(2019-05-12) Yucky Ranchers
Log Title
Summary: Dakota makes Buddy cry, but Cora is there to clean up the mess.
Date: IC Date (2019-05-12)
Related: None
NPCs: N/A
Scene Runner: N/A
Players:
buddy..dakota..cora..

This is the lobby of the Metis/Promethius residence hall. The walls are nearly 2 meters (6 feet) thick, and that there are no windows wider than 10cm (about 4 inches). For all that, it's cheery and bright inside, lit with high-quality LED lighting. The travertine floor is covered with warm rugs, there's a fireplace with holographic fire when it's on, surrounded by comfortable La-Z-boy overstuffed sofas. At the other end of the room is a hallway leading to the girls' halls, and stairs and an elevator leading to the boys' halls upstairs. There's also a counter, staffed 24x7 and post office boxes. The defensive turrets in the room are carefully hidden, as are the blast doors that can close to protect the residents. There are rumors of defensive turrets, too, but if they're there, they're cunningly hidden. The lobby's cream paint is accented with Metis green and Prometheus yellow trim, and the emblems of both teams are prominently emblazoned on the wall.

It is a spring evening. The weather is warm and sunny.

With the school year growing to a close, a Sunday night is an odd affair in the dorms. Students who left for the weekend are returning to get ready for classes while others are studying dutifully. Buddy hops down the stairs even though he is in human form. With his hopping, he takes about three steps at a time. Thankfully, he has good balance from his animal nature. Once he gets down the stairs, he places his arms behind his back and slowly starts to walk around the room carefully looking at all the furniture. He pauses looking at one sofa and makes several odd 'thoughtful' faces. Finally, he shakes his head and moves over to look at a recliner.

In the 'studying dutifully' camp, Dakota sits cross-legged on a warm rug. Before him is a table with a bunch of papers scattered on it and an unwrapped box. The Metis is dressed down, his dorm being just upstairs, in shorts and a loose tee shirt. "Hey Buddy," He notes absently, going over schoolwork as the boy begins to…look around. Then, "Hey, my birthday gift just came in! You know, I thought Adaku might have forgot, but the package was just a little late."

"Um…what are you doing?"

Cora… is not one of those who got to leave. Given she really has no where else to go and this is basically her phone! So here she is, walking out towards outside. But hey, for once the girl who's always worn uniforms even after hours is not wearing a uniform! Since Spring Break she's actually had a few outfits. Then again, it does make her look a bit darker or something. She's got a physical book she's carrying too. But then she stops, and notices all the others present. Blinking, then offering a shy sort of wave.

Buddy spins on his heels to look at Dakota when he speaks to him. "Birthday gift? That is great. Congratulations." He nearly skips over towards him and says, "What is it? and what is an Addiku? Is that one of the Pokymen?" When asked what he is doing, Buddy makes a 'Hmmm?' face. "Oh, that? I figured out what was wrong with my ex-peppermint. I had it all wrong. It is supposed to be an ex-spearment. Buddy got the wrong flavor!" He shakes his head with a silly smile. Looking over at Cora as she enters, he waves back. He hasn't seen her since she went shopping so he says, "Hey, you aren't in your uniform. Yay!" Of course, he is almost always in uniform or in animal forms.

"She got me headphones," And Dakota pulls out from the box a golden pair with the Beats logo. "And sneakers. It's silly that I thought she would just forget, but a lot of people do." He chuckles lightly, eyes narrowing, "Adaku is my adoptive mother, dude, not a Pokemon. There's a bunch of candy in there if you want some." He tilts his head. "It's not about flavors, Buddy…the word you're looking for is 'experiment'. And what does that have to do with the sofa you were just gawking at?" He glances at Cora and nods. "Hey, I'm Dakota."

"Cora." Comes the response from the rather shy, gothy or emo looking girl. Her voice pretty shy and soft sounding, or even weak to be honest. A look then cast over towards Buddy, then the candy, then back to Dakota with a weird expression to accompany it. It remains for a moment before back to Buddy she says, "Yeah, Kaylee's parents are like, super, super nice."

"Headphones? Aren't all phones for your head?" Buddy asked not quite understanding the difference. "Ex..peri-mant? ment? So it isn't an ex-spearment? Oh, maybe that makes a difference too. Buddy figured he got everything wrong and needs to start over." He looks over at Cora and says, "Buddy is doing an ex-sp..pari-menty about Break." He says the word 'break' as though it has some special significance. "Candy?" He reaches over and grabs one of the Jolly Ranchers and tosses it into his mouth without removing the plastic wrapper. With it in his mouth, he says, "Cowa, you have wolfy swirt."

