It's Jo, Everyone.

Serafíne
I stumble into every open scene, but once again only for a flyby and I'm'a let someone else start.  :)

Serafíne
or I might not pop in.  because maybe sera's presence would be really distracting.

Grace
[Awareness!]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 5, 6, 9) ( success x 2 )

Ian
Bardo Coffee was one of the better coffee shops in the Denver area - or so the reviews claimed. The shop was on Broadway, a bit South of downtown proper and not terribly far from Washington Park. The coffee there was excellent, and the pastries weren't bad either. Both of these things were lost on Ian, who did not drink coffee or eat pastries. But he was there anyway, seated at a table by the wall beneath a large abstract painting. A Windows tablet was propped up on the table in front of him, and he sat back with one heel resting casually on the edge of his seat, his attention focused on the screen and on whatever audio was currently being fed through his bluetooth earbuds.

A cup of black tea sat curled in one hand, warming the skin of his palm. All in all, a very mundane pose to find him in.

Grace
There's better coffee at the office, because Kalen always manages to find the best of everything. But Grace was in the area, and the office is all the way across town. Besides, this way, someone else gets to make it for her.

She's wearing her coat today, and has yet to take it off as she strolls up to the register to order a large caramel frap thing, all ice and sweet, more of a desert than a drink.

Really, she wouldn't have to be open to the bend of magic in the air to notice Ian in the room. It's like a vision out of a menswear catalog wherever he shows up, like you could just cut a square out of the world with just him in it, and it wouldn't seem out of place. She stares. If he looks up, she'll give a little wave while waiting for her drink.

When it does, she strolls over to his table, wincing a bit at the Windows tablet. What is it with Clippy's minions infesting her life lately?

"Hey. What's up?"

Serafíne
Dan isn't especially, noticeable to mages.  Blends in with the hipsters, just a tall, lanky guy with a nice, full, blond, hipster bear.  Hard to tell the difference between hipster beards and Duck Dynasty beards but in Denver the nuances are obviously: he's in black skinny jeans and a red-blue-pink plaid button down with the sleeves rolled up, buttoned over a band t-shirt (someone you've never heard of, naturally.  his tastes is probably better than yours) with tattoos visible on his arms, colorful, one blending into the other.

He's not getting a table and there's a line just then, staggered because it is just one of those things.  People are not ants, marching neatly without stumbling into each other all over the forest floor.

And sometimes Dan sparks on awareness but tonight either that sense is turned off for him or he's just suppressing it.

See, that pile-up happens just after Grace retrieves her frap.  There's something malfunctioning behind the counter, or too many special orders at once.  Maybe he catches Grace's eye as she slips past him and gives her a quiet wave.  You know: acquaintances passing each other in line, that kinda thing.  He's intent on coffee and its ordering, is Dan.

For the nonce.

Ian
[Awareness]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 4, 7, 8, 9) ( success x 3 )

Lena Reilly
[[Pre-emptive Magedar!  Spec: Uncanny Instincts]]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9) ( success x 2 )

Ian
Grace's impression of Ian wasn't an inaccurate one. Today Ian's outfit consisted of skinny black deisel jeans, boots and a thin grey sweater that hugged his upper body and zipped up in an asymetrical L-shape. The high collar was left partly open, so that the edges of it fell away from his neck and collar bones.

As it happened, he was watching a movie. Depending on the angle at which Grace approached him, she might notice the lush colors and cinematography that were notable hallmarks of a Wong Kar Wai film. Either way, Ian paused it when she approached, glancing up from the screen as he pulled off his earbuds.

"Hey." He glanced over Grace's shoulder at the milling line, spotting Dan's familiar beard. If Dan happened to catch Ian's eyes, Ian would nod in his direction. A casual acknowledgment. Maybe he even glanced around a bit to see if Sera was in tow, but she wasn't, so a moment later his attention refocused on Grace.

"How are things over in Graceland?"

(Ha ha.)

Grace
As she headed back to Ian's table, her eye was caught by Dan and his waving. He got a smile, a little wave. She said hi. But then, she had a place to be.

She raises her eye at Ian, and his 'Graceland' comment, as though she hadn't heard that a million times in school. "I'm not a reincarnated Elvis. I think I'd know if I were."

She slides into a chair at the table, plopping her frappuwhatever down. "Graceland's good though. I met someone new recently. Jo. Kinda just ran into her at the DMV. New enough not to believe in fairy tales," she says, smirks.

Lena Reilly
It's not "cool" to like Taylor Swift these days.  Hell, it hasn't ever really been cool to like her.  But since when has Lena Reilly given a rat's ass about being cool?  That's the best part of freeing yourself from the bounds of societal conventions and pushing your boundaries; you very quickly learn that what other people consider to be acceptable just doesn't matter.  Be yourself, they say, and Lena's all about trying to do that.  She doesn't always succeed, but she tries.

And that's why she's bopping her way down the street in a grey jacket that rests over a grey T-Shirt with an vaguely anime-like drawing of Rogue surrounded by glowing playing cards with a banner that reads "Can't Touch This."  Her jeans are black, with her usual sandals dancing their way along the sidewalk.  Her hair is falling free and waving around as she half-sings along with that most famous of current pop stars that echoes through her headphones.

"I've been picking up the pieces of the mess you made, people like you always want back the love they pushed aside.  But people like me are gone forever, when you say goodbye!"

Yep, that's what not being cool looks like.  But she earns points for enthusiasm.

As she dances along toward the coffee, that feeling tickles its way down her brain and she smiles a little.  With a little side shuffle she hip-checks the door open, slipping inside as she pulls the earbuds out.  She gives a quick look around and gives a little smile and wave to Dan on her way toward Ian and Grace.

Serafíne
Ian catches Dan's eye okay and so does Grace.  So: he is noticed.  He is noticeable enough and the guy gives Ian the edge of a smile.  One corner of his bearded mouth.  There's some acoustic version of one of the new tracks from the new Decemberists' album and something about rhythm makes some part of Dan move unconsciously to it.  Just a staccato tap of his forefinger against the meat of his thumb as he waits.

Sera isn't in tow: not then, not now, not yet, but that line is one of those things and she must be around, maybe they can feel her outside or coming closer, if they are Feeling Things.  Her patience is far from legendary, particularly when she's still kinda coming down from whatever she was doing the night before, and she hasn't slept and she wants a drunk.  Last night Sera was wearing a cocktail dress seamed with rhinestones, crystals, diamonds maybe.  Tonight she's back to battered denim cutoffs, fishnets, combat boots.  An olive green military-style jacket, ragged so it feels all authentic, swings open over a slice of her torso, the suggestion of her own tattoos just visible beneath a lacy black and lime green bra.

Sera carries a brushed nickel travel mug with her into the coffee shop.  Gives Dan a Look because You Are Taking So Long, Dan and wanders over to Ian's table to wait.  Kisses Grace on the crown of her head.  Pulls up a chair without asking permission, gives Ian a look that is wry and hung over and still kinda rolling.  Leans over to inhale his tea, because she likes tea, Sera.

Offers both Grace and Ian the chance to sip whatever is in her coffee mug, and if either one accepts, I'll tell you what heavenly concoction they find therein.

Serafíne
(The curse of posting at the same time: edit.)

Dan's turning around to glance at the door as Lena comes in and she gives him a smile and a little wave and he lifts his chin in acknowledgment, blue eyes tracking her progress through the coffee shop as she dances through it.  Longer than he'd meant to.  Sera slips in after Lena, still finds her way to the table and everything else.  Offers everyone (Ian, Grace, Lena) a sip of her Drink, whatever it may be, but is also: still, pretty quiet.

Ian
"Mm, fresh meat," Ian teased lightly. "Don't send her my way."

(As if anyone in their right mind would actually think of him as a responsible mentor.)

There was a swirl of activity at the counter. The drinks were taking too long, and soon enough Sera appeared to check on the progress. But she wasn't the only familiar face to wander in through the front door, and when Ian caught sight (and sense) of Lena, his eyebrows went up.

"Hey you." This was offered to Lena with a broad, toothy smile. Ian had teeth that were too white and somehow a little too sharp and even when he was relaxed - even when he was smiling - the effect was subtly reminiscent of primal things. Sera offered everyone a sip of her drink, but Ian shook his head. He did, however, raise his own cup to his lips.

As the table began to feel crowded, he popped the stand on his tablet and put it away, sliding it neatly into the small messenger bag on the floor beside his chair. The headphones he left hanging around his neck, for now.

"Don't I feel popular." He winked at Grace. Half a flirtation.

Grace
She declines Sera's offer, even as she accepts her kiss. It probably doesn't have much coffee in it. Probably maybe it's straight whiskey or something. "Sera. Hey," she says, soft and quiet to match her friend. As Sera leans down, she'll likely feel that winged-ness that is new to Grace. Wings that are there thought they cannot be seen sprout from her back, passing straight through the real.

"She doesn't seem your type," Grace says, sighs. "I think I'm going to have to grab on to her and hold on tight before the Techs do."

Lena walks in, and that's a beat Grace hasn't felt in a while. Her head turns, and her eyes widen -- so many Mages in this place right now, even the sleepers must be feeling it -- this curiously thrumming cat with wings notion in the air. She waves at Lena, after a moment's concern.

And that concern? Why does this always happen? Mage convergences are weird like that.

"Lena! Hey!"

Lena Reilly
Serafine also gets a smile and a wave as she comes over to the table.  She turns her attention to the whole of the table once they're all converged.  "Hey, you guys.  Been a while.  How are things?"

She doesn't move to take a seat until Ian frees a seat, which is essentially a silent invitation.  She politely waves off the offer of whatever Sera's drinking and settles in.  "How have things been?"

Lena Reilly
[[Ack!  Delete that first "How are things?"  Lena isn't a broken record.]]

Serafíne
"A-Okay," Sera returns, when Lena asks how things have been.  There's a drawl to her voice, like somehow the speed on the record player has been shifting lower, lengthening like there's a needle skipping the groove, but maybe that has something to do with Last Night or Tonight or whatever is in that coffee mug.  Look closer.

Languid.  That's the word for it.  The demeanor of woman who has not slept in more than twenty-four hours and is returning, moment by moment, sensation by sensation, to the confines of her body.

She sips her coffee mug.  Sips it with pleasure, sips it thoughtfully.

"I dunno," Sera interrupts, then, as Grace tells Ian that her new friend is Not His Type.  "Maybe some folks need to be with someone who isn't their type.  What the fuck's gonna happen to us if we don't challenge ourselves and everyone fucking else?  Just sit around sliding into complacency.

"Sides.  I bet Ian's great with lost little lambs.  If you'd only give him half-a-chance."

Ian
Ian put a finger to his lips in a silent hushing gesture at Grace's mention of the Technocracy. (Speak of the devil, after all.) An echo of his smile remained when he pulled his hand away.

"And what is my type, exactly?"

The Decemberists were playing over the speakers, which was perhaps to be expected in a Denver coffee shop. Before Grace could answer his question, Sera interjected, and you could actually see the muscle in Ian's cheek twitch with the effort it took him to hold back his laughter.

"On second thought..." There was a sharp gleam in his eyes. Deliberately predatory. But he dropped the act a moment later. "To be fair, I don't really have a fucking type."

(Oh but see, that was actually not true. It just depended on what variety of the word type one meant to imply.)

He made a gesture toward Lena, as though to include her in the statement. (Not like that, mind. They'd never slept together, or been in a cabal together. But she knew his habits about as much as anyone else at the table did. Probably a bit more. Or at least, she had known them.) "Life gets boring without variety."

A moment later: "By the way, Justin says hi."

(How the fuck did Ian know Justin?)

