[ OPEN ] snake charmer

[braidedwonder]

Who: braidedwonder & Open
When: 7/7 - After exiting ViViD
Where: Apartment Complex, street of Cerealia & market areas
What: Duo bullies Heero in to moving in, and then has to make the apartment actually useable..
Rating/Warning: None? But it's Duo so it could always happen.

[ CLOSED ] FOR HEERO

"Listen, Heero, go pack up Wing and start sleepin' here. It makes no sense for me to have a bedroom I'm not even using anyways.." That's how all of this had started, anyways. At least before they'd gone to collect Heero's small collection of things, and had to carry them from one place to another. Thankfully Heero wasn't as much of a pack rack as he was, and the moving hadn't taken too long but.. the whole getting used to another body in his space might take a little while, again. Thankfully he was used to having Heero around, and he was a quiet roommate, so there wasn't much to bother with when it came to getting annoyed or anything stupid like that. Mostly, he's going to have to get used to having Wing and Deathscythe in one place and one apartment, which meant a little bit of chaos when they had first started settling in. Gundams messing around with each other started out cute -

Until thermal weapons started being used. And then it was a huge risk to life and limb.

Thankfully they'd been easily separated, and their weapons hidden away, and the apartment had settled in to a quiet place once again. At leat until Duo decided that it was dinner time, and -

"Heero? Any preference for dinner?"

[ OPEN ] IN THE STREETS

There's Duo, his backpack slung on his back as usual, filled with some of the things that Heero would let him carry, a box in his arms. They're moving like teenage boys on a mission, at least, but after the whole beach episode everyone seems to be out and about so.. it calls for a few stops and "excuse mes" from time to time. Or just, you know, the occasional bump in to someone if he was too busy trying to navigate around one person for avoiding another -

- So forgive him if he gives you a little jostle, ok?

 

 

[ OPEN ] GROCERY SHOPPING

Legitimately fresh fruits and vegetables are still such a novelty to a kid that's used to freeze dried or transported foods that were just.. not quite up to snuff for most people who had never lived on a space colony before. So, after he'd done helping his war buddy unpack and leaves him to get things organized as he wants them - he's back at the grocery stores and markets that he can find along the way, picking up and examining things and probably taking more than a few taste tests until -

Oops - bumping in to someone with a little grunt of surprise, dropping the pomegranate in his hands. "Shit - my bad! You didn't drop anything, did you?"

Comments

popping those tags....those barcodes at the store ya

[sayonaradumbass]

"Aw fuck-- yeah, just my livelihood and world...! You shit."

The free samples...the entire world in Kaneda's greasy hands (from the greasy wieners, of course). He gives Duo a once over and snorts.

"The hell are you doing near the healthy stuff? I figured you'd be going to town on the powdered shit."

[braidedwonder]

"I might actually have to be charitable if those things are your entire life and world." Duo grimaces a little at the sight of the slimy hot dog looking.. Things .. Well aware that if he were in a different place at the moment he'd be chewing down on those too. But for the moment they had money for food so they might as well get the good shit. Plus, Herro would probably complain at him if he came back with food with too little nutritional value. They might be out of the war but he and Heero could afford to be getting all fat and soft. And besides -

"This kinda stuff is more available than meat where I'm from-" it's hard to take meat through space travel without it being jerky, or paying with real limbs for steaks. Duo squats for a moment to grab the fruit he'd dropped, putting it in to the basket he had to prevent another tumble and a helluva bruised fruit "- Besides, can go soft and flabby just 'cause I'm here."

A pause, then - "Heero might want protein powders or some shit, though.... Might have to see about that."

[sayonaradumbass]

"I ain't pathetic, I was kidding." Besides....Kaneda likes the fancier ones more than the wieners, ok. He's got some class.

He grimaces right back, the feelings on powdered shit clear. "Then its time to bring on the meat! Shit, you'd think you were a nun. Your boy definitely needs some meat to get that brain rewired into funtown."

[braidedwonder]

"Sure about that?" The shots never stop coming, even when they're face to face. After all, Duo has a feeling he's met Kaneda's type again and again on L2, so he wasn't too worried about stretching too far with his sense of humor. At least not yet. Learning curves with different people were odd things.

