Day 38: Lunch

[beloved_less]

Soubi was beginning to feel the effects of a busy morning on a tired body. To make things worse, they were serving Tacos and Burritos. He could really do some with something a bit softer today. Blander. But it was hardly his biggest concern right now

Comments

[no_barbarian]

As strange a conversation as that had been, Teisel was in much better spirits now. He'd made what could turn out to be an excellent ally, he had a solid goal for nighttime rather than his usual aimless wandering, and he had a chance to do something useful, which, considering his currently fragile sense of self-worth, was not trivial. As long as he didn't screw anything up.

He hadn't really felt up to eating at breakfast, so he was good and hungry by now. Unable to decide which kind of meat he'd prefer, he ended up taking one taco of each, and some of the salad. He had missed breakfast. Finding an empty seat, he started with the chicken, since that was the most familiar (and therefore least speacial). He ate mechanically, still feeling pretty glum, but not as soul-crushingly bleak and depressed as he'd been earlier.

[free]

[bullygeneraleva]

[[Someone set us up the Bonne!]]Evangeline would never say something like 'hope springs eternal' except as perhaps a sarcastic castigation, to her naive apprentice or one of his idiot friends. Yet somehow, despite a long line of disappointing conversations ever since she'd arrived here, she found herself looking for someone to bother the second she was finished making up her plate from the buffet

[no_barbarian]

Teisel looked up from his meal to see who was talking to him, and saw...no one. Looking a bit farther down, he saw a little girl. Weird. Judging from the voice, he'd expected a teenager at least. What was with all the kids here? It was creepy.

"I'm sorry...?" He gave her a mildly puzzled look. "Have we met, miss?" He didn't know anyone named Adam, that was for sure. She must have been mistaken.

[bullygeneraleva]

At this point she wasn't even surprised. The reaction was completely typical of what she'd encountered up until now, which was people who were way too slow on the uptake. She didn't normally like to encourage back-talk, but right now she would have given an arm for some witty repartee.

Of course, that was easy to say when you could grow bits back.

She sighed and poked at her food, malicious glee disappearing behind the tattered drapes of resignation like a soon-to-be-stabbed royal adviser. "Do they put something in the food here? Am I going to be incapable of understanding when I'm being mocked in a week? Or is it just you?"

Technically slightly insulting, but the spirit had gone out it.

[no_barbarian]

A little spark of anger ignited somewhere in the back of Teisel's brain at that. It was nothing like his usual reaction to being insulted, but considering the funk he was in it was pretty significant. Even if she was just a kid, that was just plain rude! And he was more than tired of the 'big equals stupid' thing, too.

"Duhhh, no can eat and talk at same time!" Teisel mocked, lightly hitting the side of his head with the heel of his hand. "Big dumb head no think good!" With that, he promptly went back to ignoring her and continued with his meal, eating delicately and neatly.

[bullygeneraleva]

Evangeline laughed. Since she was actually happy, it was almost... almost pleasant... but she was a mean-spirited little bully to the core, and it still showed through.

She was happy because even if it had taken him a second, he was the first person she'd been able to get a reaction out of at all. Antagonism was her thing. She was starving out here, and despite his best efforts Teisel had given her what she wanted.

"What, is that good parenting technique where you come from? Hit your kid in the head with a rock a few times to teach him good manners?" She shot back, obviously enjoying herself.

[no_barbarian]

What a shame Teisel didn't have a rock with him. This girl's parents had obviously been very lax about instilling any sort of manners in their daughter at all, by any technique.

"Look, kid, if you just came over here to rile me maybe you should go sit somewhere else." He wasn't in the mood to be antagonized by some punk kid. Hopefully she'd shape up and leave him alone.

[bullygeneraleva]

Pity the fire had been so short-lived. Still, in the end serious types were potentially a lot more fun. Teasing and browbeating were easy, but they were unsatisfying compared to digging deeper into people.

"Well, that is why I came over," Evangeline admitted easily, "But isn't this better than sitting on your own wondering whether you'll make it through the night or ever see your friends again or whatever? You should live a little, even if it's just being angry at me."

[no_barbarian]

What a strange girl. She really had just come over and started pestering him because she was bored.

"Are you really that starved for attention?" Teisel snapped impatiently. "No, actually, it isn't better. I got enough on my mind without some rude little brat giving me a hard time for no reason." He glared down at her for a moment. "Why don't you go play with someone your own age, eh?"

