Who: Gaz and Zach Where: Radio Shack What: Buying, chatting, random encounter of friends. When: tonight Warnings/Rating: PG Status Complete
Gaz stomped into the Radio Shack, needing a new soldering iron. She didn’t really walk anywhere, favoring stomping as her mode of transport, and as such, the clerk didn’t immediately greet her. She scanned the shelves, arms folded.
Zeus blinked, following her. He was here for a completely separate reason, needing several new computer parts, and had literally walked in behind her. “Gaz?” His voice was quiet. He knew how she could get and thought maybe the best plan would be to help her.
She recognized that voice and turned her head. “Jupiter. Hey.” She nodded her head, which was pretty close to a wave for her. She liked the guy - people gave him shit, and she tended to hate people who gave other people shit for no reason. Especially quiet people. The world needed more quiet people.
“Whatcha looking for? I can probably find it. These places are all laid out the same.” He liked her. She was honest and the world needed more honest people.
His smile made her smile weakly in return. “New soldering iron. Trying to build a new case for the PC.” She liked to custom build her cases, and as such, tended to weld and cut them into shape.
He glanced around, then nodded and strode off, avoiding the other customers, and moving to the opposite side of the store with quick strides. He was an engineer, hardware was something he understood. He soon found the section he was looking for, and turned to wave at her, not sure if she would have followed him.
She hadn’t, but when he waved, she followed him. Some people were looking at her as if they hadn’t seen a tiny five foot flat girl with purple hair and a mostly leather outfit in the mall before.
Silly people! Didn’t they pay attention?
Zach waved a hand at the soldering section. “What kind are you looking for? Seems like they have three, and a variety of metals.” He hmmed. “You make good cases. Will this be a mod, or just a plaincase?”
“Mod,” Gaz murmured, reading the backs of the cases for the irons. She cocked her head to the side in contemplation before figuring she’d just get all three. “Figured I’d do a StarCraft mod. If I don’t keep it I can sell it.”
“Awesome!” He grinned at her. “You really are cool, sometimes, you know?” Okay, so Zach happened to admire Gaz. She was one of those people he trusted implicitly, which were few and far between.
She smiled more brightly, shrugging. “Just sometimes? I should try harder.” She nodded at him, wondering what he was there for. “What're you getting?”
“Motherboard components. I’m pondering a new design to increase inherent clock and bus times and manifest a better interface with chipsets so as to allow for the faster processors to truly get with it.” He nodded, hmming as he examined what was there.
“If you get it working, you know I’ll take three.” Gaz gave him a smile, seeing a display of styluses and picking up a few extra. She lost them constantly.
He blushed and nodded. “I kn-know. You always make good use of hardware. I might actually patent this one.” Instead of letting someone else do it. He could actually make a little money. Maybe.
He smiled at her, then snagged the parts he was really looking for, quickly filling his small basket to the brim. He tended to act quickly after a lot of thought. Or some thought, anyway.
“Hm. Heard about the weird new porn coming out that’s completely digital?” He doubted she cared, but the digital part was something in their field and had piqued his interest.
“Yeah, I don’t know if I’ll get it.” She liked the kid, and the fact that he stammered during casual conversation and then could blithely mention porn made her grin. Honest people were Gaz's favorite thing. She had little, if any, tolerance for bullshit. “I mean, I’ll probably buy it to take it apart and see if I can replicate it, but not to fap to.”
Zach smiled at her. “Understandable.You’re hot and a girl. So, why porn. you know?” It was an honest opinion and not meant as flattery and he knew Gaz would know that, even if she didn’t believe it.
Gaz wrinkled her nose. “I haven’t done that with another person in ... a couple of years.” Not since she’d been a junior in high school. “Porn’s easier. Less talking.”
He blinked, then nodded. “Still a better r-record than me. And meh. It’s only w-worth it if you find someone you m-mesh with.” He shrugged. He had never tried hard, because he had never found someone he could truly connect with, like that.
“I don’t ... mesh.” Gaz didn’t really find a lot of people she wanted to talk to on a regular basis, much less she wanted to rub genitals with. She’d mostly done it in high school because of a mix of hormones and curiosity. She’d still do it, if there wasn’t a lot of annoying chatter beforehand. Some people and their small talk made Gaz’s head hurt.
Zach nodded, then peered ahead. “Hey, they have the new s9c’s! Awesome!” He collected one of those for his motherboard project. If anything would test it, that would. A Stark Class processor? Fresh on the market? It was dear, but worth it! Now he was bouncy!
That just made her smirk. “It takes so little to make you happy, Jupiter.” It was cute. Not that she’d ever say so.
“Yup. Nice hardware will do it.” And nice software, but no one who knew Zach knew he loved hacking as well as he liked putting computers together. He smiled at her, then hmmed.
“Either way, this will help my project. Might actually enter it in the science fair, this year.” The science fair he mentioned was the technology expo, something geeks looked for a way to enter if they wanted a serious chance at bucks, or a name thing. Or just grants. Zach could use a few of those for his Masters’ research.
“I just have papers to write.” She wrinkled her nose. Art History was boring as far as majors went, she was more into her Digital Art minor. But they fed into each other, and she couldn’t say that studying the history hadn’t made her art better, more vivid. “And paintings to do. Found a guy to sit for me, that’s good.”
“You did? Awesome! Seems like there would be plenty of people to sit for others here, with all the pretty peoples, but who knew it would be hard? I’m glad you found one.”
He liked her and he was glad she was managing.
“Me too. And pretty’s not really a big deal. Just people who’ll sit still and be quiet is all that matters.” Gaz preferred not to paint pretty people anyway; that was too easy for her. She’d rather the people who looked interesting.
Zach nodded. “I don’t know how you do it. Your drawings always look awesome.” He chuckled as he finally headed for the check out. “Work is finally back to full normal steam after the Blue Plague. And people seem to not be talking about it anymore.” Which was good, he thought.
“I’m glad I didn’t get that.” She chalked that up to being a hermit, and she easily ignored his compliment. Addressing compliments was just awkward.
“I got it, but by then my work was shut down because everyone else had it too.” He stuck out his tongue, then paid for his purchases with his credit card, wincing at the bill. If this worked, it would be worth it.
“So, hey, it was cool talking to you. See you online soon, okay?” He nodded to her.
“I’m glad you got better.” She nodded at his statement, giving a feeble little wave. “I’m glad that I ran into you.”
“Me too, you. See you on the flip side.” And he headed out. Unlike most people, who meant, afterward, he meant the original term, the flip side. Online. Or, as he called it, reality. He grinned as he headed home. He had a motherboard to design.