Sweetheart

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Such a warm, sweet scent lingered in the air. It was like the entire place was a veritable gold mine of sugary, syrupy goodness. Milk chocolate upon dark chocolate upon white and caramel and chocolate with peanuts awaited in this place. Sugary lumps of jellies and candies. Hard candy, the chewy ones, the soft and creamy delicious flavor melting in your mouth, then disappearing before you can hardly have a taste. It was the motherload, and it was Coyle's favorite place in the whole world to be.

They shipped in candy from all over the world just so the spoiled kids could get what they wanted right from this little itsty bitsy store. And it was all divine.

Coyle sat as he usually did, with the early morning sun coming up over the shingled houses and the residents of the town groaning at the very sight of the daylight.

Coyle sat, legs up beside him, on a decorative metal chair, facing the sunlight. On his table was warm Swiss cocoa and on his knee rested a book of some kind. He didn't know. Some old novel written in Latin or something. He read stuff so fast that it was hard to tell what language it was, but it was a big sucker of a book. Like one of those volumes with the hardcover and the spine that could support a full grown man.

He was halfway through, and he'd been reading for about fifteen minutes. Yup, it wasn't easy for him to read. Books got so heavy if he actually wanted to get into them. Eventually, he would need to get some kinda medical text or something just ot get him through breakfast.

But for now he was good with sitting there, face tilted towards the soft rays of the rising sun and arm thrown carelessly over the table at his cup of hot chocolate. He curled his finger around the delicacy and sipped at the thick, creamy flavor. Naturally, there was enough cream in the stuff to kill a cat with. Coyle had also taken the liberty of filling the cup to the brim with sugar from the table. Anyone with a normal metabolism would be seizing from either the lactose intolerance or the sugar high, but not him.

This wasn't even his first cup... Coyle took a sip and set the cocoa back down on the table, flipping through the pages of his book and starting on the six hundreth chapter or something.

Man, this thing was dry... Good thing he'd be done with it by the time the sun rose.

[Anzeh]

Zuri Makkuro

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A sweetshop, a girl's dream job other than working surrounded by diamonds or painfully handsome men. Still a sweet gig, no puns intended. She was a normal employee, sometimes on the register, sometimes organizing candy, but for the most part she hid in the back room, sampling foreign candy treats, like Meiji Yan Yan from Japan, Amorini Hearts from Italy, Berlingot from France, and Chappie Chewing Gum from South Africa. She sampled candy from all over the world.

In fact, the only reason she still had her job is because she was such a connoisseur of candies that she could direct kids to the candies they would like based on their tastes and drastically increase sales in those candies. Even though she was mostly a sampler and not a seller, she was the only one with the balls to eat new shipments that no one had ever heard of.

But today there were no new shipments and the registers were taken care of, in fact the shop had just opened for the day, but they'd already had their first customer, a little kid from the school, probably. Since she wasn't doing anything, not restocking, not eating, not anything, they chose her to be his server.

She went back in after giving him his drink, which they didn't like. After several minutes of debate, she was pushed (they literally pushed her) back out to him.

"Is there anything else you'd like?" She asked, putting her hands into her pockets. She was sincere in both mind and body with the question, despite her not wanting to ask it to begin with.

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After flipping through a few pages of the huge book, Coyle realized that the thing wasn't in Latin - it was in Greek. Oh, okay that made a lot more sense then! Greeks were the ones with all those funny gods that hit on mortal women and what else not. That actually explained what was happening right now... Zeus was hitting on some village girl somewhere.

Coyle chuckled to himself, the sound soft and rich. Whenever this happened, Hera wasn't far behind to curse the poor chick on Zeuses' behalf. Always a fun read, but he could have sworn he'd picked up a Latin book this morning. Now turning the whole book over so he could see the cover, he looked at the old, crinkly writing on the cover.

"Hmm..." He hummed, staring at it. It was hard to actually "read" stuff, because he didn't know how to read at all. He was just good with intention, and every human that ever decided to scratch something down on a piece of paper had intention. Now if he were only to read that intention instead of the squiggly lines, he'd be good with the reading thing.

