look to the sun; see me in psychic pollution [martel]

[littlelesseve]

Maria, shockingly, is...a relatively adequate driver; she has a tendency to get distracted, but Clarissa cautioned her about thirty thousand times before she took the car out, so she's actually bothering to pay attention to the road this time around. Isn't that reassuring. Much like with almost all aspects of her official education, she's fully

Comments

[sebastiansbear]

It's Vincent, not Serafina, who opens the door--he blinks once, appraises her and smiles slightly (it's hard to catch unless you're looking closely at him, but he is smiling and in it you can see his sons). "Maria, is it? Please come inside, young lady, we'll see if we can't find my boy for you."

[littlelesseve]

"Hiii!" She is instantaneously all charm and big smiles as she steps inside; the weird thing with Maria being, of course, that she isn't really doing it for any reason, she's just pretty much this enthusiastic constantly. "Oh, okay! I love your house, it's ridiculously pretty."

[sebastiansbear]

It is, and moreover does and does not look like a house that was just moved into. There aren't any boxes, everything is unpacked and in its right place--but there you go, it's so new as to be pristine. Vincent smiles a little wider at the praise, because all the Martels are proud and like what they're proud of to be appreciated.

"Thank you, dear." He closes the door behind her, ushers her into the house proper, and calls, "Martel, your lady friend is--Faran, down."

Faran unrepentantly nudges at Maria's knees. Sup.

[littlelesseve]

"Aw!"

She crouches down to say hi to the dog, like, immediately, though fortunately she does have the presence of mind to be decent about it. "Wow, you are like, the giantest dog I have ever seen in my entire life, I totally want one of my own."

This dog is probably bigger than she is, FYI.

[sebastiansbear]

Vincent laughs quietly; "I'll let you two get acquainted. Don't get lost."

It's a big house, she should really not wander off. Vincent tromps up the stairs to find his errant younger son, who is actually trying to find the dog. This is just kind of how it works in this house sometimes.

The reason he is trying to find the dog is probably ... yep. Faran just dropped Martel's cellphone at Maria's feet.

[littlelesseve]

Maria looks seriously at Faran for a second, and giggles really hard. "Okay, you and me are gonna be friends, I think."

If it's weird to casually talk to an animal like it might speak back at any moment, she...doesn't care, she just does this. Maria picks up the cell phone by the antennae and briefly debates holding it hostage from Martel; however, she dismisses this, deciding she'll have plenty of opportunities to do similar things to him at a later date.

[sebastiansbear]

Speak of the devil--or think of him, maybe--here comes the boy himself, dropping down the stairs two at a time mostly just because he fucking can, his mother behind him scolding him for it.

"Maria." It's a greeting in and of itself, apparently! He offers her a hand up from the dog and ... possibly to get his damn phone back, although Serafina is going to intercept that at earliest convenience.

[littlelesseve]

She will accept the hand up, of course.

"Martel! Hi. Faran and I are friends now," she informs him, brightly, "That's his name, right, I didn't get it wrong?"

[sebastiansbear]

"That's his name." Faran gets a dirty look, because he is basically Satan as far as most people are concerned. "Madre, this is Maria, the girl I was talking to."

Serafina smiles at her, warmly; she's a little shorter than Maria is, but at their heights it'd be hard to tell if Maria weren't wearing four inch heels. She wears crisp, clean white and house shoes, one hand on her (much taller) son's arm. "I'm very glad he has someone to show him around the city. You'll come to lunch with us soon, I hope."

He was not kidding about his mother's accent; Serafina is unmistakable.

[littlelesseve]

Maria is a liiittle unbalanced by that gesture, though Serafina may be able to understand it better than Martel did the night before; still, she smiles wider and nods. "Sure, that'd be awesome! It's really nice to meet you, by the way."

From most teenage girls picking up a boy, talking to his mother: this is a line. From Maria: not at all, actually. Because she doesn't actually have manners, she just says whatever comes to mind, as Martel is well-aware.

[sebastiansbear]

Oh, she does, but she's also a lot more tactful than her sons are -- at least most of the time. She touches Maria's hands with both of hers, lightly, and then kisses Martel's forehead (he bends, automatically, when she moves towards him). "Enjoy your afternoon, both of you."

She ushers them out the front door herself; Marcus would've contributed to the Martel family dogpile, but Elena had other plans for him today.

[littlelesseve]

"I will," she promises, and then they're on the front walk and she's looking up at Martel with her bottom lip between her teeth for just a second. "They're nice."

It's a reeaally basic statement, but there's a lot behind it. Being Maria, though, she moves on swiftly, grabbing at his hand. "C'mon, let's go, I have eighty billion things to show you."

[sebastiansbear]

There's a moment where it's like maybe he'll pull his hand away, but he just curls his fingers around hers and gives her that particularly long-suffering look she has not yet been on the receiving end of -- from him, anyway. "Eighty billion, well, we'd better get started then."

He is slightly concerned by the idea of Maria driving. What, you would be too.

[littlelesseve]

Dude, anyone sane would be concerned by her driving.

"Mmhmm. If we have time I'll show you where I live, the high rises." She pauses by the car door and with her free hand thumbs one skinny strap on her dress. "Whatcha think?"

[sebastiansbear]

Well, since he's been invited to, he pauses too for the sole purpose of a thorough once over.

"When we need to ration fabric, you won't have any problems. I like the boots."

[littlelesseve]

"If we were going to ration fabric I'd just not wear anything." She gives him a vaguely amused look, and then lets go of his hand to turn around to get into the car. "Hope you like the back of them, too."

...awful. Awful, awful, awful. Anyway. Get in the car, you guys, there might be lions.