Angel and Doug

[x-firestar.livejournal.com]

On her trip into the city, Angel decides to stop by the brownstone to ask Amanda where a good library is. She doesn't get her but she does meet up with Doug who finds out she's interested in learning Sooraya's language for a nice roommate surprise. They make a deal.



Angel sat in the waiting area of the brownstone, tucking one of her legs up under her as she flipped through the language book she'd brought. The receptionist, Mark, had said he'd go to find Amanda for her so instead of being, well, bored out of her mind she'd decided to study. Her dad had gone to the coffee shop next door while she waited, content to come back when she was done since she'd already gotten a ton of pictures. Frowning, she tried to pronounce something and, really, when it came out of her mouth it sounded nothing like it looked in the book.

Doug was passing through the waiting area with his extremely large morning cup of coffee from the local coffee shop when he heard Angel's egregious mispronunciation. He hadn't really met the girl, as he was pretty sure she'd arrived at the mansion after he had moved into New York City. But he did recognize her as a student from her picture on the journal system. He racked his brain for her name. "Angelica, right?" he asked after a moment.

Squeaking, she jumped and then flushed. "Um, hi. Yeah, though just Angel, if you don't mind." Angel held out her hand and gave him a weak grin. "I've got no idea who you are...except you aren't Mark or Amanda, which gives me a head start, yay!"

Doug took the redhead's hand. His lack of being a morning person aside, the younger girl's bubbly enthusiasm was somewhat infectious. He found himself smiling back. "Angel it is," he replied easily. "I'm Doug," he introduced himself. "What are you studying there?" he asked, indicating the book.

"A language book," she responded, showing it too him. "It's Pashto. My roommate, Sooraya, speaks it and she's learning to speak English but..." She shrugged. "It's gotta be hard, you know? Mr. Haller helps with the woobie language in the mind thing but I know she's gotta feel out of place sometimes. I want to see if I can pick some up and make her not feel so alone."

Doug chuckled despite himself. Waving away Angel's curious look, he smiled again. "That's a very nice thing to do for your roommate," he said. "So, what brings you down to the Snow Valley Memorial Center for Ex-Cons and Misfits?" he asked curiously, a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

"Ya know, I'm probably better off pleading underage and not asking about the Ex-Con part." Giggling, Angel pointed at the book and sighed. "Using that book is going kind of slow so I stopped by to see if Amanda could point me to a big library. I'd ask Mr. DayspringMarrow--er, I'm still confused on his name--but he teaches Sooraya English and she might see me going to him and then the surprised would be ruined."

Doug chuckled again. This time, when Angel looked sharply at him, a little more annoyed, he shook his head. "I'll save you a step and tell you where Amanda would point you," he said gently to take the sting from his amusement. That was not to say he wasn't in a bit of a playful mood. "Follow me," he said, leading the way down the hall of the office building.

"Oh God, if you turn out to be a serial killer and kill me and hide my body, I am so haunting you," Angel warned him, scampering to catch up after she got her stuff. She glanced around as they walked. "Place is kind of neat but I hope I wasn't disturbing anyone's work by stopping by."

"Nah, this is the sort of thing we do around here," Doug answered. "Besides, we're plenty good at disturbing each others' work all on our own," he said irrepressibly. "Aaaaand, here's the here we are," he said, stopping outside his office and indicating the door with his name prominently displayed.

"...shiny name plate, I like it." Angel grinned at him. "I'm assuming you're not keeping someone who speaks Pashto under your desk...are you? Because that'd be a neat trick. I don't think I could keep Sooraya under my desk. At least not easily."

Flopping down in his chair and leaning back in it, Doug set his coffee on the desk. "Nope, not under my desk," he said, folding his hands behind his head. "At it." He waved a hand airily. "Doug Ramsey, IT monkey and mutant linguist, at your service."

"Well, at least you're not under your desk." Sitting down in the chair across from him, she tucked her legs under her. "So, mutant linguist? Not just any ordinary linguist? What does that mean, exactly?"

"I'm guessing nobody told you about my mutant power, since I'm not at the mansion anymore." Doug continued to lean back in his chair, propping his feet on his desk. He felt strangely...grown up, as the older of the two, and sitting behind his desk at his workplace. It was a very interesting feeling. "Basically my power boils down to pattern recognition, which results in my being able to speak and read every language known to man, and even the notable addition of a language that technically hasn't been invented yet."

Angel's eyes had grown to the size of small saucers. "That is so cool." Add another power that was better than hers, she thought. So awesome. "Do you actually sound like you're, you know, from that area instead of an American tourist or something? What if you just read a language and never hear it? Ooh, ooh, can you do like made up languages from books and movies? Oh my God, how do you hold that many languages without your head blowing up?"

"Getting a particular accent requires talking with someone from the place in question, otherwise I just sound like I was taught from a book," Doug said. "I can do made up languages, yes. And...well, my power just works that way, so it's instinctive rather than stuff I've memorized for the most part." He grinned at the effusive girl. "So, how's pignapping working out for you?" he asked casually.

"Oh that's cool and...what?!" Whatever Angel had been about to say quickly went away and she stared at him. "No! No pignapping here! No sirree. None whatsoever. ...do I look like a girl that would pignap, is that it? Oh God, do I have pignapper written on my forehead?"

"You might say that," Doug replied jokingly. "Did I mention that my ability to understand language includes -body- language? Oh, silly me, I forgot. Not to mention it makes me very good at deciphering codes, like the oh-so-cleverly hidden 'Angel was here' in your little ransom note that Kyle got." He shook a hand at her slightly worried look. "Don't worry, I'm not telling anyone. I think it's hilarious, personally."

"That's cheating," she sulked, pouting for a few minutes. "That letter took me forever to write! Stupid newspaper clippings. Man, now I know who to go to if I need to hack Kyle's journal and make him sound like a girl. So, about the language thing...do you offer classes? Because I don't think I'm going to get it through reading the books and the tapes sound like old, dieing men on them."

"It's not cheating," Doug replied. "It's just the way my power works." He shrugged self-deprecatingly. "And as for the language thing, I don't really offer classes per se, but I'm more than willing to help you out on a casual basis."

"Not cheating cheating...just, well, kinda like me setting Kyle's butt on fire to get the last hot dog," Angel said sagely. "We use what we got. If you don't mind, I'd really like to take lessons from you. I want to surprise Sooraya...not when I'm, you know, speaking it like I was born speaking it but enough to hold a decent conversation. Without accidentally putting the wrong emphasis on the wrong syllable and try to sell her a small donkey and a goat for half off."

"I think we can manage that," Doug said encouragingly. "It's a very nice thing you're doing." He leaned back in his chair again. "Figure we'll try and meet up at least once or twice a week, though we'll keep away from scheduling it to death. This is something you're doing to be nice, not anything for a grade, so we'll keep it low-stress. Sound good to you?"

"That sounds fantastic," Angel agreed, nodding her head so fast that her pigtails shook violently. "And I'll drop you my class schedule so that we can make it as unstressful as possible. This is going to be so cool."

Comments

[x-dust.livejournal.com]

Angel is the best roommate ever. Also, totally adorable. :D