Skyler King || Sailor Uranus (coldwind) wrote in musingslogs, @ 2010-11-12 19:42:00 |
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Entry tags: | sailor uranus, squee |
Who: Skyler & Tim C.
What: Awkward first meeting thanks to the anti-inhibition stuff.
Where: Bathos lobby
When: Thursday (Nov. 11), early evening
Warnings: Awkwardness abounds!
After making sure and double sure that all electronics were off and the door to his apartment was thoroughly locked, Tim headed for the elevator. He fixed his backpack on his back and adjusted the straps before pushing the button, bouncing on his heels as he waited. The subtle change on his psyche didn't really register consciously but something about that button had definitely changed something in the way he felt, subtle magic sweeping through his body and whisking away his barriers.
A couple of minutes later he was down in the lobby, looking around for the packets from one T. Hartley. As promised they were there already and Tim removed his backpack so he could take a few for work, relieved to see that said person had kept their promise and not included the ones from PETA.
Skyler walked into the Bathos lobby from the outside, a Starbucks pumpkin spice latte in one hand. He smiled politely at the shorter guy picking up some stack of papers, then moved down to check out the flyers posted on the wall. He'd seen the one for the Academy before. There were flyers for free pets, missing pets, local businesses, items for sale. He wondered if he should just post a flyer asking for a violinist and see if he got any calls. Not having one was killing his work on his latest song, a duet for piano and violin, even though he could clearly hear the music in his head. It was just difficult to fine tune the parts if he couldn't hear both real instruments playing simultaneously.
"Hi there," Tim said and while it wasn't unusual for him to strike up a conversation with a stranger, he definitely felt a bit off as he continued talking. "Do you live in this building? I'm new," he gestured vaguely toward the elevators at his admission, then looked Skyler up and down. "You don't look like you'd live here." He'd finished stuffing the packets in his pack and zipped it shut loudly, wondering why on earth he'd felt the need to say that out loud.
"Yeah, I live here," Skyler said with a crooked smile. He wasn't sure why he wouldn't look like he lived there and glanced down at his clothes. Okay, so maybe it was the clothes. "It's a pretty nice building." Then he went back to browsing the flyers and mulling over how best to find a violinist. He'd definitely offer to pay the person on a per session basis. And if they got on well and were talented enough he'd try to work out some local gigs for the both of them. Maybe the guy that ran Centro would like something like that? It'd be worth looking into... once he had a violinist again.
"I don't know, you just look so shiny," Tim blurted out with a big smile and instantly wondered why he'd said that. If it was a sentiment he wanted voiced, he surely would have picked a better word than 'shiny', wouldn't he? The thought didn't linger for long since he was still on autopilot when it came to talking and that in itself wasn't really unusual. "Of course it's absolutely impossible of me to judge people by the way they look, I'm sorry. You just seem like you should live in a fancy house somewhere. I'm Tim Castle, I just moved here." He offered his hand as he rambled on and as he did he added a sighed, "God you're tall."
An amused smile crossed Skyler's lips as Tim rambled on. It was almost like listening to Bunny, though he wasn't exactly sure what the guy meant by saying he was shiny. Then again Bunny used all kinds of anime related lingo that left him feeling dense.
"I'm Skyler King," he said and shook Tim's hand. And then he wasn't sure what to say so he sipped at his latte while he came up with something friendly but neutral. "I've been here for about a year. Do you like it? The building, I mean." God he felt awkward. And Tim's bright blue eyes were the kind that looked like they could see right through you.
"Skyler King? That's kind of poetic, is it a pseudonym?" Tim asked. "Kind of like a skylark king, do you like birds? ...and oh yes, it's a nice place as far as I can tell. Except for that power outage on my first day, does that happen a lot?" He clamped his lips shut tight, furrowing his brows in puzzlement at how much he was saying and how fast. Today was obviously extra rambly, maybe he'd had a little too much coffee this morning. "I usually don't ramble this much, I hope I'm not weirding you out. You seem like a nice guy, if a little fancy, not snobby though thank God. It'd be bad to annoy the first neighbor I actually met." It was probably time to get the hell out of there before he did some unrepairable damage and the look on Tim's face said as much as he gave the door a sidelong glance before smiling apologetically at Skyler. The poor guy wasn't getting in word edgewise through Tim's ramblings.
