Disclaimer: Characters here are property of their owners, none of which happen to be me.
Initial note: Not set during any other of my continuities.
A Cup of Sugar, pt.2
At exactly 6 PM, Jinx heard the door to the library open quietly. Normally this would be no easy feat, with the study hall open till very late at night, but luck was, as usual, on her side. Tomorrow's holiday break had caused most late-running programs to be closed early, and the library proper was no different.
Though not an employee or intern at the library itself, the gross amount of time she spent there left few distrusting the girl. So much were the archivists used to her constant presence, that they'd often let her close the place herself. Grinning though her loosened bangs, Jinx slinked into the chair she'd picked and waited.
Raven, nervous but somewhat expecting some kind of silliness, simply walked though the darkened room and, guessing where the staff area was, walked toward it with little hesitation.
To see a grinning Jinx, her customary smile threatening to unhinge her head, sitting at the staff table really wasn't much of a surprise to the former Titan. "You know, a simple email, or text message, or hell even a note passed by a classmate would have been just as good," she groused, taking in the other young woman's effluvient mood.
"Oh sure. I could have, but where's the challenge or fun in that?" Pulling out a notebook, she leaned on a hand and regarded the other student, hood up as per usual and glare in full "halt, vile criminal" grandeur. Giggling slightly she gestured for the violet-haired Titan to sit and opened her notebook to a blank page.
Rolling her eyes, Raven approached the table but didn't sit. "So what is this about, precisely. The last time we talked, I didn't really get the impression there'd be much of a next time we talked."
Her mood dimming visibly, Jinx mulled this over a moment and nodded, nibbling on the back of the pen she held. "I guess I did give off that vibe. I mean, I was kinda..."
Seizing the small pause, Raven smirked and counted off a few adjectives in the silence, "Ill-tempered, mean, unfriendly, antisocial-"
"Alright alright, I get it. I was a bitch, I'm sorry!" Muttering to herself, the quirky young woman sighed, fidgeting with her jacket's hem. Wondering if perhaps she'd made a mistake, the ex-Hive operative decided to just get to the heart of things, rather than dance around and step more on each other's feelings. "You wanted a tutor; I'm offering. That's what this is about."
Blinking, Raven was momentarily taken aback at the shift from verbal sparring to frank honesty, but didn't mind so much, as she still wasn't much used to people being as direct and outspoken as Jinx. Most of her previous human contact was with her old team, and that was it's own bag of dysfunctional dialogs. "Alright. I'll bite," she conceded, pulling out a chair and sitting, slowly while keeping her eyes glued to the playfully glinting ones of Jinx.
Bouncing slightly in her seat, Jinx tilted her head and continued to chew on the pen she'd claimed. "First things first I suppose... you don't go by Raven anymore do you? I mean, you seem to have ditched the whole goth shtick, I guess the name went too yeah?"
The young woman across from her scoffed slightly, sighing, "I never did the goth... oh nevermind. No, I don't go by that name anymore, it's a bit pretentious sounding for the day to day." Pulling her own pack up onto the table, she took out a notebook and pen of her own, before continuing, "I go by my birth name now, Rachel Roth."
"Isn't that kinda dangerous? I mean, family and all."
"I guess there really wasn't anyone to tell you," Rachel murmured, tapping her pen against the pad slowly. "My mother was trapped in... another place. One my father destroyed. He... he's dead. Has been since I was eight-teen." Looking off into the distance for a moment, she shook off the memories and coughed. "Can we change the subject."
"Sure, sorry. Didn't know. Um," biting her lip, Jennifer grasped for a change of subject. "I don't know why I picked the name I did, I guess it was more random than anything. Most mundane "J" name I could think of, and the brand of pants I had on at the time." Grinning inanely, she pulled a soda from her satchel, offering it to the ex-Titan. "Drink?"
Waving the offer away, she grinned slightly. "Just ate. So," she looked at the girl across from her, the awkwardness of the recent conversation still heavy in the air. "Tell me why it was you changed your mind."
Expecting this eventually, Jennifer looked away for a moment, before shrugging. "I guess I thought about it. How you guys had helped me, after that Brotherhood incident. Outside of that, well," grinning and leaning over at the table, she shrugged again. "I'm kinda random. Besides, I don't have many people around here these days I can just hang around with."
