The Perk - Monday afternoon

[biotic_psychotic]

It was weird to not be teaching this afternoon. She'd enjoyed her routine and the sudden unscheduled time in her day annoyed her.

Jack once again moseyed on down to the Perk. Collecting a carafe of black coffee and a mug, she parked her ass in one of the comfy chairs with a table next to it, turning the chair so her back was to a solid wall. Pulled out a tablet and began working the strategy game again. Her score was improving. She was a little pissed off at the top score being Kaidan's from the five minutes he'd taken to look over the game and give his opinion of it but it gave her a goal to work toward.

She was going to drink that entire carafe of coffee while she was here, because exactly what the island needed on a Monday afternoon was a Jack who could see through time.

[Perk is Open and Jack's working on .. a lot of coffee. You have been warned :D]

Comments

[intraspective]

Between such mundane things as groceries, cleaning, still working on restocking her store and wrangling her greenhouse back from the overgrowth of more than six months neglect, and the less mundane (dear lord, shrimp frosting) Iris felt that she had more than earned a hot chocolate.

Or, well, a smidge of hot chocolate with a ton of whipped cream. The Perk knew how she liked it.

Iris cast a glance at the other person there, both sets of memories coming up blank, so she nodded in that direction amiably.

[biotic_psychotic]

Jack tracked the woman who walked in the way she tracked all movement around her. Sized her up, didn't recognize her. That was interesting, someone new. Overhearing the conversation at the counter, Jack revised. New to her, clearly not new to the island. Not if the baristas knew the regular order.

Caught the nod in her direction and nodded back politely.

[intraspective]

The nod back made up her mind for her.

Once she got her drink, Iris wandered over. She was on the short side, in a white dress shirt and black dress pants, blonde hair that floated around her ankles—it spilled down to her ankles and then rolled itself in small, tight curls, to keep it from dragging along the ground—and pupil-less blue eyes.

"Yo," she said, "mind if I take a seat? I'm Iris."

[biotic_psychotic]

And here Jack was in black cargo pants, a dark t-shirt that was as loved as it was battered, and a black motorcycle jacket several sizes too large for her. She had no hair to speak of, scalp freshly shorn. Her eyes were a brown so dark they were almost black.

She looked up at the question, face expressionless for a moment while she thought. The name was familiar. Right. One of the names on a list. "Iris. Zack Fair's whatever, right? Kaidan mentioned you when I first came to visit. Sure, take a seat. I'm Jack. Kaidan's sister. Nice to put a face to the name." The invitation was pleasant enough, for all Jack's default wasn't exactly nice.

[intraspective]

Iris folded herself into a seat, all easy, thoughtless grace and economy of motion.

"Zack Fair's whatever sounds 'bout right these days," she conceded, though it wasn't exactly her favourite way of putting it, when half her memories were used to being his wife for more than six years. Accurate, though.

"Kaidan's sister, huh? I'd say he mentioned you, but I'd a) either be lying or b) honestly don't remember. But it's cool you're here. Keepin' him out of trouble? Or did he gush 'bout how great it was here that you had to come?"

[biotic_psychotic]

The description of Kaidan as 'gushing', especially about this place at this point in time, told Jack an awful lot right there. She made an amused noise low in her throat. "Nah," she said easily, "neither of those reasons. I came to visit him for the visitor's weekend. Thought it might be fun teaching in an actual fucking castle. See what it's like bein' dirtside for awhile. So far, not all that impressed. Bein' this far in the fucking past is kind of a trip, though."

[intraspective]

She had been off the island for a great deal of time, after all.

"It's the past for so many people though," Iris said, amused. "You'd think you'd all get used to it. What're you teachin'? New semester's coming up, right?"

[biotic_psychotic]

"Getting used to bigotry ain't really my style," Jack said breezily, taking another sip. "Yeah, new semester starts.. next week, I think." Thought about it. "Yup. Next Monday. Summer term, I'm teaching kids how to work together. We'll see how that goes."

[intraspective]

Iris just shrugged.

"Can't tell the bigotry here," she said just as easily. "Ain't even a world connected to my world from some distance past or future here."

And, well, unless someone was being a jerk right in front of her, Iris didn't much care either. All her caring was tied up in her world.

Except for the large, Zack-shaped piece of it hanging out on the island.

"And the island ain't so bad that ways, from what I get," though that said nothing for the rest of it, "what're you getting the kids to work together on?"

[biotic_psychotic]

Having literally just had a conversation about that subject, Jack gave Iris a cool look over and drawled, "Yeah? So the blonde-haired, blue eyed human-passing white woman can't tell the bigotry here and thinks it ain't so bad here on the island, huh? This is my shocked face."

She was not shocked in the slightest. "The island's got it's share of assholes just like the rest of the world. The class I'm teaching will hopefully get through to the kids that maybe being an asshole ain't the greatest life choice they could make. They'll have to work together on whatever I throw at 'em. Not sure what-all it'll be yet. Gotta wait til the kids get here to see who I got in class first."

[intraspective]

"Ain't never said this place is perfect," Iris noted, dryly, meeting that look mildly. "Yeah, there's assholes here, but generally by the time they leave here, they know better."

Or just hid it better. Iris settled for that.

