[ wherever annie has planted herself, she'll find a cup of starbucks coffee sitting in front of her - used almost as a barrier for the guy who plants himself across from her.
from anyone else it'd be creepy - but marco was assigned on this project to work with her by the professor in their class.
marco doesn't know a lot about annie, still. he got into this time slot because jean was in it - and as much as jean claimed he was beyond needing friends in class, it had still bothered him that he and marco didn't share many classes in common. he was aware of her, at first - quiet but always with thoughtful answers.
he had tried to be friendly but, finding it rebuffed, had given her space. at least, until this project. he wasn't trying to be her friend but - he'd managed to get some things out of her. like what type of coffee (or tea) she preferred in the early mornings.
marco sips his own - a latte, pumpkin, because yes he is a basic white girl deep in his heart - and begins pulling out his notes. at least annie seems to do the work for the project - last time he'd worked with jean he'd nearly torn his own hair out. ]
How are you doing?
[ he knows she tends to sleep worse on the nights leading up to full moons. well, no, he doesn't know what because he's asked. but he notices she looks more tired, and she's quieter. ]
[ she glances up, blinking as if she hadn't expected him in that moment, or as if in finding him there, there's something to puzzle over in the interim. she reaches for the cup with a flicking wave of her fingers; chai latte, watered down, soy. a pleasing mixture of spices without being too sweet, or as close to it as one can come from starbucks. marco's name is written on the side, with a smile drawn into the "oh."
all things considered, she prefers peets, but she didn't pay, and arguing semantics is a waste of time. she's already on higher alert as the moon waxes full, balancing everything against her coursework and only procrastinating what she could afford to hold off on. this project wasn't one of those things. which benefits marco, as it turns out; annie's own notes are between a book tucked into her messenger bag and the thin tablet resting with its keyboard covering the surface on the table to her side. ]
Hmm? [ she'd heard his question, still examining it for a why. marco was one of those people who noticed things about others, was incessantly nosy, in her books, and pried without seeming to realise it was what he was constantly doing.
she answers the question, tipping her tablet open. ]
I finished summarising from the primary sources I pulled from the library last time. I can send you the full file if you like.
[ answers the question, just not in the way he asked. she taps a finger on the lid of the drink still sitting between them, one of many walls that exist in her world. ]
Cute.
[ twisting it around and indicating with a lazy sweep of her finger that smile in his "oh." her fingers slide down the sides of the cup, over the cardboard slip-cover to keep her hands from overheating. then it's in hand, and she's ready for the calories, already burning through too many too fast being this close to a shift. ]
[ the blue-haired guy always spells his name marc😀h, and
puts the smile in there. it has long since stopped to bother marco, since
he appreciates the sentiment. peets is just a hair further from the campus,
and therefore marco thoughtlessly defaults to starbucks.
she doesn't answer the question - but then, marco didn't really
expect her to truthfully answer it. it's one of his nice (nosy) questions
he presents to her every so often, and sometimes can figure out something
from an answer or the lack of one.
he glances over her tablet, then to her as she indicates the smiley
face, and he gives an artful shrug. ]
Kaiden's cute.
[ a noncommittal answer. ]
If you can send me the file, I'll see where we can work in some quotes.
[ a gentle yawn, smothered into a wrist. ] I finished the
powerpoint, if you want me to send it to you.
[ he moves to pull out his own, slightly battered laptop from his
bag. it has stickers plastered over parts of it, some fading and some
newer. ]
[ annie, she of no opinions about kaiden. regardless, she inclines her head forward to answer his not-quite-query, taking a sip of her chai as her other hand taps on her tablet screen. her eyes close for a moment, a small, pleased sound catching in the back of her throat after her first swallow. warm, delicious, not as sweet as last time. good.
she takes another sip, opens her eyes, and taps on the screen to bring up her browser. ]
Sure, you can send it back after I've sent this over. Address?
