Talk To Spooky!
*
Chapter Two: Eat or Die - How To Eat Killer Ramen Noodles
"Evil burning sun of doom!"
Gaz rolled her eyes and planted her pale hand firmly on GIR's head, stopping the joyously squealing robot from running into the brick wall they were walking alongside. The robot's idiotic green dog costume drooped a little before GIR recovered and latched onto her arm, clambering up it to rest on her shoulder. She decided against knocking the oddly cute thing to the ground and simply sufficed with trying to control her growing impatience with Zim. "For God's sake," she muttered, "of all the stupid universal constants..."
Zim rotated the map for the second time in the past half-minute and scratched his forehead, scowling at the paper whilst cursing the sun a few more times under his breath. He absolutely refused to stoop so low as to ask for directions from a pathetic human worm-baby!
"Of course," Gaz commented in her usual dark voice, even if the years of puberty had made it a bit higher in pitch, "he's too dense to ask for directions for a completely different reason than most guys." GIR thought for all of a half-second about that, then started singing 'The Barney Song' at the top of its tinny, high-pitched voice. Gaz's eye twitched. "Oh, you enjoy that," she hissed, voice darkening, "for I will never permit you to do such ever again, GIR!"
A passing girl dressed in tight jeans and a shirt composed mostly of two straps tied together gave the trio a weird looks. "Freaks," she muttered, and Gaz's other eye started twitching as well.
"What devilry is this navigational tool?" Zim bellowed. "It is untranslatable!"
"Men," Gaz muttered again, stepping forward and whipping it out of his gloved hands. "We need to turn here," she pointed at one of the little angles on it and Zim glared. "Dib called Dad last night to tell him where he was staying and that he was perfectly fine." She glanced at Zim, who had started violently twitching at the name of her brother. "Dad's been acting strange since Dib decided to find out about Mom."
"Do you think I care about the foolish drooly-worm-baby that is your brother and the equally foolish thoughts that fill his unbelievably large skull?"
"..."
"IwannaBrainFreeeeeezyyyyyy!"
"Not now, GIR," Zim snapped, and the robot paused, staring with the eerie beady eyes of its disguise. "Gaz and I are busy having a normal, perfectly human conversation that is in no way unusual!" The woman rolled her brown eyes again.
GIR remained silent, continuing to stare. Gaz thought she heard a soft whining sound that gradually grew higher and louder in pitch, before she realized it was coming from the robot still perched on her shoulder. Said robot took a flying leap off of her shoulder, landing on the ground on its back where it began screaming and wailing. "I wanna BrainFreezy!" it howled.
"So, tell me again why we are tracking your moronic sibling again?" questioned Zim, completely ignoring GIR's rolling across the sidewalk, still screaming.
"Because," she replied darkly, the sky behind her inexplicably darkening and lightning flickering once or twice, "he is trying to locate our mother's family as well as information about her. You know Dib as I do: he will hold it as blackmail over my head in compliance with the laws of sibling relations. He shall not be permitted to do so!" A tremendous lightning flash struck a building somewhere far behind her and a trail of smoke started slowly climbing into the sky, which was rapidly brightening.
As Zim blinked, suitably disturbed by her suddenly evil countenance, GIR continued to roll about, screaming unintelligibly.
"All...right," he blinked again. "I suppose that is an understandable reason to track him." He switched his attention to the temper-tantrum GIR was throwing. "GIR! Cease that at once! We must stop a human public transportation unit in order to board it!"
GIR's color scheme flickered from aquamarine into red and it leapt up to its feet, saluting Zim. Then, with the red flickering straight back into aquamarine, it quite blissfully ran into the brick wall.
Tenna had decided she was not going to ask where Dib had pulled an alien shirt from, as he was wearing one when she glanced back after pulling him out of the apartment building. Instead, she was going to focus on enjoying spending an entire day with a rather cute man who was completely at her mercy. And Spooky's, she amended. Mustn't forget Spooky. She released her grip on his collar, looping her arm through his and continuing to drag him along thusly.
He's cute, she thought with a giggle. And he's got really cool clothes, too, and his job's ultra-nifty! He's perfect!
