Science Experiments: A Tale of Two Antagonists

Edgar:

She went to answer the door, and I waited calmly for everything to be handled. I had not exactly anticipated that the delivery people would be coming upstairs to lay down the plywood for me... which is exactly what happened. I had to wonder why Inque hadn't simply requested that they drop it all in the living room to be handled later... but this was apparently happening. Not much I could do about it at the moment. They walked right in, and then stopped dead, apparently not having expected me...which, quite frankly, is somewhat understandable.

As quickly and concisely as I could, I explained how to put the plywood down and informed them that the bed could also go up here. They were slightly unresponsive for a moment, but eventually sorted out their minds enough to comply. I also had them leave anything else of consequence downstairs, and after listening to a myriad of horrible noises of large things being moved, it was all finally done.

Inque

That went smoothly. No hiccups, relatively little freaking out, quick in-and-out... I've flung my pillow and blanket up on the couch downstairs and am sitting cross legged in the middle, just observing the place. "I was thinking of snagging some of Lumi's furniture from her room if her parents haven't gotten rid of it yet or whatever they may have done," I say after a moment's silence of them slamming the door behind them to get out of the house as quickly as possible. Face-caused, most likely.

Edgar:

"That sounds like a profitable investment of time. Make sure to tell them some suitably ridiculous story about why you departed. You know, make it convincing or whatever." I stated, replying to the immediate before getting to the just passed. "Any reason in particular that you just sent them straight upstairs?" I asked, I refrained from injecting any anger into my voice, because, really...things like that happen with ridiculous amounts of frequency so it isn't really a problem...simply an annoyance.

Inque

"...It makes sense to put down plywood flooring first because furniture would go atop it?" I offer up. Really, there wasn't a reason. The plywood people just came through the door first, and it belonged upstairs, so I told them to go upstairs. They were supposed to move it in, after all. It was their job.

Edgar:

...Alright well, that made sense. A bit blatantly obvious but...still a plausible answer I suppoused. "Oh. Alright then." I stated neutrally.

I briefly contemplated the pile of homework that was in store for the both of us...I'd look over it for a moment, just to know what I would be doing tomorrow if I was awake for it, but I didn't particularly feel like it really. "I do believe that today is a torture day, is it not?" I asked, simply to confirm.

The presence of new furniture was interesting as they displaced the vibrations of the room in different ways...perhaps one day I'd stay home from school and rearrange it all into the most pleasing reverberative frequencies for my amusement. That could potentially be fun.

Anyway. Novelties aside, something productive was going to occur shortly, even if that only involved me and the OS Beta.

Inque

"That it is," I say. Now that we had a chair to tie the girl to instead of the walls, which was fun. I don't get up for a moment though, staying cross legged on the couch and just staring at him. "Perhaps we should practice for this social experiment of yours," I say absent mindedly, just sort of speaking my thoughts. "You honestly suck at it."

Edgar:

Hmm. Well. That...that was a proposition. And really I couldn't really refute her claim, considering my lack of knowledge on the subject. So, in theory that would be a useful use of our time... And that façade was going to be in immediate use as opposed to the occasional days when I would be able to utilise the specialised non-lethal torture techniques.

"Expound on that suggestion. What all does that entail?" I asked prior to actually committing to anything.

Inque

"You getting comfortable with unpronounced sessions of affection and having a convincing return gesture for such occasions without getting caught up with your privacy and boundary issues," I say lightly, resting my head on my hand. "Unless you wish to practice your torture, to which we can go upstairs and tie her to the chair."

Edgar:

They're not necessarily issues... Just...communication breaches. If I could be warned of these things somehow in advance, I'm sure it would all be...quite... tolerable. However the whole "returning the gesture" aspect of things was something that I could agree on needing assistance with. "I do think that this is a logical proposal as to an appropriate use for the coming hours. ...How do you propose that all be arranged?" I asked uncertainly. This was going to be...a different sort of education I felt...which would be...enlightening, I could only assume.

Inque

My last host's infatuations usually started with proximity... "Come sit," I instruct, moving to the left slightly to make room on the couch while rotating around to face right for when he's there. Didn't know how I really felt about this... One hand, I disliked Chelsea's affections...yet that was not natural. Going after a Robin after you helped kill the last...stupid. This had a purpose though, it was going towards a meaningful experiment, and there was nothing extremely odd about my and Face's relation. We had the mutual agreement between us. So it was okay, I suppose. I didn't truly mind it, so long as it had a purpose.

Edgar:

That wasn't much of an explanation really...but...I'd been learning that she wasn't really one to explain herself, which as baffling as it might be, wasn't exactly something you could try to modify behaviourally in someone who you were technically a business partner of sorts with.

Having thought about this for a moment and logically worked through the lack of actual response to my initial line of questioning, I obliged. "I'm assuming you're going to explain all of this as it progresses?" I asked, even though I had just determined that probabilities for such things were low.