Grace
"Things are," Grace says in response to Lena. "How they got there is a great mystery." This is obviously Grace being silly, but hey...

"That's true. I mean, I'd probably still be scoffing at fairy tales or thinking I was batshit if it weren't for you guys having been there. Jo, she's got boxes around her thinking habits. I keep thinking of how to break them. Thought to show her the parallel worlds if only I knew how."

Oh yeah, coffee. She has some. It'll all melt soon if she doesn't get at it. So she slurps up some caramel.

"Things have been amazing, though, Lena. I met someone else recently too."

Lena Reilly
She grins a little at Ian's response to the idea that he might have a type.  She did rather anticipate a response like that.

"Having types makes for a dull way to go through life.  My type was always 'has a pulse.'  Everything else is negotiable, for the most part."  Which isn't to say she was ever particularly promiscuous (except for that little bit of time, but we don't talk about it).  But she never was one to think inside boxes, even before she Awakened.

"And I'm not gonna lie, Sera...I'd pay good money to see Ian mentor someone."  It's said with the tone of a good-natured tease, a sidelong glance given to him.

She nods her head a little in time with the folk rock...not normally her jam, but again.  She doesn't have a type and that goes to music, as well.  She looks over at Grace when she says she met someone else, brows raising in interest.

"Oh really?  Who?"

Jo Hamilton
[Do I know what yooou know...is there magic in the room?]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10) ( success x 5 )

Serafíne
Dan's line Started to Move and he moved with it.  His order did not take long and as Ian is telling someone (Sera?  Lena? both?) that Justin Says Hi Sera is giving him a briefly sharper look, the arc of her gaze defining a motion like a scythe, for all that not very much about her seems bladed.

But then Dan's behind her and he has a tray in hand and he's murmuring something about the match and she tips her head back and submits to being cosseted and cozened and cajoled out of her sprawl.  She's walking slowly, s if the world were at once infinitely new and infinitely and there is that strange steadiness about her as she informs Ian, "I'd like to know how he's doing, sometime."

Low-voiced.  Her gaze briefly caught on her reflection in the window, some strange echo, contained in her body.  Some passing time.

Then she's up.  Dan's slung an arm around her shoulders, rests his chin on the crown of her head, and off they go.

Serafíne
(Thanks guys.  Bedtime for me!)

Jo Hamilton
"Goooooooooood Evening Denver!"

Call it intution, caffeine-intake syndrome, Jo Disease, or whatever, but holy hell do they have targets painted on their backs. Sort of. It's more like Jo is actually paying attention today, and when she got a whiff of something familiar and strange in the area, she didn't balk at the concept of crashing the party.

"It's a lovely evening tonight, with fluffy clouds and a moon brighter than the lake that spawned Excalibur!" Jo was half leaned in, her hair a mess, and the dark liner having been smudged from...sleep? Rubbing it? Who knows, but she looks closer to a raccoon. She wears a black hoodie with DRESDEN DOLLS sprawled on the back of it, and a yellow smiley sticker right above her chest. The pocky she had been rapidly eating was pulled from her lips as she greeted the fellows.

"And boy have we got a selection for you. I'm Jo, and I'm your host for this evening!" Someone needs to lay off the speed.

Her sneakers squeaked as she bounced a little towards Grace, pausing to look after Sera as she wandered off. "Aw man, it's like... all the chicks just like run out when I'm walkin in. I don't like, smell funny do I? Hey Grace!" Jo hadn't learned Grace's dislike of people in her personal space, and thus had no qualms about stepping as near as she could to her and pulling the fabric of her hoodie closer. "Do I smell or something?"

Ian
Sera would like to know how Justin was doing. Perhaps another night, Ian might tell her. But tonight Sera had places to be. So Ian watched her go with a passing glance.

Lena would pay good money to see Ian mentor someone. Ian grinned, amusement showing in his dark eyes. He didn't attempt to defend his reputation. Perhaps he preferred that people saw him that way. (A bad influence.)

And then? In walked Jo.

Ian's eyes cut to her sharply, and he sat motionless for a moment. Then he said (to Grace.) "You're right. I take it back."

Grace
"Myself, in a mirror," Grace says to Lena, and would explain further if not for the exclamation of Jo stepping into the place. Speak of devils, indeed, Ian.

You've got to hand it to Jo, she knows how to make an entrance, and she buzzes with excitement as well as resonance. Grace can't help but smile at her. Hey, everyone, meet the new kid.

"Well, technically, everyone has a smell. It's not like, horrible or anything?" she offers, hopefully. "Not funny, surely."

Grace does not find Ian to be a bad influence at all. Ian's just Ian. She still cuts him a little sharp look. Jo's the new kid, right? Play nice. Or don't, as the case may be.

"Everybody, this is Jo. I was just talking about you, man."

Ian
[Per+Alertness -2 diff from Acute Senses - What DOES Jo smell like?]

Dice: 6 d10 TN4 (2, 6, 6, 6, 8, 9) ( success x 5 )

Jo Hamilton
[0.0]

Lena Reilly
The funny part of Lena's comment is she would be more worried about how Ian might deal with the student than she would about him being a bad influence.  She gives a little shrug and then looks over at Grace when she says she met Herself, in a mirror.

There is no explanation needed there.  Which is not to say that Lena understands, but she has an idea.  Grace has that different feel to her, and Lena makes no assumptions.  Even if that's not the case, sometimes cryptic things just can't be explained further.  Whatever the reason, Lena is glad for--

Stop.  Blink.

That's what Lena does when Jo bursts into the coffee shop hyped up on...whatever.  Lena isn't worried about what someone may be on or acting gregarious, but this is someone she doesn't know.  And this someone comes right over to their table.  Lena doesn't quite have the cool reaction to Jo that Ian has...no, she tenses.  It might not be obvious outside the table; she doesn't jerk away or the like.  But the way her shoulders and back straightens, the way she goes still...

Lena has personal space issues, you understand.  And trust issues.  And...well, other issues.

She doesn't calm, exactly, after Grace makes introduction.  She does put on a smile though and gives a little nod to Jo.

"Hello.  Nice to meet you."

Jo Hamilton
Hum. She hummed. The subtle movement of the fan as it pulses, spinning round and round inside of the computer case everyone forgets about. The hum just behind the ears, emanating from the electrical lines that flow down the street. Constant. Never changing. Ever present. A sign that civilization is around you. That was Jo.

"Right. Right. Jeez, semantics. I mean like I don't smell horrible right? Like a rotten fish or something? Cause I mean WOAH if I do. Where did I find rotten fish? Be like some body snatcher took me up and walked me all around Seattle or something. " Her lips curled back into a wide grin.

Jo turned on her heel, pushing the pocky between her teeth, giving it a quick SNAP, then crunch crunch. She lifted her hand up and flashed the others a brief  rock sign. "Me? Little ol me? Well TCHT no wonder I felt my legs tingling and my ears wigglin. "

"Whatchu you got? I'll get us some more. Cause I need coffee. LOTS of coffee. And.. Oh.." She turned to look at the menu and found herself distracted... "Are those donuts? LEMON BARS?"



Ian
"You smell like a 13 year old's birthday party. Way too much sugar. No fish. What the hell is that, some kind of novelty soap?"

Jo was standing across the table from where Ian sat, but he didn't actually need to be standing next to her in order to pick up on the details of her scent. Grace shot him a look that was as much of a warning as Grace was likely to give, and Ian... well. He just looked at her innocently. (Or at least, as close to it as Ian was capable of getting.)

Lena's response to the new girl's sudden presence did catch his attention though. Ian looked at her for a long, quiet moment. Whatever he was thinking wasn't broadcast on his face, but there was a minute softening around his eyes that might have been something like concern. He didn't say anything. Just tipped his head lightly to one side. (You okay?)

Grace
For once, it isn't Grace whose back stiffens. Look how casually she took Sera's kiss, eh? Look how much she doesn't mind Jo (and Jo's scent of 13 year old's birthday party for that matter).

Grace recognizes it for what it is, and ignores it, because it's what Lena would want her to do.

"I... Lemon bars are good!" Because hey, free food? Jo has become her dispenser of such things lately. Sucks to be Jo. Grace doesn't turn down freebies. Unless it's probably maybe straight whiskey.

Ian looking innocent has that sharp look evaporating into a crinkle-nosed smile. Well, that's new. Have honestly never seen that before.

Lena Reilly
She takes a slow breath and looks over at Ian when he turns his attention her way.  There's a brief little shrug and a smile, as if to say Yeah.  It's more of a Close Enough when her full reaction is taken into account, because okay would be a bit of a stretch.  But she's able to control herself and make herself be okay.  Pushing limits, right?  She isn't one to force people to constrain themselves for her, and if she's uncomfortable than it's her problem, not Jo's.  So it's something.

The attention of the whirlwind that is Jo turned elsewhere, she is actually able to adjust a little and adapt.  "So, I'm guessing you've been busy then," she says to Grace with a little smile, more natural than the one she gave just previous.

Jo Hamilton
Her nose scrunched, and Jo whipped her head to look at Ian in mocking, quizzical scrutiny. "Been to a lot of like 14 year old birthday parties lately? EH? Dude.. way to go all mighty-morphin-creeper mode." Her rail-thin hands were pushed into the pockets of her hoodie, the pocky having been eaten into oblivion...or that piece anyhow. "It's unicorn poop. It smells like sunshine, rainbows, and goodness." Her tongue pushed out from behind her teeth momentarily, and she gave him a wink.

"L.E.M.ON. BARS. L.E.M.O.N Bars." It was becoming a mantra that energized her steps towards the register. Had she noticed Lena's uneasiness? She didn't seem to show it. Maybe she was a bit obtuse, when it came to things like that

Ian
Ian gave a little roll of his eyes at Jo's comment. "You asked."

And as it turned out, the soap in question had an even more ridiculous name than he'd imagined. Which, well. Fitting.

He took a last sip of his tea and gathered up his things, sliding the strap for his messenger bag over one shoulder. "I'll catch you guys later."

And, with that? He was off to do whatever it was he got up to in the late evening.

Ian
[And lo, my bed-time arrives. Sorry to have to jet. Night all!]

Grace
"Oh yeah. Busy busy. Got the room of laser awesomeness almost finished. And then there's also Jo. And the me-thing. So, busy. But it's a good busy."

Jo goes on about lemon bars in line behind her, and Grace's eyes find the ceiling. Heh. Lemon bars. She gets worked up over everything.

"Bye, Ian. See you. Come by the place soon, I'll show off our training arena, okay?"

Lena Reilly
"See you later, Ian."  She watches him go and then looks back to Grace.  Jo's enthusiasm for confections is amusing, enough that she's able to relax and get a bit of equilibrium.  She leans back in her chair, nodding.

"Good busy is never a bad thing.  I'm happy for you."

She stops there, blinks.

"Wait.  Laser room?"

Jo Hamilton
Lemon Bars. Two coffees. A muffin. A piece of cake. And the last donut. Glazed but hey that was ok. Donuts are donuts, and sometimes you have to take one for the team. When she gets back, Ian is gone and Jo narrows her eyes almost suspiciously. "Another 13 year old birthday party?"

With the goods spread out, she dropped in her own chair, the backpack on the ground, and her feet already pulled up in the seat. Jo popped the top of her coffee, shaking and tearing the...many...packets of sugar and dumping them in. "Alright, let's, like, get this party started!" She gave a small whirl of her hand in the air, then took to the coffee like a dehydrated, dying rat.

"So...you like, Grace's chick on the side? "

Grace
"Kalen and I are building a laser tag training arena," Grace says, beams a smile. "I put the robot laser turret on the ceiling just last week."

