Debut - OTA

[tech_geek]

Boredom and Jake Jensen didn't mix well. Kinda like nitrogen triiodide and an unsteady hand--Big fucking boom. As a kid it had gotten him into a lot of trouble. As an adult? Pretty much the exact same thing. Boredom was what had made his eight-year-old self build a parabolic antenna/radio out of kitchen appliances to contact aliens with, his ten-year-old self dig up his backyard in search of dinosaur bones, and his sixteen-year-old-self hack the FBI database. Boredom was what had deconstructed a missile just to see what made it tick, had changed Cougar’s records to say he’d had all his training at a secret Jedi stronghold, and had taken apart a General’s car for the spare parts needed to make a high-powered laser death ray. And that was just to name a few things.

Jensen was someone who always needed to be doing something, so it didn’t take much for boredom to kick in. All it took was a spare minute or two where he was alone with nothing to do. He’d get twitchy, restless. The ideas would start coming and then one of them would stick. It would nag and tempt. He’d know it wasn’t something he should be doing. He’d know the idea could get him into trouble, but the lure of it, the promise of figuring out how something worked, of creating something, of taking something broken and making it whole again, of accomplishing something instead of being such a monumental fuck-up would be too much to say no to. So he wouldn’t.

Unfortunately, right now, Jensen was at work. Most days it wasn’t so bad. The coffee shop usually had a steady flow of customers, so it was difficult to get well and truly bored. But today was a slow day. Maybe it was the weather, the rain was coming down so hard it looked like a sheet of water, or maybe it was just shit luck. He supposed he shouldn’t complain. Of all the places he could be, London wasn’t the worst. He could have ended up ass-deep in the Hindu Kush without an internet connection--Now that would have sucked.

Comments

[tech_geek]

Jensen pointed to his nametag. His name was written there in Sharpie alongside a little drawing of a robot. “Jensen,” he answered. “Or Café Bene peon. Whichever really.”

[tech_geek]

“Besides my already established anti-establishment, revolutionary tendencies? I need more than that?” Jensen asked, amusement in his voice. “Nah, there’s nothing. I was speaking in hypotheticals. I suppose I’ve been known to pull a prank or two, but,” he grinned, “I’ve never minded so much getting caught. It’s part of the fun.”

[girl_upgraded]

"My parents would kill me if I ever got caught," she said plainly. That didn't begin to touch on how afraid she was of jail, but it was a risk worth taking, she felt. She knew any real revolution wasn't going to be safe or comfortable.

[letsblowitup]

Shaun gripped his bag a little tighter. He could appreciate the gesture for what it probably was, common niceness, but it was a great way to get his hands on it if Jensen's ideas were less than good. Cab might not be the best idea either.

Which, it probably should say something to him that he was willing to go home with a guy alone but wouldn't let him carry his shit. Yeah, George was going to kick his ass.

"I'll be fine," he said, flashing a grin. "Only a little ways, right?"

[tech_geek]

“For pulling a prank?” Jensen asked, his brow knitting. “Wow. That seems a little intense.”

[tech_geek]

“Yeah,” Jensen confirmed, pointing to their right before shoving his hands into the pockets of his jacket. “To the end of the block and around the corner.”

Jensen stepped out from under the alcove. Rain pattered on the brim of his baseball cap, started to soak its way through his jacker. He started down the sidewalk, making sure to keep his pace at something Shaun would be able to keep up with easily.

[dr_spencer_reid]

"Your choice of words suggest that you feel this work is beneath you- Which it likely is. What would you prefer to be doing?" Spencer asked curiously.

[letsblowitup]

Shaun could tell that Jensen was going slow for him, and while it was mildly embarrassing, he appreciated it. The walk was hard, even moreso in the rain, but he didn't make a sound, did his best not to show what was hurting him. He did a pretty good, too, only the occasional wince of pain.

It didn't mean he didn't sigh in relief when they got in to Jensen's building. "Mind if I borrow a towel, when we get up there?" he asked. He wasn't completely soaked, but it was a near thing.

[tech_geek]

“Nah, I figured I’d just let you drip everywhere until the hyperthermia set in,” Jensen replied, they dryness of his tone contrasted sharply by an ear-to-ear smart-ass grin.

Digging out his keys, Jensen opened the door and held it, waiting for Shaun to go first before following him into the hallway. It was dimly lit and leaned just short of being decrepit with the well-worn look of something that was old and falling apart, but being taken care of. He led Shaun down it a short ways, “Look out for that stack of newspapers,” and eventually stopped in front of another door. Unlocking it, he pushed it open.

“Welcome to my humble abode.”

