Lexi/Harken -HOT SINGLES IN YOUR AREA

[03:02] <abrasiveCaliginist> ==START!==
[03:02]  * abrasiveCaliginist has unblocked strikingBelladonna
[03:03] <abrasiveCaliginist> I have decided that, since I have come so far and killed so many for the opportunity of speaking with you, I may as well take advantage of it.
[03:04] <strikingBelladonna> That's called the sunk cost fallacy.
[03:04] <strikingBelladonna> I wouldn't let it fool you, I'm terribly uninteresting.
[03:04] <abrasiveCaliginist> And yet, you're all I have for the present.
[03:05] <strikingBelladonna> My, the way you talk, I'm liable to blush beet red.
[03:05] <abrasiveCaliginist> Don't get the wrong idea, kiddo.
[03:05] <abrasiveCaliginist> It's a sort of terrible, cowardly boredom that drives this.
[03:05] <abrasiveCaliginist> Not some flushed feelings.
[03:05] <strikingBelladonna> Weirdly defensive about that, huh?
[03:06] <abrasiveCaliginist> I won't fall into that trap so easily this time.
[03:06] <strikingBelladonna> ...
[03:06] <abrasiveCaliginist> No, I'm not weirdly defensive.
[03:07] <strikingBelladonna> Alright, no need to defend yourself, I won't judge your strange blush fetish.
[03:07] <abrasiveCaliginist> Blush fetish?
[03:07] <abrasiveCaliginist> How does one have a fetish for a facial expression?
[03:08] <strikingBelladonna> I would have asked you the same question, but I assumed it would be rude, which I would never be to you.
[03:08] <abrasiveCaliginist> Clearly, you missed an opportunity to bridge the cultural gap between our species by failing to do so.
[03:09] <abrasiveCaliginist> For shame. Never be afraid to ask questions, kiddo.
[03:09] <strikingBelladonna> I will be certain to flog myself most harshly in the closet afterwards then.
[03:09] <strikingBelladonna> But, in an effort to rectify this most grievous of errors, I will ask you, "How does one have a fetish for a facial expression?"
[03:09] <abrasiveCaliginist> That sarcastic gimmick of yours has gotten old, girl, and it's unbecoming of you, anyway.
[03:10] <abrasiveCaliginist> When did I ever express a fetish for facial expressions, anyway?
[03:11] <strikingBelladonna> You felt the need to explain that you weren't doing this because of some flushed feelings after I said you were liable to make me blush.
[03:11] <abrasiveCaliginist> Ah.
[03:11] <abrasiveCaliginist> I don't feel like explaining flushed relationships to you. Not really.
[03:12] <abrasiveCaliginist> Because then I have to get into the entire system, and that's rather tedious.
[03:12] <strikingBelladonna> Oh drat, and here I was hoping you would be nice and condescending about alien romance.
[03:13] <strikingBelladonna> However shall I feel inferior to you now?
[03:13] <abrasiveCaliginist> I don't know. Don't much care, either. You do you, kid. I'm just sorting staring at the screen now, and wondering how long you thought this would be funny.
[03:14] <abrasiveCaliginist> Don't you do anything else? Or is it all histrionics to you?
[03:14] <strikingBelladonna> I assure you, this is all there is to my personality.
[03:14] <abrasiveCaliginist> More sarcasm. How trite.
[03:15] <strikingBelladonna> That was not sarcasm at all.
[03:15] <abrasiveCaliginist> I don't believe you.
[03:16] <strikingBelladonna> In truth, I am nothing more than a soulless shell of a girl, thrusting sarcasm at any who would attempt to get close as a way of protecting the fragile remains of what was once a personality.
[03:16] <strikingBelladonna> Mine is a tragic existence, and you should do everything in your power to break through my defenses and woo me back into livelihood.
[03:17] <abrasiveCaliginist> What, you're attempting to drive me away? Don't blame you. Doesn't mean I'll go, though. It's just.... Getting so easy to hate you.
[03:17] <abrasiveCaliginist> Look at all this garbage.
[03:17] <abrasiveCaliginist> Yesterday it flustered me, but today it's just... Irritating.
