forum The Society of Scientific Improbabilities // oxo // Closed

Started December 27, 2019 by @croccin-champagne

tune

"It's in your face. The lines around your eyes, actually. Too weary for someone our age." Catori said simply, as though she herself didn't look like she knew things that nobody should know. As though she didn't carry secrets in her eyes and careful wisdom in her smile. As though she hadn't seen death and grinned. "I did teach myself. Had to, to know who to bother keeping around and who to ignore and get rid of as fast as possible. Serves me well. Salud." She plucked up Jo's glass, raising it up in the air before setting it down. "I have a fun game. Try taking a guess at some things about either of us. Jo or I. Let's see if you've payed much attention."

Ronan blinked once, twice, and stayed silent. He was like that for a while. At least a good five minutes, his eyes traveling over Catori and Jo multiple times. Then, finally, he spoke. "You have secrets. Many secrets. You've witnessed things some shouldn't ever have to witness. Death, for one. And… I may be wrong on this but although you carry an aura of recklessness, you have a bubble of caution around you… as if you are running away… or towards something." Ronan blinked again, already not liking what he'd picked up from just five minutes of examining Catori. "And… you prefer action over discussion. Violence, indirect or direct even, if necessary," he added, remembering what Jo had said earlier about Catori frequently picking fights with 'guys half her size,' as Jo had put it. "And above all, extremely observant."

Both Catori and Jo stilled. Jo, with the glass halfway to his lips, and Catori with the fork in hand, it's twirling around her fingers coming to a sudden stop. And they were both silent.

Then, slowly, Catori grinned. "You have been paying attention. 'A' plus, darling. But I'd be careful with that, learning how to observe. People don't like you knowing things you shouldn't." She said, her voice taking on an almost purr as she spoke, looking up at him. Those brown eyes glinted slightly, looking darker than they should. "But you're wrong about action. See, I love games. And sometimes, games take a bit of talking." It was funny, how she picked out the safest things to talk about, avoiding the mentions of death and running away. Because she was always running away. Even when running towards something, she was running from something else.

A game. Was she playing a game now? Or was she silently hinting that she was playing another game? A dangerous game, with someone else. And perhaps, those first few sentences, maybe those hinted at the fact that he'd struck very close to something that she didn't want him to know. And the way that Jo stilled, almost at the same time Catori had, made him wonder if he knew anything about Catori's past. "I see," he slowly started to say. In an attempt to gain more information, Ronan turned his attention to Jo. "So Jo, how long have you and Catori known each other?"

"Since last year. We went to the Little Leaf High School together. I met her in our homeroom her first day, showed her around. Been inseparable since." Jo said, fiddling with the charm on his bracelet that matched Catori's for a moment before shrugging. He shot Ronan an easy grin, though the shadows in his dark eyes didn't quite leave. Catori wasn't the only one who'd seen things. Half those things they'd seen together. "My parents adopted her pretty much immediately, and her dad loves me. That was one wild year, for sure. Do you know how hard it is to take care of a chicken and three dumbasses? Ask my boyfriend, 'cause he'd know better than me."

Even from just the short conversation, Ronan was already beginning to gather more information, though he didn't say anything. Although, he did wonder about the opposing emotions that he was getting off of Jo. The shadows in his eyes indicated that he too, had something to hide, but the easy grin on his face… Perhaps he was only trying to mask his own secrets? Ronan's own personality tugged at him, wanting to get away already. His natural introvert was setting in. But his mind had other ideas. He wanted to stay, figure out the mystery, the secrets behind Catori and Jo. He settled a compromise. He wouldn't say anything in return, but he'd silently watch them, observing.

"God, the Fall Carnival that year was insane." Jo said, nudging Catori and earning a snort in response. Considering the state both of them had just gotten out of in time for the event… "You and Cisco started shooting eyes at each other, and then Everette and Aella confessed their undying love for each other…" He continued to talk, obviously over-exaggerating everything he was saying. Though none of it ever really came close to anything serious, skirting around it artfully. "Hey, Ronan. What kinda events do they do here? I think I heard something about a Winter Solstice Formal, but that's about it."

"Well… we do have a winter formal, and the PTA always hosts a couple fundraising events each year. They usually partner up with some local restaurant, so I would highly recommend going to those. The food is pretty great. Also homecoming and prom, but I don't go to them so I don't know if they're good or not," Ronan explained. Relax. Just answer the questions, but don't act suspicious. You don't want to scare them off, he told himself. And with that, he took a deep breath to calm himself down, he could feel his muscles tensing up. But as for the reason for that, he didn't know. But he did know that he would need to be relaxed as so to take in all the hidden information he could gather.

