Catgirls Kaiju Coffee

[TrashRabbit]

"... I think we should go to together," He says slowly to Kevin, "But I love the enthusiasm."

He looks around the shop wondering if this is everyone home at the moment and if it will be enough of them to deal with a wizard, especially if its the wizard it usually is.

"The plan, Cessy?" He says with a devilish smile, because he too is possession of a wicked predatory instinct, "Is to beat up a wizard." He looks pleased with his plan fo ra moment before galncing aroudn again, "Where is every one? I don't want to roll up and be out numbered by dinosaur people again..."

 

[theunearthlyfool]

"Sorry, sorry!" Norah bounces back out front, coming to lean on the counter next to Czeslaw. She reaches up and starts pulling her blue hair into a tight braid above the small backpack slung over her shoulders. Anyone who's gone on a mission with her before knows it contains (among other things) a first aid kit, a flashlight, a water bottle and snacks, spare socks, and whatever book she's reading at the moment, of course.

Why a young, chipper catgirl barista carries so much junk around with her all night, no one quite understands. But she can see dead people after all, which is the kind of thing that makes a cat try to prepare for any eventuality. Her only regret is that fire extinguishers are too heavy to be practical.

"Ready to go when y'all are," she beams.

 

[Graystone713]

Kevin nodded determinedly at Vidar as he slurped his Boba, and were his hands not full, he might’ve facepalmed: Norah was going to go get her backpack, and Kevin almost forgot his entirely!

The pack Kevin grabbed was a trail pack for hiking, and though it wasn’t ridiculously oversized, it definitely held a lot. A small fire extinguisher, a first aid kit of his own, three different ‘survival’ multi tools, a folding shovel, a satellite phone, a flare gun, a small box of basic fishing hooks, a roll of fishing line, a thermos with a water filter, waterproof matches, and a whole bunch of beat-up granola bars. Admittedly there wasn’t room for extra socks or even one pair of underwear after he stuffed it full, but Kevin felt that one more granola bar was more important than creature comforts.

 

[abirdyofmanynames]

After handing out the pamphlets and getting to know her fellow coworker, Harper had shrunk to the back for a bit of a lazy game break under a fluffy blanket. This break quickly devolved from terraforming a park on her pocket island into a full blown nap. With game still in hand and glasses slipping off, she snoozed as the job notice came in. While the others rushed about, she had tried to roll over and simply wish the problem away. However, the enthusiasm of the others put a damper on that plan. She stretched, wondering if she could sneak the Switch into the fighting supplies. Then, remembering what happened to the oven, immediately reconsidered. Harper put the game to charge and fell in line with her blanket still in hand.

"Shwoorry," She loudly yawned, her eyes squinted as she adjusted back to the light, "I'm here too."

That was the sort of attitude Harper typically maintained during a "special job". When it came to this kind of work, her talents were not as flashy or as impressive as the others. She tried to help out where she could. Sometimes that meant getting to do something fun, but more often than not, it just staying out of the way until they needed an easily distracted, harebrained psychic.

 

[theunearthlyfool]

Giving Kevin a thumbs-up for his additional preparations, Norah comes up beside Harper. She gently nudges the hand holding the blanket: "taking this, too, love? Or would you maybe rather leave it here?" she asks with an affectionate grin.

 

[abirdyofmanynames]

Harper gave Norah a sleepy, "Mmmrm?" along with a face that looked like she was trying to do advanced calculus in Dutch and then translate that to Italian. Both of which she was completely illiterate in. How was it possible for somebody to be even sleepier after taking a nap? It honestly made no sense. Or maybe her brain just hadn't fully restarted yet.

She probably should have grabbed a coffee before joining the others. Or a cake pop. Maybe both.

After a few moments of very careful, deliberate consideration- much more than was ever necessary for such a simple decision- she shook her head, "Probably not." She wrapped Norah into a warm purrito hug nuzzling her arm, "But it's so waaarm!"

 

[Zer0]

- Czeslaw Russo -​

Czeslaw, now in the middle of wrapping her hands in bandages, gazed down from her perch on the counter with a look she usually reserved for her beloved dogs and cats: a half-daww, half-restless frown with squinting eyes. Like she wanted to squish Harper's cheeks, but was controlling herself.

 

[theunearthlyfool]

Norah blushes so bright she could light up a room. With a look on her face that says "lesbian.exe has failed", she mumbles an agreement that the blanket is, in fact, very warm.

 

[TrashRabbit]

"Okay," Vidar says clapping his hands once. "Lets go!" he holds the door open and makes a shooing motion at them to it. he is expert at one thing and that's shooing cats. When the last of them are out the door he locks the shop up behind them and points them south through the plaza with the unicorn and kraken statue.

