| Getting the Dirt from the Dirty |
| Summary: | Nina and Marcus hang out, get acquainted. |
| Date: | 2021.04.01 |
| Related: | None |
| NPCs: | {$npc} |
| Scene Runner: | {$runner} |
| Players: |
 .. .. |
Location
Patio
The patio is all cobblestone as well with a waist high, elegant wrought iron fence all the way around it, and gates to each path, each with a brass plaque labeling where it goes. The patio has teak wood tables and chairs for eating, homework, and parking coffee on. There are also benches along the fence, and like the chairs, they have burgundy velvet cushions, and are quite comfortable to all but the most sensitive behinds.
Scene
Well, it's not raining. At least there's that. But it hasn't stopped Marcus from getting himself fairly covered in dirt as he makes his way back towards the patio. At least this time, it's only dirt, not mud. He's got his adventure backpack slung over one shoulder and has a few scratches on his arms as well as a fresh rip in the left shin of his sweatpants. He's wearing plain gray ones, as well as an Ares t-shirt that is now sorely in need of washing. His hair is cornrowed once again.
Nina cocks her head and laughs at the boy coming out of the field. "Your mother is going to scold you," she says in the soft Romanian accent she still retains. "Or your team leader. Someone is going to scold you for getting so dirty." She does study him though, as though fascinated with his skin color, his hair, his face shape. She's already learned not to say anything about that though.
"Pro'ly," Marcus agrees with a shrug. "My moms'll be more mad cuz I tore a hole, though. The dirt'll wash out. I'll have to patch the hole." Marcus wasn't paying /too/ much attention before, but now that Nina's spoken to him, he looks in her direction and then blinks a few times. "Do I know you? … you're on Ares …," he says, his eyes narrowing as he tries to draw a name out of the nether reaches of his brain. Nothing's coming, though.
Huh? (Type "help" for help.)
Nina rises to her feet with more grace than she really expected, and finds herself looking down at Marcus, at least a little. "My name is Nina. I'm new. What's your name?" Those cornrows fascinate her. "Does it hurt to do your hair like that?"
"Oh! Sweet! Welcome," Marcus says, approaching the rest of the way and holding his fist out for knucks. "Marcus. Nice ta meet ya. And it depends on who's doing it and if they just puttin' in rows, or if they doin' zags or anything fancy. I'm not that tender headed, though, so it don't usually bother me too much. Plus, grew up with my moms doin' it all the time, so you get used to it," he explains. He nods towards her arms, then. "How'd you get all tatted up? They don't let kids in tattoo places, I thought?"
Nina listens and nods slowly. She starts at the fist and raises both her own reflexively, expecting a fight now, even though she can't fathom why. Then he keeps talking like nothing unusual is going on, and she rummages through her brain. TV comes to the rescue, and she raises her right fist to bump his lightly, experimentally. "Like that?" she asks. She looks down at her arms a moment. "That's a long, complicated story." She shrugs. "So… can you do your own hair like that, or does someone else have to do it?"
Marcus looks a little amused when Nina's first reaction is to go into defensive posture. He just waits patiently for her to figure out he's not threatening her, then nods when she knucks him up. "Fistbump. Also called knucks or knuckles. There's variations, but that's the basic way, yeah." When Nina doesn't go into any sort of explanation on the tattoos, Marcus shrugs his shoulders again and lets it drop. "I did it, this time. That's why it's pretty loose and not entirely straight. I been practicing, but it's real hard to braid your own hair. Still, better than picking out my 'fro and worrying about getting a bunch of stuff in my hair while I'm investiating."
Nina nods. She relaxes rather slowly from the defensive posture and looks down at her fists as they lower. She seems withdrawn a moment, mouth moving a few syllables without making any sound. "Sorry. I'm a little… twitchy, I guess you'd say." She runs her fingers through her hair, as though still startled to find it so short. "Fistbump. Knucks. Got it. What is this called?" she gestures toward his hair. "And what is a 'fro? And what are you investigating?"
"It's all good. Never know what new folks is comin' with, so take your time, settle in. You safe here. Most of us is good peoples, and those that ain't at least prefer to keep to themselves," Marcus says, grinning. "This? These are cornrows. And an afro is what I get when my hair ain't tied down. And I investigate pretty much anything and everything. Today I was actually just cleaning up some of the other experiments I had going that didn't work out. Wanted to put e'rything back the way I found it."
