most_unwanted | [Voice]

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[Voice]

[There's a quiet crunching sound before Mulder speaks up, sounding thoughtful.]

Show of metaphorical hands. Or antennae, whichever you're partial to: Who here has been kidnapped for a special one-on-one date with our captors? I'd like to arrange an off-journal meeting to speak about your personal experiences if anyone happens to have some free time. It shouldn't take long, just a few minutes. I'll be hanging around the shops in town most of the day, I've got some... supplies I've been meaning to find. [Still looking for a basketball, woe and alas.] We can always head elsewhere from there, though.

I understand that it's a sensitive topic for most people, and it's all right if you'd rather not talk about it. Or if you'd rather be anonymous, just slip a note under my door detailing anything you can remember about the experience itself. Anything at all, before, during, after. Your answers will be kept in confidence. I'm in Community Building 7, Floor 2, Room 10.

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I concur.

... [Robert looks down at the pile of stuff they've both accumulated with an almost sheepish smile.]

Ah, at this rate, I will keep you all day, Mr. Mulder...

... S-Should I let you get home? I mean, I would not wish to be a bother...

Don't worry about it, you're not bothering me. [He also glances at all their stuff.] Looks like we're all set with today's shopping spree, though.

It c-certainly does look that way.

[Is it obvious that Robert is trying to artificially draw out the time with Mulder? Because he likes Mulder's company and yet he's too socially fail to express this coherently.]

... But, if there was anything else I c-could do, I would be most willing...

[Aw. Well, Mulder really likes the company. And knows how that can be, considering how often he's used the excuse of work to socialize with his closest friends, back home...]

I've got plenty of files to sort out... and I wouldn't mind the company in general, that is if you're not too busy?

[Robert likes the company too, very much. He's just so... horribly awkward about expressing this in any coherent fashion. He could be hideously blunt...]

Ah, w-well... I am not really occupied with anything, no... the only real task I had in mind was to begin c-construction work on the hydroponics system when I returned home, but... ... th-that is not exactly crucial, and I would be most w-willing to assist.

[Sorting files is right up his alley. Seriously.]

Great, I like the sound of that. And I'd be up for swinging by to help with your garden anytime, too.

[Meaning that yes, he'll let him know he's up for future get-togethers as well. Robert reminds him so much of his Lone Gunmen buddies, which definitely has made him like being around the guy. And one of these days, there will also be basketball... but that time has not yet come. Mulder's making a mental note to invite Robert along when he does manage to find one though.]

Did... D-did you want me to accompany you now then, p-perhaps, or... or was there s-something else? I mean... [Hesitantly:] If, if there was perhaps a b-better time...

[He doesn't know, but he can feel a connection with Mulder, and like with all of his friends he is so very desperate not to break it.]

[Yeah, Mulder is definitely going to keep hanging out with him.]

I don't have any hot dates to cancel, so you're safe. [He smiles, it was a joke.] Now will be perfect. Ready to get going?

[This fact makes Robert happy. Though he can't really tell it, yet.

The joke goes over his head too, derp. But he does smile anxiously.]

Yes... I, er, h-have no prior engagements myself.

... Please, l-lead the way...

[Which Mulder is pretty used to, his buddies having their own set of social quirks. He smiles encouragingly.]

All right then. Let's head out.

[Off to C7 and his place they go.]

[~~They're off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of social failure~ o/`~~

Robert carefully follows Mulder, his own hydroponics material bundled obsessively in his arms, like he was carrying a baby instead of a pump, tubing and wiring.

He really appreciates Mulder accepting his presence like this. It's gratifying.]

[Mulder carries along all of his stuff, just as glad to not be spending another afternoon alone. A guy could go crazy from too much isolation. So he heads along and leads the way in and along toward to his apartment.]

Home sweet home.

[Indeed. Robert knows that all too well.

Robert follows Mulder closely, looking curiously at everything along the way - he has been to this community building before, to visit Helios and Giles, but he has never been on this floor.]

And this is... your apartment, Mr. Mulder?

You've got it. If you ever need to stop by for anything, feel free to.

[He feels like Robert is one of those who he could trust, and wouldn't mind being interrupted by for anything.]

[As he leads the way in, it's clear Mulder has been doing a lot of work- he has files set around all over the place, on almost all the surfaces. It's a pretty average apartment aside from that. His aquarium and its sole goldfish occupant are off in one corner. In another corner hangs a fake UFO that he'd acquired when someone had played an April Fools' prank on him- he thought it was pretty cool so he'd kept it.]

I am... m-much obliged. Thank you, Mr. Mulder...

[In the meantime, Robert takes the opportunity to look around the apartment. That poor goldfish does look lonely - but the files scattered all over the place grab Robert's attention first. It really reminds him of Helios and definitely makes him want to organize them.]

... Ah, are th-those the files you mentioned?

The very same infamous files, you've got it. I guess you can see I wasn't exaggerating about hardly taking time off work.

[Mulder goes to move a couple of the piles off the chairs at least.]

Hardly an i-issue, of course. I... I am similar in that regard.

[With the addition of Robert obsessively organizing all the files afterward - and he has few things that are physical papers, anyway.

Then, when Mulder approaches the piles on the chairs - as if on cue, Robert begins to organize one of the stacks on a nearby chair, going through it with a ridiculously-thorough air mixed with mingling distate for paper files.]

[He's got to work with what he has, after all, and at the moment it's all been paper and folders. Still, Mulder hopes it won't take them too long to organize. After all, he hasn't been here long enough to accumulate anything like the entirety of the X-Files back home. Now that would have been a project, since it started long before he'd gotten there.]

I guess it must be our way of coping. At least it has been for me, in the past, searching for answers which might not even exist...

[Robert continues to organize as he speaks. Doing so, he probably ends up broadcasting all those little quirks to Mulder - the specific way in which he handles paper, making sure it doesn't bend or make crinkling noises, and with that slight discomfort reminiscent of someone holding an exotic animal pelt.]

Y-yes, I... I do tend to be much the same way. It is... unsatisfying to not scientifically explore the world...

Though... I m-must confess the lack of logic here has been... disquieting, at times.

[Yeah, Mulder notices, and picks up on the little quirks. He's always been pretty good at noticing details about people, he's always had that psychologist side to him.]

I have to agree. It's rare that they follow any logic, at least not that we can readily figure out. It's still disturbingly like home for me.

[Robert is a veritable cornucopia of that sort of thing.

As he works, he organizes the papers in a very particular fashion, almost without realizing it.]

I... I must wonder what the eventual outcome was intended to be.

But one can... n-never tell, with the Malnosso. Or... or so it seems.

There's a lot that I'd like to know, but since they're not willing to answer... we'll have to keep looking for the answers in other ways. That's why I'm gathering and compiling as much information as I possibly can, to find some pattern or something useful...

[Mulder notices that the work is going a lot quicker with the help, something he's glad to see.]

Any information that you can gather is an asset, here... a-and it is one of the few things I can... assist with.

[It's reassuring, even if it's paper-relate. Something repetitive, structured... like the motion equivalent of white noise.]

I still wish the Malnosso would... cooperate with us.

They won't... which is why we have to get creative with ways of figuring things out. I'm used to going up against people who won't play fair.

[It's nice to have someone around to talk while sorting all of this stuff, Mulder is finding... he'd be doing this alone otherwise.]

You would... not even entertain the p-possibility of anything otherwise? [Robert might be more hopeful than he lets on. If Molly will ever talk to him...

... And, really, Robert appreciates the company too. If he wasn't with Mulder, he'd probably be home alone right now.]

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