The Perk - Early Monday...

[shane-mcc.livejournal.com]

Shane sits at her usual table, feet curled up in the seat, a book cradled in her lap. A cup of Black Death sits steaming rather innocuously in its mug on the table in front of her, but only occasionally does she reach over to pick it up and take a sip. Sitting next to the mug is a notebook and occasionally, Shane will drag it down off of the table and pull the pen from the corner of her mouth in order to jot something down.



[ooc: Come play with me! :D]

Comments

[medusae-x.livejournal.com]

Duce slogs in, looking way, wayyyyy too tired for the afternoon. Muttering to the barrista, she takes her coffee and lurches her way over to Shane's table. Flipping a chair around with her foot, she sits on it backwards, carefully places the coffee on the table, and faceplants with a soft thud.

"..'mdead. Morning. Afternoon. 'tever. Have good night?" can be heard, muffled against the formica.

[shane-mcc.livejournal.com]

Hearing the thud, Shane looks up over the top of her book and grins. "Yeah, very... Halloween-like," she murmurs, notes of amusement coloring her words as she leans over to pick up her mug of coffee and take a sip. "Kate and I went upstairs to look around... wound up in bed with Tara..."

[medusae-x.livejournal.com]

A hand reaches out and 'walks' across the table, searching for her coffee. Finding the mug, she raises her head only enough to slurp a healthy sized dose of the caffeine-infused liquid life. Quirking an eyebrow, she asks, "WHICH bed? It didn't have a .. rather elderly lady in it, did it?"

[shane-mcc.livejournal.com]

"Uh-uh," Shane says, shaking her head. She yawns rather impressively, chasing it with another long sip of her coffee. "Big chandelier? There was blood all over the room and somebody screaming. Smelled weird, too. Fucked."

[medusae-x.livejournal.com]

"Oh. Not the master bedroom, then. Haven't been in that particular room yet. Wednesday only gave us a brief tour to know where to stay out of." She slurps her coffee again and mutters, "But now we have to find Jake and murder him. Messily. Possibly by coffee deprivement."

[shane-mcc.livejournal.com]

"Why?" Shane mumbles, slouching further down in her seat as she yawns yet again. "What'd ... Jake... do?"

[medusae-x.livejournal.com]

"Scorpions. Singing Britney Speares..Jake's fault. Our poor little arachnids.. mutated by Senor Snarkypants." She huffs halfheartedly, sucking down more caffeine. Her head's almost completely cleared the table, although it looks in imminent danger of planting back down on the formica again.

"Or maybe we'll just make him go listen to them singing all. night. long."

[shane-mcc.livejournal.com]

"They're... singing?" She asks bewilderedly as she looks over the lip of her mug at Duce.

[medusae-x.livejournal.com]

Duce nods, glowering. "Singing," she confirms, "Britney. Speares." Her voice goes high and mocking, "Oops I think I did it again, I screwed with your head, cuz you like me and I'm a whore who's using you and you mean nothing to me but a good time, oops I did it again, I thought I could sing, and I wrote this thing, and now Duce's scorpions won't.. stop.. singing.. it.."

There's a sound of porcelain on porcelain as her teeth grind together, and then she grins ferally, "If it wouldn't be considered a potential threat, we know someone we'd like to gift a bunch of the little singing wretches to. The songs are, at least, fitting."

[shane-mcc.livejournal.com]

Shane's shoulders shake for a moment in silent laughter but she soon settles, taking another long drink of her coffee. "This place, man. Probably the only town in the world where people would send you scorpions -- not to kill you, but so they can sing Britney to you." There's a beat and she arches a dark brow. "Killer toasters are starting to seem kinda lame."

[medusae-x.livejournal.com]

"Death's too good for some people. Long, prolonged audible torture, however.. now that, we like the thought of," Duce broods, taking another drink of coffee.

"Can we trade them both in for a better, more fierce, and less emotionally traumatizing monster?" she pleads, "They're like circus prizes, right? Get two small ones and you can trade up?"

