FirstDaysAlwaysDisappoint {open}

[mikku]

Robin gave a little sigh as she turned a corner on one of the many streets of Cardiff and looked up at the building in front of her. The sign looming above her read, 'Jena's Record Store' in big red glowing neon, along with a neon vinyl disc on the side of the logo. 'Well, here goes nothing...' She thought to herself, opening the doors of the shop with one hand as she felt a knot begin to form in the pit of her stomach.

She was nervous about getting a job, she'd only had one job back in Blackview, which was a library aide(it didn't pay, but at least she got to be with books all day). Her aunt had told her she would need a job if she wanted to support herself, and gave her the newspaper's 'Help Wanted'. The ad for the music shop just seemed to pop out to her, like those 3-D comics they used to make. So she wrote down the address and asked her aunt to drop her off Downtown for a few hours. Now here she was, acting like a proper adult.

Thank God she had decided to work at a record store, Robin probably would have never gotten a job anywhere else with the get-up she was wearing. An old dark gray hoodie with a pair of baggy jeans, topped off with a ripped pair of converse. The owner was an ex-Hippie, so she didn't seem to care, she gave her the job of storing the CDs and DVDs in the right containers when they got shipped it. Simple, but at least it paid well. Before Robin left, she was given her uniform(a red dress shirt with the store's logo on the front and black slacks) and a name tag(one of those 'Hi, my name is-' deals) and was told she would start at Ten-o-clock tomorrow morning.

Robin made sure to thank her as she stuffed the uniform into her messenger bag and duck out of shop, looking around at the busy street ahead of her with a smile. There, that wasn't so bad, was it? She took a glance up at the sky, the sun was still high in the air, then at the clock on her clunky old cell phone. It was fifteen minutes after twelve, her aunt wouldn't pick her up for another two hours. What to do until then? Robin hitched her bag higher onto her shoulder as she put her phone away, taking a slow pace down the side walk and scanning the various street signs and store logos. It wouldn't hurt to wander the street for a bit, maybe find an arcade or something to past the time?

[alex]

Technically Alex had the day off from work. She should have been shopping, or partying, or fixing the hole in her living room ceiling. But no, she had Science to do, and was therefore spending her free day right back where she was the rest of the week: the auto body. Probably could have done this at her flat, but she needed an empty lot. Besides, there was the hole in the ceiling. She'd feel guilty if she had to look at that thing while working on a separate project. This way, she could get some extra work done, and maybe even go over to The Gatekeeper for some lunch. Win-win.

Alex's odd encounter last week had got her thinking about invisibility. She hadn't done anything with it before, but she had read of several other experiments with cloaking technology. If other people could do it, she could improve on it. Alex had already found a few ways to boost the augmented reality system that the technology was based off. The retro-reflective cloth had been a little more of a challenge, but she had found a more-or-less functional workaround for that. Camera and projector were easy, and Alex had even managed to put together a quick system to account for color changes. Still, these were just minor changes to existing technology. Cloaking's real flaw was that the wearer had to stay pretty still. The existing head-mounted displays looked terrible, and were unwieldy. Alex needed to change that. For Science.

It was about then, with the system up and ready to go, that Alex hit a block. The cloak had worked fairly well on still objects, but the real test would be on moving ones. Only problem was, she didn't have a subject to try it on. With the shop technically-closed, though, she was the only person around. Couldn't really put on the cloak herself, she needed to test it from a distance. Using someone's car was a Bad Idea, and she didn't have any robots in the shop right now. Well, time to find herself an assistant.

Alex stood outside the shop, studying the slow stream of passerby. Didn't want to pick someone busy, or with company. A cute teenager walked by, looking a bit aimless, and Alex grinned. Perfect--young, bored, looked trustworthy. "Hey kid!" Alex called out, waving her over, "Wanna earn a tenner?"

[mikku]

Robin turned another corner and stuffed her hands into her pockets, grabbing hold of the keys inside and running her fingers over and under them as she walked past video stores, clothing shops, and tons of cafes. She wasn't exactly sure where she was going anymore, her aunt had given her a map but Robin had stupidly left it with her suitcase back at the house. Maybe she could buy another one at a store somewhere? Actually, she didn't even know where to go anymore now that she was deep enough within the city.

After a few more blocks of walking(and still no map), Robin stopped when she heard a voice yell something behind her. She turned around and saw a woman waving at her, yelling something about a 'Tenner'. What was that again? 'Oh yeah,' She thought with a sudden spark of realization. 'she means money!' She looked down and patted her pockets, she was a bit low on cash. A quick job wouldn't hurt her, would it?

The fact that the person had called her a kid annoyed her a bit, but she quickly ignored it and walked towards her, putting one hand on the strap of her bag and let the other hand freely. "Uh, sure." She said over the hum of the people going up and down the streets. "What do I have to do?" At about this time Robin's mind began to imagine just what the woman's answer would be. It could all summed up as this much, 'Oh, what in the world have I gotten myself into?' Luckily, the rest of her mind covered up the unpleasant thought and busied itself by trying to remember how much ten Pounds were in relation to American Dollars.

