Too much [Stress] {JONAS}

[hunter]

Sometimes I wonder
If I would talk to walls without you

The week had been reasonably stressful. She felt like she hadn't left the house in days. She hadn't, actually, she was on a sort of at home work salary going about and it worked well for her. Besides the fact she was being hounded nearly every hour of every day. Do this, Mary, do that, Miss Horrible. She never got a break! Wasn't the reason for this whole thing was for her to go at her own pace? If she got called to recite some sort of number again, she was going to lose it for sure! Why couldn't people just leave her alone for once?! She was working! See! There were formulas scattered all about the place.

She threw down another handful, the papers fluttering every which way. Her eyes closed and she rubbed them. This was not her area of expertise, she usually worked so well under stress. But that was at the office, she had people to check over her work just before it went in. This here, went straight to the boss, no second checkers or proof readings. She had to do everything right, or so help her job. She looked at the clock, it was only mid afternoon and she was already feeling exhausted, maybe she just needed a break...But where would she 'break'. She put the pencil behind her ear and frowned, what did the anti-social do that was social...? Well what ever scientist was good at doing, chemistry.

The past hour was spent cooking, well, baking more or less. A scientist was a genius when it came to baked goods. And making cookies wasn't that hard, after all. It took hardly any effort, just perfect measurements and keen eyes. As well as patience, that was the true key. The timer pinged long ago, and the allotted time for the cookies to cool had passed and she looked at the plate and frowned. Mighty bunch of cookies she had made...well what now...? She turned her gaze to her empty apartment. Lots of cookies, not lots of somebodies...She frowned hand coming to ruffle the red locks in a bit of confusion. Then the scientist caught an idea.

Gather up her cookies onto a plate, putting a bit of plastic warp over them before scuttling out the door in her slippers. Her red button up shirt and jeans were a little wrinkled, since she'd fallen asleep in them the prior night and really hadn't bothered to change. She didn't look bad she just...looked a little tired and ruffled per usual. She went the few steps it took to reach the neighboring apartment and balled a fist to knock on the door. He was the only one she sort of knew. Mary wasn't social, but she remembered Jonas, she met him when he moved here. She remembered his name, and though they'd only talk when passing, a quip of a conversation. He was somone, someone that didn't want to know what plasmids had to be split in order to create a liger, or something to that effect.

"Jonas?" Mary looked over the plate of cookies. "It's Mary, I have cookies, and I'd thought you'd like some." she put on her best, not tired smile.

[jonas]

Jonas had his favorite kind of bic pen in his hand. Blue ink. A black ink pen was behind his right ear and a red, along with an extra blue pen, could be easily reached in his left pants pocket. He chewed at the end of the blue pen that was in his hand. His brown eyes stared down at the lined paper before him that had many crossed out lines and tiny doodles of random things in the margin.

What was he doing? He was brainstorming. Jonas had no idea what to write. His last idea had ended abruptly. His muse dissapated into smoke and so he had to start over. But what to write about? Nothing interesting ever went on in his life. He worked at home. Heck, Jonas was practically a hermit who only left his house for occasional forays into the city in hopes for some inspiration. Nothing came though.

Standing up he shuffled into his kitchen away from the dinning room table that was his workspace. This was shone by the multitude of scattered papers all over the surface. Jonas peered into the fridge in hopes of a small snack. There were some old containers of chinese food. He pulled those out and looked inside at the remains of noodles and what not. Perhaps that shape could be some old chicken? He sniffed it and drew back quickly. A sound of disgust came from his mouth. That food was not good. After deciding this Jonas set the boxes back into the fridge. This even would probably happen again sometime later in the week.

Mumbling to himself about maybe ordering some more chinese Jonas went back into the dinning room and resumed his seat at the crowded table. He ran a hand through his already hopeless bed head. The hand did nothing to help the matter. Taking the black pen from behind his ear, Jonas replaced it with the blue pen he was previously using. Maybe a change in ink color would give him some inspiration. He leaned his head on his hand while creating more doodles. His eyes drooped and his head jerked. He woke up slightly. This move was repeated several times till finally his head fell to the table and it didn't get back up. Light snores drifted from his lips.

