Jun 13 21:48:05 108 PA - Advertising! Advertising! Advertising!
From Chronicles
Jun 13 21:48:05 108 PA.
MAIN STREET
Back to nice weather. It's been kinda schizo lately. Now it's warm and no big stuff's falling from the sky. Good reason to be out. Maybe that's why Bella is. She's walkin up from the south into the nicer spots of town.
The evening hours are nice enough, even if the ugly concrete and metal towers of the city block out the sky too much. Outside is so much nicer. Despite the debate, Pavel comes walking down from the direction of the Plaza, stopping at side roads to look, and various storefronts to peer. At the moment, he slows to a general halt to gaze into the gaudy windows of Happy Burger, his nose sniffing at the scents that waft out.
Least the streelights make up for blocking the stars. Sort of. Maybe all the super bright and super happy color of the Happy Burger too. Bella makes a sour face at the place. When she gets close. "Ya don' wanna eat there. Not less ya like dancin cows 'r singin' fries."
Pavel looks down... down... at Bella with a smile and a curious expression. "Dahnceeng cohws? I hahf seen seengeeng goaht, laugheeng cheeken, boot no dahnceeng cohw. Mehby I go een, yoo cohm visz? Smell, ees so vahry strehnge. Mahke hungry. Da?" With a look at the missing stars, he makes a color commentary. "Lyublyu prirodu bol?she, chem gorodskie gorodov!" Shrug of apology.
Bella shrugs. Mostly at the stuff she can kinda figger out. "Eh. Just cooked cow. Least I think it's cow. Maybe rat. Prolly more'a those 'round anyways." A little smirk. "Can go in if ya wanna. Dunno how hungry I'm feelin."
Pavel often speaks with actions, and Pavel is often loud and boisterous. Once more, he delivers, laughing loudly into the darkened city - though still rather populated on the streets - in an earthquake rumbling tone. "Ees vyehry good! Beef, da! Cohm smahll pehrson, vee half meel togehthehr! Pavel buy!" Then, ZIP and his into the shiny, happy, gaudy place.
HAPPY BURGER
Bella follows into the happy gaudy place. S'why it ain't her favorite. She smirks at the big loud guy. "Sounds like it's way more yer kinda place. 'R yer their kinda person. 'N ya ain' never seen the place before?"
"Seen? Da. Cohme een? Noh! Too beesy. Boot noht soh beesy tonaheet. Try some.. some.. oh." The large Pavel points up at the menu. "No reed ees, Eengleesh? Good hahf peectures." His mouth tastes around itself. "Ees eenteeresteeng. Half beef, cheekeen, feesh all one plehce! Vaht ees yehlow steeks?" He happens to be pointing at a display that announces: "DOUBLE ORDER OF LARGE DOUBLE ORDER OF FRIES WITH EACH DOUBLE ORDER OF A HEALTHY SALAD!"
"Yep." Bella nods. "Most people look't alla pictures. S'what I do. Ya know they know whatcha want that way." She eyes him and his choosings. "Guess yer really hungry."
Pavel nods and grins widely down toward the ground as he pats a firm stomach beneath the possibly silly-looking fuzzy-leather coat. "Beeg bohdy, beeg stohmach, beeg eet! Cahn gyet yoo food, too? Mohney fohr me, ees okay." The big man shrugs pleasantly, but points back to the loud display of the good deal on fries and a healthy salad. "Ees vehgtehbals, I see. Boot vaht ees yehllow steeks? Cahn help Pavel?" Little doe eyes look to Bella for assistance. Well, big doe eyes.
Bella shrugs. "Fries. Like fry 'em up 'n eat 'em. They're kinda good. Think they's veg'tables too." She looks up at the menu pictures to try and check. Course she can't tell even if they wrote something up there.
The man quirks his mouth sideways at the information, and abruptly finds himself at the front of the line - confronted! By a bored and probably half-baked (or more) teenager who clearly drew the short stick when it came to acne genes. "Allo, pleese geev... vahn ohf szee stehk, noh three stehk een sahndweech. Ahlso yoo pleese geeve van cheekehn and -" he points to the colorful fries sign "- tvoo, pleese. Vaht? Dreek?" Pavel is stymied for a moment, being given various options, most of which are sodas that he apparently doesn't recognize. "Hahf meelk? Da? Vaht? Meelk veet chocohlahte? Okehy, ees good. Spaseeba. For Bella food, too, pleese." He steps asside to allow Bella to order. "Say mohney vehn okay."
"Jus'a burger. Uh... that one." Bella looks again and points her pick. Since the bug guy's buyin. She said the fries were Ok but skips 'em. Then she smirks more at the hungry guy. "Yer gonna make 'em all real happy. 'R run outta stuff."
