In Illusion of Order [Charlie]

The food court was small, too small for the amount of people jammed in this space all soaking up information and technology the likes of which he was only starting to fully comprehend. Charlie was lucky to have found a small table by one of the windows, half eaten plate of food in front of him as he poured over the conference material with an eager gaze.

A lot had changed in 60 years, and the young man had a lot to catch up on, that he wanted to catch up on. He'd once been a genius in his chosen fields, and wanted nothing more than to get back to that point. Especially in this world he felt like his skills could be used for some good.

He was a fairly average looking young man, sandy blonde hair pulled back in a short ponytail and a couple days of growth on his face. He looked rather painfully thin, and quite tanned, like a man who spent a fair amount of time out in the hot desert sun outside. He was dressed in slacks and a button down shirt to better fit into the conference happening around him, one hand visibly mechanical, the other wrist wrapped around with a couple of old and well worn looking leather bracelets. Occasionally he glanced up from what he was doing and took in the room, picking at the scraps of food left in front of him, then looked back to his work. He circled a couple of panels, he wanted to attend those ones for certain.

Entering the food court was almost as bad an idea for the already on edge young man as accepting the speaking position, when he saw the sheer amount of people he felt his skin burn even more, taking a hard gulp of his drink before leaving the glass on an unoccupied table as he pushed his way through the crowd of people, trying and failing to practice deep breathing exercise as he did. There was a part of him kicking himself for not seeking his father for guidance in this situation, as he'd seen Ian face this so many times, Ian handled it with grace and tact, two things Solomon lacked completely. He tugged at his poorly tied tie and sighed.

When he sat down at the nearest and least crowded table, he didn't see the other man sitting there at first, breathing a bit faster than necessary as he pulled more at his tie, which he was absolutely convinced was strangling him. He glanced over a moment, eyes suddenly going wide as he noticed the other person, "Shit!" He gasped and startled, nearly falling from his chair, "Ah uh...ugh...s-s-sorry...I uh...Shit..." He ran a hand through his hair and laughed nervously, "it's...Man it's really hot in here..." After a moment of awkwardness, he peeked over to take in the fellow, who looked close in range to his age, "I-I can...Go? If you want me to fuck off..." He was bad at this. So bad.

Charlie wasn't entirely surprised when someone else sat down opposite him, the place was crowded and actual seats were a high quality commodity. He half lowered the program to study the other young man curiously, he looked anxious and disheveled, completely out of his element here. And he kept jerking on his tie like the thing had a mind of it's own.

And then, almost as though Charlie had suddenly ducked out of a dark corner and shouted at him, the other realized he was not alone at the table and reacted rather violently.

"Whoa, hey." he reached out a hand to steady the other as he nearly fell out of his chair in what seemed like great surprise. He shook his head. "You don't have to go. No one else is sitting there." He assured him, his accent sounding a bit strangely out of place here, even amid a dozen other accents and languages his was oddly absent. He paused for an awkward moment. "I'm...sorry I freaked you out..?" he trailed off like it was an uncertain question, not sure what it was about him that had unnerved the other guy so badly.

He felt the hairs that were standing on end defensively lay flat after the man assured him that he wasn't crossing some unspoken social barrier, and he continued to fidget with his tie, looking around, "no you...It's not you." He paused, swallowing thickly, "It's this." He gestured to everything, finally managing to get the strangling tie from around his neck and slapping it aggressively against the table, "All these p-p-people..." He sputtered the word out, "I've never done this before." He groused, glancing over at him, "Uh...Solomon Kelley..." He slapped a hand to his face, "you didn't ask my fucking name...Fuck me."

He looked up at him, "you didn't freak me out...I have to speak in front of this group. That's what freaked me out." He was a little thrown off by this man's accent, so familiar, but also one that he did not expect to hear here of all places, "I don't know what I'm doing, I look a fucking mess...I'm gonna be laughed off the stage..." He sunk his head into his hands, shaking his head before glancing up at him, "So...Uh...What's your name?" He rose a brow, "You sure got a weird fucking accent..." He said this in a blunt way, clearly not reading how badly the statement could come off.

Charlie didn't answer at first, just his program lowering slowly as he watched and listened to the other man's ranting and almost frantic movements, messing with his hair, yanking off his tie. The name brought a moment of recognition, he'd seen it in the program, one of the panels he'd intended to go to later, actually. Somehow...this wasn't quite what he expected from a panelist...but then again he remembered reading something about movie stars who freaked right the hell out before performing, were cool in front of people...then went right back to freaking out. Maybe this guy was like that.

