Remember Meatspace

[Molly Quincannon] Molly's been ... busy.

No one knows exactly what she's been busy with, but she's been busy. Mostly she's been locked up in her workshop/bedroom, occasionally coming out for supplies runs and making food, which she seldom seems to actually eat. (Leftovers are piling up in the fridge because of this. At least there's no shortage of easily reheatable lunch.) There was one period a week previous where she sent Ellie out to the movies because there was 'a thing' that required privacy, but beyond that, no one's gone into Fort Q bar Ellie and Molly, and Molly hasn't left but to grocery shop once. She comes out for coffee, and gives Ellie smiles and queries as to how the studying's going, just checking in to make sure the girl's okay ... and then retreats again.

So ... something's up.

Today, Molly staggers out of the workshop, the mug in her hand suggestive of a coffee refill and something in the way she moves suggesting that she's a bit stiff, like she's slept wrong. She looks over to wherever Ellie is in the room, waves and says, "M'going for coffee. Want anything?"

[Ellie James] The lack of Molly in Ellie's life has been something of an eye-opener. For all that she's only lived a Fort Q for a few weeks, she'd gotten really used to being able to talk to her friend whenever she wanted to. And being able to keep an eye on her fellow Mage since obviously nobody else seemed to be trying that hard.

When Molly finally emerges from her work space, the teen launches herself upright and hurries towards Molly. She puts her hands on Molly's shoulders like she's worried the other woman will fall over, and looks her over.

"Yes. I want you to go out for real, didn't-make-it-yourself, coffee, and maybe pastries. I'm starting to worry that you've forgotten what the world outside of your room looks like."

[Molly Quincannon] "No Correspondence-knowledgeable mage," Molly says, trying for teasing but, while a glimmer of that comes out, mostly she just sounds tired, "can ever forget what the world outside any given room looks like. Besides, photographic memory." She shakes her head, then reaches up and tweaks Ellie's nose. "I'm not that worrisome, am I? Or was there some kind of issue I missed? No one tried to actually knock on the door, right?" (That had happened once; some double-glazing salesman had somehow missed the doorbell, given himself a painful but non-life-threatening jolt and threatened to sue until Molly pointed out the big sign and the lit-up doorbell, then explained to him that she had issues with buying anything from someone who clearly did not know how to read.)

Molly does not seem ready to fall over, though she does seem a touch weary and the motions of her head and shoulders seem stiff. "You okay?" She looks at Ellie's hands on her shoulders. "Not that I'm bad with the tactile thing, but normally a simple couple of words'll do it if you want my attention. Like ... I dunno, 'Hey you!' or 'The ferret's on fire'." Indignant chitter from the playpen in the corner. "Oh, I would not set you on fire, Neal. Or Hardison either, so don't start."

[Ellie James] Ellie started to snort, and then stuck her tongue out at Molly after her nose was tweaked. "You might not forget in the long term, but yes, you are that worrisome. I haven't seen you hardly at all." She sighed, remembering the salesman and foregoing mentioning him. After all, Molly had taken care of that issue.

At the look at her hands on Molly's shoulder, Ellie slowly let her hands drop to her side. "I'm just worried about you. You don't eat - and don't think I haven't noticed that I'm the only one making inroads on the leftovers - and you keep locking yourself away." She rocked back and forth from heel to toe a few times, and scowled. "I wasn't going to try and get your attention if you were working on something important, but since you're out here I'm sticking my nose in."

[Molly Quincannon] That gets a wince from Molly. "Sorry. Don't mean to worry you. I'm not really used to anyone noticing, and I guess there's a hazard where ... well, I don't notice when things are getting a little wonked because it's all context and ... well, anything about how I was after the whole Nephandi thing feels pretty awesome. But thanks for the concern and everything, and I'll sit down and eat and stuff, okay? I'm not so much working on any one particular important thing - though grinding away a bit on Mind for various reasons. Mostly just random bits of project. Trying to keep my mind off something. So ... leftover reheating, or ordering in pizza? And if you want to hear about the 'something'," she adds, getting in before Ellie can worry about whether or not she should ask, "just let me know. If not, I can tell you about bone conduction earpiece microphones, voice activation keys and how someone finally got 'teenagers with superpowers' right."

