Louder Than Life (Zirconium)

[GABE GLATISANT]

Gabe had always wanted to be a part of one of those massively epic events of "Living art" where everyone did something totally zany and wack, but all at the same time so it didn't look like a batch of one weird guy going totally nutso. Unfortunately, what with the PETA rallies and such, he rarely got the memo in time to go through and actually go through with it. It was just one more thing he was saving for a little later in life, like full on relationships and settling down and all that. It could wait, it wasn't like he was going anywhere anytime soon. Sometimes though, he wanted to just try it out for himself, and see who he could get to join in with him. Today was one of those days, where he tried to see if he could hunt down any other creative cosmopolitan peeps and have a jam or whatever with them. Did it really matter what happened?

But yeah, he'd been totally planning this for at least like, a week. He had figured out what song to sing and everything, and he was gonna go right up in the middle of the Metropolitan museum of art and belt it out and see what happened. THey couldn't throw him out, could they? Cuz' like, it was totally still classifying as art. Well...they hadn't accepted it or anything, but they couldn't say it WASN'T art. They had a big-ass canvas of ALL blue hanging up for chris'sake! Were they REALLY gonna yell at him to take his happiness elsewhere?

He figured the big foyer where there was KIND OF a cafe, but still art and stuff would be best. Besides, if things went South too quickly, he could disappear into the crowd before they like, brought him to jail or whatever it was they did with delinquents that DARED sing in a museum. He was pretty good at disappearing when he wanted to.

Looking around, a little bit nervously, he took a deep breath and prepared to belt out his own solo of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."

[pellinore]

Zirconium sat on one of the cold stone benches at the edge of the museum café, eating a muffin and looking at the map she’d been given at the entrance. She’d been there a few times, but not enough to know her way around. In fact, she hadn’t even been in well over a year. But it was a cool place, with all the old art and everything.

As the people around her chattered and bustled about the room, she sat back and watched it all. She’d already made her way through a few of the exhibits, and taken note of a couple things she really wanted to read more about, but her feet always hurt after walking too much, so she was taking a break. As soon as she was done with her muffin, though, she’d be back up and looking around the room. The exhibits really interested her; she loved learning about all the history of it, and being able to look at the same things that people had looked at hundreds of years ago.

Not everyone could appreciate it though. Museums were just those places that everyone had to go to every once in a while. Like, it was just weird to NEVER have been to a museum. There were so many parents walking around the exhibit, dragging their whiny children along by the hands and dutifully reading each plaque, just to make themselves feel scholarly. Few really did it for the history. Not that it was wrong to come just to have come, but it was so crowded there, maybe it would have been better if the people who didn’t really want to be there just left.

And she could tell who actually wanted to be there. The people who stood in front of one of the pieces for so long that they looked catatonic, just staring at it and examining every detail, those were the people who cared about the history. That was what Zirconium tended to do. She walked into the exhibit and when something caught her eye, she just stood there and looked at it, pretending she was back in the Renaissance, or whenever it was made. And there were so many interesting things to look at. It was weird, how just old things on display could be so fascinating that hundreds of people flocked to places like this all over the world just to look at them.

Scanning the room in front of her, Zirconium glimpsed a couple of statues that she wanted to take a look at and read about. Her muffin was getting boring anyway; there was only so much sugary blueberry-ness she could eat. She stood up and tossed it into a garbage can, walking into the spacious exhibit room. God, it was crowded. Apparently, everyone was getting hungry and had decided that only a museum café could satisfy their stomachs.

She brushed past a couple of toddlers fighting over their mother’s cell phone, and a dark haired man standing awkwardly in the middle of the room, not even looking at one of the displays. Looking past him, her eyes caught on a half-decayed, old wooden statue of a woman with a baby a few feet away. Zirconium stopped in front of the display to read the plaque.

[GABE GLATISANT]

"SOMEWHEEEERE OVER THE RAINBOW - WAAAY UP HIGH!"

Gabe sang out with all possible force and vibrato and whatever other musical terms he could think of. It was better to be loud and noticed than perfect and silent, right? Besides, it wasn't like he was really trying to be all that good. He had never been in chorus or anything, so they should love him just for trying! Like, it wasn't like any of THEM were getting up to sing in front of everyone.