A knock at that door startled Jonas awake. He sat up suddenly, a paper stuck to his face. Who could be knocking at his door? Jonas stood up and brushed the paper from his face. Hastily he stumbled over his chair as he ran for the door. Upon reaching the door Jonas realized that he probably didn't look his best. Hair messed up, shirt askew, not the best impression he could make. Afraid of letting whoever it was at the door leave, he opened it. A woman stood there. He didn't know any women. Not in this town, anyways. When she spoke her name a thin memory came back, he believed she was a neighbor from down the hall. Oh, cookies? Uhm, come in, come in. Jonas stepped back and allowed her into his messy apartment. He shut the door after her and then ran to the couch to throw things off of it to make room for her to sit.

[hunter]

Sometimes I wonder
If I would talk to walls without you

The pause following her call was nearly a bit too long. She sighed, perhaps he wasn't home? Or maybe he just didn't want to talk to her...That was completely reasonable, she could recall- most likely- that the few times she talked that it was highly likely she said something stupid. She didn't do the talking thing as well as most. The only things she knew where science based, well that and the creatures of the night, but one didn't speak of blood suckers and mongrels in idle chit chat. When he spoke to her in the exchange of "Hello" "Oh hello!" "How are you" and such. She probably replied with something along the lines that if gene's spliced any slower, she'd be cell division. Or something utterly useless and obnoxious like that. So realizing that she probably scared him away with her science muttering. She began to turn away from the door. Maybe...the people at the office would like them.

Suddenly the door opened, startling the woman and nearly fumbling the plate of cookies. She was indeed not the most graceful girl, well...she was, but there were two lives to be lived here. She paused, and took a look over him, well he looked about as tired as she felt, that was for sure. His hair was all messy and his shirt was this way and that. She let the smile come back, after the doubtful thoughts, "I-I'm sorry." she tried to contain a bit of laughter, "Did I wake you?" she tilted her head a little. It didn't matter anyhow. Had he been sleeping or not she was just glad he wasn't avoiding her. That was common, she blathered some science talk to a guy, maybe a girl even. Poof, never saw them again.

A look of shock crossed the girl's face. Was...Was she just invited inside. Well she could say that had never happened before. She was clearly on a roll today. She was at a new social high for her. She nervously stepped in, glancing around it looked just as bad as her apartment, papers everywhere. Unsure of what they said she caught sight of one, words, description...A writer? Oh stop it Mary, you're meddling. She turned her gaze to him, still standing slightly in the door way. "If your busy, I can just leave the cookies here. I mean...you didn't have to invite me in or anything." so far she was doing good, no science muttering. But there were no promises, if she got too comfortable, she wouldn't think about it, and then she'd slip.

[jonas]

Jonas shook his head, “No, no, don’t be sorry. I just was spacing out.” He noted Mary’s laugh and attempted to straighten his hair. It was to no avail. He watched her enter. She did it slowly and cautiously, it seemed almost a foreign thing to her for she was so unsure about what to do. Mary didn’t need to worry, Jonas was as probably just as nervous as she was. He did know why he had invited her in. Some where in the recesses of his brain there was something that told him the appropriate thing to do.

He shut the door. “Actually you are just what I suppose I needed. A break is just what I need. Get these creative juices flowing.” Jonas tapped his forehead. “Can I get you anything to drink? I might have some milk that hasn’t gone sour.” Jonas looked in his sparse refrigerator a bit embarrassedly.

[hunter]

Sometimes I wonder
If I would talk to walls without you

Okay, so far so good. She had yet to make an utter fool of herself. She carefully watched her step, making sure not to touch anything or step on a paper. Walking around much like a nervous feline. Like she was at war, mines everywhere and only a brave as she was did she venture forward. But clearly that was not the case. Mary's lack of people skills made her nervous, she never really had any close friends and all the people at work were far too much like her for them to get along. They were the same way anti-social wise, it was their work and that was it. That was the woe of a genetic scientist, you had no social time whatsoever. Jonas was her only contact it seemed to the outside world, and well...she didn't even know how long he would last with her. She'd give him at least this meeting before he was locking his doors and making sure he wasn't home when she was around. She had that effect on people, it was...displeasing one would say. But the life of a hunter didn't make matters any better...