Coincidentally, the intention came with a visual image. Coyle tilted his head, seeing the image of a fierce manlike god with toga and lightning bolt and laurel wreath and all that other jazz. And hey, Zeus was pretty buff.

Coyle could take him. Him and his skimpy god wife Hera.

Looking up now, Coyle noticed that someone had come up to him and asked him something. Something about wanting something?

Oh right. Candy store. Breakfast. He remembered that.

Coyle smiled a perfectly adorable, innocent smile at the girl with the question. Not because he was being nice, but because he thought it kinda sweet of her to actually care if he did want something else.

Most people lied, he figured out. He didn't know why, but he found it funny. He could lie and people believed him, just like everyone else could lie and people believed them. It caused a lot of problems around this place, but hey, if they were going to sit there and not tell the truth then it was their fault for all the wars, disease, and famine around.

But she meant it, and he thought that was hilarious. First actual truth he'd heard all morning. Coyle tossed the book aside boredly, it landing with a huge clap on the metal table, and tried to think of what else he felt like having this morning.

"A fruit tart, if you don't mind." Coyle said, very nicely if he did say so himself.

There were other really good desserts here, but he decided to go with a classic. Besides, fruit tarts had honey in them, and nothing commemorated a good morning like a thick coating of bee vomit on top of chopped up tree babies.

"Thank you..." Coyle started, then he tried to glean a name from the girl. Instead of reading her mind he just looked at the nametag. "Zuri."

[Anzeh]

Zuri Makkuro

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Zuri stood beside the table with her hands in the pockets of the smock apron thing she had to wear over her clothes as part of her uniform. Her headphones where in there, she was running her finger over them, but she wasn't allowed to wear them while on the job. In fact, she couldn't because part of the uniform was a colorful headbang with a decorative flower on it slightly to the left. Her first day here she had pulled off the flower and colored the headband stripes of black, green, and silver. It looked like a Slytherin headband.

Rather quickly she noticed that he was absorbed in a book he was holding. It looked to have well over a thousand pages long, and observing his eyes found that he wasn't reading. It wasn't that his eyes weren't on the page or didn't move in a way that said he was comprehending something, it was simply that the way his eyes looked, as though watching a show, that he wasn't seeing words.

After several moments he looked up and noticed she was standing there. He shot her a smile, heart-meltingly adorable really. The sound of the book on the table caused her nerves to fray and her to jump. Crap. Too catlike for her own good. After relaxing she heard him order a fruit tart and she nodded. "Fruit Tart. Right." Hands in her pocket she went back inside and told someone behind the counter about the order, going back to get it.

Personally, the fruit tart was one of Zuri's favorite non-candy things in the shop, but the boss was strict about those. She was however, allowed to take any extras home for the day. Hence, this is how she lived: On candy and fruit tarts, and she wouldn't change it for anything in the world.Of course, this caused her to take on a permanent scent of fruit and candy, but hey. She didn't complain.

When then tart was finished (she was told explicitly not to eat any) Zuri brought it back without eating any. She was so proud of herself. "Here you go." she said, setting it down.

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After his initial ordering of the fruit tart, Coyle began to only think about fruit tarts. This, quite possibly, was the most difficult thing to do while in a candy store. You see, most people ate things to live, and when they ate too much then they got sick, stopped eating, threw up, or exploded. Coyle did not need to eat food in the first place (he didn't even have a stomach) so he did not feel any of these symptoms of overeating.

As a consequence, he felt like eating everything in the store right about now, and it was only the speedy drinking of the rest of his cocoa that stopped him from doing so.

Actually, what did he do with food? He had never figured that out yet... He must do something with it, because he did kinda feel better when he ate stuff. Kind of like getting a foot massage or taking a nice hot shower. It wasn't a "full" feeling, it was a "better" feeling in general. Hmm. He had to find out about that one day... but for now, he would wait for his fruit tart and devour it whole when it got here.

Which... coincidentally was about the time it came. Coyle snatched the tart from the tray that Zuri had brought it from and downed it in one bite. Yet another good thing about not having internal organs. He was pretty sure he couldn't choke on food.

