2019-11-16 - iEncounter

Another boring day at the Pad. Gross outside to boot. Abitha stares blankly out the front window at the gray skies and soft patter of rain. She stands behind her glass counter, wearing a soft, fuzzy sweater, palms gently rested on the glass, that thousand yard stare held a long moment before her eyes slowly sink down. She shifts her weight and leans, putting one elbow on the counter and peering at a computer tablet lain there, open. Her finger slowly slides upward, dragging some listings with it, slowly scrolling through the auction offers, boredly browsing, sometimes tapping to open one, then backing out and resuming her scroll. Not much else to do, likely no foot traffic on such a dreary day.

Boring day or not, Ryan promised others to get out and about some, and not just stay at home while in the US. Wearing jeans and sweater with a jacket over as he moves to step inside. Probably around the time that Abitha is looking down. Once inside the irishman takes a moment to look around. "Sorry, you are open. Right?" He asks with a hint of his irish accent.

Abitha's face lifts as she hears the voice, eyes slowly following a moment later as she finishes reading the line she was on. She responds with an affirmative sounding, "Uh huh." before her eyes would fall to the pad again. Not particularly interesting, or interested, this girl would seem, which would seem a norm for such a small town shop like hers. Then her eyes snap up again, lightning quick, the whites of her eyes clearly visibly with how wide they opened as she stares at him unblinkingly. The recognition was clear on her face, what else could the quick 180 of attitude mean? "Can... I... help you?" she asks across the shop, her voice a little wobbly in shock.

At first Ryan doesn't really seem to mind the attitude. Just taking his time to look around some. Though at the 180 he does raise a brow. "Just browsing right now. Wanting to see if I can find anything interesting for research." He explains. A sweet smile offered to the younger woman. "Miss, are you okay?" He asks. Perhaps noticing the realization on her face, but trying to be casual still. "I'm Ryan." Perhaps not fully sure if people over here would know him, thus leaving out the last name. "You?"

"Carrick..." She finishes for him, the question about her own name forgotten. As expressive as her wide eyes are of her shock and surprise, affecting a bit of a deer in the headlights look, she seems to blank on his questions. "You're Ryan Carrick. You have a huge tech firm overseas." Her voice is hard to read, almost robotic, like she's trying to maintain normal social norms, while her head is reeling. "Why are you in my shop?" She blinks, it all seeming to catch back up to her, "Uhhh, Iiii-m Mac. Abitha Machinae. MacTheKnife." Nickname, awkward correction to her full name, the handle she was actually most known for, that he probably had no idea, and the entire attempt to introduce herself just makes her embarrassment worse. Cheeks going a slight shade, a hand reflexively slides sideways, grabbing a dark brown bottle and raising it to her lips for a drink, the entire motion while her wide, unblinking eyes did not leave him.

A soft sound escaping him, "Indeed, I am. Thought I'd be able to go unnoticed." Shrugging some. "But I came for personal reasons. But thought I might be able to do some business as well. A smile and a nod about her name and handle. The latter seeming to be noticed. "Ah, I see. You have a small following as well, right?" He asks, only having a small idea about it perhaps. "You know, you should treat all customers like this." Judging? Teasing? Who knows. But his smirk might suggest that he isn't overly serious. Stepping a bit closer. She is staring anyhow, might as well greet her properly. Offering a hand.

Now she blinks, and when she opens her eyes again, somehow they seem even wider. The tech guru knew who she was. She literally only had a few thousand subs, amd had only competed in regional tournaments. Now her cheeks were red.

Then Logical Brain Abitha got a turn with the controller... For better or for worse... "Bullshit." she begins, eyes finally drooping to half-lidded suspicion, probably coming off a bit strong, but he'd already taunted her customer service anyways, "You have zero reason to know who I am. You..." Her eyes dance back and forth, as if caught between two dialogue options, "...probably just looked me up before you came in the shop..." She suddenly grasps his offered hand to shake, as if remembering polite social conventions were a thing.

Most likely Ryan did check some of the regional streamers while being in town. Perhaps also a quick search on who owns the control pad. Raising a brow at her words. Well, I did know that this place was owned by some Machinae. Did not know that it was the same as MacktheKnife." Seemingly only having a little bit of knowledge about her. "I wanted to see if there were any interesting gaming personalities." He explains. Her hand given a polite squeeze. Then letting it fall back to his side.

"Ok, but like..." Her face perks up, happy, energetic, a caricature of brainless enthusiasm, "Interesting!?" The expression is dropped as soon as she's done with the word, falling into a flat, droll slightly suspicious look, "Isn't really around here... It's more like..." her expression only changes subtly this time, her eyes turning aside, suspicion going judgemental in the lift of a brow and brief widening of her eyes as she says, "Mmm. Interesting..." It was more an expression a parent gives a child who's excited about something gross. She finally looks back to Ryan, then shifts her head and shoulders to the side for a moment, suspiciously looking past him, maybe out the front door. Finally, she straightens again, shoulders back, taking on a posture like she's decided she should do her job and be a business owner lady today. "Alright, so if I'm not being Punked, what were you looking for?"

