Trooper Station, Friday

[firstofitskind]

The vague distracted feeling was still lingering. So much so that the Troopers had actually noticed.

"The Bee Lady and the Tunnel Man are dating," Ralph commented casually.

"Uh huh," Liam remarked absently, as he flipped through yet another report without actually reading it.

"They've decided to release a colony of bees into the tunnels," Calvin added.

"Hmm," was all Liam had to say about that. Calvin and Ralph glanced at each other, waiting for Liam's reaction to change once what they'd said actually sunk in.

But apparently that wasn't happening anytime soon. Eventually, Calvin just shrugged and backed out of the office, Ralph close behind.

[ooc: character's distracted, i'm bored and need distraction. please help!]

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[died8yearsago]

Rosa, who was at her desk and wondering how such a small town could incur so much paperwork and if this bogus transfer wasn't supposed to go to Santiago instead, looked up at the exchange, followed the troopers on their entire way out, and then looked plaintively across the room at Liam and stated, "I hate this place."

She just thought he'd like to know.

[firstofitskind]

"What's that, sorry?" Liam said absently. Rosa apparently merited more attention than the Troopers, but he was still not entirely paying attention.

[died8yearsago]

"I said I hate this place," Rosa said, a bit louder this time, "but not as much as I hate repeating myself. You okay over there? You seem....distracted."

Not that she cared. She really, truly, honestly didn't. But the man seemed cool with bees in the tunnels (wherever the hell those were), and that could be a little disconcerting.

[firstofitskind]

Well, that got a bit of a sheepish smile out of Liam. "Your first few days here have really been that bad?" he asked, sidestepping the question about his own distractedness for now.

[died8yearsago]

"Don't change the subject," Rosa said. Especially not when that subject was one of her least favorite ones to talk about: herself. "Of course it's been bad. But I got an excuse. What's up with you?"

[firstofitskind]

"I'm not changing the subject," Liam pointed out. "You're the one that brought up how you hated it here." It was just that he'd only replied to part of it! That was totally different. "Just some stuff on my mind, is all."

[died8yearsago]

He...did have her there.

"Do you want to...talk about it?" Rosa asked, with a grimace and tone that made it pretty clear she was merely doing her civic duty by asking, and that she would be pretty much on board if the answer was a resounding no and she could go back to not caring and just scowling at the troopers and the coffee maker.

[firstofitskind]

Oh, that got a bit of a smirk from Liam. Which he quickly did his best to hide, because he didn't actually want to alienate the only employee at the station who had conversational skills that went beyond what to eat for lunch on any given day. "A couple of... important anniversaries, I guess you could say, happen around this time of year." He'd elaborate, but he was pretty sure Rosa was still firmly in the 'everyone here is trying to fuck with me' stage.

[died8yearsago]

Rosa grunted and her shoulders crumpled slightly. Well. Guess she was doing this after all.

She should have just gotten up and left to check out that bee thing.

"Cool," she said, "like a wedding or a birthday or something?"

[firstofitskind]

Rosa meeting the Bee Lady would probably not end well. For the Bee Lady anyway.

"Something like that." Well, one of those anniversaries was actually a death day. His own, in fact. But even if he hadn't actively been trying to not make Rosa think he was a crazy person, that wasn't a topic he really shared much about.

[died8yearsago]

"Um, congrats?" Rosa tried. "I guess?"

She figured that was a better response than her initial one, which was pretty much that anniversaries were dumb.

[firstofitskind]

Yeah, Liam definitely wasn't going to elaborate on the fact that these were not the kind of anniversaries that deserved congratulations. You're welcome, Rosa.

"Thanks," he said instead, with a small, tight smile.

[arboreal_priestess]

Verity had been hit pretty hard by a cold and today was the first day in a week she felt even vaguely human again. And while she wasn't up for an extended dance number or an Aeslin festival, a quick walk to see her favorite person on the island was definitely something she could find the energy for.

"Hey," she said, smirking in the doorway. "I'd like to file a report."

[firstofitskind]

"Forms are at th-" Liam started to say absently, but broke off as he realized who had actually spoken. With a grin, he looked up. "Hey, you."

[arboreal_priestess]

"Hi there," Verity said, ignoring the forms and sauntering over to his desk. "No, no, I'm pretty sure this is a report I have to give in person. I need it to be taken very seriously."

[firstofitskind]

"Oh, really?" Well, now he was intrigued.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Oh yes," Verity said, spinning a chair around backwards and straddling it. "The length of time since we last had a date? Is positively criminal."

Was she grinning over that joke? Oh yes. Yes she was.

[firstofitskind]

"That's terrible," Liam said with a shake of his head. Did he mean the span of time between dates, or the joke?

... Both, actually.

"I'm glad that you decided to come in and file a report," he said, doing his best to keep a straight face. "This is clearly a situation that needs to be looked into right away."

[arboreal_priestess]

Excuse him, that had been hilarious. She'd conceived of it three days ago in a DayQuil haze which really said everything he needed to know, didn't it?

"I'm just doing my duty as a concerned citizen," Verity assured him. "I mean, I know it's not bees, or tunnels, or the dreaded weefee, but I still thought it was important to bring to your attention."

[firstofitskind]

Liam nodded solemnly. "And as a concerned citizen, do you have any suggestions on how to fix this problem?" he asked.

[arboreal_priestess]

"I do have a few," Verity said. "I mean, nothing as exciting as pinning crystals on beehives or whatever, but I was thinking maybe dinner out in Baltimore sometime soon? And maybe a private dance lesson thrown in to boot?"

[firstofitskind]

“I’d like that,” Liam said, thumb of one hand absently rubbing circles on the mark of the shaqarava on the other. “And as it happens, my calendar is pretty open, at the moment.”

[arboreal_priestess]

"Well, I'm getting over a cold so we might have to wait for a bit before I'm up for much," Verity admitted with some reluctance. "But I'd be up for doing something else in the interim, too."

[firstofitskind]

“We could do dinner someplace on the island?” Liam suggested. “Or takeout and a movie on the what’s it called, the internet movie thing?” Netflix, Liam, the word you were looking for was Netflix.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Netflix and chill, huh?" Verity asked, giving Liam a saucy grin. "Maybe not the best plan while I might still be contagious, but I'm not the boss of you."

Wait. Had Liam actually heard of Netflix and chill? Hmm.