Chat Clients Instead then?

It was odd sitting at a small table with a netbook before him in a space that was all his own. There was no mother anymore. Just him and a few things to call his own and survive off of. He thought that when he first left that life of luxury and decided to get a small place to at least have a place to rest his head that he would flip out and wouldn’t be able to handle it. However, while the flipping out did occur and he did have his moments of weepiness, once he had settled and gotten used to the idea of being on his own, he found himself slowly warming up to the idea and in turn liking it. It was odd being actually free. It felt almost too good to be true, but he was here and perhaps now could actually move forward with his life now that no chains were attached to him. It was nerve wracking, but in a good way. He had no one to answer to and could do as he pleased and as long as he stayed away from the windows he didn’t have to worry about hiding his true self from the world.  He had no strings attached...though on that note there was one particular odd string in life.

Red eyes would drift from a video he was watching on the computer to the paper next to him where he had scribbled a name: Noire. It was the chat screen name for Sharaku. The demon would tilt his head slightly at the paper wondering what made him ask the other for it in the first place.

They weren’t buddies as far as he knew and while the guy was indeed pretty, he didn’t think he had any attraction towards him outside of the fact that the guy was a curious thing to him, but there were many curious people out there and not once had he bothered to ask for a number or screen name. So what was it that made this one different? What made him want to actually attempt to talk with the guy that he pretty much butted heads with constantly? It didn’t make sense to be honest. Just like it didn’t make sense that the longer he stared at that name, the more tempted he was actually find him on that chat client. He would hesitate for a second longer and then sighing, he would start up the chat client on his system and once it had stopped doing its update thing, he would use the search bar to find the name and once finding it, he would click it and send a request to be added. He wondered if he was going to regret this.

Message sent to Norie:

To be completely honest, Sharaku had nearly forgotten he even gave his contact information to the guy. It wasn't something that occurred often, and he hardly ever actually did any chatting. Simply because he either didn't care enough, or didn't even think about it. Plus, it's not like he had a billion friends he could add and stuff. Therefore, there was really next to no reason for him to think about the existence of such communication to begin with on most days. Alas, not all days are the same, right?

Luckily enough for the other, he had actually been looking up some stuff around that time, so he had his laptop open. Although, the same couldn't be said about his attention span apparently, since it took him a good few minutes to register that the thingy was popping up on his screen and asking for attention. So much for that? If nothing else though, it managed to remind him that this was in fact a thing. He was wondering just what the guy had in mind when it came to this after all, but hadn't done much about it at first. Now he would seemingly have to though.

And the first thing to do would be to raise an eyebrow at his screen at seeing the picture. He had already thought that the name was a little strange, considering that bloody things could be pretty nasty, but combining that with a yellowish...what was that even?....was mildly oddball. It kind of looked like a cartoonish elf? He wasn't even sure. Whatever though. Hmm.

He sent the message and got accepted according to the side panel that showed names. That strange grayed out question mark went away and lit up as green as the first and only person on his list was added. Was he distressed at having just that one person there? Not really. It wasn’t like he had a ton of folk to add in the first place nor was it like he actually used the chat enough to actually make friends. Sure, he talked to the random passbyer that somehow found him when he did have it on, but that was about it and that was if he happened to actually open the darn thing. His chats were few and far between, but he had gotten the program just in case he actually did make a friend along his path, but it seemed Fate or whatever you wanted to call it had different plans for how he was to utilize this chat. Instead of a friend, he was connecting with an acquaintance that he was unsure of where he stood with or even if the guy would bother responding back. Yes, he had given a screen name, but that didn’t obligate other to do anything. Yet even with the chances at 50/50….he had still added him and sent the request to be added.

He was accepted, but didn’t get a response back. No issue considering there was a number of things to keep someone for not answering right away; however, as time stretched on he honestly thought the other perhaps wasn’t going to answer and so with an inward shrug. He would let the chat run in the background as he went back to browsing the web again. He had actually gotten pretty deep into the surfing to the point where he had forgotten about the chat. In fact, about time the strange bloop sound came from the chat client, he was distracted enough that it startled him in the quiet place.

Making sure to turn his volume down a bit, he would bring the chat client to the front once more. He would take note of the cute tiger there and had actually smile a bit considering he never thought the guy would be into cute things like that; however, the message he received caused his smile to fade as he narrowed his eyes to read it…..

Okay? Well, someone was certainly touchy over a random message. It's not like he had said something completely morbid or such, so what's the fuss...?

He could see already that this was going to be an interesting event. If they misunderstood each other face-to-face then this....this was going to be even more entertaining. Regardless he had a reply to contend with, so...

Well, that was a really weird way of going along then. As far as he was aware, dotting and stuff like that were typically not a reaction of amusement when in next form. Don't people do that when they don't like what was said, in one way or another? In his opinion, a line of dots plus that type of 'face' were a poor way of showing you're amused and actually going along. What did he know though.

