Pholosophy

Grace Evans
After pulling a near all-nighter on Friday, without much in the way of sustenance but caffeine, Grace had need of something more substantial.

Normally, the college version of noddles was something bought in a brick and seasoned with a foil packet, but this was something of a rare treat. Pho Duy was right next door to a shitty A&W and KFC chimera, which Grace always felt was a bit sad. Why eat that, when there was heaven in a bowl to be had?

And so, she opened the door to the place, and the warm smell of pho hit her in the face. Spices, like cinnamon and something hotter, something sweeter, and the heavy undercurrent of meat.

She smiled to the server, a small Vietnamese girl, who told her to sit where she liked. In the back, then, face to the door, she thought, and made her way there.

And a note about Grace: today she's wearing the usual jeans, sneakers, and shirt combination. This time, her shirt reads "The physics is THEORETICAL, but the FUN IS REAL".

Gadfly83
It was a relatively nice day.  The sun was shining, the birds were making that weird noise they do and there wasn't any of that annoying environmental precipitation.  Normal people were out and about on a day like this.

And was the moment Grace's phone went off.  A new message from possibly the least normal person she knew.

Gadfly83 says:  My point was, if you think your wake up call came from an external source, maybe it was your Bonita Marie.

Does time move differently for this guy or something?

Grace Evans
The laptop bag got swung onto the table when her phone went off, and she went digging in search. But upon finding it, and finding the message, she just quirked up a sly smile.

The server came by again, delivering a menu, at which Grace didn't even glance, and just told the girl to bring her a large P2 with extra steak please. The 'please' was the only polite thing about that interaction, as Grace was busy texting while she said it.

Chimeric1 says: I don't know man, it was just very weird all around, you know? Where was my Bonita Marie in all that? The voices? The visions? If it was something external, it made its presence known but not its substance, if you get my meaning.

Chimeric1 says: Also, hello.

Gadfly83
Gadfly83 says:  So you wanna know if the voice in the back of your head has blue eyes or brown?  Think about that for a minute.

Gadfly83 says:  Hi.  How'd the encryption go?

Grace Evans
Chimeric1 says: I guess what I mean is I can't really tell. Did that come from me or from the outside?

She thinks about this for a few seconds, before coming back.

Chimeric1 says: Outside, I guess. I'm not prone to hallucinating. Huh.

A chill went through her, even in this under-airconditioned place. Something else, some external something touched her, made her feel that connection to everything.

Chimeric1 says: Camo is a go. I managed to get it working last night. We'll be unknown as long as someone doesn't come up with a way to solve discrete logarithms in O(n)

Gadfly83
Gadfly83 says:  Highly doubtful.  I really don't wanna jinx anything but places like this are notoriously lax.  There's a word in my head that I'd rather not put out into the universe, but lets say it involves baked confection and a method of locomotion.

Gadfly83 says:  How are you at hardware, btw?  We should probably think about building some VR gear.  I mean, if you ever wanted to see R2.0.

Grace Evans
A plate piled high with various stuff gets delivered at around that point, along with a large glass of icewater. Bean sprouts, whole sprigs of basil and sawgrass, a few lime wedges and jalapeno slices now stare Grace down, and she gives a short glance to the server with a smile and a 'thanks' before doing the predictably American thing and digging into the bean sprouts early.

But with her other hand, she's busy typing...

Chimeric1 says: Uh, I can put computers together. I have taken some electronics classes, and I know how to use a breadboard. That's about the extent of it. VR gear is a little beyond me. But what about if we started with something kinda close, like an Oculus Rift dev kit?

Chimeric1 says: Is that how you get to R2.0?

Gadfly83
Gadfly83 says:  A good place to start, though it would require a little bit of modification.  I can probably help with that.

Gadfly83 says:  And yeah.  Well, sort of.  I've heard some lusers manage to surf to it accidentally, not really knowing what they've stumbled onto.  Oh, lusers = 'enlightened users.'  They're not awake like us, they're just really good at what they do.  Every club has their equivalent too.  The Chorus especially.

