(no subject)

[shadowsusannah.livejournal.com]

Second verse, same as the first.

Susannah is back, trying once again to get some work done away from her troublesome menfolk. Not that she doesn't have a perfectly good office to hide in if she really felt like playing the recluse. But they don't keep liquor in the house, and where would she be without her Dragonfly?

The mountain of paper situation has only gotten worse; more resumes, print-outs of her memos that she's now marking up in red pen, and a file from the Vannay Institute about Stephen King's latest publications. Among other things.

She's open to distraction; just don't bring up Ron Howard.

Comments

[says-the-booyah.livejournal.com]

Cy's not far away, immersed in a technical journal. He notices the woman of color - something that is a little rare here, though that doesn't bother Cy much - and nods at her.

[shadowsusannah.livejournal.com]

Twenty years as a blockbuster and another thirty in White Plains; she's probably more used to being surrounded by white people than not by this point. But you never stop noticing.

(She also, obviously, notices the hardware. She's got robots on her mind just lately anyway. He's the second cyborg she's seen around here, although the first was quite long way back.)

He's just a kid, anyway. She returns the nod, and adds, "Evening, sugar."

[says-the-booyah.livejournal.com]

"Hey." He puts down his journal. "No one's called me sugar since my grandma died." Odd that he never thinks about that.

[shadowsusannah.livejournal.com]

"I am not--" She cuts off. "Oh hell. I suppose I am old enough to be your grandmother. But only if me and my children had been making some damn poor life choices."

[says-the-booyah.livejournal.com]

"Didn't say you were that old, lady. Just sayin' no one calls me that now, is all." He looks a little sheepish.

[shadowsusannah.livejournal.com]

"It embarrasses my daughter," she says.

[says-the-booyah.livejournal.com]

"How old is your daughter?" It would probably embarrass Cy just. Especially in front of the team.

[shadowsusannah.livejournal.com]

"About your age, I guess," she says. It's hard to tell under all that, but she's got a pretty good eye. "The age where just about anything I can embarrass her."

[says-the-booyah.livejournal.com]

"I guess my mom was able to do that, too. My dad never could, though." There is a little edge in Cy's voice.

[a1enzo]

Uninterrupted work? In Milliways? Surely you jest.

A tall boy in uniform accidentally jostles her wheelchair as he passes, drinking something luminous through a straw.

"Oops, sorry."

[shadowsusannah.livejournal.com]

"No harm done," she says mildly. The powered chair is a lot less prone to getting knocked around than her old converted racing chassis.

[a1enzo]

He eyes her table. "That is a lot of docs."

[shadowsusannah.livejournal.com]

"I recycle," she says, minorly defensive. "I can't deal with information on a screen, I need it in front of me." She lays down her red pen. Her laptop is folded and off to the side.

[a1enzo]

"How come?" he asks, genuinely curious. It's pretty much all screens and windows in his world. He's never had to deal with the difference in this context before.

[shadowsusannah.livejournal.com]

She shrugs. "I get migraines," she says. "And staring at a bright screen doesn't do my head any favors. I can just about watch the news or a movie but trying to read closely on anything backlit bothers me after a while."

[a1enzo]

"Huh. I didn't know it did that. We don't have that problem."

[shadowsusannah.livejournal.com]

"Green people?"

[gavemea_45]

There can never be too much coffee, he's decided. He knows he's getting into a habit of sneaking in to Milliways to grab the caffeine, but man, it just tastes that much better than gas station goop.

That reasoning is exactly why Sam makes his way into the bar tonight on a quick trip, but he pauses on noticing someone familiar.

"Hey, Susannah."

[shadowsusannah.livejournal.com]

"Sam Winchester." She waves from her world of paper. "Evening."

[gavemea_45]

"How's it going?"

Almost in the same breath, he adds,

"You look busy, though, don't let me bother you--"

[shadowsusannah.livejournal.com]

"If it couldn't be set aside, I wouldn't be here," she says mildly. "I'm working on..." she glances down at the heading of the paper she's looking at. "Lord, the symbolic significance of apples, apparently. Probably time for an interruption."

[gavemea_45]

"Of apples," he repeats.

A beat.

"Uh... any particular context? Or reason?"

[shadowsusannah.livejournal.com]

"They're the symbol of my daughter's college," she says. "Kirkland. Probably a lot of nonsense, but we never do know what details are going to be significant. The report is mixed in with a whole lot of other information from our researchers."

[gavemea_45]

"Guess it's better to be sure," he mutters, as his glance drifts toward the papers.

"How many researchers do you have?"

[shadowsusannah.livejournal.com]

"The Vannay Institute has about fifteen people now, I guess," she says. "With the new staff they took on. They're a sort of specialized think-tank, though. When they were integrated into the company, the whole group was about ninety, including field workers assigned under them."