Dib's thoughts were much different, most on how he was going to escape the oddly powerful grip of the small woman he was trailing behind. "Where are you taking me?" he asked desperately.
"The mall, of course!" she told him with a brilliant smile. "There's all sorts of stores and restaurants there, and the big fancy buildings are along the way to it! See, right over there," she pointed across the street, to their left, "is the historical museum, and they give away free ice cream every Tuesday if you go to the exhibits." She tugged on his arm and he reluctantly came up so that he was walking alongside her. "Over there," she continued, pointing past the museum, "is the skool, which doesn't give away free ice cream and has really gross food. If you EVER visit for any reason, stay away from anything with the word 'mystery,' 'meat,' or 'taco' in the name. I think they bribe the health inspector."
"Well, that's something I didn't really need to know," Dib said, forcing back the flashbacks of high school cafeteria food. "Or remember, for that matter."
"And there's the building where all the funny men and women who look like they bathe in starch go, and then there's the mayor's house, and the library." She took a breath.
|squeeek| A pause. |squeeksqueek|
"You're absolutely right, Spooky! I forgot to ask Dib if he had breakfast!" Tenna turned her head to face him, tilting her face up to him. "Did you get breakfast?"
"What do you think?" he grumbled.
"Okey-dokey! What d'you want to eat, Spooky?" She lifted her toy so that it was in front of both her and Dib, who was trying his hardest to look like he wasn't with her, which wasn't easy considering her arm was interlocked with his. It felt like he was losing blood circulation below his elbow.
|squeeksqueeeek!|
"Oh, that's a wonderful idea, Spooky!" she cheered, hugging it happily. "C'mon, Dib, Spooky wants to eat at 'Eat or Die!'" She pulled insistently on his arm, and Dib had a nauseating feeling of sinking horror as well as a realization that he really was losing circulation below his elbow.
"What kind of restaurant is called 'Eat or Die?!'" he demanded as the oblivious young woman dragged him down the sidewalk.
"'Eat or Die?'" Zim said slowly, one eye slightly larger than the other. "What in the name of the Earth hell is that?"
"Food," Gaz replied automatically. "Specifically, Chinese food, which translates as junk food." Her eyelids opened and her brown eyes grew into bubbly, unnaturally sparkly feminine ones. "We must eat here," she sighed, tone of voice loving.
"Oooo, grape lady pretty!" GIR gushed, latching onto her leg. She didn't notice, walking as she was as if in a trance, pushing the doors open and still smiling serenely. "Prettyprettypretty---BrainFreezy!"
Zim hunched his shoulders and glanced about carefully, casually walking after the two into the restaurant. Upon his entering, he discovered a bored looking teenaged girl snapping her bubblegum as Gaz's fingers twitched dangerously. GIR, still in his doggie costume, was prancing around the small welcome mat inside the place, singing an Irish bar song off-key.
"Look, lady," the girl snapped her gum again, her face ghoulish with the obscene amount of make-up she wore, "we don't let dogs in this establishment."
Gaz's fingers were twitching more so, and, much as Zim would be gleeful at seeing the hostess screaming and running, he couldn't waste any more time. He really didn't want to admit to being hungry, especially for earth food, but there was little choice. Odds were, after Gaz was done with traumatizing the hostess, she would attempt to use Zim as a stress reliever, which would most likely involve forks, knives, and blunt objects that would leave him scarred. So, he did the unthinkable and said the first thing that popped into his mind. "This isn't a dog," he explained quickly, "he's our son."
Gaz's eyeballs bulged and GIR stopped prancing and singing to bring a paw to its mouth. Then, causing Gaz's eyes to bulge even more, it glomped onto her slender leg, happily shrieking, "I luv ya, Mama!"
"Your son?" the teenager squealed, her temperament switching from bored disdain to 'awww-ain't-he-cute?'
"Yes," Zim said stiffly, trying to appear casual, while praying to the Irken God of Mercy that Gaz wouldn't use him as a ritualistic sacrifice. "He is our perfectly human son. Is he not absolutely normal and un-canine?"
"Awww, isdawiddleboycuuuuute?" the teenager was cooing, kneeling in front of GIR and clasping her hands together.
