Session Start: Wed Oct 27 20:39:27 2010 <@Ked> [Saturday, July 4, 2490 - 1855 local time] <@Ked> [The north end of the Q-City marketplace, just before local sunset.] <@Ked> [mini start] * Rory waits, watching the vendors roll away with their carts and stalls. A grey, floppy-eared puppy frolics around his feet. * Jaimie looks around for Rory. When she spots him, and the puppy, she smiles and makes her way over to them. Hey! You decided to keep him. Foggy, right? * Jaimie looks genuinely happy at this. Yeah, well, I'd be lonely in that big room without some company. * Rory flicks his hand in open space. "And Pop doesn't count." * Jaimie laughs. "Like we all aren't. I can't believe we have so much space. Mine's completely empty." <@Ked> His EI momentarily manifests as a half-meter peep. Foggy settles down immediately. * Jaimie grins, and her own EI pops up on her shoulder. "Funny, we have the same one, almost. Is your puppy scared of it?" It's configured as a pet training aid - and when it's called for, can do scary pretty well. But I don't want Foggy to be scared, per se. Oh, I understand. I thought it would be kind of weird. But it puts him on his best behavior, huh? * Jaimie grins. * Rory grins back. So what are you hungry for? Q-City is famous for good pizza, but you can find just about anything here better than anywhere else. Except traditional Tokyo - the best chefs have mostly left for Michiko. Uh, I don't know. Just somewhere cheaper than that Interstellar Tomato place. I don't have that kind of money. * Jaimie grins good-naturedly. Pizza sounds fine. * Rory shoulders a backpack and gestures westward. The expensive joints are all on the hillside. Down on the beach we can get a better deal. Sounds good. * Jaimie follows Rory. She seems to enjoy the walk, arms and legs swinging freely and head constantly swiveling around to look at new things. So where are you from? Out in the boonies. Closer to Escalator than any other city, but not too close to that. * Jaimie grins. Up until now I went to school electronically. Farmstead family? Yeah. You? Well, I got raised on a farm, but it's in the second-gen belt out Michiko way. My father owns the place, my mother was one of Lady Neko's proteges. * Jaimie 's eyes widen. "Wow. What does she do?" I think her degree is in botany, but she's doing animal husbandry full time now. Not just on Earth species, but trying to breed more useful Snowflake animals. Cool! Like what? We had peeps... everywhere. Pets and fur and there's even a small meat market now. And she's close to a domesticated peripanther. Wow. I didn't even think that was possible. The peripanthers, I mean. The base stock came from one of the other continents, where the canopy is shorter. They grow at most two-thirds the size of what you see here. Oh. That would make it safer. * Jaimie nods. The trick is training them not to hide under furniture and vehicles and... everything. And probably easier to tell the domestic ones from the wild ones, whenever she succeeds... * Jaimie laughs. That would be hard. <@Ked> They're getting into the western residential district now - the buildings are low, stone and mortar affairs mostly, with flat roofs. A decent number of locals are enjoying a meal or some family time above you. * Rory stops for a moment to pick up Foggy, who looks like he's getting tired. Not too far now. * Jaimie smiles at the puppy, then pauses. "Will they let him in?" Not inside, but the cafe will work fine. Besides, it'll be a better views of the sunset. Oh, good. <@Ked> Beta is just starting to reach the horizon, and as you emerge from the last block of housing, you can see its orange bulk settling into the low waves of The Lake. The western sky is red, settling towards a fiery magenta. * Jaimie looks ahead, towards the sun. "It's going to be a pretty sunset, too." I like it more with Alpha setting first. Though the year of simultaneous sunsets was something special. * Jaimie grins. "I like 'em all. I miss being on the farm and being outside all the time, at least when I wasn't in school." <@Ked> The cafe is a block away from the shore, but the slope keeps the low buildings from interfering with the horizon. Rory snags an empty table for two, and flags down a waiter to order a Milwaukee supreme. What's a Milwaukee supreme? I