paperwork, pride and coffee (thoth)

Der Lampman

Well-Known Member
Inactive
May 14, 2015
727
That was a little disappointing, to say the least. Not that she thought less of his powers or anything. It was just a little bit deflating to hear that not even precognition could help her clean up her track record.

"Some guy breaking in through my window wouldn't really be much of a concern though. Anyone try that, I'd either be dead or they'd be in a lot of heat. Break into the dorm filled with students that could probably maybe have nifty superpowers? Not a great idea. And someone's going to give them a bad time if they tried either way."

Being able to see the future seemed a good idea on paper. In practice though, Iris could already imagine a lot of possible problems with that. Like if it ever came up during opportune times. Say, when Emil was crossing the street or something. What if suddenly he saw a yellow light and hurried to cross, and then suddenly was seeing something else entirely?

Iris shuddered. "Okay, that's getting morbid. Let's move on."

Another topic then. What was there to talk about? Iris lazily twirled her finger around and around her hair, staring into the ceiling for inspiration. Maybe she could ask what everyone asked their coworkers in sitcoms and TV shows.

"Hey, hey, Emil, you got anyone you're dating or want to date?"
 

Romi

Secretly a Bird
Administrator
Supporter
Jun 18, 2015
10,109
Gender
Female
Pronouns
She/Her
Posting Status
Irregularly
Ahh, it was easy to think of things like that, wasn't it? To just think they had powers and that was it. He shook his head, thinking to himself that she probably had never been the victim of a real crime. Maybe he was over sensitive (no, scratch that, he was oversensitive), but it struck a bit of a nerve.

They'd break in while you were asleep, or while no one is home, depending on what they're after.
Not everyone has combat powers, or any sort of training, so warning people is important when I can.

The truth was that he couldn't always. Sometimes he didn't have enough info to truly warn anyone. You couldn't warn people based on nothing but vague guesses, and a lot of his visions were just that - little more than a vague guess.

He didn't quite get why she thought it was morbid, but her abrupt change of topic made him choke on his drink, setting it down firmly before grabbing his phone again.
Sort of. We haven't met yet.
 

Der Lampman

Well-Known Member
Inactive
May 14, 2015
727
"Didn't mean it like that, uh... sorry."

Sometimes, Iris's pride came off as just plain insensitive. The line between arrogance and confidence was a little thin at times.

Iris looked just the slightest bit downtrodden, until the beep of a new text message perked her up. The message itself only made it all the more interesting. It was as if she had just stumbled on a metaphorical goldmine.

Leaning in to the side, Iris poked Emil on the arm with her elbow, a sly grin on her face. There was no escape now. The can of maybe worms had opened. "So who's the lucky girl or boy? Hmm? Is it someone I know? Maybe it is - maybe I can introduce you to them. I know a lot of people around so... wait, what do you mean you haven't met yet?"
 

Romi

Secretly a Bird
Administrator
Supporter
Jun 18, 2015
10,109
Gender
Female
Pronouns
She/Her
Posting Status
Irregularly
Ahh, he hadn't wanted to talk about An. He didn't even know if they had something or not. Maybe he was imaging it, and she didn't even feel anything for him. It was impossible for him to tell. He had no experience with that sort of thing, and it just made him feel a bit ill to think about it.

Even so, she'd asked, and he felt obligated to answer.

Not someone you know.
Just someone from online.

Which explained quite neatly why they hadn't met. He knew her only from online, and until they met - well, then it didn't really count. It didn't count for him, and it definitely didn't count for her, and he hadn't even... well, he hadn't even confirmed that she even liked him online. Perhaps it was childish for him to even be pining over someone he'd never met, but it wasn't as if he was socially active enough to have a big group of friends.
 

Der Lampman

Well-Known Member
Inactive
May 14, 2015
727
"Aww... that's sort of kind of cute," Iris tried to say enthusiastically. She failed the enthusiastic part. As someone who both never had any romantic relationship - and had even less success in the online world looking for such - enthusiasm was difficult. It didn't escape her notice, and she hastily explained with a solemn bow.

"Okay, it's a little weird, but that's just me. Me and my complete lack of romantic experience. You know. Can't exactly figure out what's normal if I haven't tried anything. At most I have a, uh... way-too-close friendship."

Briefly Iris recalled all the dialogue there that was involved in how she and her "friend" ended up concluding that what they were doing was somehow not dating. It made her chuckle a little. "Hmm... what do you think dating is? See, me and my friend ended up agreeing that we weren't dating even if basing on every piece of TV and recent 50-cent online literature would surely say the opposite."
 

Romi

Secretly a Bird
Administrator
Supporter
Jun 18, 2015
10,109
Gender
Female
Pronouns
She/Her
Posting Status
Irregularly
Relationships were not something he had much experience with, so he was genuinely surprised to find that someone was asking him for advice, more or less. Well, it wasn't quite advice. It was just his opinion on dating. He went a bit pink, staring at his phone for several long seconds as he tried to figure out what to say.

Well...
I guess it would be when two people agree to pursue a romantic relationship?
Or to consider if they could do one?

