(no subject)

[thevoidsdarkhorse]

Who: Roxy, anyone
What: A certain day
Where: The coffee shop that keeps seeing a lot of shit
When: April 13, mid-morning to mid-afternoon
Warnings: Depression over dead friends?


She hated time travel.

Everytime time travel was brought up, it was a reminder. Calliope was in her future. Jane and Jake were in her past. Her mom would know everything that happened to her and help her despite her also being in the past. Time travel was just a reminder that everyone was far away.

And today, today it was April 13th. Jane's birthday. The day she "left" her world only to arrive here almost a month and a half earlier. It almost feels like it happened that way just so she could see the date glaring at her.

Today was supposed to be a good day. It was supposed to be a celebration of Jane's sweet sixteen. It was supposed to be a party with all their friends as their youngest finally reached the milestone and it was going to have cake and be great.

Instead it was the day they all died.

And Roxy? Roxy was a sentimentalist in her heart. So while she heard about the cloud coming, she still went out to get a cake. With cyan icing and one of those sixteen candles. She got a weird looks, it's not like cake packages were air tight, she was risking it getting ruined, but she couldn't take the chance of it being tomorrow when it cleared up.

Of course she got caught and what happened to be nearby, but that one coffee shop. She had retreated inside to protect the cake and, well...she was stuck. Which was horrible because she kept REMEMBERING today and wanting to cry and she just kind of hoped no one would bother her if she just hid in the alcove area near the bathrooms.

She tapped away on the games on her phone, in her attempts to not stare at the cake in hopes of avoiding it, at least.

Comments

[the_informant]

Florida is an early riser sort of guy. The person who gets up first thing, utterly cheerful, and bounces out of his room within five minutes (or longer if he chooses a morning shower) and starts his day.

Of course most of that is a lie. Florida isn't really good to be around people until after his cup of 'morning' tea. Bug him before that and knives appear and pretty much everyone knows it. The man is more a night owl than an early bird.

And, of course, he needs that second jolt of caffeine early in the morning to solidify the consciousness. Which is what brings him to the Green Fairy this morning. There is work to be done, every day. So he'd gone out of the base early to start poking into records on his missing person case and ended up stuck here while the worst of the cloud came through. Not that it was so bad that he couldn't just head out and move through the day anyway. His gear is all top of the line. But sometimes you can just do the work on your datapad or with video calls, and it was nice to have warm coffee and a sweet treat that he didn't bake.

He gets halfway through his morning muffin when she comes in with the box. Has finished that and his coffee before she seems truly engrossed in her game. And finishes ordering another coffee and a big chocolate chip cookie that he directs the barista to put a foam smilie face on before he carries his drink and gift over to the table the girl is at.

Florida sits without asking and pushes the cookie across before untucking his helmet from under his arm and setting it aside.

"Long time no see, Miss Roxy."

[thevoidsdarkhorse]

Roxy jumped and looked up, a deer in the headlights look on her face. Then almost immediately she's plastering on a smile, but this one is...strained. It's probably work for a normal man, but for someone like Florida, it would be fairly obvious.

"Hello Mister Florida," she greeted cheerfully and looked down at the cookie. She stared at it for a few moments, some confusion mixing with the smile before something clicks. "This is for me?" An honest, if slightly more befuddled than necessary, question.

[the_informant]

"You look like you need the cheering. Sit back down."

He sips quietly at his coffee, waiting for her to obey.

[thevoidsdarkhorse]

"..."

She relaxed back in her seat. It's not like she COULD leave. She looked at the cookie and there's a conflict in her eyes, grip tightening on her phone slightly.

He has money, he has food, she knew this had to be true. She could take the food without it being a bad thing. It was fine, like the Oreos. (Even if it had taken her a day to convince herself to eat any.) She wasn't taking food necessary for someone else. She doesn't need to insist he eat to because that would be WEIRD and he already thinks she's nuts anyway.

A slightly deeper breath, letting it out, grip forcibly loosening on her phone before reaching out to break off a small chunk of cookie and eat it.

"Dunno what gave you that impression."

[the_informant]

"You're hesitating over taking the treat I bought for you," Florida points out. "You didn't buy any food for yourself when you entered. The cloud may hang over here for a while but as a newcomer to the city you are, rightfully, scared of the clouds and so sought shelter. This is a minor cloud, one could easily go out and get to their destination, as buildings aren't locked down yet. And you haven't touched your baked goods."

He points to the box near her before smiling softly at the girl.

"You look nervous, you look like you don't know how to accept something that someone offers you, and honestly? You look like, at this moment, you could use a friend. You don't have to confirm that to me, and you don't have to explain yourself or talk about what's wrong. But I'm here to offer you a cookie, a smiling face that can assure you you'll get through whatever this is, maybe order you some hot chocolate, and then tell you ridiculously inflated tales of my own antics to keep you distracted until you feel safe enough to go where you need to go."

In the end, she's just a kid. She looks it. And Florida... he's got a soft spot for kids.

[thevoidsdarkhorse]

"Not afraid of the cloud," Roxy said with a frown. "But a cake box ain't a vacuum seal, and the cake is...for a special occasion. Last one got ruined by sand, didn't want to make this one inedible by death plague."

She didn't comment on the hesitation or what's wrong. It's not like he was wrong and she so hated to actually lie outright. But it was hardly easy to talk about. About how she's used to watching her food because she was the only one who could, the Carapacians always had the worst impulse control in the face of hunger. And she certainly didn't want to talk about the 'special occasion' because she'd start crying and she already cried once in public and she HATED it.