Quirking an eyebrow, the former Titan seemed to consider those words. "Hang around with, huh? Maybe I didn't think this through," softening her words with a small smile, Rachel regardless was happy with the change of events, particularly after seeing her current GPA. "I'm taking a few classes I could use some help with, but I don't want to be too much of a bother or strain."
"Right! So should we start with art history two, or your creative writing class?" the quirky girl asked, pulling out the borrowed course guides from the library. "I've got the keys to the place, so we can hang around tonight and work unless you have other plans."
Shaking her head, happy for the opportunity to make some progress, the ex-Titan was digging through her backpack looking for her class textbooks when something hit her. "Jin-Jennifer. How did you know what classes I was needing help in?" Leveling a stoic glance to the blinking girl across from her, she paused, waiting for an answer.
"Uhm. You ah, mentioned art history the other day, so I assumed-"
"I didn't mention which one. In fact I didn't mention creative writing either. Or my email address, or postal, or phone," the empath added with some force, brows furrowing deeper with each addition.
The pink-haired girl sat quietly a moment, still in the sudden quiet that enveloped the two students. A moment later she pulled the folded paper from her pack and slid it across the table. Rachel didn't need to look at the printout, knowing precisely what was on it. She'd figured the papers she'd lost were just at home, or folded in the pages of one of her texts, perhaps in a book she'd been carrying earlier. It figured that the little bad luck charm across from her would have ended up with them.
"Right. I get it," rising, the the violet haired girl threw her books unceremoniously into her pack, as Jennifer winced with the violence of it. Throwing rather than settling the pack along her back, the shorter of the two glared balefully down at Jennifer, her hands working slowly, empty in the low light of the break room. Turning, the former Titan favored her with one last look, before moving quickly form the room.
Jennifer had barely registered the girl as gone when her voice, cast to reach her through the empty library echoed back. "I don't need your, or anyone's, pity." Wincing again, Jinx sighed, and went about repacking her things.
I oOo I
"I hate Mondays," Jennifer muttered around the corner of some toast. The library lounge was atypically empty that day, mostly due to the foul temper she was carrying around like a dark cloud over her head. It had been three days since getting snubbed by the girl she still knew as Raven. Tapping her temple with the pen she held, the toast was only occasionally nibbled at as the girl pondered her weekend.
Essays. Studying. Mowing the lawn. For all the Bay area's perfect weather, she could barely muster the motivation to do more than get up, do her homework and prepare for this week's tests.
She wholly blamed Raven for this.
Murmuring a rather off color rendition of Poe's Raven to lighten her mood, the witch missed her friend walk into the lounge with her own breakfast. "Morning, Jenny."
Flailing in surprise, the pink-haired girl offbalanced her chair and landed with a crash, the toast miraculously still seized between her teeth. "Hi Yoko."
Surveying the quirky girl's mood and state of dress, Yoko grinned slightly and pulled her chair up, sipping her morning juice. "So, I take it whatever prank you pulled last week backfired spectacularly?"
Glaring over the edge of the table, Jinx righted her chair and flopped back into it, leaning it back again despite her spill moments before. "You want me to bite your ear again don't you," she snarled around her breakfast, only partially noticed.
Favoring her sometimes antagonist with a sigh, Yoko reached out and patted her hand. "Listen, I know you meant well, but maybe the whole ransom note and stalker thing was a bit over the top."
Snorting, Jinx rolled slitted eyes at the slight girl. "Of course it was over the top. Look at me! I'm over the top." Tilting back in her chair again, she nibbled furiously at the toast again, taking precious centimeters from it's bulk. The toast had no comment to this.
Sighing quietly, Yoko pulled her notebook out and flipped to a tabbed page. "I took the liberty of doing you a favor. You can thank me by coming by Wednesday and helping with the sports section displays. Those always take too long during football season."
"How's your brother's team doing, by the way? Heard there were some bumps recently in that game they had against that other college team... what was it called? Sphinx's?" Inspecting the paper Yoko had slid across the table, she missed the annoyed glare the other girl was shooting her. It only bore an address, but Jinx could guess who's it was. "And you complained about me being a stalker before."
"This is different. You said yourself she's hard to deal with. Well, this opens up other avenues. Who knows, maybe you can do her a favor or something, to get her back in your good graces." Pulling out a sports page in Japanese, she glanced over the article and handed it to Jennifer. "And the game was 'bumpy', but yes. They managed in the end."
