fandomtownies | Monday Morning, The Percolator

(OOC: Exactly how old does Inara APPEAR? I.e. would it be appropriate for Jane here to call her "kid"? Also, are you inside Perkolator, or at one of the outside chairs?)

Smith makes the rounds, bussing tables and checking on customers. She stops at Inara's table and politely asks, "Can I get you anything else?"

"A refill would be very welcome, ma'am."

(OOC: Gotcha. And slow-time it is!)

"Of course."

Smith takes Inara's empty, goes to the bar and makes her another of what she was having.

"I don't think I've seen you in here before. I'm Jane Smith, the owner."

Link here (http://www.livejournal.com/community/fandomtownies/133972.html?thread=4393812#t4393812)

"Gāxìng jìandào nî." Inara says. "Pleased to meet you. Inara Serra - from the Apple."

She glances around the coffee shop. "You have a good business running here."

Smith smiles briefly.

"Thanks. It isn't exactly what I had planned on doing with my life, but it's surprisingly enjoyable. Other than when zombies invade the town, of course."

Inara can't help the smile that twitches her lips. "Do you often get zombies invading the towns where you run business?"

"Zombies, no. Other weird beasties and the extremely sundry? Yes, unfortunately. New York can be quite unusual to the unprepared."

"What kind of 'beasties' are we talking about?"

While there's no doubt that Jane isn't talking about anything like the Reavers, Inara feels a chill down her spine nevertheless.

"Well, there's Jube the Walrus, Snotman, Chrysalis, Peregrine of course, and pretty much all of Jokertown."

Smith shrugs.

"You know; the poor bastards who pulled the wrong card from the deck."

Inara pauses. "I'm sorry, but did you say 'Snotman'?" She's not sure of what to make of the list. "Uh, these are the names of people in Jokertown?"

Smith smiles at the question.

"Yes, Snotman. His skin was turned into an enormous mucous membrane, constantly dripping, well, snot.

"Well, Peregrine doesn't live in Jokertown; she was lucky enough to look human except for the wings. Last I heard, she still had her celebrity talk show. All the rest do."

Inara shakes her head, half-laughing, trying very hard not to think about mucuous membrane.

"What happened to these people?" She pauses, hoping that she's not insulting the proprieter. "Do you mind talking? I mean, you have customers. I could come back and talk to you at another time..."

Smith dismissively shakes her head.

"Hank's got the counter going fine. Talking's no problem.

I still forget that pretty much none of you are from my world. About 50 or 60 years ago, this alien crash-landed on Earth and accidentally released this massively mutagenic virus into the atmosphere. Once it activates in your system, your entire body starts to immediately mutate. One of 3 things happen: 90% die due to mutations that their bodies can't handle. 9% get disfiguring physical transformations, but no powers. The last 1% are physically unaffected, but have superpowers of some kind.

Luckily, the virus isn't contagious, but it can last outside of a host for a long damn time. You'll occasionally see Wild Card outbreaks because of new cargo shipments or demolished buildings that had virus samples in 'em.

So, what about your world? What's it like?"

"My world?" Inara shrugs. "Well, the planet I come from is Sihnon. It's one of the Core worlds and one of the more elegant ones." Her mouth curves. "I may be biased about that.

"It's mostly cities, although there are large parklands between - the parklands are the same size as the cities and range from wilderness parks to elegant gardens that go on for miles...

"My 'verse has many planets of varying kinds. I've only been to Core worlds so far: Persephone, Osiris, Bellerophon... Someday, it would be nice to travel out from the Core planets, although I'm told that it can get...rough."

She eyes Jane. "It sounds like your world gets a bit rough too with all these...people running around with superpowers."

Hesitant to ask the coffee shop proprieter what her superpower or disfigurement is, she indicates the chair opposite her. "If Hank is minding the shop, then maybe you can sit for a while?" She smiles apologetically. "I haven't really had a chance to meet many of the people in town. I imagine you see lots of the students here, though."

Smith sits and smiles at the description of Sihnon.

"Your home sounds beautiful. It must have been nice growing up there."

She shrugs and continues, "My world's not any worse than a lot of the places I've been hearing about. You gotta realize that the Wild Card survivors make up far, far less than 1% of the total world population. They just tend to group together and are more visible because of it. 'Birds of a feather' and all that."

"Yeah, just about everyone comes through her at one point or another. We're almost as popular as the bar across the street." She smirks at that.

Inara grins. "Well, they are students. Drinking is part of the curriculum - illegal drinking or otherwise."

She sighs. "I notice there's a lot of things happening around town for Homecoming. Were you thinking of doing anything here at the Perkolator?"

Smith returns the grin, then shrugs.

"Hank and Chloe are going, so it's just gonna be me that night. And since it looks like nearly all the kids are going, I'm not expecting a lot of business."

She looks thoughtful for a moment.

"I was thinking about doing a 'Sober Up' kinda thing. You know, like a free small coffee if they show me a torn ticket.

"You have any plans?"

"Actually," Inara confesses, "I don't really have anything that might be of use to the students on the night."

Her smile is wry, "I might be able to help them pick up their broken and battered hearts after the dance and the days that follow, but that comes later.

"If you're going to run the Sober Up thing, would you like some help? I'm not particularly good at coffee, but I have some herbal remedies for those who aren't so caffeine-minded."

"You're a counselor, then? I thought the only one was that... thing... up at the school." She looks horrified and disgusted when she mentions the "thing" at FH, but the expression quickly passes.

She thinks on Inara's offer for a bit, then slowly say, "You know, I think that would be a very good idea. Thank you for offering."

Turning businesslike, though friendly, she continues, "What kind of remedies would you be serving? And what kind of prep materials do you need?"

"I have some basic psychology training. Nothing big. I don't know the counsellor up at the school, but there are issues that students might be more comfortable sharing with someone who isn't an authority figure.

"My training is enough for most of the things the students bring to me - romantic troubles, identity issues - at the least I can put them on a road out of their situation."

Inara smiles. "Tea, mostly. I have a variety of different leaf and herbal teas, and some recipes for cakes and snacks. I have a couple of tea sets, but if you have any, they'd be appreciated."

Smith nods at Inara's description, as if checking items off a mental list.

"We have a small kitchen area with a stove in the back, so you can make the cakes here if you like.

"As for tea sets, I have a couple (http://www.glorianceramics.com/images/teapot-b-blueandaqua-960x738.jpg) of teapots (http://www.jollygoodtea.com/ProdImages/2-cup-blue.jpg) and a cheap tea set (http://www.glorianceramics.com/images/teaset-romaine-1028x618.jpg), but that's it. You'd also have full access to the pressure brewers and the tea-strainers I have behind the counter.

"Well, we'll see how many of the students want tea. If not many of them do, I don't mind helping serve.

"Do you make your own cakes here? Or get them ordered in?"

"Sounds like a deal to me. I'm not sure when Homecoming is supposed to start, but I can check with Hank or Chloe and get back to you about that.

"I bake the muffins myself, but I order everything else. That way I know that we'll have something fresh every morning."

Inara smiles. "If I don't have clients the night before, then I'm usually up early. I like the morning, it's fresh and quiet and new.

"Well, if you don't mind a few new cakes and sweetmeats in your array, I'm willing to do a little bit of cooking."

(OOC: Jane has opened Perkolator for Homecoming (http://www.livejournal.com/community/fandomtownies/151320.html). Feel free to come in whenever you like, but I was thinking that we could go to the Townie business people's mixer during Homecoming itself.)

Monday Morning, The Percolator

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