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Post by THOMAS LULA ROTH on Jul 7, 2012 0:52:51 GMT -5
A delighted grin still held to Thomas' face at Caterina's question, his head lolling back before he shook his head. The laughter still knocked around in his head, before his expression fell back to placidity. "Nothing," he said with a voice void of emotion. He sniffed somewhat, looking as if the world suddenly bored him, when in fact her found a quite interesting light that caught his attention for a moment before he returned it to the ginger. "Don't tempt me." Then, without a warning, he was smiling again as he said, "Can't say I'm too offended." All mathematical geniuses clearly watched Carl Sagan's Cosmos instead of going outside and getting themselves nice tans. Because they were mathematicians, why would they need tans? Unfortunately, Thomas couldn't place himself at that level. Never had he taken a test, and he didn't feel a need to. "I'll admit, most nights are spent grading papers," he said, "But I go out to drink and...do whatever I can in my free time." There wasn't much, but he didn't know if he wanted to tell her about the company he kept. Out of self-preservation, because a man like him did not need to talk about his stoner friends. "I make an effort to be stunningly hardcore." Would she believe it? He took a moment to ponder how much he would actually be able to lie.
The woman made theater geeks sound like some exclusive club, and he supposed that's what it was, and he did not mind having no admission to it. He knew his plays, he knew Oedipus Rex, he knew West Side Story, anyone who ever turned on their televisions knew of them. However, he feared in a conversation about any stage production in-depth would have him falling exceedingly flat. As a man of pride, he would not put himself out there like that. "I would never pretend with you, Rin," he said, a ghost of a smile on his lips. "I'm not good at faking it." No man actually was, only under one circumstance. Did he ever have to fake it? As any self-respecting gentleman would tell his buddy, no, he did not. "But I am! Aching joints and all. Fear I'm also getting a few grays, though that would be thanks to my students. I graduated high school 97, that was a long time ago." He knew he could soon be a great uncle, considering that his niece just got married. "I think that still holds true. Not much changes." Stereotypes held and stuck, there was no escaping it. Childhoods were full of bullying and trauma and looking back, he realized that school sucked. And he was still in it. It just sucked in different ways, now.
What did he do for fun? The challenge in her voice made him want to follow through on his words, because he knew how to have fun. "I'll tell you what, I can take you out and show you that I can have fun. How about that?" And so he took her challenge and threw it back to her, he mentally took a bow for such a success. Thomas didn't have much to do lately, as a matter of fact, save for sitting around, watching sports and talking about how big the sport's announcer's rack is. Fun could, however, be fun. "Now that sounds like you're just calling yourself flat." He chose a slimmer version of ice, because women cared about their physique. Everyone did, actually, men were just not as inclined to say so. It wouldn't be manly to talk about how fat they thought they were. "But since you say so, I assume that you did it on purpose and out of spite. You wanted to prove those ship makers it wasn't that great a boat." Taking the hypothetical discussion of her status as a free-floating mountain of ice, he could believe that she would sink a ship to prove anyone cocky enough to call it indestructible. In her life, he bet it was the same, except on a smaller and not nautical scale.
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Post by CATERINA MELODY RAVENHILL on Jul 8, 2012 19:06:48 GMT -5
She shook her her in exasperation but decided to merely let him have his moment. Some people should not be questioned, she decided. She'd actually decided that a long time ago when she realised how difficult it was to get an answer out of some of them. She liked a challenge but if it became too difficult it was just boring.
Sometimes she wondered why she hadn't been shot yet. The woman wasn't an idiot, she knew what she was like. She enjoyed being difficult because it was funny to see someone's face contort into a mask of rage as they tried to figure out how best to deal with her attitude. Some people, like Thomas, were so impressive in dealing with her that it could become like a conversation. These were the ones she respected the most. "Damn," she said. "I'll need to try harder next time." The smirk played on her lips but it was hard to tell if it was betraying her joke or whether she was merely looking smug and entertained in her seriousness. She really didn't care which way he took it.
She liked drinking. A lot, actually, though she did try to avoid drinking too much during the week days. That was a quick way to get herself fired. "So many things," she said with sarcasm as he generalized the rest. "You need a medal. Contact the Guinness." Did she actually believe that he could have a good time? Well, maybe. She was judgemental and still seeing him as that dork with the Ph.D so it was hard to consider him as a fun guy. "I don't need to make an effort. I was born hardcore." She considered adding something a little more vulgar and then decided that the pair of women chatting about a student were too close for comfort and that it might mean her job. "Try harder," she suggested instead.
