Colin's posts

Nate shook his head.

"I think I'm all right." he said.

"Thank you once more." he told her, shaking her hand.

The two of them then exited her office, and he looked around.

"Hm." he mumbled, taking out his phone.

Finished up. he sent to Lunet.

"Gotta wait for Lunet." he told Angela.

Nate internally heaved a massive sigh of relief.

He'd taken the initiative, and it seemed like it had paid off quite nicely.

"Well, that's good." he said, looking around the office again.

"While I'm an intern here, if you want help with any other organisation in your office, let me know." he told her. "Because I realise this is YOUR office, and you may have your own personal way of doing things in here." he went on.

"...should have thought of that before I organised the one shelf, admittedly..." he then mumbled.

"Anyway, thank you once again for your time, Doctor Edwards." he told her, before pausing.

"...Angela, I mean." he corrected himself.

Nate accepted the publication, and started looking through it. It contained things he never knew possible, and seemed to be a genuinely interesting magazine to read. He skimmed through it for about 3 minutes, before looking at Angela.

"This is very fascinating." he told her.

"Seriously. The advancements being made that people... well... can't, or shouldn't, or whatever... know about is... wonderful." he commented further. "It's a shame that the world at large would probably hate such things, or fear them, or whatever." he lamented.

"But thank you." he went on, standing up.

"I'll put this back now." he said further, making his way to the shelf.

"I think working here will be a good experience for me, overall." he told her, as he put the magazine back carefully... but didn't seem to move. Angela also couldn't QUITE see what he was doing, but before she could really say anything, he spoke again.

"As I said, just the fact that I don't have to hide what I am, or what I can do, will be a massive weight off my shoulders." he said. "I won't need to try and come up with some weird story, or spin some lie that seems plausible. I can be... well... myself." he went on. "And I think that will help my work ethic and drive a whole lot." he continued.

"Anyway, thank you again for this interview, especially this late." he then told her. "It means a lot to me." he finished, before stepping away and sitting back down in the chair.

That's when Angela saw that he had used that time (probably elongated by his little speech), to completely organise the shelf. And it was in a way that wasn't obtuse or anything. The books that had been out of order were now arranged in proper publishing order, as were the magazines, sorted by publishing date and brand name, and the smaller booklets that she had were ALSO arranged as well, but since there was no real unifying theme for them, they were arranged alphabetically.

"...." Nate was silent for a moment, seeing that she was looking right at the shelf, before sighing.

"Sorry." he apologised.

"Part of me REALLY wanted to organise that shelf, as it seemed to be a bit... eclectic... and I thought that, since you said I would be organising things anyway, I should show you a brief example of that." he reasoned, now wondering if he'd overstepped his boundaries.

"Oh, it's... already been stopped." Nate assured her.

"Lunet sort of... well, she 'act-of-random-kindness'd her way into my life." he said.

"She helped me with my financial issues, my nutritional issues... helped me see I was on the path leading to a complete and utter breakdown. Both mental AND physical." he continued.

"Thanks to her, I'm feeling better than I have in many years." he added.

If there was one thing, this showed Angela that he was dedicated. He wanted that degree. He was willing to work himself nearly to death to get it done. So a lack of passion or compassion was NOT an issue here.

Nate was then silent for a moment, before looking to the one self again. The one that seemed to be a disorganised mess of books and magazines. He thought for a moment, before an idea came to him.

"...I'm sorry, may I take a look at that magazine?" he asked, gesturing to one that had a bright blue spine.

He paused for a moment, before sighing.

"Well..." he stammered.

"I didn't have quite enough money to afford University... even with a partial scholarship." he told her. "So... I... well, I would go to the local temp agency, and take odd jobs to cover the rest." he told her further.

"However, I realised that if I let me studies slip because of working to afford my studies... then it would be an exercise in futility." he then said.

"So. I decided to cut a few things out of my life." he continued.

"Like... free time." he said.

"And... well... I figured I could deal with everything on 5 hours of sleep a night." he went on.

"....and... just... having some coffee for breakfast... and a sandwich for lunch, which I worked through..." he then mumbled quietly.

