Take out troubles (Gidd/Isabella)

Gidd walked along the street wondering to himself where he should go to eat today. He was already quite bored with sandwiches as the past few days had been nothing but that. Pizza sounded good, but he wasn't going to finish a whole pie and taking it back home would be a pain. "Argh, me and my picky tastes!" Gidd cursed himself.

Then as if the heavens themselves called out to Gidd, he caught a whiff of something delicious. Following his nose, it led him to the outside of a Chinese restaurant. "Huh... I don't think I ever realized this was here." Gidd mused to himself. "Welp, might as well try it~!"

Walking in Gidd was greeted to not only the wonderful smell of greasy Chinese food, but also the immense amount of people in the place. "Oh my..." For a moment Gidd considered just ordering take out and eating at home, but considering the distance, the food would get cold long before getting there and eating on the way would just be awkward. Deciding to take his chances in finding a seat he went up to order.

When it was his turn Gidd ordered some beef and broccoli with fried rice on the side and a fork, mainly because he never learned how to use chopsticks. After getting his food and utensil Gidd walked around for a tad looking for a place to sit and as luck would have it, he spotted an empty table just across the way. Without a moment of hesitation he sniped the spot before anyone could take it. "Whew. Lucky me" he sighed with relief and then began to enjoy his meal.

"Yes. Yes... What? No." There was an air of exasperation to the blonde's voice as she spoke into the phone, her high heels clicking against the pavement as she walked down the street."I already said no. I haven't even gotten a chance to eat anything after that screw up with the timing of the interview." That said, Isabella would stop, the look on her face almost dumbfounded. "Wha-" She'd start again, before stopping herself with a huff. "Fine, if you say so. But only this one time, you'd best remember that." She wouldn't wait for the response  as she lowered the phone down from her ear, tapping at the screen to end the call.

Now, food, where would be... That train of thought stopped before it could quite even finish as her wandering eyes fell upon the chinese restaurant. That would do. Although the blonde found herself questioning that judgement once she got inside, the place was packed. But no, her and her stupid mouth had relented to her editor, so this place would just have to do.

A few moments after stepping in, the wwoman stepped away from the counter with a spoon and fork in one hand, and a plate of Kung Pao chicken in the other. Blue eyes scanned across the room, until they found an only partially occupied table amist the mass of full tables. A young man, perhaps a student was seated there. She would approach the table. "Excuse me, do you mind if I sit here? It's so terrible full in here." She spoke, addressing the youth.

Gidd was adding soy sauce to his rice when a woman approached his table and caught his attention. She was blonde and around Gidd's height though obviously much older, though she was remarkably pretty. Gidd couldn't help but stare at her, a tad love struck. After a couple of seconds he broke out of his daze and processed what she was asking before he had made a fool of himself. "O-oh. Of course, feel free to sit down. it's not like I'm using the space." He chuckled nervously while scratching the back of his head.

She didn't pay much mind to his staring, though it did make her question if she'd messed up with what little makeup she had on. But she would get a response, letting her know that the spot was available. Isabella offered a "Thanks" before setting her food down on the table and sitting down. She didn't pay the youth much heed, instead pulling out her phone briefly, letting the screen come to life for just long enough to see what time it was. Well, to see what time it was, and to see she had a text message, and four e-mails waiting, though the blonde simply ignored the latter two in favor of the former.

Isabella grabbed her spoon, taking some of her food onto it, and blew on it ever so slightly before slipping the spoon into her mouth. Her expression softened slightly as she slipped the now-empty spoon back out of her mouth. There was a soft ting as she set the spoon back down, resting on the edge of her bowl, before the female slighlty pulled open her jacket, slipping a hand in to pull out something from an inside pocket. What she withdrew was a white plastic tube, capped on one end with a red cap, it looked something a thick pen, or perhaps a marker, albeit apparently completely lacking any kind of brand labels or other print on the side. She uncapped it, only to reveal that it in fact was not a pen, but rather hollow. There was a slight rattling to it from the motion.

