Catgirls Kaiju Coffee

[wickedlittlecritta]

"Vidar! Vidar you can't walk on the counter!!" Cathal yelled, and then rolled his eyes as Vidar continued on. Then he looked at the regular in the big yellow raincoat.

"Julie, is your day always like this?" Cathal asked her, waving a hand vaguely. "Did you want the pixie stix in that too?"

"Yeah!"

"I got red or green?"

"Both," she said confidently. Cathal winked.

"That's my girl," he said, and went to make the giant, over-caffeinated monstrosity, trusting that Vidar could put out a kitchen fire.

 

[theunearthlyfool]

Thank goodness Harper had pushed Norah away from the oven, since the kitchen was now an even bigger mess of extinguisher foam on top of the burnt milk smell. Her sneakers were gross, but they'd wash; luckily, most of it had missed her.

Surprised into silence, she took stock of their wrecked kitchen. Czeslaw got to her feet before Norah could offer to help, which she feels bad about, so instead she takes another step back and leans against the fridge. In the breath before Vidar answers the question, she says quietly, "I wouldn't really punch you, Cessy, I'm sorry. I was just scared." She takes a breath of the charred toast and milk air (at least the smoke was clearing fast). "Are you okay?"

 

[abirdyofmanynames]

"EEP!" was all that Harper managed to get out before being dosed in the lion's share of the foam. The empty bottle of milk had been wildly tossed across the kitchen, but it did nothing to save her.

Slightly shocked, slightly grossed out, she held her arms out from her chest causing her to resemble a very unhappy snowman.

With her glasses covered, she could not even tell what was going on. Quiet miserably, she asked, "Does somebody have a towel?"

 

[TrashRabbit]

Him? Mad? No, why would he be mad? He knows that she really honestly can't help herself. Everyone on staff knows it. He plonks the fire extinguisher down on the counter and surveys the burnt wall and ceiling. The oven is all but schlag. His eyes move to the open refrigerator, now empty, where Harper used the last of the milk to put out the fire. Harper herself covered in foam- That almost very nearly makes him burst out laughing- not that it shows.

It's a lot to take in. It's not great, but honestly not the worst.

"No Cessy, I'm not mad," He says with a sigh. He's not mad but it's not likely Cessy will believe hi. It's like he is in a perpetual state of forgetting to tell his face he's not quietly seething. But hat's just how his face is.

He leans over and hits the switch for the over head fan to suck up the smoke and it rattles to life. They'd probably have to get management to replace the stove and that meant less plants, which was a little disappointing.

"Somebody clean this up he says," gesturing at the grey ashen milky puddle spreading across the kitchen floor.

 

[Zer0]

- Czeslaw Russo -
" Kitchen "​

"I understand," said Czeslaw meekly to Norah, "I'm okay." she smiled. She turned to Vidar and was abashed, turning red from embarassment. He sounded disappointed, that was worse. "I'll clean it up! I'll get you a towel!" she added to Harper, and immediately went to look for one, eager to redeem herself.

She offered Harper and Norah towels from her fireworks crate that smelled of cats, but were clean, apologizing again. Then she rushed to the restrooms to get the mop to start cleaning the puddle, gathering curious stares from the customers at her soot covered, zucchini bread stained, extinguisher foam splattered shoes self. Czeslaw gave her best reassuring smile at them all, her face still burning from shame. "Good morning, everything's okay! Enjoy your coffee and have a nice day!" and rapidly ducked into the restrooms to grab the mop and bucket and then power walk back in the kitchen without making eye contact.

She felt so remorseful. And sighed, as she went about cleaning.

 

[abirdyofmanynames]

Harper gratefully took the towel, animal smells and all, and brushed the foam off her arms. With her hands relatively clean, she was able to slide off her glasses and clear the rest of her face. She let out a loud "Pffffwaaaah!" as she was finally able to breathe freely again.

"Thanks Cessy." she called out as the pyro-inclined feline rushed out of the room.

Scooting over to the sink, she began some damage control. The hot water cleaned away the foam from her glasses and hands. Gingerly removing her apron, she was pleased to find that it had thankfully caught most of the foam on her torso. Tossing it and the foamy towel to the side, she grabbed a damp rag and began dabbing at the remaining damage. Was it perfect? Heck naw. But they had seen and been through much worse! If a Kaiju couldn't interrupt business hours, one little measly fire wasn't going to shut them down.

When she had finished, Harper rinsed out the rag and began wiping off the milky mess. "I got the counter tops!", she announced.