He waited for the camera phones to start flipping out to film the wonderful spectacle, and grew a little less sure of himself when he just saw people giving him dirty looks or ignoring him outright.

"THERE'S....A LAND THAT I HEARD OF"

Shit shit shit. Was there something that they knew that he didn't> he hadn't exactly looked up New york laws about public entertainment or anything. did he like, need a license to sing in public? It sounded possible. shit, what if he got arrested!? He didn't have anyone to bail him out! He barely had money of his own, and he had no clue what number to call for his parents. They were either in Paraguay or like, Peru or something at the moment touring some international dog shows.

"Once...in a lulla-"

He quickly cut off and shuffled to the side of the room, trying to draw as little attention to himself as possible. okay, well, that had been a disaster, but now he had to just try and blend in. Blending was what really mattered. If they didn't know what he looked like and they couldn't distinguish him from the other crowds, then they wouldn't be able to catch him, right? Besides, he totally like, didn't mean anything by it!

Oh, god. Okay, so, here was some dark-haired girl. That was fine, right? He just had to like, make it look like they were friends or family or whatever, though he doubted that with his dark complexion contrasted with her pale skin they would ever pass for family.

"So...um, don't take this the wrong way, but I don't particularly want to get arrested and I figure that talking with you might make it harder for them to catch me. Shit, that sounded really creepy, didn't it? I'm sorry, really, I just like..."

He bit his lip, shoving his hands into his pockets and smiling apologetically at her. he REALLY didn't want to ruin this by totally scaring her away.

"Umm....nice statue?"

[pellinore]

As she examined the statue, Zirconium heard someone behind her start belting out Somewhere Over the Rainbow. She turned and saw the man that she had walked past before singing in front of everybody. It made her smile a bit, he didn't sound too bad. But... why on earth was he singing? It was a museum, not a talent show. Not that she didn't admire his confidence, but really. People looked annoyed; she was a bit embarrassed for him actually. Really, why couldn't he just stop? Maybe he was a bit mentally... unstable. Or drunk.

She turned back to the statue, not wanting to watch the poor man be ridiculed by the stuck up museum-goers. Zirconium could hear his voice go quieter and stop altogether. Oh good. She relaxed a bit, putting the strange situation out of her mind and focusing back on the statue. The carving was so intricate, and she could still see some of the paint chips from when-

"So...um, don't take this the wrong way, but I don't particularly want to get arrested and I figure that talking with you might make it harder for them to catch me. Shit, that sounded really creepy, didn't it? I'm sorry, really, I just like..." Said a man's voice behind her.

It took her a moment to realize that he was speaking to her, and she jumped a bit when she saw that it was the man who had just been singing. What the hell? Maybe he really was drunk. Why did he have to choose her to talk to? She didn't want to be involved if he was worried about getting arrested. But she didn't think someone could really be arrested for singing in a museum... it wasn't like he had injured anyone with his voice. Or maybe he was going to be arrested for something else... Maybe he was insane and on the run from the police. What if he wanted to kidnap her? Or kill her? What if he was an insane serial killer!?

She took a step away from him, reaching a hand into her pocket to make sure her cellphone was still there, just in case she needed to call 911.

"Ummm... Nice statue?"

Okay, at least he hadn't said "Come with me and get in my van." And she was in a museum. There were security guards. They wouldn't have let in someone who was wanted for murder or kidnapping. It couldn't hurt to be polite and at least try to answer the guy.

"Uh... What? Umm, yeah... It's uh, nice." Oh god, why did her voice always have to falter like that? He was going to think she was scared of him - not that she wasn't, a bit. Everyone knew you were supposed to always act confident around strangers, especially when you were alone. Basic self defense. She forced a smile and stood up straighter.

"And umm, don't worry. I don't think they can arrest you just for singing in a museum, especially since it was only for like, thirty seconds."

[GABE GLATISANT]

Okay, thank god. She wasn't like, screaming or anything. She thought he was normal. Things were actually starting to look up. he wasn't getting arrested anytime soon AND he would get to have a nice little conversation while laying low from whatever security forces belonged to the museum or whatever. It was actually a kind of win-win situation.

