Anime and Assorted Silliness

Who: Dean and Jerilyn
Where: Hallways
When: Lunch

Jeri didn't want to sit in the lunch room today. She had a headache, right behind her eyes. It wasn't particularly bad, it was just completely there in the same way air was, and she didn't want to tempt fate into making it worse. But she also needed to eat, and so she was sitting in a quiet stretch of hallway picking at a sandwich and wondering if she could risk liver damage by taking some more Tylenol a little early. Because everyone, after all, knew you died immediately after taking too much Tylenol. Or was that Aspirin? Either way, she was incredibly tempted to take one or another brand-name painkillers to find out if that would solve the headache problem.

At least the bruising wasn't so damn vivid any more. Even though a lot of her face was a sickly shade of not-quite-healed green with a little purple and yellow in there for good measure, at least the majority of it was easily covered by makeup.

Dean avoided the lunch room whenever he could as a matter of course. After all, (a) he didn't eat lunch and (b) he couldn't stand the noise. And so he'd just found a corner to sit in. Or, rather, he was sat on the stairs, back against the bannister, legs out across the step, flipping through the reading he needed to do for English class that period, actually attempting to make an effort to keep up. He missed outside, he decided. Today he was officially sick of the snow - and winter had hardly started. It was much nicer hanging around when you could hang around someplace that wasn't a school corridor, after all.

If Jerilyn was a mind reader, she would've agreed wholeheartedly. But she wasn't. So it was without that prime and important information (not that it was likely to come into play at any time in the future - Jeri tended to live her life without knowing what was going on in peoples' heads and was happy in her ignorance) that she looked up at spotted 'The Guy With The Accent'. Or, more accurately, 'Dean'. Which was better because it was shorter. Jeri supposed she could make the attempt at making nice. "Hey. Sup?"

Dean looked up from his book, looking for a moment as if he were completely thrown by the fact that someone had actually stopped and said something - something other than 'move your legs, you're in my way' anyhow. "Er, hi!" he said, knowing that he recognised the girl, but her name entirely escaping him. He'd always had a good memory for faces - and a god-awful memory for names. "How's it going?" he added, almost tentatively, as an alternative to the whole name-forgetting thing.

"Alright. I don't feel like I'm being particularly terrorized by ghosts, so better than like... the vast majority of this town. And yourself?" Jeri was oblivious to the fact he didn't know her name, and so didn't offer it.

Dean tucked his book away in his bag and sat up a little, since he was clearly now in a conversation. With a girl. That was something that had always terrified him in the past - enough to bring him out in a cold sweat and turn him into a stammering mess during the worst episodes. But, he had a girlfriend now, and he was focusing on that, telling himself very firmly that all his problems had stemmed from the stress of wondering whether he was interested, whether she was interested and whether he could make the two meet and the things that could go wrong. And now, all he had to do was talk. That was all. No stress, no ulterior motives. Just talk - and really, really hope that she wasn't interested, because he was really shit with upset girls and why would she be intersted anyway because he was him and really it was just a fluke with Thia, but there was that whole Katie thing and mate, you're overthinking everything just stop and concentrate on the conversation! he mentally broke into his own silent flail. "Erm - kinda an issue a couple of days ago, but that's all kind of fixed now," he told her, finding his voice.

"Oh. Well, it's good that your issue was sorted out, then." Jerilyn offered him a crooked little half grin. "I've got a few of my own, but that's 'cause I'm weird." She wasn't interested at all, but she did want to talk to someone just because the hallway could be lonely and a little creepy without other people around. All echoes. "Eh, so, weird question here. But what part of England are you from? If you want to answer. You don't have too."

Dean raised an eyebrow. "I... Can tell you where I'm from," he said, sounding vaguely amused at that, though his expression only changed enough for his lips to curl into the barest ghost of a smile. Dean wasn't one for extremes of facial expression. "I'm from Manchester. That's to the north. Near Liverpool - where the Beatles comes from," he told her, used by now to explaining British geography in cultural terms. "And you're weird cos you had ghost issues?" he asked her, wanting to clarify that one.