"I luv my Mama!" it declared proudly in its high voice, rubbing its cheek against Gaz's leg.
"Might we be seated, pathetic slave human?" interjected Zim hastily. "Quickly, before sealing mold closes about our feet and locks us perpetually to this shiny white floor surface!"
"Yes, he is! Yes, he is!" the teenager continued to coo, leading the trio to a booth in the front.
"You will be spared today," Gaz whispered sinisterly as they followed the girl, "but only because the greasy ramen noodles call me."
Zim appeared nonchalant, and GIR giggled insanely.
Dib studied the menu before him and wondered briefly if ordering something called 'Chicken Ramen Noodles of Fiery, Painful Doom' was potentially fatal. Well, once he compared it to 'Highly Flammable, Explody Teriyaki of Mutilation,' he decided it couldn't be too dangerous. Granted, he was worried that he'd never be able to walk again, but a plus side could be that Tenna wouldn't be able to drag him around the city. Of course, he would be completely under her control, as he didn't doubt that she would play nursemaid to him, which might not be too bad...
"You sure you want the 'Doomed, Sparkly Noodles,' Spooky?" Tenna was asking her skeleton toy, and it squeeked mysteriously. "Well, okay, but I'm getting the 'yaki of Mutilation. What about you, Dib?"
I don't want to die, a part of his mind sobbed, and he smiled at her, causing her to blush and giggle mentally. "The 'Chicken Ramen Noodles of Fiery, Painful Doom,'" he said. The sobbing part of his mind screamed and fell silent.
"Yay!" Tenna clapped her hands together, having set Spooky down on one corner of the table. "That's a good choice! Want a banana?"
"What?" He stared at her. "Excuse me?"
"Do you want a banana?" she pressed.
"Huh? Why would I want a banana?" He wrinkled his eyebrows.
"Do you want one?" she said patiently.
"Why are you asking me this?" Dib responded, confusion on his face.
"Are you upset?" Tenna asked, and Dib looked even more bewildered. "You look upset. You...hmmm...you need to...talk to Spooky!" The confused paranormal investigator found Spooky suddenly jabbed at his face, its little white skull an inch from his nose.
"I don't want to talk to Spooky," he blinked.
"Talk to Spooky!" she insisted, shaking it a little.
"I don't want to talk to Spooky," he repeated, a tic starting to form above his eye.
"Talk to Spooky," she repeated as well, stubbornly.
"I don't want to talk to Spooky!"
"Talk to Spooky, damnit!"
"No!"
"Yes!"
"No!"
"Yes!"
"No!"
"Does this mean you don't want a banana?" Tenna asked thoughtfully.
Dib slammed his face into the table, mumbling incoherently, and Spooky squeeked sympathetically.
"Food's here!" Tenna's voice filled the air with all of its overflowing happiness and Dib slowly raised his head, glancing suspiciously at his noodles.
"Well, they don't look dangerous," he admitted slowly, shoving the unusual conversation into the back of his mind. "I...think."
"Of course they're not dangerous!" Tenna said through a mouthful of teriyaki that she swallowed carefully. "The cook's only given nine people food poisoning!"
Dib choked on his noodles and grabbed at one of the glasses of water thankfully placed on the table. Drowning the noodles in his mouth and gulping it down quickly, he looked at her in horror.
"I'm kidding," she laughed, poking him slightly with her fork on his shoulder. "You're way too serious!"
"And you're an idi--" he started angrily without thinking, and then broke off abruptly, cheeks reddening. Well, gee, Dib, that was smooth...
"Idiot?" Tenna finished, her perpetual smile vanishing. Dib could almost swear he heard Spooky softly squeek something that resembled 'bumbumBUM.' His insides churned, and he was 99% sure it wasn't the food; as much as she annoyed him, he hadn't meant to hurt her feelings. "Well," she said quietly, idly stabbing her fork into a piece of her meal and letting go of the handle. She hooked her hands on the edge of the seat, ducking her head a little.
"I...I'm sorry?" he offered weakly. Shitshitshit! What if she starts crying? What then, genius?
