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[intraining]

Who: roommates Charlie & Dirk
What: awkward PJ meet and greets
Where: house 13
When: morning Day 95
Warning: massive amounts of awkward.


Charlie has lived on her own for years now, preferring that privacy over physical social interaction. All the people she needed to talk to were online, and without roommates she didn't have to worry about bringing girls home. Since she never went to college, the extent of her 'roommate' experience involved sharing hotels rooms at comic-con and one night stands.

Which is what Charlie will blame when she finally gets around to realizing she's been living in this house with another person the entire time she's been in the cape. As far as she's known, she's been home alone, but she couldn't have been more wrong in this assumption and she was about to be proved as much very shortly.

For now, though, she stands in the kitchen. She's pretty sure she sleep-walked here, because she knows there's not enough food for her to actually eat a decent breakfast, but here she is. Hobbit T-shirt, comic underwear and all.

Comments

[zen_navigator]

All Dirk wants is a glass of water. He's fairly sure that some new genus of moss grew in his mouth overnight and he'd really like to get rid of it as soon as possible. As he pushes out of bed, he shrugs on his button up shirt, but doesn't bother with pants. He'd just heading to the kitchen, anyway, and as far as he knows, he's been alone in this house since Jesse's departure.

So, as he enters the kitchen, hair uncombed, in an unbuttoned shirt and bright red briefs, he's not at all prepared to see a stranger foraging for breakfast in their underwear.

"Uh," he says, more or less at a loss for words. "Hello?"

[intraining]

So Charlie is foraging, but there's not really a lot to forage through. Every time she comes across something either she convinces herself it's a bad idea or it calls for too much effort. What does a girl need to do to get a box of fruit loops around here, anyway?

But the voice? Makes her freeze. She's bent over checking inside a cubbard when she hears him, and kind of just leans out from behind the door, eyes narrowed. Does she need a weapon? Is there even anything to use around here? They end up just kind of staring at each other in silence for a second before she stands up - slowly.

"Hey." Casual, Charlie. Be casual. "Uh...can I. Help you?"

[zen_navigator]

"You..." He squints at her, finally slotting into place where he recognizes her from. "You were in my dream. You were. And now you're in my kitchen." Well, technically, he was in her dream, but give him some slack here, he just got up.

And now he's putting together the whole in-her-underwear thing and what that means. Man, he really needs to keep a closer eye on things. Someone is gonna come and murder him in his sleep or something. "Did you sleep here?"

[intraining]

"Your dream?" The cabinet door closes and she turns to look at him, getting a better view and suddenly remember that yes she does remember him. "Uh, dude. That was my dream." Hogwarts and code and Dick Roman? Yeah, definitely her head.

"Yeah! I sleep-" Wait. Wait she knew there were other rooms in this house, and judging from Dirk's state of undress... "Wait. You sleep here?"

Wow these two are going to be best friends in no time.

[zen_navigator]

"Our dream, then." Well, they'd both been in it. Does it matter which of them was supplying the visuals? He raises an eyebrow, protesting the point, though he imagines that it doesn't have nearly as much impact as it would were he fully clothed.

"Of course I sleep here. My bedroom is in the back." He throws a gesture back over his shoulder, as if that would do anything to indicate which of the bedrooms is his. "How long have you been here?" Surely she couldn't have gone unnoticed for that long.

Yup. Best of friends.

[intraining]

That just gets a nob, because our she can agree with. Even if it doesn't matter, it's a nice little moment where she's feeling kind of vulnerable and not at all clothed and she asserted herself. Good job, Charlie. H would be so proud.

"Your bedroom's in the..." Oh. Right. That part of the house she hasn't actually been to. Charlie looks past him to where he points, before looking over her shoulder, and then just kind of sighs and runs a hand through her hair. "Welp. This is embarrassing. I've been here for a couple of weeks now? I think."

Days are hard.

[zen_navigator]

"Weeks." well, there goes any claim he could have at being highly observant. "I usually get up later." he adds, as if that helps to excuse not realizing that she's been here for weeks.

