Participants:
| Scene Title | I Misunderstood |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | It happens a lot when Tamara is speaking and someone else is doing the listening. Especially when the encounter starts so normal and then… goes… south. |
| Date | June 14, 2010 |
Outside a Barnes & Noble in Brooklyn
Hanging around at work wasn't something that Quinn really made a point of doing — at least, not since she'd started working at the bookstore. Books were nice, and she read her fair amount, but they weren't exactly something that grabbed her overall attention. But now she'd been off work almost an hour, all so that she could talk to her boss about important matters of scheduling and availability. It'd taken most of that hour to get a chance to see him, and a pretty heated argument had ensued, but after stopping just short of quitting he'd been willing to let her scale back to a few mornings a week.
So, with that handled, why now did she feel so incredibly stressed out? Things were supposed to be better, clearer now, right? She sighs as she exits the building, cool air conditioning replaced by the warmer air. Hands behind her head, she doesn't head straight to her scooter. Instead she props herself against one of the bookstore's pillars, digging through her messenger bag. She'd have to make some plans for tonight, if only to take her mind off things. She… just needed to find her phone, first.
"You dropped it."
The voice is unfamiliar, female, and sounds a little younger than the look of the person it apparently belongs to. Having stepped out of the bookstore behind Quinn, Tamara lets the door swing shut behind her, sealing cooler air inside where it won't be muddled by the humid evening atmosphere. She holds out the phone in question towards its proper owner, smiling warmly at the young woman. Her hair looks like it's been cut recently, cropped so the ends just brush across her shoulders; the line they make is still very, very straight. The sea-green shirt and khaki shorts are unremarkable, her shoes have definitely seen a lot of walking — and at the sound of her voice, a fairly young puppy sprawled beneath one of the storefront's 'beautifying' trees lifts her head.
"So you didn't need to go looking for it."
The digging comes to a very slow stop, Quinn turning around with a quirked eyebrow. She looks a bit confused, eyes moving down to her iPhone. "How did you—" She pauses, opening her bag fully and peering in, and surly enough, the woman was right — it wasn't in there. "Where did I…" She must be a bit more out of it than she thought. She offers a smile to the woman, giving a nod. "Huh. I never would have known." Reaching out, she gently takes hold of the phone, letting it slide back into her hand. Gaze lingers on it, and then moves back up. "That's right nice of you to bring it out here t' me. Some people wouldn't even bother." She begins to play with the touch screen, her other hand dipping back into her bag.
Tamara shakes her head a bit, then walks over to where the puppy sprawls, the diminuitive dog scrambling up onto her paws. She waits with blatantly graceless patience while her person unhooks the leash from its anchor, then pricks her ears in Quinn's direction. It is the hopefully-eager kind of look that lends itself to the phrase puppy-dog eyes. And she sidles a little bit closer, then a little bit more, taking advantage of the woman's distraction.
Watching, the seeress smiles softly. "You have an audience," she comments to Quinn. "Hanging on every word. Don't let her startle you."
Spoken to again, Quinn's attention is redrawn back away from her phone, a quizzical expression on her face. "An audience?" Now, if only that were true. It'd mean she was really having fun. And the cute little puppy will do just well enough for that, as she finds it pretty much impossible to take her eyes off of it. "You don't mind, do you?" She doesn't wait for a response, instead she slips forward a bit, bending so that she's down closer to the dog's level. The smile on her face widens, reaching forward to pet the pup. "What a good littl' one you got here!"
Hanging on every word, that was something else she wished happened more often. Still crouched, she looks up, running a hand through her hair again. "What's 'er name?"
The puppy presses a cold, damp nose against Quinn's palm, snuffling at her skin. She mouths something that may be a voiceless yip in the direction of the woman's face, then pokes her muzzle curiously against the fabric of her shirt. Tags jingle on her collar as she does so. Tamara doesn't answer Quinn right away, closing her eyes and tilting her head slightly as if listening to something. "…Misty," she finally states, blue eyes blinking back open.
