*dawning horror*

[seperis]

Okay, svmadelyn just traumatized me. So. Tell her she's wrong.

Here's what happened.

Outside during my smoke break, Guy From Hotline (where I will start next week) came out, we had a short, disjointed chat. As I finished, I started to walk away.

I'm going to pull this from memory as best I can, because this counts as the most surreal conversation I've had while not tripping.

Him: Jenn, can I ask you a question?

Me: *turns* Sure.

Him: *nothing*

Me: *waiting*

Him: *nothing*

Me: *waiting*

Him: Odd numbers.

Me: *blank look*

I can't remember how he phrased this, but it ended up being a short discussion on--okay, seriously, I am *not kidding*--on teh difference between odd numbers and--and primes. So we--no, I'm not making this up, I could not make up something this weird--ended up discussion Mersenne--this is totaly my fault for reading up on this to get through some of astolat's fic--and then the kid in Round Rock who found the most recent prime and kind of--just. Proofs.

...I actually don't know any. He used to be an accountant. This conversation went place I haven't visited since my sophmore year in college. Or you know, sga math porn fic.

This sort of thing did not happen to me before SGA.

Okay, so. Here is svmadelyn after I share this tale of confusion and weirdness.

seperis: He was so--weird about it.
seperis: It took forever for him to get out the question.
svmadelyn: oh god, maybe that was his--attempt at flirtation
svmadelyn: and it just went way off.
seperis: ...no
seperis: No.
seperis: NO.
seperis: I am in the SGA fandom
svmadelyn: he probably meant to ask you out
svmadelyn: and all that came out was about primes
seperis: Yes, I now read particle physics for background info
seperis: Yes, I am reading The Elegant Universe.
svmadelyn: and now he's home sitting there, drunk and asking himself, why am I such an *asshole*
seperis: THIS WILL NOT BECOME A FLIRTATION DEVICE OKAY?
svmadelyn: she was standing right THERE
svmadelyn: and I asked her about PRIMES
svmadelyn: oh GOD I got all flustered, with her cigarette and PRIMES

Okay. So please, answer here. There is *no way* anyone is going to *flirt with numbers*. Just tell her. Tell her *now*.

Comments

[avoteforla.livejournal.com]

This is so fully the reason I added you to my flist.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

So this is what a panic attack feels like. Huh.

Seriosuly, kidding, right? This doesn't actually *happen* in real life.

Oh God. I need to lie down now.

[mecurtin.livejournal.com]

She's not wrong. He was flirting. He is not as cute as Rodney, so *you do not want him stalking you*. Which unfortunately he may, because he's never met a woman as cute as you who knew what a Mersenne was.

PS be sure to let us know if he *is* as cute as Rodney.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Well, he's not, but really, who *could be* as cute?

Seriously. People just--do that? Break into random number theory when trying to ask someone out?

[sheafrotherdon.livejournal.com]

There is *no way* anyone is going to *flirt with numbers*

Unless they're of the species RodneyMcKayus?

[seperis.livejournal.com]

This is like a long, slow hallucination. It really, really is.

[zoerayne]

Um, Jenn? He was flirting.

Also? You should use this experience as inspiration for fic. *koff*

[seperis.livejournal.com]

I seriously need to lie down now. I--it just. It was so *random*. And I'm just--I mean, people do not look at me and think, ah, she is intersted in math! They think, huh, is she actually six feet tall?

*blank look* Seriously. That was *flirting*?

[barely-bean.livejournal.com]

Numbers can be hot.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Well, *yeah*. But in normal life, no one else has been conditioned to associate primes wiht foreplay. I mean, no one I know.

This is so surreal.

[2naonh3-cl2.livejournal.com]

sweetheart, anything can be used as a flirtation device. Anything.

i concur with mad.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Oh my GOD YOU TOO?