"I hope you won't mind if I take my medication here?" She would shift the device in her hand toward the her other, open hand, in preparation to let out whatever she had inside it, but stopped to wait if the other had any protests to voice.

Gidd cursed himself in his head for how stupid he had made himself look. Granted the woman wasn't paying him much attention so hopefully him being a doofus would be forgotten. Gidd then went back to enjoying his meal as the stranger put down her phone and started eating as well.

After a single bite the stranger put down their utensil and pulled out a pen from their jacket, which caught Gidd's attention as well. He wondered for a second what she'd need a pen for at the moment but it was answered fairly quickly when she fiddled around with the pen revealing it to be a container of sorts, and Gidd guessed fairly quickly it was for medication. She posed her question to Gidd which he didn't hesitate to answer.

"Of course not go ahead. I'd have to be a real jerk to stop someone from taking their medicine. Do you have a headache?"

Well, the youth seemed like a good kid, so Isabella wasn't really surprised with the response. She gave the other a nod, before tilting the container in her hand such that single white pill, fairly large, slid out onto her palm. She would set the pill down, and capt the pen-like container again. "Thank you. I just tend to think that you can never really know with these kinds of things." She spoke, before letting out a small chuckle. "I imagine you would be surprised a how some people can be offended by such mundane things."

The youth also asked if she had a headache. Well, she kinda did. Talking to her editor had that funny effect more often than not. It was that, or the fact that she hadn't taken a water bottle with her that mroning, and was probably a bit dehydrated. Or both.

She'd chalk it up it both. "No." The blonde shook he head. "This is for something more... Long-term."

"Ah I see." Gidd was admittedly was curious of her condition, but he found it best to not pry in matters such as those. He took another bite of his meal before trying to make small talk with the woman. "So what is it you do Miss?"

The owman would take a small sip from her glass of water, before taking the pill in her other and, and placing it on the back of her tongue, before washing the pill down with some water. That done, she placed her glass back down, grabbed her spoon, and dug into her food.

Her eyes rose up from another spoonful of her meal as the young man made some more small talk. Isabella kept her eyes on him as she finished the chew in her mouth and swallowing. "I'm a reporter at SMILE News. Mostly I deal with writing lifestyle articles." She would reply offhandedly, before scooping another spoonful of her food, though not yet putting it in her mouth. "I'm probably not far-off in assuming you're a student?"

"Is it that obvious?" Gidd asked jokingly with a chuckle. "Yeah. I'm a first year at Seven Stars." Gidd took another bite of his meal before continuing the conversation. "So how's the journalism business? I'd imagine it'd be pretty hectic having to find stuff to report on in time but it's bound to be fun in some ways right?" Gidd asked, genuinely interested on the nuances of journalism.

She gave the other a small shrug. "I wish I could say it was obvious, but I have come across more than one less fortunate teenager who simply don't have the time to attend school as the try to make ends meet for basic living expenses.. The blonde's tone was perhaps a little somber as she spoke.

It's actually comparatively laid back. Many of the interviews and such I do are scheduled well ahead of time. But let me tell you, I pity those who are tasked with going out and trying to get a scoop when word starts getting out that those awful terrorists had done something the previous night. You have people running around like headless chickens, scrambling to rake up any crumbs of info they can get their hands on." That said, she slipped her spoon into her mouth again, the food that had been resting on the utensil having gotten a little cold by then.

"Oh, I see.... I suppose I'm one of the lucky ones then." Gidd responded to the woman's first statement, a tinge of guilt overcoming his mind as it hadn't crossed his mind that there were kids his age that didn't have the luxuries he had. Sure, his life wasn't perfect, but the woman was a reporter and probably had seen more than her fair share of the less fortunate in town, perhaps she had some first hand experience of her own, though Gidd was nowhere near brave enough to ask.

Gidd took the last bite of his meal, savoring the last piece of salty beef before it slid down his throat. His hunger now sated he normally would be ready to leave, though he was enjoying the company he was in and postponed his leave to continue his chat. "Did you ever have to deal with a last minute story or were they always scheduled ahead for you?"