So what she does say is, "won't say no to stories. I like stories. Esp anticsy ones."

[the_informant]

Florida smiles wider at that. "Alright then. Well, first secret that is pretty open to anyone I know... I am a world class knitter. No kidding. A man like me. I also quite love to cook. So, recently, when I thought a friend of mine who is pretty much forbidden from cooking had burned my BRAND NEW two-quart pot, I decided to get revenge."

He has to chuckle. "You know how if you hold a single piece of pasta and bend it, then it snaps? But if you hold, like, fifty, it's really strong? The same thing is true of yarn. I used this horrendous rainbow acrylic stuff and knitted him to his own bed!"

[thevoidsdarkhorse]

Roxy perked up slightly at the mention of knitting. She always liked the idea of knitting. You could make so many cute things out of yarn. And, well, she was pretty sure her mom knitted? She liked to think her scarf was self knitted.

She laughed at that. "Omg, that's the best prank. Worthy of J-musta sent your gambit through the roof. How long did it take for him to get out?"

"Though not sure why it'd be a surprise you knit. You got hands that'd be good for delicate work, I think."

[the_informant]

Florida laughs happy at her amusement. "Hours. But not before my other friend used scarves to seal all his dressers and drawers and even his closet. I took pictures, of course, to share with our fellows."

He'd share with her but, well, that was over now. "I left him a knife to get out. I think it was hours. It started a prank war. I even ended up using rope to make a hammock over his bedframe. He didn't appreciate it. Or me knitting a cozy over his shower nozzle."

She looks a touch better already.

[thevoidsdarkhorse]

She could do distractions. Roxy was good with being distracted and losing herself in the present. She's had years of practice at it, really. It made it so much easier to keep going if she didn't think about everything weighing her down.

"Even his closet? Now that's impressive if they were makin' it supes to undo again." You could wrap scarves around the other stuff, but a closet was kind of in a wall.

She snickered. "Well, at least wet yarn in the face is a quick way to wake up?"

[the_informant]

"I could hear his scream of rage from my room," Florida laughs. "He takes these long showers that eat up all our hot water. Ass."

[thevoidsdarkhorse]

"Oh, defs. Some people need the bathroom in those hours." She may have a distorted view of what a 'long shower' is. "Not surprised at the rage."

[the_informant]

"We had our fun," Florida chuckles, smiling before he sips his cup and sets it aside. "Let's see... I also had a friend who has been gone for a long while return. That's funny because she's a bit scary. You know, those people that you look at and go 'they could choke me simply by staring at me'? Well, she's one of those, and while I made her a welcome home cheesecake she has challenged me to a game. She's going to try to break into my room."

His ideas of fun are so wrapped.

[ambitious_muse]

Sigma knows it's stupid to go to the Green Fairy in hopes of spotting York, but hey. It's Monday. He feels awful, especially after his long and ridiculous weekend. If the atmosphere of York's favorite coffee shop can cheer him up, well, he'll go along with it. Wih the plague cloud forming, though, he worries that he could be stuck here all day. So much for his anatomy review.

He spies a familiar figure slouched over a small datapad and goes to greet her. "Roxy, is that you?"

[thevoidsdarkhorse]

Roxy was abruptly pulled out of her game, head whipping up almost like she was caught. "..." Oh, it was Sigma.

She plasters on a smile. It's a fake one, but it is a damn good fake, at the very least. In seeing him, and how he seems so...burdened reminded her that there were more suffering due to stubborn brothers. Sigma could probably use a friendly face today. "Sup, Sig," she said.

[ambitious_muse]

"It's Monday. I'm exhausted," he says. Even worse, he might have to go out into the plague clouds to get the twins if this doesn't let up. He's not leaving them alone at the daycare today, not after everything they've been through in the last few days.

"What're you playing?"

[thevoidsdarkhorse]

"...yeah, I could imagine," Roxy said. She gestured for him to take a seat.

She shrugged, setting down her phone. "Tetris. Nice, mindless, and pretty, pretty colors," she said.

[ambitious_muse]

"Tetris? I'm not familiar with that one," he says. "Could I watch?" He's intrigued by the shapes he glimpsed scrolling across her screen.

[thevoidsdarkhorse]

"If you want," Roxy said and gestured to the seat beside her as she starts up a new game.

[ambitious_muse]

Pulling up a chair, he leans over to watch. The game looks quite simple in its intention, really. "So your objective is to create a line?" he asks.

[thevoidsdarkhorse]

"That's right. There's slower settings then this, but where's the fun in that?" She said as the shapes rocketed down. She has a lot of free time to perfect her gaming skills, and she loves a good speed challenge. "You dun want the pieces to pile up too much without forming a line because if it reaches the top, it's game over."

[ambitious_muse]

"Higher speed, higher risk?" Sigma asks. She certainly works at quite a clip. Still, he finds a much more intriguing challenge in this than he ever did in any of his brothers' shoot-'em-up games. "How far do you usually get?"

[thevoidsdarkhorse]

"Pretty much. Harder to recover from a bad landing too. And I get a couple hundred lines on average. Depends how much free time I got."

[ambitious_muse]

"And you're free today? I don't see your computer with you." Usually she's hard at work on. . . something. At least, he assumes it's work.

[thevoidsdarkhorse]

More or less work.

She stops and the game over screen pops up moments later. "I...didn't mean to get caught in the cloud. I had been heading home when it came in and I didn't want to ruin the cake. Since, y'know, not vacuum seal."