The Mess Hall seems to live up to it's name. In an artistic sort of way almost. With the glowing crystals shedding light on the subject, I really can see how everyone has added their own touch to the place. It's like looking in on a mismatched group that's patched each other together to show their framework as a family.
Several card tables have been shoved together to form a sort of long dining table. But the more homey part of it is how none of the chairs even match. There are folding chairs with different colored cushions, rolling chairs, stools, and even a couple of what look like school chairs. And there are a ton of chairs that equal out to be more than the current gathering, which leads me to believe the the Refuge for Monsters has a lot of people living here.
In various corners different types of studios are set up. Right away I can guess the consoles and computers belong to Sollux. I guess the guy tries to make sure his wires aren't ever too far out of his reach. Another holds a lot of spare parts from various mechanical devices. It's either a junkyard or someone intends to build a transformer. Nearby that is an art studio where it seems nigh on impossible to find a clean surface not inflected with paint. The little things like that continue around the room and give a decent insight into people I haven't met yet.
"Lemon!" A bubbly voice pierces the air and a troll makes a mad dash towards me. The immediate reaction is to step to the side and avoid collision, but if it's who I think it is then it'll be pointless. The troll, part time mermaid, known as Feferi strikes me as the type to get the hug no matter the evasive maneuvers employed.
She crashes into me and John looses his grip on my hand. Yet again I find myself on the floor. How many times must I fall before the floor finally understands that I'm madly in love with it? The world may never know.
"Oh I'm so glubbin' excited you're staying for dinner, this is going to be so great!" she giggles.
Awkwardly I pat her back and chuckle along with her. "Yeah, it's an interesting experience to say the least."
So many observations to make. So many questions to ask. So many answers to receive! It's actually making me itch in excitement. The cat is fighting the bag so it can chase after it's favorite toy: Curiosity.
Feferi gets off of me and helps me up. Happily she leads the way over to the table and sits in what I'm assuming is her personal seat; a pillowed up lawn chair. I take the regular looking wood chair next to her and hope no one gets mad at me for taking their seat.
Dave and John sit a little farther away on the opposite side and begin quietly discussing things. Jade hovers nearby, throwing the occasional comment into the conversation. The Mayor climbs upon a really tall chair next to Dave, and Karkat sits on the other side still rubbing his head. Rose settles herself down in a comfortable looking reading chair and appears to be waiting for someone.
And then, as soon as everyone present gets themselves seated, the flow of chatter from outside the Mess Hall reaches us.
"Omg! Lemon I didn't know you's gonna be joining us. Best surprise ever!" I turn around and see Roxy waving furiously at me with an excited grin on her face. A small smile creeps up on me and I find myself waving back at her.
"What? Salem's here? Let me through," Sollux pushes past Roxy, Aradia silently treading along after him. She apologetically smiles at Roxy as she passes the girl who is still too excited to care. She turns around and Pokes her head into the hall.
"Nepeta, she's here! That girl I was telling you about, come on!"
"So it seems you live," Sollux remarks as he draws me into a different focus. "Which is good cause I seriously cannot afford to have one of my club members dying on me."
"And I see you're still the walking embodiment of sass, which is good cause I can't have a club leader that acts like a limp noodle," I tease. I hope he doesn't mind that I've come to a draw with Dave. Perhaps he'll see that some good has come of it and think of me as an inside man. Take the opportunity to screw with Dave and all.
"I'd have to worry if he wasn't," Feferi giggles. A faint smile processes on Sollux's face.
"Salem, this is Nepeta. She's a totes cool cat," Focus shifts again back to Roxy. She gestures dramatically between me and the troll.
"Oh, it's you," We say at the same time.
"You guys have already met?" Roxy chirps.
"Yeah...," We both enter intense study mode in which we examine each other without the flashing strobe lights of the club and inebriation of varying degrees to hinder us.
She's short, but muscular. Her eyes mimic a cat's and make believe that she knows a great deal of playful answers to mysteries she won't share. Raven black hair curls around her innocent looking face, and the corners of her nose and lips continuously twitch as if tickled by it. Adorable cat eared horns pop up from her head.
