The Deck, Tuesday Morning

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante had a vague and nonspecific image of what Cassandra looked like - but in a school this small, she shouldn't have been so hard to spot. Still, he hadn't managed to run into her at all over the past few days, and it had left him frustrated, antsy and anxious. His two settings had always been 'do something' or 'forget about it'-- but he hadn't managed to do the former and he was having a hard time with the latter.

So after rolling out of bed on Tuesday, he'd gotten dressed, snagged his guns on the way out the door, and parked his ass on the deck.

After an hour of waiting, though, there was still no sign of her. He let out a sigh, slumped further into his seat, and parked his feet up on the divider. Great. Now even his efforts to do something were making him antsy. He should've brought the boombox and tossed on those Dead Kennedys albums Pretentious-Ass Starsmore had passed on. He found a pen in his pocket, fiddled with it. Fiddled with Ebony for a second, too. Looked up at the ceiling, counted the cracks. ... Finally, he tilted his head up and tried to balance the pen on his face.

Screw Hellfire Prison. This was hell.

[[ open! ]]

Comments

[era_two_triangle]

Peridot hadn't exactly done much in the way of socializing outside of class since she had arrived on the island. After all, there was plenty of work to be done, scouting the new planet and the indigenous species out beyond the causeway, familiarizing herself with the local landmarks, poking at the written word in the hopes that she'd be able to better decipher it in time for her next class.

Today, she was making herself more familiar with the rest of the building in the immediate vicinity of her assigned quarters, and so she was making her way out onto the deck.

And blinking.

Why was that human...?

"It's more likely to stay where you put it if you lay it on its side."

In case he'd been wondering.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Yeah, but what's the point of that?"

The pen tipped over and fell back into Dante's hand. Sigh. The sacrifices he made for a pun.

... Hey, it was the walking Mountain Dew commercial.

[era_two_triangle]

"Improved counterbalance makes for more reliable structural integrity. What's the point of... whatever you're doing?"

Said walking Mountain Dew commercial was looking like a cross between 'genuinely curious' and 'kinda judgey,' to be honest. Humans continued to make no sense at all.

[rebelseekspizza]

Hey, now, Peridot. Dante only looked, talked and acted human. His brand of lack of sense had a whole 'nother origin going for it.

"It's a challenge," he said. "Besides, nothing fun ever started with structural integrity." He tilted his head. "I mean, just look at your hat. What the hell is that?"

[era_two_triangle]

That was her hair, Dante.

Which probably didn't make that any better. But it did earn a bit of a squint. A lot of a squint.

Peridot was squinting at you.

"What's a hat?"

[studyingfear]

"Oh, go on," Rufus said, when Dark Nation started prancing about on seeing someone whose scent he recognized.

And thus: a puppy was bounding over to you, Dante. You didn't really need that pen did you?

Rufus followed rather more calmly.

[rebelseekspizza]

Much like the last time someone interrupted the pen balancing business, the pen fell off of Dante's nose and neatly into the palm of his hand. (Don't ask how that worked.)

He seemed a lot more pleased about it this time, though, 'cause, "Heyyy, tenta-puppy, c'mere."

He held his hands down by his side for Dark Nation to sniff.

[studyingfear]

And Dark Nation was more than willing to sniff at those hands, wriggling and flopping around excitedly as he did.

"I think he likes you," Rufus said dryly as he stepped onto the deck.

[rebelseekspizza]

"He's a cool dog," Dante said, scritching him easily behind the ears. "Who knows a cool person when he sees one. What's up, Rufus?"

[studyingfear]

"Nothing in particular," Rufus said after a moment of debating the merits of arguing about Dante's coolness. "Dark Nation didn't want to stay in the room."

[era_two_triangle]

Don't mind Peridot, Rufus. She was just taking one look at Dark Nation and caaasually raising her hands up out of his reach. As you do.

[studyingfear]

Rufus watched her do this and, really, there was only one thing he could say.

"Subtle," he said in greeting.

[era_two_triangle]

"I don't believe your companion appreciates subtlety," Peridot noted, looking between Rufus and his dog. Warily. "Call it a hunch."

There were still chew-marks on her touch stump, Rufus. Chew marks.

[studyingfear]

They were chew marks made with love! Didn't that count for something?

"It's possible," Rufus said agreeably, since that answer amused him. "But he only wants to play."

Dark Nation looked up at Peridot, tail wagging hopefully. Hi?

[intotheout]

Tip was looking for a nice spot to sit and read a book. She hadn't explored the dorms much, yet, but she'd noticed the deck and decided it seemed promising.

She stepped out the door and spent several moments watching the boy from her music class trying to balance a pen on her face with an ever rising eyebrow.

". . . Impressive."

[rebelseekspizza]

This time, Dante had been something close to successful, so instead of letting the pen tumble down, he reached up and snagged it off his face.

"Thanks," he said easily. "I do my best."

[intotheout]

"I can see you've put a lot of work into it." Tip wasn't rolling her eyes, but it was kind of a near thing. "Are you putting together a Vaudeville act?"

[rebelseekspizza]

Yeah, Dante had no idea what Vaudeville was, but he could guess the context.

"What, are you entertained?" he said. "'Cause I'm still working on pulling a rabbit out of a hat."

[kenselvren]

Jalian had clothes again now, not that she particularly cared one way or the other. It was warm enough not to have to dress in layers, so she was coming out to get some sun.

Which consisted of eyeing Dante questioningly, lounging on a corner of the deck in a tiny tank top and shorts, and sharpening her knives.

It was a hobby.

[intotheout]

Tip eyed those knives over the edge of her book.

People at this school had the strangest hobbies.

[kenselvren]

Jalian glanced back and offered her a questioning look.

[intotheout]

"Where I'm from," Tip said slowly, still eying the knives. "People don't usually have stuff like that around at a school."

There'd actually been a big dip in the amount of weapons smuggled into schools in Tip's US. Everyone was still reeling and feeling all sorts of human pride after the invasion. They hadn't gone back to hating each other yet, now that there weren't Boov everywhere to hate.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante eyed her past the pen, but made no effort this time to drop it. "You do the horror movie killer thing much?"

[kenselvren]

Jalian rolled her eyes. Males. "I only kill things I need to."

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante rolled his eyes right back. "Who said anything about you killing anything?" he said. "You just look creepy as shit doing that."