[ one hand hovers over her keyboard. the other continues to hold her chai; she's unlikely to set it down now that it's in her grasp and filling her stomach. how much worse would this be if she hadn't had breakfast? her eyes wander, examining stickers on the back of his laptop's monitor, seeing if she recognised any of them. her only decorations tended to be the patches from national parks she'd been picking up since her teen years. a few of them were hand stitched on to her messenger bag, hanging off the back of her chair. ]
[ marco asked him to make it a little less sweeter this time - and it seems it worked out. he smiles a little bit as she makes a small sound drinking it, taking another sip of his own as his computer boots up.
it's covered in a variety of stickers. some are very cute, indicative of littler siblings. some look like they're from 25 cent machines, the kind of thing you spend money on for a particular sticker and give the others to a friend. some look like bands, or organizations marco was a part of or supported (jinae lacrosse team?).
he gives her his email address, and then as she looks down to send it, he pulls something else out of his backpack as the computer finishes booting. this is a few breakfast bars - partly because he needs them, partly because if he leaves them there he knows annie might eat one. ]
I forgot to grab breakfast... and I don't really like what they have at starbucks.
[ the faint scent of toast says one part of that is a lie. ]
[ the lacrosse sticker leaves her idly wondering about nets and balls (trademarks of so many sports) before she's back to her one handed typing, filling in the to line and attaching her digital notes. it's a link to a folder on her drive, along with an attached file uploaded with her refined list and suggestions for review.
she taps send. his array of breakfast bars merits a glance and a moment's pause; that faint scent of toast is enough to leave her tipping her head just slightly to the side in silent consideration. she takes another sip of the chai, then twists around to work the book out of her messenger bag with her other hand. ]
It's the most important meal of the day.
[ she says, a touch dry, like it's a memory of something said so often to her repeating it now is a reflex. ]
I've sent the email. [ then with a flick of her eyes to the breakfast bars as she sets the book down on the table, sliding it his way; ] Are you planning on eating all of them?
[ she suspects this is another bridging offer without being offered, like the chai. annie isn't sure how she feels about it. the fingers of her free hand twitch, and she feels the weight of her hood at the back of her neck. instead of giving in to tugging on her hoodie's strings, she reaches out, tapping the nail of her index finger on the edge of a shiny wrapper. she quirks up an eyebrow, leaving her question non-verbal.
they have a project to finish. if she's curious as to what motivates him to be how he is, it's mild enough a curiosity that she's more willing to engage. or else she's restless, and she knows that's also true. this close to the full moon leaves her poorly at peace in her own skin. getting out with everyone heading to the nearby mountains to camp for the next few nights is going to be a very welcome relief. ]
I was hoping we'd get this done before the weekend hits.
[ he thanks her for the email, which is already in his inbox by the time he opens his browser. he clicks open both links, then starts a reply to her email - attaching the powerpoint and the essay they've been working on and editing back and forth. ]
And no, not all of them. Feel free to have a couple.
[ as if, honestly, that wasn't his intention. he does reach out to snag the one with peanut butter listed as its flavor, pulling that over to himself.
the time deadline, though. has him quirking an eyebrow up. ]
I mean, we're on track to have it done before then. The powerpoint is pretty easy to follow - as long as we know who's handling what slide, I'm not too worried about memorizing a script or anything.
You've got plans?
[ again, a curious question, one she can answer and not elaborate. he gets the two files attached and shoots them off to her. ]
[ she idly observes he takes a peanut butter one, a superficial glance at the one she pulls closer reading something about nuts and berries. she leaves it to the side of her tablet, sipping at her chai again and shifting in her seat. ]
Camping. Out near Big Sur.
[ north of their school, and closer to the coastline. all national forest and big redwoods and marine layer that burned off late in the day. she loves it.
his email pops up as her browser refreshes. annie taps over it, then downloads the files. ]
Did we want to stick with alternating at the start, then dividing things into the middle and ending sections before we take questions?
[ opening up the powerpoint, her eyes skim over the first few slides. ]
Oh, sounds fun. If you need any recommendations, my family and I have a spot we hit up every summer.
[ an if, because she probably already knows where she's going. it's also almost a backwards comment on the time of year it is - not really the time that camping is known to be big that way.
as for her question, he considers it, as he reads over what she's sent. ]
Sounds good to me. Gives us time to establish what we're talking about, keep people engaged as much as we can.
[ because listen: powerpoint presentation, someone is going to sleep through it for sure. ]
... I'll keep that in mind for when it's summer again.
[ there are hard core campers. annie style campers. rain or shine or mid-winter, sometimes you have to camp... or rent a cabin in the woods. annie's old enough to pull that one off on her own now, but camping's been a tradition (and a far more affordable one) for years. ]
Fall and winter grounds tend to be different things.
