ArchivedLogs:Mutant Pastry Terrorists

Mutant Pastry Terrorists
Dramatis Personae Eve, Marinov, Shane
In Absentia	2017-05-04 "You know, I've heard coconut oil does wonders"
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. With the nightclub actually open tonight the cafe is bustling -- it's not really Nightclub O'Clock yet but a healthy crowd is here socializing and caffeinating in preparation for dancing up above. There's already a low thrum of beat coming from the ceiling even if it's too early for many to /actually/ get up and go dancing -- instead clusters of mutants in various interpretations of Fashionable (or not) club wear have congregated in small knots around the dining floor. At the edge of one of these knots, just at the moment, a tiny blue shark dressed in impeccably tailored silver-pinstriped blue vest, bow tie, crisp trousers, is engaged in -- we'll call it a Discussion. A much taller man, broad-shouldered in jeans and a blue button-down, is shouting down to the sharkpup in a quite heated mix of Spanish and English -- "{-- /encouraging/ this kind of thing in /my/ children. Hand to god this is not the last you're hearing from /me/,} I'm going to have the cops down here and -- {do they even know what sort of a place you're --}" "It's a coffeeshop," Shane is replying, remarkably levelly though he leeeeans back away from the tirade of words. "{And I feel /pretty/ confident that our coffee didn't /make/ your kid a mutant?} Look, I know it can be a lot to --" For a moment he hesitates, fumbling for a continuation. "-- accept all at once, but we have some support groups for families who --" The man is already storming out, though, dragging with him a wide-eyed and very unhappy looking teenager, short and plump and mop-haired, who casts Shane a somewhat helpless look before they depart. Shane is scrubbing his eyes with his knuckles, gills fluttering along the sides of his neck as he moves out of their way. "... man. How strong /is/ Taylor brewing that coffee?" Muttered somewhat under his breath as the door closes. Marinov is at a table nearby, watching this exchange with a certain degree of interest, almost perched up with how closely they lean to watch the exchange. The youth seems unable to look away from this kind of drama. They are currently wearing a pantsuit with black pants, a silver jacket with black trim and a blouse with a bit of ruffling on the chest. Their fur is still in the dark colours they've been wearing recently, modeled after a sort of spacey-nebula-ey sort look. Once the man has stormed out, they rise immediately to their feet, and comment, "I think I only understood like, half of that, but geez. They think Evolve is the product or something?" The young teenager gets a wiggle of Eve's fingers as she steps into the coffee shop. She doesn't know that she's a mutant, but she can IMAGINE what her parents' reaction would be like. She has nothing but sympathy for the kid (not so much older herself),"{Hang in there. It does get better.}" Her accent is vaguely cuban when she speaks spanish. Pure New York when she speaks english. She orders a coffee this time... and some sort of soup, and looks over her shoulder at the departing two. She espies Shane, eyebrow lifted, and approaches. Person in a suit looks like they know what they're doing,"What was that about? Wait. Probably none of my business. You... " There's a blush. "Wouldn't happen to know if Taylor... tall dude, dark skin, athletic, tendrils... is working? I just wanted to say hi-" Oh, hey, look, it's Ocelot Prime,"Hey, Marinov! Fancy seeing you here! You are dressed to impress! Nice. Mind if I sit with you?" The young teenager gets a wiggle of Eve's fingers as she steps into the coffee shop. She doesn't know that she's a mutant, but she can IMAGINE what her parents' reaction would be like. She has nothing but sympathy for the kid (not so much older herself),"{Hang in there. It does get better.}" Her accent is vaguely cuban when she speaks spanish. Pure New York when she speaks english. She orders a coffee this time... and some sort of soup, and looks over her shoulder at the departing two. She espies Shane, eyebrow lifted, and approaches. Oh, hey, look, it's her Sharky friend, "What was that about? Wait. Probably none of my business. You... " There's a blush. "Wouldn't happen to know if Taylor... tall dude, dark skin, athletic, tendrils... is working? I just wanted to say hi- Uh... I gotta say, it's kind of odd seeing you in a suit." A moment to examine it. "Not bad though. The young teenager gets a wiggle of Eve's fingers as she steps into the coffee shop. She doesn't know that she's a mutant, but she can IMAGINE what her parents' reaction would be like. She has nothing but sympathy for the kid (not so much older herself), "{Hang in there. It does get better.