"Favor huh... hm. Yeah this may come in handy after all." Tucking the slip away, Jinx stretched and winced, her back making a noise like someone twisting celery. "I suppose I should get to lectures, these notes won't take themselves."
"Isn't that why we have recorders," Yoko quipped, packing her own bag and stowing her lunch in the lounge refrigerator.
Rolling her eyes, Jinx shook her head at the slight girl. "Never trust a machine to do a woman's work, honey." Leering, Jinx made grabbing gestures at the slight girl, from which Yoko scampered out of the room. Giving chase, the ex-Thief snatched up her book bag and ran from the lounge.
Later that day, Jinx paid a visit to one of her professor's offices, playing out a hunch she had from the other week. The man had taught her first Art History classes, and was an excellent instructor. Probably one of the best she'd had. Aside from being an excellent professor, he also looked the part, with his rheumy eyes, huge glasses and thinning, graying hair. Figuring that her sense of irony was her best resource in this matter, she bet on the hunch and "Mr. Middlefield? Alex, are you busy?"
Looking up form the coursework he was currently working on, the man shook his head, waving the young woman in. "No, not really. What brings you by Jennifer, it's been a while since you've paid me a visit." Standing to offer her a chair, Jinx blushed slightly at the man's officious behavior.
"Well, there's a friend of mine in one of your classes, at least I think she is. A um... Rachel Roth. Do you recall her?"
The man looked aside a moment, brows furrowed in thought before nodding slowly. "I believe I remember the lass," he murmured, going to a filing cabinet and pulling a folder after a moment's searching. "Short, a bit on the quiet side, and ah..." Peering at Jinx a moment he smiled slightly, nodding almost imperceptibly. "Actually, reminds me of you quite a bit.
"Well until we get to her grades, at least." His tone falling, the man dropped the folder on his desk startling Jinx.
Swallowing, she nodded slowly, "That's what worries me, I guess. I was thinking about trying to tutor her, I just needed some insight maybe in what direction to focus."
Nodding at the girl, the professor considered a few files from the folder. "If I had to name a fault in your friend, it would be focus actually." When the girl he knew as Jennifer blinked at him, not understanding he continued, "To be blunt, she gets sidetracked, daydreams it seems. During lectures she starts off well enough, then just seems to zone out. Same on tests. She works well for a while, then seems to lose interest.
"The girl is bright, probably brilliant actually," he murmured, looking over what documents he'd taken for his files. "When she does answer questions, they almost always are correct. I just think it's a matter of focus."
Jinx mulled this over for a few moments, before nodding. "I don't know why, she's always been the focused sort. I don't think I've ever really seen her preoccupied or just zoning out before. Maybe it's something that's happened since she..." trailing off, Jinx blushed realizing that she was dangerously close to privileged information. Letting on that she knew who Raven was, previous to her civilian life, would lead to questions of her own past. "Family issues," she finished lamely, hoping the rather taboo subject would deter Middlefield's curiosity.
The man seemed to let the topic go easily enough, nodding quietly in his own thoughts. "I think you'd be good for her. A good influence. If you need any material that she'd be working on, I'll be happy to supply it," gesturing at his desk, the man smiled apologetically. "Though I'd like to continue our small chat, I do so rarely see you these days, I do have work to finish before my next lecture."
"Sorry to have kept you, Professor, and thanks."
"Alex, dear girl, just call me Alex," Smiling, the older gentleman walked her to the door and held it, as she passed the portal. "Do come by again, but call ahead! I have some stunning Italian coffee I think you'd adore."
"I will! See you later!"
Pondering the meeting, Jinx had to admit it really wasn't in character for Raven to be the distracted sort. Throughout the time she'd known the stoic girl, she had been the epitome of calm focus, in fact. For her grades to be suffering because of a lack of focus just seemed... wrong. Thinking about it further, she wanted one more opinion, before heading home for the day. The walk back to the library wasn't too long, but it circled around the main quad, and the forested courtyard. Looking a her watch, Jinx frowned. If she went the long way, it'd take at least half an hour, and she'd be set back to taking the redeye bus to her condo, as opposed to the college shuttle. If she cut through the quad...
