It's another long day at Oxford. Not that Gillian is minding, but it's about five o'clock and she's about ready to drop if she doesn't get some dinner and some caffeine. She staggers into the cafe where she's agreed to meet Loki, her hair a total mess. She's dressed 'down' today in a pair of jeans (designer nonetheless), ballet slippers, and a pink sweater that almost but doesn't quite clash with her hair and her complexion. "I'm dying of thirst," she announces as she collapses into the booth. "And I'm ready to bite someone if I don't eat. How're you, Loki?"

     "Not bad," Loki allows, from his place across the booth. The tiny tech device he was playing with disappears into a black coat pocket, its matching wireless earpiece still discreetly in place. A loose gray scarf hangs over his shoulders, ready to be deployed the next time he has to brave the outdoors. "How did the actual official date go?"

     The cafe is thinning out from the mid-afternoon crowd. It's like a changing of the guard going from day to night here. The after five crowd actually starts showing up a bit before five, to study, to linger, to loiter and stare. The people watching begins where note taking ends.
     One of the lads making coffee looks up as Gillian joins Loki. It'll be a few more minutes before he, or anyone else, shows up at the booth to take requests.

     She sticks her tongue out. "It was very nice, thank you," Gillian answers primly, with only a hint of pink rising into her cheeks. "He took me to a place called Juliet's Bower - very fancy." She touches her hair absently. "I hope I was appropriately dressed. I think I was, but you know how it is when you're in another country."
     "The food was excellent. He's very smart, you know? Though different areas of study from me," Gillian admits. "He likes me, I can tell. And - I do like him. I just ... I have to be sure."

     "I am absolutely sure he likes you," Loki says. "Blind and deaf men in completely different pubs watching television worked that part out." He smiles to take the edge off any teasing. "I don't know what types of smart he may be, but he knows his music, which is good enough for me."

     "Did you have your audition?" Gillian looks immediately interested. "Did it go well? Are you hired? If you are, you should write to Pres and tell him." She grins, swinging one foot lightly. "Tell me about it."

     The fellow finally appears, in his own time. He wears the dark skinny jeans of the eternally hip with a white button down shirt. "Can I get you anything or do you need to think about it?" He glances to Loki and then back to Gillian. "You saw the special board, yah?"

     "I'd like a large salad and a cucumber sandwich," Gillian answers brightly. "Oh, and tea if you've got it." If they've got it. Where does she think she is, Mexico? "That's all for me."

     Loki answers patiently in order, "I sent the demo tape and did the audition, I still need to meet the rest of the band before anything's final, I'll let Pres know once that happens. The audition went just fine, so unless someone in the band hates me, it should be a done deal."
     To the man with good taste in jeans, "Just a cucumber sandwich, for me, and the oolong of the day."

     "Ah..yah," is all he says. With a nod he drifts back to the bar. It'll be a few minutes with that pace.

     "Good." Gillian looks pleased. "I don't have to hate him on principle, then. After all, you're practically part of the family." She picks up her purse, hauling it into her lap and rummaging through it. "When do you meet with him, d'you know?"

     Loki checks his calendar on his phone, reflexively. "Soon. He's supposed to send me word when, or the politely worded no thanks if he changes his mind in the interim, or so I gathered. I don't think that's very likely unless his current drummer changes his mind about leaving."

     "Mmm. Well, I'm not going to interfere - I'm not even officially his girlfriend, I don't think. We've only been on one official date, y'know?" Gillian sits back, setting her own phone down on the table. "And I don't want to be that kind of girlfriend anyway. I don't want him to be dating me for my family connections or telling me how to do my research, right? But I'll be disappointed if it doesn't work out."
     She checks the display on her screen. "I'm going to be doing some field research for my thesis, by the way - traveling around the British Isles a little for it. Do you want to come with?"

     Loki puts his phone away, after a tiny wincing glance at the little flashing message icon in one corner. No, Dad, this isn't a good time for talking about the Peace Corps again. "Sure, it'll give me something to do. The usual caveats about schedule conflicts if I end up in the band apply. What's your thesis on?"

     "Well, of course," Gillian answers, matter of fact about it. "It's about various stones of significance to the British Isles' history. I'm trying to figure out if there's a way to pull them together. So I'll be visiting the Blarney Stone in Ireland, the Stone of Scone if I can, Hadrian's Wall, the Stone of London, Stonehenge... a few other places, some a little less well-known. And I also want to visit the ruins they're excavating in central London - I think I can wangle permission for you to come with me."