"Oh, god no." Jeri laughed a little. "I don't have any issues with ghosts. They do their ghosty thing, I do my living thing, we get along fairly well. I just have random other issues. School, crazy-ass friends, work, you name it." She paused. "Besides ghosts. They're good." Jerilyn didn't really know anything about England, besides the whole 'came over and populated america' stuff, and really didn't know anything about Liverpool and-slash-or the Beatles, since she never studied the former and didn't really appreciate the latter. At least, though, she'd heard of Manchester in a loose sort of way - probably heard it on the news or something incredibly boring like that. But she was willing to accept it, since he was apparently from there. "I'd like to go to England some day. Check out those crazy crumbling castles and forts, the bits of road the Romans built that are still intact. That sort of thing."

Dean shrugged - a familiar gesture for him. "Not all the castles are crumbling, but most are. And roman roads? Honestly - they're just like normal roads, but they go in a straight line. Kinda cool though, knowing they've been there forever." He could have gone on more about things, but he stopped himself - he didn't like to advertise too much the fact that he was a complete geek about old castles and that kind of thing, and he knew he had a tendency to babble if he really got going, so he stopped himself from starting in the first place most of the time, not wanting to come across as a complete idiot. Instead, he sometimes shot too far the other way and came across as quiet instead.

"That's the point." Jeri grinned at Dean. "They've been there forever and therefore they are exponentially cooler than a new highway. Not including the various large machines they use to create the highway. Those are kind of cool." Jeri, of course, made no effort to hide her geekiness, because she definitely was one. And also a pot-head, but she didn't have any yet today. "I mean, you can walk where Romans did."

Dean shrugged again. "I s'pose so - still looks like normal highway though." He cocked his head slightly and looked at her. "Don't think I've ever really seen the machines they use to build roads. Just, y'know, the ones they have for resurfacing and stuff." He didn't actually know if there was a difference there, but now she'd mentioned it, he coudln't deny that he was curious - he liked to know that kind of thing. It was a hell of a lot more interesting than the book he'd been trying to get through for English class, that was for sure.

"Hee. Those are neat, too. Big machines just generally rock, I guess." Jerilyn smiled, lounging back against the wall comfortably, and munching a bit more on her sandwich. "Lots of things do. Summer, for instance. That rocks. I wish it were closer."

Dean smiled a little at that - a small upturning of the edges of his lips. "Oh, hell yeah," he agreed, fishing the bottle of water that would be his only nod towards lunch today out of his bag and, unscrewing the lid, taking a sip. "I got warned about winter, but... Yeah... I can't believe that this is gonna last til May." He indicated himself. "First timer for winter here," he explained, in case she didn't realise he was new in town.

"Ah. Yeah. And it'll be June before your bones thaw out." Jeri said dryly, but sympathetically. "Wonderful, isn't it? I have to say this - these winters make for postcard-perfect looking Christmases and that's about it. But no worries. A pair of mittens and a nice hat and coat... and earmuffs, and a scarf, and boots... and other... and you should be alright!"

Earmuffs? he mouthed, looking doubtful at that. He flat out refused to wear earmuffs. Didn't matter how cold it got. He looked bad enough in the hat that he had, earmuffs would just be... No, no earmuffs. The rest, he'd put up with but earmuffs conjured up in his brain images of being five, where you had to keep your gloves attached with a long piece of elestic inside your coat.

Jeri laughed at Dean's expression of distaste. "Not overly enthusiastic about the earmuff idea, I guess?"

"Surprised?" Dean asked, in a tone that suggested that he'd be surprised if she was surprised. Because, come on! ...earmuffs?. "I mean, really... I, just... Well... Y'know..." he said, struggling to find the words to explain his feelings about something he considered should be obvious.

Jeri laughed again - it kind of hurt to do it, but it felt good to laugh, too. "I don't think anyone actually wears them. Not when anyone's watching, anyway. It was a joke. Don't worry about it."

Dean smiled a little, glad she'd got that. He tilted his head to the side slightly, looking her over. He wondered about the bruises - had been wondering since she came over. He knew fading bruises when he saw them. Most people did, after all. He just wasn't sure if it would be considered rude to ask, but in the end, he decided that he could only be told to mind his own business. "Erm, so..." He indicated his own face, around the area of her bruising. "Can I ask...?" Okay, so it wasn't a real, direct question. But still, he was interested.

