Zoie - Meeting The Pig

From Masq
Date: Setting:

IC:  06/19/2009
RL: 09/28/2011

Central Avenue: Old Town Plaza (900 West)

Old Town proper is a maze of cobbled courtyards and walkways which lead to innumerable hidden patios, gardens and galleries. Adobe buildings, many of which have been refurbished in Pueblo Revival style in the 1950s, focus around the tree-shaded Old Town Plaza, created originally in 1780. Pueblo and Navajo artisans often display their pottery, blankets and silver jewelry along the sidewalks lining the plaza. The buildings of Old Town once served as mercantile shops, grocery stores and government offices.

The first and probably most famous of the structures still standing today is the Church of San Felipe de Neri, facing the plaza on its north side. This house of worship has been in continuous use for more than 300 years and has been reconstructed and subsequently expanded several times. One can also find in the maze of private walks and cobbled paths the Jesu Romero Store built with its Territorial and Queen Anne structural features, and a banker's two story adobe dwelling with combination Italianate and Queen Anne architecture.

AND

Rosa del Desierto - Courtyard - Albuquerque

The front courtyard of the old adobe mansion has seen better days, the rosy beige paver stones cracked and a little scattered as they lead the way to the front door. An empty three tier fountain sits at the center, cleaned up but not functioning at the moment. The garden went wild over the years; hedges and bushes took over large portions of the yard and along with the untrimmed trees have made a natural maze. During the warmer times of year the courtyard is a sea of colors. All of the assorted roses and flowers bloom, wild vines climbing up the sides of the home and around windows and gutters as well as over the entry archway.

The house is a grand affair, or at least it was in its youth; time has taken the rose colored adobe, expensive woods and windows and dulled them, settling the house into elegant old age. The wide wooden porch that runs the front arches out in a semi-circle near the two large doors that lead inside; creating room for several to stand together under the shelter of the roof that curves to match. Two matching benches made of wrought iron are pushed up against the side of the house nearby, missing their cushions.

Windows with cloudy glass have fresh new curtains hung in them all along the first floor, as do the balcony doors up on the second floor. The balconies look to have remained sturdy through the passage of time, made of stone and more iron wrought. It's easy to see why the front gate bears the name Rosa del Desierto, twined within its metal.


Cast:
Log:

You text to Katie: Oh gosh. There were deaths? Is everyone okay?
You text to Katie: Do you need cookies?
You text to Katie: Are you staying with Gareth and/or Joel?
You receive a text from Katie: 2 customers were killed. All the staff is fine.
You text to Katie: Do you need a place to stay?
You receive a text from Katie: No, I'm okay. Thanks tho.
You text to Katie: Okay... well if you need me let me know.
You receive a text from Katie: You'll be free for awhile. Not sure when we can reopen.
You text to Katie: Oh... are you okay with money then?

Joel is wandering through Old Town, heading East -- it's night, though it's not too late, and there are still some locals and tourists milling about and enjoying a summer night in the fabulous gem of the Southwest, Albuquerque. Joel is frowning at his phone as he walks, reading something, and so far managing not to run into anybody.

Yet is one of those words that seem to linger. It's like the hint of it makes the cosmos laugh and then stuff to happen. Zoie is walking around the area, but she's people watching. The summer night allowing a few of the bored to wander. She is walking backwards and does not see the frowning man. She does not see that her foot is coming directly into his path. She does not see that unless he looks up, they are going to end up going down mutually... without numbers being involved.

Fate has decreed a collision, and fate will not be denied! Joel is usually a fairly observant person, but he's lost in whatever he dislikes about that text conversation, and physics have their way as he just runs right into her. "Shit, sorry," comes the automatic reaction, coupled with a step backwards. Then he blinks. "Zoie?"

Blonde hair goeth before the fall, or something. There is a squeak of alarm, which really just sounds like a newborn baby kitten yawning. Zoie can't help the cute. Then there is a solid impact of a body and she turns to look back at the person. Her foot already on the wrong side of Joel's and so without so much as a second thought, her ass hits the concrete. "Ow." Zoie looks comically shocked before she smiles up at the other person. That smile intensifies to megawatt when she sees WHO it is. "Oh.. Joel. I didn't expect to bump into you."

