(VT) A Frog for Zoey

[Star]

Continued from Totally not lying about the band

His theater was open. No privacy issues, yo. Several rows of chairs had been unbolted and were forming a large pile near the screen. Lot of raw material. His backpack's contents were laid out over an open area as he 'settled in'. As promised, a roll of butcher paper and rolls of tape were in a pile. Other oddities included magician's wands, spools of thread, and a lineman's butt sett. If he'd said he'd scooped his pack over a table of crap at a garage sale? It would have been plausible.

Except for the little bonsai tree.

"Mmmm... no. I know a few things you can fold dollar bills into, just for random entertainment value, but that's it. Oh. And I can make a sweet F-14 Tomcat. What'cha going to make?"

[Avis]

"Eff-fourteen tomcat? Is that, like...a jackalope kind of thing?" Avis asked idly, glancing around his room. It was more cluttered than she expected, but after seeing him pull a staple gun out of his backpack she wasn't really surprised. It was kind of weird, but maybe this was just another Cut-thing. Or maybe a Guardian thing? No, magician thing. Lots of preparation and fancy gadgets to fool the audience.

Ok, that could still be a guardian thing.

"I'm gonna make a giant frog. We, uh, that is Mandy and I--Zoey and I, kinda had a moment the other day and I want to remind her of that. Just in case, ya know? If she still wants to leave, whatever, but I want to at least do something. So, uh, cut me off like, I don't know, 6 feet of that paper. Twice. That'll probably do it."

[Star]

What. What ?!

Had Lousiana not discovered flight yet? Sure. OK. It was kind of an old movie. But still. Iconic. Iconic. Just. No. Stop. Maybe she just didn't know the designation. Breathe.

"Ummm, 'I feel the need, the need for speed'?" Come on. "It's a fighter aircraft? Sweepable wings?"

He was totally making the motions of variable wings. Except it probably looked like a breast stroke. Focus. 'Top Gun' is not The Thing right now.

He reeled off paper, measuring it against his arm span, tip to tip, then cut it. Repeat. He handed her one sheet, holding the other so she wouldn't have to juggle it. He bent down and grabbed a tape dispenser.

"Oh, really? That's awesome. Seriously. Tell me if slash when I can help. Unless this is like a Secret Origami Society thing? Where I could watch, but you'd have to paper cut me."

[Zodiac]

It took her some time - time to calm down, time to recompose herself - but Zoey made her way out towards the kitchen again, cutting herself a small piece of cheesecake and pouring herself a rum and coke, before sitting herself in one of the chairs outside of her own room. She didn't know where the others had gotten to, she was in no mood to hunt any of them down, but that didn't stop her from being accessible as she sipped at her drink. Screw pretenses.

The others deserved to know that she didn't only occasionally thought they were actually idiots.

[Avis]

"If slash? What? And I don't know anything about planes. I thought maybe the F-14 was some, I don't know, UFO thing. Like an alien cat. Ok, I know it's stupid," she said, cracking a smile at the ridiculousness of it.

"And there's no secret. I'll walk you through it. Ok, so, let's tape them together. Ok, good. Next we have to fold it in half. Just make sure to match the edges up," she continued, tapping the paper. Her instructions weren't the clearest, and frequently involved the words "No. Stop. Just let me", and then there was some serious flushing when they almost finished and then had to undo half the steps to fix a mistake that she'd made.

Eventually, they had a giant frog, made of butchers paper.

"So, um, I was going to tape it onto her car. Just in case she was leaving. But, um where do you think we should put it?"

[Star]

"That's a frog."

Duh, yo. Still. It was. He'd been quiet as she'd worked, and directed, trying to memorize the steps. Yep. Couldn't.

"That's pretty cool. I have questions! About origami. But first. OK. Hmmm. What about the front door? She has to use that to leave, right? Just in case it rains. Or the wind. Just right inside at the door."

He gave Avis a curious look. Her show.

[Avis]

"Or a random guy fucks with it, I guess. Ok, sure. Front door is a good idea." Avis stood up, picking the frog up by it's nose.

"You bring the tape, ok? And what do ya wanna know?" she asked, opening the door to his room and walking out into the hallway.

[Star]

He snatched a roll of double-sided tape. Just in case. He held up the tape tape in confirmation, and followed.

"Oh, the usual? How do you learn? How did you learn? How many things can you make? Can anything be made bigger or smaller just depending on the paper? Can you use any kind of paper? Have you ever tried it with, like, sheet tin? What's your favorite thing to make? What's the quickest thing you can make? Oh, and would flash paper work?"

You know. Questions.

[Avis]

"Uh. Well, I kinda found a book on it once and I just kinda picked it up. All you needed was paper, and I liked that. Art stuff can be helpful, ya know, but supplies are sometimes expensive." Or restricted. Potato-potahto. Bottom line was the same.

"Anyways, you basically can. I mean, I'm not great at it, so I don't know if there's exceptions yet. And, um, as long as it folds and bends you should be able to do Origami with it. Would be impossible with like, cardboard, even though that's made of paper," she explained as they walked, her voice echoing down the hallway to the ears of the waiting Zoeymandius.

[Zodiac]

She didn't say anything to begin with, continuing to eat her cheesecake before finally finishing it off, sipping at her rum and coke as she wondered what had the pair talking about origami, of all things. Not that it mattered. Avis had probably been doing some folding, hopefully not out of some sort of anxiety...

"Ah'd ah'spec' y'shouldn' trah t'foll no cahdboahd inna orgahme," she mused down the hall in response, sipping her drink again. No, she wasn't nearly intoxicated enough for it to be a simple slip. No more pretenses. She was what she was. It was time to just let it go. "It's fun tah trah with bub-wrap though. Leas' then ya ge' the satisfyin' poppin' o'failyah."