The Other Real World (open)

[Indigo Noble]

Indigo had tried to do something while he waited for the next message, but all he'd managed to do was stare at the screen. Adulation. Sh~ He copied the word and searched it in Google. He'd have no clue how to respond unless he was sure what she meant. Obsequious flattery; excessive admiration or praise. Well, he had no clue what obsequious meant either, but he got the rest of it. He closed Google and returned to the IM window.

i'm pretty speechless myself. good thing i can write.

[Annabelle Hennessy]

Annabelle smiled at the screen upon receiving his words. She really wished she was better at this witty banter, or that Indigo wasn't so good at least. She felt like a nursery school student mistakenly let loose on the big play yard at school, standing and staring in awe. You're better off than me then.... It is pretty quiet in here, what type of music do you like? It's nearly impossible to stream and I don't have much, do you have anything good?

Annabelle hit send and turned to grab some crisps, unable to avoid glancing in his direction, and quickly turned back to the computer and typed another message. NM, didn't realize you're listening to something already....Ignore me. She went back to grabbing the snacks, sure that she'd just made a ninny of herself.

[Indigo Noble]

Indigo had been about to respond when another message popped up. Ignore me. He thought a moment, then replied, I know how to share. what do you want to hear? It would be weird not having his earbuds in, but if she wanted music, he might as well let her listen. Unless she liked country or something. Then she'd just be out of luck.

hope you like rock.

[Annabelle Hennessy]

Annabelle wasn't sure why she kept waiting for Indigo to call her out or label her with the words 'epic fail' or some such thing; he was consistently being nothing but nice, funny, flirty, and encouraging. His most recent response just proved to Anna that she should stop expecting the worst of people. Thx, I love rock. You don't have all the same bands, but the majority of the good ones are international. So whatcha listening to?

[Indigo Noble]

If it was strange seeing Annabelle slip into more casual writing after using that one word he'd looked up, Indigo didn't give it much thought. He was used to far worse, and used it himself sometimes. His mind paused on the bit about all the same bands. She must have looked at his info, and though he couldn't really say anything, considering he had one of her pictures up, it was still a surprise.

He shook that thought off. He didn't need to wonder why she'd looked him up. They were kind of trapped together for the night, so it made sense. Hadn't she said that earlier?

listening to muse. knights of cydonia right now, but the album's on shuffle. interested?

[Annabelle Hennessy]

Definitely! I love seeing the rest of the world fall in love with Brits....Musically speaking of course. Not that I'm biased, I have favorite American Bands too. Annabelle sent the message back to him, then realized she'd just been sitting there not even doing anything besides IMing him. She opened up her twitter MissTaken, which was associated with one of her blogs and NOT linked in any way to her Facebook and began posting a comment about the mysterious stranger that was entertaining her.

[Indigo Noble]

Was that an invitation? He knew better, but she'd left herself wide open with that fall in love with Brits comment. He reached for the jack to his earbuds almost immediately after hitting enter, and the song chose that moment to switch. The hard, sexy beat of Supermassive Black Hole followed, and his heart skipped. Of all the songs to switch to! he thought. Well, there was nothing to do but brazen it out.

mood music?

[Annabelle Hennessy]

At his first words, Annabelle's heart practically stopped, or perhaps it was beating out of her chest, she couldn't tell. She leaned back against the couch, bringing her laptop a little closer up on her lap as she did so. From her new position she could glance over at him without turning her head, which she did, quickly. He wasn't looking her way, so she risked another glance, lingering a few seconds before panicking and focusing on her IM box again. When she did she saw his second message which positively made her heart pound, along with the beat of the familiar song. She took the chicken way out, not knowing how to comment back without giving him the wrong impression of her. She was a Ravenclaw bookworm and wasn't used to so much innuendo flying around. Good choice. It's one of my favorites.

[Indigo Noble]

Indigo stared at the new message, suddenly wishing he hadn't sent his last two, or at least the one about the invitation. He'd seen a little movement out of the corner of his eye, but since she'd ignored him completely, he could only assume he'd gone too far.

i take it necking in the im room is out? sorry, was having fun and went overboard. He paused, finger hovering over the enter key for a moment, then backing off. i'll play something else next time. got bootleg weird sisters...

[Annabelle Hennessy]

Annabelle read his message and immediately started typing a response, but she backspaced several times because she tended to change her mind on what to say mid-sentence. Thank goodness for computers, at least I don't sound completely like an idiot stumbling over my words. She worked for what seemed like ages, but was probably only a few moments before she finally sent her novel of a message. She watched him out of the corner of her eye, pulling at her lip with her teeth as she nervously waited for his reaction.

No apologies needed! I was having fun too....I just don't have experience doing this and must humbly bow to the master of IM makeout sessions. I'm sure I just committed a million sins against conversing with the opposite sex by I telling you that you're pretty intimidating..... Please no weird sisters. They're good, but I hear them all the time at Hogwarts.

[Indigo Noble]

Indigo read with gently curved lips, though the curve faded a bit partway through. Pretty intimidating. Him? He knew he could be when he released EPIC FURY on someone in the forums, but he'd just been talking to her. In a friendly manner. Okay, fine, you were flirting, he admitted to himself.

Please no weird sisters... all the time at Hogwarts. His smile returned. He'd figured as much. That offer had mostly been bragging that he had it. The only other person he knew that had a wizarding band in electronic form, at least in high enough quality to listen to, was the person he'd gotten the music from. He dismissed the thought and typed up his response.

i'm completely harmless. unless you like danger. He backspaced some, though his smile widened at the thought of having sent it.

i'm completely harmless. cross my heart. x

[Annabelle Hennessy]

The words forced a smile from Anna's lips and eased her tension a bit. She was tempted to ask if he thought she was a complete prude, or weird, or incredibly antisocial, but she had enough commonsense to refrain from such questions. She was interested in him, he seemed nice, funny, and was actually into muggle things which was more than she could say about any of the slytherins she'd fallen for. She didn't want him to write her off as a complete mental case.

Yeah that's what the wolf says to the lamb as he lures it away too But no guts, no glory right? Shall I be your padawan learner? She quickly hit the send button before she talked herself out of it.

[Indigo Noble]

Indigo's eyes widened slightly at her response, though only for the briefest moment. Then his smile returned and widened as he stretched his fingers to compose a response. If the lamb wants glory, who's a wolf to turn it down? He was near grinning when he hit enter. Whatever game she was playing at, he wasn't about to stop.

[Annabelle Hennessy]

Well then I'm all yours. Lead away. Annabelle looked at what she'd automatically thought and typed and couldn't see any fault in it. Yes, she was openly flirting, but they'd acknowledged thats what was going on, so there was no point in resisting and pretending that wasn't what she was doing. It wasn't like she was really doing anything she told herself, they were sitting in the same room, not making eye contact, not even touching. So it wasn't like he would suddenly toss aside their computers and start making out with her on the couch for real, would he? She hesitated with her pinkie over the enter key as a shiver went through her body at the thought, then let the message travel through cyber space to him.

[Indigo Noble]

Indigo's brows rose, and the edge of his curved lips twitched slightly. This was good, and now that he was in the zone, it was easy to fire off a response. He glanced up from the IM to the picture of her he currently had up, one with a shy smile and eyes just that perfect shade of liquid brown, then worked his magic as best he could.

if i touched your hand, would you shiver? would you smile the way you do in your pictures? would you sigh if i looked into your brown eyes? and are you blushing?

He had no thought of making any of it happen. He was fully into the conversation, and though he might have been imagining it all, he'd never once had the opportunity to make any of those pretty words real, no matter how he might wish to.

He hit send.