(Untitled)

[pornbang]

On Saturday June 14, Valley Fair opens at 10 AM to a warm, sunny day.  The highs are supposed to reach nearly 80 degrees, but for now it's breezy and a little cooler; although there are thunderstorms promised in the evening, it's basically a perfect day to be at an amusement park.

Which is where the population of St. Jude's has been invited to be

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[five_point_no]

Brian is a little bit late to arrive, but he made the effort not to forget and get lost in his programming. After all, he did say he was going to be there - and that he was okay with going watersliding, so he is also wearing swimming trunks under his clothes. It's more efficient that way. And he brought a camera, just in case.

It is kind of tempting to take photos of the various foods on sticks - are those corn dogs - but for now he will satisfy himself with staring at them as if he wants to dissect them and learn if the deep-frying process imparts any horrifying transformation alongside the ridiculous calorie increase. Hopefully he'll remember not to turn that kind of look on anyone he knows.

[unshielded]

There are people like Brian, and then there are people like Steve. People who -- ooh, corn dogs! And funnel cake! Oh, delicious fried dough. ♥

Steve tries valiantly to juggle the paper plate and the corn dog stick and the fresh-squeezed lemonade and his sketchbook wedged under his arm, but he can't quite get everything to balance, at least without dropping his sketchbook in the dirt -- and how about no. The funnel cake sliiiides precariously toward the edge of the plate, and the corn dog wobbles as he starts to lose his grip on the stick.

Disaster is imminent.

[five_point_no]

A lot of people would notice Steve's predicament and watch the ensuing trainwreck with a mixture of deer-in-headlights syndrome and America's Funniest Home Videos-ingrained morbid fascination, cueing up their mental laugh tracks. A few would flutter over to be apologetically obtrusive in their helpfulness - alright, that's mostly the girls, who would be all mothering and polite. Brian is neither of these types of people, having an underdeveloped trainwreck sense and a non-existent mothering instinct, but he can see the probability of impending food loss and, well, he's close enough to just walk over and help in time, so why not?

He has... no idea how to announce himself, so he just settles on a neutral "Hey," as he grabs the plate of funnel cake (it needs stabilising in a new grip, and grabbing the stick of the corn dog would be too tricky in comparison, what with fingers and relative surface area) and then carefully scoops Steve's sketch book off the ground. "You probably don't want to drop these."

[unshielded]

Saved! By... the mysteryboy who has his sketchbook now. Yaaay, mysteryboy!

"Oh man, thanks." He rights the funnelcake plate and... hmm. Hold the corn dog like that, and the lemonade like that... "I think I've got it. Tuck my sketchbook in right here?" He indicates the crook of his lemonade-arm.

"I'm Steve. Do you want some funnel cake?"

[five_point_no]

"Okay, though I can hold it until you're done eating if you have any more trouble." Brian caaaarefully tucks the sketchbook into the crook of Steve's arm as indicated, which is breaching entire new levels of personal space invasion for him, but he's not going to realise that until later (oh Acker family child-raising techniques, you are so... weird.)

"I'm Brian, you're welcome and... I think we should skip the handshake thing." Brian may be willing to accept that Steve can manage to hold all that stuff, but somehow he is skeptical of this expertise spreading to managing handshakes at the same time. "Um, sure, if you don't mind sharing." He breaks off a tiny piece and regards it as if he's slightly concerned that it will grow legs and try to gnaw his face off, but after a moment he does eat it, and sees that it is good. "Thanks."

[unshielded]

Steve laughs. "Yeah, probably. But I think I've figured it out." If he lifts his arm like so, he can reach the corn dog. And if he tilts his head that way, he can reach the lemonade. (Steve may not be a whiz at math, but he's got smarts where it counts, gosh-darnit.)

"Do you go to St. Jude already, or are you just thinking about going?"

[five_point_no]

"Looks like it, good job." Brian can't help smiling a bit at the display, though he will keep his hands free just in case any more disasters seem likely. (He has enough math wizardry for the both of them, and very much appreciates practical know-how. Not... that he's seen many examples of it before.)

"I already go - I'm in the chess club and math league. You?" Extra-curriculars are totally important to mention at this point, right?

[unshielded]

They are! It's a good conversational starting point. :3 "I'm in the art club and EPAC." Steve debates for a moment. He's sort of wanted to ask this since the first day he heard about it... "I've always wondered. What do people do in math club, anyway?"

[five_point_no]

"Oh, hence the sketchbook." Yes, stating the obvious is totally awesome, Brian. "Um, well, we... do math, just competitively. Solving equations on a time limit and things like that." And he is awesome at it, but will resist tooting his own horn on the subject.

[unshielded]

"Yeah. And I promised some of my -- some of the people I met in the school chatroom that I'd bring a drawing I did to the park today." Not quite friends. Yet. (But they will be. Oh, they will be.)

"So you just... sit down and have math contests?" He wants to be sure he has this straight.

[five_point_no]

"Ah, that's... cool. I can't really draw, so - I did promise someone in the school chatroom that I'd go watersliding with her, which I await with trepidation. Showing off a sketch will probably be a lot less... physically demanding." ... Just what Brian thinks water sliding entails is unclear, but then again Maria is involved, so he is possibly not wrong.

"Yeah, pretty much. Sometimes we stand in front of chalkboards, and there are national competitions to participate in, too. I know it doesn't sound much different from classwork but, well, I enjoy it."

[unshielded]

"Huh." Weeeird. "Well, it's not something I'd be very good at, but if you have fun with it, that's what matters, right?" :D? "Watersliding isn't very hard, don't worry. You just have to make sure you don't get water in your eyes or nose when you drop in the pool."

[five_point_no]

Somehow, Brian can tell that Steve really means that and isn't just saying platitudes or anything, so he gets a little smile on his face again and nods - it is what matters, after all. "Thanks for the advice, though I'm a little more worried about Maria dragging me around. My research indicates that girls do that, anyway." Amount of girls who have dragged Brian anywhere, ever: ZERO.

[unshielded]

"Yeah." Hi, Mel!

He takes a big bite of his corn dog, and is polite enough to not try and talk with his mouth full. Nom nom nom nom... okay. "Hey, are you going to be in the scavenger hunt?"

[five_point_no]

Brian is pretty good at standing quietly and waiting for conversational lulls to pass, perhaps because he's not used to making conversation in the first place. Unless you count making computers talk to him, which... no.

"Yes, I am - ah, are you that Steve?" He rummages in his pocket for his letter with the list of teams.

[unshielded]

Kerblink. "I guess. Are we on the same team?" Someone has yet to read that letter, perhaps. At least, past the important parts about food and rides. >_>