reverielogs | open network & mingle

» WHO? Ren Amamiya & ota!
» WHEN? Throughout the end of June
» WHERE? The Mess Hall
» WHAT? A request and a mingle, coffee shop AU without the AU
» WARNINGS? none

text; un: @joker

To whomever might be interested/is tired of the sludgy refuse that passes for coffee around here, I've gotten my hands on some real beans and have the means to turn them into a more than passable cup of coffee, if I do say so myself.

I'll be setting up shop in the Mess Hall for ease of access most mornings. Resources are somewhat precious but seeing as there's no currency on the station I won't be charging, though I am looking for a few things in trade if anyone has them available/is consistently successful at coaxing them out of the fabricators. Sugar or flavored syrups for blended drinks, or if anyone has books or e-reader files I'm always on the hunt for new material to occupy my spare time.

Contact me at this user name or ask for Amamiya at the Mess Hall if you have anything you'd like to offer. Thank you for your time.

action;/mingle

[ As promised, most days of the week a tall, lanky teen with messy black hair can be found manning a table not too far from the replicators, a casual but polite air about him as he meets requests agreeably. Sorry, anyone who enjoyed a relatively quiet meal time in the mess; the burr grinder intermittently ruins the tranquility that isn't already deflated by residents pleading to an unseeing, unhearing god for the fabricators to actually make what they want for once.

This is the social mantle that Ren Amamiya donned earliest as a kid on probation in Tokyo. He supposes that the upside of spontaneously waking up in a new place in an unknown section of the multiverse is that stuff like that doesn't follow you there. Ren certainly doesn't miss it, nor the deadeyed stares at school, nor the stage whispered declarations that if you met his line of sight he'd break your arm clean in half. As if these noodle arms could accomplish much past breaking dry pasta noodles into a pot.

Sojiro was one of the first to see the potential for something different. Or it'd be more accurate to say that he hoped that having something to do around Café Leblanc in an official capacity would keep Ren's head down, keep his hands busy so they don't sneak into cookie jars or whatever it is that kids get up to these days. The coffee making lessons Ren picked up are on display in the Mess, a steady rhythm of measurement to grind, boil to thermometer and then the slow, slow pour, everything that Sojiro knew would make a damn fine cup of coffee and learning these techniques is a one-way ticket to caffeine addiction. Because with great power comes great self-inflicted insomnia. ]

Hm? I didn't catch that, sorry.

[ Ren's not usually inattentive but for the moment it took you to ask for a cup or two he seemed to be absorbed in a thought, now jolting back into awareness. ]

Black only, I'm afraid. If you're a fabricator whisperer you could do me a solid, though.

[ Some days a large, long-haired cat is alternately curled up on one end of the table or is batting at various implements that he needs, okay Lisa? What flavorless bits of meat he could coax out were set aside in a bowl that she is snootily sticking her, uh, snoot at.

Ren's expression is strained at the edges, glancing somewhat helplessly at you. ]

Distraction please? She's, uh. Fixated, at the moment.

[ Or people can use this as a chance to meet one another, chat each other up, or otherwise get way too much caffeine now that tolerance levels are good and low. The world is your oyster, dear reader. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[it's a good thing Dave's plenty experienced in keeping a straight face, because probably anybody else would have laughed at that almost coffee disaster.]

So, what, it's like some sorta blobby chatbot? That blows bubbles.

[that's the large sum of Dave's experience with AIs, sadly. curiosity gets the better of him, though and he leans down to, uh. give Botamon an experimental poke? no, that's a bad idea. better just hold his hand out to it instead.]

[much smarter.]

[Thanks for not laughing at him, Dave. He appreciates it, even as he breathes a sigh and sets the cup safely down on the table now that Botamon's distracted.]

I guess? She described it as, um... basically a program that should only work in virtual reality. So it's pretty weird that it's bouncing around in real life like this.

[Unperturbed by discussions as to whether or not it should logically exist, Botamon burbles forward and rubs the top of its head against Dave's hand, wiggling its ears contentedly. It feels a bit like a velvet-covered mochi, somewhat squishy and elastic.]

It eats... a lot. But it seems to know that people aren't food, at least.

[Hajime's shoelaces, on the other hand? Tasty snack.]

[Dave's never had mochi, so he can only come up with a closer approximation that better suits his frame of reference.]

[it's like a mix of velvet, silly putty and gak. and he's very tempted to pick it up and give it a stretch, but that seems kind of like an asshole-ish to do to a friendly and apparently famished chatbot.]

