Logs:Escort Mission

Escort Mission
Dramatis Personae Ion, Tian-shin
In Absentia	2021-02-12 "This gonna go great."
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 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. A pair of single-user bathrooms flanks the stairway in back of the cafe; at night, the thump of music can be heard from above, coming from the adjoining nightclub of the same name that sits up the stairs above the coffeehouse. Evolve is decked in red and gold this chilly winter's night, and so, for that matter, is Tian-shin. She's making her careful way down the stairs from the club level in a splendid qipao of scarlet brocade with stylized bats in black and gold to match the piping along the collar and cuffs, slightly clumsy even if the heels of her black suede boots are generously flared and quite stable. Her hair is bound in a neat updo held in place with a glossy green jade hair stick that matches a bangle on her left wrist. Her makeup is impeccable but certainly more noticeable than is usual for her at either of her day jobs, a lighter foundation that makes her winter-pale skin look luminous, stark black eyeliner with a sharp flick, gold eye shadow, and scarlet lipstick with just a whisper of gold shimmer. She makes her way to the counter and exchanges a smile and a few words with a barista, who ducks into the back, leaving her to lean unsteadily. Ion clearly hasn't been dressed up -- jeans, a grey waffle-weave thermal under his beaten Mongrels jacket, but somewhere along the way a paper string of red oxen has been draped around his neck, a shiny gold fish sticker stuck cheerfully askew to his cheek. He's been tucked at a back table with a small cluster of people whose relation to him is in no way apparent -- a very respectably dressed Vietnamese family of widely varying ages, as he gets up he's trying hard to relinquish a babbling infant to the care of their presumptive grandparent as the child pats happily at the sticker against his cheek. Once he has freed himself of child he bounds up to the counter, putting in his own coffee order with one of the other baristas before leaning up against the counter. "Yooooo," is bright, as he looks Tian-shin up and down and then, a little bit longer, up again. It's kind of appreciative when he comments, "You don't look ready for no fighting." Tian-shin did not apparently notice Ion until he was almost upon her, and sways slightly in her surprise before smiling -- far brighter and less demure than is her usual habit. "Oh! Gong xi fa cai!" Her cheer is not exactly dimmed, but certainly sidetracked by confusion. "Well, there's a lot more likely to be a fight if I don't dress up properly," she hedges. "Maybe I should have pre-gamed a little less, but I'm always ready for a fight if a fight needs...fighting." She glances back at the family Ion had been sitting with. "You having a good new year dinner so far?" "Yeah yeah, Happy New Year," Ion agrees brightly, and then, "what? I ain't ate, we just shooting the shit. Catching up, you know? My boy getting so damn big he gonna be saying Tío Ion any day now I just know it." He's waving across the room back towards the little baby who -- doesn't exactly wave back, though their grandparent bounces one chubby arm in an approximation thereof. "Who gonna fight you over your clothes, you look great." "That's what this dinner's supposed to be about." Tian-shin also waves at the baby. "Okay, that and the food and the luck and the--surviving the year." She rests a bit more of her weight on the elbow propped against the counter, and manages to make it look casual rather than sloppy. "It's not that anyone would fight me over the clothes more like..." She waves her free hand in the air as if this would make the words come together in her mind. Perhaps surprisingly, it seems to work. "So, if I don't look perfect for these family things, our mother will start in on how that's probably why I'll never get a man and she'll die sad and alone with no grandchildren." The same hand makes a slow circling gesture in the air. "Then my big brother will be all like 'leave her alone' and my little brother will be all like, 'what about me' and then there'll be a fight. See?" She sighs, long and dramatic. "I'm glad you think I look good, though. I'd hate to think of this all as self-defense." "Dinner always better with a fight," is Ion's judgment at the end of this, "but this don't sound like the fun kind, maybe you should just start off with punching and skip all the rest. Or," he's perking, pushing himself up straighter against the counter with a bright gleam in his eyes -- one hand flings toward the back of the room, "just bring a baby, say is yours, cut all the complaining. Or a man, whatever. Then what's she got to bitch about? Enjoy the dinner and the brawling." Maybe he's forgotten he inserted the brawling. Tian-shin's laughter catches her so off-guard she almost tries to stifle it behind a hand before remembering her makeup. "It would not be fair for me to start punching, and anyway every time I beat him at anything Tian-yi mopes about it for weeks. You know..." She props her chin up in one hand thoughtfully. "I've never considered borrowing a baby for these things. I think there might be awkward questions! Like 'who's the father' or 'why didn't you tell us' or 'how did we miss nine months of pregnancy'? A man, though..." Her brows gather in thought. "Might be something to that, but I've got all of an hour--" She winces, glancing at the clock. "--less than that to find a date. At least I'm dressed for that?" "You think it'd take you a whole-ass hour to find a date? Dressed like that? Psh." Ion waves a hand dismissively. "You could be dress like me it wouldn't take you half that time you check a mirror lately? Besides, delicious food and some fake-out your family with kinda sitcom setup? Have to be a whole-ass fool not to spend a Friday on that kind of hijinks it sound like a fucking blast." Tian-shin's blush lights up her makeup to stunning effect that she probably did not predict much less intend, but she's smiling all the same. "I feel like you're overestimating my looks a bit, but--thanks. And that actually does sound like fun, even if it probably wouldn't be as funny as in an actually..." She reconsiders whatever she was about to say. "Actually, most sitcoms are way less funny than real life." Her dark eyes light up suddenly. "Oh! Do you want to be my date to new year dinner? Our mom may be insufferable as a parent, but she's a brilliant cook, and Tag takes after her that way, even if he hasn't got as much practice." "Hell yeah, 'course I will." Ion's reply comes without hesitation. He's bouncing up from where he's been leaning, his coffee forgotten as he claps his hands together. "This gonna go great. Get her off your case a good long while, I bet." There's something wickedly amused in the sharp hook of his grin. "Parents just love me."