Real coffee. From the hills of Columbia...

[devola]

Who: Devola, Gaignun
What: A cuppa and some conversation
When: January 12th, noon-ish.
Where: A coffeehouse. (I'll make up a lame name for it when the Player Locations post returns ~)
Rating: PG, maybe PG-13 if someone feels a bit profane.


It had been something of a long time coming. Between differing work schedules and Devola's simple, easily-distracted nature taking front seattime temporarily becoming monopolized by a miniature onslaught of "new" technology to play with, well... Just sitting down and having a pleasant chat with someone (who she'd previously discussed doing so with) had been far too delayed.

In any case, inspiration had struck. By and large, there weren't many better ways to spend a chilly day than with a warm drink and some pleasant conversation, and -- being winter in a place where seasons actually changed -- every day in Prospero had been a chilly one for quite some time.

So, earlier in the morning she'd sent an invitation to Gaignun. They'd checked for matching breaks within their respective schedules and had lucked out, arranging to meet at one of the coffee houses dotting Prospero's shopping district during lunch...

Comments

[namedforcat]

Gaignun was one of those people that liked being a little bit early to appointments. Sure his schedule did not always allow it, and sometimes to make the proper impression he had to be late, but when left to his own devices he preferred being early. Devola was a meeting for pleasure and not business, so he could do what he liked.

And so he settled down in a table by the window to wait for her, a cup of dark roast in his hand. It was black with a half packet of sugar hidden away in the bottom.

[devola]

It was, admittedly, a bit of a walk from the library to the shop. Half the reason Devola had picked the place, really. Ignoring the fact that any experience in a human body was still novel, an actual change in climate from something other than "pleasant" or "Facade" was an experience in and of itself.

However, that didn't mean she wasn't going to dress so that she'd keep warm. So, after placing a cup of Caffè Americano on the table, she greeted Gaignun, partially muffled by a scarf she was in the process of unfurling.

"Heya. Too early to use 'g'afternoon' yet?"

[namedforcat]

"Hello there Devola, and I think we've still got a few minutes yet before 'afternoon' is appropriate. A chilly day isn't it? I wouldn't be surprised if we got snow sooner rather then later if this keeps up. How are things at the library?" He asked, waiting a little bit so that she could get that scarf off before she was expected to answer.

A little bit cold himself, he wrapped both hands around his own coffee cup to take the next sip.

[devola]

"Quiet. Not too many visitors aside from the occasional student or two and a few older folks. Sometimes I wonder how many permanent residents there are, here."

The scarf no longer constricting her neck, she sat down, coat hanging off of the chair's back.

"Snow... That'd be a first. Or first in a long time. I'm not sure which, now that I think about it."

[namedforcat]

"Permanent residents huh? I wonder if newcomers like us just push them out. No, that can't be right, this city is more then large enough for us and them I'm sure." He sighed and set the cup down to turn his attention more fully to her.

"The first in a long time huh? That's right, you said your home was a constantly pleasant climate. I didn't get to see it much myself but I rather liked what little of it I got."

[devola]

"Mmhm. Varied area to area, but nowhere was cold enough for snow. Not in a long time, anyway."

This was, actually, conjecture because who knows what part of Earth Nier's even set at?more or less the truth. While she didn't plan on opening up to anyone and everyone about the finer details of her home, she didn't feel like lying about minor things. And not to people who'd already found out some of the more personal details, anyway.

"And, yeah. From all the abandoned buildings, there should be... err... a lot more people." She fumbled for an estimate before settling on a general statement, shrugging casually.

[namedforcat]

"I agree. It doesn't look like this town was depopulated through conflict, so I assume it was a slow out, and a slower back in." He said, smiling a little at her shrug.

"There's quite a bit we don't know about this place, so maybe we should stick to what we do know." After all, that was the true purpose of this conversation wasn't it? Their mutual curiosity about each others homes.

"Snow...Like I said I enjoy it, but Jr. prefers sunshine and likes to take the environmental controls with him so I rarely get to play with it."

[devola]

"Sounds alright to me. Scold me if I'm wandering off-topic. S'a bad habit."

She took a sip of her drink, letting the warm roast-bean elixir warm her up a bit before she spoke again.

"Environmental controls. It's not too far fetched of an idea considering... er, y'know. It just seems sort of outlandish to put into practice. How big's your home, again?"

[namedforcat]

"It's actually not as far fetched as you'd think. My home is the size of a large city, big enough to warrant its own beach, but it's also on a space station. Everything is artificial there, including the weather." Gaignun answered, smiling a little as he thought about the foundation.

"The Foundation was created as a safe place for people to go if they had no where else to go. It was beautiful there, we tried to make it as close to Lost Jerusalem as we could with the architecture so it was quite a bit like Prospero in that respect."

[devola]

"Hmm, sounds like it was similar in scope to Prospero, too. Sounds like you might have a leg up on the rest of us as far as figuring stuff out on the island itself is concerned..."

She took a moment to think. What if, rather than the method they'd chosen, Project Gestalt's time, funds, and brainpower was put into colonizing space like the people of Gaignun's Earth had done. Escape rather than weathering the storm. An interesting thought, and one to pursue later on, for certain.

