The Perk, Friday Afternoon

[weirderthanthou]

Sometimes leaving the office helped if you wanted to focus a little. Jesse still had-- a lot of reading to do if she and Liam were going to be put together any kind of helpful handbook, and the walk to the Perk had done her crossed eyes some good.

She settled down in the back of the coffee place with a nondescript, regular Americano and a large stack of documents. Barry's phone hung off her belt, right next to the Service Weapon; a little heavy, but doable.

She reached for the first page, took a sip, and settled in.

[[ open ]]

Comments

[bookbeltof_love]

"Gooooood afternoooooooooooooon!!!!!!!!!!"

There was nothing like Nina to shatter a silence as she careened into the coffee shop and bounced up to the counter.

[weirderthanthou]

Jesse lowered the piece of paper she was reading.

Slowly.

That was loud.

"Hi?"

[bookbeltof_love]

That was Nina!

"Oh, hi!!!!!!!!!!!" she chirped, as the baristas got to work on her order. "I'm Nina!!!!!!!!! Nice to meet you!!!!!!!"

[weirderthanthou]

Very loud.

"I'm Jesse," Jesse said, giving a small wave. "Nice to meet you too?"

Crap, I've forgotten how to do small talk again.

[bookbeltof_love]

"Ooooh!!!!!" Nina said brightly. "You're the mayor!!!!!! I've got a question for you, then!!!!!!!"

Nina did not say 'you're the one working with my Dad on that project' but part of her thought it.

"Hang on, I'll be over shortly!!!!!!"

[weirderthanthou]

Oh boy.

You know, Jesse was just going to sip her coffee, look back at the sheet she'd dropped, and... make notes until Nina was done with whatever she was doing and came over.

[bookbeltof_love]

It didn't take her too long, until she was clutching her apple cider and wandering over. The rest of her order was neatly tucked away into her bag.

"Hi!!!!!!!!" she said brightly, again. "Ready??????"

[weirderthanthou]

Jesse looked up. "Shoot," she said, looking calm, collected, and interested.

What is this going to be about? Who is she? What am I going to be dealing with now? She's very loud. I don't know how to deal with loud.

[bookbeltof_love]

She was a menace.

"I want to know why you're unfairly biased against magic," she said earnestly. "Why do you have a science guy but no magic person to balance it out???????"

[weirderthanthou]

What?

There was a short pause as she collected her thoughts, tried to parse that question, and finally had to cop to--

"I didn't know I needed one," Jesse said.

[bookbeltof_love]

"If anything you need one more!!!!!!!" she enthused. "Like, the island is just full of magic happening all the time!!!!!!! How can you have just someone to explain the science????????? Not everything can be explained by science!!!!!!!!"

[weirderthanthou]

"That depends on who you ask," Jesse said diplomatically.

Emily would lose her shit.

"Not that I'm opposed to having a magic person on board. You're just the first person who's brought it up."

[bookbeltof_love]

"I suppose I'm probably the most studious about magic on the island right now," Nina conceded, since she wasn't aware of anyone else who studied it the way she did. "But a lot of people use it--and if they don't, the island does!!!!!!!!"

[weirderthanthou]

"And it's actually different from science...?"

Sorry, Nina, but she was from one of those canons.

[bookbeltof_love]

"Yes!!!!!!" she said, indignant.

Rude, Jesse!

[weirderthanthou]

Jesse shrugged lightly. "Sorry," she said. "Where I come from, we try to approach unexplained phenomenon with science. I don't think we have any wizards, or anything."

[bookbeltof_love]

"Just because science can't explain it doesn't mean that it's unexplained," she protested. "That's like saying an iced capp is unexplained if you don't know how to make one!!!!!!!!"

[weirderthanthou]

"My friend Emily would say that it's not that science can't explain it," Jesse said delicately.

She's really wound up about this.

"But that science hasn't found the right framework for it yet."

[bookbeltof_love]

She was just deeply passionate about... basically everything!

"My world was created by the 27 True Runes," she said, "and there's not a single speck of science involved in any of them!!!!!!"

[weirderthanthou]

"Depends on what you define as 'science'," Jesse said. "Because if I need a 'magic expert', that... kind of means there's logic to magic too, right? You said it's something you study."