View source for Logs:If I Had Two Dead Rats

{{ Log
| chars = [[Javi]], [[Mae]]
| summary = It's polite to bring a gift when you visit someone's home. 
| gamedate = 2022.07.11
| gamedatename = July 11, 2022
| subtitle = I'd give you one
| categories = Changeling, Mortal+
| log = Javi's apartment building is pretty typical for the area -- neither the best around nor the worst, kept up enough that it isn't going falling down around anyone's ears but nothing that's going to end up on the front cover of a magazine. There's a buzzer (though the space for a name beside 5F is blank), but there's also enough traffic going in and out that there's likely to be someone to tailgate in on if a visitor prefers to do that. Then the elevator ride, or the stairs, both equally nondescript and about what one could expect from the outside. The apartment in question is at the very end of a long hall.
 

If there's one thing Mae is good at, it's creeping and so she gets in 'somehow' without having to resort to the buzzer. The stairs are chosen instead of the elevator and it isn't long before a scratching sound and a surprisingly firm knock-knock is heard.
 
 
It takes Javi a little while longer to answer the door than it might have had she announced herself before. It's clear he's there, though -- there are sounds from inside, shuffling around and footsteps and that sort of thing to indicate it'll get answered //eventually//. Maybe.

But it does! After the sound of locks turning and chains being pulled, the door opens and Javi appears. He may have just emerged from the shower, since his hair is wet. "Oh, hey," he says, surprised but not unpleasantly so. "Sorry, didn't hear the buzzer." He hesitates, but only briefly, before he pulls the door open wider so she can come in.
 

Mae carries a black trash bag in her hands. A small one, more of the 'tall kitchen' size than the full on lawn or industrial barrel size. She is dressed in a dark blue faded 'Motley Crue' t-shirt that must have come from the late 80's or early 90's.

The small woman shuffles in passed Javi and makes her way over to a coffee table or similar surface where she begins to remove dead rats from the trash bag. One rat. Two rat. Dead rat. Ewww rat...

 
Javi didn't necessarily expect Mae to say anything, so that's not a surprise. The dead rats are more so. His eyes widen as he closes the door -- pretty quickly, actually, lest one of his neighbors see -- setting the locks again and starting toward her.

"Uh, thanks," he says after a moment's pause, and he calls up a slightly awkward version of his usual smile. "Thanks, that's...it's really nice of you." Is it? Well. "Uh...you want, like...something to eat?" Is the expectation now that this is dinner? Is he now imagining himself having to try and cook dead rats? Possibly.

The inside of his apartment is a //little// weird, but maybe not for someone who clearly sees ghosts -- there's a symbol drawn on the inside of the door in chalk, made of concentric circles of various sizes, and a little shrine-like thing holding a squat, clay statue that looks like a face. There's a little plate in front of it, with a gold foil-wrapped candy that looks like a Rolo.
 

Mae bobs her head up and down in an affirmative answer and she reaches for one of the rats, then begins to raise it toward her mouth...

 
"Whoa!" The slightly awkward has turned into semi-horrified. Or completely horrified, but he's at least trying to mitigate the expression a little. It doesn't work that well -- everything seems to show on his face the moment he thinks or feels it -- but he //does// try. "Uh, maybe something cooked?" he suggests as he starts toward her to put a hand on her wrist and stop her from eating a raw dead rat in the middle of his apartment. "I ain't never cooked one of those but I got other stuff. Maybe that could be for, like..." He casts around a little helplessly, finally coming up with, "A special occasion?" Okay, look, no one promised to come up with something //good//.
 

Mae is stopped right before those filthy teeth bite in to the fattiest part of the dead rat's belly. Her wide blue eyes stare up at Javi and she arches a brow at the term 'special occasion' before her expression darkens with a look of frustration or anger. The rat is set back down on the coffee table before she turns to face him fully. One skinny arm rises to point toward the kitchen area.
 
 
"I'm sorry." Javi's eyes are still wide, and they seem to get stuck on her when she turns to look at him. His shoulders hunch a little bit in response to the angry shift in her expression, and his head dips before his eyes finally drop down, too, and away from hers. "You got it, yep," he says quickly, and he turns to start toward the kitchen. As he does, his hand comes up to flick his fingers near his hear, like he's swatting away a bug. There isn't one visible, but maybe it's small. Possibly brought in with the rats.

There's a few seconds' rummaging in the kitchen, sounds of cabinets and probably the refrigerator being opened and closed, and then a microwave turning on. But it will take a minute or so for that to be finished, of course.


Mae will take her time before she appears in the kitchen door, lips smacking softly before she finds a cozy corner to linger and -stare-. Javi's memory will be tested later. Is there one less rat out in the living room?

A question for another time!

The scrawny woman sniffs at her arm pit before she folds her arms across her chest and glances from Javi to the microwave and back.
 
