1 - Have you seen this dork?

Carleen Mishra was by far not a sad girl. She had grown up in a loving environment, even though both her parents had quite demanding jobs. As a prosecutor, her mother Ashanti was often out downtown during the week or the week-ends, depending on her workload. Her father, Sakrish, a famous fashion designer, was also rarely home whenever he had to travel abroad to advertise and present his new line of clothing - he was regularly absent for a full month whenever Spring and Winter season were being introduced. Thankfully, Carleen had never felt alone growing up, for her parents managed to be present as often as they could. But Carleen also had a loving big brother, and although she frequently joked about Theseus being sometimes 'too much' to deal with, she loved him dearly too. They actually got along so fine that they had agreed to take a flat near their university together - called the Elysium Fields, quite famous in this fictive country that they lived in and looked oddly similar to the US, but better.

At this moment, though, Carleen was alone in their flat with her friend Selena, sprawled over her bed. She wasn't a sad girl, as we've established so far. But if there was one thing she intended on changing, it was her love life.
Carleen was a pretty girl, and she had no issues finding boyfriends... But that was actually her main issue. She attracted anyone, and anyone usually meant 'a douche after my own virtue who's going to either complain or get violent when I tell him no Brad, we're not having sex I've known you for a month only please calm down', as she put it to Selena.

"Sometimes I wish I could just, you know, register on a dating app and get to talk to the guy for a bit so that I can find out how he is," Carleen sighed. "But I've tried once and I've seen so many dick pics thrown at my face that I just- deleted everything an hour later." She buried her face in her pillow, and let out a frustrated noise.

Selena, who was one of those young women whose sharp eyeliner, icy glare and fashionable clothes basically screamed 'I'm lightyears out of your league so don't even try to talk to me, or else' but apparently also not above sitting on the ground as her best friend loudly lamented her lack of a love life, rolled her eyes in sympathy. ""Honey, I had told you that dating app you picked was terrible", she commented, waving her hand at her. "I had tried it myself and I've lost count of all the disgusting chocolate-related comments I've gotten." She softened up a little bit, though. "It's really not your fault, though. A big part of the male population of this planet is made up by pigs. You just need to-"

Her phone suddenly pinged alive. She lifted it up and tapped away for a short bit, her face scrunching up in disgust before she snorted, and tapped again. She closed her phone up and looked back at Carleen again. "Sorry. I was saying, you just need to weed them out a little." She waved her phone at her friend. "Personally, I'm using the Uni dating app. The technology department decided to put this up as a group project, and it's honestly pretty fun. Some people are even decent to talk to, and you are sure that everyone is your same age and not some old pervert." She grinned. "My personal delight is to screenshot the dick pics I get and send them to Charlie so that it gets published on the campus' journal. A lot of girls started to do that. You should try that too."

And Charlie never bothered to hide the name of the guy, so that all the girls in the University complex knew exactly who to avoid. She did cover up all the submitters' names, though.

Carleen propped herself up on her elbows, and looked at Selena with a small smile and, quite frankly, a renewed interest. "Maybe I should, yeah. Would you mind to show me a bit how it is, or help me set up my profile?" Carleen had never been too intuitive with technology - every time she had given social media or anything new a try was because she had been helped by Selena, Charlie, Dean, or even occasionally Theseus. Of course he had been the one introducing her to instagram - his own profile looked outrageously professional.

"Sure thing", Selena agreed, turning around a little so that carleen could have a clear view of her phone. She showed her how the application (that had a terribly corny name such as 'Uni-que-love") worked, and how to set up the profile. "To access you need to use your Uni ID, the one you also use to access your online profile to monitor your exams and votes", she explained. "You can either put a profile picture yourself, or pick a randomized one. The guy who came up with it said that this way you're less inclined to judge someone purely based on their beauty or lack thereof." She glanced at her friend, raising her eyebrows as if to say 'bullshit, am I right'. "Then you get to input your fields of interest, and the app searches for people who have picked the same things." She tapped around in the app, showing her the profile she had created.

