ArchivedLogs:Peachy

Peachy
Dramatis Personae Rae, Rasa, Shane, Violet
In Absentia	2014-06-14 '
Location <NYC> Evolve Cafe - Lower East Side
Spacious and open, this coffeeshop has a somewhat industrial feel to it, grey resin floors below and exposed-beam ceilings that have been painted up in a dancing swirl of abstract whorls and starbursts, a riot of colour splashed against a white background. The walls alternate between brick and cheerfully lime-green painted wood that extends to the paneling beneath the brushed-steel countertops. There's an abundance of light, though rather than windows (which are scarce) it comes from plentiful hanging steel lamps. The walls here are home to plentiful artwork available for sale; though the roster of prints and paintings and drawings and photographs changes on a regular basis it has one thing in common -- all the artists displayed are mutants. The seating spaced around the room is spread out enough to keep the room from feeling cluttered. Black chairs, square black tables that mostly seat two or four though they're frequently pushed around and rearranged to make space for larger parties. In the back corner of the room is more comfortable seating, a few large black-corduroy sofas and armchairs with wide tables between them. There's a shelf of card and board games back here available for customers to sit and play. The chalkboard menus hanging behind the counter change frequently, always home to a wide variety of drinks (with an impressive roster of fair-trade coffees and teas largely featured) though their sandwiches and wraps and soups and snacks of the day change often. An often-changing variety of baked goods sit behind the display case at the counter halfway back in the room, and the opposite side of the counter holds a small selection of homemade ice creams. At night, the thump of music can be heard from above, coming from the adjoining nightclub of the same name that sits over the coffeehouse, accessible through a stairway in the back of the cafe. Saturday evening on a pretty day? Any coffee shop would be crowded, never mind a coffee shop underneath a nightclub. Patrons have been steadily rolling in and out, keeping the barista on her toes and rapidly emptying out the display cabinet of nibblies and assorted tasties. The selection has not become so sparse that it's turned off those looking for a quick fix of caffeine and sugar, though. Thus, the young woman at the register now, dutifully counting out an assortment of change and small bills from an old-fashion clasp-snap coin purse in exchange for a large coffee and a muffin baked this morning. Nothing unusual about her, not in a place like this; surely someone else around here has to have a tail and fur. Or maybe just a tail? Maybe just fur? Take your pick, she can't be the freakiest freak in residence; Violet is far too delicate and mannerly in gathering up her purchases to head to the cream'n'sugar'n'napkins station to be accounted as much of a bother. Provided, of course, that she doesn't-- in her distraction-- place the muffin too close to the edge of the counter, allowing it fall and go bouncing off through the forest of table legs, chairs and feet. Rae sits at a table, an open book and a cup of coffee sitting on the table in front of her. She doesn't seem to mind the crowd, or seem to notice. She picks up the cup of coffee, takes a sip and sets it back down before she flips the page of her book. Every-so-often, she does pull her attention away from the book to look around the room to survey the changes around her before she, eventually, returns her attention back to the book to begin the cycle over again. Rasa has a tail! Not only does ze have a tail, but ze seems to be an interesting mixture of blue and purple scales with filaments of hair peeking out from underneath. This is however only evident after ze slips out of the burqa ze wears through the door. Ze quickly folds up the lilac purple cloth and folds it over hir arm, looking around for a moment or two for familiar faces before heading for the barista counter. Ze raises a hand to wave, but pauses when ze sees someone drop a muffin, cringing at the lost pastry. Ze kneels down to grab it, glancing back at Violet before noticing another Xavierite in the crowd. So much for catlike reflexes. Violet is closely tracking the muffin's bounce trajectory, but beneath the fine dark-and-bright dappled fur that covers her face, her expression has already shifted to resigned. Someone's going to step on it. It's going to get squashed. There will be no muffin for her. Ears have already flattened against her skull in preparation to mourn...only to perk alertly when the runaway is rescued from the floor. Eschewing cream'n'sugar, she takes her coffee back from the counter and eels around Rae's table towards Rasa. "Thanks," she says, only