S5.162 - Psych Doubt

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"How was she?" Maud asked, cleaning a glass as he approached Root.

"Back to normal. I think." Root answered. "Not drinking, anyway."

Maud glanced around the room. Secant and Cotangent were involved in what seemed like a small argument off in the corner, and Sexi had put in a rare appearance, now sipping a margarita at the bar. But there was no sign of Expona or the conics, so Maud sat down, placing his glass on the table. "You think?"

"Yeah, no, Para's fine," Root said. "I'm sure it's me, I simply don't understand girls. Which is kind of ironic, when you consider how often I've been mistaken for one." He tugged idly an errant loop of hair by his ear.

Maud drummed his fingers on the table. "Still. If you're not a hundred percent sure, maybe we should have Para talk to someone professionally. She really seemed out of it the other day."

Root lifted an eyebrow. "You DO know that the closest we have to a psychologist around here is Elly," he pointed out. "And she's a conic. Could do more harm than good."

"Er. Yeah," Maud yielded. "What about ArcTan, he's a doctor, maybe he's got a degree in 2-space psychology or something?"

"What about you?" Root countered. "Isn't there some unwritten rule that says bartenders have to be good at counseling people?"

Maud shook his head. "My lack of credentials aside, I'm not sure Para would want to talk to me. The way I tried to pull her into videos before she was ready? I could be part of the problem."

Root leaned back in his chair. "Eh. If there is a problem, I'm sure it's with me. Going away like I did, to work with Lyn and the others on other curriculums, it probably drove a wedge between me and Para."

"You going with the beta group was my idea," Maud remarked dryly.

"Oh. Oh yeah." The radical cleared his throat.  "So maybe you are the problem after all."

The dark haired function glared, then sighed himself.  "Are you SURE you didn't notice anything specific when you were talking to her?"

Root shook his head. "Nope. Bunny ears said depressed, but she didn't act like it." He frowned. "Yet... something. I dunno. Maybe my inverse sense is tingling."

"Inverse sense... the thing that initially drew you two together?" Maud asked.

"Oh, we're together because inverses are destined to get married," Root assured. "One of those mathematical laws."

Maud stared. "Uh, no offense, but that sounds kind of stupid," he admitted. "Who came up with that 'law'?"

"No idea," Root admitted with a shrug. "Maybe if we manage to get back into our subject area, I can look it up?" He eyed the empty glass on the table. "On a lighter note, could you maybe fill that with something for me?"

Maud looked to the glass, then back at Root. "It's full of air," he pointed out. "Have a gas."

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