What He Wants Will Never Happen

[Chuck Carmichael] White shirt.
Black pants.
Black leather jacket, undone.

Hello, king of the Geek Squad, how are you today?

Ring, ring, goes Molly's buzzer, and around Chuck, a nasty mix of snow and rain falls, freezing as it hits the ground and promising a hellish rush hour, and a hard time for both of their neighborhoods' homeless. Welcome to Chicago.

[Molly Quincannon] There's no particular pause between the doorbell going and Molly opening the door - not more than the usual cursory check of the security camera feed, anyway. This may be in part due to the weather; she wouldn't leave a dog out in this weather, much less a colleague (friend? What is up with them right now, anyway? Never mind; he's still out there and probably cold). So the door opens and Molly, in jeans and a T-shirt that reads "Team Anders", steps aside, greeting him not with a 'hello' but a "Get in out of the sleet, you dork," spoken in friendly tones.

The place has not changed much, though there's a smell of baking that's new. There's still the remarkable HabiTrail and the ferrets within it, and Ellie's Nook, and Molly offering, "Coffee? It'll warm you up and Israel got me this gorgeous gourmet stuff for the holidays."

[Chuck Carmichael] "Mmm, good coffee after a day filled with work swill. Sold."

Goodness only knows what's up with them right now; Chuck doesn't act all that differently than he did when they were for sure dating, with the exception of notably less tactility. He's a huggy guy, sure, and it's quite possible he always will be, but it's not the same. Maybe they've taken giant steps backwards. Maybe they're just friends.

"How's it going? Thought I'd swing by since I was in the neighborhood."

[Molly Quincannon] Well, Molly's not hugging him, so that's something. Maybe they have taken a huge step back. They don't seem to be talking about it right now. What Molly is doing, in fact, is waving him towards seat-of-his-choice while she moves to the kitchen to pour coffee. "A lot better than you'd figure, actually, given that it's just over a week ago that I got spiked with I dunno how many volts to the brain. Kibo bless and keep Israel, that's all I have to say. Though I'm still pissed with Solomon for piggybacking my metaphysical rerouting firewall without so much as asking. Also, I am learning to shoot an actual weapon. And seeing Ellie through community college. And made ForceFeed hands-free. And got no less than two bits of contact from the Rogue freakin' Council. And Matt at work is still a gibbon and actually set one of the servers on fire."

She returns with two mugs (Chuck gets TRON; Molly has 'I Prepared Explosive Runes This Morning') and settles on her favourite armchair - unless Chuck has nabbed it, in which case it's one corner of the poofy red loveseat. "How about you? What's new and interesting?"

[Chuck Carmichael] ".............." What part of all that information's given him the long pause is anyone's guess, though it's a fair bet that it's the part that has to do with massive amounts of electricity through the brain (not that he hasn't managed something similar), or . . . he starts with the easiest first. "If Ellie needs some help, I can kick in a bit. Education's important, after all. What's she studying?" Never mind that he's never properly met the girl (massive Halloween/birthday parties don't count); Chuck's a generous soul.

Then there's the rest, and he's not sure what to do with most of it, except . . . "I did a biathalon once - skiing and shooting. Only time I ever handled a gun. Are you . . . should you be up and around? And how does a guy set a server on fire? I mean, I've heard about that sort of thing, but thought it was an urban legend or something."

[Molly Quincannon] Molly shakes her head. "I got it, thanks. I mean, it's just community college, and I've been picking up some extra cash troll-stomping at a ... let's say pay-only site of dubious repute. I generally do that over the holidays anyway. And right now it's general studies but she's looking at sitting her SATs and going for some scholarships so she can do the actual university thing. I think she's looking at the whole massage therapy and natural remedies thing. She's good with that sort of thing. Apprentice-level Life helps a metric buttload."

The rest? She shrugs. "Oh, up and around's fine. You've never had your Life Pattern reset, have you? It's ... an experience, let me tell you. It's like I was never hit. Except for the memories of it, but ... y'know, experiences only help us grow. And a guy sets a server on fire by unplugging my specially designed cooling system and using it to cook microwave burritos. You know how the cheese gets napalm-hot when you cook them? It's ... a long and messy story and I was off Mexican food for weeks. As to the guns thing? Well, it seems to be a useful and necessary skill around here, given that people seem to like greeting me with guns these days. I did pretty well, actually. I blame years of Duck Hunt."