Now that he wasn't so worried about being arrested and forcibly dragged off to prison for unlawful singing or whatever, he had a chance to calm down. The key to making friends was being yourself, right? That's what his parents had always told him before going into preschool or kindergarten, and it had worked for him so far, right? People seemed to genuinely like the nice, zany wacky personality Gabe had when he wasn't freaked out about things.

"And umm, don't worry. I don't think they can arrest you just for singing in a museum, especially since it was only for like, thirty seconds."

Gabe actually managed to laugh out loud in relief, feeling a bit stupid for flipping out over nothing. Technically, he could just walk away, knowing now that a respectable cover was no longer needed to keep hi out of jail, but why would he do that? This girl had been nice! She'd actually managed not to get freaked out when gabe came up all creepy, and she'd helped him out and pt him at ease! The least he could do was actually like, introduce himself to her so it didn't seem quite as weird.

Thrusting his hand out to her and smiling widely again, he tried to start over at the beginning.

"In that case, I'm Gabe Glatisant." he had been raised right. he knew how to introduce himself to a lady, and how to make a good impression. He wasn't one of those crazy, worthless dicks that lurked and roamed throughout the city who just used a girl for....whatever. No, he was a GENTLEMAN.

"Thanks for the tip on the singing by the way. I kinda freaked myself out there." He laughed.

[pellinore]

"I'm Zirconium," she said as clearly as she could. It happened too often for her liking that people had to ask her to repeat herself when she said her name. She almost stuck out her hand to shake his, but thought back to her fears of him being a murderer. Who knew? He might take a handshake as an invitation to drag her off to his car and drop her off a bridge.

But... he did seem friendly. And now that she looked at him a bit more closely, she could see that his smile did seem genuine, and it didn't look like he was hiding a gun or anything. Maybe she was worrying over nothing. She didn't get out much - maybe this was just what people did.

She tried to dismiss her fears of him being a killer or anything like that. If he hadn't tried anything by now, he must just be a normal...talkative man who happened not to realize that a spontaneous conversation and introduction might freak a teenage girl out a bit.

"Thanks for the tip on the singing by the way. I kind of freaked myself out there."

Zirconium couldn't help but let out a bit of a giggle. He'd freaked himself out? Like, had his mouth just started singing without having thought about it? That would kind of weird. Maybe he'd just... meant to sing quietly, or something?

"Why... why were you singing?"

[GABE GLATISANT]

Zirconium. ZirconEEum. ZERconium. He played with the phrasing in his head, and found that no matter what way he put it, it was one of his new favorite names. It was just so out there, so totally, refreshingly unique. Something that no one else could ever lay a claim to. Growing up with a name like "Gabe" he had been caught countless times with other people sharing his name. It was always so awkward when that happened. He felt like it took away a little bit of his identity to get stuck with other people named Gabe. How could he be his own person while there were other Gabe's out there doing other things and being different people and and and -

Well, the moral of the story was, he was both intrigued and incredibly jealous.

Oh, hey! A giggle! A teensy tiny little laugh! That had to help matters, right? That little sign of relaxation meant that he wasn't terrifying her with his creepiness, and he wasn't the frightening monster he had been worried that he would come of as. That was such a good sign!

"Why... why were you singing?"

Then it came time for Gabe to give his own tiny laugh. Great, she wanted to know why he had been singing. Now instead of being worried about coming off as a child molester, he just had to figure out how he could explain without sounding like some kind of mental patient. Wouldn't that be fun?

"Well, okay, promise not to laugh? I kinda was singing because of all those videos you see on youtube and stuff, y'know, the ones where they just kinda get up and do something out of the blue and instantly everyone loves them for it? I wanted to see if that like, worked here. . . I guess it really doesn't though, does it?" He laughed again, rubbing the back of his neck anxiously. Had that sounded overly stupid? He couldn't tell.

[pellinore]

Despite Gabe asking her not to laugh, she did anyway. But it was that kind of awkward, nervous laugh that she always did when she didn't have something to say right away. Youtube videos of people singing in random places? She had absolutely no idea what he was talking about... Zirconium wasn't much of a computer-user. She knew what Youtube was, but she didn't use it.

