15683/Smoak Tech Intern-view

Smoak Tech Intern-view
Date of Scene:	22 August 2023
Location:	The Coffee Bean
Synopsis:	Felicity interviews Gwen Stacy for a position at Smoak Tech, and it turns out they may have more in common than they realized!
Cast of Characters:	Felicity Smoak, Gwen Stacy

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Felicity Smoak has posed:
The air is filled with the aromatic blend of fresh coffee beans, cinnamon, and a hint of baked pastries, and the ambience is cozy, with well-worn wooden tables and a quiet buzz of conversations.

Felicity slips through the door in a sheath dress and pumps, her blonde hair tied back into a ponytail and a pair of rectangle-framed glasses perched on her nose. She adjust the strap of the slouchy purse that's tucked under her arm as she hesitates just inside, taking a brief survey of the occupants.

There are plenty of students, but at least it's not the morning rush. She and Gwen had picked a convenient interview time specifically to hit it at low traffic, so a few tables still remain open, and since Felicity had sent over a link to a bio and mission statement for Smoak Tech that included her picture, she's not particularly hard to spot.

Still, she steps up to the counter rather than selecting a table, offering a warm smile to the barista that greets her.

"Um, hi! Can I get a grande -- wait, no, that's the other place, isn't it? I mean a medium caramel latte, please."

He chuckles. "Sure thing. And your name?"

"Felicity."

Gwen Stacy has posed:
The Coffee Bean is -the- place to be for any student worth their salt in ESH. Like Gwen was once upon a time. And even in another universe. Was she a student in this one? Well, yes. But memories have a way of getting jumbled when magic is in the mix. What Gwen -does- know is that she just loves a good coffee and donut.

The kind of good coffee and donut that are currently residing at her table to the side. She got here early, cheating like a spider does by swinging past the New York traffic to get here without trouble. From there it was but a matter of changing to the black blouse with purple spots, the knee length skirt and high heels to give her more of a professional look. Slick glasses are on her nose and she is just about raising her hand to call Felicity's attention when she remembers it...

Still with the headphones on blasting some good old Garbage songs. She quickly takes them off, clears her throat and waves again.

"Ah, Ms Smoak?"

Felicity Smoak has posed:
That's never good. Of course, at this point in her life, the only time Felicity ever gets called Ms. Smoak is when she's in trouble for something. Or standing in line at the DMV. With neither of those being the case, she turns warily from exchanging payment (a tap of her phone) for coffee to find, with some noticeable amount of relief, that it's Gwen waving at her.

"Oh! One sec!"

She dumps the phone into her purse and sweeps up the coffee with a last smile at the barista, then makes her way over, the rhythmic click of her heels on the hard floor punctuating each deliberate step.

"You must be Gwen." Her lips, painted a bold shade of red, curl into a smile. "I love your outfit. That's not weird to say, right? I'm not trying to like.. make it awkward or anything right off the bat."

There's a beat as she manages an awkward smile, despite that, and extends her hand in greeting.

"You can just call me Felicity. I haven't really settled into the whole 'Ms. Smoak' thing." She even dips her voice a little to make it sound menacing. "Do you mind if I sit?"

Gwen Stacy has posed:
For all that Gwen is confident when in her Ghost Spider persona there's no escaping the nervousness of a job interview. Specially as it's technically her first. We don't count the way she was hired to work at Mrs. Wong's store. Or the internship at Oscorp considering her friendship to Harry.

It's also not a great time to /realize/ it's her first interview and to shift her weight from foot to foot. Why is it so hot in the coffee bean all of a sudden?

"Yes! That's me. Gwen. Gwen Stacy." Sure, make it more awkward Gwen. "I just meant to say yes." she extends her hand to exchange a shake with Felicity's, smile blooming back at the other woman before she finally exhales.

"Please do." She offers, "Hope you don't mind I already ordered. But I couldn't resist reminiscing the past." she admits, "I went to Empire State University." a beat, "Which I realize you probably already know from my curriculum..." she sits down after Felicity joins her table.

Felicity Smoak has posed:
"It's nice to meet you," Felicity says warmly before hanging her purse on the back of the chair... which nearly tips it over. She catches it, nearly tips her coffee over, catches /that/, and then just sets the bag on the floor with slightly widened eyes. "It's fine. I'm fine. Sorry."

