(no subject)
Who: Samuel Hayes(The Bear Prince) and Edie Steinlen(Snow White of the Seven Dwarves variety).
Where: Central Park.
When: Backdated to last Friday.
What: The Bear Prince meets the wrong Snow White, a stroll.
Rating: E for Emo.
Edie was one of the few brave souls that had decided that the brief break in the storms that had been pounding down upon the city was the perfect time to adventure into Central Park. It was not only blissfully fresh feeling, but the air smelled of thawed and rain soaked earth with a faint hint of smoke from the shisk kebob vendors, and the animals seemed to be coming out to enjoy it as well.
The girl wasn't headed for anywhere in particular as she strolled into the 83rd street entrance. It seemed that time and the hectic work disappeared in those trees. A feeling of utter calm and contentment sweeping over Edie, having had long ago lost the imposing skyscrapers and mansions of Manhattan to the dark and bud forming canopy up above. It was a peaceful sort of lost, and more importantly there was no fear of getting lost in these woods and so she was indeed free to let her mind go idle as she took to the seemingly abandoned path, the huge juts of bedrock and the tips of the Cloisters beginning to peek through the break in the trees.
Have I really walked to Harlem? Edie pondered as she found herself pausing a minute to watch the glaring spring sun beginning to wane just behind the north tower, fingers creeping up to catch a hold of chestnut strands-pushing them aside.
"Now how in the.."
Sam particularly enjoyed this time of day as it gave him a nice high-point of the sun and staved off the lingering want to just curl up in his bed and tell the word to bugger off. Which he'd done a lot of lately with the fighting with Elisa. He'd taken his laptop with him and grabbed something cold from a nearby Starbucks and headed to the park to get air and look over AUdra's game some more when he hadn't been staring at a computer screen for so long.He'd found a lowly bench and set himself up, his legs crossing so he looked like a small boy with a shiny toy playing, the World of Wacraft laptop
fairly new and shiny sitting open and waiting for its own to get to work. He had just turned it on when he'd taken a sip of his very pink iced tea and noticed Edie. "Lost?" he said out loud to her.
To be honest, Edie hadn't even noticed the stranger sitting there when she'd strolled by consumed in her own thoughts. Dipping into her bag, a slight smile was cast back to him before pulling out a blue paper pouch of tobacco which she began rolling. "One can only be lost if they have a distinctive path and destination." It came out in a small breath, that honey brown gaze flickering up the calling of a red breasted robin with a warm smile. "I am not...just confused."
"Have a seat," he motioned with his head as he took another swallow of the very girly looking colored tea, then stirring it around with a straw. "It's a nice day to be out wandering anyway." Something he should do when he wasn't trying to work himself to death or think about stupid shit in his life.
Edie was not one to decline an offer to sit and enjoy the scenery, especially when there was such a lonely looking red robin settled up on the branch, calling out a soft song that seemed to complete everything. Surveying the ground for bits with which to make its nest.
Moving over towards the stranger, who seemed perfectly harmless enough. What was he going to do? Knock her out with his computer? Stab her with a straw? Edie took her seat at the other end of the bench, procuring her lighter to raise it to the hand crafted bundle that hung delicately in her lips.
It wasn't until the tale sense began to work its way up her spine and into her stomach that she turned to take full notice of the man sitting next to her. "Thank you."
He'd be less likely to hit her with that expensive laptop. He loved his computer almost more than anything. Almost. Then he felt his own particular tale sense jumping up and down inside, which made his eye twitch just in the right corner. But he didn't like being rude and flat out asking that question. It could be very off-putting to some. "No problem. Just gettin out of my cave for the day," which could have easily alluded to a dark cubicle given he was sitting with a laptop.
A deep inhale was taken from her cigarette as she eyed him through a thick veil of lashes for a moment, turning her gaze back to the sky quickly after. "Me too, though I couldn't call it mine." Really to ever exist in a cave seemed a daunting task to be avoided at all costs. "..And wondering how I found my way to the Cloisters from the Met."
"Don't you just love randomly walking around and ending up in the strangest places? Kind of like waking from tha drunken stupor only to see you're in the wrong bed and your underwear are nowhere to be found." Sure it was a bad allusion, and Sam had actually had that happen a few times, but he was fairly young and in college then. That was to be expected during that tie in someone's life. "I'm Sam," he said, sitting down his drink and sticking his hand out.
