[...That's actually sweet. Asking her if it's weird, making sure she's not uncomfortable. As if Max could possibly be comfortable around Rachel right now. Maybe someday. She hopes.]
I don't want it to be weird either. Don't worry, I'm just awkward in general. It's not specifically Rachel-awkward. ^_^
over the next few minutes rachel figures out how to navigate the local bus routes and makes her way down to the shop in question. when max arrives, rachel's parked at one of the tables outside, one leg crossed over the other. it very much seems like she's people-watching, at least until she spots max and offers a bit of a greeting smile, standing up out of her seat. ❱
If the ice cream here tastes as good as these waffle-cones smell, I might never leave. ❰ is her actual greeting. sure enough, anytime anyone opens the door the smell of freshly-baked waffle cone wafts out into the air. ❱
[Max was far too preoccupied in her own thoughts to really pay attention toward the end of her shift, and she spent longer than she cared to admit in the bathroom, just staring at herself in the mirror and wondering what the hell Rachel would think of her. Especially now, frazzled as she looks after a hectic day.
But... whatever. It shouldn't matter. Still she does her best to fix herself up even a little.
It's a tiny walk over to the ice cream shop, and she spots Rachel from several feet away. Just seeing her makes Max wish she had her camera - the girl always seems to be picture-worthy, especially sitting on that cute bench.
She grins and waves as she comes near.]
The ice cream's great... the waffle cones are , unfortunately, meh at best.
[Now what does she do? Hug? Handshake? Kiss on the cheek? Instead she stands and just sort of... continues waving.]
It's so, so wonderful to finally meet you. I've heard so much.
❰ as non-weird as this is ideally going to be, if max had landed on 'kiss on the cheek', she definitely would've been toeing that line. fortunately, she just offers an awkward little wave - which rachel mercifully fails to comment on.
on the plus side, 'i've heard so much' doesn't make it any weirder. rachel's kind of... used to being heard about? even if this is less about her reputation than about whatever chloe specifically may have said about her. ❱
Likewise, ❰ she says, moving to start heading inside. with a bit of a grin, she adds: ❱ Captain Chloe's first mate, aye aye. ❰ that's hardly the most pressing thing she's heard about max, but it's a safe, inoffensive place to start. ❱
[Eventually (far too late), she figures that it's time to stop waving... and then waves a little more for good measure. The pirate comment earns a bigger grin from Max as she follows Rachel into the shop.]
I do miss sailing the imaginary seas. [More than she'd care to admit.] I should work on getting back my sea-legs. And my pirate lingo. [She shifts into a gruff, deeper tone.] Arrr, full sails and bring me the horizon!
[...What is she doing. This is nerves. She's nervous. She ends the little pirate impression with an embarrassed giggle and a hand coming up to rub the back of her neck.]
That's kid stuff, though. I don't rock the punk scene as well as you two.
❰ this is it. this is 100% where chloe gets the awkward rambling. every so often, you trip over an incredibly obvious tell that two people kind of grew up together, and this is one of those times.
as much as it irks her, rachel can't help but find it just as frustratingly endearing.
max's assertion that rachel is 'punk' earns an exhale of something like laughter. ❱ Thanks, I guess? ❰ but she shakes her head a little. ❱ It's all Chloe, honestly. You could say that I learned from the best. ❰ like, she can look punk enough, but her life was hardly a wealth of rebellion before the pair of them met.
but the people in front of them in line have finished, so rachel steps up to the counter to say: ❱ One bowl of Rocky Road, thanks. ❰ the waffle cone assessment was definitely noted and taken under advisement. ❱
[She just wants that to be as clear as possible. She gestures to cashier to get her the same order as well, though she barely even has to. Max is a regular patron and they kind of know her order by heart.
It doesn't take long before they each have a bowl in hand and Max leads Rachel over to one of the small tables. Max takes the pause in the conversation to think about what she wants to say - carefully toeing around any phrases that might give away too much. She doesn't like all the secrets, especially the ones about Rachel and Chloe. But... she understands the need for them right now.]