Especially since he was free to be a little more social, here.

"It's all so cheap, though. Is it any good?" The braided teen looks a little bit dubious about meat being any good that's so cheaply (for him) priced. Maybe a side effect of growing up in space, what the hell did he know? It wasn't like he'd paid attention in grocery stores on Earth, either. "Last time I saw shit that cheap was because it had to be rehydrated. And you might as well chew on a shoe and pay for it on that one."

[distorsione]

"No, I'm fine." A little annoyed due to being bumped into, truthfully, but it's not anything worth complaining over. In fact, he manages to put his minor annoyance aside quickly enough to ask— "Are you alright?"

Fugo hadn't been paying attention to Duo, really, so if something had happened to cause him to bump into him in the first place, he hadn't noticed it.

[braidedwonder]

"Ah- good." He hadn't really been paying attention to where he was - an unusual flub for Duo - but can a guy be blamed when he's faced with a whole hell of a lot of edible food all of a sudden? He had to take his good signs while he could, truthfully, and was resisting every urge to over stock since he knew that these things went bad a lot faster than he thought sensible. He squats down to pick up the dropped pomegranate, giving it a quick check for injury.

"Yeah, I'm fine! Just a little too absorbed in to fruit shopping apparently.." The braided boy laughs lightly, pushing the rope of hair back on his shoulder just slightly.

"This stuff looks a lot fresher than I've ever seen, so.."

[distorsione]

Fugo glances at some of the nearby fruit. There certainly isn't anything unusual about it to him—it actually looks pretty normal. That could only mean...

"Not from a place with fresh food?" He knows places like that exist, so he doesn't sound surprised by the notion. "It's too bad you had to discover it here."

Is he bitter or paranoid... Probably a little bit of both. After all, the food sure tasted like it should, even if all of this was apparently code.

[braidedwonder]

"Space, actually.." He laughs, shrugging his shoulders as if saying that wasn't all that unusual for him. He just knows that a lot of people get shocked when he says that he was born and raised in a floating space colony. But he does give a shake of his head 'no' at the statement about discovering it here.

"Nah, I've been to Earth and had plenty of the fresh stuff there, but there's.. a lot of stuff here I've never been able to try before." Which meant that Duo was like a kid in a candy store with fruits and is taking little bites here and there to make sure that he may like thing, when he has a chance to.

[meowbel]

Around the same time, Mabel could be seen around the grocery store looking for whatever sweets she could find. It was funny, now that she wasn't living with her Grunkles or her parents anymore, she had to look out for herself. While fighting monsters were one thing, learning how to shop for food was something else. That was something older people had to do, not for her!

Well, grabbing a few extra bags of potato chips never hurt anyone right? But before she could say anything else, that's when she felt someone bump into her! As the few bags fell to the floor, Mabel just scoffed. "Yeah but don't worry about it! But I think your fruit might, I don't think they liked it at all!"

[braidedwonder]

Duo is a little surprised to have to look down to see someone, but, there he goes. He's a little shocked at how young she looks, but tries not to gawp about it. After all, this was a crap to be for anyone, but it wasn't as though he was much older than her (he estimated) when he first started having to be involved in fighting crap like this. Which doesn't make it any better, by a stretch of thought, but still.

As he crouches down to grab what he'd dropped, he helps Mabel pick up her bags of... chips, too. Ah, kids. He has a little bit of a soft spot for them, even if he wasn't much older, to be honest. If anything was for sure, Duo tended to feel a lot older than other kids.

"Yeah, they probably didn't like the fall too much..." He checks out a plum to make sure it hadn't split or bruised too badly from the drop. "Your chips don't look any worse for wear, though, so that's good."

Ah, there's a little smile. Duo arranges his future purchases back in his basket before turning back to her, making sure his braid is perched where he wants it on his shoulder. "My name's Duo - what about you?"

[meowbel]

During her time in Cerealia, Mabel gotta admit, it was strange seeing people that weren't much older than her here. For a place that's so dangerous, she fully expected this world to be filled with adults. However, much to her surprise, most of the citizens were teenagers like herself! Luckily, it didn't take her that long to get use that idea. Besides, when her and her brother managed to take down monsters back home, why couldn't it be applied to everyone else here?

