Hark, the smells of coffee beckons to thee!

[notbroody]

WHO: Niko, Takeo (open, feel free to make threads and hop)
WHAT: Just another day at work
WHERE: Transcend Coffee
WHEN: Afternoon



He'd probably get tired of the smell at some point. For the moment, the smell alone was good for a caffeine fix until he could find time to sneak a cup for himself.

It was routine at this point: dumping his bag and guitar in the back, writing down his shift time and catching up on note tag, avoiding being swept up in their Boss' antics, and sweeping his hair up in a neat, short pony-tail. Same old, same old...

Transcend, being the hipster artsy place it was, was currently having a special of buy a cake slice, get a little flag art work pointing out of it. The art was all donated, varying from intricate landscapes to abstract who knows what to crude stick figures to suggestive topics that were decidedly inappropriate for younger customers and saved for the late night crowd. Having been pestered to add on to the pile, Niko'd folded a mini-airplane and put it in crash fall into a piece of dark chocolate.

Comments

[velvetcrush]

The coffee shop certainly beckoned to Kaori, especially since it gave her an opportunity to procrastinate on her schoolwork. She hustled into the shop, immediately dumped her book-bag - a pink denim monstrosity decorated with bits of lace and a popular cartoon cat - at the first unoccupied seat she saw. Kaori walked quickly up the counter, sufficiently blocking anyone else from approaching it while she perused the menu to figure out what she wanted. It just took a moment then she was ready to order.

"I'll have an iced double mocha and a slice of dark chocolate cake," she told the barista.

[notbroody]

Niko nodded slightly. "Iced double mocha and dark chocolate. Got it."

It would have to be his paper airplane work that was the last piece of dark chocolate. He grabbed it anyway and put it on a plate with a smily, winking face on the surface with the words 'WE WISH YOU HAVE A NICE DAY'. He added a bit of whip on the side and pushed the plate towards the girl before getting to work on her mocha.

[velvetcrush]

Kaori raised an eyebrow as she was presented with cake with a paper airplane in it. Was this some kind of joke? Or even sanitary? Kaori carefully picked out the airplane, promptly looking around for a trash can to pitch it into. Finding one, she trashed the plane quickly and returned to the counter. She sighed and fished out her wallet, preparing to take out some yen to pay for the purchase, though she was sorely tempted to deduct from the cost of the cake. The guy who took her order was probably just a barista and not the owner, anyway.

[notbroody]

When Niko was done her drink (intricate flower cris-crossing decorated the tall glass), he turned to find the cake now airplane-less. He looked at the cake flatly. Twitch.

However, he tried to keep the irritation off his face, looking more like his 'broody', quiet self. He said, "Iced double mocha. That'll be 880 yen altogether, miss."

[velvetcrush]

Kaori noticed the twitch and rolled her eyes. Whatever. The customer was always right and he was lucky she hadn't dumped the cake in the trash, too, and demanded another one without weird foreign objects served in it. It wasn't like she was turning her nose up at free food - she was a paying customer.

Kaori quickly counted out the right amount of yen and dropped it into the cash tray. Without saying a word, she simply took her mocha and cake and left.

[notbroody]

Niko resisted the urge to roll his eyes (his hand clenched and unclenched). Of course she wasn't a tipper either.

He went to count the amount, then, after a moment, sighed when he remembered what he was supposed to ask. He called to her, "Miss? Would you care to fill out a survey about our services?"

Ugh.

[velvetcrush]

"Sure."

She sat her mocha and cake down then returned to the counter. It'd be a good chance to recommend they not serve paper airplanes to people they were trying to separate from their yen.

[notbroody]

...Great.

Niko pulled out one of the survey sheets from behind the counter (he was half-surprised there wasn't a layer of dust on them, with how rare they handed them out). Like the plate, there was that smiling, winking face, this time with a 'WE HOPE YOU ENJOYED US~'. He handed it to her along with a pen.

"Here. Fill it out and you have a chance in the monthly draw for ten free drinks."

[velvetcrush]

Kaori nodded as she took the sheet and pen from him. A chance to win ten free drinks wouldn't be so bad. The mocha the baristo had made her certainly looked good. Hopefully, it'd follow through with excellent taste.

"Thanks," she said, some of the ice in her tone beginning to melt.

[notbroody]

Niko nodded. "Just let me know when you're done or leave it on the counter."

