Poppy
Human
Student/Librarian
I've got soul, but I'm not a soldier
Posts: 119
|
Post by Poppy on Mar 1, 2008 21:53:48 GMT
Even though she had been the one to bring up the police in general and certain homicide detectives who may or may not have Poppy’s last name as his first, she couldn’t help but blush as the gears and levers clicked in Gemma’s brain and she started describing the physical. It was all very well and good for Poppy to talk about him; indeed she would be hard pressed not to bring him up every now and then, but at the same time it depressed her slightly. It was highly unlikely in a city the size of this one that they would run into each other again or that even if he remembered her, he would treat her as anything other than a victim in one of his cases.
She had read enough detective novels to know how that sort of thing worked out.
“I’ve had too little experience with the law too. And unless I take up crime I’m unlikely to have any more,” Poppy replied, lips twisting into a faint grin. Part of her knew that was what made him so appealing, because he was safe to think about but it didn’t help her right here, right now. “I bet if you and I teamed up, we’d be unstoppable. With our book brains and stuff,” she joked.
|
|
Gemma
Human
Departed
Never be afraid to sit alone and think...
Posts: 46
|
Post by Gemma on Mar 11, 2008 17:08:29 GMT
Gemma gave a quiet snort of laughter. "Yes," she said, quite serious. "We could be the new madames of the criminal underworld, I bet. Ruling with an iron fist. And think of the benefits! We'd work our own hours, probably be able to move to an executive position fairly quickly..."
Granted, they would both as soon leave the crime to the professionals. Gemma, for her own part, had no problem with authority. She'd even encountered a few of L.A.'s finest and, from what she'd experienced, they were good people. No reason to go and undermine the boys in blue. Chuckling to herself, the bespectacled libriarian pressed the flaps down on the just-filled box of damaged books and reached for the packing tape. With a glance to Poppy, she tried to keep her voice casual.
"Y'know, you could always send him something. A small token of your gratitude?"
|
|
Poppy
Human
Student/Librarian
I've got soul, but I'm not a soldier
Posts: 119
|
Post by Poppy on Mar 30, 2008 19:09:11 GMT
“There would be the downsides of having to constantly look over our shoulders, the rapid turnabout rate of second in commands. It would be a stressful if lucrative job,” Poppy agreed, brushing some of her hair away from her face as she realised the boxes had managed to pretty much fill themselves without her noticing while they had been chatting away.
Even if she hadn’t had an up close and personal experience with the boys in blue and with blue eyes, Poppy would still have had nothing but the greatest of respect of for the law. The police kept everything working smoothly and pretty much allowed for buildings such as a library to be open without too much fear that some lunatic would come in from the street and start killing people.
Then again, if such a thing could happen in a church, then it could happen anywhere, Poppy giving a light little shiver at the memory before focusing back on Gemma’s words. “I wouldn’t know what to get him that wasn’t girly or giving off too much… creepy crazy stalker vibe,” she answered, trying to cover up her shiver and momentary lapse into dark thoughts as best she could.
|
|
Gemma
Human
Departed
Never be afraid to sit alone and think...
Posts: 46
|
Post by Gemma on Jun 2, 2008 21:25:50 GMT
There was the rip of packing tape and Gemma carefully settled the clear bit of adhesive over one end of the box before her. "Well, let's think," she ponder aloud while pressing the tap into place. "Flowers are a definite no -- too generic. That leaves chocolates, or a gift card for somewhere, but that's not very personal..."
This was something of a predicament. Personally, Gemma had never had much experience with the opposite sex. For one thing, she wasn't exactly popular material through high school, or college, and for another, she was utterly incapable of flirtation. It just didn't happen. Safe to say that she wouldn't be much of a help to Poppy, but at the very least she would try.
|
|
Poppy
Human
Student/Librarian
I've got soul, but I'm not a soldier
Posts: 119
|
Post by Poppy on Jun 30, 2008 21:37:45 GMT
All the old books, boxes and other odds and ends had conspired against Poppy to leave a small trail of dust in their wake, dust that had somehow managed to pretty much end up on the palms of her hands. She rubbed her palms together, trying not to think of the grime that was getting pressed deeper into her skin; it was just one of those things. “Aren’t chocolates more… things guys give to us, not the other way round?” she ventured, not sure herself.
