Just Under the Upperhand

[Rob Snow]

Angelic? "I think that's the first time I've been called that," Rob admitted. He paused for a moment, considering it, even tapping his spare hand against his chin a few times. "I'm not sure that I really want to own up to that," he could see that she'd already taken the offered seat, which left him to wander around. "No wings or anything, though people do say I have my head in the clouds."

Rob already walked around to take a seat opposite Selina. It was tempting to be cheeky and sit next to her, go for the proximity. Except Rob enjoyed the verbal sparring a bit more than the outright physicality of it. Much more fun to sit opposite a girl.

Plus, if messed up, there was a table between them, thus increasing his chances of not getting hit.

"Oh no, you don't want to see what this looked like," he said, holding up the pizza. He paused for a moment to grab his napkin and dab it a little, nodding. "Tried it," he looked up at her, "on sushi. All it did was sort of heal up cuts and stuff. I need a natural healing process there to work," he gave his pizza a nod before raising it up. "What about you? Working on controlling humans through their blood yet, or is that advanced level training," he gave a wink before taking a bite of the pizza.

[Selina Taylor]

    Selina nodded in agreement to his having his head in the clouds very seriously, though the mischief in her eyes was clear evidence of just how much she meant it. “I can definitely agree with that,” she commented lightly. “Besides, who said angels needed wings? Michael didn’t have wings” she added as some of her mom’s stories came back to her from her youth. Katerina’s parents had been Catholic, and even though neither Katerina nor Selina followed the religion, they knew bits and pieces of it.


    Selina laughed, “Hmm, well I suppose sushi would have one of the greatest chances of coming back.” Selina then studied him briefly, trying to decide how serious she should be about answering his own question, “Well, it doesn’t really work that way… but I can freeze blood… good for keeping meats fresh I suppose,” she added with a shrug. Sometimes in private, she’d practiced on her own blood, but she hadn’t gotten much farther than freezing a few veins… which was rather painful and not something she really wanted to do again. Theoretically she could boil blood as well, but that she hadn't tried that for obvious reasons.

[Rob Snow]

Ah, right, Rob remembered the bits and pieces from his own quasi-Catholic, quasi-mystic background. He had to nod along in agreement with Selina's appraisal then. The point was made, but: "Do you really think that God would make one of his messengers a ginger with tattoos though?" he took another bite of his pizza, pausing to chew and let that sink in before adding: "Haven't you heard? We don't have souls."

He grinned and took another bite. The pizza wasn't great, but it was better than he'd expected. Rob mentally ranked it at about the same level as most pizzerias could produce when pressed for it. He kept that ranking going as he chewed and listened. Though part of his blood ran a little cold as Selina almost casually mentioned that she could freeze blood.

"Well, you do like to darken pants, don't you?" Rob asked. He took another bite. "I'd just better hope that you don't plan on popsicling the handsome young minstrel with the sexy accent," and yes, he threw a bit more English/Welch into the words, "so soon. I'd make for an awful ice pop." He paused then nodded. "Probably orange flavored too, and who wants that to be their obit?"

[Selina Taylor]

    Selina eyed him critically and then smirked, “You’re right, Michael was said to be incredibly handsome if I remember correctly,” she teased. “So I guess I was mistaken after all,” she added with a melodramatic sigh, before pausing, “Wait, which don’t have souls? Gingers or men with tattoos?” she asked. “I don’t remember that being in the canon I was taught,” she added with a smile.


    The potato… was a potato. The best and the worst that could be said of it, she supposed. It was good for energy though, and she actually quite enjoyed it, even if it was super simple. She hadn’t tried the pizza yet, as she was still highly suspicious and because she wanted to eat the food she was positive would give her good energy first.


    Selina grinned at his question, “Depends on how you mean it… then again, I suppose darkening pants could work both ways couldn’t it?” she asked with wry smile. "In that case, I confess," she added playfully. Selina then eyed him as if debating whether or not she should actually freeze him, “I suppose it depends on whether or not the next song you sing is one I like or not…” she teased with a wink. I could freeze your esophagus and cut off your airways if I get too annoyed, she was about to offer as a joke, before thinking that that might actually go too far and scare the poor man away. Yup, she was a total seductress.

