Computational Biology

Sid Rhodes
Fireside Books and Coffee occupies a little corner just off Hampden and Santa Fe.  It's not too big, not too small, and full to bursting with books of all kinds and all ages.  To the right through the door are the seats, the large overstuffed chairs, an old looking sofa, and newer arrivals piled and on display along the windows.  To the left are the old things, the used books, all sort of mixed together and never quite organized.  Further that way is a small sort of hallway, sort of room, with a low ceiling and shelves so close together there's only room for one person at a time to walk through, and then around a bend and back out again.  And straight ahead from the door is the coffee bar, always watched over by one of the young Asian shopkeepers, serving cookies and brownies that are pretty good and coffee that is always, always too hot to drink for thirty minutes.  Sometimes on Saturday nights a group of young twenty-somethings pulls some tables together and breaks out a board game.  Risk, usually, or something similar.

This isn't a Saturday night, though.  The place is quiet, and it smells like old books, and it smells like coffee.
There aren't many people inside at this hour.  The barista's sitting at a little table outside the coffee bar.  There's a young man sitting in one of the comfier chairs, a laptop open on the table in front of him by the huge fireplace, ear buds in.  His expression is intense.

There's another person, a tallish redhaired woman, her glasses black-rimmed and cheap, hipster on accident.  She's over by the used books, running the fingertip of her right index finger along the spines, reading the titles.

She didn't give Grace any clues to identify her by.  Didn't tell her to wear something so that she would know her.  Maybe she thinks she'll know Grace when she sees her.

Which usually isn't too far off from the truth.

[awareness!  because always!]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (3, 4, 6, 6, 7, 8) ( success x 4 )

Grace
[awareness too!]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (1, 5, 6, 10) ( success x 2 )

Grace
Grace parked her car in the little lot outside the coffee/book store... Seemed to be a recurring event nowadays, go meet someone new, at this coffeebookstore. Maybe it was the caffeine. Or 'their kind' (our kind?) just really liked books. The sensation of another this time did not surprise. This is what Grace was here for.

She fumbled her way out of the beat-up Toyota with her laptop bag slung over her shoulder. Her attire today consisted of jeans and a complicated-looking graphic tee with many colors on black, mostly straight lines. As she walked in the door, she scanned the room, and located the most probable Sid.

He looked like one of her type -- working a laptop like it was the only thing in the world. But... great hair? Isn't that what Hawksley had said? Didn't seem too great...

There was another, flame-haired person in the room, and suddenly Grace stopped walking toward the oblivious man with the laptop, and pulled out her phone.

"Hey, I'm here," reads the text that she sent Sid.

Sid Rhodes
Sid feels her before she enters the building.  She can feel the pull of resonance, shifting and mercurial, seeping through a crack in the door to tug at her awareness.  It makes her stand a little straighter, pull her shoulders back.  She comes to attention.  Just because Hawkley and Sera mentioned her, that didn't mean she was safe.  It just meant she was maybe more okay than most.

The man with the laptop has okay hair.  Better than mediocre hair.  Too much product, though.  It's not quite a helmet, but a casual gaze passes clear to his scalp.  Hawksley's hair is godly perfection if that's his idea of great.

The woman, though.  Her hair is long and flowy, it spills over her shoulders in soft waves of dark red.  Maybe that's what he meant?

Grace pulls out her phone and fires off a text.  Shortly after she hits send she'll hear a brief sort of upwards lilting sound that, if she's into a particular kind of game, may have just reminded her of firing a gun and opening an orange-rimmed hole to another part of a room.  It issues from the direction of the redhaired woman.

Sid is already turning toward her when Grace enters the shop.  She's already opening her mouth to speak when Grace hits send.

"Grace-" she starts and it sounds like the name is a question, but she cuts herself off when her phone sounds from within her pocket.  Sid frowns and shifts her weight, starting to twist like she's going to check her phone when she puts the pieces together and stops.

She offers Grace a crooked not-quite-smile.  "I'm Sid."

Grace
"Oh! Ahh, Hawksley didn't give me many details to go by," she said, quickly. "I thought... the name... I thought you were a guy."

She looked around the room for a bit, taking in the cozy atmosphere, though she looked as far from cozy as possible. Days of not sleeping well rimmed her eyes with red, and she had an air of anxiousness -- darting movements, and a smile that didn't exactly reach her eyes.

"Hawksley didn't tell me much at all actually. So, hi?"

