ArchivedLogs:Tea Time

Tea Time
Dramatis Personae Tabby, Marinov
In Absentia	2016-02-07 Two mutants meet and introduce each other over cider and tea.
Location <NYC> Garment District
It's in the early evening hours in Manhattan. Thankfully, it is a rather chilly weekend, so most people have opted to stay indoors. While the streets aren't necessarily empty, there only seems to be a few people on the local streets right now. One of these people who are out right now is Tabitha. She's wearing a heavy dark wool coat to prevent the chill from getting to her, and is also wearing a set of earbuds, indicating that she may be listening to music right now. The young woman is carrying a few bags, and seems to be moving hastily along - either because she's in a hurry to get somewhere, or she's trying to stay warm. Marinov is navigating the Garment district while wearing heavy winter clothing, including a ushanka, a red scarf and a black pea coat. Only their eyes are visible in the outfit, though if one were to look closely one would notice their unusual slitted eyes and a bit of fur across the bridge of their nose. The young teen is peering in through the windows of the many stores of the garment district, seeming interested in all the latest styles but not going in. The teen lacks a fair bit of peripheral vision in this outfit, so when they turn directly into Tabby's path, the teen is shocked to see someone so close there, exclaiming something obscene and stumbling back in shock to avoid causing a collision. Too busy with her music, Tabby isn't paying attention to the path in front of her. She looks down to fiddle with the music on her phone, and switch to another song. Just as she finishes, she looks up to see a person standing in front of her. As Marinov stumbles back, Tabby immediately tries to do the same to prevent a collision with the teen. She doesn't seem to hear his exclaimed obscenity. As she steps away, Tabby almost trips off of the curb of the street. This causes her to stop as she catches herself, uninjured. An accusatory look is shot in the teen's direction as Tabby removes her earbuds so she can now hear what is going on around her. "Woah, really, kid?!" Her tone suggests surprise to the situation more than any real anger. "You could have killed someone." Marinov crouches down just a bit at being yelled at, "Shit! Oh shit!" The teen eyes flick around to make sure there's nobody around, "I'm so- I apologize, I didn't see you! Are you okay? Fuuuuuuuuck me." For a few moments Marinov just seems to be in a bit of a panicked state, trying not to look directly in Tabby's direction. While Tabby has a knack for being rough, she wasn't expecting the reaction that she sees. The young woman stands there, silently watching Marinov's reaction. Her head tilts ever so slightly to the side as a brow raises, curiously, for a moment. "Hey... Hey, it's okay." Then, she smirks and shrugs a shoulder, dismissively. "Yeah, I'm fine." Quickly, she glances down at the sidewalk beneath her feet and she scuffs at the cement with her boot. "If there was any residual ice, that'd be different." Tabby notes how the teen isn't making direct eye contact with her, which is causing her to watch him curiously even more. "You alright?" She finally asks him with a tone of concern. Marinov seems to be calming a little bit at being told that it's okay, and the teen meets Tabby's eyes for a just a very brief moment with their wide, slitted yellow-orange eyes. The youth's eyes turn towards again and they cross their arms tightly around their stomach. "Sorry. Fuck. I am usually better at paying attention. I should've he- seen you coming. I'm fine. I guess my head was just in the clouds or something like that." As Marinov's eyes meet Tabitha's, her gaze focuses intently on the person in front of her. With bags still in hand, she motions to stand closer to the teen, but still far enough to not invade any personal space. "And if I didn't have my mind on other things, or been payin' attention to my phone, I would've seen you coming. So, how about we call it for what it is? We both suck at paying attention." She smirks. Lowly, she then adds, "Cool contacts, by the way." She doesn't seem to mention the fur at all, or if she's noticed it. "Cool...? Oh, yeah. Contacts that I'm wearing. Thanks, yeah, I got them at a store," lies Marinov dumbly without the grace of a practiced liar. The teen nods a couple of times in agreement with Tabitha's assessment, "Yeah, I guess we both weren't... doing our best out here." Marinov laughs awkwardly and says, "I was distracted by all the clothes in the window. I can't really get anything, but I was looking for ideas. Valentine's Day is comin' up, which is a whole big thing..." The youth looks back up to