However, rather than space out, she returned to the conversation. "Still. It sounds like an ambitious project, to say the least. How long did it even take to create the finished product?"

[namedforcat]

"The foundation only took a couple of years, less then ten." However, this was mainly because they had had secret military funding behind them. Still, it was his home, his pride and joy, and he loved it. "We had a lot of help however from the Miltian government, and we've retained those close ties. I run it as co-director with my brother." He sees no need to say 'adopted son', as that charade is really not applicable here.

"It was an ambitious project, sure, but well worth it."

[devola]

"You built a city-sized steel station capable of surviving independently in space. And you did it in under a decade."

Granted, she didn't know the logistics of creating such an elaborate living area. Her notions on space and surviving within it were based mainly off of her intuition, as well as what little she'd read on the subject. Still...

"Damn. That's impressive."

[namedforcat]

"You have to remember that where I'm from, we're at least 4000 years in this place's future. Terra-forming, space stations, ships capable of interstellar travel are all common place." A thought occurred to him and he had to laugh.

"If you think that's impressive, you should have seen the Durandal. It's a huge spaceship, but it could dock in the foundation and acted like a skyscraper when Jr wasn't out blowing things up with it."

[devola]

"He had a personal building-sized spaceship that, in fact, could double as a building. Sheesh. Weird to know where technology can go when it diverges along a different path."

She shook her head, "I get that it's not rare per se. People moved off of earth and everything. Still, I'm guessing the city-sized ones are at least sorta hard to come by?"

[namedforcat]

"The nicer ones are. Most of the space stations are dock colonies that don't pretend they're cities. We spent extra on making the Foundation as close to a planet as possible." He said, pride very evident in his voice.

"And the Durandal wasn't really Jr's personal ship, he just treated it like that because he could." The pride changed to fondness. "But watching the Durandal dock is a wondrous sight. I wish I could show it to you. When it's at the foundation it serves as my office."

[devola]

"Dock colonies... Lemme guess. Lots of steel corridors and claustrophobic box-like rooms?" Or, to put it more dramatically, mad scientist labs without the mad science gear sitting around.

A grin. "Something makes me think he'd like to show it to people, as well. If he hijacks it so often, I assume that means he's pretty fond of it, himself. What kinda tricks can the Durandal pull off?"

[namedforcat]

Gaignun nodded. "You would be about right. Judging from some of the sci-fi books available here, they seem to be what people from this time expect."

He grinned back at her. "The Durandal is Jr's favorite toy aside from his weaponry. It's so big that it's almost a community in it's own right, albeit a small one." The Durandal was also loaded with enough weaponry to make huge raids on U-TIC ships but Gaignun wasn't going to go into that just yet.

[devola]

"'Think big', is it? Though, that makes sense if there's no planet proper to call ho--" A pause, "Actually, assuming you all haven't picked up other planets to live on is a silly idea, in retrospect."

[namedforcat]

"Yes, humans have colonized many planets by my time, with the Federation's capital being on one called Fifth Jerusalem. The Federation is basically the government system that ties all of the planets together, however there are some autonomous ones, like Milita, and a few other organizations. The Federation is the largest however." He said, taking another sip of his coffee. He didn't want it to go cold after all.

"However, in the process of all this expansion, the exact location of 'Lost Jerusalem', IE Earth was lost to us."

[devola]

She couldn't help herself, she smiled wryly. "So many Jerusalems, you lost the first one?"

Swirling her cup, she paused to take another sip herself. "Sounds about right, as far as the organizations and such are concerned. It takes... a lot, for humans to all gather up together under the same banner. Sometimes more than it should."

[namedforcat]

"So we did." He said chuckling a bit.

He watched her drink her coffee while he thought about his answer to her next comment. "The Federation is about as loved as any government, which is to say either too much or not at all. But everyone has their own agenda's. What about you? What's the social structure in your home?"

[devola]

That... was a tricky question for the red-haired woman. And, in the end, one she would only half-answer.

"It varies from location to location. Each township has it's own leader, there's no unifying overarching leader. For my home town, it's more or less Popola -- er, my sister -- who calls the shots. I'll lend her a hand, from time to time."

[namedforcat]

"So you function more like the dock colonies and the outer planets, they play lip service to the Federation and pretty much run themselves." He said, weighing her words carefully.

"Popola and Devola...I guess there's no escaping naming schemes. What's your town like with her running it?"

[devola]

She smiled wanly, "Hey, could be a lot worse. At least they only sound sorta similar, not near-identical."

"...As for the town itself, I guess we're pretty prosperous. As much as anyone can be, anyway. It's not quite the trade center that Seafront is, but we're landlocked so that's to be expected."

She hummed to herself a bit, before adding to her statement. "It's generally accepted that our town's the most educated; we've got one of, if not the largest collections of books in the local area. Except for the random shade attack, everything's quite peaceful overall."

[namedforcat]

"I'm glad to hear that even in your world, literature is valued. Almost everything is electronic back home, but paper copies are rare and valued by most." He said, smiling at the memories of him and Jr fighting over one rare book or another.

"Shades? I remember you mentioning them briefly before, but you didn't get enough time to explain."