Pippin Rogers: What was a girl like Pippin doing on Columbia Campus after dark? Hadn't she read the school newsletters? It was dangerous for anyone to be strutting along a college path - let alone a small, young looking girl, arms loaded with books. Worse still, Pip's got that ... look .. about her. The one that says "Hey world, here I am! Happen to ME!" Approachable, for good or bad. The blue haired dynamo had last minute "oh shit oh shit" research to do, and several books to read before weeks end. Hence the armful of anthologies wobbling back and forth as she weaves in and out of pools of light from the dim path-lights. A fat novel dives off the top of the leaning tower of literature, and bounces down the path, responded to sharply.

"Augh. Mother of fuck."

Juliana Bowen: Some might call it serendipity, a lucky accident that two girls that have that similar look to them would end up at in the same vicinity. Not the blue hair--Juliana's look is distinctly bookwormish without any fun splashes of color. But the rest fits. She isn't loaded with books in her arms, but in her backpack. Others might call it a funny coincidence that they would meet on such a path on such a night.

Juliana would probably call it fate. But enough of that for now. The book bounces along the path and lands at her feet, and she looks down at it before bending down to pick it up. Her backpack strap is settled on her shoulder and she walks over to Pippen, smiling a little and handing the book back. "Here...yours?"

Pippin Rogers: "Oh! heh! yeah. Unless someone's keeping their Poe in the bushes around here. "

Pip reaches for the book, and in doing so nearly drops all the others as her load bearing arm buckles and droops towards the grass. Only a hasty snatch and hug maneuver saves her from disaster, the young co-ed smirking sheepish.

"Thanks. Who says all New Yorkers are Unfriendly, right?"

Juliana Bowen: She moves instinctively when it looks like Pippin's about to lose the rest of the load, but relaxes after it's clear that she's got it. She gives a little smile.

"Naah, not all of us. Just about 97 percent." She makes to hold out her hand and thinks better of it lest the books go flying again, and she just nods in place of a handshake.

"I'm Juliana."

Pippin Rogers: "Hey. I"m Pippin. No. I'm not named after a hobbit, and no, my father isn't Charlemagne. Nice to meet you Juliana. I'd shake your hand, but - uh-"

A helpless shrug and a flash of blue eyes towards the books straining her skinny arms.

"You got a night class or something?"

Juliana Bowen: She waves off the apology. "I understand. Nice to meet you Pippin. For the record, I wasn't going to ask either of those, though I'm impressed that the flatliners around here have read enough to think about Charlemagne."

She doesn't quite grin...she's not that at ease. There's a bit of that insecurity that comes from the bookish types. But she does smile with a bit of humor. In response to Pippin's second question, she nods.

"Yeah. I have to do night stuff so I can graduate on a quicker schedule. That and Professor Langmire's Con-Law only has two timeslots, and the afternoon one clashed with my Civil Liberties class."

Pippin Rogers: "Oi, Lawyer to be? You're slumming it here with a Fine Arts flunkie... I - gah! fuck this noise."

It was inevitable. Why she had thought she could schlep all these books to her bus stop was a mystery, when she couldn't even open a pickle jar herself. The books are gracelessly deposited in the grass, Pippin slumping cross-legged beside them. Having a chat, it would seem.

"Don't suppose you have a car I might bum a ride in, Do you? I've a subway coupon and $5 in foodstamps to make it worth your while.. enh ennnnh?"

Juliana Bowen: She winces when the books slip through Pippin's grasp to the ground and moves to help her pick them up.

"Here, let me help with those...I don't have a car, but I'm getting a cab anyway, you can share it."

Pippin Rogers: "That. Would be. Amazing."

Asserts the decidedly not bookwormish girl, ass soaked with dew-wet grass, jeans splotchy. Her books are gathered quickly, most of them on occult matters, a few poetry and literature anthologies weighing down the pile. She gets to her feet, books hugged to her shirt - which -when visible- had read "but what about all the GOOD things Hitler did?".

"I really appreciate it, man. I sorta underestimated just how long a walk it was across campus, carrying these things in my feeb-arms. You sure you don't mind?"

Juliana Bowen: Her attention is drawn to the occult books briefly, head cocking to the side. Fate is a funny thing. She knows this as well as most.

"I promise. Long as you're not, like, headed to Syracuse or something like that." She smiles. "It's totally cool. Where are we heading?"

Pippin Rogers: A short, easy burst of laughter, Pip shaking her mop of unnatural colored hair. Bright eyes on Juliana. Fate was a funny thing. It was possible these two had passed one another in the library a dozen times before, never the wiser. Hell, Pip was none the wiser now. A shrug as she inquires -

"Hells Kitchen too far?"

Juliana Bowen: "No, that's fine." She runs a hand through her hair, adjusts her glasses to fit better. "I need an excuse to go to Tribeca and visit some friends so they'll quit bugging me to do so, so this works just fine. C'mon."

And with a jerk of her head, she moves to lead Pippin to the street curb and hail them a cab.

Pippin Rogers: "Fantastic."

Pip follows, hauling her books along with her and tumbling into the back of the cab in a flutter of papers. A moment's rearranging and getting settled, before the chatty thrall is making conversation again.

"You're a lifesaver. So, is it law you're going into? I just sorta guessed, given your class line up."

Juliana Bowen: "You guessed right." She gives a little smile as she settles in and the cabbie takes off, taking them through streets that even at this time of night are crowded and hectic. "Just first-year pre-law right now, but that's the hope."

She looks the other girl over a moment, inquisitive eyes taking the other in. "And you're Fine Arts, you said? And what, a minor in pagan studies?" She gives a faint smile at the gentle joke, looking down to her book collection.

Pippin Rogers: "Oh, no. HAH. I'm in lit studies. Creative writing. The mishmash of the undecided. Taking alot of courses on Myth and stuff, I'm into the whole religion thing."

Juliana Bowen: "Oh yeah?" She gives an odd smile at that. "That's cool. We should hang out some. I find religion pretty interesting myself."

Pippin Rogers: "That'd be pretty cool. My room-mate hates it. Here, you got a phone? I'll give you my digits, maybe we can go for coffee or something."

And so numbers are exchanged, and plans made to hang out another day and talk religion. Hell knows Pip needed someone to bounce her new ideas off of.