The Perk, Saturday Morning

[justonecondition]

So it turned out that there was a difference between spending all of one's time bustling from place to place doing medical work in a developing village somewhere, and spending all of one's time being a hermit in a hotel room in Maryland, and the difference was in coffee accessibility. Well, there were many differences, and it was kind of awful to suggest that there was only one, but in this case, the most relevant difference pertained to coffee accessibility. Because there was a coffee shop here, and because Bruce could actually justify going to it, he could not in good conscience hole himself up in his hotel room indefinitely. Because coffee.

So, a full week after arriving in Fandom, Bruce made it to the coffee shop. Then he ordered a coffee, sat down facing the window, and tapped his foot as he drank his coffee and thought about making his way back to the hotel as soon as he was done.

Having this much relaxation time was weird, but voluntarily spending it in public was even weirder.

Comments

[whenshewasnice]

The coffee was also better here than at the dorms. This was Natalie's reason for coming by instead of hermiting. Part of it, anyway. She was feeling restless and walking around helped with that, too.

While she was purchasing her coffee, she exchanged a few words with the barista about how she was not Kate. Like establishing you weren't someone else was a perfectly normal thing to do.

(One of the baristas still had a grudge. It was easier to just go with it.)

[justonecondition]

In between sips of coffee, Bruce offered Natalie a small wave. Right, this was why coming to coffee shops wasn't usually a huge priority for him. Because people.

"Good morning."

He was curious about the Kate thing and it showed on his face just a bit. But he didn't want to bother her by asking or commit to a conversation, so he settled for being curious.

[whenshewasnice]

At least Natalie wasn't going to get aggressive with small talk or anything. She gave him a little nod, picking up her cup of coffee.

"Good morning, professor." She'd seen him at the picnic, talking to Clint and other teachers. It didn't seem like much of a stretch to assume he was one. As for the curiosity she thought she picked up... "The Kate thing's a doppelgänger issue."

[justonecondition]

"Oh." Okay, adding that to the list of things that happened here. "I hadn't heard of that happening. That sounds... inconvenient."

Also, her voice sounded familiar, but given that he'd received voicemail messages from basically everyone and their mother yesterday, that was probably only to be expected.

[whenshewasnice]

"You get used to it." Even if she gave the barista a mild look which suggested that after two years it would probably have been best to just give it up already. "Along with other Fandom quirks."

Like the phone thing.

[justonecondition]

"Yeah, still acclimatizing to some of those," Bruce replied, idly scratching the back of his neck. "Yesterday was interesting."

[whenshewasnice]

"The phone thing?"

Yeah. That one.

Her tone was milder than her feelings. "That was unfortunate."

[justonecondition]

"Maybe a little disorienting," Bruce agreed. Which was an understatement, given the nature of some of the calls he'd gotten. "That ever happen before?"

[whenshewasnice]

"Once before in the time I've been here, I think," Natalie replied. "If it was a more regular occurrence, we probably wouldn't trust the phones with anything private."

[bitten_notshy]

Jack, mocha in hand, spotted the new teacher he'd spoken to at the picnic and went over to say hello.

"Bruce, wasn't it?" he asked. "Hi. How are you settling in so far?"

[justonecondition]

"It's, uh, it's an experience," Bruce settled on, giving a bit of a wry smile at that. "Yesterday was interesting. How are you?"

[bitten_notshy]

"Nothing to complain about at the moment," Jack said. "Yesterday -- it took me a while to figure out the phones were misbehaving. It's disorienting, isn't it?"

Of course, he'd kept returning calls even after he was almost sure they weren't for him, purely to amuse himself.

[justonecondition]

"Just a bit," Bruce agreed. "I guess now I know not to rely on the cell network to communicate anything important while I'm here."

He didn't sound overly upset about that, just wry and mild. Even without that demonstration, Bruce probably wouldn't have used the phones for anything important anyway.

[bitten_notshy]

"Probably wise," Jack nodded. "Even on a normal day, the squirrels sometimes decide to listen to our phone calls."

He bit his lower lip, realizing he'd heard Bruce's voice recently. He'd need to figure out the context.

"I hope you didn't get anything too disorienting."

[justonecondition]

Bruce rubbed his temple. "Of course they do." Charming, those squirrels were. "I think the strangest message I got was someone talking about where the students shower. Which I could have lived without knowing, personally." He could have lived a long and happy life without that information! Well. Long, at least. "And yourself?"

[bitten_notshy]

"Oh, the usual muddle of the utterly confusing and far too much information about people's sex lives," Jack said breezily. "I think my favorite was one I didn't find until this morning. It was just half a minute of some madwoman laughing."

There'd been the one about transforming, too, but that was -- personal. Possibly to both of them.

[justonecondition]

Yeah, for some reason, Bruce wasn't feeling the urge to share that message he'd gotten about not 'losing control' again. Imagine that.

"Laughing?" Well. "And she saw the need to return a call just to laugh at the person who called her? That's... dedicated."

Weird, actually. It was weird.

[so_hawkward]

Clint was glad to have a quiet Saturday to relax and not do a ton of different things. One thing on the list was getting some coffee, and since Kitty still wasn't back to normal, he came into the Perk with a squirming lion cub in his arms. Hopefully, his charming smile would help the barista not make a fuss about that.

[justonecondition]

...What. Bruce paused with his coffee cup halfway to his mouth.

"Is that a lion, Agent Barton?"

[so_hawkward]

"Technically, it's my girlfriend." After a moment, Clint added. "She's a cub, she won't hurt you or anything. She's more likely to lick you."

Which was just awkward, Clint had to say.

[justonecondition]

...Huh.

"I think I might pass," Bruce said slowly, one corner of his mouth quirking up in a bemused half-smile. "How long has she been like this?" Since he was fairly certain the implication was that it was temporary.

[so_hawkward]

"A few days. It shouldn't be more than a week - if it is, then I'll start to get worried," Clint said. "Her name's Kitty. If there's one thing you can say about this place, at least it has a sense of humor." He laughed and nodded to Bruce. "How's your first week been?"

[justonecondition]

"Not that eventful, except for a few weird calls," Bruce reported. "Which I guess isn't that eventful since it happened to everyone. How have you been?"

[so_hawkward]

"Pretty good. My first class went well and I'm hoping that none of the students who propositioned me over the phones actually meant it," Clint said.

[justonecondition]

"...Were there a lot?" Well. Now Bruce felt lucky that he hadn't had to deal with any of that. "That's awkward."