Not So Quiet Time in the Lunch Room

[VoltTurtle]

((Sara Corlett continued from A Recursive Process))

Sara sat down at one of the empty tables with her lunch. She usually brought her lunch to school instead of getting lunch from the line, as the food here was almost always mediocre at best. She glanced around the crowded room. Not many kids actually ate here in the lunch room, most left to eat elsewhere, so she was usually able to find an empty table, despite the fact that the lunch room was usually crowded anyway. She opened her lunch box and pulled out the sandwich that she had made that morning.

She bit into her sandwich, enjoying the flavor of the tomatoes and lettuce she had put on it. She placed the sandwich back down temporarily and took her book out of her backpack. She flipped to where she had left off last and began to read. She took small bites of her sandwich as she read, focusing mostly on the words in her book. The noise from all the talking in the room would normally make it hard for her to read, but it all blended together after a few moments, essentially becoming white noise in the process.

As she read, she began to get a little thirsty; so she pulled her water bottle out of her lunchbox, took a few small sips, and placed it back down. She enjoyed these not-so-quiet-times in the lunch room. She got to read and eat a little bit, and all was well and calm. She leaned forward a bit on the table, continuing to nibble on her sandwich and take small sips of her water as her eyes took in page after page.

[MK Kilmarnock]

WHAM!

A lunch tray slammed down on the table, followed shortly by a boy sitting down behind it. A moment was taken to quickly slide the table about a foot and a half to the right as to allow two hands to subsequently slam down on the table.

((Sean Mulcahy continued from... uh, what was the last thing I did in pregame, again?))

"I am so ANGRY right now!"

Sean glared across the table at Sara, hands tensed and fingers flexed against the laminate until his knuckles were white. The stare locked and took hold, for one... two... three... three seconds until his lips couldn't hold it together anymore. Fingers relaxed, brow un-furrowed, and a familiar laugh replaced a strained and forced menace.

"Juuuuust kidding. What's up?" Sean pulled his try back into where all lunch trays belonged, picking at it. Taco day was best day, obviously, and he was back to his old habits of putting corn on soft tacos with meat and cheese. His tacos were best tacos, and nobody else at Aurora was going to tell him otherwise.

[VoltTurtle]

The loud crash of a tray hitting the table jolted Sara out of her immersion in her book. The table slid a little bit to the side and another, quieter crash quickly followed. She turned to see the familiar face of Sean Mulcahy before her. She didn't quite know Sean, but the number of acquaintances she had could be counted on one hand. The most she knew about him is that he was a bit quirky and had a massive love for pirates.

Sean had a very serious look about him. She was too intimidated to say anything at first, but after a bit, his menacing glare changed to a rather relaxed look. Sean pulled his tray back, saying he was just kidding and asking her what's up. "Erm. Nothing much. Just... reading."

She looked at his tray. He had a taco on his tray, filled with meat, cheese, and... corn? She was fairly certain that most tacos did not have corn on them, but she could be wrong. "I notice that you have a taco with corn on it. That's a rather... unusual ingredient." She felt rather relaxed, oddly enough, especially considering the extremely forceful entrance Sean made.

[MK Kilmarnock]

Sean was already midway into rolling up his taco (a feat possible because the only real taco in this world, as far as he was concerned, was a soft taco) when Sara voiced her misgivings about the corn.

"Nah, it ain't unusual!" Sean exclaimed, holding the rolled up concession in front of his mouth. "If there's an ingredient out there that's unusual, it isn't corn! Th'stuff's everywhere. It's already in this tortilla, so I figure there's no harm in adding the natural stuff too!" With that, the roll was shoved into his mouth. With a single bite, a third of the taco was already gone.

"So..." Sean said through the few last bits of chewing. He swallowed the bite of delicious, delicious corn taco before going on. "What exactly are you reading?" He bobbed and swayed in an obvious attempt to see the cover for himself.

[VoltTurtle]

Sean explained that adding corn to a taco wasn't unusual due to corn already being in the taco's shell. Fair enough.

Sean took a bite out of his taco as Sara's thoughts started drifting elsewhere. She wasn't thinking about anything in particular, seemingly random thoughts drifted into and out of her head.

So immersed in her thoughts she was, she didn't realize that Sean had asked her about her book. Snapping back to reality, she chuckled awkwardly as she realized that she was probably awkwardly staring off into space for a few moments after Sean had asked her about it. "It's, erm, a book called Cinder." She showed him the cover. "It's loosely based off of Cinderella, but set in the future after World War IV."

She liked this minor interaction with Sean. Despite her naturally relegating herself to be alone, being alone all the time isn't fun, little interactions with kind people like Sean are usually nice breaks from formula. Perhaps, after today, she can even add a new friend to her modest list of acquaintances.

[MK Kilmarnock]

A story synopsis like that warranted a head tilt. Sean gladly delivered, and even delayed taking another bite of his lunch in order to ask a follow up question.