"Naw, don't apologize," she shrugged, not lifting her head. "Everybody thinks I'm stupid or something, even my best friend, to an extent." She lifted her head, and there was a tiny bit of relief that she wasn't crying. "People always think that if you're happy most of the time. I mean, it's like you can't possibly be happy constantly without being stupid, or insane, or, or, or...something." She shrugged again, grinning at him. "I'm smart, you know, and I'm perfectly sane, too. Just 'cause I can understand and talk with Spooky doesn't mean I'm a nut. I can understand lots of other things and I can talk with them, too, but it hurts to do that. Not with Spooky. I'm just different from other people."
Dib blinked, grinning back at her. "Are we having a serious conversation?"
"Yeah. Not normal, but serious," she laughed. Sobering, Tenna continued, "Y'know when you're little, and you can see things and talk to things that grown-ups can't? How you know your toys are alive and you just know with all your heart that they understand you? That's kind of what it's like for me, only...sort of different.
"Whenever I say stuff that doesn't really make sense, it's not because I'm stupid, or whatever it is that people think I am. I just have a short attention span, and I'm kinda hyperactive, but most people don't think adults can be like that. Heh." She snickered.
They were quiet for a few moments, eating carefully, each with their own thoughts.
"I wonder what would happen if the hostess exploded with candy," Tenna remarked, staring at the teenager. "It'd be like a firecracker, only with taffy instead of sparks!"
Dib smiled, shook his head, and laughed quietly. She didn't seem nearly as annoying as he had thought earlier.
"So, how long have you lived on your own?" he began, ignoring the fact that Tenna had started trying to fork 'Doomed, Sparkly Noodles' to Spooky.
Before his question could be answered, a horribly familiar voice hollered, "Looky, Papa, is da Dibby guy!"
Johnny, having nothing better to do since nobody had really done anything to piss him off and thusly merit being tortured and gruesomely murdered, pushed open the doors for the 'Eat and Die' restaurant. Why he was pulled here of all places, he did not know.
The moment he saw a thin man in an oddly familiar trenchcoat yelling at a tall man with green skin while a little green dog ran around, screaming and laughing maniacally, he wondered why he'd even bothered to leave his room this morning.
[Well. I don't think this was a particularly good chapter either, but, eh, that's up to ya'll to decided, isn't it? So tell me by clicking on the little review button-thing! Yes. Click it. You can not resist the clickiness. Cliiiick iiiiit...cliiiick iiiiit...
I'm pretty sure there's OOC-ness all throughout this, and I apologize for it; I also need to send out a HUGE apology for this not being as long as I had planned for it to be. The stupid thing just warped itself into this, and here it is. I'd originally planned for Nny to be in this more, but it was too easy to cut off when he entered the 'Eat or Die' restaurant.
Tenna was fun to write in this chapter, even if her 'I'm different' speech might have rubbed some people the wrong way. Sorry!
Next chapter will be longer! I'll probably be up until midnight writing it tomorrow...
Next chappy: Nny meets Gaz and gets confused, Zim gloats over the fact that Tenna has somehow gotten a power over Dib, Dib meets Devi and gets confused, and GIR is convinced Gaz is his mommy. Tenna decides she's going to make Dib her man while Devi has to deal with Nny - the guy she still loves, but is scared as hell of - and everybody else. Spooky squeeks. Yes, indeed.
Wrote this while listening to Billy Gilman's "One Voice" CD, the "Wedding Singer" soundtrack, and the "Titan A.E." soundtrack. Yessiree.
Nny plushie says: 'Review! Now!']
|Thank-you to ArmandLeg (hope this chapter was still good!), Dib Girl (I updated really quick-like! I talk to my Nny plushie...does that count?), Loriko Neko (wow! *blushes* Fall in love with this story! I won't mind!), Sara (yes, poor, poor Dib, stuck with hyperactive, ADD Tenna...), Bubbles of Doom (more right here! Isn't Doom fun?), Kami and Daegon (I hope this chapter was as fun to read as it was to write), and Sirinial (Spooky played a role in this chappy, too!). Cherry Doom BrainFreezies for all! Oh, and my author account says I have ten reviews, but it will only show seven to me. Fudgies. So, apologies to the three reviewers that I can't see!|
*
Chapter Two: Eat or Die - How To Eat Killer Ramen Noodles
"Evil burning sun of doom!"