She pounces on me, grasping my hands enthusiastically and taking me utterly by surprise. "You're so gorgeous! Will you model for me after dinner?"
Heat blooms in my cheeks. Gorgeous is too much of an overstatement for me. And especially since it's a compliment meant for me. These guys are too generous considering I am just a lump of skin and bones with a handful of salt and wrath thrown in.
"I'm not really, but I guess if you want to," I answer hesitantly. Nepeta purrs in delight and beams at me.
More people enter the hall and the place begins to get a little more lively. Gamzee lopes into the room with a huge grin on his face and immediately begins talking to Karkat on sight. Two girls strut in after him. One wears red glasses while the other looks like she's trying to combine badass with hipster. Tavros wheels in closely after them. Slowly the last few people seem to trickle in and sit in their respective seats. But even that doesn't fill every gap.
The chatter rises considerably in volume as everyone falls into their regular habits. I'm pretty content to just sit and watch the transactions. It takes people watching to a whole new level.
Rose stands and flicks her hand. There's a mini flash and an assorted array of food appears (i.e sandwiches of varying degrees and something that suspiciously looks like spaghettios.) She sits down again and returns to her conversation with a stylish looking troll. They continuously exchange sly looks between each other. Those mischievous, trouble making looks though. They're so...suggestive.
"Hey, land dwelling human," I turn to my left and quizzically stare at a sullen looking fish troll. His purple streak and hipster frames pop out so much it takes me a moment to ever remember he's talking to me.
"What are you doing here?"
"Making you ask stupid questions, why is it working yet?" Sollux yells about burns from across the table and stands up to high five me. The fish dude puffs up angrily. It brings to mind a cute puffer fish with his face worked into it. The delusion tempts me to laugh, but not just yet.
"Don't sass me you lowblood," I squint and mentally convey a stream of what the fucks' to him. Is he being an ass, or just severely confused? I'm pretty sure he doesn't know I actually do technically have low blood, what being sickle cell anemic after all. But what kind of a pussy ass insult is that?
"Eridan, I hate to inform you, but all humans have the same colored blood," Sollux says with a superior-than-thou attitude. He seems pretty smug in also trumping the fish dude. Fish dude, also known as Eridan (heh Fishdan), looks ready to pop. The more I think about it, the more he continues to make his case that is actually an irl puffer fish.
"She's my friend, so don't bother her Eridan," Feferi adds, tugging me slightly away from him. Fish dude (Eridan) notably stiffens at her command. An aura wave of displeasement comes off of him and hits me like a bucket of cold water. With a very dramatic flourish he turns his nose up at me.
My spirits falter a tiny bit at the gesture. I've see that action used against me so many times that I should be immune to it by now, yet I guess I was just letting the feel goods get to me and it stings just a little.
Feferi tugs my arm again and I turn away from the fish dude. She smiles at me and offers a sandwich with the under-suspicion-of-being-spaghettios. I take it, suddenly feeling the pressure of a certain vampire on me. That is definitely uncalled for, as I would have gotten food anyways. It feels like my stomach is folding in on itself trying to eat things it shouldn't. A dying whale noise has yet to appear, but I'm not willing to risk having everyone else hear it.
"Don't worry about him. He's pretty stingy about 97% of the time anyways," Feferi whispers with a pat to my shoulder. I look back at the said stingy fish dude.
Little icicles blow around the room as I see that he's been glaring at me. His cheeks continue to remain puffed out. It's official, he's an irl bitty puffer fish.
"Pfft," My hand flies to my mouth to shut it up before I make matters worse. It does not fail to escape his attention that I have snorted a little at him. He bristles, but certainly doesn't drop the puffer fish look which is what's making me laugh. I shake silently as I try to keep it in.
"What are you laughfin at?" he demands. And there goes my self control right out the imaginary window. A small giggle. A little bit further. The torrent unleashes itself, waltzes right out of my mouth without my permission. I laugh out loud, completely overcome by the magnitude of how hilarious this is.