     "It'd make for a more convenient trip, if you could. No trying to dodge security." Loki slips his earpiece off and stows it in another pocket. "What are they ruins of? Something Romans? I seem to remember that the Romans were big on putting walls and ditches everywhere they weren't trying to run a road through."

     Out first comes the tea. It took a little longer than necessary but that's part of the experience. There's a pot of oolong for you both, as one of you was specific and the other was not. Two small cups are placed on the table. "Food's on the way," the bartender/waiter announces.

     "Well, the Romans originally built London, you know - it was Londinium back then," Gillian answers cheerfully. "Under London, under everything you see here, there's something Roman. It's been built over and crisscrossed with everything that's come since, but not erased. You can't successfully actually erase the Roman era from anywhere they built; it might fall to pieces, but it's still there. So every time there's a big reconstruction project or something like that, there's a chance when you dig down past the more recent layers, you might hit something Roman from two thousand years ago. That's what happened pretty recently - maybe a decade ago? in Rome itself, you know. They found the cave of Romulus and Remus."
     She comes to a rattling halt as the tea arrives, giving the bartender/waiter a smile. "Thanks! I'm looking forward to it," she answers cheerfully.. "I'm sure it'll be delicious." Gillian West, professional optimist.

     He meets her exuberant optimism with placid calm. "Ah, yah." With that, he turns and heads back to the bar.

     "Aren't those just a myth?" Loki asks, reaching for a cup. He has the knack for pouring tea so that not so much as a drop goes running down the wrong way. "Romulus and Remus, not the ruins, those are pretty obviously there. Suckled by a she-wolf and all... I heard somewhere that 'she-wolf' was just a euphemism for a prostitute, which puts a whole new spin on the story."

     "Well, I'd imagine it was just a myth." Gillian grins, attention back on Loki as she reaches for her own cup, letting him pour for her. "I'm pretty sure that Romulus and Remus weren't gods, either, or children of gods, and that Remus' teeth didn't fall to become the birth of the Spartans. But we're modern Americans, not ancient Romans. The cave might not have been literally the place where the divine twins," she puts finger quotes around 'divine', "were suckled, but that doesn't matter. What matters is that the ancient Romans believed it was, and it was a sacred site to them. So actually finding it after it's been lost all these centuries - it's a very major archeological find."
     She lifts the tea to her lips, blowing to cool it before she takes a sip. "I don't think they're finding anything of quite that level of significance in London, but any find after all this time is exciting and potentially important. I have to admit, I'm a little tempted to go hunting in my time off, on my own."

     "All you'd need would be a rented backhoe and some spare real estate..." Loki throws her a quick smile before he tries a first sip of tea. "I haven't been to Stonehenge in years, so I'll tag along on that trip whenever you make it. I don't remember being very impressed at the time, but I was, what, eight? It's hard to get excited by big rocks at that age."

     Speaking of rocks...
     Here are the sandwiches. And the salad. Balancing a tray, the hipster in the skinny jeans and starched white shirt sets each down in turn. There's a side of the house dressing, which is a vinaigrette. "Anything else for the now?"

     Loki shakes his head to the hipster. I already know where to buy those jeans. He drags one of the sandwich plates towards himself.

     "Or to go into the sewers. A lot of the sewers, aqueducts, viaducts and so on were actually laid down by the ancient Romans, and only swapped over gradually during periods of rebuilding. So there's entire sections which are nominally closed off or even undiscovered at this point, because they've been lost. I've been thinking about it since I was a sophomore in high school." Gillian looks entirely too enthused and there's a gleam to her eyes.
     "It's why I got interested in spelunking and took those classes in it," Gillian continues blithely. "Including scuba spelunking. I'm working on getting maps of the existing sewer systems, and maps of systems going back as far as I can tell. I'm doing an overlay on my laptop to figure out points of intersection and so on. It'd be better if I do have someone to go with me, though. After all, it's not entirely safe. Oh, and don't tell Pres. He'd have a cow."

     Loki draws a finger across his lips. "He won't hear it from me. Unless he asks directly, in which case he takes priority again. It's this whole complex system of secret prioritization." A nibble at his sandwich, a larger sip of tea. "How do you stand the smell, heading down through sewers? Some kind of mask?"

     The bartender/waiter picks his book back up at the counter. That explains it: he's a literature student.