Pavel grins widly once more. "I vahs lahst chaheeld, vehry smahll. Verhy smahll." He narrows two fingers together to indicate how small. "Mahy seesteers ahnd brohtehrs, sze call 'Pashen'ka,' ees how sahy mean 'Leetle Pavel.' Pavel grow." He snickers and grabs the food that somehow instantly appeared before him. The grease and salt doesn't seem to phase him, and neither does the price. He turns to Bella with questions. "Vehr ees to seet? Mahny plaheeces. Bella choose. Vehr ees meelk veesz chocohlahte laheek boy sahy?" The beverage dispenser is staring him in the face. Apparently he doesn't notice, or doesn't recognize.
Bella points him at the brown cow juice first. "Comes outta there. Can pick a table while yer doin that." She grabs up her li'l burger 'n heads to a table. It's on a back wall with none of the ginormous windows. Bella plops into a seat and watches him. To make sure he can figger out the drink thing. Snack and a show, she bets.
Well, it does take Pavel a few seconds of watching fat kids refill their drinks, but he's not dull, and picks it up quickly. Eventually he joins Bella at her distant table, with three large glasses of brown cow juice. He does pause politely immediately before grabbing one of the huge mountains of grease, fat and 1% meat that he'd ordered, to ask, "Bella vahnt sehy wohrds fohr food befohr eaht? Or cahn eat?"
"Huh? Say words?" Bella's nibbling a little at her food. "Whatcha mean?" Must be little bites cause she don't sound different talking with her mouthful. Course she mumbles most times anyway.
Pavel doesn't take but a moment to unwrap the foil from around his first slab of cow meat and begin to feast after Bella speaks. He chews, then washes it down with cow milk - thankfully, because he speaks, and speaking with a full mouth would have made him impossible to understand. Or impossibler. "Sohm peeple, sze vahnt seh wohrds befohr eaht. Fohr releegeeon, fohr resspehct fohr theeng szey vohrsheep. Pavel ahsk, mahk sure." Munch, munch and half of the first burger is gone inside of a minute, easy. "Bella's smahll cohw ees good? Noht eet heer oftehn?"
Bella shrugs. "S'okay. Nope. Don' eat here lots. Way too happy 'n bright 'n shit fer me. Kinda weird. Like talkin' bout yer food 'fore eatin it." She waves her burger some. "Don' make no sense ta me." "Ees ohkey, sohme peepohl seh need, othehr seh noh. Ees ohkey, both." He finishes off one burger and judges it. "Pavel seh... ees food! Ees mahny flehvohr, ees mahny tehst! Ees good, Pavel seh." Period. "Bella noht laheek hahppy, breeght? Vhy? Hahppy ahnd breeght ees vehry good. Be mahny hahppy, ees good fohr laheef, all. Should smaheel mohr, Bella, eeven eef seh Pavel ohnly meet soon."
"Yeah." Bella smirks more. "It's there fer eatin. So just eat it." Speaking of that, she takes a few more nibbles. Bella ain' breathing it in like he is. "So. How'd ya end up 'ere? Guessin ya ain' 'xactly local."
Pavel swallows his cow and swishes his mouth clear, though only dabbing meagerly at his face and the accumulated Happy Burger grease. "Bella reely vahnt knoh? Ees ohnly Pavel's stohry. Vahs bohrn, raised een Krasny Kut, ees een Russia. *Mahny* far." He waves his giant paw in a generally easterly direction. "Szen cohm Federation of Mahgeeks, noht vant, boot noht hahf choose so cohm. Else Pavel noh be breeszeeng now, ees no vould bee good. Een Federation fohr sohm yeers, szen..." his eyes become a little more bright. "Szen Pavel need leahve, come ohther plehce. Ohther place, ees ohnly hahppen be heer. Just heer." He waves a burger across the table. "How Bella heer?"
Bella nods. She caught some of that. She thinks. Maybe. Still good to nod. "Sounds like lots. I didn' hafta go nowheres ta get 'ere. Always been 'ere. So gettin 'ere was easy." Stills smirking. "Saves on lotsa walkin."
Pavel winces at that. "Ceety ahlwehs?! Ees vyery, vyery bahd! Moost goh outsahde szee valls! Nahture, cleen aihr, ahneemalhs, peeple noh alhvehs vant hoort. Good lahfe, outsahde szee valls." He stretches his arms out, and demonstrates that there isn't nearly enough room to do so. "Too small. Also.. eet ees mahny mohr compicehted. Lehsers ahnd boolets ahnd blah, blah. Seemple, seemple ees vyery good. Be kuznya helper, Bella. Vohrk veet Pavel?"
"Meant 'round 'ere." Lotsa more smirk now. "I go out inna dirt sometimes too. Yeah there's lasers 'n shit 'ere. Are out there too." She points with her burger. "Lotsa stuff that wanna eatcha too."
