2020-03-27 - Not So Sweet

It's ... not SUPER early, but there's also not a whole lot of people out and about at 8 AM on a Friday morning. There is a group of old folks, sitting together and having a good time on a 'double date' with their spouses. There is a businessman with his briefcase and the morning paper, having coffee and a light breakfast. There's a college student in the corner who's dozed off from the all-nighter they pulled. And then, at a table all by himself, there's Tyrone. There's no food at his table, but there's also no menu, so anyone with a mite of intuition could probably guess that he's ordered but the food hasn't arrived. His orange juice, however, is already halfway gone. With the nicer weather out, he's wearing a black t-shirt and camo pants. And, for those who are more familiar with him, he has some fairly vicious scarring on his arms that wasn't there last year.

Food would be good, so Lyric had walks to the Waffle Shoppe, her go-to for breakfast. Having worked late last night, she looked a little sleepy but hunger won out over the tiredness so here she is in a pair of striped leggings beneath a pleated skirt and a hoodie over her shirt. She's got her usual boots on, well worn from all her walking, but she seems to be in a good enough mood when she comes inside. There's a wave to the waitress and she heads to the counter where she usually sits until she notices a Tyrone seated by himself. Still, she finishes going to the counter and places her order there before pointing to Tyrones table. "Over there. Maybe." Then she walks over, approaching him, "Want some company?"

Having been minding his own business and staring at his orange juice while thoroughly enjoying his time in his nothing box, Tyrone is a little startled when Lyric addresses him. Which, for him, means she gets a glance and a raised eyebrow. But he recognizes her immediately (boobs!) and then looks even more surprised. "Uh, yeah, sure," he says, unparking his chair so that he can do his gentleman thing and move to pull a chair out for Lyric. "Morning. ... or, is it just really, /really/ late night for you?" he asks, considering the sleepy look on her face. Who knows how late the strip clubs stay open in Gray Harbor? ... well, who besides Lyric, anyway.

"Thanks. I just already ordered, but I told them to deliver it here if you let me stay." Lyric knows the drill with him so she waits patiently and then slides into her seat once he pulls out the chair for her. "Thank you," she offers to him before giving him a smile. "Are you glad to be back in town now?" With a quick look at him she does notice the marks on his arms and then it's his turn to get the raised brows look. Except she doesn't ask. Not yet anyway. Good thing probably, because her own drink is delivered. Water! How bland!

Tyrone just smirks a little when Lyric doesn't indicate if she's just going or still going, and then slides his orange juice to the other side and out of her way. "... why wouldn't I let you stay?" he asks, bewildered by the question. But, then she's asking him something else and he grimaces and shrugs his shoulders up. "I mean, I'm glad I'm not in the Dream anymore. But, as far as being glad to be here? ... eh?" he offers, with another shrug. "I mean, I'm glad all my stuff's okay and I didn't get dumped out to being homeless and in any kinda trouble. But, otherwise ... I mean, e'rybody told me it was a bad idea to stay here when I first showed up, so I dunno if I should really be glad I couldn't leave?"

Lyric just watches him and listens, head tilted to the side as she gauges how difficult the conversation was going to be. "You keep trying to say you didn't leave, but you packed up and left on the bus. Or you intended to. And then you were gone for a few months. But then you say you couldn't leave when you actually were leaving. So even if you were in the veil the whole time, you still left?" It's all talking in circles to her and seems to just frustrate her. Reaching for her water, she opens a straw and dips it into the cup before taking a drink. "Then let's talk about something else." She's apparently not going to agree on the other. "Heard any good music?"

Tyrone listens to Lyric's reiteration of the story, thinks about it for a second. Then, he chuckles and shrugs. "Okay, you right, so I left Gray Harbor. I just didn't go where I wanted. But, part of the reason /why/ I didn't go where I wanted, was because I'm /in/ Gray Harbor. So. Regardless, to answer the question you asked me, yeah, I'm glad to be here instead of the Dream. And ... nah. Actually didn't listen to /any/ music, while I was over there. And I ain't really checked it out since I been back," he admits, shrugging his shoulders and looking down at the table.

"I dunno why you were running away." Lyric says finally, after a bit of silence. That's all she adds to the subject of him leaving though. The phone she has on her isn't pulled out right now or anything, but she nods about his reasoning for having not heard any songs lately. "I had fun playing the music game with you before. If you ever want to do it again, let me know."

Tyrone looks up at Lyric when she says that, then back down at his oragne glass. He mulls it over quietly, then shrugs and looks back up at Lyric. "I could tell you, but I don't know that it would matter. Long story short, learned a lotta things in the Marines. How ta deal with feelings wasn't one of 'em," he offers, giving Lyric a helpless grimace and raised shoulders again. Then, he thinks back to the time they played the phone game before, and he chuckles and shakes his head. "Yeah, I was trying /so/ hard to get through to you back then. I think I'd pro'ly enjoy it more when I ain't tryin'a guess if you meaning anything by what songs you was choosin', or by rackin' my brains tryin'a pick a song to say what I was strugglin' with." And then he raises his orange juice to drink from it and give his mouth something to do other than rat himself out.

