[OPEN] The First Annual Charm-Off

[twoninths]

Characters: Christopher/Argent (twoninths), Dean/McQueen (crossroaddeal), and OPEN to all
Date/Time: August 4th, noon until evening
Location: The Marketplace
Rating: TBA but expect McQueen's mouth, at least, to be filthy
Summary: McQueen and Argent decide to hold a contest to see which one of them really is the more charming.

[Like Matcha, Iaza, and Tussah before us,

Comments

around 2:00pm over here!

[a_missing_piece]

Piece was making her way through the Marketplace. After finishing up for the day--why yes, her hours were quite flexible--she had gone off to buy what her dinner would consist of: a load of bread, a pre-smoked fish, and some radishes she was planning on boiling. Such a venture was Decidedly Difficult™--mostly because of her short stature and everyone's else's not-so-short stature. Crowds of people pulsed around her, people who didn't even notice her presence--to say the least, it was extremely difficult to squeeze herself through and dodge carts and other strange things.

Though, she was getting used to it. This wasn't her first visit to the Marketplace after all. Finally, she paused--a strange sign catching her attention. What's a 'Charm-Off? Sounds kind of lame. Nonetheless, being slightly interested in what this might entail, she made her way through the crowds until she arrived at where the so-called Charm-Off was supposed to take place.

And then, not knowing what to do with herself, she simply held her canvas bag close and offered a simple, "Uh. Hi."

Re: around 2:00pm over here!

[crossroaddeal]

Something caught McQueen's attention out of the corner of his eye. His scowl quickly changed to wide grin when the girl approached him.

He turned to face her, his grin still glued to his face. "Hey," he said while crouching down a little, attempting as best as he could to not intimidate her.

"You've seen the signs I bet? Stupid sounding, eh? Mr. Lame-o over there put them," McQueen said pointing his thumb in Argent's direction.

With his eyes sparkling; a trick that he learned he could do, McQueen reached out his hand, "My name's McQueen. What's yours?" he said.

Re: around 2:00pm over here!

[a_missing_piece]

"Yeah. The signs pointed over here, and I thought I'd check out what was going on," Piece replied, physically leaning over to get a better view at who Mr. Lame-o was. She hadn't heard of anyone named Lame-o over the journals, though if the man she was speaking with was McQueen, as he claimed, then supposedly his rival or opponent, or whatever word was more appropriate for a 'Charm-Off' supposedly was Mr. Argent, Throne's freeloading roommate. Was Mr. Argent even around then? Who was Mr. Lame-o, the event's official advertiser? Ah, maybe she'd find that out later.

She blinked a few times, staring up at McQueen, looking vaguely interested in what was going on, and said, "My name's Piece. Nice to meet you. So, what exactly is going on here? Like, how's it supposed to work?"

Piece took the proffered hand firmly and gave it a good shake--she had a good grip for a little girl. Though she was actually almost thirteen, she was quite small for her age and seemed younger--maybe more around ten years old than going on to her first of the teenage years. Nonetheless, she made certain to look up to meet the eyes of the man she was talking to. It was kind of him to crouch down a little--that did make the whole eye contact thing easier.

Re: around 2:00pm over here!

[crossroaddeal]

McQueen's smile widened further when she shook his hand, "Piece, that's a very pretty name, rolls off the tongue nicely," he said.

"Well Piece, you get to choose which person you find more charming, and the way you do that is by putting something in the that has the name of the person you choose labeled on it." McQueen pointed to the two jars, "It's just a little bet me and Argent have going, nothing serious."

McQueen sniffed the air, he could smell something delicious coming from the bag Piece was holding, "Planning on cooking something delicious? I bet you are a great cook." He smiled at her again.

[twoninths]

Argent snorted and, deciding that he could not let McQueen get too far ahead of him, sidled over and gave Piece a very quick but low bow. "Miss Piece," he said in an almost serious voice, looking up but not coming out of his bow, "I hope you excuse my rudeness for intruding at this point, but I fear it would be much ruder if I merely sat back and did not introduce myself. I am Argent, and it is lovely to have you here."

He straightened a little and said, "I hope my compatriot's explanation made sense. Please let us know if there is anything you would like clarified." He eyed the basket as well and then glanced away and asked the most the neutral question he can think of, "And how have you been managing in this weather, Miss Piece?"

[a_missing_piece]

Huh. Thought it sounded a little strange on a whole, if it was a harmless game kind of thing, Piece figured she could try to play along. McQueen's explanation was fairly straightforward, and she nodded a couple times, turning slightly when he pointed at the two jars to see if she could make out whether or not either had any contents yet.

"Oh, okay," she said, turning back to try to maintain her eye contact still. When McQueen mentioned the things in her bag, she simply explained, "These? It's nothing that great, just some stuff I picked up because they'd be easy to cook." She was pretty tired from scrubbing all those floors, so a quick dinner was the best kind.

That was when Mr. Lame-o came to introduce himself and turned out to be none other than Mr. Argent--oops. Piece mentally chided herself, glad that he had time to rectify the misunderstanding before she actually said anything of it out loud. Using her free hand swat at the back of her neck, she said, "Hi, Argent. It's nice to meet you in person. I don't think I'm used to this kind of heat, but I've been managing."

[crossroaddeal]

"To be honest, I haven't had the opportunity to have anything other then the cafeteria food in Sector 1. I'd love a home cooked meal." McQueen said, ignoring Argent's interruption.

"If you'd like you could put your bag down, don't worry I promise nothing will happen to it." McQueen suggested, "just take a moment to relax, you know, especially with this heat." He held out his hand, offering to hold her bag for her if she'd like.

[twoninths]

Argent smiled brightly at Piece, pretending that McQueen was not even there. If he was, after all, he was no doubt speaking nonsense. He caught the hand at her neck and pulled it into a quick shake. "This is undoubtedly my pleasure, Miss Piece."

Letting her hand go, he waved toward the sky and looked at her with clear worry. "I ask because I have been concerned, you see. I remember you were amazed to see the sun, so I worried that perhaps you had not dealt with such temperature extremes and would be quite deflated. But I see you are an entirely capable young woman." He brought his hand down to his chest and added, "So my heart shall rest easier."

[a_missing_piece]

Were they... ignoring each other? Whether that was an unspoken part of the rules or not, Piece couldn't tell, but it really seemed like this was the case. To McQueen's offer, she gave up the canvas bag easily--its contents weren't at all heavy, but he was supposed to be charming her, right?--and said, "Thanks, though I probably won't stay long. I still gotta make dinner." And that was going to be a trial all on its own, due to the wonderfully high temperatures.

To Argent's hand shake, she nodded, thought to say something like, 'no, no, it's all mine,' but found herself a little too dumbfounded on a whole to actually bring herself to say it. Carrying on two separate conversations with two people right in front of her face was, put simply, awwwkward. But luckily, the two seemed to converge on what was easily the most popular conversation topic of the week--the heat.

"Yeah, it's really bad. I think this sort of thing is new to me: I've been sweating a lot, but drinking lots of water too." She hoped that saying this would fit in the context of both her on-going interactions and wouldn't be too out of place in it all. Maybe it'd even pull down the invisible walls? Maybe, but she wouldn't get too hopeful.