Joel pockets his phone, and -- wonder of wonders, there is a crack in his usual asshole facade as he actually offers her a helping hand back to her feet. You're slipping, Joel. You're off your game. "I'm glad to see you're alright," he admits, "What all with what happened at Kiva and everything." A half-smile, "Our beautiful art in that journal is lost to the ages. Like the library at Alexandria. The world will never again see its like."

Zoie's one of those rare breeds. She can't lie and it is hard for her to manipulate things. It should be a good thing, except right in this moment. Her hand is cool in his as she is helped up. However, it tightens like a lifeline when he says that and the color fades from her features. "People died too. It is horrible I thought Katie.." Zoie suddenly looks unsteady as if she's about to pass out.

"Katie's okay," Joel assures quietly, letting her hold on, not up to denying the poor girl a lifeline. "It's the sort of thing that's got everybody shook up, but you know her... there's no horror life could throw at Katie King that she couldn't face down with level-headed action and a terrifying level of practicality. Liane was there, but she's okay. You're right, though... it is horrible."

Zoie takes a breath as she tries to calm herself and then slowly pulls her fingers back. It's almost like she doesn't want to, but figures it would be for the best. The girl's very thoughts play through her eyes as she watches him. Zoie is silent for a moment, processing perhaps. Then she smiles a bit. "It has everyone kinda spooked. I mean.." She takes a breath and releases it. "What made the person do that, do you know? Are /you/ okay? I know that you are close to Katie and Liane."

Joel considers this for a moment, looking at one of Old Town's tourist shops while he considers. The pause that lingers is just teetering on the bring of awkward, when he finally speaks up. "I don't like for things like that to happen," Joel finally replies. "And if I could have done something about it, I would have. But sometimes it seems that no matter how hard you try, the world is still a broken place, and crazy, fucked up, broken people live in it. And sometimes they do crazy, fucked up, horrifying things, for which there is no explanation, no understanding. Even if we knew why that man chose to attack innocent people, it still wouldn't make any sense."

Zoie watches him with those innocent green eyes of hers. It's almost like she's pleading with him to fix the entire world and yet it is backed by the faith that he //can// fix the entire world. Zoie nods her head to that and then offers a soft sort of smile. "Yeah, I guess it is sort of messed up. I just want to think there was a reason. It is like you grapple for any sort of understanding, even if it is misunderstood." She attempts to put a hand on his cheek in an almost comforting gesture. "I know you would have done something if you could. I think most of us would." Then her eyes move to her fingers and she moves to slide them down and away. "Sorry."

"The world is broken, and people are broken. Broken things have sharp edges," Joel sighs. "We move through the world and we run into other people, and sometimes we get hurt from that sharp brokenness on one, the other, or both." Never really a very touchy-feely person, it seems his first instinct is to withdraw from her cheek-touch, though he manages to check the impulse. "Look, you want a cup of tea or something? My house is just up the road."

Zoie nods her head. "I like tea." She gives him that smile of hers before she cants her head to one side. "You know, we are all fractured, I'll give you that. However, sometimes it's not just the sharp edges. Sometimes you meet others and they fit like a puzzle piece. They remind you what is it like when the world is beautiful. They show you that tragic has it's own exquisiteness." Then there is a blush. "I mean.. um.. tea is great." She looks around the street and sort of ducks a bit into his shadow as they lengthen.

Joel casts a thoughtful look at Zoie for those words, one brow slightly lifted as though what he's hearing is both unexpected and noteworthy. "Sometimes," he agrees, with a re-appearance of that half-smile. Then he sets off down the street, and either trusts that she'll follow, or apparently intends to head that way regardless.

Zoie follows like a puppy. Her eyes scan the area and they actually pause on the crafts gallery. She studies the items in the window and then seems to remember she's following Joel. "Sorry. I forget not everyone likes to hear my thoughts on things. You know, pretty. but shhh." There is a giggle to that before she just falls into step.