"I can't say I can make much of a connection there. Especially because the latter doesn't seem like a pleasant surprise at all." Edie quipped with a slight laugh, drunk and in someone else's bed, it was something the girl had thankfully never experienced in her life time. Having woken up to a stranger curled up at the foot of her bed was another story entirely; though it had been nothing more than a harmless and confused friend who had not yet lived it down. A hand was offered to the man in turn. "Edie, it's a pleasure to find you out in the wilds, dear." And then she mused again on just what unexpected arrivals were like. "It's more like starting a creative endeavor with one thing in mind, and watching it transform into something completely different."
He shook her hand firmly, then turned to where his body was facing her more, the laptop still secure in his lap. For a large framed man, he was surprisingly well-balanced in movement. "Kind of like what I do. Start with a little coding, building one character and voila, ends up an entire video game."
She smiled up to him warmly, Edie was exceedingly petite- small in nearly all ways and though they were closer to the same level while seated she still had to look up to meet his eyes. Folding her feet under her to meet the task. "That sounds more like a recipe to me, which is what I do...so what brings you out today?"
"Oh you cook?" he asked, his brows shooting up. He liked to eat; he possessed a bearlike appetite most of the time, though he didn't gain too much weight. "My best friend owns a bakery. One of the best ever." He sipped at his tea. "Trying to just get out, do some thinking about some things."
"Primarily." She couldn't help the amused laugh that bubbled up at his expression, she appreciated people who liked to eat; which was just about every one but Edie wouldn't admit to that. "Do they? I have one.."She paused for a minute, searching for the right word for Elisa. It was indeed a complicated sort of relationship..." ..friend who does...It seems to encompass her life, I definitely don't think that'd be the sort of thing I'd consider as a career choice...too much math, and too much time."
"Yeah, Elisa loves her bakery. She's awlays been good with food. Amongst other things," though he wouldn't go into that detail. "So it's a hobby then? I'm always up for being a test subject for recipes," and he patted his stomach. "Though I tend to wolf things down."
"Miller?" Edie's eyes widened a bit then, choking on the inhale of smoke. Now there was a coincidence in a small world now wasn't it? Though...being tales it was just a bit smaller. The surprise hit her so much that she didn't even find time or words to answer his other question. Sputtering for a bit longer, it seemed that she finally had a hold of herself taking in a deep breath.
He nodded, "Yeah, that's her," replied, chuckling at Edie's sputtering expression. It wasn't surprising that choking like that came along with the thought of knowing Elisa Miller. "Does she drive you crazy like she does me?"
"It's complicated. I can't say we've gotten close enough to one another yet, though her self destructive tendencies do worry me from time to time." Edie worried at her lip, the cigarette stubbed out and balanced on the bench as she went digging through her bag for her bottle of water. "It just surprised me is all. So I take we both know of her through the same organization?"
"Being a Tale? Yeah, though she and I go further back. Old college friends and such. We knew each other when we were practically kids." Sam talked about being a Tale like it wasn't a big deal to him. He pretty easily told people what his tale was, not like it was a guarded secret.
Her face raised from the aqua panna bottle, turning to him. "Tale?" Edie offered him a confused look for a fleeting moment, the raise of her eyebrow genuinely questioning of his sanity. That was until she cracked and took to laughing gently. "I'm kidding...of course."
For a moment, Sam twitched, thinking he'd made a mistake, but her peel of laughter made a gush of air whoosh out of his lungs in a sigh of relief. "So, what's your Tale, if you don't mind me asking?" and he lifted up his cup, popped the top off of it and got a mouthful of ice and began to chew it.
Edie was already rolling herself another cigarette, fingertips working deftly with the rolling paper and fluffy bit of tobacco. When he froze for more than a second, sheer concern was her face only to be replaced with equal relief when he spoke. "Snow White." The girl offered with a smile, continuing to thin out the mound into a long even line with quick movements, watching him out of the corner of her eye. "You?"
His eyes grew wide as he crunched the ice in his mouth. "I'm your Prince!" he said much more loudly than he'd meant to. Luckily, no one was nearby to stare at him strangely for declaring himself a prince.
Both his volume and what he had to sale caused her to yelp in surprise, the paper and tobacco fluttering to the ground as she turned to stare at this man intensively. HE was he prince? And Elisa knew him? Her evil step mother knew her prince and had never thought to mention it? What the hell was that abo--And suddenly the cold hard truth of her tale reared it's ugly head and the jealously made itself slightly more obvious; at least in Edie ill informed mind it made sense.
But this was certianly not how she had expected to meet her prince, randomly in a park with rain on the horizon. And why was there no overwhelming tale sense? Why did she not feel as overwhelmed as she had whens he and Elisa had met? It was softer, far more gentle albeit different in some way from others like David, and Eleanor.. "What!? Really?"
