Meri Vale
Character
The café was busy in the way places became when the dinner rush had just begun to swell, yet it maintained that specific, muffled atmosphere that Meri preferred. It wasn't a place for loud broadcasts or rowdy performers; instead, the air was filled with a steady, rhythmic pulse of low conversations, the clinking of heavy ceramic, and the occasional hiss of the espresso machine. For Meri, this was the perfect white noise, a crowd that provided anonymity without the pressure of interaction.
She sat tucked away near the window with her back firmly against the wall, her small, round table dominated by a datapad propped at a slight angle. Because the screen was a chaotic spread of layered sketches, structural overlays, and symbol clusters, she had pushed her bowl of soup toward the far edge of the table to make room. Her notes were a mess of two different colors where she had argued with herself and lost, only to start the argument all over again in a different hue.
She leaned in close, a single finger hovering just millimeters above the glass as she traced a complex structural line without touching it, her mind visualizing the three-dimensional space. To her eyes, the work wasn't necessarily wrong, but it felt naggingly incomplete, like a puzzle with several vital pieces still missing.
As the draft from the window finally began to numb her knuckles, she realized how long she had been stationary. Her tea, sitting on the opposite side of her datapad, had long since stopped steaming.
"Oh," she murmured, her voice lost in the hum of the surrounding diners.
She blinked to clear her focus, reached for her stylus, which had been resting beside the datapad, tucked it behind her ear for safekeeping, then wrapped both hands around the ceramic mug. The heat seeped into her chilled palms almost immediately, prompting her to let out a long, slow breath she had not realized she had been holding.
Even as she took a careful sip of the lukewarm liquid, her eyes remained fixed on the glowing screen. The site she was studying was unusual, not because it was dangerous, but because it was so strangely layered. It had been rebuilt and altered so many times that it suggested generations of people had tried to force the structure to serve entirely different purposes.
She had always been drawn to places like that; they told their stories quietly, revealing secrets only to those patient enough to look past the surface.
Meri absently dipped her spoon into the now tepid soup and took a distracted bite, but her mind was already drifting back into the blueprints. The data wasn't behaving.
"…That's still not lining up," she whispered, her frown deepening.
Ignoring her food once more, she leaned forward until her shoulders hunched, narrowing her entire world down to the glowing display. She became a ghost in the crowded room, completely unaware of the patron currently weaving through the tables and heading straight for her.
Kiran Arlos
She sat tucked away near the window with her back firmly against the wall, her small, round table dominated by a datapad propped at a slight angle. Because the screen was a chaotic spread of layered sketches, structural overlays, and symbol clusters, she had pushed her bowl of soup toward the far edge of the table to make room. Her notes were a mess of two different colors where she had argued with herself and lost, only to start the argument all over again in a different hue.
She leaned in close, a single finger hovering just millimeters above the glass as she traced a complex structural line without touching it, her mind visualizing the three-dimensional space. To her eyes, the work wasn't necessarily wrong, but it felt naggingly incomplete, like a puzzle with several vital pieces still missing.
As the draft from the window finally began to numb her knuckles, she realized how long she had been stationary. Her tea, sitting on the opposite side of her datapad, had long since stopped steaming.
"Oh," she murmured, her voice lost in the hum of the surrounding diners.
She blinked to clear her focus, reached for her stylus, which had been resting beside the datapad, tucked it behind her ear for safekeeping, then wrapped both hands around the ceramic mug. The heat seeped into her chilled palms almost immediately, prompting her to let out a long, slow breath she had not realized she had been holding.
Even as she took a careful sip of the lukewarm liquid, her eyes remained fixed on the glowing screen. The site she was studying was unusual, not because it was dangerous, but because it was so strangely layered. It had been rebuilt and altered so many times that it suggested generations of people had tried to force the structure to serve entirely different purposes.
She had always been drawn to places like that; they told their stories quietly, revealing secrets only to those patient enough to look past the surface.
Meri absently dipped her spoon into the now tepid soup and took a distracted bite, but her mind was already drifting back into the blueprints. The data wasn't behaving.
"…That's still not lining up," she whispered, her frown deepening.
Ignoring her food once more, she leaned forward until her shoulders hunched, narrowing her entire world down to the glowing display. She became a ghost in the crowded room, completely unaware of the patron currently weaving through the tables and heading straight for her.
Kiran Arlos