"I can't really say that I've ever seen videos like that, but it sounds cool? And yeah, I guess the people around her just don't appreciate good music." Oh god, why did she have to be so awkward? Zirconium smiled, half laughing, half dying inside. Why couldn't time just freeze for a few minutes after everyone said something? She needed a chance to think of something interesting to say, so she wasn't blurting out stupid things about "good music". He would think she was trying to like... flirt or something by complimenting him. And that would just be weird.

"But that's.... admirable... that you could.... do that, I guess. I mean, I would never be able to go and sing that loudly in front of people I don't know," she said, laughing still. Ugh. There she went again, with the weird formal complimenting and the putting herself down. She just wanted to have a normal conversation, but she couldn't say anything right!

[GABE GLATISANT]

Gabe smiled at his new friend. He didn't know why, but he felt like she really was interested in the conversation. he had been stuck in many a time where he just KNEW the other person wanted more than anything to be somewhere else and talking with any other human, but here he felt like it was a genuine discussion between the two of them. For something that started just because he had been worried about legal trouble, that wasn't too bad. He wished that he could have the same thing work at some of the dorm parties he wound up at.

"But that's.... admirable... that you could.... do that, I guess. I mean, I would never be able to go and sing that loudly in front of people I don't know."

He raised an eyebrow at her and cocked his head to one side. How could she not be able to sing? Was it like, some biological thing? What if she had gotten laryngitis as a child and had lost her musical ability? That would be awful! What if he had just taunted her by holding the one thing she wasn't able to do out in front of her? It would be like....it would be like someone kicking a puppy! Right in front of him!

Of course, he COULD be overreacting. It would be better to double check, just to be sure. He couldn't go off on such wild tangents with nothing to back it up.

"Well, I mean, it's not that HARD to do it. I never was in chorus or anything, and I never had voice lessons. I just kinda...sung along to the words, y'know? I guess it was kind of just a disaster waiting to happen even if I had kept going. I would forget how it goes or something." He laughed at his own incomptence and grinned at her.

"Anyway, enough about me and my singing fiasco. What about you? Here for anything special?"

[pellinore]

Zirconium grinned as he explained how he had come to know how to sing. It wasn't that she couldn't sing - not that she was actually any good - but she just wouldn't want to embarrass herself by being so loud in front of anybody, and she wouldn't want to bother anyone who was trying to have a nice, quiet time without hearing some girl attempting to sing. But Gabe didn't seem embarrassed at all, really. He seemed so confident, it was kind of amusing - but in a good way.

"Anyway, enough about me and my singing fiasco. What about you? Here for anything special?"

"Not really, I guess. I just like museums, and I haven't been here since last year, so... yeah." She folded up the map she'd been holding and stuffed it in her bag. "I like looking at all the exhibits, it's just so cool how some of these things were made like, hundreds of years ago. And people like, looked at it then, and then people now can look at the same thing and it's the same as it was, and it's just so weird to think about how even though times change and everything, there are still things that are always here, and it's like some sort of link between now and whatever place these things were made in." She laughed at her own weird explanation of why she liked museums. But it was true, and she loved coming here for that reason.

"Sorry, that was kind of... rambly. But yeah, I love museums." She would be worried that he would think she was like, some history geek for loving museums so much, but come on, this guy had just belted out Somewhere Over the Rainbow in the middle of a museum. She didn't think she had to worry about him thinking she was weird.

"And I also just needed somewhere to go... I'd rather not spend my weekends sitting in my dorm room or in my parents' apartment with my little brother..." She winced internally when she said that. She tried not to think about her brother, and his cancer, and how he... hadn't made it. But no, now was not the time to focus on stupid bad memories. She was having a conversation with someone.

"Do you... do you come here a lot?"

[GABE GLATISANT]

Gabe just listened to Zirconium as she explained her long, drawn-out explanation of why she liked museums. It was entrancing, really, because it was like getting a glimpse into her thought process. He actually could follow along it pretty well, and it all made sense in a sort of weird way. It was kind of like someone explaining their dreams to him. he couldn't follow it ALL the way, but it was interesting all the same.

