Catgirls Kaiju Coffee

[wickedlittlecritta]

"I would have been so mad if I died this morning," Cathal told Julie, and took a sip from his mistake latte. He frowned and went and added a pump of hazelnut syrup to it. He stirred the syrup in by moving the whole cup in a circular motion. "No plans though. Yourself?"

"Oh," said Julie, sipping her coffee. "Gonna see what time a cute boy gets off work so I can ask him to go to the movies with me."

She made direct eye contact with Cathal and waggled an eyebrow. He flushed.

"I, uh. I get off at three," he said.

"That's time for the arcade and a movie," Julie said.

"Only if you win me a really big stuffed animal," Cathal said.

"Deal," Julie said. Cathal assumed she'd leave and come back later, but apparently asking him out had been the whole of her plans, and she hung out at the Coffee Pawt with him all day. And as it would have otherwise been painfully slow, he deeply appreciated it.

 

[Sophos]

Sophos Leon was sleeping like the dead on a pallet in the back of the shop, hidden behind several bags of beans and flour, and had successfully managed to ignore the fire. She was briefly startled awake by the bad vibes, and right as she was starting to fall asleep once more she felt a buzzing. Of course now would be when someone decided to text her. Checking the text, she realized it was Norah, who apparently was being followed by one of those weird agent dudes.
"Fuck. Can't have that," she muttered, pulling her self up and out of her hiding spot, and stalking past the kitchen chaos, picking up speed. By the time she reached the counter she had enough momentum to vault it entirely and head straight out the door. Sophos ran to catch up to the agent following Norah, grabbed his shoulder and spun him around to face her before landing a solid punch.
"Why are you following Norah, you creep!?"

 

[theunearthlyfool]

She turns the glance into futzing with her hair, hoping it was inconspicuous. Norah walks a little faster. It's a coincidence, she thinks. He got tired of waiting in a burning, zucchini bread-less cafe and decided to go to Starbucks instead.

Still, better to play it safe- she switches pockets and pulls out her phone, scrolling for the message stream of the only barista who wasn't working this morning.

Hey sophos im so sorry to wake u but i ran out to get milk & i tjink one of those spooky agent dudes is following me o.O jsyk

Norah doesn't know how fast it takes texts to travel but she wills the message to hurry as she approaches a crosswalk. Unfortunately there's just enough traffic she has to wait. She dares another look behind her and the agent is definitely still moving towards her, though he's slowed somewhat since she came to a stop. At that moment though, Norah thinks she very distantly hears the ding of the cafe door.

There's a blur of motion as Sophos bolts into view. "Why are you following Norah, you creep!?" she demands, and punches him.

To Norah's credit, in her momentary panic she forgot that Sophos was the type to hit first and ask questions later; or, technically, ask questions and then hit immediately after, regardless of whether the question has been answered yet. But she's already kinda frazzled from her morning so far, and only feels a little bad for the tuxedo man. "My hero!" she exclaims with a surprised laugh.

 

[TrashRabbit]

The agent has enough time to look at Sophos in alarm before taking a fist to the face. Their mirrored aviators go crashing to the ground and they clutch their face with a curt Russian swear. He is a tall, slender, bright eyed man with a nose that looks like its been broken before. At the edges of his collar and his sleeves the tops of tattoos can be seen like ink icebergs, sugjesting he might be tatooed all over under his professional attire.
"I just want to ask some questions," He says in a thick but fluent slavic accent, "You work at the kitty-cafe too?"
He's still holding his nose, but he seems not as afraid of you as he aught to be. Everyone in town knows better than to mess with a cat girl, they all have super strength or can light things on fire, and the locals know not to mess with you.

 

[Sophos]

Sophos grimaces and picks up the agent's shades, handing them back to him. "Yeah, sorry, I get defensive of the others. Why didn't you just hang around the cafe and wait?"

 

[TrashRabbit]

"You know, when the kitchen catches on fire, it is usually not best time to ask personal questions." He says. He takes back his shade sand tuts at their now cracked lenses but puts them back on anyway- This only manages to make him look more menacing despite his soft spoken and reasonable nature. "Listen. I am looking for a man. Have you seen him?" He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a photograph to show Sophos. It is an image of another rather tall intimidating agent looking a bit awkward in a suit, the street behind him is smoldering and there is an upended car, he's looking at the camera like he's deeply disappointed or just wasn't expecting to be photographed. There is a second agent in the back ground, blury, sword drawn and facing away, long braids pulled back in a ponytail trailing down their back.

