Jella & Raleigh: Ice Cream!

Jella had been driving around in her car looking the nearest ice cream shop for a little while now with Raleigh beside her and her adorable new pet slime-puppy on top of her seat with its paws on her shoulders. She’d been trying to drive slowly so as to not get Raleigh nauseous throughout the ride but it’s still a moderately fast speed and the traffic laws were, as usual, disobeyed.
Jella had, also, purposely taken a bit of a longer route to get to the ice cream store. She seemed to enjoy driving around and talking to Raleigh (only a part of which was Raleigh trying to tell Jella about the various driving etiquette principals she has been entirely unaware of).
Eventually, though, Jella had found a place to park outside of a local ice cream shop and quickly got out of the car, turning to Raleigh with a smile.
“Here we are! I’m pretty sure this is the place one of my friends who is not on the big team told me about and they think it’s good. Maybe you’ll think so too!”
Raleigh smiled through their somewhat nauseated face. Despite the car ride being about as hectic as they’d expected considering the driver, they seemed to feel less carsick than usual.
“I’ve never been here before, so I hope your friends are right,” Raleigh stated while surveying the long list of flavors, ranging from standard vanilla to mango to wasabi.
“You know, it’s a shame Signe couldn’t come. I’m glad we can still do this celebration though, even if it’s just two of us.”
Jella nodded slowly, scanning the flavors herself as she stood beside Raleigh and then looking at her.
“Yeah… but she’s famous, right? People like her so she must be very busy having to be friends with so many people. Being famous sounds fun. Knowing so many people, being able to go so many places, having things like toys that look like you…”
Jella chuckles, still determined as ever to get that slime toy made.
“But you’re right. We’re always busy with all of our work as superheroes so it’s nice to be able to hang out with you. Even if there’s nobody else that came with us.”
She continues to eye the flavors of the ice creams. She spots the wasabi one and then looks up at Raleigh, perplexed.
“Isn’t wasabi that thing in the animes that the characters don’t like to eat because it’s really spicy? Why would they make it an ice cream?”
Raleigh rests their eyes on the unnaturally green tub of ice cream as well.
“That’s a really good question, Jella. Wasabi is spicy, and ice cream isn’t supposed to be spicy. Wait, can you even taste spicy things? We need to find out.”
Raleigh steps up to the counter.
“Uh, I’ll get a large mint chocolate chip in a waffle cone, and a small cup of the wasabi as well. What are you getting, Jella?”
“I’ll take, um… in a large cone like them I want strawberry ice cream but I also want the small cup oon wasabi ice cream as well. We need to know what this tastes like!” Jella says looking between the worker and her friend beside her excited to find out something new.
With Jella excited her puppy has been running around her legs and trying to jump up to her. Jella only now notices this and picks up as they wait for the ice cream. She pets the dog gently over its head and back and hugs it gently before holding it out to Raleigh to see if they want to pet the puppy while they wait for their ice cream
Raleigh happily scratches behind the dog’s ears until the ice cream is ready, and then they give the slime puppy a boop on the nose before grabbing the cone. The two find a seat on a bench outside in the park, each armed with a cup of the strange green ice cream. The puppy follows along and jumps aside Jella.
“Well, let’s see what it tastes like!” Raleigh says, poking at the wasabi before taking a large bite.
They immediately gag, then rush to wash out the taste by eating at the large scoop of mint ice cream in their other hand.
“Whose idea was this again?”
Jella smiles widely and squeals quietly at seeing Raleigh happily petting her pup. It was was very sweet and was nice to see them relaxed and happy away from all of the superhero stuff they had to do as a part of the Big Team.
Once they get their ice creams, Jella follows Raleigh and sit beside them, letting the dog climb up onto her and sit on her laps. She looks excitedly at Raleigh as they took the first bite of the wasabi ice cream… and her smile faltered a little upon seeing Raleigh’s reaction. Was it so bad that it hurt them physically to eat it?
A little guilty Jella turns her head away from Raleigh a little, “I-I think it was my idea. I was just kind of curious about what that flavor might taste like. I guess I should try…”
With a much smaller bite, Jella puts the wasabi ice cream in her mouth and seems to sit there for a few seconds, confused by the thing she’s tasting. It doesn’t cause her to gag but she’s just not sure how she’s supposed to feel about it. She turns to Raleigh
“...this ice cream definitely isn’t sweet. At least from the way I can taste it. It isn’t spicy which confuses me because wasabi is supposed to be from the animes I’ve watched, but it’s not sweet ice cream and that is a bit strange… are you okay? You didn’t seem like you had a fun time eating that.”
