zenderael_rl | [EVENT]

His response was interrupted by Mal, and he easily let Theresa fade into the background as Mal's presence dominated the space. "Hey," he greeted. "Wouldn't be eating it if I wasn't. What's up?" Because it wasn't like Mal would interrupt his conversations unless he had something to talk about, right?

...right?

Oh, Duncan, Mal rarely had anything particular to talk about when he pestered people. Silly man.

Mal snickered. "I dunno, would you be willing to waste it if you didn't like it?" Maybe if he absolutely despised it, but simply not enjoying something didn't necessarily make it inedible.

He shrugged, tucking the cane against his hip under the coat so it wouldn't fall, which freed up both hands for eating. "Just wondered how you were making out." He nodded again to Theresa, tearing off a small piece of one of the pastries. "Haven't had a chance to talk to you, yet. You work at the library, don't you? On campus?" Mal didn't go to the library all that often, but he was sure he'd seen her at least once.

That bit of honey goodness found its way to his mouth after he spoke, Mal watching Theresa expectantly.

"Yes," she said simply, looking back to Mal after a moment, not realizing right away that he'd been speaking to her. She ended up looking away again, making no attept to pad her answer or make further pleasantries.

He just rolled his eyes at Mal's comment and went back to his food while conversation turned toward Theresa.

Well. "Conversation." She didn't much feel like having one with Mal, it seemed. "She plays Reilanin," Duncan supplied, to explain how they knew each other.

His brow rose, mildly amused, and his attention returned to Duncan. "Not very talkative, is she?" He was just like Valentine in that regard, calling people out on their silence, even if only briefly. "Oh, the mage Marlene mentioned?" He paused to glance back towards Theresa, not knowing if she was aware of everything going on in-game.

To dodge a possible awkward bullet, he looked back to Duncan, grinned broadly, and changed the topic. "You seen that blog? The uh, 'You Be The Judge' thing. They post info on all the creatures that've been seen."

"Played," she murmured her interjection as Duncan referred to her. She didn't look quite miserable, but she still had no interest in looking at Mal.

At Mal's comment, there was no indication she'd heard it, as he wasn't speaking directly to her. Properly speaking, she should have been offended to be talked around like that, but it seemed she was fine with it. There was, however, a moment's where she looked up and said, "the drinking contest." They'd all been there for that. She paused and then looked to Duncan, frowning. "Your chubby paladin fell on her."

The frown remained as she looked back to the floor, seeming to zone out on the conversation as it continued.

That got a laugh out of him (until he remembered Ravi was real and his life was ruined, and then the laugh died with a flicker of something serious across his face which he quickly schooled away). "Yes, that he did."

He didn't respond to the comment about Theresa not being talkative, because he considered it kind of rude and it was hers to respond to if she wanted to, which she apparently did not.

Also, he was quickly distracted by the mention of the blog. His attention snapped to Mal. "Yeah, Rhys showed me the other day. Dude knows his shit."

And that reminded him of what he'd discussed with Rhys and Gabe right after. "Oh! I had this idea based on that, do you think you could code an app that'll match monster photos against a database to give people tips on how to defeat them?"

"Oh yeah, Val was there for that." He'd almost forgotten about it, though to be fair, he couldn't remember if her name had been mentioned during it. Too much to think about and remember lately, much of the fun RP wasn't on his mind anymore.

When Duncan praised him (without realizing it was him because Mal had still only told Rhys he ran the blog), Mal felt a little smug, though he managed to hide it (mostly).

"An app?" he repeated, considering the idea. "Like face-recognition for monsters sorta thing?" That would be doable, he thought. It'd be more immediately helpful than the website, since it could just pop the information up rather than requiring you search for it. "Yeah, I think so. Just gotta find the software an' adapt it, then put in all the pictures an' data."

That was promising. Duncan was pretty into this idea, it was fairly obvious from his body language. "Awesome, you handle the coding side and I can organize the data, just tell me how I need to format it."

Mal pondered further, biting into one of the loukoumades to provide him with a convenient pause while he chewed and swallowed.

"I'll hafta get back to you once I figure out the best way to organize it." He'd probably have to try out a few layouts and see which best fit an app, since most of his programming work had been done for computers, not phones. Still, he liked the idea.

But that also got him pondering the blog, and how useful it actually was. It wasn't a database. It didn't have a decent search function. It didn't track information very easily. "Shit, I'm gonna hafta remake the site."

"Is it yours?"

She was looking at Mal while they spoke. At some point she'd started to twist her hair around her finger, a habit she'd tried to break at some point in her life but had never actually succeeded with it.

"The site."

Thank you Theresa for mentioning that, because Duncan hadn't even noticed. He looked surprised at the question and gave Mal a confused look. He didn't ask, Theresa already had; he just waited for the answer.

Mal was kind of used to Duncan not noticing things, so Theresa pointing it out had been unexpected. Not that he minded, really, since if he went with remaking the site, Duncan could prove useful, even vital, in its new format. "Yeah, after the crackle cat I wanted to get info out for people who ran across shit like that. Just didn't want people to start texting me direct or swampin' my email once they knew who I was."

He grinned at Duncan. "Glad you think I know my shit, by the way."

She considered this briefly. She hadn't seen anything herself, just the sylphie... and no one had been willing to believe it then. She'd simply... accepted it. There it was, hovering over her fruit bowl. She couldn't imagine a whole site filled with less benign creatures in an attempt to make people believe what had been obvious to her from the start.

She hummed, thoughtful, hands pressing against the wall behind the small of her back, falling back into silence.

Duncan gave him a flat look. "You only asked because you wanted to hear me praise you without knowing it was you."

Mal's grin didn't fade in the slightest. "Oh, c'mon, Chief. You know I value your opinion." Most of the time. "If you'd said somethin' was wrong with it, I woulda had to fix it!"

People did that? Really? She was starting to look a little bewildered at the interaction between the two. It was almost too much just having one other person there.

"Chief?" she interjected again.

"Mal can't call anyone by their real name," Duncan explained, as annoyed as he always sounded by that particular quirk. But he knew his annoyance only encouraged Mal, alas.

With the explanation, Mal feigned being distraught, hand going to his chest and giving Theresa a sad look, though the hint of a grin at the edge of his mouth might give him away. "It's terrible. I have a phobia of names, you see, so I have to give people nicknames in order to be able to tell them apart." His head leaned back, expression going thoughtful as he considered Theresa. "Think I'll designate you Dewey until further notice," he said with a nod.

She blinked at Mal, as though trying to figure out if he was kidding or not. Not knowing him, she had no reason to believe he was lying, and her ability to detect sarcasm was notoriously terrible, being the type to read things at face value. "I'd rather you not," she said point-blank, her voice flat, before her attention returned to the floor.

"Hah," Duncan shot back with a smug grin, as if Theresa's refusal was a personal victory. "See, not everyone is willing to put up with your shit."

That only amused him further. "So? That just makes it more fun," he said, grinning broadly. Since when did Mal actually listen to someone who told him not to call them something?

Since never.

"Soooo should I leave you two alone now?" Mal asked, glancing between the two.

That would be fine by her.

Hopefully her continued silence said as much.

"Apparently, yes," he replied. It was a yes on his end too. Not that he disliked having Mal around, but he just didn't have the energy to keep it up right now.

Mal let out a dramatic sigh, complete with the back of his hand touching his brow. "My friends. Don't even want me around." Sniff.

With a smirk, he grabbed up his cane. "Later, Chief. Dewey," he said, offering a wave as he started walking away, looking for either Gabe or a table to sit at to finish his sweets.

[EVENT] - Kharveryos

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