[anitac588.livejournal.com]

seperis: ...no
seperis: No.
seperis: NO.
Hehehehe
Sounds like flirting. Or he chickend out asking the real questiong during *nothing*s and started the first 'safe' topic that came to mind. He couldn't know you associate numbers with porn, it's not really a usual thing.
He cute?

[seperis.livejournal.com]

He's okay. I just--um. Well. We haven't interacted all that much. And I kind of thought, from observation, that he was on a differnet part of the Kinsey scale.

This is--no words. Really.

[callmeri]

Hmm. I think Madelyn may be right. Because:

Him: Odd numbers.
Me: *blank look*

... really sounds an awful lot like the Math!Geek's version of "I carried a watermelon."

I'm just sayin'.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Dear God.

[miella]

I hate to break it to you, but, yeah, for those of us who are math people? Numbers are frequently a part of flirting. One could call that sad or freakish. I choose to think of it as charming. *g*

[seperis.livejournal.com]

No, it was just random!

I mean--SGA *reconditioned* me. It's one thing to write it and think Rodney mumblign wormhole theory is hot. It's another to be in teh bright sunlight at your very non-math job while someone talks to you about primes.

Seriously. Primes.

[sylvertongue.livejournal.com]

Jenn, I just laughed so hard it may have resulted in my getting fired, if my boss were not the paragon of cool that he is.

So. Hard. Thank you. I mean, I know you don't post of your misery just to amuse us, but - well. It's hard for me not to feel a bit pleased that I'm not the only one permanently screwed up as a result of SGA.

The day I unexpectedly caught myself checking out the new IT contractor, I kind of freaked out a bit. I mean. The middle-aged, slightly pudgy, blue-eyed stubborn-looking guy speaking geek to me? I DON'T GO FOR GUYS LIKE THAT. I am all over the guys who look like Sheppard. Sheppard is exactly, completely, they-could-have-built-him-for-me my type. The IT Guy who has come to be known to my friends as Hot Geek? Not so much. But he reminded me so much of Rodney, and I NEVER HAD A FANDOM GIVE ME A WHOLE NEW *TYPE* BEFORE!

It, uh, disturbed me a bit. You might say.

Your guy was totally flirting. In an incredibly hilarious way. I await the fic that really ought to result.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*glum* Yeah. SGA so screwed us up. I swear, going to Frye's Electronics now, I kind of glaze over by the motherboards every time one of the guys starts murmuring about dual processor capacity. There's a terrified part of me that is sure that one day, I'll be meandering through the external hard drive section and the first guy to chat up firewire will be taken savagely onn teh floor.

Oh God, that was flirting. I need--something. I'm not sure what, though.

[graycastle.livejournal.com]

uh. let's put this together. you are

a) in the sga fandom
b) reading various math books to aid your comprehension of online erotica, and yet somehow
c) you don't believe that people could flirt with numbers? have you read any sga fic at all? seriously?

he. was totally. trying to ask you out. rather than asking 'who flirts with numbers,' you should be asking, 'who feels a burning need to know about primes coupled with a deep discomfort about asking someone?'

[seperis.livejournal.com]

But! AT WORK! I am not in a mathy field! It's HOTLINE. WE ARE CUSTOMER SERVICE!

Though wow. Maybe I am that oblivious.

Seriously. I have websites bookmarked with equations that have brackets that I never knew existed before.

[capnzebbie.livejournal.com]

That is hilarious! And yes, probably flirting. *g* Someone, somewhere said to this guy, "Go with what you know."

And it gurgled around in his his head and came out like this:

"ODD NUMBERS!" *oh fuck--did i just say 'odd numbers' to this woman? I am so lame! where do i go from here? how do i get from 'odd numbers' to 'hey, wanna go for coffee?' shit!*

[seperis.livejournal.com]

I seriously, *seriously* need to lie down now and wonder what the *hell*.

