| Waning Summer |
| Summary: | Caitlin and Naenia meet each other over ice cream. |
| Date: | 2014-08-26 |
| Related: | NA |
| NPCs: | None |
| Scene Runner: | Mutual |
| Social/Plot: | Social |
| Players: |
 .. .. |
A good day in NYC. Late summer with hints of fall in the air. The green of summer is not quite yet yellow but its as if the sense that the leaves are about to turn is rustling in the dryness of trees when the wind blows. It also means back to school for a lot of people. That includes one Naenia Suen. She's trying to make the effort to really get into school betwen juggling other obligations. Thus, she has found a stool near the corner where she has taken a little space. The countertop for various books and between her stool and the next, her violin case.
Having a float in front of here, she needs a break from numbers and is giving an eye around Ice Cream! As if someone or something else could give her mind a new focus to help regroup.
Caitlin Fairchild walks into the ice cream shop, hobbling a bit with a cast/boot on her left leg. She carries around two shopping bags, looking like books and school supplies in them. Despite the appearance of the bag's heft, the woman carries them easily. She finds a table and places them down with a *thunk* before going up to the counter and ordering a banana split. After the boy behind the counter looks her over and gives her an incredulous look, he begins making it. Cait turns around and takes a glance at the people seated.
It can't be helped, Naenia's reaction is like most. She turns and watches Caitlin walk. Perhaps not the same way the boy might look at her, more like the sort that looks at someonein a boot/cast and becomes curious about what happened. Then, when the bags go down with a *thunk* it sort of wakes her up, or gives her pause to think. She stands up finally, and even though she's just waiting for her order now, Naenia Suen asks over to her, "Do you need a hand?"
Caitlin Fairchild blinks as she hears that she's being addressed. She looks over to the girl and smiles. "Oh! No, thank you. I think I've got it. Thanks anyways." She smiles and turns as the boy hands her the giant banana split after she pays for it. She makes her way over to the table, not far from Naenia's seat. "Where did summer go? As a kid I remember it lasting *forever*." She says and smiles, looking over at the table. "Oh wow. Doing homework? I'm sorry for interrupting."
Naenia settles back down and has to ponder that summer reference. "I think this time of summer is overlooked because of school, early end to a great time. Its sort of the time to think there is still hope and all those ideas you put off, you still have the seeds in your hand and you can begin to dream about what you'll do with them come the new year." A little more poetic than she met, that might be less Naenia and more the soul inside. Shaking her head, "No, no interruptions, I need a break. Are you from around here?" As if she could talk more about summer, but she knows the seasons vary depending where one is in the States, or elsewhere, so that is a curious question related to summer even.
Caitlin Fairchild listens to the girl's words. "Wow.. That's.. really pretty. You should write them down so you don't forget them." She smiles and looks. "Me? Oh, well, I'm from Oregon, originally, but I've spent most of my time upstate, in Westchester." She smiles and offers her hand. "I'm Caitlin. I teach at a private school." She smiles. "I went to school at Princeton. What's your major?"
Considering what Caitlin said, Naenia gives a pause before smiling and shaking her head, a slight blush. "No, its more translation, from something I heard." From her childhood perhaps, but maybe not common here. Taking the offered hand, "Naania, from here. All local. I'd love to see Oregon sometime, I imagine the fall has a character of its own along the coast there. I'm at NYU currently for the grad math program there. Does your school have a similar program?" Indirectly curious what school she might teach at, but less direct in her approach.
Caitlin Fairchild smiles. "Oh, wow. I see. It's still pretty." She says and nods. "A pleasure to meet you, Naenia. Oregon's nice, but it's quiet. I prefer New York sometimes." She smiles. "Math? NYU? That's awesome. I doubled at Princeton. Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. I'm going to be taking some online classes in order to get my license." She nods, then thinks. "Oh, my school only goes up to high school. After that, the children are on their own for college." She takes a bite of her banana split. "Want some?" She offers to the other girl, not wishing to be a pig.
Grinning back, warming up more as Caitlin smiles it would seem. "Well, there we go, once I get pinned and if I find a place to do the research, you can be the first person I contact. We can take math theory to pratical application, my professor says there's lots of grants for translational sciences." As serious as it sounds easy, good to know others in the sciences. "It looks good … I have my float." Though still contemplating it. Almost as if she's never had it herself. Then giving in, a little, moving from stool to join Caitlin at her table at least. Books left behind, her ice cream float grabbed however. "Are you enjoying teaching more, or wanting to get back to school? I'm trying to focus this year on the math, so I have something ready when its time to lay foundations on a thesis."
Caitlin Fairchild nods. "I have connections, as well. I know people in StarrWare and Stark." She won't name who.. "A few have been looking to get ahold of me, but I like teaching. The kids really need me." She says, but leaves it at the generic 'need'. She made sure to grab an extra spoon and hands it to Naenia, offering her the untouched side of the split. She shakes her head. "School was never my thing. I zipped through Princeton in two years. I should be able to get the rest done in a matter of months. It's just all about the teaching right now." She thinks, then asks. "What do you plan on doing once you graduate?"
"My focus is actually the symphony, once I graduate I'll be able to travel more with them," replies Naenia, taking the spoon and scooping at some icecream and a little bit of banana. "The doctorate is the just in case. I know, not like injuries happen playing a violin." Like people do grad work for back up plans, then again, she's telling Caitlin who would probably actually get that. "I never assumed the violin would amount to anything, so math was always there as a safety net. I can't just drop it." Lifting the bite, she pauses, "Lots want to get ahold of you, just not caught yet?" Then she takes the bite and her eyes close, as if it is the first time she's tasted this - which in a way, it is.