Gaz rolled her eyes and planted her pale hand firmly on GIR's head, stopping the joyously squealing robot from running into the brick wall they were walking alongside. The robot's idiotic green dog costume drooped a little before GIR recovered and latched onto her arm, clambering up it to rest on her shoulder. She decided against knocking the oddly cute thing to the ground and simply sufficed with trying to control her growing impatience with Zim. "For God's sake," she muttered, "of all the stupid universal constants..."
Zim rotated the map for the second time in the past half-minute and scratched his forehead, scowling at the paper whilst cursing the sun a few more times under his breath. He absolutely refused to stoop so low as to ask for directions from a pathetic human worm-baby!
"Of course," Gaz commented in her usual dark voice, even if the years of puberty had made it a bit higher in pitch, "he's too dense to ask for directions for a completely different reason than most guys." GIR thought for all of a half-second about that, then started singing 'The Barney Song' at the top of its tinny, high-pitched voice. Gaz's eye twitched. "Oh, you enjoy that," she hissed, voice darkening, "for I will never permit you to do such ever again, GIR!"
A passing girl dressed in tight jeans and a shirt composed mostly of two straps tied together gave the trio a weird looks. "Freaks," she muttered, and Gaz's other eye started twitching as well.
"What devilry is this navigational tool?" Zim bellowed. "It is untranslatable!"
"Men," Gaz muttered again, stepping forward and whipping it out of his gloved hands. "We need to turn here," she pointed at one of the little angles on it and Zim glared. "Dib called Dad last night to tell him where he was staying and that he was perfectly fine." She glanced at Zim, who had started violently twitching at the name of her brother. "Dad's been acting strange since Dib decided to find out about Mom."
"Do you think I care about the foolish drooly-worm-baby that is your brother and the equally foolish thoughts that fill his unbelievably large skull?"
"..."
"IwannaBrainFreeeeeezyyyyyy!"
"Not now, GIR," Zim snapped, and the robot paused, staring with the eerie beady eyes of its disguise. "Gaz and I are busy having a normal, perfectly human conversation that is in no way unusual!" The woman rolled her brown eyes again.
GIR remained silent, continuing to stare. Gaz thought she heard a soft whining sound that gradually grew higher and louder in pitch, before she realized it was coming from the robot still perched on her shoulder. Said robot took a flying leap off of her shoulder, landing on the ground on its back where it began screaming and wailing. "I wanna BrainFreezy!" it howled.
"So, tell me again why we are tracking your moronic sibling again?" questioned Zim, completely ignoring GIR's rolling across the sidewalk, still screaming.
"Because," she replied darkly, the sky behind her inexplicably darkening and lightning flickering once or twice, "he is trying to locate our mother's family as well as information about her. You know Dib as I do: he will hold it as blackmail over my head in compliance with the laws of sibling relations. He shall not be permitted to do so!" A tremendous lightning flash struck a building somewhere far behind her and a trail of smoke started slowly climbing into the sky, which was rapidly brightening.
As Zim blinked, suitably disturbed by her suddenly evil countenance, GIR continued to roll about, screaming unintelligibly.
"All...right," he blinked again. "I suppose that is an understandable reason to track him." He switched his attention to the temper-tantrum GIR was throwing. "GIR! Cease that at once! We must stop a human public transportation unit in order to board it!"
GIR's color scheme flickered from aquamarine into red and it leapt up to its feet, saluting Zim. Then, with the red flickering straight back into aquamarine, it quite blissfully ran into the brick wall.
Tenna had decided she was not going to ask where Dib had pulled an alien shirt from, as he was wearing one when she glanced back after pulling him out of the apartment building. Instead, she was going to focus on enjoying spending an entire day with a rather cute man who was completely at her mercy. And Spooky's, she amended. Mustn't forget Spooky. She released her grip on his collar, looping her arm through his and continuing to drag him along thusly.
He's cute, she thought with a giggle. And he's got really cool clothes, too, and his job's ultra-nifty! He's perfect!
