thefolder | Pasta Dinner Night -- Open to All

Entry tags:

Pasta Dinner Night -- Open to All

Characters: Anyone who wants in!
When: April 7, 2013, 6pm onwards
Where: The communal kitchen
What: Shepard hosts a communal dinner to make sure all the kids are okay, but adults and digimon are welcome as well!

[There's a good chance Shepard is going to regret emptying her wallet later, but for now, she's armed with a massive quantity of uncooked pasta and a bunch of jars of red sauce, along with butter and salt just in case of picky eaters. She'd normally just make the same thing for everyone, but she's dealing with what could be very young, very frightened children, so it's best to err on the side of caution.]

[She settles into the kitchen at 6, and after banishing Monodramon to their apartment (he's still in trouble for the incident with Gomamon), sets about to cooking.]

[If you show up early, you'll find her manning a large number of cooking pots full of heating sauce and boiling water. If you're on time, you'll find Shepard handing out plates of pasta and offering a choice between sauce or no sauce, then herding you to a table filled with anyone who got here before you. Why not get to mingling? There's enough food and company to go around, tonight.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Shepard's smile grows as the story goes on, and she starts laughing when he gets to the part where they exploded.]

Seems like nobody can resist the allure of wrapping things in bacon. Your brother sounds like a friend I had back in biotic training who was convinced that anything could be enhanced with mayonnaise or bacon.

[She makes a mildly sick face.]

Aaaand then he made a birthday cake. While drunk off his ass. And we weren't drunk when we ate it. Or tried to, anyways.

[Wait, there was another detail in Cam's story she wanted to comment on.]

You play hockey?

[He starts to smile, laugh a little again. Feels like he hasn't in so long, he enjoys listening to the story about her friend, even though that sounds gross, and--

oh. He mentioned hockey. He didn't mean to. His smile sort of evaporates and then he tries to put on another one. Poorly.]

Yeah, yeah... ...Naw. Not...so much anymore. I did, back before. [Before...] I guess I sort of do.

[. . . That's not a good look.]

Did you get hurt?

[She seriously hopes this is just a sports injury and not a car crash or something.]

[Ha. Oh, did he ever. He can't tell her the truth, but--] Broke my arm. It...got better before I. Got here. I mean, it was all a bit...rough.

[He rubs his hands together a bit, because he can still feel the sting on his palm, if he thinks too hard. And Lucemon almost says something, but she just reaches up and pats his head, like he's a puppy, and he doesn't actually mind it.]

[Shepard nods, frowning emphatically.]

Breaks are the worst. They keep you out of the action for way too long.

[She can tell something more is in the works here, though.]

Is everything okay?

[She keeps her voice neutral, trying not to sound condescending or pushy. If he freaks out at all, she'll just claim she was asking about how his arm healed, but hey, if something's up? She's here for you, kid.]

[Well, no. It's not. It's really not but here, it's a whole new set of people. A whole new set of people, he's realizing, who he's starting to interact with, and though he tried to escape he's just in this place again.

So he makes his smile work. He makes it. Come on, Cam. You used to be good at this.]

Heh, yeah... Hurt a lot, and the team kinda kept riding me for it. Didn't really have time to get back on the ice, feel kinda rusty. I dunno, maybe I'll find a rink around here somewhere, some skates, try it out again.

[Come on, Saunders. You can do this. Keep your head up, stick on the ice.]

[Shepard isn't a psychologist, and her specialty isn't reading people. But she's done her fair share of interrogations, and she can recognize a faked smile. At least in context. Something is seriously wrong here.]

. . . Hey.

[She glances over her shoulder and around them to make sure nobody's listening.]

If something's wrong... Well. I won't make you talk about it. But. You don't have to smile for me, okay?

[She pauses for a long moment, then smiles very slightly.]

I haven't played since I was a kid, but, if you need a practice buddy, I'm here.

