Jo
"Man Jo, you suck!"
"Hey!" Came Jo's
voice as she attempted, poorly, to kick the sack up with her heel and
send it flying to the other two guys in her group. Instead, it fell to
the group and she was left with her sneaker in the air. "This is like,
super hard. You've got like, super reflexes or like something. Like
spider man or something."
One of the boys, with messy curly
hair, picked up the sack and let out a sigh as he started it up again,
sending it through the air a few times before kicking it to the other,
who was a spitting image of the sort of guy that would always live in
his mother's basement, eating Pringles and playing video games; that is,
he was gaunt, greasy, and not likely to win any girls anytime soon.
Despite their not-so-pleasing looks, the boys were relatively good,
while Jo...well poor Jo...
"Goddamnit!" The blonde lets out a gruff. "What the fuck Jo? Seriously? How can anyone be this lame?"
Jo,
in her blue hoodie sporting a unicorn head design on the hood, put her
hands on her hips. "Let's see you say that when I beat your ass in Call
a Duty. I'm totally going to own you."
The kid grumbled and
picked up the sack again. "I have homework. So screw this." The greasy
boy seems a little unsure of where to go, but ultimately steps after
blonde boy. As they walk away, Jo sticks out her tongue and pulls at the
bottom of her eye. "Lame. Like for realsies." Left alone, she turned to
walk back to her belongings and strap on the backpack, pulling her bike
along as she made way towards the path.
Ian
[Awareness]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 5, 5, 8, 10) ( success x 2 )
Jo
[Resistance is futile - awareness]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (3, 3, 5, 5, 7, 8) ( success x 2 )
Ian
With
warmer weather came an increase in the number of visitors to Washington
Park. Ian sat on a bench by the lake, idly watching the scattered
handful of joggers as they passed him by on the trail. His focus drifted
from their rhythmic footsteps to the surface of the water when
something (probably a fish) broke the surface with a muted splash. The
winds today were light, leaving gentle ripples on the placid water. And
for once, Ian wasn't training or running or otherwise on the move. He
was just... sitting. Reflective.
A group of students behind
him were playing hacky sack. The sounds of their conversation faded as
the group parted ways. One of them started to head closer to the trail,
her presence a low hum of energy on the periphery of Ian's senses. After
a moment he glanced over his shoulder toward her. There was a vague
moment of recognition - only a distant, passing thing. She'd been to see
Grace at a coffee shop once. So he didn't make any particular move to
greet her, waiting instead to see if she would either draw closer or
pass him by,
Jo
Humming, buzzing in the
background. A computer on, working but doing very little. Electricity
simply moving from one place to another through the telephone lines. Jo,
was it's bearer. "Totally don't get it. Alien is way better use of -
Hey!"
She had a stellar memory. This was especially true for
those who were...different... in a sense. Ian didn't feel like Grace, he
felt...almost above. No. More like wind. Or maybe a leaf on the wind?
No that's Wash. She couldn't really explain it herself, maybe because
she wasn't exactly good with her words. But it didn't matter!
The collective approached! Dun dun dun.
She
rolled her bike, adding a bit of a hop to her step. "Dude. Like...long
time no see or something. Totally didn't think I'd be all like, running
into you guys here. Total surprise! Like woah and all." Her lips pulled
back into a wide grin. "Just like, chillaxin and all out here? Cause
like...can totally groove with that."
Ian
Jo
seemed like the kind of girl that Grace might hang out with, someone
whose perspective and personality operated on an entirely different
wavelength than Ian's did. He met her gaze when she greeted him, tilting
his head lightly. "Just killing time." (Until what? He didn't say.
Maybe it didn't matter.) "You're... Jo, right?" He had a good memory for
names and faces.
After a moment he slid over on the bench,
making room should she wish to sit down. "Those your friends?" He
indicated the distant figures of the two boys.
Jo
"One
and only. World couldn't ya know, like handle two of me. Though, ya
know, could always make a duplicate copy one day, like ya know.. a
backup, case this one goes. Sorta like.. that movie with like..Bruce
Willis and they're like people in robot bodies?"
She kicked
out the stand and dropped her bag so she could drop on the bench. Her
feet were curled up so her heels were pressed on the seat, her head
leaned back and tilted to the side to watch him. "Sorta, yeah. I mean
like, I guess. Sure. We like, play games and stuff. "
Ian
"Don't think I've seen that one."
Ian
settled back into the far corner, lifting one of his feet to rest the
heel of his boot on the lip of the bench. He draped one arm loosely over
his knee, the other over the back of the wooden slats. Aside from the
boots (which looked expensive) and his leather jacket, he was dressed
pretty casually in jeans and a white t-shirt. A couple strips of leather
were tied around his left wrist.
"I take it you're in school with them. What are you studying?"
Jo
"Tcht.
Yeah. Josh is in like...physics, and Nathan is in like the same major
as me. Computer science. Cause it's rockin. Not all that good though.
