video, the first | day #71

[rulebreaks]

[Buffy's face is close to her wrist band. A little too close. And she doesn't seem happy with this turn of events.] If this is a joke, can someone please relay to the joke-tellers how unfunny this is? It's like when peanut butter sticks to the roof of your mouth and it should be funny when really it's just full of the peanut-buttery goodness that could've been. ...Your mouth, that is. Is full of--

Metaphors are stupid. And so are... are robot bears! Bears of any kind, really, I don't think their IQs are that high and I don't have a high opinion of robots either. Call it a childhood trauma. Even if that was like, two years ago.

Alright, someone be spill guy. I'm running out of babble. [a beat] ...How do I turn this thing off?

Comments

[rulebreaks]

I don't really count those people. No bigotry involved it's just so far out of my wheelhouse it's not even in my wheelgarage. Or basement. Or attic. [He gets the point Buffster. Though she is wearing a very prominent cross around her neck so that's an interesting thing for her to say. Still.] ...What part of Earth? The America shaped side? Does your Earth have an America? Fifty states, kind of... blobby looking?

[nedofpies]

Yes, the American shaped side. [ Ned is beginning to enjoy her curious way of phrasing things. It's quirky, like River, only a thousand times more immediately intelligible ] Papen county, specifically, though even if it exists in your version of the U.S., you probably haven't heard of it. No good reason to.

[ Since what she wants seems to be something to think about, to talk about, that doesn't involve her own imprisonment, Ned's mind naturally drifts to- ] I'm a piemaker. Own a shop called The Pie Hole, well, I'd only just opened it, really.

[rulebreaks]

Sunnydale, California. Which... you've probably never heard of either. [she's enjoying this conversation a little too much too, if only because Ned is tragically malleable.]

You make pie? That is such a coincidence. Because I love pie. Probably more than is strictly healthy.

[nedofpies]

Afraid I haven't. [ He's...heard of California? Not the same thing. ]

As far as I'm concerned, no amount of loving pie is unhealthy. [ Yes, he really does mean that. Pie is pretty much Ned's religion. It is a good thing that there can't possibly be too much of. ]

[rulebreaks]

Consider yourself lucky. [but she sounds cheerful about it.]

I'm pretty sure man cannot survive on pie alone. I can sure as heck give it the old college try though. On account of me being college-guy. Gal.

[nedofpies]

And what is it you want to do when you graduate, college-gal? [ Ned's known what he wanted to do with his life for about twenty years, so it's hard to imagine that Buffy wouldn't have any ideas, particularly since she's going to college. People only go to college when they have a specific career plan in mind, right? ] Lawyer? Brain surgeon? I'm guessing not an astronaut based on the implied dislike of astronomy.

[rulebreaks]

D-do? As in... [She swallows, wow. Here comes the full-on panic. Unlike the slight annoyance caused by mechanical bears who attack her.] I also like my feet firmly on the ground. Both of them at the same time. You could even say gravity and me go way back.

I. It's--I'm studying to be, studious. For now.

[nedofpies]

[ Okay, apparently that's not a good subject. Ned never really had that experience of uncertainty about the direction he wanted his life to go in. ]

That's good! I was never very good at studious, myself. Kept sneaking out of classes to break into the kitchen to practice baking pies. Never really had a need for algebra or French, but baking's come in pretty handy.

[rulebreaks]

It must be nice to know what you're going to do. Forever. [Even if she pretty much already did, it was never a choice, and she had always envied that in others.]

[nedofpies]

[ Ned shrugs ] Yeah. But there's nothing wrong with taking a little more time to figure it out. Plenty of people think they know how they're going to spend the rest of their lives, at a young age, and they end up being completely wrong. [ That might not be true of his career path, but it is certainly starting to prove true in... other matters ]

[rulebreaks]

Um. Not really helping with the self-doubty feelings, pie-guy.

[nedofpies]

[ Augh, no, not helping is the opposite of what he wanted. Ned starts to get flustered, devolves from speaking to what can only be called babbling ] I'm sorry. Don't listen to anything I just said. Erase it from your memory. I'm not the guy you want giving you advice, I mean, what do I know, I didn't even go to college, I'm sure that whatever you choose you'll end up- things will be- I'm just going to stop talking now.

[rulebreaks]

[She laughs, though it's soft.] Don't worry, that wasn't your cue with the reassuring. Is it still "re" if this is your first time? Assuring, re or otherwise, is totally unnecessary. It's just that sometimes...

I don't really feel like I belong there. That's all.

[nedofpies]

[ Ned smiles ruefully at that. Not feeling like he belongs has been a staple for him for a long time. He isn't going to just tell her that he's sure she's wrong, because she'd know better than he would, wouldn't she? Instead he just says ]

Well, in any case, I feel better knowing you're going to keep on being studious here and helping to research ways out of this place.

[rulebreaks]

Oh, stop. You're only saying that because you've never actually seen me study.