[enname.livejournal.com]

Uh, one guy slipped into aero nautical engineering once to ask me out. *blinks* Then there was the one who went and read up on the idea of the aesthetic in the medieval period to start flirting. So I am not sure why flirting with number is out of the question. In fact it might be the only time, outside of SGA and a few of my better (stranger) friends, that I could conceive of a conversation beginning with Mersenne primes. Although it would be nice if more people did. Maybe.

Then again he may have just had an instant moment of needing to discuss the difference between odd numbers and primes. This is always a possibility.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

...

Dear God. Flirting. And I missed it completely.

[that_mireille]

There is *no way* anyone is going to *flirt with numbers*.

...uh... Well, if they wanted to flirt with *me* that would be a productive technique.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

But! CONTEXT! It was--huh.

No, seriously. I mean--okay. God. I lost some of my fannish cred here, didn't I?

Oh God, that might have been actual flirting.

[ranalore.livejournal.com]

Yep. Flirting with numbers. He was an accountant. Be glad he didn't launch into financialspeak. Though now I'd kinda like to see someone do a hot, gay show about stock brokers or something.

[zoerayne]

Though now I'd kinda like to see someone do a hot, gay show about stock brokers or something.

I think that aired in Canada and was called Traders. *koff*

[fox1013.livejournal.com]

There's no way it was flirting!


*cheerily oblivious to ALL THINGS; passes on cheery obliviousness on to you*

[seperis.livejournal.com]

I LOVE YOU!

[emrinalexander.livejournal.com]

He was flirting, sort of like um...Rodney would, I think.

Does that mean you're John Sheppard?

Oh yeh, and now you know how Sheppard feels in every single first time story.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

You know, I have so much sympathy for John right now. No freaking *wonder* he has no idea Rodney's interested. I mean--if that's how it starts....

Wow. The univese. It moved.

[plsteward.livejournal.com]

I thought I was the only one with the odd conversations.

But she's right, he was flirting.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

And I didn't even notice.

[joannindiw.livejournal.com]

*keels over laughing* *koff* yes. sounds like flirting. *laughing*

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*facepalm* God. I never knew.

[svmadelyn.livejournal.com]

The really rather funny thing that I feel I can share with you an hour later, is that I was just teasing at the time. But all of these people agreeing with me leaves me only to conclude that my heart knew what my head didn't; and that I was RIGHT.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

I hate you so much it's like a burning sensation deep inside my soul.

[cpt-untouchable.livejournal.com]

I once had a guy (seriously - no, seriously) attempt to flirt with me by purring in my ear that I 'have good birthing hips.'

These things happen.

Here's another horror: What if he's a sci-fi fan? What if he was, in his own way, testing the suspicion that you might be, you know, seperis?

*bites fist and dodges out of striking range*

[seperis.livejournal.com]

OH MY GOD NO STOP IT!

*huge-eyed*

That would be--I have no idea.

[carson-leigh.livejournal.com]

Ha, that funny. He was totally flirting. He wanted to ask you out and choked. That's my take anyway.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

...I really should have known. God.

[plsteward.livejournal.com]

Don't worry, it was subtle & v. weird. But chances are any dates or anything with him would be original (or at least inspiration for mcshep fics.)

Oh well, cést la vie.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Oh man, that would be funny, though.

God, I have to write a fic where Rodney is desperately flirting via physics and John has *no idea*. teh worst part is, John doesn't know it's flirting until there's nudity. So hmm.

[samdonne.livejournal.com]

I've had this kind of discussion with Stephen Hawkins, and he was totally flirting at the time. I'm told he's patented the move.

Then I almost overrun him with a car, but that's neither here nor there.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*smirks*

Overrun him with a car? Okay, that is a story I need to hear.

[researchgrrrl.livejournal.com]

Do you remember the "I think you're special like light" come on I had to fend off? (And, yeah, I typed "fiend" instead of "fend" originally.) If not, I can refresh you.

If so? Trust me. Flirting.

Your new boyfriend sounds hot.

[margeauxmay.livejournal.com]

Somebody stole my best line! er...
Refresh, please. *bats eyes*