second ⚡ invention suggestions

[ramuhs]

Type: Text
Sender ID: ramuhs
To: General public
Subject: Invention Suggestions
Warnings: None


Cid here.

Wanted to leave a quick note and thank you to everyone who helped test my little inventions last month. They should be finalized and ready for official public release next month, but as promised those who helped will receive theirs earlier once ready. Just let me know where to send them off or I can contact you for pick up later.

On that note, I wanted to inquire if anyone had any requests or suggestions as to what I, or any other inventor here, should work on. Whether it's improvements or some alternate version of something that already exists here, or perhaps something similar from your own world.

While I am working with magitech, I am more interested in electrical and mechanical engineering, and I'd rather stay away from weaponry unless it's more for defensive or nonlethal use. So anything of that nature will be more my type.

Always appreciated.
Cid

Comments

[garudas]

[He doesn't just get to turn it around on her again after that! Ugh!

He'll get a bristling silence from the other end before she finally answers, her voice now sharpened slightly with an edge of ire and embarrassment.]

You know exactly what I was going to say.

[He should! So that she doesn't have to explain it to him!!!

But her voice does soften. A bit.]

... Have you already forgotten what I told you?

[ramuhs]

Mmm, you've told me a lot of things. Care to remind me?

[garudas]

[Can he stop humming in her ear like that?]

I don't like seeing you so absorbed...

[ramuhs]

[NOPE. Deliberately going to speak in a lower drawl as if he is very intimately speaking right into her ear in person.]

I thought you liked my "focused, studious" look. At least I know you liked watching and staring at me in the past.

[garudas]

[IGNORING that shiver in her spine right now.]

I do.

But not when it comes at the cost of something else.

[ramuhs]

That something else being...our quality time together?

[garudas]

[When he puts it like that, it makes her skin tingle and crawl.

So, she just hums in affirmation into the phone.]

[ramuhs]

[A quiet chuckle.]

You're quite the needy thing, aren't you?

[garudas]

[He really should stop talking like that on the phone, especially right in her ear. He might catch that little sigh from her end if he listens closely... She just wishes he were saying that in a different context.]

I am, and you know that there is only one person who can sate that.

[Flirting aside...

And she's very clearly struggling with this next part.]

Do not forget what is really important.

[ramuhs]

[No, he thinks he'll continue—

But there's a fonder smile there, as well as a small (low) hum.]

I think it would be hard for me to forget that. After all, took me this long to find it again.

[garudas]

Then you understand what it is I am trying to say.

[And failing at it.]

[ramuhs]

[Hmmmmmmm.]

Perhaps, but I better be sure. Can't have any more misunderstandings now, can we?

[Time to get better.]

[garudas]

Cidolfus...

[...

Ugh. Why does he always have to do this to her?]

The last time you drowned yourself in work, you didn't even have the courtesy to message or call me.

[He wanted her to be honest with him? Well, this is the only way she knows how to be.]

You over-burden yourself with too much, and get yourself caught up in made-up deadlines and forget about the world around you.

[The people. Her.]

[ramuhs]

[Because he wants her to use her words. It's good for the both of them. And while she won't see it, she may hear that wry, rueful smile that forms, that small hum of resigned acceptance.

Yes, it's as he thought, and she's honestly fair for it. The last time had been.......much, to say the least. And even without depressing feelings, he can get caught up in his own madness of work and discovery, his mind never wanting to be idle for too long.

He could tease her for this, make his own point how much she wants to be with him now even if just through a message, but he knows she's being serious so he'll treat it as such.]

I suppose mere words and promises won't be too much of a reassurance. And we both know how I get, even without extenuating circumstances.

[Hum. It would be easy if he could say what she wants to hear most, but unfortunately reality doesn't work that way.]

I cannot promise there won't be some occasions where I really might have to work more than usual, but I was serious about forming a schedule of sorts. Easier if it's a planned undertaking and there would be more of a warning. And regardless of whatever I'm doing, I don't think you'll have to worry about missing messages for long this time. Things are different now, and...

[A small beat.]

I believe I'll miss you too much.

[Even he feels a bit odd admitting it, and his voice does quiet a little compared to his firmer voice from before, making it sound more like a low murmur. Perhaps it's because they're still riding those waves of revelations and both feeling that need to make up for lost time, but at the very least it is true that he has come to be accustomed to her presence, be it indirectly or not. Whether it's just a simple exchange of messages for the day or actual meetings, what was once a bleak hope has now come to fruition.