"You probably do know what you're doing, or they wouldn't have asked you here. And I'm pretty sure you won't get laughed off the stage...we're not in fucking primary school anymore." He smiled, trying to hide his suddenly growing amusement at his new table companion.

The comment about his accent only seemed to amuse him more and he let out a loud laugh, grinning at the man who'd introduced himself as Solomon. "Charles Fawkes. But y'can call me Charlie. And yeah, my accent seems fuckin' weird to you people now...I'm just a throw-back to another time, another place!" he joked around, the coming to after so much time had been hard at first, but he'd come to terms with it and it was easier to poke at it now then it had been when it had all happened at first. What had happened to his home country still stung...but until he could actually do something about that he tried not to just dwell on it.

After a moment of failing to collect himself, he grumbled as he picked up his tie and began struggling to put it back on, letting out little strings of anxious curses as he failed miserably to do so. He glanced up at him with a wry smile at that and laughed, "I wish." He sighed as he continued to struggle with his tie, "I've never done this before...I have no idea what I'm doing." He was partially talking about the panel, and partially talking about his tie, "I have to explain why my security program is revolutionary, against like five other speakers who probably know more than me. They're all in their 40s and 50s." After the losing battle he let go of the cloth and sighed.

He looked a little curious by his statement, raising a brow, "little young to be calling yourself a throwback...I just guessed maybe you came from Sydney..." He chuckled, "bout the only place out there that's still standing." But now he was caught and curious, and most of all glad for the distraction, "so Charlie, a throw-back? Why do you say that?" He chuckled and rested a chin against his hand, smirking, "makes you sound like a fucking time traveler, Rocket Man." He sat up after a moment and tilted his head, "you a brainy sort? What kind of work do you do?"

There was only so long Charlie could sit there and watch him attempt to strangle himself with that fucking tie before he finally let out a long-suffering sigh.

"I can't watch this, you've got that thing so fuckered up..." He stood up. "Stand up, gimme that..." When Sol did Charlie took a moment to straighten the tie out and untie all the half successful knoting in it and with a few deft movements pulled up Sol's collar and started arranging the tie. There was a few moments of hesitation, it had been a while since he'd tied one on someone else and it took a moment to remember all the steps, there was also just the slightest hesitation with the robotic hand, as though he was still fully adjusting to it's presence but all together it still only took a minute or two for the tie to be lying straight, neatly tied and tucked under a straightened collar.

"There. Now stop fuckin' with the damn thing." He half grinned as he sat back down.

"Melbourne, actually." He corrected, wincing just a little at the reminder that his hometown was among those not overly livable anymore. It was weird to think places he'd known, loved, been so familiar with...all gone, just like that. "Not a time traveler. Just a guy who got frozen in a cryo-block." At first he'd worried people might look at him like a crazy person if he admitted that, until he realized this was a crazy world full of crazy technology that such a thing was only mildly out of the day to day ordinary, and not the impossible stuff of science fiction. That, and the whole not knowing about modern-day stuff earned him more crazy looks then just admitting to why he didn't know things.

"Used to do robotics...but that was a long time ago. Making up for lost time, y'know?" He held up the program again to indicate that's why he was here.

Solomon looked half embarrassed when Charlie seemed to catch on to the issues he was having with his tie, standing after only a moment of hesitation and handing him the offending strip of fabric. He was a little bit jealous when the man managed to tie it in a matter of minutes, smirking at him and feeling half inclined to throw a playful middle finger up at him, "showoff." He laughed, probably the first actual laugh since coming down stairs, and sat back in his seat, "thanks though...I'm a fucking genius but I still can't manage a damn tie..." He said this with an exasperated amusement, shaking his head as if the thought was completely ridiculous.

His eyes stretched considerably when he mentioned where he'd come from, about to confirm his time travel theory until the man corrected him with one that was just as intriguing, "really? I'd heard of the cryo programs, I did some back end security work for a couple of facilities. How long were you on ice?" He leaned forwards to examine the program, pulling out his pen to make a couple of check marks, "If you go to any, go to these two, especially if you're catching up. I've heard these guys speak before and they are brilliant!" He laughed and ran a hand through his hair, "I think mine's soon...Like thirty minutes soon..." He glanced up at him, "I dunno if it's necessarily up your alley, but if you came that'd be cool." Knowing at least one familiar face was in that crowd would make it a tiny bit less awful.

