the pie

[instar]

Gym class is mind-numbing. Bella spends it thinking about introversion - Andi finds it peculiar and kept asking her questions about it. Bella's not an extreme case of the type, but definitely qualifies. Andi always has more friends - needs more friends - than Bella does.

Comments

[aeskhyne]

He shrugs. "Business? What business? I just wanna bake tasty things."

[instar]

"Yes, exactly. So you'd need help, to run a bakery, or you'd wind up getting arrested for something like a health code violation or tax issues."

[aeskhyne]

He laughs. "Won't that be fun."

[instar]

"Do you even have preferences? About anything?"

[aeskhyne]

"Sure," he says. "I like stuff. I like stuff all the time. I'm standing here 'cause I want to bake you a cake, that's a preference, right?"

[instar]

"Would you be meaningfully disappointed if I told you you were not invited to make me cake, though?"

[aeskhyne]

Trouble shrugs. "I'd be sad. I'd go do something else. I'd get over it. Is that 'meaningfully disappointed'?"

[instar]

"I guess I'll count it."

[aeskhyne]

He grins.

"What's the difference, anyway?"

[instar]

"Between what and what?"

[aeskhyne]

"I mean - what difference does it make, to you, whether I get disappointed by stuff or not?"

[instar]

"I'm just curious."

[aeskhyne]

Trouble laughs. "Okay."

[instar]

"Knowing more about how people work is useful, anyway, for figuring out how I work - whether it's unusual, whether I should be suspicious that I'm assigning too much unusualness to myself, that sort of thing. Although information about you probably won't help with that in particular, I'm guessing."

[aeskhyne]

"I am a pretty fucking unusual person," he agrees, grinning brightly. "Glad you noticed."

[instar]

"It'd be hard to miss."

[aeskhyne]

He giggles.

"So that's something you care about? Figuring out how weird you are?"

[instar]

"Figuring out how I am, period."

[aeskhyne]

"Is it fun?"

[instar]

"It's... occupying, I prefer to do it than not. I don't think fun is exactly the right word. It's very important to me, but more in a breathing way than in the way hobbies are."

[aeskhyne]

"Huh," says Trouble. "I think I get it." He tilts his head thoughtfully. "I don't know if I have anything like that, though."

[instar]

"Nothing at all?"

[aeskhyne]

"Not that I can think of. Why?" He grins. "Is that weird?"

[instar]

"No, actually, I think that's pretty typical."

[aeskhyne]

He laughs.

"Really?"