     "Scuba," Gillian answers promptly. "Though it's my intention to try and find access points that are open or at least unguarded that haven't been used since the eighteenth century or earlier. I had a friend of mine at Cornell who's a biochemistry doctoral student do some analysis for me of the approximate output based on census and surveys over various time periods and the likeliest rates of decay. If I'm right and I do the research carefully, we're more likely to run into mold than any sort of 'live' sewage. It should be less unpleasant than that trip to that hack farm when Maddie landed in the compost heap and we had to pull her out." She picks up her sandwich.

     Loki's eyes glaze over as soon as the biochemistry talk starts. He has a few bites of his sandwich, and gets his attention back on her as soon as she reaches the discussion of Maddie. "Pulling her out was one thing. Sitting next to her in the car on the way home..." He pours himself another cup. Oolong just isn't coffee enough to hit the caffeine buttons in the same way, so the only recourse is to drink it faster.

     "Piffle!" Gillian answers resoundingly. "It wasn't that bad. Anyway, we won't be going all the way to the center of the earth right away. We'll do experimental forays, we'll mark as we go, and we'll document absolutely everything. It's not private property, so there's technically no laws against it. I'm amazed nobody's thought of it sooner, but I'm glad nobody has." She grins. "Because it means a scoop for me, for my thesis, if we pull it off."

     Loki takes a sip of his tea, and startles back from the heat. Those teapots are deceptively good at retaining their temperature for a while. "Ow. If anyone deserves that kind of scoop, it would be you. It'd be pretty impressive even from a full professor, so a lot more so from a student. Promise you'll remember all the little people when you're wildly famous?"

     "Naturally." Gillian smiles. "So you'll help me? I'd like for us to make a few experimental forays before I invite anyone else. I don't know Balthazar well enough. He might try to do something silly like stop me because it's dangerous."

     Loki takes a very careful testing sip of his tea. No scorching doom, this time. "Help, yes. Sewers, you may have to ask that question again when I've had something stronger than tea to drink. If it's dangerous, Pres will yell at me less whenever he finds out if I was along, even if I didn't try to stop you from going."

     "So we just don't tell Pres you knew or went along," Gillian answers blithely. "But okay. When do you want to begin?" She gives Loki a hopeful sort of look. One he no doubt recognizes.

     Loki says, "I should probably just hand you my calendar now and let you arrange it, shouldn't I?" Only a fraction accusatory. "How much of a hurry are you in? After I get back from the trip to L.A. might be better. Pres will be asking what we've been up to while meeting in London, I bet."

     "After L.A.," Gillian allows. "Sure. I wouldn't want you to get into trouble for lying to Pres." She picks through her salad; it's been steadily diminishing while they talk. "You're going end of the month, right? Here, give me your calendar." She seems oblivious to the accusing note.

     Loki doesn't stare. Or sigh. It's just one of those foregone conclusions, when he digs out the phone to pass over towards her. Aside from booked flights, and a scheduled dinner with his father in the near future, the whole thing is blank anyway. A few notes about birthdays of other people, and when his local father will be out of town. (Which is to say, almost always.) "I wouldn't lie to him, anyway. Conceal the truth, or tell it in such a way he draws the wrong conclusions, but who doesn't?"

     A text comes through: Wednesday night sound alright? Reggie, Billy and I are on board. Some details to work out. B.

     Gillian looks at the phone, then giggles quietly to herself. She pokes at the text message after checking the calendar. Wednesday will be just fine for Loki. He has to go to L.A. end of the month to visit Gillian's brother though. Hi, B. - Gill
     Gillian then calmly goes about entering the Wednesday night session into Loki's calendar and then - five days after the return from L.A. - a date to go spelunking in the old London sewer system with Gillian. It's marked as 2 p.m. - ? Exploring old London w/ Gillian. She hands the phone back, telling Loki, "You're meeting with the band Wednesday night."

     Another text comes through: Are you his manager, Miss West? And what would be your percentage?

     Loki checks his messages, and looks up at Gillian, exasperation finally showing in his eyes. "You are an unholy terror. It's a good thing you make up for it by being so nice about your reign of tyranny."
     The phone receives the return message, Please don't encourage her. She has enough lives to manipulate already. - Loki

     Gillian looks entirely unrepentant. "I am nice," she agrees complacently. "But it isn't as if you would've said no to Wednesday, anyway. You're not the type to play hard to get with people who aren't annoying you and who might give you something you desperately want. And you like them, I can tell."

     Loki mutters, "It's not desperation." Admits afterward, "I do like them. And you know me, if I don't have some kind of excuse for spending time with people, I never make friends. I could stand to meet some people who take what they do seriously."