"Well...yeah, I married Snow White before." He hadn't been around any of the Tales he was related to before, so he didn't know about there being different feelings when one encountered different ones. So this one felt much like between him and Elisa, just tweaked a little. He often broadcast his Tale, which didn't matter to him who knew, and he was surprised she hadn't found him before now. "The Tale of Snow White and Rose Red. I'm your Bear Prince."
The look on the young girl's face as he explained himself was akin to that of a bright red balloon slowly deflating...What had been a brilliant smile that had spanned ear to ear, causing her nose to wrinkle and her eyes to sparkle had disappeared in a fury.
Well that certainly explained the lack of what she assumed would have been overwhelming adoration in contrast to the paralyzing fear she'd felt upon first meeting Elisa. But still, she couldn't help but feel a bit saddened by the news, even if it meant that her friend was not the wicked, jealous woman that she'd thought she was. In fact, now Edie felt even guiltier for thinking it. "Oh...Dear..You have the wrong Snow White."
"Oh." And if she thought she looked deflated, his expression had to be worse. Sam thought that maybe he'd found his chance out of this crappy rut with Elisa, his actual love from his Tale, that could make him forget what a horrible time he'd had since coming to New York, but it wasn't meant to be. It figured. He never caught a break in that department. "Well, shit. This is awkward," he said, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. "Didn't mean to get your hopes up."
She felt herself slump into the bench just a bit more, eyeing the desolate ruins of her cigarette as it dissolved into a puddle. A deep sigh heaving her chest up before she turned to him with a warm smile. "It's funny how many possibilities can run through your mind in a minute...I suppose it's best it be cleared up now rather than later when it could have been one whole big mess of things." At least she'd not done anything terribly embarassing like fly into his arms or swoon like the giddy princess she was meant to be.
"Yeah, yeah," he nodded, though he was pretty disappointed. "Doesn't mean we can't be friends or...whatever," he said, waving his hand about in the air. He pressed a couple of keys on the laptop, which promptly shut it down and he closed it, sliding it into a bag resting on the ground by the bench.
"Of course!" Edie found herself suddenly feeling completely and utterly awful for not being his Snow White. He seemed so..miserable. Pushing herself up and turning so that she was sitting sideways and cross legged on the bench, she leaned forward a bit. "It's one interesting sort of story as to how we met, wouldn't you say? I'm sure years from now we'll even laugh about it." Just smile? Please? She prayed to whatever it was that might hear her, a hand resting gently on his wrist. "Right?"
"Definitely so. I'm already pretty damned amused at our meeting and confusion, really. Though it would have been nice if you were my Snow White. Then maybe there'd be hope from all the bullshit I've recently dealt with." He did smile for her when she touched his wrist, thankful for some kind of contact that wasn't through the Compendium these days.
"Yeah, it would have been nice to know who my prince is." Edie sighed just a bit while she eased up a bit, glad to see a smile. "Regardless, you have a Snow White, and I now have a prince...it'll have to count for something." She had been about to retract her hand to try for a third cigarette when he mentioned bullshit, and seemed horribly bitter about it- from the way his spine straightened to the edge on his words. "What sort of hope would that have provided, dear?" It was an odd statement to say the least, Edie was quite assured(alright none too assured but she assumed quite heavily) that tale familiarity had nothing to do with the present. She and Elisa were friends after all..not about to kill one another. And David and Mary weren't passionately in love, hell they hardly spoke to one another, yet he got along with Goldilocks.
"Any bullshit I can help clean up? I'm awfully good at it."
"I doubt you can help. Elisa is Elisa, confused, stubborn and can't figure out what the hell she wants, just that it definitely isn't me," and he shrugged, taking a deep breath. "The hell with her and Neil. They can have each other and be miserable for all I care." He looked down at her hand. "Hope of finally getting my happily ever after in this incarnation."
Well that was definitely bitter sounding, her free hand raised to push her hair from her face, her lips screwing into a sympathetic smile. "No, I doubt I can, sorry hun.." It was as if he'd stabbed her with those words, causing a visible wince as he mentioned those three words that often caused her nights of irritation and lost sleep. Regardless of how Edie may have felt about about it though, she offered him a bright smile and a cant of her head. "You seem wonderfully sweet, I'm sure you'll find her and for all you know it might not be that Snow White..it might not even be a tale."
Well, he was kind of wrong for saying that to her. He was too caught up in his own misery to recognize his words had stung her for a few seconds. "Sorry, I didn't meant it like that. Just...I've gotta let go of it before you can help." Which was the truth. "Thanks. Sometimes, I think I'm too nice."