And so it began. The misunderstanding and the smart ass comments. Within a few moments of starting this chat already things were taking a turn for perhaps rough waters if handled poorly; however, Rika was not too bothered yet as he read the message on screen and then shifting in his chair, he would move his fingers across the keypad to respond.


He would pause in his typing a bit as he stared at the rest of that comment. Now why the hell would he change his motto to that just because he had a different interpretation of things? He would shake his head lightly at that one.
 

Then there was a pause for a bit where the other did not respond back, so Rika simply busied himself with something else. When he heard the familiar bloop again and read/saw what was there…

Okay? But if you have nothing to say, why not just...well, say nothing until you do come up with a response? And the other certainly did right after. Definitely causes less confusion that way, no? In lieu of the meaning the guy was trying to present, those dots seemed like a highly unnecessary message to even send. He could see them being used in that manner when perhaps writing a novel, or something that others would read, to indicate some character is being silent for such reasons, but what good does it really do in real life conversation? He saw little point in typing ''....'' with the meaning of having nothing to say when you then go and give an actual response seconds later. That means you did in fact have something to say right away, making the dots slightly moot, and opening the door for misinterpretation depending on what your following statements are.



Like, what if it actually had been the latter, and the other would end up getting mad because of it being passed over as if it meant nothing? Technically speaking, there is no right choice of interpretation unless you know the person well enough to be able to instinctively understand what kind of undertone they are aiming for with their words. Which can sometimes be even harder to do through text. Although he would say it's not super easy in person either, unless said person is very expressive with their face and gives it away clearly.


If you tend to view things as confusing, that won't change based on what kind of stance you take towards responses, will it?

Anyway...

Seriously though. Why was he making a big fuss over the dots to begin with? Okay. Yes dots had many ways to be interpreted and true without being face-to-face he couldn’t technically tell what Rika meant by the dots due to no context to base it on. But still….


As for the rest of that…


He would actually pause and consider that one. He supposed the other did have a point. They didn’t know each other well and maybe even less so considering that up until now he had been dealing with the human that had now become part of him. He supposed he wasn’t exactly the same person though he could remember things from previous encounters between the man and the blonde here and there. In any case, he would eventually move to type again.


Maybe if he tried working this from the other’s perspective he could communicate better with him. It was worth a try. And who knew maybe it would be less stressful this way.


No reason to place up something that he would either rebel against or cause someone to find him boring because he was always doing things unexpected. It would certainly irk him to be constantly walled like that, so best to leave a bit of room for the imagination and surprise.


And he would pause unsure what to say next after that. Welp.

He wasn’t waiting 5+ minutes to read a message, but it’s not like he was jumping on it a second after it came, since he wasn’t staring at his screen waiting solely for the ping to come. If it was a really short time difference, it probably mattered jack squat. He honestly saw the dots when the rest of the stuff was already written too, so it really didn’t make him think of any delays. When it’s below a minute..or maybe even two, it wouldn’t even strike him as much of a time difference. For all one knows, you need to look something up before you respond further, or something else on your computer demanded attention for a few moments. Literally no big deal there. That’s what he’d say at least.

On a side note though, he wasn’t exactly fussing. But he wasn’t going to just abandon a conversation mid-way and pretend they magically ended it out of nowhere. As long as it was still going, he was going to keep responding to it, no? Did the guy think he was supposed to just cut it off at random, because choosing to roll with it equals big fussing? Well, he wouldn’t know....


Was this really an issue of the guy assuming that he was being left alone way quicker than necessary? Because it was starting to look that way. That whole mentality of 'You didn’t respond for a while. Guess that means I’m not entertaining enough and you don’t want to deal with me anymore‘. No? Take a chill pill man. Geez. The fact that you may not always be the first thing that gets responded to and dealt with doesn’t mean you have less value. If for example someone has a cat, and it starts tossing down some stuff from their kitchen counter, wouldn’t they go deal with that and save their stuff over responding to a text message? Or any situation that just demands some attention, really.


He just didn’t. If that is long enough for you to start having doubts about whether you’re going to get responded to at all, then maybe you need to start thinking about why are you such a downy worry-wart first. Anyway...


Whether it would work or not though, he had no idea. After all, what looks perfectly clear to one person, may be completely confusing to another. Speaking of which, the next matter was a perfect example of that, as the guy was dissecting the saying way too hard, and making it more complicated than it needed to be.


He literally just didn’t care. Unexpected or not, you have to deal with what you were served. And it was no different. Plus, every person finds different things boring. Can’t go and generalize that people would suddenly start being bored of you simply because you stated that. Some may. And some will be bored even when you don’t make them expect those things. It’s really up to chance at the end of it all.


What was he to say anyway...?