The kitchen lay just beyond the door. The table was small and round, its uneven legs made steady by a thick book. A set of mismatched chairs sat around it. The appliances were varying degrees of old, though the majority looked like they had seen their glory days in the 70s. To the left was the bedroom/living room. A television sat on a small stand across from a battered, black sofa and tucked in the corner was a scratched up computer desk. The laptop that sat on it looked relatively new and was hooked up to a second monitor that was old, but in decent condition. A mattress on the floor served as a bed. Beyond the bedroom/living room was the bathroom.

“Make yourself comfortable. I’ll grab you a towel.”

[girl_upgraded]

She blushed then and rolled her shoulder in a bashful shrug.

"My parents would kill me for the least of things," she said. Of course that was hyperbole- they wouldn't likely kill her. But she didn't fancy the consequences of losing her tech or being confined to the house. She was an adult, but she had no resources of her own to speak of. She had an account where she was accruing pennies off of bank transactions, but she thought it was too risky to try to touch those funds. She wasn't even sure how much she had now.

[letsblowitup]

"Thanks." Shaun gripped his cane tight as he moved to the dining room table, sore, but not wanting to drip on his couch. He glanced around, rubbing the back of his neck- it wasn't completely unlike his, in that temporary and furnished from scratch from thrift stores sort of way. It looked comfortable though, and he smiled at the computer set up, remembering how Jensen had treated his laptop like his baby when they were on mission.

[tech_geek]

Jensen came back from the bathroom carrying a towel. His hat and jacket were gone, hair and clothing damp from where the rain had soaked through. “That’s comfortable?” he asked with a laugh and then gestured for Shaun to come over. “Come on, dude, sit on the couch.” He dropped down onto the couch himself, draping the towel over a knee, and bent over to untie his Chucks.

[tech_geek]

“Nah, dude, I don’t think any job is beneath me.” Beneath him would apply there’s a job to be ashamed of, and that was bullshit. There was no such thing as a job to be ashamed of. “It was a joke. Inferring that I’m on the bottom of the retail/service industry ladder. Another pawn. Another little blue plastic person in a box of little blue plastic people in the game of Life.”

TW: mention of abuse

[tech_geek]

“Ah, they’re those kinds of parents.” Jensen wouldn’t know about those kinds of parents personally. While she clearly spoke about it in the more figurative sense, his own experiences were more literal. Kill may be a strong word for it, but only just barely, and anything, not just getting into trouble, had been used as excuse to raise a hand to him. “Yeah, you don’t want to get caught then.”

[dr_spencer_reid]

Again, the reference sailed right over his head, but he tried not to let it show.

"Oh," he replied simply. "Still, there must be something else you'd prefer to be doing," he prompted.

Re: TW: mention of abuse

[girl_upgraded]

"With any luck by the end of the year I'll be able to get a flat on my own and it won't be quite the issue it is now," she said. "But living at home it's their rules. Which I understand. I don't like, but I understand."

[letsblowitup]

"I didn't want to drip on your shit," Shaun said, laughing through a groan as he pulled himself up again, limping over without his cane to the couch. He collapsed down with a cough, snagging the towel and starting to dry his hair, hanging it around his neck as he wiggled out of his jacket. "Thanks."

[tech_geek]

“No problem.” Jensen dropped his sneakers, his socks stuffed into them, on the floor beside the couch. He sank back into his seat with a sigh and then looked over at Shaun, grinning at him, “So, you ready to stop looking like I’m going to garrote you?”

[alcuin]

Alcuin offered him a little smile in return (the grin was infectious), but his curiosity got the better of him and he couldn't help blurting out, "Do you speak Arabic?"

[tech_geek]

“Selling coffee’s not so bad,” Jensen  replied with a shrug. “I guess in a theoretically, if I could do anything I wanted to do thing, I’d like to do something with video games. Or comics books. But, my drawing skills don’t extend very far past stick figures.”

Re: TW: mention of abuse

[tech_geek]

Jensen smiled at Rave, “Good luck.” Moving out cam e with a whole fucking host of new problems, but it’d been worth it in his experience.  

[tech_geek]

“What? ‘Cause of that?” Jensen asked, gesturing at the counter to indicate what had happened there and then shook his head. “Nah, dude. It was obvious they were saying something really shh--not cool to you and that whatever it was had upset you.”
 
He gave him an apologetic smile, “Sorry you had to deal with that, by the way. If it makes you feel any better, I don’t think they’ll be coming back.”

Re: TW: mention of abuse

[girl_upgraded]

"Thanks," she said, then sighed softly. "It's nothing I'm going to dwell on. I'm terrified of getting flatmates, to be honest."

[dr_spencer_reid]

"You could always write them instead of illustrating," Spencer pointed out pleasantly, offering a smile.

[alcuin]

"I'm not certain it makes me feel better if I contributed to you losing a customer," Alcuin admitted with a little smile. "I usually don't lose my temper like that."