a little sibilant. "Thought for sure it was a goner." Why yes, that does mean she still intends to eat it. Rae glances up at the sound of the commotion of the rescue mission. She raises an eyebrow slightly before she spots Rasa, offering a slight wave and a soft smile before her attention turns to Violet as she spots the one with the fur. She takes a moment to look her over before she offers a smile to her as well should she be spotted. "Oh, Hey, not entirely gone." Rasa focuses on Violet for the moment, holding the muffin by the wrapper as much as possible as ze hands it back to her. Ze gives a little smile with crumbled brows as ze moves back into a standing position. "Here you go!" Once the muffin has been claimed, ze makes a little more of a greeting. "Hey, Rae. Nice to see you out and about." "Thanks," Violet says again. This time there's far more s to the word, painted as her tone is with a certain relish. Likely already anticipating the tastiness, she is. Rasa may hold the muffin as ze likes, for Vi is happy to pluck it whole from hir palm, seizing the cap and lifting. All the easier to upend it and dust off the wrapper to clear the dirt of its unfortunate tumble from the (protected) bottom. behind her, her tail lashes once, twice, and then settles. "Strawberry crumble," she explains with a glance divided between Rasa and Rae. 'Strawberry' comes from her lips with a Paula Dean twang. Then she and her coffee turn to take a seat at the adjacent table. Rae smiles as Rasa comes out to the table, closing her book. "Hey. Yeah. Enjoying my vacation. Going to be driving around town all day." She offers with a soft chuckle. "What brings you out this afternoon?" She asks before she brings her coffee to her lips and takes another sip, setting it down on the table in front of her. "Other than the draw of caffeine." "Mmm. Hey, I might get one of those myself." Rasa casts a glance toward the barista counter, eyeing the menus over head and considering. "You think chocolate would go well with the muffin, or should I stick with an almond coffee." Ze narrows amber colored eyes before shifting back to Rae when she speaks. "Well, caffeine pretty much covers it, plus most of my friends live near by now. The dorms are pretty lonely when everyone has basically moved out for the summer." Ze licks hir lips and gives them both a smile, slipping toward the order station. "I'll be right back." Violet does not bother to disguise the fact that she's listening in. One ear has turned towards the pair as they exchange pleasantries. But visually she is focused on the muffin. Its cap is inspected for dirt or fuzz, a few errant bits plucked off by claw-tipped fingers. "Chocolate goes well with everything," she opines. "And everyone." Cat wisdom. And then she chomps down on the muffin, the chewing that follows coinciding with the flick flick back and forth of her tail-tip. For Rae, there is eventually a thoughtful study with orange eyes before she asks, after swallowing, "You drive?" Rae smiles and nods to Rasa. "That's always a good thing." She says before she looks to Violet, nodding. "Yeah. I drive. Have my own car and everything." She offers with a slight laugh before she glances to her watch. "Sorry to chat and dash, but I gotta go. I've got an appointment to keep. Going skydiving." She says with excitement before she gathers her things. "Nice meeting you." She says to Violet before she looks to Rasa. "And nice seeing you again." She offers the two a wave before she makes her way out of the cafe. Rasa heads toward the register to order hirself a muffin and a mocha, paying with the slim wallet ze keeps in the back pocket of hir jean shorts. Ze smooths hir the baggy orange tee shirt over hir waist line once more and hovers halfway between the counter and Violet's and Rae's tables, as an attempt to keep conversations going, politely. "Skydivin at night? Really? Huh. That's got to be pretty neat, I guess, if you're able to see Manhattan from the sky." Hir lips skew thoughtfully to one side and is able to retrieve hir muffin first, still waiting on her coffee. "Skydiving." It comes out sounding like "skahdahvin'", of course. The extra fuzz decorating Violet's eyebrows make it that much more visible when she lifts them. Her eyes track Rae's departure before snapping back to the muffin. By now, those clever fingertips have peeled free a good portion of wrapper, making it easy now to take a larger bite. Crumbs are licked up with a tongue made shockingly pink against black lips. "Maybe she can see in the dark." That must be a joke because the catgirl makes a burbly sound afterward. Whoosh! That's the sound of a drive-by hug, maybe. Shane is dressed in his usual manner -- neatly tailored red vest, grey short sleeved button-down, slacks, polished Oxfords, and he's apparently just entered through the back