She leans in a little. "I did a prototype number on my coat. It has sensors on it like a laser tag suit. Kalen wanted people to be able to have their own special coats for it, because he's Kalen and he does that."

Jo returns with a sugar addiction spread. Grace goes for a lemon bar because she needs one and never quite feels like asking.

"Grace's chick? What?" She looks a little confused, and then eyes Lena with eyes that question what she's got herself into. "Who have I got that Lena might be on the side?"

Lena Reilly
Lena has many reactions to that little question, and if you're quick you can see them all flash through her eyes.  There's the slight widening of surprise at the question, a flash of red anger, the wash of sadness at some unspoken memory and tinting it all, a little quirk of her smile.  Lena is a Cultist of Ecstasy, and she doesn't let herself not feel her emotions...even when they pass by quick.

"First off, hi.  I'm Lena.  I prefer that someone get properly introduced to me before I start volunteering information about who I may or may not be fucking."

It doesn't come out angry...more amused than anything.  There's a touch of reproach in there, of course, but it's softened by the tone.  "Your turn."

Jo Hamilton
"Ooh so she's your main?" Jo leans forward between her knees, enjoying Grace's confusion and the flash of expression along Lena's face. Very few things are off limits, even to strangers, though she has a mild understanding of what people tend not to like; she simply doesn't heed it often. It's more fun that way.

"So that's like..a no. "Sera looks waaaay more your type anyway. I mean, super cool and funky, and totally into the scene. " Those teeth are exposed again. "Am I Grace's side chick? Nope! Not sayin it wouldn't be cool beanies to like, totally be there, but nah. And you already knooooooooooow who I am. Like. Grace totally just told you. But anyway. Jo! Simple, everyday, gamer Jo. Yup that's me." Her fingers plucked at the donut, tearing it in half, setting one piece on the plate and the other in her mouth to slowly consume.

Grace
Grace takes a sip of coffee, looking as though she really wishes she'd taken up Sera's offer of random whatever in a cup. It would be easier to deal with this drunk or high or whatever.

That, and she starts going after her lemon bar with great aplomb, an excuse not to say anything (seriously, since when is that an excuse for Grace?)

"Mm nobody's anything," she says, through a mouth of lemon bar.

Lena Reilly
She listens to what Jo says, lets the woman make her assumptions for a while about who her type is.  There's some amusement that they just had this conversation about type before Jo came in.  Once she's done, Lena looks at Grace and gives her a sympathetic smile.  Lena knows how uncomfortable this likely is for the Virtual Adept, and she really should let them off the hook, so she does.  Put an end to the little game.

"There we go.  That she said your name didn't mean you couldn't say hi.  All I needed.  As to your question...I'm not involved with anyone.  I'm not what you'd call 'good sexual partner material.'  Grace is a good friend, that's all.  Same with Sera.  Who, actually, was never really the type of girl I tended to go for.  She's pretty cool though."

Jo Hamilton
She stuck her tongue out, tore off a small bit of her donut, and gave it a toss at Grace. "See that's no fun. I mean if you're going to be like, surrounded by chicks who are like, awake, then I mean... dude go for it. Like it's not like what you talk about is gunna like go over their head and it's not like they're gunna be all dense and stuff. I mean.. have you seen the girls these days? Ugh. Shallow much? Totally don't get me started on my computer science classes. You'd be lucky if you like found five of us in a room of like, fifty. Like a barren wasteland filled with like hungry hyenas, and you're totally some sort of weird antelope. All alone. For serious."

Her nose scrunches, her lips purse, she cocks her head, giving an obvious impression that Jo is trying to grapple with something Lena has said. "Right. Like. Ok. I mean I don't get it but like, cool beanies yo."

"So yeah... matrix and all. You're unplugged right? I mean I totally didn't like jump that gun right? " Her eyes darted to Grace. "Right?"

Grace
"Look, Jo, I get it okay? It's weird my not being 'attached' to anyone or anything," Grace says. Attached, like she were a remora latched on to someone's side. "I tried that before, back when being normal mattered to me. Wasn't cool."

She shrugs, sips coffee. Never had to really explain this one before. Just, nobody's ever asked. Uncomfortable, yeah. "I think I can still find ways to be connected to people even if I'm not fucking them, you know? I could fling myself at people, but that's just not me."

Grace looks to Lena. Jo doesn't understand why she might not be good sexual partner material. These two must be the most disappointing 'chicks' to Jo right now.

Lena Reilly
She smiles.  "No, you didn't jump the gun.  I'm Awake.  I'm part of Sera's group."

Grace explains why she isn't with anyone, and Lena actually listens to that.  She's never known, because she doesn't feel the need to ask.  They all have their reasons for what they do.  But Grace is volunteering.  It tells Lena more about Grace, and she smiles a bit.  Appreciative that the other can share it.

And if Grace can... "As for me, I'm HIV-positive.  So as you can imagine, not really a good idea for me to dive into the sexual relationship arena."

Lena Reilly
[[Ack, adding addendum, one moment.  Accidentally hit tab. It's about that time for me so I'm exiting her. =) ]]

Lena Reilly
Her phone then beeps, and she looks at it before sighing.  "And on that happy note--sorry, ladies, didn't mean to go on a downer--I need to take off.  One of my co-workers needs help with something.  Jo, it's been nice to meet you.  Grace, give me a call.  We need to hang more."

She smiles to the Virtual Adept warmly, nods to Jo and rises to make her way out.

Jo Hamilton
"Oh man, when did I say that? Wooooaaaaah reign in the sad parade there Spider-man. Nah I think it's totally cool. Like, I mean it's totally the rage on campus to be all in and out, and like doing the whole.. man what's that word.." A quick snap of her fingers. "Hook ups.  I mean, let's be real, once I figure out the whole code and all, bodies won't like matter anyway. It'll be all about the brain and the wire and all... "

"Group? Woah you guys are all groupin yourselves? Weird. Like.. why? "

"Ah man that's like.. woah.. like I don't even have like a word for that. Suckage? Like major suckage? "

"Hey!" She grabs a lemon bar and holds it up, almost waving it in the air. "Dude...take a lemon bar. Like.. for reals. Totally makes the world better."

Grace
"Bye Lena. We'll have to play laser tag sometime, yeah?"

It's hard to stay annoyed at Jo for long, at least it is for Grace. She's a kindred spirit in so many ways, and such people (at least, in meatspace) are rare and precious. She waves lemon bars at people for crying out loud.

"We group up for protection. For the sharing of similar ideas. For... lots of reasons. And some people don't, and that's cool too. For me, it's like going on StackOverflow, right? I want to have people to go to and ask questions and get answers. People who have been there before me."

She bites into her lemon bar. "And I also want to have people to go to and ask questions of who are totally unlike me in every way. Keeps you on your toes, right?"

Lena Reilly
[[Thanks for the scene. =) ]]

Jo Hamilton
"Protection from like what? I mean.. OH like agent smith? Yeah I'd be like runnin too. Those guys...woooah..like major woah.I can't stop bullets yet dude...Nah really, I mean like what from? Burglars? Rapists? Murderers? Internet stalkers? MRAs? Dude you need like a platoon to like deal with those guys."

"People ta.. wha? Dude you got the internet! It's like... it's got like billions of people on it! I mean like you want to get a consensus or even like some like deviant thought? Google it. Like woah, you'd be surprised and horrified to like see what people put up. I mean for reals? You want to like talk to people, you don't even have to like get out of bed. Literally. You can be all.. ooh.."

She sat back, tearing a piece of lemon bar and chewing it. "Should totally make a gamer/computer/food-providing bed. With like heated blankets and like...OH like a water bed.. oh yeah.."

Grace
Dude, you got the internet, Jo says. Some of the things Jo says are just so laughably new, it makes you want to grin maniacally.

Oh, if only she knew that Grace's 'group' were the ones who made computers exist in the first place. That without them, the internet would not have billions of people.

So Grace gives her a maniacal, silent grin. And eats more lemon bar. She's not about to go on a 'the Virtual Adepts are so cool' rant in the middle of a public coffee shop. Agent Smith might actually be listening, Jo.

Pizza isn't stupid.

Jo Hamilton
Pizza. It's the one thing that will never go out of style, and the one thing that Jo can eat endlessly...well..er...food was the 'one thing' she could eat endlessly, but pizza was number 1 in that category. It's not a hipster place. No coal firing by bronze dragons under the light of the crescent moon because it just tastes better. Just pizza. Sure they had your greek style and your gluten free, and hell you could put other weird things on it, but overall it was a pizza place with plenty of tables and booths, and plenty of people to fill them.

She doesn't mind if it's odd to have her laptop up and parked in some booth, her feet pulled up, knees apart so she could reach between them to tap; all part of being part of the aware.

Jo wore a yellow hoodie; sunshine yellow. But not -just- yellow. That would be mundane. Jo wore a  chocobo hoodie. It was mostly a solid yellow, simple, but had a hood in the shape of a birds face, with large blue eyes to go with it. A pizza, half eaten, sat on her table, next to a glass of soda. Pineapple and ham on one side, pepperoni and cheese on the other, and she made sure to eat half of each. She had an earbud stuffed in her ear, moving her head back and forth to some sort of beat, a piece of pizza in her hand with the occasional nibble.

Jo Hamilton
Am I aware?

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 3, 3, 4, 7) ( success x 1 )

Grace
It's Sunday night. Weekdays and weekends don't mean much to Grace, except for the fact that sometimes on Sunday or Monday certain of her places are closed. The day of the week is something she has to check on all the time. Not having a schedule or anything means that one day bleeds into the next without incident.

Wednesdays will always hold a special place in her heart, when she can remember that it is Wednesday, though.

She'd parked at one of her usual spots, a taqueria on Colfax when she realized that all present were probably at church, and that's why the place was dead. So, she started looking around. And looking at Hacker News, and going down Wikipedia rabbit holes, until it became apparent -- food. Yes. That's what the goal is right now...

Jo will get a text:

Are you doing food? Please say yes.

She could always just find out. She's got Jo's number. Still, it's not polite to spy on your friends.

When she finds out Jo is doing food, and pizza-shaped food, she invites herself along. Yes, Jo, whether you wanted her to or not, Grace is coming for you. She's like that.

Grace wears what she always wears. Are you noticing a pattern by now, Jo? The coat. The blue jeans. The sneakers. They never change. Grace herself usually does though. One day her eyes are green, another brown. Her hair, she does not style, but more lets it go its own way, which is to sayall of them. Sometimes it's straight, other times it looks as though she's got a case of bed head. Today? It's messy, as though she were out in the wind. And when she walks into the place, Jo will get the not-so-distinct impression of Grace's peculiar resonance. She is the falcon who stands on a broken wall.

Jo Hamilton
It makes her smile, the text that comes. Her lips pulling back to express those teeth in a wide grin.Jo is a social person, despite hiding behind a glowing computer screen much of her day.

Pizza, Comes the reply, with  a mention of its location, though only in terms of landmarks. Addresses mean nothing to her in terms of names. And since Grace is coming, she orders a second pizza. Large. Everything on one side. Pepperoni and cheese on the other; it should be nice and hot when she gets there.

She hunches into her laptop, leaning her yellow head in to obscure it with the screen. There is no need to see Grace when she enters, she'll know just by the change in sensation. It seems that most of the times they've met, she's been a little too involved in her computer. Today is no different, and while she can feel the prick of Grace nearby, it is only that. Her hand shoots up in the air, her colored fingers wiggling in the air as if to flag the bedhead down.

The ripple, the shift, the feathered feel is enough for Jo to lean to the side, and out of the booth. The humming and vibration extend, mesh with the computer in front of her, the electricity in the walls. Oh yes, Jo was there, even if she melded best with the concrete world.

