V for Vend-etta

[Pippi]

"Fuck off. Are you kidding me?"

((Katie Agustien: Pregame START))

Look at this. Look at this bullshit. How did this even happen? Katie was utter shit at science, and couldn't tell you the difference between 'inertia' and 'innervate' to save her life, but she was absolutely certain that what she was glaring at defied the rules of physics.

A sheet of plexiglass protected the snacks in the vending machine from Katie's withering glare. Two of them in particular were the objects of her scorn and hatred. The first was a can of Red Bull that some moron with shitty taste must have tried to purchase earlier. It had wedged itself just above the chute where you collected your items, and either it was stuck so securely that no amount of shaking would jostle it free, or the guy's brain had rotted so much from drinking that foul stuff that he hadn't even tried. Katie's money was on the latter.

The second? The packet of chips she had been trying to buy, which was currently sitting pretty directly on top of the can.

Katie burned a hole through the glass as she stifled the urge to smash her fist into it. Honestly, that would probably be the fastest way to get her goodies back, but it was also a surefire way to cut her hand to ribbons in the process. As well as, y'know, probably land herself a pretty hefty punishment as well.

This wasn't fucking fair. This was her goddamn cheat day, for fuck's sake, and she only gave herself one cheat day per month. They'd finally stocked her favourite brand of chips back into the vending machines, and fortune had been kind enough for them to have stayed stocked during her cheat day, so of course Lady Luck had been fickle and pulled this bullshit stunt.

Katie looked left and right, scanning the area around her. The cafeteria was mostly full, full enough that nobody would notice her rage against the machine amongst the chatting and chewing. She grabbed the giant metal box, one hand on each side of it, ready to shake it within an inch of its life.

"Don't even try it, Agustien."

Katie's hands instantly dropped to her sides, and a scowl formed on her face, as she looked round to see Mrs. Skinner walking past. For someone that ripped, she'd managed to be real sneaky all of a sudden. Katie liked to think that she'd been given the warning because Skinner was afraid of one of her best students getting injured, rather than because she might damage the machine.

She waited until her teacher was well out of the way, before grabbing hold of the vending machine once more.

[blastinus]

(Reuben Walters continued from Desperate Times)

People-watching was one of those activities Reuben indulged in every now and then, not for any voyeuristic reason, but simply because there were so many fascinating stories surrounding him. Seated at a cafeteria table, his gaze resting above the screen of his laptop, he would scan every now and then and see if there were any interesting events occurring while pretending to enjoy a bottled water.

He wouldn't have to wait for long, since there was a story playing out just to the right. Katie Agustien. Big, strong, an accomplished fighter, but apparently a simple vending machine was daring enough to risk inciting her wrath. A courageous move, and one it was going to pay for, since she seemed ready to annihilate it any second now; show it who was truly the boss.

The intrigue unfolding before him brought a smile to Reuben's face, despite himself. This was a scenario with drama and a truly human element. He could let it play out, let her smash the stubborn thing back and forth, but enough eyes were on her that she ran the risk of seriously getting into trouble. Couldn't let that happen now, could he?

"Excuse me," he muttered. "You mind if I...uh..." he had a couple bucks out and pointed at the red bull. His plan was to send the next one in line down, releasing the protruding can and dropping the chips down with it. Foolproof, ingenious, except he was certain that if he ever drank something that caffeinated, his head would turn around and he'd start climbing stairs all spider-like. Maybe he could foist it on someone else, or just dump it down a toilet. He'd cross that bridge when he came to it.

[Pippi]

"Huh?"

Katie only just heard the voice from behind her as she wrestled with the vending machine. It was a delicate art, almost; she wanted to balance shaking it enough for her chips to fall, but not so much that she'd catch the attention of the entire school. That was about where the delicacies ended, though. At the end of the day, she was shaking down a big buzzing box to get herself some salt and vinegar snacks.

For a moment, Katie's heart lifted, as the chips looked to be on the verge of wiggling free of their confines. Like so many of her music projects, however, everything ended in disappointment; the packet jostled a teeny tiny bit, before staying put in its slightly adjusted position, just as stuck as before.