"That's a wonderful name," Quinn muses, letting the puppy nuzzle her, "Misty…" She repeats the word quietly. She giggles as the pup sniffs her some more, tickling whenever her wet nose touches skin. "She's a little bit of joy, she is. I could use somethin' like that right now." Probably a little random to a stranger with no context, but it was true. She'd always wanted a puppy, and something like that would really cheer her up. Finally, almost forgetting there's another person here, she plops down on her butt and opens up her arms to the dog, laughing all the while.
Tamara takes a step closer to the pair, bending down into a casual crouch on the sidewalk. She smiles as Misty clambers into Quinn's lap, claws dimpling the young woman's skin, nose whuffling at her neck and chin, the puppy licking tentatively at Quinn's red hair as if determining what is that. It's a trifle unfortunate that Quinn doesn't have her headphones in her ears at the moment, as Misty's questing muzzle eventually finds that bit of anatomy, too.
"Did you want a puppy?" the seeress asks conversationally, canting her head.
"Ack!" Quinn's head jerks to the side and away from the probing puppy, laughing all the while. It's a welcome lifting of her spirits, to be sure. She has to fight the urge to just lay back on the sidewalk and let the puppy climb all over her, almost forgetting it's not hers for a moment or two. Tamara's question presents what otherwise been a rather awkward moment to anyone walking up and down the sidewalk. She takes hold of the puppy, trying her best to steer it back a bit off of her, and she lets out a sigh.
"I'd love a puppy, particularly right now. But I don't think m' living space allows for it." Not to mention her lease, but if she can get away with all the noise, a pet can't be that hard. She shifts back up to her knees, laughing and ruffling the puppy's fur. 'Thank you f' letting me play with Misty, though. Needed that quite a bit." She looks up at Tamara, offering a wide smile.
All four paws planted back on the concrete, Misty tilts her head to peer up at Quinn, huffing a quiet sigh. Tamara smiles at both her and Quinn. "I know," she remarks. "Maybe you had to come visit again." She doesn't seem in a hurry to depart, though, which compounds the odd phrasing of the words; instead, the younger girl's gaze drops to the puppy in question, lips quirking in a rueful expression as Misty locates a shoestring and pulls inquisitively. "Probably better not to have one," the girl comments. "Dogs ate a lot." Leaning down, Tamara's free hand picks up the leash at a lower point and tugs, just enough to distract the puppy — who comes skittering over to her person's feet in response.
She knows? Was it really that obvious? Quinn wrinkles her nose, turning her attention away from the puppy and up to Tamara. "Again?" Had she… missed something? I mean, that was entirely possible given how the last few days had gone, but still. A reach over to Misty, giving a playful push, and she just shrugs. "You're probably right, I wouldn't really know what t' do if I did have a puppy. Maybe when I get a bigger place." The loose shoestring is a minor annoyance, but it was hard to be annoyed by someone who looked so cute untying it. Taking a moment to tie it, she rises from her crouching perch and smiles, offering a hand to Tamara. "Quinn," she states simply. "Might I be able to call you if I ever do want a puppy?" Getting a number wasn't really the intention, but she realized after she spoke that it was an acceptable byproduct.
Tamara smiles, shaking the offered hand, and then shaking her head a bit in reply. "I didn't have puppies to give away," she says regretfully. "I could find them, though. When you wanted one." She scoops up Misty, offering Quinn a gentle smile around the dog who is pressing her muzzle against Tamara's chin. "Numbers get left behind easy. Don't fret over it. The mirror knew when you searched: patterns changed." She steps backwards, turns, then pauses, glancing over her shoulder at Quinn. "You can tell the ferret that, too," the seeress allows, before she begins to walk away.
…huh?
And she started out so normal, too.
"Aw, well, I guess I misunderstood, then." That's her initial reaction, at least. She'd kinda hoped that the comment had been a genuine one, she was even willing to see how much room she could make in her flat for a puppy. It's the continued conversation that makes Quinn more or less stop in her tracks, and the expression on her face took a turn that mirrored it. "Um… excuse me?" She looks back up at Tamara, but the girl, and her puppy, are already making their way away from her, and Quinn's left with no real explanation as to what the bloody hell she just said.
"I… what?" A furrowed brow to match the expression, and it's those words are really the only way she can properly relay the confusion she feels.
Why was it that things kept getting really weird when she was enjoying herself?