ANOTHER OPEN LOG

[nitrodamus]

Who: Sollux and anyone who could be in the Trailblazer dorms.
Where: Trailblazer dorms.
When: January 31st and onward, whenever is convenient.
What: Sollux finally ventures out of Karkat's room for little bits at a time, and typically makes messes.
Warnings: Sollux, mostly.

[Either talk to me OOC and I'll set up a thread or just tag in and I'll reply with a description of what Sollux is going at the time! Threads below.]

Comments

[civilizedcombat]

Angry? Oh no. Is it because of something she said? He does look a bit displeased. She better try to fix this before it gets worse.

"Er..." she begins concernedly, "Is it something I can help with? I hope I didn't say anything too rude..." She decides that saying she's human was a pretty bad idea; it's not like it's obvious or anything. What if he thinks his intelligence has been insulted? She feels a vague sense of disappointment with herself for being so careless.

[nitrodamus]

Her reaction confuses him even more. He folds back his ears uncertainly, and points at the food he's been setting aside from the fridge. He was just trying to explain what he was doing.

"I'm get food," he says, still very withdrawn in his posture and tone. "Ahengry..."

[civilizedcombat]

...Oh. "Hungry!" she says with a look of illumination on her face. Not that understanding the situation now makes her feel like any less of a total doofus.

Trying to recover from her mistake, she carefully takes a couple steps towards Sollux and the pile of food on the floor next to him so that she can see its contents better. There's the jar of peaches he knocked over, some yogurt...some cheese. Bingo.

Cynthia points to the cheese. "If you want, I can make both of us some really yummy food. I make a mean grilled cheese." She should be getting back to bed, but a midnight snack is too appealing to pass up right now.

[nitrodamus]

He watches her carefully as she approaches, unsure of what she's going to do. When she points at the cheese, he looks up at her, questioning.

He wonders what 'yummy' means, and folds back his ears.

"Make food?" he asks, clarifying that he heard her right. He's frowning, but it's in a thoughtful sort of way more than anything. "I don't know human food."

[civilizedcombat]

"That's okay!" she says cheerfully. "Some human food is gross, but lots of it is good. You never know until you try! Now, I'm just gonna go ahead and get these ingredients, alright?" Keeping her arm extended in the direction of the food to hopefully make it obvious what she intends to do, she sidles towards it.

When she's close enough, she plucks the cheese and the butter from the pile. Then, she grabs a bagged loaf of bread from a bread basket and a medium-sized pan from the cabinets. She puts the pan on the stove and sets the heat to medium to preheat the pan.

"I'm gonna make one for myself, but do you wanna try one too?" she asks. She gets a plate, but her hand lingers on a second one. "They're really good, I promise!"

[nitrodamus]

He watches her warily as she comes close to him to grab the food, expression very clearly of a 'not sure if want' variety. He lets her take them though, even as he watches her dubious.

He eyes the cheese. It had sport of smelt okay, out of the rest of the stuff.

"...Okay, yes," he says, finally. He still hangs back though, as if she was working with dynamite instead of bread.

[civilizedcombat]

"Sweet!" she exclaims, clearly excited about sharing the marvels of grilled cheese with Sollux. She grabs the second plate and lays both plates out next to the stove.

When she thinks the pan has gotten warm enough, Cynthia retrieves a knife and a spatula from more cabinets and slices off a bit of butter with the knife. The butter goes right into the pan, and soon it begins melting with a sizzling sound. She tips the pan around so that the melted butter will cover enough of the pan.

"Sooo...what have you been up to lately?" she asks him as she prepares to start the grilling process. "Anything cool?"

She puts a slice of bread in the middle of the pan after the butter is spread across the pan. She places two slices of cheese on the bread so that none of the bread's surface shows, and then she puts the second slice of bread on top. Every so often, she presses down on the in-progress grilled cheese with the spatula.

[nitrodamus]

Sollux is watching her make a sandwich as cautious as someone watching another handle explosives. He keeps his distance, even though his eyes are set on what she's doing.

He's not sure he understands what she's asking but he can sort of guess from context.

"Learning electronic," he mumbles. "Human electronic."

[civilizedcombat]

Cynthia notes Sollux's continued cautiousness. She doesn't think there's anything she can do to ease his mind, so she just keeps up her positive attitude.

"Like the TV, or like phones and stuff?" she asks, lifting the grilled cheese with the spatula. She drops another bit of butter onto the pan before she flips the grilled cheese and puts it back down.

[nitrodamus]

He watches her flip the grilled cheese carefully, and then looks up at her.

"Computer. Videogame. Ekhsbok," he says. "Fruit computer."

[civilizedcombat]

She furrows her eyebrows in confusion. She understands the first two easily, and Xbox is decipherable. Fruit computer, however, is a mystery.

