The Perk, Monday Evening

[shagthis]

Strange as it may seem, Jake was in fact perfectly aware that there were places in town that were not bars, the Trooper station, or the Arms

Comments

[batwaffles]

La la la, look at Stephanie coming in for an extra-strength caffeine kick in the pants for absolutely no reason whatsoever really.

So five-shot mocha with cinnamon and whipped cream it was, and she was on her way out when she noticed Jake. Admittedly it was the red velvet muffin that caught her attention first, and then --

"Oh my god, I think your cup is blooming."

. . . that hadn't been her head voice. Again. Oops.

[shagthis]

"...Blooming?" Jake was gonna side-eye you, Steph. SO MUCH SIDE-EYE.

[batwaffles]

WHAT FOR? SHE WASN'T UP TO ANYTHING SNEAKY AT ALL, REALLY.

Stephanie gestured vaguely with her finger, sort of an upward spiraling motion. "The rim?"

[shagthis]

"The- " Jake frowned, glancing down at his paper cup which was not the red kind with a gigantic yellow arrow.

He shrugged. "Huh. Habit, I guess. It's that time of year."

[batwaffles]

"Coffee cups have a season." Stephanie figured she'd heard weirder after this long in Fandom, and shrugged as best she could with a bookbag over one shoulder and a giant cup of steaming hot caffeinated goodness in her hand. "Come in for the drinks, stay for the random Fandom science lessons, I guess?"

Excellent deductive reasoning there, junior detective Brown. Excellent work.

[shagthis]

"Well, not all coffee cups," Jake said. "But the ones back home would have this contest thing," he flicked the unrolled rim with his thumb, "going on right about now."

[batwaffles]

Any telepaths who might be in the area might possibly be able to hear Stephanie mentally facepalming right now.

"What kind of contest?" she asked, eyeing her own coffee cup speculatively.

[shagthis]

Somewhere, Toby was snickering, yes.

"Oh, you know. Free coffee, free doughnuts, free... five person tent. That sort of thing."

[batwaffles]

"Which I presume doesn't actually fit under the rim of the cup," Stephanie said, and that was a little better on the deductive reasoning front. You know. Marginally.

"Quite a leap from coffee to a tent, though . . ."

[shagthis]

"No, no, you have to- actually, I'm not sure what you do, I've never won anything better'n a free coffee," Jake admitted. "There might be more in-between prizes? Also there's been cars some years."

[batwaffles]

"Coffee where you're from sounds more appealing all of a sudden," Stephanie told him. "Which -- where are you from, anyway?"

Because hello, accent.

[shagthis]

"Newfoundland," Jake informed her. "Canada," he added, after a beat, because apparently some people were unaware of where that was, April.

[batwaffles]

"I know where Newfoundland is," Stephanie told him, feigning just a tiny bit of insult for approximately 0.84 seconds. "Don't you have a time zone all to yourselves up there?"

[shagthis]

"We do at that," Jake said, clucking his tongue approvingly at her. "Not a lot of people remember that little factoid." At least, not a lot of American people.

[batwaffles]

Stephanie took a careful sip of coffee. "Whee, chocolatey," she couldn't help saying before going on. "The point-five hours part jumped out at me. Hard not to remember that."

Bruce had insisted she be able to convert time zones off the top of her head quickly. Daylight Savings still tripped her up a bit, though.