Fishdan, as I have just barely officially decided, is flabbergasted to say the least. On one hand he's so confused. On the other hand he's angry but can't seem to say anything and opens and closes his mouth like...like a fish out of water!
"I'm...I'm sorry," I wheeze between gasps for air. "You just...and you're cheeks puffing out...looked like a puffer fish!" I fan my face, finding the room had quickly gotten hot. Fishdan blinks in surprise, his anger flowing out of his posture. Whatever he was thinking before is clearly not what he's thinking now. But his face goes purple.
Wiping my eyes, which had started to water, I reach out with a free hand and say, "My name's Salem."
He stares at my hand like it's a foreign object for a minute. Slowly he twitches his way into reaching up and taking mine in his. We do this awkward jitter that I can only assume is a hand shake.
"Eridan Ampora," he replies in a daze. I think I might have possibly broken him.
"Wow, I don't think I've ever seen him do that with a human before. Doesn't the hand ripping usually happen before any civil niceties can get exchanged?" The girl with the red glasses whispers not so quietly to her badass hipster friend.
"Shut it, Terezi!" Fishdan snaps out of his stupor upon hearing himself being mocked. I turn and study her more closely now. THis is the troll that has been said to have a crush on Dave after all.
Trouble, trouble, trouble. A smirk that cries wolf can say a lot about a personality. Pranking seems to be a given in her nature. Her glasses are hard to see through and they create a red glare that kind of makes her look demonic. A good couplet for the rest of her laid back punk style.
The friend 'whispers' back to Terezi, "How long do you think it'll be before he asks for that hand in marriage?"
I turn back to Fishdan. Facepalm X violet blush combo has been engaged. Poor dude looks torn between killing them and killing himself.
"He couldn't do that even if he wanted to," I decide to step in and defend Fishdan. Turning away from each other the girls stare at me with a look that says they found their next victim.
"And why's that?" asks badass hipster.
"Because she's already in a committed relationship with me. Isn't that right babe?" Dave cat calls from his end of the table.
"Only in your dreams Strider. I ain't got time for a man asking for my hand," I fold my arms indignantly over my chest and jut my chin out slightly. Dave's ego pops like a balloon, yet his dignity keeps everyone else from seeing how bad I trumped him. What a good sport.
"Heh, you've still got a lot of spunk in you since the last time we talked. The name's Vriska Serket," The badass hipster stands up and reaches across the table to shake my hand. Her haughty voice makes the statement click into place.
"Oh, you're the one with the really bad Tim Burton analogy," I respond thoughtfully. "So you finally answer my question."
"What are you talking about? That analogy was perfect," Vriska winks at me as she sits back down.
"Wait, when did you two meet?" Karkat asks in confusion. I can see the gears working over time as he tries to count up all the times I've been in the Hive and who he's certain I've met before. Vriska isn't fitting into any of the equations.
"I thought it'd be a great idea to talk to the voices in my head," I shrug. His jaw drops.
"The levels of stupidity I continue to face never ceases to amaze me."
"I do what I can Crabkat," I grin at him.
"That wasn't a compliment fuck ass," he turns red and puffs up a little. I lean forward slightly and flip him a bird. My grin only increases as he doubles the gesture. Dinner is now definitely a pleasurably memorable meal.
"Nepeta, before you get too into your project," Nepeta stops jumping around excitedly as she drags me over to her art studio. The troll that was talking to Rose stands p from the table and walks over to us. "Perhaps you should let me clean her up a bit? I can smell chlorine and blood all over her and it's very cloying."
"Oh yeah, that's a gurreat idea Kanaya," Nepeta says thoughtfully, throwing in a Tony the Tiger impression. She changes course and leads me out the hall. Kanaya follows along. Several other girls chime in saying they wanted baths too. I get the sudden feeling I'm being followed.
"Oooo I wanna come too!" Dave squeals mockingly after us. Simultaneously he receives a 'Dave, no' from everyone present. He laughs it off and says something to the effect of kidding kidding, but not really. Several death threats later he promises, on his Vampire Scout's honor, to remain in the Mess Hall until our return. I smell bullshit but there's not much I can do about it when being whisked away to take a bath in an underground spring.
