Xaviers!

Aaron sits at a table all to himself, his laptop open in front of him. He's wolfing down his food because it lets him go back to his furious typing that much faster. He glances up from the screen every so often, watching people for a few moments before diving back into whatever it is he's doing. Blogging by the looks of his screen.

[Open]

Alex watched the young man typing at the table all alone for a few minuets. The furious motions between chowing down and rapid clacking of keys has caught his attention. Though it was the sensation of eyes on him that first drew it. Now he could stand up and join him at the table but that would be too weird, plus he's more interested in what the guy was typing than the guy himself.

One french fry subtly sacrificed to make a small insect construct and the little critter was on it's way, skittering across the floor, up Aaron's chair and on to his shoulder to spy on his computer.

The construct gets the sentence "such obvious alterations to long-standing staples indicate the those in charge want to adjust Balance yet again..." Then Aaron sniffs a couple of times and brushes the insect off his shoulder, glancing at it oddly when it hits the floor.

Thankfully insects are rather sturdy creatures and it lands on the floor just fine. Alex gives the critter a command to crawl up the table leg this time.

Balance seemed to be a thing rather than the regular word, given that it was capitalized like a name. Question was what was "Balance"? And why was it being changed again? He'd give spying with the insect one last try before he'd give up and ask himself.

The sentences following onto that probably made even less sense.

Blog Post wrote:The numbers are still being crunched on the PTR, but from the early report it looks like Balance may survive this 'correction'. If Blizzard really wants people to do things their own way though, then they should really stop this 'feast or famine'-style adjustments.

Okay, curiosity was killing him, what the hell was this guy typing about?! So Alex picked up his food and moved over to Aaron's table. "Forgive me for butting in, but what in the world are you typing?" He didn't even flinch when the insect crawled up his arm and perched itself on his shoulder.

Aaron looked up, "Huh? Oh this? Just writing about a game I play. Major patch is coming up, so news is always a little crazy when that happens." He offered Alex his hand a little hesitantly. "I'm Aaron."

"I'm Alex." He took the hand and gave it a short shake before sitting down. "Sorry for spying, but you had this intense look about you. I got curious." He gave an awkward smile and shrug.

"So, what's the game? Cause I've never heard about PTR or "feast-or-famine" adjustments."

"World of Warcraft. PTR is the public test realm, it's where they test changes before they go into the live game that everyone plays. And 'feast-or-famine' is just me exaggerating a little. Kind of like sometimes the changes are great and make things better and sometimes they're really bad. It's a 'no middle ground' sort of thing. Kind of like mutations in some respects I guess."

oh. Em. Gee. Hotties at 3 o'clock Haley thought as she walked around looking for a seat with her tray of food. She was unfortunately thinking rather loudly today so there was a good chance both boys heard this a moment before Haley approached.

"Hi. You boys mind if I join you?" she smiled cheerfully.

"Not a problem with me if Alex doesn't mind." It didn't seem like he'd heard her broadcast, or at least his mind hadn't reacted like he had.

"As long as you don't mind geek talk."He chuckled before turning his attention back to Aaron, "So World of Warcraft, I've never played it. Online multiplayer thing I'm guessing?"

"Yeah, biggest one ever. No other game like it has even come close to its numbers. I started writing about it in high school and kept it up. Made friends, and maybe a few enemies," he chuckled.

"My brother plays WoW, and my dad's a big geek, so I'm used to it," she giggled. "I'm Haley."

"Heh, sounds like everybody is playing but me. What's the story line like?"

"Kind of convoluted and at times, not really all that good. It's really the playing with other people that make the game."

"I just know it makes my brother swear a lot," Haley smirked.

He glanced over at Haley, "That bad?"

"I just think it's funny how frustrated he gets at something he spends soooo much time doing,"

"Those two things aren't mutually exclusive when it's something you care about."

"True, I've been there. So the story's not that great, but a solid community to play with? Is it free? I might give it a shot."

"Free for a while, if you give me your e-mail address, I can get your set up for a bit," Aaron said.

"Is it fun to play together with people? I mean like. In the same room and stiff?"

"Me and some of the guys from the Institute did that a few times. It can be pretty fun."

"...how hard is it to learn to play?"

"If the game has a large community, I'm suspecting that the learning curve isn't that bad."

He reached over for his backpack, only to remember he hadn't brought it down with him. "You got a piece of paper I can write my e-mail address on Aaron?"

Aaron fished in his backpack and pulled out a pen and a small notebook, sliding them across to Alex, "Here you go."

"...think you could show me sometime?" Haley smiled flirtatiously.

"Um, yeah, I suppose I could do that," he said, seeming a little flustered.

"Awesome," she grinned. "Got a cell phone? I can text you my number." Haley pushed her hair back out of her face as she leaned over to get her phone out of her back pocket.

"Umm, yeah," he said, rattling off his number.

Alex wrote down his e-mail and his number for good measure. Though his watched the exchange with some amusement.

Haley texted him at lightning speed.

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hey cutie, it's Haley ^_^ 

Aaron got a brief 'deer in headlights' look before he managed to text back.

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Email address?

He snickers at Aaron's frightened face before handing back the paper and sits back to watch the rest of the exchange.

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Right. So... last name?

He went back to typing on his laptop. That seemed to ease his anxiety for a bit.

"Oh, duh, sorry....Crusek," she smiled twirling her hair around her finger and gazing across the table. "Think I'm the only Haley C around campus."

Subtlety did not seem to be a thing for Haley's flirting.

Alex's breakfast has long since gotten cold, at best lukewarm, during the course of this conversation. But he ate it as he watched the two interact, "This is adorable..."