Not you again (Dante)

[Charlotte Greene]

Met another Pixie, got in an argument with an uncharacteristically argumentative and unpleasant asian kid, and managed to get a little sleep.. All in all, not the worst few days Charlie had ever had, even if they also hadn't been the best. Then again, the best days (as far as she knew) were behind her. Uncle James wasn't around anymore, and the best of days were the ones she could remember from when he'd been around.

Today Charlie was actively focusing on ignoring everything. She'd been mostly silent through classes, avoided too much wandering, not looked to see if anyone was staring at her or her wings.. and it had been remarkably effective at keeping the entire day's tone nice and neutral and chill. Music helped. Music helped a lot, actually. A mix of classical and ambient with a healthy dose of whispery female vocals in the form of artists such as Enya and Imogen Heap.. Noone would accuse Charlie of having entirely normal playlists or Pandora stations. Or perhaps she was just judging herself on the off chance that anyone ever decided to judge her.. so she was prepared for the potential criticism.

Anyway, it was dinnertime, and while Charlie seldom ate a full meal, she did still need to go to the cafeteria in order to get whatever bit of food she was going to eat. Her strategy of doing what she needed to do and ignoring the world around her was working beautifully, and the little earbuds attached to their black cords that were attached to her phone were helping a great deal.. That was until she had pulled her phone out of her pocket in order to bookmark a song and found her entire world suddenly jarred sideways as someone slammed into her and sent her reeling for balance.

Charlie managed to catch herself easily enough against a nearby table, and was willing to let the issue go with no confrontation or argument.. It had been the one real hitch in an otherwise fairly relaxing day and it was to be expected and forgiven.... until she saw the person that was glaring back at her and clearly blaming her for the fact that there had been a collision... His mouth was moving but her music was rather loud and she couldn't hear a word he was saying.. but (clickable) the song she was listening to summed up the situation so well that she instantly doubled over in a fit of giggles and again had to catch herself on the table to avoid ending up on the floor.

[Dante Russo]

"Jo Jo-- Jo Jo-- Shaddup would'ya!?" Dante was on edge. He was trying to smooth things over with Jo Jo, and it wasn't going well. "I'm tryin' to apologize, here! Whats'a matter with you!?"

"You're a sarcastic dickface! That's what's the matter wit' me!"

"I'm not bein' sarcastic!!"

Up until this point, Dante had been moving along at a swift pace. He was mostly ignoring the people around him, so focused was he on making Jo Jo listen to him. At Jo Jo's next words, however, Dante stopped dead in his tracks.

"You are! You couldn't give me a sincere apology if I held a gun to your head! I'm startin' t' think maybe we shouldn't talk no more--"

"No, Jo Jo, wait!" Dante pulled his phone from his ear to look at it. "Shit!!" He cursed at the 'call ended' message on the screen, and then stumbled forward suddenly as someone ran directly into him.

Dante was so not in the mood for this shit! He turned, quickly finding the person who'd bumped him and-- "Hey! Watch it, Tinkerbell!" he shouted, glowering at the irritating Pixie from the other night. Then she started laughing, and Dante clenched his fists.

Rage rose in his chest, and he could see now that she couldn't hear him. Dante stepped forward and reached out. If she didn't evade him, Dante would sharply yank on the cord connected to her earbuds, and yell at her, "are you seriously fuckin' laughing right now!?"

[Charlotte Greene]

By the time Dante had the chance to react, Charlie was doubled over in laughter, holding her tummy, eyes closed, posture completely defenseless. As such, she was in no position to see Dante approach further, let alone stop him from reaching out and yanking her earbuds out of her ears.

That having been said, even when he did yank them out of her ears she would continue laughing, clutching desperately to her phone to avoid dropping it. Charlie could hardly breathe, let alone respond. She simply nodded furiously as she giggled maniacally and tried to catch her breath.. Which happened fairly quickly as she realized that Mr. Grumpy's next target was likely to be her phone.. and that would end badly for him.

