[PRP] Trashy People [Marcus/Cassandra]

[demon_pachabel]

Cassandra ******** had been in town for a grand total of two weeks. Enough time to get her apartment settled (Ted was a very good boy, keeping her apartment safe from dirt and the occasional side of her foot), put in more applications for work than any normal person should have (she'd likely dropped the same application off at the same place at least three times. At least they'd know she was serious?), and....well, she hadn't gotten anything a person needed in order to live an actual, basic, human life.

The Pizza Hut closest to her place definitely knew her by now (how many days can you order a pizza twice a day before they wonder if you're OK?) and she'd confirmed the fridge didn't stink (much), so she'd decided to make the ultimate move-in decision. It was time to go grocery shopping. Which by her standards meant 'I don't have plates or knives or-'

She should have picked up a grown up person cart. She shouldn't have picked up the arm basket. But Cassandra hadn't wanted to push it through the store. That required effort and goals. So instead she'd carefully tetris'd her basket. Paper plates (check), disposable utensils (double check on the forks, those always ran out first), 2-12 packs of soda (not into the basket), and then-

Frozen. Always the frozen section. There was no way she was going to fit in enough TV dinners to last her a proper handful of days.Especially not the cheap a** $1 ones she was eyeballing. And trying to open the freezer for while still holding everything. Cass knew she should have gotten the big cart, but now she was determined.

Which was how she dropped the contents of her basket and one of the things of plastic forks busted open, spilling their contents all across the store floor. She stared down at it, sighed deeply, then finally relented to put things down and start cleaning up her own mess.

"Thanks for setting me up for success, guys." she hissed under her breath as she collected the forks, quietly debating each time if she should stab herself in the eye so she'd have a reason to scream in frustration. Even though she knew it was her own damn fault.

AUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH.

Istoleyurvamps

I'm sorry (not sorry) that Cass is a mess and that I keep harassing you to RP with me. Sob.

 

[demon_pachabel]

Normally, people didn't trip over her idiot self in the grocery store. She barely braced herself on her arms, cursing in Greek, as Marcus grabbed her hips. While she knew it hadn't been intended, she made a slight squeak of a noise and also grabbed her hips once he'd let go of her. At least some of the forks had been snapped in half during their kerfuffle and Cass found herself looking at all of them, sighing deeply.

"I can't even do this much right. Great." she took a few deep breaths, pinching the bridge of her nose and whispering 'Namasteeee, deep breatthhhsss' to herself before she started to shove things back into the box they'd all come out of.

"No, I..." she picked up a few more forks to shove into the box, "I mean, you can but i'm not going to make you," she slammed the box onto the floor and put both hands over her face. Cassandra forced herself to take deep breaths again. New towns were always hard to settle into and she definitely hadn't been settling well. If she didn't have a contract to worry about, she would have considered just moving on again.

"Sorry, I'm just..." Cass wrung her hands open and closed. "Having a bad day. Are you alright? Didn't hurt yourself while nearly stepping on a Cass-mine?" Hey, that was the first joke she'd made with that name. Great! Progress. Maybe. She barely glanced at his basket as she spoke to him, brows rising. "I like your cactus."

She clearly was doing just as well.

Istoleyurvamps

 

[demon_pachabel]

The further Marcus dug into his awkward hole, the more Cass just couldn't help but smile, carefully trying to organize the forks into the box as she picked them up. Eventually she gave up on making sure the top of it would close up again, just trying to make everything fit instead. Lord, he was the adorable dorky type, wasn't he?

"Oh, I was the one on the floor. I don't normally look at my feet while walking," she relented, still forcing herself to take deep breaths, but sounding a lot less strained about everything. When he commented on her face, she lifted her brows slightly, a somewhat silly smile crossing her lips. "Well, I'm glad you like my only redeeming feature. I'm not sure what I'd do without it," she answered casually, reaching out with both hands to take the forks from Marcus and barely brushing her hands across his as she did so.

"I certainly wouldn't buy a cactus. I don't think I can keep a plastic plant alive and eventually Ted would eat it." she didn't clarify that 'Ted' was an electronic device and she would likely have to knock a plant over to make Ted do anything.

Cassandra carefully began to stuff the rest of the forks in the box when she eyed the contents of Marcus's basket again. "Is tinfoil on sale too? Do a lot of baking or...?" she actually didn't know what else someone would use tinfoil for.

istoleyurvamps

 

[demon_pachabel]

"Oh no, Ted isn't an animal." Cassandra corrected. "Spines won't stop Ted from doing whatever it is he wants to that poor cactus." And she really didn't want to find a place for a cactus. Marcus' not-so-subtle compliment made her laugh. "Oh, I'm sure it would do better in an actual window in the hands of someone capable,"

She stashed the box of forks back into her basket then accepted Marcus' hand to stand again, brushing herself off and then picking up her two boxes of soda again. Good thing she had at least one big strong arm to balance everything she was carrying in.