"My little brother could never get his damn fucking tie on right either. I had a lot of practice." He grinned, brushing off the comments about how quickly he got the other's tie taken care of. His brother who he remembered as a gangly kid a couple years younger than him who he shared a lot of hobbies with. His brother, who he'd recently found out had passed away a couple years ago at the ripe old age of 83, having lived a full life of adventures like he always wanted. He was glad he'd lived a good life, but it stung that he'd missed it all. He brushed away the mist from his eyes with a motion like scratching an itch, the bright smile barely flickering.

"Went into the box in 2008. They brought me outta it last year." He grimaced slightly. "So yeah, I missed a year or two there." He looked with interest at the panels marked, nodding. "Thanks...make sure I check those out."

"Was gonna check yours out, looked interesting. Recognized your name from that, actually. And hell, if it helps I'll sit in the front row and you can look at me and imagine I have a chicken on my head or whatever weird fucking shit they're telling people to do to make them less nervous about speeches these days." He laughed. Sol seemed to be relaxing at least a tiny bit, which was probably a good thing.

Solomon didn't grasp at first what his time in the box meant in relation to his comments about his brother, only laughing and nodding, "my dad's tried to show me more times than I can count." He waved a hand, "man's more fashion conscious than a runway model sometimes." He'd never been especially observant when it came to people, so the subtle brush didn't even register as anything other than what it was meant to look like, and he found himself playing with the end of his tie, careful not to fuck it up, but still nervously fidgeting.

He was caught off guard when Charlie told him the date that he was frozen, his eyes getting wide, "fucking christ man, that's a long ass time." It hit him then what that might mean as far as family and friends, and he managed a sincere look, "damn, sorry though, like you seem pretty fucking cool and put together...But still, sorry." He offered the best smile he could muster, then chuckled, putting a hand on his cheek, "hmmm, yeah that might work...I think just having a face I recognize might help...Maybe?" A pause, before he added, "I hope..."

Charlie chuckled along with him as Sol talked about his dad. "Eh sometimes some things just don't stick." He said in reference to how he could still never remember how to do a tie.

He leaned back in his seat, watching the other's reaction at the length of time that had passed. "Sixty-ish years. Somethin' like that." He agreed, then pulled himself up, looking mildly offended. "Hey. I *am* pretty fuckin' cool and put together." He retorted, but at the same time he was glad that the story wasn't putting Sol off too badly, he still always worried he'd encounter people who really thought he was just making shit up.

He smiled again and nodded. "Yeah, I'll come." he agreed, he was going to be there anyway, he was glad to offer even some slight help...he kinda liked this guy. Maybe he'd invite him for drinks later, after this was all said and done. He didn't have a lot of friends and it'd be nice to start making some more.

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He'd gotten a bit confident during his conversation with Charlie, a bit more at ease and assured that he would be completely fine during this panel, especially since there were other speakers alongside him. There was a part of him that felt like the person that he was before Gibraltar would have been able to breeze through this no problem, that person was confident and self assured, a little neurotic and high strung sometimes, but a far cry from the man he was now.

The man that had made an utter garbage fire of his panel, the man currently face down on the wooden counter top of the bar with three empty glasses around him, and no more cash on hand to drown himself in more. All he wanted to do right now was get utterly trashed and maybe forget about that horrifying mess that he'd made. It wasn't like the panel bombed, the other speakers carried his weight with all the grace and confidence that he'd had at one point, but Solomon was a trainwreck of anxiety and panic, and somehow his clothes had gotten completely knackard again in his fidgeting and nervous squirming.

But the thing that was killing him the most was that Charlie had been there, front row, just as he promised. Front row to Solomon making a complete basket case of himself in front of what he'd guessed was thousands. He was sure now that the young man whose company he'd actually enjoyed a bit was long gone, why would he wanna come talk to a headcase who couldn't even handle a stupid panel?

Charlie felt bad for the poor guy, he'd gone down in absolute flames at his panel and he'd had a literal front row seat to it. Sol had disappeared pretty much immediately after, not staying to further talk to anyone, and Charlie had rushed off to the next panel, one that Sol had recommended and in fact had been amazingly informative, but as he went about the rest of the day he still kept looking for the wired little redhead. He actually found himself a bit disappointed to not encounter him again, he'd wanted the chance to talk to him more.

It was later that evening after he'd wrapped up a couple more panels and had some dinner that he found himself in the bar, the place filling up already. He started to grin as he found the man he'd been looking for right up at the bar, although his smile faded at how dejected the other looked. He really had bombed that pretty badly, after all.

Charlie settled onto the barstool next to Sol. "You're right. That was pretty fucking terrible." He tilted his head, looking over at Sol. "Next one'll be better." he promised, before looking up to the bartender. "Four beers please!" he called out. That'd be enough to at least get them started.