savethecitydesu | Hark, the smells of coffee beckons to thee!

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Hark, the smells of coffee beckons to thee!

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"You could 'probably' fix a bad streak of luck?"

There was the reference to the garden again. Not like Niko'd been able to forget the place but he'd done a good job brushing it firmly into the 'freak incident/don't care' pile. It'd been weird as fuck, and so was Toshio the Creepy Boy Wonder.

Kinda like right now, when Toshio was talking to the space beside Niko. After a beat, "....What're you going on about?"

"I'm talking about the demon that was about to trip you into messing up and hurting that guy, which, from the huge coffee stain on him, I'm going to guess isn't the first time.There you go, question answered," he said, in a voice too quiet for Takeo to hear. He drank a little more milk before adding, "You know, back in the day they used to put good luck charms, or just some salt on the doorway, to keep those things out. But I guess that's just not how it goes no more, huh? Grow some rosemary or something."

He breathed deep, and added. "And yes, 'probably.' Depends on the bad luck. It's not my thing. I just do flowers. Can I have a little more milk? Don't worry, I got money."

Edited 2013-03-25 14:51 (UTC)

"....Right." Niko, aside from being the master of 'does not gave a shit', was also master of getting more skepticism across with one word than most people managed with anything else. He snorted and waved his hand dismissively. "Wouldn't work out. Got a black hand for that stuff."

Niko refilled his cup with skim this time (still to the brim though). It was more dull curiosity than anything else when he asked, "Long as it's something flowers can do, you can do it?"

Toshio took his milk, and once more seemed slightly subdued in his bratty moods by it. Mild-mannered, he brought it to his mouth, mouthing a soft 'thanks' before sipping a bit. When he nodded, looking up at Niko, he seemed less brash than usual. Hesitant to be disbelieved in. "More... or less. But I know the basics of how things work, it's just... I don't have a lot of power outside flowers."

He then looked over at Takeo and Kaori. The girl in particular got her attention. She didn't have magic... but... "That girl, over there. I think I saw some girl with a magazine that had her on it?"

"You're a kid. Wouldn't expect you to have power over much," Niko said. After a beat, feeling awkward, "Flowers is something I guess."

Niko followed Toshio's look to Kousaki. "Maybe? Blond, curled hair isn't common." She looked pretty enough for that at least. He shrugged. "She could probably answer that."

Edited 2013-03-26 02:55 (UTC)

"Huh. I think I'll go ask her then," Toshio said, entirely blunt as kids are wont to be. He hopped off from the stool-- not without dropping a hefty amount of money on the counter, more than two cups of milk should entail (by at least three or four cups of milk), and walked up to Kaori.

"So, what's your deal?"

By that point, Kaori had finished her mocha and cake and was in the midst of procrastinating further by browsing GLIMMER fansites on her cell phone's web browser. She was in the process of anonymously trolling the comments on an interview with Yui, her former sub-captain and new replacement, when some kid she hadn't seen come in and didn't know approached her with a question.

"Huh? What do you mean?" She asked, still texting.

Oh he didn't like being ignored. He breathed deep.

"I mean, what's with you? I know I've seen you someplace before... Are you an idol, or a performer? You seem pretty young for it..." he said. "Is that why you have this attitude?"

"If you think this is 'attitude' and I'm too young to be an idol, you have a lot to learn about the world, kid."

She hit send on her text then snapped her phone shut, finally looking at him. Her expression softened ever so slightly upon actually giving him her full attention.

"But no, I'm not an idol. Used to be but I'm not anymore. So you probably saw me on TV or in a magazine. Do you listen to girl bands?"

Because every little boy wanted to publicly admit they were into pig-tailed girls singing and dancing in taffeta and ruffles.

"No, miss. I'm a homeless orphan who lives in a park, and I just see whatever I see on a magazine and I wonder what everyone else is listening to, since I can't afford to go record shopping for girl bands, or boy bands, or bands."

He made a face of exaggerate sadness, but then recovered his usual, neutral look, to arch his brows a little. "Thanks for looking at me when I talk. That's awfully polite. You should do it more often. So, ex-idol huh? Were you an actress or a singer or just... idol in that plastic-headdress Kyuri-Kyuri style? You know, Poom Poom Wai Wai Wai'? Which is kinda both actress and singer, when I think about it..." he said, eyes turning heavenwards thoughtfully.

