One of Yours {Dusty}

[Lorelei Summer-Lac]

Dusty would find the manager or shift supervisor or maybe just a coworker approaching her during her shift at the diner. Said person would have this half smile on their face, like they were far too amused about a situation that was about to start unfolding. They jerked their head back toward the tables, specifically back toward Dusty's tables. "There's one of yours," they said. "You'll know her when you see her."

Because Lorelei Summer-Lac may have taken up residence in a table. She'd already been seated, and wasted no time setting up a few of her notebooks and tracing diagrams. Thanks to a few weeks of healing, her left arm was now functional enough to help move things, and she seemed to be taking advantage to spread out some of her notes over the table to study.

"Okay," Lorelei mumbled, likely out of earshot but who knows, "so, I'm pretty sure I've encountered just about everyone by now. But sources say that there's at least one person who works at one of these cafes, and this is only the third one I've checked out, so eventually..." Lorelei tapped a note reading Dusty Fae with a lot of questions marks around it. "I will find you my pretty," she cooed, stroking the note gently. "Someday you will be mine."

[Dusty Fae]

Dusty was confused when Seamus approached her. She'd been working the counter like she was supposed to. She had a few tables in the dining room too, but not as many because she was working the counter. She had her section. She looked where Seamus had come from. He didn't usually pass tables onto her. He was big and tough and Irish. She normally passed him tables that she couldn't handle. Not the other way around. There was even that one time that Seamus had all but physically fought her for a table full of eldery ladies.

And then Dusty saw the table. It was some kind of crazy girl apparently. "Blast," she swore under her breath. She threw a hard look over her shoulder at Seamus, but he continued to look amused at her. Well fine, she would wait on the crazy girl and everything would be perfectly fine.

Dusty approached the table, eyeing the notebooks and things scattered around the table. "Hi," she said pleasantly, if a bit wary. "Can I get you something to drink?" The girl was stroking the paper which was real strange, but Dusty could handle it. She hoped. Darn that Seamus.

[Lorelei Summer-Lac]

The voice nearly made Lorelei jump. Instead of immediately looking to Dusty, however, she looked around, as if not quite able to place where the shouting voice had come from. It took her a bit to realize that the voice was coming from the other direction, and she looked up. As she did, Lorelei's eyes went wide, arguably too wide, and she scanned the girl up and down a few times. She looked from Dusty to her notebook, to Dusty, and back, her eyes darting probably a few more times than necessary.

"Yes, I would like a drink," Lorelei said almost robotically, moving to clear some space for a new drink. "What would you suggest, person whose name I definitely do not know, unless you have a name tag calling you Dusty somewhere, not that your name is necessarily Dusty. Just.... hypothetically." Lorelei shrugged as if she were just spinning ideas, nothing truthful, just... wild ideas. Yeah, totally that.

[Dusty Fae]

Yes, this girl was definitely crazy. Dusty might never forgive Seamus for this. Especially because this girl knew her name without looking at her badge which was clearly right on her blouse. It was bright against the all black that she wore currently. Customers were constantly looking at it and then back up at her face. Dusty took half a step back from the table, her eyes wide. "Have you been following me?" she asked, unnerved enough to wonder if she could reach for her knife without suspicion. "Why do you know me and I don't know you?" she asked, her eyes narrowed, suddenly. "I think you'd best know that I have a gun and I ain't afraid to use it."

She took a deep breath. She could get through this interaction. She absolutely would. If she couldn't handle one small girl then she was certainly in trouble. "Maybe I should get you a menu so you have a minute to sort through your lies and find the truth."

[Lorelei Summer-Lac]

Lorelei looked down at the knife Dusty brandished and was half tempted to burst into nervous giggles or to have some sort of panic attack. She looked back up at the other girl, wondering what had made her so nervous and want to draw a weapon on Lorelei of all things.

"Um, that's nice? The bit about you having a gun, not the other stuff. And who said I knew you? I didn't say I knew you! I just said that your name might hypothetically be Dusty,' she leaned forward, spreading her thin arms out to try and hug her notebooks close to her. "But I would definitely like a menu, yes please. i probably won't need much more than a minute to look through it. But I mean, sorting out truths and lies is kinda a big task? Like, wow, big philosophy stuff there, right?"

And cue the nervous giggling.

[Dusty Fae]

Dusty had never known anyone who could talk so much at someone instead of to someone. She was definitely gonna punch Seamus for this later. She had no idea how to respond to any of this nonsense. Because it was clearly a lot of nonsense. And stalking. And more nonsense. And lying. "Right," she said shortly. "You are the worst liar I have ever met. I'm gonna go grab that menu now. I'll be right back."

She all but ran to the front of the diner, where she promptly punched Seamus. But not very hard. She couldn't punch very hard if she tried. She'd attempted at being a lady back home after all. "What were you thinkin'?" she hissed. "That girl is crazy." She snatched a menu and hurried back to the table without waiting for Seamus' reply. She set the menu on the table. "Can I get you something to drink?"

[Lorelei Summer-Lac]

"Really? Because I know a few people..." Lorelei said, only to find that Dusty was already hurrying off. Lorelei sighed, all but slouching down in her seat. Well, she'd managed to scare someone off. Really, the only surprising thing was that it had taken this long, when you stopped to think about it. Back home Lorelei would've scared off every other person she spoke to.

No, no, she had to push past that. Dusty was one of those who had the most question marks around her. But as near as Lorelei could tell, there were lines connecting her to other people, those that were actually here and those that had only left a strong impression. She had to get to know her, right?

