Dec 20 16:32:36 107 PA - Caffeine Thoughts
From Chronicles
Dec 20 16:32:36 107 PA.
TRADEWINDS COFFEE SHOP
The gray day with mild rain and wind doesn't seem to be minded by Sage at the moment as she entertains her mug of hot chocolate. She relaxes back into her chair with the mug held in her hands. She takes a breath and lets it out, content to relax for the moment.
Dingling! Dingling! The little silver bell above the shop's door chimes as it is opened outward and blown by the wind. Gabriel's small frame comes walking in as comfortable as if it were a warm Spring day, and dressed appropriately for a warm Spring day as well. Man's even whistling a little tune, one that the very well versed might recognize as "When Johnny Comes Marching Home." He doesn't yet notice anyone as he turns and makes sure that the door is solidly shut behind him, for the sake of others in the little cafe, likely.
The sound of a new entrance seems to draw her out of the relaxation mood briefly as Sage's gaze drifts towards the door. She briefly considers her hot chocolate before deciding her moment is likely not to be the same now. "You seem chipper today." She comments to Gabriel when the man passes by.
Sage's words easily catch Gabriel's attention, and he looks over to the woman with a smile. "Well, no reason not to be, is there? Unless you know something that I don't know. I mean, sure, people complain about the weather, but that's nothing. Besides, it's the Christmas season, so it's a good time to be happy." The older man glances over to the counter, then back to the young woman. "Would you mind if I sat and enjoyed your company after I grab something to drink?"
Sage offers a faint smile to the man, "This is true, it is the Christmas season." She replies before pursing her lips, "Plenty seems to be going on to distract away from that, though." She comments, before she pauses briefly. She lets a moment of amusement pass over her features, "I'm sure you'll want to talk with me... so it might be easier to let you sit with me than talk to me from another table." She muses softly.
As he moves off, Gabriel nods and says, "Actually, I have two good topics to discuss, if you're interested. Three, depending on how you divide them up." But then he's off to the counter, standing patiently as he waits for, "Coffee please. No, nothing in it. No, just regular coffee. Not a latte. Just coffee. No cappuccino, please, no espresso, just coffee." As the exchange - polite exchange - continues for a few more seconds, the older man simply stops and holds up his hands, palms toward toward the overly-helpful teenage girl behind the counter. "Look, miss. Please just give me a mug, and take some of that -" he points to a large container of coffee -" and pour it in the mug, then tell me how much it costs. Okay? Good, thank you, miss. No no, I'm not upset. Yes, thank you." His drink is eventually delivered, and he apparently gives the girl a nice enough tip that her smile returns. Gabriel himself returns to Sage's table and pulls out a chair. "Seems like everything in Kingsdale is done the complicated way, doesn't it?" is asked with a smirk.
A simple nod is given by Sage as the man confirms her suspicious. When the man seems to begin to run into difficulty of the server being too helpful, Sage shifts a little to better watch the scene unfold. An amused smile comes to her lips as she waits to see how flustered he might get. When it seems to wind down, she shifts back to hide her amusement while sipping from her hot chocolate. "Cities do things their own way... but hot chocolate seems to be hot chocolate no matter where you go." She mentions, "Besides, coffee isn't good for you." She adds with an amused tone.
"Au contraire, Miss Sage." Huh, perhaps there's more culture to the man that at first glance. Or, he just overheard it somewhere. "Coffee is the drink of champions. Natasha liked hot chocolate, but frankly, no matter how much cocoa you put in it, it all just tastes like hot water to me." As his rear finally settles itself in the chair and is scooted into the table, the mug is set on the surface and he complains, "This place always makes the damn stuff too hot, though." He indicates the plume of steam coming out of his mug. "Before I ruin your day, Miss Sage, how's the spa going? What's a nice girl like you doing out on a day like this?" Gabriel offers a friendly wink.
A faintly amused smile comes to Sage's lips when the man comments about his taste or lack thereof when it comes to hot chocolate. "Ah, all the better for us women... and even better, you won't be wanting any of my own special blend when I feel like making it." Sage comments before giving a soft chuckle before she pauses at the man's comment about ruining her day. A brow raises faintly, "Well, I don't have to worry about any other appointments for a bit... so, I figured a place like this might be a nice change of scenery."
Gabriel nods. "It is a good place for a nice change of scenery." There's an obviously humorous dramatic pause, then, "Ready for me to change it?"
