fandomtownies | The Perk, Wednesday Evening

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The Perk, Wednesday Evening

Jack was kind of starting to get a feel for this whole... monetary exchanges thing. Not through doing, of course. It wasn't as though he'd held down a job in the three centuries since he'd come to life or anything like that. But he spent a lot of time watching people. What more was there to do with your time when you'd already messed around with the weather, after all?

So, this morning, after finding a ten dollar bill just sitting on the sidewalk, he'd made a decision. He was going to try to buy something.

The trouble was getting the barista to see him.

"Hey? Hey. I know you're not going to be any more likely to believe in me if I just stand here saying hey at you, but I'm going to do it anyhow. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey..."

Something told him he wasn't going to be getting that hot chocolate any time soon.

[Open Perk!]

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Mercy decided to stop by the Perk and get a cup of fancy hot chocolate. She could make her own back at the dorm, but every once in a while she felt like a treat. She smiled when she saw Jack there. "Hey, how's it going?"

Jack turned around and smiled, opening his mouth to reply at about the same time the barista piped up with a bored, "Fine, and you."

And Jack sighed.

"I'd say I have no complaints, but I'm pretty sure that's because if I were to bother taking them to the management, they'd see right through me, too," he said, nodding back over his shoulder at the barista, who was now waiting for the only person in the store to place her order. "How are you doing, Mercy?"

It was easy to remember names when you only actually knew a grand total of about ten people.

Mercy turned and gave the barista an odd look. "I wasn't - " she cut herself off and turned back to Jack. "She can't see you? Oh brother, that must be miserable!"

She looked back at the barista who was rolling her eyes. It was Fandom after all and some of the people here were just weird. "Just... hang on a sec, okay?"

"Jack, you want me to get you something?"

"Could you? I have this," he offered her his money, "so I can actually pay, but being able to pay is a different story entirely. All I really wanted was a hot chocolate."

Which would be a 'cold chocolate' by the time he got around to swallowing it, yes.

Mercy took the money, wondering what the barista must be thinking about the money floating in the air. "Sure. That's what I'm in here for myself - I'm kind of a huge hot chocolate fan."

She ordered the two separately, earning yet another eye roll, but hesitated before she handed Jack his. "Maybe you could sort of..." she gestured to the glass front of the pastry case, "...leave her a thank you message or something? Could that make her see you?"

Jack glanced at the pastry case himself, and then gave his shoulders a shrug.

"Only if she actually believes that I put it there," he replied, brushing his fingers against the glass. "But it's worth a shot."

Little tendrils of frost reached away from his hand along the glass, forming swirls and ferns as it went. He let the ice creep along the case for a moment, and then with his finger, he wrote:

Thanks - Jack Frost

And then he looked up at the barista expectantly.

Mercy couldn't help but chuckle as the barista jumped back at the sudden rush of cool - not to mention the woman's expression as the the ice formed into designs and finally a message. She nodded over at Jack, not quite sure if it had been enough to get through.

"He enjoys a nice cup of hot chocolate, too." And handed the cup over.

Jack shot a grin in the barista's direction as he took the cup from Mercy and lifted it in a little salute.

The barista just stared.

"So, Mercy," Jack was now turning all of his attention back to her, because she was, after all, the one to get him his drink. "Do you usually stick around here to drink your drink?"

Mercy was still grinning. "Sometimes," she said. "But sometimes I just enjoy it on the walk back to the dorms. Which would you prefer?"

"I kind of like to just sit and people watch," Jack admitted. "I'm really not big on walking around, when I don't need to."

It was way more fun to fly.

Mercy gestured towards one of the tables by a window. "Let's people watch then," she said with a smile. "It's chilly enough out there that I don't mind warming up a bit more - not that that's something you worry much about I imagine."

"I prefer the cold," Jack agreed with a little laugh as he made his way over to the table. "I mean, probably for obvious reasons. I don't exactly feel it, after all."

Considering he was cold to the touch, himself? Probably not all that surprising, really.

"Must be nice," Mercy said. "I grew up way north of here. Aspen Creek, Montana. And believe me, for those of us not Jack Frost? It gets pretty darn cold!"

Though when she was in her coyote form it was one heck of a lot easier to stay warm and running in the snow that way was a real high.

