Manuel, Valentia & Fred
Mar. 3rd, 2009 02:10 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsFred comes upon Manuel reading to his sister in the kitchen. Poor introductions are made for both parties and by the end of it, Fred gets a picture from Manuel's sister.
In the kitchen, Manuel leaned over the counter, reading a book of Sherlock Homes, one that had been thrust into his hand by his sister, insisting he read to her in Spanish. While he could do so, her selection was what he thought to be a boring one, however further reading proved his initial judgements to be very wrong. While waiting for the oven to cook two very basic, frozen meat pies, he'd stop reading to her from where she sat at the kitchen table and was now engrossed in the short story, as much as she was engrossed in her current drawing with markers. Little was he aware that she was busy marking up the table while she went.
Fred wandered into the kitchen as he looked for some food to go with his cigarette and Red Bull. As he moved through the mansion, unlit cigarette dangling from his lips, he walked into the kitchen and stopped, observing the unknown man and the young girl. He didn't know who they were, but caught that the man was reading to the girl. Hoping he could move through unnoticed, Fred quietly stepped towards the fridge. Well, quiet is a relative term; Fred wasn't really designed for stealth.
The newest arrival broke Valentia's concentration first. Her marker stopped scratching and she stared at the boy, dark eyes following him to the point of being rude. Manuel paid no attention to his sister's obvious emotional curiosity, merely lifting a hand from where he stood against the counter, to scratch behind his ear. It was when she pressed her emotional curiosity on Manuel through their link that he looked up at her and opened his mouth to scold.
"~Do not stare, it is rude,~" he quipped in Spanish before Fred caught his eye and he turned his full attention on the bigger boy. Well, that wasn't what you saw often. Most of the mansion people were trimmed to the point of egotistical and boring. But this... this was... interesting. His brow raised and amusement pulled at the corners of his mouth. So this was the new emotional signature he'd felt on Sunday.
"Fred Dukes, I presume?"
Fred looked like a deer in headlights, looking from Manuel to the girl as they had their small exchange. He gave a weak smile, the best he could ever muster when he was trying to smile, at the young girl and said, "~It's okay. I do not take offense.~" he said, it stunted Spanish. He looked back up to Manuel, eyes wide; he feared he'd broken some unknown rule, "Uh, yes. Yes sir. Sir." he said. He didn't know who the man was, but he looked like someone he was supposed to call sir, and he didn't want to start off his stay here offending everyone.
Valentia made a face as much as Manuel refrained from doing so. She struggled with awkward dialect and resumed to her drawing. Instead of drawing from imagination, she drew from what was before her - Fred - only that had more to do with round curves of circles than with straight lines.
While he didn't correct the 'sir', he found it only mildly insulting that he was considered old enough to be addressed so."You look as though someone is going to remove your head from your shoulders. I assure you, we are quite normal--" he said in a plain tone. "--if the occasion calls for it." He added.
Fred gave him a wide-eyed look, "Wait, no-I didn't mean-" and sighed. This? This is why he preferred being by himself. He already knew he was an ass, and couldn't make one out of himself to himself, "To be honest sir, I was shown around by an indestructible Eastern European and room with a guy who can move things by thinking about it." The small speech was about as much bravery as he could muster, and he turned away from Manuel and the young girl, and retrieved several large carrots from the fridge. Without turning back around, he added in a quieter tone, "I don't know if 'normal' is something to strive for, but this place definitely is not normal." What Fred hadn't said, however, was that its lack of normalcy was quite comforting to him.
He refrained from snorting at the sir again, realizing it bothered him more than he was letting on. From what he spoke of, the guide could have been Yvette, since she seemed to be the one to give a tour and was friendly enough that the professor would pick her, yet he could only speculate as much. The mention of a telekinetic was not one he was familiar with and let it slide for now.
Manuel observed Fred's backside with what could be best describe as disgust and pulled his gaze from it, catching his sister looking at him. She shook her head, frowning to which he responded with a pointed look. That made her return to her drawing.
"Wait until you start developing a crush on a girl that is weirder than yourself. You will wonder where your mind has went."
Fred coughed a little at the mention of girls and crushes. He turned back to Manuel, taking the cigarette from his mouth as his eyes darted around, as if looking for someone to call him a liar, "Uh, no offense or anything, sir, but...I ain't exactly the 'crush' type," he said when he finally managed to stop his cough. He put the cigarette into one of the myriad pockets in his large brown raincoat and turned back to the fridge, grabbing three oranges his carrot-free hand.