Quickly regaining composure, she stood straight up, a trace of a smile still tugging at her face. "Yes. I am laughing right now. Seriously. Why am I laughing? Because my phone is apparently a precog and chose right now to reveal itself. You run into me and almost knock me over, and look what song is already playing." She would hold her phone up for him to see... Imogen Heap - Not you again.

"Is your meta ability superhuman grumpiness or something? Every time I see you you're all pissed off. Ritual this and 'laughter offends me' that. What's your excuse this time? Wake up on the wrong side of the bed? Out of cigarettes? B-plus on your math quiz? Do you just have something against someone tall enough to see where they're going? Is that why you ran into me?"

[Dante Russo]

Dante watched her with a mix of surprise and disdain. She was still laughing, holding up her phone in the middle of her explanation to show him the song she was listening too. His eyes scanned across the screen, but he couldn't process the information fast enough to get the joke. A look of confusion flickered across his face, but it was soon replaced by his usual angry expression.

Charlie was giving him blowback, and he wasn't pleased about it.

Dante drew in a breath. "Bitch, you ran into me!" He barked, "and was that supposed to be crack about my race!? What? I'm supposed to be good at math because I'm Asian!? Is that it!?" Dante was actually quite good at math, but Charlie didn't know that, and Dante didn't appreciate being stereotyped. He was actually more upset about that than he was at her jab about his height. But since he was yelling at her anyway, "and fuck your height, Training Bra!" He took a pointed glance at her slight chest. "I can see where I'm going just fine! It's you who seems to have a problem with that-- I guess you don't get enough oxygen up there!"

Dante was so mad that he was getting up in her face. Well, as much as he could, being significantly shorter than her. But he was making a valiant attempt!

[Charlotte Greene]

"Training bra? Pfft. I'm a large A-, maybe a medium B-cup sweetie. For all you know I'm not even wearing a bra. Wouldn't make much of a difference if I was. Clearly we ran into each other since neither of us are blaming ourselves. You're the smoker, so you are more likely to be oxygen deprived than me, and honestly I have no idea if you're good at math or any subject.. Aside from etiquette, which I'm giving you a D in."

This whole.. grinning in the face of anger thing was new.. and it was.. strangely fun. Unless Dante reached out and slapped or punched Charlie.. in which case it would very quickly stop being fun in any way.

"Also, for the record, I'm a pixie, not a dog.. And you're probably better at math than I am. You completely ignored my question, by the way. What is up your butt, little man? And how long does it need to be up there before you pass it and calm down some? Your blood pressure has to be through the roof. Especially with all that nicotine and junk in your system. Can't be good for you."

Yeah, this.. little bit of badassery with the tiniest bit of class.. thing.. whatever it was.. It was fun! Not that Charlie would ever make a habit of doing whatever she was doing at the moment, but in the moment? Right now? Oh, it was amazing. Liberating, even.

"So how about a mutual apology, and just because I'm nice I'll listen to your problems since you probably use volume and threatening posture to scare off anyone else before they even get the chance to figure out what it is? My only problem is that you're being a tool that just ripped out my headphones and refuses to admit any blame in a collision that either of us probably could have avoided."

Now if he was only surprised enough that he didn't reach out and hit her, Charlie would be set up to surprise this guy into some sort of actual conversation..

[Dante Russo]

Okay, Dante had to admit, this chick was pretty good at slinging insults. She made him burn with rage, and want to laugh at the same time. Not because anything she said was particularly humorous, but because she just delivered a small handful of pretty good burns.

"Aight, fine-- I stopped short, and you rear-ended me. Whatever! But if you think for a second I'mma sit down and talk it out, then you're seriously dillisional! It's none of your damn business what's 'up my butt' as you so eloquently put it. And I'll have you know, I'm not loud to scare people off or whatever. I'm loud because my family is New York Italian and this is how we talk! So piss off, Tinkerbell. I don't have time for your whiney-girl bullshit."

He decided that 'Tinkerbell' was a better nickname 'Training Bra'. He felt as though he was going to run into this chick often enough that he ought to have something insulting to call her. At this point, even though he was positively livid, he was actually sort of enjoying the shouting match. Maybe he wouldn't mind running into her again if she could hold her own against him. A good insult battle was hard to find, and Dante was always in need of somebody to yell at.

