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 Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2011 4:14 pm
Falys had obviously never told anyone, but she had a specific facial expression she used when confronted with emotionality. A kind of blank half-smile combined with a 10 degree head tilt and slightly lifted eyebrows. Widened eyes conveyed the impression of interest. She'd practiced it in the mirror the day after she'd first been confronted with a sobbing Transmutation lab partner and the unfortunate story of how her boyfriend had recently, and apparently most unceremoniously, dumped her.
Falys had panicked, to put it quite bluntly, and hadn't thought to school the expression out of her face before her lab partner looked up and saw it. Unfortunate though it was, it was quite efficacious in diffusing both tears and the narrative of a situation Falys had neither stake nor interest in. The delayed side effect of the encounter kicked in the next class and was less pleasant: her partner had moved to the other side of the room, and in her stead was a far more infuriating replacement.
Ophelia didn't appear to be actively crying, but showed several symptoms of breaking into a full sob should Falys handle the situation indelicately. "That's terribly sad. But what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger, doesn't it?" The line had a carefully crafted depression that bordered on hopeful determination, and had personally seen her through a classmate's (entirely deserved) failed grade, two dead pets, and a another's unfaithful boyfriend. The two pets belonged to another classmate, who'd given her such a strange look that she amended her mental rules to come up with a new line to be used in cases involving animal companions.
Ophelia seemed to be getting ahold of herself by the mention of her past friends, though the threat of hysteria of course loomed imminent. "I'm sure they're well. Perhaps you should write them?" It seemed the logical thing to do in Falys's mind. She strongly suspected it'd be what she'd do, should she someday find herself in possession of a close friend.
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Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2011 8:44 pm
"I guess you're right," said Ophelia, giggling nervously while brushing away her bangs. True enough, she wasn't dead. It didn't kill her. But was she stronger? Perhaps. She still uses her magic, the way she wants to. And maybe one day everyone will acknowledge her. But for now, she needed to continue gaining strength. Cheat death? Probably not what Falys meant. Better to think on it later...
"Write them?...I would, but..." she trailed off. Of course it would only occur to her NOW that she should have gotten their contact information before graduating..but..such as things were, she didn't. "I..don't have their addresses...or anything..." she admitted reluctantly, smiling with embarrassment. Then, her eyes lit up. "But I can simply make new friends, right? I mean if I run into my old friends sometime, I can get their info then...but for now this would be the easiest thing to do, right?" It's better than snooping around for their contact info. Which was probably illegal. "Say, do you have a lot of friends?" she asked, leaning in with curiosity.
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Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2011 6:44 pm
The emotional disaster had been avoided, but Falys was still reeling from the transition from tears to laughs. She may not have had extensive social experience, but she liked to think she had her fair share of interpersonal battle scars. Even so, she hadn't had any experience with someone who seemed to have so little emotional transition time.
Even worse, now she was asking Falys about friends.
"Well..." Her jaw worked as she struggled to come up with something on the spot. Crying, she could handle. Hated to, every moment of it, but she had her responses set at least. "Ease of communication...is important...in any relationship..." She was fairly certain she'd read that in a business management book at some point. It seemed fairly apt. An innocent inquiry about her nonexistent social life? That was pushing her luck a bit. Questions about her spare time, her hobbies, etcetera, those could be deflected without shining light on the fact that she rarely interacted with others unless she had good reason to. Except today, it seemed. "I...you see...studying is often...not conducive...to forming extraneous personal relationships." Yet somehow, here she was. On a bench with someone she barely knew, having a conversation. She could have walked away by now. Been back to her dormitory and put her things away in their places. But she wasn't. "I'm often quite busy, you see." It sounded weak even to her own ears.
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Posted: Sat Jul 09, 2011 4:00 pm
Gee, this girl liked to use big words..Ophelia struggled to follow the conversation. Had she forgotten everything she ever learned in English class? Yet with context, she -sort of- got the general idea.
"That's okay" she said, trying to be cheerful. "Even busy folk can have friends. Maybe you could find a study-buddy. Or be a tutor! That way you can do what you need to do while making friends in the process. Two birds with one stone, right?" she suggested. It was hard for her to believe that this girl didn't have friends, if that was even what she was trying to convey. Fallacy seemed like such a kind girl, the way she comforted Ophelia just now. And deep down, the reaper hoped that Falys would consider her a friend someday. Ophelia smiled at the thought, and she wondered what Ophelia's smile would look like. She was sure it could light up the town.
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Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2011 11:52 am
A tutor? Now there's something she hadn't thought of. Okay, she had thought of it briefly, but automatically dismissed it with the notion that she certainly wouldn't have the patience for it. She barely had the patience when it came to her lab partners, let alone with someone she'd be required to see regularly. Though if someone was looking for a tutor, it usually meant that they wanted to learn... Or that they were too lazy to do so in class, and were hoping they could personally cajole someone into doing their work for them. The overall idea had merit, now that Falys gave it a second thought, but it would bear some looking into. The thought of using such a situation to make friends barely entered her mind.