"Man, that hit the spot!" the beast chuckled, more to himself than anything, but he looked up at Zuri as he said it. She kinda... looked hungry. And she smelled like candy. That must be kind of confusing for her - smelling delicious and wanting to eat something delicious at the same time.

Coyle would quite frankly eat himself if he smelled that good, but luckily he didn't smell like chocolate. He smelled like ashes - like something somewhere burst into flames and all that was left was the dead gray dust. Probably because he melted stuff a lot. Wasn't his fault... He just kinda looked at something and it burned up inside. Kinda funny to watch, actually...

"Hmm..." He mused to himself, but it was loud enough for Zuri to hear. "I must be hard to work in a candy store. Seems like you would want to eat everything in sight."

Looking around, he noticed all the odd candies from all around the world that were piled up under various glass cases or packed in paper bags with pinstripes on them.

"But you do get to eat the candy, don't you?"

Ah, that's why she smelled like candy. Because she ate candy. And worked with candy. And candy was a major part of her life.

Coyle found that immediately likable. A candy flavored mortal. Sounded yummy.

[Anzeh]

Zuri Makkuro

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She tried to set it down anyway.

What had ended up happening was as she was lowering the tart to the table he took it from her and no joke ate it in one bite. Zuri was overcome with a strange mixture of curiosity and admiration. He ate one faster than her. That was deserving of a medal or something. It really was. Glancing back to the windows of the store, her fellow employees had looks of incredulous horror on their faces. Someone eating a fruit tart faster than Zuri? Oh god, they were all doomed.

The smell of ash came to her nose and for a fleeting moment she thought something was burning or that something in the fruit tart had been burned, but she realized after a couple moments of silent contemplation that the smell had to be coming from the customer himself. After a moment she bowed slightly and turned to make her leave, when she heard him start talking. Zuri knew that there was no one else out here he could have been talking to, so she turned back around.

At first she contemplated not saying anything, but decided that would be silly. Not to mention pointless. "I do want to eat everything in sight." She said truthfully, looking at all the colorful wrappers and stripped candies, queerly shaped ones and ones that vanished in your mouth, sweet treats and sour ones, expensive ones and cheap ones... it was all so... good.

After wandering away into her Willy Wonka-esque Wonderland, her attention went back to Coyle. "I do." She confirmed, and smiled slyly. "I'm not supposed to though, but hey." she shrugged. "What happens happens."

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Coyle's smile twisted a bit more as she mentioned that last part. Yup. Words to live by. What happens, happens... and that's just the way life is.

"Oh, bad girl..." Coyle snickered. He looked at the book a moment, then decided he did not want to read the thing. Greek stories were boring anyways. He set his hand on the book and it began to bubble like boiling water, the pages oozing together then eventually caking onto the table before the whole big lump of paper fizzled out into a lump of smoldering cinders. Coyle retracted his hand, flexing the fingers playfully. He loved doing that...

Oh, but wasn't that Crane's book? Oh well. He'd live.

Getting up, Coyle decided he was tired of the morning. Time to actually do something, and as much as it technically wasn't in his right to romp around White's town picking fights with his employees, he felt that he would do it anyways.

Why not? Wasn't like big, bad and tannless was gonna come get him!

Taking a whiff of the girl's sweet scent once more, Coyle decided she wasn't a normal person. She was odd. Maybe even delicious as she smelled? Either way, this place was making him hungry, and a fruit tart wasn't enough to fill that void of hunger.

"Did you know you smell like chocolate?" He asked her, still very nicely. He sounded like a three year old trying to tell someone that he just noticed the sky was blue - complete innocence.

In all reality he was trying to figure out how crunchy she would be. He hated candy with those crunchy things in them...

[Anzeh]

Zuri Makkuro

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Zuri shrugged without commitment when he made the bad girl comment. She never thought eating some of the candy was bad, she just figured that maybe if she only ate a little--this was a lie, because she never went into the back room with the intention of eating a little, she always went with the intent of eating everything in sight, especially the chocolate and gummy candies. Those were her favorites.

