Connections. Connections. What are connections? There's many definitions. But the only definition I care about is one between a machine and a service... Hello, my name is Elliot, Elliot Gray... Maybe? You can never be sure, even if I can be.. What's my gist, you ask? Nothing. I merely am nothing abnormal. I am average... But truthfully, I work at a technological security firm—Fallback Safety Corps—terrible name, but pays good. I excel at Python, decent at C++, great at JavaScript, almost decent at C#, my favorite language is Python. It's elegant, yet so simple. My most important language is C++, for obvious reasons.... Now, I do spend some time on Tor, but you don't know that, agree?

If you're wondering what I am doing, meeting a friend—Lucy—at this restaurant. Her boyfriend is there, he's a dumbass, but not much I can do about that.

"Hey, over here!" A woman loudly yells as Elliot walks through the door, a black old hoodie on, with the hood up. "Hey, Lucy... Hello, Jackson." He says, sitting down, sighing, looking around. Staring at random, chuckling nervously. He wipes his hand on himself, grimacing as Jackson pats his back. "Good to see you, bud."

"You just saw me at work.." Elliot says, putting up a fake smile. "God, this jackass." Elliot says to himself, continuing the smile.

"Yeah, but at work, you're like a different person.. Are you okay? I see major eye bags, staying up late? What for?"

"Nothing. Couldn't sleep." Elliot responds to Jackson, dropping his smile a bit, dryly laughing.

"Well, you should gets some more sleep, bro. There a special lady keeping you up or something?" Jackson says, with a sly smile, a tone of glee, and wishful thinking. "No.. Working on a project, digital library using Python. I get absorbed and forget track of time." He responds, lacking the same tone, and energy, still rubbing his hands under the table, this time adding slight, quiet taps of his feet.

He slowly takes his hoodie off, revealing long black hair down to his shoulders. He looks around, getting a clearer view of the restaurant. A retro-style restaurant, serving breakfast, dinner, and supper all at once. The smell, it fills his nose, bringing back memories of their teenage years, almost giving him a slight visible happiness.

"Alrighty, what will we have today?" A waiter says, pulling out a notepad and pen. Clicking it over and over slightly, catching Elliot's attention.

"I'll have a pancake, plain cheeseburger, scrambled eggs." Lucy speaks up, with a slight smile on her face.

"I'll have the same, but put everything on the cheeseburger." Jackson says, looking over to Elliot.

"Two pancakes, two scrambled eggs, one plain cheeseburger. Please, make sure the cheeseburger is plain. Make sure the eggs aren't too stretchy, aren't too salty." Elliot says, looking from the waiter to Jackson, then to Lucy.

"Drinks?"

Lucy speaks up first, "I'll take lemon water," then Elliot speaks up, saying "I'll take anything diet," Jackson then sighs, and looks at Elliot, then the waiter, saying "I'll have the same, anything diet. Feeling like a diet drink day."

"Alrighty, it'll be out in a few minutes." The waiter says, ripping the paper off, and walking away.

"So, Elliot, new bar opening up tonight. Me and Lucy is going, you should come, bro." Jackson says, wiping his face using his hand.

"I— I'm busy, I have a doctors appointment," Elliot responds, but before Jackson can say anything back, Lucy then cuts in, saying "Elliot, you always say that. You never hang out with us, you haven't since we were teenagers. Beyond work, we barely see each other. I know you don't like social situations, but it's important you get out and do something once, and a whole, you know that."

Then Jackson pipes in and says "Yeah, not socializing is harming you more than socializing would in 30 years."

Elliot stares at Jackson, not saying anything, just blinking. Elliot stops rubbing his own hands and stops tapping his feet. He responds by saying "I know...-" but he's cut off by the waiter coming to the table and putting down the plates.

Elliot looks at his plate, the wrong burger, there's a squirt of mustard. Elliot looks up, shyly speaking up and saying "Ma'am... I ordered a plain cheeseburger. This has mustard.."

The waiter responds by saying "Oh, I'm sorry, hun, let me take the plate back, and I can get you a plain cheeseburger." With a look of worry.

She quickly grabs the plate, rushing to the kitchen. After 12 minutes pass, seeming longer than 12 minutes to Elliot, she arrives again, and hands the plate to Elliot. She then says to Elliot, looking him in the eye, "Sorry for the wait, hun, hopefully everything else is fine. If you all need anything, let me know."

They start to eat, stuffing the food in their mouth. For the first time in days, Elliot has forgotten that others then his friends are there. He's finally at peace for a short while, but then he stops eating. The plate is now empty. He has finished his food.

"Sorry for cutting it short, but I forgot I have something to do." Elliot says in a rushed voice, pulling out $32 and laying it on the table. He stands up, putting his hood on slowly. "Good to see you, Lucy. See you both tomorrow." And he walks out the door, without waiting for a response, walking quickly down the street. He takes something out of his pocket, a candy like substance. An edible. He puts it in his mouth, chewing, looking around. "This is my last for the week. I can't over do it, I can't risk doing too much of it.." He thinks to himself, walking across the crosswalk. After a short walk, he makes it to his apartment. Walking up the stairs, unlocking the door, entering, and closing it. The smell of rotten wood fill his nose, the filth is everywhere, dirt on the bed. But he doesn't care, it's how he wants it, it's what he thinks is normal, it's what he thinks is comfortable. He is finally free from the public, he is finally home. He sighs a breath of release. "Stress... It's slowly creeping.." he says to himself out loud, sitting down, and turning on his computer.

"What's in store today, Tor?"