"The idea of a tutor certainly has merit..." She refrained from voicing the rest of her thoughts, almost positive that the act of making friends was to be a natural affair, with little planning and forethought. Spur of the moment, as the saying went. Spontaneity wasn't exactly among her strong points though. "How did you come to acquire your friends?" When faced with an unfamiliar situation, accompanied by someone who was already familiar with said situation... there was little shame to be had in taking advice from another's experience.
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Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2011 10:33 pm
Ophelia continued to watch Falys through the brief moment of silence as she assumed the girl was thinking it through. When the question of how she made her friends arose, the reaper leaned back for a moment to think.
"Well..sometimes you won't even realize you've made a friend. It just happens. You start out with an introduction, you spend time together. You find things you have in common, or just like each others company. And by the time you realize you're friends, you've been friends all along." she said, smiling with the simple hope that she could be of any help. Making friends wasn't exactly a step-by-step process. There were detours, loops, obstacles. But it was a challenge that would always be worth it.
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Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2011 5:18 am
Already Falys was making a mental checklist. First, introduction. Easy enough, she could already do that perfectly well. Spend time together. Well, that was a bit vague. She spent plenty of time with people she didn't remotely care to be friends with. Finding commonalities and/or enjoyment of each other's company. That clarified things a bit. When spending time with people she had introduced herself to but couldn't stand, they rarely had things in common, and certainly didn't enjoy each other's company. If that condition were to change in such a situation, the status of friendship could begin, despite the length of time it took to get there. The moment of realization that one was in a friendship was then to be entirely subjective. Falys frowned slowly as she came upon a snag in the logic.
"I'm a bit confused on one point... The notions of finding common ground and enjoyment of company seem entirely relative. On the one hand, there is common ground," She held up one hand, palm up. "Which depends on personal view. An orange may think he and an apple have common ground, being fruit, but the apple may think that the dissimilarities of texture, taste, and color are too large to large to overcome the single common trait of being fruit.
"On the other hand," Falys lifted the other hand and shifted her gaze to it, still frowning in thought. "The same principle can be applied to the concept of enjoying another's company. If one person is enjoying themselves, but the other is not, then a nonreciprocal friendship may occur. And if that's possible..." She fluttered both hands anxiously, suddenly flustered. "Then the entire system is flawed! I may be already friends with people I can't stand!"
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Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2011 1:39 pm
Ophelia stared blankly for a moment as Falys spoke. She struggled a little to understand exactly what she was saying.
"Well....sometimes friendship is one sided, and there's not much you can do. But true friendship is mutual. Making friends with someone might not always work out. Sometimes the more time you spend with them, the more frustrating they become. And yet, there are some people that, no matter how frustrating they are, you still want to hang around with them, because those people can also be your friends." she said, pausing a moment to think. She was probably just making things more confusing for the girl. But that's just it.
"Friendship is a confusing thing. Most of the time it just happens without you realizing it. Kind of like love." she added.
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Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2011 10:38 am
Falys tried to add on to her mental friendship diagram as Ophelia explained. It seemed the situation was evolving beyond a three-step venn diagram, with each step seeming to require its own organizational aide. She'd have to draw it all out when she got back; it was getting a bit complicated in her head.
"So true friendship is when the conditions have been met by both participating parties. And false friendship is when they have not, though false friendship appears to be more of a lack of communication than anything," she confirmed slowly, still holding up her hands to separate the ideas. "So, emotion is a nonfactor? How you feel about someone is secondary to whether or not you prefer their company? Provided all the other qualifications are met...that seems to make friendship considerably easier to come across."
Falys looked up abruptly at the mention of love. Everything she'd read had been quite explicit on the notion that love was a serious entanglement. It had reportedly brought scholars low, and spawned entire genres of literature. "In what way," Falys started slowly, tilting her head back. "Is love like friendship? In that it is a 'confusing thing', or that it may happen without realizing it?"
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Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2011 11:17 pm
Ophelia continued to struggle with following Falys's questions. "Umm...sure" she stuttered, before the witchling asked about emotion. "Well...I wouldn't say emotion is secondary...It..kind of goes hand in hand with whether you want to be around a person..?" she said, furrowing her brow slightly as she thought about it. This girl sure was making things hard to explain. And the concept of friendship wasn't exactly an easy topic to begin with...
Let alone -love-. "Love is...like an evolved form of friendship. You're much closer to someone you love, than someone you're just friends with. It's probably even more confusing, and can definitely happen without you realizing it. You could also say there's two types? You can love someone like they're family, but loving someone as a boyfriend or girlfriend is different than that. I'd say it's even further than that." She said, cupping her chin with her fingers and staring at the floor as she thought. Love and friendship are much easier to understand through experience. But she couldn't just tell the girl to love someone and be friends with someone. It just doesn't work that way...these things have to happen all on their own. You can't force it..