Sage purses her lips at the man's question before she holds up one finger. She takes a moment to drain the last of her mug before looking over towards the counter. "Another hot chocolate please." She calls over before looking back to the man and taking a breath. "Alright... what's going to ruin my day?"
The older man sits back in his chair and seems to be content to allow his steaming coffee to cool by simple evaporative convection. His hands are just laid in a relaxed manner on his lap. "Well, let's start with the easy one. It'll be quick too. Just to cover all bases and everything." Gabriel glances around, seemingly counting and registering the other customers, and coming back pleased. "When we were at Brian's the other day, we tripped up. Nobody's fault, because we hadn't planned on being there together, but just in case anyone decides to come back and ask, we should probably agree on a simple explanation about whatever interest we may have. A couple of details about our 'date.'" He shakes his head with a smile. "Doesn't need to be 'War and Peace' just enough to hang our hats on." He holds out an open palm and a smile. "See, I told you I'd start easy."
A faintly raised brow comes at the mention of starting off with the easy one, but Sage seems content to wait for the man to explain. The hot chocolate is likely quickly delivered as its only a powder and hot water mixed together, after all. She murmurs her thanks to the server before turning her attention back to the man. She considers the man, before letting a faint frown come to her features. "I wasn't thinking of calling it a date... but if you want an overview, I say we went for a walk to get to know each other better, found the stiff and you dropped me off at my place before finding some other way to entertain yourself."
"Good and simple, and it's what we already told 'em." Gabriel nods and asks quickly and briefly, "But if we should - and likely will - end up in another odd situation within this whole mess? If the police nose around again?" He shrugs and indicates the woman with his shoulders. "Next time, we don't call them, or at least when we do, it's when we're at a good distance, totally unrelated, and from a phone or something that can't be traced back to either of us. I know, when we checked out Brian's place, I said to call them in." The man nods slowly and shuts his eyes, clearly unhappy with himself. "I fucked up. The 'proper authorities' who usually turn out to be no more than a joke, can't know that we have anything to do with anything." A final nod probably indicates that this isn't so much of a suggestion, though it's certainly neither a demand or order, either.
"Well, if they aren't going to do a decent job of looking into things... I guess I don't need to worry about messing around a little." Sage comments, "But, there is one way we could work out a story for any next time's... you'll just need an open mind. Figuratively and perhaps literally as well." She comments before offering a shrug, "We have the basics of what went down and its hard to tell if we would have found much else."
Gabriel nods. "Agreed. Okay, close enough. If we have to cover something in the future, we can worry about it then. I just wanted to cover our last jaunt." He then juts a friendly chin toward the young woman across from him. "So, if you don't mind, can you tell me a little more about out upcoming jaunt? I know, best day or worst nightmare. I'm afraid that doesn't help me much. Body armor and heavy weapons, or my snooping gear?" He then grins an ironic smile. "As per Miss Valeriya, I don't even know if I'm driving."
"That's not entirely what I meant." Sage comments as the man seems to take her vague words, "Not everyone appreciates having someone else speak into or listen in on what's going on in their head." She explains before offering a faint shrug as she takes up her mug to blow lightly on the liquid. She glances over to the other man. "Unless you have a way of interpreting nightmares involving an odd pillar and general doom and gloom, I'm afraid you'll be out of luck for me explaining what could be there aside from that was there last time." She comments, "There is at least one powerful creature out there that seems to be friendly enough to me... there was another that appeared to be bested, or at least unable to possess its previous robot body with any great effectiveness." She comments, "Otherwise, it was just a lake the last time I went there. It was quite polluted at the time. So, I suppose being armed is better than being sneaky." She pauses to sip lightly from her mug, "As I said, either a waste of time or doom and gloom." She comments, "But, depends on whether Leonard and Vixen will be coming as to whether you'll drive. Don't imagine rental places have any particular week in-advance notice policies if we need to rent something last minute."
The older fellow seems somewhat confused as the immediate bit of conversation turns to speaking and reading minds. But at this point, Gabriel has pretty much stopped bothering to ask unless it seems very necessary. Apparently this doesn't feel very necessary. Instead, "Well, that's more information than I have. You may already know this, and if you don't, it may be of no help to you at all, but when those four people showed up, I couldn't help but notice them." He shrugs, leans in to blow on his coffee, and says, "Can't really say why, I guess there was just something strange about them." Gabriel leans back again as his coffee continues to steam. "Anyway, two of them, white man, white woman, they headed off into the Magic Sector. The two Negros, they went into the tech areas, where the mercenaries were hanging out." He chuckles and says, "Hell, maybe that's where they found you, I suppose." Despite his terminology, Gabriel seems to hold absolutely no disrespect or poor thoughts to anyone. Just details.