"World War... 'Four?' Geez..." The taco was poised for atmos-Sean-ic reentry. "Does it just skip right on by the third one? Strange... oh well! So, like, what are the key differences between that and, you know, the original story?"

Having resisted the lure of his culinary creation long enough, the somewhat hyperactive boy resumed chowing down. The taco would only last for another minute tops, at which point he'd move on to the apple on his tray. Sean could never really understand people who tried to eat slowly and spread out their meal across the entire lunch period. If food was in front of him, he tried to get the eating out of the way as soon as possible so the rest of mealtime could be dedicated to socializing. That was half... no, more than half of the fun of lunchtime, suppertime, or just about any eating time anyway.

[VoltTurtle]

Sean expressed his confusion about the whole "World War IV" thing. "Erm... yeah... it's complicated." She said faintly. He then asked her how different Cinder is from Cinderella. "Well, besides the whole future thing, it's set in New Beijing and the main character is a cyborg instead of a normal person. And, uh, she works with her family's android, Iko. And, um..." She paused and observed Sean as he devoured his taco.

She focused herself and continued with her story synopsis. "And, uh, there is this plague going around and it is terrorizing the land, because no one has managed to survive it... and... um..." She paused awkwardly. "If you can't tell already, it's only very loosely based on the original story, and I am bad at explaining book plots on short notice."

She decided to comment on how quickly Sean was eating his taco. "You are eating that quite quickly, are you really hungry?" She took a sip of her water. "I can never make myself eat that quickly, even if I am really hungry." She always tried to take her time with her meals, to savor every bite.

[MK Kilmarnock]

With the taco gone, Sean reached for the apple. "I wasn't starving or anything, but yeah, I tend to be hungry around... oh, I don't know, LUNCH TIME!" He laughed, checking the apple for bruises and peeling off the sticker. "What, you're not hungry when you eat? And people call me weird.

A smile was flashed to show Sara he didn't mean any harm. "But no, seriously, I just eat fast. I like to get eating out of the way so I can actually talk, since it's kind of rude to eat and talk at the same time." He brushed over the fact that he was doing just that not more than five minutes ago.

"Oh, right, and that story you're reading is really, REALLY weird. I like it, though! Weird's good!" He flashed an even wider smile. "I mean, I like a story about a boy who sails the ocean and meets new people, is made of rubber, and punches dudes made of lightning. It's not like- oh, right, and currents can make water flow UP a mountain. So, it's not like I like stuff totally rooted in realism."

Sara seemed really prim and proper for a high school kid eating lunch in a cafeteria. Sean wasn't quite sure why that made him so happy, but it did. It felt like he could burst out laughing any time he dared open his mouth to try to speak to her. Hopefully she wouldn't think he was being rude or anything.

[VoltTurtle]

Sean explained how he tends to be hungry around lunch time. She let out a small chuckle. Sean was really full of energy, and it was rather contagious. He asked her if she was not hungry when she ate. Before she could answer, he smiled and that was enough to let her know he was joking. He explained he ate fast and he liked to get eating out of the way so he could talk. "Yeah, I can understand that. Some people like to socialize."

He then went on to point out how Cinder is really weird, but he is okay with that because he reads something about a rubber boy who sails the ocean. "Rubber boy who sails the ocean..." She muttered to herself, trying to remember if she had heard that somewhere before. "Oh! Are you talking about the manga One Piece?" She laughed. "I've never read it because I tend to like regular books over manga, but I've overheard quite a bit about it in the library! People discussing it and whatnot." She took a sip of her water. "I should've figured that the boy so in love with the sea would read that."

She smiled. She couldn't remember the last time she socialized this much, and she was enjoying it quite a bit. Sean was perhaps one of the friendliest people she has ever had the pleasure to meet, and talking with the energetic boy was very entertaining.

[Espi]

[[Nina Clarke continued from As Long as There are Stars Above You]]

Nina was big on lunch.

Despite her petite frame, Nina was a big eater, and she was always starved by lunchtime. Thus, she had a probably-not-very-healthy tendency to eat two lunches; bringing some food from home and buying some.

At least she usually brought healthy-ish stuff like fruit.

Nina was at a loss today, though; for some reason, she just didn't feel like sitting with the usual group of friends. She was just feelin kind of adventurous now, for whatever reason. She noticed a table with a few other people she didn't often talk to; maybe she oughta sit there? Nina put her paper bag onto her lunch tray (tacos were pretty delicious, so she'd gotten a couple) and started towards the table.

"Hi there. You two mind if I sit with you?" Nina asked, sitting down across from the boy and girl. They didn't appear to be dating, but Nina had minimal knowledge of the two outside of, "They go to Aurora High with me and I may or may not have classes with them". Hopefully, she might make a few new friends out of people she didn't really know.

