fandomtownies | The Perk, Thursday morning

Eliot hadn't planned on coming back to Fandom. It was a weird town and the people were nosy. There was plenty in and around Baltimore to keep him occupied.

But then Hardison had started trying to claim that he didn't need to tip delivery people again, and Parker stole Hardison's cooking laser and tried to burn a hole through the carpet of their new apartment, and Hardison started pestering Eliot about where he was going to live in the area, probably so he pull the same thing he did on Nate in Boston and be Eliot's overbearing landlord.

And a weird little island with nosy people -- and a nature preserve, an onsen, lots of varied terrain to train on, and so many stairs that Hardison would be loathe to visit him more than, say, once or twice a year -- didn't sound half bad.

He'd arrived early enough in the morning not to see much of anyone out on the streets other than squirrels and taken another circuit around the island before deciding on which building to buy, then headed to the local coffee shop to get another feel for the local culture while he waited for his real estate agent to call him back.

Coffee was good. Another point in Fandom's favor. Throw in a good looking nurse or stewardess, and Eliot would be all set.

[ooc: open post is open, yes.]

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Sarah was not a nurse or a stewardess. She was just a generally grumpy guidance counselor who'd managed to short circuit her coffee machine this morning.

The poor barista looked a little intimidated at the idea of her with an extra large coffee. Which was what she'd ordered. "Look, mate, once you're done looking like you're about to wet yourself," she drawled, "just get me the coffee, okay?"

Fandom's people weren't just noisy but occasionally just downright rude, apparently.

Eliot could handle rude. Most of the people in his profession were rude.

"Service leaving something to be desired?"

"Always."

The barista, now actually at work on getting her coffee, got another withering look.

"It's as if they don't remember I can fry their equipment if they don't get a bloody move on."

That last bit, yes, was aimed at the poor barista again.

"Frying their equipment just seems like it would just make them take longer," Eliot pointed out. He hadn't been here long enough to develop any sort of proper feud with the baristas, after all. He held out his coffee cup. "You can have some of mine while you wait. So long as you like it black."

"Thanks, but I was raised not to drink strangers' coffee," Sarah drawled.

Although sometimes she definitely did. Sometimes even without being offered or asking first. But apparently she was feeling slightly less desperate than that. But only slightly.

"Fair enough." Eliot shrugged and went back to sipping his coffee. "Try not to abuse the staff too much."

Sarah shrugged right back at him. She even tossed in a dismissive wave. "They were just completely rid of me for a whole week, they can deal with it now."

"I hope so," Eliot said. "I'd hate to have to find a new coffee place on my first real day in town."

Sarah raised one eyebrow. Even smirked... in the way you might when you thought something unpleasant was about to happen to someone else and you were going to find it entertaining.

"Ohh, first day?"

Eliot recognized that expression. He didn't like that expression when it was pointed at him.

"Technically," he said. "Was here for an afternoon earlier in the week."

"See anything interesting during your afternoon, stranger?"

Sarah was a terrible person for looking so amused. (And also just in general.)

"You're going to try to pull the 'ghosts and vampires' line on me, aren't you," Eliot guessed.

What was that, new resident hazing?

"I was going to go for alternate universes, and bloody great invasions," Sarah shrugged.

So, basically yeah.

"Uh huh." Eliot leaned back in his seat and sipped his coffee. "Go on then. Let's hear the speech."

"Oh, I don't know if I feel like giving a speech," Sarah rasped, still smirking. "But, for the chance to see you have to apologize for ever doubting me and everyone else once you realize what a loony bin you've stepped into, I s'pose I can give it a shot."

She leaned against the counter.

"The island is an interdimensional nexus. We have a lot of capes – that's superheroes, to you – and assorted other powered people. Sometimes people wake up with the wrong private parts, or they think they're soap opera nuns for a weekend. And there's a talking pony employed up at the school."

Eliot took his time with his next sip of coffee, face completely neutral (so, you know, grumpy).

"The talking pony puts it over the top," he said. "Stretch the believability, sure, but don't go for the totally absurd."

Not that Nate had ever been any good at that line, either.

"Well, the talking pony is pretty over the top," Sarah replied with a shrug. It happened when you were pink and energetic! "Still real, though. You'll see."

Well. They were committed to the act, Eliot would give them that.

"Not really planning to end up at the school, any time soon."

Of course, he'd just been telling Jack that he wasn't planning to move in, and see where that got him?

The Perk, Thursday morning

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