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!"