Sid Rhodes
Sid's brows quirk briefly and her head sort of tilts a little, but the moment of confusion passes quickly.  The fit of her shirt, a cream and grey baseball jersey-type shirt with sleeves that end at her elbows, and her jeans do nothing to conceal her sex.  But, depending on the method of communication...  Hawksley didn't tell me much she says, and Sid says, "Ah," like that explains everything.  "He," she starts, then hesitates, because she was about to say said you had amazing eyes, but she doesn't know if that's something she should say.  She doesn't let the hesitation draw out into an awkward pause, but finishes, "Said you liked science."

She notices the furtiveness - like calls to like, though Sid's paranoia isn't quite as high as it used to be - and the sleepless, redrimmed eyes, and her brow tenses with a frown.

"Hi," she says quickly, as though it's an obstacle that must be cleared before she can say, "Are you, ah.  Do you want some coffee?"  She gestures toward the coffee bar, and Grace can see that there's a tattoo on the inside of her left wrist.  If she twisted her arm in toward herself she could see the long, fat straight scar along her forearm.

Grace
"Oh yeah, that would be fantastic. I swear though, I've been living on caffeine lately," she said, with a smirk. If she noticed the scar, she didn't let on. Instead, the coffee drew her attention, and she sidled over to peruse the menu.

"Gimme a... double shot espresso? Yeah..." she said to the barrista, paying in cash. But she stayed at the bar, her eyes still scanning over the menu as she waited. It didn't take long, but the coffee would unfortunately have to wait until it wasn't scalding. She gratefully took the cup and inhaled -- the smell of coffee was always better than the taste. Strange that.

Almost-pure caffeine in hand, she turned back to return to Sid's company, and perhaps find a place to sit where they could talk.

Sid Rhodes
The corners of Sid's mouth lift upward into that almost-just-barely-there smile, because she knows that feeling.  She had a night like that not all that long ago, but she remembers it more from another life.  The slightest smile in all the world fades soon enough, but by then Grace is moving toward the coffee bar and Sid is casting one last glance at the pile of books she had been looking at.  While Grace places her order, Sid gets thoughtful for a moment, but then turns away.  She hadn't seen anything interesting in the couple of minutes she had been scanning those books, and she didn't think she'd find anything interesting, either.  Maybe in the back, but maybe later.

The coffee does smell delicious, far better than its bitter aftertaste, which hits all too soon sometimes, but at least they'll get to enjoy that smell for a while.  Grace returns and Sid looks out over the little shop, toward the comfy chairs, which were in fact the main reason she chose this place.  Not the books, not the coffee, but the comfy chairs in a quiet but public place.

She looks at Grace and tilts her head that way.  To a pair of chairs set perpendicular to each other, perfect for sitting and curling up maybe while chatting about whatever.  Bookstores are good for conversation.  Far better than clubs, at least, or bars, or the other places Sid has wound up trying to talk to people.  It's better for her, anyway.  She is just too quiet for those other places.

She leads the way after that nod, moving around a table to get to her destination.  It's not close enough to the Sleeper for them to worry about being overheard should the conversation drift to Awakened conversation.
"Uh," she says once she's removed her messenger bag and set it on the floor in front of her chair.  "Hawksley and Sera, they both said you were new?"

Look at her, trying to start the conversation.  If Hawksley could see it he would probably try to tell her see, you're not shy.

Grace
Grace walked back to Sid, apparently happy at the choice of a place to land. She handled the coffee carefully to keep it from spilling, but didn't exactly do a great job of that. The pain of a sloshed bit of espresso hit her face, but she had the wherewithal to keep from flinching or flinging the cup. She sat on the free squishy chair, and set the hot coffee on a small table off to the side...

"Yeah, yeah... It's been a week. They both took that a little oddly," she said, as if asking the question 'why?' "And yeah, I do indeed have a bit of a science bent to me, I guess you could say."

She unloaded her own laptop bag, then, and kicked off her sandals. In habit, she then curled up her legs and sat in what must be an uncomfortable cross-legged position.

Sid Rhodes
"Really?" she asks, sitting so that she's leaning her arm into the armrest, her body tilted with it, her legs angled to the side.  It lowers the level of her head without requiring her to bend her body or curl her spine to make herself smaller.  Some habits, they die hard.  Occasionally, her gaze flicks to the windows, looking outside, the woman ever aware of her surroundings.

"What do you mean by 'odd?'"  She doesn't know Hawksley that well.  Sera is a slightly different story.  She can almost imagine the odd way that they would respond to a newly Awakened, just going off their reaction to one particular other mage in the city.