[03:17] <strikingBelladonna> I'm so sorry.
[03:17] <abrasiveCaliginist> No you're not.
[03:18] <abrasiveCaliginist> To be fair, I'm rarely ever sorry, myself.
[03:19] <strikingBelladonna> Out of curiosity, since you're right that was getting boring, how do you want this interaction to go?
[03:19] <abrasiveCaliginist> I have no clue.
[03:19] <abrasiveCaliginist> I figured some sort of discourse would develop as we spoke.
[03:20] <strikingBelladonna> So, you fought your way through God knows what, captured some sort of item that let you speak with someone across the universe and have since been avoiding the authorities, so you could *talk*?
[03:21] <abrasiveCaliginist> No. Talking has become a consequence of avoiding capture; there is nothing else to do.
[03:21] <strikingBelladonna> Nothing besides talking to me?
[03:22] <abrasiveCaliginist> No. Not really. The journal is full. The other artifacts, I've lost. I don't drink. I don't smoke. And I don't have much to eat, either.
[03:23] <strikingBelladonna> Well then, you truly do have my apologies.
[03:23] <abrasiveCaliginist> Perhaps. This comes with many exiles, however. If you get yourself kicked out of an institution, you usually don't make friends in the process.
[03:23] <strikingBelladonna> I would have expected someone pretending to be an alien to woo some random girl would've at least chosen a better one.
[03:24] <abrasiveCaliginist> How you figure?
[03:24] <strikingBelladonna> Well, you're not particularly interesting, you're just a mean spirited criminal who's driven himself away from everyone except some girl he'll never meet.
[03:25] <strikingBelladonna> I can only assume you're supposed to invoke pity.
[03:26] <abrasiveCaliginist> Maybe. Again, though: I don't much care. Half the punks in the world want a shot at Harken Sirius, the Devil of the Wastes.
[03:26] <strikingBelladonna> A literal shot, I presume.
[03:26] <abrasiveCaliginist> Precisely. And who am I to turn down a loser with a death wish?
[03:27] <strikingBelladonna> Someone far too magnanimous to do so, obviously.
[03:27] <abrasiveCaliginist> Hmph. Says you. They want a fight, they get one. The ticket price is the same for all comers.
[03:28] <strikingBelladonna> So, Harken Sirius, the Devil of the Wastes, considering I am spectacularly bored at the moment, why don't you regale me with some stories of your prowess?
[03:28] <abrasiveCaliginist> Hm. Instead, I'll give them to you in a sort of... Quid pro quo.
[03:29] <abrasiveCaliginist> You give me something. I'll give you something.
[03:29] <strikingBelladonna> Oh? And what would you like?
[03:30] <abrasiveCaliginist> I'm a fighter. I see a sword in the corner of your room. I assume, then, that it's for more than show. You must be fighter, too.
[03:31] <strikingBelladonna> What observative prowess you have.
[03:31] <strikingBelladonna> Yes, I am a fighter.
[03:32] <abrasiveCaliginist> Cuentame mas.
[03:32] <strikingBelladonna> Is that... Spanish?
[03:33] <abrasiveCaliginist> Spanish? Nah. It's a dialect.
[03:33] <abrasiveCaliginist> They speak it out west of here a lot. "Saludas, amigo."
[03:34] <abrasiveCaliginist> It just means "tell me more", in standard.
[03:34] <strikingBelladonna> Well, I suppose I have nothing else to do but believe you, despite having used a language we use on Earth, which just makes your status as an alien all the more suspect.
[03:35] <abrasiveCaliginist> Earth, eh? Good to know.
[03:37] <strikingBelladonna> As much as I would love to tell you more about myself and my activities, I don't even have a reason to believe you are anything worth speaking of myself to.
[03:39] <strikingBelladonna> Even if you are just some creep trying to flirt with me in a strange roundabout way, I'd feel more comfortable if I at least knew you could spin a yarn.
[03:39] <abrasiveCaliginist> Ugh. Fine.
[03:39] <abrasiveCaliginist> Alright, let's go back. Gotta be at least a sweep now. I haven't been out all that long.