Her eyes went to the book as it seemed to bubble and melt and eventually become a pile of cinders, but not before it molded to the table and collapsed into cinders. The Nightmare had lived here for a while and knew that when creatures did crap like that they either lacked discipline or were so regardless of discipline it was almost as though it didn't really exist. Green eyes regarded the boy, quite obviously shorter than her, telling her that she smelled like chocolate. A soft laugh came from her, but it wasn't the flirty laugh that one might think.

It was a guarded laugh, not specifically from 'this horrible creature who turned a book to dry slime' but from 'this obviously hungry creature'. Perhaps the guard had been there since he devoured a fruit tart in pretty much one gulp.

"I did." she responded, pulling off her headband to examine it before putting it back on her head, a gesture that read quite clearly, my headband is more interesting that you. But Coyle was better than sitting inside dying of boredom, which is why she remained outside. After some time she responded, "Did you know that you just boiled a book into the table?"

She was angry about that. She had to clean this table, and was more concerned with whether or not the once book would actually come back off.

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Well... as much as he enjoyed stating the obvious, there was still the matter of what he was going to do with the rest of a lazy Sunday morning to resolve, and he was more interested in resolving that issue than saving face exchanging witty banter.

Despite anyone's stories or experiences, Coyle was not technically a "sadistic" creature. He never did anything out of pleasure to someone, or never did anything out of pleasure at all, actually. He only did things to avoid displeasure in the form of eternally agonizing boredom. In this way you could call him not inherently evil, just bored. Well that would be wrong too... He could spend his free time saving orphans in some third world country or curing diseases - which by the way who the hell ever heard of a disease in any other plane? - but he didn't do that either. Of all the amazing things he could possibly do in the everlasting time that he would be on the face of this specific planet, he decided to waste away with petty, evil amusements.

Most people didn't know this, but Coyle actually decided one day that he was going to do this. As odd as it sounds, to stave off boredom forever more he got up one morning and went "yeah I think I'll **** random people off today;" and so was born a pestilence of man.

Yup. If he didn't say so himself, he was doing well with that. And now came the question of how to further that goal this morning?

Yeah, he was pretty sure he was going to eat the nice, friendly candy store kid... Coyle took one last look at the now cool pile of gray dust and dismissed it boaredly.

"Wasn't very good anyways," he shrugged, then fixed her with his own reddish-black stare. "I'm sure you'll do a better job of being interesting than Zeus does."

Coyle tipped his head, noticing the people around him for the first time. He was pretty sure the shop owner was coming towards him with some kinda weapon.

This wasn't going to work in here. Coyle snapped his fingers, and teleported them a few meters to the left, placing them out in the middle of the street. The store owner paused, confused for a second, then decided not to follow.

Hehe, vampires... So easy to mess with.

Coyle then opened his hand to stare at the individual fingers. They were all very nice as they were, but if he was going to eat something he needed it in smaller pieces. With this thought in mind, he slowly turned his hand over, letting the fingers grow longer and more pointy until they kind of looked like mini knife blades.

"Okay... head first? Or are you more of a dismemberment gal?" he smiled.

[Anzeh]

Zuri Makkuro

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"I doubt it was since you incinerated it." She said, rolling her eyes as if he had just explained a problem she'd solved about ten minutes earlier. "But did you HAVE to do it on the table?" she asked, still looking at the cool ash. Hopefully she wouldn't have to be the one to clean it up... she hated cleaning up the messes of other people. It was one of the reasons she didn't waitress normally. In fact, she was still holding the platter when she was teleported out into the street away from the sweets shop.

Zuri watched him elongate his fingers and ask if she wanted to be beheaded or dismembered. He was serious she could tell, but how much she cared was pretty much zero. Reaching on her head she removed her headband and put on her headphones, turning on her music, yet still being able to hear him for some odd reason... she was fairly sure it was some kind of setting it was on, not to mention she was curious. She wanted to hear his words before he attempted to carve her like a thanksgiving turkey.

"I'm more of a not lose my body parts kind of gal, especially since I need them to do things." She responded evenly one hand on an earpiece, flicking through the settings of her mp3 headphones while pushing Coyle to another part of her head. Glancing to the sweets shop the boss seemed to know what the nightmare was getting into and was looking at her in a horrified state. All she did was smile back.

