Logs:S: Pt reports a feeling of worry about the future and uncertainty as to what she will do. Denies recent history of COVID; reports history of desensitization to smell (congruent with observed behavior.)

S: Pt reports a feeling of worry about the future and uncertainty as to what she will do. Denies recent history of COVID; reports history of desensitization to smell (congruent with observed behavior.)
Dramatis Personae Celestine, Zack
In Absentia	2024-05-19 "Why do you ask, is it because I don't have a mask?"
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. It is a truly gorgeous spring afternoon, balmy and clear and pleasant. The perfect sort of weather to be enjoying a nice Sunday Brunch out on the normally very pleasant Evolve patio. Except, although the cafe is crowded inside, here at the patio outside it's very nearly deserted. It doesn't take too much examination to figure out why -- the one sole resident of the patio, currently seated at a table near its entrance, is probably enough to put most people off their appetites. Zack is dressed like Your Average Bro relaxing on a Sunday -- cargo shorts, wedge sandals, tan suede boat shoes, a blue polo shirt. Beyond the outfit, though, he does not look much like Your Average Bro -- his skin (where it's still intact) has a sickly grey cast, and is actively falling off his arms in several places. His face droops unsettlingly, just a little saggy on his skull, giving his eyes a kind of sunken look where his lids hang low. His legs look a bit lumpy, misshapen where they are caving in in several places as if some parts of his muscle have been removed and the skin over his calves no longer fits quite right. He smells quite heavily of Rot. Perhaps oddly given the rest of his decaying appearance, his hair is oddly neat, very well-upkept locs hanging down to his shoulders. At the moment, he's seeming pretty unfussed about the fact he is keeping the brunch crowds away from the beautiful Sunday. He's got a plate in front of him, piled very high with turkey bacon and slices of lox that he's working his way steadily through. As he picks up his next slice, a large dog -- some kind of pitbull mix, big and tan with white socks and a white blaze -- trots back into the patio, triumphantly holding a ball. The dog -- almost looks normal, from some angles, until Zack takes its ball and throws it back across the street -- when the dog turns to bolt after it eagerly it's clear that the canine has a very sizable dent caving in its ribs at one side, though its torn body is oddly not bleeding or seeming to bother it much at all. Celestine is slowly walking down the street, her nose is buried deep in her phone looking at the google map directions to the Evolve Cafe. As she gets closer though looking on the screen she decided to switch over towards music since she is close enough to put away the directions. She walks over towards the Evolve cafe wearing some faded jeans, and an bright yellow button up shirt that she is wearing open to show the white shirt underneath. As she opens the door to enter the cafe she takes off her hat and at the same time smells something bad, but chalks it up to the smells of the city before walking into the cafe. Their are a few people in front of her so she takes her time into looking at the menu. After a minute or two Celestine makes it to the barista and tells her, her order before being asked if she wants to sit inside or outside. Celestine looks around the room and sees how full it is and the idea of being surrounded by so many people rubs her the wrong way, so she picks outside and then grabs her number and walks outside. She gets another hit of the foul smell but she was expecting it so its not as shocking. She then looks for a seat and picks one a few chairs away from Zack. She picked this seat as it was close enough that a stranger wouldn't think your grossed out at them, and just far enough so that your not too close. Celestine hasn't noticed Zack yet so she sits down and waits for her drink. Zack glances up, brows lifting quick in surprise when someone else sits down. He's neatly slicing another bite of meat and putting it in his mouth as he peers over towards Celestine, just-slightly-milky eyes looking at her a little bit longer than is polite. Before he actually says anything, though, the enormous pitbull mutt lopes back into the patio; maybe he was going to return the ball to his person but, distracted by the arrival of a brand-new person, the dog lopes over to Celestine. His tail is wagging furiously, his eyes wide and eager, the (very slobbery) ball held firmly in his huge muzzle. He turns Very Hopefully to the girl in hopes of pettings, kind of incidentally exposing his very caved-in side, a few bones exposed in the dent. "Oh hey sorry!" Zack does sit up, now, and though his expression is apologetic he doesn't actually call the dog back, just offering cheerfully: "It's okay, he's real friendly." Celestine looks at the dogs face initially happy that such a cute dog came up to her, but here happiness turns towards worry as she sees the dogs injured side. She worries for a few moments afraid that the dog is hurt but then Zack comes over and tells her that the dog is fine. She breaths a sigh of relief and pets the dog behind the ear before slowly turning towards Zack so thank him. But as she looks at him she is left speechless for a few moments seeing this person Infront of her who looks like a corpse. "Is the dog ok! More importantly are YOU ok?" Celestine looks at Zack up and down in a panic thinking that he is badly hurt and needs a doctor. "What? Oh, yeah, I'm fine. Zero's fine, too." The hand that Zack waves in casual dismissal of Celestine's worry does, un-reassuringly, have some bits hanging off, but the man himself seems casual. The dog is still wagging, pressing his big head insistently against the side of the teen's chair just in case she's forgotten that he wants petting. "I mean, he did get hit by a car on the way over here but he's too excited about that gross-ass ball he found to care. If you throw it he'll probably leave you alone." He considers for a moment as he eats another piece of fish. "-- For a few seconds, anyway." Celestine looks over at the ball on the ground and then picks it up casually