[03:40] <abrasiveCaliginist> I was a pupil. A Grubslinger in the making.
[03:41] <abrasiveCaliginist> I figured I could do no wrong, and for a very long time before, I couldn't. I passed the tests; endurance, strength (that was a close one, though), instinct, and so on.
[03:41] <abrasiveCaliginist> So, it comes time to challenge our teacher to a duel. I picked the ceremonial daggers. I was to fight for my gun and my name.
[03:42] <abrasiveCaliginist> But I lost, and I was to be exiled.
[03:42] <abrasiveCaliginist> Rather than go along with that heap of garbage, I stole my gun, killed my teacher, and ran off, leaving my selected name behind me.
[03:43] <abrasiveCaliginist> So you can see why there are a lot of punks out there who would love to put one in my gut.
[03:43] <strikingBelladonna> Of course.
[03:44] <strikingBelladonna> I have one question.
[03:44] <abrasiveCaliginist> And that is...?
[03:44] <strikingBelladonna> Why would people who sling grubs duel each other with daggers?
[03:45] <abrasiveCaliginist> Because we haven't earned our guns.
[03:45] <strikingBelladonna> That makes no sense, why would you not practice with the weapon you shall be using when you are a pupil?
[03:45] <abrasiveCaliginist> Because we had been practicing them for a sweep and a half.
[03:46] <abrasiveCaliginist> Then it's time to test the pupil without their guns.
[03:46] <strikingBelladonna> So you use guns before you earn them, but your final test is using daggers?
[03:46] <abrasiveCaliginist> The pupil chooses his weapon.
[03:47] <abrasiveCaliginist> I could have chosen a bow and arrow, for all I cared.
[03:47] <abrasiveCaliginist> For all anyone cared.
[03:47] <strikingBelladonna> So why did you not choose guns?
[03:47] <abrasiveCaliginist> Because guns aren't allowed; the pupil is tested without them.
[03:47] <abrasiveCaliginist> Remember?
[03:47] <strikingBelladonna> Yes, but why only guns?
[03:47] <abrasiveCaliginist> We're gunslingers.
[03:48] <strikingBelladonna> You're grubslingers.
[03:48] <abrasiveCaliginist> Yes.
[03:48] <strikingBelladonna> And also gunslingers.
[03:49] <strikingBelladonna> Who are exiled if they are unable to duel their teacher using things which are neither grubs nor guns.
[03:49] <abrasiveCaliginist> A Grubslinger is a gunslinger. A gunslinger is not necessarily a Grubslinger.
[03:49] <abrasiveCaliginist> Clearly, you miss the point on cultural ignorance, but the story is unchanged.
[03:49] <abrasiveCaliginist> I failed, and got kicked out, okay?
[03:50] <abrasiveCaliginist> I reacted... Poorly.
[03:50] <strikingBelladonna> Yes, yes, you killed your teacher and then went on the run as an exile.
[03:52] <strikingBelladonna> But this seems to be a basic flaw of the system. When is your prowess with daggers going to be important enough to exile you if you are unable to measure up to your teacher with them?
[03:52] <abrasiveCaliginist> Should I have picked a different weapon? It makes no difference now.
[03:53] <strikingBelladonna> What does it matter what weapon you had picked? Why is it that it matters so greatly that you are able to best your teacher using a weapon that you are not meant to use in the first place?
[03:54] <abrasiveCaliginist> It matters because the Grubslinger needs to understand that it isn't the gun that makes him, and he needs to realize that, if he can't function without it where it counts, he may as well not be a Grubslinger at all.
[03:55] <abrasiveCaliginist> They used to tell us, in between swearing at us, that ninety percent of being a Grubslinger was the mindset.
[03:55] <strikingBelladonna> Mindset will not win you a fight with a weapon you are unfamiliar with.
[03:56] <strikingBelladonna> If they specifically taught you classes on dagger usage and bow usage and any other weapons that you might have selected, then they are needlessly diversifying their curriculum.
[03:56] <abrasiveCaliginist> I don't know why I'm defending it, anyway. It's not like I have any real attachment or affiliation with it anymore.
[03:56] <strikingBelladonna> And if they did not, then they are offering a test which you could not be prepared for.