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"Ugh..." the beast sighed, frustrated. "You're one of those literal people aren't you?"

He clinked his knifelike finger blades together, agitated. Where was the fun without a little wordplay? She could at least entertain the thought that she'd be chopped up like a fruit salad... Which, in all likelihood would happen. He liked fruit salad.

See? There! Genius! And no one would be able to make that correlation if there was such stick-in-the-damn-mud conceptions as being literal! He could make no jokes! And then he'd be boring!

The very concept chilled him. He was not boring, and she would be pureed for making him even consider this concept!

"Well as symbolically dead as you may be, we're going to move along with the bandwagon here... Plenty more metaphors and innuendos to set up..."

To prove this point, he put his bladed hand up to his chin, trying to think of a few well-said things. Remarkably, he did not cut himself as the pointy dagger that was his index finger tapped at the side of his childish face. He didn't really notice that he was in danger of cutting himself either, probably because he handled flesh wounds well. After a second of thinking, he tried to snap his fingers. The sound was like two knives screeching brokenly against one another.

"Oh! I got it! You smell like candy, you look like candy, you even hang around candy... so of course you must taste like candy!"

He threw his hand out, trying to pick which limb he wanted to try first.

"Now, which kind, is the question? I'm going for chocolate... maybe gummy-flavored? You seem a bit chewy to me."

He flicked the hand at her left shoulder, fingers fitting together to make one large cutting edge.

"Though you might have those crunchy bits in you. Bones can be so troublesome. Everyone knows crunchies take away from the flavor of the chocolate!"

[Anzeh]

Zuri Makkuro

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She shrugged noncommitedly and continued to watch him while he contemplated how he was going to trap her in one of his figurative language traps related to how he was going to eat her and taste fruit and candy and honey and whipped cream. She wouldn't be surprised if she did. In fact she lifted her arm to her face and sniffed it experimentally. So used to her own scent she smelled nothing.

She shook and doubled over, clapping her headphones tighter over her ears when the knifelike fingers screeched horribly together. Zuri remained like that for several moments before the nightmare found herself capable to stand up straight.

When his clever analysis hit her ear she gasped and snapped her fingers. "By jove, I think he's got it!" she watched as he held out his hand, trying to choose which part of her to eat first while talking to himself about how she might taste and about how he didn't like when there were crunch things in the chocolate.

"Maybe you shouldn't eat things with crunchies in them to begin with," She responded, the platter still in her hands. Her eyes were on the knife-like fingers, as he reached forward in an attempt to cut her, several thick vines and roots grew from the ground beneath her feet, holding his hand away from her, knowing he could just cut himself free with his other hand, and probably would, she tossed the platter and caught it again, shifting her hold on it to something better. "I thought I explained this. I'm more of a not lose my body parts kind of gal." A slightly sad look crossed her face, feeling hurt that he didn't seem to remember what she'd told him not that long ago.

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As the vines curled around him, Coyle simply had to tighten his muscles and... okay maybe not break through them all cool like...

Not that he wasn't adequately strong, but he was more a "go through" than "break out" kind of a guy. And it seemed she really was a "not gonna be chopped up" kind of a gal. Go figure. Coyle phased through the vines, then fitted himself neatly back into this reality again, unharmed. The flesh color of his kinfey fingers blackened some as he pointed them at her.

"Hey, no moving. I could slip and slice you in half!"

But he said this only jokingly, retracting his knifelinke fingers with a flick and once again grating them together so they made a small screeching sound as he stood there, smiling.

Now lest's see... She was pretty fast, so he couldn't really be expected to slice and dice on command. It would have been nice if she was slow like normal critters, but it seemed he'd need to make her slower if he was going to get to have a side dish to his breakfast any time before lunch.

Coyle spread the now completely blackened knives out, barely paying attention to them as they thickened slightly, not quite losing their edge as much as they gained something in heaviness.

Not much of an improvement - he had planned for a flay not a pulp - but knocking some of that spunk out of her would do before he actually got to the slicey part.