Hiking up her satchel, she dove into the oddly wild area outside of Stanford's main courtyard. One of the odd defining features of the college, the university had a number of small undeveloped areas, forested and otherwise manicured but without structures along it's main drive. These groves were occasionally patrolled by the campus security, but walking along the byways at night was sternly advised against.
Not wanting to waste time on taking roundabout paths, Jinx figured the campus forests would be safe enough.
To anyone else, this was probably true.
I oOo I
The afternoon faded quickly once she entered the woods, the sun being in that precarious position just skirting the horizon. Jinx tried to hurry, not wanting to be lose time to the local mass transit schedule just because of bad campus planning.
Given, the Arboretum was very pretty, but at night with the lack of illumination offered too many places for unwanted attention to hide. Shuffling through some low brush, she was reminded again that for all it's benign beauty, Stanford, as well as the Bay area, weren't the most friendly to her and those like her. Sighing, she recalled the various attempts by local and state, not to mention federal, governments to limit and legislate metahumans into places they didn't want to be. Mostly, these places weren't comfortable, didn't have the best view, and could often times be considered less than idyllic. For her part, as a once-figurehead of a criminal organization that specialized in terrorism at worst and petty larceny at best, she was in the scapegoat faction within the metahuman group.
A large reason why she pulled her about-face in behavior was the direction her life was going. If she had proceeded along the set path she was on, sooner than later she would be crossing paths with the Justice League and the various other heroes that littered the world.
She wagered that those groups would be less forgiving of her than her familiar Titans.
Jinx roused herself from her reverie when something caught the peripheral of her vision, something out of place in the green span of the Arboretum she was crossing. Keeping pace and her eyes forward, she loosened her pack with the pretense of putting away a pen she nearly always kept in her pocket. As her attention seemed broken and unfocused, the image played along her vision again, a blur of green on green along her far left. Narrowing her eyes slightly, Jinx cocked her head slightly, listening to the night sounds around her.
Birds still sang, and insects kept up their breathy thrumm. Distantly she could hear wild dogs barking in the more remote parts of the groves, unbothered by the comings and goings in the wood. She was pondering the anomaly of the night sounds still being loud and alive when the answer came, a smile lighting along her face in the moonlight.
"Beast Boy. Come out, already," she called quietly, stopping and crossing her arms in the dimly lit wood. As if called, a green shadow, barely visible in the night landed before her, probably only five feet away. Resolving itself to a long-limbed tree-dwelling monkey, the shape quickly shifted and left in it's place the familiar, if older, face of another Titan.
Looking none the happier for her discovery, the green skinned changeling glowered in her direction for some moments, till she rolled her eyes and kept walking, brushing past him without a word. She'd gone maybe a score of steps away when she faintly heard his voice, deeper, scratchier than she'd remembered. "It's Garfield now."
"So we've all grown up, then. Good to know. Good night, Garfield," she said, without inflection as her pace held steady, not bothering to slow. Soon enough the sound of footsteps in the underbrush sounded behind her, and the former Thief chewed on her lip in aggravation, wondering if she'd have to take the damn late bus regardless, at this rate.
"Don't bother her, Jinx."
Her eye twitched at this, but her stride kept fluid as she ducked below a branch and slid along the underside of a low-hanging tree. "Bother who? Sorry, I don't really work in such vague reference," she murmured, knowing the changeling's keen ears would pick up on her words without much effort.
A low growl was her only response for a score of heartbeats, till the changeling managed to catch up. "You know who I mean. Just let this go, she doesn't need your help."
"If you'd seen her grades, you'd think different," she answered with a sigh. Shaking her head slowly, Jinx trudged on, determined not to let the interruption keep her from what she planned. "And besides, she initially was going to ask me, so doesn't this fall into the realm of 'None of your fucking business?'"
"It's my business when she starts hanging around with criminals," was his terse answer. Her eyes flaring neon for a moment, Jinx considered letting him know precisely how wrong it was, but she calmed and counted down from ten before answering.
Tone flat, she didn't bother sparing him a look as she spoke, "For someone who's breaking college regulation about afterhour's visitation, as well as potentially criminal harassment of a student of the opposite gender, in a dark area, I'd be wary about flinging the word criminal around, Beast Boy." Sneering, she shook her head and picked up the pace, not wanting to waste any more time on the Titan stalking her. "Now, if you'll stop being a bother, I have a librarian to talk to and a bus to catch."