[Charlotte Greene]

"Oooh, you are from that far north. Well that explains half of your attitude, but your manners would still hardly get a C even there. I think half an admission of 'maybe i was partially at fault' is better than 'wassa-madda-you Im walkin hee'" .. Charlie's imitation of a New York accent was... much more comical than insulting.

"For real, though.. You used the word 'eloquently' so I can hardly believe that you're stupid. I know you can do better than the easiest fairy ever for an insulting nickname. Unless you're telling me you just really want to go to Neverneverland.." She fluttered her wings and stepped right back up to Dante. "Because I can definitely send you there. First class. You should have seen the poor guy at the hospital who had to take my blood. My recruiter told me that he couldn't even drive home for six hours."

Whoa... Being badass, standing up to someone, AND making half-threats? Hah! Whatever it was about this kid, Charlie was going to make sure she saw more of him.. He brought out a really interesting side of her, and she liked it. It was the tiniest bit like flirting, but without any of the other crap that flirting meant... Fun!

[Dante Russo]

"Hey, hey, hey-- I get a B+ in the ghetto, aight! I'm downright polite! I go back there right now, I'll get my fucking ass beat!" Of course, he was talking over her, and the end of his last sentence dissolved into laughter when Charlie tried to put on a New York accent. "Oh my god, don't ever do that again!" He howled

Then Charlie was serious again, and she stepped right up to him. Dante stopped laughing and met her serious-face with his own sharp, focused glare. "Aight," he said with a little nod and a slight smirk. "So maybe 'Tinkerbell' ain't all that. I'm not exactly up on my fairy tails, here-- but if you think you're scarin' me right now, you're wrong. I dropped acid three times before I was fourteen. One of those times was during school, so... I think I can handle myself."

Dante held his ground, but really hoped she wasn't about to dust him. Really, he wasn't int he mood. At all.

[Charlotte Greene]

"Fairy tales are for wimps. What you need to do is look up some scientific name for some insanely weak and pathetic and endangered butterfly that I'll have to actually research to figure out what it is. The best insults are the ones that have the victim scrambling for hours to figure out how bad they actually got burned, right?" She took half a step back.. No point in being in anybody's face when the half-threat was both ineffective and becoming awkward.

"And I bet you weren't a meta the last time you dropped acid. Now you'd have to worry about whatever your ability is on top of having a bad trip. Speaking of which, what do you do? And what the crap is your name? You already know mine. I'm Charlie. I told you the other night when I followed the kitty. I'm tired of calling you 'kid'." Of course, while Charlie still had a bit of attitude going, she really was curious what this guy did and what his name was. Especially if she was going to run into him (hopefully not so literally next time) a lot. She was also trying to keep him away from bashing on fairy tales... They were one of the few things she really had left from her uncle, and things that reminded her of her uncle were precious.

Of course, then it occurred to Charlie what Dante had just said... He apparently was familiar with the ghetto.. and that he had dropped acid.. three times... before he was fourteen. "Wait a minute.. You just said you were on acid three times before you even turned fourteen? You could handle acid at fourteen?? What the heck was your life like that you were on drugs like that at all, let alone when you were younger than I am?"

If Uncle James had one face that Charlie remembered, it was his 'concerned' face. A face that filled Charlie with not only hope, but relief that someone cared.. And she had always had that person, that look, to come home to when things had gone badly... It was odd, perhaps, to think that a girl could get her motherly side from her uncle, but here Charlie was, trying to do that face and that aura justice. Seeing a whole new layer of depth to someone who previously had been little more than a loudmouthed northeastern asian little jerk. Of course she didn't want to dust him.. She had just been trying to catch him off guard enough to calm down. The gesture had actually been somewhat effective, especially in combination with her horrible attempt at an accent, but the entire idea was lost at this point in favor of trying to understand someone that Charlie just realized she knew absolutely nothing about.

[Dante Russo]

Dante's eyebrows twitched at Charlie's suggestion. That was actually a really good idea. Of course, Dante would have to go look up some prehistoric friggin' butterfly and figure out how to pronounce it. But he was dyslexic. That shit could take forever.