Tabitha's eyes again, seeming pretty hesitant about doing so, "I guess I'm rambling. Sorry, I get nervous sometimes, I'm kind of new to the city." Tabitha listens to the teen explain. She then rolls her blue eyes in an unamused manner. "Oh, yeah. That stupid holiday." As she speaks, a hand reaches into a front pants pocket, and she fishes out her wallet. Inside, she pulls out what looks like a business card, and hands it towards Marinov. "Well, they're pretty awesome looking. You must've payed a whole lot for them to look so good. Here. I run a shop downtown that carries some colored contacts. They're pretty wild looking, as long as you don't need a prescription." She then shrugs. "You know, if you ever need another set, or want to change it up." Tabby still doesn't indicate on whether she notices anything else that's striking about teen as she speaks. Her body language looks relaxed, and also doesn't indicate to any potential other observations. Suddenly, a chill gust of wind whips down the street they're on, which causes Tabby to curse under her breath and clutch at her coat. "Ugh, I hate this weather!" She exclaims. Glancing back at Marinov, she adds, "You want to get some hot tea, or chocolate, or something? I'm gonna freeze my ass off if I stand out here without moving." Too add emphasis to her words, she starts to bounce slightly, trying to keep her body warm. "Yeah, Valentine's is pretty stupid, but it's an alright excuse to enjoy some sappy bullshit if that's what you're into," says Marinov, relaxing just a bit. They take the business card with gloved hands, squinting at the card closely. "You sell contacts? That's cool. I might have to get my hands on some others. Always good to expand your style, I guess?" Marinov blinks a couple of times and then says, "Oh, yeah, I guess it's cold. I'm a bit overdressed for the weather... uh... yeah, alright, why not? Tea or cider or something sounds like it could be great. Do you know a place?" "I'm down here all the time. I know a great place," Tabitha offers as she steps away and starts to move down the street, assuming that she is being joined by Marinov. "I'm done with that sappy bullshit," she comments, conversationally. "Its always an emotional drain. Stay out late, and they think you're cheating. Don't show them your phone conversations, and they think you're cheating. Don't call them every hour, and they think you're cheating. Yeah, sure, not for me." It looks like Tabby doesn't have a great track record for relationships. There doesn't seem to be any shame in her voice as she talks. "You got someone you're shopping for?" As she saunters down the street, she'd turn the block, heading down a main avenue where there's a few more people outside. "Almost there. This place is close, thankfully." A few more steps, and the two will arrive at a small tea shop. It's quaint and warm inside, with the hint of light music playing over speakers, but without the pretentiousness of other similar shops. "Heh, wow, it sounds like those people you were dealing with were pretty possessive, huh?" says Marinov, hands digging into their pockets while they walk towards the tea shop. While crossing the threshold, Marinov explains, "Yeah, I mean, I'm not really shopping for anything right now, though I should. I'm not really rich enough for this kind of place, but I make most of my own clothes 'cause it's cheaper just to get materials and I'm good at it. But I have a boyfriend and I need to consider what the hell I'm gonna wear if we go on a date. Though knowing him, it'll probably be more like a wilderness hike, which suits me just fine." Marinov glances around inside the shop, trying to get a look at some of the other patrons and scope out what the most private areas in the shop might be before even looking at the menu. "You have no idea," Tabby lowly responds to Marinov's assessment of her previous commitments. She glances towards the teen, seeing them look about the shop. "Really? That's a pretty handy skill to have." She smirks. "I'm lucky if I can even patch a hole and not make it look like crap." Tabby then raises a brow questioningly. "Wilderness hike? Where are you gonna hike to around here, Central Park?" Her tone is a little sarcastic, and a little in jest, intentionally so. Afterwards, she nods her head towards the seating area, and where most of the empty tables laid. It seems that what few patrons are in the cafe are keeping to themselves and either their newspapers or cellphones. "Why don't you get us a table. I can order for us both." Quickly glancing back towards the menu, she adds, "Do you know what you want?" "I actually live on kind of the outskirts... I guess I shouldn't call it wilderness, though. Just like a sort've an area with a lot of trees and