[ she scrolls further down, bringing one of the slides full screen to read the quote and two dates relevant on page. all nicely laid out, simple bulletpoints, quick to read. optimal powerpoint presentation layout. the professor would appreciate it, if no one else did. ]
We could try candy too. [ it's so deadpan it's hard to tell if she's serious or not. ] Feed everyone and then have an excuse to toss things at anyone nodding off.
[ or maybe that's just her. she exits the full screen view, skimming through the rest of the slides to get to the end. ]
I suppose that'd be true. [ he laughs gently. ] Clearly
we're just summer campers.
[ a little abashed, but not making a big deal out of it. marco knows
his family definitely falls under casual, though they've got the packing
and storing down to an art. at least they aren't glamping, he thinks
internally.
he's reading through her sources and quotes. they're correct, and
appropriate - nothing added to pad a statement. she's quite good at picking
out the meat of a subject, and he appreciates it.
he laughs. ]
Easy engagement treat and a weapon all in one. I kind of like it.
[ don't be surprise if he comes in with a bag of hard candies now.
]
If you ever wanted to change that, you could try talking to Sasha and Connie. They're not much for the backpacking, but they're good campers.
[ they are, in fact, who she's heading out with, but they're easy to slip away from and keep themselves entertained in their own pursuits. saves on costs for camping and park passes, as well as the gas. practicalities rule many things in her life.
this is entirely the reason behind her suggestion. hard candies are inexpensive. they also last a long time. if marco follows through on that, it'll be a pleasant, somewhat amusing surprise. ]
Aside from updating a few of the slides, everything looks good. Did you want to incorporate those, or should I?
[ still sipping at her chai, over half done now. she'll get around to the breakfast bar afterward. ]
Really? I might hit them up about that at some point.
[ the fact that she suggested the candies means he probably will - get a pack of jolly ranchers or something. those are all right.
he takes another drink of his latte, willing the caffeine to get his brain firing on all cylinders again, and when she mentions updating the slides, he gives a little nod. ]
If you don't mind. I'll add in the sources to our paper and send that over too.
[ she makes a noise of acknowledgement, returning her attention to the tablet. she finally sets down the chai, rolling her wrist and settling into switching tabs, highlighting sections out of her still open documents, then pasting them in where they need to be. it takes her longer when some of the formatting needs adjusting, but she's quietly getting through it, on occasion reaching for her chai and taking a sip as she goes.
she has it done before too long, closing her eyes and sighing as she saves and sends the presentation back to marco. ]
Should be done. Give it a look through in case the formatting screwed up in transmission, but beyond that, we should be good.
[ she finally makes a move for that breakfast bar she claimed earlier, neatly opening it and peeling the wrapper back. before she takes a bite, she offers: ]
I can handle the middle part of it. You'll be better for the lead in to the conclusion and Q and A session.
[ in her rather blunt opinion. he's got a more natural charm and charisma with people that she lacks. ]
[ thankfully, marco had notes for where the sources needed to go. he goes about finding them and inserting them where they should be.
it's going to take a bit longer, and when annie sends the document back, he gives a little noise of acknowledgement, pausing in what he's doing to open that up. ]
I'll take a peek. I should have this done in a little bit.
[ when she mentions him handling the lead and the conclusion, he looks up at her. she's not exactly wrong that he's got less of a problem speaking to large groups - although it's by no means the best. ]
Sure, I can do that. I don't mind warming the crowd up.
[ she quips back, settling into her chair with the chai (again) and the rest of the breakfast bar. she looks more relaxed, as if something under her skin has let go of the tension it was holding. it's the project in part; it's the moon so close to full in another, but it relaxes the dark shadows under her eyes until they look less dour, more the consequence of poor sleep. ]
No, I'm pretty sure they're big enough to tuck themselves in.
[ marco gives a little snort - some of them sure as hell don't act like it, though. the only people he tucks in are his little siblings and sometimes, a drunk as hell jean or eren.
she looks a little more relaxed, though, which marco is happy about. ]
You could always offer to drop kick them into sleep.
I think that's called knocking them out, Marco. There's a subtle difference.
[ she holds up her chai, tapping a finger against its side. ]
One that benefits from having paramedics on hand to check for brain damage.
