Private Can I eat that?

S'Mores

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They took a seat next to Erione, placing the tray down. Gray poked at the meatloaf with the knife, then took a bite. Aside from being hot, it tasted good, and Gray took a few more bites, though they weren't always taking the proper amount of time to chew. Still, it was soft, so even the pieces they didn't chew right were not much of a problem. For the most part, they were focused on their food, and they almost missed when Erione was speaking to them.
They looked at Erione, the plastic knife still in their mouth. Of course Erione would like to talk. Who didn't at this point? Gray took the knife from their mouth, poking at the mashed sweet potato. They didn't really want to talk, but if it would make them closer, Gray was willing to do it. But what was there to talk about? They had already made their introductions. The only other thing Gray could think of to talk about was the food.
They poked a fork into their mashed potato, then took a bite. They nodded, the sweet taste and texture nicer than they had expected.
"I like the food," they said. "The sweet potato tastes. . ."
Well, the potato was mildly sweet, but not overwhelming so. It was in the name, really.
"It tastes sweet. And the meatloaf is. . .meaty."
Well, it wasn't the wrong way to describe it, but Gray wasn't having an easy time isolating the flavors or even figuring out what could be so great about it.
It was all just food in the end.
Regardless, Gray kept eating, still staring at Erione. They glanced down at his plate, and unlike their food, there was no steam coming off of it. Gray put a hand near it, and it didn't seem warm.
"Is your food still warm?" they asked, retracting their hand. "I don't know if humans like cold food."
 

PixelatedGlory

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Sweet potatoes are 'sweet' and meatloaf is 'meaty'. Erione had to laugh at that. There just wasn't else he could do. Clearly this person hadn't had too much experience with the variety of human foods Erione had.

"Sorry, I'm not laughing to be mean. It's just those are really funny descriptions. I'm really glad you like them."

He glanced down at his plate and sighed. "No, it's not really warm anymore. I wanted to make sure you were ok and I guess my food cooled off while I was in line with you. It's ok- it still tastes the same and i'd choose having someone fun to talk to at lunch over warm food anyway."

"But..." he added as he glanced at the knife in Gray's hand. "Don't eat from the knife like that. You might cut your mouth on it by accident."
 

S'Mores

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Gray blinked at Erione. How were their descriptions of food 'funny'? They were just being honest and saying what they tasted. But at least he was being honest back. And well, as far as trust went, Gray took his advice to heart and put the knife down. When they did, they traced the scarring under their chin, their eyes on Erione's plate.
It was. . .odd that Erione would rather have cold food and someone to talk to than something warm. People are okay, but the food here seemed better. So, maybe he just wasn't that hungry. Or maybe he liked it when other people liked the same things as him. Gray could do that if it made him happy; friends need to be happy too.
"I understand," Gray noted with a nod. They looked at the fork instead and picked it up. It wasn't serrated, unlike the knife, so it probably safer anyway. They stabbed the vegetables on their plate, then paused. They put their eyes on Erione's own utensils, which were made of some form of glass. "Using glass to eat is not safe. It will hurt you."
They took a bite of the vegetables, and the mix of flavors was different; though they didn't have any proper description for it. They didn't want to just say 'vegetably', otherwise Erione would laugh again, and wouldn't take them seriously. They took another bite, setting their other hand on the table and looking at their slowly emptying plate.
"I would prefer if you did not get hurt," they added.
Having friends who got hurt wouldn't be great.
 

PixelatedGlory

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Erione looked at Gray for a moment in silence and then shook his head. "I really do appreciate your worry for me. I really don't want to get hurt either- I get hurt easily. But you can trust me. The glass wont hurt me. It won't even break if I keep a little bit of focus on it."

He took another bite and then slid his tray forward a bit, leaving just a glass spoon in one of his hands. "Actually, would you be ok if I showed you a magic trick? I don't want to scare you or anything by just doing it suddenly. I promise it's not dangerous and just involves me and this spoon right here."

Leading with 'I'm a god of glass so glass is my domain' generally wasn't the best approach after all. Especially with people who were new enough to be confused about what to eat, let alone deal with crazy magic and gods and fae and dragons and what not.
 

S'Mores

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What did he mean when he said he got hurt easily? That wasn't good. But he had asked Gray to trust him, and perhaps it was better for them to do that. Regardless, the glass was still. . .concerning.
Gray watched as Erione pushed the tray away, brandishing only the glass spoon. And when he offered to show them a trick, Gray took a moment before giving a small nod.
"I would like to see the trick," they said. Then they set their fork down, leaning away somewhat. "But do not hurt yourself."
Starlight Academy had more variety in beings than Gray had ever seen before, and even some of the humans appeared to have abilities beyond what they had expected. Erione was perfectly human to their knowledge, but now he was talking about magic tricks. In the past, they had heard about non-literal magic; this time, it seemed genuine.
Maybe he would like to see Gray do tricks too.
"Can I show you a trick as well?" they added. The trade seemed fair enough. "When you are finished?"
 

PixelatedGlory

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Erione nodded and smiled again. "Don't worry, I don't plan to get hurt. It's just a simple little thing. And I think that would only be fair- I do my magic trick and then you do yours. But you have to promise no one gets hurt, ok? That would make the trick less fun, right?"

He winked at Gray and then let the spoon of red glass float up above his hand a little, folding and reshaping overtime into a small statuette of a dog sitting on its haunches. Tongue lolled out to the side even, if one were to take a closer look. Erione sat the work of glass art carefully onto the table for Gray to take a closer look at if they wanted.