Raleigh chuckles loudly, slightly spooking the puppy.
“Jella, don’t worry about that. I ordered the wasabi ice cream first. I figured it’d be disgusting, but I did it anyways. I was right. I’m fine though - I just don’t think I’ll have any more of it.”
Raleigh chuckles again while simultaneously petting the dog.
“Yeah, it’s not spicy, just generally disgusting. Actual wasabi is spicy though. Maybe sometime we can go out for sushi or something and you can taste it for yourself.”
Raleigh turns to look outwards at the park surrounding them. A few children are playing on the opposite end, but it is mostly empty at the moment. Raleigh sighs loudly while taking a large lick of their (non-wasabi) ice cream.
“How are you feeling, Jella? I know that fight was pretty rough, and I hope you didn’t take what that stupid puppet said seriously.”
Jella smiles softly and nods at the idea Ralrigh offered. Internally, she’s getting a little excited about the idea but she’s also a little embarrassed still.
“Yeah, I think going out for that sushi thing could be fun. Maybe more people will be able to come next time! Not that I mind just being with you.”.
Jella looked out towards the kids who were playing on the playground as well. The smaller, younger humans always seemed to fascinate her. They got lost in their own little worlds so easily and had so much fun all the time and it felt like they didn’t need to care about anything else in the world when they were having fun and were with their friends…part of Jella tells her it’s the kind of existence she wish she had. Careless free and fun. And the way they just understand how to use all of the weird shaped metal poles and swings and slides going up and down and running around them is actually a little impressive…
She becomes lost in her own thoughts for a few moments until she hears Raleigh’s sighing. She turns to Raleigh and shakes her head.
“Oh, me? I’m… I’m okay. Don’t worry about it. That String King guy was… he was mean and selfish and bad. There’s no way I would be his puppet. Honestly? I don’t know if I’m fully a person yet or not but I’m happy I can have the support of people like you. I’m glad I was able to keep you safe, too. You’re my teammate and my best friend and I care about you so I thought it was right to stop him from trying to put his shadow strings on you to try and control you.”
“Oh, I guarantee you that if he did put those shadow strings on me they wouldn’t last long. But thanks for saving me from all of that.”
Raleigh goes for another lick of the mint chocolate chip, then pauses in a double take.
“Wait, I’m your best friend? I… I… I… I’m glad I can be there for you.”
They shift uncomfortably.
“Sorry. It’s still weird being referred to as anyone’s friend, let alone someone’s best friend. I didn’t have a lot of friends growing up. It’s strange, y’know? But it’s nice hearing that. You’re a good friend too, Jella.”
They readjust themselves a bit more, before staring out at the children playing on the other side of the park as well. It was a bit foreign to Raleigh as well - they had never visited a playground either as a child. They slightly shudder at the thought of their laboratory days, then quickly turn their attention to the slime dog on Jella’s lap. They reach out to scratch its ears some more.
“Awwwww, you are adorable, aren’t you?”
Jella notices Raleigh petting the dog is getting it excited so she picks it up to pass it over onto Raleigh’s laps. The dog turns around on its back and wags its tail as it looks up at Raleigh. Jella chuckles happily at the sight and replies to Raleeigh.
“Yeah! You and Reina have always been really nice to me. Reina was willing to show me around and tell me how things worked before I got more human friends but… you told me more about yourself and a little bit about what happened to you. And now I know that’s not something you’d just tell everyone. And you’ve always wanted to help me and get me to stand up for myself and make me feel more like a person even though I still don’t understand everything and I enjoy hanging out with you and being on missions with you and things like that. Of course your my best friend.”
Jella stops looking at the kids at the playground and instead takes a few moments to look up at the sky silently as Raleigh continues petting her puppy. After a bit of silence Jella continues.
“And who knows? Maybe someday I’ll be able to tell you more about myself. I don’t know why I’m here or where I even came from. All I know is I’m from somewhere up there. That’s why a lot of this people stuff has been a little weird to me. Even the idea of friends was a little strange when I first got here. But it’s been very fun having friends like you.”
As she says this Jella looks back at Raleigh with a small smile on her face.
Raleigh smiles back.
“Maybe one day we’ll find out why you’re here. But you don’t have to have a reason, y’know? Or you can make up your own. Even if we do find out why you were sent here, you don’t have to do that either.”
Raleigh looks up at the sky as well.
“It’s funny. I only moved here from across the country, and I still feel really out-of-place here a lot. I can’t imagine what it’d be like coming from another planet entirely. I guess the loneliness would be even worse…”
They turn back to Jella, while finishing up their ice cream.
