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Brad chuckled deeply. "I don't mind. I understand, and it's not an easy balance. I work at home, so I lose track of time frequently." He glanced over the counter to make sure the woman hadn't brought his snacks, before turning his full attention back to Dean. "Only fun I get is in gaming. Do you play games, like, MM...oh hell, you know, World of Warcraft?" The man was in his early thirties and not exactly savvy on all the terms that most people were familiar with. Nothing like showing his age!

Nigh blipped excitedly, the Gnome springing to life and resuming his attacking of Yeti's. Buttons on the lower screen flashed, indicating they were being used, each with a different skill set and feature. The Rogue disappeared, snuck behind a Yeti and used two skills to both stun the creature and start his attack. The Gnome was briefly encased in a yellow light, proclaiming his level. The character made a sound like a train, obviously initated by the Hacker.

Rubbing his chin thoughtfully, Brad nodded a little. "We all have our moments. It's nothing to be ashamed of, not when you come by such weariness honestly." He chuckled again, trying to keep from yammering on; he didn't want to come off as preachy, as that'd just be plain rude.

Dean nods his head, listening to Brad while still looking around a bit. As soon as World of Warcraft is mentioned, however, his head snaps forward and his eye grows wide with excitement. With a grin, he notes, "I've got a level seventy night elf druid." Apparently, this was the right topic to get Dean to open up a bit. He chuckles with an air of guilt, explaining, "I didn't sleep last night because I was playing WoW. My character's an engineer so I-" The barista calls out his name, interrupting his rant for a moment.

Dean smiles warmly and moves closer to the counter to grab his espresso. As he moves toward the cream and sugar (both items that he adds to coffee in excess), Dean finishes by saying, "I built the new flying machine last night. It's really cool." Dean uses a stir stick to, well, stir his espresso. He pauses a moment, looking down to the espresso before saying quietly, "This is a bad idea." He takes a sip, almost dribbling because he can't keep from smiling about the thoughts of his caffeine demise. The stuff wouldn't really kill him, but having no tolerance to caffeine certainly makes drinking a triple shot turn into risky business.

After taking a sip, he states plainly, "Video games take up a lot of my free time, but my true passion is cooking. That's what I do for money, too. I'm a chef." His eyes grow a bit sad at this, for some reason. He glances down a moment, allowing a frown to sneak its way in.

Listening the hacker go on and on about the game that he was looking at, Fiach felt slightly overwhelmed. He gave a small, nervous laugh as he quickly got lost about who was who and what was what. Scratching the back of his head as he tried to keep track, he almost missed when the hacker asked a question.

Unsure of exactly how the character was cool, he hesitantly responded, "Yes, very...cool indeed." Smiling at the last of it, he hoped the hacker mistook the uncertainty as, instead, excitement. At the sound of the Blood Elf laugh, Fiach's face took on a turn of surprise. Do they really laugh like that?

When Brad approached and asked if someone had been showing off again, Fiach blushed. He'd been caught red-handed and felt guilty about sitting in Brad's seat. Scratching his head again with that embarrassed look on his face, he politely - but nervously - answered the question. "Yes...a little..."

His eyes flicking between both Brad and the newcomer, he did his best to hide the slight distress he had at the situation. "I...um. Thank you...but I think I will pass." Glancing at the sandwiches and remembering how his stomach had rumbled earlier he quickly added, "On the game, I mean. For now, at least..."

Realizing just how hungry he was, he quickly snatched up a random sandwich and took a bit. A contented look appearing on his face before he blushed and realized how rude he'd been. "Ah...sorry about that..." Ducking his head slightly, he hoped he didn't look as stupid as he felt. "I...guess I was a little hungrier than I thought...I didn't mean to just grab one like that...."

Nodding in the newcomer's direction he added a belated, and heavily embarrassed, "Nice to meet you, Dean, I'm Fiach." Smiling before sheepishly staring down at the laptop, he hoped he looked interested in the game - and not like he was simply avoiding eye contact with everyone.

Brad looked between the two blushing youths, and almost immediately burst into laughter. The man didn't laugh much, but given the situation of the two - one near dead from a physical beating, the other from a life beating - and both blushing for reasons he simply could not grasp, he couldn't help it. It was a short, but lingered on his face in the form of a bemused grin.

To Fiach, he managed to force his grin into a more polite smile. "I'm not a bully, believe it or not. And I expect you to enjoy those sandwiches, so please, stop apologizing." He reached over and gave the sandwich wielding youth a gentle pat on his arm, on a place where there were no brusies or scuffs. It was less of a friendly motion, and perhaps something more empathetic. A silent understanding.

