[Open Thread] - Coffee Shops and the People Who Go to Them

[im2sexy4mysnark]

The Sanctuary is not the only place Altalita Bastion haunts. In fact, she has several in the Nexus that she regularly passes through.

One such place is the True and Brew Coffee Shop in the Nexus. Inside the AVF, and far enough away from any of the fighting, that it wouldn't be much of a bother. It's also far enough away from her Nexus Shop to, you know, be somewhere different.

And so, she sits in the outside Café, with a hot cup of slightly spiked Joe, with her white and pink iFate laptop out and checking various daily events throughout several worlds and the Nexus itself. She's wearing another one of her sort of elaborate outfits, although today involves pants and high boots, and a loose top with her preferred billowy sleeves. Her hair is up in a high ponytail with several strands of it over her shoulders, and several beads to hold it this way.

Of course, knowing how much of a social butterfly our dear Ms. Bastion is, she likely not to mind any sort of company!

((Open post! Anyone can meet her, and individual threads are treated as separate events so we have no clashes between folks, two people can meet her at the same time, and not meet each other through virtue of Weird Nexus Time!))

Comments

[not-that-shady.livejournal.com]

This isn't Midna's usual hangout. But Shadowed Grounds is on the other side of the botanical gardens and she doesn't feel like getting eaten by a piranha plant just for a cup of dolkaj'traiai today.

So, she steps out of the café doors with a cup of something that gives off a strange, sweet smell and an unsettling purple whisp of steam. For the moment she simply perches on one of the nearby chairs, draping an elbow on the table and resting her chin on her hand thoughtfully.

[im2sexy4mysnark.livejournal.com]

And she is noticed! As the Café is fairly empty at the moment, "Ah, hello there." Altalita beams, "Been a bit since I've seen you around." She grins.

[not-that-shady.livejournal.com]

"Hm?" She straightens and looks back over her shoulder at Altalita. She must not have seen her there before. She offers a smile in return and gets up from her seat to get closer and possibly join her if she'll allow.

"Oh, I've been around. But the Nexus is enormous so I'm not surprised that we missed each other. Your name was... Altalita, wasn't it?"

[im2sexy4mysnark.livejournal.com]

"Indeed it is, and you're.." There's a pause where she pokes through her memory and a couple of lines of Fate, "Midna, yes?" She grins and sips her Raktajino. "How're you doing, sweet? Any luck finding a way home?"

And joining her is always allowed. Altalita leans back in her seat, resting her elbow on the chair's back, and she recrosses her legs, as well.

[not-that-shady.livejournal.com]

"No. And it's especially frustrating because I even know where home is... I just can't get any portal to take me back there. The barriers are too strong." She sets her drink down on the table. "I've managed to find a place to stay, however. It's not great, but it's something."

[aureliaofarista.livejournal.com]

Blame it on the smell of mocha. That's what the security detail are doing.

"Why hello, Altalita!" Aurelia smiles warmly as she makes her way over. "How are you doing?"

[im2sexy4mysnark.livejournal.com]

"Aurelia!" Altalita beams back at her and the guards, in a good mood with her slightly spiked Raktajino, really. She's trying it for the hell of it. "I'm doing fairly well, at the moment." She beams, "And how about you?" She gestures to a nearby seat. Come! Join her!

[aureliaofarista.livejournal.com]

"I'm managing all right. It's just one thing after another, these days." Sit she will.

The guards find positions.

"Oh, that smells divine. But of course, the whole place does."

[im2sexy4mysnark.livejournal.com]

"Dare I even ask what's happened now, or is this still about the invading the Nexus?" It's pretty obvious from the tone of her voice that she finds the latter of the two options a load of bull.

She grins, "Welcome to a coffee shop," she gestures out behind her with her free hand, taking a sip of her own coffee, "Half the attraction is the smells, not to mention the pick-me-up of a drink."

[aureliaofarista.livejournal.com]

"One of several recent...disruptions, I'm afriad."
The guards all flinch slightly.

"And at home, there's plenty going on with several people standing for a vote..."

[metody-green.livejournal.com]

Metody has taken to stalking the Nexus, pacing a random path through it in the hopes of some distraction. He haunts the question area, cutting through it several times a day, but it's proven too thin on things he can actually answer.

He wants to claw at the walls.

Sleep is not something to be thought of, so he has also been spending quite a lot of time in coffee shops. Like right now. He peels off from the counter with a large coffee with two shots of espresso, his French textbook under his arm.

"Hey, Miss Lita. How're you?"

[im2sexy4mysnark.livejournal.com]

"I'm doing relatively alright, although it's been a fairly slow day so far, how about yourself, Metody?" She beams at him, leaning back in her seat with her Raktajino, as Time Has No Meaning.

[metody-green.livejournal.com]

He smiles back, eyes curiously flicking to her drink.

"I am well enough. Wondering what the Hellions will do next - it sounds as if their command refuses to believe it's not a good idea to keep prodding at the Nexus."

[im2sexy4mysnark.livejournal.com]

"It's a Raktajino," She answers his unspoken question, "Klingon Coffee, nice kick to it, and works well when you spike it just the right amount of the right wine." She beams.

"That is something to wonder--and what makes them so absolutely desperate to want to stay when they're going to lose this fight?" She sighs, "It's pure idiocy."

