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The Perk [Monday morning]

Irene had stayed in town this weekend in the hopes that she wouldn't miss anything else fascinating that might happen, but no such luck. It had been almost unbearably quiet, driving her to renew old bad habits.

Yes, she could have just picked up a book, but that was much less interesting, all things considered. Instead, Irene had merely glanced at some tabloid sites yesterday, and had been almost unable to stop reading off her phone since. It wasn't that she cared what anyone was really up to, according to the paparazzi. It was more that she knew some of these people, and seeing what they'd done in the last two years was fascinating -- particularly when she knew more about them than the writers of this trash did.

Of particular interest to her this morning was little Prince George -- it wasn't every day that one found out that one's country had a new little heir eventual. And it was even less often that one had such inside knowledge of the royal pairing from which he'd been born.

At least Kate was still looking quite fit, Irene decided as she pored over photos and sipped her coffee this morning. Probably loads less fun, though.

[open post is open omg!]

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"Well, you're certainly up early," Hatter commented when he stepped inside the shop. He'd been on his way to open his restaurant but decided to check out the competition in town when ti came to teas.

Finding someone familiar inside was just a side benefit of the stop off. "Busy day ahead?"

"Sloth is the absolute most boring of the deadly sins," Irene replied, glancing up from her phone with a smile. "Why sleep when there's much better things to do with one's day? Not that I have anything planned, though, no. Just catching up on news from home." She waved her phone screen at him, shrugging. "Not that it's home, exactly, but it's always nice to see what one's friends have been up to."

"Some people would say sleep is an absolutely wonderful way to spend a day," Hatter pointed out. "Whether it be because they're sleeping off a hangover, sleeping off exhaustion or sleeping until the person they went home with gets bored and leaves, it's never been terrible to me."

Well, not all the time. "Do your friends miss you? Are they pining for your return?"

"I assume so," Irene told him with a slight smirk. "I'm very pine-worthy, after all. But the news stories don't exactly cover that. Do you ever get updates from home? I'm sure you're quite pine-worthy, yourself."

"My home is a bit too far away for updates," he said, waving a hand like that didn't bother him at all (it did). "But you're not wrong in that I am very pine worthy. I was very sought after back home, very wanted."

"Of course you were," she agreed, though now she was looking at him funny. "Where in the world are you from that it's too far away for updates? Phones and the internet go nearly everywhere, you know."

"Do they?" His answer to her funny look? Another question, of course. It was mostly a stalling tactic because he really didn't know how to explain his world even if he knew people came from all sorts of strange places here.

"Mm-hmm," Irene said, still eyeing him. "Everywhere I've been, anyway. I suppose I can't speak for the entire planet, but I've been to some fairly technologically-backwards places that still managed cell phones."

She glanced back at her screen, and added, "But then, I'm not actually getting texts or anything from someone back home, either. Just checking the news."

"Well then, you've obviously not visited my home," Hatter pointed out sweetly. Not that he'd recommend taking any sort of vacation in Wonderland.

It was rather drab and probably still slightly unsafe for oysters. "The last time I checked, we didn't really enjoy the luxury of phones or computers. Rather backwards, isn't it?"

And now she was staring at him. "You don't have phones or computers?"

Somehow she hadn't quite realized that that was a possibility, here. "Really? How do you get anything done?"

Someone was a little spoiled by her phone.

Hatter had to laugh at the look he was getting. Not that it was unexpected in a technological world such as this but still. It made him laugh.

"I have no idea but I managed," he said, eyes comically widening. "I think I used my hands. And feet. And my mouth. And brain. Occasionally, there were other things involved too."

"My phone was -- is -- vital to how I live," Irene explained, still staring at him curiously. "Less so now than it used to be, but still. I can't even imagine how slow life'd go without it. I'd have to learn to keep a bloody carrier pigeon or something."

She shook her head, frowning. "Might've been nice, though, not to be tethered to technology. I couldn't do it, but good for you."

Edited 2014-07-21 17:38 (UTC)

"If it helps, life did not go slow back where I'm from," he told her with a quick shake of his head. His hat didn't even move. So many skills there. "It just moved differently."

News spread very quickly despite the lack of technology, oddly enough. And really, most of their technology was used for some rather horrible things so.

"That last statement sounds like the verbal equivalent of a pat on the head, you know."

That got a real smile out of her, and Irene shook her head. "I didn't mean it to," she offered. "It's just so unfathomable to me. It's like if you told me that where you're from, everyone has a third arm."

Though that'd probably be dead useful.

"But then again, technology's gotten me in plenty of trouble, so maybe it's something to consider." Probably not, though.

A thought occurred to her, and she slanted a suspicious look at him. "You're not in some sort of techie-forbidding cult, are you?" Trust her to find one of those Amish blokes to befriend.

"Techie forbidding cult?" he repeated, chewing on the words for a few moments. "I am definitely not in any sort of cult. For one, I think how I want to think and won't have anyone telling me how to think and who to worship."

The mere thought made me shudder. "And for two, I've better things to do with my time then join some group of nutjobs. Like sleeping."

"Sleeping is a sad excuse for something to do," Irene told him, shaking her head. "It's barely a thing one can do. Much more something that unavoidably happens to us and we have to deal with."

She tsked, shaking her head, and then deliberately said something she knew he'd bristle at. "So boring."

"Pardon me?" Hatter said, cupping a hand around his ear. "Did you just say I was so adoring?"

Yes, he heard what she said and yes, he'd bristled but now he was giving her an out to take it back. Because of course she would (he knew she wouldn't).

"And you're hard of hearing, too," Irene said, looking even more pitiful at that. "So tragic. A man in his prime, cut down by boring habits and premature hearing loss. Are you secretly a senior citizen? You don't look it, but I've been surprised before. That'd explain it."

"You're trying to push my buttons, aren't you?"

That was mostly a rhetorical question because it would have been obvious to half the world that that's what she was trying to do.

Hatter put both of his hands down on her table so he could lean towards her. "That's not very nice, you know," he told her, shaking his head. "You don't really know how I handle myself when I'm a bit miffed."

"Are you trying to scare me?" Irene asked, lifting a brow delicately. "Oh no. Oh, dear. I'm very intimidated and frightened."

She was not. At all. Clearly.

"I'm just saying."

"Incorrect," Hatter told her, shaking his head. "I don't like to just outright frighten people. Too obvious. Causes a stir and then people remember me for all the wrong reasons."

He shook his head again, even made a face to drive that point home. "I'm just pointing out a simple fact, dear. Do you really want to make me angry? Is that the neighborly thing to do?"

"Not really," Irene said easily. "But I also don't think your temper's all that quick or I'd have suffered from it long before now. A bit of light teasing isn't going to do you in."

She smiled sweetly.

Edited 2014-07-21 18:36 (UTC)

That, at least, was true. He was fairly even tempered for the most part. But, he also didn't like backing down.

He glanced down at the table before he looked back up. "Your coffee looks good."

And that meant he was going to try and snag it off the table and out from under her since it just seemed like the best thing to do right now.

He was lucky that she was actually drinking coffee because she needed it, so her reflexes were a little slow. That didn't stop her from swatting at him anyway, with an air that was maybe a little too practiced. "Nice people say please and thank you, you know," she said. "I'm wonderful at sharing when people ask. Nicely."

No, she was terrible at sharing. Always.

"I didn't feel like asking," he said, taking a sniff of the coffee and making a face as he did. Coffee was not his favorite thing in the world. "And I doubt you're wonderful at sharing. But, no matter here because I've got what I want. Think we should have a taste?"

He figured he could choke some coffee down just for show.

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