Short and Long [open]

"It's a charity banquet. They're all the same, speeches to get people to donate money. The only interesting part is going to be our mysterious Mr. Stoker."

She stopped briefly at the mailbox, collecting another load that ordinarially she'd ignore, and led the way up to her loft. Not like she had to lead, Teresa had been there often enough in the days before the warehouse. She unlocked the door and toed it open, talking over her shoulder as she made for the rest of her mail. "Grab a drink if you want, I'll be a few minutes."

"Which is at least more than nothing." Teresa followed her easily enough, running her hand along the door when she made her own way in.

"Right. D'you want me to grab you one?" She asked, pausing on her way to the kitchen to turn and wait for the response, swinging her bag idly at her side. Might as well ask instead of having to make another trip to get it or put it back.

Kate had sat at her desk, and was already sorting mail when Teresa asked about bringing an extra drink. Absently she replied, "yes please, something cold," her attention focused for the moment on discovering if there was indeed an invitation.

"Hmm. Must be more than one charity function going on in the next month, I've several of the little buggers." Or else she'd missed attending several charity 'do's; it didn't matter so long as the invitation to the charity banquet James Stoker would attend was there.

She nodded in response to the reply, even though she couldn't hear her, listening as she opened the fridge to look through and see what Kate had currently stocked. Her attention stayed on the other room though, and as she hunted some cups and filled them in ice, she called back over her shoulder.

"At least we've got a date, so you don't have to worry about the narrowing down." As she poured the drinks themselves, she looked thoughtful. "If there are a few this month, maybe he'll be back for some of them? Gives a way to run into him if he remains interesting.."

"I suppose...ah-ha! Found it!" She waved the invitation triumphantly, then flipped it open to read it over. "Yes, this is the event, right date and everything. And I do indeed get to bring a guest with me."

She tilted her head in thought, and poked at another invitation for a few days in the future. "I don't know. I don't suppose they've published his public itenerary? Or do they do that for politicians?"

Teresa put the bottle away, picking the two now full glasses up and starting in towards Kate once she'd closed the door to the fridge. "Suppose I'll have to make sure I'm awake then." She half-joked from the doorway before crossing the room and offering up one of the glasses.

"I'd say check his website, if he has one. They'll probably be making a big deal about whatever events he's going to." She rationalized, taking a sip from her own glass.

"I recommend coffee before the event - lots of coffee. Or caffeine pills, either will do." She smirked as she took the offered glass, and took a sip. "Lovely. That hits the spot, thank you."

She grumbled a bit as she took another sip of her drink, and turned to face Teresa. "I suppose it won't hurt, but it's going to be annoying nevertheless. Political websites always are."

"I'll keep that in mind." She smiled over her cup. If she didn't manage to just sleep before it, the suggestions would be useful. "No problem."

Teresa shrugged slightly at the mention of the annoyance of the sites. "We don't need to check that out right now, I can see what I can find on him once I'm home and let you know. I don't think they bother me as much."

"And don't forget, it'll be fancy dress and so on. Classic black should do though, if nothing else works. Or a dressy suit, since you're my assistant as far as they know." That was something she hadn't though about when they'd first hatched this scheme; did Teresa have something she could wear, or were they going to have to do some emergency shopping?

"Bless you, you're going to save me quite some time of yelling at the sites." It wasn't that she couldn't do the research herself, it was that she simply had no patience for being bombarded with political nonsense.

"I think I have something. I'll have to see if it still fits." She was fairly sure it would, most of her old clothes still did. It'd help that she'd only worn it once or twice. "When is it exactly, tomorrow night?" If it did fit, she was pretty sure she'd need to find footwear for it anyway.

"It'll leave you to work on other things instead, and the way I've been lately I'll probably think of things while I'm on there anyway." Teresa joked as she took another drink.

"If it doesn't, let me know. We should be able to rent you something." She passed over the invitation and took another sip of her drink. "Here, have a look. You'll need to know where it's at as well, unless you wanted me to pick you up?"

She laughed ruefully and shook her head. "You've really gotten to be quite the multitasker lately, haven't you?"

"Right..." She took the invitation, reading it over. "Ah. No, I've got a pretty good idea of where that is. I can drive myself, I'll keep everything with me in case of last minutes." Things that were timed tended to be slightly annoying when you didn't care for clocks.

"I'm not going to argue it. Even if it is only ever when it comes to the big project." Teresa grinned as she handed back the invitation.

