Alani & Meggan | End of the Year Catch Up
Dec. 28th, 2023 06:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logs(backdated) Following the excitement on Meggan's birthday, Alani runs into her in the Chapel, to her joy.
The reconstruction of the mansion following the arrival of the girl from elsewhere, meant that instead of spending free-time that she was around in the building, instead in the Chapel, thumbing through readings and making sure the schedules were still correct for everyone. A break to get whatever the vending machine was distributing seemed like a good idea, so down she went to the break room. Another body seemed to have the right idea, and immediately Alani brightened at the sight of Meggan. "Meg! Have a good birthday, dear? Or are you here working to busy yourself to not think about the season?"
Meggan had had a lovely birthday, even if the sudden destruction had put a weird damper on things. Just a little bit. “Yes, it was a good birthday. And no to the seasonal avoiding--I was just on the way to check on the latest readings myself for a minute, but here you are.”
She had particularly adored the green crystal necklace from Amanda, and was wearing it under her shirt. She grinned. “I might as well warn you now about what the vending machine is handing out. The crackers were singing opera in Italian instead of screaming. So you get classical input instead of a sudden shriek...and then, also one round of Joy To The World.” She had just been curious, since it tended to veer to the weirder than usual from time to time.
It had been mildly disconcerting to bite in and get an earful of that. She hadn’t wanted to finish it until it had wound down or run out of words...and wasn’t that a weird thing to even have as an option?
A long suffering sigh as Alani stared at the vending machine. "You know, I almost miss normal vending machine snacks,” she spoke rather pointedly to the machine before giving it a pat. “But the weirdness just continues to draw me back in.”
“Were they tasty?” She asked Meggan, teeth flashing for a second as she grinned and began to insert tender. “And on key?”
“They’re only off key once you bite them,” Meggan noted. “Until then, they seem to be belting the notes out right. But they’re delicious! You just have to ignore the soprano wailing out those final keys in your head.” Normal vending machines somehow just didn’t have enough mystery to them after living with this one. And wasn’t that an unusual conundrum? She just found it neat.
“And it’s never the same sort of weird. It’s a new variety every single time.” Meggan half expected real elves to come pouring out someday, instead of a Keebler Elf sort of cookie. She wouldn’t know what to do with them if they weren’t edible. Take them somewhere and protect them?
"Ohhh," Alani purred happily, pressing a confirmation to see what the crackers were like for herself. "And noted. Power through the screaming opera singers, totally a normal statement that lives in my life now." And she laughed at herself, taking her snack to finally sit down and examine them.
"You know, you got me there," she paused, mind drifting to wormhole and slowly knitting her brows together. "Do you think it has something to do with connections we make? Like they're snacks from the other worlds? Or it's just... like that? Not that that's bad." She reassured the... machine. Oh that was embarrassing.
“Maybe it’s something like—a tendril here, or there of snacks across the whole of the universe, a small piece seeping in from a scattered remnant of a connection shard, just enough to startle with its uniqueness?” Meggan speculated. “And you get a shriek here, a somersault there for variety.”
She was actually absurdly grateful that the opera shrieking hadn’t managed to hit just that right sort of high note in its distress and just absolutely shatter all the glass in the area. At least, it hadn't so far. It would be a bit of a pain to clean up all of that mess if that happened, but she’d put it in the logs for strangely interesting moments if it did.
Amused, Meggan contributed by patting the side of the machine, and praising it. “You’re unique in the annals of snack food dispensers. Good job!”
"Of course something we'd have would be unique, have you seen this place? Only the best for us." Alani grinned at Meggan. "Well, the best and the weirdest, and maybe connected to something out there beyond our understanding."
She paused, wanting to ask something more before grabbing the dispensed snack and opening the packet. That was a song indeed. Was that Il Primo Omicidio? Taking out her phone to begin recording, she stared at a text she had left unanswered.
"Aaaand, because I like my friends to meet each other, have you had the opportunity to meet Clint's boyfriend?"
Meggan supposed the vending machine would remain some weird unknowable thing for all time. As long as it didn’t become sentient and try to do anything to anyone, she was okay with the streak of madcap weirdness of it all.
She perked up at the last, just as pleased he was seeing someone as she was curious. “Oh, I hadn’t heard! Who is it?”
"Okay, his name is Sam -- Sam Guthrie -- and I think you guys would get along. No, I don't need my friends to get along, but it makes it a lot easier for my life if they didn't all hate each other because then I'm just chilling with Namor, and he doesn't laugh at any of my utterly hilarious jokes." And Alani did her best to look pathetic at that, pouting like a puppy in the rain.
