[nWoD] Hex, the beta adventure!

Norm took a deep breath. "Okay, it may be what you need to know, I get that. But this is literally the first time I've been free in fifty thousand years, and so... well, I'm bothered by people talking about me like my only value is my magic or whatever. 'Cause that's the shit I've been dealing with for millenia, having to grant everyone's stupid wishes."

 

Another student, a girl with long black hair in one of those weird "tied at the bottom" ponytails, passes by them as they talk, hurrying towards the bus station... Or at least in the general direction of it. Again, if she notices anything weird about them, she doesn't acknowledge it.

Her destination isn't the buses, but a coffee shop set up with a few outdoor tables in the building closest to it. The barista, a middle-aged man with stubble, black hair, and a reasonably nice work uniform, is setting a sign out front as part of his opening routine. He greets the girl as he finishes up the chalk doodles (mostly abstract cats, matching the "Kitty Corner Coffee" name of the shop) on the sign. She proceeds him inside, and he finishes with the chalk, looks up, waves at the weird group approaching, and turns back inside.

Investigating the buses will reveal that the single bus in the setup has no driver in it at present, and it doesn't leave for most of half an hour. Probably why the coffeeshop is open so early, really.

 

Olivier bites her tongue, takes a breath of her own, and reminds herself that these are just civilians. Of course their priorities are off, and they don't have any obligation to accept her as the leader.

"I'm not familiar with your... type." That's probably the safest way to put it, right? "I suggest-" -the word has ice in it- "that we set aside the buses for now and discuss our options, unless you think you'd enjoy paying someone to take you to another unknown location today."

 

"What other options do we have?" Nat asks. "The coffee shop? I'll take my chances outside, thanks."

 

"No one says we have to get on the bus," Katters says. "But we can talk about whatever plans we want at the bus stop, and there's probably a place to sit down."
She eyes the coffee shop. "Although, now that you mention it, I could go for a coffee." Then again, she still doesn't know if she has the money to pay for it. Could be a good way to find out.

 

Norm grinned. "Yeah. Some coffee would be good." He laughed. "Maybe it'll even soften her mood a little." He indicated Armstrong with a gesture. "Stop her from biting and growling at us."

 

"I'm sure I'll find your backgrounds endlessly fascinating, if they lead any of you to expect someone to be pleased after an unexplained abduction."

...she does look a little like a person inclined to tear someone else's throat out with her teeth at the moment. Failing that, her bare hands, sling notwithstanding.

 

Norm felt his heart pound hard in his chest, hearing that. 'Cause, though he'd tried not to let on to it, he honestly was pleased. After all, it meant he was free of his lamp and he'd wanted that for a long time. So... it was rather uncomfortable, how on-the-nose she was. But... that didn't mean she had to know that.

"We're not expecting you to be pleased about it, Ice Queen, but you can be less fighty, right?" Norm finally replied. "Act less like you want to personally kill every single one of us?"

 

“Yeah, we’re all having a grand time. It’s a fuckin’ party over here.”
Katters considers and decides that the worst that could happen if she tries to buy a coffee is a declined credit card. “You know what? You can all stick around here in the quad if you want, I’m going to get something to drink. And eat. Maybe I’ll come back after.”
She walks over to, and into the coffee shop.

 

"Yo!" The barista waves at Katters from his proper place behind the counter. "You don't look like you're from around here. What can I get you?"

The girl is on a stool a few seats away from the register. She's sipping at a steaming paper cup of something, not giving the door more than a glance. The smell of coffee is heavy in the air.

 

Olivier's gaze follows the ket, peering through the coffeeshop window. No one seems to think her unusual appearance worthy of comment, at least, and it is a less exposed location. If nothing goes horribly wrong in a few more moments, she'll probably go in herself. (Besides, the reminder that food is a thing has cued her stomach to point out that it hasn't had any breakfast yet.)

"This is not how I act when I want to kill someone," she assures Norm. It's true! She hasn't even rested her good hand menacingly on her sword since that guard!

 

"Well, maybe it isn't," Norm conceded reluctantly. "But it's pretty scary for the rest of us when you act like that, whatever your actual intentions are."

 

“I am in the market for something hot and caffeinated.” Katters steps up to the counter and pulls out her wallet. “Give me a medium medium roast.”
She’s got her eye on the displayed pastries, her ears perked forward as though she expects them to say something to her. They kind of are — ‘Buy me! Eat me! I’m delicious!’
“And a poppyseed muffin,” she adds.

 

"They're not obscure. Get to the bottom of this; force whoever is responsible to return me to Amestris. If I'm intimidating even to a... genie..." She pronounces the word carefully; it's not one she actually knows the meaning of beyond some kind of Eastern spirit. "...then I'm pleased to hear that."

 

Norm laughed bitterly. "Humans are plenty intimidating to genies, actually. Particularly when those humans have your force of personality."

Sure, he had a lot of magical power but that didn't change that, for most of his life, he'd been under the control of humans and only now was he free of it. It didn't make it so people like her wouldn't rub him the wrong way. Maybe she thought he was too impressive to be scared by her, but... he really wasn't.

 

"I'm not impressed by flattery." But she is smiling so... progress?

Anyway, the desire for food- and cover- is starting to gain ascendancy, so she adds "Do you eat?" while nodding at the coffeeshop door.

 

"That wasn't an attempt at flattery," Norm replied, his voice toneless. "And yeah, I eat," he said, enthusiasm and energy returning to his voice.

 

"And you, Richards?"

 

"Sure thing. Cash or card?" Even as he asks the question, the barista punches a couple buttons on the old fashioned register to bring up the price. It's a little on the higher end, but not horrible; pretty much what you'd expect from a coffee shop that serves mainly college students.

"Your friends gonna want anything?" That with an incline of his head towards the group still outside. "Might as well get the cups set up, if you know what they're going to order."

 

Time to roll a bluff.
Katters pulls a bill out of her wallet and holds it out to the barista. She glances over her shoulder at the others through the window. They look hungry.
Now that Katters has proven once again that the people in this reality are not actually enemy combatants, she guesses that the Major-General is probably going to follow her in, and Norm seemed keen on the idea to begin with. But that doesn’t mean she knows what they want.
“I think so,” she says, turning back to the barista. “But they’ll have to order for themselves.”