The sun was just setting and the skyline was light up a peachy gold as the sun sank into the bay. The little twinkle lights common in the city trees and the lamp posts had to turn on. 1st street was several blocks away, down hill towards the bay and closer to down town. It was also a street that ran parallel with one of the city's many monorail lines and the hulking cement fixtures towers above the catgirls in a way that was kind of imposing and ominous at night. This leg of 1st street was filled with restaurants and themed bars, the arcade and the best sushi joint in town. It was lined with parked cars and trees and two sleepy bus stations.

Down near the next intersection the shinanagins could be seen clearly. A very large glowing run circle, that cast out across the pavement and up onto cars, buildings and monorail pillars indiscriminately. At the center of the intersection was a ring of bikers, all dinosaur headed, and wearing studded leather jackets- Nancy P. Jenkins umong them. At the core was a man, with a man head and all man parts with a shock of blond hair on the top of his head, like he'd forgoten to put up his mohawk, and a shovel over his shoulder.

"Naw, man, it's here I can feel it," He says loud enough for his voice to roll down the street and be heard by perceptive cat ears.

 

[theunearthlyfool]

The cool evening air feels really good on Norah's face after her gay panic in the cafe. She takes in the city at twilight, her favorite time of the day, and re-gathers her wits about her for the night to come.

The band of catgirls arrives on the scene. With a glance either way before crossing the street, Norah comes up to the edge of the circle of bikers. She's only average height so she stands on her tiptoes, trying to see past them.

"Hi, friends. Find something exciting?" she asks casually, to anyone who will answer.

 

[Zer0]

- Czeslaw Russo -
"1st Street"​

Czeslaw muttered, "I'm going behind them." to Vidar, then fell back behind the others as if she wasn't part of their group as they walked, then dodged sideways into an alleyway and casually circled around as a passerby just out for a night's walk until she was at the opposite side of the rune circle. Her tail thrashed excitedly.

She looked for a restaurant with outdoor tables where she could be screened by customers and took a seat with her back to the bikers, ordering the cheapest meal they got and observed them in an easy-going way from the reflection of the glass windows. She tried to count how many bikers there were, and which bike was within sprinting distance that looked like it was the easiest to steal.

 

[Graystone713]

Kevin wasn't sure what he liked less: The fact that there were a bunch of bikersauruses with the wizard, the fact that he already had some kind of magic circle up, or the idea that the super large order this morning was for this particular meetup. Kevin couldn't decide that one, but he did decide that it would be best to back Norah up. So he walked with her to the group's edge, and said

"Yeah... What're you guys doing, exactly? Last I checked, you had to get permits for circles like this?"

as he slav-squatted down to inspect the glowy, glowy circle... It was hard to see everything with so many leathery boots on the circle, but he was definitely looking hard.

 

[abirdyofmanynames]

The fresh air was a great way to shake the sleepy fog. The city really was splendid at this time of day. With any luck it would stay that way after all the kerfuffle was put to a stop. Harper eyed all the fun shops, wishing for once they'd get a mission that was like "go treat yo' self". It was never gonna happen. But maybe, if things went well, they could even talk Vidar into a victory dinner. And if they did a great job, maybe management could like, right it off or give them a discount, or something. It could be like the ultimate team building activity.

Harper was impressed how many badass looking dinopeople had gathered in this one place. Judging by all the fancy circles, this was certainly the right place. But if she had heard right, they were only called in to deal with one wizard. Unless these dinos were ALL wizards. Wouldn't that be a twist! While the others tried their best to scope out the scene, she scooted up to one of the dinos, "S'cuse me!" she pointed at the studs on their leather jacket, "Can I touch your spikes? Please?".

 

[TrashRabbit]

"Oh shit. Cat girls."
"Shit."
"Maaaan," Came some of the soft complaints from the dinobikers as the coffee pawt gang came into sight.

"That's a good idea," He whispered back to Cessy before she disappeared down an alley.

The Wizard stopped short when Norah called out to him, "Routine leyline maintenance nothing to worry about!" This was what several of the dinobikers were telling angry folks in their cars coming up to the intersection as well. The city folk didn't love it. but it wasn't the strangest thing that happened around town and for the most part, the city treated its Wizard with a squinting sort of trust. "Who am I am going to get a leyline permit from? The Town wizard? Wait that's me!" He says with a laugh. A couple of the bikers around him laugh as well.

Nancy P. Jenkins smiled wanly at Harper and said "Sure, man."

"Any way, who sent you to harass me? I got no malfunctions with any of you. I know you have some kind of boss- lets be real you can barely hold a coffee shop together," He says good naturally but the insult is there.

