Reasonably Paranoid (Cee)

[Sora Inoue]

Sora had just finished up a training session with a student. The kid was an electrokinetic who had trouble turning off their power. The air in the training room had gotten hot, and a few bulbs were blown in the course of training. He had ended up peeling off a jacket, and had just a few small cuts from picking up glass (it wasn't anything a band-aid couldn't fix fortunately). After that, he decided to get some cool fresh air, and went over to the staff lounge for a break.

The room was quiet for an afternoon. He'd gotten used to seeing a few other teachers lingering in between classes. But since it was winter break this was a bit more understandable. Sora didn't really mind spending his break with the students if that's what they'd need or like. All the same, he did enjoy being able to relax every now and then.

He emptied the coffee pot of the luke-warm liquid from the morning, and washed it out before making another batch. The room was quiet except for the sound of the machine brewing, and the faint sound of… A keyboard clicking? Crap. Sarah, the voice from another dimension, was going to start narrating any second now. He just knew it. Most of the time it was just her voice he heard, but at times there was also a keyboard, like she was saying it aloud as she typed.

As the dark liquid filled the pot, Sora heard a description of it. He closed his eyes and took a long deep breath. "Please, no." The voice started to describe how his body tensed as his power was being used. His hands clenched as Sarah said they did. "Shizukani…" He muttered for it to shut up. For the voice to fade, but it continued to talk of how he was pouring the coffee into a mug, and was planning on drinking it black. No matter how much he complained to Sarah, she never seemed to hear.

The Japanese man heard the door open, and he turned quickly. As he saw the person that entered, the voice narrating him vanished as if scared of others. Before saying anything to the man, Sora had to clear his throat a little. "Uh, good afternoon."

[Cee Cohen]

Breaktime meant repair time for Cee. A time to fix and rebuild all the systems that had gone wrong over the past few months from human interference. And there were a frightening amount of them. As a result, Cee had been at the school late—overnight in fact—and had woken up with his face against the desk, glasses askew, and eyes burning from the contacts being in for too long.

Which, come to think of it, was probably why he didn’t USE them that often.

It took Cee a while to find his emergency kit—including a toothbrush and toothpaste, because hygiene was important, a fresh set of undergarments, a new shirt, and deodorant. Anna had given it to him after one too many nights staying in the office because, she said, if he was going to sleep in at the job he might as well come home looking like a human being. It didn’t include a razor—Anna hadn’t trusted him with sharp objects and he’d never had many problems in that area anyways—but Cee, rubbing a hand along his jaw, decided it wasn’t that bad. The hair, though. He adjusted his glasses and peered into the reflection of the computer screen. Yeesh.

Coffee, he decided. Coffee would be a good thing. Then he could determine if he wanted to keep working or find a ride back home. He removed the contacts with care, blinking away the pain, and then climbed to his feet, straightened the crumpled but at least clean shirt, then trudged out toward the staff room, hiding a yawn behind his hand as he stretched.

It was pretty late, he noticed guiltily. That was what happened when no one came to wake him up. Well, hopefully, there’d still be food in the staff room—he paused as he saw a thin Japanese man in the staff room whirl around to face him. Cee actually turned around to see if there was someone more intimidating there. No one ever was startled to see him. He made the noise of a small elephant, or so he was told.

“Is it?” he asked blankly, then sighed. “I must’ve been asleep for longer than I originally suspected.” Whoops. “Afternoon. Please tell me there’s some coffee there?”

[Sora Inoue]

Sora's reaction was a bit much for just a co-worker entering the room. He should've expected someone to enter, but he got focused on shutting up Sarah. Amazingly she was shy towards this man. Most of the time Sora would hear her continue as if trying to get him to yell at her in vain.

He nodded to the man. "Mm-hmm. You just missed noon." Sora raised the mug to his mouth. The ceramic felt warm against his lips. After taking a sip of coffee, he gave another nod. "There's still some in the pot." As much as he loved the stuff, there was no way he could drink a whole pot's worth in one sitting.

"I believe we haven't met before." With his words was a Japanese accent. While his pronunciation wasn't the best, he felt he was lucky to speaking understandable English at all. "I'm Sora Inoue." He offered the man a hand.

[Cee Cohen]

“Oh, thank all that is wonderful.” Cee went toward the coffee, still yawning. “Past noon, is it?” He shook his head. “How horrific. I don’t usually sleep that long, but I suppose tonight had to be the exception, didn’t it?” He reached for the coffee, poured it in—making it IN this time, which tended to be the exception he noticed—and sipped it, making a happy noise. And no one to stop him from drinking it, too. This might be a bad thing, but he was going to enjoy it right at this very moment.

“Cee Cohen.” Cee took his hand and shook it. “Pleasurable to make your acquaintance. Are you a trainer at the institute? I instruct in computers. Pleased to see I’m not the only one not taking breaks.”