door because he's currently ushering a tall Japanese teen out of the kitchen along with him as he slips out from around the counter and sneaks a quick arm around Rasa's waist. Daiki is already slipping off to claim a seat somewhere at the back of the room, though Shane is moving /back/ behind the counter after this hug to take stock of the remaining items in the display case. The diminutive teenager wouldn't fit in many places -- blue skin, gills at the sides of his neck, freakishly large pitch-black eyes -- but here nobody does a double take. "Huh what's that, Georgia?" he wonders, black eyes flicking to Violet with a (/very/ sharptoothed) grin. "Manhattan's probably freaking awesome from up high at night." Rasa laughs a little and shrugs. "I... am not sure that is in her skill set, but I'll have to ask her some time." Ze is distracted by the other teen and gives out a small meep when ze is hugged. Ze manages a small squeeze back before Shane disappears behind the counter again. "Hey. How's the business today?" Ze is then given hir chocolaty coffee and ze takes that and the muffin back over to Rae's old table, pulling out the chair nearest Violet and settling into it. Ze blinks between the two and shakes hir head a little. "He's a fan of people from Georgia. Think the few that have filtered their way into his life have left a pretty nice precedent." There are certain smells certain to catch Violet's attention. Anything that has a touch of saltwater tang about it? She's there. Muffin-munching goes on hold when Shane makes an appearance. The catgirl stops, lifts her chin and sniffs at the air before orange eyes fix unerringly on the sharkboy. It does help that he's addressed her, sure. But that smell...sniff sniff. Fish? Her fingertips roll against the muffin, sinking claws deeper into the spongey goodness. "That it is. Up high." A few errant crumbs ruin her own answering sharp-toothed smile. "We're some of us okay, I suppose. Vi." That last is an introduction, coupled with a nod to Rasa and then a resumption of her study of Shane. "Violet. From up Savannah way." "My Pa's from Georgia," Shane explains cheerfully with regards to his accent-recognition, poking his head back out from behind the display case. "Like /way/ the hell from Georgia though he's up, uh --" His webbed hand gestures vaguely ceiling-wards. "North-er. Like in the ass-end of Appalachia. Shane," he adds in introduction. There's definitely a touch of fishy to his scent, mingled in with the various smells he's accumulated throughout the day; minty soap and the sawdustiness of a hardware store and a /whole/ lot of coffee though in here that last just kind of gets lost. "I don't know you tell me. I'm only just getting back I've been gone since afternoon. Was alright this morning though. I guess I'm not going bankrupt /just/ yet? Who's skydiving at night, anyway? Are /you/ guys cuz I'm so there. I mean I don't know how to skydive will that be a problem?" "The gym teacher, Rae. I kind of assume skydiving's all falling and pulling the cord and hitting the ground okay - unless you're talking about using a board or something. Tricks, maybe." Rasa supplies helpfully as ze gets settled. "I'm Rasa. Not from Georgia, but D.C.'s kind of south, so I guess I have that in my background." Her accent does have a touch of something second generation American, but it's subtle. Ze peels the wrapper off of hir muffin with slightly less dexterity - but skillful all the same. It's hard to be a cat at grace when they're actually being graceful. Ze takes a small hunk in hir fingers and pops it in hir mouth, the morsel going directly for hir cheek instead of hir mouth, for speaking purposes. "Seems nice and busy, so long as people are order while socializing, you're probably doing fine." "Never done it," Violet admits, "but bet I'd be good at it." That's a simple statement of fact, and accompanied with her licking the last of the muffin off of the wrapper. "Death from above and all that. Business?" She catches up to that thread of the conversation finally. Her eyes dance back and forth between the two while she peels the lid off of her cardboard travel cup. The coffee inside is still hot enough to steam, which she scatters with a puff of breath. "You the owner?" she asks of Shane. Just in case the answer is affirmative, she adds, "Nice place. Real cosy." "I'd probably get the hitting the ground part down good at least. Hard to miss, really." Shane scoots back around the counter, bobbing his head in a quick nod. "Yeah." The reopened coffeeshop is new enough that this affirmative answer still comes with a note of excited pride in the teenager's grin. "Yeah, a friend and I own this place. Just opened it back up this month. And thanks. You been in town long?" He slips around back to stand behind Rasa's chair, sneaking a hand over hir