}" Her accent is vaguely cuban when she speaks spanish. Pure New York when she speaks english. She orders a coffee this time... and some sort of soup, and looks over her shoulder at the departing two. She espies Shane, eyebrow lifted, and approaches. Oh, hey, look, it's her Sharky friend,"What was that about? Wait. Probably none of my business. You... " There's a blush. "Wouldn't happen to know if Taylor... tall dude, dark skin, athletic, tendrils... is working? I just wanted to say hi- Uh... I gotta say, it's kind of odd seeing you in a suit." A moment to examine it. "Not bad though. You have taste." Oh, hey, look, it's Ocelot Prime,"Hey, Marinov! Fancy seeing you here! You are dressed to impress! Nice. Mind if I sit with you?" "They think we made their kid a mutant? Like maybe it's contagious and all the hanging around here /gave/ him the freak? Or we're nefariously spiking the pastries with mutant germs --" Shane stops, rat-tat-tapping claws idly against Marinov's tabletop as he meanders nearer to lean against it. "... which sounds like it'd make a pretty great short fic actually. Mutant pastry terrorists." He glances up when they're approached, brows lifting as he mouths, 'odd'. "Friend of yours? Other-Taylor's in the kitchen. And /this/ Taylor's always impressive." "That would be a story, yeah. Coffee that makes you real fast, or, pastries that make you... flakey? I dunno. But you know, they might have a point. One time I drank some tea, and sometime after that I had fur. Really makes you think," says Marinov thoughtfully (and maybe more than a little sarcastically). Their ears swivel towards Eve as she arrives in the cafe and they nod in reply to Shane's question, "Ah, yeah, I met Eve a few days back. Eve, Shane. Shane, Eve. And, yeah, you can sit with me if you'd like, there's gonna be a lot more space in here after the Nightclub opens up too, I expect." "So... I gotta say, B. Not that you don't look great and all, but what happened to your other gear." Pause. "Mutant Pastery terrorists. Is that like attack of the killer tomatoes?" She moves to plop her soup and coffee down next to Marinov, and she shakes her head a little bit,"No... Their name is B, not Shane. We've met. Totally. We let our dogs play together and everything. Then this little... uh... kid... like bit the crap out of me and knocked me out. I was grounded for, like, days." She makes a face, a sort of shy expression, and says,"If you... uh... see kitchen Taylor, tell him Eve said hi." Yeah. Yeeeeah. "So what's the nightclub like." She sips the coffee, considers, and murmurs,"If my fur looked like yours... I'd be okay with it." "Was it a Jin Xuan? I hear that's a potential side effect with some varietals of that oolong." Shane seems amused at least, at Marinov's sarcasm. His brows are still up -- though they settle back down levelly with understanding when Eve continues. "B is the /other/ well-dressed small blue shark person who hangs around here sometimes." His head tips back, black eyes lifting to the ceiling. "Loud, mostly." A small shrug. And a veeery small twitch of his lips at the comment on Marinov's fur. "Lord but if I had a dollar for every time someone rocks up in here telling me how cool /they'd/ be with being a freak if they were a /rad/ enough one this shop would be in the black every quarter. You think I should start a jar by the tip jar?" He's asking Marinov this like maaaybe he's seriously considering this. At Eve's case of mistaken identity, Marinov puts a hand on their cheek when they are corrected on Shane's identity, eyes widening in mock surprise, "Oh! Why B, your brother's clothing tastes and smells must have rubbed off on you. Prosti, my error." They seem happy to let Shane clear up the case of mistaken identity, though, taking a sip out of their tea, wide eyes peering over the edge of the cup. They chuckle and remark with an amused tone, "I hear that sorta thing a lot, so I'm sure if you could get a 'cool with it jar' you'd be rolling in cash in no time. Just not sure where the dollars'd be coming from." They tap the lid of their tea idly and wonder to Eve, "So... Did... someone try to eat you?" The girl lifts a shoulder in a shrug, a toothy smile on her face, "It was more meant as a compliment to Marinov's fur. Besides. I'm already kind of a freak by some standards, even if I'm not a mutant." She does slip a dollar out of her