Catgirls Kaiju Coffee

[TrashRabbit]

The next morning dawns like all the other mornings that have come before: at 5:25 Vidar hits the lights, pours the last cold dregs out of the drip carafe and starts a new hot pot, turns the music on and begins to water his army of house plants.

The damage in the kitchen has disappeared overnight with no trace to how. There are no footprints, no invoice, none of the cat staff ever heard the door jingle in the night. But there is a new beautiful double bread stove installed into the wall in a classy 1950's pink that would make Gordon Ramsey weep. There are new kitchen utensils, cooling racks, a rolling pin, a stand mixer- all in baby pink. There is even a new pastry case out front. The tiny closet sized back room seems a little bigger too, nearly a proper bakery in all regards.

Vidar's text to management had read: Need new oven. Baking things maybe?

And management had delivered.

Vidar stands near the door as 5:30 looms with his watch at the ready- not a second before and not a second after we he unlock this door. He checks over his shoulder that he's not the only one up then flips the sign, unlocks it and holds the door open for the gaggle of salary men and their small dog to enter the shop. Once there in he steps out on to the street corner to have a smoke.

 

[Zer0]

- Coffee Pawt -​

There was a cacophony of hungry meows outside the back of the kitchen. Peering out, there was an army of cats and dogs lounging, calling, sitting on the trash bins, rain barrels, and Czeslaw's fireworks crate. Every time someone passed the windows, the cats would jump on whatever is nearest that could reach and rub on the glass giving long drawn out meows.

 

[theunearthlyfool]

Where Norah is typically a bundle of energy bopping around the cafe with a smile, even if it's a tired one, this morning she's moving slow. The wizard's cleanup spell had vanished her injuries, which she'll give him credit for, is a huge relief. But she'd still had a weird night thanks to her mind's new roommate, and now everything feels slightly left of center. She's looking forward to the morning rush, hoping the routine will restore some sense of normalcy.

"Oh!" The kitchen looks practically brand-new, no signs of yesterday's emergency, with beautiful new equipment in a delightful pink color. Some of Norah's usual warmth comes back into her chest, a smile escaping onto her face. They'd told Vidar to get in touch with Management over the arrangement of the kitchen that had led to the fire, and clearly Management had taken the request to heart.

But she doesn't get a chance to check out the rest of the cafe as at that moment Czeslaw's menagerie spots her through the windows and loudly gets her attention. Her own tail flickering with curiosity, Norah goes to the back door, plaintive meows and whines growing in intensity when she opens it.

"Goodness gracious, babies! What's gotten into you all?" The rush of cats and dogs bounding up to her nearly knock Norah over, but when she's regained her balance the problem is clear: the myriad bowls and dishes Czeslaw fills for her pack of strays every morning are empty.

She frowns, trying not to get too disheartened. Cessy must not have come home yet: there's no way she'd forget to feed her little friends (as if they would even let her forget to begin with). Her box is still pushed up against the wall where she left it before work every day. Norah makes a noncommittal noise of concern, refusing to let the creature in her head get her more upset over this. She re-opens the cafe door briefly to yell "hey I'll be there in like five minutes!" at whoever might be closest. Then gets to work feeding the strays.

 

[Zer0]

- Coffee Pawt -​

There were the usual dogs, and the usual cats, eagerly jumping all over Norah, but then there was a willowy tiramisu patterned dog absently panting, a purple cat with very long ears curling to a swirl at the tips with a twin tail meowing loudly, a white dog with intelligent golden eyes, a fluffy ruff of fire, and a flaming tail that doesn't seem to hurt the others waiting patiently, and among the flock of birds gathered atop the brick wall, waiting for their chance to peck up the leftovers, there was a pair of pomeravians: as small as chickens, but chonkier with their stubby paws, wings, and soft down feathers that fluffed out of their puppy faces.

Out of the cracks in the roof floated out a family of coiling pipe foxes. Like small silver oriental dragons they were, as thin as ropes, circling above Norah, eyes like little dots, out of hand's reach.

At the bottom, among the shadows of the rain barrels, trash bins, and mouse holes of the alley, a bed of soot-black ashy little puffballs with curious eyes, peered out at her, a little hesitant to come out.