[Chuck Carmichael] "I don't know anything at all about any of those, other than that massages feel good. Have her let me know when she needs practice hours, yeah? And no, I've never had my Life pattern reset. The times I was hurt badly enough or sick enough, I've had to deal with it, maybe with some healing. But nothing so extreme as a reset."

Chuck's decent at managing multiple conversation streams, though it never lasts long; after a bit, his focus generally has to narrow. This isn't a bunch of code (except in the way that it is), but a conversation with enough other complexities (body language, tone, pauses, emphasis) to concentrate on without trying to discuss more than a topic or maybe two at a time.

"Man, what an idiot. Not that I haven't cooked on a rig before - I was in college and in a hurry, don't judge - but man. It takes a special kind of talent to burn a rig."

[Molly Quincannon] Things narrow to the subject of healing, so at least there's that. "Will do, Ellie-wise." (Never mind that Ellie wouldn't touch Chuck except maybe to knee-cap him right now; there's no need to go into that.) "As to the rest ... be thankful. While the whole Pattern-reset thing is an experience like no other I could describe, the pain involved in that being the only option to fix the problem is ... well. You know, if you've been hurt bad enough for that. This is, like, the third time since I hit Chicago. I so need to learn Life."

Work-related stuff gets a shrug. "I don't judge, but dude, you should see the stuff I have to go in and fix over the weekends. I still don't know why Matt still has a job. Still, keeps my hand in at hardware tech, so I can't complain too much. Except where I can when I spend two hours scraping cheese goo and refried bean out of a server case. Anyway, you never told me what you've been up to."

[Chuck Carmichael] "Yeah, once was enough for me. Hopefully it'll never happen again." That's enough on that subject, and the work bit gets amused commiseration; he has to go into people's homes and fix or install their equipment, after all. He understands. Then, though, there's the question of what he's been up to, and he shrugs.

"You know. Work, projects, exercise, trying to find interesting new places for carry-out. Had a couple freelance gigs, and am building a new rig of my own. I need more processing power and memory." He doesn't go into why, or what the projects are; they already disagree on them, so really there's no point when they're here, being friendly with each other. "Good times. And clearly fascinating. There's a new girl at work who thinks she's awesome, but really I don't even know why they hired her. To fill the female quota, I suppose, but they could have gotten someone who knows her stuff."

[Molly Quincannon] Chuck's second sentence gets a raised eyebrow, but Molly declines comment. They're not going there. Well, she has no urge to, anyway. There's a lot they disagree on, and it's probably for the best to leave them aside while they at least work out if they can be friendly on a surface level. (He's good at that, at least. Oh, stop being uncharitable. Make me.) The mention of his project ... well, she can let that go too, sort of. Of course, part of the reason for it is that she knows - she knows, in a way that he can't; from experience as fresh and strong as the coffe they're drinking - that what he wants will never happen. But she won't tell him. He has to learn that for himself.

She sticks with, "Sounds like you've been busy, then. And does the girl have reasons besides her not-all-that tech skills to think she's all that? Witty repartee? Good customer service skills? Good set of boobs?"

[Chuck Carmichael] "Eh, not so bad with the witty repartee, if you can deal with the gum-snapping. And yeah, I guess she's pretty good looking, in the way-out-of-your-average-geek's-league sort of way. Bad attitude, though. Kind of surly and sarcastic."

Molly knows things from experience that Chuck can't, but then . . . well, Molly's world and Chuck's don't see eye to eye. It's not just the people in them who don't line up properly, but the views themselves, and yet they manage to cohabitate in the larger world just fine, more or less. And from there it's small talk; Chuck isn't terrible at the witty repartee himself, and yes, he's very good at being friendly on a surface level, regardless of how charitable the thought may or may not have been. At least by the time his cell goes off for "One more call tonight, Chuck, please?", they aren't yelling at each other or otherwise arguing, and they may even be laughing.

One can hope, anyway.