CHIKO ROLL

Emily Lewenhock

No hurting tummies, only hurting heads.

Emily wasn't familiar with K-Mart but could sure hazard a guess in context.

"That's a fair theory on fashion, honestly. Form without function?" She snorted to herself. "Hi-vis like road work, or…?"

She nodded along, but…

"Faux pas??" She didn't speak French, but she'd certainly heard it here and there.

"But hey, it's a free country. I'm sure all color combinations match for some animal or other's type of eyesight, anyway."

She picked at her sleeve with a sigh.

"Well, maybe not all that free a country right now, but. At least I haven't run into the fashion police yet."

She nibbled at the edge of her toastie. Hard to muster up an appropriate appetite in the situation, but she could at least be driven by curiosity about the contents until she actually got to them.

Sylas Grey

"Yeah, that! High-vis."

He has to think about this for a moment. "Is it really pronounced foh pahs? That's weird. Is it like, Greek or something?"

"Damn… other languages are wild. Anyway! What the hell are we doin' in here? Do you think the fashion police really got us, like, for real? 'Cause I got no idea why else I'd be in here. Have you done, like, any wack-a-doo crime lately?"

Emily Lewenhock

Oof, a physical job, then. She could never.

…With about the expected amount of book knowledge for a guy with a physical job. No, that wasn't fair. Not having a basic grasp of multiple European languages was probably normal!

"French, I think. Though I took Latin instead of Greek, so I'm not all that familiar with it, haha…"

Sylas Grey Do you think the fashion police really got us, like, for real?

She sighed melodramatically. "Normally I'd have no fear of them, at least when I'm dressed to go out in public. If they have a problem with my houseshoes, they should need a warrant or something, right?"

Sylas Grey Have you done, like, any wack-a-doo crime lately?”

"…" Had she? "Not that I know of? Haven't exactly read the entire law of the land, though."

"Stretched some company rules, maybe, but that should just be an issue of career advancement. Or, uh, existence."

Sylas Grey

"Your slippers do look REALLLL comfy. I wish I had some. Left all my jimjams at home, I guess."

"But, wow! Latin! You must be crazy smart, aye?! And you did fancy company crimes too?? Everyone here is so damn clever. What's your job, Emily?"

Emily Lewenhock

Emily shuffled one of her houseshoes halfway off, then scrunched her toes until it was on again.

"I'd offer to go splitsies, but both of us hopping around the place in one slipper sounds like a couple of disasters waiting to happen." Or disasters that already happened, depending on who you asked. Maybe both.

"If I did it fancy enough, I wouldn't have gotten caught… It wasn't really anything exciting, even. Just using equipment without permission. Probably cost them an extra 10p on their electric bill or something."

She nibbled on the toastie again, actually breaking into the filling this time. Okay, normal. And warm. Warm was always good. Fingers crossed for no mouth burns.

"Bacterial research. More clever-sounding than exciting in reality, unfortunately. And you were… road crew?" There had to be a more official name for those. Oh well.

Sylas Grey

I fell asleep on my keyboard halfway through my reply last night. I'm sorry Emily. The office lady life is a rough one.

"Whoa… bacterias. Those are the li'l nasty guys that womble around in yer guts and make you-"

…

"…Have… good…. digestion. Yeah. Wow! Cool!! I didn't even know you could get paid to study those."

He laughs, his only real knowledge of bacteria being that his sister-in-law has a few stuffed versions.

Wow… Little guys.

"Oh, I'm a carpenter. Close to road crew! I filled in for a mate doing that once! But I got distracted when I was holdin' the lollipop sign and nearly got ran over by a Tesla. Man, I fuckin' hate Tesl- oops. Sorry, didn't mean to swear."

Emily Lewenhock

Emily snorted. What a fella.

“You’re not wrong. Our lab mostly deals with bacteria found in soil, but there’s definitely overlap with gut bacteria.”

“Like, the type I work with can be enteropathogenic or compete with other gut pathogens to be a little more protective, like your native population there.” She was making some effort not to use all big words. She wasn’t very good at it.

“Oh, yikes. That would sure scar you from liking Teslas if you were neutral to start with.” Or actually liked them or something.

“But—carpenter. Got it. Sounds like a challenging job.” Certainly if you were more brains than brawn—though she suspected they were perfect opposites on that front.

Sylas Grey

What the fuck was that word she said.

"It's, uh, it's not as challenging as knowin' what ent…ro…patho… genus… means. I think you got me beat! You must be the smartest lady here by a country mile!"

Emily Lewenhock

Ah shoot she lost him. Common problem when she started talking shop with anyone in other degree programs. For all her dad's experience in effectively watering phrasing down to an everyman level, she hadn't quite gotten a hang of it herself.

"It, uh. Makes you sick to your stomach, basically, is all that means." Was that so hard? Come on girl.

"It's a nice thought, but there's not really a meaningful way to call anyone the smartest person." Grades were fake! Especially for, like, history classes! "Different types of intelligence and all."

She took a more proper bite of sandwich.

"Don't remember what all those types were supposed to be, but you definitely have the more practical type of it going." Common sense? Not sold yet. More just the ability to execute tasks, or make things, or what have you. That had to qualify him for some prize in this category!

Sylas Grey

"Hah, that's me! Practical! The only thing I got goin'."

He laughs. And- looks at the toasties remaining to be eaten.

"Y'know, I reckon I better save the last of these for later, or else I'm gonna be sick to my stomach as well. Might pop these in the fridge and go take a walk, get the digestion goin'."

"Real nice meetin' ya, Emily! You have a good… time… in… prison, now!"

Emily Lewenhock

"See? Very practical."

Did she have to restrain herself from more gut bacteria commentary at that? Possibly. Either way, she waved.

"You, too."

"I'll… sure do my best."