 

[theunearthlyfool]

Norah edges behind Sophos, feeling a little bad about the punching now. She voices her justification as to why she shouldn't out loud, tail flickering nervously. "Seriously dude, you shouldn't follow girls when they're alone. It's creepy as hell."

Not that she didn't think she could handle herself. But still, she could punch ghosts, for goodness' sake. It never hurt to be careful.

"Especially to ask-" here she air quotes with one hand, the other still in her wallet pocket- "personal questions at six o'clock in the damn morning."

 

[TrashRabbit]

"I was at a respectful distance. and I'm a morning person!" He says defensively. He gestures like he attempting to emote dramatically but his way of speaking is a little monotone which gives a really mixed message.

 

[Sophos]

"Nope. Don't know him," Sophos replies after a moment of studying the picture. "What about you, Norah? Look familiar?"

 

[theunearthlyfool]

"Oh, I'm so happy for you." She scowls, and is ready to lecture him when Sophos gestures at the photograph.

So she bites the comment back, and looks at it. At a cursory glance, she can't stop a confused grin from half-creeping onto her face. She would almost swear, just in that moment, that she saw that bewildered look of disappointment not twenty minutes ago on the face of her 'manager', right before he sent her on this errand.

But that's… that can't be right. Norah leans in a little closer, really focusing on the picture, to see if the street or anything else looks familiar. All she can think, though, is that this could be Vidar's evil twin.

She does not, however, trust this agent guy as far as she could throw him (even though she might be able to throw him decently far if she actually tried). So she turns the confused smile to him. "No, I don't think so, either. Sorry!"

 

[abirdyofmanynames]

With the goliath order defeated and the fires put out, it looked like these cool cats had things under control. Harper finished cleaning off all the equipment while Cathal flirted it up with Julie. The blenders were washed down and fresh coffee was brewing. From the untrained eye, nobody would have suspected the eventful morning that had occurred. Harper rolled up and tossed the damp rag back to the sink with a triumphant little, "Heck yeah." She threw up the tiniest of victorious fist pumps. Now they would be ready to go when the next round of crazy came around.

When the smells of dark roast and freshly baking treats finally masked the smell of burnt sadness, she popped back into the kitchen to check how Cessy was managing. Spotting everything going well, she gave her busy coworker a cartoonishly big thumbs up. "SMELLS. GREAT! GOOD. JOB!!!", She mouthed dramatically so that she can make out the affirmation with those headphones on.

She grabbed a wicker basket from the back filled with printouts for the cafe. Judging by the wispy hairs caught between the woven handle and the several crumpled ads on top, it must have as a bed for one of the neighborhood cats recently. She let out a silent gasp, How naughty!!! She tossed the few damaged papers out and took the rest to the front of the shop. There were not too many people out yet, but the few that were got met with a big smile and a Harper-style personal invite to the cafe. "HI!!!! Good morning! Come visit us soon!", she waved wildly to the pedestrians. Was it perhaps a little too much this early in the morning? Probably. But Harper was a catgal on a mission. "Oh! Oh! And remember us next time you or your friends need a purrfect pick-me-up!"

The pamphlets were not too fancy. It was just the logo with a few staged shots of some of Cathal's best work. A small menu. Hours. The works. But if handing these out to the masses brought in a few new faces, they'd be all worth it.

 

[TrashRabbit]

"Are you sure?" the Agent asked again, "He's 6'4", Norwegian, great with a sword. He is my partner. He is missing now for some time, if you see or hear anything, please do not hesitate to call me." As he says this he takes back his photo and exchanges it with his business card.

F. Alkaev
555-420-6969
​

The number looked suspicious but then Managment's numbers was just a string of 3's so that might as well be his number.

"Thankyou for your time," He says pushing up his now fractured glasses as blood continues to dribble over his lip.

 

[Zer0]

- Czeslaw Russo -
"Coffee Pawts Sidewalk"​

Czeslaw perked up and gave Harper a literal fiery thumbs up. "THANKS."

When she left, she smiled happily, Harper encouraged her even though she burned her Zucchini loaves. "She's nice." Czeslaw muttered at the pot-pan she was baking the new loaves in. She sucked a breath and made a determined face. For Harper she will bake this bread like its her baby, but not in that cannibalistic-sense-cat-buddha-forbid.

When she was done stacking the last of the baked goods on the front display cases and washing the pots and pans, she patted her hands clean on her apron, then hung it on the wall hook next to a basket of the ruined tablecloth and her messy clothes earlier in the kitchen. She got laundry to do later.