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

Cathal McKay​

One day, Cathal would get up early enough to have the counter sorted to his satisfaction before Vidar let customers into the building, but it was not the day after a very good date with Julie. He was rearranging the bottles of flavored syrups to make sure none of them were empty when Vidar opened the door, and he had to hurriedly scoot them all back into place. "Gooood mornning!" he called brightly to the first customers. "What can I get you started with, loves?"

 

[TrashRabbit]

Coffee Challenge Round Two
​

The six business men and their little dog walk briskly up to the counter and and the Pomeranian with a neat pink bow on her sweet little head looked Cathal up and down and then says in a breathy nasal voice you' expect from a small dog; "Hi yes. I'd like a 16 oz iced vanilla latte with soy and six drip coffee for the boys." The boys- the well groomed salary men in their mid forties all nod enthusiastically.

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

"One iced vanilla latte with soy and six drips, on their way!" Cathal said brightly, and got to work. The drips were easy, so he saved them for after he finished the latte. When he handed them to the business men they each said, "Thank you, have a great day!" in a mechanical, deeply unsettling way that made the hair on the back of Cathal's neck stand up all the way down his spine to his tail.

"You, ah, too," he said to the last of them.

 

[theunearthlyfool]

Norah's jaw drops more and more as she notices each new fantastic creature amongst the pack awaiting their breakfast. Some she's seen before (pomeravians are always a delight, people who think they're pests need to lighten up) but others she's only heard of or doesn't even recognize. The wide eyes of soot sprites (which she hasn't seen since she was, like, twelve) gently rustle out from cracks and crevices to peer at her. "Good morning, friends," she whispers reverently, taking them all in.

When one of the cats impatiently headbutts her shin she gets moving again, but doesn't lose the sparkle that's come back into her eyes. Pipe foxes, there are real actual pipe foxes circling above her head! I didn't even know we had those here, she thinks, daring to glance head-on at one drifting especially close. Norah has seen a lot of things (she's a catgirl who can punch ghosts and currently has a kaiju thing living in her brain, after all) but there is still magic and wonder in the world, and that's something she needed to be reminded of.

She lingers in the back alley after filling all the bowls, watching the critters gleefully eat their fill. Really, she needs to go back in and get to work; Cathal was the only other one she saw up and moving already and it isn't fair to make him open by himself just because he's best at it. Internally she begs the morning rush to hold off just a little longer. Five more minutes.

But her internal timer is saying she's been gone too long. With a sigh she pushes away from the wall and slowly moves to the door. "Bye, guys," she says in the same soft voice. "Have a good day. I'll, uh, come clean this up later I guess." Norah smiles. "And thank you."

 

[Graystone713]

Sleeping in a gene tank had a lot of advantages when you were a genetically engineered cat boy. It helped repair gene decay, provided you with your daily requirement of proprietary enzymes, and generally let you sleep better than an actual bed. Certainly kept the noise out.

But if your clone tube was a little old, past its planned obsolescence, and loaded with an off brand version of your clone juice that was never the right consistency, things could get problematic. Kevin, obviously, had a problem. The tube was stuck. it wasn’t draining, and thus it wouldn’t open, and thus he couldn’t get dressed for work. He tried reactivating the pump multiple times but it just wouldn’t go. He tried kicking the drain, but to no avail. He would’ve activated the emergency release but the last time he did that he had to replace the whole glass front and spilled clone juice everywhere. Thankfully, Kevin was a good planner. For while he wore nothing but an air mask and a bathing suit, his phone was practically outfitted like a tank. It was pretty much bulletproof and 110% waterproof in its case. Thus, a shameful text was sent.

Kevkevkev: {My tube is stuck again. Pls help. Pls don’t fire me.)

The group chat for the coffee pawt crewmembers would soon see that text, and the sad kevin emoji he sent with it.

 

[abirdyofmanynames]

In the washroom, Harper was in front of the mirror critically examining a long indented line she had running down the right side of her face. She had tried wiping it away and makeup, however both seemed to comically exasperate the mark. Apparently eating two whole ice creams, sugar crashing, and falling asleep on top of her stolen prize came with unforeseen consequences. Who could have ever guessed that? Or perhaps it was karma for not returning the wizard's property after yesterday's kerfuffle. She had since squirreled the pilfered shovel away somewhere a bit safer. (It was understandably a crumby pillow anyways.) However the line down her face would be a little harder to hide. She scowled at the line, half hoping she could scare it away. But no luck. This would be her personal scarlet letter. At least until the redness went down. Grumbling, she donned her glasses and tied her apron back.