When the man seems to be confused by the notion, Sage ends up deciding to demonstrate for the man as she slips into the man's mind to murmur << You're hearing things. >> into the man's mind while she makes a point of occupying her mouth collecting some more hot chocolate. She considers the man's words before nodding. "I haven't met them, but I didn't exactly dig too hard."
Yes, Gabriel is quite surprised. Obviously the look in his eyes is asking himself if he's thinking these thoughts for himself, or if his brain is just talking to him, which would imply that he's simply suddenly gone crazy. Doesn't matter than the subject pertains to the matters and hand. If there is any tone of the voice that he should recognize, he apparently doesn't. The man is not happy, that's for sure. However, he's not flinching around and screaming, either. Probably just years of training and putting up with strange things - albeit "normal" strange things - keeping him relatively straight at the moment.
Sage's gaze takes in the sudden pause in the man's normal continuous dialogue, before pursing her lips. "I imagine that's a stay out sign on your face." She comments simply, before setting down the mug in case the man decides to take any action against her.
The man's face doesn't clear for a long while. His eyes continue to shift slowly from side to side, the same way that they might if he were infiltrating an enemy encampment. Brow furrowed, Gabriel's mouth begins to work itself. Eventually, he goes through a series of rapid blinks, and raises his face to look at the woman across from him. Then, as if nothing had happened, "I'm sorry, Miss Sage, you were saying?"
"Just that you seem to be the type that likes his headspace to himself." Sage comments simply, before pursing her lips as she considers the man.
Gabriel stares for a moment. Then, a very confused expression written all over his face, "What??"
Sage gives a soft sigh when the other man as the man doesn't follow, before she lets herself back into the man's mind as long as he doesn't actively resist this time. << I can speak to you like this. >> She comments into the man's mind, << Or you're just going crazy. >> She adds with a faintly musing mental tone. "So, it is up to you to decide whether you want me to use that ability when the need arises or not." She comments with her normal voice.
Gabriel closes his eyes for a long time. Whatever's going on his mind.. well, apparently the woman across from him would know just as well as he would. In fact, it is his attempt at coming to grips with what is a strange new reality. Something that he's heard about a number of times, but never before experienced. He leans forward and whispers, perhaps trying to keep a secret, perhaps just feeling awkward. "Is that you?" He waves his hands around his ears. "You're... talking to me?" He then sits up straighter, cants his head backwards and to the side a little. "Is everyone of you like this?" You? Well, it's said.
This time when the man reacts, Sage's expression begins to become one of amused sympathy. She lets him sort through things in his own time since it seems like she can't make the man wrap his mind around the concept any faster. "Yes... that's me." Sage whispers back to the man, before she takes up her mug. "Although, you are kind of cute when you think you're going crazy." She comments with a faint smile, before shaking her head. "No, only some can... but, not everyone is as... nice as me and it's best you realize that the ground rules are different here." She comments, "Hate me now if you wish."
"Thanks," Gabriel says with a quirky mouth. "I try to be cute when I can be. Though I don't often try to go crazy at all." He then shakes his head in the negative. "No, no. If it's what you can do, it's what you can do. As long as you're not hurting me, why would I hate you for it? Although I have to say... I'd appreciate it if you gave me some warning in the future. You know, just so I don't have to look cute." Wink wink.
"I was trying to explain, but it seemed that I wasn't making myself clear... so, it seemed best to simply demonstrate and let you react as you would." Sage comments before she hmms softly, "Well, can't exactly tell you I'm going to do it if the point is not to let someone know that I'm communicating with you." She comments, "So, perhaps you have a suggest for a signal." She pauses briefly before looking faintly amused. "I imagine stamping on your foot or pinching you is out."
There's a more settled grin. "No, no. I mean, say we're going to look at Brian's place, or check out this lake thing. You know, when we show up, you could say, 'Hey, Gabriel, by the way, if you hear me, you're not hallucinating.' I'd be kind of surprised if there's much need in other situations." Gabriel then nods, eyes closed in a very accepting expression. "But if it does happen to come up somewhere else, or some other time, I trust your judgment. You're a fine young woman."