Albuquerque city blocks are HUGE, but whatever, this is one room away so it's close, god dammit. "You apologize too much," Joel informs his puppy, "And don't say you're sorry for apologizing, either, that shit just gets all kinds of circular and you'll turn red. If you've got something worth saying, you're allowed to say it... if I thought what you said was stupid, I'd be like, Zoie, that is stupid." He approaches iron gates choked with ivy -- it's incongruent, this random house, and the estate must be fairly old. Odd lodgings for a pizza dude.

Zoie tips her head. "I guess I should be more confident in my thoughts. It's just, I don't understand why anyone would want to hear them." She chuckles a bit to herself. "I was totally going to apologize for apologizing too." She looks around. "OH hey.. this is where Zack.." There is a pause of hurt to her eyes when she says his name, which steals her smile. "Um.. where I came for Thanksgiving."

"You don't understand why anyone would want to hear them because you don't have any sense of self-worth," Joel replies. "I'll pay you twenty bucks if you tell someone you're fucking awesome. Just throw it into the conversation like, hey, did you ever realize how fucking awesome I am? Cause I'm pretty awesome, not gonna lie." He considers, crossing the courtyard... it's greener than it was in the fall, a riot of mismatched flowers, weeds, shrubbery. A black and white pot-bellied pig is busily uprooting something a ways away. "You can omit the fucking part, if you want." Regarding Thanksgiving and that pained pause, he glances over, but chooses not to mention Zack. "Hard to believe that was more than half a year ago, now."

Zoie puts a hand on his arm. "Can we go see the flowers... and the pig, but really the flowers?" Her green eyes are rather transfixed on the color, even as they are washed out by the night. "I know.. it has been that long hasn't it?" She wrinkles her nose. "You should invite me over more often. I cook and clean up after myself you know... um.. because I'm totally awesome. I mean I am you know." She puts out a hand for the money.

"You're a cheat," Joel informs her, with a laugh. He does adjust course to approach the pig, and whatever plant life it's trying to destroy. "You're supposed to tell someone /else/, not me. Though we can call it a deal if you think of three more reasons /why/ you're totally awesome. Or why I should invite you over, I'll take those reasons as legitimate currency as well."

Zoie tries to grasp his hand if he allows. It is more to pull him over to that shrubbery (pauses to cue up Monty Python). "Well I'm not working now, so I have to make money somehow. Don't suppose you want a ride along on your delivery business?" She thinks over the other part of what would make her awesome. Sadly, this pause lingers far longer than it should. "I'm pretty?" She flashes a smile at him to add to it.

Nyet, nyet, Joel apparently used up all his human-contact reserves tonight with helping her up and the cheek touch, and he evades this hand-holding attempt. His hands end up in his pockets, though he follows shrubberywards willingly enough. "You are pretty," he agrees, "Don't put all your self-esteem eggs in that basket, though."

Zoie sighs in a put out fashion, it's totally feigned. "Um.. how about I'm optimistic?" There is a pause. "Though that annoys some people so is that an awesome skill or a non-awesome skill?" The girl is already dropping to her knees to smell flowers. Yes, she literally stopped to smell the flowers. Then she spies with her little eye the 'pet'. "Here piggy... come mere piggy."

Joel fishes out his wallet, and withdraws a twenty to offer to her... as promised, Zoie will get paid for her efforts in finding things of worth about herself. He seems relatively ambivalent about his flowers, but tries to get the attention of his pet for her. "Pig! PIG!" It ignores Zoie, and it ignores Joel, too. "He mostly only listens if I'm holding food," Joel gives up on the matter. "Why do you think optimism is so annoying to people? Who have you met that's so spastic about it?"

"Liane hates it. I mean like hates it. She's a special sort of type though. A few others think I'm too rose-tinted for my own good. However, how good is it to walk around with a storm cloud over your head?" Zoie rolls her green eyes to that. "Bringing other people down is just soooo much better." Zoie uses sarcasm. Write it down. "Do you feed him b-a-c-o-n?" She spells it as if saying it would offend the pig. Her eyes move back to the swine thoughtfully. "Here piggy.. if you come over you can sleep in Daddy Joel's bed. Come on.. Come mere."