She mentioned something about not eating stuff with crunchies, he remembered, and to that he clicked his newly made pummeling claws together.

"Well I would, but ya see most thing here grow their own crunchies... You'd think at least a few sentient creatures would get an exoskeleton on my behalf but no. All bony on the inside."

He held up his other hand, and that too grew to be blunt and heavy like the first one. He kind of looked like he had himself a set of bear claws now... Which coincidentally were good tools for mauling people!

"Now, before I get my crunchy-less dessert, I'm going to have to smack you around some... Feel free to scream. I like the noise..."

Coyle lunged forward, slashing wildly in an all out barrage; and to top things off, he heated up the tips of his claws with a little fire magic to help in the slowing-down department.

Things really didn't like to move much after they were as crispy as that book he'd charred.

[Anzeh]

Zuri Makkuro

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Zuri watched everything unfold as though she was watching him through a pane of glass that he could not break or phase through. Perhaps it was the music that was coming through her headphones that was causing this effect in her, but whatever it was seemed to make it so that Coyle didn't frighten her so much as merely amuse her. Who could stand straight faced at a boy who was quite a few inches shorter than you and brandished his knifelike fingers and expect to be afraid?

The screech noise crippled her for a moment but she quickly got it back together to watch as his fingers become thicker and heavier... it was actually becoming harder and harder to take the guys seriously now that he was pointing incredibly large sharp objects at him. That wasn't nice really. It was actually quite mean of him to do. Who pointed sharp objects like that at girls?

At least he warned that this wouldn't be as quick and painless as some would want her to believe. He was blunt with it: I am going to smack you around a little before I eat you. Your bones will really take away from the flavor of the chocolate.

When her eyes caught the forward motion, she stuck one foot out and twisted it towards her, her other foot making an arc on the ground as it met her other foot. She stepped again and found herself behind him where she hit him with the platter she'd been holding.

"Bad." she said.

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As focused as he was with trying to maul this girl Zuri so he could figure out exactly what someone who smelled like chocolate would taste like, Coyle barely noticed when she was no longer in front of him.

Well, to be fair he wasn't paying attention. He never payed attention. It was just a consequence of being able to intellectually crush everybody else on the face of the planet - you really didn't bother with the small stuff.

...or, ya know, he was thinking of exactly what a bear looked like when it mauled something. It would probably be really neat! There would be blood and gore and guts everywhere! And then when the bear was done he'd continue to lumber around like a big fuzzy killing machine!

Coyle was suddenly struck with the fancy to be a bear and that... was about the time he noticed something was off about the space in front of him.

Empty... Crap! He lost his chocolate!

Not much after that, Coyle felt himself lose balance. There was a kinda blunt pain right on the back of his head, and it propelled him forward too much and made him lose balance.

Coyle looked a little like a cat being pushed out of a tree. He had great balance, and you would be absolutely sure he would land correctly wherever he fell, but the fact of the matter was just that: He was going to fall, and no amount of gravity defying powers would stop that.

Well... okay maybe some, but he was too distracted by that pain in his head to notice that he was going to fall. Hence the perfect, one hundred and eighty degree flip ending with Coyle sitting up, legs sprawled out in front of him, trying to figure out how he got there. For a second he just sat there in silence, picking his clawed hands up to rub his head; then the realization eventually set in and he felt kinda hot inside.

"What the... DID YOU JUST SLAP ME?!?!"

The beast rose up from the ground much too fast for most eyes to see, but he didn't use this speed to make any counter strike. He was still clutching the back of his head and spouting off curses between every few words.

"The **** man?! Damn that hurt!!"

He ran out of English curse words so he moved right along down the line of history into the naughty words of Etruscan, Greek, Egyptian, and Lithuanian. He probably even had a few words from different planes thrown in there for good measure; and what made it worse, he threw a few English consonants in there so you would hear something along the lines of an "a" or a "the" every ten words or so.

All in all, it wasn't pretty. He must have sat there throwing a tantrum for about five minuted before he started speaking coherently again.

And then, he just sat back down and pouted. Why yes... He did have the mannerisms of a spoiled six year old. How astute of you to notice...