Sadness Augmentation

[Cicada]

Did that even warrant a response? No sir. Ben turned anyways, just in time to catch a couple of middle fingers pointed his way. Oof. If Ben cared at all he'd be hurting something fierce right now. What an immature dork.

"Try not to tell him that to his face, dude." Ben's final retort floated after Darius as he split, vanished into the aisles. Wise idea to call that out? Probably not. Reverse psychology and all that. But if there was gonna be any fallout from the nonsense of the last few minutes Ben would deal with it when it was time. He doubted there was much to Darius, just empty dreams and emptier head. It would all work out, and if it didn't, Ben had two fists. Currently not clenched, sifting through the shelves for something he could probably remember if he put his mind to it. Time to get back to business, Fields.

Honestly, though. The image of a little kid like Alvaro getting rustled around in a breeze like a tumbleweed was pretty damn funny. Not worth a smile or whatever, but it also wasn't worth guilt.

((Ben Fields continued in Romeo and Juliet))

[Primrosette]

Scarlett was relieved that Alvaro was okay with being her friend. He seemed like a sweet person, maybe a bit quiet. Shy? She wasn't that sure but she had a big smile on her face because he was alright with being one of her friends. A new friend was always nice to have. Then he asked if she wanted to talk about something with him. Okay, she needed to think of something to talk about to him. Think, think, think. Oh, someone told her that he like chess so she decided to talk about that. Try to start on a good note.

"So I heard from a friend that you like to play chess. Are you really good at it?" Scarlett asked curiously while she was picking up some tomatoes to buy and she glanced over at Alvaro, waiting to see if he would be happy to talk about it. She hoped he would be confident to talk to her.

[Yugikun]

Okay. Okay. Okay. She was talking to him. She didn't just make excuses or leave or anything like that. He knew that that was a kinda silly possibility but it certainly had happened before and he did have to admit he had done it once or twice. Not to get away from the person, mind you, but mostly because he felt kinda overwhelmed by the people there and needed to take a break and sit down somewhere. That wasn't like, bad or anything, was it? It was at least better than if he just pretended to have a call just to get away from someone he didn't like. Well, doing what he did was probably not okay but at least it was out of necessity! Wait, no, that certainly didn't make it better. Really wouldn't saying it out of necessity be just deflecting the responsibility? He didn't know. He'd have to think about this later.

Wait, whoops, Scarlett was talking to him, wasn't she?

"I am! Kinda." Alvaro replied to Scarlett. It was a little odd that she mentioned chess. Why was it that whenever he got into a conversation with someone he didn't really know they always brought up chess with him? He wasn't sure. Yet another question he'd have to think the answer for later.

"I'd say that I'm better at chess than most people, but um... most people who are better at chess than most people are better than me, if that makes sense?" That certainly wasn't the best way to explain the situation, so maybe he could do a little bit better. "Like, I'm on the chess team, but whenever we go to a tournament I tend to get eliminated early while someone else gets a win."

Which was something he wanted to improve. Maybe he should read those chess books that Lily gave him, maybe they'd help him become better at the game.

[Primrosette]

Scarlett was glad to have a conversation with Alvaro about chess. Although, she wouldn't normally talk about it. As she didn't play it herself and she didn't know that much about it. She did know one way that someone could get checkmated. But that was about it. Well, at least she was learning more about Alvaro. That was all that mattered to her. Having a new person to speak to was nice. She listened as he spoke to her. She kind of understood what he was saying. Some people were good at chess, but some other people were better at it than the other ones. Like professional chess players or something along those lines. Alvaro was on the chess team, huh? That seems cool. Scarlett would possibly watch people playing chess but she couldn't play it herself. Chess wasn't really something she would do. But she could understand why Alvaro might enjoy it.

"I think I kinda get it, you know. You just need to practice more. Practice makes perfect." Scarlett showed off a some grin at Alvaro as she put some apples into her trolley and she scratched her chin slightly. "I'm sure that you will get better at it, Alvaro. I believe that you will get to the top of your chess team and you will win instead."

Scarlett was trying to encourage Alvaro and she really believed that he would be able to do it. They continued to talk about chess for a while as they continued to do their groceries. Scarlett was happy to be able to get to know Alvaro, even if it was only for a few minutes or so. She also couldn't watch to see her dad's face after he see all the fruit that she was getting. It would be priceless.

((Scarlett McAfee continued elsewhere))

[Yugikun]

So then they talked for a bit. Mostly about chess. There were a couple asides about how school was going for the two of them but most of the conversation was dominated about what Alvaro knew about chess. It kinda felt a little bit weird, to be honest. Normally when he talked with someone he barely ever brought his own experiences up - he highly doubted that they'd appreciate it if he made the conversation all about himself - but he was talking about chess with Scarlett and suddenly he was telling her a lot of what he knew about it. It was kinda fun, though. It made him feel... well, he didn't know the word, but it just kinda gave him good feelings about himself as they talked while they were shopping together. Maybe he'd talk about himself more when he was around someone he knew liked him. Probably not Lily or someone like that but someone he could at least trust.

Alas, though, all good things had to come to an end. Eventually both of them had gotten everything they needed and they went their separate ways; Scarlett to her dad, Alvaro back to the cafe. He hoped that they got to speak again at some point, even if it was only for a couple seconds.

((Alvaro Vacanti, continued in I can't think of any cutesy love songs that'd fit as a thread title, consider this a placeholder))