[bullygeneraleva]

"They usually are a bit thicker-skinned," Evangeline mused for his benefit, "But I've had no one to talk to but kids for fifteen years, you see. A hell full of adults is a big improvement, and I don't want to have wasted it if they send me back in a hurry."

She paused, then tilted her head and smiled wryly. "So what is on your mind, eh? I'll waive my consultant's fee and everything."

There was absolutely nothing about her that suggested she could be trusted as a confidant or to give good advice, but it would give her something to do that wasn't mindlessly picking at him. And she was waiving her fee. A steal!

[no_barbarian]

Hmph. He had all kinds of thick skin, he just didn't see why he had to put up with someone else's kid's sass. "Oh really?" He picked a bit of wilted lettuce out of his taco. Would it kill them to get rid of the slimy leaves? "You look about half that age. Just undersized, huh? Maybe you should eat something." If she were eating, she couldn't talk, after all.

The precocious act might have been more endearing if she hadn't been so snotty before. "Lucky me." One look at that face was enough to convince Teisel that she was no one he wanted to bare his innermost soul to. Hell, not even his outermost soul. "Right now, I'm wondering if my flashlight's dried out by now." Maybe it wasn't his biggest worry, but he would need the light later on and it had gotten thoroughly soaked the other night.

[bullygeneraleva]

Evidently, he had underestimated just how bad Evangeline's manners were- eating and talking at the same time was something she was well-practiced at. She could actually get pretty snobbish about etiquette in the right circumstances, but public meals like this weren't among them.

"I look like a lot of things I'm not," she responded cryptically. Let him chew on that a little, hopefully make some assumptions. Correct, incorrect, whatever, as long as has mind led him down a path that made him think better of treating her like a child it would probably be an improvement.

"No one gets depressed over a flashlight," she added, annoyed that he'd deflected her question in such an inane way. "Anyway, everyone has one, right? I'm sure if you asked on that bulletin board someone would let you borrow theirs."

She sounded vaguely disgusted with the idea, in this case because she was imagining her apprentice at his naive do-gooding save-the-world worst, and muttered irritably. "Just like him..."

[no_barbarian]

"Like a well-mannered young lady," Teisel supplied, watching bits of food attempt (and sometimes succeed) at escaping her mouth while she talked. His mind supplied a couple more options that he kept to himself. They involved a lot of 'nots': not a snotty little hellspawn, not an obnoxious human blister, etc.

Naturally, he wasn't depressed over a little thing like that, but damned if he told her what was really on his mind. If she wanted to get information out of people, she could start by not pissing them off. This was a life lesson she was learning. Maybe. "It was a very good flashlight." He gazed over at the far wall, letting her know in no uncertain terms that she wasn't worth his undivided attention. "We've been through some tough times together. And," he pointed out, "everyone has one flashlight. Nobody's going to stumble around in the dark just for the sake of doing a stranger a favor." Teisel wouldn't.

[bullygeneraleva]

"I look well-mannered to you?" Evangeline just smiled condescendingly at the insult. She knew damn well she wasn't and was far from ashamed of it. Still, he'd been right in the end. 'Young' she was not.

He was wrong on the second count too, though for this at least Evangeline could find no fault with him. "That's what you'd think, wouldn't you? But the world is full of idiots who'll do just that. Trust me, my apprentice would in a heartbeat."

By the time she finished she wasn't looking at Teisel either, and completely missed his snub. Her thoughts had drifted to the boy.

[no_barbarian]

"At first glance. The shine wears off pretty quick," he assured her. Ugh. He was losing his appetite. It had barely been there to begin with...

"Hmph." There was an idealistic sucker born every minute, that was true. "Your apprentice is a moron, then, if you don't mind my saying so. Apparently you're not teaching them too well." Where the hell would a kid her age get an apprentice? An apprentice what? Professional demon-child?

[bullygeneraleva]

"Glad I'm not losing my touch," Evangeline said, though frankly she was pretty sure she was. A year ago she could have counted the number of people willing to start and finish a conversation with her on her hands; now it seemed like everyone considered her rudeness a harmless eccentricity and... talked to her and stuff. At least this guy seemed to hate her guts.

"You don't know the half of it," she agreed. "I've made him struggle for everything I've given him, thrown him into the crucible every chance I've gotten, and finally he puts aside his pathetic moral quibbling and fights only for himself like a dark mage should, and what happens? The next week he's talking about making the world the kind of place where he doesn't have to do things like that. By helping random people."

It wasn't the end of the world. Evangeline was fair; she was fine with people choosing to be stupid or boring. But it was embarrassing after all the work she'd put in.