Skyler just watched Tim with arched brows as he went on and on and changed topics along some train of thought Skyler couldn't follow. He sipped at his drink, but listened politely. "You're not annoying me, just talking a little faster than I can follow," he finally said when Tim seemed to have lost enough steam or breath to pause. "And, uh, no. That's just my name." And he was very grateful Tim didn't seem to have heard of him before.
"I'm sorry," Tim said with a quiet snicker, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. "I'm kinda having trouble keeping up with myself most of the time. That smells good by the way," he pointed at Skyler's cup of Starbucks Pumpkin, something he hadn't tried before. "Can I taste it? I bet it's yummy. What floor do you live on?"
"Uh, no. Sorry. Flu season. You know." Skyler shrugged and held his cup a little closer to his chest. He might not have been annoyed, but he was definitely weirded out now. And he didn't want to answer the floor question either. All he could think of was little Tim showing up at his door asking if he could borrow all kinds of weird things. "I uh, gotta get going. Gotta get back to work. But it was nice meeting you." He flashed a small smile again.
Tim pouted at him and while he understood why Skyler wouldn't want to share with a stranger (and didn't understand why he himself wanted to at the moment), he still felt put off by his reaction. "That's very rude," he said, pulling his backpack on in a sulk. "Clearly I'm not sick." Another thought popped into his mind and he abruptly changed his demeanor. "Oh, what floor do you live on?"
Skyler vaguely gestured upward with his free hand as he sidestepped Tim and walked around him. "I wouldn't know if you were sick," he said, his expression half pained, half apologetic. "We just met." And with that he turned around fully and headed for the elevator. Maybe he'd just advertise for a violinist on the apartment forums first. It'd be nice for the person to be a Creation. And there was a tiny chance his ex had crossed over and was staying in Seattle. He frowned at the thought and shoved it aside. No. He couldn't keep lighting that damn candle. It had melted down to nothing so long ago.
Tim should have left it at that but he panicked and followed Skyler to the elevator, knowing full well he'd come off as creepy and was probably only making it worse. "You're right," he said apologetically. "I'm sorry. Of course you just met me and I was being rude, please forgive me, I really meant nothing by it and I swear I'm not some crazy, rude person. It just smelled so nice and it made my mouth water just smelling it. Please don't be mad? Good God, I sound half deranged, you're going to tell everyone in the building I'm insane or something, aren't you?"
Skyler reached the elevator and stopped to push the up button. He really hoped Tim wasn't going up as well since he really didn't want him to know which floor he lived on now. "I'm not mad, but you've got diarrhea of the mouth. It's kind of off putting," Skyler said while pulling a face. And why had he even said that? Now he was being rude. But there suddenly didn't seem to be any reason not to be straight with the guy. "Are you going up?"
"I know," Tim said dejectedly and more to himself than Skyler before he registered the question. "No... I'm going out. I don't even know why I'm still talking to you." He stepped closer, grasping Skyler's sleeve urgently. "I just need you to know I'm not usually like this," he insisted. "I mean, I normally talk a lot but not like this. Not even to my therapist."
"Okay, I got it. It's okay," Skyler said, more rudely than he'd meant to. He pulled his arm up to dislodge Tim's hand from his coat sleeve. The elevator was taking forever. So much so that he was considering taking the stairs just to exit this situation faster.
"Maybe I was wrong," Tim sighed. "You are snobby." At least now he had the good sense to turn around and walk away, glancing over his shoulder at Skyler with a little frown. Maybe the man had this effect on everyone he met, compelling them somehow to blurt out every thought that entered their minds. If that was the case, Tim was definitely going to be avoiding him from now on.