cafeteria: tuesday lunch time

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

Nathan wasn't sure he'd ever been in the school's lunch room, if he was honest. He tended to eat in town or in his room so the lunch room had been largely ignored. But, after his class, he'd made a stop in there just to check it out.

He'd seen places like this back home but had never had the money to actually participate so he was actually a little fascinated by the whole thing. It kind of made amazed that he could still be amazed by mundane things. But, it was a thing and he was going to accept it.

He grabbed some food and a drink before sitting down to eat. Maybe he'd have to do this more often since he guessed it'd save both money and time and he wouldn't have to walk all those stairs. He had an errant thought that Gabriel would probably laugh at something like this before he pushed it away.

Thoughts for later.

[Open. This just hadn't been used in awhile and I wanted to post here.]

Comments

[not_every_mage]

"Do you do this a lot?" Anders wondered dubiously, as he prodded something meatlike on his tray with his fork. (He'd followed Nathan to the cafeteria. What else was he supposed to do after class? He could only spend so much time talking to Lachlan in a silly voice.)

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"Never before," Nathan said, shaking his head. "But, I knew it existed so I wanted to see what it looked like. I've never been in a cafeteria like this before."

[not_every_mage]

"I stopped in once for a muffin, but I didn't eat here," Anders said, finally cutting into what he was almost certain was chicken. "It's so shiny. All the plastic and metal, you know?"

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"But, I'm sure the food is still good," Nathan told him, reaching for some bread that he'd gotten. "The food is good everywhere else on this island so I don't think they'd overlook a cafeteria."

[not_every_mage]

"Oh, of course," Anders agreed, but he still sniffed at the chicken before forking it up. "The muffin was fine. I think it's the name of the place. 'Cafeteria' sounds ominous."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"It's also called a lunch room," Nathan tried, laughing. "Any better?"

[not_every_mage]

"Much. Yes," Anders decided, trying to keep his dignity despite his urge to giggle. "And the lunch room chicken is actually pretty good, by the way. It's not a bad day so far."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"Were you expecting it to be a bad day?" Nathan asked, looking up. "Bad feeling or something?"

[not_every_mage]

Anders shook his head. "Not really. I was worried I'd have to pretend to kill something in Bob's class, but he didn't do that to us again."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

Nathan nodded his agreement to that feeling. "Yeah. Even having to kill people that aren't feel is...jarring. I tended to just run from them back home. I only confronted when I couldn't avoid it."

[not_every_mage]

"There's that, plus I felt worse about having fought the warlock last week when I saw what the rest of you did," Anders admitted. "I barely tried to talk. I -- need to work on that."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"Well, you might have also been smarter than us because what if that guy hadn't wanted to talk and just killed us?" Nathan pointed out.

[not_every_mage]

"Then you would have been pretend dead," Anders said. "But I pretend lost my legs, so I'm not sure my way was much better."

He dragged a bit of the chicken through some gravy on his fork. "Was he hard to talk down? He didn't seem the chatty type."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"He was slower than me if you can believe it," Nathan told him, shrugging. "Very, very simple which isn't a bad thing but it made things a little harder. I had to make sure he understood me and I wasn't putting him down."

[not_every_mage]

"Right, because sometimes it's easier to shout a lot than to ask questions," Anders nodded. "And sometimes the ones like that seem to be the most dangerous."

He was thinking about the Splicers in Rapture, mostly.

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"Yeah," Nathan agreed, nodding. "It's -- I tried talking because I can't really do anything else that isn't fighting with my fists. It was about the only piece of offense I had."

[not_every_mage]

"It turned out to be the right one. And I'm not much good with my fists," Anders said thoughtfully. "I scrapped when I was younger, like anyone, but I haven't thrown a real punch in -- Maker, it must be years."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"That's one thing I did learn how to do back home," Nathan said, eating some of the rice he'd gotten. "Celia taught me how to defend myself."

[not_every_mage]

"If you ever felt like showing me, I wouldn't mind," Anders decided."The way things on this island go, I might lose my magic sometime."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"You want to learn how to fistfight?" Nathan asked, raising his eyebrows. "I could try and teach you, sure. It won't be a very good lesson since I'm not a great teacher but I might be able to help."

[not_every_mage]

"I want to learn anything that might help me," Anders smiled as he forked up some salad. "If it means extra time with you, that's just a bonus."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"You're a flatterer," Nathan laughed, shaking his head. "I'll show you what I know. If anything, you'll at least be able to throw a punch at someone's nose."

[not_every_mage]

"I am, but flattery gets you things," Anders returned. "The ability to punch people in the nose, for one."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"Have you ever punched anyone before?" Nathan asked, tilting his head curiously.

[not_every_mage]

Anders shrugged. "When I was 10 and another boy said something about my mother, does that count?"

He had not been a blazing success as a pugilist; as he recalled, he'd ended up with a sore hand from the punch and mud on his pants from being pushed down.

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"It counts," Nathan said, nodding. "How'd it go?"

[not_every_mage]

"Oh, it was glorious," Anders said, looking vaguely sour at the memory. "He shoved me and ran off, I fell into the mud, and then I got in trouble at home for making extra laundry."

He lightly prodded at his chicken again. "Anyhow, that's the only time I remember punching someone."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

Nathan chuckled a little and hid a smile. "It was probably better than most people's first times, honestly. You didn't break your hand."

[not_every_mage]

"I didn't," Anders agreed. "I didn't even know you could. Why, did you do that?"

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

Nathan shook his head. "No, thankfully. I just know you can. I guess if you punch wrong, the bones in your hand can break. Face isn't the softest place to hit."

[not_every_mage]

Anders ran his fingertips experimentally over his own nose and cheekbones, seeing what Nathan meant. "Huh. So maybe punching someone's stomach is a better place to start."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"Don't get me wrong, you can punch the face but if you do, just have to know how to hold your hand and where to punch so you don't break fingers," Nathan advised.

[not_every_mage]

"is this how you hold your hand?" Anders wondered, holding up his own right hand and making a sloppy fist, thumb mispositioned.

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"Don't tuck your thumb into your fist," Nathan told him, shaking his head. "That's guaranteed to hurt. A lot."

[not_every_mage]

"What else am I supposed to do with it?" Anders complained mildly, as he moved the thumb to the side of his hand. "Won't this feel awkward?"

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"It might feel awkward but you're not gonna break anything if you put it on the side of your hand," Nathan told him. "Imagine hitting someone's face with your thumb tucked in your hand like that and the impact it's gonna feel."

[not_every_mage]

Anders had to think about that. "Basically I'd be smashing my thumb between the other bones in my hand," he finally conceded. "I can see where that's a problem."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"And if you broke your hand, you'd have some trouble handling your staff, I assume," Nathan said. "So, we should avoid that."

[not_every_mage]

"If that happened, I'd have to set my staff aside unless someone else wanted to handle it for me," Anders agreed. "So I'll try to keep the bones in my hand in one piece."

He stabbed a tomato. "Or -- the number of pieces there are supposed to be, anyhow."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"I'll show you how to punch, at least," Nathan assured him. "And how to block. You can probably get by in a fistfight with that, to start."