[ she's far more precise than all that, because an important skill in her life is the ability to incapacitate someone without killing them, as quickly and efficiently as possible. still. there's a hint of a smile curling up the corner of her mouth, her eyes half closing as she has no immediate need to do for the time being. ]
Besides, terrifying the class isn't going to make them listen any better. It'll just make them twitchy anytime I move.
[ people do that enough, responding to a subconscious knowledge that she was a predator in a far more literal sense than was usually applied. she'd never killed a human, never eaten one, but the basis of everything she was meant that was a matter of her willpower and sense of self possession, not a lack of potential. ]
Mmm, I don't know. I feel like a few of them could stand to get knocked out.
[ marco is endlessly patient. but even he has his limits, of course. either way, he covers up the real desire to see someone take a dirtnap with a grin, reaching down to finish off his drink. ]
Twitchier, you mean.
[ because he's noticed. people are intimidated by her presence - marco is no exception, even now. ]
[ she says, unconcerned with exactly how bad that joke, of all things, is. Marco's observation merits a small shrug from Annie, and no evidence of her being apologetic for that particular truth. people are twitchy around her. she doesn't precisely try to make it worse. most the time. ]
Twitchier. Either way, I'm glad we agree you make a better front man.
I've been friends with Jean for a while. You get used to smoothing over sharp edges, and it pays off in the public speaking department.
[ jean being jean. marco loves him, he does, but he is still jean and all that encompasses.
he finishes up adding in the sources, sending that back to her to look over. he taps his fingers, opening up a browser window, and a little notification makes him make a noise of consideration. ]
You'll at least have fun camping. Supposed to be clear visibility for the full moon.
[ she lifts an eyebrow at that, all things considered, her small smile fading. ]
Which means reduced visibility of the milky way. I'll be in the forests. They're not known for conveniently placed meadows to go full moon gazing in. Besides, why would I do that on my own at night?
[ she's not looking his way anymore, though she certainly does go out those nights. it's a freedom and a sirens call both at once, moonlight silvering golden fur. ]
[ he seems a little surprised at her change in tone, but he arches his own eyebrow. ]
I just meant you won't have any trouble seeing at night. The full moon at night is practically like a little sun, especially with no city lights around.
[ he may have tread onto a delicate subject here, he notes. ]
Anyway, I'll be looking at the full moon. It's always fun to spot it.
If you don't make yourself night blind, you shouldn't have too much trouble on most nights.
[ Though all this is more of a quiet statement than anything else, she taps on her tablet, then folds it down onto the keyboard. ]
It'll be rising earlier at night, anyway. Shouldn't be too hard to see it once it clears the horizon.
[ she'd actually prefer to stare at the milky way. in some ways, the fact she's often preoccupied by natural compulsions around the full moon makes her preferences for the new moon understandable, but also: the milky way is stunning. she likes having something so immeasurably vast to prove her own insignificance. she can find her own meanings and know she's not out there, making any fucked up impact on the world.
as you do. ]
I should be heading out. If there's anything else you remember or need, send me an email. I'll have my phone with me this weekend, too, but no promises for what connectivity there is up in the mountains.
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look i know she's a cougar but werewolf aesthetics are easier
[ wherever annie has planted herself, she'll find a cup of starbucks coffee sitting in front of her - used almost as a barrier for the guy who plants himself across from her.
from anyone else it'd be creepy - but marco was assigned on this project to work with her by the professor in their class.
marco doesn't know a lot about annie, still. he got into this time slot because jean was in it - and as much as jean claimed he was beyond needing friends in class, it had still bothered him that he and marco didn't share many classes in common. he was aware of her, at first - quiet but always with thoughtful answers.
he had tried to be friendly but, finding it rebuffed, had given her space. at least, until this project. he wasn't trying to be her friend but - he'd managed to get some things out of her. like what type of coffee (or tea) she preferred in the early mornings.
marco sips his own - a latte, pumpkin, because yes he is a basic white girl deep in his heart - and begins pulling out his notes. at least annie seems to do the work for the project - last time he'd worked with jean he'd nearly torn his own hair out. ]
How are you doing?