Her laugh really was amazing. It was great to have someone to talk and laugh with after he had been embarrassed and wanted nothing more than to crawl into a hole after the attempt at singing. The fact that he could instead just relax and recoup after his humiliation was just the thing he needed to perk him back up.

"Do you... do you come here a lot?"

He actually snorted as a response, something incredibly rude and horribly put-offish, but it was just his impulsive reaction. To be honest, he would never have stepped inside the museum if he hadn't been in need of a public place that people wouldn't assume he was homeless if he started singing in. Once he was in there he had to admit it was pretty cool, but he definitely wouldn't come here often just for the heck of it. There were too many other things he could be doing, like running or walking dogs or rallying with PETA.

...Not that he could tell HER any of this. She had just poured her soul out to him basically to explain why she thought the museum was the most culturally important place in the history of the world! If he told her that he didn't think the place was that great, well, he could kiss this little social venture goodbye.

"Well, I mean, I don't come here as much as I want to, y'know? Like, I wish I could come more often, because I totally love the museum and everything, but I just don't have the time. I totally get what you mean though, like, I would totally punch something if I had to spend absolutely one more second in my dorm room and like, studying or whatever, because- I mean, I LIKE my major, don't get me wrong, but like, well-."

He finally just managed to cut himself off, all too aware of how horrible he was at lying.

"I guess I'm the rambly one now, right?," he laughed, trying to de-awkwardize the moment. He wasn't entirely sure how well it worked.

[pellinore]

When Gabe laughed at her question, she cocked her head to the side a bit. Had that been... funny? Huh, maybe he didn't like museums. How could somebody not like museums? But oh, he was explaining.

He wished he had time to come to museums, apparently, but he was too busy with classes. Oh, she'd thought he was older than that. But he'd mentioned a major, so he must still be in college. Well, that wasn't so scary then. Her still lingering fears of rape or murder were dismissed. At least he wasn't some random forty year old making friends with a teenager.

"I guess I'm the rambly one now, right?"

She laughed. "No, no. It's okay." Zirconium leaned against the banister of the wall beside her, a little bit tired of walking around the museum.

"What are you majoring in?" she asked, hoping it didn't sound creepy or stalkerish. She was just trying to make conversation, and he'd mentioned his major... It wasn't creepy, she decided. He'd been the one to say it first, and he wouldn't have said it if he wouldn't be okay with telling her about it. And he said he liked it, so he wouldn't mind talking about it, right?

But then again, she didn't want to start a whole conversation about college or majors or anything like that, because it wasn't like she was some expert on it all. She'd barely even Googled any colleges yet, much less learned about how majors worked.

[GABE GLATISANT]

Now that they were getting to talking, Gabe started to wonder why he had never seen this girl before. Well, it WAS big city and all - it was certainly no Michigan where just about everyone knew everyone else's pasts and families - but still, she seemed like someone he could go to school with! Sure, she was a little young, but there was no denying the fact that she was good looking. Maybe she was just in a different class or grade or something? She DID look pretty young, but did that mean she was just like, a freshman?

"What are you majoring in?"

Thaaat was kind of an unintentionally awkward question for him. Whenever he met someone new, they would automatically ask it, right? It was like, totally just one of the automatic questions that college kids asked one another. For GABE though, it always ended up going one of two ways. One: the person he was telling would think that he was totally cool for loving animals and being totally into all the PETA projects and stuff. And then.... there was the second option. The other half of the people he talked to who would immediately get turned off of the conversation for thinking that he was a hippie or a homo or well, whatever the fuck majoring in Animal Studies made people think.

He REALLY didn't know how Zirconium would react. Sure, she seemed pretty chill with art and all that stuff, but as Gabe had proven in the past, you could never really tell what kinds of people would flip out the minute you suggested they never eat meat again because it involved the unjust and brutallic slaughter of animals who just wanted to live out their lives frolicing in their native meadows.