Meanwhile, Nearby at the arcade, Julie was dragging Cathal to the skiball games and promising to win him a stuffed tiger.

 

[theunearthlyfool]

The wizard makes some claim of "routine ley line maintenance" and Norah looks around at his handiwork with some doubt. But for as much as she reads, she doesn't really know anything about this kind of magic.

What she does know, as he mouths off, is that a decent amount of what Management sends them out to do ends up being stopping people from doing stupid, dangerous shit. And from this dude's cockiness, he has no clue that whatever he's doing is probably a bad idea.

But then he has the gall to make it freaking personal. Norah's jaw drops as she takes a second look at the assembled bikers, finally noticing that chick Nancy from this morning, now talking to Harper. Her face goes hot with embarrassment and indignation and it takes her very best customer service skills to not force her way into the circle and give him what-for.

"Consider us citizens concerned by some punk wizard and his cronies blocking a major intersection," she sputters, working to keep her voice firm (although she suspects her ears betray her, flattened in anger as they are). His insult cuts deeper than she wants to admit and she crosses her arms, putting on her best know-it-all face. "Pretty confident for someone who can't find what he's looking for. Sure you know what exactly you're getting into, there, oh great and powerful master of the ley lines?"

 

[TrashRabbit]

"Great and powerful master of the ley lines- that's got a ring," He says. He juggles his shovel to lean against his leg and pulls out a little flip notebook to write that one down. He laughs to himself and shrugs off the rest of what she has to say. He puts the notebook back onto his inside breast pocket and takes up his shovel and strikes it into the ground with an unimpressive form with his noodle arms- however, the ground shakes. And when he digs in again and generates another rumble .

"Shit," Vidar says under his breath.

 

[Graystone713]

Kevin wasn’t the easiest cat person in the world to make angry. But dissing food service personnel, completely disregarding Norah, and starting mini-quakes with a shovel? That wouldn’t stand. So Kevin took in a few deep breaths, and unleashed the winds.

“COULD-YOU-NOT?!?!?”

he shouted, sending a mighty gale rushing towards the circle. Aaaand the circle stopped it with a mere hand gesture from the wizard. Kevin reluctantly accepted that the wizard couldn’t not, at least not unless someone a little stronger than him tried this. For now though, Kevin decided that maybe he should cower behind Norah.

 

[TrashRabbit]

"YO?!" called out the wizard. Sure he had deflected the windy blast with a flick of his wrist but the insult was clear on his face, "I'm DIGGING HERE?!"

He looked at his bikers and then at Harper and Nancy, "Nancy stop flirting. Get these cat people out of here."

"....Uh. Sure boss- hey you should really take your friends and go, or this is gonna awkward," She says to Harper

 

[abirdyofmanynames]

While zingers were flung Harper had busied herself with Nancy, "Thank you! Youe jacket's really really badass!"

It was not until the mini earthquake was felt and Harper nearly fell onto the poor dino gal that she really got the grasp of the situation. Oh? Oh! We're doing this. Aw man. This was gonna suck. She nodded as she took Nancy's advice, "Mmkay. But is your boss friend okay over there? He seems a bit sickish. And I didn't realize that you guys were working under the raccoons now. When did that start?"

She cocked her head to the side in a show of honest confusion. What did she know after all? She was just a stupid cat girl.

 

[TrashRabbit]

"Wha-" Nancy said in confusion because 1. a cute girl had fallen into her and 2. her boss was a very very large pot bellied racoon with viscous red eyes and a long dripping glob of green slime coming out of its maw. "OH MY GOD, GET BEHIND ME HARPER- THEY'VE LEARNED HOW TO BE PEOPLE"

"AH!"
"NO NO NO NO NO" Shouted another member of the raptor squad.

Nancy reached for her baseball bat, took up a position between Harper and the wizard and at the same time the Wizard Tom said "What the fuck Nancy?" She brought the baseball bat down and its said "Bonk" loudly. The wizard, having a body type best described as noodle crumpled onto the pavement.

 

[theunearthlyfool]

That asshole actually pulls out a little notebook, presumably taking down her failed insult. Her face twitches back and forth between anger and disbelief. "What? Are you- is this- fucking seriously?!"

Norah can't decide what pisses her off more: the wizard's attitude in general or her inability to think of something cutting and witty to fire back at him. The thought gets backburnered when Kevin steps up and summons a wind that should've put a halt to the nonsense. Unfortunately the man she's elected as her new personal arch-nemesis stops it with a flick of the wrist.

Kevin, sweet Kevin, also sees the power move and scurries behind her. She stands up straighter and puts one arm out, shielding him from anything the wizard might send their way. While the ground rumbles she murmurs her gratitude for Kevin's valiant effort. But her mind is a whirlwind of questions: can she break through the barrier of dino-bikers? The magic circle? If so, then what: drag the skinny punk away from his task by the collar? And where does that leave Kevin?