[Ellie James] Ellie sighed a little at Molly's wince. "That's why I do worry. Because nobody notices." And now she feels a little bad about jumping to unnecessarily severe worries.

"The leftovers will keep another day, so I vote pizza. And I want to hear about everything you want to talk about. Because if I stare at one more SAT prep page my head is going to explode."

[Molly Quincannon] "I obviously had it easy," Molly says, heading over to her computer. A fantastic thing about the modern age, of course, is that you can order pizza and all manner of other things online and it even stores your preferences. "I guess a photographic memory's a huge help when dealing with SAT prep. Your usual, or do you want to try something different?"

Then, completely casual and seemingly out of nowhere, "So my possibly-not-a-boyfriend-anymore is on the Technocracy 'recruit with extreme prejudice' list and they've got a shit-tonne of leverage on him. And apparently he thinks that a change of name and no one knowing this will somehow keep him off their radar even if they dig through various Chicago mage-brains."

Ellie's met Chuck in passing - he was at the Halloween party, at least. Chuck's six foot four or so, diabetic and has this friendly-Uncanny sort of aura about him that makes him entirely impossible to miss. It's hard to imagine how a Technocrat couldn't put that and the rest of the physical description and resonance profile into a computer and come up with one specific person. Which makes his belief in the matter of whether or not he could be identified from someone else's mind more or less ridiculous.

[Ellie James] That comment about having it easy got a raspberry blown in Molly's direction. "Usual, please." She trailed after Molly, watching her pull up the order site for their favorite pizza company, and then she paused.

"I hate to sound like a bitch, but why are you dating him if he's that much of a twit? I mean, seriously?" She huffed, the picture of irritated teen-aged girl. "And since you know about him, it makes you a potential target if they catch him, and..."

[Molly Quincannon] "Yeah, but I was a target the day I met him, that being the case," is Molly's comment on the matter as she clicks in the order. "That's what I kept trying to tell him - that we need to know that he's going to get a lot of attention if he's located so we can take the proper precautions. You should be okay because you barely know him, whereas I know details like his home address, his schedule and that kind of shit. So if they get me, he's fucked. If they get him ... I'm probably also fucked. But that'd be the same if it were anyone. Almost every mage in Chicago knows me. And vice versa. Damn," she goes on, thoughtful, "this whole place is screwed if I ever get caught."

Then she shakes her head. "I don't know if I'm dating him anymore. He doesn't like the fact that I pried that information out of him. I mean, I've suspected something for months, and I was at least partly right, as he used to work for a Technocrat-sponsored Sleeper think tank but said 'thanks but no thanks' to the offer of full-on recruitment. Apparently the twerp was still hacking their databases as of last year, though he says he hasn't since he hit Chicago. And even if he still wants to date me? I could think of more reasons to dump him than the fact that he's that much of a twit. Like the bit where he more or less told me that he'd have let me get tortured by Nephandi for as long as it took for him to come up with a rescue plan that didn't put him at any risk, and that being right is more important than keeping people from suffering for longer than they have to. So ... I don't know and I haven't been dealing with it. But you're not the first to tell me that I should kerb his ass. Just so you know."

That apparently hurt to say, but ... well, Cultist. Ecstasy doesn't only mean joy, after all. "Pizza in a half-hour. Soda?"

[Ellie James] Ellie frowned, wanting to pat Molly's shoulder in understanding, and knowing it wouldn't do any good. She might settle for going to punch Chuck later, just out of spite. Or kick him, sounded like she might need to kick him where it would hurt.