“But I’m not lonely right now. I’m with you.”
“Yeah! We have each other! And we’re for each other to do things like learn things together! Like how getting wasabi ice cream… wasn’t a good idea, and that I should stand up for myself.. And apart from that just have fun together!”
Jella laughs as she reaches out to pet her puppy’s stomach and it gets excited lying in Raleigh’s laps and goes to scoop up her ice cream… when she finds that a lot of it has melted as she’s been distracted.
“Oh… well a lot of my ice cream has melted… is it worth eating anymore? I don’t know. Do people eat melted ice cream? Should i still eat the wasabi ice cream? We paid for it. I wouldn’t mind eating the strawberry ice cream because that is very sweet and yummy but the wasabi ice cream was not."
Raleigh laughs a bit more.
"Nobody's making you eat the wasabi ice cream. I'm not eating mine. But melted strawberry ice cream is still good. If you don't eat it maybe I will."
"But yeah, I really did have a lot of fun doing this. Maybe we should do it again. Or get real wasabi at a sushi place."
Jella smiles widely as Raleigh laughs at her comment. Getting affirmation from her best friend was always a nice feeling for her.
“Alright. I trust you if you say it’s still good. I can leave the wasabi ice cream and just eat the strawberry one.”
Jella looks at the ice cream and instead of eating it decides to use the cone as a cup and drinks some of the melted ice cream. She gets some of it on her nose but doesn’t notice.
“You’re right. Melted strawberry ice cream tastes good! Almost like it’s some kind of strawberry ice cream juice! That’s amazing!”
Jella proceeds to drink more of it but then picks up some of the ice cream that has not melted yet in her spoon and takes a small bite from the ice cream as she continues.
“And yeah. This has been fun and I’d be okay if we did this again some other time. Do you think we should invite other people like Signe or Hal or Reina? Or should we do it alone again so we can talk the way we did just now?
Raleigh gets up and stretches a bit as Jella finishes the melted ice cream. They ponder a bit on Jella’s question.
“I don’t know. It was nice doing this with just the two of us. But inviting other people is nice as well. Maybe it doesn’t have to be an either-or thing. We can do stuff with the team, and stuff with just the two of us.”
Raleigh smiles at that last thought.
“Y’know, I’ve been thinking. You’ve come to Earth from some other planet, but you’ve really only spent time in Halcyon City. Like, don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty to do and see here, especially with the superhero stuff, but one day I need to show you other parts of the planet. Not everywhere is as crowded and stuffy as a city. You need to see the mountains and forests of Earth some day. There’s lots to do and see there, and it’s all really pretty. Maybe sometime we can figure out a way to do that.”
Jella looks at Raleigh with an excited sparkle in her eyes as they suggest the idea and she seems to start bouncing in place a little.
“That sounds like a lot of fun! We should do that sometime! We could go to some kind of forest or climb some kind of mountain! Ooh! My puppy could come!”
Jella’s dog seems to be excitedly trying to jump off of Raleigh’s laps up to hers, responding to the idea.
Plus you can show me all the cool parts about nature. From what my friends tell me they think it’s a little bit boring but I’m sure you’ll make it fun! Did you have anywhere you were thinking of?”
Raleigh shrugs while letting the puppy hop into Jella’s lap.
“No particular place in mind, I guess. I grew up in Colorado so I know that area well. Lots of cool mountains there. Though it’s a bit far away. And yeah, nature is cool. Especially the animals, if you know where to look. Lots of people are loud and scary so the animals stay clear, but I’m pretty good at being friendly with them, so you’ll probably get a better look at them than most people can get. Though to be honest I don’t know how they’ll react to you and the dog.”
Raleigh gets lost in thought briefly, thinking about their time growing up in the mountains of Colorado.
“It’s a very different place than here. That’s why I want to show it to you. That way you don’t get the idea that Halcyon City is the only place here on our planet. I’ll try to see if we can do that sometime. Anyways, I’ve finished my ice cream and it looks like you’ve finished yours. You ready to go?”
Jella puts her dog beside her, petting it for a few moments before looking at Raleigh and smiling at them.
“One more thing before we do go.”
And before Raleigh can react, Jella gently hugs them from the side, leaning against them as she shows Raleigh affection for a few moments before she lets go and stands up, picking her puppy up in her arms before it jumps up onto her shoulder and situates itself there, pushing itself down a little in Jella’s shoulder so only its head is poking out.
“Okay. Now I’m ready to go. This has been a lot of fun!”
Category:Scenes