2020-08-25: The White Rabbit

The White Rabbit
Arumi tries to help a new face at the Nexus, but Rufus completely takes control of the situation
IC Date	August 25, 2020
IC Time	5 PM
Players	Arumi, Rufus
Location	The Nexus
Prp/Tp	N/A
Spheres	Traditions
Theme Song	I'm Late

Arumi just got here. At the spot she's at, she has a Chicago style pizza to one side, a very custom tablet in her lap, tapping at it, with a huge coffe in her hand.

Rufus comes into the nexus...more as a visitor, than a member. The fact that someone told him about this place, that it was open, and that no one stopped him (for the most part, upon a check), seems to make the young man skeptical, if not oddled. So he enters the lounge like someone looking at a new house. Or a new apartment. Wide-eyed and calculating. Though by the wordless breaths he gives he probably IS calculating by the look of it. His hands are in his pockets when he comes inside and looks to the asian girl with the Gas Station Quality Big Mug Cup. "Hey." He says continuing to look at the ceiling. A particular SPOT in the ceiling, with keen interest.

Arumi looks up when somene nwe comes in, she tilts her head. 'Hi," trying softly, before taking another long drink of coffee. "Looking for something?"

Rufus looks to Arumi then looks back at the ceiling. He points up. "What day is it?" He asks.

Arumi giggles. "Um... Tuesday," she says, considering the question a second. "Are you lost? Did you come here on the train?"

Rufus looks at Arumi with a puzzled expression. "Train? No." He looks up at the ceiling again when she mentions that it is tuesday. That would make it..."*phew*" He lets out a bated breath. "I thought we were going to die together. Sorry. We're safe." He waves a hand as if dismissing the manner entirely now that he is confident that death is not certain. "Train? No. I fluxed in yesterday."

Arumi really needs to take a moment to consider this. Carefully putting her tablet on the table in front of her, and then the coffee as well, she gawks at Rufus. "I... let me introduce myself. Dr. Arumi Hanada. May I ask who you are? I don't think I've seen you here before."

Rufus walks near Arumi, raising his hand as if to touch her right on the nose...just to see if she is real. Then he doesn't, his hand touching the back of the sofa as he circles the sofa and sits in a chair neither reserved or sat in by someone. He flops down into it and kicks the footrest up. "That's a mouthful. Well deserved. Congrats. But a mouthful." He jets a thumb at himself. "No. You can't ask." He pauses belatedly, as if letting that sink in before he says. "Rufus. Of /course/ you can ask. Where do we live, -Rome-? Jesus." He shakes his head. "Nice to meet you Arumi."

Arumi stares up at him as he comes up, putting his hand out.... She keeps gawking even as he changes his mind and touches something out. "Just Rufus? I mean, you made it in here, so you must belong here. So that leads to my next questions. What does fluxing mean, and what do you mean by dying together?"

Rufus nods at her question of just Rufus. "Do we need full names here? I'll just borrow yours." He says. "Rufus Hinada. I like it." He nods a few times. "I fluxed in." He looks over at Arumi as if she is bonkers. "Do you people not Flux? Shit. Do you -drive- still?" He groans. "Fuuuuck. Does this mean I gotta get a car?? I -hate- cars. They have such poor probability potentials. Like nothing -ever- good happens in a car." He sulks. "Dammit."

Arumi squints, and then sighs. "Really? Again?" She then lowers her goggles onto her face, and starts adjusting the lenses carefully with both hands. "Wait, what? You're... You're not from another dimension, are you? Then what are you talking about?"

Rufus looks at Arumi put on googles, like she's heading to the pool, and gawk at him. He looks at his crotch and then back to Arumi. "If you wanted to see it you could have just ASKED, and just cuz it's big doesn't mean I'm an alien." He makes a mental note, that disrespecting cars gets you audited amd scanned by naughty TSA-inspired mages. "Doesn't matter. Probably an Entanglement issue from the Fluxing. It happens from time to time. Quantum Appartition is highly technical." He pulls out a stick of bubble gum and puts it in his mouth. He offers Arumi a piece. "It helps."