She'd almost expected him to get vocally abusive, but she didn't think the Beast Boy she knew would be brave enough to try and stop her. Taking her assessment of the youth and tossing it aside, she also hadn't expected him to be looking fit to fight, as she did finally turn to regard him coolly. "Take your hand off me if you want to keep it."
"Don't threaten me, and you better listen," the Titan hissed, his grip on her shoulder tightening. "Raven doesn't belong here. It's obvious, and she just needs to get over this phase and come back." Shoving her away as pretense for removing his hand, the Titan backed away, but kept speaking, "I'll be watching, so keep away. I don't want to talk to you again."
Sneering, she turned toward his voice and flipped the grandstanding changeling off, before continuing her walk, "Watch this, you little prick. Just because she's grown up and moved on, doesn't mean you can grow a set and start acting the part." Well and proper pissed, she was all but ready to start flinging hexes and rearranging his dental structure when the library loomed ahead, dark on the silhouette of the skyline. She'd been good, hardly using her powers since she left the Titans so long ago, and the last thing she needed, at this point in her life, was a Titan being sent to the hospital or calling in help in a scuffle with her.
Regardless, if he touched her again, he'd be losing that hand faster than he could say animal cracker.
Stalking into the main quad, she noticed the distinct lack of a certain green youth, and her mood improved slightly. This ended when she tried the library door and found it locked. Kicking the brick wall nearby she winced, and started walking back to the bus depot, happy at least she could catch the proper route home.
Slumping into the bench, Jinx thought back on the impromptu meeting with Beast Boy and the implications of what he said. "I wonder if her other teammates feel the same way," she mused, not really wanting to think about the collected body of what Titans were left and the new ones that would have likely joined, countering her in tutoring Raven. "What's with that anyway... I thought your friends were supposed to want you to succeed, not try and drag you down," the ex-Thief groused, kicking a the bus box with her sneaker.
Jinx felt at a loss as she got home, not really wanting to clean, but caught up on her school work. She tried to work off her energy with stretches and exercise, but found the activity more thought provoking than anything, which she didn't need. As always, distracting her body with work freed her mind to wander. Finally giving up on physical activity, she tried watching a movie, but nothing in her library seemed appealing.
Grumbling at her lack of distraction, she wandered into the kitchen and looked about, hands on hips. Deciding to try and make something to snack on, which hopefully would help her settle on a movie, she rifled through her cabinets for something to bake, but only found raw ingredients. It seemed that fate was conspiring against her today. Sighing, she pulled out her recipe box and leafed through, remembering the various points at which she'd picked up each entry.
Reaching the section on cookies, an odd thought occurred to her, and a smile slowly grew across her features. Pulling out a small tote, she gathered a few ingredients and some more recipe cards, a few measuring cups and her school bag. Somewhat burdened but amused with her own planning, she pulled out the note Yoko had given her earlier that day and giggled quietly to herself.
Fifteen minutes later, she shuffled her feet and glanced nervously at the dormitory door noted on the page. Biting her lip, Jinx reached up and knocked quietly, almost hoping that the address was wrong, or perhaps that the Titan was absent. A shuffling from inside quashed those hopes and she steeled herself for another meeting with the stoic young woman.
A bolt slid free and the door opened a crack, a single violet eye regarding her coolly from the space offered. "Mm, you. What do you want, Jinx?"
Not one to be put off just by a cold welcome, Jinx grinned and held up her tote, the baking supplies and recipe cards sticking out at odd angles, "Well, I was going to watch a movie, but when I started it, I realized I didn't have any snacks... so I went to make something. Lo, and I was out of sugar!" Raising a hand to her brow, she feigned sorrow and went on, head hung low, "so, thinking that perhaps you may have acquired more, I chanced to avail myself on your mercies."
"Uh. So you want a cup of sugar?"
"Basically."
"Right. Next time, drop the fancy speech and just say so," Stepping aside, the Titan readjusted the towel around her hair, looking like she'd just finished a shower. "Suppose you want to come in, so make yourself at home. As it is, anyway."
Stepping inside, Jinx noted the spartan decorating, and the lack of furnishings. As well as space. Where she'd managed to get a condo with the remnants of the Hive accounts, it seemed the Titans had shallower wallets for their members. Looking for a place to sit, she realized that the small studio apartment only had one real place to relax, that being a folding futon that doubled as a bed and couch. Placing her tote and bag on the small kitchen table, she removed her shoes and set them by the door as Raven stepped back into the bathroom, a bundle of clothes in hand.
