princessences | [IC] Inbox @ deerington

[ It's almost as if it's something they should actually talk about. But dancing around these issues and trying to take on as much as possible is just how they work.

As for plants, she is learning, but she is hardly an expert. He could give her the details and she would have no idea what it was beyond "not a rose or carnation". ]

Is this where the doctors believe this contamination might have come from?

[ She just wants to be prepared for whatever results he gets back. ]

...That sounds terrifying. You were forced to explore in the darkness?

[There are... a lot of things they should probably talk about. But this place takes priority, he feels.]

That's what they make it sound like. I tried to be careful, but -- you know how it goes.

[She knows how he is. If someone else needed his helmet, he'd give it to them.]

Wasn't too bad. I always had a flashlight handy. [He waggles his metal fingers at her.] But, for the most part, yes. Whenever they showed up, we had to go dark.

[ It does.

The mission always comes first. ]

Mmm.

[ Allura can't really fault him for that. While Shiro may take some risks, they are rarely uncalculated.

She manages a small snort of amusement at his fingers, but covers it up as she clears her throat before taking another cookie. ]

I'm glad you made it out, clearly. That does make one wonder what sort of nightmare manifests itself in such a way... That is what these are, aren't they? Nightmares we are forced to experience?

That... could be what they are, there's no doubt about that.

[A few other people have thought the same thing. Asked the same thing. It's not out of the realm of possibility, since this place is supposedly built on dreams or something like that.]

[One more cookie, but this one toyed with in his fingers.]

But whose nightmares are they?

[ Allura feels horribly unequipped to deal with this world, and not just because that it's Earth and a different culture and lifestyle than she's used to. The sort of lofty reality of dreams is far beyond her areas of expertise, so she's left with "what ifs" and musings that have little concrete to them. It bothers her a little.

So she gives a single-shouldered shrug, a motion uncommon to her general demeanor. Painfully casual, though she seems to be more so when they're in the apartment. ]

Sodder's? Or the locals, perhaps? If we are truly asleep then they may be as well. Considering that we are more cognizant of the changes around us, then it might be their dreams that we're experiencing.

You know... maybe.

[She might be onto something there. With the locals. He hasn't heard enough about this "Sodder" to make a call on whatever it is they've got to do with this place, specifically. But the locals are another story.]

[He idly twists the cookie in his fingers.]

It would explain why they're always unaffected by what happens. Why they just seem like they don't care. If they're dreaming, then why would they?

[ Allura nods, feeling a little emboldened now that he's tagged on to her line of thinking. But they usually fed off one another intellectually, or they had done so well before. ]

Yes, that's exactly what I asked myself. My experience here may be limited, but each time something has gone...off, it's been very apparent.

[ Well. Except the whole swan ride. Or rather, the part that had been off hadn't been what was expected until it was too late. And yet locals still piled on without a care. ]

It's very easy to accept all happenings as logical outcomes when you're dreaming, isn't it? A faceless figure can stand in place of a loved one or a friend without question.

Yeah. And at the masquerade... when everything went haywire, not a single person from the town reacted. If they were even there at all.

[His memories were hazy too. Mostly, he remembered trying to keep Will alive in the middle of a snowstorm.]

Even when it's a nightmare... you think it's normal. Because it's a dream.

[Agreeing with her, and puzzling out the mystery at the same time. It's a huge relief, to finally have someone to work things out with. Someone you already know and trust like this. There's no second-guessing here.

Precisely!

[ Whether the theory has merit or not, it is nice to feel as if she's not going out on a limb.

She does the very ladylike motion of scraping off the frosting of her Oreo and eating that on its own. ]

I'm not sure how plausible it would be to test this, though.

[Allura if you're not going to eat the cookie, let him have it...]

I don't think we even can. If they're not outright glowering at us, they tend to act like we're not even here.

[The townsfolk are... interesting, to say the least.]

[ She sets down the cookie portion, then. Your move, Shiro. ]

Is there no way to get their attention? Perhaps that could be what might wake them up?

[Just going to casually... sneak his hand out to grab that cookie.]

I don't know, honestly. They never seem to want to say much of anything to me. Even when I was working at the school.

[ Is this a thing now? Because she's going for another untouched cookie and, yes, takes the top off. Frosting is clearly the best part. ]

That must make it difficult to do your job.

[This is now a thing, and Shiro is super fine with it. He'll just help himself to the cookie top again.]

A bit. But... honestly, it might be for the best. I'm not exactly teaching flight sims anymore.

So?

[ She's not sure if she sees the connection there. But she will eat her bit of frosting before continuing. ]

Though I'm not surprised to hear that you were an instructor. But teaching itself is still a skillset, regardless of the subject.

So being a classroom teacher for human kids is... different than what I did. It's a lot different.

I'm bad at biology, for starters. [He twists the top off another oreo, trying to scrape the cream toward her.] And the other day I tried to kill a spider with a burner and hairspray.

[ Oh that's kind of you, Shiro. She's reaching out to take it but has to pause. ]

You what??

...

I killed a spider?

With a burner and hairspray??

[ Why? ]

I didn't have a swatter handy?

[It seemed like a good idea at the time, Allura.]

What sort of spiders does Earth have?

[ The fact that she's giving him the benefit of the doubt at all in this situation must really speak for her trust in his actions. Clearly it must have been a large spider. Who could only be destroyed by flame. And would eat the students.

Or something.

Don't let her down, Shiro. ]

I... don't actually know what kind it was?

[The kids were yelling though. Like kids tend to do when they see a spider.]

[ There's a loooooooong pause. ]

...That isn't how spiders are supposed to be dealt with here, is it?

... it is if you really, really don't like them.

[So there.]

....

[ Wait a tick. ]

Shiro. Are you afraid of spiders?

[IC] Inbox @ deerington

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject