fandomtownies | The Perk, Thursday Afternoon

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The Perk, Thursday Afternoon

It was a nice enough day out today. If by 'nice enough,' one meant 'below freezing' in any way, shape, or form, and Norman had decided to go for a walk around town, to really get to know the area. Of course one of the first places he'd found turned out to be the graveyard, and he'd spent a good couple of hours just chatting with a few of the local ghosts, most of whom were just lonely and wanting some attention. By the time they'd let him make his excuses and take off, his hands were approaching numb and he had a little bit of a drip at the end of his nose.

And so he made his way to the Perk. It seemed like a nice, quiet place to just kind of settle in and people watch, and hopefully there wouldn't be too many ghosts there who knew that he could see them, yet, or else there was no way he was making his way through this hot chocolate without getting strange looks from the barista.

[OOC: Open!]

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Seivarden definitely wasn't a ghost.

"I said loose leaf tea," she snapped at the barista, one who hadn't met her before and who looked intimidated. "You usually manage that in this place."

As the barista hurried to correct his mistake, Seivarden glanced around the room to see if there was anyone there she knew.

Norman had already categorized this person before he even looked up to see what the fuss was.

Bully.

And he was halfway expecting to see an older version of Alvin standing at the counter, too, though he wasn't terribly surprised to find an adult that held himself with some measure of dignity, either. Bullies didn't come with a specific packaging, after all. They just were. He kind of hoped the barista turned around so that he could give the poor guy an encouraging smile, maybe tell him that this was one of the best hot chocolates he'd had in a long time, but he ended up making eye contact with Seivarden, first.

He grimaced.

Seivarden gave the kid a very unimpressed look. The grimace reminded her that politeness here was required even towards a poor excuse for a barista, and since att least some of those she was on reasonably good terms with might object if this was reported in the radio in an unfavourable way.

She turned to the barista again and added: "I appreciate you making an effort."

The barista wasn't sure if he should look relieved.

Well... That was... an improvement. An unexpected one, at that, which meant Norman wasn't sitting there looking quite so pained, anymore. He glanced down at a little gremlin ghost sitting nearby, spirit orbs bobbling around its transparent greenish head.

"Is he usually like that?"

The gremlin just shrugged and made a few chompy motions with those wicked teeth it had, as though it really would like nothing more than to bite the guy to see if maybe that would do something for that charming personality.

Norman was now trying to hide his laugh behind his hot chocolate.

Edited 2018-01-18 20:10 (UTC)

Seivarden wasn't that bothered by being laughed at by kids, and at least Kanan wasn't the broadcaster tomorrow.

Especially not kids who talked to themselves. She looked at Norman, amused, and raised an eyebrow.

At least Norman was used to getting weird looks. He'd been getting them from people since he was a little kid, after all. Ever since he started talking back to the ghosts who spoke to him. So he made a little show of shrugging his shoulders and looking up at the ceiling, like having conversations with thin air was something perfectly normal, thank you very much, and why should it matter, anyway?

At least until the gremlin made another very rude gesture, and then he was putting some real effort into just not laughing again. He already looked crazy enough, here.

Since there was no one else around that she could see, Seivarden assumed that the kid was trying not to laugh at her. Which, combined by talking to herself (she couldn't really guess the pronoun) came across as odd. Not as odd as Fandom usually was, but still.

She picked up her tea cup and leaned against the counter.

"I never thought this place could be that funny. Am I missing out on something?" she asked, her smile with just a hint of condescension.

Well, damn it. Norman tried to cast the gremlin a subtle little glare as if to say, 'now look what you made me do,' but the little creep had already scurried away, passing through the wall and headed out into the street.

If it couldn't bite somebody, this was apparently the next best thing.

And so Norman was left looking up at the man, a smile still twitching at his lips.

"You might be," he replied. He knew the tone and, between that and the way this man talked to the barista, decided that he wasn't going to give an inch, now. "I would let you in on the secret, but I don't think you'd believe me if I told you anyway."

"No? You're not even going to try?"

She sipped her tea. The kid probably wasn't stupid, and perhaps talking to oneself was a regular habit somewhere.

Norman looked at the man evenly, one eyebrow raised, and sipped at his hot chocolate in a way that almost mimicked this guy's own tea drinking before saying, "There was a gremlin near my table. It was making rude gestures about you."

"What? Are you seeing ghosts?" Seivarden snorted. "That make rude gestures?"

More likely the kid was just trying to be funny.

Norman didn't even break eye contact.

"Yes."

Why lie when the truth was that much better?

Seivarden considered this. The kid could be lying, she could be unstable or she could be telling the truth. It was hard to say which.

"And do ghosts usually make rude gestures?" she asked, choosing to sound like she wasn't taking this seriously.

"Only the ones with rude opinions," Norman replied easily. He sounded almost bored. It was true enough, anyway. Ghosts were just as varied as the living that they used to be, after all. "I think that one was just sorry he couldn't bite you."

Which he was coming to realize was sort of a running theme, when it came to gremlin ghosts.

"Sounds like good riddance then," Seivarden said. "A rude ghost gremlin doesn't sound like someone you want to have around."

"Yeah, wouldn't want the rude hanging around causing problems for anybody," Norman said, his tone not changing.

He took another sip of hot chocolate.

It wasn't like Seivarden didn't get what what the kid meant. She thought she did, anyway. By now she was really tired of being referred to as rude.

"The gremlin caused problems for you?" she asked, irritation well hidden.

"Oh, no. Ghosts rarely actually cause problems," Norman replied, not irritated in the least. "But apparently that one had no patience for bullies."

Really, neither did Norman.

Seivarden got what Norman meant, of course. She snorted, then said: "I'm sorry to hear it judged you so quickly. Not a nice thing to do, especially not in a place like this where it's important to understand others. Now if you excuse me," she smiled "I should finish my tea."

Huh. That was a new one. A kind of lame one, if you asked Norman. At least Alvin was outright aggressive, instead of weirdly passive-aggressive and full of backwards logic like that.

Norman just kind of laughed again, shaking his head.

"Hey," he said, "take it easy on the new baristas. You never know who'll spit in your drink when your back is turned if you're a jerk to them."

Because, let's be real, Norman would have been very tempted.

He smiled brightly.

"Enjoy your tea."

Why was she even bothering to talk to self-righteous kids? Seivarden just sighed and waved a gloved hand in Norman's direction.

"And you enjoy whatever it is you're having with your ghost friends."

She found a seat at a table, as far away from Norman as possible.

Norman just smiled and shook his head, returning his attention to his drink.

There was no reasoning with bullies. There never would be.

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The Perk, Thursday Afternoon

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