A quick spot of something funny [open]

Richard walked into the dining hall, and immediately his already-wide grin grew wider. He loved people, and being around them...he quickly grabbed himself some food and sat down, his height leaving him seeing through the crowds even while sitting down. With a chuckle to himself about nothing in particular, he took a bite, bobbing his head to a little tune in his head that had been playing for a while. He wondered what the people would think if he tried performing music like that here...his parents, he was pretty sure, would enjoy whatever he did; however, it was these people that he wasn't sure of.

I guess I'll just have to find out, sooner or later.

With a grin, he took another bite of his food.

Claudia's stomach growled loudly, not so much from her own hunger but from Sushi's and Kipper's hunger. She stood in line and waited as patiently as she could to get to the food. 'Why is there always a line.' She thought to herself as she was standing there with her two blues chirping loudly in her ears.

Finally she got to the food and grabbed two bowls of the soup that was available. It had nice big chunks of meat in it that her boys would enjoy. Didn't look to bad to herself either. Thanks to the large crowd there wasn't a lot of spaces left to sit at. She walked back and forth trying to find a seat with the two dragonets yelping at her to give them their food. Not seeing any tables empty she sat down at the nearest one that had only one person at it.

"Hope you don't mind some company. I think these two will eat me if I don't start feeding them soon." She said to a man she hadn't met. As soon as she was seated Sushi and Kipper jumped off her shoulders and started digging their maws into their bowl of soup.

"Hope you don't mind some company. I think these two will eat me if I don't start feeding them soon."

Richard snapped out of the beat swirling through his head and turned to look at the woman who had sat down with him, bringing two blue dragonets and a bowl of food for each. She was certainly older than he was, by quite some time by the look of her. She might not like my humor, said a voice in his head in a cat-calling tone. So what? Said the rest of his mind. He grinned like he knew something she didn't.

"Start feeding them soon? Did you have them on a diet or something?"

His humor usually started off poorly like this, but it got better as conversations lasted. If they lasted.

"No, ma'am, I don't mind the company at all." He gave a flourishing bow as best as he could while sitting. "Please, feel free to join me for anything you might like; just know that I usually don't go farther than holding hands on the first date." He casually - almost carelessly - flicked some colored balls from his sleeves and began juggling; he'd finished his food already, so he didn't really have much else to do.

"Thank you." She said and then made sure that the boys didn't argue over the food. There was certainly enough for both of them there. "Please. If I even tried to put these two on a diet they'd rebel by ruining every good thing I own." She replied with a smirk.

She looked at him a bit oddly after his last comment, but seeing as Claudia was pretty good at reading people she knew he was just joking. Then he pulled out some balls and started juggling them. That caught Sushi and Kipper's attention and they stopped their eating to watch in amazement. "You're good at that. My name's Claudia, by the way."

"Well thank you, m'lady!" He said with a grin as he flicked them back up his sleeves and bowed again, as best as he could while sitting. "I am Richard Cornelius Manchester Esquire IV. Please, just call me Richard. It's far easier that way, seeing as my name is as long as they say those new dragons will grow!" He chuckled at his own joke; usually not a wise thing to do, but what the hay? "If you feel up to it, I am an entertainer, so I'm constantly wandering around for everyone. I don't know if you'd like my style, per se, but if you'd like the offer is there." He made another exuberant flourish, and took a few more bites of food. If I am to be an entertainer, he mused, why not spread the good word a bit?

Claudia couldn't help but laugh at this man's antics. "You are very welcome, Richard. So how long have you been an entertainer?" She asked politely. Kipper and Sushi had gotten bored of this man already no matter how entertaining he was. All they care about was their food. "Have you ever worked with people that need some emotional healing? I ask cause I am a therapist and it's amazing what laughter can do for a person."

"Oh, I've been an entertainer for years, now....I lost count; probably because I'm too lazy to keep track. Five or six, maybe." He casually leaned back in his chair, tipping it onto two legs. "As for people, that's one of my biggest reasons for being an entertainer." His grin grew wider. "After Thread fell, I never wanted to see anyone that sad ever again, so suddenly my favorite things to do were all of my life even more than they had been, if that's even possible. Just being able to make people laugh is my single greatest joy; doing that in the variety of ways that I do makes it that much better." He interwove his fingers behind his head, reclining further.

He had no idea what he was getting himself into; he casually wondered if she'd try to get therapeutic on him, but the far-too-large "don't worry, be happy" part of his mind suppressed that easily. "So...you're a therapist, eh? Do you yourself enjoy a good laugh every now and then? As you said, laughter is a wonderful medicine, and I'm always telling people that it's not healthy to be sick."

If swimming made you hungry, then swimming, doing flips, playing a game of tag-ball with other guys, and fighting your way through the dinner rush (practically a sport all on its own) made you starving. Especially if you were a growing fourteen-year-old boy. And that was exactly the situation Zachariah found himself in at the moment.

Needless to say it had been an eventful day, as far as days went. After spending an afternoon outside, he'd only stopped by his quarters long enough to wash up a bit and throw on a clean shirt before making his way down to the Dining Hall. Of course, everyone else was doing the same thing,; he'd arrived at just the wrong time, and the lines were long, not to mention nearly all tables becoming swiftly occupied. But Zacha, starving and having little patience for such mundane things as lines, ducked around the crowd and managed to squeeze himself into the front of the queue, in front of a flock of arguing girls that took no notice of his presence.

After doing so, and filling his plate with as much food as he could possibly pile on it and more, he backed swiftly away from the slew of people, lest he get trampled before having a chance to move. Only then did he turn and look around at the crowd of people sitting and eating, scanning it for familiar faces. After a few moments he spotted his foster-guardian sitting with a tall man at a nearby table. He made his way over to them, sliding in next to Claudia with a grin. "Hey, Aunt Claudia," he greeted casually, using the title he had become accustomed to calling her by despite the fact that she was in no way related to him.

The klah-skinned teenager took a large bite of food without further ado; conversation could wait, food could not. He moved his black eyes over to rest on the man sitting across from them, taking in his features. "So, who're you?" he asked around a mouthful, regarding the man curiously. The only thing he'd heard said was 'not healthy to be sick'. Well, that wasn't exactly an unusual topic when conversing with Claudia, but it was boring. If Zacha was going to have to listen to some adults talking about being sick, he might as well have sat at a table with a bunch of strangers. Still, maybe they'd be nice and talk about something interesting.

"Can't say I blame you. Thread falling is probably the single most horrifying and terrible thing I've ever seen. I'm sure the same could be said by most people here." Claudia commented. Sushi and Kipper were already almost done with their food and it showed in by their bugling bellies. "You two slow down a bit." She scolded them.

Before she had a chance to say something about her work, Zach came up. Zach was her self-adopted nephew though they weren't related in the least. She enjoyed the teenagers company even though he was a teenager through and through. He was a good boy though. "Hey Zach. Don't talk with a mouth full." She said almost absentmindedly.