[shane-mcc.livejournal.com]

"I'm not sure I wanna think about what kind of circus would give prizes like Britney Spears-singing scorpions and killer toasters without way more caffeine in my bloodstream than I have right now," Shane says with a huff of laughter.

[medusae-x.livejournal.com]

"Waiter..ess..er..sir..m'am.. whatever the fuck you are?" Duce inquires politely, "Coffee please? Like, a carafe of it? Thanks."

"Well, we've got the sideshow acts, the .. ah.. 'adult entertainment', and the creepy haunted house, and hey, some of it's even legal.. right here in town. So it stands to reason the prizes would be similarly .. unique."

[geoff-chaucer.livejournal.com]

((After Duce))

Geoff wanders into the Perk, looking around the room until he spots Shane. He walks up to the table and stands looking over her shoulder. "Morning."

[shane-mcc.livejournal.com]

"'Tis true," Shane says simply. Looking up, she smiles as someone brings over a carafe of coffee and places it on the table. "Thank you."

Taking another sip of her coffee, both eyebrows arch and she quickly lowers her mug. "Duce, I was gonna ask... when are you usually at Red's to do henna? I'd like to bring Kate in and get something done with her, but her hours are so weird."

[shane-mcc.livejournal.com]

Feeling his presence beside her, Shane looks up from her book and grins. "Hey," she murmurs. "Morning."

[medusae-x.livejournal.com]

(ooc: *wibbles* Avoiding me?)

[medusae-x.livejournal.com]

Duce reheats her coffee to mouthblistering temperature, taking a loooooong drink and promptly refilling that sip from the carafe. "We're usually there weekdays after classes, although Mondays and Fridays we don't have classes after 12, so we're there early. Also usually there on weekends, but this was Red's weekend off, and after the week he's had, we didn't wanna open the shop when he wasn't there."

Taking a deep breath, she slurps more coffee. Yup. Caffeine's definitely kicking in. Just look at that lovely run-on sentence.

[geoff-chaucer.livejournal.com]

[ooc: The mun? Not at all! Geoff, on the otherhand, has some serious angsting to do, and he wouldn't do it in front of anyone except Shane -- so if he came in while Duce was there, he'd just say hello and then leave again. :)]

[geoff-chaucer.livejournal.com]

"Am I bothering you?" His voice is softer than usual, and his eyes are bloodshot and slightly rimmed in red.

[medusae-x.livejournal.com]

(ooc: kk! and yeah, just read your UST angst. hee! Cute!)

[shane-mcc.livejournal.com]

Shane nods, taking another sip of her coffee and setting her mug back up on the table so that she can reach both arms up over her head, stretching. "This weekend was all crazy, with all the parents and stuff here, I guess," she agrees.

"I don't know... if you're there this weekend, maybe I can talk Katie into coming with me," she mumbles, scrubbing a hand over her face. "She said she wanted to be around more, so I've been trying to talk her into taking weekends off."

[geoff-chaucer.livejournal.com]

[ooc: Aw, thanks! Poor Geoff -- I'm really not trying to turn him all emo. He's just having a really bad couple of weeks.]

[shane-mcc.livejournal.com]

The grin falters and fades as soon as she gets a look at his face and hears the almost hesitant pitch of his voice. "No," she says quietly. She sits up in her seat a bit and closes her book, placing it up on the table. "Sit down. Talk to me."

[medusae-x.livejournal.com]

Duce very carefully does not say what she's thinking. Shane looks.. fragile.. just now, and the very last thing the other girl needs is someone interrogating her on what she means by Kate not being around when Shane so clearly needs her. What she needs is support, so that's what Duce gives her.. after another swallow of coffee.

"You have our cell number, and we do have the keys. Red wouldn't mind a swing-hour appointment if we have to arrange one. So.. whenever you can catch her.. call us and ask if you can come .. play with the cubs or something. We'll conveniently have henna ready, and if she wants one done.. no trouble."

Grimacing, Duce apologizes, "Please excuse anything emotionally manipulative-sounding that comes out of our mouth for the next few days. We spent just over a day with Pater."