back pocket and slide it towards Shane. "All joking aside, I'm different enough as it is. Sorry for the case of mistaken identity. You two look a LOT alike. Perdon, senor." A wan smile, and she shrugs,"I dunno... I got bit anyway. And then I felt really good and then I passed out... When I woke up, I was home, and there was this dude, Ion, and my parents were like, basically shoveling food down his throat, and holy crap that guy can eat..." She shakes her head in wonder. "Noone would eat me though. I'm all stringy and stuff." "See? S'paying off already." When Eve slips him the dollar, Shane's grin is toothy as well -- when his teeth pull back it's on a mouth of veeery sharp serrated shark teeth, of which he seems to have considerably more than an average human mouthful. "We do /look/ a lot alike, but B got all the brainy half of our egg. -- Woah shit you got chomped by Ion's monster?" He's shaking his head at this. "That kid is taking terrible twos to a new extreme. I do /not/ envy Ion these days. Anyway, stringy is fine, makes for good soup." "Heh, yea, I know you were just paying a compliment to my fur. I mean, it's nice, but not like, 'would trade society treating me like a person' nice, you know? But maybe if I changed conditioner to the expensive stuff..." Marinov trails off thoughtfully, "Anyways, don't worry Eve, I wouldn't eat you. Not in a soup or anything. Just keep an eye out for venom mouthed kids going forward." They cross one leg over the other and lean back in their seat, taking a deep breath, "Good that you managed to recover alright." The girl reaches for her sleeve to roll it up and show her arm. There's a faint row of round marks that's almost faded entirely out. The new skin just needs a bit more sun,"Didn't even leave a scar or anything, thankfully. I guess that's how very sharp things work?" She shrugs helplessly, then looks at the boy's teeth with wide eyes,"Damn, dude. Like you got a kitchen Ninja in there." She looks over at Marinov then, eyes flickering over them,"Good. Not everyone picks up a taste for Cuban, after all. All seriousness though, I got lucky with my family. They don't 'get' me, but they accept me. Which is probably about as much as I could ask from them. They love me." She gives a thumbs-up,"I'll wear gloves if I ever offer to babysit for Ion." "You know, I've heard coconut oil does wonders for --" There's a beat, a crooked grin, "systemic oppression." Shane perches himself on the edge of Marinov's table, feet resting on the seat of one of the chairs. "As much as you /can/ ask? Mmm." Shrug. "Setting a high bar, huh? Guess it's still more than a lot of families offer." Marinov can't help but to laugh at Shane's comment, ears perked up in delight. At Eve's remarks about her family, they become a bit more thoughtful, "Yeah. My family's generally, like, pretty good. About stuff. My immediate family, that is. My extended family... well..." They give a bit of a helpless shrug as if to say, 'what can you do?'. She just deadpan stares at Shane. Eve is not amuse- Oh wait, there she is, breaking up with laughter. She actually gives the boy a thumbs-up! Who does that!? She does! "I like you. Mmm. My parents were... obviously not okay with my transition, but they were like... supportive. Like, when the doctors told them 'yes this a real thing' they were like 'oh'. Abuela is... not so much. She pretends it didn't happen. I think if I had also turned out to be a mutant, she'd probably be trying to exorcise me." She rolls her eyes. "I have a friend. She's got... uh... Hooves. She started crossing herself, and I was... so mortified." She starts spooning soup into her mouth to cover her embarrassment for a bit. "I think mom and dad are mostly just happy I got someone to tutor me in algebra, though. Everything is okay if I go become a doctor. I don't have the heart to tell them yet that it's not going to happen." "Are they going to come down for the big showcase? Your family, I mean." Shane asks Marinov curiously. "And if your friend has hooves, someone crossing themselves is probably /not/ the worst shit they have to deal with any given day. Family's -- weird." Shrug again. He slides down off the table, smoothing his vest down into place. "You got any notion what /are/ you going to become?" "Yeah, my grandma has given me some guff. I guess sometimes grandparents can be that way," says Marinov, shrugging a shoulder helplessly. "My parents will be in the city during the showcase, which is... well, actually, it's pretty nice. I'm from Seattle, so I don't see them much. I expect that I'm gonna not talk to them