[ he knows she tends to sleep worse on the nights leading up to full moons. well, no, he doesn't know what because he's asked. but he notices she looks more tired, and she's quieter. ]
we accept all predators here okay
all things considered, she prefers peets, but she didn't pay, and arguing semantics is a waste of time. she's already on higher alert as the moon waxes full, balancing everything against her coursework and only procrastinating what she could afford to hold off on. this project wasn't one of those things. which benefits marco, as it turns out; annie's own notes are between a book tucked into her messenger bag and the thin tablet resting with its keyboard covering the surface on the table to her side. ]
Hmm? [ she'd heard his question, still examining it for a why. marco was one of those people who noticed things about others, was incessantly nosy, in her books, and pried without seeming to realise it was what he was constantly doing.
she answers the question, tipping her tablet open. ]
I finished summarising from the primary sources I pulled from the library last time. I can send you the full file if you like.
[ answers the question, just not in the way he asked. she taps a finger on the lid of the drink still sitting between them, one of many walls that exist in her world. ]
Cute.
[ twisting it around and indicating with a lazy sweep of her finger that smile in his "oh." her fingers slide down the sides of the cup, over the cardboard slip-cover to keep her hands from overheating. then it's in hand, and she's ready for the calories, already burning through too many too fast being this close to a shift. ]
Thanks.
no subject
[ the blue-haired guy always spells his name marc😀h, and puts the smile in there. it has long since stopped to bother marco, since he appreciates the sentiment. peets is just a hair further from the campus, and therefore marco thoughtlessly defaults to starbucks.
she doesn't answer the question - but then, marco didn't really expect her to truthfully answer it. it's one of his nice (nosy) questions he presents to her every so often, and sometimes can figure out something from an answer or the lack of one.
he glances over her tablet, then to her as she indicates the smiley face, and he gives an artful shrug. ]
Kaiden's cute.
[ a noncommittal answer. ]
If you can send me the file, I'll see where we can work in some quotes. [ a gentle yawn, smothered into a wrist. ] I finished the powerpoint, if you want me to send it to you.
[ he moves to pull out his own, slightly battered laptop from his bag. it has stickers plastered over parts of it, some fading and some newer. ]
no subject
[ annie, she of no opinions about kaiden. regardless, she inclines her head forward to answer his not-quite-query, taking a sip of her chai as her other hand taps on her tablet screen. her eyes close for a moment, a small, pleased sound catching in the back of her throat after her first swallow. warm, delicious, not as sweet as last time. good.
she takes another sip, opens her eyes, and taps on the screen to bring up her browser. ]
Sure, you can send it back after I've sent this over. Address?
[ one hand hovers over her keyboard. the other continues to hold her chai; she's unlikely to set it down now that it's in her grasp and filling her stomach. how much worse would this be if she hadn't had breakfast? her eyes wander, examining stickers on the back of his laptop's monitor, seeing if she recognised any of them. her only decorations tended to be the patches from national parks she'd been picking up since her teen years. a few of them were hand stitched on to her messenger bag, hanging off the back of her chair. ]
no subject
it's covered in a variety of stickers. some are very cute, indicative of littler siblings. some look like they're from 25 cent machines, the kind of thing you spend money on for a particular sticker and give the others to a friend. some look like bands, or organizations marco was a part of or supported (jinae lacrosse team?).
he gives her his email address, and then as she looks down to send it, he pulls something else out of his backpack as the computer finishes booting. this is a few breakfast bars - partly because he needs them, partly because if he leaves them there he knows annie might eat one. ]
I forgot to grab breakfast... and I don't really like what they have at starbucks.
[ the faint scent of toast says one part of that is a lie. ]
no subject
she taps send. his array of breakfast bars merits a glance and a moment's pause; that faint scent of toast is enough to leave her tipping her head just slightly to the side in silent consideration. she takes another sip of the chai, then twists around to work the book out of her messenger bag with her other hand. ]
It's the most important meal of the day.
[ she says, a touch dry, like it's a memory of something said so often to her repeating it now is a reflex. ]
I've sent the email. [ then with a flick of her eyes to the breakfast bars as she sets the book down on the table, sliding it his way; ] Are you planning on eating all of them?