[Rob Snow]

Rob reeled back, pressing a hand to his chest in an impressively dramatic manner and closing his eyes tight. He held it for a few moments, only to peek open an eyes. "Gingers," he corrected, adding a slight nod and gesturing, "and that's from the book of South Park, so I'm not sure it's wholly canonical." He had to grin at that. He'd actually loved that bit when it had come out and gone all out with it a few times. Some of the dimmer birds fell for it hook line and sinker, and there was at least one girl out there that thought a soulless musician had slept with her and then vanished into the mists.

Rob nibbled a bit more at his pizza, still enjoying the food for what it was. Plus, all the healing and flirting had left him wanting some foodstuffs. He kept nibbling as Selina spoke. H leaned forward at the confess part. "Ah," he said, nodding severely, "I see how it is. Sadly not the first time that I've been threatened to play. Though I should warn you: I sometimes overdo it. I'd hate to fully seduce you with a musical number."

He nodded with some solemnity then reached for the juice container he'd grabbed while rummaging around, poking its top with his finger to begin suckling the sweet "juice" inside.

[Selina Taylor]

    Selina laughed at his gesture, before smiling at the correction and nodding, “Makes sense I suppose. Gingers are mostly American or European, so soulless works really well for that,” she teased. “Any gingers outside of that demographic are good though,” she added with a grin as she continued eating her potato.


    Selina glanced at him with an arrogant smile, “You can try to seduce me as much as you like, but I doubt you’d ever succeed,” she teased. She was only half-joking though. Usually she just ignored the seduction stage and went straight for sex. If there was seduction to be done, she’d always been willing and done her fair share of seducing in turn, so could anyone truly claim to have actually seduced her? She wasn’t entirely sure… Something to think about when drunk she decided.


    Selina pulled out her water bottle from her duffle bag and took a long draught from it, thoroughly happy to have her own drink here. She wasn’t quite a germaphobe but she also had no idea where those boxes had been before they got to the academy.

[Rob Snow]

The mention of gingers being European again had Rob leaning in: "Well, that's my secret I suppose. I'm European," he waited a few seconds, almost tempted to tap the table a few times for emphasis. As if his accent (and his likely having mentioned it before now) hadn't already given that much away. He smiled all the same.

Ah, and there was a smile on Selina's face now. There was something to her, something like a mountain that you had to work to climb and maybe find that the top was an illusion all the time and you were falling down before you even realized it. Women like that were only sometimes worth the effort, and then almost always because of some sort of self-driven reason.

Still, Rob didn't see any reason not to keep flirting. "Well, the fun's in the game anyway," he replied. He paused, juice held partway to his mouth. "And in the actual sex part," he pointed at her. "That part's pretty damn spiffy." He took another sip of the juice before moving to his pizza, half-smiling as he yet again dug into it.

[Selina Taylor]

    Selina smiled and laughed, “I know. Not only that, you’re English, the absolute worst kind,” she teased, before stopping when she realized that this smile of his was different from the others. She paused as she studied him in curiosity, “I’m sorry, did I say something wrong?” she asked, wondering if jokes about Europe were somehow off limits to him. She hadn’t thought that that, of all things, would be what ticked him off. She was willing to stop though, if it truly bothered him. She could be cruel and heartless in her own way, but she didn’t often antagonize people unless they’d done something she deemed worthy of it.

    People were a messy but fascinating study like that. Relationships often reminded Selina of the story of Sisyphus constantly pushing his boulder up the mountain, only to have to restart every time he got close to the top. People could never truly fully be understood as they were constantly changing and you could never reach the “top” where all of a sudden they made complete sense. Sometimes you even had to start all over… but that was the fun of it. It could often be difficult and laborious as well, but Sisyphus found meaning and worth in making his effort for an eternity. He had also found joy and happiness in his fate if Camus was to be believed.