Dib's thoughts were much different, most on how he was going to escape the oddly powerful grip of the small woman he was trailing behind. "Where are you taking me?" he asked desperately.
"The mall, of course!" she told him with a brilliant smile. "There's all sorts of stores and restaurants there, and the big fancy buildings are along the way to it! See, right over there," she pointed across the street, to their left, "is the historical museum, and they give away free ice cream every Tuesday if you go to the exhibits." She tugged on his arm and he reluctantly came up so that he was walking alongside her. "Over there," she continued, pointing past the museum, "is the skool, which doesn't give away free ice cream and has really gross food. If you EVER visit for any reason, stay away from anything with the word 'mystery,' 'meat,' or 'taco' in the name. I think they bribe the health inspector."
"Well, that's something I didn't really need to know," Dib said, forcing back the flashbacks of high school cafeteria food. "Or remember, for that matter."
"And there's the building where all the funny men and women who look like they bathe in starch go, and then there's the mayor's house, and the library." She took a breath.
|squeeek| A pause. |squeeksqueek|
"You're absolutely right, Spooky! I forgot to ask Dib if he had breakfast!" Tenna turned her head to face him, tilting her face up to him. "Did you get breakfast?"
"What do you think?" he grumbled.
"Okey-dokey! What d'you want to eat, Spooky?" She lifted her toy so that it was in front of both her and Dib, who was trying his hardest to look like he wasn't with her, which wasn't easy considering her arm was interlocked with his. It felt like he was losing blood circulation below his elbow.
|squeeksqueeeek!|
"Oh, that's a wonderful idea, Spooky!" she cheered, hugging it happily. "C'mon, Dib, Spooky wants to eat at 'Eat or Die!'" She pulled insistently on his arm, and Dib had a nauseating feeling of sinking horror as well as a realization that he really was losing circulation below his elbow.
"What kind of restaurant is called 'Eat or Die?!'" he demanded as the oblivious young woman dragged him down the sidewalk.
"'Eat or Die?'" Zim said slowly, one eye slightly larger than the other. "What in the name of the Earth hell is that?"
"Food," Gaz replied automatically. "Specifically, Chinese food, which translates as junk food." Her eyelids opened and her brown eyes grew into bubbly, unnaturally sparkly feminine ones. "We must eat here," she sighed, tone of voice loving.
"Oooo, grape lady pretty!" GIR gushed, latching onto her leg. She didn't notice, walking as she was as if in a trance, pushing the doors open and still smiling serenely. "Prettyprettypretty---BrainFreezy!"
Zim hunched his shoulders and glanced about carefully, casually walking after the two into the restaurant. Upon his entering, he discovered a bored looking teenaged girl snapping her bubblegum as Gaz's fingers twitched dangerously. GIR, still in his doggie costume, was prancing around the small welcome mat inside the place, singing an Irish bar song off-key.
"Look, lady," the girl snapped her gum again, her face ghoulish with the obscene amount of make-up she wore, "we don't let dogs in this establishment."
Gaz's fingers were twitching more so, and, much as Zim would be gleeful at seeing the hostess screaming and running, he couldn't waste any more time. He really didn't want to admit to being hungry, especially for earth food, but there was little choice. Odds were, after Gaz was done with traumatizing the hostess, she would attempt to use Zim as a stress reliever, which would most likely involve forks, knives, and blunt objects that would leave him scarred. So, he did the unthinkable and said the first thing that popped into his mind. "This isn't a dog," he explained quickly, "he's our son."
Gaz's eyeballs bulged and GIR stopped prancing and singing to bring a paw to its mouth. Then, causing Gaz's eyes to bulge even more, it glomped onto her slender leg, happily shrieking, "I luv ya, Mama!"
"Your son?" the teenager squealed, her temperament switching from bored disdain to 'awww-ain't-he-cute?'
"Yes," Zim said stiffly, trying to appear casual, while praying to the Irken God of Mercy that Gaz wouldn't use him as a ritualistic sacrifice. "He is our perfectly human son. Is he not absolutely normal and un-canine?"
"Awww, isdawiddleboycuuuuute?" the teenager was cooing, kneeling in front of GIR and clasping her hands together.
