Starbucks Mingle

[Mobius]

Regardless of how much sense it all may have made, Mobius couldn't help but chuckle slightly at the way the stranger talked about Shodan's hair. He seemed maybe a little weird, but weird wasn't always bad, of course.

"Julie!" she calls out, after Shodan gives him name, typically happy to follow rather than lead. She sits down and watches the cars pass outside the nearest window. It was more in her nature to listen than to be the one doing the talking, but she doubted any conversation had here would be dull.

"Settling in went just fine, I handled it all myself." she boasts, like someone who truly hasn't had to do much of their own labor. "Got a place out by William Land Park." she pauses for just a moment, looking a little perplexed, just to make sure that's the right place before nodding to herself.

"Have you guys been around here a long time?" She asks, looking to Shodan and Kaze.

[Spark]

Spark eyed the newcomer for a moment, then shook his head and turned his attention back to Shodan's question. "It is what it is, has decent WiFi even if I'll have to encrypt it myself. It's small and cheap, figure it'll do till I find someplace I can set up and get to work in. Not going to be easy, I figure all the good spots in town are taken by now."

[Star]

"Did you know that the FDA doesn't require any safety testing of personal care products and that the average person uses nine different ones daily? Totaling an exposure to over 120 different chemicals? Some of which are completely unknown because manufacturers are allowed to omit 'trade secrets'?"

What? No one wants to get in on this discussion about personal grooming? He slid into a seat like arm armful of laundry being thrown on a bed.

"Case. I like that. Is it from the groundbreaking Dystopian cyber-future of William Gibson?"

Blue-green eyes drifted lazily, lingering here and there. Holy fresh off, Boatman. Bunch solos settling in. He was going to catch the matinee and maybe a streetcar named conspire. A gangly arm thrust his newly acquired drink out.

"Does anyone want a taste?"

Always check for poison at Seerbucks.

[Kaze]

"Wow, that's great!" Kaze says, sounding genuinely impressed at Mobius' accomplishments. "I've been in town just over a year and only just got my own place, over by the university."

"Well, I think the big corporation thing actually means their wifi is a little more secure than most independent coffee houses, at least that's what I heard." Kaze says, smiling at Spark. "People come and go a lot here, in Sacramento. I'm sure you'll find a good spot."

He nods at the stranger's comments, taking them in stride. He's dealt with a lot worse, a certain Time Mage comes to mind. "Yeah. I try to avoid processed stuff. But it's the nature of things for most people. I mean, the Romans were pretty smart, and they ate and drank everything from pewter. Lead poisoning. When they came up with x-ray machines, they thought it was a harmless, cool gadget and put them in shoe stores for everyone to look at the bones in their feet for fun all day. I guess the wifi everyone depends on is probably something people someday will think we were crazy to blast ourselves with everywhere."

In response to the comment on his name, 'Case' replies. "Not that I know of."

"I'm just drinking water. I have my own, thanks." Kaze says with a smile, holding up a steel hydroflask.

"So, are you new in town to stay, or passing through? Or still deciding?" Kaze asks casually.

[Mobius]

Mobius smiles wide at Kaze's reaction to her boast, most people weren't as genuine as he seemed to be, a breath of fresh air you might say. To Shodan she replies, "I'll probably just take some time to learn my way around. It takes me a little longer than most people, since I have to ride the bus." She laughs. "Gotta find the good book stores too. Know any?"

She avoids the political talk, and the conspiracy theories. Too much to think about, too much emotional investment, and typically just not enough anyone can do about these things. "Let me try it." She says to the stranger, while reaching out to take his drink. Not a hint of suspicion.

[Spark]

Spark glanced at Star, it was the same look an adult would give a child babbling about whatever they had seen in the past few seconds a kind of. 'well that's neat,' without really listening or absorbing what was actually said. He chose to instead take a sip of his overpriced beverage and let the sweet sweet caffeine do it's job.

He however did choose to reply to Kaze, "I meant at my current residence, but yeah good point about here. Wonder if I could use a little 'techno-magic' to keep it safe," He listened to the man talk about the Romans for a bit. "So I'm still not 'up' on a lot the finer points of supernatural stuff, any truth to the Romulus and Remus story?"

Next he responds to Shodan, "I've been looking into Transhumanism lately," He takes another sip."I wonder what you could do with all that we can do in that regard? Could you make liquid metal limbs? Processors that connect to the soul?" For a moment he appears a thousand miles away staring into his cup, hand taunt in it's grip, "Could you even replace someone's body?" Spark shakes his head and looks back up and blinks once, "Sorry...just wishful thinking."

"I'm with you on there," Spark said in response to Shodan's mini-rant on Big pharma and other leeching companies. "Attacking the company at the ground level does nothing other then make matters worse for the rank and file who are just people doing their jobs. The ones you need to hang are the CEO's who make it a habit of being nearly untouchable and unknown to the public."

[Star]

"Be careful." He held the drink out to Julie with a furrowing of concerned eyebrows. "Cold headache."

His eyes slid away and back to Spark and that condescending look the slicked-back fuckboi had given him. Ouch, yo. Did he just get the cool kid blow off? It's okay. Anyone doing that to their hair on purpose is totally 99 percent invested in 'Me, Myself, and I'.

"Time Tested."


He'd made the slow circuit of looking at each before returning to Mobius.

"Everyone will tell you that's the best. 21st street in Midtown. They've got vinyl, too."

[Kaze]

Kaze responds to Shodan, "Hey, I am not afraid of technology; I just believe no one knows everything, that's all." he says with a smile, "And me least of all, but I am willing to learn."

He nods at Mobius's words. "Nice! Bus is a good way to learn the neighborhoods. Walking is good too, if you have the time, but bus is a good compromise. Why do you have to ride the bus though, do you drive? I picked up a pretty cheap truck on 'Craig's List'; there are some deals out there if you just need a car or something." he says encouragingly, "Oh, I am mostly just reading text books from the campus bookstore, and what I don't get there, I get from the library." he says.

Kaze listens to Spark, looking a little surprised. "Wow." he says. "I saw something like that once. It wasn't pretty. It didn't look like a good life at all."

Kaze notices that the unnamed visitor isn't answering any questions to speak of, so just listens to him with interest.