    Selina was only occasionally willing to make the effort it took to form close relationships with people, as it often seemed futile, but the very few people she did care about, she gave her all to. Not many would ever see that side of her though, and she was perfectly ok with that. They could judge as they would, because she knew her own worth without needing or wanting their shallow validation. “True, and also true. Though, describing sex as ‘spiffy’ is a new one for me,” she replied with a slight hesitation, as she was still unsure of him.

[Rob Snow]

Ah yes, English, the worst of them. Even Rob couldn't disagree with that, simply shaking his head. He was tempted to use the whole jokes about Europe thing as being a sort of revenge for his earlier flub, but that felt decidedly false. Not simply because it wasn't true ,but because he could sort of recognize the line he'd crossed, fuzzy as it was, earlier, and he didn't want to come barreling across.

"Insult a melting pot of entitled white people who funny accent?" Rob replied, throwing a little more of his own accent into the words, as opposed to the light lilt he usually had. "I'd be offended, but I'm pretty sure we set ourselves up for it."

And with that: more pizza and juice. Though at the rate Rob was going at it, the meal wasn't going to last him that much longer. He'd had the good sense to pick up two of the little juice containers and was puncturing the second one in the slight lull of the conversation, but that wasn't going to last too much longer.

"well," Rob said, looking back up at Selina, "you clearly need to have more sex then. How else can you find out just how spiffy it is?" he raised his brows, then raised the juice container and took another belt of it before sitting it down. "At least the food's edible," he said, looking at it. "A slight notch above average, I'd say." Because clearly talking about slightly above average food after mentioning spiffy sex was the way to go.

[Selina Taylor]

    “That you do,” she agreed with a wry tone. Selina studied Rob in curiosity, trying to figure him out. The sudden change in his demeanor wasn’t lost on her, but if he wasn’t going to say anything, she wouldn’t either. She just ate her potato in silence. She absently noticed that she ate a lot slower than he did, but she didn’t mind. He could get up and leave anytime he wanted after all.


    She smiled at his assertion that she needed more sex in her life and shook her head, “Perhaps… then again, you could always show me yourself sometime,” she replied easily. “As I have a feeling ‘spiffy sex’ is a particularly English thing,” she added with a smile. Selina absently tried to think back in her life and she honestly didn’t think any of the sexual encounters she’d had could be described as ‘spiffy’. But then again, most of them had been with people whose first language was Spanish so maybe that was why.


    She merely nodded in response to his sudden change of topic to the food... He almost seemed nervous. Selina smirked as she watched him in fascination. He was definitely an interesting study. Selina kept quiet about her thoughts and merely played along, “Perhaps in the U.S.,” she agreed with a playful wink.

[Rob Snow]

Rob bounced his brows again and went back to eating again. "Well, clearly you need to try more English sex then," he said, not missing a beat. "I'm sure there's somewhere you can try and experience that. Pretty bird like yourself," he looked up at her and favored her with another jaunty wink before moving back to his food. He hadn't really meant the comment on the cuisine to be a subject change. For Rob, the conversation just flowed with his thoughts, going wherever made sense. at least for the time being, he was just riding it along.

"So, is that some subtle hint that you hail from distant shores too?" Rob asked, looking up and raising brows. "Clearly no where that Englishmen are common," he gestured to the side, "or we wouldn't have the lovely discussion over spiffy sex," he added a slight nod, "but if you don't feel like sharing, or if I'm becoming boring, just let me know. I could just sing at you some more. Seems to work," he had to end with a smile at that, taking another bite of the semi-consumable food.

[Selina Taylor]

    Selina nodded, “Well, now that I know which accent to listen for, I’ll make sure to keep a lookout,” she agreed with a smirk. Selina shrugged in response to his calling her a bird, “It honestly depends. In a conservative American town like Kalispell it’s more difficult than you’d think to find a fuckable Englishman,” she teased. Selina honestly wasn’t even entirely sure whether or not she’d met anyone else from England before in her life… Well always a first for everything.