She smiled a little when he tried to flatten his hair, "Don't fret you look fine." she said, "Hm, spacing out." much like the gaps in my plasmid formulas... good girl. Hold that back. She stepped forward into the house. Getting a good look at it with her photographic memory. She scuttled over to the place he had cleared for her, sitting down gently she began to glance over the papers. "Creative juices you say?" she glanced up, "I don't suppose you're trying to discover the probability of a heterozygous gene." Shut up! "I mean, um...what are you working on?"

She cleaned a place for the cookies before putting her hand over her face. "Milk would be lovely for cookies." Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. she smacked her forehead gently as to not make a notable sound.

[jonas]

All praise the Lord! The milk in Jonas’s refrigerator was not spoiled and that was wonderful because Mary wanted some with her cookies. He pulled the carton out of the fridge and then reached into his cupboard for two glasses. Jonas poured out the milk into the glasses. It amounted to just enough for each. He breathed a silent sigh of relief. After throwing away the empty carton, he brought the glasses over in time to hear Mary’s comment about heterozygous genes.

Setting down a glass in front of her he laughed, “I haven’t had to think about heterozygous genes in a looong time and I’m glad for it.” Jonas thought back to the science fiction novel he had written, what would it be…2 years ago now? Ah well, it was quite some time ago. He turned his mind back to the present and to the girl that was in his apartment.

“I am a struggling writer and trying to write a good book, but unfortunately…that isn’t working too well for me right now.” He shook his head. Jonas looked over at Mary, she was quite a pretty girl. He smiled goofishly at her. No! he silently scolded himself, you cannot do this to yourself again! You will not in any way become attracted to her. No, no, no, no, no! “And, yourself, I can’t quite remember what you did for a living.”

[hunter]

Sometimes I wonder
If I would talk to walls without you

Mary’s eyes couldn’t help but wander over the papers, there were cute little doodles and such but otherwise it seemed rather scrambled. She didn’t mean any harm but it, she just couldn’t read what he was writing, well without looking like she was reading what he was writing, and she was trying to be reasonably sneaky about it. Her fingers played idly at the pink plastic warp that lay over the plate to protect the cookies case she was clumsy and decided that the plate needed to take a trip through the air. Luckily she had gotten here in one piece. She did like the blue plate…it was one of her favorites. She had done enough damages mentioning her work. Bah, way to go Mary Horrible. Your last name says it all now doesn’t it? Perhaps you should put tape over your mouth and just look important.

She smiled at Jonas and set the cookies between the two glasses. It had been quite some time since she had just sat and socialized with anyone, and she was beginning to get butterflies because of it. She was going to say something stupid, she always did. Scared away the lot of them…She was gripping her shirt tighter than she realized when he said he was glad that he didn’t think about heterozygous genes. She laughed nervously, her world revolved around them, how sad was that? She ruffled her hair in such nervous laughter, because obvious she had not made the best impression. She waved her hand idly trying to push the thought away, ”Y-Yes, heterozygous genes.” she kept herself from making another bad joke. She pulled at her hair absently, her fingers shaking a little, ”Help yourself to the cookies, of course, I did bring them here for you.” Sort of…I brought them because I didn’t want to eat them all…that’s just unhealthy.

And already she had a feeling she was going to get to know him far more than she had intended. It wasn’t that Mary didn’t want to it was just…her life was so terribly…terribly dangerous. Sure she seemed like a bookish woman who didn’t see enough sun. But in reality she was a black haired huntress, killing and burning the creatures of the night with no mercy in her eyes. What sort of beginning is that? She snapped out of her own little daze. ”Ah, a bit of a rut I see.” if she wrote a story she’d be called crazy. Her biography at that would be slandered as lies. ”M-Me?” she looked rather startled. She played with the edge of her red button up shirt, biting her lip idly. ”I…I um…I work…in genetics…hence…the lame…comments.” she replied, her voice slowly shrinking to a dull whisper. ”Gene…splicing and such. Not very interesting bytheby, What sort of stories do you write?” she was quick to change the topic…no one wanted to hear about her…

[jonas]

Jonas sat down on the couch a space away from Mary. No need to sit too close and make her more uncomfortable than she already was. It was almost painfully obvious that Mary didn’t socialize much with other people but Jonas didn’t either, really. Mostly the only talking to other people he did was to the potential buyers of his work.