[alex]

Alex grinned as the girl turned. It was nice when people didn't pretend she was invisible. But this one was young and unjaded. Late teens, she guessed. And from that voice, definitely not a native. Good--them foreigners had to stick together. "Awesome," she told the girl cheerfully. Seeing the girl's expression, she hurriedly added, "And don't look like that. Nothing dangerous this time. Just need to run around and wave your arms. Oh, need to wear that coat, too. It's magic." Alex gestured toward the parking lot, where she'd set up her equipment. She'd do the whole looking like an idiot thing herself, but hadn't yet managed to be in two places at once. Needed to walk into a few more nuclear plants for those powers.

Ducking behind her laptop, Alex finished her last few details to the camera system. She'd probably need a few more alterations, but couldn't do them until the coat was on. She looked up after a moment, assessing the girl. Obviously American, with that accent, wrong time of year for school vacation. College here, then? There were a few good ones in the area. The girl herself was pretty, well built, and a little too jailbaitish for Alex's tastes. She was also a good deal taller than her too, something she noted with just a little envy. "Right then. Just go ahead and put it on. Might feel a little weird, the fabric's reflective." Alex gave her the best reassuring, 'this won't kill you' smile she could muster, and waved to the coat. Of course, the encouragement was probably lost, given the quiet evil-scientist-chuckle she let out right after. Just for show.

[mikku]

"Nothing dangerous?" Robin asked with a little bit of sarcasm, a smile running slowly across the edge of her lips. She had had a friend back in high school that sounded like her, nearly blown her hand off in Sophomore year. What did she mean by 'wave your arms', anyway? Her eyes followed the woman's finger as she pointed out all the equipment in the parking lot nearby. What kind of experiment was this, anyway?

Robin was just about to ask this question when the person showed her the coat. Her ears pricked up at the word 'magic', however. "So, what's it do?" She asked, pointing her finger at the coat. It seemed like a perfectly sensible question to ask, anyone would want to know what they were getting into(Literally, in Robin's case.) When she went towards the laptop, Robin decided to get a better look at her employer. She had sounded American, and looked pretty nice too. Once you looked past the grease and all that. When she spoke up again, Robin relized she was taller then her, which made her feel a little odd to have to look down at her.

Looking down at the woman's semi-reassuring smile, Robin took the coat and slipped it on. She quickly began to wonder if this was what wearing tin-foil felt like. "My name's Robin, by the way." She said, giving a little shiver as she heard what sounded like an evil laugh. "What's yours?" She smoothed out a wrinkle and looked behind herself at parking lot. "So all I have to do is run down the parking lot, right?" Sounded pretty easy for a tenner. She looked back at her and gave a little smile, even if she had no idea what she was getting into, she wasn't going to worry about it. No way.

[alex]

Alex gave an inward snicker at the girl's trepidation. It was fun to see--the thought that anyone could fear her still struck her as entertaining--but unfounded. Alex never involved others in anything potentially dangerous. Putting her life on the line was one thing, but endangering someone else was unthinkable. She had reinforced the walls of her apartment's lab for just that reason. Hadn't done the living room yet, which is why it had a hole in the ceiling. That was a different story, however. She glanced up at the girl for a second, pushing an errant strand of hair out of her face, and was pleased to see her trying on the coat. She went back to her work on the computer.

At the girl's second question, Alex finally looked up from her laptop. There, she was ready to go. "Alex," she replied cheerfully. "Alex Greaves. With any luck, that nice shiny coat should turn you invisible. Well, transparent at least, full invisibility's a little harder. Aaaand...there we go." She activated the coat's cameras and projectors, and Robin was suddenly see-through. Alex's grin widened. This was better than she had expected it to be--although the creases and folds of the coat were still visible, there was very little difference in color or pattern between the coat and the lot behind them. Save the issue of hands, feet, and head, Robin was pretty darn see-through. Oh, sometimes Alex impressed herself.

"Better than I thought it'd be, actually," Alex admitted. "Now for the fun part--you need to try to break the projection. Covering enough sensors or running fast enough might do it, not quite sure yet." Because honestly, what good was an invisibility coat if one couldn't do anything sneaky in it? Well, other than the sheer cool factor. That definitely played a role in the experiment.

[mikku]

Robin gave a little gasp as she saw torso disappear. "Awesome..." She muttered to herself, waving one of her arms around in excitement as she watched the fabric blend in with the wall in front of her. The effect wasn't exactly invisibility, but it was still amazing to look at regardless. It was as if she'd been turned into a chameleon, or at least her upper body had."You did this all by yourself?" She asked in amazement, spinning in a circle as she stared down at the coat. Now while Robin was a bit tall herself, the coat still managed to fit past her arms, leaving her hands and all the way down the her upper thigh see-through.

