drawing pictures of mountaintops

[francis_barnam]

Francis has a box of sidewalk chalk, and is currently doing a very, very large piece in front of the Conrad. He's been working on it for hours, and doesn't look like he's going to be stopping any time soon. It seems to be a rather gory murder mural. It's not particularly good.

Dr. Katherine Kirschenbaum is lecture planning in the Coffee Shop. Her

Comments

[rattle_thecages]

If Shakespeare is looking for one Rachel Dawes, he will find her curled up in one of the spacious arm chairs at the far back of the common room. She's reading a book, though she isn't terribly concentrated, because sleep isn't coming to her as easily to her as she'd like.

She would, of course, welcoming a distraction.

[magic_in_genius]

He doesn't know what she looks like, which makes her a bit harder than find than he had expected. He does find her, but he doesn't know it. But a pretty girl in the common room is not something he can just let go. "Excuse me, miss," he says, standing in front of her. "It is a pity to tear someone from literature, but I'm need of assistance. And it would be such a pity to give up a chance to talk to someone so fair."

[rattle_thecages]

Rachel lifts a brow at his formality, closing the book as she sits up straighter.

She manages a smile despite the tiredness it may exhibit.

"How may I help you?"

[magic_in_genius]

"I'm looking for a one Miss Rachel Dawes," he says, giving her a smile. "I need her assistance on a project of mine, but I'm afraid I don't know what she looks like. Although, I can't imagine she'd be as sweetly featured as yourself."

He holds his hands up, as if the whole situation is just a mess.

[amuseamused]

Jennifer Rose tends to walk past the Conrad pretty often, since it's between Grant Park and her school. Francis' mural attracts her attention because art always does. She doesn't care for the subject matter at all, but she's somewhat fascinated by his grasp of anatomy. It's... unique.

She is standing where she's more or less out of the way, but she finally has to ask, "Um, excuse me, but why is he bleeding black?" It's quite nicely dramatic, but she's not sure if this is some sort of metaphor for the Middle East or not.

[francis_barnam]

"Because demons bleed black," Francis says. His answer is short and curt. He doesn't have time to play Q&A with little girls walking down the street. He needs to finish the chalk art. It's driving him insane. He has better things to be doing, but right now...

He frowns, going over to another section, working at it madly.

[amuseamused]

"Oh." That sort of makes sense, since she knows that demons exist. Theoretically. She doesn't think she's actually met one or anything. Or it's possible that Francis is just crazy.

And then she notices how very driven he is about his art, and the lightbulb goes on. "Oh!" She's not ruling out the possiblity that he's crazy, but she's quite willing to beleive that he's not just crazy. She's seen people this focused before, although it's usually her fault. "Oh, well, good luck then." She carefully skirts around Francis' work space so that she can continue back to her dorm.

[sensi_doctor]

JD sometimes returns to the coffee shop just to prove that he can and that nothing bad happened here ever. Certainly not anything that he was involved in. Nope. Chicago is a perfect place! Everything is good in the world.

He's drinking a fruit smoothie by the counter looking out at the rest of the coffee shop, trying to not let his mind fall into memories of something that never happened.

When the lady with the coffee goes tumbling, JD rushes to the rescue. He snatches an armful of napkins from the napkin holder and jumps down on his knees next to her dropping them on top of the spill.

"Hey! Everybody spills stuff sometimes. No worries! I mean, one time I spilled a plate of pancakes at I-Hop. Believe me, syrup is a lot more difficult to get out." He reaches down to wipe the coffee-soaked-napkins across the floor, and then winces. Cause coffe is hot.

[diatomic_life]

"That's because the molecules are more polar, hence why it's sticky," Kat says. "That and carbon's such a mess... Such complex structures. Sugar. Sugar's such a mess, even if it's one of the simpler carbon structures. Not that syrup is a simpler sugar, but still. I mean, when you compare it to half of the stuff you see around, like say, caffeine, it's quite simple."

JD, she really is happy for your help. Rushing rescues when it involves coffee everywhere are amazing. She's just not too good with people.

She misses his wince, but starts helping him get the napkins together in a bunch. Her fingers are used to the heat.