"Doubt there's any place without some kind of asshole. It'd be a nicer world, universe, whatever if there was, but people're always goin' to be people 'bout shit like that."

[biotic_psychotic]

"Don't make it any easier on the ones who have to put up with the constant influx of new assholes and spend the emotional labor to educate the little shits," Jack pointed out calmly, "There's always gonna be assholes just the same way there's gonna be people who can't take the time to fuckin' notice their friends and neighbors being shit on long enough to use their privilege to step in and help shut the bullshit down."

She took a drink of her coffee, "Like I said, ain't my fucking style. I'm more kinetic about it. Can do something, will do something. People can change. That's kind of the great thing about 'em. Sometimes they do it on their own. Sometimes they need a good steady ballbat upside the head a few times."

[intraspective]

"Someone all up in you or a friend's business lately?" Iris wondered, leaning back in her chair, still mostly amused, but partly only because that was her default reaction to… most things, honestly. "'Cause I ain't been pickin' on no one and I've only been back here for a handful of days, so if there's been issues, I ain't in the loop yet."

And Jack was… awfully vehement about this.

"Most of those days, too, I ain't encountered nothin' but my greenhouse, so if I stepped on a landmine for you… sorry?"

[built_fjord_tough]

Sometimes a man just needed a damn coffee.

Okay, sometimes a man was crawling out of his skin with boredom. Sometimes that man slept in until mid-afternoon because his sleep had been plagued with ugly memories and things that seemed nightmarish and surreal besides. And sometimes the only thing for it was to make his way to the Perk to order the largest vat of whatever tar they were selling so that he could at least pretend to be a functional person for a few hours of daylight, still.

Which was what Fjord was doing. He would acknowledge other people in a minute, maybe. After coffee. For now he was standing at the counter looking a little as though he'd been hit by a bus while he mumbled his way through a coffee order that mostly just consisted of, "No, more than that. No, bigger. You got anything bigger? Then I'll take three of that one. Yeah, I'm sure."

[biotic_psychotic]

"Just tell them to get you a carafe and a mug, Fjord," Jack called, because oh did she ever know that feel bro. "It's cheaper and you don't dirty up three whole fuckin' mugs."

Also: Hi, hope you're well?

[built_fjord_tough]

There was a long pause as Fjord looked blearily in Jack's direction, regarded her own order, looked back at the barista, who just shrugged, and then he grunted and gave a nod of his head.

"That thing. I'll do that thing," he decided.

Clearly he was fine. You could tell because he decided the thing instead of just standing there going, 'Uhhhhhhhhh,' for no good reason except that his brain wasn't functioning right.

[biotic_psychotic]

"There a meeting of the D&B that I didn't hear about?" she asked, sipping her own coffee.

He didn't look fine. He looked like shit. So, you know, she added, "You look like hell hungover."

[built_fjord_tough]

"Slept like shit," Fjord muttered, shaking his head in reply to her question. "And just kept on sleepin' like shit. One of those nights I just couldn't fuckin' turn my brain off."

Worst kind. Especially since he could no longer be certain if it was legitimately his brain, or whatever the hell it was that kept hijacking his dreams and making him wake up drowning.

[biotic_psychotic]

Jack grimaced. She knew those nights. Didn't usually bother trying to sleep, she just went and found something to beat the shit out of.

"Well collect your fuckin' stimulant and come join me in the 'we're gonna see through time' corner," she offered.

[built_fjord_tough]

"Best fuckin' corner," Fjord muttered, dropping a handful of change on the counter, collecting his coffee and a mug, and kind of slinking over to that corner in a step that seemed half-drunk for lack of rest. "Would be nice if the direction I'm lookin' in is forward. Or at least toward the right fuckin' now, anyway."

[biotic_psychotic]

"Buddy, let's get your eyes fully fucking open first," Jack chuckled, "Sit down before you fall down, suck down at least one entire mug of coffee before you try to be coherent. Be careful, it's hot. Don't burn your mouth unless you wanna."

[built_fjord_tough]

"That'd help wake me the fuck up," Fjord muttered, sliding into a seat and setting everything down on the table before taking a moment to do the mental math of, 'coffee plus mug equals awake,' and pouring.

He even stopped pouring just in time! Barely!

[biotic_psychotic]

"Pain does that," Jack agreed, "but it also helps keep you awake when you don't wanna be awake. Maybe try not to burn yourself just now."

She sipped her own coffee. "Anything in particular fucking with your head or is it free-floating anxiety shit? Or 'shut up Jack I don't fuckin' wanna talk about this'?"

[built_fjord_tough]

Fjord clutched that coffee close to his chest for a moment, just kind of breathing it in, even if the heat from the cup was uncomfortable against his fingers.

"Even my dreams are startin' to accuse me of bein' a coward," he muttered, "I'm stuck here. I can't get home, but I have some shit going on back there that needs dealing with, and the longer I spend here, the less likely I'm gonna be able to do that."

It did not fill him with great feelings.

[biotic_psychotic]

Jack gave a long, slow blink. "Ok, back up to the part where you think you're a coward and then explain it, cuz.. uh.. buddy, no."

She fidgeted with her cup. "That's a familiar thing you just said, though. I've heard it from others who couldn't go home right away, so, Fjord? Ain't just you."

Kaidan. Kanan. Vette. She had a list.