shoulder to steal a tiny pinch of muffin. "/You're/ ordering while socializing," he notes, pleased. "So I should just hope everyone follows suit." "I'm trying to do my part." Rasa agrees, nodding affirmatively. Ze takes a small sip from the ceramic mug that ze received, the liquid still too hot to really drink from. "You know, your dad and Dusk thought I should work here, you know, to have a reason to come in from school and an opportunity to earn some cash to do so. Not... sure if I want to. Kind of have full summer load. How... infrequent - I mean, would a very part time person be of interest to you?" Ze glances over at Vi again. "I... would venture a guess about the landing, but I don't want to stereotype based on your physical appearance." Violet lets her attention wander around as if she were seeking out details to supplement the cosy compliment. Just in case she's questioned on that point. When questions do not materialize, or none focused on the coffee shop, she returns focus to the other two. "Li'l bit," for being in town long. Long enough, apparently, to be at ease in her surroundings. A sip of coffee follows, a fresh burble of amusement escaping from her lips over the cup's edge. "Haven't tested it from that high yet. Figure I'd still need the parachute. Hey, you got any more of those muffins back behind the counter?" Aaand here it comes. Bald-faced and shameless. "Y'know. Father's Day tomorrow and all. Me and your dad both being peachy." Shane braces his palms against the back of Rasa's chair, weight leaning down onto his arms. "Yeeeah, s'probably not a thing you want to /test/ in, uh, in the field without being pretty-damn-sure of." The hairless ridge of his brow quirks up at Rasa's question. "Not sure if you want to? Nah. Do school if you're doing school." His brows remain up at Violet's questioning, teeth baring in a crooked smile. "Tch. /You/ don't look like nobody's father. This time of night though, stuff disappears from he case it's usually gone for good. There'll be /fresh/-baked ones in the morning. If you're lucky maybe even peach." "Yeah, I'd probably, definitely rely on a parachute, given that tens of thousands of feet is going to be hard on anyone's skeleton - even those as durable as you twos... I'm guessing." Rasa takes another bite of her muffing and nods to Shane's recommendation. When hir mouth is clear, "Yeah, I don't know how B does it, other than being incredibly smart." Ze sighs and gnaws on hir lip. Hir brow arches as ze takes a sip of hir mocha and swallows the not quite scalding liquid. "Did... you want something else to eat?" ze asks Vi, hir exterior adding shades of pink. Violet does not take the no badly. There's another flash of pointed teeth, bared in a grin, before she dips her head to resume coffee sipping. Translation: no hard feelings, was worth a shot. "You bring in a decent peach cobbler, I might could be talked back. 'Specially with that real whipped cream, not the canned stuff. That one's true. Cream. Not so much falling thousands of feet," she says with a glance at Rasa, harkening back to talk of stereotypes. What follows is meant to be a dramatic pause over the rim of her cup, attention wandering from Rasa's new pink tinge to replace the blue and purple. "Shark, cat...chameleon? I could eat." "Oh, B built hirself a time-turner two semesters back is how. Pretty much crams three days into every one." Shane's claws rattle against the back of Rasa's chair in quick drumming, and then he gives Violet a quick nod. "Peach cobbler? Mmm. I can't make any promises about tomorrow but you come back," he pauses for a moment to consider, "say, Tuesday, and I'll make sure we have in a delicious one. I think Rasa's more like a mimic octopus than a chameleon, those things are fucking /badass/. Though I do know a chameleon. He's /pretty/ much the cutest of all lizards." He glances off towards the coffeeshop door as it opens, hand lifting to wave to another entering teenager. "Gotta dash. -- The chili today is great though." He gives Rasa's shoulder a quick squeeze, flashes Violet another grin, and slips off through the chairs to meet his arriving company. "See you, Shane. Say hi to Dai for me." Rasa squeezes Shane's hand before he pulls away and waves if ze misses - which is likely better for hir hands. Ze then takes another sip and moves hir attention back to Violet. "So, how about that chili? Care for a cup? I'll buy." Other connections are being made, lines drawn between dots. A thoughtful furrow appears briefly, rumpling the fur over Violet's brow. Beyond a low, "Hmnh," she makes no comment on which dots have been connected though. Fingers are flicked to help see Shane out before she perks, ears forward, at talk of a /hot/ meal. "Can't rightly say no to that. Thank you. Rasa, yeah? Thanks, Rasa. Next cup'll be on me, next time around."