You were bitten before I was. You should have been worrying about yourself. And if you aren't being funny, why am I now laughing?
[...]
A rhetorical question. Do you feel the lucidity of rage or should I take a different tack? That was a genuine laugh, by the way. It's a bit funny to message you in silence, directly opposite your cot.
John gets up from his cot and walks carefully over to Maggie’s. He’s stymied for a moment when he realizes there is no convenient place to sit next to her.
“Please move. Thank you.”
Awkwardly, without ceremony, he sits on the edge of her cot.
“I have ‘Does he really like you?’, ‘Are you insecure?’, ‘Are you a sucker?’, ‘Is it like, lust, or love?’, and ‘Are you cool with your mom?’”
Maggie opens one eye and peeks out to assess the quality of John’s indignation. She determines that he doth protest just the right amount for someone who is telling the truth.
“Alright, alright. I believe you. Let’s find out if I am a sucker, I guess.”
“A guy you have never spoken to in your life asks to borrow five bucks. You say: - Back off, punk! - Is it an emergency? How do I know I will ever get it back? -Sure. But I only have a ten. Pay me back when you get the chance.”
“Ah, this is hard already.” Maggie puts her hand over her closed eyes, ostensibly to help her concentrate. “The second option is the closest to right, I think. I would not care about getting the money back but I would want to know what I was getting myself wrapped up in before giving it.”
“Next question. As you walk into homeroom, you hear your ‘friend’ telling someone you're a slut. She sees you and immediately says: ‘Oh, I didn't--um... It's not what you think.’
You reply: - Then what is it? Are you mad at me? - Oh, thats a relief. I must have misheard you. - Backstabber! I can't believe I ever thought you were my friend.”
[OOC: Here is the quiz for reference or if you wanna skip ahead/just get her result.]
Edited (This would have been smarter to do before…) 2024-11-16 00:42 (UTC)
Maggie sits up a little and says this firmly. She would like to believe this about herself and feels that asserting it as fact might make it true, although past evidence suggests otherwise. In her teens and again in her late twenties, she was excised from her friend group with little warning. She is not exactly sure why this happened but she suspects it has something to do with unsanctioned sluttiness. She will never know for sure though, because she never asked. She just let herself be pushed out.
"Or maybe I would just let her know that we are no longer friends with a cold shoulder."
John squints, scrunching his nose thoughtfully—he wants to pause here, dig into why Maggie sat up and why her demeanor seemed to change slightly. But there is more quiz to go.
“A large envelope with ‘YOU'VE WON 10 MILLION DOLLARS!’ on it arrives in your mailbox. You:
-jump in the car and head to the mall--that 1,000-CD changer will finally be yours! - toss it unopened into the garbage. - open it to find out how you really win.”
“The new boy at school, named John Hwang, offers to drive you home from tennis practice. On the highway, the cop pulls you over. As the officer approaches the car, John Hwang freaks and demands your license, since he doesn't have one yet. You:
- grab it from your wallet, hand it over and hide your face in your hair. - lie and say, ‘I don't have it on me. Just stay calm and tell the officer you're sorry.’ - say, ‘Here, officer’ and hand John Hwang over to the authorities.”
If it was John's intention to derail her from her confidently milquetoast speed run straight through this quiz, he is successful in doing so. Maggie is a little annoyed to realize that her answer does change if she imagines a teenage John frantically asking for her license versus just any old Unnamed New Boy.
"I would help you. Although I do not know what good my license would do you. I am 5'6" and a woman."
He cannot completely repress a small, pleased smile.
“I had longer hair when I was younger. Next question.
Every night this week, the people you babysit for have begged you to stay an extra hour because they must work late. When he comes home at 7 PM with shopping bags and she follows smelling of alcohol, you:
- decide you'd better permanently cancel you 6:30 dance class. - tell them your evening schedule and renegotiate your hours. - scream, ‘Thats it--I quit!’”
Maggie turns slightly on to her hip— facing John—so that she can better read his expressions. She wonders if he is thinking about his mother and the square dancing classes she never got to take.
“I would tell them about my schedule. I do not mind staying late when I am able. They are both working full time. They should be allowed to enjoy a drink from time to time. Only not the nights when I have dance class.”
Quietly, and carefully without expression now he's aware he's being observed:
"I am glad you are remaining committed to your dance lessons.