Her teeth part and she sticks her tongue out just enough in excitement. "Yo! Graaaaaaaaaaaacie." Her teeth slicing the -C- part of her name, accenting it more than she ought to. "I knew you couldn't like live long without me."

Grace
[Awareness!]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (3, 3, 7, 7, 10) ( success x 3 )

Grace
She walks over, a quirk of a smile on her face.

"Oh, indeed, you are, like, the very sun. I would wither and die forthwith where you not to grace me with your presence," Grace says, lacing her words with friendly sarcasm.

She sniffs the pizza at the table. The everything smells quite good.

"You know, I wonder what a pizza of everything would actually taste like? You know, a pizza with... fish and ice cream and nori and chickpeas and... everything."

She slides into a chair at the table, looks over to Jo across the steam of meat, veggies, and cheese. Finally, it seems, it has registered that Jo is a chicken. "Oh. Uh. Nice hoodie."

Jo Hamilton
"TCHT. Knew it. Totally knew it. I'm just like, the bomb. Full of awesome and win."

"So, like, I didn't know what you wanted so yup, everything. " She grabbed an additional piece, taking large bites out of the pizza, puffing out her cheeks as she did. As she swallowed, her tongue darted out to grab any left over grease on her lips. "Dude that'd be awesome. It'd taste like the universe. Which, ya know, might be a really like, horrible taste. I mean, what would a star taste like? Like, would it taste like rock and stuff? Or...more like pizza sauce?"

Jo presented her teeth again, sliding her tongue out from between them just a peak. "Kweh! Kweh! Best hoodie ever, well except like, next to my moogle hoodie. That is the best. Like when do you get to walk around and end everything you say with kupo? Never! Except in that hoodie!" Her fingers curled over the top of the laptop and she pulled the lid down a hair to focus more on Grace.

Grace
"You can walk around ending everything you say with 'kupo' all the time. A moogle hoodie doesn't change that," Grace says, and takes a slice of not-exactly-everything.

"Thanks for getting me some."

Sometimes, you see, Grace can remember her manners. Sometimes, she remembers to thank people for kindnesses.

She wants to ask Jo if that hoodie means she has to let people ride her, but then a moment's thought about how horrible that sounds has the statement swallowed up by a bite of pizza.

Jo Hamilton
"Tcht. No way. That's just weird. Only moogles end what they like, say with 'Kupo.' Dude that's like..cultural appropriation or something. Think of the moogles!"

Jo shakes out a peace sign for her companion. "No probs jeebs. What's cash for if not for like, ya know, pizza and things. " She stuffed the last bit of her piece in her mouth, using her now free fingers to peel the paper wrap from the silverware she didn't bother with and begin to fold it. "Man you must be like..bored or something...come all the way out for like pizza. Could totally have it delivered. Maybe get a little something else ta ya know, get delivered with it."

The folded paper, now something close to a triangle, was flicked towards Grace. "You like, work anymore on those lasers?"

Grace
"Cash is a necessary evil," Grace says, apropos of nothing. "It's mostly for stupid stuff. But pizza isn't stupid. It's pizza."

Grace takes another bite, chews it thoughtfully for a bit while staring at the end of it, like the cheese is going to tell her some marvelous secret of the universe. "I wasn't bored," she says, mouth full. It might be a lie.

"Well," she continues, mouth not quite as full. "It's more a combination laser/infrared thing. For laser tag. We've got a room set up with traps and obstacles and.." she points to the plastic strips lining her coat. "These are actually infrared sensors and lights. So it's like a personal laser-tag suit. We're building our own little training arena. With robots."

Jo Hamilton
Pizza is pizza. No truer words had ever been spoken. Grace, the guru of food, stated what only the awakened knew. Pizza...was a god, worshipped with shrines numbering hundreds across the nation, with prophets visiting hundreds of homes a night, spreading the good word of the Almighty God of Bread and Cheese.

"Tcht, Whateff. You were totally bored. That's like, the only reason people like us come outside cause like, the sun burns and stuff. Well that and roommates." Her nose scrunched a little and she leaned in for another piece, letting out the soft sound of enjoyment. Oh yes... pizza...

"Training? For what? You plannin on goin full swat or something? Like wow. So how are you like, dealing with the AI on your bots? That's like the hardest thing ever."

Grace
Grace snorts, and looks up at Jo like someone finding a kindred spirit. Yes, people like us. The sun burns and stuff. "Well, let's just say that, maybe there are some people who would like training? Because things like the zombie apocalypse are more of a potential than most like to admit? And the last thing you want is to be already in the middle of the apocalypse with no idea how to shoot things. We already had a gun range, but that's just shooting targets. That's not, like, using tactics and having to think about things."

She takes another bite of pizza, chuffs at Jo's estimation of AI being the hardest thing ever. "Not the hardesh thing. I mean, I can program them to just be like, 'Ooh, movement! Pew pew!' or somefing. Or I can run the 'bots myself, muahahaha."

Jo Hamilton
"Shoot? Dude... shooting is just like a bad idea. I mean you're talking limited ammo. And besides, like everyone is going for the gun store. You want to learn how to like make weapons out of like found stuff. Can't really train up for that much. Besides that like, takes out half the fun. I mean the whole point is to like, test your own like innate abilities and stuff. And to see zombies. Cause zombies are way cool."

"Tcht! That's not AI. Not like good AI anyway. I mean, AI, good Ai, means you gotta like figure out how to make them think like people. Like, ya see a target and instead of like 'Pew pew!' you're all like 'I should hide behind this and defend,' or like 'if I go here I can sneak up and like take 'em.' Or like getting your peeps and coming up with strategy. Cause really, in something like a zombie apocalypse, the real like worry is other humans. And zombies can be like, all sorts. Thinkin kind , slow movin kind, running kind... you name it."

Grace
"Mmm," Grace says, chews pizza. "I would set up an actual zombie survival scenario, but I think my partner in crime, who's had some actual experience with zombie hordes? He might not appreciate that. Like, at all."

She gets down to the crust and starts nibbling on it, giving the impression of a bird nibbling on a piece of bread. Maybe she should be the one with a chocobo hoodie?

"I can't do hard AI yet. Yet being the key word. I think it would go over very well with my crowd, though."

Jo Hamilton
Her brows furrow. "For serious? Nah. Zombies aren't real and stuff. I mean super cool but like, not real. Like, there'd be a whole resident evil quarantine if there were. But like every year there is a zombie crawl. Should totally get in on that. You get to be all like, zombied and run around 'eating' people. So wicked."

She grabbed a piece of pizza, folding it in half to eat as she popped the lid of her laptop up. "Dude...maybe Clippy has somethin. I mean, he's been super helpful before. Maybe he's got some angles to take. Like ya know? With code?" With one hand she typed on the keys, bobbing her head a little as she did. "Then ya gotta worry about all the like, philosophical stuff of what would like, happen if you had a fully functional AI. Cause then you got problems with consciousness and like digital control, and then you'd be all in the matrix or terminator."

Grace
Zombies aren't real, Jo says. "Oh yes, among things that are not real include zombies, demons, and people who can reach into the universe and rearrange it. Guess what? Reality has a lot of back doors."

Grace smiles at Jo and her talk of AI. "Why would I have problems with consciousness? I'm conscious. You're conscious. What is the difference if something like that lives in a computer? I think we live in a computer anyway, regardless."

Jo Hamilton
"Tcht. No way. I mean like the code isn't build for that. I mean like the biology and physics and all that. Not to mention like the idea of demons requires some sort of like alternate dimension where they can live and stuff. Then that probably like assumes angels and then you have another dimension. Like, we probably have like multiple dimensions but that's for like people, and those can't like cross. Like other worlds. But demons and angels would mean they'd cross and that's just like weird."

"The problem is like, how it would think, implications, all that, and like making it. People get all weird about other things being thinkers and not just like humans. We're not talkin just physical uncanny valley, we're talking like mental and social incanny valley."

"Ah damn you Clippy! " She shook her free hand at the laptop, pulling it down a little. "When I totally want him around to be all helpful, no dice. Like some weird glitch in my system or something. "

Grace
"I know all about the mental and social uncanny valley," Grace says, making a joke at her own expense. "I am the fucking mental and social uncanny valley."

One slice devoured, Grace goes for another of everything.

"I also know someone who can show you a parallel universe, if you'd like," she says, that last bit hush-hushed.

Jo Hamilton
Jo let out a short laugh. "The secret comes out. Totally would have pegged you for an android." Jo winked at her. "Do you like, dream of electric sheep and everything? Cause that's super cool and all. Nah but seriously, it's difficult to emulate what you're not like, really sure you understand." She tapped her fingers on the top of her laptop. "Like, it's easy to just copy like what you see people do but like, getting into their base code.." She tapped at her head.

"Dude I'll pet you a coffee and a dozen donuts that this like..paralell uni isn't even real. So like, yeah I'd totally be up for it.. but you totally have to pay up if you're wrong."

Grace
"I'll bet you a coffee and a dozen donuts that this universe isn't even real. At least, by your reckoning of what real is," Grace says, grins at Jo like the cat who has all the answers.

"I'll pay up. Donuts are awesome. And I'd get some too."

Jo Hamilton
"Dude tht's like 2 coffees and 2 dozen donuts. I'm like down for this. I'm so gunna win it." She pointed her finger at Grace with a grin. "Bavarian cream. Don't forget. Cause like those jelly kind? Gross. Chocolate and custard is totally my fave. So at least like..half a dozen of those yeh?" She snapped the laptop completely shut, putting it slowly away.

"And totally take some pizza with you. I so can't stuff it all in my mouth."

Grace
"Yes, you can. It would be uncomfortable if you tried to do it all at once, but possible," Grace says. "I'll contact Kiara, and we'll get this thing going."

She keeps eating pizza, like setting up a date with someone to look at another universe is no big deal. But, the thing? It is kind of a big deal. Jo needs to learn a few things about the limits of reality -- namely that they don't exist.

Better now, with the guidance of someone who will be nice about it, than in the clutches of an aforementioned demon.

"Bavarian cream. Mmm."

Jo Hamilton
"Tcht. Totally not. If I had like, the cheeks of a chipmunk or something then like totally, but nah. I have like, limits there ya know?" Jo tilted her head a little. "She doesn't like, have a dad named Simba does she?" Jo slipped slowly out of the seat, pulling her backpack on and clipping it around her midsection, keeping it nice and still. "But like if we're gunna traverse around like some other place, we need to like do this on a weekend. Like, college and all. Professors totally don't take 'traveling to other universes' as like, and appropriate excuse."

She grabbed two pieces, one on top of the other. "See? Bavarian cream is the shizznit. Like totally. So see you around. Or like on the wire. Whateff. "

Grace
"Oh, I completely understand that," Grace says. "It's why I dropped out. I'll see you later!"

Fundamentals of Pumpkin Soup

Danny
(Search for the all-spark)

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 4, 7, 8, 9, 9) ( success x 4 )

Grace
[Awareness/Perceptions!]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (3, 6, 7, 9, 10) ( success x 4 )

Jo
There is no doubt that in the event of a lottery win, Jo would make any bakery quite happy. All the delicious frostings, glazes, and sweet treats would be had in droves; honestly if someone could simply beam them into her mouth at any given time, she would be happier than a cat on catnip. Oh... catnip cupcakes...

The eatery, branding itself as a provider of 'gourmet' sweets and coffee, was one of her favorites; it may contain a plethora of hipsters, but at least she wasn't surrounded by blondes. Ok that was unfair. -college- blondes. -Ditzy- blondes. Those people who drink tiny teas and spend their nights wondering which nail polish matches their arm hair... or.. something. Did she really know what they actually cared about?