"She's full of shit," Joel informs his pig with amusement, regarding the bed situation. It continues ignoring them both, munching happily on whatever's been unearthed. "No I don't feed him bacon, jesus. I'm not going to be filling up his little dish like, 'soylent green is made of pigs! PIGS! ha ha ha!'. That'd be fucked up, man. Call things like you see them, Zoie, and if Liane or anybody else doesn't like that you see it rose tinted, she can stick it up her ass." He finally walks over to the pig, and gives it a light smack, "Hey, c'mon, don't be a dick." The pig looks up and they spend a moment peering at each other, then it turns around and begins ambling toward Zoie.

Zoie looks up at Joel. "Hey... they say they will eat anything." Zoie actually opens her arms wide for the ambling pig like it was something cute and adorable like a kitten or a puppy. "Come on piggy..." Then she smiles at Joel a bit. "You should really clean up your language, but um.. I was just trying to make sure you got porked." She giggles and blushes furiously red. Zoie drops her head just a bit, so that her hair hides the blush.

"They /will/ eat anything, but that's not any reason to feed it to them," Joel protests, regarding pig-keeping. It's sort of cute... you know... for a pig. It puts up with petting and attention like a champ for about a minute, then it seems to believe its obligation is fulfilled and it wanders off again. Both of Joel's brows lift in surprise as Zoie says something vaguely dirty... then he grins broadly and informs her, "I don't get it."

Zoie turns her eyes up at him when he says he doesn't get it. Oh hell. The expression says it all. She doesn't want to have to /explain/ it. "You really don't get it?" There is an awkward shift and then she looks at him. "Um.. porking is um.. where you um.. use a um.. pig to um.. erm.. stay um.. warm." She was right. She can't lie to save her life. Her lips curve up into a shy sort of smile and her cheeks flare redder. The most telltale sign is her eyes look guilty.

"Oh, is it? How strange. Why would someone want to do that?" Joel continues tormenting Zoie. He relents, however, with a grin. "I'm just giving you shit," he assures, though there is open amusement at her deep blush and her attempt to hide it. "You want to come in and --" And what? Pork?! The world will never know, as Joel is distracted by the neediness of his phone again, and the chirp of another message he seems displeased to see. "Ahh, fuck."

Zoie doesn't even jump there. It's Joel, he's one of Katie's men. "Clean your place?" There is a look of concern as she comes easily to her feet. "What's wrong?" Her eyes move towards the phone, but she doesn't read his messages. She watches him with that true, honest concern though.

"For a miserable soulless bachelor who owns a pig, I am actually very clean," Joel assures Zoie that his house does not need tending. Of course, his standards are miserable soulless pig-owning bachelor standards, too. "It's okay, it's just work," he sighs, regarding the phone. "They're freaking out that they can't cover a shift and they'll start calling if I ignore them. You'll have to take a rain check on that tea."

Zoie looks disappointed, she cannot hide that either. "Oh." The word lingers and then she smiles. "It's okay, I um... It's okay. I do understand. Work first and all that. Thank you for inviting me."

"Next time," Joel promises, though he is heading for the gates again, and whatever changes have happened on the inside of the decrepit adobe mansion will have to remain a mystery for now. "Do you need a ride back to your creepy cabin? I can probably eke out enough time to give you a lift, before I have to show up."

Zoie smiles. "It would save me cab fare, seeing as I don't have a job." She shrugs her shoulders a bit and then skips to walk next to him. She tucks her hands into her pockets this time.

Joel gives you $20.00.

"You do now," Joel points out, since he did pay her for her self-esteem progress. "You don't gotta waste it, though. I'll give you a lift." He is either oblivious to her disappointed sad puppy eyes, trusting there will be a rain check, or resigned to the fact that his shitty job calls and nothing can be done about it... maybe some mixture of all of the above. Zoie will get her ride home, however... this time, he doesn't even threaten to kick her out if she touches the radio. Next time, no guarantees.