"Is it really that bad?" He looked honestly curious as he asked, tilting his head at her thoughtfully. "I don't even know what it's like to feel cold. I just hear people complain about it all the time. Well, except for little kids. They're usually just happy for the snow days."

"Don't get me wrong," Mercy said. "I love the snow. There's nothing quite like running full bore through the snow, feeling the wind in your fur, diving right through a drift and coming out the other side and shaking it off..."

She smiled wistfully at the memories. "And I love going in and warming up afterwards. A steaming hut bath, hot chocolate by a roaring fire... It's wonderful."

"But being wet and damp and out in temperatures well below zero?" She shivered. "Sometimes it feels like you'll never get warm again."

Jack made a bit of a face as he tried to picture it. There was some part of him that could almost understand the notion of it, the feeling of cold and wet clinging to every inch of him, not letting him get warm. Almost. But it was something just beyond his grasp, something that he wanted to comprehend, but couldn't.

"I wonder if maybe it's like those summer days," he ventured, "where you couldn't keep an ice cube out in the sun without it melting away in seconds. It just... beats down on you and doesn't want to let up."

"Summer must be a pain for you," Mercy said. "But yeah. I do love the heat, too, but for you, I can see where it must just be amazingly oppressive. Almost like a weight of unrelenting heat."

"I can escape it easily enough," Jack replied with a shrug of his shoulders. "I mean, escaping the heat is just a matter of flying somewhere colder. But I might try to stick it out this year. I mean, if my options are to sit around in the cold alone, or to cope with the summer weather in good company, it's kind of a no-brainer."

She nodded. "Yeah, I get that. And if it's too hot, who says you can't just take off for a weekend to Antarctica or something? But in the meantime it's nice to have you here."

Ah, Antarctica. Jack smiled faintly. Antarctica was his kind of vacation spot, really.

"It's good to be here. I mean... even if I still can't just walk into a store with a ten dollar bill in my hand and buy myself a hot chocolate." He picked up his cup and peered into it. "A cold chocolate."

A chocolate ice cube.

"That's gotta be tough," Mercy said. "Not having people even know you're there. Not that there aren't times that would come in useful, but generally...? Not so fun. Can most of the students see you? After everything people have seen here you'd think they'd be open to believing pretty much anything."

She glanced in his cup and winced. "Ow. Want another warm one?"

"Nah, this is fine," Jack replied, shaking his head and shrugging his shoulders. "I wasn't expecting it to stay hot all that long while I was holding it in my hand or anything. I'm not very good with anything that's supposed to stay warm, generally."

He could walk on water. Because by the time his feet touched it, it had already frozen solid.

Mercy sipped at hers. "I'm glad that doesn't happen to mine. I'd miss the warmth."

She grinned, "But when it's hot, I know who I'll go to for a quick blast of cold to whatever I'm drinking."

"I'm definitely your winter spirit," Jack laughed. "If there's one thing I can do, it's keep your drink cold."

And then, to demonstrate, he turned his cup upside-down and let his hot chocolate slide out, to land with a clunk on the table.

"And I'm happy to be your go-between if there's anything you need to buy," Mercy offered cheerfully.

"I appreciate that," Jack replied, leaning back in his seat and picking up his frozen chocolate. Maybe he could just... take a bite out of it or something? "It seems like a pretty fair trade to me!"

Ice cubes for the purchase of goods and services!

Jack... probably had a bit of work to do before he really understood commerce.

That's all right. Mercy had grown up with a bunch of people who still thought the barter system was pretty nifty.

"Sounds like we have a plan then!"

"Sounds like we do," Jack agreed, holding his hand out for a handshake like he'd seen people do a million times before.

... It would be a chilly handshake, Mercy. Be warned.

Mercy shook his hand and couldn't help the shiver that spread up her arm. "Oooh..." She grinned. "Somehow it didn't occur to me that you'd feel so cold!"

"A little frosty to the touch?" Jack grinned and poked at his chunk of hot chocolate some more. "Yeah, I wonder what's up with that."

Mercy grinned back, "Yeah, really? Who'da thought?"

[ooc: So very sorry! Just couldn't manage tags over the weekend, sorry.]

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The Perk, Wednesday Evening

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