"And also I'm already trying to make some connections for Namor, pretty sure he's best friends with David. He at least ignored him in the library which is practically a kiss on the lips."
“And then it just turns into the two of you staring awkwardly across the table after conversation peters out. Or royally, for him,” Meggan agreed with a wince. With a raised brow to boot, she’d be willing to bet. At the very least, though, the library thing was some kind of good sign.
“It’s practically a reason to throw confetti!” Meggan grinned. But not in his presence, because it would be a lot of explaining about the reason behind it. It was marvelous that Namor was at least on a silent tolerance level with the man. And if Alani thought she’d like Sam, then she probably would. She was just thrilled that he was with Clint for a start.
"Oh, goodness, I don't even want to think about explaining that to Namor. Luckily, I got Sam to explain 'unicorn hunting' around Halloween, but I don't think I'll luck out like that again," Alani laughed at the memory.
She stared into the package, unsure. They were lovely little singers.
Still holding them, she turned her attention away, looking for anything. "Huh, I wonder if the Guthrie siblings might like Namor. He can be... a little different for most people's social tastes. Wait, should I be setting up Namor on playdates? Is that weird?"
“Well, it can’t hurt! Not truly,” Meggan reasoned. Well, not unless it all went horribly wrong in some way that was impossible to predict. “It’s not that weird. Or if it is, just a fraction.” Granted, her measuring stick might be a little off-kilter as a whole, but in her experience random play dates could lead to interesting times.
Just so it wouldn’t startle her, she added a warning about the opera singing. “It gets a bit of an echo once it hits your stomach, but the singer's final end. It very slowly fades out in very quiet tones.” Still, she’d have to give the mysterious snacks a ten out of ten for their entertainment efforts, however disconcerting they might become.
The flavor was perfect, but she wasn’t sure what a dose of opera would be called when it came to seasoning. She half wondered what Ride of the Valkyries and assorted epics would sound like coming from a cracker. How long could the little things belt stuff out if they went uneaten and didn't crumble away?
As Meggan described the sound, Alani's mouth had slowly fallen open, eyes going at a snail's pace to stare into the snack's packaging. It sounded like an experience, and one she wasn't entirely sure about. But the machine always gave them edible food. "Just taking dinner and a show to the next level, huh?" She asked idly, bringing one up.
And taking a bite.
"Oh. Ya know, you said echo and I didn't know quite what to expect, still don't if I'm being honest. But that... that sure is a thing my body just experienced." Alani mumbled, reaching for another. "Hey, can I ask, why'd you go into Marine Biology?"
“I wonder if the echoes keep on going for someone with a lot of metal fillings,” Meggan pondered. Would it resonate differently? It was something to keep track of in the notes if someone met those qualifications. Or if they just had more metal through their body.
“When I started adapting to being underwater more, and seeing what was out there, I started reading about the sea more, just to know what I might run into if I was not in a swimming pool, and in a less controlled environment,” she explained. “Both that and the marine life fascinated me. I was originally just going to take a few classes relating to that at ESU, but one thing just led to another, and I just fell seriously in love with it. It just felt...right.”
It had simply felt like all those tests and all those classes were worth it. Meggan was pretty sure her college teachers would have been terrified to discover that sea spirits were a thing, and that they could unleash literal crabs on the populace, though. That would never have been covered on any exam.
The confusion that had settled on Alani's face at the feeling of her snack had turned into a beaming grin, as Meggan spoke describing her academic choices. Part of her was surprised to realize she'd never asked, but there was the pleased sense that came with learning something about her friend she hadn't before. "I like that," she mused, "I love that you were able to do that, for you, learn more, get your degree. Aaaaand, any time you want, I will gladly go into a body of water with you. Any time you want." She added with a wink.
For Meggan, the whole endeavor had been challenging, but oh, so thrilling in the end to have that degree in her hands after so many years of working at it. “Not on the coldest day of winter, but any other day, yeah.” So long as the water wasn’t at the cusp of being frozen over at the early stages of a flash freeze outside, then she’d happily take her up on that offer. “Any other time,” she laughed.
A snort of a laugh escaped and Alani brought up a hand to smother that back. "Fiiine, not the coldest day of the year or even the second coldest day because I'm very kind and, dare I say, magnanimous? Yes, I do. And it's a future date, that way future us get to have some enrichment that we don't have to do much planning for, outside of the chapel." Or work of any kind, went unsaid. A sage nod as she popped another cracker into her mouth.
