Thunder From Down Under

he actually nodded along and listened, which earned the man a good point in calhoun’s book. perhaps she had judged the man too quickly even if he definitely was some form of sleaze, but maybe he was slightly more harmless than she had originally judged her. only time would tell. leaning forward on her elbows as he sat down she looked him up and down when he told her his name, jake. ah. she had heard that name before. the name merging with the face slowly until they fit. so this was the man who kept hitting on bianca gabor and every other female on the planet. “ –– Calhoun, ” direct to the point and nodding in greeting she didn’t tell him her first name, she never did. “ so you’re t h e jake rogers. interesting, ” she smirked slightly. “ and you’re considering the police academy and a motorbike, or did you use those as props for conversation ? ” 

-

Calhoun, huh. That could be a first name, if a strange one, but she seemed like a last-name kind of person, so that was probably the case. His eyebrows shot up at her emphasis on the. “Oh, so you’ve heard of me?” His own smirk partially returned, but his eye twitched; he wasn’t sure if her having some inkling of his reputation should make him smug or terrified. Maybe both. “The bike thing was mostly for conversation, but I was serious about the cop part.” He conveniently left out the part where he’d been rejected several times now for his loose-cannon tendencies, but he didn’t feel like that needed to get brought up.

Nani held out her hand with an expectant smile, ready to take Jake’s phone to put her half-number in. She briefly considered putting the studio number in instead, but decided that was maybe a little too cruel after she basically rejected him. He was nice enough, but Nani also knew his type too well.

“You haven’t had to detain any campus streakers yet, have you?” Nani asked with a laugh. She quirked her eyebrow at the implication of his favourite ‘activity’. She didn’t even need to hazard a guess at this point. “And let me guess what the third favourite is… Hm, blow-drying your golden locks and practising I Want It That Way into your hairbrush?“

Jake gladly handed his phone over to get the partial number. “Nah, luckily, the worst I’ve seen is underwear. Well, there was that time I caught a group swimming in the big fountain, and when one of the guys was scrambling out, his trunks got caught, and...” He shook his head. “Embarrassing for everyone involved.”

Jake smirked as Nani was the one playing a guessing game this time. “Aw man, how’d you guess?” He held his ice cream spoon up like a microphone before belting out, “Tell me why?” The combination of his off-key singing and awful American accent were not very pleasant to listen to, but he was going for comedy, not impressiveness.

 “ gin & tonic, it needs to be hendrick’s gin. i prefer a few peppercorns and cucumber in it as well. no lime or lemon. ” assertive and demanding in what she liked. the smile on anita’s lips turning into a smirk as she turned to meet his gaze. she wouldn’t say no to a free drink, it was the least she could do when everything seemed to slip between her fingers ( as per usual ). plus, he wasn’t exactly hard on the eyes a n d she suspected this was the man bianca had mentioned before. what was his name –– john ? jacob ? closing the sketchpad and slipping it into her louis vuitton neverfull she turned her attention towards him. waiting for what he would say next.

“Alright, you know exactly what you want! I admire that.” Jake flagged the bartender and ordered what she’d requested, and a beer for himself. As he turned back toward her, he noted the notebook slipping into her expensive looking bag - he noted that detail for a later talking point, if necessary. “Could I get your name as well, or is that separate from the seating fee?”

“ you shouldn’t get a bike because it seems cool, ” she leant back gesturing for him to sit down should he want to. her demure so changed from her first biting remarks and wish for him to vacate the building, possibly the entire block. but her therapist had told her to be more friendly and even if she’d happily bite people’s heads off for annoying her she tried to listen to the advice. “ technically, getting on a bike is similar to a death wish as any small mistake could lead to a grave injury. it’s good though. quicker to get around rather than a car and it has a sense of freedom. however, if you consider it ensure that you get enough protective gear and try not to be one of those idiots who wear shorts and a t-shirt when they ride. ” 

Jake glanced at the chair and back up at her before carefully sitting down again. He nodded at appropriate points as she spoke, entirely concentrated on every word. “Yes ma’am.” He cleared his throat and shook his head a bit. Usually he’d say that phrase in a flirtatious way, but he genuinely meant it for once. This woman gave off incredibly intimidating energies, and in the respect-commanding way, not the sexy way. “That all, ah, sounds like very good advice, uh... I haven’t gotten your name yet, have I? I’m Jake.”