much over the weekend either," says Marinov in response to Shane's question, "'cause I expect I'm gonna be running around a lot. I imagine you know what that's like, with the Evolympics and all." Their eyes drift over back towards Eve and they drink down the remainder of their tea, curious as well as to what Eve would like to become. "Well, they probably expect by default, I'll run their store if I don't become a doctor, but what I REALLY want... I just... I've gotten to know a lot of mutants lately. Like... a pretty big number of them. And, you know... the cosmetological world REALLY underserves those with special cosmetic and fashion issues. I wanna do THAT. I think it could be good money, and it'd... you know... give room for creativity. Getting to think up creative solutions for difference I'm not prepared for. Anyway, I know it may not be the worst, but she came to see me. So she never would've been exposed to it if weren't for me." Pause. "Evolympics? Art showcase? Is... that the art-show Taylor was talking about? I was thinking of volunteering to help, but I dunno who to talk to about that... So. Is it just me, or is he like... REALLY super nice?" This is like the third time she's talked about him. A moment's pause, and she clears her head,"I'm sorry you live so far from your family." "It'll be cool they're in town. If you need someone to, like, shepherd them around. Make sure they get -- fed or whatever while you're running around with no time to breath lemme know." Shane's tone is bright here: "I'll make B do it. Parents love her." Now he leans against the back of the chair he'd been half-perched on before. Tips his head thoughtfully to Eve. "Huh. Neat. Definitely hard to find makeup for some of us, no doubt. And the Evolympics are a mutant athletics competition. Marinov's the mastermind behind the upcoming art showcase. Gonna be pretty rad." Only one of his brows lifts, this itme. "Taylor's great." "Spasibo, Shane," says Marinov, "I'm sure that B would love ferrying my parents around, but... I think B's actually gonna have an area set up for sculptures, so that might leave you to rub elbows with my parents." They nod to Eve and say, "Makeup seems like a fair thing to get into. I used to do my makeup sometimes but I've found that fur is not really the right texture for it. And... yeah, if you want to volunteer, I can get you signed up and stuff. Volunteers are always needed. It's gonna be great! And... yeah, Taylor's great. He's awesome." They tilt their head curiously. The girl nods emphatically, "I'll help any way I can. I don't know a lot about how to do... Well, most things, but I can carry stuff, and I'm not too proud to mop floors." Even is now flushing rather darkly now at the lifted eyebrow and the tilted head. "What?" She fills her mouth with soup to buy herself time for speaking, and when done, continues speaking,"Mmm. If you'd like, I can play tourguide. I don't have a car, but if it's related to something cultural, let me know, and I bet my parents would totally give me a shift. I can help you navigate them around if you like." She smiles a little bit,"Anyway, I got the idea after B said no makeup blends with her skin tone." "I'll put on my best friendy-shark impression, then. It'll be fun." Shane nods along as Eve speaks. "I guess Tag is essentially /like/ makeup, huh? Just next level." He glances across the room, brows furrowing at something behind the counter before he looks back to the others. "I gotta check up on some things. I'll let Taylor know you said hi." He maybe leans on this promise a liittle hard, a little amused, before darting off. "Seeya, Shane," says Marinov, waving at him. They pick up their cup to take another drink, but grimace upon finding it still empty and not magically refilled. "Well, we'll see with my parents. I'm pretty sure they'll figure things out, but I'll definitely be able to find some work for you to do if you're willing. Here, I'm gonna give you a card with the event's info on it. Send me an email and I'll get you signed up, yeah?" They stretch and then rise from their seat. "I should get going. Too young for the nightclub still. I'd sneak in but I'm like, super recognizable." The girl smiles a little and waves as Shane departs,"Oh, thanks! I appreciate it." Then again as Marinov makes to depart,"I'm probably too young myself, though I've snuck into a few. I don't want to get kicked out of here. Thanks for the heads-up. I look forward to helping out and helping make great things happen. Really" And with that, she settles in to actually eat her soup instead of talk over it.