"If you prefer to word it like that. Though all things considered, thins are pretty well off overall in Endymion, at least compared to some places, even before the Divide." She paused to take a swig of water. "But if you want to take something away from what I just said, it would be not to take anything you have for granted, because you never know when all of that could change." The woman's voice seemed... Perhaps a little distance as she gave that bit of advice.

In retrospect she might perhaps come to think that was... perhaps not the most appropriate thing to bring up. But didn't really care. She would shovel down two more spoonfuls of chicken and vegatables, her bowl at around  third of what it was at the start of the meal.

But this boy, was certainly a curious case, asking still about her work, even after having finished his own food. Isabella would have expected most people to leave. "Once in a while I do get something like that. Be it an interview I have to do because someone called in sick the last minute, or someone up the chain messed something up. And then you of course have those stories that come up and the big wigs want someone on the ground that second." Another spoonful of food served as a pause for the blonde's words, followed by a sharp intake of air as there seemed to be a bit more chili pepper in that spoonful than usual.

"I don't know if you necessarily heard about this, but around a month and some ago, this fairly big whole foods chain had a grand reopening of one of their stores, with some pretty wealthy folks attending, investors and the like. Well it was going all nice, until suddenly a fairly known yoga instructor who was attending needed to be rushed off due to some kind of allergic reaction that should have been avoidable." She'd pause an amused look on her face as she'd take a sip of water. Turns out her husband was one of the investors, so you can imagine, he was furious. And well, you can imagine my higher ups wanted our people down there the moment word started to spread on social media."

"Huh.... I actually hadn't heard of that. It seems like it was a real shi-" Gidd stopped himself before finishing that sentence. "Cough. Excuse me. I meant: That sounds like it was hectic."

"Actually, do you mind pardoning me for just a moment?" Gidd excused himself as he got up momentarily to throw out his trash, before sitting back down in the same spot, the only thing left of Gidd's was his fortune cookie, still in its wrapping, sitting on the table.

"So since you brought that particular event up," he continued. "I assume you were placed in charge of covering it?"

Well, certainly seemed the young man knew his manners around people. She could tell he was about to say something... mildly obscene there, but stopped himself. Isabella said nothing for the time, at least until excused himself. "I don't see why you'd need to ask that of a stranger but... Go right ahead." The blonde offered in reply, her tone mildly amused. She took the opportunity to quickly shovel a few spoonfuls of food down her mouth.

All this talking meant that it had taken her a little longer to eat than she would usually have taken, but honestly, she didn't mind. Sh was still eating, so she was still doing what she'd told her editor she would be doing.

She'd scoop the second-to-last spoonful of mostly veggies and peppers into her mouth as the young man sat down. And it seemed he still had something to say about the incident she'd mentioned. Wht he said made her eyes go wide briefly. "Me? In charge of something that big? In my dreams, maybe." She would reply after a brief pause to swallow her food, before then picking up her glass for a nice gulp of water. "I was just one of... maybe half-a-dozen people we had down on ground, including the three-person TV crew. I didn't even get to talk to any of the big wigs. All I got was some boring pearl clutchers and dusty old mummies who all went on and on about how horrifying andslashor baffling the display of incompetence was."

As she explained this, she'd scrape up the last bits of tasties that clung to the bowl onto her spoon. She then raised the spoon up in front of her face, and stared at it for a moment. "Probably like the least glamorous thing to do out of such a big fiasco. But I'm not going to complain. At the end of the week I'd gotten some pretty nice overtime hours out of the whole thing."

Gidd couldn't help but get a chuckle out of the cynicism in that last statement. "Well at the very least you got something positive out of those man-hours." He then started to unwrap his fortune cookie. He did find it a tad strange that he always bothered to do so as he wasn't particularly fond of the taste of the cookie and he rarely remembered what the fortune said 10 minutes after reading it, but there was a reactive tradition instilled in him to do so.

As he cracked the cookie open to pull out the fortune he asked the woman a question. "So if you could be put in charge of any story you wanted, what would it be?"