002: Video

[hulkbusted]

[It's Saturday morning and Bruce's NV is propped against something to show him seated with a cup of something (tea, considering the string and tag hanging over the cup's lip) in the foreground. People move behind him, some holding cups of coffee before they take seats out of the camera's view. Looks like he's at an outdoor cafe. It also looks like he's found a charity that offers clothes to the poor and/or new arrivals because he's wearing a slightly dingy pale green button-down shirt with the cuffs rolled up over his forearms and a couple of buttons left open at the collar.]

Hiring in Siren's Port doesn't go the way it does most other places, does it? I couldn't give the panel at Siren's Port University my CV and published papers for examples of my work, but a few days of filling white boards with equations seems to have done the trick. It's much faster than hiring back home, too, but I guess there's a lot of turnover around here.

In addition, I'm offering my services as an after hours tutor while the days are long and until I go home, whenever that may be. If you need help with math or science up to the post-graduate level in most disciplines, contact me [he leans forward and swipes his fingers over the display, and a link appears at the bottom of the video screen] and we can make arrangements.

In the meantime, I'm at Cafe Bijan, and there are a few people who have been helpful to me since I arrived that I would happily buy a coffee. [He smiles, and the humor is meant mostly for himself and maybe one other person.] Unless you don't drink... coffee.

Comments

[hulkbusted]

[Lucky Bruce to have been so out of the loop that no "the Explorer" quips will come to mind.]

Does she look as good for her age as you do? Because that would make family portraits confusing to an outsider.

[symmachy]

[It's okay, it would be lost on her anyway. And Scatty's cheeks go just a little pink. You're making progress, Bruce.]

Sadly, she look every bit her age. Not that she can really see herself. She's blind.

[hulkbusted]

[Way to go, Bruce, since half the progress he's making is accidental.]

Ah... [Awkward. Do you commiserate about the ancient blind grandmother? No one gave him the etiquette on immortals. So far Bruce's record with them is kind of... violent, even if he kind of likes Thor.]

All the martial discipline doesn't scream lazy to me.

[symmachy]

[She laughs just a little.] Yes, well. She is a very strange woman. [Pause. Whelp, they're already this far in.] She isn't blind from old age. She traded her sight for the ability to see the threads of the future.

[hulkbusted]

[He pauses to stack the two teacups, fussing with them a little while he tries to put the top back on his cranium.] Do you go to Greek Myths R Us for that kind of trade?

[symmachy]

Sadly, no. You go to another immortal.

[hulkbusted]

Was it worth the trade?

[symmachy]

She seems to think so.

[hulkbusted]

Who am I to doubt your grandmother without meeting her?

What more does she want you doing?

[symmachy]

Good choice. [She casually plays with her tea spoon.] You know. Talk to her more, call my mother or sister, find a boyfriend. Normal things.

[hulkbusted]

[Normal things. For a 10,000 year old emotion-siphoning vampire....]

Do you want normal things?

[symmachy]

[Look man, she has needs too.]

Sometimes. I had a taste of it for about a decade. It was... nice.

[hulkbusted]

[He looks away and forces a smile.] Yeah, it's nice while it lasts. Was that... recently?

[symmachy]

[She pauses.] About two years ago. So yes, I suppose. Why?

[hulkbusted]

Curiosity. [He shrugs and glances down at the table before looking up again.] I haven't really made a new friend in years whose vital statistics weren't the subject of tabloid speculation already.

[symmachy]

Do you care what the tabloids here say?

[hulkbusted]

I didn't even know there were tabloids here.

[symmachy]

Then don't worry about it.

[hulkbusted]

I was talking about the last friend I made. Does that mean that the tabloids here are onto you?

[symmachy]

[She grins wickedly.] I'm good at avoiding them.

[hulkbusted]

[The grin's infectious] I don't imagine there's much they could try that you haven't seen one way or another.

[symmachy]

You'd be right about that.

[hulkbusted]

[Bruce's mind goes... places before he catches himself and makes use of his practice at self-control to suppress a blush.]

Why are humans so interesting to you then? Aren't we kind of repetitive?

[symmachy]

[If he isn't careful, she's going to start picking up on his wandering mind.

She shakes her head.]

On the contrary, your capacity for change is amazing.

[hulkbusted]

[He's trying, but it's been years since he's been around a woman he probably can't break, let alone an attractive and interesting one at that.]

We're adaptive, I'll grant you that. It's why we're covering the planet, but it always seemed to me that we make the same mistakes over and over again.