Arumi tilts her head. "I wasn't looking at THAT. I was examining the etheric resonances to seeif you're from another dimension, that being the most logical explanaion for someone like you coming in suddenly and saying weird things."

"Whether um... it is as big as you say, or not, isn't what I'm wondering. IT's who you are, where you came from, and whether you're... stuck here?"

"I told you. My name is Rufus Hinada. Do I look like I'm stuck here?" He gets up from the sofa and does not, surprisingly, stick to the chair. He sits back down. "I'm fine and I'm cool. Etheric resonance. Nice. Etherite. The googles make sense now." He does a finger-waggle in front of his face. "Virtual Adept." He jets a thumb to himself. "And for a lady not interested in it your certainly asking a lot of questions someone might ask when they get tested." He looks around, finding the soda machine and immediately makes for it pulling a wallet out of his back pocket. "So what were you doing anyway? Wait." He holds up a finger. "Not this one." He puts the bill away, and pulls out another bill instead. "This one." And then proceeds to use it to buy an energy drink. After which he returns to his chair.

Arumi takes a deep breath. Goggles still in place. "Okay. So are you Joel Sherman's younger, snottier brother?" she blurts out, then giggles and shakes her head. "Sorry. Look, you'd be the second Adept in a week who got flung into this dimension and needed help, so um. Okay then."

"Snotty? You're the one who is getting alllllll up in this." He gestures to himself. "With your other dimension, let's look at the new guy as some alien worthy of dissection complete with goggle-face." He points at Arumi. "So don't get snippy at me about snotty-ness. And who is Joel Sherman? The name just -sounds- douchy." It's the Sherman part.

Arumi laughs. "What am I supposed to think about someone who comes in here, and starts talking to me like he's some sort of time traveler? Joel Sherman. The former Virtual Adept representative on the Prospect Council." She snickers, opens her mouth to say something, then pauses and shakes her head. "So you're just being weird? Take it fluxing is some new invention of yours?"

"Tomorrow night I'm free. We can go on a date then." Comes the completely off-the-cuff response from Rufus. "Since your so interested in me. I'm telling you if you wanted to know more about me you could have just said 'hey, I'm free later, wanna grab a bite to eat so I can inquisition you " He says, taking a drink of his energy-drink. "Wait....tomorrow's Wednesday." Two seconds later. "Forget I said anything." He clarifies. "Still on about the Fluxing huh? Fine." He takes a drink of his energy drink and puts it down. "Fine. Fluxing." Rufus seems to shudder and pulse against the very fabric of reality until he's gone, a phenomenon that lasts seconds.

Arumi returns to her hands to her goggles, keeping everything just right as she watches this. Seeing whether he's leaving dimensionally, spacially, or temporally. (Translation: Spirit, Corr, or Time) "Fascinating."

It's rude to Flux into chantries. So, not even ten seconds later, as if someone hit the repeat button, comes Rufus. "Hey." He says, eyeing that spot in the ceiling, again, and then goes to touch Arumi on the nose...and does so. "...BOOOOP." He says, then takes his seat on the chair.

Arumi goes wide-eyed. Face going red a second when her face NOW gets touched, she takes a breath, and snickers. "Alright Rufus. So that's a very intersting project. Well done."

"See? I knew you were curious." It was the elipses. He pulls out a McDonalds Cheeseburger from his jacket pocket and unwraps it. "Lunch of champions." He takes a bite of it. Then swallows. "Project? Ain't a project, Arumi." He says. "Best way to travel. Beats planes, cars and puts the fast...in fast food." He takes another bite.

Arumi chuckles. "Well, whatever you call it, you did a good job." she nods formly, slowly pulling her goggles back up off her face.