Dante pushed his brow back into a scowl, feeling more than a little irked that this chick had just schooled him on how to properly insult her. He was smart enough to effectively insult someone! He was just distracted right this second because his only friend just suggested they shouldn't talk anymore. On the list of things that Dante found distracting, that was high on the list.

"And I bet you weren't a meta the last time you dropped acid..."

That was true. He hadn't thought of that. Of course, "I'm just a precog," Dante said, "it's not like I'll start trippin' balls and set shit on fire or somethin'." He gave a little shrug, like it didn't matter, but he was remembering how seeing into the future felt sort of like dropping acid. It was a really mind-altering experience, and he wondered if a dose of dust might trigger visions.. and if they might be more intense than usual. The visions were already no fun, and now that he thought about it, it was probably even less fun while tripping.

He was distracted by that now too, and when Charlie started asking about his life he just, sort of, answered her. "I could handle a lot of shit by the time I was fourteen," he said, brow furrowed. "Acid is like an eight hour break from my life. Like, for one beautiful moment none of the bullshit matters." He looked away from Charlie then, feeling awkward suddenly. He was distracted enough by his own thoughts and feelings at this point that he didn't even notice they'd crossed over from fighting to conversing.

[Charlotte Greene]

Wow. This kid was.. well, he clearly hadn't had the best life up to this point.. "Well I don't know anything about you.. but.. I lost the person that was most important to me when I was younger.. I.. don't really know if that helps or if you even care. But, um.. Books. Books were my escape. Still are, really. Books and walking and not thinking.. One of the nice things about these wings is that.. who takes someone with giant butterfly wings seriously? I can't even take myself all that seriously." Hello, mood change.

Dante and Charlie both seemed a little distracted, and that wouldn't do. Charlie needed to grasp onto something and keep this dialogue existing.. because if not, then this meeting had only been as productive as their first one.. which had been, if anything, counterproductive. Not cool. "Um.. Hey, were you on the phone? Is that why you were so mad? Did you drop your call or something?" Charlie had been holding her phone, sure, but she had also been listening to music. Dante had no headphones and the way he was clutching his phone still made it look like it was something very important. "Call them back. Let me explain that it was my fault and help smooth things over. Would that make it so you don't want an acid-escape? At least for a little while? That stuff is really dangerous. Probably even more dangerous than my dust."

Charlie.. didn't actually know anything about acid aside from a few stories and a loose set of possible side-effects. She just knew that it was a drug and it was dangerous and that at least the dust on her wings was as close to natural as anything meta could be. But she did want to help Dante with his phone troubles.. or with some kind of troubles.. because it was beginning to be pretty obvious that he'd had a much harder life than her.. and Charlie figured that anyone who'd had it worse than her - what with her inattentive and hardly-loving parents - probably needed a little help, even if they were abrasive enough to scare most people off.

Besides, now she knew he was a precog.. and at least he couldn't set her on fire or push the mental idea of her wanting to kill herself or anything. That was good, at least.

[Dante Russo]

Dante rolled his eyes a little when Charlie started trying to relate to him, or whatever it was she was doing. Big woop, she lost somebody. That must be terrible for her. He looked toward the dinner line, considering just walking away at this point. He didn't have anything to say, and he found himself sinking into a depressed, broody sort of mood.

He was leaning away tot ale that first step when Charlie found something else to say. He looked up at her with a bored expression while she yammered, then shook his head. "It's got nuthin' to do with you," he said, looking exceptionally grumpy. "I was a dick to a friend of mine, and... I think he just tried to dump me." Dante huffed sharply through his nose, trying hard to cover up the surge of emotion that came along with saying those words aloud.

"Look, are you gonna just stand here all day talkin' my ear off, or did y' come here to eat? 'Cause that's why I'm here." Dante glanced at the line again. He honestly wasn't that hungry anymore, but this conversation was making him feel moody.

[Charlotte Greene]

"A-actually, I already got my food. I was on my way out?" She reached into the bag she had slung over her shoulder (It was the single-strap kind.. with the velcro on the strap.. because it was really difficult to get anything else on, given wings and all) and produced an apple, an orange, and two granola bars. "I can't eat a full meal, so I just get food to snack on through the day.. You want some? Take your pick. It's yours."