Speaking of learning from the best... Has Chloe told you she works over there at the comic book store? [She gestures in its general direction.] So... she's kinda slipped and let her nerd side show.
❰ oh, she knew it was a compliment. she just... never really considered herself particularly punk. then again, she never really considered herself a lot of the things people say she is. ❱
Oh really. ❰ it's meant as a question, a shadow of a surprised grin flashing across her face as they settle in at max's table of choice, but it certainly doesn't come out as one. ❱ Definitely wouldn't have called that one, but... good. If there's any job she wouldn't totally hate, that's the one.
❰ and she takes a bite of her rocky road, savoring it a moment (somehow, she keeps forgetting to take the time to pick this shit up back home) before turning the topic back on max. ❱ And you work at the arcade, yeah?
Yeah. She even hosts D&D on Thursdays. [Which is an impressive display of nerdiness that Max appreciates, despite the secret pleasure she gets from teasing Chloe about it.
But now they're talking about Max. She nods, taking a bite of her ice cream to give her a little bit of breathing room in the conversation. When she talks again her voice is far more awkward.] The arcade is nice, and it's definitely fun, but... I don't really do much. I just make sure the machines aren't being mistreated and help people out with a few things. And whatever else they need someone to do. [She shrugs.] I take classes at the college too, but... [But it's a random assortment of things that caught her eye, not an actually well-designed program. She just shrugs again.]
A lot of things are free, but it really helps to have a job. Once you've settled down anyway.
Any recommendations? ❰ max has been here-... maybe not 'a while' for certain, but definitely a good bit longer than rachel. she'd know the decent places to work, in theory. and as an afterthought: ❱ I wonder if the theatre's hiring.
❰ the last time she was there, the entire staff had the pastel hair of the native population, and each of the plays they produced seemed to be extremely fucky for someone. do they even hire... people like rachel and max? non-pastel people? is that something she's going to have to worry about here? ❱
[Not quite. She was going to suggest the theater, but there was a lot of doubt behind that. It wasn't exactly a place that felt safe - especially not after the play where she bumped into Rachel.
...Which Rachel doesn't know about. It gets hard to keep track of the timelines, sometimes.]
Chloe told me you're a great actress. Uh, there's the schools too. You can take classes, and they pay you for it. There's a bookstore, and uh... a bunch of stores and bars and stuff.
[She shrugs. She's feeling so unhelpful right now.]
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no subject
Date: 2019-06-12 10:36 am (UTC)I don't want it to be weird either. Don't worry, I'm just awkward in general. It's not specifically Rachel-awkward. ^_^
But I'd love to meet you officially, finally!
cool to switch to action here?
Date: 2019-06-14 11:15 am (UTC)❰ and that's that.
over the next few minutes rachel figures out how to navigate the local bus routes and makes her way down to the shop in question. when max arrives, rachel's parked at one of the tables outside, one leg crossed over the other. it very much seems like she's people-watching, at least until she spots max and offers a bit of a greeting smile, standing up out of her seat. ❱
If the ice cream here tastes as good as these waffle-cones smell, I might never leave. ❰ is her actual greeting. sure enough, anytime anyone opens the door the smell of freshly-baked waffle cone wafts out into the air. ❱
absolutely!
Date: 2019-06-14 11:42 am (UTC)But... whatever. It shouldn't matter. Still she does her best to fix herself up even a little.
It's a tiny walk over to the ice cream shop, and she spots Rachel from several feet away. Just seeing her makes Max wish she had her camera - the girl always seems to be picture-worthy, especially sitting on that cute bench.
She grins and waves as she comes near.]
The ice cream's great... the waffle cones are , unfortunately, meh at best.
[Now what does she do? Hug? Handshake? Kiss on the cheek? Instead she stands and just sort of... continues waving.]
It's so, so wonderful to finally meet you. I've heard so much.
