Fifth Floor Common Room, Saturday evening

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

Jessica had spent the entire day training in an abandoned warehouse where certain people who actually called themselves "Girl" instead of something even slightly less childish might not find her. Once that was done, she figured she could actually take a night off, so she settled into the common room and ordered food.

Before long she was set up with way more Thai food than she could eat herself and figure skating on the TV. She didn't really care about figure skating, but hey, it was pre-Olympics stuff. Somebody might care. She was mostly using that as background noise while she worked out the math of how the hell delivery places on the island made any amount of money if they always over-delivered.

Just ignore all of the numbers scribbled on the napkins, and it might look like a sane person was in the common room tonight.

[OOC: Open CR!]

Comments

[walkswithcoyote]

Mercy wandered in, drawn by the smell of spicy Thai food. "Hey, how's it going?"

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"As long as you don't look too carefully at any napkins, not bad," Jessica said. "Help yourself to some food."

[walkswithcoyote]

She'd glanced at them already, hard not to, but now she helped herself to some of the food and settled in on the couch. "Math class?" she guessed.

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"Trying to figure out how businesses in town survive when they regularly bring way too much food on deliveries," Jessica explained. "I'm pretty sure it involves dark magic because the math does not work."

[walkswithcoyote]

"Yeah. It's not like the food is ridiculously expensive and I think I always get at least three times what I order." Mercy shook her head. "I always just chalk it up to more Fandom weirdness."

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"All I know is that if I ever want to start a business, I'm getting a franchise in one of the empty storefronts here," Jessica said. "It'll help finance my business anywhere else in the multiverse."

[walkswithcoyote]

"Let me know if you want a partner," Mercy said with a grin. "We could make a fortune."

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"What kind of business do you think you could run?" Jessica said. "Because I have to admit, I've got pretty much nothing unless I want to compete with Stark's."

[walkswithcoyote]

"I'm pretty good at basic car maintenance," Mercy said, "But without cars on the island, that wouldn't help much."

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"That might actually make this a better test case," Jessica said. "Start a business that can't possibly work and see what happens."

[walkswithcoyote]

"If an impossible business works..." Mercy couldn't help but grin. "Well, then the potential would be amazing."

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"That settles it, I'm going to start the business proposal right now and start looking for some investors," Jessica said.

She didn't start doing that, no.

[walkswithcoyote]

"I'll get my tools together," Mercy agreed and took another bite of whatever yummy thing was in her container.

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"So you actually do have mechanic skills?" Jessica asked. "Family trade?"

[walkswithcoyote]

Mercy nodded. "Not exactly a family trade, but after I wrecked Bran's Porsche, Charles made me help repair it, so I learned a lot of basic stuff."

Now that was a story.

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"Those are people from your home, right?" Jessica checked. Neither of those names sounded familiar, so she had to check.

[walkswithcoyote]

Mercy nodded, then shrugged. "Well, from what used to be home. Bran was kind of my guardian and Charles is one of his sons. Bran still checks up on me here sometimes, but he... sent me away to live with my mother. I can't go back."

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"Gotcha," Jessica said. "Sounds rough."

[walkswithcoyote]

"Yeah." She shrugged again, trying to make it look like nothing. "It's hard, but it is what it is, right? Have to move on and make the best of it."

She took another bite of her food. "So, do you follow ice skating?"

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"Not really," Jessica said. "But it's on and the Olympics are almost here, so I figured why not watch?"

[walkswithcoyote]

"Makes sense. And it's kind of fun to watch," Mercy agreed. "Some of the things they can do are just amazing."

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"It's not that tough. All you have to do is be an amazing athlete, know how to ice skate, and not fear cracking your head open on ice or cutting yourself with your knife shoes," Jessica said. "If you can do those four things, it's easy."

[walkswithcoyote]

"Hey, I can totally manage almost one of those," Mercy said with as much shock as she could feign. "I ought to be trying out for the Olympics!"

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"Which one? It's the knife shoes, isn't it? You seem pretty hardcore," Jessica said.

[walkswithcoyote]

"You got me," Mercy said. "Me and knife shoes? We're like BFFs."

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"Just do me a favor and make sure to keep them off when you're on the couch," Jessica said. "I don't want to deal with cushion stuffing getting everywhere."

[walkswithcoyote]

"It's hell on coffee tables," Mercy said, "'cause I'm always putting my feet up, but I keep them off the couch, so all you'll have to worry about is the occasional splinter. Hope that helps."

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"I'll just make sure to avoid the tables," Jessica vowed. "And if anyone asks what happened, I know nothing."

[walkswithcoyote]

"Bless you," Mercy said solemnly. "I knew you were a true friend."

[dollpocalypse]

Topher walked into the room, took in his surroundings and then paused.

"I'm trying to decide if I want to graciously accept the free common room food and sit down or make a big deal about changing the channel," he announced. "Do you have any advice?"

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"I say be gracious, because otherwise I'll make a point of not changing the channel just to be contrary," Jessica offered.

[dollpocalypse]

"Yeah, I guess," Topher conceded, helping himself to some food. "Good argument. Also, good food. I always like it when it's just out on the table and I don't have to forage for nourishment like a gopher."

Or like a a person.

"Any idea how to make a 3D food printer?"

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"NASA's already working on it," Jessica said. "I remember hearing a while ago that they're trying to make 3D printed pizza for astronauts. So it shouldn't be too hard to copy once they have it figured out."

[dollpocalypse]

"It'd be cooler if we could beat NASA, though," Topher said. "I bet we could do it."

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"I'd be more interested in letting them get the basics figured out and then improving on it to make the food taste better," Jessica mentioned.

[dollpocalypse]

"But does NASA really need the credit for another awesome science thing?" Topher wondered. "The way I see it, they could take or leave the validation, but you and I could still benefit from 'inventors of the 3D food printer' on our resumes." He tapped his chin, then corrected, "Well, 'inventor and inventor's assistant.'"

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"As much as I'd enjoy having you as my assistant, I've got some personal stuff eating up most of my free time these days," Jessica said, not missing a beat. "It's not leaving much time for competition with NASA."

[dollpocalypse]

Topher thought about correcting Jessica on her obvious misinterpretation of his comment, but instead simply asked, "Like what?"

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"Very personal stuff," Jessica said. "No offense, it's just not exactly something I can talk about too much right now."

[dollpocalypse]

"Did you get rejected from college?" he asked knowingly. That was a tone of voice he often used when he didn't know anything at all, and this was no exception.

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"I haven't even applied anywhere," Jessica said. "I've already got an employment situation worked out, so it's not really a big deal to me." Or she might end up in jail for treason if things didn't go well. There were a bunch of moving parts.

[dollpocalypse]

Topher made a face. "It's not Stark's, is it?" he said. "You shouldn't work there forever."

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"No, no, it's a thing back home," Jessica said. "I've had connections for a while, it's just been a matter of waiting until I'm 18 before I can really get started."

[dollpocalypse]

"Oh, so it's a grown-up job." That, he approved of. Not that it mattered. "Okay, good, 'cause all these smart people keep saying they're staying on the island forever or not going to college and it's bumming me out. I can accept that, though."

Again, it was of no consequence.

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"Oh, yeah, no need to worry about me there," Jessica said. "I'd tell you more, but there's some pretty serious non-disclosure stuff."

[dollpocalypse]

"It's okay, I'll probably just research it anyway," Topher promised. "Do you have a middle name I should be aware of?"

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"No middle name," Jessica said. "And even if I had one, I wouldn't tell you. No need to make it less challenging."

Good luck finding information on a person who was never born and who only officially existed within the top secret files of a spy organization in another universe without any helpful information, Topher.