She would hold them out for a few seconds to give Dante the chance to reluctantly take something.. or snatch something.. or whatever. If he wanted it, he could have it. If not, she would gently put everything back in her bag. Charlie hadn't missed that Dante had been hiding a bit of emotion with his last few words, though. The flare of his nostrils, the subtle tightening of his jaw. It wasn't as obvious on him as it was on most people, but it was there and Charlie had been paying attention to it.

"I don't care what the problem is, I want to help. I can tell your friend that I was being a jerk to you and you took it out on him.. or.. or I can apologize for you.. Or I can try to reassure him that you are worth holding on to? There's got to be a way I can help you out. Maybe he'll believe you are less of a jerk if some girl calls him from your number and claims to be your friend? I can give him a heartbreaking short story about how you were so upset that you slammed into me and then cried your woes to the heavens. Or you come up with something different. Either way. Let. Me. Help."

Dante might, perhaps, be getting the impression that Charlie was a bit determined... "And tell me your name already. I still don't even know what to call you."

[Dante Russo]

Dante stared at the food Charlie offered him. He was only here because he knew that he should eat, not because he was starving or anything. So he took the apple and both granola bars from her hands (she might notice he did so without actually touching her hands). "Thanks," he muttered, stuffing the bars into his pocket and sinking his teeth into the apple with a loud crunch.

He let her ramble on while he munched on his apple, his expression growing harder and more irritated the longer she went on. A million things to say passed through his head fore very one thing she suggested. He couldn't possibly say them all at the same time, so he just chewed, and glowered, and let the pressure build.

"It's Dante, aight!?" Dante snapped, "and you can't help! You have no idea what my life is like, or the numerous ways in which I've completely fucked it up! You're not going to convince anyone that I'm not a total dick-- because I am! This guy's already given me more chances than I deserve, and there's nothing you can do about it!" Dante stepped back and looked Charlie up and down. "And we ain't friends, girl, so don't even go there." With that, Dante turned and headed for the door.

[Charlotte Greene]

Oh heeeeeeell naw. After a moment to blink and realize how much Dante had just exploded in her general direction, Charlie raced after him, intending on getting to the door before he could and holding it shut so he had to hear her out.

"First, Dante, I agree. You are, as you so 'eloquently' put it, a total dick. Second, I know at least one of the ways you've completely messed it up. You're doing it right friggin now! Third, ya jerk, here's another person giving you second chances and you're just crapping all over them. You aren't a stupid kid, why not pay at least a little attention to patterns?"

Charlie was using her height to her full advantage, staring down at Dante. Given, she was only four or five inches taller than him depending on what shoes they were both wearing, but four inches was enough difference for it to matter. In fact, whereas early she'd looked more smug and catty, now she looked genuinely a bit angry.

"And of course we aren't friends. Why would we be friends? I've seen you twice and both times you've been a complete jerk in one way or another. But I'll tell you what I can do that you can't stop me from doing.. that I can do both out of being a decent person and out of spite. I can make the effort, even if you're too stubborn or stupid or just too much of an ass to let any of it get through." With that, she would let go of the door and head back toward the lines to replace her apple and granola bars..

"Oh, and while we're on the subject of you being a jerk.. Don't rip somebody's headphones out of their ears. I can't afford to replace them and even you have to know how much music can help you get through the day, I don't care if your troubles are a thousand times worse than mine or if they don't exist at all. We all have them. Wanna be worth it to your given-you-too-many-chances friend? Stop being a total dick and stop adding to the list of ways you are screwing up your life."

As much as Charlie was hoping she wasn't about to get tackled or beaten the crap out of, she was also hoping to get enough of a reaction out of Dante to keep him talking.. Because even if it was screaming and yelling and arguing and insults, he probably needed someone to talk to.. And maybe this was just how he got his anger out? Maybe this was how she could help him.. Giving him an out of some sort. Just because he was a jerk didn't mean he didn't deserve someone that he could talk to.. or.. at, as the case may be.