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?"

[rebelseekspizza]

... It looked like a hat.

It really did.

"... A thing you put on your head?" Dante said, with a bit of a lot of a squint of his own.

[era_two_triangle]

Yeah, Gem hair was a special and unique thing. Gems in general kind of were, really.

"... I haven't put anything on my head."

Sooo much squinting. So much.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Then why do you have a giant triangle around your face?"

It was a pertinent question.

[era_two_triangle]

"... That's my hair."

Boggle, Dante. Go right ahead. Peridot was boggling at you, too.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Huh."

Yeah, that was weird. It definitely did not look like hair.

"I'll bet it's full of secrets structural integrity," Dante said finally, giving her a lazy thumb's up.

[era_two_triangle]

"More than yours is," Peridot agreed, looking at the gesture with about as much confusion as she had given Dante when he'd asked about her hat. "And what is that?"

Not your thumb, Dante. What you were doing with it.

[rebelseekspizza]

Yeah, sorry, narrative, but he missed some important information there.

"My thumb?" Dante said.

Getting squintier.

[era_two_triangle]

Look, the things she normally used as fingers floated freely around her hand. It wasn't necessarily a strange question, even if that was what she'd been asking about. Or, well, it was still strange, considering most Gems had fairly natural-looking hands.

"I know that." Yep, there was a pretty epic squint-off going on, here. "What are you doing with it?"

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante eyed his thumb. Then eyed her. "Being sarcastic," he said.

Why be helpful?

[era_two_triangle]

Peridot was, at least, familiar with sarcasm. That was a start.

"With your thumb."

[rebelseekspizza]

"Yep," Dante said merrily. "Though I've got another finger I can use, too."

Hey, he wasn't using it yet. That was a huge upsurge in maturity, right there.

[era_two_triangle]

"Sarcasm is typically most effective when the person you're being sarcastic at understands it," Peridot noted, not even able to guess at what the other finger was, either.

"Explain the thumb."

Earth. WHY.

[rebelseekspizza]

So that momentary upsurge of maturity went out the window really fast.

Dante flipped her the bird. It felt appropriate, damn it.

[era_two_triangle]

Oooh yeah. There was a lot of squinting right on back, then.

And then, flatly, "That explains nothing."

Just in case Dante wasn't aware.

[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]

"It explains everything," Dante said brightly. "But hey, if you can't keep up..."

Stop shit-stirring the triangle, Dante.

[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.

[era_two_triangle]

"I'd be able to keep up if somebody would explain those gestures to me!"

Now she was less squinty, and more outright frustrated.

"What does this even mean?!"

Yeah, she was returning the bird, now. She might not understand it, but it seemed apt.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Fuck off," Dante said.

It was actually an explanation!

... You just couldn't tell by his tone.