[metody-green.livejournal.com]

"Is that the stuff made with prune juice?"

Oh, crap, his nerdhood is showing!

"Because the people who've decided aren't the ones who are doing the actual loosing. They're expending resources. And honor drives the rest of them to follow their commands, one after another, in a straight line into a reeking slaughter pit. And pride, I suspect, adds to that relentless pull towards death. When you define yourself as a soldier and conqueror, who are you now if you've lost?"

[aliveonlyinwar.livejournal.com]

Snake stretched as he held onto the leash of the trotting canine. It wasn't often he took Yeva on plain ol' walks, but as head dog - she got special treatment (namely being the only dog he actually named).

The man stopped as he forced the husky to sit as he examined the new area of the nexus, and spotted the familiar witch. With a deep breath, he changed direction, and approached 'Lita. "Good day," He greeted with a slight raising of two fingers as he gestured to the other seat at the bistro.

Yeva's nose twitched as she stayed close to her master's side.

[im2sexy4mysnark.livejournal.com]

"Well, hello there." She beams at Snake, "I didn't know you owned a dog." She sips her coffee, quirking an eyebrow at him curiously. "How're you doing, dear?"

[aliveonlyinwar.livejournal.com]

"I actually own a few," He pulled out the chair, and settled down, the dog laid itself over his feet. "Generally I don't bring them out because they are sled dogs." Yeva's ears twitched at the mention of sled.

"Been getting the dogs some exercise to burn off the energy they would've if they did the Itarod. You?" The man asked as he waved down a wait staff, ordering a cup of hot chocolate. Snake was dressed in civilian clothes, and clearly for colder climes then where this cafe was - he soon shedded the dark blue coat and hung it over the back of his seat.

[im2sexy4mysnark.livejournal.com]

The Koopa Troopa waiter jots that down and skitters off.

She'll give the dog a skritching behind the ears if it'll let her, "I am doing fairly well, myself." 'Lita's clothes are for sort of that middle-point between fall and winter, long and loose enough to keep some measure of heat in, but not so much so that she's bundled up or anything.

Not that she really bundles up by the conventional definition of it. "Keeping an eye on things going on in the Nexus, how things might turn out at the rate they're going." The Battle with the Hellions, she implies. "But at a wise distance, since I'm not allowed to get involved."

[aliveonlyinwar.livejournal.com]

Koopa. The man's face went into his hand when he realized his brain automatically filtered out the weirdness of a turtle taking his orders. Keep doing that, and you'll get yourself killed, Snake chided himself.

Yeva gives the woman's hand a wary look before she tilted her head to allow the head scratching. Then her tail started to wag in pleasure.

"Odd, most of my dogs tend to snap at strangers," He murmured to himself. "Part of that Fate business I take it." The operative stated more then he asked as his pale green eyes took another glance at his surroundings, never truly at ease.

"I'm mainly dealing with a few... personal missions," The man carefully phrased his sentence. It's unlikely she would ever get involved in the affairs of his world, but he's cautious.

[serpens-dei.livejournal.com]

"The thing I find wonderful about fate..." Jeff begins, smiling. "...is that no matter what delays you, or how slow the traveling is, you always arrive right on time." He crosses to the seat in front of 'Lita, tracing his fingers along the back. "Still, it's always polite to ask. Is this seat taken, Madam?"

Those who glance at him might notice something a bit odd in how he carries himself--something that doesn't quite match his unassuming and relatively young appearance. Those who know him well would definitely notice something different; there's something relaxed and unhurried about him, where he used to be tense, and he regards the world with a sort of distant amusement, rather than his usual disapproval.

"It's been awhile."

[im2sexy4mysnark.livejournal.com]

She quirks an eyebrow at this alternate Jeff, "Or you're fated to be late, or early, occasionally. The near miss, or getting to see something new."

Altalita gestures with her mug-o-spiked-Raktajino, "Have a seat, sweet. It has been a while." She leans back in her seat, regarding him thoughtfully. So like the Jeff she knows, but a different route taken.

[serpens-dei.livejournal.com]

"True," he says, sliding into his seat. "Perhaps I should have said that you arrive exactly when you're supposed to, instead." He flags down the waiter and orders a jasmine tea in that same unhurried manner and leans back. "It's been rather longer for me than it has been for you, I imagine," he says. "But that's the Nexus for you."

The chuckle he gives is another indication that something might be off. The undisguised loathing he once had for the Nexus's chaotic energies seems to have evaporated. It seems even the most stubborn can change, given enough time.

[im2sexy4mysnark.livejournal.com]

"That's a better way of wording it, then." She beams. And the Koopa Troopa that is their waiter nods, jots this down, and skitters off.

An eyebrow quirks at him, "You're different," She observes, "Not as disgusted with the Nexus."

He also somehow seems older, perhaps, but even she sees things differently than most.

[serpens-dei.livejournal.com]

"Indeed," he confirms, nodding. "No easy task, either. It's not in my nature to change anymore. But still, given enough time, everything changes. I've learned that there are worse things than unpredictability. You learn to cherish it, after a while."

The Troopa returns with his tea, and he takes a long sip before speaking again. "Which brings me to why I'm here. I have need of your services."