( This is how it goes: Tyler ranging far afield to keep chasing tornadoes while Kate temporarily puts down roots in Oklahoma again, buried in her PhD. This week, though, he’s been diverted to attend some streaming convention Boone signed them up for. The Wranglers wearing lanyards, sitting in on panels about monetisation, Tyler occasionally signing some over-enthusiastic fan’s cleavage. The accommodations are a sleek convention hotel, starched white sheets a far cry from the cheap motels he’s used to holing up in.
But the middle-of-the-night television options are just as shitty as ever, which means Tyler lying awake and flipping aimlessly through the channels while nursing a beer, before he reaches for his phone to text her. It’s gotten to be an automatic tic: checking in with each other, teasing, talking, whiling away the time before they wind up in the same state again. )
[ Kate's left leg and part of her butt are asleep, a tingling sensation from the way she's twisted in the uncomfortable chair she bought hastily in a Norman Goodwill for the bare apartment she's currently occupying. Her advisor had forwarded the fellowship application in the not-so-subtle way that graduate advisors forward things without instruction. Less a suggestion and more of a "do this" instruction in fewer words.
She had tried to work with the research plans she had written a few years back, opening them to find the writing of an enthusiastic young scientist with a type of enviable I'm going to change the world with knowledge attitude that makes her smile, but also demure a bit. She still feels that, but has pragmatic lens of a federal scientist who knows cutting the fat tells a punchier story and maybe one the GRFP reviewers will actually read instead of letting their eyes glaze over as they shuffle from proposal to proposal.
Writing, though, turns out to be as painful as ever, dry eyes blinking as she tries to keep herself awake and focused in the blue light of her laptop when a small buzz on her phone steals her attention, and Kate smiles at the interruption. ]
ancient aliens, of course. isn't that the type of educational content you strive to emulate on your channel??
[ Just because some things had changed between them didn't mean the gentle ribbing had to stop. ]
i dunno i feel like there’s a certain scientific rigor missing from their process needs a bit more fieldwork, probably. you ever seen one? 🛸
[ This, ladies and gents, is late-night shitposting. It’s that or get trashed at the hotel bar with Boone, but Lily had muttered something about wanting to catch an early panel tomorrow — “How NASA Brought Moon Missions to Twitch” — and so they’d all mostly gone their separate ways for the night.
Which leaves him here: instinctively leaning towards Kate, the way all his attention pivots towards her the moment she’s anywhere within reach, even distantly. ]
not in that ancient civilization horseshit. in aliens somewhere in the universe though, yeah, absolutely. like mathematically it just seems like there’s gotta be something, right? the copernican principle makes the most sense and the universe is vast
[ Oh no he’s a nerd. ]
we had this shitty shared family computer when i was a kid and we would keep it running computations for SETI@home, like, all night
two sisters. one older, one younger, and we are such pains in each others’ asses
[ Which maybe explains a little: the yes ma’ams, the easy consideration with things like holding Kate’s muddy hair back from her face, the politeness to women which had been drummed into him. But also, well, the Owenses could (and had) kicked each others’ asses when they were younger, girls or no. ]
how about you?
[ For all that he and Kate have fallen into such easy synchronicity, there’s also these big blank spots that they’re still filling in about each other.
You’d think you could just google these basic details about Tyler Owens— except that he purposefully, meticulously kept his family out of the public eye and the social media frenzy which followed him around. As far as his fanbase was concerned, he sprang fully-formed out of some tornado, ready to pull deranged stunts; he tended to skirt around the topic of his former career or his degree or his family members. ]
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@sapulpa
But the middle-of-the-night television options are just as shitty as ever, which means Tyler lying awake and flipping aimlessly through the channels while nursing a beer, before he reaches for his phone to text her. It’s gotten to be an automatic tic: checking in with each other, teasing, talking, whiling away the time before they wind up in the same state again. )
nick at nite reruns or ancient aliens?
no subject
She had tried to work with the research plans she had written a few years back, opening them to find the writing of an enthusiastic young scientist with a type of enviable I'm going to change the world with knowledge attitude that makes her smile, but also demure a bit. She still feels that, but has pragmatic lens of a federal scientist who knows cutting the fat tells a punchier story and maybe one the GRFP reviewers will actually read instead of letting their eyes glaze over as they shuffle from proposal to proposal.
Writing, though, turns out to be as painful as ever, dry eyes blinking as she tries to keep herself awake and focused in the blue light of her laptop when a small buzz on her phone steals her attention, and Kate smiles at the interruption. ]
ancient aliens, of course.
isn't that the type of educational content you strive to emulate on your channel??
[ Just because some things had changed between them didn't mean the gentle ribbing had to stop. ]
no subject
needs a bit more fieldwork, probably.
you ever seen one? 🛸
[ This, ladies and gents, is late-night shitposting. It’s that or get trashed at the hotel bar with Boone, but Lily had muttered something about wanting to catch an early panel tomorrow — “How NASA Brought Moon Missions to Twitch” — and so they’d all mostly gone their separate ways for the night.
Which leaves him here: instinctively leaning towards Kate, the way all his attention pivots towards her the moment she’s anywhere within reach, even distantly. ]
no subject
i've got my suspicions about giorgio tsoukalos 👽
don't tell me you're a believer though
no subject
[ Oh no he’s a nerd. ]
we had this shitty shared family computer when i was a kid and we would keep it running computations for SETI@home, like, all night
no subject
so i'll just say that's adorable, and i bet your parents loved that electric bill every month
(we still had dial up until i was in jr high and i wasn't gonna get away with running the school library computers all night)
[ And then another thought. We? ]
do you have any siblings?
no subject
[ Which maybe explains a little: the yes ma’ams, the easy consideration with things like holding Kate’s muddy hair back from her face, the politeness to women which had been drummed into him. But also, well, the Owenses could (and had) kicked each others’ asses when they were younger, girls or no. ]
how about you?
[ For all that he and Kate have fallen into such easy synchronicity, there’s also these big blank spots that they’re still filling in about each other.
You’d think you could just google these basic details about Tyler Owens— except that he purposefully, meticulously kept his family out of the public eye and the social media frenzy which followed him around. As far as his fanbase was concerned, he sprang fully-formed out of some tornado, ready to pull deranged stunts; he tended to skirt around the topic of his former career or his degree or his family members. ]
no subject
only child here
just me and my mom now
wasn't sure if we'd even stay at the farm after my dad died but my mom took it all on.
no subject
[ Teasing; but it’s nice to learn these things about each other, filling in these blanks. ]
seems like a lot for her to manage on her own.
not as in you ought to go back to fertilizing dirt, i just mean‐‐
she seems like a helluva woman
no subject
no subject
but what if i wanna be her favorite