The reconstruction of the mansion following the arrival of the girl from elsewhere, meant that instead of spending free-time that she was around in the building, instead in the Chapel, thumbing through readings and making sure the schedules were still correct for everyone. A break to get whatever the vending machine was distributing seemed like a good idea, so down she went to the break room. Another body seemed to have the right idea, and immediately Alani brightened at the sight of Meggan. "Meg! Have a good birthday, dear? Or are you here working to busy yourself to not think about the season?"
Meggan had had a lovely birthday, even if the sudden destruction had put a weird damper on things. Just a little bit. “Yes, it was a good birthday. And no to the seasonal avoiding--I was just on the way to check on the latest readings myself for a minute, but here you are.”
She had particularly adored the green crystal necklace from Amanda, and was wearing it under her shirt. She grinned. “I might as well warn you now about what the vending machine is handing out. The crackers were singing opera in Italian instead of screaming. So you get classical input instead of a sudden shriek...and then, also one round of Joy To The World.” She had just been curious, since it tended to veer to the weirder than usual from time to time.
It had been mildly disconcerting to bite in and get an earful of that. She hadn’t wanted to finish it until it had wound down or run out of words...and wasn’t that a weird thing to even have as an option?
A long suffering sigh as Alani stared at the vending machine. "You know, I almost miss normal vending machine snacks,” she spoke rather pointedly to the machine before giving it a pat. “But the weirdness just continues to draw me back in.”
“Were they tasty?” She asked Meggan, teeth flashing for a second as she grinned and began to insert tender. “And on key?”
“They’re only off key once you bite them,” Meggan noted. “Until then, they seem to be belting the notes out right. But they’re delicious! You just have to ignore the soprano wailing out those final keys in your head.” Normal vending machines somehow just didn’t have enough mystery to them after living with this one. And wasn’t that an unusual conundrum? She just found it neat.
“And it’s never the same sort of weird. It’s a new variety every single time.” Meggan half expected real elves to come pouring out someday, instead of a Keebler Elf sort of cookie. She wouldn’t know what to do with them if they weren’t edible. Take them somewhere and protect them?
"Ohhh," Alani purred happily, pressing a confirmation to see what the crackers were like for herself. "And noted. Power through the screaming opera singers, totally a normal statement that lives in my life now." And she laughed at herself, taking her snack to finally sit down and examine them.
"You know, you got me there," she paused, mind drifting to wormhole and slowly knitting her brows together. "Do you think it has something to do with connections we make? Like they're snacks from the other worlds? Or it's just... like that? Not that that's bad." She reassured the... machine. Oh that was embarrassing.
“Maybe it’s something like—a tendril here, or there of snacks across the whole of the universe, a small piece seeping in from a scattered remnant of a connection shard, just enough to startle with its uniqueness?” Meggan speculated. “And you get a shriek here, a somersault there for variety.”
She was actually absurdly grateful that the opera shrieking hadn’t managed to hit just that right sort of high note in its distress and just absolutely shatter all the glass in the area. At least, it hadn't so far. It would be a bit of a pain to clean up all of that mess if that happened, but she’d put it in the logs for strangely interesting moments if it did.
Amused, Meggan contributed by patting the side of the machine, and praising it. “You’re unique in the annals of snack food dispensers. Good job!”
"Of course something we'd have would be unique, have you seen this place? Only the best for us." Alani grinned at Meggan. "Well, the best and the weirdest, and maybe connected to something out there beyond our understanding."
She paused, wanting to ask something more before grabbing the dispensed snack and opening the packet. That was a song indeed. Was that Il Primo Omicidio? Taking out her phone to begin recording, she stared at a text she had left unanswered.
"Aaaand, because I like my friends to meet each other, have you had the opportunity to meet Clint's boyfriend?"
Meggan supposed the vending machine would remain some weird unknowable thing for all time. As long as it didn’t become sentient and try to do anything to anyone, she was okay with the streak of madcap weirdness of it all.
She perked up at the last, just as pleased he was seeing someone as she was curious. “Oh, I hadn’t heard! Who is it?”
"Okay, his name is Sam -- Sam Guthrie -- and I think you guys would get along. No, I don't need my friends to get along, but it makes it a lot easier for my life if they didn't all hate each other because then I'm just chilling with Namor, and he doesn't laugh at any of my utterly hilarious jokes." And Alani did her best to look pathetic at that, pouting like a puppy in the rain.
