********' bank on that b***h." He chomped into his sandwich knowingly.
Damn, he had the best ideas.
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Posted: Mon May 15, 2017 9:57 am
This time it was Rhona's turn to be caught off guard. Her already wide eyes grew to impossible size as she considered Clay for several very long, silent moments. That was a joke, right? It had to have been. Not the idea itself, it was a decent idea. But the fact that Clay wanted to go into business with someone he had just met seemed... well it seemed a bit hasty. Rhona laughed nervously to diffuse the tension and maybe call his bluff, but the man's excitement lingered, heavy on her shoulders, telling her that it was not, in fact, a joke. This had been a serious proposition. Her laugh dwindled off into nothing after a moment and Rhona was forced, once again, to consider the offer seriously. Businesses took money. Lots of money. And it wasn't like Acubens couldn't lift the funds from her nightly patrols, the same way that she did money for everything else... But how much money would they even need? How much did food trucks cost? How much to maintain them? Did they come equipped, how much gas did they need, what else would they need to run... a million questions ricocheted around Rhona's head as she thought for what felt like hours but what was probably only a few seconds in real time. "You... want to go into business with someone you just met?" Rhona tried to return to her cool humor as she spoke, though the shock made it a little difficult. "Isn't that a little risky? For all you know I'm some kind of con artist..." But she couldn't deny... it was a good idea. She was sure to have extra... well everything. And it wouldn't be hard to make up the difference with other supplies. Hell, there were plenty of local businesses that could help out with that. It'd be a great way to help the community... but there was the issue of the source fo the meat... ah hell, they'd just call it Squab and suddenly it's a high-class meat. They could make pasties or meat pies. Ground or cubed meat didn't lend itself well to sandwiches... What was she even doing? For all she knew that idea was just a spur of the moment thing. Something to say to fill the silence on a first date. Why was she thinking about this so much? Because it excited her. "I mean... are you serious?"
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Posted: Wed May 17, 2017 11:18 pm
Clay paused, a little taken aback by her hesitance. "It'd be tight, but I'm not holdin' out for it, you know? Ideas don't just pop the ******** outta nowhere though; you gotta plan ahead. So I figure, if I put the idea out there now, that's plannin' ahead. Then if we decide to actually get the b***h done, we been thinkin' about it for a while, you feel me? Least, that's how I think about it." Clay himself certainly lacked the money to do any kind of food truck rental, but he could start saving up for it if Rhona expressed any interest. And it wouldn't kill him to scrape and save, anyway - his bank account often looked a little dry due to frivolous purchases on coffee, new earth pads, and other s**t like that.
But he had to live somehow, even without dreams.
"If you were a con artist though, we'd at least be scamming people together, you know? That s**t still makes money. I seen uh, what was it, Matchstick Men? I dunno, I forget the name. Even if it was bank robbing, at least it's something to do together to make money. Not like careers are just jumpin' outta the bushes." And Clay's own prospect of a future looked grim, especially with his abhorrence for college. Sure, he wasn't in debt yet, but he wasn't really making any headway either. Cleaning windows and stocking bird food only went so far.
After a few more bites, Clay retired his sandwitch to its butcher paper for future consumption. "But yeah, I'm kinda ******** serious. More serious than like, let's fly to the ********' moon, but less serious than hit the movies with me this Saturday, you know?"