However, when she stared at the boy, she gave a loud gasp! It wasn't from how young Duo was but from something else. As soon as she handed whatever fruit was lying around, her eyes immediately went straight to his braid. "The name's Mabel, it's nice to meet you! But oh my gosh, how in the world did you get your hair that long?! It looks super pretty! It must have taken you forever to brush and style it like that!"

While her hair was about the same length, that didn't stop the brunette from eying the boy's hair. In fact, that was when she started to play with her own in hopes she could style it the same way he did.

Clearly, this was very important to her!

[braidedwonder]

Duo had many of the same assumptions about the place when he'd shown up. No surprises that he'd met a few of his friends from home, on that note, considering that they'd been fighting with a bunch of adults in their own world anyways. But instead he'd found more and more people their age, just, you know, not quite so jaded and not-quite-teenage as they were. At least Mabel didn't seem that way, which made it a little bit better.

The braided boy doesn't even really notice the fact that she's looking at his hair - it happens really, really often here along with staring about the fact that he was born in space - in fact he looks a little surprised as she gasps, head snapping up and looking around in case something was coming at them. Shock quickly gives way to amusement, though, as she comments on his hair, and gives a little shrug as he subconsciously runs his hand along the rope of hair.

"I just.. never cut it." From childhood, even. Until it was completely and utterly necessary. "It doesn't take me too long to do now, but I do it this way every day.." Practice made perfect and quickly, right?

Duo takes all of a moment to notice what she's doing - then -

"I can do yours the same, if you want?" Grocery store turned hair dressers, stat!

[onerous]

"No, no it's my fault." Yuri sighs, waving a hand as she crouches down to pick up the fallen fruit--both his and her own that she'd dropped in the collision.

There's a pause as she glances at it, and then at some of the other fruit he might be holding that has distinct bite marks in them. There's a vaguely amused expression as she finally looks at him properly and tilts her head.

"Are you going to pay for the ones you're tasting?" But there's amusement there, not judgement--she doesn't really care if he pays or not, but it's kinda funny that he's just been taste-testing things as he goes.

[braidedwonder]

"I mean I was pretty absently just grabbing at fruits - " He laughs and squats down to grab a few that had rolled more in his direction, passing over the ones that he knew weren't his own. Mainly because they weren't fruits he recognized but they also didn't have bite marks in them, so -

He stops at her question, though, looking up at her through those chunky bangs as if debating his answer. When he does answer it's possibly a bit indignant, picking up a stray green apple and replacing it back in to his basket as he moves to stand.

" 'Course. Just found a few things I've never even seen before so I thought I'd better taste test at least - " His basket is overflowing with vegetables and fruits, actually. There's not a spot of junk food or anything greasy just yet, but maybe he hasn't had time to get there, too.

"If dragon fruit wasn't spiky I would'a tried that already, too."

[onerous]

Yuri pauses a moment, gathering her own things and standing as well. "I didn't mean to offend." She says it carefully, tone apologetic, but she's curious too.

"Where are you from?" It wasn't as though Yuri knew every vegetable and fruit out there, but some of the ones Duo took a chunk out of seemed common enough to her-- was he just from some other country that didn't have them, or a whole different bizzaro-world? Maybe he was from another planet!!

But she looks vaguely amused at his admission. "It wouldn't have been a good idea-- the skin of the dragon fruit isn't edible, so you probably would've just made yourself sick."

[braidedwonder]

"Technically I was born in space." LaGrange Point 2, if he was going to get specific, but he has a creeping suspicion that she won't know what all of that is, anyway. No one he's met so far, past Heero and Han, seemed to know what the hell he was talking about when it came down to it anyways. So it was best to leave it at 'space' and explain further if she asked.

"Yeah I kinda figured with how tough it felt." Common sense with Duo is a little hard to come by, but.. he isn't that thick. At least not at the moment. "Either way I'm excited to try it once I get the skin off."

Streets

[powertotearer]

"Huh? Oh, sorry."

Eiji side-steps for a second, purple eyes bleary as he looks over at who bumped him.

"Wait, just a second? Can I get some directions, fast?"