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Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2011 4:51 am
Ok, so Falys admitted that her hypothesis had been incorrect. Emotion wasn't secondary, it was still a primary factor in delineating friendship. Perhaps it was a primary factor in the whole of the equation, but secondary to the preference of spending time with someone. She opened her mouth to ask, but got the distinct impression the line of questioning had gone down a path Ophelia wasn't prepared for. Falys knew she could be a bit persistent sometimes. Her mother called it harping, but her professors, the ones she liked anyway, called it an 'inquisitive nature'. It was essential in the sciences, but it seemed to limit the number of conversations she could pull out of those who knew more than she did.
Switching gears, she altered her mental diagram to include love. "So, love has the same qualifications as friendship, but to a different extent?" That seemed simple enough. In a single conversation, she felt she'd gained a fair knowledge of the notion of friendship, and if it was just a matter of extent, she could very easily figure out love as well. Some mystery. She wasn't sure she'd ever even fallen in love before, and she'd already figured most of it out. "So, continuing on the formula for friendship, it stands to reason there are four kinds of love, correct? False love, based in faulty communication, for either family, or a lover. And then true love, where emotions are reciprocated, for either family or a lover." Ophelia now seemed deep in thought as opposed to mildly confused. Perhaps there was more to love that required contemplation? "It seems visual aides would be quite helpful in such a discussion. Are there any books on the subject you recommend?"
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Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 12:20 am
"Somewhat..." Ophelia muttered, trying to lay it all out in her head. Maybe she could take Falys to a romantic comedy movie, or something.
"I..wouldn't say it's false love. That makes it sound like the person A doesn't love person B, regardless of whether person B loves person A or not. It's more like unrequited love...I think that's the word for it.." she replied, her eyes staring off into space. "And i'd reserve true love for only your lover, because love for a family or close friend would be different than that kind of love.." she added, tilting her head. She certainly didn't expect to become the teacher of love for this girl after just meeting her.
At the mention of books, Ophelia smiled. That was perfect! "There are -loads- of books on love. Some boring informational, philosophical ones, too. But I recommend romance novels. I .. uh... have some I could let you borrow, if you want!" she said. 'Some' was an understatement of the vast amount of romance novels the reaper owned. She didn't even mention all the dating sim games she had. Though now that she thought about it, those would be of good use here as well.
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Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 5:34 am
Falys put her hand up to her chin and nodded slowly. "Aha, so it's just a matter of semantics. The principle applies, now we're just working out the details." She humphed quietly and drummed her fingers on her cheek absently. "For something so terribly famous, it doesn't seem to be as complicated as all and sundry make it out to be."
At the affirmation of books, Falys sat up straight immediately and grinned. "Fantastic, thank you very much. Informational guides are most helpful when handling a new subject." Settling aside her miscellaneous books and school paraphernalia, she pulled out a notebook and new pen. On the front in tight, formal script, she wrote 'Notes on" then paused anxiously. Romance? Friendship? Relationships? 'Interpersonal... Interactions' followed on separate lines underneath. Self-explanatory and to the point, though she'd now have to find another notebook for her secondary Transumation notes. "Now, what ones specifically would you recommend?" At Ophelia's offer of her own novels, Falys flushed in embarassment. "Oh no, thank you very much, but I couldn't possibly intrude in such a way..." They barely knew each other! For all Ophelia knew, Falys was a binding-bender, or someone who dog-eared pages! And to just trust someone they just met with their very own books...
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Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2011 9:21 pm
Ophelia thought for a moment before listing various titles of her favorite romance novels. "Let's see, there's The Flame and the Flower, Detention with Professor X, The Rogue's Bashful Mistress..." she said, trailing off. "I don't see anything wrong with you borrowing these. The library might not have them and there's no sense buying them when you could get them from me, is there?" she said, smiling at the girl. She couldn't have her waste her money like that. She'd have Falys borrow her books if it took all day.
"I mean, it's not like you're going to set them on fire or anything. I trust you." she said, shrugging slightly. Though if Falys did set her books on fire, Ophelia wasn't sure what she would do. She wasn't quite the bookworm, but she loved her romance novels.
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Posted: Sat Aug 13, 2011 11:23 am
Falys wrote furiously, getting down the list of titles. What unusual titles... They certainly didn't sound like anything she'd read before. "The Flame....and the...Flower... Detention...with..." She paused at that one. Detention with Professor X? She'd never had detention before, but Falys was under the impression they were supposed to be punishments. Perhaps Professor X was unique? She was taking him next semester for Arcane History, perhaps it was something about the subject matter that lent detentions a different light. "Are detentions with Professor X particularly...romantic affairs?" Perhaps Ophelia knew something on the matter that hadn't been discussed yet. Maybe everything she'd heard on detentions was a carefully crafted lie, to disguise the true nature of them.
Falys immediately blushed at the trust Ophelia put in her. How odd, to trust someone you barely knew with your possessions, your books no less. "Thank you very much. I'll be sure to treat them with the utmost respect."
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