"Oh my god, Buddy, you were definitely supposed to unwrap that first," Dakota rolls his eyes and stands, taking his headphones and frowns concerned. "An experiment about breaking stuff? Is that why you ran into the wall yesterday? Don't do that again, by the way. You could get really hurt." That said, he puts the headphones over Buddy's ears, lifting one so Buddy can still hear him. "You can play music in them. See watch." The deep voice of Leonard Cohen can be heard at a soft volume. He glances at Cora and smirks. "Kaylee's pretty okay, too."

Cora covers her mouth and sort of giggles a bit, sort of. Before she says "It's a band name, Buddy. One of my favorites." She watches the headphones being shown to Buddy, biting her lip in a pensive sort of way as she does before nodding to Dakota. "Yeah, she really is. And her whole family's just as super nice." She adds. before looking back to Budy to watch his reaction to the music.

Buddy makes an 'oh' face. Thankfully he isn't easily (if ever) embarrassed. He takes the plastic out of his mouth and unwraps the candy. "Maybe that is it tasted - wow. A band full of wolfies? That is great. Buddy could become a wolfy and join them." He grins. He then nods at their assessment. "Kaylee is pretty though she likes to scold Buddy a lot." He goes to put the candy (now unwrapped) in his mouth when he is asked about the experiment. "Break doesn't make sense. When Buddy breaks stuff, people get mad. When other people break stuff, people gets happy. Buddy is confused." He finally gets to put the candy into his mouth, and the instant look on his face is one of regret. It is as though just placed something nasty in his mouth. His tongue comes out with the candy on it. His face has the look of a dog trying not to vomit. Finally, with some extra saliva, the candy plops onto his hand. He starts trying to wipe his tongue with his other hand.

Dakota bursts out in laughter, "Groossssss. I guess you're not a fan of Jolly Ranchers. Yuck, Buddy. You better wash your hands," And while the boy is struggling not to vomit, Dak will remove the headphones from his ears. "It all depends on what you're breaking. A good rule: just don't break anything." He shakes his head. "She's pretty too, but I don't think that's what Cora or I was getting at."

Cora shakes her head. "They're not really wolves, Buddy." She tries to explain patiently. Even if she is a bit amused. "Just like The Beatles weren't really, well, beatles. They're names. In the same way Buddy is. Buddy means something too, a word for friend." She explains. Then she looks again over to Dakota, and back to Buddy as she nods. "Exactly. We were saying Kaylee is a nice person. And yes, she scolds you. But for the same reason the Teachers and the Headmaster do. Not because she's mean. She's trying to help you become a better person."

Buddy looks around for a place to deposit the Jolly Rancher. "I thought candy was delicioush." Spotting a trashcan, he heads over and drops the candy in there and then looks to Dakota. "When Buddy breaks stuff, everyone gets angry at Buddy. They act like Buddy is a bad Buddy. But" he adds dramatically. "When people break Spring, which sounds really really bad, the school doesn't have classes and everyone is happy. That doesn't make sense. How do you break Spring? And why are people happy?" Buddy wipes the extra saliva off on his pants and looks a bit surprised at Cora. "They aren't really Beatles?" He sighs. "Awww. Buddy is a Buddy."

Narrowing his eyes, Dakota considers how to explain this. "It's like…words can have multiple meanings, okay? Break can mean to destroy or hurt something, but it can also mean to rest and relax or stop. So spring break means taking a week off to relax during the spring. It's like when people say 'take a break'. They aren't destroying anything." He sighs and slings an arm loosely over Buddy's shoulders. "Oh, Buddy, what are we going to do with you? If you don't like Jolly Ranchers, she also got me Reese's. If you don't like those, sorry, we can't be friends."

Cora gets a weird sort of look on her face, again, at Dakota's talk of not being friends with Buddy if he doesn't like something. She even looks over towards him for a moment, like trying to shake her head to say no. Either way. She takes a deep breath then before nodding to Buddy. "That, exactly that. Buddy. Words can and usually do have more than one meaning. Names often have far more. It's yet another reason you need to stop running into being an animal and learn to be Human." She pauses a beat. "And no, it isn't easy. ALL of us are learning that. Me included. My parents pretty much kept me isolated from anyone else, the only other kid I saw most of my life was my Brother, and he was… really really mean. He hurt me a lot. So I'm learning too. Everyone here is. Dr. Calvin says School is about learning to be a human more than anything else."