And thus the miscommunications abounded. "No..not that. I doubt I could help with that sort of thing and I know when to step down and offer food instead of advice." Edie offered with a laugh, squeezing his hand once more before starting in on her third cigarette, the quickness with which she rolled exponentially greater with the increase in nerves. "Just the happily ever afters...It's not something I've much faith in and I'll leave it at that, dear...Did you want a cigarette?" The first finished, it was offered to him. "And there is no such thing as 'too nice'.."
He waved his hand, "Nah, I don't smoke. Bad habit, and I need my lungs at full capacity for hibernating." Strangely enough, he did hibernate when it got very cold out. "Don't have faith in it? Your love life must suck as much as mine,"
"To each his own, we all have our habits. It's just how we deal with them that makes them good or bad. For me this is a far more enjoyable, lesser evil to the alternative." Edie offered with a smirk, honestly suprised by how open she was being with him, things that only David had known offered to him vaguely. "I wouldn't say it sucks, so much as I haven't thought of it in a while. My view on the happily ever after is that we don't have a benevolent writer assuring it to us any longer....watching one's past deaths tends to be enough to make anybody a bit of a pessimist," Lighting her cigarette, it took a moment or two of pause before she spoke again, sounding just slightly bemused. "I'm not a pessimist though, I just..well I've seen the past..and I live in the present...I'd rather enjoy the present than worry about an unknown future." Her head canted to the side then, a slow wave of surprisingly fragrant smoke exhaled and veiling her face for a moment before dissapating away. "And so..I don't believe in a happy ending any more...Does that make sense?"
"I've ended up with a happily ever after each time. Hell, watching that ungrateful ass Dwarf get it in the end each time is worth it all." There was a time or two when it didn't go so well but it ended on a better note, but still. "I just don't want to end up alone, that's all. I'm much happier in the company of others than if I'm left to sulk." Which he'd done a lot as of late. He was thankful Audra had gotten him out of the apartment, and soon he'd have roommates, which he didn't know how he was going to feel about that after being on his own for so long.
"I think that that's everybody, hun." Edie spoke over the draw of more smoke, speaking through the inhalation of the nicotine and relaxing wonderfully with each puff. "Nobody wants to be alone, it's why we have friends. And when it comes down to it...those are the people that are most likely to be around far longer than any tryst."
"But it's not a tryst I'm really after. It's love. The kind from our fairy tales." Having one night stands and short term girlfriends when he was younger was all fine and good, but when someone got to be his age, he wanted to settle down more, find some kind of stability. A person he could depend on to be there for him through thick and thin.
"I see no reason why you shouldn't find it then, dear. Y-" As if by some sort of divine providence, she was interrupted by the happy sounding warble of the robin she had noticed before. And in the distance just above them came another with a mouth full of straw that Edie supposed had been stolen from the stables. "You seem like the sort that deserves to be happy." She finished.
"I think everyone deserves happiness save for a select few." Edie could probably discern at least one from that select group. He looked up and saw the bird flying by, which made him smile. Snow White had that thing about woodland animals surrounding her still. He hadn't really been thinking about the time when he glanced down at his watch. "I should get back to work soon. Lunch's almost up."
"Agreed." As he noticed the time, Edie only nodded whilst finishing the final puff of her cigarette. He seemed a bit lighter than he had been when she'd first happened upon him. "Which way were you headed? Maybe I'll walk with you for a bit." After all, she had no destination to go but home.
"That way," and he pointed off north toward a large building. He hoisted the backpack with his laptop up over his shoulder and got up, walking over to discard his cup in the nearby rubbish bin. "You're welcome to walk with me," he said with a smile.
"I'd be happy to.." Smiling, she pushed herself up as well, tosisng her cigarette butt and the one that had been lost to the ground into the same trashbin. Her bag was pulled over her chest, and she Edie took to stretching a bit. "Where do you work?"
"Computer company. Well, it's a small subsidiary of Blizzard, the gaming company. I used to work in the larger portion of the company, but I decided to step down to something smaller and less demanding these days." Not that he couldn't handle the bustle of a busy company like that, but Sam was going through the process of just getting back to himself and not being so job oriented as he'd been the last couple of years.
"Ahh, I'll have to admit ignorance to anything you guys have produced. Games are more Troy and Audra's niche than mine." The girl admitted as she came to his side, having to turn up to speak to him to very large height discrepancy between them made all the more obvious now. "That sounds fun though, working for a gaming company..."
