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| It's Just a Peanut Butter Sandwich | |
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| Participants | Kitty, Laura |
| Synopsis | Kitty finds Laura in the common room and the pair talk about sandwiches and computer systems. |
| Location | Common Room, Xavier's |
| Time | January 18, 2016 |
| Posted By | Laura |
It's well after dinner by the time Laura pads into the common room, carrying a plate with a sandwich of some description and a bottle of water. It seems she either missed dinner or avoided it altogether. Stepping around the couch, she sets the plate and glass on the coffee table before plunking herself down with a deep sigh. Everyone else is either focusing on homework or some play time before curfew, perhaps. She pulls both of her black denim-clad legs up, reaches over and grabs the plate agai to prop it up on her bent knees. Yes, Laura is settling in for a nice, if short meal.
Most people is not Kitty. She's finished her work hours ago and is now on the search for something more entertaining. This time when she enters the common room, it's through the door and not the ceiling. The generally friendly girl finds the dark clad woman in the room and waves at her. "Ooh, whatcha got there?" Even if the word in the mansion is that Laura can be anti-social, that doesn't mean she can't try and start up a conversation. "Looks good!"
There is a small sigh which escapes Laura as she hears a voice, but it is barely noticeable. She tries hard not to be rude, certainly. Glancing up and over toward the newcomer, the dark-haired girl says with a shrug, "Just a sandwich. Nothing exciting." There's a pause for her to take a bite and make it disappear rather quickly. Avoiding people takes energy, perhaps? Then she adds, "Don't think we've met yet…?" and another bite disappears while she truly dives into her sandwich, though she's not enthusiastic about it — she's just a bit hungry.
"Nope!" Kitty tells Laura brightly and chooses a seat nearby the other brunette. She sticks a hand out to shake and introduces herself. "Kitty Pryde. Nice to meet you." Then, her grin widens a little and she pulls her hand back. "Oh, right, sandwich." It's a finger food and it takes all fingers in order to eat it. She'll wait till the sandwich is gone, which by the looks of it won't take very long. "A sandwich can be plenty exciting depending on what's in it."
Nodding, Laura replies after swallowing another mouthful, "Kitty. Gotcha. I'm Laura." No last name is offered. She does eye the offered hand briefly, but she hitches up a shoulder. "Yeah, well, I'm not big on handshaking anyway," she explains, offering a bit of an apologetic grin. Then she looks at the sandwich and makes a face. "Seriously… nothing exciting. Peanut butter. Two slices of bread. Bottle of water on the side. Rather boring. But it tastes good and it was easy and fast to make."
"Nice to meet you," Kitty repeats after she gets Laura's name. Despite the sort of lukewarm greeting that she's given, that doesn't seem to dissuade the phaser. "Peanut butter's great. I used to make them all the time so I could go and study at the library. It wasn't really big in Deerfield and I'd have to sneak it in because the librarian was convinced I was going to get peanut butter on the pages. So I'd prop up a really big Encyclopedia Britannica and eat the whole sandwich while reading something else." Leaning back in her chair, she crosses her arms into a comfortable position.
Lukewarm greetings seem to be Laura's specialty. "Yeah, well, librarians are protective of the books, and as things go more and more electronic, they're protective of the computers. Don't want those getting sticky, I guess." Once more, she shrugs. Before long, the sandwich is gone and she sets the plate on the coffee table, grabbing the bottle of water in exchange. Cracking the lid off of it, she says, "So… I'm sure we can talk about something more interesting than peanut butter sandwiches. How long have you been here?"
Maybe so, just like Kitty's seem to be friendliness and curiosity. Hopefully those won't kill the Kitty. "Oh, I know that. I was always careful, but you get hungry reading all day." Which is why she planned ahead with her sandwiches. "I've been here a little under a year. I just started at the Institute. What about you?"
"Huh," Laura says, seeming a little contemplative. "You've been here a little under a year and we've never met. I've been here… more years than I care to count." She shakes her head a little. Has she been that antisocial that she doesn't know everyone in the school who have been here a while? "Where have I been? Man," she mutters, then downs some of the water. "Well, not a bad place to be, I think," she comments off the cuff as she lowers the bottle. "Better than others." Like out in Manhattan where robots roam free.
"Well, I may be exaggerating? I don't know. It feels like I've been here forever." Kitty looks out the window where there's a boy flying and another girl tossing something around telekinetically. "I haven't been here a full year. I just started." As a sophomore, even, she studies a lot. "It seems really great here." Certainly not like Manhattan. "I like it. Better'n Deerfield. But, then, just about anything is better than Deerfield."
Shrugging, Laura admits, "Well, I also tend to avoid big crowds if I can, so it's possible our paths just haven't crossed till now." There's a small nod from her. "Yeah, the school's pretty good. Lots of space. Lots of things to do. Lots of resources. Shelter. Food. All the basics and then some. You can be yourself and no one cares. Rather, they encourage it, so long as it's outside of the view of the public." It's not a bad deal really. "Well, I'm glad that you're finding it to be good."
Yesterday, she phased through a ceiling and no one cared. No one even blinked at her. That's supremely cool in Kitty's opinion. "Yeah, I think I've kinda seen you around, but never really got a chance to say hi or anything. So do you know what you wanna do with the rest of your life? After the Institute and stuff? I mean, I'm just a sophomore, I've got time to deal with my Fool Year. What year are you in?"
