ic inbox!

[secundus]

 

[ it's just the basic voicemail message, complete with the gentle female automated operator telling you you've reached the inbox of—awkward pause, jason's voice saying his own name—and that he's unavailable at the moment. leave a message after the beep. ]

Comments

if you say so! :3

[drunkenfist]

[ said gifter just happens to be out at the moment when she gets the call, but far be it from her to simply ignore it and move on with her insignificant errand! without even checking to see who's calling, she lifts the device and hits "receive". ]

Heeeellooooooo~! You have reached the fabulous and beautiful Ro-Lal. Sad to say that she is off being her wonderful self so please leave a message after the beep! The sassier the bet—[ aaaand there's the sound of her knocking something over, distracted as she was by making a fool out of herself by acting like her own personal answering machine. ] —oh fuck shit goddammit—sorry! [ panicpanic, calling over her shoulder now. ] I'll pay for that!

[ sjgsdgjsg groans ]

Augh... [ inner crying ] Okay so it's not really my answering machine, sup?

[secundus]

[ there's a horrified silence as he tries to make sense of what just happened. is she... okay? ]

Uh.

[ give him a second. sup indeed. ]

It's Jason. Did you— [ pause. ] Is this a bad time?

[drunkenfist]

[ —?! ]

Jason?

[ she seems genuinely surprised to hear from him. ]

Uhh—nope! [ a chuckle, and roxy quickly shuffles away from the disaster area after asking someone to excuse her. ] For you? Never. [ aaah there we go, regaining a bit of confidence. ] Sup dude? How can I help you out?

[secundus]

[ despite her assurances, he still feels like maybe he caught her at a bad time, or that maybe he was the cause of said bad time. nevertheless, she seems okay... so he presses on. ]

I got your present.

[ he's deeply thankful but he feels so damn awkward that he didn't get her anything!! put him on the wall of shame!!! ]

You are way too good to me, girl.

[ the smile, at least, is audible. ]

[drunkenfist]

[ a great big grin breaks out over her features and roxy has to resist the obvious urge to squeal in excitement. ]

You liked it?

[ she is very into the concept of him liking the gift. it was her first time ever getting gifts like this for people, so the fact that he likes it is all the christmas cheer she'll need for the whole year. ]

Aw man, great. I was so freakin worried about that.

[secundus]

Are you kidding? I loved it!

[ he doesn't have any records yet, but, indeed—"just in case" is as good a reason as any to adore a present, and he'll definitely be on the lookout for the nearest possible opportunity to find something to play on the ol' thing. ]

You're a hell of a smart shopper.

[drunkenfist]

What can I say? I got this awesome shit called insight.

[ it's like her tone of voice is winking, if that was a thing tones of voices could do. ]

Then again, doesn't hurt that you pretty much told me what to get you in our first convo.

[secundus]

[ he feels the wink. it is the winkiest sentence he's ever heard, actually. ]

Yeah, well, don't sell yourself short. No harm in taking credit for remembering, right?

[ maybe he could take her to dinner or something. hmmm!! ]

[drunkenfist]

[ after taking a moment to feign consideration of such a concept: ]

None at aaaall. [ hee. ] Hey, I like this holiday gift-giving stuff. Usually it's all wiggling days and that gets kinda old after a while. But this is a nice way shake shit up.

[ a minor pause, just to gather her thoughts and get over the bit of nostalgia such thoughts bring on. ]

Glad it made you smile, Jay. Merry Christmas.

[secundus]

[ roxy keeps dropping these foreign terms on him, and he's not sure what to make of it. where is she from? he knows a number of languages, and even translated, they aren't idiomatic phrases—he'll ask her one day, when it's more appropriate.

at least for now, he can use context clues. ]

Merry Christmas to you too.

[ aaaand this is where things get awkward, and there's a silence where he's obviously trying to say something that won't come out. ]

Maybe if you're free sometime, we could... go out somewhere—like, as my present to you.

[drunkenfist]

[ though not awkward, the silence on roxy's end is no less heavy. go out? as his present?

were jason able to see her right now she'd look exactly like the proverbial curious cat: head at a slight angle, brow creased in lieu of pricked-forward ears. biting down on her lower lip, roxy took a moment to gather her thoughts. ]

That's sweet, but totally not necessary. [ wait no that didn't come out right. ] As far as dates go you're toppa the fuckin shelf and I'd be a moron to ever turn you down, [ roxy get back on subject: ] but it's not like you gotta pay me back for this.