Carleen nodded, listening carefully to Selena's explanations. "I see there are no actual names on it. So it's entirely anonymous?" Hell, if it was, she figured she might as well post a picture of herself, she figured. She didn't like the thought of picking a randomized one. Besides... She had a recent one, of her grinning while holding up the latest dress she had been making for Selena. Her hair still managed to look fabulous while a little messy on it, and she wore less make-up than usual.
Hopefully this wouldn't attract the wrong kind of guy, she figured.

Not too long later, as she was browsing the app, she started groaning, and handed her phone to Selena. "Ugh, there's already a couple of guys asking if I'm the real me and asking what I'm wearing right now. I bet you I'm getting a dick pic in less than an hour."

"Entirely anonymous. You just pick a nickname and you're good to go", Selena answered with a nod. She had picked one of her personal favorites as a profile picture: a photo Carleen had taken at her birthday, where she was glaring daggers in Theseus' direction (he wasn't showing in the picture but let's be honest, who else would she be glaring at).

She did snort when Carleen showed her the messages she had gotten up until that moment. "If you really end up getting dick pics before the hour is over, I promise I'll pay for our next lunch", she promised with a smirk. "Remember to screenshot and send them to Charlie, though. And keep in mind my advice: weed 'em out. Don't just accept every chat request you get. I know you're very cute and you get a lot, but you've got to be more careful."

There was a new 'ping' on Carleen's phone, signaling her that the app had found her another match.
The profile was pretty non-telling - the main picture was one of the randomized ones (a shot of the University's rugby field), and the nickname was an ID number. The guy hadn't bothered changing anything - meaning he had only installed the app to genuinely try it, or that he was an idiot who didn't give a shit about what people thought of him and just wanted to pick up girls.

Carleen sighed and nodded at Selena's advice. She cleaned up her chat requests and matches for a bit, before she arched a brow at that random, overly anonymous profile. She clicked on it out of curiosity, and- unlike some of the profiles she had discarded by now, it didn't seem like a guy who pretended to be interested into anything just to get a maximum of matches. She hesitated, but decided to send a text out of curiosity.
"It's the first time I see a rugby field interested in literature," she texted, holding back a smirk. "You surely are one of a kind."

Meanwhile, Selena's phone on her app pinged with a new message, coming from a profile whose main picture was a night sky, and the profile name read as "Novak".
The message simply read "Hi :-)"
Meanwhile, on the other side of town, Raphael was getting out of his bathroom and getting his phone back, that he had left unattended next to his brother.

And on the other side of town as well, Horknath - who was currently trying hard to study for his mandatory math test in his bedroom - had felt his phone buzzing. Now he normally wouldn't have checked it until he was done with his books, but he was waiting for a message from his coach so he dropped his pen and picked up the device. Almost dropping it when he realized who the University app had just matched him with.
And she had just wrote to him.
He sweated, a furious debate immediately taking place inside of him. Should he answer? No, no, it was best not to. What would he even say? But what if then she thought he was an asshole for not answering? But what if he couldn't think of anything clever to say-
Breathe Horknath, breathe. Take it easy. Just write something simple, and get over with it. And if she finds you boring, well then fine, at least you've tried. No big deal. 
It's just the prettiest girl of the whole campus, no big deal at all. 
In the end, realizing he had spent at least ten minutes staring at the screen of his phone, he finally tapped an answer. "Hi. Yeah I'm majoring in Literature. I am interested in a lot of different fields I guess." Yes, good, that's stupid enough. He nervously tapped on his desk. What do you talk about with someone like Carleen Mishra? "Do you want to see a picture of my dog", he quickly added, and sent, before banging his head on his desk because oh my God what kind of stupid conversation starter is that? Oh my god. He should have uninstalled this stupid app right away. Oh my god.

Selena raised a brow when she saw that message. She had never seen this profile before - but it was unassuming enough for her to give it a try, she guessed. "Uhm, hi. Nice profile picture. Is it a painting?"

