Rose and Aelieth: Hanging out

Aelieth arrived at the front of the Navi Shop quite a bit before Rose, which was to be expected since he had to walk all of one hundred feet and she had several miles to travel. Unsure of what to do while waiting, he resigned himself to simply loitering against the front of the building. Holo, eager to be part of the interactions that were about to happen, appeared on Aelieth's shoulder, legs kicking absentmindedly as he joined his Operator in waiting.

While Aelieth had gotten there quite a bit earlier than her, Rose was far from late. She had left as soon as she knew where she was going and had travelled at a fairly good speed.

So Aelieth didn't have to wait long before he saw white convertible with dual pink racing dtriped down the top pull into the parking lot. Of course, even if he didn't know whose car it was, the top was down so she was fairly visible in it.

Of course, she was dressed differently, and had on a hat and sun glasses, but she was still the same person and should have been recognizable.

Rose found a parking spot without much difficulty and parked her car, also without much difficulty. She then put up the top, took off her sun glasses, rolled up all the windows, left the car, and locked it.

After dealing with all these trivial little matters she waved to Aelieth. She had seen him while pulling in, so she hadn't had to waste time looking for him. And she didn't leave him waiting long after that, either, as she walked over to join him in loitering against the front of the building.

Then, turning to him, she gave a smile. "Nice to see you again Aelieth."

Aelieth waved back at Rose as she walked up. He thought he remembered her mentioning a car back when they were competing in the Tournament, and definitely remembered her saying she was driving from the email he had received not long ago, but he hadn't imagined she be in a convertible. He had actually pictured something similar to his car when he was in high school, a used car that was older than he was at the time, but still ran decently. Granted... he had totaled the thing within a month of graduating...

Aelieth gave his head a quick shake, clearing it of the tangent and almost upsetting Holo's seating, which got him a nasty look from the Navi. "It's good to see you, too," he said, returning Rose's smile. "So, you've got a new job?" he asked, commenting on something she had said one of her messages.

Rose nodded quickly. One hand shot to the back of her neck to rub it in an expression of modest anxiousness, and the other to her waist to pick up her PeT.

"Yep, sure do. School going well for you?"

Her PeT in one hand, and a pocket surrounding the other, she looked around and took a brief scan of the area, and then added, "Oh, are we going to be testing here, or is there somewhere else you'd like to head?"

Rose didn't really mind, since she would enjoy Aelieth's company wherever. It was certainly better than sitting by herself on a bench in front of a store in ElecTown. She also wasn't sure she had anything to suggest. She didn't spend much time in SciLabs, as she didn't have much to do there.

"Yeah, it's going alright. Just busy, like I said." Aelieth commented, pocketing his hands as he pushed off of the wall with his back. As Rose reached for her PeT, Holo's eyes tracked the movement. Floating off of Aelieth's shoulder, he wafted over the the device started poking at the screen, trying to get SummonerMan to come out and join the group. It only took a moment before Aelieth noticed the behavior.

"Holo, get back over here..." he sighed, causing the Navi to look up, then return to his shoulder; the Navi's expression was unreadable at the moment. "Anyway, I'd kind of like to be sitting while testing. I think that's a cafè over that way," he said, pointing to a building a bit away. Out in front of it were a series of tables sporting parasols.

Holo's Actions were, sadly enough, ignored by his Navi counterpart. SummonerMan hadn't been paying much attention at first, and by the time he noticed, he found the actions vaguely annoying. He briefly considered some sort of obscene or offensive action, but reconsidered when it occurred to him that he wasn't quite sure what sort of mind this Navi had. It was apparently inquisitive, and seemed immature, viewing poking as a good choice of action. The way his Operator had reprimanded reinforced the possibility that this could be a childish mind locked in a . . . normal-size. . . body. "I wouldn't call it a normal, or even adult body. It's adult size, I suppose. And odd."

However, not the kind to spoil the innocence of a child, SummonerMan held off on profane actions and settled with ignoring the other Navi. Rose had smiled when he approached, and then shrugged, still with a happy look on her face, as he was called back.

