Cooler Online.

[trustycrowbar]

Who: Gordon, Quistis, snooping onlookers
What: Coffee
When: After classes on a weekday
Where: Campus coffee shop
Warnings: Technobabble, art-major physics, physics-major arcane arts, flirting.

Gordon had arrived later than he hoped; one set of papers led to another and next thing he knew fifteen minutes had gone by. Quistis had warned that she might be late because she didn't know her way around campus yet. However, in all actuality the man she'd traded that smooth exchange on the network will come blundering in about two minutes after she arrives, all legs and arms and glasses and beard, and still trying to stuff a bundle of papers into a case with limited, scattering success.

He wrenches himself into presentability and glances around. He hadn't seen the woman, only spoken to her through text, but he hunts around for an unfamiliar face with an expectant, searching expression attached to it.

Comments

[nagyka]

Quistis was, of course, far from unable to navigate this place. Garden was something of a similar size (though of a much more efficient layout in her opinion, but she would be the first to admit that she is biased). She's dressed in a high-waisted a-line wool skirt and wearing a sleeveless cream blouse covered by a long sleeve, modest brown cardigan. The heels are slight and professional but the golden whip looped at her waist suggests that she's not all business.

Or, maybe it means she's even more of it than at first glance? One or the other.

She pauses at the first table she sees, leaning against it while she removes her glasses and cleans them. It's more a nervous gesture than the lens actually being dirty, but there's really no time for that. She's a grown woman and she'll be here for the foreseeable future. Chin up and all that. They're brought back to her face and she looks around.

Probably would have been better to at least flash a video of what she looked like. The poor guy probably didn't know how to pronounce her name let alone how to find her. It's not particularly busy, at least, so she approaches the first adult(like) person she comes upon.

"Ah, hello. I was supposed to meet someone here, but I'm afraid I didn't prepare myself well enough." She almost looks painfully uncomfortable, the smile she wears glass, forced into something hopefully worthy of sympathy.

[trustycrowbar]

The man in the white button-down and thick glasses squints up at her puzzledly.

"...Wait, you wouldn't happen to be miss Trepe, would you?"

Oh hey, looks like his pronunciation wasn't too far off after all.

[nagyka]

"I'm Quistis Trepe, yes." It's the given name that's the issue. You know how it is with those faux-French alternate universe types. She sweeps her bangs to the side and over an ear in a coy, self-conscious sort of way that might even be charming to some. "Doctor Freeman, I trust?"

And she's in his personal bubble, holding out a hand (presumably to be shaken).

[trustycrowbar]

Oddly, the man actually knows French. That seems to influence his pronunciation. He stands and shakes her hand, a firm colleague's handshake. "Oh good! Hah, I was starting to wonder if we'd missed each other entirely. Care to sit down? Or, ah, maybe coffee first?"

Because caffeine is important, y'see.

[nagyka]

Someone will have to explain to her what French is, but there are certainly more pressing matters to attend to before that -- like the one he brings up.

"I'd sooner sit here all night than not be available when promised." She seems like the sort that people can easily take advantage of. At least in some regard, she has been in the past, anyway. "I'm more of a tea person, but coffee sounds wonderful right about now." A groan in her voice. The first week is never easy.

"Shall we, then?" She gestures vaguely, already having taken a few steps forward. "I could use something to perk me up."

[trustycrowbar]

He stands and follows into line. "They have teas here too. Like any good school, its means to distribute caffeine are wide and varied--Yes, an Americano, please." He adds to the barista.

[nagyka]

"It doesn't have quite the same punch -- a Black Eye, please -- if you know what I mean." She wasn't the sort to sleep much. Something of an insomniac, one would have to wonder how much of that is due to excessive amounts of caffeine...

"Have you been here long?" Chit-chat while they wait. It shouldn't be long, neither are difficult drinks to make.

[trustycrowbar]

"About a year, now that I think of it. Before then I spent a brief stint in the city; unemployed, confused and going through some issues. I was... sort of displaced here, I guess you could say.

"That's why I was happy to be offered a job here at the Academy. Place to live, steady position, free lab space. Who could ask for more?"

[nagyka]

"That's quite some time, but it moves rather quickly once you settle in. More and more, time feels like it slips away from me." She nods, smiles in thanks as she motions to pay for both their drinks. "In a way... I think we can relate on that. I wasn't sure what direction to go in any longer. This seemed as good an opportunity as any."

She doesn't inquire about his situation; though he offered that freely, he may not be quite as keen on the fine details. If he wants to discuss them, however, she makes no indication that she would be disinterested in talking about them. "For me, I think, the perks are I can ramble on to my heart's content and be paid for it. I don't have much use for a lab, but I'm sure it translates." She looks around as she steps aside. "Gentleman's choice. I've no preference to seating, so long as I don't have to listen to anyone talking loudly on their phone."