Carleen scoffed when the guy - she assumed it would be a guy - made that pun about fields. Okay, that wasn't so bad-
Aaaand he used the usual pick-up line that never followed with whatever had been promised. She groaned.
"Hey, Selena, I'm about to get a dick pic in like, 30 seconds. You ready?" She got down her bed to sit by Selena's side, while she texted Mr. Rugby field a simple "Sure".

Raphael accompanied Gabriel out of his own room, arguing he needed to study, and sat back at his desk, turning the screen of his phone on an impulse.
He frowned when he saw an unusual icon there, and clicked on it, opening the uni dating app. And all blood left his face when he realized that Gabriel had messaged Selena Diomandé in his stead and that she had replied back. With a cautious message.
He took a deep breath, and thought about discarding his phone. Or running back after Gabriel to strangle him. In the end, he ran a hand over his face - he did need to study, and knowing himself he'd be obsessed with this event all day long if he didn't bring it to an end.
"No, it's an actual picture I took last Summer. Listen," 'I won't take more of your time. My brother unlocked my phone while I was out of the room and messaged you. You're way out of my league anyway, have a nice day' is what Raphael thought about replying next. Was it even socially acceptable? He'd been teased by Gabriel regularly for talking like a robot.
He stared at that 'Listen' he had left there for a good minute, and opened his regular chat app to tell Gabriel that he was definitely murdering him next time he stopped by his room.

Gabriel probably just answered with an obnoxious series of 'HAHAHA's, let's be honest.
Selena raised a brow. Huh. So the guy liked to take pictures of the starry sky? What kind of weird romantic was he? Maybe he was part of the astronomy club. Or he was a boring nerd coming from the science department. One of the two, or possibly both. "A little difficult to listen through a chat, but I'll do my best", she answered, a little snarkily before Carleen announced she was probably going to get a dick pic in a super short time. She scoffed. "Damn it, here I go and lose my bet already because of a guy who couldn't keep it in his pants for another fourty-five minutes", she protested a little jokingly, before leaning against her friend. "Let's look, be disgusted, and then roast him together."

Horknath lifted his poor, banged-up forehead from the desk when he felt the phone's buzzing again. Against all of his good instincts, he opened the app again, and paled when he saw that he had gotten an answer.
After that awful pun about fields, he was half-expecting her to just drop the conversation, or tell him something on the lines of 'Yeah look I've got to go'.
In the end, he fished the last picture he had taken of Spike's big cute face and uploaded it in the conversation, feeling stupid for even starting all of this. 

He added "His name is Spike", then, "I hope you like it", and then again, "Have a nice day", before shutting down the phone and screaming into his hands for a good ten minutes.
He needed to delete that app.
Now.

Let's be real, Carleen was definitely expecting a gross dick pic, and not the most adorable bulldog she had ever seen. She even let out an excited squeal - she loved dogs so much! - and turned towards Selena, with an excited giggle.
"Oh my god he's precious. If there is one single decent guy out there I've found him! Look at that doggie!"
She brought back her phone closer to her, and started to text again. "I can't believe you were serious about this" and she would have gone on for a bit, but-
Maybe someone read her message the wrong way and deleted the app before she would manage to finish the rest, which was 'He looks so precious, how old is he?'.

Meanwhile, Raphael was busy staring at his phone. He panicked. He panicked so much that he ended up typing automatically "My brother pranked me, I wasn't planning on talking to you. Writing. Writing to you. You know what, just- have a nice day." He closed the app and threw his phone on the bed.
Study, Raphael.

Selena blinked. Oh. "Alright, dog's cute", she admitted with half a smile. She threw another glance at Carleen's phone, though, and frowned. "Huh. Looks like Mystery Guy over there has deleted his profile. Or uninstalled the app." The profile picture had suddenly changed to a grey interrogation point, and the ID number had disappeared, substituted by 'Deactivated' and a series of numbers. 

Because yes, Horknath had indeed ended up panicking and had deleted his profile and the whole app from his phone, in the end. Better try to forget about that whole thing, he told himself as he tried to get back to studying.