Again, Lyric quietly contemplates what he says, actually listening and mulling it over, recalling some of the songs from that night. Finally, she gives him a completely guileless smile as she reassures him. "Then next time just play songs or videos you really like. And if you have more meaning to it than that, then just say what you mean. Probably that'd be much easier. And very much more honest. Maybe easier too then."

Tyrone laughs and nods, agreeing with her. "Oh yeah. Way easier. One good thing that I've learned over the last few months is that I do /not/ cope with feelings well. Tryin'a stir 'em up, intentionally is baaaad juju," he quips laughing. And oh look! Food! At least for Tyrone, since he ordered first. He's got pancakes and chicken fried steak on his plate, with tater tots and a little gravy boat. He grins and rubs his hands together as the food is set before him, and is /juuuust/ about to dig in, when manners kick in again and he stops, setting his silverware back down so he can wait for Lyric's food to show. It's not like his food will be inedible by then! "Would you care for a tot?" he offers, in case she's wasting away and requires the friend starch goodness that is the golden brown potato cubes.

"Feelings aren't good Tyrone. They just cause trouble. People always leave, one way or the other." Lyric doesn't exactly offer what those ways are though, nor does she elaborate. As his food arrives, she doesn't look to see what she ordered, but instead she watches his face grin and his hands rub together. "It's fun watching you get your food. I like that it makes you happy like that." With a shake of her head, she declines the bite, "Mine'll be here soon."

"Suit yourself," Tyrone says and pops a couple of them into his mouth. He then spreads gravy over everything but the pancakes. Likewise with the pepper. And then he picks up his knife and fork and settles in, scanning his plate, obviously planning his attack. "But I think we go'n have to disagree on the feelings bit. Some of them are pretty awesome. Like getting this plateful of goodness. Or coming home from a mission safe. Or seeing the chick you've been crushing on for weeks bucky nekkid," he offers. And then his mouth is full of chicken fried steak, as he sets about annihilating his breakfast. Obviously, he eats by himself too much to have broken his 'chow' habits from his time in.

Lyric rests her chin on the heel of her hand as she watches him eat, taking a weird kind of satisfaction from seeing him devour ir. Rawr, Man versus food. Tyrone was winning. There's no talk of him waiting for her food to get there, she's certainly in no hurry, but she ponders his words on feelings. "I don't think I really get feelings for food, maybe, but I like some kids. Kids can't help when or where parents make them go. So when they leave it's not their fault." Her own food finally arrives, it looks pretty bland. Toast and eggs and bacon and hash browns. She immediately starts cutting up the eggs. "Do you like kids?"

Because he's eating, it takes Tyrone a second to answer, as he clears some space in his mouth for words by swallowing a large mouthful. You'd think he was worried someone was gonna take his food away or something! "Kids are great. You know, they're the same everywhere? That was one of my favorite things on tour, the kids are the same over there. They like different sports and stuff, but they're still all kids." He chuckles and shakes his head, smirking at a memory. "Some of them are little punks, just like here, but for the most part, they're still just little kids. Even in the bad parts."

"I like Brandon and Emma best. And Joey's niece." Lyric muses over them before explaining. "Emma lives in the trailer park. Her mama always has to work so I took her trick or treating this year before yaking her back to her house and then going back home. When I was there giving out candy at my house, I met Brandon. He was trick or treating. Something happened, some dream-veil thing, and I held him and helped him, because he was scared. Thewlis knows Brandon really well. He lives in the cemetery. He died awhile back and he was just out for Halloween." That's sad, she sighs softly. "I still visit him though, when I go see my mom. Thewlis helped me plant some flowers that always come back for both of them." Something of her private life she rarely talks about. Looking back down at her plate, she mixes the eggs with the hash browns then starts crumbling the bacon on the top of it all before adding pepper to it. Then she starts eating, using a fork and the toast to scoop up bites.

Tyrone pauses his eating to listen to Lyric as she tells her story. He nods when she finishes, just accepting things because he's finally getting more familiar with Gray Harbor. "That's really nice of you. And thoughtful. I'm sure they both appreciate it," he responds. He watches her doctor up her plate, then smiles a little. "How's breakfast?"

"Breakfast is kinda good. Kinda not. I didn't get waffles with syrup cause I can't taste the sugar stuff. And orange juice and jam for my toast. I can't taste sugar, so that makes it taste like nothing. So I had to get things that didn't have so much sugar so I could taste the food. But I miss pecan waffles. I got my bacon though." As if to prove her point, she scoops up a bite and eats it. Omnomnom. "Do you like getting breakfast and lunch at the same time?" Indicating the meat and the tators with gravy. "It looks good."

