iwasherefirst | 004 [Voice || Private Text]

[He's sort of studiously been watching the ground since he thought about saying it, although it's easy to hear the smile in her words.] Ahh. Yeah, the... angle, on them. Makes sense. [Beat.] Good eye, though.

[Well, he's quite okay with it all even with all the inarticulateness.] Most of the best pictures are just goofing around, usually.

[She's glad he got the smile part. It's kind of an important part. She squeezes his hand a bit.]

Yeah. Guess so. More in the moment and what not.

And standing still for old pictures was a nightmare. Have you ever sat for an old picture? You've got to sit still for ages. It's no wonder half the best old ones are of dead people.

No thanks. Some of those photos were bad 'nough and it didn't take long to get 'em. I'd rather have the goofin' off ones.

[At least they've kind of gone past the awkward. Good job there, Doctor.]

[Watch him fix that.]

They seemed fine to me. [Wait, what.] Sorry, did I say fine? I meant good. No, I m-- Look, the... The thing. Chips. [He's going to hold the door. And try to stop talking.]

[She gets a little pink, biting her bottom lip and contemplating a moment on whether she's going to add to the awkward or brush right past it.

There's that pushing thing that she tries to do in small doses. He's been pushed a lot today but she is curious. She goes through the door, turning to look at him.] Meant what? [She's curious about where he was going to go from good.]

[He's probably going to give her a look as though she's just told him she wants to go big game hunting. And then try to answer.] W- I just thought... 'Good' might sound a bit. Insulting?

[She bites her bottom lip, considering how to respond to that.] Why would good be insultin'? Unless you're doin' the thing where you tell my Mum things are good so she'll shut up and go bother someone else.

I am not doing that thing where I get your mother to go away. [He scratches the back of his head and then puts his hands in his pockets.] It seemed... I dunno. Too little a word.

[She grins at him, leans over and tiptoes up just enough to kiss his cheek.] Good answer, Doctor. A billion languages and you can't come up with one. [And the grin just gets bigger.] S'very good answer.

[He's not usually rewarded for not being able to talk properly. Any annoyance at not having been able to evaporates instantly though. They're probably just grinning at each other like idiots in the doorway of this shop. But he clears his throat after a couple seconds.] I think there's a-, a table just over there, if you want to... sit, I'll get the chips.

[Definitely some idiotic grinning. After a moment she nods.]

Yeah. I'll sit. Get drinks too? Somethin' with bubbles. [She gives him one more idiotic grin and then heads over to the table he indicated.]

Drinks with bubbles. Got it. [He meanders over to the till to place their orders and then rocks back and forth on the balls of his feet for the girl to get the food ready. Not a complicated order, so just a couple of minutes. He's sort of juggling the two chips on top of one another and both drinks in one hand when he comes back over to sit down.] There we go! Chips and bubbly drinks all around!

[Rose stands to help him distribute the chips and drinks around with a grin. She sits back down and takes a sip of her drink then grabs some vinegar to sprinkle on the chips.]

Not quite like Chips on the docks but they'll do.

[Making multiple trips is for squares. And people who don't live on the ~edge.]

Not served in a nicely greased version of yesterday's newspaper for one. [He is - true to his word - looking through all the little packet things on the table for salt and sugar.]

And that's 'least half the appeal. [She'll leave her chips a bit more normal then if the experiment turns out wrong, they can share her batch. Of course if the experiment turns out fantastic, she's going to share his.]

'Least the company's still good.

[Packets successfully located and he doesn't have that particular sort of forethought, so it's good that she does. He tests a couple of them and then regards the rest seriously. He shakes them up a bit and then adds another packet of each and tries again.] Well they're a bit dry but actually not bad. Want one?

[That's more easiness seeping back into things.] Oh, the best.

[The easiness is nice. Sure, now that it's out there, she doesn't want him to completely forget the pictures but she'd rather have total forgetfulness than lose the easiness between them. She grins at him, reaches over and grabs one of his chips, eating it thoughtfully.]

S'not bad but you're right. Bit dry. [She shoves her batch of chips toward the middle of the table.] Wanna try some of mine?

[Oh, he's not going to forget them. Those are not mental images easily forgotten. Likely not even easily relegated to the subconscious for at least days.]

Absolutely yes. [He was reaching over as she started putting them in the middle. He'll go ahead and put his there as well.] Oh, wow, okay, vinegar after sugar, odd combination.

[Then the easiness is a very, very good development.]

Yeah? [Well now she has to taste this odd for herself. She picks up one of the vinegar chips, eats it and wrinkles her nose.] Oi. Yeah. Odd. Not...bad, I don't think. Just odd.

[Naturally the oddness means he has to try it again. And then possibly one of each simultaneously. Somehow that goes down better, so he keeps doing that one.] Actually that balances out the dryness. Hits all the major taste receptors too; vinegar for bitter and sour, sugar for sweet, and salt for... salt. Well, most of them. Most of yours anyway. There's another one, but it tends to hit the G-protein receptors; registers as a kind of... savoury, cheesy thing. [Drink! Enjoy the biology lesson.] Now, if we had chili-cheese chips as well, it would be a party.

I'll go order some. [She hops up to do exactly this, waiting while the chips come up and watching him over her shoulder. She comes back a couple of minutes later with a basket of chili cheese chips.]

You said most of mine. You've got extras that I don't?

[He drops a chip in his lap while he's waiting. Just because I can. He's very annoyed when the vinegar makes a spot. And naturally pretends nothing happened, taking one of each of the three chips when she gets back and proceeding to answer her question almost immediately afterward.]

A few. A couple of combination-specific and another couple for entirely different bits on the spectrum. This is much better - you should try it. At best they'd sort of compare to your somatosensory receptors, only on a... wider scale. Humans have got a lot more senses than they usually give themselves credit for anyway though - you lot lump them all under the same five headings but there's a whole mess of smaller ones most of you don't recognise.

[She's following along. Well not really. She's trying to follow along. He loses her around somatosensory. She does try the combination of the three chips while she's listening to him though, nodding her approval.]

That's brilliant. We have to do them like this all the time now. So that means you can taste things I can't. What sorts of things?

We really are going to have to do some running if we sit down to three servings of chips every time we have chips.

[He's got to work out how to explain that. There will be gestures involved.] It's... hard to explain. Like explaining colours to someone who can't see colours. Or ultra-violet light to about 68% of sentient life. There's your savoury, sweet, bitter, and sour, like I've mentioned, and then - well, no, you've also got that other one. Twenty-first century, I think you're still calling it unami. But beyond that... [...How do you explain tastes.] Calcium-y things. Calci-yummy. There's a flavour they like to use on Shan Shen that's sort of a cross between fish and mustard and chocolate; not a specific taste but just an example. Really it just comes down to narrowing in on things better.

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