I'm Despresso When There's No Coffee (Emerson)

[Zebadiah Hayes]

Zeb actually didn't visit the staff lounge all that much. When he needed to retreat, he just went back to his apartment to crash for a bit. Or if it wasn't the dead of winter, he would go for a walk outside and smoke his pipe.

But this morning, he'd gotten up and realized that he was out of coffee filters. For a moment he considered trying to re-use the old one still sitting in the coffee machine. He'd done it before, mostly during college. But it didn't make for the best tasting cup of joe. So before taking drastic measures, he decided he'd stop in the staff lounge and see if there was one in there he could take.

He brought a mug and some grounds with him figuring if he was going to head in that direction, he might as well make enough to share. The idea made him feel a bit better about stealing borrowing from the other staff.

Once he got the coffee going, he sat down on one of the couches in the lounge to wait. It was still early enough that the room was empty for now. But with classes starting soon, he figured other staff would be showing up at Hammel. Too bad he didn't have doughnuts to share as well. Maybe next time.

[Dr. Emerson Cassel]

Emerson rarely seemed to leave Hammel - of course, this assumption was disastrously wrong, but he did spend an awful lot of time in his office at the institute. He occasionally arrived before 7AM and on a usual day, left sometime after 6PM (though, usually later than that, just in case a student required his services). Interestingly enough, he wasn't tired with his job - the only thing that tired him was fatigue, literally. It was a well-known fact that Emerson preferred tea to coffee, but occasionally he would brew up some java in the staff lounge and occasionally chat with his coworkers about people things, like the weather and students.

Today's trip to the staff lounge was supposed to be quick - he'd simply check if there was any Builder's Tea or in case there was none left, he'd manage with coffee. Emmy figured that the lounge would be empty at this hour of the morning, as it usually was, but he was unprepared for spotting one of the dorm monitors brewing coffee in the staff lounge. It had been a while since Emerson had spotted Zeb in here, which was a little bit odd, but Emerson gave the other man a small smile nonetheless.

"Zeb, how are you?" he greeted the other man, taking a spare mug from one side of the lounge to use and return later.

[Zebadiah Hayes]

Zeb hadn't been sitting there long before Emerson walked in. The coffee had just finished up and he was pouring himself some in his mug that he'd brought with him. When he heard the door to the staff lounge open, he turned to see who it was already wearing a sleepy smile on his face.

"Good morning Dr. Cassel," Zeb said. His habit of addressing student by their last names until he asked them not to and he could actually remember not to extended to his co-workers as well. "I am fine. And yourself."

He was actually doing alright. A bit tired as usual. But he'd actually managed to get a few hours of sleep the night before. He considered that to be a good day. Or at least the hopeful start of one.

Zeb had been realizing lately, well actually it had been his sister who had pointed it out, that he needed to interact more with people his own age. His argument that been that his work revolved around the students, so why shouldn't his life as well? But even he was starting to see the flaws in that. A man had to have friends his closer to his own age bracket, if only to talk about and do things that the under 18-21 crowd couldn't.

"How is your day looking so far?"