a little bit of wildlife. I wish we had a real wilderness," sighs Marinov wistfully. Marinov quickly looks towards the menu and says, "Uh, apple cider. Let me know how much it is, I have some cash." The teen nods a couple of times and then starts exploring the area to find the most isolated place, facing a wall in a corner from their position, so that anyone entering the building would see only the back of their head. When it's her turn to order, Tabitha gets an apple cider, as well as some black tea for herself. Once she's done paying, and her order is complete, she looks for the table that Marinov chose, and makes her way towards it. She places the apple cider in front of Marinov, and then sits down across from him, leaning back in her seat, and crossing her legs in a casual manner. Tabitha's hands rest on the cup, which doesn't have a cardboard cozy of any kind, to help mitigate the heat from her beverage, as she absorbs the heat emanating from the cup for a moment. By comparison, most people wouldn't be able to hold their hands in place for as long as she does, without feeling the pain of the heat at their hands. "Technically, you can go upstate for some real wilderness, if you really care to. I mean... I don't. I like this urban shithole." She allows silence to fill on her side of the table as her blue eyes flit around the cafe, at the other patrons, and even the workers. Tabitha seems to be intent on watching them for a moment, as though watching to ensure that they're distracted enough to ignore both her and Marinov. Marinov feels their cup for a few moments, able to hold on mostly due to wearing a pair of winter gloves. The teen doesn't remove their scarf for the time being while waiting for the cider to cool down a bit. "Yeah, I like it alright too, but maybe not all the time. Sometimes I like to get away from people and all the eyes and shit. Pisses me off sometimes... Oh, uh, I guess I didn't introduce myself before. You can call me Marinov, Taylor Marinov. Or whatever else you want to call me." They open up the lid a bit on the cider, sniffing at it through the scarf before saying, "Um. I'm gonna pull down my scarf, please don't freak out or anything, my face is different looking..." "You got a point there. It's nice to escape people sometimes." With her hands still on her hot cup, Tabby offers Marinov a sidelong glance as he introduces himself. "Tabby," she replies indifferently. "Nice to meet you, Taylor." She may not have fully grasped the 'Marinov' bit. The young woman continues to give the teen a sidelong glance as they mention the removal of their scarf. She smirks, "I figured." Tabitha then lifts the cup to her lips, and before she takes a sip, she casually adds, "You're in safe company. Things like that don't bother me." Her gaze does linger on the teen for a moment, potentially out of curiosity, but then she glances away, looking towards the patrons again and watching them. "Nice to meet you too, Tabby. Yeah, I... kind of figured you figured, but sometime you gotta make sure people don't scream about your weird face in advance," sighs Tay, lowering their scarf down to reveal their felinoid face. They hold their hat down for a few moments to try and block anyone else from seeing. They reach to pick up the apple cider and take a drink, remarking, "Not that you seemed like a bigot or anything, 'cause you super don't, but I have terrible bigotdar or whatever you might call that sorta thing. I wish I blended in better." "Bigotdar. That sounds like a /really/ useful power to have." Tabitha doesn't sound like she's joking when she says it. When Marinov removes their scarf, she does curiously look over to see their feline looking face. Her features sober, and she even looks a bit sympathetic. Lowly, she says towards the teen, "Damn. A fucking shame that you have to hide." Raising her cup, she takes a sip, and adds afterwards, "A real fucking shame that /we/ still have to hide." Tabby shifts in her seat so that she's facing towards the other nearby tables. Casually, she looks about the cafe. A nearby male patron catches her gaze, to which she retorts in his direction, "You gotta problem?!" The man looks puzzled, but he doesn't seem interested in looking over at Tabby or Marinov anymore. Did he even see Marinov? While still looking away from the teen, Tabby asks in a sympathetic tone, "How are you doing?" Her blue eyes then glance towards him. "Are you in a good..living situation?" Without being direct, possibly because she doesn't know how to be, Tabby is asking about the welfare of this mutant teen that she just met. Marinov glances briefly in the direction of the man that Tabby yelled at, figuring he must have been giving them a bad look with Tabby's reaction. "Heh, yeah, it would