"You should just come with us." Catori said, eyes travelling up and down Ronan like she could see right through him. "We've always gone group, but now it's just us two. Plus, then you've got a reason."

"Damn, I wish I'd thought of that before she did." Jo complained, crossing his arms with a dramatic huff, even as he couldn't fight a grin. "You should totally go stag with us though. Unless you decide to ask out someone and go with a date, which would be unlucky for us but lucky for you. Hey Catori, any of these guys caught your eye-?" He trailed off as he looked at his friend, who was watching something near the wall carefully. She met his eyes briefly to nod, before standing up and making her way off without a word. "Speaking of! Do you have any possible romantic interests around here?"

Ronan stayed silent for a beat or two, then spoke. "I have the feeling that if I told you, you'd probably drag over that romantic interest to, I don't know, ask them to go to one of the dances with me or something. But that's if I told you, and if I had any romantic interests." Truth to be told, he never really thought about romance, or who was cute or not. Ah, who was he kidding? He was only lying to himself when he told himself that he never thought about who he thought was cute or not. Of course he had his own opinions on who was cute. Though… that didn't happen too often. Besides that, as far as he was concerned, he was only interested in girls.

"So not guys, is what you're saying." Jo said, nodding. "You're half right, I guess. I'd talk to 'em, definitely, but I wouldn't make you do anything you didn't want to do. Unless it was drawing you into conversation with them until you told me to stop." He winked, keeping his gaze off of Catori even after she had disappeared out of the main hall, unconcerned with missing roll, if it hadn't already happened. "Shit, man, do you know how many girls I know who would love to go out with a guy like you? You ever get lonely enough, or don't get the chance to meet anyone any other way, just let me know. I'll hook you up."

"I mean… I'm quite a bit of a disaster myself, so… I don't exactly do dates," Ronan managed. "Not to change the subject, but where'd Catori go?" he asked, wondering where she had gone. Jo didn't seem to notice. Either he didn't notice, or just didn't mind, or perhaps he knew where she was going and let her go. Ah, you messed it up, again! he told himself. You're supposed to act, well, not suspicious! And then you went and blew your chance! Ronan yawned a bit, rubbing the expected tears from his eyes. "Sorry, I'm still a bit tired."

Jo snorted, waving dismissively. "Dude, same. Catori kept me up all night putting up things on the walls that she didn't put up earlier. And who knows where she went. Girl disappears constantly. You know, back in high school, she did the same thing. Once stood up in the middle of our bio teacher's lecture and left. Cisco found her an hour later eating french fries on the school roof." He said, changing the subject from what was happening now to something that had happened before.

"…Cisco? Who's Cisco?" Ronan asked. He noticed the clear subject change but said nothing. Although, he had to admit that he was glad that Jo had left the whole dating thing behind. He always did have a tendency to get quite nervous when it came to things that were unknown to him. Especially things like dating. There were unspoken rules, and all sorts of things that one could only learn by experience. Things like math were much easier. There were pre-defined rules and everything could be learned quite easily. Or at least, in his opinion.

"Oh! Right, you don't know him. We're a group, all met in Little Leaf. Cisco, Catori, Kasper, Ga-uh, and me." Jo said, fiddling with the marigold charm on his bracelet, just like the one on Catori's. The rest of his charms, beside the handcuff, were different. A potted plant, a leaf, and a tiny American flag. "We're best friends. Well, Kasper and I are dating, and Cisco and Catori were for a little. Anyway, yeah, he's a friend of ours." He shrugged a shoulder. "Kas would like you. He's the only one of us who isn't a dumbass."

"Speaking of your other friends, where are they?" Ronan inquired, not seeing anyone else around that might be Jo's friends. Catori had already left, and now it was just Jo and him. "Also… I don't mean any offense but… what kind of name is 'Ga-uh'? It's strange, and doesn't seem like it would be a name…" he ran a hand through his messy hair, sighing lightly, and leaned back slightly in his chair. "Anyways, uh, your friends seem nice."

“There’s no one else. It’s just us four.” Jo said with a shake of his head, as though he hadn’t just started to say another name. “And the other two? They don’t go here. Cisco’s mom can’t afford to send him here, doesn’t help that he’s still on probation, and Kasper had to stick around home and help out at his family’s shop. Catori’s only here cause she managed to convince the dean she would be a good alumnus. Helps that she’s the first girl here.” He said, wrinkling his nose slightly with a laugh, tapping his fork against the wood table. “They are. We’re family, pretty much, after everything we’ve been through.”