[sensi_doctor]

JD doesn't seem to notice apparently. He stares at her for a moment with his mouth falling open wide.

"Wow. You're smart," he says after several moments of awed silence as if he doesn't have a PhD, himself.

He tends to act like he doesn't most of the time. It's a thing.

"What sort of molecules do you see around caffeine usually?"

JD starts wiping the coffee when she does, because clearly this means that it's safe to touch now, right? He hisses slightly, because it's still a bit too hot for him. He's a wimp.

"Must persevere," he mutters in a triumphant kind of tone, and then continues with the wiping up.

[diatomic_life]

She picks up one of her notes, watching it slowly drip on the floor with a heavy sigh. Blotting it dry, although still a mess, she puts it up on one of the chairs, frowning

[clanoftheswords]

Meanwhile, here sits Farley, staring at the address to the junk shop Doc recently mentioned in his journal and wondering if he should pay them a visit. While it would be interesting to see what kind of treasures he could find - after all, Doc did find something from his world (or another world like it) - there is still the threat of the CLF, invisible, intangible, but there all the same.

Then he glances up and spots Shakespeare. "Looking for someone?"

[magic_in_genius]

Shakespeare pauses, glancing over at Farley. He nods curtly, giving the man a smile. "One Lady Dawes," he says. He isn't sure he's seen this man before; as much time as he does spend down here, he doesn't come in contact with others that often. Too much time with his work and his thoughts.

[clanoftheswords]

"Don't think I've heard of her", Farley admits, frowning slightly. He's able to reason out that she's probably part of the supernatural crowd (man looking for her in the basement = she lives in or knows about the basement = therefore she's ???), but aside from that, nada. For a moment, he almost curses his desire to stay out of harm's way. Almost.

"Who are you?"

[magic_in_genius]

"William Shakespeare," he says, readjusting his laptop case. The things are honestly more heavy than a manuscript. Although, they can hold several, so maybe it's worth it. "I was hoping she could look something over for me. She offered, but I'm afraid I failed to ask here where she'd be. Although, good sir, it is rude to ask introduction of others before properly introducing yourself."

[findaconstant]

The only reason Dan is in the Coffee Shop today is because there's a chance Winny might be here. Shut up. He is not ridiculous at all.

Of course, his attention is torn away from the door when Katherine goes tumbling over. Because he is a gentleman, he hurries over to her, armed with a napkin (because that will totally be enough to clean up all that coffee) and a concerned expression. "Are you okay?"

[diatomic_life]

"Fine, fine, fine," Kat mumbles, looking at her notes. "But my notes? Not so fine. Everywhere and out of order and soaked with coffee..." She sighs, picking up one of the more coffee-soaked pieces of paper, watching it drip onto the floor. "I should probably ask the barista for a towel. I think this is going to take more than a napkin. Or maybe a mop. That, however, is still not going to save my notes."

She takes the napkin from him, with a strained smile, trying to blot the paper a bit, to see if she can at least get it decent enough to get back on the table so she can rewrite them.

Kat really needs to learn to say thank you.

[findaconstant]

"I can get you a towel!" Dan is speedy. And nice. And look, there he goes - and then he's back, with a towel and a barista armed with a mop in tow.

He is also resourceful.

It's also possible that he's just in a really, really good mood.

"Chemistry?" he asks conversationally, because now is obviously the perfect time to just talk.

[diatomic_life]

"Yeah, just setting up my lower-level o-chem lecture for next week," she says, taking the towel from him with a smile. She gives an apologetic look to the barista, but doesn't actually apologize. Apparently "sorry" goes by the wayside with "thank you" in Kat's world. (First of all, you have to actually be grateful to someone in order to say them. Second of all, she's just plain not too good at dealing with people.) She takes the soggy papers, lining them up on the table, starting to blot them with the towel.

Right now, she's focused on saving her work (and is quite glad she writes out her notes the old fashioned way-- a laptop would have been much angrier about the coffee) but Dan's just said her favorite word. As soon as she's sure she's gotten the work in a state where she'll be able to copy most of it, she turns back to him with a grin