be a pretty useful power to have for sure, maybe then I wouldn't be so anxious anytime I come into the city. I can smell lots of things on people but that's not one of them." The teen then registers that Tabby uses 'we' rather than 'you', "Oh, are you... ? I guess that explains why you're so okay with how I look like. My living situation is actually pretty good, I go to school in a pretty tight knit and accepting place. It's a boarding school. It's still kind of overwhelming for me, though... I've always been an outsider, and this didn't really help me out too much. But like I said, I've got a boyfriend and stuff, so that's nice. I've got that going for me." Nodding, Tabitha sounds surprisingly happy for Marinov as he explains his situation. "Good. I'm only asking because I've come across a lot of us that are in bad situations. Shit like that isn't fair." She shrugs. "Bleeding heart for our kind and junk. I mean, if I find someone in a bad situation, I want to help, you know. So, I'm glad that you're good. Relationship, and all." She opens her mouth, about to add something else, before she pauses momentarily. "What do you mean it didn't really help out much?" The young woman then takes another sip of her tea before she nods, acknowledging that Marinov picked up on the 'we'. "I am." Smirking, as though she's proud of this bad joke she's about to tell, Tabby adds, "I bring the boom." "Oh, I just meant... I was bullied already before I manifested, but I feel like aside from fellow mutants, lots've people find it easier to look at me and, 'cause I don't really look human, they don't really think of me as a person, and that shit hurts..." rambles Marinov, shrugging lightly. "So it didn't really help my situation to be so visibly different. Even more visibly different." The teen leans forward a bit when Tabby says she brings the boom, squinting a bit and then saying with a serious tone, "That sounds really cool." Tabitha makes a face. It isn't disgust, but maybe a level or two before it. "Ugh, fuck that," she blurts out in response to Marinov talking about their past. "No one should deal with that crap." She looks directly at the teen this time, taking note of the visible features. "Really, you should be proud of what you are. People don't know how to react to things they don't know, and they always tend to get fearful instead of curious. It's absolute bullshit, if you ask me." While her voice stays low and conversational, Tabby's tone starts to get excited, even perhaps passionate. Suddenly, she makes another face, and she winces a little. The young woman takes her hands into her lap and starts to rub them together, flexing her fingers energetically, almost as though her hands ache. She does this for a moment before she stops and lifts her cup of tea to her lips, as though nothing just potentially happened. "Hmm?" She asks, trying to recall what Marinov last said, after he leans towards Tabby. Instead of smirking, Tabby offers a bright smile. "Oh, it is!" Her tone seems to have shifted, raising an octave in the pitch of her voice, like the mention of this brings her joy. "Yeah, it's definitely bullshit," agrees Marinov, bobbing their head slowly, "And yeah, I'm trying to be proud of who I am. 'cause ultimately, it doesn't matter what I look like or what's going on with my body. I'm a person and an alright one at that." Taylor laughs softly to themselves and takes a big drink from the cider. Noticing Tabitha's hand rubbing, Tay leans in a bit more and asks, "Are you alright? Hope I didn't screw up saying anything." Tabitha gives a small laugh. "Nah, I'm fine. You'd have to be a real scumbag to get me worked up about something." She finishes the last of her tea and sets down the empty cup in front of her. Still smiling, she says, "I think you're a pretty okay person. You curse a lot, and you weren't a dick back there when I almost completely walked into you." Is that her admitting to fault for earlier? Maybe. "Listen, if you ever anything, call the number on the card. It's the number to my shop. It'll get to me." Tabby then glances down at her cup, and a wide grin appears upon her face. She lifts a hand towards the rim of that cup, and suddenly that smile completely fades, her face sobering quickly. "Man, I really hate being responsible." It's possible that she was thinking of brewing some little bit of mischief on her way out. It was absolutely what she was thinking, but instead Tabby takes the cup in hand and stands from her seat, taking her bags in hand. "I should get going. Thanks for sitting down and chatting with me. I'll see you around, Taylor. Get home safely." With the nod of her head, Tabby moves away and tosses her cup in a nearby garbage can before she leaves the cafe to brave the cold again.