Snippet #1840226

This still wasn't making sense. The others were all talking and laughing with this guy as though he was Ellie. They were even calling him Ellie. He's a fucking dude, how is it even possible to mistake him for Ellie? she thought exasperatedly, wondering whether everyone else was out of their mind or if it was just her. Then again, given the company she was in, it was probably both--but someone had to be in the wrong here, and she was positive it wasn't her, on account of everyone seemed to think this dude--and he was clearly a dude, if vaguely feminine in his features--was a chick.

But when she made her...polite query, shall we say, he clasped his hands together, staring straight down to the ground in a timid manner. "Just like the rest of you did," he murmured, voice barely audible, even in the rather quiet setting of the restaurant (well, it'd been quiet right up until Turtle showed up, but that was par for the course). "In the mailbox. I mean, I know I changed a lot...but it's been five years, Izzie."

Izzie's eyes narrowed. Somehow, the timid mannerisms and unobtrusive, meek way of speaking was reflective of Ellie, but....well, that had to be a coincidence. Ellie hadn't been a guy, that kinda cinched the whole thing. Didn't matter how much time passed, you simply did not spontaneously switch gende--

Oh.

"Cuzão," she murmured under her breath, clenching her fists a bit as she realised her callous mistake. Silently, the overbearing woman turned away from Ellie...or whatever she was calling herself. Er, whatever he was calling himself. Fuck, this is gonna take some time to get used to. She knew she'd probably made an ass of herself and made Ellie feel pretty damn awkward about herself (himself, dammit)--but she couldn't bring herself to turn back around and apologise. Instead, over her shoulder, she merely grunted, "Alright. I get it," and sat herself back down at the table, glaring straight forward.

Others had coalesced--Izzie recognised them all. After the dramatic physical change that had come about to Ellie, any other change seemed paltry in comparison. Vinny--Brancade Neve, she remembered she used to call him, being a white rapper--wasn't the scrawny little kid he'd been when he was...what was it, thirteen years old? Which made him eighteen now, but based on the hat perched on his head at what looked to be a very specific angle and the general attire trend he had going, he was still into rap. But he'd, obviously, gotten taller, and a layer of musculature was clearly visible on what had once been a lanky, compact frame. Roy, too, had approached, judging by Turtle's exclamation of his name, and indeed a moment later Roy Tefon entered the restaurant--his dark blue eyes and the lazy, laid-back look about him unmistakable. Which meant the only person who had yet to show up was Lucy, Lucy and...

"Wow, he's really good, isn't he?" Alice remarked. It hadn't struck Izzie to notice the sound of someone playing guitar--after that little scene with Ellie, she'd cranked the volume on her death metal right back up to fill the awkward little moment that had followed--but when she turned, her eyes fell upon the rather distinct form of Johnathan 'Pierce' Rhodes, though it seemed Alice did not recognise him. "That's because it's Pierce," Izzie informed her, though upon consideration, it struck her that Pierce didn't seem to have recognised any of them either. It seemed rational to Izzie that if anything, he would at least recognise them collectively--after all, you had Alice with her eye-catching blue hair, Izzie decked out in spikes and bullets, and Turtle all but all over the place, it wasn't too hard to figure out that they were...a bit out of the ordinary. And it seemed to her that would enable one to put two and two together and figure out that they were, in fact, the same group of teenagers who five years ago had joined together to flee their own respective pasts.