Even Laura has had some slips and the most recent gouges and holes at the top of the second floor landing are entirely her fault. Well, with Lorna's inadvertent help. "I, uh, haven't given it much thought," Laura admits, though she hides behind her bottle a bit. Why does everyone keep asking her that question? Maybe she'd like nothing more than to hide out here forever. But she won't admit that. Instead, she adds, "I'm technically college-level. I've taken a couple of courses, but I can't seem to make up my own mind. Mostly, the Professor lets me maintain the databases here for him in the meantime. You?"
"You maintain the databases here?" Kitty's ears perk up at that. Just about anything having to do with computers is interesting to her. "That's so cool!" She has a special interest in that. "With all the student files and servers, I can't even begin to imagine how complicated that is. What do you do with them?" For now the awkward silence before Laura answered is completely ignored. If the other girl was attempting to find any subject that could steer them away from her the previous topic of what they want to do with their lives, this was the perfect one.
Shrugging a little, Laura says, "Oh, well… I just deal with the architecture and code, not the contents of the database. I mean, I guess I deal with the contents, but I don't pay attention to it, if you know what I mean. There's so much there that it kind of bleeds together." So no, she's not willing to share that information, likely, but she's proven trust-worthy enough to muck about with these complicated systems. "It's a bit complex, yeah. It was a huge learning curve, but I think I do alright. I've reworked things to be a bit more efficient, tying in this database with that and making sure it all lines up so dynamic lists can be pulled, no matter what the faculty need, whether it be contacts, powers, grades or whatever. It's neat. Time consuming, though."
Actually, Kitty's not all that interested in what kind of files that Laura's privy to. Instead, she wants to know about the programs, the code, the work that goes into what's being done. Whatever is contained within all of that is barely even secondary to what she cares about. "Oh wow!" The younger girl seems to know enough about code an computers that she appreciates what's being said. "I'm guessing it's all a closed system, of course, that must have taken forever."
"Oh, it's definitely a closed system. If it were open to the internet at all, there'd be too much risk of hackers getting into it. And with that much information about everyone here, well, it's just too much to risk that, yeah," Laura agrees with the younger girl one hundred percent. "I mean, the Professor probably can get some kind of remote access, but it would be completely remote and private. I mean… you should see the crazy system he has set up. It's like its own internet, but not quite so big."
"I'd imagine. The havoc one of those anti-mutant groups could wreck with one of those." The thought makes Kitty shiver. Then, she pauses and frowns at the thought. "Which makes me wonder how hacker proof we are here. I'm sure that's something the Professor's thought of, right? I mean, he's the one with that big brain. I doubt there's anything that he hasn't thought of. He's the one with all the ideas."
Nodding a little, Laura replies, "The security layering is crazy on these systems, so I wouldn't worry much about that. There are major failsafes and backups. I think he's got an emergency dump-system hooked up with an offsite facility too, so if we have to dump everything and kill the system in an emergency, we can do that. "There are systems that I can't even get into. Those are Professor-only ones, I think. But yeah, wireless or remote access, you have to go through a double-duty VPN system with major encryption and verification systems. In-house, you need thumb-print validation as well. Pretty sophisticated stuff."
"I believe it. I just hadn't thought about it till now." There would have to be a lot of back ups and security here. There's certainly enough of that just to protect the students, let alone their files. "That is pretty sophisticated." Though not totally foolproof, as Kitty would think. Plus, there are people like her who can simply bypass all of that and walk through the walls. Or short circuit the wiring by phasing through it. Not that she would, just that she could. "Good to know we're in good hands," she grins.
"I mean, that just covers the computer systems. Don't know if you've seen, but there's a heck of a lot of security built into the grounds and the building itself, though I think the Professor's taken great pains to hide a lot of it in the woodwork, so to speak," Laura adds, almost as though she heard Kitty's thoughts, though she hasn't. "I'm sure he's probably not thought of -everything- but pretty darned close to it. I'd say it would be almost as hard to crack this place as Fort Knox, maybe. I could be wrong, though." She downs some more water, then asks, "Has anyone shown you the escape tunnels, by the way?"
"Escape tunnels?" The idea makes sense to her. If they were to be attacked, everyone would have to get out. But, she certainly hasn't seen them yet. "I haven't!" The idea intrigues Kitty, immediately setting in the desire to explore. It's almost as exciting as listening to Laura talk about security systems and computer hacking. If they could do both at the same time, well, then that would be the closest Kitty could think of as heaven.
Nodding again, Laura replies, "Okay, well, tell you what… I have to get going but why don't you track me down at some point later this week and I'll show you where some of them are. It's important that everyone knows where they are, so if you haven't been shown yet, I'd be happy to do so. Never know, in case there's a fire or anything." Nope, not attacked. Just something mundane like fire. Uh huh. That's her story and she's sticking to it. "Sound good?" She's already unfolding herself and beginning to rise from the couch. She reaches for her plate off the table as she awaits Kitty's response.
"I'll do just that!" And Laura better not think that Kitty will forget. If she's made the offer, she can't back down now. "Don't think you can get out of it now that you've offered." She'll find Laura alright, and if she won't show the younger girl where the tunnels are herself, she at least will have to tell her where they are. "Thanks for talking to me about all that computer stuff. It was really great to meet you."
Offering a bit of a salute, hindered by the bottle in her hand but she manages well enough, Laura replies, "Sure thing. And, uh… wasn't planning on getting out of it." She was actually offering up something without being talked into it, so why would she back out? "Anyway, have a good night," she offers up with a little smile, then heads off to the foyer, presumably toward the kitchen to get rid of dishes.
