stick around and see how it ends [ OPEN MINGLE ]

[postictal]

Who: Anyone!
What: Catch-all Denny mingle for the month of July
When: Throughout all of July, generally
Where: Denny
Warnings: Label your stuff if it comes up but otherwise nothing comes to mind



[Feel free to use this as a catch-all for whatever your character might conceivably be doing here. Are they loitering outside? Delivering supplies/food, or looking to share information about the city under the water? Helping improve the place because god knows it certainly needs it? Cooking? Socializing? Eating? Just wanting to booze it up? I've heard chatter of live music, so whatever you wanna do here, go for it! There are also some newer additions of rudimentary game boards and decks of cards to pass the time.]

[There are nominal rules but if you don't get caught you don't have to deal with them, so you do you.]

Comments

[fourgasm]

[It might be a question on pretty much everyone who witnessed the whole ordeal's mind. Why would Klaus order a menu item called "In Front Of My Salad," very clearly something vegetable-based, if he was just gonna pick out and eat all the mangoes and radishes and stare at the rest like it had committed a crime against him?

Of course, you could ask why Klaus does anything. You won't get many answers with that line of questioning.

Meanwhile, he's now settled into the task of methodically picking out every single piece of parsley, down to little leaf flecks, out of his bowl and just setting it on the table nearby. There's a good little pile accumulating here, if anyone were interested in relieving him of it.]

[catpiper]

[It's nothing short of a blessing that someone's doing the hard part of food sorting for her. Most of the leftovers had been so good, she almost thought they were coming back for spare pieces of crust or coconut cookie crumbs, but this guy? He's already sifting through whatever he doesn't like, so she doesn't need to think too hard about snacking on this.

So she doesn't.

And she takes a seat at the table, eyeing the parsley tower whose height is starting to rival the temple. She doesn't know if she's had this weird plant before, but when she pops it in her mouth-

It's pretty terrible. It's got a weird taste that makes her face scrunch up, but she powers through because it is edible. It's something to save, so-

Right into her already full of garbage pocket it goes.]

That stuff isn't very good, so you can have this other thing.

[Because she needs to make room anyway, so while she shoves the handfuls of herbs into her pocket, she pulls out a grody half eaten piece of something covered in other somethings to set beside his plate. It might be a cracker? It's definitely hard. And indiscernible.]

[fourgasm]

[Klaus is a little out of it, to the point that he doesn't even notice the little girl taking her seat across from him until her fingers are pinching parsley off the pile. He glances up just in time to see her react to the taste of the herb.

(The bad herb. Not the good one.)]

If you think that's bad, you should try its evil cousin, cilantro.

[He laughs a bit as she stuffs the rest in her pocket. Parsley may not taste like soap to him, but it's just too similar, so she can have it all she wants. It's like his brain wants to fill in the soap flavor every time parsley interacts with him. The worst.

And then she trades him for it. That's nice of her.

...Well, he's eaten a bagel (among other things) out of a dumpster before, so he really can't claim to not be immediately curious what this linty, mystery dust flavored cracker tastes like. So. He'll try it.]

[catpiper]

[That gives her pause because having a cousin implies there's family and she's looking at the bit of parsley between her fingers like it sprouted seven heads.

Was it alive? Is that why he was picking it out? And if there's an evil cousin about, was this the good one?

The line between an existential crises and a moral dilemma is apparently very thin. And short. And she's leaping back and forth between them, as she slowly turns her gaze back down to her pocket. The slight motion from her movements makes her jump because she thought the parsley was shifting, but they don't look alive. And they don't move again. So.

They're probably not alive.

But she waves a hand at the parsley, just in case. No response. No heart. She can't feel a thing and that's so good. She's never felt so relieved.

And for once, someone actually tries the food she offers them, which is just a blessing and enough to take her gaze away from the stupid herb.]

Do you want more of that food? I have another one in my bag-it tastes good too.

[fourgasm]

[It will become a problem very, very quickly if Ren continues taking everything he says completely literally. Klaus just casually watches her inspect her pockets, and he assumes it's maybe to check if it's as bad as he said, maybe? He's not following, he's too busy investigating the flavors in this cracker thing.

There's so many of them. He can't even figure out what it tastes like. It's so many things. It's not, like, bad? It's just inscrutable.

Which means Klaus needs more.]

Hell yeah. I'll take any of those things you can part with.

[And since we're trading, Klaus start sifting through the rest of his veggie abomination to filter out some carrot pieces to flick over to her, too.]

Here, these are good for your eyes.

[Look how good he is at kids. Look at this. Look at me now, Dad.]

[catpiper]

[Her hand sweeps over the table, collecting the carrot pieces and whatever crumbs remain on this counter to fall right into her lap. Excellent. She pops one in her mouth, like she's testing the quality of it before continuing with the trade, but she just likes carrots is the thing.

And she pulls her bag up to the table, setting it sideways so when she opens the top, a whole stream of garbage comes out. He wants more?? Oh, she's got more. How does he feel about shoe fish??

Another weirdly cracker shaped item is passed his way and she pulls some remains of dried something out a pair of shoes that, thankfully, don't look too worn. Nom nom, Klaus. She's so happy right now??? Finally someone who accepts her humble offerings without any lecturing.]

And these are good for your heart.

[fourgasm]

Oh, Jesus hopping Christ.

[Her literally dumping a ton of stored up garbage is not what he was expecting. Shoe fish is exactly what it sounds like. He's never heard of shoe fish, but the moment he sees it, he knows what it is. But the thing it also is, is abominable.

So he'll pass on the shoe fish. We're going all in on garbage crackers.]

That's good, I'm pretty sure my heart's bad right now.

[Like, more the lungs and liver??? But who knows, the heart probably doesn't like all the terrible shit he does half the time to his body either. It's not good in there.]

[catpiper]

I'm Ren-not 'Jesus hopping Christ.'

[But that little, seemingly innocent, tidbit of information makes her pause digging, glancing up from the contents of her stinky bag to look at this man again.

His heart's bad too?

And her expression falters with that sentence. The smile dropping from her face, as she tries to dig out more food, more something. She's got medicine, but if he's lived long enough to be an adult, her medication probably won't help him. It must be a different kind of heart problem.]

Do you have medicine? Does your heart hurt right now?

[fourgasm]

Oh. I'm Klaus.

[It's just kind of an automatic response, mumbled as he looks over the junk she's piled onto the table and is now digging through.

Unfortunately, in the meantime, his stupid remarks have apparently made her worry about him. The thing about joking about how much you suck is that when you meet a child who takes everything you say 100% seriously, that child doesn't just roll their eyes and ignore it like everyone else. Whoops????]

Oh, uh, no, it's fine. It's fine. I haven't gotten it checked or anything. I dunno. I don't need medicine, though. Pretty sure too much medicine is what hurt it in the first place.

[catpiper]

[None of that sounds right. Medicine is there to ease symptoms and pain. The doctors made it clear, during the few times they spoke to her, that you're supposed to take your medicine everyday, be a good child and take it everyday, that it'll make you feel better if you take it everyday, that-

His explanation does little to ease any of her worries-she's got some concerns, buddy. Her heart's an issue too and she knows how to listen for it. Knows when it starts to hurt and itthump, thump, thumps until she can't hear anything else-it means she messed up. She has to remain vigilant and I haven't got it checked means he may not know.

So once her gross trash pile is complete and all her undecipherable hardened food is pushed towards him, she holds up both her hands.]

I can listen to your heart for you-that's something I'm good at. I can tell if it's not feeling good. I know what that kind of thing feels like.