Collaborative [Open]

(There was a thread with pretty much this same situation in the gardens, but the forums were pretty dead when I posted it, so with my magical powers of being able to type I have moved the thread through space and time to the present and in the commons)
(Edit: To allow Mari's responding to make sense I will re-reposition the post to shortly after Mari joins the school)

The gardens were annoyingly cold at this time of year. Jordan could usually go out in them anyway, ignoring the cold until either he found his hands going more numb than he was ok with or somebody else expressed concern that he was usually not wearing clothing quite heavy enough for the weather. It wasn't that he didn't have said heavy clothing; Jordan just forgot to put it on or dismissed it as unnecessary sometimes. So, he had been exploring a variety of places inside the school to hang out in; he'd found the library to be a pretty nice place, but had elected today to try the commons.

He was sitting at one of the tables, his sketchbook sitting on it with something apparently sketched on it. He appeared to be looking around for someone or something rather than elaborating on the sketch, and his wandering eyes eventually made contact with those of another passerby. Jordan made eye contact as he waved the person over, his notepad in that waving hand.

Upon arriving, the person would be able to see the drawing in Jordan's sketchbook - a simple circle, somewhat rough and sketched-looking. It was in the center of the page, with a diameter of about half of said page.
Jordan set his notepad on his sketchbook, a dark blue pen through its spiral as always, and turned himself a bit to make the both of them more visible to the person. On his notepad was a short message:
"Add something."

There was a pencil laying on the sketchbook to honor Jordan's request, or a pen in the spiral of the notepad to respond to it.

Mari had just started to get used to the academy's way of life. This was her second day here and she had decided to walk around to see all the people. She had unpacked her tiny suitcase the day before. She wanted to decorate her room and get more clothes, but didn't exactly know how to do that. She had always had the same belongings since she could remember. So buying new things was almost a foreign concept to Mari. She also wanted to go to the library for some new fantasy books to read. After all, her house had only had a select few, and she wanted to read more. But today was only the second day since she had arrived to this school, so there was no need to rush anything.

As Mari walked on through her new home, she found herself in the room people were calling "the commons". It didn't seem to busy at the moment; only a few people sat here or there and others passed through occasionally. This was most likely a good place to meet new people, so Mari decided not to go to the library today.

Just then, she noticed someone sitting by themselves at a table. While glancing at the sketchbook next to them, Mari's eyes met that of the boy sitting in the chair. She didn't exactly know what to do. Keep on walking, smile, or join them. But it seemed that Mari didn't have to make the decision for herself, for the boy had already waved her over to him.

She noticed that he looked a lot like her; not too social, with a very plain expression. As she stepped toward the table, she noticed a small notepad on top of the larger sketchbook. The short note on it read "Add something" Mari blinked a few times, trying to figure out why this boy was talking to her with a notepad. But she quickly remembered how this school was meant for the disabled. She also realized that for whatever reason this boy couldn't talk, so she didn't have to reply. She could just speak to him through his little notepad and pen. Mari then became extremely comfortable with this situation. She sat down in the chair beside the boy, making sure to brush her dress out properly before she picked up his sketchbook.

This seemed extremely fun to Mari. She was a little curious as to why the boy wanted her to continue his drawing, but didn't care too much. As she was getting to meet someone new. Although Mari didn't draw as much as she read, it was still an enjoyable hobby for her. She starred at the simple circle on the page for a little while, thinking about all the possibilities. But she eventually made up her mind and drew her favorite thing. A cat. But the note said to only add "something", so Mari decided to just make the ears and eyes. Maybe the boy didn't want her to make a complete drawing? She wasn't sure.

Once Mari was done, she set the drawing on the table; upsidedown, so the boy couldn't see. She then picked up the notepad and pen, writing back to him.
"Why did you want me to draw?"
Mari put the notepad on the sketchbook and slid it over to the boy.

Jordan watched interestedly to see what the stranger he had invited would add. Upon receiving the sketchbook, he removed the notepad from it without even appearing to read her message, to see what the addition to the drawing had been. It looked to be the beginnings of a cat, using the circle as the basic form of the head.

This was part of why Jordan had chosen the simple circle as a starting point: it seemed to offer the most possibilities, as it could be used as a frame for the picture, it could be made into a planet or sun or something, it could be the head of something, the list went on.
But couldn't a square act similarly? It could be the frame of the picture, or the outline of a house or vehicle or something...
Maybe most simple shapes were good starting points? What about a pentagon?
A pentagon didn't seem like it could go in many directions...