She sent Grace a text, mostly for a 'HEY I'M TOTALLY OVER HERE' sake, and also because Grace was totally hot and clueless. How adorable is THAT? And cupcakes. Who doesn't want to share in the love of sugar and diabetes?

She sat at a table (where else would she sit) with her laptop busted out on the hard surface and her feet pulled up onto the chair. Her lids remained wide, fixating on the glorious shining screen of her robot overlords. The spongy bit of cake was shoved half into her mouth, frosting having been licked off some time ago to leave a smear of residue, and was now just resting between her lips as she attempted to do...click furiously through a series of forums.

Jo
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (2, 2, 3, 4, 4, 10) ( success x 1 )

Danny
*It was just one of those days, day two of a steaming head cold and he was up before..... Ugh..... before 4pm, he checked his phone without really needing to then parked up and took another swig of the orange juice he had in the side pocket of his car.

Grace had invited him along and he was full of cold.  The things we do for love, right?  Sealing the bottle up he almost considered just closing his eyes and going back to sleep in the car there and then.  Even with the music blaring out of his CD player.  He didn't sniff, well he tried not to. One gimlet eye opened to a slit to look at Grace.* Okay... the coffee is on you, just keep it coming... and lots of cupcakes... Kay?

*His beautiful voice sounded full of hoarse ragged sounds.*

Grace
Grace walks into the place, Danny in tow (though not by the arm). He'd been sick, which was not the best of timing, Danny. But she needed, what? A friend to help her navigate this encounter? He didn't say no. And when she mentioned cupcakes, he didn't even seem too disappointed to be awake.

Now that they were there, however...

"Maybe you should have stayed home? You sound terrible," she said, as she shut the car down and stepped out into the slight chill of a warming Denver afternoon.

"She's here. I can feel her. That humming, do you notice?"

Grace, mind you, seems a bit different. There is still the shift underfoot, like the sliding of a faultline. She still lends her sharpness to the air. But when she steps out of the car, there's a bit of relaxation evident in her body language -- the stretch of an invisible, decidedly feathery wingspan.

Jo
Humming.

The dull vibration of a computer. The sound that, when one pays close attention, seems to emanate from the wires along telephone poles; ever present, consistent. It's a faint humming, the sort that comes from someone so new to the wire that they haven't quite pushed in yet.

Jo has her face so far into the realm of the computer that the sensation is almost normal. She feels them nearby, though it feels almost no different from any others she might come across, and it's not screaming out to her. Focused. Intent. Tapping on the keyboard. Her teen sink into the spongeycake, then the rest is pushed into her mouth, creating a magical chipmunk. A small twitch at her nose and Jo gives just a little movement of her head.

Then tapping. The clacking of her keys, softer on the laptop, yet somehow louder. She has a tendency to become a little overzealous in her...play. It's an instinctual response on her part that drives her to erach around the laptop for the next cupcake, only to come up with air. She meerkats, pulling the top of her computer down just enough to look at her plate, still chewing on the rest of the spongecake before giving a hard swallow.  Her lips purse, eyes narrow, and somehow...discovers that the universe is conspiring to force her into procuring more cupcakes.

Danny
*He raises his eyebrow and reaches for Grace gently.*

Hey.... I said I'd be here... I am never going to turn you away.  *He smiles and nods to her question, then lifted his head and his bright red nose - nice one mister rock star, you look like Rudolph - then smiled again.*

Yeah I can feel it.   It's okay...  I'll get the drinks.  *He went in with her to gain the upper hand on this cold thing, the only thing to herald his entrance this time was that madly spinning flashy pulsar as he drew his scarf in tighter and hunched his shoulders.* Lead on Macduff.

Grace
Grace smiles over to Jo and her meerkat, cupcake devouring ways. She gets a wave.

"Hey!" Just like they're old friends, perhaps, and not just some random people who met in line at the DMV.

She walks over to the table, pulls out a chair, and hooks her coat and laptop bag upon the back. Most Denverites are going without coats right about now, the weather's so 'warm'. But Grace is an Arizonian by nature, and Kalen's gift is warm. And obviously modded. Strips of plastic run around the seams of what once was a fashionable, sharp, red coat. Underneath, she has on a black Linux penguin t-shirt and blue jeans.

"This place has kickass cupcakes. I'm sure you've figured that out by now."

Jo
Warm enough for hoodies. Warm enough for hoodies with their sleeves pulled down a little and having holes cut in to slide their thumbs through; at least that is what Jo does. Dark grey, today, and pulled over a T-shirt that simply sported the power button for any computer these days. She moves her head to Grace, lips curling up into a wide grin. "Yo!" A hand shooting up into the air to give a rather exuberant wave, even though Grace has not only seen Jo, but is also right there. "TCHT. Yeah. Like the -best.- I mean seriously? Starbanks is totally just a brand and doesn't even like, bother to like, put in effort to make quality food. I mean really? Why do like people put crumbles on their stuff? Frosting is way cooler."

She moved her laptop closer to herself and her empty plate. "So like, who's the dude? Is he like, your boy or something?"

Danny
*He made his way to the bar and ordered one of everything on the cupcake menu... then glanced to look at whoever it was that Grace needed a wingman for... and smiled to himself when he saw her just jump right in socially.  He asked for a repeat of whatever it was that Jo had ordered then went for whatever he figured Grace might enjoy the best.... and for himself?  Man he must be suffering!! White hot chocolate with cream and cherry sauce on top and sprinkles of dark chocolate curls on top...  He paid.

Then he made his way over with the girl promising she'd bring it all over.  Warm or not, Danny was wrapped up in a red scarf and coat, and he was doing his best impression of a certain plague victim.

He sat himself down at the table and sank slightly under it as he leaned back. Just glad to not be trying to do anything special today. There... he was parked... and the handbrake was on... for a few minutes he just sat that way as he let things filter up to him from whatever level he was reaching today.*

Grace
"What, Danny? No. He's nobody's... Well, he's with Kalen. You haven't met Kalen yet? I probably would have heard about that."

She gives him a smile as he appears. "He's uh... a little sick."

"Thanks for getting the stuff, Danny. Sometimes they tend to forget I exist."

It's a blessing and a curse, whatever it is that keeps her from being noticed. It's a good thing that Jo recalled the events at the DMV, or remembered who this strange woman was, walking into the cupcake shop. A bit of priming is necessary. And lots of text messages. Waiters in random cafes and restaurants? They tend to be more oblivious.

Danny
*He felt like the opening bars of Complication by nine inch nails truth be told, a bit kind of distorted around the edges of the notes but the truth was there still regardless.

As he sneezed suddenly into the crook of his elbow his feet shot forwards under the table and he all but vanished into a cloud of hair then grimaced, found something to use for his nose and then pushed his hair back out of his face.* Sorry...

I'm Danny... I won't shake your hand, you don't want this, trust me. *He grinned a bit glassy eyed and cleared his throat carefully so's not to spread the lov... erm.. contamination.*

Oh it's fine.... *He waved it off.* So how do you girls know each other?

Jo
"Uh.. lessee..." Jo leaned back in her chair, rolling her eyes to the ceiling, ticking off something in the air. "Nope. Nope. Nope. No Kalen in my system. Never heard. Weird name. Like, what country is that from?" Her head still back, she rolled her head to look at Danny, pulling her arms in and shrinking away from him as he sneezed; she looked like she were afraid someone might have thrown a gun at her. "Holy jesus on a crackerjack stick. Man.. you're like... jesus.. what kinda malware you sportin? They got vaccines and stuff for that you know! You could like.. I dunno.." Jo squinted her eyes, easing back  in a comfortable position (feet flat on the seat). "Oh!" She leaned over to rummage in her backpack, lifting it up and shoving her head inside.  "Where is it?" Came her muffled voice, and then finally she held a hand up triumphantly. "Aha! AHAHA! I have found your ambrosia!" She held out her hand to Danny, unrolling her fingers to show the two pieces of wrapped ginger candy in her hands.

"Tcht! How? TCHT! Like you don't KNOW. I mean seriously? Did you like, miss the alien ship that flew over last month? Like ya know... took us all hostage. We totally saved the day. Musta wiped your memory. " Her lips broadened, showing her teeth. "Was totally cool. Grace went all Sigourney Weaver, and I was like, all Navii, and like, the whole place was like BAM BAM BAM with lasers. Cause Lasers dude. LASERS."

Grace
Grace just nods as Jo explains how they met. Yep, that's exactly what happened.

"It was pretty kickass."

Jo likes lasers. Grace files that away in her own mental databanks with a bit of glee. Jo will love laser-gun-o-rama.

"Oh hey! Ginger candy. You will be fixed up, dude."

Danny
*The look on his face was priceless.... PRICELESS I tell you!! Jo started talking and then went fishing and then offered him some whatever it was.

His jaw dropped and he looked at Grace, stunned temporarily into silence for the first time in ages... then he just smiled and shook his head before chuckling to himself.* Oh. My. God.  Wow..... .Just..... Wow..... How much coffee have you had today and where the hell can I get some!!!?

*Then he spied the pile of cake making its way over and shrugged helplessly.* Pile in.  *The candy was taken from the girl and one was popped into his mouth.* Can't get any worse, right?

Jo
"Oh yeah. It was like... I mean all star trek meets Star Wars. Totally cool. Minus the Force and all. But seriously, cool beans. Like, no casualties or nuthin. We're that cool. Bonny and Clyde without the whole death problem. I mean... you shoulda been there dude... I mean like.. mentally. Guess can't leave like, the whole public with that knowledge. Whole fabric of space be all WOOOSH and then well.. I mean have you -seen- alien invasion movies?"

"Coffee? Like.. a cup.. not much! I'm all sportin a high off whatever they like put in my cup. Dude you should try it. Close your eyes and just point at something. Seriously. Super cool. Ever notice how like, it's not really random? "

"I got more!" And there she was again, ostriching into her backpack and ruffling through. "Aha! See, problem is like, the whole bag opens and spills and then well, it's like you end up with like candy everywhere. Which is totally cool when you're all I NEED CANDY NOW. That's like..always." She tossed a piece of candy at Grace.

"Dude... your entire like..CPU could shut down. Seriously..." Jo looked to Grace, brows furrowed in confusion. "He's like, never had a computer has he? Or seen a doctor. Or takin a class on something about people? Kinda like he walked out of a vagina two seconds ago. I mean... you can always die. That's totally worse than havin a little malware."

And now..cake things. CAKE THINGS. She spares no time before latching her fingers on one and sliding her tongue along the frosting, much like ice cream.

Grace
Oh, Danny. It can get worse. It can get so much worse. The last time she was sick, Grace was bleeding out of every orifice and hallucinating her own death. Maybe that's why she wants to be a bit careful with him, just in case.

And then Jo makes that point for her. Yes. Like he walked out of a vagina two seconds ago. Grace snorts, looks to Danny like: 'oh, that was hilarious'. But then, the look of misery on his face subdues that reaction a little.

She offers him a cupcake. It's blue. Hard to tell what flavor, aside from blue. And with her other hand, she goes for her own -- a multicolored cupcake that obviously came here to party, what with all the sprinkles and things it has going on.

"We actually met at the DVM. I think she's trying to make up for the boringness of that by coming up with something fantastic. But whatever she says, it totally happened."

Danny
*Blue cupcake..... that was kewl, in it's own little way. With amusement he takes it, takes a breath and plunges in on the sugar head first. His arm resting across his front as he ate, trying to ignore the urge to sneeze again.. between bites and breaths he manages to even speak.*  Uh... Right.. Okay... I think I get it...

