Board Thread:Off-Topic Discussion/@comment-28743333-20151017150311/@comment-1859034-20151207222358

(Sorry for the delay)

Making her way out from the kitchen, Margaret slowly, cautiously, approached CJ. With each passing footstep, her heart thundered about half a dozen times. Upon making eye contact with the cloud woman, one wing clenched without even realising it. All this mustered courage, all the determination to see this through had begun to slip away. In its place returned doubt. Confusion. Fear.

If life was a television series (and given how bizarre many of her interactions with friends could get, that wouldn’t be too hard to make), Margaret imagined everything around her would be in slow motion. Probably accompanied by some heroic tune about facing destiny. She didn’t feel very heroic however, so it was more like facing execution.

She found it ironic how courage can work. For the briefest of seconds, telling yourself to follow through on something unsettling sounds amazing. But there was a difference between thinking and doing. It seemed a good idea in theory, yet making those humongous leaps remained extremely difficult.

“It’s going to be alright…” Margaret thought to herself as she walked. ''“...It’s all in your head. Nothing bad will happen. I’ll just make her a drink and she’ll be on her way. No fuss. No awkwardness. No chaos.”''

One footstep after another, she moved closer.

''“Or maybe we can work out our differences. This is awkward enough, but surely we’re not too dissimilar? I know she’s a nice girl. Could we… possibly… be… friends? I’m up for it, but would she be? Or is it for the better we never speak to one-another again? Either way, I have to confront this eventually. Might as well get it over with.”''

Margaret was poised. Primed. Ready for whatever lay in store for her…

…And then CJ spoke.

Her tense greeting was intimidating enough, but the follow-up about her responding puzzled the robin. How long had she taken? Surely only a few seconds had passed? It’s not as if she had just stood there blankly fo- Wait. Realisation finally dawned on Margaret that her approached *was* in slow-motion.

Her heart sunk. Margaret wished she would die right there on the spot out of sheer embarrassment. It was tough enough doing this, but to just stand there lost in thought made her look, and feel, horrible.

''“Great. Nice job screwing it up, hero…”'' She thought. ''“You can’t even get that right. Well, open your beak and say something. C’mon, you’re better than this. Just do it already!”''

She was going to try. Swiftly swallowing, the robin put on the best smile she could without looking over the top and finally replied.

‘Uhh… Hi, CJ…’ ''“Whaaat?! Is that the best you can do? Seriously, you’re starting to pull a Mor-that guy! Pull yourself together and talk!”'' ‘C-can I… help you?’

At this rate, Margaret was going to need a drink herself, and probably not of the caffeinated kind…





<p class="MsoNormal">(It’s funny. Up to this point, and not counting text-based conversations, the character hasn’t uttered a single word of dialogue. Now that CJ has entered the mix, I figured it was time to change this. If you see any dialogue in italic that isn't a text message, it represents the character thinking, so no-one else would hear it.)