At the reminder of the torture thing, and how Chuck had been enough of an ass to value his own hide over Molly's, Ellie threw personal space issues to the wind and hugged Molly once before straightening back up. "I figure I'm not the first to tell you, but if I'm lucky I'm the cutest?" It's a rather weak attempt at humor. "I can get one from the fridge. Do you want me to make you fresh coffee, or get you a soda too?"

[Molly Quincannon] Molly returns the hug easily enough, then ruffles Ellie's hair and ponders the question in an overblown, teasing way. "Are you the cutest? Let's see..." Then she chuckles. "Yes. Yes, you are the cutest who has told me that. And I think a Jolt'll do me nicely, thanks. Too much coffee the last little while and man, I thought hell'd freeze over before I said that."

Then she gives a firm stretch, rolls her shoulders and says, again apparently apropos of nothing, "I probably ought to buy a new bed."

[Ellie James] Ellie laughed, raking her fingers through her hair after letting Molly ruffle it. "Jolt it is..." She grins, then, and puts the back of her hand to Molly's forehead, as if checking her temperature. "Are you sure you aren't ill? I mean, Jolt has caffeine, but... too much coffee? Is that possible?" She chuckles cheerfully, glad to have her friend/roommate back out in quote unquote meatspace.

"What did you do, blow it up while I was at the movies the other day?"

[Molly Quincannon] Molly laughs when Ellie 'checks her temperature'. "Hey, sometimes you need variety in your caffeine intake, is all! Otherwise the taste of coffee becomes something less than appreciated. I couldn't have that!"

Then she looks a bit sheepish. "No ... see ... Chuck gave me the futon-bed thing I have in there now. Over the summer, there was a man-eating garbage thing and I set the garbage pile on fire but it was sort of eating me at the time and so I got some nasty burns on my legs. Israel fixed it but before she did, Chuck was over to cut me out of my boots - he kind of hurled; he doesn't deal well with injuries. Anyway, I was sleeping in my big beanbag at the time and he thought it'd be easier to get out of an actual bed so he went out and bought me that futon-thing. And now I don't know if I want to sleep in it because of memories and associations and there's only so much heart-wrenching you can have, really, so I've been sleeping in the backseat of the TARDISmobile." Which explains the stiffness, really; Molly's not precisely tall but neither is she short and that can't be comfortable.

[Ellie James] Ellie snorted, amused. "I suppose."

She frowned, crossing her arms over her chest. "Couldn't you just have come out to sleep on the couch, or - hell - coulda come and kicked me out of my bed. I'm small, I can sleep on the floor. You shouldn't have to sleep in the car!" Before she could mutter or swear and make Molly upset with her, she disappeared into the kitchen to get drinks. She came back out with Molly's Jolt and her own Mt. Dew, offering the only soda more sugary than Mt. Dew to Molly.

[Molly Quincannon] When Ellie returns, Molly's smiling a little. "Dude, I am not kicking you out of your bed because I'm a sentimental twit. It's your bed. You shouldn't lose your bed to me just because I can't decide what's worse; sleeping in that bed or throwing it away. I'll figure something out and until then ... I mean, it's nothing that a good hot shower won't cure. So don't worry so much about me and maybe we can surf around for some beds later, and I can fold the futon up into a couch and put a throw over it and ignore it for awhile."

She takes her Jolt with a murmur of thanks and then flops into the poofy red loveseat. "See? Relaxing. Recumbent. And I've got bojutsu class this afternoon; that'll work the kinks out. Oh, hey," she adds, yet again following a tangent, but at least you could see this one coming. "Ever thought about taking up a martial art?"

[Ellie James] "Could always freecycle it." Ellie offered, as she returned. "And I meant it, if the options are sleeping in the car and crashing in my bed, crash in my bed. Please? Hell, if you don't want to kick me out why not just crawl in? I'm small, there'd be room."

Taking a sprawl on one of the ever present beanbags, Ellie looked over Molly's flop and nodded. "Better." She stretched and then opened her soda. "Thought about it, never had the time to try and follow through." Which is something of a lie, but not completely. She's had the time, but not the resources, or the time, but not the safety to turn her attention away from ducking truant officers. "Think I ought to?"