"World of Warcraft makers. Biggest Multiplayer online RPG ever. I'm surprised you've never heard of it, most of the world has," he teased. "I wonder if you live under a rock rather than in a cave." He definitely towered over her with his height stretching to well past six feet. He could easily swing her over his shoulder and carry her with no problem.
"OH! I've heard of World of Warcraft, just not the company. I'm not necessarily what one would consider to be technologically savvy.." Edie offered a bit of an even more embarassed grin then, still craning her neck up as she spoke- it was obvious that this sort of thing was normal for her. "I do not live under a rock, nor in a cave..I like to consider my home like..a den. It's just that I prefer my interactions to be face to face these days, as well as my letters to be handwritten, and my food as home grown and home made as possible. I suppose you could call me a laudite if you must."
"More like a hippie for some people, but it's good you're so down to earth like this. It's a quality that I can admire in a woman," he said, looking down at her, seeing mostly just the crown of her head until she craned to see him. "You're so little, and it's so cute," the corners of his eyes crinkling from his smile.
A hippie!? That was something that Edie in a million years would have never thought to identify herself as. Old fashioned maybe? More connected with humanity and the eart--Shit she was..wasn't she? Not the bell bottom wearing, beaded curtain sort- but the..earthy, gardening nudist sort. "I..that is a new sort of label...but I'll take it in good grace." His compliment was rewarded with a bright smile as she turned for a moment to make sure she was still on track. Of course when the comment came about herheight it only issued a rosy blush to blossom across her nose making what few freckles she had show. Not quite sure whether or not he was being patronizing, it still had been some time since she'd even been referred to as 'cute'. "I'm not quite sure whether or not I should feel complimented by that."
"Hippies had the right idea, just poorly executed ones, with the drugs and all." And he wasn't patronizing her at all. He really did think she was adorably compact next to him. Like he wanted to carry her. "Definitely a compliment. It's very, very cute. Short and wirey and probably just as firey."
She nodded with a smile, though those natural insecurities flaired up as she was described as wirey..Wirey...had she really lost that much weight? "Well then I thank you, though I apologize in advance should I disappoint you with my fierceness." Or EXTRAORDINARY lack thereof. She took a moment to mull it over, before her smile widened and a laugh bubbled out causing dimples to deepen and show more vividly as they had escaped the canopy of trees and entered the more open part of the park that led to the gates out. "Well...you are exceptionally gigantic from my perspective..which is comforting."
"Like a bear when they stand up," he mused and stuck his arms out in front of him in the way bears did when they got up on their hind legs as if they were going to attack. "You could be on top of the world perched on my back." And grinned widely. He didn't think she was extremely thin, but he figured she could run and get out of trouble should she need to.
"Does that mean I have to feed you to avoid being eaten myself?" It came with a smirk of course, though she neglected to comment on the piggy back ride just then. He may not have thought she was too thin, but it did not stop her from subconsciously pinching at her sides in ameasure of how much meat she had on her bones and deciding to bake and eat macaroni and cheese and chocolate cake for dinner that night. "Alas, I forgot my mountain climbing gear at home."
"Possibly. The way to this man's heart is through his stomach," he nodded. "Oh I'm not that damn tall." Then he looked down at her and bit the corner of his lips. "Well, maybe I am, but you could be hoisted up easy enough."
"The way to anybody's heart is through their stomach, dear, man or woman..If only we attempted world peace through feasting, then we might get somewhere." Edie grinned as he rebuked her comment about his height, a challenging raise of her eyebrow was offered up to him then with a slight laugh. "Well I'm not that damn short. Regardless, we'll save any testing of that theory for a later date."
"Yeah, for a later time. Walking up to my workplace with you on my back would surely get strange looks from my co-workers." They'd arrived at the building he worked in, the walk there having gone by fast since he was talking to someone. "Guess this is where I get off." And he smiled to her.
"You could call it creative research." The girl offered with a laugh as she pulled her metro card from her back pocket. "Ah, just by the green line too. That's convienence at it's best...It was nice meeting you, dear- even if you are the wrong prince." It came with a gentle nudge of her elbow to his..well..hip. "I do hope that this won't be the last."
"Nope, it certainly won't. You can't miss me, just check for the ranting Rose, and you'll find me." The wrong prince, that had been the best mix up in the world. "See you around," and he gave her a wave and disappeared into the building.
Or the most disappointing. Smiling after him, Edie headed for the subway station, fully intent on heading to St. Marks place first for her fill of pomme frites and mango chutney mayonaisse- before heading home to make the most fattening dinner she could think of.