The Perk; Late Sunday Afternoon [10/12].

[even_bigger_teeth]

Luma was curled up in a comfortable chair, with a book in her hands and a pumpkin spice latte on the side table. She'd had one for the first time a few days ago, and found herself craving more, especially as the days began to cool down.

Despite that craving, however(my God, what did they put in them???), her was currently sitting there mostly untouched, her attention snagged by the pages of her book and the absolutely devastating story being laid out in those words. It had everything she loved: a dark and gloomy setting, a tragic heroine, a sense of dread and foreboding and hopelessness...so far very good. She hoped they didn't ruin it in the end by not having the terrible love interest meet a horrible end by its finale, though.

But she wouldn't know until she got there, and she was making swift progress toward finding out.

[[ open! Now that I've posted, wat h work explode 🙄 ]]

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[mindofageneration]

Fall and pumpkin spice and all that were well and good. But sometimes you just needed straight up caffeine. Was that part of the whole Iron legacy? Probably. But Riri was there, looking tired and ordering just too many shots of espresso in that pumpkin spice latte.

"Hey," she said with a little lift of her chin in greeting.

[even_bigger_teeth]

If Luma's senses hadn't beenas sharp as they were, she may have missed that anyone had said anything at all, ut her ears twitched a little, and she blinked, pulling herself out of the book and blinking again at Riri while her brain caught up.

"Hello," she said, and then her brain twitched as well, with the reminder that conversations usually required a little more. She tried to remember the other girl's name, but she'd never had to remember many names before and she was still pretty bad at it. So she just went for a solid, generic, "How are you?"

[mindofageneration]

"Well, it's actually been quiet here for a bit," Riri said like that wasn't some kind of jinx. "So good."

[even_bigger_teeth]

"Has it been?" Luma asked, with a tilt of her head that truly did betray her more canine nature as she thought about it. "Hmm. I suppose your right. There haven't been as many parties lately as there was over the summer..."

Because, yes, Luma, that was the kind of quiet Riri was clearly referring to...

[mindofageneration]

"Right," she replied slowly.

Yeah, Riri Williams, big party animal. Girl can't help it.

"How about you?"

[even_bigger_teeth]

Luma liked the parties here. Most of them, anyway. At the parties here, no one was trying to muzzle her (or worse!) or destroy her family. And Eleanor rarely had the opportunity to utterly and completely ruin them, too.

She shrugged a little. "I've been doing a lot of reading," she said, lifting up her book for emphasis. "It's amazing what the library here has. I've always been a bit...limited, with good reading material, back home...and have you tried these pumpkin spice lattes?"

She reached for her long-forgotten cup, preparing herself appear to enjoy it even if it was past its optimal temperature.

"I don't know quite what it is about them, but they're absolutely divine."

[mindofageneration]

Riri did have to grin at that. "They're pretty nice. The library that good? I don't think I've had any classes that have brought me near it."

And any other research had been computer based.

[even_bigger_teeth]

"I don't know how it compares to other school libraries," Luma admitted, her posture lifting almost a little defensively as she shoved her hair back behind her shoulders, "but it is nice to not have to pour over the same collection of books all the time. I didn't many new ones often, usually only when--"

But she blinked and cut herself off, a strange, distant look in her eyes like a cloud passing over thr sun.

"Anyway," she shook her head and continued on as if she hadn't said anything, "you should check it out sometime, see if it's worth your time."

[mindofageneration]

"I'll have to check," Riri said with a little sigh. Maybe it would have something to help with her AI project. "More of a lab person, normally."

[even_bigger_teeth]

"Oh?" Laboratories had worked their way into enough of tge kinds of books Luma ready that she found herself at least mildly interested. "What do you usually work on there? Oh! Is it technology based? I think I remember talking to you about technology a little, because I'm so far behind in it."

Even if she could browse and scroll on her phone with the best of them now!

[mindofageneration]

Hey, she was surrounded by magic people (and a dead guy) so she'd take that!

"Robotics," Riri replied with an encouraging nod. "Kind of. It's really more of a robotic exosuit and all the corresponding systems to make it function in a way that doesn't... kill me."

Nailed it in making that sound exciting and fine. Nailed it.

[even_bigger_teeth]

"Well," Luma offered, encouragingly as well, and the small tug of an amused smile, "it seems to be working alright for you so far, as least. And I'm sure every single bit of it would go straight over my head, too. What's it all...for?"

[mindofageneration]

"Well, I'm hoping to make it for first responders so there isn't so much of a wait for people in need, you know?" Which had some very personal reasoning behind it.

[even_bigger_teeth]

"Oh!" Luma now nearly fit it into this framework, although she didn't really have complete context for it. She felt she had it figured out well enough. "So it's something not just for yourself, but others, too."

She thought about it a little more.

"It sounds like it could be pretty dangerous."

What with the whole needing systems in place so it didn't end up killing you and everything.