"No? What type are you then? Certainly not the...." Manuel paused, searching for the right term. "--experienced type." It was the politest word he could come up with and that much was apparent. "Please stop calling me sir. I am not that old. Manuel will do fine. This is Valentia, my sister, which you had neglected to confirm over the journals that you received our message. You may want to do that, so others will know that you are not ignoring them. Or being selective."
Fred balks a bit, his naturally pale skin taking on a callow. He shook his head a little, "Sorry about that, sir-er-Manuel. Pleasure to meet you. You too, Valentina. Uh, message received" He winced, as he was oft to do when he realized he sounded stupid, and he waved a little. Well, he shook a handful of oranges in the air, but it was close enough, he supposed. He moved to the pantry next, and tried to ignore the first question Manuel had directed at him. While he wasn't the most comfortable around the fairer sex, he had an interlude or two before; he certainly, however, did not want to discuss it with the very dashing, slightly annoyed Spaniard.
Message received. It sounded like a very bad rendition of Doug and he frowned at the words, concluding that possibly another geek - not freak - was within the mansion. "You did not answer my earlier question," he pointed out, waiting very patiently for the boy-who-had-too-much-food-and-did-not-need-it.
Valentia had stopped drawing again and was watching Fred raid the cupboard.
Fred had snatched a bottle of honey from the pantry along with an onion and a potato. When he turned back, he caught Manuel's follow up question, and felt his throat dry up. Why did it feel like he was interviewing for a job in Hell? Fred walked towards the pair and set the honey and vegetables down next to the oranges and carrots. He cleared his throat and, mindful of the child listening, managed to arrange his words carefully, "I've, uh, enjoyed fairer company before, yes,"
Valentia picked up the orange colour, scribbling furiously and then went for a green and red, proving she was ambidextrous. He watched her as he spoke. "Understand I am not interested in your sex life in the least bit - that part scares me. However, I am merely asking what type you are for the sake of your own mental health. Avoid the blondes and fire based powers. There is nothing good that will come of them." He should know, he dealt with them on a regular basis.
Fred wasn't so slow that he didn't catch the veiled insult-and the several others like it-Manuel had sprinkled into the conversation, he just...well, he'd lived this way for quite a while, and it took more than jibes at this point to really goad Fred. Fred held his hands up, "I, uh, I don't intend on..." and sighed, dropping his hands back down, "I don't think the female population of the school has anything to worry about when it comes to me, sir-er-Manuel." he really wanted to not call him sir, but it was hard for Fred to switch gears when something got into his head, "I'm just here to figure out why..." Why he was in constant, dull pain? Why it was nothing hurt him? Why his body seemed to have a mind of its own when it came to size and shape? "...why I am the way I am."
"That is a rhetorical question," Manuel's gaze pulled away from his sister long enough to close his book and lean more to one side of the counter. "Unless you are gay, it does matter. However since we are on the topic of powers, what are yours. Aside from--" he paused, unable to describe Fred's physical appearance. Instead he simply waved at the overall package. "--this."
Fred opened his mouth to say something, but then sighed and moved over to a large knife holder and removed a large, shiny butcher knife. He held his eyes even with Manuel’s' as he rolled up the sleeve on his coat and revealed his bare skin. As hard as he could, he jammed the knife several times into his arm. Every time it seemed to press in, waver, and then bounce back as Fred drew it back for another stab. He finally returned the knife to its scabbard and held up his unharmed forearm for the older man to examine. While Fred usually lacked this particular flare for the theatrics, he was very tired of saying the words "I'm strong and can't be hurt" to every individual at this school.
For some reason, Manuel found this amusing and blamed the lack of sleep for his laughter. Valentia giggled, mimicking her brother and picked up a black marker in the right hand, a gray in the left, disregarding her orange and red. "_That_ was entertaining. All the more reason for the girls to love and hate you." Manuel collected up his book and beckoned his sister to come. "Remember what I said about the blonde ones." He couldn't be more amused as he took the crayons from his sister and left the room with her.
After another moment, Valentia ran back into the room, placing a picture of Fred, surrounded by apples and oranges with a knife and trotted off.
Fred cocked an eyebrow at the retreating pair. He picked up the picture left by Valentia, grinned, and placed it underneath a magnet on the fridge. He gathered all the food he'd taken out and, bit by bit, found spaces for all of it in his large brown raincoat. Without another word, he flicked off the light in the kitchen and departed.
