[action, open-ish]

[entertainaplanb]

Who: Becky Samson; anyone who'd plausibly be at the elementary school for part one, and anyone at all in part two
Where: third-grade classroom, then a pharmacy
When: Monday, after school (mid/late afternoon)
What: Paper-grading! And dealing with Echoes.


It'd been nearly a month. Becky had been starting to hope she was done with the vertigo-like thing. And then it happened three times over the weekend. She'd say it's about half things she can ignore and half not.

In any case, she has things to do after her students go home for the day; there's only about three weeks left in the school year, and their homework isn't self-grading. It keeps her there for a good couple hours, after which she has a couple errands to run before she goes home.

For some reason, one of them includes examining boxes of disposable gloves at the pharmacy. She has a half-box at home, but she can't shake the feeling that she really ought to have purple ones, not the plain latex.

Maybe it's just as well. People do have latex allergies, after all.

(Wherever you do catch her, you'd be forgiven for thinking she got engaged over the weekend; the ring on her left hand is new. It's a simple thing, silver or white gold, with a pair of diamonds set catty-corner to each other.

She found it in her pocket when she got home from the art gallery on Saturday. Maybe, in that case, wearing it isn't such a good idea - the fact that it's a perfect fit for her left ring finger is definitely a little weird - but she couldn't bring herself to leave it at home.)

Comments

[espigeonage]

Julien's sister sometimes sends him on errands. He doesn't mind, really, although when there's a sluggish line at the pharmacy and he's carrying a heavy basket he does get bored. His usual casual pastime, a phone with a built-in and well used keyboard, isn't always an option.

"Isn't that the way of things?" he says cheerfully to the closest person, tugging idly at his loose yellow tie as he pockets his phone. "It's 2013 and there are still places with terrible reception."

Julien is a short young man often mistaken for a teenager, with clearly-dyed hair and a relaxed, happy manner.

[entertainaplanb]

"It does happen like that sometimes. But hopefully you don't need to find anything out before you leave the store."

Given that she's just come from school, Becky's still dressed for the classroom - today, a purple blouse and grey slacks.

(OOC: So sorry about the delay! It's been a Week on my end.)

[espigeonage]

He grins. "Oh, probably not! You know this generation, though, always hooked up to our little devices! I read an essay about how this isn't turning us into zombies, it's turning us into some kind of techno-organic hivemind."

[entertainaplanb]

Becky laughs. "So I've heard. You'd think if they were turning people into much of anything, though, they'd do it a little faster."

Then again, she's not one to pull out her phone just to pass the time. It's mostly there for when she needs to look something up at a moment's notice.

[espigeonage]

"That's the one thing that did get set back by Y2K," he says with a careless grin. "We're all off schedule and trying to cobble up connections through wikis and social media, rushing and trampling into the goal of sharing everything with everyone, all the time. And then being shocked when that doesn't always prove to be a good idea."

Julien pretends he's said something he didn't want to reveal, jolting in place theatrically. "Or so I've heard."

[entertainaplanb]

"It's never a good idea to share everything with everyone. Someone I was in college with was all surprised when Residential Life fired her for posting pictures of her giving beer to freshmen on her Facebook." Becky rolls her eyes. "Why she thought that was a good idea I'll never know."

[espigeonage]

He chuckles. "I have to doubt 'thought' had much to do with it. That's why we need the hivemind, see, so people who haven't been assimilated yet don't see these things."

[entertainaplanb]

Becky nods. "I'll give you that one. I didn't know her very well, so I can't judge, but."

One would think there'd be at least a little common sense filtered into that decision.

"Well, even if you had a hivemind, it wouldn't necessarily be the best idea to put everything there, either."

[espigeonage]

"Yeah, they're a little overoptimistic about it." Julien cranes his head looking at the head of the line, where someone' arguing with the cashier, and then shrugs. "We'll always need secrets, especially in times like this."

[entertainaplanb]

While Julien's gauging the state of the line, Becky eyes a tabloid for a moment, but since she has yet to figure out who or what a Kardashian is or why she should care, the distraction doesn't last long at all. Times like these, she almost misses the Weekly World News; Bat Boy was at least good for a laugh.

"This is very true. You never know who might be paying attention."