Edited 2013-03-28 09:02 (UTC)

"Oh, my gosh! That is so sad!" Kaori exclaimed, eyes wide with apparent horror.

"You really can't afford records? You poor thing! Oh, and the no-parents-living-in-a-park-deal must be tough, too. Do you live in a cardboard box or sleep under a bench? You look pretty clean for a homeless kid," Kaori observed, the boy's question about her past apparently buried under total astonishment at this discovery.

"Would you like a cookie? Or some cake? My treat."

Edited 2013-03-28 22:52 (UTC)

"Is that sarcasm or sincerity?" he asked. "And no, I don't live in a cardboard box. I do sleep under a bench though. And I'm clean because I'm not human and this is just a manifestation of my body as well as I can manage afar from my place of power, miss, and until I am scraping the bottom of the barrel, I choose not to look dirty."

Now that was interesting. Just as interesting for some, perhaps, Kaori looked like she was taking the boy's story completely seriously rather than dismissing it as hogwash.

"Sincerity, of course. I'm not a total monster." Defiant hair-flip but she was smiling. "So do you want cake or not? My treat," she repeated.

Edited 2013-03-28 23:05 (UTC)

After pausing for a moment, as if reflecting on this turn of events, the boy jumped onto the chair across her. "Alright, but please get me a glass of milk then. It's been so long since I had so many."

"Alright," she said, getting up from her chair. She put her hands on the table and leaned over so she was eye level with him. "What kind of cake? And white or chocolate milk?"

"I don't care, as long as it's milk and cake..." he said. "So, you're an ex-idol, miss? You didn't answer what kind of idol you were."

"Pop idol. Girl band called GLIMMER."

Then she was off to order the boy's cake and milk at the counter.

"Miss," Takeo caught her as she passed him by, "I couldn't help but overhear... but you were in Glimmer?" he asked, eyelids drooping a little. It didn't seem like coffee was helping him recover from exhaustion, born from pain and soreness, in the slightest.

He then slipped a napkin over. "Is it too much to ask for an autograph?"

Kaori regarded the napkin with a strange expression. Should she? She hadn't planned on giving out autographs; it was kind of counterproductive to her goals in coming here in the first place. But this guy looked like he could use some cheering up and she was feeling considerably more charitable now than she had earlier.

"Do you have a pen?" She found herself saying as she took the napkin.

"Yes, I--" Takeo reached into his pocket, only to pull out a hand covered in ink. He began to grimace slowly, lips pursing tightly. "I... think I'll borrow one instead."

"Um, hang on, I need to place an order for someone. I'll see if Niko-san has one. Then I'll give you one, okay?"

She patted his shoulder as if to say 'hang in there', keeping the touch light and careful in case whatever chaos magnet plaguing this guy kicked in.

Whenever Kaori would return to her chair, she would find that Toshio was holding the salt shaker from the table, and looking at her intensely. "Grab some and throw it over your shoulder. Now."

Edited 2013-03-29 23:16 (UTC)

After Kaori placed the order and signed Takeo's napkin with a pen swiped from the front counter, she finally returned to her table. Before she could open her mouth to tell him his milk and cake were on the way, he was telling her to throw salt over her shoulder. Wordlessly, she held out her right hand for either the salt or the shaker.

Of course, she wouldn't see it happening, but for Toshio the true purpose of throwing salt over your shoulder was visible, plain as could be.

Salt is like acid to demons. And so Toshio watched as the one who had curiously slipped away from Takeo, to hover over Kaori, was now screaming and clutching his face, screaming about how his insurance didn't cover this.

And Toshio smiled. Softly. Sweetly. "There you go. Old superstitions and all that. You don't want a jinx to pass on."

Kaori nodded as if she already knew that.

"Salt's a purifying agent, isn't it?" she asked casually. "And supposed to keep the Devil at bay, is it not? According to superstition, of course."

She paused then shrugged. "I read a lot outside of school. This kind of stuff is kind of an interest of mine. Superstitions, folklore, mythology, that sort of thing."

Hark, the smells of coffee beckons to thee!

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