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Jeremiah Hamilton:
The Green Room is a cafe tucked into the center of the Spring Gardens neighborhood, done up in warm woods and a paint job to match the name. Tables are set up both inside and out, with the interior also hosting a wooden stage - currently unoccupied - and a counter near the front with a view into the kitchen beyond it.
The master of the house was on site this particular day, although at a glance he looked more the part of another patron thanks to his more casual dress: jeans, black boots, and a black t-shirt for a music house in Los Angeles. He stood out in his own way, however, thanks to the force of presence about him and the Byronic cast to his features. For the moment he was standing beside the counter greeting those that were making their way in with a warm smile.
Alexis Bartram:
Alexis wanders in, ever on the hunt for a cafe where she's less likely to run into her own students for working on things outside of her usual programming. She could be mistaken for a student, save that she's dressed quite a deal more nicely than they usually do. She waves to the propritor as she walks in, smiling as she realizes that she doesn't recognize anyone inside. "Hi! I don't suppose you have a table with an outlet handy that you could point me to?" She asks, shrugging the shoulder over which she's slung a laptop bag.
Jeremiah Hamilton:
"I think we do..." Dark eyes scanned room before he motioned towards the wall near the stage area. "Looks like two over there."
"Jay, by the way." He offered a hand with a smile. "First time here?"
Alexis Bartram:
"Alexis," she shakes the offered hand, "Yeah, I'm looking for a place a bit further away from campus so I don't freak out the kids," she explains with a wry twist of her mouth - two of her grad students are actually OLDER than her, after all.
Jeremiah Hamilton:
"Ah...fun times." He replied with a chuckle, his handshake firm but not overly so. "Which campus do you work at, if you don't mind my asking?"
Alexis Bartram:
"I'm just over at U.Penn," she waves in a generally westward direction, "So its not too far, assuming you've got a car."
Jeremiah Hamilton:
"Good stuff. One of the students I work with is in the School of Music there. Sophmore, I think."
Alexis Bartram:
"Ah, yeah, not my department," She shrugs, "I'm over in computational lingustics, so unless she took Latin with me we probably haven't met." Alexis slides her computer and a notepad out of her bag onto the table, and snags the tarot deck that came with them back into the bag before tucking it down next to the chair.
Jeremiah Hamilton:
"Don't think so, no." The tarot deck got a curious look as she got settled at the table, although he deigned from commenting on it for the moment. "Computational linguistics, though...sounds interesting."
Alexis Bartram:
"Can't pass a Turing Test if it can't understand language," she sits, booting up the computer, "Although that's not exactly what I'm working on here, to be honest."
Jeremiah Hamilton:
"Fair enough." He replied with a small smirk, an eyebrow quirking upwards as she continued. "Oh? Something hush hush?"
Alexis Bartram:
"I mean...kinda? I really wish I had some friends that were into this sort of thing, it would make it easier," she pulls up her browser, which has half a dozen tabs open with blog articles and forum posts about supernatural happenings around the city, "I'm trying to build a GIS database that can help visualize the patterns of Weird Shit that happens around town," she explains, the capital letters audible.
Jeremiah Hamilton:
Oh the eyebrow stayed firmly upward at that, albeit more out of curiosity than disbelief as he looked over the screen. "Huh...not sure what GIS means in that case, but sounds like an interesting project. What got you into that sort of thing?"
Alexis Bartram:
"Couple incidents here and there, going back to when I was a wee frosh. Or maybe before, but that's when I started really noticing things." She pulls up another program, and it shows a map of the city with various events dating back months displayed as dots in what is presumably a color-coded system, along with shaded zones that seem to be related to density of each type of event, "GIS stands for Geographic Information System, its a way of recording, tracking, and then visualizing data related to position on Earth's surface. Or well, any geographic surface, I'm sure someone's done at least one GIS project related to Mars."
Jeremiah Hamilton:
"Interesting. Mind if I..." He motioned to the other chair at the table, waiting for her yea or nay before claiming the seat for himself. "I've heard about the stuff that supposedly happen up at Eastern State not too far from here, but guess it makes sense it would pop up more, Philly being as old as it is."
Alexis Bartram:
"Not at all, feel free," she shakes her head, "I'm not sure if things happen more often the older places get, but they certainly happen more often with more people. I just wish I had a good way to sort out all the false positives I've got in here right now, it makes it nearly useless but..." she sighs, pressing a key combination that must sort out part of the dataset, as more than two thirds of the dots disappear and the regions get fuzzy or disappear entirely, "...well, I haven't found a group to help track things down yet."
Jeremiah Hamilton:
He took the seat with the all-clear, continuing to watch the map as she cleared out the potential trash data. "Makes sense. And I'd bet finding people that aren't just trying to blowing smoke up your ass isn't that easy, either."
Alexis Bartram:
"No kidding. Also, there are way too many people who fetishize vampires running around on the internet," she shudders, only half-feigned, "I don't even know if they're a thing, but apparently SOME people want to get nommed on by a pointy toothed corpse enough that they go hunting for sightings."
Jeremiah Hamilton:
"Yeah...definitely prefer to keep my blood inside of my body, thanks." He shook his head, albeit with a smirk on his face. "Some people never got past the Team Edward phase, huh..."
Alexis Bartram:
"Noooooooope," she drawls, "I mean, there are people I wouldn't mind being a snack for, but I draw the line way before necrophelia - oh god I just said that out loud." Alexis goes red all the way to her hairline
Jeremiah Hamilton:
A quick burst of laughter escaped before Jeremiah could reign it in, giving Alexis a wide smile as he looked her over. "No worries, your secret's safe with me."
Alexis Bartram:
Alexis tries to melt into her chair for a moment, "Do you mind getting me a medium tea - jasmine green if you have it - while I attempt to gather my shattered dignity?"
Jeremiah Hamilton:
"Of course." He gave a reassuring look as he got up from the table, speaking with the young man behind the counter and waiting there as the tea was made to give Alexis some time to compose herself. Once it was done he returned toot sweet, setting it down beside her. "On the house."
Alexis Bartram:
Having spent sometime assuming the Double Facepalm Position, Alexis seems to have gathered at least some of her scrambled wits, "Thank you so much. Sorry about that." She clears her throat, sipping on the tea, "Have you heard about any of this kind of thing around?"
Jeremiah Hamilton:Today at 1:03 AM
"No need to apologize." He replied with a smile, reclaiming his seat at the table. "Here and there, yeah. Eastern State's the big one since it's a couple blocks from here, of course."
Alexis Bartram:Today at 1:09 AM
"Any that you can tell me about?" she asks, pulling up the data entry side of the GIS program she is using with a clatter of keystrokes.
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