Pavel sets his burger down and takes a brief moment to wipe the larger spots of grease from his hands. "Theengs to eet, outseed valls, szey noh so bahd. Leahve be, sze leahve yoo. Eef noh, yoo keel mohnster, hahf food fohr veek or dehs. No ees beeg prohblem." He shrugs at the concept, seemingly meaning exactly what he just said, and confident enough in it. "How Bella stehy sehfe een ceety, ahnd noh een ceety?"
Bella snickers a little. "Ev'rythin's a big problem when it's bigger 'n me. 'N that's most stuff." Then a shrug. "Can stay safe 'nuff most times. Just try notta start shit. That way there ain' none. 'R run 'way if I gotta. Ain' no solider girl."
With a pat of his chest - a hard one - and a possibly excessively loud lauch, Pavel exclaims, "Does Pavel look laheeke solideer? No! Pavel mahk mehtahls. Uoose mehtahls mahk tools, uoose tools mahk.. mahk mahny szeengs cahn. Ees Pavel, Pavel ees kuznya. Een Russia vher from, kuznya ess vyery good vahnt. Mahk for Bella? Ees fohr free, mahk peeple knoh Pavel?"
"Make what?" Bella gets curious. She don't know what he could make that she needs. But the price sounds right. "Don' really use no tools. 'Less a knife counts. Don' even use that lots."
Pavel smiles and nods his head up and down. "Da, cahn mahk knaheef. Mahk mahny, *MAHNY* knaheef. Vahnt preety? Seemple? Beeg, smahll? Bella sehy, Pavel cahn mahk eet. Cahn mahk preety mooch ahneeszeeng szaht ees vahnt fohr peeple come see. Alveys. Ees vaht Pavel do, long taheem. Fohr mahny long taheem. So, tell Pavel ees keend of knaheef vant."
Bella thinks about that. "Sharp one? Ain' no good if't don' cut nothin. Don' gotta be big. Don' gotta be pretty. I ain' neither one." A shrug. "Can' be somethin I can' carry ya know."
Pavel stands and saunters a pace toward Bella, where the things that he's carrying on his waist belt are even more obvious than they may have been. He points particularly to the two knives. "Vahn ees gold, vahn ees seelehr. Uoose stahb, ees hoort, uoose slaheece, ees hoort. Mahk mohr, less hoort as vahnt. Peeple vahnt seelver fohr vahmpeer, szeengs so ahlso laheek. So knaheef fohr Bella?"
Bella blinks at all the shiny. "Wow. S'prised ya ain' got shot jus' fer alla that. Ya wanna make somethin like that I'd be sellin it. Bet that ain' whatcha want." She shrugs. "Don' need nothin fancy. Ain't seen nothin ta stick with pricey stuff. Don't think alla that makes no big deal anyways. Gold's all soft. Steel 'n stuff's way better."
The big man chuckles as he reseats himself into a far-too-small seat. "Pavel's mehtals ees deeferehnt. Gohld, ees hahrd as fohrged steel. So ees seelvehr, coppehr, ehny mehtal, I mahke strong." The 'r' is well rolled. "Da, I syel. Joost need peeple knoh of Pavel. Mahk fohr Bella, mehby peeple knoh Pavel. Boot Bella noht vorry of mehtal, ees ohkay, ees cohst deefehrent szo." He looks across the table. "Half teeny hahnds, da. Mahke eet small. Ees to hoort peeple, or ees to hoort beeg mohnstehr?"
"Fer hurtin whatever I needa poke with it." Bella goes back to smirking. Shrugs too. "Dunno what that's gonna be til I start pokin. Better if I ain' gotta use 't 't'all. But know that ain't happenin."
"Pavel, Bella hahve deel, szen? Mahke smahll knaheef fohr Bella, veet speciahl mohve qveek, so Bella tehl peeple szaht Pavel heer mahk szeengs? Da? Ees ahgree?" The large man wipes down his mouth and hands - finally - having completed just about everything on his tray.
Bella can't find any reason not to. "Sure. I can tell people bout whatcha make. Know lotsa people too." It's a win-win thing sounds like.
"Da, good. Ees ahgree." Pavel then stands and moves to one of the windows that Bella had apparently avoided. "Bella knohw ees behtter outsaheed, yes? Food fuhn, ohkehy. Mehybe go pahrk, try faheend sze stahrs? Or.. eef Bella no vahnt keep tahlk, cahn go."
"Outside's Ok. Just ain't nothin special." Bella leaves most of her burger on the table. Hops up. "Maybe next time. Was sorta goin' somewheres 'fore we came in. Oughtta get goin 'gain." She heads his way. Mostly cause it's on the way to the door.
Many men might ignore a stranger departing. Many men would wave a flippant hand and let her go. Pavel is *not* any man. No, he stands after sucking down the remainder of his cow drink and swats her on the ass. "Ees see ahgain, Bella!" is nearly shouted in his deep voice.
