Rplog-Neutral Grounds

Log Info

Title: Neutral Grounds
Emitter: -
Characters: Sasha, Jerry
NPCs: -
Place: Steranko Institute — Quad, Neutral Grounds coffee house
Time: April, 06, 2010
Summary: After school, Jerry and Sasha get together for a chat

Classes are over for a Monday, and Jerry couldn't be more glad. The youth bounds out the central building doors, then does a TK-assisted somersault off the top of the steps, rippling blue circles of his deflector-shield power shimmering into existance as he lands to remove the kinetic energy; he lands from the ten-foot jump like he was stepping over a chalk line. "Man! Too glad to be outta there!" he beams to no-one in particular, just happy to have some hours of freedom before Tuesday.

Sasha's coming out of the same building. She's in a showy spring mood it seems, given her tank top and short skirt and her metallic blue cladding and her not-quite-school-appropriate footwear. It doesn't stop her from wryly looking over at Jerry. "Showoff!" she calls.

Jerry beams, flashing pearl-white teeth. "You got that right!" he says. "You wanna change outta school clothes and go get some coffee? Great little place over on Cicero," he says, transferring his notebook to another hand as he angles to walk beside Sasha.

Sasha shifts her bag on her shoulders. "Like these aren't good for outside?" she asks, making a face. Of course they're supposed to keep a low profile outside of school. Not that sasha *cares*. She's been known to go racing through the night. "Yeah, guess I can do that," she agrees.

Jerry gives a two-finger salute as he kicks off and heads for his dorm, circles of energy rippling from pale blue down to indigo. "Be back in a sec," he says, and true to his word he's back in civvies before she reaches the gate, alighting in a brief flurry of energy discs as his shield flares up. "Ah, I said I'd keep as low a profile as possible," he says, slapping the brickwork arch as he walks under (a common gesture of good luck), a soft flare of blue under his hand as it absorbs the energy. "After this thing in first year, I guess I should be lucky I'm not still confined to campus," he says with a quirked smile.

This may be the slowest Sasha's ever done anything. MAybe. She's meandered down the drive towards the main exit from campus, adjusting her outfit as she's gone. Her skirt's turned into jeans, her shoes have become black, her shirt's grown sleves to cover her arms. Now it just looks like she's a slightly strange girl with odd gloves on. "Pretty awesome," she says, "It still gives me a thrill. Ugh, Freshman year blew."

Jerry oohs as he sees how her outfit has changed. "Same here; curfew, agh… Wow, your clothes.. is that your power?" he says, obviously curious. He gives a wave to a couple guys passing by towards the school, teammates of his, then turns back to Sasha.

Sasha's eyebrows go up. "Um….we've known each other how long?" she asks. "You never figured that out? Fuck yeah," she says, shooting the passing guys a smile. "Got like a billion billion microscopic machines inside me. I can build myself new clothes easy. Other important shit too, like legs."

"Yeah, I knew that, but I didn't figure it included your clothes, too. Um, how far out do they go, then?" the youth says as he ambles alongside the girl, loose-limbed and casual.

Sasha shrugs a little, "Don't figure why," she asks. "Seems logical. Pretty convenient," she says. "Saves some money too, frees it up for other stuff." The two of them get to an intersection and she pauses, gesturing. "Which way?" she asks, and then says, "Far out?" she asks.

Jerry points and heads across the street, slapping a hand on the hood of a car that doesn't quite stop at the crosswalk designation; he cheerfully says 'Fuck off' to the driver that honks at him. "Well, like, just stuff that touches your body or can you send them outside your body?" he says over the traffic noise, as the jackass honks at him again.

Sasha laughs and joins with a quick flip-off to the driver. "Nah, it has to be touching. It's how they communicate. I can't like, detach parts of myself and leave them lying around. Anyway, that'd be fucking weird."

Jerry gives a little mock-shiver as he hops up on the curb. "Dude. That would be weird. Leaving your eye behind or something; beats webcam, though." He points to the corner store: Neutral Grounds. "Here we are," he says, as he pushes the door open. "Whatcha like?"