"I'm really good with glass. You could say it's kind of my specialty. That and listening to people who could use someone to talk to."

"But, you mentioned a magic trick of your own. Would you like to show me it now?"
 

S'Mores

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No one is meant to get hurt; they could do that. Gray nodded, then watched as the glass spoon floated and shifted into something new. Gray leaned in, their eyes pinned on the figure as it turned into. . .a dog? Erione put it onto the table, and they leaned in even closer, their chin touching the counter. Their eyes even widen slightly, though their face remained neutral outside of that.

So he could manipulate glass and change its shape? That must have been why he was so sure it wouldn't have hurt him. He had even called it a 'specialty', along with listening to people. Gray wasn't much of a talker, so they weren't exactly planning to see that part in action. But he had heard their offer, and they were willing to see it. Gray leaned back, straightening up as they looked at Erione.

"I would not call it magic," they noted. Truthfully, they weren't exactly sure what to call their abilities. They had them for as long as they could remember; and that wasn't very long. Their creator had said they were special, and their abilities were a part of them, and would always be. But was it really magic? What else could it be if it wasn't? They didn't really have an answer for that. Maybe they could ask about it later.

For now, they were more busy looking for something to show their abilities on.

Preferably something that wouldn't be dangerous.

Their eyes scanned the cafeteria, and for a brief moment, Gray considered the vending machine. But then they shook their head, the past failure of trying to pick out something repeating in their mind. They didn't want to damage Erione's statuette, either; it wasn't theirs. But they were also still hungry, and maybe Erione actually didn't want to eat something could; people were capable of telling lies.

Gray stood up, already heading over to the vending machines again. They stared at one of them, going over the options. They eventually caught a packet of chips that had carrots and other vegetables on the cover. They could eat that, and they could show Erione their trick, too.

Gray closed their eyes, breathing in deeply. The noise of the cafeteria slowly drowned away, leaving nothing but their own senses and the tiny little tug of something else. Against the black of their eyelids, wisps of white grew, taking shape into something bigger. The figure pushed back, presenting the outline of the machine. Then it began to shrink around the bag of chips. Gray exhaled, their attention focused on the number pad. A loud beep interrupted their thoughts, and they opened their eyes.

All at once, the contents of the machine spilled down into the box at the bottom, flooding the glass. Gray forced open the flap, taking out the bag of chips. They blinked, then turned around to go back to Erione.

Except now people were staring.

Why were they staring?
 

PixelatedGlory

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Eri smiled happily as Gray peered at his work. He could feel the, albeit minor, appreciation for his glasswork. Things were going well- Gray hadn't been startled by the use of his power over the glass and even seemed to actually like the cute little figurine. Erione thought about offering to give it to them as a gift, but later. He had to make sure they understood the fine print, so to speak.

But of course there was Gray's magic trick to witness. Erione sat down with his back tot he table as he watched and waited. A bit puzzled and concerned as they looked around the room. What could they- oh. Oh no. He winced as the machine suddenly beeped and then a deluge of snacks came pouring out of their nice neat rows. Horribly clogging the machine and definitely putting it out of commission, if not entirely breaking it outright.

"Oh, uh. I'm pretty sure they didn't mean to do that. Sorry, I'll pay for the snacks," Erione called out in a hurry as he rushed over to Gray and placed some money into the machine. "It's ok Gray, but we're not supposed to just take things from the machine without paying. It's a cool trick but maybe... we should take a little walk?" He asked as he nervously smiled at the nearest staff member and then gestured towards the door nearest to them.

The little red glass dog drifted along in the air beside the god. Not quite forgotten but definitely a low priority at the moment.
 

S'Mores

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Gray watched as Erione apologized and rushed over. They stepped away, looking at him blankly. When he finally told them what they had done wrong, Gray looked to the ground. They didn't mean to do anything they weren't meant to, they just wanted to show him what they could do. Now they were in trouble. They weren't supposed to get in trouble; otherwise their creator would be furious, and they didn't want that.
"I did not know that we had to pay," they admitted with a short nod. They looked back up to his face. "I understand now."
They glanced back at their table, specifically focused on the trays the two of them were leaving behind.
"Are you sure you want to take a walk?" they asked, though their voice had dropped slightly.
They put their eyes on the glass dog figure, and despite their better will, lost themselves in the statuette.
They blinked quickly. "We were eating."
They wouldn't exactly oppose it if it was just them who still needed to eat. But now Erione had both eaten cold food and had to leave earlier. And it was their fault.
For Gray, the thought settled poorly.
 

PixelatedGlory

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Gray clearly didn't express themself very openly. Blank faces and very muted responses. But Eri saw how they looked down when they realized their mistake. It only made Eri more confident that he had to show this other student the kindness he knew he could provide. There was an extreme sense of loneliness and a distinct air of just being lost in general coming from them.

He nodded and replied with a bit more authority, "I know, and they know now it was an accident. But I think it would be better to let things calm down in there. And besides, if you're still hungry I have a surprise I think you might really enjoy. But you have to walk a little bit down the hallway with me, if that's ok?"

"Actually. Would you like to hold the little dog statue while we walk?"

The new plan was to get them away from the crowds of people looking at them. It was probably bad enough just to know they had made the mistake. No need to make them suffer further.
"Your trick was pretty cool. I don't even really know what you did."