A few minutes later, as she was inspecting the small kitchen, the sound of Raven clearing her throat got her attention and she spun about, grinning nervously. "Ah, sorry to barge in, I hope I wasn't interrupting anything?"
Raven's mild blush was quickly glossed over, as the Titan shook her head and motioned to the futon again. "No, just finishing up in the shower. Sit, I'll get your cup and the sugar."
"Well, I was thinking... um," fidgeting with the hem to her shirt, Jinx sighed and looked up, biting her lip. "I was thinking that if you'd like, I could bake the cookies here, and we could share them..."
"Jinx, why?" Sighing, the Titan slumped into the futon beside her, uncaring of the way her bathrobe fell about her shoulders at the sudden motion. Jinx looked away, the sudden view of collar and shoulder causing her to feel somewhat scandalized, as well as bringing to the fore a blush of her own. "The other day you were hesitant to even speak with me, then you pull that stunt and try to help me out of pity-"
"No, Raven," shaking her head the ex-Thief shifted, trying to keep her eyes from the slow rise and fall of the Titan's breath. "I wasn't pitying you, not at all. I remembered when you told me, back then, "Everyone deserves a second chance." Do you remember that?"
"Robin had told me that, a long time ago. The person he was talking about betrayed us."
"Oh," at a loss the former Thief paused, trying to dredge her thoughts from the sadness that seemed to surround Raven's words. "Uhm. I suppose... I should probably just go. I'm sorry for bothering you again Raven," rising she was turning to the kitchen to get her satchels when a hand closed over her wrist, halting her and making the young woman turn to regard the Titan again.
Raven sat, the bathrobe she's answered the door in barely held in place by the slight shelf of the dusky skinned young woman's shoulders. From the height Jinx stood at, the rise and fall of Raven's breathing was distinct, as well as the proof she was well along in her late teens, no longer the youth she had fought long years ago it seemed. Turning her head sharply as her color rose, Jinx sat again, more to keep her eyes from wandering into that inviting darkness, than to relived the Titan's anxious look. "Ah... Raven. I'm sorry. About the other day in my home, about the stupid vending machine thing, the silly letter... You know me, probably better than you want to admit. You know how I get sometimes, my penchant for the dramatic. It only comes up when it's important."
"Why is it important, Jinx?"
Put on the spot, she looked back up into those violet eyes and faltered, seeing too much of herself in them. "Because, we're alike. Like you said... we're both here. Both away from things familiar. Because I feel like it'd be the right thing to do," she added, her voice going soft as she lowered her gaze.
"Right thing," Raven mumbled, taking her hand from where it lingered along Jinx's wrist. The two sat there, quiet in their own thoughts for some time before Raven startled the pink-haired girl, leaning across her and rifling among her end table's contents for something.
Frustrated by her seemingly out of place reactions around the Titan, Jinx fidgeted, finally making a small strangled noise as the Titan leaned into her hard and came back with a remote. "Sorry, was just almost out of reach. Kept scooting away," she murmured, a slight blush dusting her features. "Sorry," she said again, and Jinx could have smacked herself for her oversight.
Raven was likely well aware of her flustered state. "Erm! Would you like some cookies?"
"I think that would be... nice," the stoic woman said, her eyes quite intent on the static on the small TV.
"I'll get domestic then. You find something entertaining to watch, and after snacks we can talk about classes." Holding out her hand, Jinx gave Raven the low-intensity version of her smile, suppressing a giggle at the way she automatically drew back. "Deal?"
Warily taking the quirky girl's hand, they shook on it slowly and Raven nodded, "Deal, then. Do I need to pay yo-"
"Oh hell no. We'll work something out later on. For now, lets get those numbers where they belong.
"Up beside mine. But not passing – I have a reputation to maintain."
Smirking, Raven shook her head and stretched, giving Jinx a good excuse to run to the kitchen.
"Right, reputation."
Grinning over her shoulder, Jinx stuck her tongue out slightly, "So what's your favorite cookie?"
A/N: Less dramatic and dire than Fate, something for me to idly write, and stay in the mood while I work on that other piece. Simple, clean, normal. Feedback on this one appreciated, as I don't use Beta's and I wonder if there's an audience for this even.