Selena's phone buzzed again, distracting her from the whole dog business, and she scoffed really hard at that standoffish - or at least this was how she perceived that - answer. "Wow. Alright then. Bye", she typed, feeling suddenly irritated. What, she wasn't worth this guy's precious time then? Did he think he was out of her league? When she thought back about the wording, a little later, she would thought that maybe he was just very awkward, but. Still. Rude.

"No!" Carleen exclaimed, and she stared at her phone for a little while, before she let out a desperate sigh, and threw her head back. "That's it. That was my soulmate and I scared him away. Or he realized that he was too good for me." Having Theseus as a big brother had made her a little too dramatic in certain situations. She turned her head towards Selena, and sighed once more. "Anything on your side?"

Since Raphael had thrown his phone away, it wouldn't be a while before he saw Selena's answer, that would eat him alive. I'm putting this on hold for the time being, because he couldn't have the guts of writing to her for another few days UvU

Selena scoffed. "Nothing. Just this guy who thinks he's too good for me, apparently", she spat disdainfully, repeating her friend's words before closing the app. She did let out a little chuckle in front of Carleen's sudden need to be dramatic. "Oh, c'mon. Maybe he suddenly got too intimidated by your cute picture and decided to scatter away like a scared mouse. You didn't write anything that would scare someone away - and if he thought he was out of your league, he would have answered to you like Mr. Amazing here did", she added, glaring at her phone before tossing it in her bag, deciding she was sick to play with the app for now.

Carlen let out a small smile, and she ended up choosing to talk about something else with Selena, so that they would both forget about their disappointments.
She did watch again her conversation with who she referred to as "Mr. Rugby" (it was shorter) when she was alone in the evening, and let out a wistful sigh.

One of many, actually, seeing as she still wasn't over it when she was meeting with Selena for lunch on the very next day. "I was thinking, Selena- that guy that I talked to yesterday. The one with the dog." She was staring down at her plate, pushing some vegetables away with her fork. "He's going to our uni, right? I mean. I could still hypothetically find him." Her face lit up, and she looked at Selena with a mischievous grin. "I could ask around and see if someone knows that dork with a cute dog."

Selena scoffed, lifting her eyes from her meatloaf to stare at Carleen. She really, really wanted to tell ehr that it was a stupid idea, and that it was probably very not worth it to go through all that effort to find a guy just because he had been mildly decent and had sent her the picture of his dog.
Really. She wanted to.
But seeing that hopeful face and luminous grin made her eat down her words and sigh. "... I guess you could", she said in the end, surrendering. "Maybe you could. Put the picture of the dog on a flyer and stick it on the walls, or something."

Carleen's grin got even wider. "You know what? That's a great idea!" she discarded her plate and took her laptop out. Five minutes later, she turned the screen to show it at Selena.

The draft she had made read "Have you seen this dork?" as a title, and then showed the part of her conversation with Mr. Stranger that involved the dog. She had ended it with a paragraph going "I want to meet them and talk about their precious doggie", along with her phone number in case anyone had any informations regarding said stranger. She was so gleeful she was momentarily forgetting that she might get harassed yet again if she gave out her phone number like that.

Selena quickly proof-readed the draft Carleen was enthusiastically showing to her, snorting when she saw the title she had given to it. She squinted when she saw the phone number, though, and swiftly stole the pc from her hands. She tapped something on the keyboard and then turned the screen towards her again.
Now, at the end of her little paragraph, there was a note that read "If anyone has some informations, please contact my friend on this number so that they can pass them over to me! If ypou're thinking about harassing them I'll have you know they're a karate champion, and probably bigger than any of you", along with her phone number. "That way we can be a little safer", she said, winking at her with a little smile.

Carleen let out a chuckle when she read Selena's addition to her flyer, and threw her friend a sheepish smile. "Are you sure you want to help me through this? This is a bit silly, even coming from me." She was thankful for the offer, however - she had always felt safer with Selena protecting her from rude, perverted idiots. If she did help her this time again, though, she swore to herself that she would make it up to her.