Grace
"Oh, Sera kept on saying 'Fucking Wednesday' at Hawksley and making little eyebrow raises... But I guess we're not all that common," she shrugged. Maybe it was just something special about Wednesdays. Odinsday. Third day? Her mind went off on branching connections before she realized she was talking to someone and should be social.

"I still don't know much, I'm afraid. It's why I'm here. I just want to know..." everything. "More. Hawksley said he would loan me some books, but I haven't heard from him again."

History books... probably not anything in there on how to program the universe, but who knows, right? She could always hope.

Sid Rhodes
"Ah," she says, pieces of a puzzle she hadn't known was in her head clicking together suddenly.  Sera met someone who Awakened on Wednesday.  Funny, she hadn't reacted when Sid said she was meeting Grace, but then, the conversation shifted quickly.

Her expression becomes thoughtful.  She tilts her head as she regards the woman with the too-hot coffee and the, yes, amazing eyes.  "There's a house," she says.  "There's a library there, I think for us."  Us, she means Awakened.  Them, her and Grace and the others like Sera and Hawksley.  "I...I think I have to see if it's okay."  She pauses, uncertain.  Sid's always steered clear of Chantries if she could help it.  Their kind, with their ability to warp reality with their mere presence, gathering in one place.  It never seemed like a good idea to her.  "But, if it is, maybe you could go there.  See if there's anything useful."

Grace
"A library? Full of... uh. More interesting books than these?" she gestured around her. "I hope they have some on computers," she suggested, before turning and grabbing the coffee on the table, her body bending in strange ways to accomplish the feat. She took a trial sip, followed by another, her 'amazing' eyes shut in pleasure.

Strong black coffee. Enough, and she'd be practically humming. The thought brought a smile to her lips, in memory.

"I don't think any of the others I've met were particularly fond of computers, really," again, with the unspoken question of 'why'?

Sid Rhodes
Sid shrugs, because she doesn't know for certain.  "All I know is there's a library, and a, uh, a friend said he wanted to study there.  Jim, I can give you his number.  Shoshannah lives there.  Justin, too, sometimes."  Here is probably the reason Grace was directed to Sid.  The quiet woman knows everyone.  She is the spoke in a very strange hub of contacts.  "One of them could let you know, though.  What you're in for.  Before you get all the way out there."

Then again, maybe Hawksley just thought that two girls with some interest in science would get along.
"I can get you in touch with all of them if you want."  Which isn't quite the same as giving her numbers.  Jim is one thing, he probably already has her number from Sera.  The others, though.  The others Sid is protective of, but she also knows the importance (now, after all these years) of connection.

"Are you more into computers or science?" she asks, the question put forth like she's putting forth some intellectual problem that they can pore over together.

Grace
"Justin, yes... He's the one who found me, but I haven't had the chance to talk to him much at all. He had to leave," she trailed off, sipped some more strong coffee.

"Mmmm, well, that is an interesting question, you know. I work with simulations. Computer simulations, mostly for genetic algorithms. It's a fascinating field, really. Lots of ties to the sciences other than computer science. We've got biological simulations, economics, physics, engineering and materials science... If we can model it, we can simulate it, basically," once on the subject, her verbiage became dense and her eyes excited. This was her thing. Sometimes she had trouble noticing if it wasn't everyone else's thing as well.
"It's definitely hard not to learn something about all those things if you're building computational models of them, you know? And I've always loved that part. So, computers first, science second, maybe?"
She smiled at Sid, this time the smile reaching those tired eyes. "Are you into science then?"

Sid Rhodes
The fact that Justin was the one who found her gets filed away, because then Grace is on about computers and computations and simulations and it's obvious that it's her passion.  That this is her thing, that it's a driving force.  Even as Sid's smile starts to grow a little, that shadow starts to form between her brows, and she is thoughtful.  Thinking.

Grace says you know? and even though Sid knows it's probably rhetorical, she nods because she does.
"I guess," she says, her gaze turning distant.  "I've always been sort of into biology.  Biochemistry's a bit like that," she says and she looks up, motioning toward Grace.  "But biological.  It's sort of the, uh, the building blocks.  Of all the life sciences.  If you know the chemical basis of things, then, then you know pretty much everything.  Or you can," she adds quickly.