Katie breathed in, counted to three, and slowly let out a long, low sigh of frustration. She folded her arms, and turned to face whoever was behind her, speaking before she'd even caught a glimpse of the guy.

"What is it?"

It wasn't often that Katie had to look up to someone when they spoke, but, Christ, this guy was tall. He looked like he'd been put on a rack for a couple hours, his hair included. Katie scrambled to remember the guy's name; he definitely wasn't in any of her sports circles, that was for damn sure. She imagined a boxing match with him would end with him throwing a punch and tiring himself out. Not that she was opposed to a quick and easy win, of course, but she liked to at least hit her opponent first.

The guy was holding a couple of bucks and pointing at the vending machine, and it took Katie a couple of seconds to realise what he was suggesting. As soon as she did, she gave him a quick nod of approval.

"Oh. Sure, go ahead."

As Katie stepped to the side of the machine, the guy's name finally sprang to mind; Reuben, or something Reubenesque. The school mascot, if she wasn't misremembering. Nothing else sprang to mind about him, but hey, name to a face, that was something at least. She looked into the vending machine, and couldn't help but speak the words that were dancing on the tip of her tongue.

"Dunno how you can drink that stuff, though. Think I'd rather pour acid down my throat than one of those."

[blastinus]

Reuben shrugged. He didn't have an adequate defense for Red Bull and had no real desire to act as its devil's advocate. He'd had a sip or two of the dreaded substance, and it tasted to him like cough medicine with the world's most pungent aftertaste. If one wanted to disrupt one's brain chemistry by guzzling pure caffeine, he supposed that was one's own business, but good golly, would it kill them to give the torturous concoction a proper taste?

Maybe tasting awful was how you knew it was good for you, he mused. If it was pleasant to drink, people might think they were being ripped off.

Personal qualms aside, Katie had given him the green light, so it was go time. The true challenge was about to begin, however, since this vending machine's bill receiver could be finicky on the best of days. Raising his knee, he began shuffling his dollars back and forth, hoping to achieve near-perfect levels of flatness. This machine would only deign to receive the most pristine of currency, after all.

Moment of truth...the first bill slid in, paused...and it took! The second bill too! Was this some kind of miracle? He was fully expecting to have to massage his currency one additional time, or even more, in an endless back and forth.

His fingers flew across the keypad, expertly indicating the row and column for the red bull. Granted, it was only two keys, but he FELT like an expert. The red bull began to move, tumbling down as expected, the chips following in its wake. Reaching down into the tray, he nodded to Katie and said, "Hmm, easier than I-"

That's when he looked up and realized that the coils were still moving. To his horror, another red bull was inching its way forward, and as he withdrew his hand in the nick of time, it clattered down on top of the first. With a blank look on his face, he reached in and withdrew the two cans of disgust, holding them up by the tips of his fingers as if he was afraid that they'd bite at him.

"Well," he remarked, as the quarters dropped one by one into the change slot, "lucky me." Lucky, lucky him. Yeah.

[Pippi]

Katie couldn't help but raise an eyebrow as she watched Reuben's... she couldn't think of any way to describe it other than a 'ritual', sorting his money out to slide it into the machine. Probably a good thing he was so engrossed in that, really. She doubted he'd take kindly to her looking at him like that.

Especially not after he'd decided to help her out, all of his own accord. He didn't have to do that. He could have watched her struggle with the vending machine and had a quiet laugh to himself, and she wouldn't have begrudged him for a second if he had. She couldn't exactly say she wouldn't have done the same, after all. And... she knew there were a number of people here who wouldn't have lifted a finger to help her in any circumstances. But Reuben had. And you know what? He was alright in her books, for that alone. Even if his taste in drinks needed some serious work.

Anyway. Katie continued to watch as the coil slowly spiralled, knocking both drink and chips down into the tray, a second Red Bull clattering down a few seconds later, narrowly missing Reuben's fingers by inches; for a guy as skinny and frail looking as him, Katie wondered whether that would have broken a couple of bones. She let out a small, impressed sounded noise, then frowned as she turned to look at him. Y'know, most people were a lot happier when they got a two-for-one from the vending machine. Reuben just looked kinda... nonplussed.