    Selina laughed, “I’m from Chile,” she explained easily. “Spiffy isn’t really in our lexicon.” She would have gone on to describe what words she had used to describe past sexual experiences, but she took another bite of her potato instead. “Hmm, I suppose singing would work to entertain, but I do believe you’re interesting enough without the magical voice,” she admitted. She had no idea whether or not she liked him, or if she’d even ever speak to him again, but he was definitely interesting.


    She almost felt like she’d have enjoyed having him as a friend… but she also wasn’t sure whether or not that option was viable at this point. Selina knew she was difficult to get along with, but she also wouldn’t change for anyone or anything in this world. She would never force herself to be anything less than who she was. It just wasn’t in her nature.

[Rob Snow]

Mmm, fuckable Englishman. Rob logged that one away for later. Hard to read Selina, at least consistently, but those were often the most fun. She supplied a locale: Chile. "Mutual foreigners in a strange land!" Ro insisted, raising her hand into something of a salute to their mutual background, before lowering it down and tapping the table top.

"I swear I am most definitely interesting," he promised, putting a hand to his chest and nodding solemnly. "That is, when I'm not being flattering, sexy, entertaining," he had to bob at the repetition, "humorous, complicated, or just plain obnoxious."

Another wink, another bite of pizza. "So, you going to clue me in as to how I'm doing or am I supposed to already know that?" he had to smie at that, enjoying the food only slightly as he looked to her. Complicated: that described so many, but he had a feeling that Selina was one of those who could practically have a song written about how the adjective applied to her personal situation.

Well, that or volatile, and that almost always applied quite beautifully to certain acts that involved words used at the beginning of this particular round in the conversation.

[Selina Taylor]

    Selina grinned and nodded, “I’ve only been here since the start of the school year, so I’m not all that much more familiar with this place than you are,” she admitted as she took another drink. “Which makes it funny when people ask me to show them around, because I can hardly tell left from right myself,” she added with a laugh. She put up a confident enough front though, so usually people believed that she knew what she was doing, particularly if they didn’t know any better themselves. She had a strong feeling that one of these days she’d get called on her ignorance, but she didn’t mind too much.


    Selina laughed lightly at his response and nodded, “And here I thought you were humble, timid, and quiet,” she teased. This was easy, surface level talk that came to her without much effort. When he decided to change the topic though, Selina was caught slightly off guard.


    Selina paused briefly and wondered how honest he actually wanted her to be with him as she seriously considered her answer. Well, there was no real harm in being as sincere as she could be for now, “I think you are capable of respecting boundaries, intelligent, and funny, but I also have a feeling there’s something underneath your sense of humor that I haven’t yet figured out,” she offered. There was some reason for why she was hesitating around him, and though she could easily attribute it to her trust issues and her history, she wasn’t entirely sure that she should.


    “And how am I doing? Equal exchange and all that,” she asked with an interested glance.

[Rob Snow]

"And you haven't figured out where everything is yet? Clearly I have found the wrong girl," Rob replied lightly, the smile never leaving his face. He could definitely see why someplace like this would be baffling to people. Rob had a decent sense of direction thanks to constantly dropping himself in new places, but he certainly didn't expect everyone else to follow suit just because he happened to be good at finding his way around. Besides, who knew: if she knew, then maybe she wouldn't have been wandering where he was.

He wiggled his brows at her teasing, definitely appreciating that. Compliments soon followed, which had him bowing his head slightly and extending an arm in a sort of wave/roll. "I'd go with at least a few of those, but I'd lean more toward witty than intelligent. Just because I know how to make me tongue wag don't mean I think deep thoughts."

Another wink and Rob went to start dismantling what remained of his food. The humor was his way of charming, and of course he'd seen enough of the world to see the worse parts too. He simply chose not to get too attached, to let things go that way. To breeze through life and experience what he could. Though even as he thought that, Rob caught a look at some of the art on his arms, remembering, and looked up.

"Let's see," he said. "Sexy, brash, forward, tough, hint of mystery, enough to make things interesting, and at this point, you could probably ask me into a closet and I'd follow,' he gave her a look of longsuffering, "such is the bane of those of us who posses a penis and a yen for beautiful women."