[He's a bit surprised. It usually worked on Maya, and Dallas, and his family. Well, he hadn't needed to a lot around his family; it didn't really become more of a problem until later. (Maya didn't believe him, though, he can tell, she was worried sometimes.)

So the smile does fall, and it's that that does it. He doesn't even register Lucemon's hand still on his head.]

I'm... Okay.

[A pause between the words; he doesn't know if it's just trying to deny it again or...well, if it's actually acknowledging her point. He's not sure what he's saying.]

...I guess. It might be fun. I'd need skates. And a puck. A stick. I only have my left skate here.

[Shepard's going to assume the later. She isn't going to try to play therapist, but she can at least be somewhere he doesn't have to pretend everything's alright. She's been lucky enough to have friends like that, but they're all alone here.]

[She nods in acknowledgment, then quietly moves on to the hockey conversation.]

You'd be surprised what they sell in town. We could take a look around.

[Wait, what was that last part?]

Only your left?

Edited 2013-04-11 02:48 (UTC)

[It actually almost feels a bit good to think about it. Playing again. ...Almost.

Quickly, swiftly, and easily, he finds the answer here.]

It was in my backpack. The other wasn't.

[Somehow he can find distance from that.]

[Shepard doesn't question him on the location of the other skate. She's lost things before and... something tells her he wouldn't want to talk about it.]

We could show the one you've got to our... partners, if we wanted to have them help us look.

[Although she can't say she'd feel good letting Monodramon run around unsupervised.]

Uhhh... [He glances at Lucemon, who's perked up and is looking around and then-- just about zeroes in on him.]

Help? Oh, I'd love to help, Campbell!

I guess, I mean. D'you think they really have skates here? ...Maybe I should just get new ones...

[Shepard chuckles a little.]

Although, I'll admit, if there was anywhere that you could get one ice skate? It'd be here. They have the weirdest stuff.

[With a little thoughtful smile:]

I guess. Probably better if I get a new pair, though. It'd feel weird, having one from home and not the other.

Fresh start, right?

...Guess so.

Gotta say, without my biotics or guns, I'm feeling like a teenager again.

What's a biotic? [Obviously, he knows what a gun is.]

Technically, a biotic is a person. There's a chemical that causes... Well. In humans, it's a useful birth defect. It makes your body compatible with biotic amps, which manipulate energy to do various things. You activate them mentally. Pretty much all of us get trained as soldiers.

[She raises a hand up to the back of her neck and pushes up her hair, then turns around to show him a little metal implant at the base of her skull.]

Mine shorted out when I got here. It's unsettling, I'll be honest.

Edited 2013-04-17 21:56 (UTC)

[He leans close, but not too close, so he can see it properly, and then leans back away, sort of stunned.]

Wow... That kinda stuff, we don't have anything like it back home, like...it's only in movies, or comics, or video games.

Sometimes, it feels a little like I'm living in some old scifi movie. There are peppy television ads to help people whose amps itch.

[She laughs and shakes her head.]

I was 8 when we made first contact with the Turians.

What's a Turian?

[His interest is super-sparked.]

They're an alien race with a military focus. And they kinda look like dinosaurs, to be honest. With mandibles.

[She shakes her head and laughs.]

It was weird at first, but... Well, let's just say that the Turian I work with makes it hard to remember that we used to be terrified of them.

[See that smile? That is not a platonically fond smile.]

Wow. Wow, that's cool.

[Process the smile Cam.]

You even work with one of them? Can barely believe it.

[Process it.]

I mean, sounds like there're lots of different things, we're in a, a digital world, so.

[Process it.]

S'good you're friends with one, and-- [PROCESSED.] Oh. Oh, oh. So you, ohhh.

[Shepard laughs entirely too hard when Cam puts it together, but it's a good natured sort of laugh.]

Yeah, friends is a little bit of an understatement.

[She pauses for a moment, looking thoughtful.]

. . . Even without the romance, it would be.

[She appears to actively shake off the sentimental feelings.]

What about you? Anyone special back home?

Pasta Dinner Night -- Open to All

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