He didn't think it was much more complex than that. Whether or not someone was in love was a whole other can of worms, but actually dating seemed pretty cut and dry for him. If you said you were dating, then you were. If you didn't... well, then you weren't, even if you were doing kind of romantic things.
 

Der Lampman

Well-Known Member
Inactive
May 14, 2015
727
Iris rhythmically tapped on the table as she (im)patiently awaited a response. It was easy to see how Emil became closer and closer to a flamingo's hue, and she smiled. "You don't talk about these things often huh? Well, as much as I want to consider this all 'talking'. I'm kinda old-fashioned that way - ooh, there's the ticket."

Though preferring what she termed as "actual conversation," this wasn't all too bad. At least Emil was now conversing, even if it wasn't what she was used to. His words made sense as well. That was nice.

Due to not having had any prior romantic experience, Iris couldn't be sure if this was a good definition or not, or even one she could properly use in whatever her relationship wasm. It was agreed on that they both wanted to date, and were doing things that you would expect from people dating, though somehow they arrived at the conclusion that they weren't dating and should look for someone else to date.

Romance was a hard thing to work with.

"Hmm. So you have to both agree that you're doing it, huh? I guess that makes sense... gaaaahh. This wouldn't be so complicated if I knew what I was doing and dated people before... I know - me having been single forever - it's a shock, isn't it?" Iris groaned in frustration while somehow managing to brag in the process.

If there was one thing Iris was never short on, it was confidence. She flipped her hair exaggeratedly and laughed. She reached out to pat Emil's shoulder while laughing, and said, "You know, I like you. You're pretty cool - oh god there goes my phone."

On cue, her grip failed and the phone sailed across the room, landing beside the ceiling with a dull, sad thud.
 

Romi

Secretly a Bird
Administrator
Supporter
Jun 18, 2015
10,109
Gender
Female
Pronouns
She/Her
Posting Status
Irregularly
Emil didn't consider it much of a shock. All things considered even, he had met a lot of people who were single, and while he knew enough not to say that (it would be pretty rude and pretty much imply he thought she was ugly), it didn't shock him as much as it would have years ago. Some people were ugly and got dates easily, some people were gorgeous and got none, and... well, he'd found that confidence had far more to do with it than physical appearance.

Everyone starts somewhere.
Not everyone came with built in experience, so figuring out stuff like that was just... well, it was just part of life.

Of course, he couldn't even be sure she'd read his message when she abruptly send her phone flying, firmly distracting him from the fact that she'd so casually touched his shoulder. He let out a little sigh, shaking his head. She sure was accident prone. He'd barely known her for any time at all and she'd already gotten into... what, two accidents?

Of course, with her phone out of hand, he couldn't just text her. No, he was going to have to talk.

"I should be going." He managed. It was near the end of his lunch break, and he'd eaten enough of his food that he wasn't very hungry at the moment.​
 

Der Lampman

Well-Known Member
Inactive
May 14, 2015
727
Iris scrambled on to the floor and retrieved her phone, now in shambles. "Oh, great, I'll have to get this fixed again later," she groaned, repeatedly slapping her forehead in frustration. "I swear I'm not usually this bad. I'm just a little distracted."

She stood up after having fumbled with her phone for a bit, restarting it. Thankfully, it was still functional, though a little crack had formed in the upper-right corner, and there was now a new dent in it. "Good, it still works, I can still bother you later with this," she said, smiling mischievously.

Iris still had a bit of time - that was, almost half an hour - left in her lunch break, and would have offered to accompany Emil for a bit on his route, had she not thought that even for her, that would just be overstepping her bounds. Instead she returned to her seat and said, "You only have like two or three minutes if I remember right - I checked your schedule so I could barge in here today, sorry about that - hmm, I guess you should. I still have around, uh, half an hour, I think?"

With a weak, barely stifled yawn Iris said, "D-don't be a stranger now, okay?"

Having said that, Iris opened up her phone and typed out a quick message, burying her face in her elbow as she did so.

that being said
wanna hang out again sometime?
promise i won't drop stuff again
...too much :P


"I'm gonna take a nap," she said, yawning and lying her head on her arms. "See... see you later. Maybe."
 

Romi

Secretly a Bird
Administrator
Supporter
Jun 18, 2015
10,109
Gender
Female
Pronouns
She/Her
Posting Status
Irregularly
Well, at least it wasn't broken. That was a small bonus, wasn't it? He supposed that he couldn't predict everything, but it would be nice if he could. Things like phones shattering were exactly the kind of small disasters that he was used to seeing in advance and being unable to prevent.

He gave her a small smile as he packed his things up, tucking his phone away in his pocket as he cleared away his lunch. He considered the discussion more or less over until his phone beeped, and then he paused halfway to the door, fishing out his phone and checking.

Yep, it was her. He gave another small little smile before turning back and waving at her, texting with one hand faster than most people could manage with two.

Of course.
Just let me know when you're free.

He didn't hang out with people very often in the real world, but it was something he was trying to do, so... well, he'd told himself he wouldn't say no to an invitation, and this was definitely one.

With that, he headed out the door and back to work.
 
Forgot your password?