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[ghost_holder]

It's not like she doesn't have a menagerie waiting for her at home, but some habits just never die. Growing up in Darrow has prepared Aggie for a life of inconsistency that makes her cling all the more fiercely to what has managed to stay–to who has managed to stay. So she ends up at Un Chat Gris more afternoons than not, paying the entry fee to sip a coffee and do homework around other cats.

There have been a succession of friends who worked here, all the way back to Urahara and Rukia and now with Blue. Though none of its previous employees have left ghosts, per se, Aggie likes to imagine that she can feel them a little more closely through the veil or across dimensions or whatever it is that separates them.

And there are still friends here, which means a lot too. Every so often, she can't help but raise her head and just be glad for people like Blue.

Comments

[formicine]

It's gotten quiet, the lull of afternoon in a coffee shop while many people are at jobs or otherwise not quite in need of another caffeine rush (or an after-work kitty cuddle) just yet, and though just having friends around and present is always nice, Blue thinks she can safely take a lunch break.

She comes over to the table with a little wave. One of the newer residents, a fat tan Scottish Fold who'd come to them named Pierogi (although Blue generally spelled it Purrogi, because -- because), is watching Agatha contentedly from the window ledge, which he'd claimed as his nearly upon arrival.

"He plays aloof, but he likes smooshes," she advises, sliding into the seat. "How's --?" She gestures vaguely at whatever homework Aggie's been working on.

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"Boring," Agatha says, gesturing vaguely in return. "It's just...freshman intro stuff. You know? It's for people who have no experience with life or critical thinking." She purses her lips and looks at Blue knowingly. They both have that in spades. It doesn't benefit her much to read dry literature about coming of age.

"I'd much rather be giving a cat smooshes but I told myself I'd finish this."

[formicine]

Blue wrinkles her nose and nods. She knows the freshman reqs well, having just finished them last year herself, and the only thing worse than having to wait for the most privileged member of the class to get their mind around a different perspective is how bored the professors seem with it.

"I get that," Blue says with feeling. "Although I'd take being bored in exchange for stats, I think, just for a week or two." Statistics for Social Sciences is probably easier than almost any other stats class, but it is not Blue's forte.

"You should always keep promises to yourself," she agrees. "Maybe you can reward yourself with cat smooshes." She takes a sip of her drink and asks, a moment later, "Any ideas about majors?"

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"At least stats might matter someday," Aggie counters. She doesn't doubt that it's boring but she'd rather that over boring and pointless. "I'm a three hundred-year-old undead witch. I don't think I'm going to gain more insight on who I am from reading Bird by Bird."

The idea of rewarding herself with cat hugging sounds amenable, though there's part of Aggie that says the requirements of such a challenge are pointless when she's the one setting them, but there's the principle of it all. "I don't know. I was thinking about history but sometimes Darrow's idea of history class makes my head hurt."

[formicine]

"Well, you do my stats report and I'll do Bird by Bird," Blue teases, but she gives her a sympathetic smile. "Yeah, I did a lot of bullshitting in Freshman Writing. Maybe think of it as like...the stupid busy work tasks you have to do to prove your worth in a fairy tale...?"

It's kind of a terrible example, because that indicates that Aggie's going to come out of freshman prereqs with a princess or a kingdom, not more work to do, and Blue's pursing her lips even as she says it.

"That's fair." Blue nods thoughtfully. "I can't tell what's weirder, Darrow's idea of local history, or when they actually have world history classes. I mean. How do they even pick a world?"

She's actually not even sure they don't have multiple worlds on offer in the international history classes; she doesn't take much pure history. In her SOC classes they sometimes use examples of societies that back home would be considered fictional and here -- clearly can't be -- but it's not especially necessary to know which one the professors think they are for the analysis.

"Living in a bubble makes applying education a little...different..." she acknowledges with a wry laugh.

[ghost_holder]

"More like stupid sidequests in a video game," she counters. Not that she's particularly had much time for those of late. Between graduating high school and then sorting herself out after Krem and Gannicus went, plus starting college, she hasn't really let herself read or play games for fun in a while. It's yet another reason to feel frustrated and unsettled as she thinks about it.

"I like the idea of being able to tell people that they were wrong about with trials and the eighteenth century, but who even knows?" To emphasize her point, Aggie flops dramatically back against her chair. "I want to keep going but sometimes I don't even know what the direction is going to even be."

[formicine]

"That tracks," she agrees. "I always mean to get into games now that I have my own money," Blue thinks out loud. She never had a console at home -- too expensive, and she can't imagine trying to argue for the TV for that long, anyway, or even really enjoying sitting still and not running around outside -- and now that she can imagine it, she has no idea what to do with one.

"You could go into teaching history and then you could tell people all day that they're wrong," Blue points out. "I mean, I don't know if you really want to spend the rest of your life in a school, but."

She nods. "I get it. I mean, I'm taking sociology and ecology, and I really enjoy some of my classes, but I also sometimes feel like I'm prepping to change the world and I'm going to get out of school and have even more insight into how things suck and no real ...in. Except pointing at my degree, like, hey, I have a bachelors so pay attention when I say this society sucks."