Caitlin Fairchild smiles. "Music? Wow, I see. Grad work is a *lot* to put in for something that's just going to be a safety net, though. That's good!" She smiles and watches the girl enjoy the ice cream. She shakes her head. "No.. I mean, corporations have been after me to work for them. I've turned them down in order to stay with Xavier's. Though I've been known to put a robot or two together in my spare time." She grins.
Finishing the bite slowly, as if memorizing the textures, the way the flavors mingle, Naenia is silent before nodding along with a lot of work for the safety net. Then her eyes open. "I've considered pausing in school to work more with they symphony, but I'm slow to change." Though something more like a mechanical response, either she says that a lot to herself or others, or its been said to her. "Robots, wow. If you have spare time to make one that reads brain waves, it'd save me time having to type up papers for school - instent thought to digital information is something I so need right now." More joking actually, as much as she might joke.
Caitlin Fairchild nods and shrugs. "I understand. Sometimes you need to stay in your comfort zone." She says, taking another bite. At the mention of the robot, she laughs. "If I could invent a robot telepath, we'd ALL be in big trouble." She shudders, thinking of how the practical uses for such a thing could so get out of hand.
Settling after the first bite, Naenia gives in for another spoonful. "You're saying you're big trouble?" A slight grin at that thought. "I'll settle for using my fingers for now then, the more I still type on an old fashioned keyboard, the better my bow hold anyways." Going for a different flavor ice cream, if Caitlin got various scoops, she lifts a brow inquisitively. "Can I ask what happened to your leg, something at the school?"
Caitlin Fairchild blinks. "Trouble? Me?" She shakes her head. "I keep pretty much to myself." She chuckles as she takes another bite and stops as she's asked. "Oh.. A simple accident. Broke ,y leg a while back. I should be back up and running by the end of the week." She says, not bothering to get into how she fell a few thousand feet to the ground with a robot that set off a tactical nuke and ended up taking most of the blast and limping away to talk about it.
As interesting as it could be, knowing the truth might provoke way more questions from Naenia even. Instead she enjoys the second bite and then stops herself from eating more of the other girls treat. She still has the float, and puts her spoon to that instead, just to give it a swirl. "I like to try and keep to myself too. Given, I don't mind a casual social event or playing at them. But that seems like a loss of focus sometimes. I'm glad you came in here, I think you're just what I needed to regroup my spirits today."
Caitlin Fairchild smiles at the compliment and blushes. "Oh, I bet you say that to all the girls." She chuckles. "Is something wrong? I mean, something you don't mind telling a total stranger?" She takes a couple more bites, not caring about what it does to her rather *ahem* girlish figure.
Naenia gives a pause at the color, as if not intended with her honesty and then wondering about it before a smile turns up at her lips. "Only the ones that make a difference." Turning her glass to get at the straw and drink some of the soda, she chews over the question directed her way. "I suppose for a start, it is like everyone is a total stranger to me. I've had something like a life changing event this summer and the world is new to me. You could say a touch with death I suppose. I want to keep going the direction I was headed in, but I want to experience more of the life around me. Its hard to focus on numbers sometimes, when I'm curious what the fall will smell like this year, or that I want to go hear the gulls over Sheepshead Bay, listen to the bus engine on a ride out to Coney Island. There's so much out there."
Caitlin Fairchild blinks and nods. "Wow.. I'm sorry. I mean, I'm sorry that something happened to you but I'm glad that you're ok now." She listens further and thinks. "You've been changed. You can't expect to stay on the course of a person that you're not, anymore. You've also experienced that life is precious and finite and you want to experience everything while you still can. That's very typical of people who have shared in the same experiences as you." She says as she eats more of the ice cream, almost done now. "Maybe take a semester off from school? Do what you love. Play music, write poetry, take walks on the beach and bus rides out to Coney. Take some time to experience the life that you almost lost." She says squarely. "but you already know this, you just needed to hear it from someone else." She smiles, brightly.
Listening to Caitlin, it all sets in, even if she did know it and hearing it does rather help. Though at the ends, Naenia is caught a moment, inwardly reflecting on those words. "Hmmm," she says blankly, "Someone else, that is human." Then recalling herself to the present conversation and company, she grins, "… Condition I mean," as if correcting what she just said, but its literally an aferthought taked onto her thoughts she voiced. "Yes, a semseter off school. Or a reduced course load, I could talk with the professors. See, exactly what is needed Caitlin, you should consider writing poetry too. That was very touching."
Caitlin Fairchild smiles. "Thanks. I'm just good with telling people what they already know, like all good therapists and bartenders." She winks and finishes her split. "Here." She says, reaching into her bag and pulling out a business card. "If you need to talk, or ask about life or anything." She says, wrinkling her nose. "Don't hesitate." She says as she picks up her things and tosses them away.
"Both have their own connotations, you're good at being you," is what Naenia settles on, taking the card and looking it over. "I'll do that, give a call. Something random, keep you on your toes and out of trouble." She grins as Caitlin picks up her things to put them away. "I won't hesitate Caitlin," she says, then picks up her own float as the other woman seems ready to leave, and goes back to her stool. Not sitting, but looking at the numbers in the books a moment as if it was all of a sudden foreign to her even.
Caitlin Fairchild smiles and nods as she grabs her things. "Great. Have a nice day. Go enjoy Coney." She giggles and walks out with her bags.