[Molly Quincannon] "That's not the point," is Molly's response to that. "The point is that giving it away or selling it would show that I don't care, which I do, but then there's the sleeping in it, which hurts because ... well, because I care but he's sometimes a shit and probably hates me and ... gah. Anyway. So I can't get rid of it and I can't sleep in it so I have to sit it in a corner and try not to think about it. And I'm not making you share a bed with me either. That's not fair. It is your bed. And dude, you are probably the first person I've ever met who's made that offer to a Cultist without the expectation of sex. I don't know if it's because you don't know the rep or not, but either way, it's appreciated. I hate being defined by stereotypes."

To the question about the martial arts, she nods. "I mean, regular street fighting is one thing - I can hit a guy and make him feel it, sure - but half the reason I picked bojutsu is because hitting people is sometimes hell on the fists and it's great to be able to do something that lets you pick up an improvised weapon. Also, if you mix that with the street tricks, you can come up with some nasty surprises for any would-be attacker. So ... yeah, I think it's worthwhile, and a great build-up for discipline and general health. So if you're interested, I can pick up brochures this afternoon. My place runs a fair old gamut of classes."

[Ellie James] Ellie frowned. "Oh. Okay. I kind of get that, I think. I don't know. Don't think I've ever really been in a situation where I want to keep something but don't want to. I've always been a keep it and use it or find someone who needs it." She shrugged, and then blinked at the observation about beds and sex. "Urrr... you're kind of more of my sister than someone I'd want to sleep with. No offense."

"Oh... that actually sounds like fun. And useful. You can only use a pipe like a bat so many times before it stops doing any good." She toyed with a strand of hair thoughtfully. "Do you have suggestions on what would be a good idea, or are all of them usually good ideas?"

[Molly Quincannon] "Exactly!" This to the bits about sisterishness and beds. "Like I said, it's more that there are stereotypes and yadda-yadda-blah and no one would imagine that someone from my Trad could share a bed with anyone without sex being involved. But yeah, you're kind of like a little sister to me and so, y'know, no - not that you're not cute - but ... well, you know what I mean. And I'm sure that I'll be fine for another couple of days. And I'm sure I'll find a use for it, or find someone who does, when things are less up in the air in the Chuck-related bits of my life."

Suggestions on martial arts gets a thoughtful look up at the ceiling, followed by a sip of Jolt. "Well ... depends on whether you want to go for something with a weapon or not. When I was thinking unarmed combat, they suggested tae kwon do to me, which I might consider along with the bojutsu if my schedule can carry it and once I build up a bit more stamina. I mean, bojutsu, belly dancing and my usual DDR tends to push me to my physical limits. Anyway, tae kwon do is supposed to be pretty versatile, and is apparently a good lead-in to kendo later. I didn't like the idea of judo because it's too much a grappling thing and I don't want to get that close to an opponent."

[Ellie James] Ellie smiled, relieved, when Molly didnt' take offense to the sister comment - in her past she'd run into that. But Molly agreed with her, and that was all to the good. She watched Molly thinking about her question, and actually remembered that she was holding a soda herself.

"DDR will push anyone to their limits. It's insane." She chewed on her lip thoughtfully. "I wish I knew someone who could teach me that Brazillian JuJitsu style, but I'd probably end up hurting myself. Saw a show about it the other night, while you were in your room. Something about how Capoeira was actually more effective and stronger than even Tae Kwon Do kicks." She grinned. "Didn't hurt that the guy demonstrating the kick was really, really hot."

[Molly Quincannon] Molly grins and pulls her Macbook out of the laptop bag leaning against the loveseat. "Well, seek and we shall find. Let's see..." Fingers fly across the keyboard and then she says, "Aha! There are, in fact, three places that do capoeira in Chicago. Depends on style, really, though I bet the class at Chicago U would be best. College-sponsored classes probably end up being more accessible, and probably more people your own age."