[MK Kilmarnock]

"NO!"

Sean spread his arms out to either side of him as if protecting the seats to his left and to his right. He cocked his mouth half-open to prepare his voice and let out in a guttural growl: "Ye not be knowin' what ye be gettin' into should ye set foot on hollowed-"

He couldn't finish before bursting into more decidedly normal-sounding laughter. Situating his hands back over his lunch tray, the energetic kid shrugged his shoulders and looked up to the girl he recognized as Nina Clark. Seemed to have trouble recognizing her schoolmates, the poor girl. She'd come around sooner or later.

"Of course I don't care if you sit here!" Sean beamed. "I'unno about Sara though. She's really territorial. Like a tiger. Or a panda. ... Those are territorial, right? I wouldn't know. I hate pandas." His mouth shut around another bite of apple. On a normal day, he'd be done with eating by now. Was he getting slower?

[VoltTurtle]

Sara took another bite of her sandwich as Nina Clarke showed up at the table and asked if she could sit. Sara and Nina had a class together, but besides knowing that Nina wanted to be a police officer, Sara didn't know much about her. Just as Sara was about to speak up, Sean shouted no and started to deliver a rather dramatic line before bursting into laughter. Sara sat in confusion for a moment as he continued, saying that he didn't care if Nina sat with them, but he didn't know about Sara.

Shaking herself out of her stupor, Sara turned to Nina. "It's fine if you sit here. I don't think one more person will hurt." She turned to Sean. "And also, Sean, to answer your question, I'm pretty sure pandas aren't territorial." She took another sip of her water, leaving it down to only a quarter of the bottle.

"Anyway, Nina, if you don't mind me asking, why do you want to sit here?" At this point, Sara would normally start shying away from most people, but despite Nina's stern posture, she seemed to have a calm demeanor about her, so Sara didn't feel the need to shy away.

[Espi]

Nina smiled; she definitely recognized Sara as soon as Sean said her name; the two were in some class or other together. She was less sure on Sean, but she did vaguely recall an interest in pirates, which Nina found kind of funny. It was an oddly specific thing to like, though somehow it fit Sean's personality. Sara was more bookish, but she seemed nice in a timid and wallflower-esque way.

Nina smiled at the two before unwrapping and biting into a taco, trying to take a smaller bite than usual so as to not give an awkward impression of a sloppy eater. She chewed and swallowed quickly before wiping her face with a napkin; the food was okay, but not good enough that eating it quickly was any serious loss.

"Oh, why did I want to sit here?" Nina said in response to Sara. "I dunno. Just on a whim, I suppose. No reason in particular." Nina herself wasn't sure why; she'd mostly picked the table at random.

[BROseidon†]

((Matt Vartoogian continued from V = - ∫ E · dl))

Holy shit the lunchroom was crowded. You get out of class just a few minutes late, and this is what you are greeted with.

Matt had his lunch in hand as he surveyed the room for a place to sit. Sure, there were seats randomly open here or there, but sitting next to a bunch of guys on one of the sports teams was not Matt's idea of a good time. He could take his lunch outside, but Matt hated eating outside. Fucking bugs everywhere, and it would probably start raining, anyways.

Thus, Matt walked through the crowded cafeteria, careful not to hit anyone with his bag. He could just take his lunch and eat in an empty classroom, or something. Yeah, that was always an option.

But then Matt saw a table that was relatively empty. Three people were sitting at it with no obvious social connection. Matt only knew each of them in passing. Sean was a little odd. Energetic. Sara was quiet, usually had a book in hand. Nina was... intense. Very, very intense. Not exactly anyone Matt had any reason to interact with, but he could probably eat his lunch and fiddle on his computer without wanting to eviscerate someone.

Matt walked to the far end of the table; hopefully they'd get that he was just sitting there because he needed a place to sit and that he didn't particularly want to interact with them. He set his lunch down and pulled out his laptop. Matt bit into his apple as he checked the League streams on solomid.net. Oh, and he remembered to put his headphones on this time.

[MK Kilmarnock]

"Ugh, don't care, pandas are still pure evil." Sean could never stand for somebody committing the vile act of defending pandas. Was he serious? He'd leave that up for other people to decide. As for the matter concerning Sara and Nina, he mostly just returned to quietly shoving food in his mouth. However, as he hit double-time in finishing his meal, he did leave enough time and room to mumble one more comment: "You don't exactly need a reason to sit anywhere during lunch."

Sean turned his head when something went on in his peripherals. Blackbeard joined the table, sitting at the far end with burning hemp smoking from his beard? No; alas, it was just Matt Voortigan and his laptop. Oh well. He was far away enough that it was pretty clear he wasn't set to talk any time soon (and his headphones were on, making any attempts rather fruitless to start with), so Sean simply turned back to his tray and resumed putting food A in mouth B.