[braidedwonder]

"No problem - I'm kinda stacked here myself.." Duo laughs, making sure to locate his friend in the crowd before his attention is brought back to the stranger he's just shuffled past. He hadn't expected to be asked for directions, but hey, what's the worst thing that could happen.

Duo nods, adjusting how he's holding the box in his hands. "Haven't been here all that long but I can try, sure."

[powertotearer]

Eiji smiles back. "You wouldn't know where I can find a drug store or something--just a place where I can pick up a first aid kit and maybe some scissors?"

Aw, for me? you shouldn't have! :D

[perfectdisaster]

It felt strange to have a space that was actually his. He'd done so much moving around during the war, and then staying with Quatre and Trowa, that it almost felt as if the only constant 'home' he had was Wing ZERO's cockpit, and even that wasn't really all that big. But now, he actually has some space to stretch his legs...

...and instead he's just sort of standing there staring blankly at open space and not knowing what to do with himself. It's not as if he has many possessions -just clothes, the Gundam, some books for class, and a few odds and ends he'd picked up- but even that doesn't amount to much. It all feels really, really strange.

At least when Deathscythe and ZERO started with the thermal weapons, it was a nice distraction, but now that everything was taken care of, he's at a loss. And then came the million credit question: dinner?

"No, and unless you want fast food or take-out, I would advise against asking me to provide it."

[braidedwonder]

Duo kinda figured that it might be a bit of a learning curve or.. something for Heero to have his own space, but not necessarily a bad one. A bed instead of a sofa, and an actual room for all of his things is just one step away from a cockpit and a duffel bag filled with everything he owned, and even Duo was at that stage. The place was still pretty bare, even with everything off of their backs in it, but.. it was theirs. And the braided pilot felt a little bit better, security wise, knowing that Heero was there to check everything out with him too.

"I mean I went to the store and was gonna cook ... " He frowns a little, though, at that, looking at all the vegetables, fruits, rice and fiber products he'd bought.

"The meat was real cheap but I felt like that might be a trap. The last time I bought cheap meat back home it was like eatin' shoe leather so.. hopefully you don't mind usual colony vegetable stuff.."

- But then he spots that odd, spikey dragon fruit in the back of their fridge and plucks it up, presenting it for Heero to see.

"Found this at the store and it looked interesting, though. Called a dragon fruit. Wanna try it with me?"

[perfectdisaster]

Finally tearing his attention away from the empty space of the room to focus on Duo, he wanders his way into the kitchen area, sidestepping a gundam in the process. As long as it's not field rations or McCERES, he's perfectly content with whatever. Well, except the shoe leather. He's not a goat, after all.

"Quatre tends to stick to fruits, vegetables, tea, and crackers. Trowa is only slightly better when it comes to being able to produce something edible." As for himself, he can reheat things without destroying the place! So long as Duo is marginally better than the three of them, whatever he makes is fine.

But now there's a weird-looking thing being held out to him.

"...That doesn't resemble a dragon." Why would you call it something if it doesn't look like the thing you named it?

grocery shopping

[mysophobic]

Shigeru will startle when he gets bumped into. He gives a small sheepish smile as he waves the other off and shakes his head in reply. He'll type something on his cerevice then.

I'm okay! But you look like you dropped something. I'm sorry! I wasn't paying attention to where I was going. I can...get you another if you want.

He feels bad because it was his fault the other dropped it after all.

[braidedwonder]

Duo would recognize his face if he'd ever seen it before, really. He's a bit perplexed, for all of a few minutes, but then makes a small 'oh' of understanding as he sees the other man typing. Thankfully the teenager isn't that dull of a knife in the drawer.

"Nah, it's not a big deal! I don't think it's even bruised!" Duo squats down and picks it up, giving the fruit a quick check over.

"I think I've eaten fruit that's looked worse than this before-" He laughs, then. "No sweat."

[mysophobic]

[ Duo please don't eat that?! Shigeru is literally dying on the inside, okay well not that serious, but ew no. He can't let you eat food that's fallen on the floor.]

But it's not healthy to eat things that've fallen on the floor!

[ He's just...looking out for you. ]

There's lots of germs and things that could...get on it and in it.