On the basketball court with your brother and his friends, you make a three-pointer. Your brother, whose team is now one point behind, claims that that's not the way they keep score. You:
- are confused. You've watched them score three-point shots a million times before. But, oh, well, rules are rules. - argue that if he wants three-point scoring out, he's going to have to call if before you start playing. - tell them you don't play with cheaters and storm off the court."
After this, he knows he must return to his cot. But he became too absorbed in the quiz or too accustomed to sitting on the side of Maggie's cot; either way, he is comfortable. The amount of space she made for him, perhaps negligible or purposefully miserly to her, feels like a generous amount to John. However, this is one of the few rules he knows never changes: never overstay your welcome. Be grateful for the space made for you, but never expect its permanency. Already anticipating his mandated withdrawal, John starts to shift away.
"Next question."
He reads silently first, his shoulders slumping perceptibly before he reads it out loud.
"A decent-looking guy comes up to you at the mall and tells you you're the most beautiful girl he's ever seen in his entire life. You think,
- my eyelash-plumping mascara does make a difference. - assume he's a jerk and walk away. - reply, 'Nice line--wanna try another one?'"
Maggie pretends to observe the waffle pattern on the narrow channel of bedspread between them while surreptitiously watching John through her lashes. She doesn’t know what it is about the next question that makes his broad shoulders sag, but she notices that they do. For some reason, she feels that she needs to be a little careful with her answer.
“I think that I would walk away. Although it is nice to be called beautiful.”
He wonders how someone more naturally charming would respond. A person like Jem would have something to say—it'd just come out, spontaneously, a touch biting but still eminently likable. Or Quaid with his wry smile, Gideon with his deprecating smile, Emmett with his earnest eyes. Even Roswell has a quick wit. As for John, he feels the artifice of himself too keenly. Already he can picture the moment he will have to get up and walk away, what expression he will wear, how he will carefully nod at Maggie before turning away to read a magazine or watch Dutch for the continued sign of her breathing. If he says what comes to mind, it's never that one good, right thing.
"You have a strong feeling that your boyfriend is chasing the school's fastest freestyler, Jennifer. When you meet on Saturday, he smells like chlorine. You:
- yell at first whiff, 'I knew it. You're nothing but a no-good cheat!' - ask him if he went to the swim meet. If yes, casually ask why. - assume he's secretly taken a part-time job as a pool cleaner."
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
DM, 11/12
You’re the one who’s funny.
DM, 11/12
I am not being funny.
DM, 11/12
[...]
A rhetorical question. Do you feel the lucidity of rage or should I take a different tack? That was a genuine laugh, by the way. It's a bit funny to message you in silence, directly opposite your cot.
DM, 11/12
We are having a private conversation.
[…]
I still feel crazy. But that is better than feeling nauseous and fatigued, I suppose.
DM, 11/12
I can read you a Seventeen magazine quiz if you’d like to feel crazy in a different way.
DM, 11/12
11/12, bite ward
“Please move. Thank you.”
Awkwardly, without ceremony, he sits on the edge of her cot.
“I have ‘Does he really like you?’, ‘Are you insecure?’, ‘Are you a sucker?’, ‘Is it like, lust, or love?’, and ‘Are you cool with your mom?’”
11/12, bite ward
“You are being mean.”
11/12, bite ward
“These are the quizzes.”
He brandishes the magazine at her. The cover, which had featured Taylor Lautner, is missing.
“I cannot make this up.”
11/12, bite ward
“Alright, alright. I believe you. Let’s find out if I am a sucker, I guess.”
11/12, bite ward
“A guy you have never spoken to in your life asks to borrow five bucks. You say:
- Back off, punk!
- Is it an emergency? How do I know I will ever get it back?
-Sure. But I only have a ten. Pay me back when you get the chance.”
11/12, bite ward
11/12, bite ward
John raises an eyebrow, smiles.
“Next question. As you walk into homeroom, you hear your ‘friend’ telling someone you're a slut. She sees you and immediately says: ‘Oh, I didn't--um... It's not what you think.’
You reply:
- Then what is it? Are you mad at me?
- Oh, thats a relief. I must have misheard you.
- Backstabber! I can't believe I ever thought you were my friend.”
[OOC: Here is the quiz for reference or if you wanna skip ahead/just get her result.]
11/12, bite ward
Maggie sits up a little and says this firmly. She would like to believe this about herself and feels that asserting it as fact might make it true, although past evidence suggests otherwise. In her teens and again in her late twenties, she was excised from her friend group with little warning. She is not exactly sure why this happened but she suspects it has something to do with unsanctioned sluttiness. She will never know for sure though, because she never asked. She just let herself be pushed out.
