RP log: familiar haunts
A continuation of Elise Bauckmann's story. Some of you may recognize the location!
It was raining outside that evening, and the Bean Sidhe coffee house had a small but sedentary group of customers. Several were parked at the bar-style seating by the windows, watching the clean rain pour from a cloudy sky. Others were stationed at the tables that were scattered across the coffee shop, some tapping away on laptop shells and some simply relaxing with a hot mocha. A customer made his order with the elven barista girl at the counter, and an unusually attractive half-orc girl perused the pastries behind the counter's polyglass. In the corner, an Ai'Kiall'Tchall “Pol's Cat” bit into a grilled tuna melt. His wrists were bandaged, indicating that he was probably a donor.
Elise opened the door and walked in, setting off the entry bell. She had the slightly wild look of someone who had been hurrying up to that point, and her hair was damp from the rain. She walked up the the counter just as the previous customer finished his order, and she glanced up at the menu to see the selections.
The elven cashier looked up at Elise, blinking a few times as though waking herself from a reverie. “Help you, miss?” Behind her, a young human woman operated the various drink machines.
Elise glanced to the side at the half-orc, but seeing that she was still engaged by the pastries, turned back to the barista. “Yes, I think I'd actually like a nice hot sandwich just now… what do you suppose you'd suggest?” Elise asked, picking her words with care.
The barista elf scrunched her face into an unattractive pose. “Um,” she replied. The barista operating the machines immediately piped up without stopping her business, “Any of the Paninis! The pesto chicken's good. So's the hobo chip butty, if your arteries are too wide.”
“Might I have the pesto chicken, then? And I think I'd like a nice big glass of iced chai too, if it-” Elise swallowed the rest of her sentence, realizing that “if it wouldn't be too much trouble” was probably uncalled for in this situation.
The bitten-off sentence earned Elise a raised eyebrow from the elven barista. “Pesto chicken panini and a… large? Iced chai.” The human barista, who seemed to already have gotten out the bread for the panini, only nodded. The elven barista tapped her register-shell a few times and looked back up at Elise. “That'll be nine cred forty-three demi,” she said.
Elise fumbled around in her messenger bag for a moment, pulling out a chit purse. She started counting out chits of various denominations, eventually furrowing her brow before dumping them back into the purse and handing a ten-cred to the barista with an apologetic smile. She then felt a looming presence; the half-orc woman had moved to stand behind her in line.
Turning slightly, she looked up at the half-orc behind her, involuntarily taking a step away to ease the strain of looking up to the taller woman's face. The woman had a good quarter-meter on Elise, and to accentuate the difference, she had a strong half-orcish build. Elise met her eyes briefly and a smile flickered across her face before turning back to the barista.
The half-orc smiled and nodded politely to Elise, and Elise felt the barista take the ten-cred chit from her hand. Elise turned back just as the barista deducted a demi-cred chit and handed it to her. Elise smiled and took the chit, re-packing her bag and moving aside to let the next woman approach. “We'll hand you your order over there,” the cashier said, then looked up at the orcish girl a bit coolly. “Help you?” she asked. Elise looked up as she said this, glancing between the two women and looking uncomfortable before backing off and moving in the direction the elf had indicated.
She was ambushed by her iced chai, which the human barista set at the edge of the drink counter just as Elise reached it. The girl gave a tight but friendly smile and said, “Your panini's still grilling,” before turning back to her work. Elise caught a glimpse of a leaf-shaped tattoo on the girl's cheek before she turned away.
Elise gave her a grateful smile as she picked up her tea, turning to find a nearby table. Hopping up to sit on it, she held her drink in both hands and sipped it, her face impassive, while watching the half-orc woman place her order.
She pointed at a specific item behind the polyglass of the pastry counter, leaning over to reach it. “I'd like the creme-de-fleur, please,” she said, her French accent sounding surprisingly accurate. The elf grunted and moved behind the counter to retrieve the pastry. The human barista stood on her tiptoes and spotted the half-orc. “Afternoon, Miss Beanhammer,” she said. The half-orc smiled broadly. “Good afternoon, Tea.” Elise cocked her head to the side, mouthing the name “Beanhammer” to herself. I know I've heard that name before, she thought.
She still had a puzzled look on her face when the barista who'd just been called “Tea” cried, “Panini!” spinning Elise's sandwich onto the drink counter. It spun in place, rolling on its tilted edge violently for a few seconds before settling down.