[trustycrowbar]

He quietly takes a small table for two a couple of feet away, and makes a mental note to buy the second round for her.

"I'd think twice about lab space. They're useful for any kind of practical instruction, and I'm sure magic is no exception. I've actually got two; a teaching lab on the ground floor in the science building, and a personal lab in the basement that I use for experiments and mainframe space."

[nagyka]

Quistis takes a seat and immediately scoots in, primly folding her hands on top of the table (elbows beneath it, pressed firmly against her body).

"Magic is best practiced in wide, open spaces. It's similar to any other technique in regard to battle." It can limit damage despite there being more room. "I'm afraid I'm not much of a scientist, though I have something of an admiration for that field of work, no matter the specialized subject."

[trustycrowbar]

"So you consider what you teach a martial art?" He asks, sitting back thoughtfully. "Interesting... And I'm glad you hold science in high regard; The scientific realm and the realm of magic and other powers have historically been at odds."

And then he snorts a laugh as something occurs to him. "You didn't happen to find Cyrus yet, have you? If you have, you know what I'm talking about already."

[nagyka]

"To some degree, yes. I taught at an academy... somewhat similar to this prior to coming here. One of the foundations of battle is the use of magic." She rolls her shoulders back, lifts the cup to her lips and takes a long, thoughtful sip. She clicks her tongue when it burns her, though that's the only indication of the heat she gives.

"One of the leading scientists in my world is the one that created the junctioning system we use to cast magic." Quistis pulls a face, her eyes rolling even though she tries to avoid it. And she sighs. "I do try to avoid trash talk, especially of colleagues, but he was rude and inconsiderate and disrespectful. Frankly, I find him offensive and ignorant. Science traditionally employs those with open minds. I can't imagine he'll have any worthy breakthroughs in his lifetime."

How catty. But he was an ignorant fop, so...

[trustycrowbar]

If Quistis ha called him an ignorant fop out loud, Gordon probably would have snorted his coffee in amusement.

"The trouble is, he's a philosopher. They like to think they're determining the nature of reality, but what they're really doing is arguing semantics. Let me guess... he insisted that magic doesn't exist, an chided you for peddling them."

[nagyka]

"I wouldn't call him a philosopher. The point of philosophy is to look at things from every angle, make a passionate argument, even create one based on a side you don't necessarily follow." Philosophers weren't ignorant, either. Calling oneself a philosopher and actually being one were two vastly different things.

"Oh, that's how he opened the conversation. I'm all for a passionate argument, but you can't argue with an idiot." She's not usually so harsh, but she's new and tired and that's not how you greet a colleague. He was a rude and asinine and a waste of her time. "I will not be engaging in conversation with him in the future."

[trustycrowbar]

"That tends to be the going technique for dealing with him." He adds over a sip of his coffee.

"But in a way I can see the basis for his argument. Magic has a connotation in my world that it's unknowable by nature. You learn what drives the phenomenon, and it by definition ceases to be magical. I know him, and I'm moderately sure he holds the same definition. If he's going on that, and also figuring that all phenomena have a basis in the laws of nature--which it does, or else we wouldn't experience it--then he can say that logically, magic doesn't exist.

"I'm playing the devil's advocate here; this is a pointless, culturally-myopic argument that hinges on the meaning of words being universal. I'm sure that your definition of magic, mine, and the definition for everyone else in this school are all going to be different."

[nagyka]

"What makes you think that magic doesn't have its own rules, as well? It's not science, but it could be considered a branch of it. I'm certain different places have different rules and perhaps in other places it could have a more ethereal quality, but with that in mind... why ever would someone challenge someone based on the laws of their reality?" Her world has a gravitational pull that drags monsters from the moon and most places don't even have seasons. The laws of science in her world are rewritten, different.

"Certainly, though not just the definition but the thing its defining and usage can be different. One also has to take into account that while most of us have similar appearances that it's likely we may have very different cellular structures." It's very interesting and she doesn't mind debating it, discussing it, arguing, but you can't just argue for one thing that only you know. That's so closed-minded. "It's a pity he's so closed off. Being here is a wonderful opportunity to learn, create, evolve..."

[trustycrowbar]

"You're right. You have opportunities here that you can't have in any one world, closed off from the rest." Although he's simultaneously relieved and frustrated that his is so inaccessible.

"As for magic having its own rules, certainly some of the systems I've seen are rigid enough to be called a science. But they're vastly different from one another, and yet all nestled under the umbrella term of 'magic.' Simultaneous idea generation, maybe, who can say?"

Another sip of coffee.

"For a while I was hesitant to call it magic for the same reason Cyrus is; I felt it all deserved better and more precise nomenclature. However, everyone was quick to defend the word, and I decided better to drop the petty issue of what sound we use to describe it, if I wanted to actually learn anything."