one hand in the jar and a jar on the hand

[phreak]

Who: Alter & Stephanie
What: A delicious breakfast date.
Where: A pub in Griss Twist
When: Sukkardi morning

Relatively pleased that she's only ten minutes late, Alter arrives at the Slaughtered Lamb still fluffing out her hair from a thoroughly necessary afterwork shower. She'd reasoned that it would be better to leave someone waiting than arrive with dust and grease smeared all over her face. After all, she chose this place not just because of its glorious and greasy breakfast plates, but because it's conveniently close to her own apartment.

Comments

[controlledvariable]

Steph is not quite as freshly showered, but her hair is still a little wet, although recently cut, which is making her feel kind of awesome. It's been a while since she's had a hair cut that wasn't just a trim. She'd briefly considered cancelling, after she'd seen the militia transmission and started planning, but had decided that she shouldn't let it eat up her personal life.

She'd gotten to the pub a little early and grabbed a table near the door so she could spot Alter when she came in. She'd ordered herself a coffee to occupy herself while waiting, and spent the next ten minutes having a pseudo existential crisis over the fact she's going on a date with a girl. It's not a huge issue, and she's mostly thinking of this as two friends hanging out, but Kate had asked questions which apparently sparked a sexuality crisis. But when Alter walks in, Steph decides to ignore all that and just have a nice time.

"Hi!" She calls out and waves to get Alter's attention, smiling as she does.

[phreak]

"Hey!" In person, Alter is a tall young woman with hair that ranges through a variety of shades of blue. She has a strong personality that shows through and gives an impression of someone who is bright and quick, if sometimes a little too bold.

"Sorry I'm slow, but I had grease in unmentionable places."

A pause.

"...that I am now mentioning in a roundabout way. Coffee. You don't even know how much I need coffee."

[controlledvariable]

"Don't worry about it, I haven't been waiting long." She waves the apology off with a smile, "Do I even want to ask how you got grease in unmentionabe places?"

A waiter comes over when Steph catches his attention, "Can we get another coffee, please?" She glances at Alter, making sure it's okay to order for her. They have menus as well, but Steph figures they can order food once Alter has gotten her coffee and been given a chance to decide.

[phreak]

"Practice?" Alter doesn't mind that Steph orders and when the coffee comes there's a moment where she curls her hands around the too-hot mug and blisses out in the promise of caffeine to come. "But, actually, I was working on getting a fan in on homemade bodgejob server."

[controlledvariable]

"That'd do it. You work with computers?" There's no insistence in the question, it's clear she'll give Alter time to drink some of her coffee first.

Like her earlier date with Jay, Steph is a little nervous, resulting in her being less chatty than normal. She's still got the whole friendly and happy vibe going on, there's just an edge of unsurity to it.

[phreak]

"Mmhmm. I usually prefer to slink about coding, but here, everything is all bodgejob and homebrew, so knowing what your system can do is a matter of looking up under the hood and then hoping for the best." It's both good and bad - she has access to just about anything she might want, but at the same time, no one is every sure what's compatible.

"You know how we can all sort of talk whatever and be understood? There's something in place that smooths over computer languages too." Not always, but enough to get by.

[controlledvariable]

"That's weird," is the first response she makes, but giving it a bit more thought, "I've only done a little bit of work with coding and hardware, but it must be pretty fascinating to see all sprts of different systems working together."

She gives a wry smile, "Though I imagine it makes your job tricky."

[phreak]

"Like, it sort of works, but there's still weird accent things, so I'm having to learn the local jargon which is cool and all, but it's a lot and quickly so my head is all full of everything ever," she says with a hand-flappery gesture meant to convey the strangeness of trying to cram a whole new language into her brain in the space of a few days.

"What do you do?"

[controlledvariable]

"Someone should write a translation dictionary," it's accompanied by a grin, because she knows that's a ridiculous idea. It wouldn't be as simple as that.

"I'm an assistant to one of the librarians at TMU. I get to look after his schedules, let him boss me around and make sure he remembers to eat and sleep." This is true. Steph puts sticky notes with SLEEP!!!! written on them all over Martel's schedule.

[phreak]

Alter lives with her CiD for that very reason. She records when she's last ate and slept, but doesn't set alarms for when she needs to do those silly bodily functions again because they might interrupt the flow of ideas.

"And back home?"

[controlledvariable]

Steph is one of the few Bats who actually remembers to take care of herself.

"Still at a library, I just do general stuff instead of being someone's assistant. And I was studying: comp sci, philosophy and sociology." It's kind of surprising, but she's starting to miss attending college.

[phreak]

Interrupted by the waitress returning, Alter orders the house breakfast special - eggs, some sort of local, dubious meat, and some sort of not-potato hash.

"You like it? School, I mean?"

[controlledvariable]

Steph goes for the Baedal version of eggs benedict, with fried tomatoes and mushrooms as sides.

"Sort of?" She shrugs, "It's kind of boring, but that's just 'cause I'm in my first year and have to deal with compulsary subjects. Hopefully things will be better mext year."

Assuming she ever gets back home and can re-enroll in college. But it helps to talk about it like it's actually going to happen.

[phreak]

"...I don't think I went to most of my compulsory classes," she says with a thoughtful expression. Clearly, she must have done something to pass, but it wasn't thanks to attendance. Perhaps she wisely chose to take only distance ed or 100% exam courses.

"And this place? You like it or think it's all one hell of a shared trip?"

[controlledvariable]

"I've slept through a lot of them," Although she's jealous that Alter could skip hers, a lot of Steph's classes require attendance.

"A little of both, I guess." She's quiet for a moment, trying to find the words for how she feels about Baedal, "I'm always gonna resent it for taking me away from home, and I hate... a lot of how it's run. But there are good things here, and good people."