”Nah, they aren’t lame comments at all. It’s understandable for one to speak with references to what they work with. Once I wrote a story where the main character had an Irish accent and because I worked so much on the character I talked with an accent for about a week afterwards.” He admitted. Truthfully he had pulled off the accent quite well and people often asked what part of Ireland he was from.

Gene splicing, genetics, Jonas hadn’t done well in those subjects in school but when it came time to write his science fiction story he did days of research. Almost all of what he had learned though, had faded from his memory banks. ”Oh well, I write just about anything. I am really in love with the whole Shakespearian era of time but I never seem to be able to finish anything I start about that. I guess I just haven’t found the right idea yet.”

Grabbing a cookie from the plate he took a bite. Ah, home cooked food. Not take out and not fast food. Jonas nearly fainted from the delightful taste. He hadn’t had any home made food in…actually he couldn’t remember the last time he had had a home cooked meal. ”Very good cookies. I can’t bake or cook worth a damn.” Jonas was pretty sure that last comment about himself was very easy to see since there seemed to be only take out containers littering the apartment. He really needed to clean the place up.

OOC: sorry about how long it took me!!

[hunter]

Sometimes I wonder
If I would talk to walls without you

Mary felt her hands fiddle in front of her. She looked down and smiled at her lap, she didn’t understand why she was being so shy but it was getting a little annoying. She was just in a cheerful mood, maybe this was what company did to her because she was enjoying this…but she was…a little awkward. She watched him sit beside her, giving her space and she smiled at him – a little tensed but she relaxed a moment later rubbing her arm. She didn’t want to think that he found her obnoxious, it was just too soon…

She laughed, which was weird for you. Very calming and quiet chuckle, not very loud. ”I…can’t imagine you with an Irish accent.” she pointed out honestly with a smile, ”My…father was a bit Irish, you know. Red hair.” she flipped her own locks. Red hair was typically a genetic to the Irish and Scottish areas, here father had been from Ireland, and her mother from Germany. She was a mixture of both, most likely the reason her hair was read and her eyes were a stunning blue color. She was a mixture of both of the race’s top genes, yet she had her father’s eyes…She suddenly felt empty inside, ”Ah…well…was Irish…past tense.” she gripped her knees. Vampires. Werewolves. Basted son of a witch murders…She took a breath, ”What about you, dark hair, pale skin.” she gestured to his hair then his cheeks, ”Hmm, brown eyes?” she looked at him for a second, ”…hmmm…English decent? Mmm maybe Scottish…” she questioned. She was interested now…but she pulled away. ”I…I’m sorry, I was being nosey…about your genetic material. Sorry. Sorry.” she fretted turning her head away and looking at the apparent much more interesting papers scattered around.

She was never great at writing, so there was something. Sure she could write a thirteen page report on what the hell a gene was doing with another gene, but that was different. She looked the part, but was never very good at creating fantasy ideas…especially when real life was far too exciting. She jumped almost, ”I love Shakespeare! Henry the Fifth! Julius Cesar!” she grinned, ”Midsummer nights dream.” she folded her hands in her lap. She smiled at him, ”Well you seem rather dedicated…I suppose that the idea will come…it may be amongst you now.” she smiled at him before looking at the papers everywhere.

She didn’t really want to know how they tasted, she’d been known to put too much chocolate in them. She had some terrible accidents with that…the misbalance of chocolate to dough ratio, after all you shared these with chemists, they knew. She looked to him with a bit of surprise. ”Oh. Good you like them.” she smiled, reaching for one herself, a bite and she almost winced. Too much sugar, there was a miscalculation in the sugar chocolate ratio…She finished her bite. She grinned a little, ”I learned to cook when I was young.” she had noticed the…take out containers, not…very healthy. ”You should come over for dinner sometime, I make a mean fettuccine alfredo.” she smiled kindly.

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