[Dave, unfortunately, is an asshole. but he'll just test the waters first, giving Botamon a very light squish with his hand.]

You sound like you're finally getting used to pretty weird. [congrats, Hajime! welcome to the club.]

[Dave? Please, if/when the replicators can create mochi, please. Please let Hajime teach you about mochi. His favorite kind is kusamochi, but he dislikes sakuramochi. DON'T confuse the two.

Botamon yields slightly to Dave's touch, blowing a curious stream of bubbles at him. They're harmless, they're just, you know. Bubbles. Hajime just laughs self-deprecatingly and shakes his head.]

Like I have a choice. Mishima just kind of forced it on me.

[Both Botamon, and also getting used to weird shit.]

What about you? Still waiting for a space jailer to lock you up?

[okay, sounds easy enough — Hajime doesn't like plant mochi, but he likes plant mochi.]

[but yeah, that wasn't nearly a large enough digisquish to satisfy his curiosity, so he's just going to see if he can press even more bubbles out of the thing. Dave ...... why are you like this.]

Nah, they've decided to let me go free on account of good behavior. [says the kid trying to gently flatten a dubiously sentient chatbot.]

Does this guy talk or does he just blow bubbles?

No, I don't think it talks... if it does, I've never heard it.

[Right. Nothing could be simpler re: mochi.

Botamon puts up with the squishing, to a point. Dave manages to squish him down an inch or two before it lets out another stream of bubbles, a little annoyed this time! It bounces up, opening its mouth in an attempt to bite Dave's hand.]

Botamon, no!!

[Hajime's going to attempt to scoop it up and away from that. It would be a harmless bite, since Botamon doesn't have teeth, but he doesn't want to encourage that kind of behavior. He's TRYING to be a good digidad here.]

[it bit him. the chatbot bit him!!!!!]

[Dave just stands there, hand still held out as it was when he was squishing Botamon, as if he's not really sure what to do with this turn of events. and deep down, he knows he probably deserved that.]

[.... no regrets, though. he'd do it again in an instant. and he has more questions: like, for instance, if it has the sort of texture of silly putty, does that mean it has other silly putty properties? could he, for instance — and he's just mentally throwing this question out there — draw something on the wall, smush Botamon against the drawing and decorate it that way?]

[is it going to get bigger the more it eats? like Monster Blood in the Goosebumps series. does it even have a digestive tract or does it just dissolve stuff like a Venus Flytrap?]

[where the hell are the bubbles coming from????]

Okay, I have about a million more questions and no where to put them.

[It sure did bite him. Hajime's going to take this opportunity to set Botamon down and give it a gentle push toward Ren's coffee setup. Don't blow bubbles and be excited. You're being punished.]

S-sorry... It does that sometimes. You're not hurt, are you?

[He's looking over Dave's hand, moving as if he might take it to check before thinking better of it. It's weird to hold a guy's hand, right? Dave will show him if he's actually hurt, probably.]

[sorry, Hajime, there's no holding this Texan's hand today. Texas Hand Hold 'Em? the joke is there. i just can't quite pull it together.]

[but he lowers his hand; if he's perturbed at all by Hajime's sort of movement to take it, though, it doesn't outwardly show.]

It's fine. Why are you blobsitting again, exactly?

[Someday he's gonna get that hand... add it to the List of hands he's held on this station.]

Mishima thinks it's a good idea for it to go out and meet new people. Something about how it'll help it "evolve."

[He doesn't do air-quotes with his fingers, but they're audible in his voice.]

Mostly I think she just wants to work on some code without Botamon bothering her.

Yeah, I get it. Makes total sense.

[it Does Not, considering the way he just keeps going.]

Before you know it, it'll sprout legs and crawl out of the pool in some fuckin' Dawn of Chatbot fashion, blobvolve its way into high school, and then you'll have to argue with it over curfews while it bubbles about how you're not its real dad.

[holy shit, Dave, no.]

That's how it works, right. I haven't boned up on coding biting bots or anything, but that sounds like how it should go.

[Hajime's just gonna... take a sip of his coffee, let Dave get that little ramble over with. Really, it's too entertaining to interrupt this entire narrative he'd concocted in seconds.]

Yeah, sounds about right. We'll have to make sure to figure out how to get it a proper education here in space. Maybe there's those, um, videotaped lessons or whatever. Just sit it down in front of those and tell it it can't watch cartoons until it's finished its homework.

Well, now someone's gotta make the cartoons so that threat has some teeth to it.

[.......]

I'll do it.

[Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff: THE ANNIMIATION]

open network & mingle

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