Audience: Sheila Hammond

[probe]

Comments

[toesies]

[PRIDE, YOUR BACK...

Sheila will start prepping the coffee, only to pause halfway as she takes out A Single Cup.]

Do you take your coffee with cream? And if so, do you like it salty?

[probe]

Salty? [they sound vaguely baffled.]

A little cream is fine.

[toesies]

Yeah... My roommate pissed me off so I poured salt in his creamer, and I'm not sure if he fixed that. [Gently. Rattles whatever container the creamer is in.] Is a little cream still fine?

[probe]

[... oh no, they laugh at that. it's a very quiet, very huffy sort of sound, but it's a laugh!]

I'll pass. Plain is fine.

[toesies]

Plain, it is.

[This is the first emotion Pride has displayed that isn't "..." so she will take this as a win? Once the coffee is served, though, she sets it on the table in front of them along with whatever sugar is in Luca's stash. Sorry but not sorry, Luca.]

[probe]

[they pick it up to hold, but don't drink.

and just stare at her. poor sheila has to direct the conversation, it looks like.]

[toesies]

[yeah

she stares back

and after a beat:]

... Oh. So, this is what we're doing. [pride, please.] Sitting here. In silence. Neither one drinking.

[sheila, you do not have a cup.]

[probe]

You did not make yourself a drink.

But yes. That is what we're doing. [they're totally fine with silence.]

[toesies]

Well, stuffing pieces of people into a blender so I can drink them in front of a guest just seemed like terrible etiquette. [vrrrrrr...] You must great at negotiations.

[probe]

[stop making them laugh sheila wtf]

If I minded, I would have said. [...] You could say I'm fantastic at negotiations. Yes.

[toesies]

[No, she has to figure out how to do it on purpose now.]

Could?

[probe]

Should.

[they take a sip of coffee finally.]

[toesies]

[She clicks her tongue.]

Now it's should? Come on, tell me about your resume.

[probe]

Ever played ten fingers?

[toesies]

I don't think so. Why?

[probe]

It's a game, of sorts.

You place your hands out palm down on the table. I ask you ten questions. For every answer I don't like, I take a finger.

[... that's their resume, ig.]

[toesies]

Whoa!

[LEANING BACK A LITTLE.]

So you have work experience with the mafia. Got it! [Pride???] What's next? The floor is lava but you need to swim out of a pool filled with concrete?

[probe]

I'm not sure what concrete is.

[hm]

[toesies]

... Ohh...

[Slowly.]

Question. Do you, or do you not know, what a waffle is?

[probe]

I know what a waffle is.

[they say, flatly. this does not mean they necessarily have always known what a waffle is, though.]

[toesies]

But concrete is older than waffles?

[probe]

I've had waffles here. [:unamused:]

[toesies]

And not before. [:thinking:] There are so many people like that here, huh.

[probe]

Mm.

[another sip.]

People have told me I'm from "pre-modern" times.

[toesies]

Makes sense. Waffles and concrete are modern, after all. [...] Modern-ish.

[She says, like concrete isn't 3000 years old.]

What kind of set up are you used to, then?