In the kitchen, Manuel leaned over the counter, reading a book of Sherlock Homes, one that had been thrust into his hand by his sister, insisting he read to her in Spanish. While he could do so, her selection was what he thought to be a boring one, however further reading proved his initial judgements to be very wrong. While waiting for the oven to cook two very basic, frozen meat pies, he'd stop reading to her from where she sat at the kitchen table and was now engrossed in the short story, as much as she was engrossed in her current drawing with markers. Little was he aware that she was busy marking up the table while she went.
Fred wandered into the kitchen as he looked for some food to go with his cigarette and Red Bull. As he moved through the mansion, unlit cigarette dangling from his lips, he walked into the kitchen and stopped, observing the unknown man and the young girl. He didn't know who they were, but caught that the man was reading to the girl. Hoping he could move through unnoticed, Fred quietly stepped towards the fridge. Well, quiet is a relative term; Fred wasn't really designed for stealth.
The newest arrival broke Valentia's concentration first. Her marker stopped scratching and she stared at the boy, dark eyes following him to the point of being rude. Manuel paid no attention to his sister's obvious emotional curiosity, merely lifting a hand from where he stood against the counter, to scratch behind his ear. It was when she pressed her emotional curiosity on Manuel through their link that he looked up at her and opened his mouth to scold.
"~Do not stare, it is rude,~" he quipped in Spanish before Fred caught his eye and he turned his full attention on the bigger boy. Well, that wasn't what you saw often. Most of the mansion people were trimmed to the point of egotistical and boring. But this... this was... interesting. His brow raised and amusement pulled at the corners of his mouth. So this was the new emotional signature he'd felt on Sunday.
"Fred Dukes, I presume?"
Fred looked like a deer in headlights, looking from Manuel to the girl as they had their small exchange. He gave a weak smile, the best he could ever muster when he was trying to smile, at the young girl and said, "~It's okay. I do not take offense.~" he said, it stunted Spanish. He looked back up to Manuel, eyes wide; he feared he'd broken some unknown rule, "Uh, yes. Yes sir. Sir." he said. He didn't know who the man was, but he looked like someone he was supposed to call sir, and he didn't want to start off his stay here offending everyone.
Valentia made a face as much as Manuel refrained from doing so. She struggled with awkward dialect and resumed to her drawing. Instead of drawing from imagination, she drew from what was before her - Fred - only that had more to do with round curves of circles than with straight lines.
While he didn't correct the 'sir', he found it only mildly insulting that he was considered old enough to be addressed so."You look as though someone is going to remove your head from your shoulders. I assure you, we are quite normal--" he said in a plain tone. "--if the occasion calls for it." He added.
Fred gave him a wide-eyed look, "Wait, no-I didn't mean-" and sighed. This? This is why he preferred being by himself. He already knew he was an ass, and couldn't make one out of himself to himself, "To be honest sir, I was shown around by an indestructible Eastern European and room with a guy who can move things by thinking about it." The small speech was about as much bravery as he could muster, and he turned away from Manuel and the young girl, and retrieved several large carrots from the fridge. Without turning back around, he added in a quieter tone, "I don't know if 'normal' is something to strive for, but this place definitely is not normal." What Fred hadn't said, however, was that its lack of normalcy was quite comforting to him.
He refrained from snorting at the sir again, realizing it bothered him more than he was letting on. From what he spoke of, the guide could have been Yvette, since she seemed to be the one to give a tour and was friendly enough that the professor would pick her, yet he could only speculate as much. The mention of a telekinetic was not one he was familiar with and let it slide for now.
Manuel observed Fred's backside with what could be best describe as disgust and pulled his gaze from it, catching his sister looking at him. She shook her head, frowning to which he responded with a pointed look. That made her return to her drawing.
"Wait until you start developing a crush on a girl that is weirder than yourself. You will wonder where your mind has went."
Fred coughed a little at the mention of girls and crushes. He turned back to Manuel, taking the cigarette from his mouth as his eyes darted around, as if looking for someone to call him a liar, "Uh, no offense or anything, sir, but...I ain't exactly the 'crush' type," he said when he finally managed to stop his cough. He put the cigarette into one of the myriad pockets in his large brown raincoat and turned back to the fridge, grabbing three oranges his carrot-free hand.
