Bracelets for the soul

Cyrus raised an eyebrow, pointing at the thing she was reaching towards. Not-A-Scientist is the first nickname I get? "This? You got it kiddo," he said, picking it up and setting it in front of her, tugging his arm out of the way as she brandished her fork and knife mid-apology. "Don't worry about it, kid," he chuckled, watching the bird pecking away while in his own formalwear with a confused grimace on his face, turning back to his own table.


    Cyrus chuckled in surprise at 'Miley', having already forgotten that the nicknamer had become the nicknamee not just once but twice. Carefully he pushed Alti's chair in before sitting down himself. "Ahh pretty uneventful. It's mostly been me waiting on this guy to get ready, although... I definitely can't argue with the results~" he smirked, pointing his thumb towards Alti. "I should've thought to get flowers or something with that sheer quantity of spare time buuuut, Tea and Crumpets over there has us all beat on the romance aspect, eh?" he chuckled, glancing at Simon before looking back to Vale and Alraada, now surveying the two of them.

    Somehow, the flourescent felon had completely met every single one of his expectations by keeping that ridiculous polyester getup underneath his suit. Lettuce however exceeded his expectations by actually looking older than 14 years old. Impressive. His expression flickered just for a split second as he noticed the abundance of scars around Alraada's neck and collarbone, pushing away the sinking feeling in his gut before grinning.

    "You two cleaned up pretty nicely," he hummed, moving to flag down the waiter. "This whole menagerie of weirdoes did, to be honest. I'm impressed."

Naira had been thinking about what to wear since she woke up. She did pack some evening gowns and her iconic heels, but constantly flipped and flopped between combinations. She hoped this was the right thing to wear. As Naira drew closer to the restaurant, she spotted Simon waiting for her. Had she taken so long? She walked faster until they were face to face. "Hey. Sorry I'm late. Shall we go?"

Alti advanced, allowing his date to lead the way over to the green couple. As they walked, he noticed Vale turning to say something to his date before abruptly turning to greet them, the action prompting Alti to smile and quicken his pace a little.


Alti allowed his smile to drop for a moment as he raised an eyebrow at the scientist’s vague promise. Worth his while? Alti scoffed at the idea. Oh, please. he thought. How could the man possibly know by now what’s “worth his while”? They’ve only known each other for about a day, and with most of that time being used to sleep said day away, they were still complete strangers. He remembered upon the soulmate reveal, the scientist stated he refused to beat him up, AND he’s already seen him get completely naked so… What exactly was left? It’s not like they were in zero-gravity or anything. No, at the moment, Alti could find nothing more pleasing than participating in this “date” while in in the cabbage patch’s company. He stared back at the two, a slight scowl forming on his face. For some reason, Vale made him feel... uncomfortable, and he couldn’t understand why. Perhaps it had something to with the little spat they had earlier, but that didnt make much sense on its own. He didn’t find the man all that threatening (In fact, he had to be the only person among the group of loveless misfits whose appearance was more outlandish than his), so why couldn’t he shake this tight feeling? Alti pondered at this and then shrugged to himself. Meh. It was never any use to try and figure these things out. In his past experiences, he found that the only real way to get rid of his problems was to destroy them, and that was the only thing on his mind the second he saw the free seats beside them. Alti tightened his hold on Cyrus’ arm, keeping his signature smile going as they got to their seats finally. Although he wasn’t all too certain what this day would hold for him, he could tell by both the sudden shift in Alraada’s expression and the subtle about-face her partner made in response to their arrival that the rest of this “date” would be nothing but fun. So much more fun than what his date would offer him, but still…. he couldn’t help but be a bit curious. He weighed his options for a few seconds before turning back to Cyrus.

“Mmm, alright…” he whispered back with the same softness. He figured he’d chance it for now, listening to the scientist’s orders with the goal of satisfying this burning curiosity later, but rest assured if the scales tipped in favor of messing with the green team, he wouldn’t hesitate to jump ship.


Alti forced a smile as he sat down. What am I, your goddamned pet? he thought, those tense feelings immediately being pushed to the side as his date pushed his chair in. Oh. He sat snugly in his seat as he listened to the other three chat to each other, blushing slightly at the compliment he was given. "Hehe... you look great too..." he muttered. He made the conscious decision not to contribute to the conversation as he couldn't really relate to the topic. Given his soulmate's alarmed reaction to his personal life, he had a feeling his "hobbies" wouldn't exactly sit easy with anyone right now either. No, as much as it killed him to not talk about himself, he decided to save it until he was better acquainted with everybody. That was how people did the "socializing" thing, right? It wasn't long until an strained response from the highlighter pen prompted Alti to begin paying close attention to the other couple's body language. Awkward. That was what this was. That was what they were, and that made Alti happy amidst the silence. It was now his turn to speak, and with Cyrus' advice in mind, motioned to ask start a new conversation, one much more innocent than what would be expected of him. Plus, he really needed an answer

"So," Alti began, interlocking his fingers as he smiled a sweet smile at the others. "What exactly is a 'date', you guys?"

Cyrus gawked at Alti for a moment. How the hell doesn't he know what a date is!? The scientist was certainly more than surprised. Whether or not people had struck success in their love lives or not, even the most lonely of losers knew what the definition of a "date" was.



Vale's explanation laced with sarcasm certainly didn't help matters either. Oh come on, I don't need two people making this difficult. Despite the outlandishness of Alti's ignorance however, with how bizarre he was he didnt completely disbelieve him. Raising an eyebrow, Cyrus looked over at Alti in shock, interrupting Vale's useless explanation. "You're serious, aren't you. Huh. That's surpising. Whatever. Usually they're how your partner gets to know you early on, and how you decide whether or not you wanna pursue a longer relationship. Later in a relationship a date is just time dedicated for both people to spend together."

He glanced over at Vale and rolled his eyes. "If the date goes well, sometimes it leads to where the Power Ranger is talking about."

Vale placed his hands into a pyramid shape on the table and giggled idiotically. "Teehee. Power Ranger." It took him a moment to register that Alti must have been, in fact serious, which made him more than a little curious. "So. Alti was it? What part of the world did you crawl out from before all this? Were you homeschooled, private school, what?" The way he was phrasing it was a bit harsh, but he was still flabbergasted that the conversation had even happened.

Vale stared at the other man, squinting harder now. "Knew it," He said, leaning back in his seat and putting his arms behind his head. "You look like the gang type. What were you, cradle robbed? Ran away from home? Sold for the hell of it? Something like that?" He casually brought this up as though it were completely normal, and clearly something he'd talked about before.

Alraada sighed lightly at the passive agressive grimble grumble between Alti and Vale.
She was gettign quite annoyed.
She pulled a book from a purse she brought along with her.
'Shadow Slayers Volume Two: Tairaga.'
Hell yes.
She was a sucker for good stories like these.