"Oh, all right then." Nate responded.

"I can do that." he told her.

As he said that, he noticed one of her bookshelves, and pondered something.

He kept his mouth shut, however... for now.

"I'm happy to just be here and have this opportunity." he then assured her.

"Seriously. This is amazing." he went on.

"And I hope I can help with any issues or problems you have here... assuming having an extra set of hands around fixes those issues."

"VERY well." Nate replied.

"And... anything to ask?" he then mumbled, thinking about it.

"How did you come to work here?" he asked.

"Like, how did this place come to be your place of employment?" he clarified.

"And what sort of tasks will I be doing?" he went on.

"...or is that more like a situation of 'whatever comes up at the time' sorta thing?"

Nate accepted the cheque... and his jaw nearly dropped.

"I... I... this..." he stammered.

"Is this... correct?" he asked.

"This amount?" he asked further.

"I mean, I'm just going to be an intern, yes?" he asked her.

"Don't get me wrong, this is... amazing, if it IS true, I'm just... making sure."

He just smiled in response.

"That makes sense." he said.

However, her comment about Lunet being someone she cared for deeply did not go above him.

He didn't know how old Angela was... nor did he know anything about her family... but could SHE be the one that Lunet was talking about earlier? The one that had tried to adopt her and take care of her?

However, he didn't want to make any assumptions, nor did he want to really bring it up.

"Well, I've given you my cell number, so... you can contact me whenever you need to."

Nate nodded in response.

"Yeah, of course." he replied, as she produced the papers from the drawer and put them on the desk.

They went over them, both of the two signing, dating, and initialing where indicated and necessary, and it took them about 20 minutes or so, before the last line was crossed and signed and such.

"...and that's it?" Nate asked.

"Mmhmm." Angela replied.

"Wow, this went... a lot better than I had anticipated." Nate then admitted.

Nate looked at the timetable, and seemed to agree with it. There were a couple of times she saw him be concerned about something, but it disappeared shortly after some quick deliberation in his head.

And her statement about being welcome to do his homework here washed away any and all traces of doubt in his mind.

"Well all right then." he said.

"This looks pretty good, then." he told her.

"I'll just have to concern myself with transportation here, and being able to get into the building and such." he went on.

"But as far as a schedule goes, this looks perfectly doable."

Nathan nodded in response.

"All right." he said.

He then proceeded to give her said schedule, telling her the classes he had, when he started, when he ended, his free time, everything.

Overall, it only took about 10 minutes or so.

"...and that should be it." he finished.

"You now know my entire school life." he chuckled.

Nate just sighed.

"That last part doesn't surprise me." he said. "I figured it would be a situation were I'm little more than an extra pair of hands to deal with smaller tasks and more grunt-like work." he told her.

"But being here, seeing everything, taking in knowledge via passive osmosis, it should all help." he reasoned.

He then paused for a moment, looking at the floor.

"...and you saying that if something is going on and I can't explain how I know aside from saying that you literally see it, I be taken more seriously here makes me want to work here more than ever before." he revealed.

"I'm tired of hiding what I can do. I'm sick of seeing people that have something going on, but they don't know yet, and I try to help, but they won't listen or see me as crazy... I don't think I'll be able to handle it in a more 'normal' workplace." he told her.

"Up until now, I've been trying to think of a way to hide my ability, but try and work it into a 'normal' workplace... with minimal ideas of dubious possible success... but here? Here I can be blunt. I can be truthful." he continued.

"...and I want that." he finished, looking back into Angela's eyes.

And even though he was speaking clearly, concisely, honestly, and seemed calm, bearing his soul out like this was nerve-wracking to him. She could hear the slight quiver in his tone.

Nate was silent once more, now taking THIS in.

"...Eldritch?" he asked. "L-legitimate eldritch?" he asked further.

"As close as it damn well gets." Angela confirmed.

"I... ah..." he stammered, before shaking his head.

"Look... I'm jumping into this world I know nothing about, yet I belong to." he told her.

"I might as well just keep going." he reasoned.

"Whether I choose THIS route, or a more 'known-about' route, I'll be doing things I'm not prepared for, anyway." he added.