6 ♐ Life happens

[aim_exorable]

Who: Expatriate Darkleer and Vriska Sekret
Where: The Nostalgia Nook Quarter
When: Afternoon/Evening, after Darkleer talks with Mindfang and after this thread
Style: Action?
Status: closed

[The white patch beneath his eye feels too noticeable, and Darkleer knows for a fact that it looks too noticeable against the dark gray of his skin and beneath the blackness of his glasses- yet another cheap pair.]

[But he does his best to ignore it and simply waits near the entrance of the Nostalgia Quarter, waiting for a certain young cerulean-blooded troll to find her way there.]

Comments

[aim_exorable]

[Awkward silences make up Darkleer's life, so, really, it's just another period of no-talking for him.]

Because dealing with Mindfang is enough to drive any sane troll to drink at best. I believe we both deserve some peace and quiet with another who knows how it feels to deal with her.

[Pausing as a small little corner shop with Alternian writing on its front, Darkleer holds open the door.]

Besides. You remind me of someone I once knew.

[f8tal]

You've known her for a long time. [It isn't a question. She remembers the stories Mindfang wrote in her journal, a few of them mentioning Darkleer.

She walks in carefully and takes a moment to look around. She waits until Darkleer makes the next move before doing anything herself.]

I do? Who?

[aim_exorable]

Yes.

[What Darkleer is going to do is find a table off in a corner, away from the door and situated so that they aren't eavesdropped on. Old habits die hard. It is also a booth, although he would have pulled her seat out for her out of politeness' sake.]

A girl I knew from my childhood.

[f8tal]

[She follows after and takes a seat across him. Even sitting down like this she feels incredibly small compared to him.

Instantly she reaches over for a sugar packet to satiate her fidgeting hands.] And what was she like?

[aim_exorable]

I suppose, in one word, difficult. Complicated is another.

[Darkleer doesn't fidget. All of Darkleer's movements are the opposite, composed and careful as he reaches over to browse through the menu.]

And for a very long time, she was simply mysterious. I didn't even know her name.

[f8tal]

[She can't keep still even if her life depended on it. A good showcase of her anxiety. It was one of her many flaws.]

How long did you know her?

[aim_exorable]

[The coffee is probably not going to help that.]

Hmm... We met when we couldn't have been more than... younger than you and the others, certainly. Four, at best. Maybe even three. Then, after seven sweeps, she left.

[He pushes the menu towards her.]

What do you want?

[f8tal]

[It most certainly will not.]

Where did she go?

[She looks at the menu, unsure of what to pick. So she just picks what looks like a very sugary and caffeinated beverage, pointing to it.] This one!

[aim_exorable]

Very well.

[After gesturing for a server and getting their orders placed in, Darkleer returns to the conversation at hand as he tucks the menu away.]

She went off on her own. I was seven when I joined the Archeradicators, and... she never quite approved of that. So she left before I could.

Hurt others before they hurt you, I believe is the reasoning.

[f8tal]

... [She is quiet for a moment, lips drawn tightly together and eyebrows creased. Her nails have already destroyed the poor sugar packet by this point.]

It makes sense.

[aim_exorable]

As I said.

[Reaching over, he slowly slides away the torn wreckage that used to be a sugar packet from her.]

You remind me of her.

[f8tal]

[With nothing left to destroy she set to idly scratching the wood of the table under her nails.]

I'm going to take a stab in the dark here and guess this girl was Mindfang.

[aim_exorable]

Correct.

[...This seems like a moment to intervene with the slow destruction of the table by sliding another sugar packet towards her.]

At least you do not have a habit of breaking into my hive at bizarre hours of the evening to demand breakfast. That is pleasant.

[f8tal]

[Ah good, more things for her to shred.]

You must be pretty good at cooking for her to even bother forcing you to make her breakfast!

[aim_exorable]

[Darkleer is utterly deadpan.]

I knew how to make waffles and pancakes and nothing else. I think she just liked the challenge of breaking into my hive.

[f8tal]

That's more than what Zahhak can make. He's a shitty cook.

[aim_exorable]

[Maybe a faint smile that's gone as soon as it appears.]

I've noticed.

I usually find it better to cook for myself. Not only is it a useful skill for a highblood to have, but there are few trolls which share my particular diet.

[f8tal]

What kind of diet is that? [She stops in her destruction to lean back against the booth, arms folded across her stomach loosely.]

[aim_exorable]

No meat.

[And that sounds simple enough until one realizes just how much meat they normally devour in a day.]

[f8tal]

[You've earned yourself a stare, Darkleer.] What? Why wouldn't you eat meat?

[aim_exorable]

[He gets that response all the time. He's desensitized to it.]

I've found myself preferring animals over people a great many times, along with a few other reasons.

[f8tal]

And what are those reasons? [Nosy nosy.]

[aim_exorable]

Animals aren't quite as complex as trolls can be, for one thing.

[f8tal]

You must get along with Pupa then, huh?

[aim_exorable]

Pupa?

[Blink. Eyebrow raise.]

[f8tal]

Tavros! [Ah nicknames...]

[aim_exorable]

Ah.

We get on decently, I suppose. [He did make him a mechanical Tinkerbull, after all.]