Then she's slipping into that seat and crossing her legs, letting out a little huff of a relief at finally being situated and able to take a sip of her coffee.

Then Gwen's apologizing for ordering.

"Oh, no, you're good! I actually went to MIT." One hand comes up and she shakes her head insistently. "Which is totally not like a weird flex or anything.. ESU's a /great/ school. But I just mean that I haven't spent much time in New York until the last couple of months. My boyfriend's been in town for business, and technically he used to be my boss.. but I sort of resigned when we started dating."

She purses her lips.

"That's probably more than you needed to know. But, anyway, that's what prompted me to start Smoak Technologies. Which, is why we're here."

Another relieved sigh. And an awkward smile. Who /was/ more nervous about this, anyway?

"Anyway... tell me about you. What do you like? What gets you out of bed in the morning?" She holds up a finger, smiling. "Don't say an alarm clock."

Gwen Stacy has posed:
The whole tragedy that is close to unfolding before her eyes registers on her mind a couple of seconds before it actually starts to happen. The too-heavy bag. The tipping of the chair and the toppling coffee unless it's stopped. The blonde's fingers twitch and she's about to move when ...

Crisis averted. Felicity catches the coffee. So she sort of disguises her motions by running fingers through hair, smiling nervously. "Good reflexes there." she tells her with a praising look. And THEN she finally sits down. Oh yes, this is going -great-.

"People that go to MIT have the right to flex it anytime they want." She admits with a grin. Some of the brightest minds in the US came from there after all! "Though I already knew that. Not that I am a stalker. I just saw your bio." pause, "The public one."

The question did catch her off-guard. What got her out of bed in the morning? She couldn't say a desire to don her Ghost Spider suit and go out into the streets so her focus had to be on her Gwen side. "Learning." she finds herself saying, "I mean, I have been doing it maybe over half of my life so far but it's what I like doing..." she looks around the room briefly and then adds, "Some would say I am too curious for my own good but you know ..., I suppose I take from my father, he works at the NYPD.."

Felicity Smoak has posed:
"..just an experienced klutz," Felicity comments about her reflexes, smiling. "I've found the more you do it, the more you can start to predict the ways in which you're going to completely demolish any given space around you. Which helps. Sort of."

/The public one./

"Oh, right! That's sort of... out there." Felicity's eyes narrow behind those glasses and she affects a kind of mock relief. "And that's good, because if you'd read the private one you'd have a /lot/ more questions." Which is ironically true. And hopefully funny. But probably just awkward.

She smiles as she takes another sip of her latte, licking the excess foam off of her lips.

"Oh! Well, then, you'll have a sort of personal connection to this. When I was working at Queen Consolidated, I ended up doing more than I expected in terms of computer forensics..." Beat. "It's a.. long story. Anyway. Smoak Tech already has backing from Queen and a few other companies. I've got some AI-driven forensics software as an offering -- plus a biometric security system which I just sort of created for our penthouse, but I plan to sell -- and we're growing with a focus on both law enforcement and private markets. Trying to.. you know. Stop crimes. And catch criminals."

Breath.

"So. Having said all /that/..." She smiles. "Not to lead you into any specific answers, but.. when you're learning, what do you like to learn?"

Gwen Stacy has posed:
"Yes, practice makes perfect." Gwen says. And perhaps a sprinkle of spider powers helps as well. She takes another sip from her coffee, taking the interruption to gather her thoughts a bit more. She finally looks at her donut and takes a bite. Bit of a sugar-y rush to get those nerves down. Or something!

"I mean, I love a good secret." She says of private lives. She knows it considering she lives a dual life of her own, "But I have come to learn that if people have secrets it's for a very good reason. But then that curiosity comes into play and ...." she shrugs, trailing off for a few, listening instead.

And as she listens her eyes light up in interest, "My father would love any help they can get." she admits, "And I am sure many heroes around too.. If that's one of your focus."

As for what she likes to learn? She lets out a soft laugh, "Well, everything. But uh, on hindsight that's a bit of a lame answer so I will be more specific. I like learning things that will help others, there's a lot of it in genetics, developments that may cure what is incurable so far or make our lives better. And we are just now getting to the tip of the iceberg." a pause for her to take a breather before continuing.