Gemma wasn’t the only one with a less than stellar track record when it came to guys and how to even talk to them. Her teenage years had been filled with dance lessons, not ‘boy lessons’ and the few she had known in those formative years had been mostly the stereotypical view of a male dancer, with no interest in women. Even when Poppy had no choice but to give up her aims in life after the accident, she hadn’t had the opportunity of the time to think about guys. Her time at the university didn’t help either, the young woman drawing into herself a little at the sheer amount of people although she would never classify herself as shy or scared of crowds. It was just something about university that was different.
|
|
Gemma
Human
Departed
Never be afraid to sit alone and think...
Posts: 46
|
Post by Gemma on Jul 21, 2008 18:06:24 GMT
"Um...yes," Gemma agreed. "But guys like chocolate, too. Maybe you could get him manly chocolates? Like the kind that are filled with rum or something. Those might do the trick."
Honestly, she was grasping at straws by this point, but maybe they could come up with something if they kept bouncing ideas off of one another. The dark-haired female took up another folded cardboard box and bent it back into shape, being exceedingly careful as she began stacking books inside. All the while, she kept her mind running, working in an almost absentminded fashion as she tried to think up something that would be more helpful for Poppy.
|
|
Poppy
Human
Student/Librarian
I've got soul, but I'm not a soldier
Posts: 119
|
Post by Poppy on Aug 2, 2008 19:54:57 GMT
“Manly chocolates could work.” Of course now Poppy probably wouldn’t be able to look at chocolates that held rum or some other kind of alcohol without mentally classifying them as ‘manly’ which would almost certainly reduce her to a fit of giggles. The laughter would only get worse if the person who happened to have the chocolates, who was eating them was as far from manly as you could get. Someone like her sister – or any woman in fact but the image of Iris being called manly and then the result as Iris showed them how very, very, very wrong they were to insult her.
She had been carefully collecting the books into short piles as they talked and imagined; each pile little more than three or four books high, just the right thickness to be able to be passed to Gemma easily as soon as she had worked through those nearest to her. “I dunno, he is very…” Poppy paused for a moment, struggling to think up the right word to describe him. Logically, the young woman knew that she had little to no chance with the detective and in a way, that was okay. Sure, she would love nothing better than to get to know him better, but Marcus worked just as well as a fantasy. “I don’t want to embarrass him.” She finished, words sounding lame to her own ears.
|
|
Gemma
Human
Departed
Never be afraid to sit alone and think...
Posts: 46
|
Post by Gemma on Oct 19, 2008 18:51:53 GMT
"You, embarrass him?"
Gemma paused in her work for a moment and gave Poppy a Look, one eyebrow arched skeptically toward her hairline. Not that she had any experience that would allow her to made judgments, but it seemed that someone like Detective Rivera would be able to handle small embarrassments, and receiving thanks from someone like Poppy probably wouldn't even be that embarrassing.
"He's a hardened cop, Poppy," she said with a lopsided smile. "I doubt receiving some kind of thanks from a nice girl would be far from embarrassing. What about flowers? They don't have to be too girly or anything -- something nice and simply would work."
|
|
Poppy
Human
Student/Librarian
I've got soul, but I'm not a soldier
Posts: 119
|
Post by Poppy on Oct 26, 2008 19:24:14 GMT
Some small part of her had been hoping Gemma wouldn’t call her out on that last claim, even though she had known it was a foolish idea. The other librarian was too smart not to notice and react, and more importantly, Gemma was a friend, friends tried to help and encourage whenever they could, even if that meant giving other friends the dreaded ‘Look’, with Poppy squirming a little under the gaze. “Okay,” she admitted with a sheepish expression on her face. “Maybe it’s more I’ll embarrass myself. I… just, well, I’ve never really seriously dated a guy before, let alone given one a present.”
Poppy wasn’t the bravest of people, even in something as simple and not threatening as gift giving. This kind of thing was more her sister’s area, Iris didn’t appear scared of fazed of anything and it often made her younger sister jealous. “Flowers could work,” Poppy agreed after a moment, taking a couple of deep breaths to calm herself. It was only some flowers after all, a token of thanks and nothing more. Certainly nothing to warrant a mild breathing fit of panic. “What would I do without you?” she added, her own friendly lopsided smile on her face. Sometimes you just needed that push.
|
|