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 Posted: Sat Jan 25, 2014 10:35 am
He needed a drink of something to perk him up. Something that, in some way, would make him feel better. He felt exhausted talking with Rin, and left a moment to just walk. Walking was nice on a island, but it was also hot, so he decided to go to the barely-used lounge and look at the odd selection of drinks for something. What he found was some sort of cold chocolate drink. Seeing as he felt he was unnaturally prejudice against chocolate and sweet things, he decided to give it a fair chance. It was the right thing to do.
He selected it, and taking it out of the machine, gave it a sip before looking at the label. Okay, that was chocolate, but what the hell was that other flavor. He wished he spoke whatever language was on this label.
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Posted: Sat Jan 25, 2014 10:49 am
"Huh, I thought you didn't like sweet things?" Jordan had chosen the same lounge to do some reading in today; he had a small stack of books on the table, one lying open while he flipped through it and took notes, cross-referencing with an atlas that lay beside his notebook. He'd noticed Melvin when the other man came in, apparently preoccupied with something.
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Posted: Sat Jan 25, 2014 10:54 am
Eyes a bit more red-rimmed than normal, Melvin turned to see Jordan and was surprised he hadn't noticed him before. Then again, the Sun tended to be very stealthy.
"Oh, I don't. I just ....I just felt like I should give it another chance. It's not far to only pick the drinks I like. Maybe someone else would want that one drink and I'm selfishly hogging it the entire time." He walked over, holding his drink in both hands, and looked over at him.
"That's an awful lot of reading. I hope the Sun department isn't overworking you. If you need help, I don't mind. I only focus on my own work after all. I shouldn't be so focused. I should be helping other people." He looked over at Jordan as if startled by something. "Sorry. I shouldn't be loud when you're reading. I'll be quiet." He brought a finger to his lips as a hush sound and then proceeded to very slowly sit down and just stare at the Sun.
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Posted: Sat Jan 25, 2014 11:15 am
Jordan blinked and looked Melvin over carefully. No visible signs of having been replaced by someone or something else, but Melvin was definitely not acting like himself. The reddened eyes, the unusual demeanor and choices ... "Melvin?" Jordan asked cautiously. "Are you okay?"
He cast a slightly suspicious look at the drink he'd been sipping. No, it couldn't be the drinks; Melvin's odd line of reasoning had apparently led to the choice of soda, rather than the other way around, and if Melvin had been crying, that implied that this state of mind had been in place for some amount of time already.
"It's nothing I couldn't stand to take a break from," he said, and tucked his pencil into the notebook before flipping it closed to emphasize the statement. "Just some research."
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Posted: Sat Jan 25, 2014 11:20 am
He rose his hands up. "Oh no." He whispered, as if he was still trying to not disturb Jordan. "Don't mind me. I'll just sit here and be quiet as a mouse. Even if you're not a Lifer, I'm sure your research is very important." He said, and then sat there again, making a locking motion on his lips and then taking a little sip of his beverage before cringing.
He really was trying to give the drink a chance, but his tongue was having a disagreement.
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Posted: Sat Jan 25, 2014 11:26 am
Jordan stared at Melvin. "Uh - you haven't had anything unusual to eat or drink lately, have you?" he asked. "Other than that, I mean. And I don't think you're depriving anyone. You don't have to finish that if you don't like it."
He made a mental note of the page he'd been checking and closed his book as well. "I'm off duty. It's just a personal project, nothing Allan requested."
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Posted: Sat Jan 25, 2014 11:39 am
"No. I just thought I shouldn't waste a perfectly good drink." He said, looking at it. "It's not the drink's fault I don't like it." It would be mean to not drink it. "I shouldn't be wasteful."
As for strange and unusual, he thought about it. "No. I haven't eaten or drank anything strange lately, but thank you for asking. I wouldn't considering any food strange or unusual after all since it would just be unique in it's own special way. You are very considerate for asking. You should be a Lifer since you always care for people, not saying you are a bad Sun." He whispered.
"Oh, Allan is very nice. He gave me soda once when I talked to him about Rep. I wish I had a nice man like Allan leading our department, but all we have is Dr. H. and we don't get along. He calls me naive and asking for handouts, but I suppose now I should consider that motivational and working to better myself." He considered that. "In fact, I guess he is being really nice by telling me to go out there and be the best I can be, though he shouldn't be using people like he says he does. I suppose he just likes relying on others." He liked thinking that way. Boy, H was sure a swell guy. He wondered why he hated him, but then remembered that he hurt his feelings. H wasn't so swell sometimes.
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Posted: Sat Jan 25, 2014 12:56 pm
"I'm asking because you're acting a little unusual," Jordan said, watching Melvin carefully. "I thought you might have had something experimental. Thanks for the compliment, though."
"Allan's a good man," he agreed. "That's part of why I stay in Sun. I'm not sure I'd feel safe in Life." He gave Melvin a slightly confused look. "H relies on himself, I think."