Ryan raises a brow, "So you're not interesting then? That's odd branding." He offers and grins. Turning his own head as her gaze looks elsewhere, past him. When she speaks his attention return to her. "For niw, some amusing game suggestions. But I am wanting to do something with games..probably mobile to start, but something else later. So want inspiration." He explains.

Abitha's eyebrows furrow at the branding tease briefly, as well as him looking at the same time. Something was frustrating her about this. Her eyes shut for a moment, a recentering. She moves around to the side of the counter after setting her bottle down. It was labeled Whitewood, which he may or may not know of. She waits to move further until she asks, "Well, mobile friendly means you take FPS and RTS out of it. MOBAs are kinda tired on mobile, too. So you talking puzzles or RPG? Action or slow paced?"

Ryan does take a momnet but will move to be able to listen and look around. "Well, the moblie I am going more towards an online experience thing. Interconnective. Still pondering on perhaps making it horror styled, or if I should do something mobile vr, but those don't really work well at the moment. Perhaps I should just work on better VR for mobile." Starting to ramble a bit, catching himself. "Oh, sorry." Studying her. "Do you know a lot on games, and also development?" He asks curiously.

Shifting her posture, she sets one hip against the case, crossing one foot over the other in a casual manner. That was more a forced affectation, she was still pretty much a buzz of thoughts on the inside. The question is answered with a lowering of her chin, a lift of one brow with the furrowing of the other. So he knew who she was, and asked if she knew about games. The flat sarcasm in her voice could have bludgeoned someone to death, "No, I just opened a store with all the latest and greatest because I wanted boys to like me and buy my bath water."

Ryan grins at her, "A lot of people stream, doesn't mean they know a lot about the making and development of games and so on. And a lot of people owning stores don't always know all the pieces that go into things." He says and shrugs. "Want to beta test once I start getting my stuff up and running? Might take awhile, since I haven't really made games. Or you could help me out if you want to try?" He suggests. A good oppurtunity if she wants to try it out. "And I promise, not just trying to get into your pants." Perhaps trying to ease her mind, and be funny. But might just be him having untasteful humor.

"A lot of streamers don't have a BA in Computer Science." Mac asserts, maybe even bragging a little, then dialing it back in a typically anxiois way, "Not that I've actually worked on any actual release games myself..." She eyes him sideways after the quiet self deprecation, trying to take stock of his words, "Are... you doing this yourself or is this a Cheiltech product?" The remark about getting in her pants actually garners no reaction. Sexual banter was an internet staple, par for the course, probably wouldnt get a true gauge of any interest from her, billionaire playboy philanthropist or not.

Ryan grins at the reply. "Good to know. Then we won't have any issue communicating." Shrugging a bit. "Well, I am making the rough draft and will probably put it into work at Cheiltech, but not sure. Maybe do a start up here and have it be a subsidiary." He suggests. "Then I can let Cheiltech focus on those new VR suit tech style things, and also feel like we need to do some more research on integration as well as batteries." Shrugging once more. He doesn't seem to think about what he said either, just moving on. "So, anything that pops into your head?"

"That I'm a streamer/shop keeper and its weird for the head of such a huge company to just wander into my shop to start spitballing ideas?" she was squinting at him now, the suspicions continuing to mount in her mental calculus. "Like, I had no idea Cheiltech was working on full VR immersion suits, which sounds like a badass idea, but also like..." she's sort of at a loss for words. Her hands wave inward, indicating herself, head cocking to the side in obvious confusion, "Security risk?" She shakes her head, "Like, some dude did a deep dive on twitch, found a screenname and took some screenshots of thumbnails of stuff, and 2K games sent some bruiser PI's to his house to interrogate him. This is really weird."

Ryan shrugs, "Well, most tech companies are working on stuff like that. And you don't really know anything about it other than that it might be in a pile among a lot of other things." He suggests. She can probably tell that he is being sincere, probably having been a bit stiff around town and finally being able to be a bit at ease. "I should perhaps leave." Feeling as if he is making her uncomfortable. Taking a bow. About to step off.

There's a frustrated sigh, Abitha's fingers tapping at the counter in a bit of a nervous tick. After a moment of indecision, she at least reaches across to grab a card from the counter, a brief look down made at her smartwatch for the time, "Look, I'm open for at least another couple hours. I'm not trying to like... tell you to fuuu---..." She stops. She didn't swear. This was a weird situation and maybe something that requires a little tact, "I'm not trying to run you off." She holds the contact card out that has a link to most of her handles, "It's a little weird, but like... If you're stuck in town and need a techie to talk to, I can try to... yaknow... not be an idiot. Also, I have pretty much everything you could want to try out up in the Loft..." Her eyes briefly flick upward, where her home was, then hit the floor soon after, "Not like you couldn't just like... have people buy whatever you need."

Ryan does smile and nod to her, taking the offered card. "I was just hoping to find someone that would want to work on a project." Shrugging some. "And yeah, I could come by to try things out. I shouldn't keep you though." The smile a bit forced, but at least they are getting along decently.