"I'm Dirk. Dirk Gently." He takes a step forward, offering her his hand in greeting, then seems to reconsider and pulls back. He is in his underwear, and he's betting she isn't really up for shaking hands with some random guy in his underwear. "I should...trousers."

[intraining]

"And I don't hang out here a lot."

They're excuses, to make her feel better about being totally oblivious to this semi-important aspect of her time in the Cape. Whoops?

"Charlie Bradb- oh." Right. Underwear. She kind of looks down at her legs and then back to him and then just kind of...steps backwards. "Let's pause this. Like. Pants-break?"

[zen_navigator]

"Yes. Good idea." So, one of them should be moving to go do that. He wavers a moment, wondering if she's going to leave first before he excuses himself. "Uh. Right back."

He returns in a pair of particularly vintage-looking slacks, his shirt buttoned but un-cuffed and un-tucked, hands working at tying his tie around his neck. He hasn't bothered with shoes or socks.

"Much better." He does feel significantly less vulnerable and awkward now that he's not in his underwear. "So, Charlie, is it?"

[intraining]

And when Charlie returns, it's with a bra and in a pair of pants - the bra on the inside of the same shirt as earlier. She is on the same page as Dirk with the shoes and socks bit, too, but she's feeling a whole lot better than before. Oh he wonderous things putting on a pair of pants can do to you.

"Yeah." And just for good measure, she'll hold out her hand for a shake. "Charlie Bradbury. Nice to meet you IRL and not In-Dream. And with pants."

[zen_navigator]

He smirks a little bit as he finishes tying his tie loosely around his neck, because, he knows what she means but hey, Brit here. Pants does not mean what you think it means.

"Indeed." He takes her hand and shakes it. "Dirk Gently, as I said before. Holistic Detective." He lifts his hands to tighten his tie up to his collar as he continues. "Nice to meet you, Bradbury."

[intraining]

Oh don't go colloquealismist on her right now Dirk. She just had her first meeting in her underwear, and while it's not necessarily her worst first second impression, she's dealing.

"Holistic detective." Charlie shakes his hand, as good introductions should, but she looks a little confused. "What's that again?"

[zen_navigator]

"Holistic as in comprehensive. My methods rely on the interconnectedness of all things." That's probably not enough to explain, so he continues.

"By following any thread of an investigation, no matter how tangential, I am inevitably led to the solution I seek. It's a simple extension of the principles of quantum mechanics." So, that clears that up, right?

[intraining]

"So you're like a master of all things turned detective."

She can think of a couple of different shows and things this reminds her of. But she's very quickly realizing that pop culture references are not the best choice for effective communication.

Unless you're Gabriel, but we can't all be God of Mischief now can we.

"Do you just solve any crimes? Or just murder or just what?"

[zen_navigator]

"Murder...sometimes. Cases involving hit men and international espionage notwithstanding, mostly it's the average. You know, missing persons, cheating spouses, missing cats." He grins, glad he was able to work something of his more interesting sounding cases in there.

"You may scoff at hiring a detective to find a missing cat, but my last case was very interesting." He raises his eyebrows at her and nods, as if to confirm.

[intraining]

"Missing cats?" Alright, alright. Charlie definitely feel victim to that one, a little too curious about what could possibly be interested in a cat-who-was-probably-caught-in-a-tree.

"Okay, spill. How is that at all interesting?"

[zen_navigator]

He grins at being able to tell the story. "The cat in question had wandered into a makeshift time machine created by a lovelorn computer engineer hoping to rekindle his lost love. He was not successful. However, the cat, as confused and frightened as I imagine anyone might be by unexpected time travel, returned to his former owner, who had been delighted to meet him for the very first time."

He leans against the countertop, trying to look cool. "I discovered the time machine...shortly before it unfortunately exploded, and using my incredible investigative techniques, was able to determine the location of the cat while solving two murder cases."

All of this is true. He is both actually pretty damn clever and very lucky.