"I luv my Mama!" it declared proudly in its high voice, rubbing its cheek against Gaz's leg.
"Might we be seated, pathetic slave human?" interjected Zim hastily. "Quickly, before sealing mold closes about our feet and locks us perpetually to this shiny white floor surface!"
"Yes, he is! Yes, he is!" the teenager continued to coo, leading the trio to a booth in the front.
"You will be spared today," Gaz whispered sinisterly as they followed the girl, "but only because the greasy ramen noodles call me."
Zim appeared nonchalant, and GIR giggled insanely.
Dib studied the menu before him and wondered briefly if ordering something called 'Chicken Ramen Noodles of Fiery, Painful Doom' was potentially fatal. Well, once he compared it to 'Highly Flammable, Explody Teriyaki of Mutilation,' he decided it couldn't be too dangerous. Granted, he was worried that he'd never be able to walk again, but a plus side could be that Tenna wouldn't be able to drag him around the city. Of course, he would be completely under her control, as he didn't doubt that she would play nursemaid to him, which might not be too bad...
"You sure you want the 'Doomed, Sparkly Noodles,' Spooky?" Tenna was asking her skeleton toy, and it squeeked mysteriously. "Well, okay, but I'm getting the 'yaki of Mutilation. What about you, Dib?"
I don't want to die, a part of his mind sobbed, and he smiled at her, causing her to blush and giggle mentally. "The 'Chicken Ramen Noodles of Fiery, Painful Doom,'" he said. The sobbing part of his mind screamed and fell silent.
"Yay!" Tenna clapped her hands together, having set Spooky down on one corner of the table. "That's a good choice! Want a banana?"
"What?" He stared at her. "Excuse me?"
"Do you want a banana?" she pressed.
"Huh? Why would I want a banana?" He wrinkled his eyebrows.
"Do you want one?" she said patiently.
"Why are you asking me this?" Dib responded, confusion on his face.
"Are you upset?" Tenna asked, and Dib looked even more bewildered. "You look upset. You...hmmm...you need to...talk to Spooky!" The confused paranormal investigator found Spooky suddenly jabbed at his face, its little white skull an inch from his nose.
"I don't want to talk to Spooky," he blinked.
"Talk to Spooky!" she insisted, shaking it a little.
"I don't want to talk to Spooky," he repeated, a tic starting to form above his eye.
"Talk to Spooky," she repeated as well, stubbornly.
"I don't want to talk to Spooky!"
"Talk to Spooky, damnit!"
"No!"
"Yes!"
"No!"
"Yes!"
"No!"
"Does this mean you don't want a banana?" Tenna asked thoughtfully.
Dib slammed his face into the table, mumbling incoherently, and Spooky squeeked sympathetically.
"Food's here!" Tenna's voice filled the air with all of its overflowing happiness and Dib slowly raised his head, glancing suspiciously at his noodles.
"Well, they don't look dangerous," he admitted slowly, shoving the unusual conversation into the back of his mind. "I...think."
"Of course they're not dangerous!" Tenna said through a mouthful of teriyaki that she swallowed carefully. "The cook's only given nine people food poisoning!"
Dib choked on his noodles and grabbed at one of the glasses of water thankfully placed on the table. Drowning the noodles in his mouth and gulping it down quickly, he looked at her in horror.
"I'm kidding," she laughed, poking him slightly with her fork on his shoulder. "You're way too serious!"
"And you're an idi--" he started angrily without thinking, and then broke off abruptly, cheeks reddening. Well, gee, Dib, that was smooth...
"Idiot?" Tenna finished, her perpetual smile vanishing. Dib could almost swear he heard Spooky softly squeek something that resembled 'bumbumBUM.' His insides churned, and he was 99% sure it wasn't the food; as much as she annoyed him, he hadn't meant to hurt her feelings. "Well," she said quietly, idly stabbing her fork into a piece of her meal and letting go of the handle. She hooked her hands on the edge of the seat, ducking her head a little.
"I...I'm sorry?" he offered weakly. Shitshitshit! What if she starts crying? What then, genius?