Rufus nods. "Saturday. We can go on a date on Saturday." He nods, finishing his burger...because it's a McDonalds Cheeseburger. Three bites and their toast. Two if your Quantum travelling on an empty stomach. He swallows. "So I guess I have to battery you now." He pulls out a Burger King napkin and wipes his mouth. "So what dimension are you from and what alien species are you?"

Arumi laughs. "Fine. If you're going to be obtuse." She flops back. "I'm human. I'm from this dimension. I try to be helpful. Excuuuuse me." she smiles.

Rufus holds his hands up. "How am I being obtuse?! I've answered everything you asked. I even gave you a show and tell." He gestures. The Etherite confuses him. No surprise. "Well, your nose certainly felt human. This dimension though I don't know. Can I borrow your goggles?" He leans forward with his hand out. Never fear, it's the not-just eaten out of one. "We need to do a test before Saturday. Cuz that would be awwwwwkward." He teases. "Cuz I'll have to ask it to be in the morning? And mornings never work well for people. Can't do evenings. I like Minnesota right where it is."

Arumi puts a hand to her goggles. "You can borrow them if you want, but I need you to be very careful. They're precision instruments. Hand made lens stacks inside them. I could have seen inside your pants if I chose to, but I Was more interested in seeing your etheric resonance." Then a snicker. "I sleep afternoons and early evenings anyway, usually. I'd probably be on the way home if you hadn't decided to make a spectacle, Rufus."

That confirms it. Arumi, is not from this dimension. If she was, the date would be an evening. But he takes the goggles anyway. "What do I look like, a preschooler! I'm not gonna throw them on the table you know." He teases. He tries to put them on but Arumi's head, surprise, is too small. He puts them on. He does not use magic. Because he already knows the answer. "...I could do some work with these." He comments. "You have all the Spectrii, you just need new calibrations...." He seems to be more interested in the design of the goggles, suddenly, then checking if Arumi is an alien. "Sure. Mornings work. It's a date." He says as an aside, to affirm it being true. Cuz it's not Sunday. No one wins on a Sunday except Jesus.

Arumi holds her breath, watching him fiddle and mess with her goggles. They're important! Taking a deep breath. "If you really want to do something, you can always join me on the beach in the early morning, wehre I like to read."

"Lovers go to beaches in the early morning, Arumi. We can be lovers. That's fine too." He says, almost absently, as he does indeed fiddle and mess with the goggles. He has a Doctor's finesse with them. Not...Arumi doctor. Like cut you open type doctor. Practical, precise and gentle. Nonshaky. "Yup. Decent design." He pulls them off of his head and then leans over to pass them over. "Sure. We can read the same thing together."

Arumi takes a deep breath, and takes the goggles back, sighing when they're safely in her hands, then putting them back onto her head, adjusting them just so. "You're very confident, Rufus. And sure, we can read PRofessor Smith's treatise on comparative grammar of the languages of the Hollow Earth."

"Compliments of a diverse education from a wide field of scholars, doctors, hackers and elites. Wouldn't be without their insights." He says. "Sure. Sounds insightful." He nods. He bundles up his wrapper and tosses it, banking it away from the trash can and onto the floor. "Dammit." The way he says it doesn't mean he is mad he missed. He gets up and deposits it properly.

Arumi watches his move, and his reaction. She snickers, covering her mouth a moment. Then with a sigh, she grabs her pizza, pulling it in her lap to eat some. "So where have you been hiding? New in town?"

Hiding? How elusive a word to use. Rufus looks over at Arumi and smiles. "No more questions. Saturday. It will give us more to talk about and be a proper forum for it." He says, looking at his watch. "...Crapbaskets." He looks to Arumi. "I need to go. I saw three birds when I came in flying east. I have someplace to be and if I'm not there...just...pandemonium." He comments. He gives her his phone number in the proper means humans exchange contact information: By speaking it out loud.

Arumi tilts her head again, after swallowing a bite of pizza. "Alright, safe trip," as she gives him a number back.