During the conversation, since the hologram had been the one doing the most moving, her eyes followed it. "That sounds good. Sitting, I mean," the girl answered, looking up at the man she was talking to. Her attention directed at some parasols, she decided it looked like a good place to sit. Nice atmosphere and all. "Sure, that looks like a lovely place to test our Navis."

The parasols, and the concept of a cafe, apparently made her feel the need to use a nicer set of terms. She hearkened back to the chess match, with the flowery wording Aelieth and herself had exchanged, and smiled wider, coming close to laughter. She held her poise, though, and didn't laugh. She continued facing the place Aelieth had pointed out, but spoke to the man near to her, despite not facing him. "I could totally enjoy being at a café."

Aelieth didn't make the connection to the chess game, but the change in diction from "lovely" to "totally" wasn't lost on him.

"Well, let's head on over," he smiled while taking a step forward, waiting until Rose began movement towards their destination before actually starting walking. Holo, meanwhile, still sat upon his Operator's shoulder, staring blankly into space. Within his memory banks, he was trying to pull together everything he remembered about Rose's Navi: Thin... full body suit... headband with a card... spiked hair... and a cape. He had only been SummonerMan for a fraction of a minute, and yet his memory of the form was photographic.

Switching shoulders so that he would be in between Aelieth and Rose, he refreshed his hologram, changing it to resemble SummonerMan. Looking at Rose, he cocked his head while wearing an inquisitive expression.

Rose began walking immediately, keeping pace with her friend. "Sure thing." She was naturally not the kind of girl to just follow; she liked to keep pace with others. She was outgoing enough that she did end up leading sometimes, but wasn't self-centered enough that she went out of her way to lead. Being by a friend's side was a fitting way to walk for her.

"Hey, that's pretty good." She noted, seeing the Navi turn to her. "It's a great impression, if I do say so myself. Of course, Summ would probably be a better judge of that." She tooled around for a bit to take the PeT back out of its holster, where it had just been returned to for the walk.

Without pressing buttons or activating the backlight or any such thing, she flashed the PeT before Aelieth's shoulder, giving SummonerMan a decent look at the Navi. He rolled his eyes, and remarked a quick "Yeah, sure," before returning to silence and disinterest. Figuring this would happen, though, Rose had already returned the PeT to its holster.

Truth be told, SummonerMan did appreciate the accuracy. He just wasn't that impressed by the act. It added, though, once again to his belief that this Navi may be more childlike than he looked.

"Well, see, he agreed." Rose went on. "Sort of, at least. Anyway, he's probably just jealous, since you're basically a better version; Same appearance, less talking." Rose smiled and looked at her PeT quickly. "Well, basically the same. Looks a bit green though. Must not have his sea-legs yet," she added in a rather deadpan tone.

"So, have you ever been to this place before?" she asked, taking a few quick steps to catch up. Having significantly shorter legs, she had fallen behind when she stopped paying attention and started looking at her side. She recovered pace quickly, but the fact remained that she'd lost a bit of evenness for a moment.

Well... Holo thought, kicking his legs as he sat upon Aelieth's shoulder, still wearing the appearance of his counterpart, My plan to get him to join us kind of worked... Aelieth and Rose had covered a fair bit of land by now, and were almost half way to the cafè from where they started.

Aelieth couldn't help but chuckle as Rose delivered her deadpan joke. "Nah. I really only just spotted it while we were deciding where to test," he confessed, slowing his gait to allow Rose to catch up, then resuming his normal stride. "But, it seems just as good as any place to perform system tests. That, and having the ability to order something to drink makes it all the better." He smiled.

He walked for a bit in silence before asking "Has SummonerMan always been so... coarse?"

"Serving drinks is always a plus," Rose said plainly, looking at the tables ahead. And it was true. The testing itself was fairly standard, regardless of where they decided to go. The amenities provided outside of the net, however, for the poor Operators doing the testing; now those were things to take into consideration. Tables to sit at, umbrellas to sit under, and drinks to, well, drink, all certainly counted ad great bonuses.