     "I know." Gillian leans forward to pat Loki's elbow. "So - you go meet with them. Why not see if they're free tonight? You're not doing anything after we're done here, after all," she points out practically. "And I've got to get back to the library before it closes."

     Loki looks down at his phone. "Wednesday's not that far. I don't want to come across like some sort of clingy fanboy. I can wait until the real audition, and find something else to do tonight."

     "Give me your phone." Gillian holds out her hand. "It's not you being clingy if I do it."

     Another text: I'm not sure I can promise that. But I'll mark that down.

     Loki does stare at the phone. "I'm doomed," he says. "That's all there is to it." He hands it over to Gillian, the last few messages still displayed.

     Gillian reads the messages, then giggles, turning pink. She keys in a reply. Gillian here. I'm turning the boy loose and you're obviously with them if you're discussing scheduling. You should stop being silly and coy at each other and just meet tonight. I'll put him on the train and he can be there in half an hour.

     Loki slouches back in his chair with his cucumber sandwich, doing his best sullen teenager expression. It's just like when his fathers would tell him to go hang out with the kids of people they knew, just because he was around the same age! Which...okay, yeah, usually worked pretty well.

     The reply comes with a comic's precise timing. Are you accusing me of being a pick tease, Miss West?

     More like a stick tease, he's a drummer. Yes or no? I have to let him know if you're going to meet him at the station. Gillian keys it in rapidly. She grins at Loki, winking at him. "I wish I could go with, but I'd just be in the way anyway. And I really do have work to do." She hms. Another message gets sent.
     Does that old relative of yours with the library has any old old maps of London? Especially public works maps?

     Loki finishes off his sandwich, because as long as people are talking about him in front of him -- sort of -- he might as well have something to eat. "Next time, you get to text him from your phone if you want to set up playdates for your friends."

     Reply: I can't tonight, sadly. I've been back and forth with Reg and Will and am expected elseplace. Not Comma business.

     "I'll cover the cost," Gillian promises, looking penitent. "I'll pick up this dinner, too." She hmms. "Looks like it's Wednesday after all." She waits for a reply to the second text message before she replies, for the sake of Loki's phone bill. "He's got to be somewhere else."

     I think I might be able to come up with a map... I'll look into it. You want alleys or sewers or streets that no longer exist?

     Loki waves off the cost of things. "I've got unlimited messages, and my dad pays the bill anyway." It might be a look of relief at tonight being out. That or disappointment. "See, no reason to go bothering them early. They want to see me, they know how to get in touch without me bothering them about it."

     "He's a mindreader." Gillian mutters it absently, keying in a rapid reply. Yes! I totally do.. *HUG* If you can get that for me I will be your BFF! She looks up. "He might be able to get us maps. I'm not going to tell him all of why I want it, just research. - Aww. Poor Loki." She looks sympathetic. "Do you want me to blow off the library tonight? If he's really able to get me a map, I don't have to hit the books quite as hard."

     Another reply: I will look tonight. I'm off to see him actually. Convey apologies to Loki, please.

     Loki looks slightly irritated. "No, I don't need the sympathy. I'll just go catch a movie or something." He slurps his way through more Oolong.

     I will. Good luck with the fam! Gillian sends it and hands the phone back to Loki so he can read for himself. "I know you don't need it, silly, but you're like a big brother to me! What are surrogate sisters for if not to nag and wheedle and sometimes be nice? You know Maddie'd drag you somewhere insane if she were here."

     Loki unbends enough to say, "Yeah, you're right. I'm just not big on coming across like I need the attention. Besides, I really am fine for tonight. I was only planning on hitting some pub anyway, or catching up on my reading. I picked up this one travel guide to Berlin from the 1930s. I should give it to you when I'm done."

     "Oooh, that sounds fun!" Gillian's eyes light up. She is entirely unironic about it. "Okay then. I'm going to go back to the library, but I'll grab dinner." She reaches into her bag, taking out her credit card and tucking it on the edge of the table. "And you'll let me know how it goes with my prince charming, right?"

     "Of course. I'll either have the good news or be off drowning my sorrows in a gallon of cider by some time Thursday," Loki says. He puts out a hand. "Can I have my phone back now?"

     "Of course. Here." Gillian nudges it over to Loki, standing up and bending over to hug him quickly. "Call me, okay? I'll see you later. I gotta go before the library closes."

     Loki gives half a hug back. "Go, capture the books before they can escape."
     Gillian laughs, moving up to the bar to cash out the tab with her card, thenceforth to flee. Academia awaits!

Posted by rowan at February 22, 2009 09:34 AM