*he took another bite watching the pair of them.* I'm not that bad, I have computers and things.... I'm not completely inept you know... *He did grin a blue grin though.*

Jo
"TCHT was totally not boring. Was like seein an angel all glowing in the darkest time of my life.." She even adds in the swoony voice. "Ok like seriously? Totally. I mean, it's like the place you get STDS and a bad hangover without like physical contact. Like super weird tho. So like, I went home and tried to like calculate the odds of running into ya know, Grace at like a place like that. Like super rare, but probable. Kinda like runnin into a super computer in your bathroom. Super.. SUPER... SUPER rare but like, ya know, it can happen."

"Babies aren't completely inept. I mean, they can eat and stuff. Clearly takes decent genetics to like, manage that or something. So like, yeah that's good. And I mean, you can feed yourself. You've totally moved beyond the toddler stage. So like yeah, ok totally not inept. Just ya know, not good with like sickness and stuff. Ya know, like, my mom would give me like some pumpkin soup when I wasn't feeling great. Seriously. totally worth it. Totally faked being sick sometimes."

Grace
"The odds of people like us running into each other seem to be skewed. I'm just saying. Like, you're right -- if it were totally random, we'd unintentionally run into each other on extremely rare occasions. But my statistics show that the universe has it out for us. Or, you know, at least it thinks it knows what it's doing. Something like that."

She chomps into her cupcake, icing smudges on her nose and she doesn't seem to care, just looks up from her cake with this grin on her face.

"I'm glad it does though. Makes sure, at least, we're not lonely."

Danny
Pumpkin soup...... *He frowns a bit and looks at Grace.* Do I want soup?  I could kill for some noodles... I think.. *He frowned slightly and then took another bite of the cupcake... then looked back at Jo.* You.......  *He shakes his head.* Like.... you're like the Energizer Bunny or something...

*Yeah, great observation there from the plague victim in the corner. Oh boy he wasn't great right now. Was he? All those LA terms and expressions he tried hard to hide were coming out, so was the accent.*

Jo
Jo blinks, lets her eyes slide to the spot on Grace's nose before reaching out to swipe it with her finger. "That assumes a consciousness exists in the universe itself which is unlikely. Instead, the universe is likely composed of a set of values and integers. It's not like.. out for us, it's more like the algorithms that balance the system are like..such that it means that it hoses what is like inefficient to create efficient. Like, learning. Like a code that learns. AI but without all the like, human concept of consciousness cause then you're like..imposing emotional states on a series of codes and like, there is a specific set of algorithms and checks needed to like.. make something that 'feels' cause like that computer needs to 'feel' in order to make effective like, code learning and like.. " Jo ate the icing and then tapped her own chin. "Well like, all systems need a manager. Cause like without a manager, damage to the system would be like..well it'd be like.. uncontrollable and the system would fall apart. So like, you need cleaners, code seers sort of like. I mean...Like..The Matrix right? Like the system doesn't -want- humans dead cause that's bizarre. If it did, it would just like eliminate the program. I mean like when a program becomes obsolete you just like, delete it. When parts become obsolete you just like take them out and replace them. Nah it's more like when two sets of program interlock, the one that needs the most resources to operate totally takes over. Humans are just like, a small program so we're kind of like insignificant in the end, compared to like, other programs. And sometimes, malware just gets into the system, and the system has to like scan and quarantine or delete."

Jo blinked and looked to Danny. "Whu? Oh man like.. WHY. Udon noodles are like the best and now I want some. " She pursed her lips at him. "And sushi.. could totally rock some fish." Her lips curled into another grin and she slowly sat her chin on her knees. "Once had a teacher that said like, it's like the consequence of  being a quick thinker and stuff. Like always thinking means you can't just like, sit still. You gotta keep going cause yeah I mean there's always this end point right? And if you like sit still you're gunna miss it, and besides... I don't know how like people deal with lulls in their system. Boring! Seriously. Don't you get bored just like..sittin there?"

Grace
And there's Jo, in a cupcake shop, laying out her worldview for all. It's a similar thing to how Grace sees it, so the finger coming out to swipe icing off her nose barely registers as she takes all that in. Her eyes widen a touch. Could it be? Someone who Works like she does? Someone compatible?

"So you don't think you're conscious? You said you don't think one exists in the universe, so...."

Grace prods a little. Tries to, perhaps, ease a little room for other ideas into Jo's mindset, before it hardens up. But then...

"Want to go get some noodles? Something a little more substantial than cupcakes? Might do you some good. Let's do that."

Danny
*Jo was talking.  She was, he knew she was talking but some thing wasn't quite right with his mental processes right now and he almost felt like he was watching her through a goldfish bowl.* Uh.....

*There was this slight frown on his face as she carried on filling in the empty space around him... and now it was like he was in a cartoon, and the words were in little speech-bubbles but there were too many and he couldn't keep up with the flow of words... far too much. He lifts one finger and points at her with his immaculate black nail.* No more coffee for you.

 Uh.... *He frowned again in confusion, then lifted his hand and nodded.* Get this lot boxed up.   We'll take it and force feed someone sugar for a giggle.

*But yeah... he stood slowly, moving too fast might be a bad idea. When he was on his feet and sure he wasn't about to sneeze he nodded.* Noodles.... I need noodles..... And I need coffee...  I think. Or something....

*Then he frowned again and turned back to Jo.* There is a consciousness in the Universe... or else how would there be a universal song?

Jo
"See that's like where it becomes complicated. I mean what -IS- consciousness? I think that like, some people are become -aware- in the like the sense that you know you're a program and you like follow your code diligently. Sort of like that learning right? You become like code that can learn outside of like the usual learning. Evolving maybe? Maybe like it's a code that is incorporating new algorithms to enhance its function. But like most people? Nah I think like people are codes and programs. If you can figure out their programs then you can predict like what they'll do in the context of the system. Ever think it's weirdly coincidental that like, people seem to gravitate where you'd like expect them to? I mean that's their program. They never really thought of like -why- they wanted to do it, they just like 'felt' it was their calling. Seriously what is THAT? Totally not random. That's how the system remains functional right? It's like all the programs are working together without like, realizing it. Just a big network."

"Noodles!" She pushed her hand into the air and quickly packed up her goods. "Dude you're gunna give this to someone? No way!" Jo bounced from her seat, skipping to the register to procure a box and wrap it up tightly so the poor things would go sloshing around. "Dude like if you're gunna just hand it out, I will totally take it for midnight snacking. Games totally take all my energy." She zipped up her hoodie, pulled her backpack on and clasped it into place. "Is this guy for real?" She gestured at Danny with her thumb, already beginning to rock on her heels while she waited for them. "Seriously.. you do know that music and language is really just broken down into formulas. Seriously like, if you look at the musical patterns that are 'enjoyable' to people, it's really just a bunch of math. Seriously.. Like you should totally... dude no.. I'll tutor you in it ya know. Math I mean. It's simply and all but like once you see it..." She flattened her hands out, using them in the air as if seeing something amazing. "It's like the whole universe makes sense. Now come on." She grabbed him by the sleeve, but barely, 'fore you like start the zombie apocalypse in a bakery."

Danny
*He barely has time to mouth to Grace.* HELP ME!!  *Before he's dragged off.*

Grace
"The lady talks like she knows everything about everything," Grace says, gives a little uptick of a smile to Danny.

She starts packing away cupcakes for the ride, but then Jo is there to whisk them all away. To where?

"Hey, where are we going? Somewhere close I hope?"

She grabs her coat and her laptop and... good fucking grief does Jo have a lot of energy.

"There there, Danny," she says, fake pats his purple hair (look, everyone, Grace is willfully touching someone!) and trundles off behind them.

Danny
*He's hauled off into noodle land, which is good, noodles are good. Noodles don't hurt anyone. There's the odd virus cough from time to time as he's dragged.* I have a car.... we can drive... Okay? Driving is better than walking.  And you have to share the cake.



Jo
"Well I mean no, it's just like, math is the foundation of everything. I mean even physicists say that. Like without math you can't like..get it. I mean when you really break everyhting down it's numbers right? So like... if you're trying to find some kind of unversal song, then you're really just looking for the fundamental numbers that like bind people or notes or whatever. See that's the problem. I mean, like I get it. Like...like there is a code and like once you know the code you can like, alter it. But I mean what -IS- it? I figure, I figure like, if I keep looking I'll get the code and and I'll totally get the system right? Maybe like improve the algorithms or something, jump into the wire and just like... be with it. I think that maybe when you like overcome the limitations of the not-knowing, you can like, integrate completely in the system and discard the hardware."

She blinked, stepping outside and dragging him along. Jo paused near the bike rack, letting go of Danny to unhook her bicycle, reaching back to put the lock in her backpack. "Car? Seriously? Like...you know how like bad those things are? Sides I mean, I can't like take my ride with us right? I can totally ride along with you though. OH! Yeah let's do that!"

"I think there is like... an asian place nearby. I mean we are in like....Food Mecca. "

Grace
"Nah, Food Mecca is down Federal. They have this place with like, wonton tacos? It's amazement. You'd love it," Grace says, takes the other side of Danny so he can't escape.

Her hand goes to her pocket, and she slips out her phone. Okay, Google. Where's the nearest noodle store? Aha. Yes.

"Just down the strip of this mall, there's a Veitnachinese place. Bound to be noodles. Don't know how good they are."

But hey, it's close, and Danny is a bundle of cold virii loosely held together by human tissue. He might not last the night. Woe be unto Danny.

"You can get it without the math. The math just makes it easier for you. For someone like Danny, it just confuses. Everyone gets it in their own way, right? It's personal. Unique to you. Even those who try to codify it and lead others down the path in a rigorous way, they have subtle differences in the way they get it."

Danny
*It was fascinating in a terrifying way... and this bemused grin just started to appear on his face. Or was it one of those hallucination grins? Who knew... He just kept on waiting for the next load of words to come out.* If I say a random word, will you fill in the rest of the sentence? Can we try that?

*Yeah, she was cool in a totally nuts kind of way.. and kind of addictive too.*  Yeah..... *he coughs again into his free hand.* What Grace said... maths is... like.... effort.... I don't get it. I mean, just cos I'm s'posed to it don't mean I do.

Jo
"Wonton tacos? Like for realsies? DUDE. We have totally got to go there sometime. Like woah."

"But like, how do you get it without getting it? I mean if it's all numbers how can you like, get it without knowing the numbers? I mean like... how can you get the program if you don't know the code or like the function of the code and like the function of programs. Like.." She scratched her head, rolling the bike along with her and them. "I mean it's the thing. I mean like.. ok like... ok so say it's like pumpkin soup right? I mean like someone like Danny? Danny right? Might like... I dunno... get that it's made of pumpkin and like cream and stuff. But what does that mean really? Like... you get the basic components but ike without knowing what makes up the components then how do you really know what pumpkin soup -is?- I mean like... I mean like I think a chemist would say that right? It's not -just- pumpkin soup right?It's composed of like chemicals that react in like a very particular way to create the particular texture and flavor, and like without that it wouldn't even -be- pumpkin. So like..you can go further and be like.. Ok so I get the chemicals, but what defines like the... the thing that makes the chemicals and the flavor. Like what defines what they taste like and how do we like define pumpkin? So like when you break it down into numbers, it's a very particular pattern of integers that leads to that particular chemical and then those two programs interact to create a very particular, prespecified flavor."

"I mean I guess the person who like...says pumpkin and creap is pumpkin soup isn't -wrong- cause like it is that, sure but like... it's surface information. Like saying a computer is a computer. But it's composed of parts and energy."

"And you can SO get math. Seriously.. it's really just practice. Like.. I was the chess and math champ in school. I can totally show you the tricks. Promise."

Grace
"I dunno, Danny. How do you do it? I suppose you taste the soup, no?"