"Or maybe I would just let her know that we are no longer friends with a cold shoulder."
11/12, bite ward
“A large envelope with ‘YOU'VE WON 10 MILLION DOLLARS!’ on it arrives in your mailbox. You:
-jump in the car and head to the mall--that 1,000-CD changer will finally be yours!
- toss it unopened into the garbage.
- open it to find out how you really win.”
11/12, bite ward
"Throw it away, of course. Money like that comes with problems."
11/12, bite ward
“The new boy at school, named John Hwang, offers to drive you home from tennis practice. On the highway, the cop pulls you over. As the officer approaches the car, John Hwang freaks and demands your license, since he doesn't have one yet. You:
- grab it from your wallet, hand it over and hide your face in your hair.
- lie and say, ‘I don't have it on me. Just stay calm and tell the officer you're sorry.’
- say, ‘Here, officer’ and hand John Hwang over to the authorities.”
11/12, bite ward
"I would help you. Although I do not know what good my license would do you. I am 5'6" and a woman."
11/12, bite ward
“I had longer hair when I was younger. Next question.
Every night this week, the people you babysit for have begged you to stay an extra hour because they must work late. When he comes home at 7 PM with shopping bags and she follows smelling of alcohol, you:
- decide you'd better permanently cancel you 6:30 dance class.
- tell them your evening schedule and renegotiate your hours.
- scream, ‘Thats it--I quit!’”
11/12, bite ward
Maggie turns slightly on to her hip— facing John—so that she can better read his expressions. She wonders if he is thinking about his mother and the square dancing classes she never got to take.
“I would tell them about my schedule. I do not mind staying late when I am able. They are both working full time. They should be allowed to enjoy a drink from time to time. Only not the nights when I have dance class.”
11/12, bite ward
"I am glad you are remaining committed to your dance lessons.
On the basketball court with your brother and his friends, you make a three-pointer. Your brother, whose team is now one point behind, claims that that's not the way they keep score. You:
- are confused. You've watched them score three-point shots a million times before. But, oh, well, rules are rules.
- argue that if he wants three-point scoring out, he's going to have to call if before you start playing.
- tell them you don't play with cheaters and storm off the court."
11/12, bite ward
“Argue. That is ridiculous. I hate games where the rules change.”
11/12, bite ward
His eyes scan the page.
"You are now halfway through the examination."
After this, he knows he must return to his cot. But he became too absorbed in the quiz or too accustomed to sitting on the side of Maggie's cot; either way, he is comfortable. The amount of space she made for him, perhaps negligible or purposefully miserly to her, feels like a generous amount to John. However, this is one of the few rules he knows never changes: never overstay your welcome. Be grateful for the space made for you, but never expect its permanency. Already anticipating his mandated withdrawal, John starts to shift away.
"Next question."
He reads silently first, his shoulders slumping perceptibly before he reads it out loud.
"A decent-looking guy comes up to you at the mall and tells you you're the most beautiful girl he's ever seen in his entire life. You think,
- my eyelash-plumping mascara does make a difference.
- assume he's a jerk and walk away.
- reply, 'Nice line--wanna try another one?'"
11/12, bite ward
“I think that I would walk away. Although it is nice to be called beautiful.”
11/12, bite ward
He wonders how someone more naturally charming would respond. A person like Jem would have something to say—it'd just come out, spontaneously, a touch biting but still eminently likable. Or Quaid with his wry smile, Gideon with his deprecating smile, Emmett with his earnest eyes. Even Roswell has a quick wit. As for John, he feels the artifice of himself too keenly. Already he can picture the moment he will have to get up and walk away, what expression he will wear, how he will carefully nod at Maggie before turning away to read a magazine or watch Dutch for the continued sign of her breathing. If he says what comes to mind, it's never that one good, right thing.
"You have a strong feeling that your boyfriend is chasing the school's fastest freestyler, Jennifer. When you meet on Saturday, he smells like chlorine. You:
- yell at first whiff, 'I knew it. You're nothing but a no-good cheat!'
- ask him if he went to the swim meet. If yes, casually ask why.
- assume he's secretly taken a part-time job as a pool cleaner."
11/12, bite ward
11/12, bite ward
11/12, bite ward
11/12, bite ward
11/12, bite ward
11/12, bite ward
11/12, bite ward
11/12, bite ward