Since there weren't anymore customers at the counter at the moment, Niko started restocking the baked goods selection. The girl had taken the last of the dark chocolate picked out some more of that, adding more flag art at random.

One of them was another mini-paper airplane.

[velvetcrush]

Thankfully, Kaori had already turned away from the counter by the time the baristo started sticking flag art into cakes or some of the ice would have returned. As it stood, she simply returned to her table, setting the survey aside.

She sampled the mocha first. A little bitter but she liked that. Then she started on the cake. After one bite and expression of pleasure so profound that it bordered on orgasmic surfaced. She closed her eyes, savoring the bite, then quickly took another.

"Oh, this is delicious," she said out to loud to herself.

The bright side of not being an idol anymore was that she could indulge in junk food without her manager pitching a fit.

[notbroody]

Niko hadn't been paying much attention to the girl until he noticed she was done the survey. So, when he came back to pick it up, he had a close up view of her expression as she tried the cake.

He lightly snorted. There was a small smirk on his face for an instance but it quickly disappeared.

[velvetcrush]

Kaori had another mouthful of cake when the baristo came by her table and snatched up her untouched survey. She swallowed quickly and called after him, sounding slightly petulant.

"Hey! Wait, I wasn't done with that yet!"

She pouted.

A while After Karoi Leaves

[heartracing]

A break, that was what she needed. Just a normal break to get away from the whole business. For the past three hours she had been racing all over the city picking up parcels and deliver them to other places. Service with a smile they called it, Ayako saw it as more grin and bear it. Some of the packages were easy drop offs, light weight, nothing too cumbersome to carry. A quick "Thank you, Sir or Ma'am" tip of the hat, and then a mark or signature to seal the deal. Some not so easy and bigger then she expected, or heavier then she wanted to carry. There were a few rudies, but nothing too bad. Tips were appricated, and so far she'd made just under seventy five, give or take some change. It was a good day...so far.

But now the exhaustion set in, her water had run dry and the last fifteen minutes or so she'd been racing around town with a dry throat and he knee hurting. The coffee shop was a welcome sight, but she wasn't too keen on the whole hipster aspect. Mostly from having to deal with people who claimed to be them but then mocked the athleates due to their "idosyncratic actions." Whatever that ment. So it had been with a bit of relcutance that she had gone in.

Dressed in her uniform, yellow and blue blazer her last name pinned on a badge, page boy cap with the name of the service on top, blue pants and yellow gym shoes, she stuck out more then she wanted. Taking off the cap she wiped her forehead with some napkins, something that got a look from a few customers in the corner, and sighed to the clerk.

"Bottle of water, a bagel with cream cheese and strawberry jam and a iced expresso please."

Re: A while After Karoi Leaves

[notbroody]

Niko, who had been silently swearing and glaring with narrowed eyes as he worked with the ice generator, took a moment to collect himself before he stood up and returned to the counter and back to his usual 'broody', quiet self to find....yellow. Lots of yellow. He responded, after a cursory look,

"Sorry. Ice machine's out right now. Still got it hot, though."

Re: A while After Karoi Leaves

[heartracing]

"Hot? Hot?" She'd been sweating up a storm and this guy wanted to serve her hot coffee. Ayako rolled her eyes. "Might want to kick that broke down thing a few times to get it to work. Do you have it in a bottle then? Premade stuff? It's disgusting but better then nothing I suppose."

Re: A while After Karoi Leaves

[notbroody]

"Tried, didn't seem to agree," Niko said, managing to keep most of the dryness out of the remark. "Don't keep any of it premade or bottled but can water it down with cold milk. Other than that, it's just sodas and juices."

Re: A while After Karoi Leaves

[heartracing]

"Ugh, you guys can't even stock something as simple as premade iced coffee? Seriously?" Ayako sighed and took off her cap setting it on the counter."Fine then. I'll have one expresso, an empty bottle, you do have some ice in the back or anything? I could just make my own ground up ice and cool it down. Also a bottle of water, a bagal with cream cheese and srawberry jam."

She pulled out her money to pay and glance up, "Got all that?" She didn't wait for a respose before glancing over at the old machine and shaking her head. "I don't get you hipsters, seriously, old stuff doesn't always funtion right. Maybe you should, you know...get something new. Just because you liked it before anyone else doesn't mean it's a good idea."

