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The C.I.C - Wednesday, 9am-midnight

Today was the day - doors opened for the first time. Kaidan did a third walkthrough, making sure the computers booted, the network was up and running, and speedtests had all clocked at a high prime. He harnessed his calm; after all, the worst that would happen would be an incredibly boring day sitting behind a counter.

Kaidan clearly hadn't been in Fandom very long.

Hitting a switch, the Open signed blinked into life, the blue glow of the neon reflecting nicely off the window. Door unlocked, he headed back to the counter - and didn't make it. Almost immediately, there was a raucous noise from the other side of the glass.

A rather large raven sat on the sidewalk, pecking imperiously at the door and cawing indignantly. Something shiny was clutched in one talon. Opening the door with a polite, "Can I help you?", Kaidan was buzzed as the bird launched itself at the counter, perching and cawing most insistently. "O..k.," Kaidan breathed, heading over to see what the problem was. A customer was a customer, even if they happened to be a bird at the moment. Holding out a hand, he asked, "Can I see it?" The raven clutched the shiny tighter, then reluctantly lifted it to drop into Kaidan's palm.

It was a wristwatch. Nothing fancy, just not working. Using microtools, he popped the back off and winced, "Looks like it got wet at some point. Battery's corroded. Let me see what I can do. Did you want to wait, or do you want to come back in about an hour?"

The raven cocked its head to one side, then the other, then just stared at him. Right. "Ok. Taking the old battery out now," Kaidan explained, "Then popping it into the ultrasonic cleaner. Once that's done running, probably in about half an hour, I can see if a new battery gets 'er ticking again, or if the solder corroded."

The raven didn't answer. That would be silly, a talking bird.

Shop is open from 9am-midnight. Shop description.

[OOC: CIC is open and OCDs are up.]

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At the counter sits a raven, watching Kaidan work. Kaidan doesn't seem much ruffled by it.

"Hey hey," Hardison said, entering the shop. "New computer place, niiiiiice."

It made his inner geek (which was pretty much the same as his outer geek, just on the inside) all warm and happy to see it.

He was busy taking in the room, but not so busy he didn't notice the waiting Raven. "That you, TA?" he asked.

It never hurt to ask.

"Welcome," Kaidan said courteously, "Rooms are all ready to go, top of the line gear - either Zintel 8 or BNE 5 processors, overclocked, interdependent and independent LAN connections available. They're already set up for Stream, Uverse and Snowstorm services, if you have your own account."

He might be a little nervous around his first humanoid customer.

The raven quoked at Hardison and then pecked the counter, demanding the return of Kaidan's attention. "It's only been 10 minutes," Kaidan reminded the bird, "It'll be another 20 before the watch is cleaned." Glancing up at Hardison, he asked, "Do you, er, know this bird?"

Hardison's grin kept getting bigger and bigger as Kaidan rattled off the specs. "Aww right, this place is my jam."

But Kaidan was new and Hardison didn't know if anyone had given him the basic island rundown yet, so he was swallowing all his enthusiasm back to answer Kaidan's question instead. He could demand additional specs later.

"Uhh, I ain't sure, but probably not," he said. "If you see an animal wanderin' around, there are a couple of options it could be. I thought that this might be my friend, Raven, havin' some fun with the new guy. She's a shapeshifter." He paused and glanced at Kaidan to see how he took that pronouncement.

Because, honestly, the possibilities just got weirder.

"Been here a few weeks, but mostly supervising remodeling of this place," Kaidan acknowledged, "Long enough to learn not to assume anything is, uh, what I'm used to. I'm not exactly from around here. Shapeshifters?" Kaidan was curious, "Like, actual, transforming from human to other things, shapeshifters? Huh. That's kind of cool."

Raven was a mutant, not a proper human, but those were extra details that Kaidan probably didn't need yet. He was still getting settled in, after all. "Yeah," he said, nodding. "She can turn into pretty much anythin'. An' sometimes likes turnin' into a raven just 'cause it's funny. Uhhh, sometimes other people turn into animals? But it's a thing that happens to them, not something they do. It's just a thing that happens on the island. Anyone talk to you about how weird this place is yet?"

"Kanan mentioned that he'd turned into a big cat once," Kaidan acknowledged, "and almost everyone I've met has told me 'stuff like that just happens here'. Weird, I can deal with. I mean, we don't have shapeshifters where I'm from, but you don't seem to have Hanar here. When you're used to seeing land-based giant, sentient, stupid jellyfish who talk in third person all the time, someone who turns into a bird when she's trying to amuse isn't that big a stretch." He chuckled a little, "But I'd love to hear your take on it. The things people have been telling me are wild, but..really kind of cool. Unusual and strange? What's the phrase you used? 'That's my jelly'? I can deal with that. Apocalyptic war zones.. that, I would have some trouble coping with."

The ultrasonic cleaner dinged. The raven squawked excitedly. Kaidan removed the watch and popped a fresh battery into the slot. Turning it over, he frowned at the display. "Well, that didn't work," he informed the raven, which made a disappointed churring noise, "Give me a minute, I'll run a diagnostic."

His right hand flexed and was almost instantly engulfed in a neon orange glow from mid-forearm to fingertips, forming a circle under his palm. He held it over the watch and a holographic model flickered to life, slowly shifting apart in layers. Kaidan frowned at it. "Huh. Looks like a capacitor's broken. I can fix it, but I'll have to take it completely apart," he informed the raven.

[ooc: ridiculous picture for reference of an Omni Tool.]