She thought over this next question, but only for a moment. "Yeah, I guess he has. He's not exactly the most polite or nicest, but you can get use to it. He may not be the easiest to get a long with, but he's not completely intolerable. Well, not usually, at least." she smiled at this statement. It was basically true. She did enjoy having him, but he definitely wasn't the gentlest of Navis. "I guess his personality is a little coarse, but I make due."

"It makes things interesting, at least. If he were exactly like me, or if he had no personality, that wouldn't be very fun at all. Like talking to a mirror." She added, sort of thinking aloud on this point.

She smiled, gave a quick shrug, and resumed looking forward.

"Yeah, I guess..." Aelieth mused, looking forward as they walked. They were almost to the cafè now, roughly twenty feet away. "Still, I've got to wonder whether he was originally coded to be like that or if his life experiences made him that way..."

And without much more delay, the cobbled brick of the cafè's outdoor patio rested unevenly beneath Aelieth's feet. "Well, any preference on a table?" he asked, allowing Rose to choose where they would do their testing.

She thought about it briefly. She was fairly sure that nature versus nurture didn't come into question when an A.I. was created as an adult. She wasn't actually sure, however, that her treatment of her Navi hadn't impacted how he turned out.

SummonerMan would have written it all off as ridiculousness; idle chatter of nosy and bored minds. He certainly didn't think the way he was was a problem, and he definitely didn't credit Rose for his own personality. The same girl would likely have felt slightly more at ease knowing her Navi agreed with her, but alas it wasn't to be so at the moment.

Rose didn't actually manage to get in a response before the two had arrived at the café. She'd been too involved in her own thoughts. It wasn't ignoring him, she had looked and been attentive. She just hadn't thought of something to say in time. His new question, however, she managed to get straight out.

"Let's take one near the outside." She wanted to be outdoors, obviously. She also thought the little umbrellas over the table were terribly cute. But more specifically she'd suggested getting such a table near the edge of the café's outdoor seating section. Reasons were two-fold. "It would give us more to look at, I figure. We wouldn't just be staring at other diners but at the surroundings. Assuming we do any staring at all I mean . . ." she trailed off on this last note before resuming as per usual. "Also it would set us away from other diners. Sort of. That would likely mean fewer interruptions, which may be nice for the testing. And it means that if anyone's bothered by the fact that we're keying away our whole time here, we'd be bothering fewer of them."

She didn't really think that they'd bother people with their usage of PeTs, but it was something she took into account all the same. It was impossible to know if there were incredibly self-righteous and self-important people here, who viewed a café as somewhere to silently drink coffee. Sure, lots of cafés had lots of people who used technology. Whatever, though. She shrugged casually. "Any issue with a table by the edge?"

((OOC: Sorry Geki, but it's been a month...))

Before the young man could answer Rose found her attention diverted to a tingly feeling by her waist, accompanied by a soft buzzing sound. Recognizing it instantly as the tone her PeT emitted when receiving a call while set to 'vibrate' she took a few steps to the side in order to take the call.

She had removed herself far enough away from her friend that he would certainly not be able to hear the person she was speaking to, but if he had moved closer, or had good hearing, he would likely have been able to hear her, at least, and understand the basics of the conversation through the half he could hear.

It seemed like she was speaking to a parent, from the tone of her voice. Apparently she was needed. She expressed reluctance, briefly, but eventually accepted. She needed to pick someone up. The someone she was talking about was a he. This he was apparently her brother.

She exchanged farewells and parting words with someone whose response would not be heard by anyone but her. Her manner had visibly fallen, but she kept a smile on all the same.

She hadn't intended to so rudely leave, and tried to quickly explain her situation before abandoning her poor friend. "My brother needs a ride. My parents are both busy, you see, and I do have a car. . . I can't just leave him, and my parents are depending on me, being the older sibling and all, you know?" She paused.

"Anyway, I'm really sorry about this. I'll make it up to you, I promise. Give me a call some time, or an e-mail, or something." Her voice didn't trail off, but the volume at which her friend would be able to hear it did, as she was already retreating back to where she had parked.

"Bye!"