"I'm, uh, I'm majoring in Animal Studies. Y'know, like, I wanna be a professional Breeder, so I'm studying how like, the biology of it all works and stuff. It's pretty cool, actually." He tried to gauge her reaction, with little luck. For all he knew she could be totally disgusted with him and trying to figure out the best way to run off and never speak to him again.

"But what about you? What are you majoring in?," he asked, trying to quickly get the focus off of his own career choices. He figured that returning the question would be the best way to tell if she suddenly hated him. he had learned, through trial and error in numerous conversations, that it was the math and business majors who he had to look out for. Those people would slaughter a poor little biology boy like him.

[pellinore]

Zirconium raised her eyebrows and nodded as he told her what he was majoring in. Huh. She'd never known that they had actual classes in college that taught you how to breed animals. What did they do, just force animals to mate with each other and see what happened? Oh wait, there were always genetics and biology classes. So maybe they didn't just have a big room full of pregnant animals like she'd immediately thought when he told her that.

Well, that was interesting, if anything. She didn't see the appeal of being a breeder, personally, but Zirconium knew that dog shows, or cat shows, or horse shows or just animal shows in general were pretty popular. She'd seen a few dog shows on television; it had been cool to see how well people could control their dogs, and the animals were always adorable and well-groomed. She wouldn't want to do it herself, considering all the training that she would have to do. She did like animals, but she could never get them to do what she wanted them to do. The cat she'd had as a little girl was never able to come when she called him. Gabe seemed confident enough though, she'd heard that animals responded well to people who weren't scared or nervous.

"But what about you? What are you majoring in?"

Zirconium immediately felt her face grow hot. He thought she was in college. She'd made it seem like she was, with her question about his major, hadn't she?

"Oh, I- What? I uhm..." she stuttered, her face getting even redder, "I'm not, uhm, I'm...uhm."

Wow, really? Was she really that unsure of herself that she couldn't even answer him. Zirconium stopped and took a breath, smiling and trying to laugh off her embarrassment at being thought of as something she wasn't.

"I'm still in high school," she said, as clearly as she could. She wasn't even embarrassed about how he'd thought she was in college, just that she'd made him think that she was in college from what she'd said. It was just an awful feeling, when someone thought she'd done something that she really hadn't.

"And I'm only a sophomore, so I really have no idea yet what I want to major in when I do go to college."

[GABE GLATISANT]

Gabe paled as poor Zirconium explained that she was not in fact in college, or at all even contemplating the idea of college. Shit, he'd totally just walked right into that one. She must have thought that he was totally like, retarded, what with the fact that he was going around and talking with girls that were, what, at least three years younger than him? Was that even legal? He half expected the cops to show up anyway, and drag him away on the grounds that he was an overly pedophilic person, going up to minors and just striking up conversations with them most inappropriate way.

Okay, well, hrmm. It seemed that this conversation was in fact taking a turn for the worse. He couldn't really figure out what to say next, as his mind was desperately trying to remember what he had just said, and figure out whether or not any of it could be taken in an inappropriate, illegal way. As far as he could remember he'd been rather gentlemanly, but that didn't necessarily mean anything! He knew plenty of horror stories of cases about like, people who had totally been thrown in jail for being creepy and talking to little girls and giving them candy and stuff, which was totally not what gabe did, cuz' he was SO not a freak like that, but oh god, now he was rambling and he didn't even know what was happening and he really hadn't even meant it like that, honest! He'd just wanted to keep from being arrested in the first place!

"Oh! Well, um, I mean, that's cool too! Like, do you go to that Baum place? Like, I heard that was pretty cool. I mean, like, I don't actually hear about it that much, but like, y'know."

He felt like the conversation was going downhil quickly. She probably thought that he was some massive stalker that was going to kidnap her and like, rape her, and she was probably going to like, run to the police and tell them, and then he would NEVER get his degree AND he would be in jail, and he was pretty sure that they didn't allow you to like, keep dogs as pets while you were in jail, and that would be like an even WORSE version of the college rules!

He had to do something to let her know that he wasn't an evil kidnapper!

"Umm, do you want to like, get a muffin or something?"

PERFECT! Muffins were like, the international symbol of anti-rape! Now she would HAVE to stop being suspicious of him!