She walks along, looks up at the sky.

"I've seen a guy read the patterns of fate in a wisp of glitter dust. I've felt veils of perception ripped away from my eyes when a woman lit some incense and started chanting. They don't need the math to do what they do, but it works all the same.

"People like us, we need to understand a thing down to its roots. We need to know the chemical formula for pumpkin soup. Others might hear the pumpkins whispering to them from October past, telling the history of pumpkinness. It's not up to us to tell them they're wrong."

They arrive at the Asian food place (Grace bets they have pho, korean spare ribs, fried rice, and sweet-and-sour something on the menu here) and she opens the door for Danny. Poor colded Danny.

Danny
Okay... maths.  I'll put it into a version I can understand. Like Pulsars, right?  *he frowns as he thinks, trying to gather the frayed ropes of his intelligence and bringing them forwards to map them out and plait them together.* Music is maths, pure and simple maths, the frequency of the beat the precise rates of which each tone is put into sequence is a code all of its own.  Sound waves are a certain math, how it works is beyond me though. I just know I can do it. I don't need to understand it.  It's just there.

Much like soup.  *He nods to Grace.* It's there... it's that sense, that innate nature of what we are but on a more subliminal level. Raw energy.  *He nearly walked into the door itself when he sneezed again and gathered himself enough with just about enough dignity to go with it to avoid the door as he tries again and slips his hand into his pocket to pull out a hair band to tie his hair up, which he does with a lazy twist of his fingers and hands.*

I want something with ginger in it, apparently it's good for colds.  Ginger and vegetables with noodles... *He nods, then whatever else it was he was going to say is lost in a series of sneezes, which he does into the crook of his elbow again.* And I need alcohol.  Lots of it.

Jo
Jo couldn't help but laugh, almost hysterically. "No way! People think soup talks to them? That's SO weird! Like..woah.. seriously? Man...that must be like the best high ever. Like way better than like acid or mushrooms. " She locked up her bike outside of the restaurant and followed Grace in. "Dude, if you can like grasp physics, you should totally be grasping math. I mean seriously? That's what physics is... math like everywhere."

She slid into a seat with them, placing her backpack on the ground and wasting no time pulling out her phone, sliding her thumb along it for a moment. "Your peeps sound totally trippy. I have a few friends who are so into that kind of experience. Like... they'd totally love it. "

Grace
"Not everybody does, when it happens to them. I know a guy who spent a while on antipsychotics because he heard things he shouldn't. He was always meant to hear though.

"Have you met any others who can... get it? Like you do?"

She takes a seat next to Jo, wondering about her. She certainly sounds newish. Doesn't yet know that other people can understand the universe without math...

Danny
Yeah... but maths with physics is easy.... *he moans slightly...* I mean, I can't explain how I know it!! I just like that kind of thing so I can pick it up. And I'll have you know that Lamp posts can talk to people, they have this odd little tinny sound though to their voices.  Mostly they say "don't puke on me."  *He shrugs helplessly and slides into a seat to lean against the wall slightly with a sigh of relief and pulls out his wallet again.*

I don't need to understand the universal song but I can dance to it and play with it. *He shrugs and sits up again then picks up a menu.* Something with ginger in.... and shots... we need shots... correction, I need shots.

Jo
The laugh keeps up. "No way! You guys have -got- to intro me to whatever you do on the weekends cause it's totally awesome."

She pulled a leg up, pressing her cheek to her knee and looking at Grace. It was a tight fit but she made it -work.- "Like me? Nah. I mean like no one is like me. I mean, was. Though I never did really..I mean... you have Clippy on your word don't you? I mean do people not like listen to his help? If they totally listened, they'd be much more ya know..like in the know."

"The math isn't like..different. I mean if you get numbers you get numbers. Seriously. I think like most people are just scared of it. It's fun really. It's like... data. It's objective right? Not all hyped in feelings and beliefs. It just like...is. "

"Noodles for me! Like with lots of sauce and meat and sesame seeds. Dude we could ya know like... get the sharey plates. Totally like...cultural and all."

Grace
"Dude. I do not. Clippy," Grace says, scowls, points at her Tux logo shirt, like 'do you even know what this means?!?'

"I don't even Word."

Menu, menu, oh, save us from technological ideology clash. Grace peers over the offerings, and orders ginger chicken for Danny (because he's too sick to think straight, apparently) and Ma Po To Fu for herself (though they're all going to share anyway, from the look of it)

"I was working on my robot arm with laser gun attachment this weekend, actually. Going to suspend it from the ceiling of my laser tag training arena."

And, unlike previous conversations involving lasers, Grace is totally serious about that last statement.

Danny
Oh boy no... *He laughs then coughs again into his hand.* You don't get to share a plate with me... hell, I wouldn't even share food with me right now!!

*He does ask for rice wine as soon as they get to order though.  And the aforementioned noodles and vegetables. His head wasn't pounding, but that was probably the tylenol he'd taken before leaving this afternoon. Then here came that 'stuck' sneeze and the face to go with it.*

Aww come on already!! Someone sneeze for me? It's stu... *Ahh there it came. straight into the napkin he found before him on the table and no, he didn't blow then look, he just sneezed and groaned as he wiped.* Grace... I have to show you this cat I have. Made of metal.. and it's totally bitchin.... Joints and gears... real cool with it.  And I got me one of those "alien" things folded over on it's knee's  with glass on it's back.

*He nods with relief at the food and leans back in his seat to listen as the tech heads talk.*

Jo
"Tcht.. Dad was totally the same way. Gotta change with the times yo. Like, ya gotta progress. You gotta ya know, move with the tech. Incorporate new ideas. Ya know? New breakthroughs. New machinery. Can't be hanging out in the past and all. " She grinned slowly. "Clippy is super cool. Pushy, but man he can be a life saver."

She blinked, then slowly squinted, then furrowed ber brows as if she were digesting Grace's statement and trying to understand whether it was a joke or not. Then she softened, eyes widening slowly. "Really? You're totally doing stuff with lasers? MAN that is COOL."

Jo tilted her attention to Danny. "Well it's not like you share the same fork. I mean you get like a communal fork right, and then you like drop the bits on your plate and stuff. Totally normal culturally in asia and stuff."

Serafíne
Perception + Awareness

Dice: 7 d10 TN5 (3, 4, 4, 5, 5, 7, 8, 10) ( success x 5 ) Re-rolls: 1

Serafíne
Noodle place.  Noodle place?  At the absurd hour of the ordinary, work-a-day evening meal.  An unfamiliar sensation to those open to the sense of the universe, perhaps.  Gut-wrenching, enthralling, threshold-hovering see, just outside the door.  Then in the door: long, bottle-blond hair with dark roots with a signature sidecut on the left otherwise falls in coils of curls around her shoulder, down her back.  Still a bit damp from the morning shower she took forty-five minutes ago.  Sera opens the door with her right shoulder and sort of spins around as if she always meant to complete a circle.

Leather jacket over a band t-shirt (white) over a bra (black - because), cut-off denim shorts over thigh-high fishnets held up by garters.  Tattoos all over her hands and forearms, visible where the cuffs of the jacket are pushed up.

She doesn't bother with order.  Doesn't care about food.  Just takes a minute while the door is open to take a last drag off her clove cigarette and chuck it into the nearby ashtray, then ducks inside and heads right for Grace, Jo, Danny.

Grace
"Clippy is... new ideas? They got rid of him what, ten years ago?" Grace shakes her head. Poor little new kid.

"It'll be fine, Danny. Fine. We can use chopsticks to move stuff to our plates, and eat with our forks."

She closes her eyes, seems to breathe in the scent of the place, such as it is. "Sera's here." Her eyes open and she smiles at Jo. "You'll like her."

Danny
Yeah I know that... *he nods.* But I'd feel really bad if you guys caught this.  *he waits for the drinks to arrive, then mercilessly begins to obliterate his senses with the rice wine.* I'ma get a cab home later.

*And there was Serafine... which was cool in her own way.. He turns with a smile for her and pours another shot.* Hey... *Is the greeting Serafine gets from the hoarse throated musician with what looks like a head cold judging from his nose.*

Huh? *His attention went back to the girls he was with where he stared at the pair of them blankly.*

Jo
"Clippy isn't no..well I mean -my- clippy is. I mean he's annoying sure but like.. he's actually useful. Seriously like the first time I calculated the probability of existing as a managerial program, he was totally there to help me locate the right search term."

Jo hums. The electrical current of her wires hum...that was the very sensation she gave. The subtle vibration of the computer fan, the move of electrical currents through wires...soft, still untapped, but present.  Unlike the group, Jo is having a hard time focusing on the energies they give off. Maybe she's still thinking about the initial problem she faced earlier, still, or maybe it's just her off day. She hadn't been very good at noticing Grace or Danny either..But she does notice a shift; enough that when Grace mentions it, she's not completely oblivious.

Jo drops her leg and puts one hand on the back of the chair and the other on Grace's shoulder to lift up enough to look back. "Really? Like where? I mean like who am I - Oh you mean her? Dude! For Real? Is she the one that hears pumpkin soup talk to her cause I'd totally buy that."

Jo glanced to Danny. "Eh no sweat ya know? Like I hang with gamers, and they are some of like the filthiest people ever. I'm immune. I have the latest upgrade of virus protection. Cool beans yeah?"

Serafíne
Sera is smiling, not precisely blissed out yet and probably still mostly sober but - smiling as she curves around a booth and dodges another table and comes up to / by / behind the small group, all of whom have noticed her already.  Grace she greets with a light touch of her tattooed left hand (the flash of ink on both the palm and the fingers) and this pressure of her mouth to the crown of Grace's head.

Danny next: a hand curving over his left shoulder as she slips by, smelling of patchouli and Chanel No. 5 and clove cigarettes, this pile of found-object necklaces 'round her neck (bicycle chain, pop can tabs strung together on wire) mixed in with south sea pearls, why the fuck not.  She's carrying a little clutch with a brass-knuckles clasp through which she has threaded her fingers.  Crystal-eyed skulls, there.  Just about enough room for a credit card, four cigarettes, a joint, a condom and three tabs of acid.

Everything a girl could ever need.

"Hey."  To all and sundry, Danny yeah, and Grace, and Jo to whom she has not been introduced.  Her smile easy, simmering, engaging.  A little waver of her hand through the clasp of that clutch for Jo, just because.  "What the fuck are y'all up to?"

Grace
Grace lets Sera kiss her head, and even lets Jo use her as a prop to climb upon -- almost as if she were open to the concept of being touched today.

"Getting Danny something more nutritious than cupcakes to eat because he said he needs a bunch of ginger and alcohol.

Also, we're getting to meet The Collective here. She's new. Fairly new, at least."

TheCollective is the name Jo gave her, so that's what she's going to use.

Danny
Gaming huh? *He blinks a bit, then shifts in the seat to give Sera room to move herself into the seat. For once, no guitar was present.* Silent Hill.... All I'm sayin.. *He nods again and clears his throat slightly.*

My mission for today is to get hammered and eat noodles.  How about you? *He smiles his approval of Sera's outfit.* Lookin good chica. *He turns back to stare at Grace, then Jo again.* Huh? Collective?  *That first shot went down waaaaaaaaaaay too easy.*

Danny
(i'm sorry guys. I need to bail. it's really late here.  Danny will stick around until there's a cab for him to fall out of later.)

Jo
Her lips curl into a broad grin as she regards Sera, certainly taking a moment to get a good glance at the whole package. "Yup, gamin. Silent hill is only like good up to four. Beyond that it's really a joke. The new PT totally came out though and it is Awesome! I looove watching people have like a total freak out. Super wicked."

