She grabs what she can, her laptop, her phone, a handful of files, yanking them out of the way of the ever-encroaching spill of coffee now cascading across her desk.
“Tissues– over there, right behind you,” Xu says, and she’s trying really, reallyhard not to snap at him, because he is a president and she is a SeeD and she happens to enjoy her job. She’d like to keep it a while longer.
It’s just an accident, after all.
❛ on it, on it! ❜
HE IS SPRY FOR a man of his age, comfort sandals notwithstanding, rubber soles giving a squeak for the way he turns on a heel, hands flying for the tissue box, cardboard crumpling under his fingers. he rips the tissues out by the fistful, blotting up the pooling coffee as best he can. his shirt is stained but at least the carpet’s fine. a sigh.
❛ ——ah, look, i can pay for any damages. you know, no harm, no gain? ❜
“Ah—!” she started, surprised and admittedly amused with his inquiry. She’d been asked before, many times, but didn’t quite expect it coming from the President. Any opportunity she got to teach someone was welcomed, and she certainly was pleased with his apparent thirst for knowledge, especially concerning something to personal to her.
“Well, it definitely was quite strange, and you’re right about the rush. It’s exhilarating, once you get used to it, that is. Starting off was a bit…rough.” Quistis pushed her frames up higher on the bridge of her nose. “Learning the first one, Laser Eye, actually was the cause of my sight problems. I did it improperly at first and it backfired. I’m quite the quick learner, though, so it didn’t take long for me to correct it.”
She chuckled, a hand rising up to her lips. “I haven’t had too many issues besides that.” Except for learning Bad Breath. That week, I stayed secluded. “It is nice knowing these spells, though. Blue Magic isn’t exactly something people tend to want to learn.”
❛ ——that so, huh? man, sounds wild. ❜
SEED ARE AN EXTRAORDINARY bunch, useful allies and prodigies beyond their tender ages, but when he bounces his knee, fingers twitching for the back of his neck, he’s thinking their wholesale production method is pretty grotesque. his smile is constant, though a tinge pitying for the unforgiving mistake made in her youth. it can’t be helped with a heart like his.
❛ i can see why. seems like there’s a lotta risk involved for the reward. i mean, sure, you could say that goes for learning most offensive skills, but if it were me trying to blow fire outta my face? yikes. they’d have to find a new president. ❜
HE’S ALMOST TEMPTED to try, now that he’s said it himself. but he just laughs wryly instead, rotating a shoulder in its socket.
❛ ——y’know, i’ve been wondering if that thing requires like, double the maintenance, since it’s a cross between two weapons, right? you’ve got the gun aspect, which requires disassembly and cleaning, and the blade. isn’t it kind of a — well. i guess if it was a hassle, you wouldn’t be using it, huh? ❜
THE COFFEE IS COLD, iced as it were, and that’s a blessing if there ever was one, but the fact remains that the liquid is everywhere, emptied by one absent-minded gesture. he’s scrambling for anything that can be used as a towel, but this is an office, not a bathroom.
❛ geez, i —— i’m so sorry, i forgot it was even in my hand. ❜
❛ d’you think tonberries are born with those robes on? or do they make them in little tonberry textile mills? must be a hard life if you gotta sew without fingers. how’re they gonna get the thread through the needle loop thing? real sad. ❜
❛ ——i know this might come as something of a surprise, but i’m not really that great at triple triad! guess that’s the world’s way of maintaining the natural order, y’know? gotta keep one man from holding too many talents. ❜