[Ellie James] Ellie blinked, not really surprised to see the laptop come out but surprised to hear that there are actually that many places teaching capoeira. "Wow. I didn't figure there'd be even one place teaching it. Does it mention how much the classes are? I can cut down on my soda habit it I need to. That might be fun. I know it was made for people who were under-nourished and downtrodden... means someone little like me might be able to use it."

[Molly Quincannon] "Nyeh, don't worry about the cost of it," is Molly's comment. "See, I look at it as an investment. This means that you can watch my back where necessary, if you learn a martial art. I figure it's money well spent if it keeps us both safer. So there you go! Want me to book you in? And you can ... I dunno, take me to the movies or something in return."

[Ellie James] Ellie eyed Molly thoughtfully, not that Molly's offer to pay was actually that much of a surprise. However, this time it's a proposition she doesn't actually want to argue. Because Molly is right, it is a good investment. Somebody needed to be able to guard Molly's back. "Yeah, sign me up, please? And I can do that. Complete with popcorn." She grinned. "Now here's hoping I don't hurt myself trying to learn it!"

[Molly Quincannon] That gets a laugh. "Oh, it'll hurt," she tells the girl. "You'll ache in places you didn't even know you had for a few weeks. There's a reason I installed the power shower and amped up the hot water boiler. Also, there's this great body wash that's all eucalyptus and a few other things and it's great for muscle aches; I'll order some up again. And probably some painkillers and tiger balm. But anyway, then you get the hang of it and it doesn't hurt so much. As to movies, what kind of thing do you like, anyway? I mean, what'd you go see last week?"

[Ellie James] Ellie laughed. "I actually meant tying myself in knots, and giving myself weird bruises. The sample kick on that show came from a crouch down on the floor." She smiled at the mention of the shower, though. That shower was amazing. "Painkillers will probably be one of the smartest investments ever. And I actually like lots of different kinds of movies. Not big on the romancey/happy ending types, but a lot of the rest of them. I really want to see Tron when it comes out. I saw Megamind last week, because I wanted something silly, and Unstoppable wasn't going to play for another hour by the time I got to the theater."

[Molly Quincannon] Molly chuckles again. "Not Harry Potter, then? Well, you know what my movie collection looks like." It's ... eclectic, Molly's movie collection - all on her huge multimedia server (six hard drives with 150GB each, four of them full of TV series and movies). There's a lot of horror - Oriental and Western - and 80s cheese and action flicks and ... well, a little bit of everything but she seems to be a horror/sci-fi buff. "I wanted to see Let Me In and managed to miss that one in the theatres. But I also want to see Tron, so why don't we make that a date? That and Harry Potter. Weird, considering what we are, but I think the movies are way better than the books."

[Ellie James] Ellie snickered quietly, very familiar with Molly's movie tastes by now. "The books aren't horrible, but yeah, the movies have mostly been better. Anyway, we can make Tron my 'thank you' movie. Because it promises to be epic. Epically horrible or awesome, I'm not sure which, but epic either way."

[Molly Quincannon] "I'm kind of sorry I kind of missed out on the original on the big screen," is Molly's comment. "I mean, that came out the year I was born so all I ever saw it on was VHS. Really epic for its time special effects wise, but ... you know, that was then. But yes, Tron can be thank-you movie and Harry Potter can just be for fun." She glances up at the ceiling a bit thoughtfully (her version of looking at a watch - Molly has that kind of time sense that doesn't need one) and then says, "Maybe after my bojutsu class? And after pizza, which should be here right around--"

The doorbell rings.

"...Now," Molly finishes with a grin. "Pizza and chat, then my class, then Harry Potter. Plan for the day is set and you can be sure that I got something that approximates fresh air and meatspace exposure!"

So it is written, and so it is done; there is pizza and nudging Molly's movie collection, and so they both get a break from their respective tasks and have some fun and girl-time.