Sasha tilts her head and cricks her neck. "Yeah, I guess. I suppose I could build like a remote camera or something. See that's the thing. I'm not just some crazed mass of nanomachines." She pats her thigh, "I gotta build real working machines. S'why I can't just become anything I want. Can'd do biostuff either. Shame, 'cause there was a while when I really wanted to infect Holly with somethin'." She breathes in the smell of the shop deeply. "Whatever?" she offers. "Wow me."

Jerry flashes a smile at Sasha and steps up to the barrista. "Two extra grande mocha frappachino," he says. It's getting warm outside, so cool coffee is on his mind. "Like what?" he says, eyebrow raised. "What's with Holly, now?"

Sasha finds a couch that looks sturdy enough for her and takes it, sinking deeper into the cushions than one might think she would. "God, what ar eyou, a big girl?" she asks when Jerry returns. "What ever happened to black coffee thick as sludge, and smoking big cigars and wearing a fedora?" She snorts and crosses her arm. "Oh," she says. "Back in the fall, kinda didn't get along so well for a while. Roomies, you know."

Jerry snorts. "I like chocolate, what can I say?" he says, handing off one of the drinks. "Oh, yeah, know how that goes. I made my first one cry. Jeez," he says. "Better now, then?" he asks.

Sasha puts her feet up on the table and accomplishes a bit of a slouch. "She's still a super-mixed bag. We get along, mostly." She takes a sip of her coffee, hiding any reactions. "Really?" Sasha asks, grinning as she learns that tidbit. "Awesome. How'd you do it?"

Jerry has the decency to look a little embarassed, perhaps. "Eh, I was bein' an ass, and he had this guitar he thought he could play. And I mean 'thought'. He sucked at it. I was trying to study and he kept plunkin' away at this thing. So I just increased the energy he was putting into the strings. Runaway reaction, shook the thing apart into toothpicks." He gives a smile as he puts down his coffee.

Jerry doesn't mention how he took his birthday money that year and bought the guy a new instrument later, laid it against his door anonymously.

Sasha almost chokes on her coffee. "That's fucking genius!" she declares, offering a high-five. "Some people need to get taught lessons."

Jerry returns the hi-5. "Yeah," he says. "I didn't have as good a control of my power as I do now. Pretty much all I could do was break stuff and blow stuff up."

"So now you do that stuff just for fun?" Sasha asks, dropping her hand back to her lap.

Jerry grins. "Well, yeah," he says. "I'd have shaken that asshole's car apart, but, shit, don't want it getting back to the school. I'm not spending another weekend locked in a study hall." He downs several swallows. "Well, not while it's nice out.."

"So no good memories there? Man, damn Breakfast club was such a lie," Sasha says. She crosses her legs at the ankle and takes another gulp of her coffee. Her eyes look shiftily at Jerry.

You say "Never seen it," Jerry says, which at least isn't a 'huh?' from someone of their generation. "And yeah, it sucked. They gave us Prestor as the monitor and I'm here to tell you he does have eyes in the back of his head. He fucking has to," he says. There's a story there, somewhere."

Sasha points a finger at Jerry, "So what'd he catch you doing? Swigging from the flask? Hand up somebody's skirt? Down somebody's pants?"

"Hah!" Jerry goes. "That last time? Backtalking a teacher and power use unbefitting a student. Surprise, huh?" He scratches the back of his head. "Smits had it in for me, anyway, and cornered me in the parking lot, said I was going to have to retake the English mid-term because I was one of the people that sat next to Brain-Drain; said he was providing answers to people. I denied it and next thing I knew, we're screaming at each other and I kinda vibrated his car apart."

Jerry snorts. "Bastard should be glad I didn't shake him like a maraca," he growls, still pissed about the incident.

Sasha snorts. "Shit," she says. "Gotten that one myself," she says. "It's so stupid. They're all 'you're special and matter' and then try to cram us all together. Anybody else goes one-eighty through the parking lot, yell at 'em, but me?" she gestures to her chest and rolls her eyes. "Brain-Drain. Fucking jerk. Kept hitting on me until I put him through a wall."

Jerry flashes a smile at Sasha. "Good girl," he says, relaxing into the couch. "The thought of that creepy little fuck in my head.." he frowns, then. "At least I don't have any classes with him this year. I can still feel him looking at me, sometimes."

"Don't condescend to me!" Sasha says.

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