She felt ridiculous.

But her pity party was ended when her phone buzzed. It gave her a frighten, but not as badly as when she read what it said. She scurried out of the bathroom to the back where Kevin's tank was. She frantically typed back.

"hOw can I hepl?" Send.

 

[Zer0]

- Coffee Pawt -​

The strays continued on munching, but one of the silver floating pipe foxes that had small black tipped ears, glided down from its hole where it had been eating a piece of apple with its family, and then coiled around Norah's finger.

It gave her a small squeeze, before floating back up into its home.

 

[Graystone713]

Kevkevkev: {Red lever to the left, turn the blue crank clockwise until it starts draining on its own.)

sent Kevin, helpfully pointing out where those levers and cranks were from the inside of his tube and hoping that his rocket ship swim trunks weren’t too dorky. Well, they had cargo pockets, that part might’ve been unavoidable.

 

[TrashRabbit]

Cathal doled out the small hot black drip coffee to the business men who sipped and nodded between each other. Karen- the pomeranian, sipped her latte throught by way of having the man who was cradling her in one arm hold the drink for her in his other so she could sip through the straw. She took a long sip, liked her nose with her doggy tongue in delight and said; "Boy you make the best latte in town! did you know that? Way better than those communists over at the puperchino- Bret, give the man a dollar. "

Bret, one of the other bussiness men in her pack took out a billfold, reached across the counter and shoved several bills down Cathal's t-shirt.

"No no no, Bret, Please in the tip jar. Be normal."

Bret paused and then slowly located the tip jar with his eyes and shoved several more dollars into it.

"Good boy!" Karen told him, "Well see you around, you make a lovely latte for catpeople, I'll be back." And with that she and her pack of tech bros whisked out of the shop.

Vidar stepped back into the shop momentarily after they exited to mouth "What the fuck," At Cathal. He had his vape in one hand and was trying to hold it so it was still technically outside. Under his arm scooted in the little messenger boy from yesterday- then Julie and a man in a button up business shirt with flames on it who was much too handsome to be Guy Fierri. Vidar was pushed aside and he returned to smoking out on the curb.

The littlest courier in to town walked right up to the counter, slapped his hands down on the dark surface and demanded, "Icecream!"

 

[theunearthlyfool]

The little pipe fox having melted her heart, Norah returns to the cafe. She’s tying her hair up in the usual bun (so messy it almost doesn’t help keep hair out of her face) when her phone vibrates in her pocket. It’s forgotten immediately, however, at the sight of a tech bro grabbing the front of Cathal’s shirt. Alarmed and ready to get into a fight if needed, she purposefully strides up to her coworker’s side. “Hey, is everything al-”

The man proceeds to drop a handful of cash into the tip jar before he, an eerily similar man with a little yappy dog under one arm, and the rest of a small herd of tech bros breeze out the door. Judging from the “what the fuck” Vidar mouths on poking his head inside, she senses she’s missed quite the scene. “...Are you okay? What the hell was that about?” Norah looks Cathal over, raising an eyebrow. “You appear to be leaking money, my friend.” She points to a bill poking out from the collar of his shirt.

A group of people push past Vidar into the cafe, Julie and the ballsy ice cream kid from yesterday among them. The newspaper boy is first in line, letting it be known exactly why he is in their coffee shop fifteen minutes after they open. Norah goes to help him, throwing one last dry remark over her shoulder at Cathal with a wink: “I’d offer to defend your honor against that guy, but Julie’s here. So I’ll let you two sort that out.”

With that she focuses on the newspaper boy. Smiling conspiratorially, she mimics him, slapping her hands down on her side of the counter. “All right, mate,” she says, matching his energy. “What’s your poison? Also, would you like a cone or a cup?”

 

[TrashRabbit]

"Your finest fucking vanila bean!" He says like he is giving a royal decree, "Two scoops in a cup or bust."

Julie tries not to laugh and keeps her hands in the pockets of her over sized yellow rain jacket, "Its too early to fight a Karen that powerful," She says with a shrug, "I haven't even had coffee yet."

