The Perk, Tuesday Evening

[chosehumanity]

Thanks to a late portal and some ... tension between Nina and George, the source of which Mitchell was a little too aware of, Mitchell barely made it to the Perk before closing. Still, there was about half an hour left before the doors shut, and they were still willing to serve him some coffee, so there was that.

He sagged back in a seat, coffee in hand, and stared up at the lights in the ceiling. The past few days hadn't been all bad - even if he still felt like an awkward nit about Lucy - and at least it was putting some distance between him and the whole ugh with Hannibal.

But coffee, on his own, at the Perk? A perfect metaphor for his mental state at the moment.

[[ open! ]]

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[therewaslife]

Bod was going to have to adjust to being completely done with his classes just two days into the week. Deciding to get a jump on that free time, he'd wandered into the Perk after a walk through the graveyard. It seemed like a good place to warm up and perhaps get something to drink.

He noticed Mitchell as he'd wandered in and nodded, unsure if he was really allowed to do more. He knew of the relationship between Kate and Mitchell and wanted to avoid any discomfort.

[You know you love the teenage angst. I couldn't resist!]

[chosehumanity]

"Hey, Bod," Mitchell said, with a manly chin-raise of his own. What? It wasn't like being friends with Kate meant he had to automatically shun all of her exes.

...Just the ones who snuck around threatening to kill people, but, well, he didn't really think Bod had the potential.

[[ mmm, tastes like angsty. ]]

[therewaslife]

Bod really didn't have the potential, thankfully, though the island's influence was never one to be doubted about these things. So far, so good.

"Hullo, Professor," Bod said, nodding. "I haven't seen you in awhile. How are things?"

[chosehumanity]

"Well, I'm not a professor anymore," he felt he had to point out. Then he flashed Bod a light (and maybe a little forced) smile. "You know how life gets. How are you coping?"

[therewaslife]

"I apologize. Mr. Mitchell, then," he amended, looking abashed for the mistake momentarily. I'm well, I suppose. Things have been better but they've been worse too."

At least his teenage angst hadn't made him think that everything was going to come to an end. He wasn't that dramatic.

"Perhaps the new year will help with that? It traditionally means new beginnings, doesn't it?"

[chosehumanity]

Mitchell squeezed the bridge of his nose between his fingers. "Just call me Mitchell," he said. "I'm no 'mister'." He dropped his hand back to the table. "But it does, yeah. Sometimes, the year even follows through on it."

[therewaslife]

"I apologize," he said and sent a frown down at his feet. "Are you all right, sir?"

Well, he was...trying. Being respectful of elders was one of those hard to break habits of his.

[chosehumanity]

"I'm fine, but I'll be better if you stop calling me 'sir', too."

Yeah, Mitchell was going to try and break that habit anyway. "So, new semester, right?"

Anything was less awkward than talking about Kate.

[nomoreveruca.livejournal.com]

It was a quiet Cally that had made her way, alone, into The Perk that night. It wasn't a glorious night out, but it was time to herself while Nicky was with the sitter back at 33 Apocalypse. She looked over at Mitchell, thinking she might have seen him around the town or... at some point. She wasn't one of the tenants, that's about all she knew for sure.

She really needed to get to know more people. And so, on that note, she got up from where she'd been sitting with her tea, and walked over with her cup in hand.

"I don't suppose I'd be too much of a bother to join you?" she asked.

[chosehumanity]

Mitchell looked up from his position (in hovering over his coffee) and shot her a brief, if slightly tired, look that wasn't quite a smile, but at least attempted the trappings of moving the corners of his lips. "No bother," he said. "Sit down, if you like."

[nomoreveruca.livejournal.com]

Cally gave a little smile in return, and sat down. "Cally," she introduced herself, before taking a sip of her tea. "Don't see a lot of people wandering through here at this hour. Not that I'm a regular. One night a week, maybe, but that's hardly a regular thing."

[chosehumanity]

"I just caught a portal here," Mitchell said. It would have to do as an explanation. "It ran a bit late, so I thought I'd come in here, get some coffee in a place that wasn't a soulless waiting room."

[nomoreveruca.livejournal.com]

"Those waiting rooms are awful," Cally agreed with a nod. "Not the awfulest places I've been in my life, but surprisingly still in the running. There's a reason I tend to keep my feet on the ground now. I mean, other than years of being trapped in a floating tin can."

[chosehumanity]

There was a quick beat.

"You know, I've been here for so long now," Mitchell started, "That there's about a million explanations I can come up with for that last thing you just said."

[nomoreveruca.livejournal.com]

Cally chuckled. "Yeah, you get used to the weird and the inexplicable, don't you? I mean, I've only been back for... frak, seven months or so? But I definitely am back into that groove. Not a literal tin can, by the way. Space ship, on the run from evil frakkin robots. That's how I spent most of the last 3 years."

[inneedofcoffee.livejournal.com]

Oh, like she wouldn't be there for last call on coffee...

Maladicta gave him a look, sipping her own overly large coffee. "Bad day?"

[chosehumanity]

"Transit," Mitchell replied, waving a hand over his head. "Fucking portals."

Given a few more sips of his coffee, he might be sounding a little more - pardon the word - human.

[inneedofcoffee.livejournal.com]

Gods forbid that.

"Easy for you to say. I'm sure you can cross running water without even twitching."

[chosehumanity]

A beat. "There is that," he said, "What?"

[inneedofcoffee.livejournal.com]

Maladicta just shrugged, taking a seat at the table. "You learn to work around it."

[chosehumanity]

"No, seriously," Mitchell repeatedly, slowly. "Running water? Really?"

[inneedofcoffee.livejournal.com]

"Garlic," she added with a toothy grin.

[pyromanyac.livejournal.com]

Look, a coffee sort of store thingy.

Seemed like a nice last stop before hitting the...eh, graveyard. Charlie was a stubborn girl.

If she went straight past Mitchell, and then right past him again as she looked completely lost for a moment before asking for some simple, dark, overly caffeinated coffee -don't ask her what that meant-, it wasn't personal; she was just checking the place, escape routes, and if there was someone hiding in there. You know, the usual.

[chosehumanity]

"...Are you looking for something?" Mitchell asked, eventually.

He was about the one customer sitting around here at the moment, so excuse him for taking an interest.

[pyromanyac.livejournal.com]

Charlie turned her attention back to him, coffee mug in hand. "Oh, you know, just an average obssesive compulsive sweep of the place in search for invisible enemies." Perhaps sometimes she should stick with lying.