dunno what a milwaukee is, but the pizza has a blend of cheese, chicago-style crust, beef sausage and onions. * Jaimie laughs. "Okay." * Rory sits back and looks at Jaimie for a second. "What happened to your lunch thing today, then? Did you get out of the detention line in time?" * Jaimie shakes her head. "Nah, had to cancel." She grins. "Two cancellations in one day. Seems like I'm getting unreliable." Two? Well, I had to reschedule with you 'cause of that. We're here, aren't we? That's not a cancellation. I guess that's not exactly a cancellation. But still. You think Masako is going to get in trouble? I dunno about the full SDS program, but it would be nice to have a... less-top-heavy form of government. * Jaimie frowns unhappily. "Probably. They said they were going to fine the people who were there for the protest." * Jaimie shakes her head. "I dunno. I've never thought about it that much." Pfffft. At this school? Most of us won't even notice a fine. Real trouble, I mean. Since she obviously used the fact she's at T3M to ambush the snowflakes. * Jaimie shrugs, then snorts. "It didn't seem to bother John that much. He just flew over it." Yeah, but I saw him getting upset over something with the Guard. * Jaimie does not - quite - roll her eyes. "He wanted them to let people out." Without checking them, I mean. Good grief. Yeah. I don't know why he thought they would. * Jaimie shakes her head. I see why he rubs Masako the wrong way. You watch, though. If she doesn't get suspended, or off-campus privileges revoked, or something, I bet she's a snowflake. * Jaimie looks faintly unhappy with this line of conversation, but she doesn't try to redirect it. "But if they did treat the snowflakes differently, then everyone would know who they were, and they don't want that." So wouldn't they have to punish her the same no matter what? * Rory rubs his forehead. "I... wow. Maybe. But I think you're more optimistic than I am." * Jaimie sighs. "Maybe. I'm not used to all this politics." <@Ked> The pizza arrives. It's thick, but not too large, and verrrrrry cheesy. There's just a drizzle of tomato sauce on top. * Jaimie grabs a slice of pizza! She has trouble detaching all the cheese strings, but it eventually makes it to her plate. * Rory worries less about strings, just yanking hard to separate them. The cheese is still molten, so it works. * Jaimie takes a bite. The heck with the cheese strings. This is good. * Jaimie says this after she has chewed and swallowed. Mostly. Yes it is. * Rory glances at Jaimie, then back out over The Lake, where the last edge of Beta is glimmering through the wavetops. * Jaimie glances, too. "The view here is amazing. Have you been to this place before?" I, uh, yeah. I spent a summer or two up here with my brother. The tourists mostly stay in the Q-Zones, or the city center. * Jaimie blinks at Rory's uncertainty, but doesn't pursue it. "You got to see more of it with your brother?" * Rory gestures back towards the hill. "The beach isn't that big an attraction, with the weird things living in the water and water temps in the teens most of the year, so the locals build their own stuff down here." Well, just 'cause you can't go swimming doesn't mean the beach isn't nice. But then, I don't even know how to swim. * Jaimie grins. And I've never seen this much water in my life. Maybe you get used to it and it gets less amazing. It was new to me too - you get used to it, but the looming presence of it never goes away. * Jaimie glances out over the lake. "It doesn't seem looming to me. It...makes it feel like the world goes on forever." So... do you have a boyfriend up north? * Jaimie blinks, then laughs. "No. Lots of people thought my friend Devin and I had crushes on each other, though." Mmm. * Jaimie gives Rory a look in between inquiring and curious. Well, the school year is just starting, and I know a fair number of other things to do in Q-City. * Jaimie is not getting where Rory is going with this. * Rory doesn't look like he knows where he's going with this. I've got to go home next Saturday, but how about di- I mean lunch, in two weeks? * Jaimie grins at him. "Sure." Beats wandering around on my own trying to figure out what to do. Cool. * Rory grabs the bill as the waitress returns with it. <@Ked> [end mini]