"Last Call"

Bartender places the steaming mugs in front of the two customers. As he does the door opens and a woman is blown in along with some ice and snow. She is bundled up tightly in several layers of coats. She takes them off and hangs them on the rack by the door. She is young, late twenties maybe early thirties. She has full-length, wavy, light brown hair and is pretty in a plain sort of way.

"Lo Sally." says the bartender. "How're the cats?"

"Oh I've moved past cats, Ben. It's monarch butterflies now. Maybe honey bees when spring comes around."

"Names not Ben, Sally." He says simply.

"You strike me as a Ben." Sally notices the two other customers. "Hi. I'm Sally. Regulars or drifters?" She asks them.

"Regulars I think." says the bartender answering for them. "Two or three times each in less than a bar week."

"Cool. So tell me bout yourselves." she says

Hairguy looked up at the arrival. "Not much to tell. I'm a college kid who comes in here to unwind for spell. I only found the place recently, so I don't even know if you could call me a regular, but...whatever."

He put his face close to his mug of tea and inhaled deeply. "Ahh... that's the stuff. So," he continued, looking back up at the arrival, "What's your story? Something about butterflies, maybe?"

Sally laughs. "Well the butterflies are part of an experiment im working on. I actually work for a college of sorts. I guess you'd call me a professor's aide, but i do some research of my own... Right now I'm trying to build a crisis engine. I know it's silly isn't it?"