[Sid is kind of a liar, and by kind of I mean she downplays things a lot.: manip+subt]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (2, 4, 4, 5, 10) ( success x 1 )

Grace
[Perception + Subterfuge -- detecting the lie]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 3, 4, 6) ( success x 1 )

Sid Rhodes
[Sid's basically just downplaying her enthusiasm.  She is way into science, biology and biochem in particular.  Grace will probably notice she gets more animated from "the building blocks" to "pretty much everything" until she catches herself and tries to rein it in.]

Grace
Grace does not handle the hiding of enthusiasm very well at all, herself. Instead, she latches on to the biological swing of conversation. It attracts her attention.

"You know, they've got a working, behaviorally complete model of bacteria now? Ohh, I remember a project I did once... intro to genetic algorithms. We modeled predators and prey, giving them attributes like speed and acceleration and energy-to-reproduce... Turns out the most effective predictor of behavior is how the plants grow. too much clumpiness, and you get all the predators hanging out in the grass, waiting for the prey to get hungry!" She grinned. "Such complicated emergent behavior, out of just a few variables. We didn't teach them to think about it... But, it does make you think."

She sipped again at her coffee, eyes off elsewhere. "Yeah, biology... the fractal of life, eh? I'm not so good at the chemistry bit, but I get that too. DNA is like the biological data, whereas I'd just write something like 'int muscle strength 13' or something."

Again, this is overtly something quite near and dear to Grace... The animated body language nearly screams this. It's not just the doubleshot.

Sid Rhodes
Sid's brows lift with interest at mention of a model of bacteria, but something in her gaze shifts, too.  Her brown eyes darken a little for just a second and then it's gone.  Not hidden, just...gone.  Because they're talking about biological science.  They're talking about science.  She and Jim talk about it sometimes, but those times are rare.

She grins a little at mention the predators hiding in clumps of grass.  "I know, just a little tweaking of one variable and whole systems are thrown off.  Or changed or mutated."

Grace sips her coffee and Sid shifts a little in her seat, sitting up a little more, making herself more comfortable.  "I don't know much about computers.  I mean, I can, I think I can still put one together, but."  She shrugs.  "It's been a while since I used anything other than a library computer."

Grace
"Mmmm yes, chaotic systems are like that. Difficult to model, you know, but not impossible. Otherwise we wouldn't have weather forecasts. One seemingly insignificant variable, and it all goes changing..." she stopped there, and pondered for a bit, sipping her coffee. One seemingly insignificant event, like getting lost, and then winding up on an electric vision quest? Yeah, something like that...

"But I guess the good thing about computer simulations is, you don't have to wait for the chickens to actually hatch, yeah? You just run the sim enough times, and you've got 10,000 years of juicy data."

"Computers aren't everyone's thing, I know," she said that last sentence in a rather sad way. "But I guess that's why people like me are around," she smiled.

The coffee got downed, it was getting cold. The bitter taste just made her smile more, though, in the kind of way a hot-pepper lover might enjoy a fresh jalapeno. She tilted her head back, looking at the ceiling.
"I've been kind of burning the candle at both ends lately. I'm spending too much time for a summer writing code until 3. Been writing some... things."

Sid Rhodes
"Weather forecasts aren't always right, though," Sid observes, but without the angry tirade so many people, particularly in this area, tend to say it with.  "Especially here, I've noticed.  They'll predict snow, but it either won't get out of the mountains.  Or it skips over and hits the plains."  She grins a little.  "Simulations are good for perfect data, but nature, it's not perfect."

She understands that, though, working too hard.  Not coding, though, but, well in her case studying.  But she frowns.  "Be careful, and try to rest.  What we do, what we can do it.  It takes a lot of energy sometimes.  It can be really dangerous."  Both to the Willworker, she knows, and to the ones they effect, which she has seen far too much of recently.

She glances out the window, notices the fading light of twilight.  And sighs.

"I should get going, but I'd like to talk more sometime.  If that's okay."

Grace
"If nature were perfect, then that would suck pretty hard," Grace said, to the ceiling, smiling. Her face did twitch back to thoughtful at the warning to rest. Rest how? Sleeping was difficult without the ability to just switch the brain off.

"I would too. Really would. I love talking about this stuff, anytime. And... if you can find about about that library, too... It would mean a lot to me."

Sid Rhodes
"Definitely," she says, and that smile grows a little more, genuinely pleased to have another person to talk about this stuff with.  "I'll see if someone can get in touch with you soon.  It was really nice meeting you."
Then she gathers up her things so that she can head out.  As she goes, she's pulling out her phone, checking for messages, and also sending out a few new ones.