Selena smirked. "You clearly underestimate just how curious I am to see this guy in person and how much he'll squirm in embarrassment when you finally find him. Plus, you know how recently I broke up with that gigantic shithead of Brian - I am still full of fresh spite and acid ready for the use. I am actually looking forward to receiving awful messages just to reply to them in the meanest way possible and destroy some misplaced self-esteem." She was taking a degree in Psychology, and by god she wasn't going to use her knowledge for the sake of the greater Good.

Carleen couldn't hold back a chuckle, that soon turned into a laugh through Selena's explanation. "Oh, Selena," she said, wiping a tear from the corner of her eye. "I'm so glad I'm your friend and not your enemy!" She grinned et her friend some more, and looked at her draft again, then closed her laptop. "I'll print some of these and hang them around in uni this afternoon, then! Thank you ~"

In fact, she was so eager to get news from that mystery guy that she rushed out of the cafeteria to print them right after lunch, and might have bumped into a tall figure around a corner, causing her to lose balance on her heels and fall on the ground. In the brief moment she had to react through her fall, she instinctively protected her laptop, causing her bag to fall by her side and for her books to spread on the corridor's floor around her.
Even though she had been in a gleeful mood just seconds before, she was about to snap at whoever tall giraffe apparently couldn't look down to those who were born smaller-

Selena had simply and gracefully agreed with her friend's statement - indeed, it was better not to have her as an enemy, if you had a chance to choose - and then she and Carleen parted ways, as she had a lesson starting right after lunch and her friend rushed to the University's informatic room, where all the professional printers were stored.

"-oh NO, I'm so sorry, I wasn't paying attention- are you ok? I-" Horknath kind of automatically started to apologize by now every time he bumped into someone - it was a reflex, since with his height and all any poor unfortunate soul who hit against him was bound to bounce off of him and end up with their legs in the air - but this once his usual speech kind of evaporated when he noticed who he had bumped into. He paled.
Oh, c'mon, REALLY-
He still hadn't had the time to get over that stupid excuse of a conversation of the day prior and now he just sent the same poor girl tumbling on the ground!? Just what kind of  luck did he have? He swallowed his panic, though, trying at least to behave like a normal person. "-I- here, let me help-" He squatted next to Carleen and quickly swiped up all of her books, offering them to her.
Without looking at her in the eye one single time, of course.

Carleen's expression softened a bit when she heard that whoever had caused her to fall down was apologizing, and she raised her head to still complain a bit, when she froze on the spot.
Now, she was quite used to falling for attractive boys, but this felt like one of those love-at-first-sight clichée moments. The man was tall, handsome and bulky - an orc? Half orc? - and had this cute, awkward attitude contrasting with a cool and intimidating look-
She blinked a few times, speechless, and only managed to mumble an awkward "Uh, thank you-" when she took her books back, still sitting on the ground.

Why did she have to be so pretty and beautiful and nice even while sitting on the ground of the University's hallways with all of her stuff scattered around her!? Life was so unfair- "Y-you're welcome", Horknath mumbled, getting up from the ground so quickly he almost gave himself vertigo. "I-I need to go. Sorry again. Have a nice day", he listed off quickly, almost robotically, before sprinting away before she could see just how flushed he had gotten now.

Before Carleen could realize that Horknath had left her sitting on the ground, another hand was being offered to her. "Sorry if he scurried away that fast. He didn't mean to be rude, we are just late for rugby practice", Asterius offered with a grunt, huffing through his nose.

Carleen blinked a few more times when she looked at Horknath going away, and then turned her head towards Asterius. "Oh- Alright." She put her books back in her bag, secured her laptop in there as well and took Asterius' hand to get up. Rugy practice, uh. "Well- tell him I'm sorry, I was caught up in something- what's his name?" She couldn't help but ask. Hell, he was positively handsome, even if a little awkward.
Then again, after dating all of those confident assholes, she found an awkward boy much more endearing.