Gadfly83 says:  But the way R2.0 is designed, full immersion is where its at.  Baby steps though.

Grace Evans
That word, 'luser', struck a memory, there, as she nibbled sprouts and passed the time away.

Chimeric1 says: Ahh, you thought I was a luser before, I remember...

Chimeric1 says: Full immersion VR. Nice.

Just then, the large bowl of pho arrived, a fresh mound of raw steak slices piled on top, to cook in the hot broth. She shoved them down into the soup with a chopstick, and started prepping.

Because, you see, the bowl of noodle soup in its current state is like a plain burger, or a cheese pizza -- a little blah. She put the phone face-down on the table and would be ignoring Gadfly for a bit while fixing up the thing.

Just about everything on that little plate went in, in some fashion. the limes were squeezed, the basil shredded and dumped in, bean sprouts and jalapenos, along with a few drops of Sriracha and the overpoweringly strong fish sauce (which is totally the wrong way to do it, but...)

And finally, after all that, the pink steak had turned brown, the thing smelled like comfort with a sharp kick, and Grace pulled a long clump of rice noodles out of the bath to cool in the air, before devouring. The chiming of her phone would wait until that had been accomplished.

Gadfly83
Gadfly83 says:  Not VR.  Drop the V.  Its like I was telling you, the Matterhorn is real, like heaven or hell candy mountain are real.  Or the Fiddlers Green!  

Gadfly83 says:  Shit, those are all bad examples.  You don't have to die to get there.  At least I don't think so.

Gadfly83 says:  You could also use a neural deck, but I'm a little squeamish when it comes to the wetware.

Gadfly83 says:  I'm sure I'll get over it some day.  

Gadfly83 says:  Xanadu!  Its as real as Xanadu!

Gadfly83 says:  Hello?  Still there?

Grace Evans
And the chiming got more insistent. Thank goodness there are no rules against texting with your mouth full.

Chimeric1 says: Hey, yeah, I'm just eating. I do require some bodily maintenance.

Chimeric1 says: Neural deck? Wetware? Shit... I'm already over it. I just didn't know it was, you know, a thing.

Gadfly83
Gadfly83 says:  Its definitely  a thing.  An obvious step for some.  It'll take me a few years to warm up to it.  By then I'll hopefully have the Human I/O system mapped out anyway.

Gadfly83 says:  What are you eating?

Grace Evans
Ahh, the soup gets its attention too, even as the topic swings to wetwares and Grace is grinning while eating. In one hand, the chopsticks, in the other her phone, and her eyes flit back and forth to what needs attention next.

Chimeric1 says: Pho. I needed something big and cheap and good. Been living on caffeine too damn much.

Chimeric1 says: I'm sure you can understand that.

Gadfly83
Gadfly83 says:  Yeah.  I should probably...go outside or something.

Gadfly83 says:  Maybe eat something that doesn't come out of a box.

Gadfly83 says:  That's how they get ya.  Preservatives.

Gadfly83 says:  Which reminds me, you get anything on that h+ lead?

Grace Evans
Chimeric1 says: Welcome to join me. I won't bite.

And she means that, in a way she hopes he will understand. I won't hate you for being weird.

Chimeric1 says: I don't. No more contact with the l33t. But I'm not sure I want to be going poking around in that sort of thing myself. I let the others know.

Gadfly83
Gadfly83 says:  Loud and clear there.  I will admit, I've got a creeping bit of curiosity there.  Shelfing it though.

Gadfly83 says:  Biology's calling.  I'm gonna leave you with your pho.  Catch you later?

Grace Evans
Chimeric1 says: But... okay. Leave me with visions of Bonita Marie and neural wetware dancing in my head, why don't you.

Chimeric1 says: The pho is pretty good company though.

Chimeric1 says: Bye for now.