Like Nathan isn't, but like cool guy most of like, the time. Totally
goes limp when a chick kicks his ass at like anything." She rolled a
little suddenly to reach in her bag, pulling out a bag of twizzlers and
handing one out to Ian and wiggling it in the air.
"He's
totally like, lettin out his frustration or like some freudian stuff.
Especially cause I'll just like, beat him at some thing later. Ya know?"
"Dude... I forgot your name..."
Ian
"Ian."
He shook his head when she offered him a twizzler, making a small,
dismissive gesture with his hand. "Keep it. I don't eat candy." He had
little to speak of when it came to topics in computer science. Knowing
how to use a computer and knowing how to program one were two very
different things. The latter was best left to people like Jo and Grace,
who took to code the way he took to dancing.
"Some men get
intimidated by women. They think because they were born with a dick it
means they're supposed to inherit the earth. When that doesn't pan out
for them, they pitch tantrums. Most of the smartest people I know are
women."
Jo
She shrugged and wiggled the
twizzler into her mouth, tugging on it violently. "Dude you're like
totes weird. No candy? How do you like, live? I mean don't tell me you
eat that 'healthy' stuff. Totes gunna really kill people some day. All
that bland and like bitter and stuff. Tellin ya, modern processed is
like the way to go." But she said it with a bit of mirth to it. Did Jo
ever take anything seriously? Probably not.
"Well duh. I know
that. Like it's not a surprise but it's like..well it's super funny to
see their faces when I totes smash up their game. Should totally see his
face when I checkmated him super fast. He was all like 'WHA?'" Jo made a
rather exaggerated surprised face, screwing her face up and all. "And I
was all like 'YEAH Dawg! That's how we play yo!'"
"So Ian. Right. You don't like, seem a lot like Grace or nuthin."
Ian
A
vague hint of a smile touched the edges of Ian's mouth with dry
amusement. "I'm not. And I'll let you know if my diet starts to kill
me."
He didn't look as though he was likely to end up in the
hospital any time soon. If anything, he was probably the healthiest
person in the park that evening. But Jo was teasing, and they both knew
that. Likely Ian just valued having abs more than he valued junk food.
"I
don't think I've played a video game in like... a year?" Truthfully, he
couldn't really remember. It would have been at some party or another.
Maybe someone he slept with cajoled him into it. "It's not really my
thing." After a beat he asked, "Has Grace introduced you to anyone else
yet?"
Jo
The look of shock that passed over Jo's face was...
She
had a twizzler in her mouth, though she had come to a stop in chewing
and fixated her eyes on Ian..wide, as she gave a tilt of her head
forward. "Wha? Like..for realsies? Like are you serious? You haven't
like.."
Jo might have a heart attack, particularly given her
reaction of plunking back against the backrest of the bench and letting
her head hang back. "Is like.. I mean like.. whole world is like built
on games and interfaces and like the digital world and you like..." Her
head lifted up quickly. "For realsies?"
"Duude."
Jo
let out a sigh and took another jerk of her twizzler. "Well like, I've
been like around you guys and stuff. I mean that's sorta like bein
introduced cause ya know, we nerds be all 'I don't need ta know ya, too
much hassle.' Or like some thing like that. "
Ian
"Shockingly, one can get by in life without knowing how to play Call of Duty."
First
sugar. Now video games. They were rapidly running out of potential
conversation topics. Ian pursed his lips and made a thoughtful sound
somewhere in the back of his throat. "I'm not sure that's exclusively a
nerd trait. But I can see how you and Grace might have that in common."
Another
splash sounded across the water. Ian's eyes slid toward it
instinctively, watching the way the ripples reflected the golden glow of
the setting sun. "I should get going. I have a date in fifteen
minutes."
It wasn't actually a date. Dates involved things
like dinner and expectations. But Jo didn't need to know those details.
Ian stretched out languidly, the gesture remarkably catlike, before
getting to his feet.
Jo
"Well
yeah, Call of Duty is like, total baby walk. I mean seriously. It's all
cool for blowin off steam and stuff but it's like, soooo not even worth
like worrying about. But I mean dude! You're missin out on like an
expanse of this like amazing art and storylines! Like I mean, Final
Fantasy right? I mean not that like 14 trash but like 1 through 10? Dude
you know that like SquareSoft, later like Square Enix was like the
leader in graphics for years! And dude their work just like...it'll like
live with people forever."
"We have so got to get you that."
She
shoved the twizzler in her mouth and dropped the candy in her bag. With
a jump to her feet, Jo took hold of her bag and bike. "Totes get it. I
mean...hard to like find good tail, amiright? Reel it in Homefry!" Jo
clicked her hand at Ian, much like one would a gun, and winked. "Go get
'em tiger."
Ian
For a moment there, Ian thought about responding with some cocky remark, but in the end he just smirked and turned around.
"Have a good night, Jo."
He walked across the grass toward the distant road where his car was parked, leaving Jo alone with her bike.