"I have an icy patch outside my house. Sliding on it was a bad idea." Jerilyn lied easily. Well, it wasn't really a lie. She did have an icy patch, and she'd bruised up her knee quite nicely doing it. But it hadn't anything to do with bruising on her face. Jeri figured that she lied so often about this she had a permanent place ready for her in hell. "Fun, though."

Dean winced, sympathetically - though often he wished that some of his bruises had been caused by something as simple as sliding on ice. At least his last ones had finally faded though - now he was just left with the memories of the knock down fight with his oldest friend. "Ouch - sorry 'bout that. Gotta hurt," he offered, deciding not to add that he hoped nobody had seen, so she didn't get her ego brusied as well. Slipping on ice was nevre the most graceful thing to do, after all.

"Not your fault - don't apologize." Jer smiled at him again. "I'm the one who figured it would be a good idea to run and see if I could slide all the way to the end of the patch. So, really, any bruises I got from that can only be blamed on myself."

Dean chuckled slightly at that, smiling a little again. "Well, yeah - but it's fun, right," he shrugged. "You sound like my girlfriend - she likes doing that kind of thing. And building these little snowmen things and stuff? She's much better with the winter than I am," he added, not mentioning that he enjoyed all of that stuff as well. He did, but he didn't want to be labelled as childish - which was a great example of Dean's tendency towards double standards. Things that were acceptable for other people to enjoy, he wouldn't allow himself to admit to enjoying without a said other person giving him an excuse or reason to enjoy that.

"I think it was two years ago, now? Me and a couple of friends built a couple of snow people having, ahem, 'relations', on another friend's roof. That was hilariously fun. And I think I remember someone made a monster and a snowman, and the monster was holding the snowman's heart. It was dyed with koolaid or something. Just hilarious." Jeri grinned. "And then there was that snow sculpture contest; some of those were really nice."

"I was gonna ask whether you joined in on that - sounds like you'd do well," Dean said. "I saw some of them - some of them were really good." He shrugged again. "I've never seen anything like that before. We don't get a whole lot of snow, so mostly when we do, it's just kidss making a big ball of snow and putting a littler ball of snow on top of it, then finding like sticks and stones ofr arms and eyes and stuff. Nothing really fancy or arty or anything."

"Oh, I can't actually make anything that looks good." Jeri laughed. "I write and make costumes, but I'm not good at sculpture of any kind." And she wasn't even very good at the costume making, except for the broader things, but she was getting better.

Dean raised an eyebrow. "You make costumes?" he asked, a little surprised by that - though only because he'd never met anyone who did that kind of thing before. "Like, what kind of thing? You a member of the drama club or something?" he aske, guessing at that as the most likely option. He'd never had anything to do with any of them, but then again, he was hardly a 'joiner' type at school - hell, half the time (at least until his promise to Sophie anyway), he was hardly actually here.

"Nah. I'm a geek. And I cosplay at conventions because I'm weird." Then she figured that Dean was not a geek, so would probably need some sort explanation. "I like to dress up as characters and pretend to be them at conventions for comic books, anime, and stuff like that."

Dean opened his mouth and then quickly shut it again, telling himself very firmly that it would be rude to just bluntly ask 'why'. He took a moment to formulate a more acceptable response. "What kind of characters?" he asked her, ensuring that his tone was interested and didn't hold any kind of sarcasm or derision. Who was he to pass judgement on what other people did? He who had a Lego castle standing in his closet at the moment, ruled over by his girlfriend's stuffed rabbit.

"Anyone that catches my interest." She shrugged, and then searched through her bag until she found one of her anime DVDs, Serial Experiments: Lain, and passed it over to him. "That's who I'm being for the next con. It's comparatively lame to some of the stuff I've managed to cobble together as a costume."

Dean took the DVD, looking over the cover picture of the somewhat lonely-looking girl before handing it back. "So - how'd you get into doing something like that then?" he asked. Really, it was something he'd never heard of before. Never even contemplated. And he suddenly realised that it was nice, almost a relief, to find out that there was something he didn't know about the world that wasn't connected to the supernatural and that wasn't going to suddenly mean that he had to be even more on his guard and worrying all the time. No, this was something normal. Admittedly maybe a little weird - but it was a normal kind of weird, one he could be interested in without stressing about it.