Nina listens and nods. "Good. Everyone I've met so far has been kind. Including you." She looks out in the direction Marcus came from. "What were you cleaning up in the mud? Can I see?"
Marcus just beems when she says he's been kind, proud of himself for being the welcoming sort! But then she's asking if she can see and he blinks, surprised. "Well … I just cleaned stuff up, so there's nothing to see now," he says, grimacing a little. "I'd just set some booby traps in the field and in the forest to see if they were sending secret patrols out to make sure we weren't out doing anything at night, and nothing ever happened, so." He adjusts the well-worn backpack on his shoulder. "Just trying to make sure nobody else gets hurt and stuff can go back to normal."
Nina folds her arms across her chest loosely. "Hurt? Who got hurt? And how are things not normal? What happened?"
"What? No, noooononono. Nobody got hurt. I just wanted to make sure nobody /did/ get hurt. I set up the booby traps in case they were using robots or something else in the trees or in the fields to scout, and I put them in places kids normally wouldn't go. I just wanted to make sure that, on the off chance somebody /did/, they wouldn't get caught in anything. That's all," Marcus explains, smiling again.
Nina rubs her forehead. "No, I mean… Who are they? The ones using robots or… what-ever in the trees or the fields? The teachers?" She gestures at the school building.
"Ohhhhh," Marcus intones, nodding. Then, he shrugs. "I dunno, never found 'nothing."
Nina clutches at her forehead as though it's starting to become painful. She pushes her hair back from an interesting scar just above her eyebrow. "No I mean… why do you think someone is using robots?
Marcus blinks at Nina's apparent distress at his investigation and starts to look apprehensive. "… because they could be?" he offers. "I mean, they use robots to go into the vault in the library where they never let us go. I just thought maybe they were using them oustide of the library, too." And then, realizing that he's still using 'they,' he quickly adds, "The administration! The folks who run the school."
You say, "Ohhh! Okay." She shakes her head. "I thought I was having one of those 'why don't boys make sense?' moments. I used to get them a lot. We would go skipping stones in a fountain, or throwing rocks at pidgeons, or stealing candy and everything was fine, and then… the older girls changed… and stopped making sense at all…then the boys started to change…" she gestures in the air, suggesting people grew taller in this process. "…and all I wanted was to keep throwing rocks at the pidgeons and stealing candy. That was a long time ago, though. A very, very long time ago.""
Marcus frowns a little. "Why would you throw rocks at pidgeons? What'd they ever do to anybody?" Because that's the important thing to take out of Nina's explanation.
You say, "Because it's fun! You throw a rock and they go Coo Coo! and the whole flock of them explodes into feathers and flapping and all the grownups cover their faces and check their hats to see if they got shat on."
Marcus makes a face and shakes his head, dubious. "Yeah, but what if you hit a pidgeon and hurt it?"
Nina looks at Marcus like he's grown another head. "So what? It's a pidgeon, not a person. In English you call them… rats with wings?"
"That's just mean!" Marcus exclaims, shaking his head. "I mean, yeah, they're rats with wings, but still! You shouldn't /hurt/ them. They're /alive/. You shouldn't hurt living things."
Nina tilts her head down and looks at Marcus from under her eyebrows. "You eat meat, right?"
Marcus rolls his eyes. "Okay, you shouldn't hurt living things for no good reason. Everything's gotta eat to live. Don't give you no right to go around boppin' field mice on the head."
Nina goes quiet, lost in thought. "Life is cheap for bugs," she says finally, much more quietly. "And fish… and cats… and pigeons…" She takes a slow breath. "I think only we humans treat it as sacred that way. I didn't think about it like that back then. How could I have? I didn't understand that it ends so abruptly." She grinds to a halt again and sings, haltingly, "Little rabbit fru fru…walking through the forest…pickin' up the field mice and boppin' 'em on the head." She laughs. "That's what you were talking about right?
Nina adds, "Beverly Cleary. Runaway Ralph."