"Naw, don't apologize," she shrugged, not lifting her head. "Everybody thinks I'm stupid or something, even my best friend, to an extent." She lifted her head, and there was a tiny bit of relief that she wasn't crying. "People always think that if you're happy most of the time. I mean, it's like you can't possibly be happy constantly without being stupid, or insane, or, or, or...something." She shrugged again, grinning at him. "I'm smart, you know, and I'm perfectly sane, too. Just 'cause I can understand and talk with Spooky doesn't mean I'm a nut. I can understand lots of other things and I can talk with them, too, but it hurts to do that. Not with Spooky. I'm just different from other people."
Dib blinked, grinning back at her. "Are we having a serious conversation?"
"Yeah. Not normal, but serious," she laughed. Sobering, Tenna continued, "Y'know when you're little, and you can see things and talk to things that grown-ups can't? How you know your toys are alive and you just know with all your heart that they understand you? That's kind of what it's like for me, only...sort of different.
"Whenever I say stuff that doesn't really make sense, it's not because I'm stupid, or whatever it is that people think I am. I just have a short attention span, and I'm kinda hyperactive, but most people don't think adults can be like that. Heh." She snickered.
They were quiet for a few moments, eating carefully, each with their own thoughts.
"I wonder what would happen if the hostess exploded with candy," Tenna remarked, staring at the teenager. "It'd be like a firecracker, only with taffy instead of sparks!"
Dib smiled, shook his head, and laughed quietly. She didn't seem nearly as annoying as he had thought earlier.
"So, how long have you lived on your own?" he began, ignoring the fact that Tenna had started trying to fork 'Doomed, Sparkly Noodles' to Spooky.
Before his question could be answered, a horribly familiar voice hollered, "Looky, Papa, is da Dibby guy!"
Johnny, having nothing better to do since nobody had really done anything to piss him off and thusly merit being tortured and gruesomely murdered, pushed open the doors for the 'Eat and Die' restaurant. Why he was pulled here of all places, he did not know.
The moment he saw a thin man in an oddly familiar trenchcoat yelling at a tall man with green skin while a little green dog ran around, screaming and laughing maniacally, he wondered why he'd even bothered to leave his room this morning.
[Well. I don't think this was a particularly good chapter either, but, eh, that's up to ya'll to decided, isn't it? So tell me by clicking on the little review button-thing! Yes. Click it. You can not resist the clickiness. Cliiiick iiiiit...cliiiick iiiiit...
I'm pretty sure there's OOC-ness all throughout this, and I apologize for it; I also need to send out a HUGE apology for this not being as long as I had planned for it to be. The stupid thing just warped itself into this, and here it is. I'd originally planned for Nny to be in this more, but it was too easy to cut off when he entered the 'Eat or Die' restaurant.
Tenna was fun to write in this chapter, even if her 'I'm different' speech might have rubbed some people the wrong way. Sorry!
Next chapter will be longer! I'll probably be up until midnight writing it tomorrow...
Next chappy: Nny meets Gaz and gets confused, Zim gloats over the fact that Tenna has somehow gotten a power over Dib, Dib meets Devi and gets confused, and GIR is convinced Gaz is his mommy. Tenna decides she's going to make Dib her man while Devi has to deal with Nny - the guy she still loves, but is scared as hell of - and everybody else. Spooky squeeks. Yes, indeed.
Wrote this while listening to Billy Gilman's "One Voice" CD, the "Wedding Singer" soundtrack, and the "Titan A.E." soundtrack. Yessiree.
Nny plushie says: 'Review! Now!']
|Thank-you to ArmandLeg (hope this chapter was still good!), Dib Girl (I updated really quick-like! I talk to my Nny plushie...does that count?), Loriko Neko (wow! *blushes* Fall in love with this story! I won't mind!), Sara (yes, poor, poor Dib, stuck with hyperactive, ADD Tenna...), Bubbles of Doom (more right here! Isn't Doom fun?), Kami and Daegon (I hope this chapter was as fun to read as it was to write), and Sirinial (Spooky played a role in this chappy, too!). Cherry Doom BrainFreezies for all! Oh, and my author account says I have ten reviews, but it will only show seven to me. Fudgies. So, apologies to the three reviewers that I can't see!|