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Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2015 10:56 pm
The small cottage buried deep in the recesses of the beach town had walls that would not tell very many stories; truth be told, its occupants didn't do many exciting things within those four walls. They acted as many couples do, without much flare ups or incidents. There was that one time the man spilled a bottle of red wine all over the throw carpet and he had to pay for two new ones, and the instance where he'd drank so much whiskey he'd slept on the couch for two days and a year's worth of groaning came from his mouth.
The walls would also learn a new story, of the time a phone was thrown at them and somehow managed to not shatter, but simply bounce off and clatter on the floor.
Lex never knew exactly why he got on Twitter. He didn't understand why he poked and prodded and quarreled. Yet he kept doing it, and it made him hate the island's residents more and more every time.
A poor man's H, they called him. A nobody. A tantrum thrower and a pretentious ********. He never did a single thing to hurt them, never abused them in any way. They goaded him, and he took the bait - sure - but not once had he truly done any of them harm.
Yet they hated him.
He sat on the couch, head buried in one hand with a deep sigh of immediate regret. Lex knew what was coming. "Sorry." He mumbled preemptively, loud enough so she could hear him.
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Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2015 11:01 pm
"I don't pay thousands to repair these walls in expectation that they will be defamed by human hands," she called with a bored voice, not bothering to acknowledge his temper tantrum in the slightest. She was busy taking apart a scroll on the kitchen table with three dictionaries in front of her and a laptop humming lightly beside the work.
A trainee had asked her for help decoding a simple scroll. Menial research, but still something she enjoyed. Aztecs had wonderful meter.
"Coddle your rain cloud elsewhere, I'm busy."
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Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2015 11:05 pm
At least her tone was just bored. Lex gave another sigh, standing as he did so and grabbing his phone off the floor. A few clicks, and the thing was off for the night. "I'm going to bed." He muttered, shuffling off to the room with little regard for posture or the amount of noise dragging his feet was making.
He fell face first into the bed, not even bothering with clothing at the moment.
< You're being pathetic. >
<< I am pathetic. >>
He turned on his side, cradling his aching head and glaring at a wall. Lex should have known he'd get nothing from Ami without being straightforward about it. Throwing a phone was child like, and Ami didn't speak with children.
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Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2015 11:07 pm
Ami said nothing because she was working.
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Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2015 11:10 pm
Lex moved to his back, and stared at the ceiling.
< Just go talk to her. Christ, whelp. >
<< You don't even have a version of Christ. >>
< Yes, but I live in your head. Now shut the hell up and do something other than mope. >
The stupid griffon was right. Lex grunted, sitting up from the bed, holding his head gingerly as if that would help ease the head rush.
He walked into the kitchen, not dragging his feet, and began the process of boiling water for tea. "What are you working on?"
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Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2015 11:13 pm
"You're not actually interested," Ami said quickly and efficiently, "And I'm not interested in small talk." Short quips to let him know that even with an elevated title, time was of the essence to everyone.
She hadn't bothered looking up (the symbol that Ami had yet to deign Lex's conversation as worthy), tracing a gloved finger tracing along the ancient paper. "Say what you have to say so that I might return an automated, expected and appropriate response that we might move past this."
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Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2015 11:19 pm
"Oh for God's sake." Lex muttered in exasperation, shaking his head and leaning against the refrigerator. "Even my own girlfriend thinks I'm nothing."
The man was frustrated, angry even. The kettle began to steam and squeal, and Lex quickly took it off the heat to avoid further annoyance. Steaming water was poured over a bag of chamomile tea leaves and left to steep while Lex chewed the words in his mouth, figuring them out and arranging them in a way that would get Ami to at least look up from her scroll.
"How do you deal with being disliked by the shitstains on this island?"
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Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2015 11:22 pm
"Me? Disliked? The very thought."
Very bored, very exasperated, very done.
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Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2015 11:24 pm
"...I'll leave you to it, then." Lex sighed, leaving the mug of tea at the counter and briskly making the few steps back to the bedroom. He, too, was done.
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Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2015 11:25 pm
"That's a good first step, you know. Walking away from undesirable situations that are not worth your time."
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Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2015 11:27 pm
"Sorry, not paying attention to the undesirable situation at hand that's not worth my time."
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Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2015 11:34 pm
Ami cracked half of a smile but said nothing, returning to scribbling notes in her dictionary. She had passed enough time for her tea to cool, but she took a sip anyways.
She didn't bother noting that his mug had been left, since she hadn't noticed that he'd made it in the first place.
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Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2015 11:37 pm
Alright, it was apparent she wasn't going to coddle him or stop working on that scroll. Lex got up without groaning this time, trekked to the kitchen, picked up his tea, then sat across the table from the lithe woman and just watched her work for a few moments.
"Do you think I'm a bad person?" Lex ventured, cutting the fat like she'd wanted him to. Social graces were wasted on Ami, after all.
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Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2015 11:44 pm
Ami's annoyance grew with each second she was being watched. She didn't like eyes on her, least of all Lex's. Her pen moved in neat cursive lines, circles and dots (her writing style never particularly made sense until compiled into neat manuscripts that were typed).
"Under what criteria? Empirically, yes."
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Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2015 11:49 pm
Lex's face quickly twisted into a frown as he sipped his tea, brows deeply creased. "And if empirical evidence suggests that I am a bad person, then why are you still dating me?" Lex asked with as little emotion as he could muster. He wouldn't let her know she'd hurt him - though he didn't need to. She knew all.
"Let's say the criteria is as a denizen of Deus Ex. Am I still a bad person?"
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