She wiped it down determined to get them shining in no time. When she was done, Vidar would not even recognize the place. He'd be all like , "Whoaaa. Where am I??? Mind=Blown!"

...

At least that's how the scenario played out in her head.

 

[theunearthlyfool]

Norah peers out of the kitchen at the queue in the cafe, then at Cessy and Harper getting started on the kitchen mess, and isn't sure how to be the most useful.

"I don't wanna get out of helping clean up, but there's a line?" She looks to Vidar for guidance. "Think we have enough milk to get through this crowd? I can go get some. Or go back to bar. Or also stay here. Whatever's most important?"

 

[TrashRabbit]

Right. The milk.
He reaches in his back pocket and pulls out a thick leather wallet stuffed with recipients and fishes out of the Management credit card. it's black and made out of heavy metal.

"Good thought. Pop over to the corner store and grab a couple gallons."

He glances at the line as well, tempted to tell her to buy some cans of starbucks coffee so they can just pour them in cups. But he has one entire moral so he doesn't. "Harper, I'll finish cleaning that- why don't you go help Cathal finish up dino-ladies stupid mega order. Cessy and I can finish up."

 

[Zer0]

- Czeslaw Russo -
" Kitchen "​

Mopping up the ashy milk mess around the oven, Czeslaw suddenly realized that she was going to be alone with Vidar and gulped. She kept her eyes down in total concentration at the puddle. He wasn't mad. That's what he said. So . . . maybe they were just going to clean. She spent the next couple of minutes in awkward silence not making eye contact, with nothing but the shlop and gloop of the mop wiping the floor or being squeezed into the bucket.

 

[TrashRabbit]

Vidar took over for for Harper and lapsed into silence working alongside Cessy, scrubbing more at the walls and throwing away charred suplies and salvagin what he could. he only grumbled a little bit at the destroyed package of napkins. He really appreciated some one he could just share a good companiable silence and gave cessy an appreciative glance as he threw away some burnt junk. It was a shame he can't read a room to save his life.

 

[Graystone713]

Kevin, for his part, wasn't all there. His mind was far, far away... The moment he registered that the oven was on fire, his mind vibrated out of his body. The zucchini loaves, the fire, the burnt milk smell... Today wasn't going to be good. Somewhere along the line, his body traded the broom in its hands for a mop, and began mopping alongside a vaguely pale figure. Kevin wasn't doing facial recognition either right now. Aside from mopping competently and lightly humming the tune of that one song... The uh, really iconic vaporwave one... Wow he wasn't doing song titles either! Macintosh plus wasn't a hard tune to name, but here he was! But yeah, Kevin wasn't doing much aside from the mopping, the humming, and the slow zoning out of this dimension.

 

[Zer0]

- Czeslaw Russo -
" Kitchen "​

Oh gosh thank goodness Kevin is here. Then Czeslaw looked at him in concern. "Kevin? Uhhh, Kevin? Are you okay?" That's when she failed to avoid eye contact with Vidar across the room and saw his appreciative glance. Her once tense shoulders drooped at ease. She attempted to smiled at him back.

She looked constipated.

 

[abirdyofmanynames]

Harper's cheeks puffed out when Vidar told her to change stations. There went her little daydream. But it retrospect, in was probably for the best that she be the one to give Cathal a hand. "Coffees. Mondo order. On it!" Harper nodded and repeated back.

Rejoining Cathal behind the bar, she grabbed the next drink. A triple venti soy no foam. Aw, but the foam is the best part! she grumbled while she began to steam the soy milk- thankfully, that had not been dumped all over the kitchen. Once the drink was sufficiently caffeinated and the quintessential foam had been removed, she lidded it and added it to the others. One more down... Ehhhh, How many more to go?

She turned, checking in on her brewing buddy, "How you holding up, Cathal?"

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

"Oh, you know," Cathal said, sliding Julie's coffeezilla across the bar at her before scooting over to make the last of the giant order of coffees. "Alive. I think. Do we need to call the fire department or did Vidar save the day?" He put the trays of twelve coffees together and then called, "I have a tremendous amount of caffeination! Ma'am? Here you are!"

 

[theunearthlyfool]

"Thank you." Norah takes the card reverently, holding it tightly until she can track down her own wallet so as not to lose it. "Okay, we've gone through a fair amount of soy and skim already, and that was the last whole milk I think," she thinks out loud. "I'll just… maybe I'll just get one of, like, everything."