not bothered by the slobber and throws it across the street. Zero takes off after it and leave Celestine to go chase the ball. She turn her attention back towards Zack and takes another look at his body. "Are you sure your ok; your not in pain or anything right? Celestine looks at the pieces of his body that are hanging off or have chunks missing. She then looks behind Zack as someone brings out to her table a large iced coffee that looks like it has more sugar and caramel then actual coffee. She looks excited as the Barista walks closer and closer towards the table. "Not in pain. Just dead. A little dead." Zack watches Zero take off at a fierce lope; somewhere before he gets to the ball he gets very distracted by a scrabbling under a nearby dumpster and sets his attention to snuffling hopefully for rats. Zack lifts his chin when the barista appears, smiling wide. To their credit, the barista smiles back, but they're still setting Celestine's order down as quickly as they can without spilling and then rushing back off. "Are you okay? Had COVID recently?" Celestine takes a sip from her drink smiling at how sweet and how its full of sugar. Before turning back towards Zack to finish her sip and respond to his question. 'I'm fine just a bit shocked to see a guy who is dead or a "little" dead as you said. And no I don't think I had covid as I haven't gotten sick in a bit. Probably because of all the shots I had when I signed up at Xavier's" Celestine took another sip from her drink and then continued speaking. "Why do you ask, is it because I don't have a mask?" "Oh, nah, who does have one, these days? Just --" Zack waves a hand vaguely in the direction of Celestine's face. "Losing your sense of smell, often a symptom. Most people have an olfactory bias against Undead Americans." His smile gets a little wider. "Or at least they quickly develop one after I meet 'em. Not usually a top-choice brunch companion. -- I'm Zack, by the way. Hang out at this cafe long enough I bet you'll see a lot of shocking things." Celestine laughed at the comment of her nose not working "I'm Celestine but you can call be Celeste if that helps." She took another big sip from her drink and then a few others after that before continuing to answer Zack's question. "I mean I smelled something but I guess to me it wasn't that bad. I got used to bad smells when I was...." Celestine paused and tried to think of a better way to say homeless or living on the streets. "L-Living "away" from home if that makes sense" "Celeste, got it." Zack is bobbing his head amiably as the girl speaks. "Oh-h-h, like college?" he hazards a guess. "My first year dorm was a health hazard. Learning curve, being on your own for the first time, isn't it?" "No not college I haven't even graduated yet and even then I probably wont go the college route." Celestine looked around letting her eyes wonder as she finishes off her drink. "I might just try and find a job in like a year or two and find a cheep apartment. also how old are you its kind of hard to tell with you looking like a zombie." "Uh -- thirty -- some? Best use sunblock if you don't want to end up aging like this." Zack's face, though, is getting just a little bit more put-together as he eats, eyes slightly less clouded, skin slightly less saggy; it's very subtle, easy to chalk up to a trick of the eyes. "Cheap apartment? Hope you aren't looking around here because good luck." He offers Celestine a sympathetic wince. "Though who knows, maybe by the time you've graduated New York will have had some wild catastrophe and the rent prices will finally drop. -- What's it you're thinking of doing? Instead of college, I mean." “Probably just going into finding a job the only issue is I don’t know what I want to do.” Celestine thinks more about what she likes to do in her free time or any hobbies, but she struggles to see herself as an adult working in that field. “I’m just worried that no place is going to hire a transgender mutant, let alone pay me enough ya know. What about you what do you do?” "Gonna hire a --" Zack's eyes have gone a little wider, and for a moment he's looking at Celestine more closely. "Oh-h-h -- oh." His gaze drops quickly to his plate, just for a moment, but by the time he finishes his next bite of turkey bacon he's returned to his casual smile, casual tone. "Honestly, college probably all the more important when you're, like, a double-minority. That's already gonna close a lot of doors, helps to keep more open. Plus, it's a good time for figuring out what you want to do." He just snorts at the question about what he does. "I'm dead. -- Uh, before I was dead I was a doctor. But. Another life, you know. What kind of things do you enjoy doing?" Celestine starts to laugh at the idea of being a double-minority in college as that was the funnest thing that she had heard all day. "Oh my god that was probably the best thing ever. "Double-Minority" " Celestine makes some jazz hands in the air when saying double minority before calming down to answar the question. "I mean your probably right, Like probably a ton of colleges would kill to have a transgender mutant at their school." Celestine kicks her feet back and forth thinking about what she would want to do. "I don't know if anything I'll probably go into coding or programing cause it sounds cool and I can work at a computer all day." "Make a compelling essay, that's for sure." Zack is working through the remainder of his meat. Zero has finally given up on the rat and is ambling back over, his ball fully forgotten. "And good money in computers. Probably a solid choice." He's dropping a hand, thumping at his dog's muscular side. As he does so, the caved-in injury is slowly repairing itself, wound knitting back together and bones crackling back into place. "I best get home so other people can, uh, use this patio. Good luck with the future, yeah?" "Oh Yeah defiantly I appreciate the advice. Glad I was able to talk to another mutant outside of the school." Celestine also stood up and threw her empty plastic cup her drink was in and then waved good bye to Zack before heading back towards the school. But she decided to pop into a bookstore and walks out with and intro to coding book before finally heading back towards the school.