Bowie looked over to where his thumb was pointing and smiled. She understood that, she missed Australia too. “Prosthetics” she squeaked out while she almost lost her balance holding the tail. “Could you help please?” she was aware how weird she must have looked struggling to carry a giant mould around the place. For a mass of rubber the thing was heavy. “It’s a tail for an alligator, he lost it in a fight before he was rescued.”

At Bowie’s request, Jake grabbed one end of the tail and hefted it up under his arm. It was incredibly heavy for being made of rubber but, of course, Jake had wrestled an alligator before, so he knew this was probably around the weight a real tail would be. “Ah, right!” Jake’s narcissism made it difficult to remember details about other people sometimes, but he now remembered that animal prosthesis were a topic that would come up sometimes in Celia’s office. “I’m sure he’ll be happy to get his rudder back.” He grunted slightly as he readjusted his grip on the tail. “What other kind of stuff have you been making recently?”

For a moment, Bianca looked at Jake and seriously considered whether or not she would be up to it. There was a part of her that definitely wanted to be, if only because it might help her take her mind off things in general, and because she was at least a little bit curious if the man lived up to the myth. But as always, that wasn’t the part of her that won out in the end. “Maybe next time,” she replied after a prolonged silence, leaning back in her seat with a coy smile. She could always tell herself that, right? That maybe next time she could say yes and it wouldn’t feel like a betrayal somehow.

Jake didn’t know whether to gain or lose hope during Bianca’s contemplative silence, but her response determined that for him. Damn, the 98% won out. That was more open than she usually left their conversations, though. “There’s gonna be a next time, then?” He smirked, but a genuine shred of hopefulness shone through.

despite her intention to remain frowning and unpleasant, the comment on the study literature for the police academy exam caused a small smile on her lips before she forced her composure to resume into the original uninterested demure. “ yes, it’s my bike and thank you. i agree, it is pretty cool. ” and before she could stop herself, calhoun found herself continuing the conversation. “ do you have one yourself… or ? ”

Jake was surprised to see a small smile flicker on her lips, and further surprised to hear that she was continuing the conversation. He blinked a few times, processing, before replying. “Nah, I don’t, I’ve thought about it though. Seems like a cool way to get around.” He’d also considered it as an option to get the attention of girls that were into the bad boy type, but he figured if he voiced that to this woman in particular he’d get a punch for his thoughts.

“That’s definitely one way of thinking of it, I usually get called Thumbalina on the phone maybe it’s the ‘balina’ on the end or because I talk too fast but I get a lot of nicknames that’s for sure.” but she wasn’t made at it, she hardly went with her full name these days - if ever - everyone just knew her as Barbie; “Yeah that is so strange, like I’ve had a couple of Australian peeps that come through here every now and again and I believe they have said the same thing, is that the only difference you’ve noticed when coming here?” switching the weight of her foot from one to the other as she got invested in the conversation; “I mean there are pros and cons to it but it depends and comes down to personal opinion and preferences I think”

Jake mused over Barbie’s question for a moment; he’d been here for long enough it took him some thought to remember how it had been at the start. “I’d never really thought about the fact I had an accent before, but some girls went wild for it, so that was... interesting to get used to.” A more accurate phrase would have been fun as hell but he toned it down a bit. “Also I technically already spoke the language, but there’s so many small differences in sayings and pronunciation that it was a little confusing at first.”

A light laugh as she considered his retort. “Shouldn’t I want cops to be ‘stick in the muds,’ as you say? If you’re a rule breaker, wouldn’t that mean you care less for enforcing them?” She questioned, curious about his perspective. Interested in what brought a man like him into this field.

“Oh segways would be a menace, Could you imagine? The bikers are already bad enough,” she glared at a bike rack as they passed. “Nearly running everyone over. And some student would inevitably steal one of the segways… pure chaos.” She shook her head although a smile was still firmly affixed to her face. It was enjoyable, a purely low stakes conversation.