While he had felt her absence in some varying degrees in the days, weeks, months, years to that night, ever since then he feels it all the more. He's not "clingy," he fully believes in partners having their own space when needed, and perhaps his own age may play a part in that ability to be fine with some distance and separation. However, that doesn't mean he doesn't feel that longing, a yearning to be with her, too. And when they are together, well, it's just completely over. Miracle they manage to separate at all.

So. Yes. It's odd to admit something like this, but before he didn't think she cared so much about his little random messages. Now that he knows she does, it shifts his perspective around, and makes him more motivated and inclined to reach out to her. As he said, things are different now. Not only does he have more people he can dole out those "burdens" to, but especially between them. He's certain now that when things get too frustrating or tiring he's going to want to seek her out for that respite and solace and have faith she will be there to give it (with the usual scolding and initial resistance, but even that would be welcome).

Hopefully this little admittance may also give her some reassurance that he is thinking of her more and being more mindful and considerate of her—and others.]

[garudas]

[He might hear her falter on the other end, a strained noise coming from her as her fingers clutch at her phone tight—so tight that she might crush it if she squeezes it anymore. That's all it really boils down to, isn't it? And it's so fucking stupid that it's that way, but when she has missed him and wished to be with him for six long years, even through the hate, being at his side now doesn't make it just go away.

No, it makes it worse.

It makes her heart ache for him when he isn't there. She wishes that she could go back to hating him sometimes because it was easier back then. Anger and hatred have a funny way of overcoming all of the other things that she would feel for him. They would burn them away over and over again, no matter how many times they resurfaced.

But now it's gone. Now, all she has left in her is that need to make up for lost time. To be with him and try to reach out and grab hold of that life that she wanted...

A life of traveling the world and seeing the world. Of running away. Being free...

And just like that last time she saw him buried in his work, it took her back to those nights where those dreams felt dashed. Like nothing more than a dying spark of hope in her chest before he eventually, finally left.]

You had a funny way of showing that last time...

[She grumbles it defensively under her breath, breaking that spell of silence at long last.]

Are you listening to yourself? Schedules? More work? Who exactly are you bound to that you would choose to overwork yourself? And I don't suppose my "interrupting" these schedules will lead you to lashing out at me again in the future, will it?

[Because surely he remembers what had happened when she tried to pull him out of it, right?

Yeah. She didn't say any of this before because she wanted to try being sensitive of his feelings, and she could at least understand where he was coming from, but it's been a month since Midadol left.]

It's as you said, things are different now, Cidolfus.

[ramuhs]

[There's a grimace at that as he runs a hand over his face. Oh if he could go back in time and strangle his past self—]

Of course not. That was different. Whatever projects I take on wouldn't be for a distraction, it would just be that—work. That I just so happen to enjoy so I'm not forcing myself for anyone, either.

[garudas]

[She wishes she could also strangle his past self.]

So then, if I came to you after a long day of flying, you will have no problems putting down your work, yes?

[YOU DUMB FOOL, SHE JUST WANTS TO SPEND TIME WITH YOU, DON'T MAKE HER SAY IT]

[ramuhs]

Aye, no problems whatsoever.

[He'd prefer having a stopping point, but in that situation yes he would manage to put his things down and stop!!

And no. SAY IT.]

[garudas]

[A long silence follows. Some rustling. A click. Maybe a little thoughtful hum from her or two. More rustling.]

I will believe it when I see it.

[And then there's a knock on his door.]

[ramuhs]

[He hears the background noise but doesn't think much of it until he hears the knock. And there's a look of surprise as he looks up at the door and then at the phone...

Before there's a dry laugh.]

Copying me now, are you?

[She'll be able to hear his footsteps from inside as he draws near the door before it opens.]

[garudas]

[She's even leaning against the door in a very Cid-like fashion, and when it opens, she just hoists a brow and cocks her hip.]

Learned from the "best."

[She doesn't hang up either, but she gives her phone a little wave.]

Now, remind me what it is I said?

[ramuhs]

[SIIIIGH. If only that didn't also amuse and arouse him at the same time—

But he'll hit the button to disconnect the call before he steps back to let her in.]

Don't overwork myself.

[garudas]

[She lowers the phone, gives him a once-over, and struts right past him inside as if it were her own place.]

And?

[No, she's not even going to keep playing these games anymore. She's far too frustrated for them.]

That I would see it when I believe it.

[ramuhs]

[A sigh, this one more real.]

And you'll do that by, what, watching me?

[garudas]

[She walks right up to him, hips swaying with every purposeful step, like a hungry cat cornering the mouse at last. All the way until her hips bump his, and she reaches for his phone, taking it between her fingers.]

I suppose that depends on what it is I am watching you do.