[ okay, now it's a little awkward. she didn't intend for him to feel like he owed her. ]

[secundus]

Well, I'm not—

[ fuuuuck. he hasn't ever really asked a girl out on a date before, even though this isn't so much a date as it is... two friends going out to have a good time during the holidays.

not to mention the whole concept of offering his company as a christmas gift, but don't think too hard about that one. ]

Okay. It's not my present. It's just me, being inspired but not obligated by your present, to ask you out.

[drunkenfist]

[ it's a good thing jason can't see her right now: as she lets that sink in, her grin is getting wider and wider, and she looks quite pleased with herself. even if it's not a date in the most traditional sense, it's not like roxy's ever been asked to go out like this. the gala doesn't count—that was an invitation and it would've been silly not to grab a friend to go with.

ohhhh but she can't hold back the gleeful note in her voice when she replies. she tries. she tries and fails. ]

Welp, that settles it. You and me got a date.

[secundus]

[ he's pretty excited himself, considering he just laid himself out there and didn't get rejected. though he's on the same wavelength, that this isn't a traditional date, it's still awesome to be going on a date at all. ]

Cool.

[ now he just has to make it happen. ]

So, uh—when are you free?

[drunkenfist]

As much as I'd love to say "anytime you want me", I got so many hours on the clock. So many, you don't even know.

[ all the hours, you could say. six out of seven days of the week she's clocking at least half-days at plush; and sunday she's at HADES... moreso now that tatsuya's offered her the job of manager again.

wow, for a girl raised by carapaces she is doing surprisingly well for herself in the job area. chewing on her nail for a moment, roxy tries to figure out a good time to take... a day off. it's a wonder how she manages to fit anything else at all into her schedule. ]

Um... That's a freakin good question. If I'm gonna leave the shop to John'n Tachi for a while I wanna give 'em a couple days' heads up, y'know?

[secundus]

[ a working gal, huh? he knew that she had a job, but not that half of her life was a job. man. whenever they do get around to hanging out, he'll have to show her a balls-awesome day of relaxation. ]

Yeah, I feel you. Don't wanna drag you away from them responsibilities.

[ he sighs a hmm into the phone, thoughtful, not exasperated. ]

They won't be pissed or anything, right?

[drunkenfist]

[ ahhh, it's only because it gets her around people—though truth is that she more or less tripped into running Plush Rumps. it belonged to dirk originally, and when she returned she adopted the shop, not expecting to work at HADES again. now that she is, well...

she'd never turn down a balls-awesome day of relaxation. girl needs it. ]

Naaaah, I'm pretty sure it's impossible with a capital I-M-P to piss John off. Tachi's... [ ...squints ] capable.

[ actually, a thought occurs to her! ]

Wait, since I'm the owner of the place, I can just take whatever days off I want, right? Can peeps do that?

[secundus]

[ he's never owned a business but that seems reasonable. when you are the boss of things, you can basically do whatever, right? that's how it works? ]

Dude, yeah. Unless you feel massively guilty and fire yourself, or you get impeached or something, they can't stop you.

[drunkenfist]

Then hey, guess what, I got some awesome news for ya.

[ she takes a pause for dramantic effect. ]

My answer? Tooootally just got bumped up to "whenever you want me." Just, y'know, lemme give 'em a head's up before we go.

[ doesn't mean she won't insist on stopping by the store early on just to check in with them.... ]

[secundus]

Yeah!

[ HE'S LOUD AND EXCITED ]

You wanna do this weekend, then? Gotta give me time to scout the area and see what's good, y'know.

[drunkenfist]

[ truthfully she'll never get used to the concept of someone actually wanting to hang out with her. though she loves her friends with all her heart, most of the time they just seemed to tolerate her while they, y'know, were themselves.

ah, they all had more important things to deal with, she supposes.

checking the calendar, roxy hums to herself. ]

Sounds good t'me!

[secundus]

[ he glances over his shoulder to make sure dick isn't lurking around to see him get all dorky over a girl, and then he silently fistpumps.

hell yes. ]

Awesome. I'll give you another call with some solid plans later.

oh my god stop being adorable jason i can't take it

[drunkenfist]

[ but it's not like roxy's not doing her own celebrating: doing a little dance where no one can see her.

this is so cool, she's so glad she said hi to him when he arrived. ]

I look forward to it, babe. Don't keep me waiting long.

HE'LL STOP WHEN ROXY STOPS

[secundus]

Don't worry, I won't. Later.

[ and on that hella cool note, he hangs up, feeling rather pleased with himself on this beautiful morning.

he got a date. ]