Without really waiting for a response, she hurries to where she keeps her personal junk stashed in a box. Card goes in the wallet, wallet goes in the sweatshirt pocket, sweatshirt goes on and hand remains in pocket so I don't lose the dang wallet and card with it. This was a responsibility Norah took very seriously. She pulls off her gross sneakers and socks and changes into fresh ones, thinking she really needs to do laundry soon.

Passing back through the kitchen on her way out, Norah grabs a hefty reusable shopping bag and rushes out the back door. "I'll be back soon! Thanks guys!!"

She picks a direction at random, knowing there are multiple drugstores and convenience stores in the few blocks around the cafe that are already open, but having no idea which will sell milk. There's a fancy organic grocery store, too, but it's farthest away and she doesn't know when it opens, anyway.

Her thoughts are racing, but as deep in thought as she is, some instinct still has her glance over her shoulder as she crosses the square.

The tuxedo agent who was in line at the cafe has also left and is crossing the square behind her.

Oh. Shit.

 

[TrashRabbit]

Nancy P. Jenkins hopped to attention and trotted over to collect her order. "Hey thanks, I know its damn early," She says. She reaches for what is supposed to be a hot black and sips it. Which is a feat of modern engineering when you have a velociraptor head. But she manages.

And she shudders. And a pulse of bad vibes ripples through the cafe- cat girls are particularly sensitive to bad vibes and there's not a cat on staff who doesn't feel it. Nancy is a soft spoken girl, she not a regular at the coffee pawt but she's known, she and her gang do their best to keep the city safe from the scourge of the undying racoons who live in the sewer. But Nancy, having sipped a cold drip coffee at 5 am after a long night of racoon fighting and a 8 hour shift at the record store later is ready to loose it.

She makes direct eye contact with a Cathal and a noise only a velociraptor can make, "Do. You. have a manager?" She intones quietly.

 

[abirdyofmanynames]

"He turned me into frosty!" Harper complained while folks came to collect their muddled orders. "A genuine lookin' catcicle."

She started wiping down the equipment. "But the store will survive to see another day."

Harper felt a shiver run up her spine. She hesitantly turned and whispered to herself, "Or maybe not... day's still young."

She decided to make herself scarce and slid under the counter trying to find a non existent coffee lid.

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

Technically, there was not actually a manager on staff. In practicality, it was either Cathal or Vidar, and Vidar had just put out an actual, literal fire, so Cathal said, "That's me. What can I do--"

And then he realized she was drinking the black coffee. And he realized he didn't know who'd made it, but it wasn't him, and he was pretty sure it wasn't Norah or Harper either, which meant the chances of someone else very helpfully putting the left over dregs of cold coffee that Vidar, for some unfathomable reason, drank in the morning, into a cup and giving it to a customer was roughly 100%. He looked Nancy directly in the eyes and said, "I think we gave you our other manager's terrible cold coffee by mistake. Let me make you a fresh cup right now."

 

[TrashRabbit]

"Please," She said in such a misserable little voice that it could make jeff bezzos weep. She hands him the offending cup with both hands, like she was giving him a curse or a baby bird.

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

Cathal accepted the cup in both hands as well, and then turned around and dumped it in the trash before going over and clearing out the machine to make a fresh cup. She had only asked for a 16 ounce cup, but he returned with a 20 ounce one and said, "It's very hot."

 

[TrashRabbit]

She recieved this offering by making direct eye contact and telling him: "I love you."

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

"You have a great day," Cathal told her with gravity.

 

[abirdyofmanynames]

Harper barely peaked out from the counter once she was positive Cathal was not literally about to get his head chewed off and mouthed, "Awww."

She turned back to the catboy, "That was sweet. You're sweet. Good job."

 

[TrashRabbit]

Julie had continued to loiter around after Cathal gave her the monstrous coffee of doom, as she was want to do, especially when something exciting like a kitchen fire was hapening. The agent on the other hand stood in bewildered horror as the kitchen fire broke out, looking unsure if he should stay or go. Julie gigled. All the tuxedo boys were like that. Twitchy, unsure, new to town and terrified. Like they'd never seen a catgirl haul ass with a fire estinguisher at 6am. Everyone had seen a cat girl put out a fire if they visited the coffee pawt enough. She stood in quiet awe as the chaos played out- how the coffee continued to get made. She watched with vivid fascination as the agent followed Norah out of the shop, and as the newspaper boy mad an absolute mess with his icecream breakfast at one of the tables. Then just when she thought it had all settled she watched Cathal handled an angry dinosaur punk.