Buddy was just trying to process the whole thing about words having more than one meaning. "They can? Oh, that's not fair." He sighs and was just about to talk more about breaking things when Dakota mentions Reese's. Buddy's facial expression becomes one of increasing fear and sadness. "But, but … " His breath starts to quicken and his eyes begin to water. "We, we can't?" Big puppy dog eyes appear. "I can … try." He is just on the edge of crying.

Just as the words come out of his mouth and Cora gives him a 'look', Dakota realizes his faux pas. "Shit," He murmurs, when he notices Buddy's falling expression. "No, Buddy, I did not mean that. I was just kidding. We can always be friends," And he slings his other arm around Buddy in an awkward side hug. "Always. They are really good, though. Do you like peanut butter?" He tries to soothe the shorter boy before he starts actually crying but nods at what Cora says. "The world is super complicated. Maybe staying in your human form would do you some good, help you figure it all out."

"That's what you have to do." Cora says, agreeing it seems. With both bits. "And yes, you have to. If you don't, you're just going to run away from things again. Because you can. It's your security, something almost none of us even can do, retreat into something else entirely. Most of us are. I'm always me. Even when I'm said and just want to hide in a corner and cry and turn off every light to be alone with music or books."

Buddy wipes his eyes with the back of his hands. "I, I don't know," he answers with regard to the question of peanut butter. He is straight up sniffling now. "I, I am in my human form more, but the others are just as much me as the others. Why does everyone not want me to use my gifts, my powers? Buddy is just being Buddy."

Dakota rubs circles on the boy's back, the way his adoptive mother did when she first took him in and panic attacks were a frequent occurrence. "I just want to help you, Buddy. I can keep trying to explain things to you, but I get the feeling that if you could really make progress if you embraced your human side a bit more."

"It's true." Cora says, "Even as a human you… you aren't human. You sink entirely into your animals. But you never sink into human, you're always more… more animal than human." Cora notes with a very real sort of seriousness about her. "You never treat being human like you do an animal, because you always want to be an animal, never a human."

"It's true." Cora says, "Even as a human you… you aren't human. You sink entirely into your animals. But you never sink into human, you're always more… more animal than human." Cora notes with a very real sort of seriousness about her. "You never treat being human like you do an animal, because you always want to be an animal, never a human."

Buddy at least stops sniffling and actually listens to them both. The boy is still, well at least for him. His feet are bouncing but just a bit. "You think so?" he asks Cora. "When, when I'm a doggy I'm all doggy and Buddy at the same time. When I'm a person, I thought I was a people and a Buddy at the same time. I try to be a peoples. I really do. It's just so hard. I don't know which peoples to be."

When Buddy looks like he's calmed down a bit, Dakota releases him and takes a step back, a red coloring on his cheeks. Probably from his dumb comment. "It isn't your fault, Buddy. I know that bad people put you in this situation. I wish I knew better how to help you, but I think Cora is right." He frowns. "I'm really sorry for almost making you cry."

"Then it's because you're trying to be someone that's not you." Cora says, obviously frustrated. Hey, she's 15. This isn't exactly easy for her! In fact, she's frustrated, even as she's nice enough she still has to try. "You need to learn who YOU are. Not try to be someone else! Because you're YOU. Not anyone else. You're not A people. You're a Buddy. Just like I'm a Cora, and he's a Dakota, and Kaylee's a Kaylee, and Besa's a Besa, and Bronwyn's… Well, don't be like Bronwyn." She pauses for a few moments, "But that's the point, we're all different! Besa's some sort of magical Mummy or something and he's like, Immortal. Which is awesome and really, really sad all at once. I'm… I don't even know who I am yet, being here has been the hardest, most terrifying, most wonderful thing ever for me. But I still don't." There's a pause there too, and she adds, "You're not the only person who's had bad things happen to you. You're not even the only person here. You're just the only one who can run from it by being something else, an that's hurt you."

Buddy's forehead furrows as he listens to all of that. "I, Buddy has to go and think. That confuses Buddy." He reaches up and rubs his head. "You tell me to be me, but when I'm me, people get angry at Buddy and scold me. Some call me a bad Buddy. How do I be me, when I don't remember me? And when I try to be me, peoples tell me I'm the wrong me?" He squints and rubs his head again. "Buddy is so confused." He then notices the pile of candy and says, "Except for one thing. No Yucky Ranchers for me." He shivers and starts to walk off.

(feel free to tag the log with character names of those involved!)

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