lettuce see how this goes over... Snowed in

.

It wasn't as if Lindy Katsaros was anything along the lines of claustrophobic, but on top of her not being a patient person by definition, she was unable to put up with whatever she deemed was 'bullshit'--being stuck in a room because of frozen water falling from the sky definitely qualified. In short, she was really not a happy camper.

She scowled, looking out the window at the stupid weather. This was just as bad as being stuck at one of her parents' bullshit parties.

"Who the hell thought snow was a good idea?" she grumbled to nobody in particular, though she was aware that there was some other guy in the room.

She had no idea what his name was, but that wasn't very unusual when it came to her. Either way, she figured he was just as done with the weather as she was, or her faith in humanity would be lost there and then.

This definitely was not Tom's ideal situation by any means and he let it be known whenever he felt things were not ideal. He glanced over at the girl he was seemingly trapped with. He didn't know her, but that never seemed to deter him from complaining.

"And here people are whining that global warming is a bad thing. I mean if it means not putt up with this bullshit, I'm game... Frankly, I like the extinction of polar bears and other animals that could potentially kill me"

He didn't actually have anything against polar bears, Tom simply liked the sound of his own voice.

Lindy furrowed her eyebrows and scowled at the guy.

"Okay, I'll agree with you that snow sucks, but we should draw the line at animal cruelty," she protested, "How about just having snow stay where it's needed, when it's needed?"

She directed another glare to the mainly white landscape outside. "Specifically not here, not ever."

Tom shrugged "And what are you going to do? Throw your cellphone down in shame and go frolic in the forest? Otherwise, y'all are contributing to the drowning of blood thirsty monsters- I mean bears. So yeah, don't act like you're innocent in this. Forgive me for trying to find a bright side to the inevitable doom of fossil fuels" He glanced back out the window before groaning "god daaamnn itt. I have a raid at seven, this better stop soon"

Her glare sharpened. What was this guy's problem? Was he trying to be an ass?

"Are you trying to be an ass?" she voiced her exact thought, almost instantly, folding her arms over her chest, "Or is that just the way it's accidentally coming out? I'm no tree-hugger, but what's your damage with bears? I just said snow sucked--you were the one who turned it into some sort of environmentalist bullshit rant."

She pointedly rolled her eyes, before thinking back to his words and narrowing them in confusion. "Wait, did you just say raid? ...Are you not right in the head?"

In her defence, it was starting to seem like a valid concern.

Tom raised a brow and shrugged. "I'm not being an ass, I was looking at the cup as half full... I guess everyone hates the optimist now-a-days... Geeze." He leaned against the wall. Of course she'd make some sort of jab. Few ever appreciated the work a guild leader puts into their wow guild, he was fairly used to not being garnered the respect he [felt he] deserved.

"No, there's nothing wrong with my head- actually I'm more right in the head... At least more right than most people are most of the time. What? you've never played a video game? Not that that's really surprising" he scoffed. In Tom's very limited, misinformed experience, most girls did not play video games.

She rolled her eyes pointedly (and half-heartedly remembered that she was doing it way too often, but then again, if people stopped being morons, she wouldn't have to).

"People like the optimist as long as he's not an ass--which, as far as my vast experience with asses go, you are," she replied, flatly, lazily seating herself down.

"And I've actually played video games before--my parents thought that giving me free reign to play games about shooting people would encourage me to actually shoot people," was said with the clear implication that her parents were morons,"So they forbid it--so the obvious outcome was that I played video games just to stick it to them."

"But not the point. You never mentioned video games--you just said raid. Forgive me for thinking you're about to go medieval on some place."

She shrugged. Hey, she'd barely met the guy--he very well might have been talking about an actual raid.

Tom raised a brow yet again (not that anyone could really tell that was what he was doing with the amount of hair in his face) "Playing M rated games because your parents said no? watch out guys, we've got a badass in the house" He paused before adding "In case you're wondering, that's me being an ass... Because generally I'm not. I think you're just oversensitive."

Standing was beginning to cause a cramp in one of his freakishly long legs, so he walked over and plopped himself down on the nearby couch. "And no, I don't do the weirdass running around in leotards in the woods thing... If you want to make fun of someone for that, make the trek over to the Rhee residence. Seamus would be happy to be on the receiving end of any bitchy comments. He's used to it now between the Parks and his sister, trust me."

She scoffed, "Oh, so that was you being an ass? Sorry, I didn't sense any freaking difference considering you apparently have one tone for everything." With an afterthought, she added, "And if I were 'oversensitive', you'd be black and blue and sprawled on the floor by now."

That was an exaggeration. Lindy could sometimes, very reluctantly admit to herself that she could be a bit... touchy. It comes in the package with being criticised for basically your entire life. But like hell it meant she was about to actually accept someone else saying it.

"And I have no interest in picking on some guy I've never even heard of."

If 'the Parks' implied this Seamus guy was one of the many people to have got on Hugh and his mental relatives' bad sides, then she could only half-heartedly hold him in her prayers. After all, her friendship with Hugh fortunately didn't go far enough for the whole 'the enemies of my friends are my enemies'.

She hoped she never actually got to met him though, because she was pretty sure the 'running around in leotards in the woods' remark would kill any kind of attempt of hers to take him seriously.

"Hey!" Tom objected almost instantly before realising what she said hadn't even been all that offensive. To save face he quickly added: "Just because I have a smaller muscle mass than the average stick insect doesn't mean that I'm a defenseless butterfly." What good was being freakishly tall if it didn't deter people from threatening him?

He again, paused for a moment before addressing what Lindy had said "and good, I don't need the cleric out of commission. Last time that happened Chance started crying and everyone got on my case about it like it was my fault." He conveniently left out the part where the shit he'd said had caused the girl to cry more so than the fact that they were fighting a higher level monster without a healer.

Lindy shrugged noncommittally, "Yeah, but, let's be real. I could more than likely kick your ass if I tried. And trust me, I have a good kick."

She wasn't exceptionally strong, but the part about the kick was, for her credit, true and he looked like a walking stick with just as many reflexes. She was fairly sure she wasn't being arrogant, if not purely objective, when she said she could definitely beat him up. (She should rethink that)

She tried not to give him a look that seemed too weirded out and judging as she said: "...Well, yeah. Don't worry. I'm not going to mess with your... cleric or your... creepily emotional gameplay."

That didn't go as politely as it could've. Ah, well.

Tom scoffed "are you even tall enough to reach my ass? Or are you just a high kicker?" he thought for a moment before adding "But I don't recommend touching the butt in general. I have a tiny girlfriend who'll have a bone to pick with you" He yawned and repositioned himself on the couch. Good god, he didn't know how much longer he could take... he would either end up bored to tears or have the shit beaten out of him.

"Emotional? Ha yeah right. First rule: don't mix pleasure with business. There's a reason I keep hounding Rhee for dragging Marlowe into things. There's no better way to screw up good game tactics than to add some distraction that knows shit all about the game."

Her scowl deepened and she scrunched up her face in disgust.

"Your girlfriend has nothing to worry about--I don't plan on going anywhere near," she squinted, "whatever that is that you call an ass. But clue for you, I took a lot of sports that involved kicking balls."

She delivered the line as flatly as possible, with the underlying meaning of 'and I was good at it, so watch it'.

"Also 'mixing pleasure with business'? Dude, you're talking about video games," she scoffed, "Is it even healthy to take yourself so seriously?"

Lindy wasn't much of a fan of Marlowe either, but she was starting to hope she'd show up and crash this guy's little game fest a little more often, because he looked like he needed some serious sensitization and a couple (metaphorical or not) kicks to the rear.