Marcus looks a little concerned as Nina talks about life being cheap. But, then she sings the bunny fufu song and he smiles again. "We called him fufu, but yeah." And then, he holds one hand up and totters it from side to side. "I dunno about bugs. Some of them can sho' nuff take a hike for all I care. I kill flies and mosquitos with maximum prejudice. And spiders that get in where they ain't s'posed to be or jump out at you from nowhere? They can get it, too. But, out in nature, I typically won't go after them. And there are some pretty cool bugs out there, too, like walking sticks and praying mantises and stuff."
Nina nods slowly. "And you investigate them. These… praying mantises and walking sticks and such?"
"Well, I mean, when I was little I did. And my mom got me a couple books on bugs growing up. But … they're bugs. There's not a bunch to find out," Marcus says, shrugging.
Nina nods. "And now it's robots and traps." Nina nods. "I want to go with you, next time you're investigating something. I don't care what it is. I want to learn new things. I know more about fish than I ever wanted to know, and now that I'm back… here… I want to see the world."
"Well, and dinosaurs, but I haven't gotten to go back there since the last time when Sebastian got us hurt," Marcus says, making a face. But, he smiles and nods. "But everybody's welcome on investigations, as long as they don't ruin them." He then cants his head to the side and considers. "Earlier, it looked like maybe your head was hurting or something from when I was talking about people maybe spying on us. Do you get headaches and stuff you can't explain?"
Nina shakes her head. "No, when I get headaches, it's almost always because I'm talking to a boy." She rubs subconsciously at the scar on her forehead. "Like… why is this so hard?"
"… oh!" That surprises Marcus. He blinks, then starts stroking his chin thoughtfully. "That's interesting. Does it matter what you're talking about?"
Nina shakes her head. "Not really, no. You're only confusing me part of the time, which is good." She looks away. "It's probably a growing up thing. I'd ask my mother but she's long gone. Long, long gone."
"What about if I talk about sports? Oh wait! Robots? Does it confuse you if I start talking about robots?" Marcus asks. … is he … investiating Nina?
You say, "Boy things. I don't know anything about sports. Robots… I like robots. Things that move on their own, things that see and hear and can make decisions… Oh I like robots just fine. Well. The ones I've seen, anyway. Even cars are robots now. You just tell them where to go, and they do it. They could drive themselves if they were a little smarter.""
"… um … some of them /do/ drive theyselves. There's one's that can even parallel park on their own," Marcus points out.
You say, "Really? You have to show me one of those! We could have so much fun with a car like that and it wouldn't be hurting something living!""
… "… whaaaat?" Marcus asks, very, /very/ confused and more than a little suspicious of Nina's suggestion. "Why do I worry that you're excited we wouldn't be hurting a living thing if it's a /smart/ car?"
You say, "It's a car. It's a thing. We'll put it back when we're done with it, and we'll try not to break it. Come on, it'll be fun."
"… ummmmm, few problems with that," Marcus says. He then proceeds to count off the problems on his fingers. "We're on an island that doesn't have any cars and I doubt we'd find any in Shady Cove. If we did find them, I don't think the owners would let a couple of teenagers drive them. Even if they /were/ willing to let us drive, /I/ sure don't have my license. Do you?"
Nina pffs. "License. Who needs a license when the car can drive itself? And like I said, we'll put it back when we're done. Why even tell them?"
More fingers are counted, this time on the other hand. "We do. Because taking it without their permission would be stealing, which /happens/ to be pretty illeal." Marcus shakes his head a little. "Maybe you should ask Sebastian to go with you," he adds, most unhelpfully. "I don't usually do things that I /know/ are gonna get me in trouble. Speaking of, I should head back, cuz I'm gonna need to take my braids out so I can shampoo and stuff. But it was nice to meet you, Nina."
You say, "I don't think Sebastian likes me. He got all huffy over a girl last time I saw him." She scratches her head. "Maybe he thought I'm a boy." Nina sighs and waves. "Take care, Marcus."
"… well … Sebastian doesn't really like anybody. I think he tolerates Keyson cuz she's pretty much in love with him and refuses to see what a stupid jerk he is," Marcus says, shrugging his shoulders again. "But I don't think it mattered much if you're a boy or a girl. Reese doesn't wanna be either, and Sebastian doesn't like him much, either. Night!"
Nina rubs her forehead again. "That gives me a headache just thinking about it."