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Posted: Thu May 18, 2017 7:56 am
Rhon was caught off guard for the second time. Had Clay just asked her out on a second date? Nevermind, she'd parse that mystery out later. Right now she still had to work through the one on her hands. So Clay had been serious about opening up a food truck. Or as serious as one could be about a dream. But then he backed off and Langston Hughes began to whisper into Rhona's ear about dreams deferred and she sprang into action, speaking, perhaps, too quickly in her excitement. "Well, I mean why shouldn't you hold out for it? It's a good idea. Food trucks are a popular thing right now, and I've not seen any in Destiny City. Squab is considered a high class meat. So that paired with organic, home grown produce... I see no reason that it couldn't be a success. The only issue that we would run into is money but... I can get that no problem." Let Clay figure out what that meant. Rhona had no problem bending her morals a little to accommodate this new need. Previously she only lifted bills less than 50, but she can raise that to bills less than 100, take off the cap for the amount of money stolen, even drain more victims in a night. Besides, that helped the Court on top of it. People would only be out a couple hundred bucks, and since she tended to stay to the higher rent districts, they wouldn't miss that money... "Yeah. I mean it could work. We need to work some things out of paper but... it could work." It would work. Because it was a great idea and Rhona found herself believing in it for whatever reason. It would work because Rhona wouldn't let it not work. "We could talk about it after the movie on Saturday." It was an offhanded comment, but now that she was sure that the food truck could work, she was sure that he had invited her out again. And she was sure that she definitley wanted to go out again with this beautiful, honest, hilarious young man.
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Posted: Sun May 21, 2017 12:06 am
Squab was high class? "Dude, we could totally sell to hipsters." Clay dreamed of making bank from this s**t for ages. Unskilled labor paid for s**t and he wasn't about to fall into a decent education so he could do more than mop floors or clean up dog s**t for eight hours a day. But if Rhona was right about being able to handle the expense side of a food truck, and he could cull the flock and pony up the required meat to get started, they might actually have something going here. Clay saw no drawback there - so long as the business took off. If it didn't, well, food trucks were rentals, right?
Plus he had that whole second identity in case he needed to steal s**t or something. Not that he particularly wanted to, he figured that would complicate the whole 'drain for the Dark Mirror homies' gig with a rap sheet and all. But they seldom ever did a damn thing for him, and Clay was getting tired of playing that game. If putting in effort got nothing out, then why not use his Dark Mirror identity for something that might benefit his normal life? Break into cars, steal their stereos, sell them off to anyone who wanted something like that… Maybe grab some iPods or something out of the local electronics store and sell those on the sly… Yeah, he could make it work. Maybe. But she already said she could handle the money; there wasn't a need for him to go around doing this s**t unless she asked him to help out, or he needed it to pay his own rent.
Really he should focus on the birds, because those little bitches got expensive fast, and it took a whole lot of bird to make a hearty meal. Really, anything small and worth eating took about the same amount of work. He might have to farm out his operation a bit, or get a bigger house to live out of, or work something out with the lease where he could move the coop into the backyard and claim that for himself…
"You're right though, definitely after the movie. What were we seein' again? Heard there was some new horror flick comin' out… You into that?" Clay himself found no great love for horror movies, but he vastly preferred the experience of having a girl cuddle into his arm when scared. Though, realistically, he might be cuddling into her arm a little.
But just a little. Those damn jump-scares were unavoidable.
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Posted: Thu Jun 15, 2017 8:20 pm
"I do like a good jumpscare," Rhona admitted with a smile, finishing off her own food. Not like movies were any scarier than her actual life. Sometimes it brought her a little peace that people couldn't even dream up s**t as frightening as she'd seen. Or maybe it was just different because the demon on the screen couldn't jump out and get her. The youma and the agents that plagued her could take her life at any moment. A few had proven that to her, or at least tried to. Between now and that second date, however, Rhona would have to hit the net. She knew next to nothing about business except that it was terribly complicated and that there were about a million moving parts. And without Misha here to get her a** in gear... Rhona had to do that herself. She could just imagine his stupid red head peering over her shoulder and his dumb voice asking an just how do you propose we do this?. She ignored the dull ache in her heart and resisted the urge to clutch herself to keep the hole in her chest from growing larger. "A horror movie sounds really great," she chirped, probably over compensating from her sudden sadness, but it was too late. Eventually her eye would cool off and her mind would return to it's genuine shine. It was just getting there that was the trick. With any luck, Clayton wouldn't ask about it but... with what she had picked up from him thus far, he probably would, most likely with his own version of tact. What did she tell him? I had to make my family bury me to keep them safe? Why was lying so hard for her all of the sudden? Was it Clayton's unabashed honesty that begged the same from her? And when he asked what would she say? Would he even asked? They were bridges that Rhona would have to cross when she got to them, she supposed...
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