She pocketed her earphones and phone, then straightened her tie and made sure her vest was sharp and absent of crumbs before going out to see if she could be useful somewhere else in the cafe. Oh, it's Julie. She's here again. Ah, yes, perhaps it's best to leave Cathal alone with her.

She spotted Harper outside, and after giving Cathal a secret roguish wink as she strode around the counter and passed behind Julie, the cafe doorbell chimed, and Harper would find Czeslaw smiling next to her with a hand open. "Hi, Harper, mind if I join you handing out pamphlets?"

 

[abirdyofmanynames]

Harper had just waved goodbye to a mother and her baby going on their morning walk. The little guy had been wearing a little yellow onesy with ducklings on it and a matching pacifier. He had such big brown eyes. And those chubby cheeks! It had nearly been too much to handle. SO. FLIPPIN' . CUTE!

When Cessy came out her face lit up even more.

"Absolutely not ! Thanks for offering." She said scooping out a handful of the printouts. When she stepped closer to Czeslaw, she picked up on that oh-too-comforting smell of vanilla, butter, and brown sugar. Harper paused as her pupils dilated to the size of saucers. In pure awe, wonder, and delight, she said "Cessy. You smell delicious."

 

[Zer0]

- Czeslaw Russo -
"I am delicious!"​

Cessy paused. And then laughed, sunlight glinting on her glasses. "Thank you?" She accepted the pamphlets and leaned down to examine Harper's wide saucer eyes. "This is fascinating. I've never made anyone look high before." she chuckled, patting Harper jovially on the shoulder.

She sniffed the collar of her own long sleeved polo, curiously, then made a huh face and nodded in agreement. "I'll probably keep smelling like this until we get a new oven." She breathed deeply on the cloth, closing her eyes and enjoying the scent. She started handing out pamphlets. "Also, thanks for helping me with the cleaning, Harper." she smiled.

 

[abirdyofmanynames]

"Not high, just happy!" Harper corrected as she bounced on the balls of her feet as she tried to contain her giddiness. If this was the result of not having an oven, maybe it was better that they didn't replace it. She was certain the rest of the crew would not agree with her, but it was a nice little surprise to come from all the mayhem.

As they worked, the pile of ads slowly shrunk. The company really made the task at hand far more enjoyable. "No problem." Harper beamed, "I know you would have done the same for me."

 

[Graystone713]

It took Kevin longer than he’d like to admit to register that Vidar put him on break, and that things were okay again. So, knowing his time was limited, he sprinted at full speed to ThirstTea. This may have involved using the Windy Thing to cheat.

When Kevin walked in, he was the only customer in the store, facing the variety of Boba Bears who manned the store. The Red Pandas (who Kevin knew weren’t the dang undying raccoons) had barely flipped the door sign to ‘open’ and turned on the lighted sign by the time he reached the counter and waved at one of the more anthropomorphic employees.

“Usual Honeydew?”
“Yes please.”

Went his brief exchange with the big polar girl, the one who Kevin swore to one day find the courage to talk to for more than a minute.

“Here you go, Kevin. Rough morning?”
“The oven caught fire today, Shale. It doesn’t bode well.”
“Ouch. Well, at least you’re going back with Boba.”
“Yeah. Thanks, Shale!”
“Any time, lil kitty.”

was the closest he got to a real conversation before he started his run back to the Coffee Pawt. And when he arrived, he still had 2/3rds of his boba, the scent of new baked goods overwrote the scent of burnt milk, and he felt that maybe the day had a chance to turn around!

 

[theunearthlyfool]

Each quality the agent lists stands Norah's hair more and more on end until she's sure she's poofed up like a distressed Studio Ghibli character. That described Vidar way more closely than she'd like to hear from a spooky Russian man in black. Stupid Vidar and his freaking mall katana.

But she forces herself to breathe and nods at his request, breaking out her best customer service voice. "Aw, sorry to hear you've lost hi-"

She looks at the number on the card she's just been handed. Looks up at the agent, who stands there stony-faced. Back to the card. And finally responds, "...Nice."

He thanks them for their time, either not having noticed his lip is bleeding or not caring. Norah says "uh, sure," in a way she hopes implies that she might never contact him; she really doesn't know what to do right now. What she does know is that she'd rather be back in the safety of the cafe before even asking Sophos about it, much less Vidar himself. However, after an awkward beat, she finds a travel-sized packet of tissues in her sweatshirt pocket. She withdraws one and hands it to Mr. Alkaev. "Um, you look like you could use this. Have a nice day."