There she was, back again! "I'm sorry about freaking you out," said Lorelei, definitely not answering the question. "It's just... I kind of read about a lot of people before coming here, and I kind of found out stuff about you, so I was kind of excited to meet you and stuff. I guess i just kind of ambushed you a little...' Lorelei licked her lips, considering. Should she offer to leave? And abandon the quest? "Can I have..." she looked at the menu quickly, doing what she often did: reading it in a few seconds. "Oh, a milkshake? I haven't had one of those before. Do they actually shake the milk to make those, or is that just a weird name?"

[Dusty Fae]

Dusty was doing her best to be professional. She needed this job after all and she has worked too hard to jeopardize that. Though maybe no one would blame her for running away from this particular customer. She was kind of frightening after all. She was apparently doing all kinds of research on all of the students here. “Why?” she asked, not feeling reassured in the slightest. “What kind of stuff did you find out?” She wasn't entirely sure she wanted to know.

Dusty frowned at the question, returning to waitress mode. “Uh, kinda. It's ice cream with a little bit of milk and then there's a machine that mixes it together. In a pinch you can shake it. Do you want one? They're real good. I like the chocolate peanut butter ones the best, but they're all good.”

[Lorelei Summer-Lac]

What sort of stuff had Lorelei found out? "All sorts of things! There's all these journals and--" and milkshakes. Lorelei was staring at the menu, bouncing slightly, her face lighting up. She hadn't tried something like that. It sounded like the shop didn't make them by hand, which sounded a little disappointing and all. But it wasn't nearly enough to make her want to not try one.

"Oh, I'll definitely have one of those!" she all but chirped. "I could get you one too, if you want? Oh, but you're working right now, right? I mean, I could wait until you're on break or something. Not that, like, we have to eat it together or something. Though that would be awesome. I just meant, like, I could buy you one because I wanted to? Because you're kinda interesting and i wanted to meet you and now I have and..." Lorelei rolled her hands for a few moments, trying to figure out if she had anything else to really add there. She'd pretty well run out of words by this point. "Yeah, um, I'll have a chocolate peanut butter milkshake, please. And one for you. If you want."

[Dusty Fae]

Dusty watched the girl bounce in the seat. Maybe it was just the excitement of never having had a milkshake before. Dusty had been pretty excited to try one of those too, but not bounce in your seat excited. Though that was probably because she'd never been allowed to bounce in a seat. Children had been expected to behave at all times, especially when you were the daughter of a saloon girl.

Dusty blinked, wondering when the words would stop. She couldn't even get a word in edgewise. And then she stopped. "When do you breathe?" she asked, slightly bewildered. All those words seemed to have spilled from her with very little effort and said almost nothing. "I shouldn't have a milkshake on the clock but thank you anyway. Do you want any food with your milkshake?"

[Lorelei Summer-Lac]

"Um, all the time?" asked Lorelei, tilting her head. "I don't get why people keep asking me that," the last was said in a much lower voice, partially because it was more to Lorelei herself, partially because Lorelei couldn't help but wonder if it wasn't some sort of slight to her.

"Oh, right, on the clock. Gotta make that money," said Lorelei, tapping the books in front of her. "Um, no, just the milkshake. A really big one though. And I can wait and get you the milkshake when you're done, if you want. I mean, I can just sit here and wait. Or not. If you, like, really don't want one? But if you don't, is that because they're bad or something else?" Lorelei frowned, trying to work her way through this intriguing puzzle before her.

[Dusty Fae]

Dusty blinked. That had been rude to ask. She should have known better. She was old enough to know better. "Sorry," she said softly. "I shouldn't have said that. I'm sure you breathe plenty."

Dusty wrote that on her pad. Not that she needed to. She would remember. She would be the one making the milkshake anyway. Jose, the chef, was too busy. And milkshakes weren't hard. "They ain't bad. They're real good. But you don't have to buy one for me. That ain't necessary." She tucked her pen and paper back into the pocket in apron. "I'll go put your order in."

[Lorelei Summer-Lac]

"I totally do," agreed Lorelei without thinking too much on it." Like, several times a day and everything," she watched the other girl write, leaning forward to see it slightly. It looked like something that stood for milkshakes.

The other girl was already talking at least somewhat good about them, though she sounded a little cautious about it. She also really didn't seem to want to have any company, or milkshakes. Lorelei visibly deflated, sinking down and fingering her books. "Uh, right, sure,' she said, feeling thoroughly embarrassed about the situation. She'd gotten overexcited, again, and she'd freaked Dusty out, that much was pretty evident.

Well, at least she'd get to try a milkshake, that was something, right?

[Dusty Fae]

Yeah. The thing about breathing was that everyone did it. Everyone. No exceptions, 'less you were dead or undead or something, which Dusty didn't think was likely. But it was weird to comment on one's breathing habits. There was something strange about it. It made Lorelei sound like she didn't breathe at all. "Right," she agreed simply because she didn't know what else to say. "Well, I'll be right back with your milkshake then."

Making the milkshake didn't take her long to make and few minutes later Dusty was heading back to the table with a milkshake in one hand, topped with whip cream and a cherry and a metal cup in the other. She set both in front of Lorelei. "This," she said pointing to the metal cup, "is the rest of your milkshake. Our glasses don't hold 'em all so you get a little extra in here." She set a straw on the table. "I hope you like it."