"I don't know. My friends and I play video games, we read comic books, we watch anime and horrible cheesetastic films that shouldn't be legally allowed to exist, play Dungeons and Dragons. That sort fo thing. And conventions stemmed naturally from that. And I guess we saw some cosplayers, thought it looked cool, and decided to try it out." Jeri decided. "I can't think of another way it could've happened. Just kind of randomly happened. I don't know, how does anyone get into anything?"

Dean shrugged. "I dunno - never got into that kind of thing," he admitted. His friends back in England had been the in crowd, and he'd spent most of his years so far living on the end of that, not looking to like anything they didn't like, not putting a foot out of line. Very definitely keeping the tendencies he did have towards geekdom firmly under wraps, not allowing himself to actually express that in any form in public. He'd been miserable with it, but they'd been his friends. Or so he'd thought. And friendship was worth any sacrifice. Or so he'd thought. Now, well now he was just feeling his way through life, dealing with things as they came up. Trying to find out where he fit in the scheme of things. "If you enjoy it, then that's cool," he added, belatedly.

"I do." She paused. "I like being other people for a couple days. It's fun. Different from normal." Because real life was such grand fun. School and work and needles and doctors and parents and bruises. Yeah. There was absolutely no reason to want to not be someone different at all, right. "And you can win awards, like gift certificates, too. That's always fun."

Dean smiled slightly. "Yeah, I could see how being someone else for a while could be fun," he agreed, quietly. He and Thia did that from time to time - just really not on the same level as that. But there was a release to it, being someone else - someone who didn't have to have the same stresses and issues that you had. "And, hey - who doesn't like gift certificates," he added, rather belatedly.

Jer held up the DVD case again, with a grin. "She may not look like much, but she's God spliced with Neo from The Matrix. Or something. It's a weird series. Anyway, I figure God deserves gift certificates. Two of my friends are going to cosplay as the agents and follow me around all day, though, so one of them might win, depending on who's got the better suit."

"God spliced with Neo? How does that work then?" Dean asked her. "Or do I just really not want to know? Or is one of those things you have to watch to get?" he added, wondering if he was just letting himself in for too much by asking any and all of those questions. Still, he didn't get what she was saying and that generally raised Dean's curiosity.

"You have to watch the series." Jeri said, stretching. It was amusing, watching people slowly descend into being curious about anime. "You can borrow it, if you want. Just remember to turn the subtitles to English." And she slid the DVD towards Dean, along the floor. "You might have to watch it a couple of times, though."

Dean took the DVD and looked at it again. "You sure? I might... Not be able to get it back to you straight away. I kinda broke our DVD player the other day and I don't know if we have a new one yet." Sure, he'd broken the DVD player. And the computer. And the other computer. And the microwave, the fridge, the freezer, all the lights - in fact, everything electrical in their entire damn house. But they hadn't got fried by a ghost, so everyone was calling it good.

Nodding, Jeri grinned faintly, and shrugged. "It's incredibly surreal, but you might like it. Unless you prefer action stuff instead? Or giant mechabots that fight? Or..." She thought for a moment. "A duck that turns into a girl and battles for a prince's love with the power of ballet. And love. I have that too. Not with me, but I could bring it tomorrow." She paused. "Actually, that one goes better with a couple of joints."

Dean shot her a look. "Not ballet - really not," he said, wondering if she'd bought into the rumours that his ex had spread round that he was gay. He'd mentioned he'd got a girlfriend, right? He thought he had. "Not even with a couple of joints," he added.

"Eh, picky." Jeri gave him that crooked grin again. "It's actually an awesome show, for all that it's about a magical ballerina duck. Oh, I have one about knights..." Her eyes gleamed. "The knights Bon Jovina and Lars Ul Metallicana, and the samurai of the Iron Maiden..." Really, Jeri loved Bastard!, even if it was hilariously dumb sometimes.

"Huh?" Dean asked, not knowing whether to laugh or just be really confused. "So - no offence or anything, but you seem to have a really weird DVD collection..." he told her, almost nervously, seriously afraid that she'd take offence at that.

Jeri snickered. "Yeah, I know. When it's said like that. I also have non-anime stuff. Killer Klowns from Space, Buckaroo Banzai... oh, oh! Zombie Strippers. 'They'll strip for a fee but they'll eat you for free!'. Oh, man." She was laughing now. "Classic."