"No? What type are you then? Certainly not the...." Manuel paused, searching for the right term. "--experienced type." It was the politest word he could come up with and that much was apparent. "Please stop calling me sir. I am not that old. Manuel will do fine. This is Valentia, my sister, which you had neglected to confirm over the journals that you received our message. You may want to do that, so others will know that you are not ignoring them. Or being selective."
Fred balks a bit, his naturally pale skin taking on a callow. He shook his head a little, "Sorry about that, sir-er-Manuel. Pleasure to meet you. You too, Valentina. Uh, message received" He winced, as he was oft to do when he realized he sounded stupid, and he waved a little. Well, he shook a handful of oranges in the air, but it was close enough, he supposed. He moved to the pantry next, and tried to ignore the first question Manuel had directed at him. While he wasn't the most comfortable around the fairer sex, he had an interlude or two before; he certainly, however, did not want to discuss it with the very dashing, slightly annoyed Spaniard.
Message received. It sounded like a very bad rendition of Doug and he frowned at the words, concluding that possibly another geek - not freak - was within the mansion. "You did not answer my earlier question," he pointed out, waiting very patiently for the boy-who-had-too-much-food-and-did-not-need-it.
Valentia had stopped drawing again and was watching Fred raid the cupboard.
Fred had snatched a bottle of honey from the pantry along with an onion and a potato. When he turned back, he caught Manuel's follow up question, and felt his throat dry up. Why did it feel like he was interviewing for a job in Hell? Fred walked towards the pair and set the honey and vegetables down next to the oranges and carrots. He cleared his throat and, mindful of the child listening, managed to arrange his words carefully, "I've, uh, enjoyed fairer company before, yes,"
Valentia picked up the orange colour, scribbling furiously and then went for a green and red, proving she was ambidextrous. He watched her as he spoke. "Understand I am not interested in your sex life in the least bit - that part scares me. However, I am merely asking what type you are for the sake of your own mental health. Avoid the blondes and fire based powers. There is nothing good that will come of them." He should know, he dealt with them on a regular basis.
Fred wasn't so slow that he didn't catch the veiled insult-and the several others like it-Manuel had sprinkled into the conversation, he just...well, he'd lived this way for quite a while, and it took more than jibes at this point to really goad Fred. Fred held his hands up, "I, uh, I don't intend on..." and sighed, dropping his hands back down, "I don't think the female population of the school has anything to worry about when it comes to me, sir-er-Manuel." he really wanted to not call him sir, but it was hard for Fred to switch gears when something got into his head, "I'm just here to figure out why..." Why he was in constant, dull pain? Why it was nothing hurt him? Why his body seemed to have a mind of its own when it came to size and shape? "...why I am the way I am."
"That is a rhetorical question," Manuel's gaze pulled away from his sister long enough to close his book and lean more to one side of the counter. "Unless you are gay, it does matter. However since we are on the topic of powers, what are yours. Aside from--" he paused, unable to describe Fred's physical appearance. Instead he simply waved at the overall package. "--this."
Fred opened his mouth to say something, but then sighed and moved over to a large knife holder and removed a large, shiny butcher knife. He held his eyes even with Manuel’s' as he rolled up the sleeve on his coat and revealed his bare skin. As hard as he could, he jammed the knife several times into his arm. Every time it seemed to press in, waver, and then bounce back as Fred drew it back for another stab. He finally returned the knife to its scabbard and held up his unharmed forearm for the older man to examine. While Fred usually lacked this particular flare for the theatrics, he was very tired of saying the words "I'm strong and can't be hurt" to every individual at this school.
For some reason, Manuel found this amusing and blamed the lack of sleep for his laughter. Valentia giggled, mimicking her brother and picked up a black marker in the right hand, a gray in the left, disregarding her orange and red. "_That_ was entertaining. All the more reason for the girls to love and hate you." Manuel collected up his book and beckoned his sister to come. "Remember what I said about the blonde ones." He couldn't be more amused as he took the crayons from his sister and left the room with her.
After another moment, Valentia ran back into the room, placing a picture of Fred, surrounded by apples and oranges with a knife and trotted off.
Fred cocked an eyebrow at the retreating pair. He picked up the picture left by Valentia, grinned, and placed it underneath a magnet on the fridge. He gathered all the food he'd taken out and, bit by bit, found spaces for all of it in his large brown raincoat. Without another word, he flicked off the light in the kitchen and departed.
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