After a period of Jordan staring blankly at the cat, wandering in his thoughts for longer than was probably socially agreeable, Jordan added the nose and closed mouth. He also drew some whiskers, which were exaggeratedly curled at the ends, to an extent that a few of them looped once or twice to form spirals.

Finally, Jordan addressed the message on the notepad, and wrote below it his response:
"To see what would happen. Continue if you want."

Mari looked as the stranger starred at her drawing. Was it bad? Was it not was he was hoping for? She understood that drawing the eyes and ears of a cat didn't allow for much creativity.

Mari watched as the boy continued her drawing of a cat and couldn't help but smile; the whiskers he drew didn't look too normal. But she decided that that was probably the fun of it. Mari felt pleased that the boy did something creative instead of just continuing her normal cat. Mari waited for a response from the quiet stranger. Soon he gave her the notepad and sketchbook again.

"To see what would happen. Continue if you want."

Mari nodded. She picked up the sketchbook again and drew the fur to finish up the cat. To match the whiskers the boy drew, she made the fur of the cat abnormally curly. She gave back the sketchbook, but picked up the notepad again and wrote.

"My name is Mari Dawn. What is yours?"
She handed the notepad back and waited for a response.

Again, Jordan looked at the addition to the drawing before reading the note; it seemed the conversation was somewhat less important to him than the drawing. Jordan smiled a slight and momentary smile - the curly aesthetic looked nice. He added the outline of the cat's shoulders below its head, reaching to the bottom edge of the image.
Finally he read and responded to the note: "Jordan Evans"

Where would the drawing go from here? The cat was mostly finished, so it could become more detailed or maybe something would be added to the background...

He passed the sketchbook and notepad back without adding anything to the notepad that would carry conversation more effectively.

FMari thought about what to draw once the sketchbook was pushed back to her. The cat was done. There wasn't really anything else to be drawn.. So she simply signed her name at the bottom.
Jordan didn't seem like he wanted to talk to her very much. Mari decided to reply to him on the notepad one last time before she left.
"I couldn't think of anything, sorry."

Mari pushed the items back and stood up sadly; she had wanted to make a friend or meet someone. Jordan didn't seem to take interest in anything more than the lines she drew on a piece of paper. Although, it was fun at first. But Mari felt even lonelier now than she had before she sat.
She smiled at Jordan and waved goodbye.

Jordan was usually pretty bad at reading faces, but the apologetic response followed by her visibly sad expression made Mari's disappointment obvious, and Jordan felt that disappointment as well, though he wasn't entirely sure about what it was. The picture? The conversation? Himself?
He felt that the picture had become fairly unimportant.

As Mari turned to leave, Jordan bumped her arm (a little harder than he intended to) with the notepad that he was now holding out for her to look at. The message on it was visibly more messy than the rest of his handwriting, showing that he had rushed to write it while he could.

"You look upset"

Jordan's expression didn't change, though he was now looking straight at Mari, which is more than he'd done up to this point.

As Mari was beginning to walk away, she felt something bump her arm. She jumped slightly, but relaxed once she realized it was just Jordan. He held out the notepad for her once more; a little more desperately than before, she noticed. She took it from Jordan and read the sloppy handwriting.

"You look upset"

Jordan had actually noticed her disappointment? This turn of events didn't really seem to suit his character. Jordan seemed to be the type of person who kept to himself and never worried about others. Mari wondered why he was concerned about her now, when before he had barely tried to make a conversation with her. Even though Mari felt a little lost, she picked up the pen and wrote a response.

"When I came to the Commons, I wanted to meet someone new or make a friend. But you seemed to only care about the drawing. It just made me a little sad."

Mari looked at her response a couple times before giving it to Jordan. It was significantly longer than their entire conversation from before. But Jordan asked, and it was much easier for Mari to get her feelings across without having to talk. She watched Jordan as he read the notepad..

Jordan read and re-read Mari's message, thinking over how to respond. He put the pen on the paper, paused for a second, and took it back without actually writing anything.
His first thought had been to refute the idea that the drawing was the only thing he cared about, but Jordan realized that he had to seriously think over whether or not that was true. He hadn't looked for a person that seemed the most interesting or anything; he had just picked pretty much the first person he saw to find out what they would draw.
Was caring about what Mari added an indirect way of caring about her, though? Any drawing, after all, reflects at least some part of the artist.
Or was that a stretch, just Jordan trying to justify how he had acted?
Jordan re-read the message, though of course he knew what it said already and doing this didn't help.