[ she suspects this is another bridging offer without being offered, like the chai. annie isn't sure how she feels about it. the fingers of her free hand twitch, and she feels the weight of her hood at the back of her neck. instead of giving in to tugging on her hoodie's strings, she reaches out, tapping the nail of her index finger on the edge of a shiny wrapper. she quirks up an eyebrow, leaving her question non-verbal.
they have a project to finish. if she's curious as to what motivates him to be how he is, it's mild enough a curiosity that she's more willing to engage. or else she's restless, and she knows that's also true. this close to the full moon leaves her poorly at peace in her own skin. getting out with everyone heading to the nearby mountains to camp for the next few nights is going to be a very welcome relief. ]
I was hoping we'd get this done before the weekend hits.
no subject
[ he thanks her for the email, which is already in his inbox by the time he opens his browser. he clicks open both links, then starts a reply to her email - attaching the powerpoint and the essay they've been working on and editing back and forth. ]
And no, not all of them. Feel free to have a couple.
[ as if, honestly, that wasn't his intention. he does reach out to snag the one with peanut butter listed as its flavor, pulling that over to himself.
the time deadline, though. has him quirking an eyebrow up. ]
I mean, we're on track to have it done before then. The powerpoint is pretty easy to follow - as long as we know who's handling what slide, I'm not too worried about memorizing a script or anything.
You've got plans?
[ again, a curious question, one she can answer and not elaborate. he gets the two files attached and shoots them off to her. ]
no subject
Camping. Out near Big Sur.
[ north of their school, and closer to the coastline. all national forest and big redwoods and marine layer that burned off late in the day. she loves it.
his email pops up as her browser refreshes. annie taps over it, then downloads the files. ]
Did we want to stick with alternating at the start, then dividing things into the middle and ending sections before we take questions?
[ opening up the powerpoint, her eyes skim over the first few slides. ]
no subject
[ an if, because she probably already knows where she's going. it's also almost a backwards comment on the time of year it is - not really the time that camping is known to be big that way.
as for her question, he considers it, as he reads over what she's sent. ]
Sounds good to me. Gives us time to establish what we're talking about, keep people engaged as much as we can.
[ because listen: powerpoint presentation, someone is going to sleep through it for sure. ]
no subject
[ there are hard core campers. annie style campers. rain or shine or mid-winter, sometimes you have to camp... or rent a cabin in the woods. annie's old enough to pull that one off on her own now, but camping's been a tradition (and a far more affordable one) for years. ]
Fall and winter grounds tend to be different things.
[ she scrolls further down, bringing one of the slides full screen to read the quote and two dates relevant on page. all nicely laid out, simple bulletpoints, quick to read. optimal powerpoint presentation layout. the professor would appreciate it, if no one else did. ]
We could try candy too. [ it's so deadpan it's hard to tell if she's serious or not. ] Feed everyone and then have an excuse to toss things at anyone nodding off.
[ or maybe that's just her. she exits the full screen view, skimming through the rest of the slides to get to the end. ]
no subject
I suppose that'd be true. [ he laughs gently. ] Clearly we're just summer campers.
[ a little abashed, but not making a big deal out of it. marco knows his family definitely falls under casual, though they've got the packing and storing down to an art. at least they aren't glamping, he thinks internally.
he's reading through her sources and quotes. they're correct, and appropriate - nothing added to pad a statement. she's quite good at picking out the meat of a subject, and he appreciates it.
he laughs. ]
Easy engagement treat and a weapon all in one. I kind of like it.
[ don't be surprise if he comes in with a bag of hard candies now. ]
no subject
[ they are, in fact, who she's heading out with, but they're easy to slip away from and keep themselves entertained in their own pursuits. saves on costs for camping and park passes, as well as the gas. practicalities rule many things in her life.
this is entirely the reason behind her suggestion. hard candies are inexpensive. they also last a long time. if marco follows through on that, it'll be a pleasant, somewhat amusing surprise. ]
Aside from updating a few of the slides, everything looks good. Did you want to incorporate those, or should I?
[ still sipping at her chai, over half done now. she'll get around to the breakfast bar afterward. ]
no subject
[ the fact that she suggested the candies means he probably will - get a pack of jolly ranchers or something. those are all right.
he takes another drink of his latte, willing the caffeine to get his brain firing on all cylinders again, and when she mentions updating the slides, he gives a little nod. ]
If you don't mind. I'll add in the sources to our paper and send that over too.
no subject
she has it done before too long, closing her eyes and sighing as she saves and sends the presentation back to marco. ]
Should be done. Give it a look through in case the formatting screwed up in transmission, but beyond that, we should be good.