"Wait, you can't taste ... sugar? Or you can't taste sweet? ... or is that the same thing?" Tyrone asks, very surprised. His brow furrows and he looks at Lyric's plate. "Man .... I ain't big on candy or stuff, but still. Like ... /nothing/? And what about other flavors?" Color Tyrone very curious. And he has more questions. "When did this happen? You wasn't always like this, right? Cuz we been had shared sweet stuff before, ain't we?"

"I mean, I used to could taste it. Like, even a few days ago. But since I got burned, I can't taste it now." Lyric shrugs sadly. "I miss the taste of it." She eats a few more bites, not shoveling it in like he does, but the girl isn't afraid to eat in front of people. "I can taste food, mostly, just not sugar or sweet things." After another bite, she puts down her fork and pulls up a hoodie sleeve and shows a burn on her arm. "And that too. And last night we fought a zombie mom and a sea hag and we almost got eaten by a shark. It's been really.. adventurous." For lack of a better word.

"Oh wow .... Do you know if it's gonna come back, or ...? That's crazy!" Tyrone says, shocked. When she says she's fought other stuff, his brow furrows and then he looks at the burn on her arm and his dismay only increases. "Shawty! You ... you gotta be careful. ... you ain't ... seeking this stuff out, is you? Please tell me you're not ...."

"I'm not sure, but I hope it does. I love cotton candy. In my dream there, I have cotton candy hair and the gingerbread men are my fanclub and they look like Parliament with their cotton candy hairdos it's really very cute. I wish you'd dream it with me because we could race then. There, I can drive." Lyric takes another bite of her food and follows it with a drink of water. "I don't try and have dreams, they just come. They have since I was so little."

Tyrone frowns and looks very concerned as Lyric covers the burns on her arm again. When he looks back up at Lyric, he looks very conflicted. "I really hate the idea that you're in danger like that so often. But ... I know it's also a big part of who you are, so .... Just be careful, yeah?" Tyrone pleads. "I dunno what I would do if something happened to you, but it probably wouldn't be good."

"I never get hurt really bad. Not like you do. You get hurt really bad a lot. You said you were in the hospital when you came back. What was hurt then?" Lyric does continue eating, not really concerned for herself so much, she's managed to overcome a lot. Then she adds with a half smile. "I swam and a shark chased me though, so I made myself and Alisha go really fast in the water to get away. Then we fought a sea hag and her zombie. I threw the zombie at the sea hag." Tilting her head she considers. "How much do you weigh?"

Tyrone sighs and nods when Lyric says she's not in /that/ much danger. It's not great, but it's better than it could be. So he'll take it. She asks him what he hurt and there's a rueful chuckle as he shakes his head. "A lot," he says. "Nothing permanent below the surface, though, so that's lucky. Just had ta spend that time cuz I have to be more careful 'bout healing since I can't necessarily feel or move everything." When Lyric tells another story about her dream, he just shakes his head and sighs. "Yeah .... See, it's stuff like that. That ain't /safe/." And then she's asking how much he weighs and he looks surprised. "... I dunno? Somethin' like a buck fiddy?"

"I can carry you." Lyric says matter of factly, answering him from the end of what he said, backwards. "It's not safe, but I can't make myself not dream. Even taking things to sleep doesn't keep dreams away." Looking over what she can see of him, she sort of checks for more scars or anything. "I'm glad it's nothing permanent again."

The statement that she can carry him makes Tyrone laugh. But, when it appears she's serious, he quirks an eyebrow. And then it sinks in more and he lets out an 'ohhhh.' "You wasn't talkin' 'bout dead liftin' me, huh?" he says. He smirks a little and shrugs. "Yeah, you ain't gotta do that. I can carry myself. And sometimes, I can walk over there. Seems random, though. At least, I ain't figured out which times its gonna happen." When Lyric starts looking him over, Tyrone grimaces and then lifts his t-shirt in the back, leaning forward. His skin is /not/ pretty there, obviously recovering from some very severe burning. And, if Lyric's looking closely, she'll of course see the claw marks on his right arm and more burns on his left. "Yeah, I wasn't no work of art to start with, thankfully," he agrees.

"Course I can lift you up. I can life more than I weigh so easy. But it's with my magic." Lyric grins. "Oh I know you can carry yourself and I know you'd never let he help you or carry you. I remember from when we met you wouldn't let me do anything for you." So she'd stopped offering. At the showing of his scars, she frowns. "You got hurt really bad. Why didn't you see a healer? They can make the scars go away."

