The Deck [Saturday Night]

[wantstocheer.livejournal.com]

It had been a weird day, between the guy at the diner freaking out and Dinah heading out of town. Claire decided to head out to the deck with a pitcher of iced tea and enjoy the evening.

She idly considered building a fire, but decided against it because of the heat.



[open deck post!]

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[wantstocheer.livejournal.com]

"I'm Claire," she said, pouring some of the tea into a plastic cup and handing it to Jool. "Nice to meet you."

[she-sheds.livejournal.com]

"I'm Joolushko." There. She'd managed to say only the one name. For once.

"Thank you," she remembered to say only slightly belatedly after accepting the cup.

[wantstocheer.livejournal.com]

"That's an interesting name," Claire said. "Where are you from?"

She was guessing she had never heard of it.

[she-sheds.livejournal.com]

"My homeworld isn't somewhere anyone here has ever heard of," Joolushko said. "You're from this planet?"

[wantstocheer.livejournal.com]

Claire nodded. "Yeah, I am."

[she-sheds.livejournal.com]

"It seems nearly everyone here is," Joolushko said. Silly backwater planet without offworld travel.

[wantstocheer.livejournal.com]

"Leto isn't," Claire offered. "We took a field trip to his home world during the break between summer sessions."

[she-sheds.livejournal.com]

"I don't know this Leto," Joolushko said. Perhaps she should. "What planet was it you visited?"

[wantstocheer.livejournal.com]

"He's my school assigned big brother," she explained. "And his sister teaches here, Lady Ghanima. They're from Arrakis, which is a desert planet."

Don't ask her where. "It was really neat. They ride these giant sandworms."

[she-sheds.livejournal.com]

"I haven't met either of them," Joolushko said. "Arrakis is not a familiar name. I wonder where it is." It sounded like the sort of place that would make a fine anthropological study. Riding giant worms. Really.

[wantstocheer.livejournal.com]

"You would need to ask one of them," Claire said. "They could probably explain it. Better than I could, at least."

[she-sheds.livejournal.com]

"Perhaps I'll do that," Joolushko said. And find out about the worms. That sounded even odder than here.

"I like the tea," she added out of the blue, sounding somewhat surprised.

[wantstocheer.livejournal.com]

Claire smiled. "It's good old fashioned Southern sweet tea," she said, adding a bit more of a twang to her words.

[she-sheds.livejournal.com]

"Which is not something I've ever had before," Joolushko said. "It's common, where you're from?"

[wantstocheer.livejournal.com]

"Very common," Claire said. "But not all tea around here is sweet. Crazy northerners don't automatically sweeten it."

[she-sheds.livejournal.com]

Joolushko had no idea about any north/south divide, just so she just nodded. "Sweet drinks are almost always preferrable."

[wantstocheer.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, I agree with you there," she said.

[she-sheds.livejournal.com]

"Sweet foods as well," Joolushko admitted. "There are so many here."

[wantstocheer.livejournal.com]

"You don't have a lot of sweets where you're from?" Claire asked.

[she-sheds.livejournal.com]

"There are plenty," Joolushko said. "But I think there may be more variety here. Or perhaps it's just that we don't have your chocolate or anything like it." The lack of chocolate everywhere else in the universe was a problem. Really.

[wantstocheer.livejournal.com]

"No chocolate? That's horrible," Claire said.

[she-sheds.livejournal.com]

"None," Joolushko said. "I plan on taking home quite a lot when I leave."