wipesfaith | 04 [written/action]

[Classic incognito message, with the picture blocked out and everything; he even makes an attempt to disguise his handwriting, which he forgets after the first three words.]

Say you want to ask a girl out. How do you go about doing that?

Girls like flowers, right?

[See, there's actually a lot of consideration that goes into this. For a guy with a faulty brain-to-mouth filter and a do-or-die attitude, the amount of waffling here is...strange, maybe. But everyone's a walking contradiction. He has some ideas, along with maybe ten different speeches that he's mentally mapped out over the past three years and never planned on actually using, but second- and third-guessing himself leads to this pandering for advice...thing. He's pretty sure it's lame, but... It couldn't hurt, right?

Okay, so maybe he's just procrastinating.]

[Action]

[Anonymous dweebiness aside, Jean goes about his day as usual. Training at the Battle Dome; going to school; taking care of his horse at the stables, and taking him out for a ride into the woods; and checking the General Store for some...supplies, art supplies. Don't ask, don't tell.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

What's wrong with just going up and asking her? The worst she's going to do is humiliate you, and if she does that, she's not worth your time anyway. And if she says no, isn't that still better than sitting around wondering what she would have said?

[Not particularly reassuring, perhaps, but practical.]

The idea is to avoid humiliation. Not that she's the type of girl to do that. [He's more likely to just embarrass himself, to be honest.]

Look, I have one chance to do this right so I wanna make sure it's good. [Whatever that means.]

Then there are only two people you really need to care about: her, and you. If she's a girl you want to go out with, you should know the type of things she likes. Invite her to do something that she'll think is fun.

Flowers are never a bad idea, though.

[There's a mental sigh somewhere. How is she giving relationship advice? At least it's fairly sound, if not particularly romantic.]

You make it sound easy.

[This isn't an accusation, he swears.]]

[Well if the shoe fits, call her Cinderella. Only, really, don't.]

It's not easy. I just think you're making it more complicated by worrying over so much.

I'm not worrying about it [because that makes it sound kinda...lame], I'm just [...what's a better way to put it...] being careful.

Well, how [worried, scared] careful are you planning to be? Are you going to go ahead and do it?

Of course I am! If I say I'm gonna do it, that means I'm gonna do it.

I'm just waiting for the right time.

You're going to have a long wait if you're waiting for perfection. This place does crazy as its default setting.

I know, I know. I don't have forever. It's just [Working up the balls to do it is a slow process, okay...]

~~Next chance I get~~ [Okay, that's totally a lie because next chance he gets will be tomorrow, and that's terrifyingly soon.]

At the beginning of the summer. I'll do it.

That gives you just about a month. Sure you're feeling up to it?

I'm not backing out now.

[Not that the judgments of this random girl he doesn't know have any bearing on this.]

[Even if they did, she's been telling him to go for it, so it still works out to the same thing. Anyway, she'd call it better that he's not letting someone else make up his mind - to either answer.]

I'm probably supposed to say good luck here, so good luck.

I'll probably need it.

So let's say she says yes. What do you do next? I mean if one of you goes home, or while you're stuck living here and you don't exactly have many date options?

I'm not an idiot. I already know nothing lasts forever. But I'm not gonna let that stop me, because I might never get the chance to do this back home.

You don't think it'd be better to pass it up, knowing it would only be temporary at best?

[Daria is ~~a coward~~ much more reluctant to set herself up for even possible disappointment or failure... although she has to confess she hasn't stuck to that belief, either, given a few of her stolen moments with one of the guys in Luceti.]

It's better to have a little bit of something than none at all.

Yeah. Maybe, anyway. I'm not sure I'm convinced of the idea, but I'm sort of giving it a try myself, too. [Ok that is way too much to be dumping on someone you've barely met, Daria.]

[Someone who's anonymous, at that.]

See, if you get a chance you might as well take it. [He's...still trying to convince himself that this is a good idea. Although he's more worried about rejection than a relationship cut short by the whims of this world. One step at a time.]

You can be with someone you like and be happy for a little while, and yeah it'll suck when they leave. Or it'll suck for them when you leave. But if you don't even try, you're probably just gonna drive yourself crazy wondering what it might have been like. [Right?]

[They'd gotten sidetracked away from some of the niceties, yes. Her picture still shows in the journal window, though, for what that helps.

There's no response for awhile. When it comes, it's not quite what she'd expected to find herself saying.]

Yeah. I wouldn't want to be left wondering what might have happened forever. [You'd think she'd be saying that with sarcasm, but this time, she's not. She's realizing it's exactly what she's done, more or less despite herself: go for it even if it is temporary and hopeless.]

My advice might not be worth much since I don't know what the hell I'm doing either, but I say go for it. Who knows, the guy you've got your eye on could be thinking the same thing. And if he doesn't [a bit of a pause, not that it will show in a written note] at least you tried.

[And that bit of closure will be worth all the bitter disappointment and shame of rejection, right? Maybe...]

[At least she tried, and at least she humiliated herself, in that case. For once Daria censors the comment before she makes it.]

Let me know how it works out. [Be a good example. Or something like that.]

Why does it matter to you? You don't even know me.

If you don't want to say anything, don't. I'm just curious. [Mostly to get up some courage herself, if it does happen to go well.]

[Written]

wipesfaith - 2014-06-25 02:23 (UTC) - Expand