Re: A while After Karoi Leaves

[notbroody]

Niko suppressed the twitch. Slightly. He nodded. "Espresso, empty bottle, bottle of water, and bagel with cream cheese and strawberry jam, got it. Got a bit of ice left over but not sure the espresso'd get much better colder than lukewarm. Still want it?

"Yeah, well, was working just fine till about now. Today's the just the day it decided to die," Niko said, catching himself before he could wave his hand dismissively. And it would break down during his shift.

Re: A while After Karoi Leaves

[heartracing]

Ayako cricked her neck. Her whole body was stiff from the ride and she still had at least two more hours and a dozen or so deliveries on her before her shift was over for the day. They had cut her week day hours, but elongated her weekend. Ice coffee was one of the few things that kept her going during the time she had, and the longer her day was the more she needed the caffinee to keep her energy up. The water kept her hydrated, and that was the key.

"Sure, as long as I can make it cold." Ayako told him. Her eyes landed on the remains of his airplane handy work and she chuckled, "Add one of those on there too."

"The older they get the more likely they'll break, unless they were built in the fifties," Ayako said to him as she glanced around for an open seat. "At least that's what my mother told me." She shrugged, "Might be a good idea to clean it daily."

"I'm going to sit by the window over there, can you bring me my stuff? How much do I owe?" She counted out her cash.

Re: A while After Karoi Leaves

[notbroody]

It took a second for Niko to realize she was referring to one of his mini-paper airplanes. He stared for a moment but, after a beat, shrugged. Whatever.

"Already do that." At least Niko did; he had a strong feeling who didn't when they were supposed to. "Not like we can go out and change everything up just because it got old either. Besides." He snorted sardonically. "Looks less mainstream this way.

"Yeah, can do. And that'll be 7500."

Re: A while After Karoi Leaves

[heartracing]

"7500 yen?!" She sighed and pulled out the money and layed it in the cash tray. "Jeeze, are you charging me for the none existant ice coffee? I would think it would be cheaper given the fact that I'm making my own."

She scooped up the hat that read "Sunshine Courier Services" and snorted, "You do know, for a place that calls itself Transend Coffee, it's not really transending anything. Besides that, if this place is trying to be less mainstream but is serving expresso, it's all fake in that sense."

"So who's idea was it for the paper airplane? Kind of cute."

Re: A while After Karoi Leaves

[notbroody]

"Still paying for the coffee, the cup, and the service, and still cheaper than StarDucks," he replied, ringing the order through and passing her the receipt. "Tch. Still a coffee shop when it comes down to it. Getting by on just coffee or tea alone wouldn't do much business-wise."

Niko shifted slightly at the comment. 'Cute' wasn't the word he'd use for it. "Just part of weekly special the boss came up with. Buy a cake, get pretty local art included."

Re: A while After Karoi Leaves

[heartracing]

"You guys don't price hike the coffee do you? I hear some places do, and what ever happened to the good old cup of simple black coffee." Ayako shook her head. "Why not? Some places get by on just serving bagels."

"A paper airplane is art? Well if something as weird as a soap bar with hair spiraled on it -which I had to deliver once -is seen as," she used air quotes, "Modern Art, then I suppose anything qualifies right?"

Smiling some she waved to him. "When it's done just bring it over to the table will you? I have to sort through the rest of my deliveries."

With that Ayako wandered over to the empty table and sat down. She put her feet up on the chair opposite her and tossed the hat on the table with an uncermonious thump and started to go through the sheets she still had to get signatures for. How people could send the weirdest things in the mail was beyond her.

Who in their right mind would order twenty issues of porn magazines? Man the stuff I deliver to make ends meet. She thought as she looked over the paper in her notebook.

Re: A while After Karoi Leaves

[notbroody]

"Because we're not a bagel shop? And don't think that'd think that'd go over well with the latte addicts," he replied. "And not like you can't order regular coffee."

Niko's lips twitched. "Yeah, well, it's something. Better than just scribbling something down and pretending it's something more than it's not."

It was about five minutes before he came by the girl's table with the carrying tray (and no soap incidents this time). He nodded and said simply, "Espresso, ice, bagel, and water, miss."

The espresso was in a smaller cup decorated with a yellow, sleeping cat; the somewhat melted, small amount of ice in a similar cup but with a sleeping dog; the red mini-airplane looked a bit like a rocket, launching out from the center of the bagel; and both bottles were on the side with the containers for the jam and cream cheese.