[So very much, Rachel.]
no subject
Date: 2019-06-18 10:48 am (UTC)on the plus side, 'i've heard so much' doesn't make it any weirder. rachel's kind of... used to being heard about? even if this is less about her reputation than about whatever chloe specifically may have said about her. ❱
Likewise, ❰ she says, moving to start heading inside. with a bit of a grin, she adds: ❱ Captain Chloe's first mate, aye aye. ❰ that's hardly the most pressing thing she's heard about max, but it's a safe, inoffensive place to start. ❱
no subject
Date: 2019-06-18 02:36 pm (UTC)I do miss sailing the imaginary seas. [More than she'd care to admit.] I should work on getting back my sea-legs. And my pirate lingo. [She shifts into a gruff, deeper tone.] Arrr, full sails and bring me the horizon!
[...What is she doing. This is nerves. She's nervous. She ends the little pirate impression with an embarrassed giggle and a hand coming up to rub the back of her neck.]
That's kid stuff, though. I don't rock the punk scene as well as you two.
no subject
Date: 2019-06-22 07:54 am (UTC)as much as it irks her, rachel can't help but find it just as frustratingly endearing.
max's assertion that rachel is 'punk' earns an exhale of something like laughter. ❱ Thanks, I guess? ❰ but she shakes her head a little. ❱ It's all Chloe, honestly. You could say that I learned from the best. ❰ like, she can look punk enough, but her life was hardly a wealth of rebellion before the pair of them met.
but the people in front of them in line have finished, so rachel steps up to the counter to say: ❱ One bowl of Rocky Road, thanks. ❰ the waffle cone assessment was definitely noted and taken under advisement. ❱
no subject
Date: 2019-06-23 04:40 pm (UTC)[She just wants that to be as clear as possible. She gestures to cashier to get her the same order as well, though she barely even has to. Max is a regular patron and they kind of know her order by heart.
It doesn't take long before they each have a bowl in hand and Max leads Rachel over to one of the small tables. Max takes the pause in the conversation to think about what she wants to say - carefully toeing around any phrases that might give away too much. She doesn't like all the secrets, especially the ones about Rachel and Chloe. But... she understands the need for them right now.]
Speaking of learning from the best... Has Chloe told you she works over there at the comic book store? [She gestures in its general direction.] So... she's kinda slipped and let her nerd side show.
no subject
Date: 2019-06-27 08:21 am (UTC)Oh really. ❰ it's meant as a question, a shadow of a surprised grin flashing across her face as they settle in at max's table of choice, but it certainly doesn't come out as one. ❱ Definitely wouldn't have called that one, but... good. If there's any job she wouldn't totally hate, that's the one.
❰ and she takes a bite of her rocky road, savoring it a moment (somehow, she keeps forgetting to take the time to pick this shit up back home) before turning the topic back on max. ❱ And you work at the arcade, yeah?
no subject
Date: 2019-06-30 04:02 pm (UTC)But now they're talking about Max. She nods, taking a bite of her ice cream to give her a little bit of breathing room in the conversation. When she talks again her voice is far more awkward.] The arcade is nice, and it's definitely fun, but... I don't really do much. I just make sure the machines aren't being mistreated and help people out with a few things. And whatever else they need someone to do. [She shrugs.] I take classes at the college too, but... [But it's a random assortment of things that caught her eye, not an actually well-designed program. She just shrugs again.]
A lot of things are free, but it really helps to have a job. Once you've settled down anyway.
no subject
Date: 2019-07-04 07:28 am (UTC)❰ the last time she was there, the entire staff had the pastel hair of the native population, and each of the plays they produced seemed to be extremely fucky for someone. do they even hire... people like rachel and max? non-pastel people? is that something she's going to have to worry about here? ❱
no subject
Date: 2019-07-07 02:31 pm (UTC)[Not quite. She was going to suggest the theater, but there was a lot of doubt behind that. It wasn't exactly a place that felt safe - especially not after the play where she bumped into Rachel.
...Which Rachel doesn't know about. It gets hard to keep track of the timelines, sometimes.]
Chloe told me you're a great actress. Uh, there's the schools too. You can take classes, and they pay you for it. There's a bookstore, and uh... a bunch of stores and bars and stuff.
[She shrugs. She's feeling so unhelpful right now.]
Honestly, anything kinda goes.