She gave a little nod as Alex told her what to do next. "Got it." She said, waving her arms again and watching the coat meld with whatever it was in front of, including Alex herself. She still couldn't see how anyone could make a coat like this by themselves, they'd have to be more then just a genius. They'd need a ton of money as well, maybe even a million dollars. Probably more then a million, though. She shook her head and tried to get her mind back on topic, she was getting paid after all.

"Just got to find a blind spot..." She said under her breath, spinning again and waving her arms around. It felt like she was doing some kind of complicated ritual, like a water-bringing dance of some sort. Robin smiled to herself and wrapped her arms around herself, then looked down at the front of her coat. "Here's one!" She blurted out, moving her arms an inch away from her chest. There was a patch of shiny material still showing right where her arms had been, almost like a shadow. "Maybe it can't blend in with itself?" She said, in an attempt to sound useful.

[alex]

Robin's look of amazement made all the work worth it. Sleepless nights were nothing compared to shock and awe. Alex never published papers, or even bother selling things through any medium besides eBay. The former was just academic masturbation, and the latter let her pay for her hobbies. The publicity that came with her 'discoveries' had been a little daunting, and she couldn't deal with doomsayers. Showing off to individuals, though? That was just fun. Alex grinned at the girl's question. "Well, I didn't do it all myself," she replied cheekily. "A friend did the basic sewing." Truth be told, she couldn't sew, really. She might do wonders with a bandsaw, but sewing machines were a bit beyond her.

Per Alex's instructions, Robin began running around and looking like an idiot. She stifled a giggle, reminded herself that this exercise wasn't just an excuse for a show. Right, holes. Still was funny looking, and she started to regret not bringing a camera. The teen paused and shouted out, and Alex hopped up from her station. She hadn't seen anything from a distance, but as she approached the hole became more visible."Brilliant, this is just the sort of thing I was looking for," she commented abstractedly, kneeling down to examine the silvery spot. A secondary link to one of the shoulder cameras should fix it, maybe even another projector.

Alex paused for a second in realization. "I just said 'brilliant', didn't I?" She sighed in mock remorse. "I'm starting to sound local. Next it'll be tea and laverbread. Where you from, anyway? Been here long?" It was generally just rare enough to find fellow Americans to make her enjoy them all the more, and bemoan about the silly Welsh. Not that she minded Cardiff, oh no--looked and felt a good deal like her Boston, but better weather. Definitely a reason to stay.

[mikku]

The silvery spot on Robin's chest disappeared as soon as Robin moved her arms back to her sides. well, actually the spot didn't disappear, it moved with her arms wherever her arms blocked the coat's sensors. Robin looked up and saw Alex smiling at her. "Still, this must of taken a whole lot of time to plan it all out." She said, swishing her arms back and forth as she watched all the colors change on the coat, smiling to herself like a small child. She still couldn't help but be in awe at the technological masterpiece she was wearing.

Robin smiled as Alex realized her little 'mistake', if you could even call it that. Robin herself said brilliant a lot, but she didn't think it was something only the British did. Or would it be Welsh here? Robin still wasn't sure at this point. "Yeah, you did." This was when she realized she was right about Alex's nationality, she probably was American. She did sound like someone from the North, didn't she?

"Alabama, back in the 'States." She answered, twinging a bit at her slight Southern drawl that slipped through as she spoke. "You're American too, aren't you?" She felt like she was asking too many questions, but she ignored it and gave a little smile. "I've only been here a couple of days. I'm on a..." She paused and tapped her chin with her index finger, looking up at the ceiling thoughtfully. "...what did Addy call it, 'Overseas Experience'?" Addy was the name of the Librarian from her old high school, she had said it was something most people back in her native New Zealand did before going off to collage. "What about you?"

[alex]

Alex nodded vaguely at Robin's statement, too busy looking over the silver patch to respond to the comment. Truth be told, the coat had indeed taken up a good amount of time, but, well, sleepless nights helped. Coffee, too, could be considered one of her main tools. She didn't bother saying anything about it, too wrapped up in the current details. Ironically enough, it was fairly hard to spot exactly what was wrong with the invisibility coat. She'd probably have to turn off the projectors for a better look, but that would make the hole invisible. Well, she'd figure it out somehow; she always did. At least there weren't any other problems, not even the motion blurs she had been afraid of.

Cool, Alabama. Alex had been there once as a kid, visiting a family friend. Not that she remembered much other than getting a nasty sunburn. "Born and raised in Mass, Boston area. Nice little town. Came over here for work out of college, never looked back." She replied cheerfully. Granted, the job that brought her over here was gone, but hey, she liked working on cars, and she liked Wales, sheep and all. She went back to fiddling with the coat, and after a moment thought she worked out the patch issue. Now it was just a matter of recalibrating it.

Alex bounced back over to her laptop, switched over the projector to a separate camera, and looked back up at Robin. "There, that might do it. Wave your arms again. Oh, how do you like Cardiff so far?" The question was accompanied by a tilt of her head, as much to look at the coat better as in curiosity. Not that it would do to mention such.