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Posted: Sat Jan 25, 2014 9:37 pm
"Oh no. I haven't eaten anything experimental, but I would be impressed if I had considering I'm not physically showing any signs. That's really something that takes a lot of hard work in our field." He checked himself, reassuring himself he looked as well as he could under these conditions.
"I only got to meet Allan once. He gave me a weird soda, but he was rather supportive of all the Suns. I do like his assistant though or maybe it's his friend. He reminds me of Dr. Stephan. I wonder if they are related." He distantly wondered what their child would look like. Magical, no doubt about that.
"What's the other part of why you stay in Sun? Is it because of Rep? I know Harrison is in Moon though, so I suppose that's not the reason, right? You never strike me as aggressive as most Suns tend to be but I suppose that's a good thing. Not that Suns are bad. Just.." He rolled some words in his mind that did the Suns justice. "...emotionally over-active."
He then stopped and whispered again. "Sorry. I'm asking to many questions. I can stop." He sipped his drink again and forced it down.
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Posted: Sun Jan 26, 2014 9:18 am
"Sometimes it's behavioral more than physical," Jordan said. "Case in point, cookies that make you think you're a princess. I've seen that one. But I guess we can rule that out for now."
"Simon's very patient and competent. I admire him." Jordan rested his elbows on his knees, loosely lacing his fingers together. "I stay in Sun because a lot of Suns have a remarkable self-destructive streak and a tendency to launch ourselves into danger without doing a whole lot of thinking about it first. I can't counteract all of that, but I can encourage caution. I've been -- " he hesitated, then seemed to settle on a word -- "distracted for a while, but I'm working on training courses on and off that may help teach a little more thinking ahead."
He shook his head. "You're welcome to ask questions. If you get too personal, I might not answer, but you're my friend, and I try to be honest with you."
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Posted: Sun Jan 26, 2014 9:28 am
Melvin's eyes got wide, and a look of disbelief flashed in his large, blue eyes before he touched his chest, personally touched. "I'm your....I'm your friend?"
He might be getting a bit misty eyed at this point. Maybe. Probably. Most likely a countdown was starting for Hoover Damn to burst and all personnel should evacuate.
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Posted: Sun Jan 26, 2014 9:32 am
Melvin seemed emotionally overwhelmed. Under normal circumstances, Jordan would never expect to get a hug from the other man, but he was starting to wonder if that was going to happen. He sort of hoped not; Melvin might regret that later, after whatever was going on wore off.
"You're my friend," he confirmed, with some trepidation. "You annoy me sometimes, and you're a nosy a*****e, but I'm also a nosy a*****e and I don't think I know anyone who never annoys me."
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Posted: Sun Jan 26, 2014 9:39 am
Melvin made a little nose in the back of his throat, as if he wanted to say something but was holding it back. A little smile was creeping on his face, as he started to feel overwelmed again. Was it possible to permentaly damage your tear ducts? Melvin sure was testing that possibility.
"I know you're a nosy a*****e. I mean person. It's what makes me think of you as a shrink, and I hate those guys whenever I was growing up. I keep thinking you're going to dodge something and wind up crossing over into information I don't want you to get to. You're so clever at times that I know you could probably do it too, and that makes me want to throw you off a bridge."
He got up, slowly walking over before placing his hands on Jordan's. "It really means a lot to me for you to say that. I really don't have that many friends. Pretty much just Rin and Rep. In the not-so-distant future, Melvin would spend a hour hitting his head repetitively against a lab desk. "I'm sorry I annoy you and that I said awful things during the truth ring party. I just wanted to get back at you and wanted people to see you're not as perfect and accepting as you let on because you make me want to gag sometimes when you act like that." His smile continued to get larger.
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Posted: Sun Jan 26, 2014 9:57 am
"There's a lot of us who hate shrinks." Jordan smiled wryly. "Understandably, given that Fear sensitivity sounds a lot like hallucinations to people who don't have it, so we ended up being told that we were imagining things we saw, or that we were crazy." He gave Melvin a thoughtful look. "I was genuinely interested in the subject, but I also wanted to find out if there was a pattern, if there was a specific name for what we were seeing or if it was something else. Got that answer in a way I didn't expect."
"I appreciate the compliment," he started, then the sentence tailed off as Melvin got up to hold his hands. After a moment, he said, "I don't like to let people see that I get angry, is all. It gets out of control, makes things worse. I guess it's a moot point, seeing as how my flaws have been on display lately. I'm not angry at you over the ring, but I hope you won't pick at my -- er -- phobias."
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Posted: Sun Jan 26, 2014 10:20 am
"I don't know what is happening right now to you, but I hope things get better. I think you are one of the few people here that tries to keep the fighting down, especially with Rep." He gave his hands a squeeze. "I won't try to poke at your phobias, but if I do, it's because you upset me and I want to see you hurt. I don't spar much. I like fighting other ways. But if you don't pick at my phobias, I'll try not to pick at yours. If you do pick at my phobias, I'll try to make you hurt in every possible way without making Rep hate me too much. He ranks higher."
To which he leaned down and gave Jordan a big squeezing hug. "Thank you for being so understanding."
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