♨ 1 Apple Pie + Nineteen Apples and Cinnamon | Action/Voice ♨

[installing]

[Today Winry has a busy day! Despite things in her neck of the woods slowly turning normal(ish), she has a lot to do. Feel free to bump into her at any time/place!

[Late Morning: The Library]
With Ed in the tunnels Winry has been running books back and forth. Sokka has done this too, but she's taking this chance to also pick something up herself. A romance novel with a monochrome book cover catches her eye. She'll flip through the first couple chapters in the library before taking off.

The book reads:
I scowl with frustration at myself in the mirror. Damn my hair – it just won’t behave, and damn Katherine Kavanagh for being ill and subjecting me to this ordeal. I should be studying for my final exams, which are next week, yet here I am trying to brush my hair into submission. I must not sleep with it wet. I must not sleep with it wet. Reciting this mantra several times, I attempt, once more, to bring it under control with the brush.

[Early Afternoon: The Smithy]
Work as usual - not. Off and on Winry tends to small chores and cleaning up prototypes, but nothing extremely productive. She might end up slacking off and reading again on the couch.

The book reads:
Portland disappears in front of us as we head into US Airspace, though my stomach remains firmly in Oregon. Whoa! All the bright all the bright lights shrink until they are twinkling sweetly below us. It's like looking from inside a fishbowl.

[Late afternoon: The Square]
Winry sits herself on a bench. The book she checked out was very boring so far. The writing wasn't even that good. She reads much further, but at some point she frowns. The mechanic's expression looks like one of disgust as her calloused hands slam the smooth book shut. Quickly Winry sets aside the book to open up her journal:]

Hey, would you trust anybody that made you sign a contract if you were going to keep being with them?

[She glares at the book beside her. Should she finish it? Honestly it's making her very uncomfortable. Maybe she should have picked up a medical text instead.]

Comments

[Voice] /rolls off hiatus

[knightofratatosk]

Why would someone make you sign a contract for something like that? Aren't relationships supposed to be about trusting the other person?

[Voice]

[installing]

Exactly! But I guess it's different if you want to make your partner completely submissive.

[She's so frustrated she's not even going to put too much effort into hiding what's going on in the book she's reading.]

[Voice]

[knightofratatosk]

That doesn't sound like the kind of person I would want to be with... um, not that I mean you shouldn't be with them, but... I'm not sure it's fair to make you do that.

[Voice]

[installing]

Wh- I'm not going to be with a person like that. Why would anyone want to?

[Voice]

[knightofratatosk]

So you're not with this person? Or did you break up with them?

[Voice]

[installing]

I- I never said I was involved with anybody like that! I read it in a book!

[Voice]

[knightofratatosk]

Oh... I'm sorry, I thought you were talking about something that happened to you. That makes a lot more sense, though. Books can have some pretty strange love stories in them.

[Voice]

[installing]

This is the strangest one I've ever read. I don't think I'd get in a relationship with someone who required a contract.

[Voice]

[knightofratatosk]

Me neither. That doesn't sound like real love at all. When you love someone, you're supposed to want to make them happy, not unhappy.

[Voice]

[installing]

Well... I don't know if this person would be unhappy under this contract.

[Voice]

[knightofratatosk]

What do you mean?

[Voice]

[installing]

Well apparently some people... like being submissive?

[How does she explain this without it getting weird?]

[Voice]

[knightofratatosk]

[That's probably impossible. SORRY, WINRY.]

Well, yeah, but I didn't think you needed a contract for something like that.

[Voice]

[installing]

Well it's... well it floats their boat, I guess.

[Voice]

[knightofratatosk]

... people really are weird sometimes.

Re: [Voice]

[installing]

You're telling me!

But if this were real... I guess it would be none of my business.

[Voice]

[knightofratatosk]

If it were real, I don't think I would want to know about that part of whoever-it-was's life at all.

[Voice]

[installing]

Honestly I don't want to know about that part about anybody's life.

[Voice]

[knightofratatosk]

Me neither. I don't even know why people want to read about things like that either.

[Voice]

[installing]

W-well I mean it's nice to pass the time...

[She actually likes romance novels okay.]

[Voice]

[knightofratatosk]

Reading love stories, you mean?

[Voice]

[installing]

Yeah, that.

[Voice]

[knightofratatosk]

I think love stories are nice, I just don't know if I'd want to read about... you know. That.

[Spoilers: he might.]

[Voice]

[installing]

It's- it's just what comes after the love story. Or comes with it. It's kind of unavoidable in the books I've read.

It's just usually not this... weird.

[Voice]

[knightofratatosk]

Oh, I know that! I just didn't know that, well... that people wrote about that kind of thing in books.

[But now he is kind of curious.]