Lost Sundaes

[Anonymous]

Sk'thero wasn't even in the Advanced Training Complex for long, and, already, he was feeling like this was possibly the worst thing that could possibly happen to him. His thoughts were racing. Was it possible for him to even survive this training? Was it possible for him to be a decent Pilot? Sk'thero couldn't stop thinking or stop worrying.

But, he was really hungry, probably from all the worrying. So, he'd made his way to one of the cafeterias. As soon as he entered, he drew his head as close to his body as possible, perhaps some sort of terrible effort to make himself look less noticeable. Sk'thero didn't really feel like it was working. He picked up the nearest tray, loaded it with whatever seemed tasty (mostly meats) and started to scuttle toward the nearest table.

Slip.

He slammed onto his back. The wind was knocked out of him, and he was covered with food and drink. And on some dirty floor. Sk'thero grimaced and scrambled to his feet, hissing.

"Yuck!"

Oh, this grease and soda weren't going to come out of his feathers (which puffed out) for a long time. He shook one of his clawed feet off, having felt something slimy sticking to the bottom of it. What was that? A banana peel? Ice cream?

He guessed someone had lost their banana split (somehow), but that wasn't what concerned him. Sk'thero's head darted from side to side, looking at the massive mess that was now all over the cafeteria.

And he had no idea what he ought to have done. Crap.

[Rhi-Rhi]

Dakota had just finished up leading a class of Stage 2s through some drills and had made his way to the cafeteria to fuel up as soon as it was done. He was sweaty and felt disgusting, dressed in a Stage 5 uniform--which he couldn't wait to ditch once he graduated! He was so tired of gray, it looked terrible on him and the cut was awful! Still, he accessorized where he could with cute hair clips and necklaces and he'd even painted his nails the day before.

He had just set his own tray down at a table when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw some poor candidate totally eat it.

It didn't really matter that the...kid? He wasn't very good at judging the ages of non-humans, but most gracies were young so that sounded about right! Anyway, it didn't matter that the kid looked weird and huge and more than capable of taking care of himself and brushing off a fall. With a sympathetic wince, Dakota leaped to his feet and headed over. It was only the polite thing to do!

"Whoa! Are you okay?" he asked, eyes wide. It was hard not to stare, but that would just be rude, and besides, he wasn't the first non-human he'd encountered. Maybe the most unusual and most obviously not human, but one of the Pilots was a blue alien with three eyes and was a reputed hermaphrodite, among other things.

"Need help? That was quite a fall ya took! You're not hurt, are ya?" Dakota started to hold his hand out but then paused, hand hovering as his eyes flicked to the creature's hands. Those were some really wicked looking claws...

And there was no telling where they'd been. The desire to help warred with Dakota's cringe-factor and, ultimately, the latter won out as he let his hand drop back down.

[Anonymous]

"I-I'm okay," Sk'thero replied. He paused. His stuttering probably didn't make it seem like it, but, other than being covered with food and drink and dirt from falling, he was fine. He wiped his foot on the floor, smearing some of the ice cream that was on his foot onto the floor. His claws created scratching noises as he did so, causing Sk'thero to wince. Oh, the Pilots probably didn't want the floor to be scratched!

"I j-just need to... erm... find something to clean this up with."

His two tails twitched nervously and started curling together. The clawed toes on one of his feet started tapping the floor, as well.

[Rhi-Rhi]

Dakota winced at the scraping noises, cringing; it was like nails on a chalkboard! And ack, he was just making a bigger mess! It was an effort to keep the cheery smile plastered onto his face when he really just wanted to tell him to just stop moving so he could launch himself into cleaning mode, his fingers twitching.

Actually...

He held up both hands. "Okay, okay! Just hold still, okay? Stop moving. One sec!"

Turning and heading back to his table, he grabbed a pile of napkins and returned. It wouldn't do much but it was something, and he shoved a fistful at the kid. Tentatively, he dabbed at the boy's feathers, making a face at the sticky mess--though he couldn't help but examine the kid as he worked, intrigued. He'd never seen someone like him before...

"Um, wow. That really sucks! You took quite a fall! Um, the napkins aren't gonna work so well...you'll probably wanna take a shower."

[Anonymous]

Sk'thero froze immediately. The feathered crest rose as he started feeling more and more nervous.

"T-Thanks for the napkins. I had intended t-to wash myself off, because who k-knows what's been there."

He shivered at the thought and grimaced. His skin was just crawling at the thought, but the higher-ranking Candidate had told him to stay still, so, Sk'thero figured that was probably the best thing to do.

[Rhi-Rhi]

Dakota's eyes followed the feathered crest, intrigued--and a little amused that someone who looked like some kind of odd lizard was afraid of getting dirty. Even as he thought that, he felt a little bad for it; that was rather prejudiced of him, wasn't it? He was no fan of reptiles, really, and always likened them with things that crawled around in the dirt, but this wasn't just a reptile! It was kid, a person...of sorts. And no it, either! Augh! He was so glad he was Stage 5 and far past the phase where he lacked control of his thoughts because this would have been incredibly mortifying and embarrassing (and no doubt offensive as heck to the kid).

Just don't stare, don't stare, don't stare... And hopefully he wouldn't be too obvious about the not-staring.

"Heh, you don't wanna know what's been there," Dakota said, wrinkling his nose at the thought. Sweat, blood, and puke was the answer; even a place as harmless as the cafeteria had seen its share of brawls over the years. When you had a bunch of hormonal, frustrated, stressed-out teenagers all confined to the same area, things could get hairy.

"But if it makes you feel any better, the floors get mopped daily. Ah, there." Dakota wiped off a stray blob of ice cream and then stood back to give the kid room to stand. "Got the worst of it, but, uh...yeah, here."

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a small container of hand sanitizer and offered it to the other candidate.

[Anonymous]

(I swear, I thought I already posted this. Dx)

Sk'thero eagerly took the hand sanitizer and rubbed it on the fronts and backs of his hands, careful not to let his sharp claws scratch him. Hand sanitizer in open wounds hurt. After wiping the hand sanitizer all over his hands, Sk'thero felt relieved, like he was safe from every single nasty microbe that'd ever harm him. Well, only for a moment, as he still felt sticky from falling into the ice cream.

"Thanks," he said. "I-I guess it makes me feel a little better, b-but I still fell into someone's ice cream."

He scratched at his neck nervously and looked away.