Good Morning Wednesday
{{ | date=04/16/2018 | time=08:00 EDT | summary=Alma and Wednesday finally meet | cast=
| place_name=Trinity Cemetery | place_desc=Alma has been carrying a penny for a few days now. Note helped her pick it out from all the loose change in all the city streets and old vending machines and gutters. Come on, Note. Why doesn't the couch cushion change count? And not this one?
| log=Alma is resting with her back to a weathered gravestone. Tufts of long grass surround her, but she's patted down a spot. Her bike is splattered with mud and is lying down on the ground beside her. She's got a rain hoodie over her jacket and is staring at her hand. From her shoulder, Note is playing with her hair.
Wednesday tromps into the yard through a tear in the fence, focused on birds overheard, searching for where they land. His wide-brimmed grey hat is up, and the pockets of his long grey coat rattle a little as he passes through the fence. After a few moments, he seems to notice the young woman propped up on a headstone, and the crow on her shoulder - he tilts his head as if questioning.
Note grabs Alma's earlobe to get her attention, then <<caws>> a quiet hello. Alma looks up. Seeing the tall bearded figure in the grey hat, she smiles as though recalling something. She rubs her head against Note, and offers up her palm to the bird. Note flies over to Wednesday, carrying something from Alma's palm. She lands on his hat. As she crawls out to the edge of the brim, she flaps her wings for balance.
Wednesday stops, chuckling - a low, warm thing - and starts to dig through a lower pocket while lifting his left hand to his hat to offer a perch to the bird. After a short search, he pulls out a bit of twisted, thick copper wire, clean and shiny. "Looking for this, again, Note?" he says softly, "I'm sorry, I've been forgetting."
Note hops on Wednesday hand and drops a 1974 penny on to Wednesday's palm. She ruffles her feathers and does a little crow shake and takes the copper wire and starts playing with it, stepping on it sometimes to switch position on Wednesday's hand, and pecking the metal a little bit, then picking it back up again.
Seeing this exchange, Alma smiles more broadly at Wednesdays. "Hey". He may have noticed her duffle before, but it's more obvious now as she opens it up and pushes it out in Wednesday's direction. There's a baggie of something, a thermos, and a banana in it. She waves her hand at it and looks at him and then the food.
The big man looks up to Alma again at her greeting, seems to consider her for a second or two before stepping forward. The hand Note is perched on dances a little with each step - just inches, this way and that. "Alma?" Wednesday asks the woman as he approaches. He watches his step on the way over, glancing back up to watch Alma, his smile at recognizing Note melting to a ghost of a grin.
Alma nods. "Yes. You must be Wednesday. Note told me." She grins. "breakfast?" she waves her hand towards the bag. Having invited Wednesday to breakfast, she pulls a notebook out of a baggy coat pocket and starts to sketch.
Note is having fun, meanwhile, and hops from Wednesday's hand over to Alma's lap and drops the copper coil on her notebook. Alma laughs. "You!" then tilts her head towards Wednesday as if to say, "get a load of that guy". Note pulls at one of Alma's twigs then flies back to Wednesday's hand and looks at his beard.
Wednesday sits across the duffle from Alma, pulling his coat out from under him, as he responds, "That's me. Sure, thanks." and looks more closely at the baggie portion of the breakfast on offer. His grin has deepened again, and he holds his hand steadier now that the crow is considering his beard. He follows Alma's gaze as she sketches, but doesn't look at the notebook, yet.
The duffle is filled with books, binoculars, and baggies of small rocks and marbles and knicknacks. A paper food baggie contains a couple of donut holes, but there's also a ziplocked bag of trailmix.
Note is concentrating. This beard looks complicated and all she has is one stick so far. She loops her stick in to his beard and takes a few steps back to see how stylish it is.
Wednesday opens the paper bag and grabs a donut hole, taking smallish bites - nibbles, really. He stretches his shoulders while chewing, his chest making a popping sound, but he keeps his head steady, allowing Note to decorate as she sees fit. His eye glances back and forth from Alma - watching her sketch - to the rest of the graveyard. "So, you know Kai?" he asks.
Note is satisfied with her progress, and takes a break. Fluttering down to the bag she peeks her head in to have some of the remaining donut hole. Alma ch ch ch's at her, says, "not too much" with a shake of her head. Note ruffles and finishes that snack and then proceeds to open the ziplock bag. She slides her beak around, and grips with her claws. Every now and then she looks up at the two to make sure they are impressed. Once she's done she grabs a raisin and then jumps back to Wednesday to inspect his beard again. "Yep," says Alma, "and you?".
Wednesday nods, finishing the donut hole and watching the crow. "Mm hmm. She's how I know your name." He continues to alternate between watching other nearby birds and Note for a while. "Note's the cleverest crow I've met in Detroit so far." he says, grinning at the bird - this is obviously for her benefit, but also an invitation for more info.
"She's a close friend," Alma admits. "for over a year now." She tilts her notebook to Wednesday "here's a map." It's a battered field notebook. She goes through a lot of these, and this one is on it's way out. The page is covered in a lose outline of Detroit and the surrounding area with hotspots labeled in letters and numbers and something that looks like contour lines on a topographical map.
Wednesday wipes his hands on the long grass next to him and picks up the notebook for a better look. With a surprised "Hmm!" he studies it more closely, trying to decipher the notes around it. After a couple of minutes, he again fumbles through his pockets - this time, producing a older smart phone. He gestures with it, back - and camera lens - facing Alma. "Could I?"
Alma starts bouncing up and down "oh! oh oh oh!" and nods very quickly for a "yes!". and then her player gives up. there is no way Alma is not going to tell Wednesday about the Open Science Framework webpage she has set up for the grant. "You can see all of our stuff! online! Check out our oh ess eff page! I post images and everything!" Then she frowns a little bit "I don't know if there's a super real thing osf site for people because I'm not posting that" she is pointing to the page "on our grant page." She explains, "I'm trying to understand the edges and boundaries of so-called magical habitats and their intersections with the world as we know it. right? have you seen this?"
Wednesday blinks - or winks, maybe - at Alma's sudden excitement, and snaps a picture of the map she indicated wouldn't be available on the web. "A map like this could be really helpful. I can plan..." he stops, looking directly at Alma. "I talk to them, ask them to tell me what they see. With this," he gestures at the notebook, "and the site, I can plan better, get better, um, coverage. Meeting you was important - carved into the Urd - thank you again."
Alma feels really honored. Maybe this was fated, maybe Note pushed her along. She nods solemnly. "here," she pulls out her phone and taps it until it shows her contact card to him so that he can see her number. "I have so much information! I will collect it for you!" She stuffs her phone back in her pocket, and then gathers her things to leave. bag carefully bungeed to her bike, she walks to the edge of the graveyard, bows, and takes off. Note flies around Wednesday a few times and then speeds off to watch over Alma.
}}