The night previous had seen discussion of tentative plans to decipher James Stoker and determine whether they could use him in the near future.

Today...well, today Kate wasn't thinking of those plans at all. In fact, one would have to wonder what she was thinking of, or indeed, if she was thinking at all, given the distracted way she entered their warehouse-qua-workshop, several bags in hand.

Very absentmindedly, she tossed off a vague "hello," to Teresa as she strolled to their vast parts collection to begin sorting her day's purchases into their proper places.

Teresa voiced a greeting of her own, and finished up writing something in her book. "I've got a print-out of his public agenda." She told Kate idly, trusting her to know who she was referring to. It had been a refreshingly short visit to the site, in actuality.

"You had some luck hunting down parts I can see." She added to otherwise continue the conversation, unconsciously aware of the distraction at the moment.

"Hmm? Oh, that's nice." Kate was so very much -not- connecting properly with the conversation; that was extremely unusual, and the last time it had happened, she had turned out to be quite ill.

However, she wasn't showing physical signs of illness; she was reasonably efficient in sorting out the parts. She was simply mentally...elsewhere. "Luck? Oh yes, today was very lucky indeed."

"Kate?" Teresa was slightly puzzled now, and she set the book down as she stood up, watching her sort the parts. She seemed a little out of it, but not, as Teresa discovered as she watched, as far as the organizing was concerned. "You in there? Something happen in particular?"

"Mmm." Kate smiled as she laid aside the blank circuit boards and the wire for future work in creating Teri's new circuits. "I was so very lucky...James is such a fascinating man. And quite clever too." She finally turned to look at Teri, still smiling a bit vaguely. "It should be very interesting to see him work the crowd tonight."

And then she actually giggled, as she was thinking about the sly trick he'd pulled on her earlier, and anticipating it being pulled on an entire crowd of banqueters tonight.

James? Oh. Teresa stared at her for a moment, barely stopping herself from sticking a finger in her ear and cleaning it out as Kate actually giggled. "You met James Stoker?" She asked, verifying that the other woman hadn't come across some other James.

"When? Did you find out anything in particular? What happened?" She figured that given the reaction, and their plans surrounding the man, she had the allowance to pry. Especially given this reaction.

"You could say that. You could also say I ran into him, literally." She chuckled, a more normal sound of amusement for her and shook her head as she carried the boards over to the etching table. She wouldn't actually begin etching them until tomorrow, but she wanted them there now.

"He's a hobbyist, and if he wasn't ignoring it in favor of his political pursuits, I'd say he was on our level. And he likes the way I take my coffee. He's so...intriguing..." Kate trailed off, smiling that vague, dreamy smile again.

For a moment all she could do was stare as Kate trailed off. "What did the two of you talk about, exactly?" She asked carefully, not taking her eyes off her. In another capacity, if she was acting more herself, Kate's interest in the man might have increased her interest in him. As it stood, it only raised some suspicion.

"You didn't tell him anything, did you?" Normally the thought wouldn't have crossed her mind, but she asked with slight urgency, unsettled by the smile.

"Hmm...we spent some time talking about the banquet tonight, and most of the rest of the time we spent talking about electronics and old projects." Kate frowned faintly, uneasy, though about what she couldn't quite pin down. "Of course I didn't tell him about our current project, but since we were talking about projects, I told him somewhat about the cameras."

She frowned, though she was at least slightly relieved there hadn't been mention of the current project. Still... "How much about them? How did he act, respond?" Teresa couldn't help but feel there was something off herself. Something just didn't fit, and she wondered why she'd told him even that. It wasn't quite the norm, was it?

"Oh, I think I summarized it, implying that I'd wanted a better replacement for CCTV. Didn't mention the other uses at all, of course. He claimed he wasn't much into video, so I went on to talk about that problem we'd had getting a secure broadcast to the central hub instead of using wires. He seemed...intrigued." Kate smirked and chuckled, seeming mostly back to her normal self now. "I imagine I'll have to pull up one of the prototypes left over if he thinks he can do something about that."

"It'll give us an idea of what he can do in any case, I suppose." Teresa seemed a little reluctant at the idea though, even if that little part of her mind did argue that help was help. They'd never really had to make use of outside sources. Particularly not ones they were possibly planning on using something on.

"It isn't really his preference though. I'll just make sure to have one handy anyway, just in case." She frowned and tapped the table. "It's odd though. He's...we spent so long talking, and I've barely got any details about him at all, other than that we share a hobby. Do you suppose that's political savvy, or something else?"