She did not fear age like some did. Caterina was confident to the point of over-confidence, seeing herself as invincible. She'd be young for as long as she wanted to be young, she would not fall victim to any sort of accident, everyone loved her or wasn't worth her time anyway. It was a nice way to view the world. Apparently Thomas didn't have a problem about discussing his age. "Aching joints? Pussy," she grinned. The two had moved on by and she didn't have a problem with using her mouth any more. "I'm still young and hot as hell so I think I win this round." She thought she was attractive, at least, and that was all she needed. No one else had loved her truly growing up and so she'd learned to love herself. A bit too much. "Only thing that's changed is homophobia." It was less widespread and there weren't half as many public attacks but that didn't mean it was eradicated. She really didn't give a shit. It was hard to make Rin care about people.
Thomas came right back with a challenge of his own and she laughed, liking the idea. She loved when people gave her a bit of a run for her money, it was better than being bored all the time when they gave up a few seconds in. "You're on." Her coworkers weren't usually the people she looked to when she thought about a night of fun. They were too boring, she assumed, because what teacher beyond herself was any fun? At the same time, she liked the idea of some kind of test. It excited her enough that she was willing to give him a shot to see what he could come up with.
Had she cared to pay it any mind she might have acknowledged that icebergs were not the same thing as glaciers but she did not. She appreciated his assessment and nodded. "Yeah, they clearly don't know how to build boats." Everyone should Rin-proof their boats before daring to send them out on the water. It was a new rule. She'd sink them all if people weren't careful. She didn't actually know the story of the Titanic very well, merely remembering the date, a few random snippets of information, and the fact that a couple of her guy friends liked to mess around and re-enact the film scenes between Jack and Rose in ridiculously overdramatic tones. She didn't know why she kept their company sometimes. Probably because they were fun, she liked a good time.
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Post by THOMAS LULA ROTH on Jul 13, 2012 3:03:36 GMT -5
Caterina was very hard on the ego, chiseling away with her ice pick. If he were a weaker man, he might have been on his knees, or at least dumbfounded by her. As it were, he smiled like an idiot, feeling positively happy at this point, and for no honest reason. Even when she said hat he needed a medal. ”I wonder if they give medals for the record book,” he pondered a moment, before pointing at the ginger. ”Hey, don't patronize me.” His tone was flat and unamused. He had a lot of shtick up his sleeve, and sometimes he thought about his students in these moments, what they thought of him. Such considerations danced in his head, amused him for a little while until harcore was brought up. ”I will never ask you the question 'are you ready' because I fear the answer would be 'I was born ready' and I just cannot deal with that.” Being born hardcore made him think of a steroid baby, and the mental image may have made him cringe if it could have been at all possible. ”I don't want to work myself to death, now.” He wouldn't allow this joking to go on too much further, he was a professional man, after all.
Thomas truly had been getting old, he was painfully aware of his age. Thirty-two and he could be told that he had a lot to show for it. A career, though, that was the main thing. No family, not like his siblings. He had nieces and nephews, and he was soon to be a great uncle, but he had no children of his own. No wife, a prospect that had been so close at hand when he had proposed to Hanna. ”One day you'll know,” he said, though the aching joints mostly came on bad days. He had a long way to go before anything seriously like that happened to him. ”In that case, you'll always win, because you'll always be younger than me. But there's the fact you're still a soulless ginger, so you lose on that level.” He pressed his lips together as if lamenting the condition of her hair. It was really a shame that she had to be a Viking ginger, now didn't it? ”On some levels, yes,” he agreed about homophobia, but when it came to looking at things like the Westboro Baptist Church and other affiliations so opposed to that sort of thing, it made one wonder about humanity. When he thought about the fact that gay marriage was still not legal, it felt as if they had not made much progress at all. Though he couldn't ever complain since he had never been an activist.
Now he felt the pressure of having to impress Rin with how totally awesome he could be. It actually would be fun, considering how long it had been since he truly had a good time. Acted like a teenager, even. But then again, he was usually stuck at home. And sometimes he had imposed the existence upon himself, not wanting to go out with his friends. That had mostly been a while ago that that would happen, but part of the reason he felt old because he acted so old. ”They probably were not expecting iceberg interference,” he said somberly, though it was the captain's fault for not noticing the huge ass mountain of ice they were steered toward.
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