(no subject)
A few moments stolen out in the sunlight: Ellen has a book tucked under her arm and a water bottle braced against her hip. Her direction is vaguely forestwards, although her pace is unusually slow, and she is spending an inordinate amount of time looking up. There are fluffy cloud formations. Indeed, the sky is summery and picturesque.
Picturesque if you consider a small green man shouting obscenities at a computer motherboard looking as such. He's currently perched in a tree on the outskirts of the yard, legs dangling down down as his screw driver attempts to mess with the numerous knobs and metal contraptions on the green slate of tech. He suddenly catches sight of Ellen and puts the tech bits aside, grabbing the branch and letting himself fall back to hang upside down and peer at her.
Shouted obscenities do have a way of directing attention. Ellen blinks repeatedly, refocusing upon Toad, who is upside-down. She smiles and bends to the side, getting as near as she can to upside-down while standing up. She says, "Hello."
It's taken a steady while in coming, long and thoughtful moments passing before Sarah left the bunk assigned to her. Booted steps are hesitant in such a broad, non-confined area, and the motion of the door swinging outwards into the outdoors is slow. She is clean - both of blood and grease and of daggers of elbows and back - and she pokes her maroon-and-sandy haired head outside. The sun. Briefly she turns her face upwards, towards the warm light, before further steps are made and the door closes behind her.
Toad tries to lean back as she gets closer, his face twisting into a frown as his hands scramble for a better grip on this new angle. "Allo. Feelin' better, are we?" He asks with a loud gulp and cautious look away only to spy yet another women? "Bloody 'ell. Turtle was right, you gels are everywhere." He comments without bothering to lower his voice, a bulbous index finger pointing towards Sarah.
"It is good to be home," Ellen says. She straightens up and fluffs out her hair, which is a loose and shining fall of /clean/ blonde, with a flicked motion of her hands. Which she then clasps behind her back: habitual, Ellenish straight-backed position. She follows Toad's pointing finger with a slight lift of fine eyebrows, and smiles again in greeting.
Jade eyes blink in an otherwise blank and placid countenance before narrowing in a contemplative fashion towards the finger and its respective owner. A fiddle is made to an unfamiliar, loose shirt - men's, judging by the lack of form, the girth of fabric - before Sarah takes a step forward. "Everywhere?" she wonders blandly, belying tone of voice with a smile for Ellen.
"I'd 'ave to agree," Toad mumbles as he lets his head hang down to study the ground. He drops suddenly, flipping before landing to slap down on hands and feet facing them. His eyes slide from Ellen to Sarah and back, the nervous twitch in his lips starting up. "Er, yeah. Every-blinkin'-where." Toad is quick to say as he straightens himself up, arms flapping up around his head to illustrate his point.
"We're not women," Ellen tells Toad kindly, canting her head slightly to one side. Her eyes are warm and pale blue in the sunlight. "We're your brethren."
Sarah is performing the same dance with her eyes as Toad is doing - one to the other, then back again. To Ellen: "Well, uuh, women in addition to brethren." To Toad: "Not like it really matters." There's a shift of yet-to-be-packed dirt underfoot before, "So. Food?"
Toad lets his eyes roam down Ellen and back up with a smirk. "Could'ah fooled me." He says with a shuffled shrug. The yellow gaze meets Sarah's as he tries to weigh her words. Toad leans back against the tree, glancing to the side as he reaches a plucks a large red ant from the bark and pops it in his mouth. "Plenty more where that came from."
Ellen tries again: "We are hardly an invasion, Toad." She tips a glance Sarah's way and gives her a little nod. "We just -- are female. Which is of little enough importance, unless you happen to be, ah," she rests a hand over the waistline of her trousers, fingers dipping over the fasteners, while the corners of her mouth twitch into something like a smirk, "--courting." Then she looks back at Sarah again, opening towards her with a shift of her feet. "The kitchen is in there." She points. "Should I show you?"
"Huh." Sarah seems to be a fine mixture of amused and somewhat perplexed with Toad's choice of food, though the slight grin abruptly fades. "He's...kidding, right?" Expression has turned quite stark and pleading, and relief only comes when Ellen gestures towards the building which houses the kitchen. "Good, long as it ain't moving. Nah, thanks, I can find-- Oh, well, is anything off-limits?"
Toad's brows shoot up nearly into his hairline. The man starts to make little wheezing coughs and choking noises at the very suggestion. "Blimey!" Toad breaths, kneading a fist into his chest to clear himself. "Courtin'! O'all th' bloomin' ideas--" he mutters to himself, eyes locked down on the ground. Toad seems a little too preoccupied with calming himself to pay much attention to Sarah.
Ellen eyes Toad for a moment. "I think I should be insulted," she says. Chewing on her lip to fight a smile, she cants her head back to Sarah again. "Mmm. Don't eat it if it's labeled? The carrots are mostly Sergei's, but he generally shares? Oh." She lifts a finger in admonition. "If there's strawberry ice cream, it's Mystique's."
Sarah glances at Toad once more with all his blustering and shifts, pointing herself towards kitchen area. "Carrots. Right," she accepts with a nod, though the motion pauses with the mentioning of the ice cream or, rather, who it belongs to. A hesitant smile of disbelief creeps across her features before she releases a few chuckle. "Can't believe this," she murmurs as lean fingers reach up to scratch the back of her head.
Toad turns a watery, just-done-almost-choking-to-death look at Ellen. He mumbles something unintelligible and slides up against the tree once more. "I need a drink." Toad decides to himself and turns, gripping his hands and toes into the bark and shimming back up to his branch.
Ellen flashes a bright grin to answer Sarah, leaving Toad to his attempt to salvage whatever, er, dignity he might have. Or something. "It is a bit much at first, isn't it?" she says. "Welcome to the Brotherhood of Mutants."
"You can say that again, Ellen." Another breathy sort of chuckle slips from her lips before Sarah shows a half-smile - only one side twisting upwards. "Thanks." Posture shifts with movement and a moment later the lanky woman is at the door to the other building, door opening and heading inside.
Toad shelters himself in the tree, grabbing his work from before and pretending that the conversation he just had never existed. His thumb presses lightly against the healed over gashes in his skin and he tries to submerge himself back into his work without another word to the women below.
Ellen follows Sarah's departure with her eyes. Then she glances up at Toad through the branches. "Hmm," she says. Then she shrugs and starts off for the trees.