 

[abirdyofmanynames]

The clonetube contraption was an intimidating piece of... whatever mumbo jumbo tech it was. To Harper it was a mix of a bathtub and one of those sensory pods they sometimes brought to malls or fairs. Whatever it was, she had long ago determined to keep it solidly in the 'Look with your eyes, not with your hands' category. It was too big. Too expensive looking. And waaay too complicated for her comprehension. Buuuut with the others busy, and she being the first to arrive on the scene, she figured an exception was allowable. She glanced back at the door, her ears standing at full attention, just to make sure one of the others didn't catch her near it. She thought if they did, she would surely be reprimanded. Not that she had ever been reprimanded on such a thing before. But just standing near it felt wrong. Once. She determined. I'll touch it once. And then never again.

"Gotcha!" she texted back before looking for the switch.

The clearly colored components made the process pretty easy peasy - even for her. She gritted as she tried to get the tank to cooperate. "Come onnnn!", she pleaded. It took a bit of pushing to get the crank to budge, but it was just about as challenging as a giant pickle jar. Once she could see the liquid draining, she texted one more message.

"I think that's it???
But lemme know if you need any more help.
... Also I dig the space ships."

She added an emoji of an alien and sent it to Kevin's phone.

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

In response to Vidar's mouthed "what the fuck," Cathal made the biggest crazy eyes he could back, fishing bills out of his collar and sticking them in the tip jar. He wondered if he should decontaminate them first, but he also wasn't sure how he would do that. He let Norah take the ice cream order and snorted in response to Julie's teasing. "Well, let's fix that. I don't have much honor, but I'd like to keep it if she does come back." He made the monster 20 ounce hot black with nine shots, four five hour energies thrown in, two sugars, cream, and a pizie stix (blue) without being asked before handing it to Julie.

"I'll think about it," Julie told him seriously, taking the coffee in one hand and stuffing her payment down his shirt with the other hand before grabbing his collar to pull him down so that she could kiss him deeply. Vidar wolf-whistled at them from outside the window.

"Bye!" she added brightly when she finally let him go, and then strolled out of the coffee shop. Cathal watched her go, his face nearly as red as his fur.

"...Bye," he said.

 

[theunearthlyfool]

With a flourish Norah grabs a cup from the top of the stack and the scoop from its rest. "You got it!"

She rolls up two big scoops of vanilla, sticks a spoon in them, and passes the cup across the counter to the newspaper boy. "Our finest fucking vanilla bean," she proclaims, "just for you, bud. Enjoy!"

When he's dropped his tip in and gone, she looks over to see Julie laying a big ol' smooch on Cathal. "Cathal and Julie, sittin' in a tree," Norah teases in a singsong voice. As Julie breaks away and heads for the door, she calls after her, "bye, Julie! Have a good one!"

Cathal's gone so beet red she can't help but laugh. "God damn, I gotta find me a woman like her. Let me know if she's got a sister or anything, 'k?" Norah playfully nudges him in the arm, looking back to the queue. "I can help whoever's next!"

 

[TrashRabbit]

Beind Julie is Bill. He lives in the apartment building across the street and comes in fairly regularly. Hes a seemingly normal dude save for his fashion taste being from the mid nineties boy band, says; "Can I get a 12oz london fog, love," In a cockney accent.

In through the door comes Nancy p. Jenkins looking sleepy and rumpled and squinting at the menu like maybe she will order anything other than a hot black with a pump of blueberry flavor like usual. She grumbles to herself in vague dinsaurian sounds- but thats normal for her after a night of fighting undead racoons.

In behind her comes a small silver haired cat-them with big round glasses framing gold eyes as big as coins- one is a little cocked. They wear a very large jacket and combat boots and loiter around the cafe area looking at all the plants instead of getting in line to order. They have the vague air of authority mixed with anxiety, wich is honestly not the best vibe for the sitting area.

 

[theunearthlyfool]

"You sure can!" She gets to work on the London fog, relieved that things have been pretty normal so far today (inasmuch as they're ever normal in a cafe run by catgirls). London fogs are also one of the drinks she likes herself, and finds her rhythm putting one together for Bill.