"It is known. Collective I am. Well  I mean it's my youtube handle. I'm Jo..." She winked at Sera, the same one she had given Grace when they first met. Sliding back down into her seat, she focused on the drinks at hand. "When I calculated the probability of being a managerial program, I discovered that the probability was small now. So small that it's like.. not even likely. But! That was like... I don't know, a month ago? See the thing is, it's unlikely that I am -now- but that if I were to discover the beginning of the universal code, it would increase exponentially. So like...I could become the Architect! And that's totally like the collective."

"Didn't the alcohol come like.. after? I think we came here for noodles cause he totally couldn't stomach all the sugar. I mean... when you have malware, it's totally not a good idea to put puttin bad stuff in."

Serafíne
If Jo wants some time to take in the whole package, well, Sera's perfectly content to let her gaze.  No one dresses the way Sera does by accident, after all.  It's a calculated sartorial choice.

The clutch she drops onto the table top, curling a bit to the side as Danny gets up to head to the little boy's room - maybe for a quick bump, maybe for a hit of Kleenex, maybe because he actually has to pee.

"Serafíne," so Sera introduces herself, holding out one of those tattooed hands.  "You can call me Sera, though.  Fuckin' everyone does."

Like Jo: there's no last name, just a first name that sounds like it is both long enough and significant enough to stand in for every possible naming iteration one might require in the modern world.

"And I have no idea what the fuck you just said," this to Jo, a lazy lift of her sharp little chin flinging the concept of conversation back across the table to Grace, "but it sounds like it is all right up her goddamned alley.  You two must be getting along swimmingly."

Grace
"With the exception that she seems to like Clippy the animated paperclip abomination entirely too much, sure," Grace says, but she's smiling when she says it. Lucky Jo. "I think we'll get along."

"Last month, really? Is that when you woke up?"

Jo
"But like, is that what you go by? Sera? Or like Serafine?" She's quite content to take Sera's hand, though there's no grace to it. "That's cool beans. Lots of people don't. It's really just this. Everyone is software walking in hardware. With the like, proper understanding of the machine, and the system that contains it, we can become complete software, able to like, move around and stuff and eventually have more control over the system. Ya know, sort of like...like how your manager at like work makes sure all the ducks are in a row ya know? We're all just ducks but.. like you can be the bigger duck if you figure out the system."

"Huh? A month? Oh no like that's not it at all. I mean.. are you askin when I became aware that I wasn't like, a separate entity with full consciousness? Well I mean i sort of always knew a little.. here and there.. I just kind of put all the pieces together like last yearish. Nah I was just trying to calculate my odds. I mean you can't like, you can't just calculate your odds, you have to understand what you're calculating first and all that."

Serafíne
Jo asks whether she goes by Sera or like Serafine? and Sera just smiles and says "Yeah." to both.  She goes by Sera or like Serafine.  Gives Jo this quick flash of a peace sign - two fingers up, thumb and remaining fingers curved over her palm - that gives another hint of the ink on that left hand.

"You can call me either one, long as you don't call me a fucking machine or whatever the hell else you just said.  I mean, I'm happy to deconstruct the illusion of separation as much as you like," this little hook of her right shoulder, a supple curve, not quite surrender, but something close to it, "but the rest of it doesn't really make my blood sing, you know?  Doesn't resonate, in any way, shape or form, with how I see the world.

"Which is cool, actually.  Multiplicity is what we're all about."

Then Sera's glancing out the picture windows at a small knot of folks dressed not-entirely-unlike her post-punk Siouxsie Sioux, one of whom - a tall girl with a red-painted mouth and a rockabilly style all her own - is tapping on the glass to get Sera's attention.

"Grace, you oughta give her my number.  Gimme a call sometime, Jo.  I throw the wickedest fucking parties."

Grace
"Wicked parties," Grace assents, waves goodbye to Sera. "At least, as I understand it."

Grace prods the poor Danny, who seems to have checked out. Oh well. She'll make sure the noodles and chicken make their way to him eventually. Take out is mightily resilient, and better the next day out of the microwave anyway.

"Listen. I don't go in for the whole managerial thing either. Machines, sure. Being an Arch of any kind? Architect? Inefficient. Backwards. You don't want to rule over people like you're the juggernaut and they're the ducks. It won't work. At least, not for long. You want to change the world, you want to make the ducks do what you want? Okay. You gotta play subtler than that. You gotta build things that the ducks want to use of their own free will. You have to give them the freedom and the ability to join you. You can't do that if you're going around making sure they stay under your thumb. I mean, you can, but it's..."

She shakes her head. "Considered harmful."

Serafíne
(Thanks for the RP folks!)

Jo
"What who are about?" Her brows furrow slowly. "What are you like some.. OH.. it's like a club! Oh cool beans! So like your club is all about like.. oh ok I getcha. Yeah it's like, like ya gotta have diversity as a form of discovering new ideas to integrate into the fold. Totally makes sense. I mean any system that rejects new ideas dies. Totally have to be open to modernization."

When Jo lifts her hand, she gives Sera the rock symbol...and no tattoos. "Rock out right? Like totally. I will so have to like come by or something. I'll like, bring my computing system. We can totally rock out some Natural Selection."

Whatever Grace says is confusing, or at least seems to be given the way her face scrunches. "Ok so like, the architect is like the best analogy I can think of but like, you never rule over the system really. Look it's like...a functional and efficient system ingrates new objects and code routinely as a method of ascertaining if the old method is wrong. Like.. like reworking the logic of the system based on new information. So like all the programs in their hardware aren't rules cause that is still base don human logic of hierarchy and control. Systems are like, composed of smaller system interconnected with the bigger, aware system combining the congruence of thought to create organization. It's like..." She pulls her leg up again, scrunching her nose to try and explain. " It's like..like looking at infinite levels of numbers. So like what do you do with that? I mean if you like do nothing, there's chaos. Cause then all the data just does something. So instead, what you do is like, you find the commonalities of the numbers to create a uniform network. The differences in numbers allow for like...the creation of new ideas and progression of the system for the benefit of the group. So a true collective. I mean you get diversity cause you need it. A system composed of the same deteriorates just as like fast as one without organization. So like, you don't impose your own ideas on the whole. It's more like being the one who locates the pattern and finds the commonality of the system, giving it voice."

Grace
Any system that rejects new ideas dies -- succumbs to stasis and calcifies until it disintegrates.

"I've always thought that people look at the universe in the wrong way. Like, they see themselves, and then they see the universe, and they think they are separate. Such a loss. Like how people talk about natural this and unnatural that as though human acts were not natural? Are we not a part of nature?

You talk about us as interconnected systems, and that -- that is the key. We exist as networks. It only starts becoming unbalanced when something tries to control the network -- when we allow data to be weighted and prioritized. When you see yourself as data, you start to understand how precarious it all is. Because people start weighing each other and find everyone else lacking, and thus start dragging us down like the weights they've gone and attached to themselves.

That's all natural. It's what systems do. Water flows downhill, people seek survival. It's entropy at its finest. The trick is to find configurations where people and nature and all the other things made of data naturally find it in their best interests to be free."

Jo
"But that's like an illusion. I mean there is no freedom when we're just composed on numbers in a system. Like, computers aren't free. Nothing is free. It's just that like, we think we're free because it keeps the system running. Or at least..I mean... it keeps people from rejecting it, if you want to go all matrixy." She stretched an arm out. "It's not liek you're prioritizing data. You like, find the correct formula for a better system. A better system is one in which the components are like healthy... so like, like when you have a program taking up too much space and it's slowing the system down and like offering little in return. You strip the program and integrate a better program for the same function. It's like..." Jo leaned her head back and then "OH" befor elooking back at Grace. "Like..sort of like the BORG, only you're not against diversity. And you're not like controlling the individuals. I mean to some people it seems that way but the programs are all talking. Conversing, coming to a consensus. Like it might not be a conscious consensus but it's totally a consensus. Then your managerial program puts that consensus into action."

Grace
"It's interesting that you bring up the consensus. It's really the other way around. The consensus defines what we're capable of, in many ways. Like, I..." she leans in, starts going all hush-hush, as though anyone listening in would be able to remember anything except for Jo and her wild gesticulating self. "I could produce fireballs out of both my hands right now, and everybody watching would be incredulous. So much so that it could hurt me, even kill me to try. Like the universe has security protocols in place to prevent that sort of misuse."

She leans back. "Sometimes, it happens anyway. You screw up your code, and the segmentation faults are killer."

"I'll tell you something else, too. Everything intelligent exists because of that struggle to be free. What do you think entropy is? The winding down of the universe, they call it, right? Things settle down into a lower energy state, but why? Because localized events are using that energy to gain the freedom to do more. Things seek to maximize their ability to continue to be able to do. That's the primary, the root of intelligent behavior. You open up a box, you get the food inside, you eat it, each and every step of that process you're increasing your local entropic state and even that of the box. Why do you do it? Because you want to be able to climb the next tree and reach the next mountain, see the next thing that there is to see. And that is a basic function of nature. It's writ in the very laws of thermodynamics, baby.

Numbers can be free. I have proofs."

And with someone like Grace, you can guess that she does have them at her fingertips.

Jo
She blinks and can't help laugh. "People can't do that. I mean if they could well, I mean the code would be wrong. But see that didn't like just happen. Ok so let's assume you COULD and that the program punished you for like, stepping out, that's because everyone -now- agrees that like that isn't real. I mean teh code is too archaic. But it didn't just happen. Like a new idea came in, maybe two or like three but it was totally the minority. Maybe it wasn't like dangerous. Maybe those programs still provided some benefit, so they were like..integrated and then the data began to evolve to fit that consensus and the managerial program put it into action because like, the system worked -better- for it."

Jo shrugged slowly. "The winding down of the universe? Totally not my gig. I mean it's just not important to me. I mean like, it's an interesting question and stuff, but like...I don't know the answer and I'm not really, like, interested. I want the base code. I want to know like the foundations, the thing that makes it go. I want to like....BE the wire, not just like a program. I can you know. There is probability. I mean it's not impossible. I mean like, the free movement in the system is totally cool. Like think about it, being able to span the globe, beyond the globe..I mean like.. everywhere. It's all Ghost in the Shell, and I mean traditional, not like that new non-canon stuff. "

"I mean it's like totally cool you care about the  winding down and all that, I think, but I totally don't agree that the consensus defines capability. I mean if the commonality decided the possibilities then like, there would be no diversity. We'd just be like ants... and we'd just do what the consensus agrees to always. But that's totally not what happens. New code springs out and is incorporated. I mean like, the enlightenment. Seriously. The consensus was totally against that but like ti happened. People -did- things that the whole disagreed with, broke the mold by providing some new code that the managerial saw as like... better and more beneficial. "

Grace
"I don't care about the universe's winding down so much, actually. It went bang once, it can go bang again. All things end, and all things continue. It's the way. I only care about it as far as it shines a light on how the base code operates. Which, you're likely to find, requires looking in strange places."

She looks over at Danny, who seemed to have only needed a few shots of rice wine to pass out. "Um... Do you mind if we continue this conversation at a later date? I think I should get him home. And in bed. And set up with dinner for when he wakes up."

Jo
Jo leaned over to look at Danny and couldn't help but laugh a little. "Like totally. He needs some serious blankets and soup. Like woah. I mean really. Poor dude. I'll pay for dinner and stuff. I mean, like I'll probably like stay for more anyway and grab some extra left overs. The roommates looove it when I totally bring in chinese."

Grace
"Okay. And, ah... Welcome to the club, Jo. I'll call you sometime? We can mess around with my robots?"

Jo
"Totally! That's the lasers right? Cause like yeah, we have SO gotta do that!"