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

[alcuin]

"Alcuin," Alcuin said pleasantly.

And then the man standing behind him in line (older, Egyptian, well dressed) said to his female companion in Arabic, "... knew it! The whore who killed his father, it was in the papers."

Alcuin didn't turn to look. But it was clear from his immediate facial expression that he'd heard it and understood, and red creeped up his neck as he looked down at his wallet and pretended that he didn't speak Arabic.

[tech_geek]

Jensen understood too, but hid it better, just barely glancing up as if checking who had been speaking. His heart went out to the kid though. He was obviously embarrassed, and the couple just kept talking. Fucking assholes.

“You know what?” Jensen asked as he jotted Alcuin’s name down on the cup. “It’s on the house today. Pay it forward. Or not. Whatever floats your boat, dude.”

[alcuin]

Alcuin looked up at him, surprised. The timing of the offer was suspect... but what were the odds that a random American barista spoke Arabic?

Meanwhile, he was trying to ignore the people behind him, as the man relayed in great detail exactly what he'd read about Alcuin in the tabloids. That he was a prostitute who had killed his father-or-was-it-lover-or-both in some sort of jealous rage. Alcuin was doing an okay job of ignoring it until he heard the words ... pimp, probably deserved what he got, that he spun on them.

His spoken Arabic wasn't very good, since he had mostly learned to listen and understand it rather than speak it, but it was good enough that he could call them a couple of very bad words before he stomped off towards a table in the corner. His heart was pounding, and he'd completely forgotten about the chai.

[tech_geek]

Jensen watched as Alcuin stalked off to a corner table, his jaw tightening as the Egyptian couple continued to talk about him, using bad words of their own, their tones scandalized and affronted. He turned his attention onto them, offered a fake friendly smile, “And what can I get you today?”
 
The man ordered for himself and his companion and then offered their names without prompting. Jensen wrote their names on their cups and then rang up the order, listing off the total and then looking up expectantly. Their answering expressions said everything. Apparently they’d been expecting free coffee too. Yeah, not gonna happen, buddy. The man, ever the fucking delight, paid with attitude befitting of a four-year-old and Jensen accepted with the same fake friendliness before turning away to make all three orders.
 
Eager to get Thing One and Thing Two out of his coffee shop, Jensen deposited theirs on the counter first. The man took both drinks, passing the other off to his friend, and then left without leaving a tip. Ah, feel the love, Jake. Feel the love.. He picked up Alcuin’s drink brought it over to where he sat. “All set,” he said, setting the drink down and then turning around and heading back to the counter. A note had been added under Alcuin’s name-Illegitimi non carborundum Okay, so it wasn’t actually Latin, but the sentiment still stood.

[alcuin]

During this time Alcuin had honestly just kind of sat there silently stewing and trying to decide if that was a win that he stood or for himself or if he's just lost his temper.

By the time the barista brought him his drink, he'd almost forgotten about it. He looked up to thank him, but he was already gone, and that's when he saw the not-quite-Latin inscription. Don't let the bastards grind you down.

He sat there for a minute and drank the chai (very good), waiting for the small line of customers to dissipate. When it was entirely gone and there seemed to be a lull, Alcuin walked over. "Thank you," he said.

[tech_geek]

Jensen grinned. “No problem, dude. To make coffee is my calling,” he replied, knowing full well what Alcuin meant and playing at clueless. “Just perfected chai recently actually.” He was joking. Mostly.

[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]

“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.”

[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."

[tech_geek]

“Eh, I don’t care,” Jensen replied with an unconcerned shrug. “Screw ‘em,” He gave zero fucks about two assholes deciding they wouldn’t be coming back. “Seriously, don’t worry about it. You were upset, dude. It happens. We can’t all keep our temper all of the time. Besides, they deserved it.”

[alcuin]

Alcuin agreed that they deserved it. Though for all the guy knew, they could have just said something unflattering about Alcuin's shoes.

"Well... thank you," he finally said again. "Um. Well, you haven't lost me as a customer, I'm here all the time."

[tech_geek]

“I thought I’d seen you here before,” Jensen replied, nodding. “Well, I’m glad you’ll be sticking around then.” He gave Alcuin a thumbs-up.