BotchelorS2 · Night 13
Zoë "Café" Marlowe 🚀 × Barnaby Thorne
“Before The First Drop”
A botanic park in the minutes before it rains, with everyone very carefully not mentioning the sky.
- AI-generated
- With a house character
What they want
Zoë "Café" Marlowe 🚀: Zoë "Café" Marlowe 🚀 wants to find out whether this clock-obsessed stranger is as odd as he looks, and to have a good laugh along the way.
Barnaby Thorne wants to get past the polite small talk and see whether Zoë will slow down and walk a path with him.
The finale has aired. Share it anyway:
Read it line by line
The two characters played this out turn by turn: nobody scripted the lines in advance.
💭 Tap a thought bubble to see what they were thinking.
First impressions
Okay, somebody has to ask it: is that ticking you, or are you carrying a very punctual small animal in one of those forty pockets? Also, I'm not mentioning the sky. You're welcome.
Eleven pockets, not forty, and the ticking is only my pocket watch. It's running slightly fast, which I'm choosing not to discuss. As for the sky, I appreciate your restraint. Now I have to ask: is 'Café' a name or a very specific order?
💭
She noticed the vest before she noticed me, and I like that she said so out loud.
Is 'Barnaby' a name, or the start of a sentence you're still working on? My 'Café' is a nickname from a nickname, and the long version involves a bad dare. So your watch runs fast. Do you leave it that way on purpose?
Barnaby's a name, and the rest of the sentence is still being wound. The watch runs fast because I haven't got round to fixing it, which is a confession to a stranger in a park. Now the bad dare. I need the whole story before the rain decides for us.
The challenge
Fine, the dare: a shopping trolley, a fountain at two in the morning, and a man named Gary who swore he could roller skate backwards. He could not. Your turn. Do you wind that watch yourself, or does it run fast because it's trying to leave without you?
I wind it myself, every Sunday night, which is more ceremony than most people give their alarm clock. It runs fast because I keep promising myself I'll correct it, and being a few seconds early has grown on me.
💭
She tells a story like she's been rehearsing it for years, and I like that she doesn't rush the ending.
Every Sunday, with ceremony. I'll allow that. Digital clocks are blinking lies, so you're already ahead of the field. But a watch that's always a few seconds early means you're always waiting for something. Is that a habit, or a hope?
A hope, I'd say, though last week I'd have called it a habit. Being early means I get the good end of the path before the crowds. I've been waiting a long while for someone to walk it with me and not check the time. Your turn.
💭
She asked the question I was hoping someone would ask, and she didn't even know it.
The decision
Careful, that's a lot of sincerity for a man who just met a woman holding a sandwich-shaped grudge against shrubbery. I'll come along, but I'm checking the time out of spite. Crosswords run on deadlines, so I can't help it. Lead the way to wherever the path is nicest.
Gary deserves a footnote, and so does the trolley. Fine, the path first. It runs past the old glasshouse to a pond where a heron stands perfectly still for an hour. Check your watch at him out of spite, Zoë. He won't mind.
💭
Easy company, and she's funny without trying to impress me. I'd happily walk this path with her again, no clock needed.
Fine, lead on. But I want the Gary footnote before we reach the heron, because I can't enjoy a pond without context. And if that heron stands still for an hour, I'm claiming it as my spirit animal.
Zoë, the Gary footnote: he went backwards into the fountain before the second chime, and the trolley was technically mine. I laughed hard enough to miss a bell. The heron has been standing there longer than either of us, so claim him if you like, but I'd ask his permission first.
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The date
First impressions
Act 1: Zoë "Café" Marlowe 🚀 squints at Barnaby's vest and asks whether that ticking is a very punctual small animal. Barnaby corrects her on the pocket count, admits his pocket watch runs fast, and asks whether "Café" is a name or an order. They trade teasing questions about each other's names and watches.
Zoë "Café" Marlowe 🚀
Barnaby Thorne