She probably didn’t realize it, but Wendy’s comment hit a bit of a personal sore spot for Jake. After all, that was the main reason his attempts to become a cop weren’t panning out; he was a bit too loose cannon in the practical sections. That wasn’t really something he’d want to have a conversation with Wendy about, though, or think about at all tonight, so he pivoted the subject. “Not rule breaker so much, I meant more outside of work. Like me - I know how to party.” He started doing a little dance as he walked, finishing off with a spin that gracefully flowed back into his walking pace. “Some people get so involved that they forget how to let loose.”

“I deal with enough cases of missing bikes, whatever segway that got stolen would probably make the rounds to at least 5 different people before we got it back. Find it in a ditch or something,” he grumbled. He shook his head but smiled as a thought came to him. “Getting run over by a segway seems like it would be just agonizingly slow and painful. Could you imagine that? Like a cartoon steamroller,” he chuckled.

Bowie had been working on prosthetics for a while for both humans and animals. Today it was an alligator that lost it’s tail in a fight with another alligator before he was rescued and brought to Andromeda Zoo. She was humphing the giant rubber tail through the Zoo towards the alligator enclosure when she heard someone call her.

She gave him a smile when she noticed who had called her and waved her body side to side as a wave hello considering her hands were full “Hi, it’s going good” Bowie had grown more comfortable around Jake after all the times he was in Celia’s office the same time she was “How are you?” 

“I’m good too, just visiting some relatives.” Jake grinned as he pointed a thumb back toward the kangaroo enclosure. His brow furrowed in amused confusion as he looked over what Bowie was carrying. “What’re you up to here? Do you need any help carrying... whatever that is?” He vaguely gestured to the mass of rubber in her arms.

Priscilla had been meaning to travel but she really wanted to get a lot of her studies out of the way first because she couldn’t travel and worry about studies at the same time, it wouldn’t be a holiday for her, it would just be stressing in a different country; “That sounds like so relaxing, so say I want to travel there one day, where do you suggest I head?”

Anita was definitely someone she was closest to and would definitely consider her, her best friend; “Oh that is so cool, do they attend Polaris too?” maybe she knew them? Knew of them? Depending on the age range and if they did in fact go to Polaris; “I am close with my sister, I see her almost every day, but she’s a very busy woman, I want to say she’s easy to get along with but you have to work around her barrier first. Not many men have made it through that” laughing lightly.

“Well the obvious choice is Sydney, but you probably didn’t need me to tell you that. There’s also Melbourne, and Brisbane - it really depends on what you’re looking to get out of your trip. The tourism website is a pretty solid source for info.” Jake had never been a huge fan of the tourist-y areas anyway, so he didn’t have many details, but it seemed like Priscilla would be.

“Nah, they’ve all graduated now. Two of them moved a few towns away, too, but Avery’s still in the area. I meet up with them and my parents every month or so.” Speaking of which, the end of the month was approaching, and they hadn’t planned anything yet. He’d have to send a message in the group chat later. “Ah, a busy bee. What does she do? She’s not also studying baking, is she?” He joked. If he ever actually managed to meet Anita, he wasn’t too worried about any walls she might have up. He had enough experience sliding around barriers to be confident that he could get somewhere, platonically or otherwise.

Nani considered the compromise, but as always, she knew she was already running around like a headless chicken and free time wasn’t really her friend. She wanted to take Jake up on the offer, but there were more pressing matters at hand than having desert with a fluffy-haired charmer. “Sounds a bit much for only half a point,” Nani replied lightly. “Tell you what. I’ll give you half my number. If I bump into you again, I’ll give you the other half, and we can buy each other an ice cream.” She couldn’t have rolled her eyes any harder at his posing. “Oh, security at Polaris? I bet that’s a real fun time.”

The partial rejection was a bit disappointing, but hey, at least he still had a chance. He pulled out his phone to write down the half she’d give him. “That seems like a fair compromise.” He would have to keep an eye out for Nani on a later day. Hell, he might even sign up for a class at her studio - being a better dancer would probably improve his game some. “Sometimes the job’s a bit ridiculous, but it’s not all bad. A lot of walking around and socializing, which are two of my three favorite activities.” He left it up to Nani to guess what the third favorite activity was.