|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2016 10:54 pm
"Well, dang." America sounds impressed, but more for his own passion toward the subject than the story that he failed to explain. It's hard to grasp, why someone would put those things in a story, rather than just state them outright, in a speech or something. A magazine article. "Guess there probably won't be any artsy girls with gauges in my future." She makes a gesture, hand sweeping a couple inches over her head. With a sigh, she goes on, "I thought I was starting to get the hang of this meaning stuff, but maybe it's not my thing." Which only means she has to try harder of course.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2016 11:10 pm
He's daring a sideways look at her now, just in time to catch the over-the-head gesture and feel guilty about it--pretentious and wretched and unqualified and stupid. "Oh, shut the ******** up," he says, dismissive of her doubts. "You're good at stories. You're good at--at seeing through your, your experiences and finding the important parts and, and the way you--you phrase them. They say a lot. All packed in tight. Better than most people I know. Better than me." More misery creeping in. He's almost as bad at bestowing an earnest compliment as he is at receiving one, even with more practice at the former than the latter. "Ink doesn't mean s**t when you can talk like that."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2016 11:21 pm
It's the sort of thing he's learned makes her go a bit quiet, a flush across the tops of her cheeks. She can't think of how to respond because there's the compliments she accepts readily before they're even made, and then there's the ones that are unfamiliar. Things she wouldn't assign herself but from a source she can't dismiss as simply wrong or silly flattery, either. Instead of responding, she finishes her drink and says quietly, half to herself. "I wanna do a good job with this." She's always liked learning, even if the dry sort causes her problems, she likes learning things she'll be able to use.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2016 8:28 pm
He nurses his drink during another long, miserable pause. He's tired; it's all over his voice. It hadn't just been the moment at the table that had wrecked him, but the entire day of waking up in a shared bed and eating a meal across a shared table and engaging in the mundane acts of humanity that he still sometimes finds difficult. It had all felt easy at the time--too easy, frighteningly easy--and now it's creeping up on him and reminding him that no, in fact, it hadn't been. "I would hazard a guess," he says finally, "that if it doesn't go the way you want it to it's not going to be because you didn't do a good job." A pause. "That was a s**t trainwreck of a sentence, but you get what I mean, maybe."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2016 8:34 pm
"I do," she says, smiling and preening a bit, not even a little of her earlier fluster in evidence. "Can I kiss your cheek?" Lips puckered, finger crooked.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2016 8:45 pm
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2016 8:48 pm
"You've been real sweet today, makes me wanna smooch your cheek." The kissy face intensifies.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2016 8:55 pm
"Do I really look good in flannel or were you being sarcastic?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2016 9:29 pm
"In those Henleys, too," she nods, solemn.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2016 10:14 pm
A restless fidget while he runs his eyes over nothing in particular in the middle distance.
"I need to go home and walk the dog," he says, but he turns his head a little, tips his chin to the side a little, and the offer is there, anyway.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2016 10:38 pm
She kisses his cheek without hesitation, taking her time and leaving a small smear of red lipstick in her wake. "I had a nice day."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2016 1:10 pm
It takes hours, but she doesn't hate the slow, methodical process of creating a small bottle of lampblack ink. She wants to do this right. Magic shouldn't come cheap, at least not when you're making deals for it.
In the end she places several potential "inks" into a sturdy canvas satchel. India ink, sharpies of various color, cuttlefish ink, eyeliner, and lampblack.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