 
She may hear Javi talking in the kitchen before she enters it -- it's very low, and in Spanish, not English, but some snatches of it that waft through the door sound something like: "...don't know, man...might be right, but...something going on." Like that. But she could also easily be occupied with other things.

Either way, it cuts off abruptly as soon as he sees her enter, though. His kitchen is very small, not the sort of thing someone would like if they use it a lot, but it works fine for heating up leftover pizza, which is what he's doing. The microwave dings only a few seconds after she appears, so he's not left to stare awkwardly at her for too long. "Here," he says, pulling the plate out and leaning toward her to set it on the counter. Two large-ish slices of pepperoni. "I got more if you want after." And then: "Is it Mae or Rae?"


Mae steps forward and accepts the plate before she moves over to find a seat if there is one. She lifts her free hand up and snaps her fingers before holding up a single finger, then she turns her attention on those two slices of pizza.

THey don't last long at all. The first is gone in barely seven seconds as bites that are larger than should be possible tear it into pieces. The second makes it to twelve but only because she has to pause to burp along the way.
 
 
There are a couple of barstool-type chairs against one of the counters, yes -- Javi, however, does not take either, so she can have her pick. He doesn't press the question, just accepts the gesture and waits, leaning against the counter as he watches her. Well, it's impressive! Actually, it's kind of hard to look away, though his eyes do shift briefly once to the air somewhere in the opposite corner of the kitchen from her, but they don't linger long before they return. He also doesn't say anything more yet, either to her or some hypothetical other entity.
 

Mae is attentive enough to notice those shifts of attention and she follows them around the room, though only sees empty air. The empty plate is carried over to the sink and deposited in a rather normal manner for a girl who just showed up with dead rat snacks.

Turning back toward Javi, Mae just stares at him with a curious expression, blue eyes flicking from his face to his crotch and back before she smiles an aloof little smile.
 
 
Javi's still watching her, so it's very easy to see the way his face heats up a little bit when her eyes drop down like that, the sudden flush of color accompanied by a glance away and his hand coming up to run back over his still-wet hair. There's definitely no cheerful proclamations about his cuteness now like there had been at the amusement park, though perhaps it's a little different being alone in the apartment.

"You good?" he asks, in some attempt to recover. It's not particularly smooth, but he commits to it. "You want anything else?"
 

Mae just stares at him. Of course she won't answer... probably. The small woman lifts a hand up and runs it through her unkempt and greasy hair, then licks her chapped lips. She turns her wide, blue gaze away from Javi and lets it wander the kitchen for a moment before she looks back toward him, again.

One arm rises, boney index finger extending to point at him, then she tilts her head to one side at an angle that may seem jarring in how it pushes her human body to it's limit.


Yes, it's extremely jarring -- and yet again, Javi can't seem to actually stop looking. His eyes only drop as far as the finger that's suddenly pointed at him, before they lift again to settle on her face at that impossible angle. His eyes are wide, and his mouth is a little bit open, too, until he realizes it and snaps it shut.

"Uh..." Then, he laughs. It's not an amused sort of laugh, though -- it's a little too high. Nervous. "Why?" he finally asks. "Like..." He finally tears his eyes away to look down at himself, in his obviously old sweats and a T, then back up to her. "You know I'm just regular, right?" he continues after another moment, like maybe he thinks she's mistaken him for someone else.
 
 

Javi's response has a confused expression passing over her face and she follows his gaze down toward his sweats and t-shirt before looking back up at his face. She shakes her head at him before she turns and leaves the kitchen.


"Hey." Javi winces when she turns to leave the kitchen, and it seems to spur him into action. He pushes off the counter, moving quickly after her. "I meant..." He cuts off again, and instead of saying whatever it was he was going to say -- probably for the best, really -- he reaches for her hand in an attempt to catch it. "Is it Rae or Mae?" he asks again.


Mae makes her way towards the door. The THREE rats that are left on the coffee table are left behind. At Javi's question, Mae raises her hand and holds up two fingers, then she is reaching the door and tugging it open before she steps out into the hall.


"Mae." Javi files it away, but he's still making his way after her, though he stops short of trying to stop her by touching her again. He does //not// stop short of the door, stepping out after her before she can go.

"Wait," he says -- but he might be saying all of this to her retreating back, because he won't quite be following her down the hall. "You said you wanna be secret friends and I don't really know what that means, except I ain't supposed to tell nobody and I don't know what //that// means. I mean, I do, but..." He probably means more on a meta level, but he's also not in the space to explain, and anyway she may not be hearing any of this at all. But his neighbors probably will. Whoops.


Mae is halfway down the hall already when Javi emerges from the door and calls after her. She does slow to a stop, however, and then turns around to face him. "Mmmmmmmonnnnnsterrrrrrr." She offers in her sweet and pretty little voice before she turns away and heads into the stairwell. If Javi follows, she'll be gone.

}}