fandomtownies | The Perk, Monday afternoon

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The Perk, Monday afternoon

She'd been here all of two weeks, and Zinzi already felt like she had her own regular spot. She hadn't bothered with the paper, today (she could get more up-to-date news online, with the advantage of not having to clean newsprint off of sloth fur), just sat back with her coffee and a cigarette, watching people go by.

Sloth sat on the table, clinging to his now-somewhat-less-creepy doll. Zinzi looked at him and sighed.

"I have got to get you a teddy bear."

[ooc: The Perk, it is open.]

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Tyrion had stopped at the Perk for refreshment between his class and the fraternity meeting, and gave Zinzi a quizzical look on his way past her table.

"What kind of animal is that?"

[OOC: Heading home from work soon, forgive the SP?]

Zinzi decided she could definitely get used to stares at Sloth being more "I don't know what that is" than "I'm fascinated by seeing a zoo". She flashed Tyrion a small smile.

"A sloth." A beat, then, since people around here tended to ask: "I call him 'Sloth'."

Sloth blinked sleepily at Tryion and cuddled his doll.

"You might as well call things what they are," Tyrion decided, blinking back at the creature. "Names are slippery enough for people, without coming up with them for animals."

He tilted his head at Sloth. "Hello! Is that your dolly?"

Zinzi shrugged and nodded. "Sure. Sounds good to me."

Sloth flopped over sideways on the table with a squeak that might well have been a 'yes'.

"He likes you," Zinzi decided. "He seems to like most people around here."

"Wise creature. I'm very likeable," Tyrion joked, tilting his head sideways to match the sloth's.

He turned it back the regular way to find Zinzi's face a moment later. "Oh -- my name's Tyrion Lannister. I teach up at the school."

He was charming, Zinzi'd give him that. In her experience, folks that were forced to stand out often were. It could be a hell of a defense mechanism.

She decided maybe she liked him, too.

"Zinzi December," she returned. "I'm working at Cafe Luke's, so far. What do they have you teaching?"

He was charming when he didn't see a reason not to be. This often included when he was talking to women. It was a defense mechanism, and it worked well enough.

"Strategy," he answered. "Using what you have to get what you want. It's interesting, seeing the angles students approach it from."

"That's a hell of a skill to have," Zinzi mused. "Might've saved me some trouble, back in the day."

Sloth snorted. Zinzi smirked at him. "No one asked you, baby."

"He might have special sloth strategies," Tyrion volunteered. "Out of curiosity, what kind of trouble did you find yourself in?"

He figured if she didn't want him to know, she'd say. Besides, he learned more by being nosy.

Zinzi was surprised -- she was still too used to everyone at least having an idea just from seeing Sloth.

"I killed my brother," she said, going for the blunt approach, curious to see how Tyrion would react.

"Oh." He was surprised she'd said it, but not that it had happened. Sometimes such things did, and the fact this woman didn't shriek of being a murderer to him made it only slightly less likely. (Besides, Tyrion's family liked to remind him his birth had killed his mother. There was a certain sympathetic kinship.)

"How did it happen?"

Fast on that, he remembered the need to express his sympathy.

"I'm sorry for your loss."

Zinzi nodded at the sympathy, and respect for the fact that he didn't go running for the hills. "Got into some bad shit," she said. "Didn't take it well. He tried to help." She took a drag on her cigarette, and let the smoke trail out of her mouth along with her words. "Didn't take that well, either." She nodded to Sloth. "'Swhen I got him. It's a whole . . . thing where I'm from. Life for a life."

"What, they make you get a pet to remind you life is precious?" If Tyrion sounded like he thought that misunderstanding was ludicrous ... well, he did.

He propped himself into a chair at a nearby table.

"Interesting system. Where I'm from, likely someone would just chop your head off unless you found a bigger sword to hide behind."

There were some tsotsis back home that worked that way, too. Zinzi gave a half-smile.

"If by 'they' you mean the universe at large and 'pet' you mean creature you take care of 'cause your life depends on it, sure. My boy here is the bigger sword."

Sloth appeared to have fallen asleep, still clinging to his doll. He looked rather completely unsword-like.

"He doesn't look terribly threatening," Tyrion said, eyebrows popping up. "So ... when he goes, you go? I've never heard of anything like that."

Not disbelieving. Just surprised.

"That's the deal. Won't go pretty, either." Zinzi shrugged. "I take it things don't usually work that way around here."

"Not that I've heard of, but I'm not properly from here either," Tyrion said. "I got here in September. Before that I was in Westeros, and that's another story entirely."

He glanced to the sloth again. "Does everyone in your situation get a sloth, or are there other choices?"

"Far as I know, if it's not a plant or a human, it's fair game."

"... so what happens if you draw a fish?" Tyrion had to ask.

"Then it sucks to be you," Zinzi said. "Buy yourself a damn good bowl and get used to staying home."

Hell, she'd seen someone end up with an albino saltwater crocodile. Of course, he was also a sociopath.

Tyrion snorted, amused. "So what you're saying is, you got lucky with Sloth."

"Didn't much think so at first, but, yeah." Zinzi nodded, patting Sloth on the head. "Yeah, I did."

Sloth squeaked happily and started slowly gnawing on his doll's arm.

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The Perk, Monday afternoon

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