"There's more of course, I have always had my way with electronics. As a hobby first but it sort of evolved to more after I uh ..." she can't really say she likes using it to catch criminals! " ..., figured all the good it could do too." now that was a lame, evasive answer!

Felicity Smoak has posed:
"Actually, one of the resources I first tapped when I decided to branch out and start my own company was Nadia Pym-van Dyne," Felicity explains. "And then she invited me to join GIRL.. if you've heard of it. She'd probably like to have someone with your skills on the team. I'll admit that I haven't really been to any of the meetings, yet. There's been a lot going on. But, I'm fully intending to."

She pauses, rolling her lips for a moment and lowering her voice and leaning in conspiratorially.

"That, and I'm sort of a contractor for SHIELD, now? /Not/ an agent -- let me be clear for any listening devices that happen to be spying on this conversation. Purely freelance. But, yeah. That's sort of the focus. Helping as many people as possible.. law enforcement, heroes, private citizens... everyone."

She sits back then, and smiles, taking another sip of her coffee. Evasive answers were an every day thing for her Felicity Smoak. Of course, that also meant that she picked up on evasiveness when it was dropped in her lap, but she didn't push.

Besides! If things worked out, there'd be plenty of 'getting to know you' time. Especially considering the company wasn't that large, yet.

"So, I guess the question is, what do /you/ want to accomplish? Do you think you'd enjoy working on some of the projects I've started, and can you think of anything else you want to do that might fit in? I'm not opposed to looking into ways to integrate genetics into some of our forensic tools..."

Of course, just as she gets to what is really the 'meat' of the conversation, her phone rings.

"I'm so sorry, Gwen. I need to take this..."

She pulls her phone out of her purse, pressing it to her ear.

"Hello?... What?.. No, that's not possible. I set up a multi-layered deep packet inspection... No, that's what I'm saying. The IPS is already configured to handle that... Look, I can get into the SIEM system from my phone, but I'm not going to get the traceroute data until I get back. Have you told Oliver?... I know it's the middle of the day. Wake him up... Fine. I'll wake him up. Geeze, he's not /that/ scary... Yes, says me. I was screaming at him a heck of a long time before I was..."

Finally, Felicity's eyes drift back to Gwen, and she goes quiet, smiling awkwardly.

"Hey, I'm sort of in a meeting. Let me let you go. I'll wrap up and call you back once I know something."

And finally she hangs up the phone, sighing.

"I'm so sorry. There's a... minor... emergency. Probably. You never really know until you get into it. Anyway, I really liked meeting you, and I hope we can do it again if it's something you think you'd be interested in. My treat, next time."

Gwen Stacy has posed:
When the GIRL topic is broached Gwen almost chokes on her coffee but she covers it neatly by stuffing some more donut in, cheeks full. So she can't really talk back for a bit which makes her able to just figure out what to say, "I have met Nadia actually.." no point denying it, it's not like they wouldn't meet up in GIRL, ".. and she invited me to GIRL too." she admits, "Something about a unique blend of genetics and tech that I could bring to the team and ...." she doesn't really finish it with all the spider talk. But there's more after that 'and'!

"I haven't gone to many meetings either but I am part of them." She wipes her hands and lips on a napkin and relaxes some more. SHIELD adjacent? Part of GIRL? That's a lot more than Gwen expected and their interests seem to match a lot more than she thought they would too, "Well, the projects you mentioned to help law enforcement would be something I would--" she pauses when the phone rings, smiling..

She takes out her own phone to check while Felicity takes the call. And sees all the messages from Peter! Baby blue eyes go wide.

Oh crap!

She springs up to her feet as well, that same type of awkward smile on her lips, "I sure would like meeting up again. Let's make it happen soon. Don't worry about the bill, I already talked to Nick." that's the bartender (coffeetender?), "I should go too. But first, just need a ..." and she is already edging away, bringing her backpack with her, the spider suit inside it "... small time at the bathroom."

And then she is making her way over to said bathroom. Spider-Man needed help, and that was a job for Ghost Spider.