Chaos erupts. Nancy screams, other bikers too. Someone steps in front of her and she misses something in between. Without thinking she pushes her way through the crowd just in time to see the wizard crumple to the ground, felled by his own lieutenant's baseball bat.

"...I mean, I appreciate the backup, Nancy, but damn. That's cold," Norah breathes.

 

[Zer0]

- Czeslaw Russo -
"1st Street"​

"Here's your soda, miss --- miss?" Her chilled drink shook on the table.

Cessy, half-way through getting up and staring behind her in alarm when she saw Harper alone within the barrier, did a double take going, "Whaaaaat?" Nancy just bonked her own friend. "Oh, I'm sorry, thank you. "she quickly turned to the waitress distractedly. "Also," she added looking around at the ruffled customers who were shaken by the sudden ground rumblings, "I think you should leave."

The waitress, who had been bravely putting on a calm face for customers faltered a little, looked back at the inside of the restaurant where the sudden rumblings had blossomed a slowly spreading panic. "I think I will." she said in a high pitched voice and immediately went back inside.

Cessy followed her, through the throng of hastily leaving customers." May I also see the manager? I need access to your roof." she smiled, and nodded towards her teammates outside and the barrier that was still standing. "Those are my friends, we're here to fix the situation."

 

[TrashRabbit]

the manager of Clarisa's Cantina was a red headed woman with big glasses and pokadotted dress. She hesitated for a moment, but she'd heard enough about the city's roving band of catgirls to know that saying no might cause more chaos than just going along with it, "Yeah...sure."

She then put down a tray of food, took her badge off and darted out of the dinner.

 

[abirdyofmanynames]

After getting pushed behind Nancy and the other bikers, Harper bounced on the balls of her feet. Had she heard the insult Mr. Wizard had dropped on the coffee pawt earlier she may have felt the inclination to throw in a sick burn like, "I'd offer to get you some ice for that bump, but as you said, we're barely holding things together over here." Alas. She had not heard it. Rather she had been focusing on those sweet, sweet jackets. Fantasizing about how cool it would be if the cats pulled together to get their own designs put on one. IT could have like a coffee cup with foam in the shape of cat ears! Or maybe a cat curled up around a coffee maker! Oh oh! Or maybe the could just have a cat silhouette on a mug! OH THAT'D BE SO COOL!!! They could wear em to missions and-

Oh yeah the mission... That was still a thing.

She gazed up, noting that the magic circle was still very active despite his current game of contact baseball. Guess it was gonna take a bit more work to get it down. Haper turned to see Norah and Kevin on the other side of the barrier, and waved. They had this. She was sure of it. Until then, she figured she'd stay here with the dinos until the rest of the gang figured something out. After all, there was not much she could currently do. And the dinos seemed to have things under control in here. Hmmm... Maybe they could hook her up with a jacket...

 

[Zer0]

- Czeslaw Russo -
"Light Myself on Fayaahh!"​

"Thanks!" Czeslaw flashed a fanged grin.

Feeling anxious for Harper, she stepped out into the cool evening air on the rooftop and leapt on to a stack of vents and exhaust fans to survey the unfolding scene below. The beating the bikers were laying down on the town wizard looked painful. It confused her, and at the same time she felt an envy stir that it wasn't her giving the beat down. Her bottled up anger from previous slights this month were calling to be expressed, but Harper . . . Czeslaw's ears folded back. If she can't control her fire, she might burn her too if she got involved in the beat-em-up pile. Her tail thrashed restlessly.

She can't help with the wizard, but maybe she can help with the magic circle. "It's not stopping . . ." She didn't understand the sigils, but perhaps breaking the flow of magic will make it stop. Asphalt does melt on a hot day. "Fire fixes everything."

The flames start as memories. Blue light ignites the air around her. A high heady exhilaration that made her white hot fingertips shimmering in the blue heat wave tingle. That lady that hogged the sidewalk and wouldn't move . . . bumping shoulders on the street . . . college students teasing her white hair . . . cutting in line . . . insisting they are right when they are not . . . that bully in the train with his metal ring tone, putting his phone on her head like she was a table . . . feeling frustrated from never fighting back for fear that she'll lose control of her anger and hurt someone . . .

A fiery eruption on a rooftop, and then a white raging meteorite slammed down the far edge of the magic circle. A consuming blazing inferno, Czeslaw was yelling, angry and free. Strings of curses echoed down the road, as she drove her fist again and again, hurling her helplessness and frustrations on the burning asphalt.

TrashRabbit