"And also I'm already trying to make some connections for Namor, pretty sure he's best friends with David. He at least ignored him in the library which is practically a kiss on the lips."
“And then it just turns into the two of you staring awkwardly across the table after conversation peters out. Or royally, for him,” Meggan agreed with a wince. With a raised brow to boot, she’d be willing to bet. At the very least, though, the library thing was some kind of good sign.
“It’s practically a reason to throw confetti!” Meggan grinned. But not in his presence, because it would be a lot of explaining about the reason behind it. It was marvelous that Namor was at least on a silent tolerance level with the man. And if Alani thought she’d like Sam, then she probably would. She was just thrilled that he was with Clint for a start.
"Oh, goodness, I don't even want to think about explaining that to Namor. Luckily, I got Sam to explain 'unicorn hunting' around Halloween, but I don't think I'll luck out like that again," Alani laughed at the memory.
She stared into the package, unsure. They were lovely little singers.
Still holding them, she turned her attention away, looking for anything. "Huh, I wonder if the Guthrie siblings might like Namor. He can be... a little different for most people's social tastes. Wait, should I be setting up Namor on playdates? Is that weird?"
“Well, it can’t hurt! Not truly,” Meggan reasoned. Well, not unless it all went horribly wrong in some way that was impossible to predict. “It’s not that weird. Or if it is, just a fraction.” Granted, her measuring stick might be a little off-kilter as a whole, but in her experience random play dates could lead to interesting times.
Just so it wouldn’t startle her, she added a warning about the opera singing. “It gets a bit of an echo once it hits your stomach, but the singer's final end. It very slowly fades out in very quiet tones.” Still, she’d have to give the mysterious snacks a ten out of ten for their entertainment efforts, however disconcerting they might become.
The flavor was perfect, but she wasn’t sure what a dose of opera would be called when it came to seasoning. She half wondered what Ride of the Valkyries and assorted epics would sound like coming from a cracker. How long could the little things belt stuff out if they went uneaten and didn't crumble away?
As Meggan described the sound, Alani's mouth had slowly fallen open, eyes going at a snail's pace to stare into the snack's packaging. It sounded like an experience, and one she wasn't entirely sure about. But the machine always gave them edible food. "Just taking dinner and a show to the next level, huh?" She asked idly, bringing one up.
And taking a bite.
"Oh. Ya know, you said echo and I didn't know quite what to expect, still don't if I'm being honest. But that... that sure is a thing my body just experienced." Alani mumbled, reaching for another. "Hey, can I ask, why'd you go into Marine Biology?"
“I wonder if the echoes keep on going for someone with a lot of metal fillings,” Meggan pondered. Would it resonate differently? It was something to keep track of in the notes if someone met those qualifications. Or if they just had more metal through their body.
“When I started adapting to being underwater more, and seeing what was out there, I started reading about the sea more, just to know what I might run into if I was not in a swimming pool, and in a less controlled environment,” she explained. “Both that and the marine life fascinated me. I was originally just going to take a few classes relating to that at ESU, but one thing just led to another, and I just fell seriously in love with it. It just felt...right.”
It had simply felt like all those tests and all those classes were worth it. Meggan was pretty sure her college teachers would have been terrified to discover that sea spirits were a thing, and that they could unleash literal crabs on the populace, though. That would never have been covered on any exam.
The confusion that had settled on Alani's face at the feeling of her snack had turned into a beaming grin, as Meggan spoke describing her academic choices. Part of her was surprised to realize she'd never asked, but there was the pleased sense that came with learning something about her friend she hadn't before. "I like that," she mused, "I love that you were able to do that, for you, learn more, get your degree. Aaaaand, any time you want, I will gladly go into a body of water with you. Any time you want." She added with a wink.
For Meggan, the whole endeavor had been challenging, but oh, so thrilling in the end to have that degree in her hands after so many years of working at it. “Not on the coldest day of winter, but any other day, yeah.” So long as the water wasn’t at the cusp of being frozen over at the early stages of a flash freeze outside, then she’d happily take her up on that offer. “Any other time,” she laughed.
A snort of a laugh escaped and Alani brought up a hand to smother that back. "Fiiine, not the coldest day of the year or even the second coldest day because I'm very kind and, dare I say, magnanimous? Yes, I do. And it's a future date, that way future us get to have some enrichment that we don't have to do much planning for, outside of the chapel." Or work of any kind, went unsaid. A sage nod as she popped another cracker into her mouth.