With that out of the way we traverse the maze like halls to the said spring that is bigger than the first one I saw here. The illumination is a pretty blue green in the pool, while all around us is a mini galaxy. These rooms never cease to enthrall me.
We strip and get in the water. It's warm, and I feel oddly revitalized after a few minutes in it. There's nothing quite as relaxing as not being pressured by Dave and getting a spring bath.
"So Salem," The troll that be dubbed Terezi speaks up after a round of playful banter between us all. "What is your tie to Dave as his pet? Everyone Marked has one."
"I don't know, but I hope it means I get to make his life hell," I shrug indifferently. Her question can't be more obvious as to what she's trying to get at. Remember what John said reminds me that I should probably just tip toe around the entire topic of Dave when talking to her.
"Did you know that people who are Marked can be lovers?"
Oh hell no.
Oh. Hell. No.
Not in a million years hell no.
There's so much no that even my no says no for crying out loud!
"Not sure what there is to gain by pursuing this topic of conversation but I'm not interested in things like that," I casually deflect the question while curling up into a little ball on my rock seat and glaring at the water. God I hate when people try to drag me into a conversation about my love life. It's non-existent and I plan to keep it that way. End of story.
"What do you like then?" Vriska asks this like I'm ridiculous for not being interested in pursuing romantic endeavors.
I shrug. "Being alone I guess."
"That's no way to live, sheesh," she huffs. "And that doesn't even answer my question! Don't you have hobbies, or go places, or even a job?"
She sounds like an old lady starting in on a nag session about how I'm wasting my youth. Not that I really have any defense because I am a dull person who doesn't like to go outside my house to socialize.
"I binge watch Disney movies," I respond off handedly. "And I have volunteered every now and then at the animal shelter."
"That's sooo boring. Do you never go out and party? Haven't you ever experienced a buzz from getting drunk off your ass? And what about boys? Haven't you ever thought about tapping some fine ass and then pursuing it? Geez, I think Dave picked up a nobody this time," She huffs out before Roxy could get out a full question about the pet shelter I volunteered at.
Blargh.
"Ding, ding, ding. We have a motherfucking winner," I mutter. It's getting uncomfortable to be here now. I suddenly remember why I don't like socializing. If I wanted to be told this shit then I would have stayed at school. Suddenly I find myself disliking Vriska very much. She's reminding me of this one popular chick that has an elaborate way of insulting people not on her level.
"Hey, that's not nice of you to be insulting someone you don't know Vriskers," Nepeta jumps into the fray and defends my integrity of boring as hell even though she doesn't have too. I mean, I really am boring as hell. Also salty but that's nothing new.
"Fine. We'll just have to change that," Vriska points at me, water dripping down from her arm. A daring grin, one that says try to fight me, flashes in the blueish lighting. Damn, apparently everyone likes glow in the dark fangs.
"Tonight you're coming out to party with us. You get three no's and then you have to do whatever we tell you."
"Vriska!" Several people protest at once, causing a disturbance in the pool as some of them moved around a bit. I frown heavily at her. Her challenge is irritating. And when Salem gets irritated, Salem plays the moron and butt's heads. At least so the old saying goes. Usually it's right.
"Alright. I'll do it," I reply coolly. My back straightens out of it's curled position and I continue with the heavy frowning. Everyone looks at me in surprise.
Feferi places a hand on my shoulder and says with worry, "You don't have to if you don't want to, Lemon."
"Right now I'm having a what the hell moment and am trying to fight the system," Vriska chuckles at my statement, knowing full well she's that system I'm referring to. To be honest referring to her as a system is probably too much of a royalty for her. Dammit why can't I think of less flattering things to use when I need them?
The girls around me shift uneasily. Slowly they return back to conversation and slowly ease into a seemingly unexpected party that they now find themselves attending. As they get more comfortable with the idea, the more they begin to discuss what they'll be wearing. And at one point Kanaya offered to bring something for me to wear. Seeing as I don't have party clothes then I just shrugged and said why not.
As much as I hate parties I find that this time I trapped myself into going to one anyways, so I might as well make the most of it.