"Love the shirt, bro," she says conversationally, nodding to the bright and ridiculous pattern on his button-up. "Mind if I ask where you got it? I need to go clothes shopping on my next day off."

She pops a lid on the 12oz. cup. "One of my favorite thrift stores was a casualty of the kaiju attack before last." There's a painful twinge where the back of her head meets her neck and she rubs at it absently, frowning. "Or maybe the one before that. I forget. You're new around here, right? Newer, anyway? How're you liking it so far?" Now she might be talking too much. She slides the drink across the counter, smiling apologetically. "It's a really beautiful city when big ol' monsters aren't stomping around it, honest."

 

[TrashRabbit]

"Oh- thanks," He says looking down at his shirt like he has to check which one he is wearing, "I got this at that thrift shop up on elm street- lucky 7s. Always has good stuff." He says taking his drinking and tucking a tip in the jar, "It's been good so far- Moved here three or four months agao...been working for Macrohard." He says with a shrug.

 

[Graystone713]

I oughta be good, thnx.

sent Kevin as he waited for the goop to drain away. Then, using his windy powers, he power dried himself and scrambled to get actual clothes on before anyone else came to the back room. He probably didn’t look super great as he came out front, with his fur and hair as frizzy as he was frazzled, but he was good enough for a shift.

However, Kevin noticed a familiar jacket and combat boots right away, and he felt like he was useless behind the counter anyway. So, grabbing a broom and dustpan thingy to give himself an excuse (actually, now that he looked, some leaves of mysterious origin had blown in.) he walked out, and swept in the vague direction of the friendly face he hoped was the one he knew.

“Is that the Theo I know under there?... Hope so.”

he said, about 80% sure this wasn’t ER surgeon Theo.

 

[TrashRabbit]

Theo only half startles, thinking they were playing it very cool and stealth in the corner like the secret shopper sent by Managment that they were.

"Kevin!" Theo lit up with a smile but then did the facial equivalent of the game cube start screen before they said, "I didn't know you were at this branch?"

 

[theunearthlyfool]

"Ooh, rad! I always forget about Lucky 7s, I'm just never over in that area. Well, sweet! Thanks for the reminder."

Crossing her arms and grinning, she leans back against the counter. "Glad things 've gone well for ya!" It was the usual story; over half the people who came through the Coffee Pawt worked for one of the handful of big tech companies based in and around town. "And thanks for that, as well," she nods at his contribution to the tip jar. "More for the 'buy Norah some totally sick shirts' fund."

Out of the corner of her eye a familiar ginger form scurries across the cafe. "Morning, Kev!" she calls. She almost turns her attention back to the queue but notices Kevin's doing his 'casual sweeping near you so he has an excuse to approach you' routine at the
customer checking out Vidar's plants. No, wait. Not a customer, she realizes, brightening on recognizing the slight form in the bulky jacket. Oh shit, Theo's here!

Deep in her head she feels her new roommate sit up and take note of the rep. from Management, where before it had just been sitting there bored and dormant. With a shiver, Norah attempts to do the mental equivalent of stepping in front of it and waving her arms around. She had been intending to let him be on his way, but now instead whips her head back to face Bill, perhaps a little too quickly. "So, er, yeah! Macrohard, that's very cool. Did you move here for work or get the job after?"

 

[abirdyofmanynames]

After Kev was good, Harper waved a quick goodbye, leaving to give him some privacy. She entered the front of the store a tad to late to see Julie sampling something off the menu. Otherwise she surely would have joined in the cat calls. Hehe. Cat calls.

But she did see Nancy in the line. Beautiful sweet, warrior Nancy. Nancy whom she still owed a coffee towards!

"I gotcha order here, Nancy!" Harper says, practically leaping behind the counter. She grabbed a large cup and topped it off with the freshest, pot they had. In her hurry to pay back her rad raccoon-hating dino friend, Harper completely forgot about the often requested blueberry shot. She made up for the minor mistake with enthusiasm, flair and a surprise to sweeten the whole deal.

"One coffee with a batscotti on top!" She placed a chocolate dipped Italian cookie on the lid. "Get it? Cause you use a bat? And it's a biscotti? That makes it a batscotti!"

Harper was probably the only one delighted by the stupid pun, but hopefully the punk dino would at least appreciate the coffee and the added sugar boost after a long, eventful night.