[03:57] <strikingBelladonna> I am immensely bothered by this, and I was not even a victim of these inept methods.
[03:57] <abrasiveCaliginist> Hah. Don't go soft on me now. I'm the bad guy, remember?
[03:58] <strikingBelladonna> I think it is perfectly reasonable of you to have killed the teacher, taken the gun, and then burned down the entire building to boot, who would even be able to stand such a foolish establishment.
[03:58] <abrasiveCaliginist> That's better.
[03:59] <strikingBelladonna> Good lord, if I were in your position I would still be seething with rage when the subject was brought up.
[04:00] <abrasiveCaliginist> Yeah, well, I'm not. I think of their deaths as a sort of payment for my hubris.
[04:00] <strikingBelladonna> Well clearly they were not very good grubslingers if they couldn't see a student growing fed up with their system and then killing them for it.
[04:01] <strikingBelladonna> Their hubris was far beyond yours, besides.
[04:02] <strikingBelladonna> Really, did they have no precautions in place for if a student was a little miffed about being exiled for failing a test with a weapon they're not even meant to use?
[04:02] <abrasiveCaliginist> I think I've laid enough of my cards on the table.
[04:03] <abrasiveCaliginist> What about you? You packing aces?
[04:04] <strikingBelladonna> Packing aces?
[04:04] <abrasiveCaliginist> I mean, do you have anything to show, now that my cards are down, so to speak.
[04:05] <strikingBelladonna> Oh, well if you must know, my father is teaching me swordplay.
[04:05] <abrasiveCaliginist> Sou desu ne?
[04:05] <strikingBelladonna> Though he is a far better teacher than any of yours were, from my perspective. Not the least because I have assisted him in writing the curriculum.
[04:06] <abrasiveCaliginist> What is your father like?
[04:06] <strikingBelladonna> He's nice enough, a little goofy though.
[04:07] <strikingBelladonna> I have no idea how he managed without me.
[04:08] <abrasiveCaliginist> I see. But he is, himself, a capable warrior. What sort of assistance would he need in constructing his curriculum?
[04:10] <strikingBelladonna> Just because someone is capable does not mean they are a good teacher.
[04:10] <strikingBelladonna> From the stories he tells, he learnt swordsmanship by slaying demons in the very depths of hell, which is hardly how one should teach a small girl.
[04:11] <abrasiveCaliginist> Demons? There are demons on earth?
[04:11] <strikingBelladonna> Mythical ones.
[04:12] <abrasiveCaliginist> They told stories of demon hunters in training. They were mostly stories of a wanderer who killed a few hundred demons and settled down. Reckon he did so because he was washed up.
[04:12] <abrasiveCaliginist> Grubslingers die with guns in their hands. A death of old age is no death befitting a Grubslinger.
[04:13] <strikingBelladonna> Awful lot of pride for someone who couldn't even graduate.
[04:14] <abrasiveCaliginist> Hm. Perhaps. All of that said, I can't tell if I *want* that violent death, or if I don't believe in the principle anymore.
[04:14] <abrasiveCaliginist> I don't go picking fights, but I certainly don't turn challengers away.
[04:15] <strikingBelladonna> A violent death for violences sake is foolish, if you are to die violently, do it fighting for something that matters.
[04:16] <abrasiveCaliginist> Hm. Dying for the sake of survival sounds terribly ironic, but I suppose it's how many people die.
[04:17] <strikingBelladonna> Of course, really even dying fighting for something is foolish.
[04:17] <strikingBelladonna> You should just win, and then die later.
[04:18] <abrasiveCaliginist> Maybe. Listen, it's getting late, and I'm starting to feel the blood loss, but
[04:18] <abrasiveCaliginist> I can't believe I'm asking this, but
[04:18] <abrasiveCaliginist> Will you be around tomorrow?
[04:19] <strikingBelladonna> Maybe.
[04:19] <abrasiveCaliginist> It's better than no.
[04:20] <strikingBelladonna> That's the spirit.
[04:20]  * abrasiveCaliginist has gone offline.
[04:20] <abrasiveCaliginist> ==END!==