"Don't tell me you're gonna drink both of those," she said, crouching down to fish her bag of chips out of the chute. "At least stow one in your bag for later, having them both one after the other can't be healthy."

She straightened up, looking at Reuben and folding her arms again.

"Oh, uh. Thanks, by the way."

Katie tilted her head to one side and smiled.

"You didn't have to go and do that. Not many people who would. Or maybe you just love Red Bull that much."

She laughed, once, a bark of a laugh that she'd always despised, then stuck her hand into the change slot, grabbing the handful of coins and holding them out for Reuben.

"Yours, I believe."

[blastinus]

Reuben flushed beet red, contrasting his typical deathly pale complexion. He'd expected Katie to just kind of ignore him like the girls on the cheerleading squad did. He hadn't anticipated this level of gratitude, wasn't prepared to receive it. All he'd done was rescue a bag of chips, nothing so noble as all that.

His body's response was nothing short of an almost complete shutdown. "Y-w-wel...come..." he sputtered, slowly, carefully moving one of the cans under his arm so he could grab the change. It was all he could do to keep from exploding with joy. He needed to breathe, in and out, in and out.

With shaky hands, he deposited the change in his jeans pocket and tried his hardest to get back under control. He was probably coming across as so weird right now. In and out...In and out...He could feel his limbs again. That was good.

"Umm, sorry," he said slowly, regaining his composure. "It's just I...Well, not many people...How do I say this...A guy like me..." Without going into full detail, he just gestured across the whole of himself with his free hand: a stick-like, pale, long-haired, beanpole of no substance. He'd expected nothing out of life, and up till now, life had been more than happy to provide.

"So uh, yeah," he concluded, and was about to turn away when he realized that he hadn't ever explained why he did what he did. But as he thought it through, he realized that he had absolutely no idea. It wasn't for the sake of hitting on her, that was certain. Katie wasn't unattractive, but he had neither the time nor the inclination to find a girlfriend, since that would take his attention away from his hobby. He just did it because he wanted to, and that hardly made sense even to him.

Plan B, then. Time to come up with a convincing lie.

"I really like red bull," he blankly droned, raising a can for emphasis. "But I can't drink it now. I'm going to carry it around and drink it later when nobody's watching."

Very convincing. Hopefully that would prevent a restraining order at least. Packing the two cans and his laptop into his messenger bag and dreading having to carry them around for the rest of the day, he beat a hasty retreat, satisfied that he'd done a good deed, but more than a little embarrassed.

(Reuben Walters continued elsewhere)

[Pippi]

Katie held the bag of chips with both hands, ready to rip it open and devour its contents, as she, for lack of a better term, stared Reuben down. Maybe that was what was causing the guy to act so skittish and weird. If that was the case, then she could be acting a hell of a lot more intimidating, acting in a manner that would warrant being frightened of her. Right now, she was just raising one eyebrow.

A thought drifted across Katie's mind, and she just about stopped a terse smile from crossing her face. Did Reuben have the hots for her? It was understandable if he did, but it meant he clearly wasn't the most attentive guy around. She hadn't exactly hidden her sexuality, after all. If that was the case, then that was fine, so long as he kept his thoughts well to himself. If he asked her out once, fine too. He kept on persisting? Then all that good will he'd developed for himself would vanish without a trace.

Katie entertained the idea for another few moments before discarding it as she ripped the chip packet open. Reuben was no Dante or Lucas Abernathy, after all. Not in any way. He wasn't as good looking as either of them, nor was he as self-absorbed.

So, maybe he was just one of those oddballs Katie passed by every day. George Hunter had a ton of them. The difference was, this was an oddball who had done something nice for her, and it was the little things like that which made all the difference, even when it looked like social interaction was gonna make you throw up on your shoes.

Katie smiled, as she placed a chip in her mouth, finally getting herself the taste of salt and vinegar that had been eluding her for so long, bemused at Reuben's smooth-as-all-hell concluding statement and exit. Yep. Definitely an oddball.

"You, uh, you go do that, oddball."

Katie spoke to nobody but the air and herself, letting out a soft chuckle and shaking her head. Out of all the oddball encounters she'd had during lunch at George Hunter, that one didn't even break the top 200 worst.

((Katie Agustien continued in Flames on the Blue))