Listening to Marcus' explanation for the tinfoil, Cassandra would have admitted it wasn't exactly what she had expected him to be using them for. Her brows lifted and she quietly put a tick on her list of 'ways to tell if you're dealing with a crazy' list. Her own list was ticked off pretty well so she knew a thing or two about crazy, at least.

"I see. I've heard wire mesh works for that too. Doesn't keep all the heat waves in your place either. Unless you like melting in your own skin," Cass replied with an innocent tone. Sure she believed you.

"Oh, those sound really good," Cass's stomach growled at the mention of the potatoes and her face turned red. Whoops. "Much more grandiose than my plans at least."

Istoleyurvamps

 

[demon_pachabel]

A look of confusion slowly passed over her face as Marcus started talking about corporeal beings before shaking her head slowly.

"N...o......the ghost in my apartment is named Dennis. Ted is a Roomba." she clarified. There wasn't actually a ghost in her apartment, but if he knew his popular culture, she'd at least hopefully get a chuckle about the name of choice she'd pulled out of nowhere for it. He probably wouldn't, though.

Okay, Marcus definitely had a few odd quirks to him, but she wasn't exactly a bucket of rainbows. Maybe she was.. At least her face was, apparently. "Just gotta put the mesh in the right places. I'm not quite sure that the procedure is for electronics." she admitted with a shrug. As she was offered the flower, she took it shakily with one hand and a smile, debating as to where to put it before she settled for the logical option: down her shirt.

Then again, she gave him a look of mild amusement as he fumbled for the right word for his meanings. "Well, I'd feel bad not having anything I could really...bring to the table," she admitted sheepishly. "Not much of a cook." Hence why she currently had a basket of cheap TV dinners. And broken forks.

As he introduced himself, Cass quietly fumbled in her head for the right name to give him in turn.

"Cassandra N...T..." she coughed, "Cassandra Youttz." Nailed it.

istoleyurvamps

 

[demon_pachabel]

As he processed her joke, she waited, smiling and shifting the soda to her other arm because oh lord that was heavy and her arm was tired. "Angel, but close enough." the series were related, she'd give him full credit for getting that one.

She watched him, pointedly, as his attention remained on her chest (or rather the disappearing flower) and laughed. Oh, he was such a little dork and it was very cute. Cassandra would let herself play with that for a while. "Oh? You find all your company in the grocery store, Marcus?" she inquired with a teasing tone. "And invite strange girls over to ruin your kitchen as well? Why, I'm flattered you trust me so much." she heavily considered making a joke about being a sleeper agent.


She'd hold off on that joke for the time being, just in case that would turn him into a bundle of nerves.

"Ummm, phone..." she got a slightly serious look on her face. "Shoot," she fumbled through her pocket with her now free hand to pull it out. It was a contractless thing people usually could pick up in a grocery store and it probably hadn't cost her much more than $20 for the device itself. Because really she didn't talk to anybody much.

"xxx-555-7897," she read off of the menu as she navigated to find said number. "Texting is fine, I'm not big on actually holding a phone to my ears. Might pressurize my ear and have to drive West at 80 MPH and die."

It was a joke.

She really hoped he'd pick up that reference too.

istoleyurvamps

 

[demon_pachabel]

"Experiments? Should I be worried?" she asked lightly. "Or should I take that as a personal challenge?" No Cass. Don't take that as a personal challenge and burn down his house. At least he has a house. HE HAS ROOTS CASS. DON'T RUIN IT.

Cassandra watched her phone as he texted her, when smiled at the little cake emoji that popped up on the screen. She flipped mindlessly through her own options and chose one at random to send back to him.

istoleyurvamps

Nailed it.

"You don't have to carry anything for me. I'm a big strong girl," this was a lie, "I can carry my stuff. You're very sweet to offer though." Slightly flirty? Maybe, but it was meaningless to her. "I'd take you up on coffee, but that also means you're stuck with me looking like the trash heap I rolled out of this morning after. These," she looked at her dinners, "if they defrost that just means I microwave them for less time. I really won't be hurting for it." Though something in her started nagging at the idea of going on TOO MANY food adventures with the same person in but a single day. Hey now. Don't let him treat you too much. Keep it fun, don't set him up to break his heart in a week.  

[demon_pachabel]

"Oh, only on the surface, I assure you. Maybe I'll let you see how deep the trash pile goes." she said, though her tone and smile lost a certain brightness they'd had previously. Well. He was forward enough at least.

"So your plan is to just whisk me away for a romantic evening of....potatoes and coffee?" she inquired, though it didn't keep her from starting to walk her nice heavy boxes up towards the check out stands. "I mean, it's better than what my plans were at least." What HAD her plans been? Oh yeah, TV dinner and play fetch with Ted.

Ted was VERY good at fetch.

Istoleyurvamps

SORRY FOR REQUOTE, I editted something.