[ she finally makes a move for that breakfast bar she claimed earlier, neatly opening it and peeling the wrapper back. before she takes a bite, she offers: ]
I can handle the middle part of it. You'll be better for the lead in to the conclusion and Q and A session.
[ in her rather blunt opinion. he's got a more natural charm and charisma with people that she lacks. ]
no subject
it's going to take a bit longer, and when annie sends the document back, he gives a little noise of acknowledgement, pausing in what he's doing to open that up. ]
I'll take a peek. I should have this done in a little bit.
[ when she mentions him handling the lead and the conclusion, he looks up at her. she's not exactly wrong that he's got less of a problem speaking to large groups - although it's by no means the best. ]
Sure, I can do that. I don't mind warming the crowd up.
[ he's teasing, just a little. ]
no subject
[ she quips back, settling into her chair with the chai (again) and the rest of the breakfast bar. she looks more relaxed, as if something under her skin has let go of the tension it was holding. it's the project in part; it's the moon so close to full in another, but it relaxes the dark shadows under her eyes until they look less dour, more the consequence of poor sleep. ]
no subject
[ marco gives a little snort - some of them sure as hell don't act like it, though. the only people he tucks in are his little siblings and sometimes, a drunk as hell jean or eren.
she looks a little more relaxed, though, which marco is happy about. ]
You could always offer to drop kick them into sleep.
no subject
[ she holds up her chai, tapping a finger against its side. ]
One that benefits from having paramedics on hand to check for brain damage.
[ she's far more precise than all that, because an important skill in her life is the ability to incapacitate someone without killing them, as quickly and efficiently as possible. still. there's a hint of a smile curling up the corner of her mouth, her eyes half closing as she has no immediate need to do for the time being. ]
Besides, terrifying the class isn't going to make them listen any better. It'll just make them twitchy anytime I move.
[ people do that enough, responding to a subconscious knowledge that she was a predator in a far more literal sense than was usually applied. she'd never killed a human, never eaten one, but the basis of everything she was meant that was a matter of her willpower and sense of self possession, not a lack of potential. ]
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[ marco is endlessly patient. but even he has his limits, of course. either way, he covers up the real desire to see someone take a dirtnap with a grin, reaching down to finish off his drink. ]
Twitchier, you mean.
[ because he's noticed. people are intimidated by her presence - marco is no exception, even now. ]
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[ she says, unconcerned with exactly how bad that joke, of all things, is. Marco's observation merits a small shrug from Annie, and no evidence of her being apologetic for that particular truth. people are twitchy around her. she doesn't precisely try to make it worse. most the time. ]
Twitchier. Either way, I'm glad we agree you make a better front man.
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[ jean being jean. marco loves him, he does, but he is still jean and all that encompasses.
he finishes up adding in the sources, sending that back to her to look over. he taps his fingers, opening up a browser window, and a little notification makes him make a noise of consideration. ]
You'll at least have fun camping. Supposed to be clear visibility for the full moon.
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Which means reduced visibility of the milky way. I'll be in the forests. They're not known for conveniently placed meadows to go full moon gazing in. Besides, why would I do that on my own at night?
[ she's not looking his way anymore, though she certainly does go out those nights. it's a freedom and a sirens call both at once, moonlight silvering golden fur. ]
What kind of girl do you think I am?
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I just meant you won't have any trouble seeing at night. The full moon at night is practically like a little sun, especially with no city lights around.
[ he may have tread onto a delicate subject here, he notes. ]
Anyway, I'll be looking at the full moon. It's always fun to spot it.
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[ Though all this is more of a quiet statement than anything else, she taps on her tablet, then folds it down onto the keyboard. ]
It'll be rising earlier at night, anyway. Shouldn't be too hard to see it once it clears the horizon.
[ she'd actually prefer to stare at the milky way. in some ways, the fact she's often preoccupied by natural compulsions around the full moon makes her preferences for the new moon understandable, but also: the milky way is stunning. she likes having something so immeasurably vast to prove her own insignificance. she can find her own meanings and know she's not out there, making any fucked up impact on the world.
as you do. ]
I should be heading out. If there's anything else you remember or need, send me an email. I'll have my phone with me this weekend, too, but no promises for what connectivity there is up in the mountains.