Going in Circles Around the Square (Kendra/Cecil)

Cecil looks shocked at Kendra, struck between disbelief and confusion. "Where did that come from?!" He presses a hand to his head, taking shaky breaths. "What did I even say?! Do?!"

He shakes his head at what he hears, cursing the mounting absurdity of his life. "No they don't! It's obvious you're doing it, and it just makes you look like you're about to fall over! You can't even walk like that! And I'm not that tall either!" Went unsaid was that she wasn't that tall too - he wasn't about to test her willingness to enact violence in this scenario.

This was getting worse and worse, and the more he heard, the more things managed to be hammered into him. His grip on his head tightened, fingers twitching. "Kendra...I'm pretty sure you're just trying to make yourself feel better at this point. Or...something. Whatever it is, I'm only important for making sure you get it." His hand falls from his head, and he looks tiredly to the small girl. "It's fine. You don't need to do this, and really, it'd just make me uncomfortable if you did. Can we just...put a stop to this? I'm pretty sure Nadia doesn't need me arguing with her roommate like this."

Kendra looked upset now, not just angry, wobbling as she tried to make herself seem even taller. "You were saying I was short! And I'm not! All you people are just abnormally tall!" She didn't want to deal with another person who thought they could pick on her for being average height, because she was average height despite what common sense said. She seemed to, hesitantly, begin to stop trying to balance as Cecil declared he wasn't tall. At least he wasn't being mean about his height.

The anger was calming slightly, guilt taking its place. That wasn't to say Kendra wasn't irritated, because she was very irritated, but there wasn't so much a raging fire as there was a burning candle. "You're right. You're right. I probably am. I really wish you would take the money though." She still kept her hand in her pocket, ready to just hurl the money at Cecil any time she needed to. To calm herself, she imagined Nadia's anger and disappointment if she learned what had happened with Cecil. She calmed down more, after a few moments, and sighed. "I don't want Nadia to hate me. Anything you want to talk about so this doesn't end up badly.

"No I didn't!" It was an absurd accusation, and one he couldn't think of any possible basis for. He would know that well enough - he'd been turning over everything he said to try and find anything like that.
Still was.

Cecil smiles softly. "Well...yeah. We wouldn't be here in the first place if you didn't." He shakes his head. "...I'm pretty sure you don't have to worry about her hating you. Or about...all of this, really. Everything's fine now, isn't it?"

Kendra looked ashamed now, the shame mixing with the irritation to create a very interesting facial expression. "Sorry! I said I was sorry! Don't yell! I'm just sensitive about people who happen to be taller than me. Because I'm slightly taller than average height and insecure." It wouldn't take a genius to decipher what she was saying. She seemed confident in her claims however, and one had to question whether she was delusional or desperate.

She started to smooth out her shirt slightly, despite the fact it seemed perfectly fine, trying to find a way to fidget. "It's just she's my first real friend, and I don't wanna mess this up. Plus, she's my roommate and I owe her a lot. She's super inspiring, you know? I wouldn't have run away without her advice." She still seemed out of place and slightly irritated, though it wasn't as bad as a few second ago. "We probably should actually hang out some time. Considering I'm Nadia's new roommate and all."

...in retrospect, an insecurity about her height ought to have been obvious. He wasn't about to openly contradict the utterly inaccurate way she referred to it, but he'd acknowledge it. "I'm sure being...slightly taller than average has its own benefits."

At her words, Cecil's smile turns wistful. "Probably, yeah. We'll likely see more of each other in future in all odds." He glances away. "...weird having a friend after so long of not having any, isn't it? You almost don't know what to think."

Kendra blinked, surprised. It wasn't as though Cecil was wrong, because she really was just slightly taller than average height, for sure, but people normally enjoyed contradicting her. Still, she recovered quickly, confident as always. "I see things, sometimes. And I can get into places other people can't. It's useful at times, when I'm trying to hide from my parents." She gave a shrug. "What use is being abnormally tall?" It was polite to return the question, right?

Kendra seemed to frown a little, nodding her head. Long ago, she had accepted the fact she didn't really have any friends. It didn't bug her like comments about her height did. Just made her sort of sad. Still, she didn't need friends to keep going on and to prove herself. "That's pretty accurate. Kind of hard getting used to people being really nice like that, having somebody I can rely on around. Scared of messing up. Bet you feel the same way with her. You don't seem really confident, in all honesty."

"I'm not-" Cecil sighs, rubbing at his head. "Getting around, reaching things, being a human landmark if someone needs to find you...who knows, maybe you can find a way to make a show out of it all."

Cecil looks away, hand moving around to scratch at the back of his head. "...you have no idea. You're kind of right about all that, but it's...kind of more than that too." Briefly, he falls silent. "...I don't think now's the time to go into that, though. I've subjected people to my particular cocktail of issues enough already, despite my best efforts."

Kendra couldn't help but laugh when Cecil mentioned being a landmark. She couldn't help herself, tiny giggles slipping out even as she tried to cover her mouth. "A landmark?Really?" She was never going to let him forget he said that now. "Maybe I could charge people money every time they see you."

Kendra nodded her head, still smiling a little bit. "More than that? Sounds like there's a lot on your mind where Nadia is concerned." She tried to be playful, but inwardly she didn't really want to risk getting a response. "I made you sit through a show of some of my issues. I'm fine with listening." A leader would listen, a good one at least, so Kendra would listen. She didn't mind listening to any of his other issues.

Cecil groaned as Kendra started to laugh, face twisting. "Hey! Not me! You said someone abnormally tall, and I'm definitely not that! Stop that!" He gestures outward wildly toward Nadia. "How do you even work that?! Charging money for seeing me? That's ridiculous!"

He shakes his head. "It's...not just Nadia, ok? It ends affecting stuff there, but that's just because it's more of a life thing in general." He gestures outward as if to tell her to halt. "I appreciate the sentiment, but...please, don't press this. You can probably find out from Nadia if she's willing to say, but I just..." He pauses. "I don't want to talk about it."

Kendra let out a few more giggles, though they were muffled by the hand she placed over her mouth. When she finally removed the hand, she had a large grin on her face. "The lady protests too much methinks." She elbowed Cecil in the side for added measure, trying to make it clear she was being playful. "I'll get like a drone or something. Have it carry around a small little bucket. Charge $2. Don't worry though, you'd get 15%, no, 20% of the profit." Maybe she was too specific towards the end, but she was being funny otherwise.

She continued to grin, not really understanding it. But she was going to find out eventually, no matter what. She forced herself not to demand he answer her, because she could just ask Nadia later, and because Cecil would probably be mad at her. "Well then, I'm going to go find Nadia and ask her about this! You should totally come, because this is about you!" Without waiting for a response, the girl began to run away, eager to try and find Nadia without any sort of clues.