Inque

"Isn't learning by example better than just words?" I ask, smirking slightly, amused. Always needing an explanation... "It's not normal to ask before having an exchange of affection." Most of the time, at least. Stupid Robin... "Nor is explanation of what's going to happen within it. Unless you're into that sort of thing, though that's more for getting stimulated than for understanding what's to occur."

Edgar:

Learning by example...That was an interesting concept..."But...what happens if the exemplary scenario fails? Is there then a break where one can go over...scenarios and what not? Like... an open notes section of some sort?" I asked, just because... this was a learning experience. If there was absolutely no explanatory aspect whatsoever... issues could arise.

Inque

I grin, giggle under my breath. "It's gonna be your first kiss-back. Of course you'll suck at it." I unravel my legs, leaning forward towards him. "Just kiss back."

Edgar :

I braced myself for the facial....intrusion that I now knew was coming. Surprisingly, knowing that it was coming actually made it less....hideously jarring. This was going to be exceedingly...unsuccessful, I felt. Nonetheless...I tried...I think...and then I remembered that I had teeth. A great many teeth.

That awkward moment when your teeth may or may not have grazed someone's lip and induced minor bleeding. "...that...was...unfortunate." I stated clumsily as I pulled away.

Inque

I blink out of it, wondering what exactly happened before tasting a bit of blood. Not like I was tapped into her nerves for pain, so it didn't hurt. Testing my lips with the tip of my tongue, I find the little cut on my bottom lip. "It's no big deal; I didn't feel anything." Already my molecules are arranging platelets to seal the break, and it doesn't take so long with the size of the thing.

Edgar:

"Ah. Alright." I stated upon receiving confirmation that the damage was minimal. I mean, I didn't particularly care about this girl's face, because she was just some girl with another being...renting out the space, I suppouse you could say. However, considering that it was unintended damage, I suppouse you could say that it was good to know that nothing serious had occurred. "So...aside from the blatantly obvious note regarding not biting the other participant...do you have any notes?" I asked.

Inque

"Don't be such a stiff," I fire at him with a slight scolding tone to it, though smiling amused. "Not everything's a business venture... Have fun with it. No overthinking. Sexual, remember?" And again, I lean into him, hooking a light hand around his neck before kissing him.

Edgar:

Right. Well. Hm. Ok. And actually that was all the time I was given to process what few notes she gave me before this whole thing was started a second time. Not everything was a business venture... Perhaps I enjoyed business ventures. Although I assumed that now was not the time to make bizarre analogies comparing business ventures to women. No, now was the time to be thinking about not thinking, which was something that was much harder than it initially sounded like.

I carefully tried to reciprocate the action without adding another puncture wound to the list of injuries. It hit me during this interaction that she posessed a nose, and that human noses were really quite awkward to work around in this sort of thing. I had to wonder how people dealt with that typically. Noses. So unwieldy. And then I realised that this could be considered thinking, and tried to derail myself from that train of thought somehow.

Ah yes. I was attempting be as close as possible to her face without causing grievous bodily harm by way of dental punctures. Having re-fixated on that...this was...slightly easier to not think about or analyse. I wondered how long this position was to be maintained for on average, after noticing that I hadn't breathed since contact was initiated, since my mouth was otherwise indisposed at the moment leaving me with precious few mechanisms by which to suck oxygen.

That thought having occurred to me, I pulled away, slightly out of breath. "Nobody is bleeding this time." I noted.

Inque

"Yes, very good." I sit back, knees folded in front of me. Had to breathe...what a bother. Biological processes were always such a bother.

Edgar:

"It occurs to me that you have a nose...Noses are cumbersome." I stated, uncertain as to what exactly the next accepted action is in this kind of situation. I continued simply sitting there, wondering what exactly was going to occur next.

Inque

"Not normally..." I laugh, leaning back against my pillow on the arm of the couch. "And you don't. Breathing is bothersome," I say back, just to state the obvious like him. "You like the amazing thing known as a couch?"

Edgar:

"Breathing is indeed annoying." I concurred.

I briefly wondered why exactly she was bringing attention to the furniture. It occurred to me that that could have been some kind of...innuendo or something, though I didn't want to misinterpret the question. It could have been completely innocuous for all I knew. "The couch is indeed a decent piece of furniture." I replied, arching a brow muscle hopefully as if to inquire as to which interpretation of that I was suppoused to be understanding.

Inque

Classy, overly polite, odd man... Shame they couldn't have umbrellas here; he'd double as a freakishly tall Penguin. A bit more on the polite side still. "Would you like to attempt, or will I be initiating everything in public places?" I question.

Edgar:

...Well. That was a question. Initiating things. I suppoused that that wouldn't look quite right if she was always the one to start this...affection stuff. "I suppouse it would be prudent to learn both sides of this...indeed." I informed her.

It was ten that it struck me that she wasn't really sitting next to me anymore, so much as lying on the sofa. ...Can I really simply... just...? It seems as though it would be wrong in some way to simply initiate while she's lying down, I mean...unless that was...intended...somehow? Perhaps the invitation to initiate was some kind of...statement with double meaning?

"What exactly is the meaning of your current...horizontal position, if any?" I inquired prior to initiating anything.