Perhaps “I don’t mean to sound paranoid but I’m pretty sure you’re a serial killer.” With analogical? Perhaps like..... them trying to piece the puzzle of the other together but they’re missing a few pieces and so they get a way off picture of why the other acts the way they do.
The dialogue prompt isn’t included entirely as you sent it I’m afraid, I had to edit it to fit where I wanted it to go, but it’s still there in spirit!
They met at a cafe, in a lovely cliche. It was speed dating night, a charity event hosted by some dating app to gain more users and pr, both only there for the loosest of reasons. Logan; because he had a bet to win and he hated losing bets. Virgil; because he’d been at the cafe when they were setting up and had been too anxious to say anything when one of the assistants placed a placard on the table in front of him denoting his as Table 4.
It was an unlikely enough circumstance, but what is life but a journey between each unlikely situation we end up in, floundering to call our directions a path or a choice, rather than just a headlong dash through time and space, impacted by the flounderings of billions of other humans doing the exact same thing?
At least, that was how Virgil put it in a blurt of words when Logan commented on the chances of their having met. Logan, sat opposite him at Table 4, raised an eyebrow behind his glasses and blinked exactly once.
“While that was... very philosophical, and a little distressing, I was remarking more on the scientific probability of the affair. But I suppose, we have fairly opposing ways of seeing things.”
“Is that bad?” Virgil asked with a wince, chewing on his lip. Logan just shrugged, picking up the laminated list of suggested conversation starters.
“It is neither good nor bad, it was simply an observation. Do you tend to read hidden meaning and see, ah, the worst case scenario in everything another person says?”
“You could say that. I’m a bad... people-er.”
Another wince. “Shit, sorry.”
“No, it was not meant- never mind.” The questions came up higher, taking Logan’s full focus for a moment. “I fail to see what useful information could be gleaned from these questions,” he sighed. “Why should your star sign interest me? Or your opinion on pineapple pizza?”
“Oh, well. We could ask other questions?” Virgil suggested, surprised by his own ability to even talk after the embarrassing start. “Like, what’s something you want to achieve in life?”
“Space travel. Next question,” Logan replied immediately, looking immediately enthused by the prospect of easy questions.
“Well,” Virgil hesitated, glancing around the too-loud, too-crowded room. “I think maybe you could explain that? Or I could answer, but I don’t really have life goals, other than, survive? Maybe just get through it, make a bit of money, get a cat... Or a roommate-”
“Yeah, it’s pretty quiet but I like it that way. Moved out real quick when I graduated high school.”
Logan’s head tilted in curiosity. “Are you not close with your family?”
“Um, not really. They’re great, I guess, but they’re step family mostly and they’re very loud people. We do the odd holiday and call but not regularly.”
“Fascinating. And they don’t impose themselves on you when you fail to contact them in a while?”
Virgil squinted. “Uh, no? They’re not the worst at boundaries, to give them credit. They’d like, maybe call the police if I’d not been in touch in a month or two, you know, that’s it.”
Across the table, Logan sat forwards, clasping his hands together. “And with no roommate home, you do not feel unsafe?”
“N-no? Look, I don’t mean to sound paranoid but you’re not a serial killer right? Those are serial killer questions...” Virgil asked, shrinking back in his seat. “Like, don’t kill me? I’m totally boring, I’d be a boring murder victim I swear. But uh, they’d miss me! Totally!”
Logan broke into the first smile Virgil had seen on him, shaking his head with a softly barked laugh. “Oh, gosh. I knew I was bad at this but I suppose I underestimated my own inability to... how did you put it? ‘People’.”
Virgil just stared at him, until he sighed and held a hand out. “Definitely not a serial killer. Just from a very different family to yours. I live with four roommates, and my family call me almost every day, or text. My brothers have been known to break into the apartment if they haven’t heard from me quickly enough. It was a problem with my last living situation, I’ll admit.”
“Oh. So you’re, really not a serial killer?”
“Absolutely not. The closest I got was a frog dissection in high school biology. I managed a leg and then fainted. Turned me off bodies for good, I’m studying astrophysics nowadays.”
“Huh.” Well that explained it at least. Virgil took the offered hand, giving a shy smile back. “Okay, well, that’s good to get out of the way. Um, so tell me more about space then?”
“Where to start! So space travel, when I say that I mean in the proper, sustainable, commercial way-”
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