Tyrone raises an eyebrow. "Why? Doctors did fine enough. And I'm not a big fan of erasing the past, especially lessons learned. Now I know better than to go hunting dragons, and if I ever get that itch, I've got a permanent reminder." He lowers his t-shirt back down and smooths it out. "Every mark on my body got a story or a lesson behind it. I get rid of those marks, those stories become a little harder to believe for folks that wasn't there."

"I'd believe you even without the scars, cause I know there are really bad things out there." Lyric shrugs. "I got enough scars on the inside, I don't gotta have 'em all on the outside to know what I survived. I don't share my scars with people and I don't forget how I got them. I don't bother trying to convince people who wasn't there 'bout what happened. No one needs to know."

Tyrone listens, then smiles softly at Lyric. He's silent for a long time as he thinks about things, and eventually he just shakes his head. "I guess that's what's different between us," he says with a shrug, finishing his glass of orange juice. "And it really kinda sucks, if ya ask me."

"Why do differences suck? It's not bad to be different." Lyric studies him a moment then offers a smile when he finishes off his juice. Her food was almost gone and she scoops up the last bite of the eggs and all before picking up the last slice of bacon she'd saved. Saved it for last! Nibbling on it, she looks to be enjoying it. At least it wasn't sweet and she could taste it. "People don't gotta know what you been through. They just gotta know who you are now."

"Oh, they don't in general," Tyrone clarifies. "Just me bein' selfish. That's all," he adds, smiling and waving his hand. He cleans up his space a little, brushing his lap off and then cleaning his hands on his napkin before setting it on his plate. "And shawty, if you don't tell 'em, people just go'n guess. E'rybody makes assumptions from what they can see or what they can hear." He makes a face for a second, and then gets serious and even a little sharp. "See, thing is, you sit there and ask me why I ain't have somebody fix my scars, when really, you got wounds still hurtin'. And that bothers the /crap/ outta me, because I wish like hell I /could/ heal 'em, or somebody could heal 'em, cuz I want so bad- ...." It's at this point that Tyrone has to stop himself, because his hand has balled up into a fist and he's gotten a little worked up, and he'd promised himself he wasn't gonna do that anymore. Forcing himself to calm down, he shakes his head and offers Lyric an apologetic smile. "Sorry. I'm out of line. Just ... you get to me. Sorry."

"I guess people do try and guess, but my thinking? Whatever people say about me or think about me behind my back isn't any of my business. I'll just do what I do and if they change their mind, then they do. If they don't then why would I care what someone who'd say or think things about me that aren't true isn't my friend? No one's like me. No one's like you. Just respect everyone is different and everyone has their own story. But it is their story. Theirs to tell or not to tell." Lyric looks at the faint claw marks on his arm and even traces one. "Besides, girls dig scars anyway, I heard?" There's a grin as she withdraws her hand and finishes off her bacon.

Tyrone just smiles and shrugs as Lyric states her case. "Yeah, I dunno. I guess I'm just used to having it be important to send the right message. I dunno," he says, shrugging one more time. When Lyric does run her finger across his skin like that, she can see him visibly flinch, like an electrical shock ran through him. Not like he flinched away, though, just a shiver that runs through him. Her comment makes him smirk, bashfully, and he shrugs his shoulders. "Yeah, I heard that, too," he says, looking away, shyly.

"I don't know that I send wrong messages or anything." Lyric just shrugs, not really bothered by any of it so much. His reaction was curious, since they'd all been in the hot tub and stuff and sorta touched before over different times. "I know you left an' all, but Gray Harbor isn't the safest place to be. for everyone. I'm glad you can fight back now though. Against the things in the dreams."

"Nah, it ain't that," Tyrone says, shaking his head. He chuckles and rubs at the back of his neck. "It's complicated and I ain't got no idea how to say what I'm tryin'a explain. But even if I did, I don't think it would make a huge difference anyway, so." And then she's talking about him leaving again and he shrugs his shoulders. "Yeah, well. I'm not gonna /run/ again. Next time I leave, I'll make sure it's the right move, and I'll make sure I /actually/ leave, not just get sucked into the Dream. ... or, at least, if I do, I just won't do something stupid to get myself dumped back out again."

Lyric pokes her tongue up against one of her upper teeth and listens to him, eyes not leaving him as he talks about it. There's no surprise on her features at his words or anything. "I'm finished eating. I should go now, I got some things to do today but I'm glad we got to talk and stuff. We're still friends aren't we?"

"Yeah, I should go, too. Have a good day, Lyric," Tyrone says, pulling back from the table. He pauses, though, giving Lyric a look when she asks if they're still friends. He purses his lips for a second, then he chuckles and shakes his head. "Lyric, we ain't never /been/ friends. You don't /do/ relationships. All you want is people to like you and be your acquaintence. So quit askin' if we friends. We cool. Cuz that's all you wanna be." And with that, Tyrone throws up a peace sign and leaves.