Elise, startled, jumped off the table, somehow not spilling her chai. She set the glass on the table behind her and went to fetch her sandwich, calling out “Thank you, Miss Tea,” to the barista before taking the plate back to her table.
“Sure thing, kiddo,” Tea replied automatically.
She sat on the bench this time, tucking her feet underneath her and setting her bag down next to her as she picked up the panini and started to nibble at it. Having settled down, her gaze wandered around the shop a bit, though it did keep coming back to the half-orc and the elf. As the half-orc woman paid for her pastry, a cupcake-like confection with dollops of cream atop it, Elise heard a voice behind her. “Hey, it's Elsa's new pet.”
Elise gasped and whirled towards the voice, accidentally sending her glass sliding across the table in her surprise. She lunged for it, catching it before it flew off the table's edge, but not without about half of its contents sloshing out. She gave a disappointed little moan before looking again towards the voice that had surprised her, her eyes widening and cheeks reddening when she finally recognized him. It was the elf she'd met at the bazaar, though it took several seconds to recognize this fact; he looked completely different from his appearance at the booth. He now wore a gray rainproof duster, the hood of which was still glistening with drops of rain. He was also, incongruously, wearing a pair of dark sunglasses. His clothes were flashier than they had been at the bazaar. Elise said, “Hello again,” and lifted a hand in greeting, and might have said more had she not caught sight of her own chai-soaked hand. She gasped again, got out of her seat, and rushed over to the napkin dispenser to clean up her mess.
She was on her way back to the table when she was intercepted by Tea the barista, who stopped her with a “Ch!” noise. She already had an automop in her hand. “Not your job,” she said, and moved to clean up the mess.
Elise said a quiet “Oh,” as Tea moved past her, looking at the napkins in her hand and deciding to wipe her hands off as best she could with them, carefully depositing them in the trash before turning back towards her table.
The elf from the bazaar swept over to Elise, holding her chai in his hand. “You can make it up to her with a good tip. What has got you so jumpy, then?”
Her eyes darted over towards the half-orc woman, then to the elven girl behind the counter, and finally back to the man in front of her before saying, “Um… well, that is, nothing, really.” She took what remained of her tea from him and glanced over towards the table Tea was cleaning up. “I just didn't expect anyone to recognize me here.” She took a sip of her chai.
Tea moved past Elise, having already cleaned up the mess. The elf in front of her smiled a little bit and cocked his head, and was silent just long enough to make Elise very nervous. “All right,” he said. “So, what is your name?”
She looked up at him, blinking nervously before breaking her gaze away from his and replying, “I'm, uh, I'm Elise. Elise Bauckmann. And what's- what should I call you?” Her eyes flickered back up to meet his for a moment as she asked the question, then settled back down somewhere around his chest.
He withdrew his hand from his pocket and extended it to her. “Saturday,” he said. “Good to meet you, Elise.”
She took his hand, her eyes half-closing for a moment as she felt the rush of his magic again, before looking him in the eyes. “It's a pleasure to meet you, Mister Saturday.” She released his hand and slipped past him to sit back at her bench, still looking up at him. “Are you here for dinner?”
“Ah,” he said, “No. I was just passing by and I spotted you through the window. Seems I interrupted your dinner, though… chai-soaked panini, I believe?”
Elise blinked. She looked down at her plate, which now showed obvious puddles of tea. Her face fell and she tried to pick up the panini, making a face and dropping it back on the plate with a disheartening “squelch”. She looked back up at Saturday and gave a weak laugh. “It seems like it,” she said with a small, rueful smile.
Saturday turned. “Come on,” he said. “I'll take you to the Reynaldo's. We can have something there.” His tone was that of a decision that had already been made.
Elise looked surprised. “Oh!” she said. “Oh… thank you!” She stood back up and smiled more warmly at him. She glanced back down, unsure whether she was supposed to clear her own table.
Saturday was already on his way out the door, the raincoat billowing behind him. Tea waved Elise off from her position behind the counter. In seeing her, Elise also caught sight of the half-orc, who was regarding Elise with a look on her face that most people reserve for children doing really adorable things.
Elise blushed as she caught the half-orc's eyes, started towards the door, then abruptly turned around and hurried over to the counter, her hand flying into her bag and somehow unerringly pulling out two single-chits. She dropped them into the tip jar on the counter and said, “Thank you, Miss Tea!” She whirled around and rushed to the door, catching the half-orc's eyes again and mumbling something that might have been “Goodbye, Miss Beanhammer,” under her breath. She reached the door and shoved it open, leaving the coffeeshop as much out of breath as she had entered it.