This was a pretty tame morning at the Coffee Pawt in her opinion. Nancy P. Jenkins left with her 1 hot black and tray full of partially correct coffees and it was like a sigh of relief came out of the shop.

"Wow I thought you were gonna die for a minute," She said to Cathal, coming up to the counter. Now that shop was empty and the fire was out, she felt no need to get on a move on without trying to talk Cathal's cute little ears off. She sipped her terror coffee and asked, "Any way, any plans tonight?"

Cessy tight painful smile made him, uncomfortable? Had he done something wrong? Sometimes he worried her. He hit a point with cleaning up that he felt was good enough and told Cessy and Kevin, "I'm going to go smoke a cigarette...Kevin why don't you take a break?"

He came out to the cafe and sighed in relief when he saw the line was gone. He poured himself another cup of drip coffee and was disappointed to find it hot but sipped it anyway. He liked the very cold very bitter dregs in the morning and he wasn't ashamed of that.

"Good job with that mega order. Who does that anyway? this is the Coffee Pawt now a fucking starbucks-" He caught himself from complaining too much, waves at Julie and head out front to stand on the street corner and vape. Cathal and Harper had beaten real cigarettes out of him, and also they were expensive. The front of the shop is cute, with a brick face and a sign hanging above the door with a logo with a paw print in a coffee pawt. The rest of the street is still sleepy and full of mist and he is a regular sight standing under the lamp post, generating a small strawberry flavored cloud around himself.

Not the worst morning rush on record.

 

[Zer0]

- Czeslaw Russo -
" Coffee Pawts "​

"Righto!" said Czeslaw to Vidar. When he was gone, she leaned against the immaculately clean counter, looking at the dawn filtering through the kitchen windows illuminating swirling dust motes. She sighed, then chuckled at her own silliness for making weird faces when she was nervous. Drumming her long fingers against the wood, she absently watched Kevin mop a bit, as she thought about what to do about their pastries for the day what with the oven out.

She . . . can try to bake the bread again. She stared at one of her hands, and a heat wave shimmered the air before it. Flames flared much too high for her liking --- and she quickly closed her hand into a fist, putting it out. Still can't control it . . . She needs music.

Gathering her vest, tie, and pushing her glasses up her nose, Czeslaw stepped outside to pull open her fireworks crate and rummage inside. The cats in the alley meowed at her, jumping up the crate to see what she was doing. "No, no food right now." she chuckled at them, and found her phone and black earphones. Swiping the screen background of her and the gang fighting a kaiju away, she tapped play on one of her playlists entitled, Release.

She let out a soothed breath, as rock covers of angry Disney music streamed from her earphones. "That's better . . . " she breathed. She looked at the nails at the side of her crate, and rummaged again for something inside. Taking out a nail, she hammered one in to join the rest. Eight nails . . . eight nails this month for when she lost her temper and something bad happened. She leaned against the brick wall, and raised her hand. Flames burst to life. She closed her eyes and imagined that guy in the train, as the music switched to murder electro swing that allowed her to feel the anger she suppressed, and just let it leak out, keep it from staying in her veins and becoming fuel for her fire. Leak it out to prevent it from hurting others. Leak it out so that she can work today. She thought of Vidar asking who it was, saying he'll kill him, that made her feel better too.

She opened her eyes, and fire in her palm cackled tamely, low and orange. She willed it to grow five feet, brightening to a golden yellow, and then die down to a red ember glow. Slowly she felt more and more confident as she practiced with two hands now, her pyrokinesis, and couldn't wait until they went out fighting again so that she could release some more. When she was certain she had her fire under control, she smiled and stepped back into the kitchen, switching to her playlist, Happy.

Spoiler: Cessy's Happy Playlist

After another bath and a change of clothes, Czeslaw helped make another batch of zucchini loaves, galaxy donuts, and three-cheese french breakfast toast with egg and crispy bacon bits in the background of relaxing jazz and bossa nova. She felt redeemed, sort of --- she still needed to help pay for the oven --- at the end of the morning. Despite having no oven they were able to bake the pastries using a combination of pots and pans she heated up, and she got good tips from it too. Enough to feed her beloved strays healthy food instead of dumpster left overs. The cafe recovered nicely from the mishap this morning, and she heard Cathal smoothed over a May-I-see-the-manager raptor customer and got an I love you as well. This actually turned out to be a nice day.