"I wanted to call someone over to see what they would draw; since drawings always reflect some part of the person drawing them, I think that's a way of taking interest in the person as well."

...
Jordan still wasn't sure about this.

"I wanted to call someone over to see what they would draw; since drawings always reflect some part of the person drawing them, I think that's a way of taking interest in the person as well.  excuses
I'm not really sure what I meant to accomplish. I think meeting someone new was in the back of my mind somewhere, though. I haven't really made any friends since coming here (I've become acquainted with one guy but we haven't really done much since) so I would be open to making friends if that's what you want to do."

Jordan placed the notepad on the table again facing Mari, the pen laying on said notepad right below the message.

(Edited out "and interacting with them" after "meeting someone new" as it made the message wordier than it already is)

It had taken Jordan a while to think of a response to what Mari had wrote. This wasn't her intention, of course. She felt pretty bad about making Jordan feel guilty. At least, that's what she thought his response to her message would be. Mari sat back down in the chair; clearly Jordan would be a while.
After a decent amount of time ticked away, Jordan gave the notepad back. Like always, the pen was placed just next to it. Mari read the message. After only having a small conversation earlier, she was surprised at how formal Jordan's words seemed to be. They didn't really fit his "I don't care about anything" aura. Or maybe it fit too well? Mari didn't really know which one it was, though. Once she read the last line of Jordan's message, she felt her face get a little warmer. She didn't mean it like that! It wasn't her intention to sit down, talk for a minute or two, and BAM! Or was that how it worked? She had no idea. After all, Mari had never had a friend before. What were you supposed to do? How often do you have to see each other? Do you eat lunch together everyday, or once a week?
Even though Mari wanted to make a friend today, it also wasn't her intention for that to be the first person she came in contact with. But Jordan did look a little lonely; like Mari. And even though he looked lonely, he didn't seem to mind it all that much. Or maybe he did? Mari wasn't a mind reader, after all. Jordan would be a good friend to have, as well. He was pretty interesting; and as long as Mari was with him, she wouldn't have to talk. That shouldn't really be a reason to be friends with someone, but Mari felt like it was a good bonus.
After a minute or so, Mari wrote down her response to Jordan.
"I didn't mean it that desperately! But.. It's alright if you're also looking for someone to be friends with! I don't know anything about it, though.. So you will probably have to help me."

Mari hadn't really given Jordan a desperate impression, but he didn't think that it mattered enough to acknowledge in writing.

"I wasn't trying specifically to make a friend but I'm not against it. I haven't made a friend in a really long time so I don't really know how it works either, though"

Mari read the message. She could completely understand that Jordan "didn't specifically" want to make a friend. He just did not seem like the type to care about anything.
But in a way, she was glad that Jordan hadn't had a friend in a while either. This allowed for Mari to be more relaxed than if she were friends with someone who already had a billion friendships. They would both be on equal ground in this situation. Mari smiled and replied back to Jordan.

"I guess we're pretty stuck then, huh? I think friends usually hang out once in a while and maybe eat lunch together? I don't know much else though..."

"We can start with those things, then, and then maybe there will be friendship?
Maybe agreeing to do those things makes friendship?"

"Is there an official standard for what qualifies as friendship?" Jordan wondered.

Mari took the notebook back from Jordan, curious as to what he thought. But as she read the message, she realized that he was just as clueless (if not more) about friendship as she was! Mari sighed quietly, thinking how boring a friendship like this seemed.

She had read stories before of friends who destroyed monsters and saved people together. That wasn't exactly a fair comparison, Mari thought to herself, but she understood her point.

But maybe Mari could make this friendship one to remember and last. If she invited Jordan to things, spoke (wrote) first, and be a loyal friend, then Jordan would probably follow her lead. Mari had never been very outgoing, but she had to be now. For her new friend! Mari smiled and wrote a response to Jordan.

"So I guess we're friends, then! You know I'm new here, right? Do you think you could give me a tour of the school or something? If you aren't busy, of course..."

(procrastination yayy \o/ )

Jordan wrote his response to Mari before picking up his sketchbook and pencil. He held them at his side in his left arm, handing the written response to Mari in his right.
"Probably. I haven't seen you before but I didn't realize you were new. I'm not busy, so I can give you a tour, but I might miss some places."

Upon seeing that Mari was fine with that risk, Jordan proceeded to give a rather inefficient tour in which he frequently backtracked to return to a place he had forgotten to mention, rather than going through the school in one go. He felt confident nonetheless, however, when they parted to go their dorms, feeling that he had accomplished more in the day than he had expected to.