Hardison's fingers itched to get his fingers on the Omni Tool. "You got one of those, too?" he asked. "My girl Tali had one, too!"

Which he hadn't stolen and tinkered with no matter how much he'd wanted to. Because he'd adored Tali, even more than future-tech.

"An' yo, with an attitude like that, you'll fit right in," Hardison informed him. "You gotta be able to roll with the punches. Even if sometimes them punches include apocalyptic war zones. But that usually only happens once a year or so an' for only about a week at most."

Kaidan went very still for a minute. "Tali? Quarian, purple and black suit? Tali's here, too?"

His brain had just derailed. First Liara, now Tali. He forcibly stopped himself from hoping.

The raven, not happy with the pause in service, pecked his hand. "Ow! Ok, working on it!" he apologized. It took him another moment before he could respond to the comments on his Omni Tool. "Yeah, uh, they're kind of standard issue where I'm from. If Tali didn't build you one, I'm assuming you're not wired for tech?"

He was skating right past that 'once a year' thing. Kaidan was done with apocalypses for awhile.

Well, hopefully August wouldn't be as dire as it usually was. Hardison was willing to take a much easier summer than usual.

"That was Tali!" Hardison said, beaming. "I taught a coupla classes up at the school when she was a student here. She graduated, went back off to the Fleet. You know her?"

And Hardison was going to skip over the 'wired for tech' bit for now. Because he had to figure out whether or not his partners would kill him if he volunteered.

"Student?" Kaidan was confused. "How old was she, do you know? Was she on her way back for her Pilgrimage, or, uh, was she summoned for, uh, something?"

Bending his attention to the watch, he keyed something into the Omni and let it do its thing. Tiny micro-lasers whirred to life and began mapping the watch's capacitor for minifacturing. The raven watched with interest, chirring softly and rustling its feathers.

Kaidan added quietly, "I met Tali just after her Pilgrimage. I served on the Normandy with her. She's one of the best engineers I've ever met." He gave a lopsided grin, "Even if her taste in Omni Tools is sub-par. It's the second time this week someone's mentioned that someone I never expected to see again, after landing here, had been here, on this island. I can't figure out if we all hit the same intergalactic incident..wormhole..whatever.. and wound up here, or if ..what happened in my galaxy fragmented reality into splinters."

He watched the Omni as the minifacturing came online, holding his arm rock steady to let it complete the tiny part. "I suppose there's also the possibility that it's a brain tumor or something, and I'm in a hospital somewhere, hallucinating from too much medigel."

Hardison chuckled and shook his head. "This place'll make you wish you were hallucinatin' on medigel, but I assure you, it's all too real."

Too much trauma for it not to be, though Hardison didn't think that that was the best idea to bring up to a guy who had a thing about warzones. In Hardison's experience, there was only one way to get that and that was to be in one.

"But, naw, Tali was young. She was gonna go home an' start her Pilgrimage, last time I talked to her. Don't know nothin' about the Normandy, but I can say she already had the makin's of a damn fine engineer. Who else you hear about?"

He continued working on the watch for a few minutes before answering. "I don't know whether that's a comfort or not," Kaidan said slowly, "From what I'm hearing, both Liara and Tali are from earlier in time than I am. I'm torn between 'God, I want to see both of them again' - hell, anyone from the Normandy - and 'Please keep me from running into them', because they're not from the Normandy. Not yet, in their timeline. Not at all, in mine. I know neither of them had been to Earth before.. well, before, any rate."

The raven watched the watch. When the Omni beeped, indicating the minifacturing was done, Kaidan said, "Don't touch it yet - the solder has to cool in place a few minutes." The raven ruffled feathers.

"In a way," Kaidan continued, "it's good to know that they don't have the memories I have. Maybe things will be better, in their timestreams."

The single setup room boasts a cutting-edge computer with dual curved 4k monitors with a color-shifting backlight. On one side of the desk is a sorted shelf containing peripherals - regular keyboard, ergo keyboard, armrest keyboards, several styles of mice, both left and right-hand gamepads, a steering wheel-style unit, and both PlayerStation and ZBox-style controllers.

There's both a standard Aero-style desk chair and an ultraposh reclining-with-footrest vinyl padded gaming chair available.

The walls appear to be modular between the rooms, but they have been soundproofed.

It is expected that the occupant will bring their own headphones and microphones, though both can be rented at the front desk as well.

The double setup room boasts a cutting-edge computer with four curved monitors with a color-shifting backlight. On one side of the desk is a sorted shelf containing peripherals - regular keyboards, ergo keyboards, armrest keyboards, several styles of mice, both left and right-hand gamepads, a steering wheel-style unit, and both PlayerStation and ZBox-style controllers.

Two Aero-style chairs are present. The monitors are configured so they can be strung all together, stacked 2x2, or separated 2x2.

The walls appear to be modular between the rooms, but they have been soundproofed.

It is expected that the occupant will bring their own headphones and microphones, though both can be rented at the front desk as well.

The group setup room boasts a cutting-edge computer. Instead of monitors, a high-def projector has been set up to turn the entire far wall into a monitor, or series of monitors. On one side of the room is a sorted shelf containing peripherals - regular keyboards, ergo keyboards, armrest keyboards, several styles of mice, both left and right-hand gamepads, a steering wheel-style unit, and both PlayerStation and ZBox-style controllers.

A plush couch is winged by a pair of reclining armchairs. Along the walls are the more familiar Aero-style deskchairs.

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The C.I.C - Wednesday, 9am-midnight

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Single setup

Double setup

Group setup