Turning his indigo eyes to Dean, he inclined his head in acknowledgement to both his character statement and food remark. His lips twitched in the threat of more laughter as the poor guy seemed to fall asleep where he sat, making himself talk so he could help keep the other awake, "You should add some chocolate or mint in there. That helps more than caffiene." Brad waved a calloused hand lazily towards Dean's laptop, "It's still interesting to see the 'other side,' if you know what I mean. At least, from a non-hostile point of view."

The sentiment wasn't directed at anyone, and for all anyone knew, Nigh could have been talking to the character. As it was, he logged out of Brad's account and moved back to his own, the small and barely-clad Gnome resurfacing and running through the snow to a delapidated outpost. Quest text popped up on the left side of the screen, the pointer moving over it to accept as the Rogue went on his way.

Deans whole face reddens as Brad begins laughing. Being an awkward person always led to awkward situations for poor Dean. He smiles at the laughing, however embarrassed, and actually starts to laugh for a moment as well. Some people say laughter is contagious, and Dean has no immune system to such a disease. His smile vanishes as Fiach questions his decision to stay up and drink coffee instead of napping. He reaches over and, almost in defiance, drinks some more of the espresso. He sets it down, then opening up World of Warcraft on his computer.

While logging into WoW, Dean replies to Fiach by stating, "If I sleep too early in the day, I'll sleep ALL day. I need to stay up until this evening so that I won't destroy my sleep schedule." The blue loading bar drags along across the screen against a background of a blood elf and draenei and the dark portal. Dean turns his computer toward Brad to show him as the interface loads up. On the screen, equipped in some pretty good leather healing gear, one can clearly see the Night Elf Druid named Vinzet.

With a smile and the simple statement, "I love this thing," Dean clicks on a little icon of some weird machine. After a moment, his character poofs onto a strange little plane / helicopter flying machine. It shook violently and made silly noises and was obviously too small for the large Night Elf. "I bet a gnome would look perfect sitting on one of these," he says, pushing the laptop toward Brad in and offering for him to goof around with the contraption. As he does so, his screen's colors glitch a moment, Dean turning red with embarrassment once more. "Oh... Uhm... just ignore when that happens. My computer's been acting funny lately," he says softly.

Ducking his head further below the laptop's screen that Nigh was playing on, Fiach fervently wished he could learn to just keep quiet and in the background. Seeing Dean's smile vanish so quickly at his inquiry made him feel as if he'd intruded and offended. He opened his mouth to apologize, but quickly shut it again as Dean explained his reasoning. Quietly muttering, "Oh. I'm sorry...I hadn't meant to offend..." he half hoped Dean had heard, half hoped he hadn't.

Bewildered by the WoW talk, Fiach just kept watching Nigh. He was an amusing little hacker, if a little hyperactive. If he had to spend all day with the little guy, he could imagine he'd probably get wound up like Brad seemed to. Noting the hacker's comment, Fiach glanced up at Dean and Brad. Seeing Brad frowning and bent over Dean's laptop, he at first brushed it off as being interested in the game, until Nigh pointed out that it felt like a Hacker's egg.

Sighing, Fiach wondered at how work seemed to find him on matter where he went. Now he just had to work up the guts to say something. A frown touched his lips as he tried to think of a way to speak up, without being rude. As Nigh made the Gnome make a rude gesture, though, Fiach sat there staring. What an attitude on this hacker!

Whispering down to Nigh, he gave a quiet rebuke, "You really shouldn't do that, you know...its rude..."

was the sulking remark, the Gnome looking reproachfully over his shoulder at Fiach. Nigh made his character run into a large, industrial city, proclaimed as 'Ironforge' as he entered the gaping maw that was swarmed with other players.

Indigo eyes snapped up immediately at the mention of something on the desktop. "There's something actually ON your desktop?" Brad actualy paled a little; it couldn't be, could it? He was starting to feel like a curse, as this would be the second person...if it WAS what it sounded like...and with Fiach here? Goodness, could it possibly get any more awkward? "Uh, do y'mind if I see?"

The Gnome sighed. Nigh minimized the game again, popping up on the screen as though to check Brad's newest egg before resuming play.

Dean nods his head slowly, reaching his left arm out toward the keyboard of his laptop. "Yes. It's a strange yellow icon. I'll minimize WoW," he says, assuming that Brad doesn't know how to do so on a Mac. The man, after all, had a PC. He holds the apple key down with one finger and, reaching over with his right hand, pushes the "M" key. The game actually enters into a windowed mode. Just to the left of the window, one could see half of the yellow, round icon with a ring around it. Only a second after the object became visible, Dean's computer suddenly powered off.

"Oh s**t!" Dean nearly shouts. Quieting, he brings his right hand to the back of his head to scratch nervously. His face reddens as he sits back into his chair, explaining, "I forgot to charge my laptop." With a frown, he looks toward a clock on the wall and then to his computer. "Actually... I should probably leave so that I can charge it," he says timidly. "I'm taking it in soon to a place my coworker told me about."