"I..... Don't think I've seen any of those," Dean admitted, trying to keep up. "I don't watch a whole lot of films," Not these days, anyhow. Back home, maybe, once upon a time, but over here, not so much, just the odd film with Thia, but that was less about what was going on on the screen for him. And then there was everything else he had to fit in, though his daily weaponry lesson with Oz had quietly fallen by the wayside, a combination of the winter setting in, and the fact that Dean didn't want to go anywhere near that kind of thing at the moment, even if the drive to do so was there when he got stressed.

Pursing her lips, Jeri thought about it for a moment. "Most people don't really want to see them, because they're absolutely and unrepentantly cheese-tastic. But hey, when we're all trapped inside by the mighty snowdrifts, let me know if you're bored enough to want to watch anime and some truly atrocious junk."

Dean raised an eyebrow and smirked slightly. "So - you keep crap around, just for when you get well and truly bored? You been through these winters before then? What with the prep and the snow sculptures - you're local, right? Always lived here," he asked, which was actually him checking up on that, as casual as he tried to make it sound. It was the Thia-check.

"Since I was seven and a bit, I think." Jeri nodded. "Around then, anyway. And hell no. I keep those movies around because they're always on sale for like... two dollars, because no one else wants them. And my friends and I truly adore the truly horrible movies that they happen to be."

Dean nodded, filing that away. So, this wasn't a 'hey, maybe my girlfriend and I could come over one evening' situation then. Right. No - that would involve some serious conversations along the lines of 'so, you remember that school mate of yours that got shot and killed in the autumn? Well, yeah, we're kinda going steady...' Really, really not without some serious laying of groundwork. "So - I can give this one a go though? I promise you'll get it back at some time. And if I've had it too long, just bitch at me and I'll give it straight back anyhow," he offered, making as if to bag the DVD.

"Go for it. It's well loved, so I could probably say the lines right along with the characters now." She smiled. "Just remember to make sure the subtitles are on, or else learn Japanese."

Dean stuffed the case into his bag, then ran a hand through his hair, scratching at it - he needed to decide whether he was growing it again, or he needed to get it cut. Make a decision anyhow. "Yeah, think subtitles would be easier - not great at languages," he admitted. Really, he wasn't that hot at anything.

Jeri finished her sandwich, and stretched hard enough that she heard her shoulder pop. But it felt good, so that was alright. "That's cool. I don't know a thing about Japanese myself, except for a few words here and there. And those I picked up from the movies anyway, so, you know, educational!" She checkd her watch. "I have to go stick needles in myself, so I'll see you around, a'right?" She wasn't concerned about other people wondering what she was doing with those needles - the vast majority of the school knew she was diabetic.

"Needles?" Dean asked, not being one of the ones that knew. It did ross his mind though, now that he knew Tad. But Tad had an insert thingy, didn't he? Wasn't that standard? Dean knew he didn't have a clue - but he should really find out. "Erm..." head, a little unctainly

"Severely diabetic." Jeri explained, as she got to her feet. "I need to inject insulin. Don't worry. You haven't been talking with a heroin addict or anything." And she grinned.

Dean laughed, but he also looked just the edge of relieved, betraying he'd been a little worried there. "Okay, well, I'll see you around?" he asked, then realised that he still couldn't remember her name. Shit, arse - he was going to have to admit it. Damn. "I... You're... Sorry - I... I'm really shit with names..." he said, cringing.

Jer laughed again, and nodded. "So am I. I've been referring to you as 'the English Guy' in my head this entire conversation, since I wasn't sure if you're Dean or not. Jerilyn. Pleased to meet you."

Dean shrugged. "Eh - I answer to 'oi, you' as well," he told her, with a slight smile. But, he couldn't deny he was gratful she wasn't offend. "Jerilyn... Right. I'll try and remember than," he told her, thinking it was gonna be a hard, hard name to remember. Not usual, not for him at least. Shit - but he'd give it a go.

"Good luck." Jer grinned, stretching once more, and then padding away to the girls' room, where she could stick sharp things into her tummy with relative privacy. She turned back to wave, to be nice, and then continued on her way.