With that she takes Sophos by the elbow and gently drags her the opposite way from where she'd been headed, remembering a little family-owned grocery only a few blocks away.

 

[Zer0]

- Czeslaw Russo -
" Coffee Pawts "​

Czeslaw nodded. "Of course, Harper! You can also give me your dirty clothes later. I'm going to do laundry tonight. Allow me to clean them for you!"

After that, she settled to random chatter such as, "If your life was a book, what title would it have?", or "What word do you always mispronounce?"; and "What song always puts you in a good mood?" Punctuated every now and then with an offering of a pamphlet and a smile to a passersby. It was a nice lazy dwindle to the afternoon.

The shadows of the trees lining the streets grew long, as the sun turned the mossy brick pathways into golden halls that cast an outline of ember on the roofs. Through the glass of the coffee shop, framed by plants and the steam of coffee against a backdrop of old brick and aged polished wood, the everyday scenery of the bustling city blurred by in a crowd of faces that told their own little story and the twinkling of traffic lights above rusted street signs. Czeslaw enjoyed the view, as she worked and chatted along with the others, asking Norah if she could clean her dirty clothes too when she returned, chatting up Sophos to know if there was something new she learned again --- that girl was a plethora of trivia, and lately Czeslaw had been interested in the history of toothpaste during the middle ages. Like, did they have toothpaste of a sorts? Did they always have bad breath?; she was glad Kevin was looking more relaxed; and observed Cathal over his shoulder whenever he made coffee just to learn how to do it better. She was interested in latte art and wanted to one day make a decent cup of overcrowded puff doggies.

 

[TrashRabbit]

After Vidar had smoked his cigarette he disappeared, as he was want to do after the watering his plants and observing the morning rush. Many of his peers at the cafe might wonder where he went, but the truth was no where specific. He went where is feet took him and sometimes came back to the cafe around noon to hang around and eat a cake pop. He didn't make coffee's but he did other, obnoxious opening and closing chores like cleaning the expresso machine, restocking and taking inventory of the baked goods for for the next day.

Today as he returned to the cafe around dusk his beeper went off, just as the door chime finished sounding. His face dropped. Today had already been eventful.

"Ah," He said, pulling it off his belt and frowning.

[Code 9. urgent. 7002 sw 1st street.]

"Hey," He says to all those present in the shop, "We got a wizard problem down on 1st street."

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

Cathal was still talking to Julie--how about the relative merits and disappointments of the latest Power Rangers installment--while he started cleaning up. He was just finishing when Vidar came in and announced they had a problem with a wizard.

Cathal looked at Vidar. Then he looked at the clock. Then he looked at Julie. Then he looked back to Vidar.

"I have a date," said Cathal.

 

[TrashRabbit]

Vidars frown did not waiver when he returned cathal's look, "Yeah. That's fine." Cathal was pretty useless on the battle field, with the emphasis on pretty, so at least he had something going for him..

 

[theunearthlyfool]

Norah is just stepping into the back to grab her dirty clothes when Vidar makes his announcement. She'd been intending to accompany Czeslaw when her friend went to do the laundry, grateful for the offer but not wanting to push her chores off on someone else. But now she pauses in the doorway, her ears perking up.

"Oho, a wizard!" She cracks her knuckles. "Sounds exciting! Let me just grab my bag." And she hurries off to collect her supplies.

 

[Graystone713]

Kevin’s optimism about the rest of his day quickly turned to determination. A wizard? This was serious business. But, with any luck, this would be a simpler problem for Kevin to solve than Coffee and Zucchini breads and customers.

“With your permission, I would like to move out immediately and secure the area, sir!”

He said, snapping a salute to Vidar and warming up for some BIG WIND. He didn’t know what kind of wizard they were up against, but Kevin would probably be doing more civilian evacuation and stalling than directly fighting until the rest of the group arrived.

 

[Zer0]

- Czeslaw Russo -
" First Mission!​

Czeslaw was already shoving the dirty tablecloth and her clothes into the washing machine while waiting for Norah when she heard Vidar's announcement. She excitedly rushed out of the bathroom, out to the alley way, and then came back inside hopping on one foot, as she put her boots on, already changed out of her shop clothes. Yes, a chance to have some therapeutic scorching!

She threw down a pair of old gloves with a dented metal band over the knuckles, and sat on the counter, tying her boot laces. "Whatsh the plan, bosh?" She said through muffled teeth. She had a pair of long strip bandages in between them, and was gazing at Vidar with the eagerness of a bloodhound before a hunt, golden eyes full of poorly disguised predatory hope that this was a problem raging fire could play a part in fixing.