Hitting Bottom - Third Wave, Adam, Jonathan, Harriet and Caittie Options

[adamu]

Adam
Wednesday 5/14/70 17:32:09

Adam Lear was sitting with his roommate John Wain in the lounge of their dorm watching the large-size trid unit. They were happy to occupy a sofa near the rear of the room, since the area up closer to the image was occupied by a hairy group they personally dubbed the Earthens. The natural-fiber-clad Earthens were glued to the latest media speculation about the recent annihilation of the Tate Modern in London, which had indeed been a bummer since Adam had kind of wanted to see that place after a presentation on it in his art class.
A lot of the news - certainly the flashiest part - revolved around a sort of war trid files sent in by various groups claiming credit for the blast. Or denying it. Seems that Terra First had been the first (no pun intended) to take credit. And then Terra First has sent in a second (?) clip denying it and blaming it on Green War, who they said was trying to frame them. Green War came back with "Why would we frame you for something we'd be totally proud of doing if only we'd thought of ourselves," which was followed by a torrent of ridiculous clips from every self-absorbed eco-group in the world condemning WHOEVER was behind the blast for the loss of innocent life. And on and on and on....But to the Earthens it was about the most important thing in the world, as the spoiled college kids went on and on about whether it was morally justified to take a life to save the Great Mother.

And just as the trid amused them, so they amused Adam and John.

When the broadcast ended and they were filing off the the sweat lodge they'd jury-rigged in the dorm basement, one of them, an unwashed little dwarf girl, pounced on John for eating a burrito. "Meat is murder, you fucking piece of shit asshole," she spewed. John calmly responded to her invective with, "Uh, it's soy," to which she shot back "But you WISH it was a cow, you speciesist scum!" And on it went.

As John sat and weathered the Earthen storm, Cal sat down next to Adam. Cal was the nominal leader of the Earthens on this end of the University of Washington campus, and much better spoken than some of his followers. He often made it a point to chat with Adam. "You know, you're a talented guy, dude. You should consider putting all that personal mojo you got goin' on into a worthwhile cause."

Gee, wonder what cause that might be. As Adam thought up a witty reply, he noticed that he and John were running late to meet a guy at their favorite sports bar, the Ram's Head. A Greek (system, not country) acquaintance of Adam's had asked him to meet there. No idea why, but Jeff was definitely from a rich family, and he was good for dinner and the beers.

Jonathan
Monday 7/7/70 08:07:00

Jon could barely see through the haze of his 4th of July Weekend (why did people still celebrate that?) hangover, but he'd been in Alister Connolly's office many times before - enough to have memorized the floor-to-ceiling view of Lake Washington, the mahogany desk with inlaid terminal, the real wood floor, protected from the iron-studded feet of anitique furniture by handmade Sioux throw-rugs. So he transferred any energy he might have used registering visual images to concentrating on what his boss was saying.

"Now this next little assignment is just a tad more risky than some of the others, so I thought I might have Rafael back you up on it....You don't want his help?....Well, I KNOW you are capable, but it just seems so risky....Oh, you are a cocky one, aren't you?....Well, I am definitely going to have some support people n standby, just in case....well now you are just being pig-headed, Jon. There's more at stake here than just YOUR neurons, you know - this has to come off without a glitch....Yes, yes, I know I always say that, but it's always true....Well, actually, no, the paydata is actually worthless....Because it IS important, Jon, just because it is. Why do you always have to ask so many questions? Why can't you just do as you're asked for once?....Oh, you do think you're something, don't you. Well, you're not THAT valuable here, but since I will accede that you have some worth amongst our humble ranks, I will tell you that it is basically a null-value file that we mailed to their system. We just want you to see if you can get it back for us....Yes, yes, yes, we want to test their security - they ARE our rivals, Jon....Illegal? Such a strong word from one so tender of years. You just run along now, all the details are already at your workstation."

As Jonathan staggered for the office door, Alister called - "And I need it by 2200 hours tonight!"
Null sheen, thought Jon, since I'm meeting Jason and Guile at Penumbra at eight anyway, and I'm not gonna let a little thing like work hold me up.

Caittie
Tuesday 8/12/70 17:04:00

"It is to compensate my future husband for properly maintaining me throughout our blissful life together, and an indication by my father of the style to which I am accustomed and in which he expects my beloved to keep me," said the little Pakistani girl Caittie was chatting with. A DOWRY! What a wiz concept. A little old-white-spud in the culure department, though. But she didn't say that to her new friend Anoor. "Wow, that is really cool. And of course every culture is equally good." She wasn't sure what that meant exactly, but it sounded true and they hammered it into their heads at school often enough.

"Who are you talking to, Ace?" Ohmigosh - had she been talking out loud again?

"Sorry Anoor, gotta go," she said in English, letting the Urdu-soft she'd borrowed from somewhere translate for her. Everything she said on those programs always came out stilted, especially with the non-Euro lingos, but they got the point across, letting her talk to people all over the world.

She needed to reassure her dad (again) that she wasn't crazy, finish repairing Mrs. Nakamura's commlink, and do her homework all in the next couple of hours, so she could hook up with Alex and Lisa at DDR before it opened.

Harriet
Tuesday 7/1/70 13:42:43

A rare sunny day in Seattle. The sun beat down on Harriet Hojnacki's head as she jumped down the steps from the lead architect's trailer. She put on her hardhat to give herself a little shade, but it didn't help much. But it didn't matter much right now, because she was still feeling good about the praise she'd just received from Mr. Van Buskirk - well, he kept insisting she call him Cody. He'd really taken her under his wing lately, which could make all her career dreams come true - she'd certainly worked hard enough. She didn't even mind that he'd asked her to come here to the Hirotomo Building site later tonight to make sure the latest concrete pourings had been done properly before work resumed tomorrow. He was definitely nice than any other human supervisor she'd had.

And then Andy had to ruin it. He walked up to her and tried to give her a kiss, right where everyone could see, right there in front of the boss's trailer, damn him, RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE BOSS'S TRAILER. She was sure it was on purpose, damn him. Why did all this racial crap have to be such an issue anyway?
"Heya, babe, why so cold all the time lately?" She did feel bad - it wasn't his fault - he was actually a better guy than almost anyone else she'd dated - and he had this thing he did with his tusks...
"I was thinkin' we could toss back a few tonight at my place, you know, like how it USED to be and then all of a sudden wasn't." Looking at him there, all dusty and with his shirt tied around his muscular waist, she was almost tempted. But that was the animal in her, and giving in to that all the time was why most of her people never got anywhere. Besides, she was meeting Monica for dinner this evening before coming back here.