"I don't know any fruit computers..." she says. She can only imagine two unnaturally large apple halves, one with a screen and another with a keyboard, joined by a hinge.

...Apples. Of course.

"Wait a minute...Do you mean the computers with the apple logo on them? The red fruit with the stem? Though I guess it's green sometimes too..."

[nitrodamus]

He frowns, and then gestures with his hands, and if indicating something drawn on the back of a flat object.

"Apple fruit light," he says.

[civilizedcombat]

Her expression brightens as her eyes follow his gesture. "Yeah!" she exclaims. "That's exactly the one. So you've been...surfing the web? Something like that?"

Cynthia lifts the grilled cheese off the pan and tilts her head to see if the bottom bread is properly browned. She sees that it is, and that the cheese is nice and melted, so she sets it down on one of the plates.

She holds out the plate with the grilled cheese to Sollux. "Oh, and here you go!"

[nitrodamus]

He very carefully reaches out to take the plate, very conspicuously smelling the sandwich before putting it anywhere close to his mouth. He hesitates on eating it for the moment, and continues standing there awkwardly.

"I'm good computers. Easy," he says. "Make computer."

[civilizedcombat]

As Cynthia puts together another sandwich and places it on the pan, she sneaks glances toward Sollux to see if she can catch the incredible moment that is someone's first grilled cheese experience. He seems hesitant, but she hopes he'll try it eventually.

"You mean you build them from scratch?" she asks, surprised but impressed. "That's pretty awesome!"

[nitrodamus]

"Build, yeah," he says, his brow creasing as he tries to keep track of all those words. He understands 'awesome' at least, he thinks. He nods a little, hesitantly trying to pick up his sandwich.

"English is made hard. Words." He tries to eat his sandwich, his over sized fangs making deadly impact with the toasty bread. He freezes for a moment, his ears flicking upwards, mouth still around the bread.

[civilizedcombat]

Cynthia is about to respond when she looks at Sollux and sees his face.

"Hey, are you okay?" she asks, concerned. She hopes he doesn't dislike the grilled cheese. Oh god, what if he's allergic to it? Do allergies work the same way for aliens? Do aliens even have allergies? No, wait, he wouldn't have that reaction if it were an allergy, would he?

She tries to ground herself before she starts panicking about something nonexistent. He's totally fine. ...Right?

[nitrodamus]

He reacts by tearing off about half the sandwich and eating it. Half the whole damn sandwich. He regards the other half of the sandwich intensely.

"What are this?" he asks, pointing at the yellow stuff in between the bread.

[civilizedcombat]

As relieved as she is that he's fine and enjoying the sandwich – seemingly quite a bit, in fact – it takes her a moment to gather her wits. He just ate a lot of sandwich.

"Oh, uh...cheese!" she answers. She suddenly remembers her own food, so applies some more butter to the pan and flips the sandwich. "It's cheddar cheese. We have lots of it, if you want more after you finish that."

[nitrodamus]

"Cheese," he repeats, with his funny alien accent, and then crams most of the rest of it into his mouth with considerable vigor. "It okay."

Without further hesitation he goes right for the sliced cheese package and takes out a piece to just eat by itself. Who needs the middle man, really?

[civilizedcombat]

She's still surprised at his ability to stuff his mouth with grilled cheese, but she's glad he's found something good to eat. How healthy tons of cheese is...well, that's a bit questionable, but she's not that much about healthy food anyway.

"Have you found anything else you like?" she asks. "One of my favorite desserts is ice cream; there's probably some in the freezer!"

[nitrodamus]

"I like paper," he says without much hesitation, already done scarfing the sandwich. He glances around the kitchen curiously. "What are 'ice cream'?"

[civilizedcombat]

She stops. Did she hear him correctly? How does someone just...eat paper?? ...He probably meant "pepper." Of course. That's definitely what he meant, and she can move on with no worries in her heart.

She walks around him to get to the fridge, then opens the freezer. The cold air hits her face; it's a stark contrast to the warmth of the air above the stove. She grabs the chocolate ice cream from one of the shelves and sets it down on the counter next to Sollux.

"There you go! That one is chocolate-flavored, but there are other flavors too. They're all really yummy, but they're different than the cheese and the pepper!"

[nitrodamus]

He looks at it skeptically, and then leans forward and cautious pries off the lid half way. It doesn't look completely dissimilar to things he's eaten before. It's very cold, so it must be some kind of ice based food.

He straight up sticks his finger in it and then tastes it. He furrows his brow.

VERY SORRY FOR THE LATENESS...

[civilizedcombat]

"Do you like it?" she asks. She has the feeling he's not that into it, but it's hard to tell.

While she waits for his answer, she slides the grilled cheese from her pan and onto her plate. The bread is brown and buttery and the cheese is just melted enough. She takes a bite out of it, and she realizes that it is just as delicious as it looks. At least one of them is for sure having a good culinary experience right now.