The Perk, Thursday Afternoon

[always_someone]

The job hunt had begun. Having given away his last five last week, Norman needed to find some way to pull in an income. Fortunately there were a handful of shops around town that he could think of right away that he could probably handle working at.

It was not starting great, though. The barista at the Perk was sympathetic to his plight, but as one of the few full-time employees anywhere on the island, wasn't willing to give up regular hours to make time for a part-timer. That said, she was thankful for his intervention last week while that tea person was being a jerk, so she gave him an iced coffee and sent him on his way.

He sighed, sitting by the window, slurping at his drink.

Back to the drawing board.

[OOC: Open!]

Comments

[died8yearsago]

The trooper that insisted on light roast was on coffee duty at the station that day, which meant Rosa was taking a detour to the Perk that afternoon. But light roast had more caffeine! he insisted, but Rosa didn't care, it tasted like garbage water. Notes of honeysuckle and grapefruit. Get the hell outta there, how about coffee that just tasted like coffee?

So she was there, getting a large black cup of whatever the darkest roast they were brewing was, dawdling a little before getting back to her beat.

She cocked a chin in greeting at the kid by the window, friendly neighborhood cop that she was.

"Coffee'll stunt your growth," she offered.

Hey, she thought she was being helpful. He look like he'd need it.

[always_someone]

Norman blinked up from his drink at the lady who was talking to him, and then looked back down at it.

"It does that?" Well. That was good to know. "I don't usually make a habit of it, but the barista gave me this one on the house."

It was a pity coffee. Kind of tragic.

[died8yearsago]

Rosa shrugged. "I dunno, but I heard that it does," she said. "What'd you get a free one for? Is it your birthday or something?"

Man, if it was this kid's birthday and he looked this bummed out? Yikes.

[always_someone]

"Nah," Norman sighed. "Nothing like that. I just asked them if they were hiring. This is a 'thanks for standing up to the jackass tea guy last week but we're not looking for part timers right now' sympathy coffee."

Tragic.

[died8yearsago]

Rosa snorted. "I hate that guy," she said, with passion, assuming the kid meant Seivarden, because who the hell else would be 'jackass tea guy'? God help her if there was another one. "Good on you, standing up to him."

Honestly, she was having a little trouble picturing it, but whatever.

"Job market around here's a little tight, huh?"

[always_someone]

"He was yelling at her about using the teabags again. Everyone was distracted last week, of course someone messed up," Norman muttered.

Yeah, definitely Seivarden.

"And I guess it's a small town thing. But I've also kind of only just started looking, so maybe I'll have better luck somewhere else, after coffee."

[died8yearsago]

"I got into an argument with him because I called it hot leaf water," Rosa offered, "even though that is literally what it is. Dude's a sociopath."

A sociopath, she now knew from personal experience, with very nice arms, and, nope, she definitely didn't need pollen to help her mind wander that way. But at least without the pollen, she could stop them before they went too far.

"Good luck, though. I mean, you'd think out of all these business that are surprisingly able to keep in business on this island, one of them's gotta have a spot open."

Seriously, though, how were there so many shops thriving on one island with, like, twelve whole people on it?

[always_someone]

"He got all weird at me one day, said I should be more understanding of other people's differences, as if yelling at the barista is some kind of religious right or something."

Norman didn't buy it.

"And you'd think so, right...? I mean, I'm not new to small towns, but at least the one I grew up in had tourism business coming in."

Fandom didn't, really. Ever.

[died8yearsago]

"Yeah?" asked Rosa, who wasn't usually one for chatting, true, but it sure beat patrolling the street for squirrel and gremlin shenanigans right now. God, she was seriously bored enough that standing around a coffee shop talking to some kid was better than doing her job... "Where's that?" But she figured it didn't matter, because, "It's probably somewhere I've never even heard of, right?"

[always_someone]

"Massachusetts?"

So, probably she'd heard of at least the state.

"But a small town that most people haven't heard of otherwise," he allowed. "Blithe Hollow."

[died8yearsago]

Rosa shrugged. "At least it's not too far away," she said, and then she had to wonder, "Do you like it here?"


[["Small Town" by Mellencamp literally just started playing over the radio at work, wtf big brother]]

[always_someone]

"Compared to there, sure," Norman replied, looking thoughtful. "I mean, it's weird. It's weird."

But so was he.

"But at least it doesn't have the whole 'witch trials' theme plastered all over it. That's a step up."


[[... Big Brother why are you reading dorky RP threads anyway?? Doubleplusungood.]]

[died8yearsago]

"Witch trials?" That sounded like something Rosa simultaneous did and did not want to know more about. "Like in Salem?"

Man, New England was weird. Anything outside of New York was garbage.

[always_someone]

"... More or less, I guess," Norman agreed. "There was a person who was tried and hanged for witchcraft, and the town just hasn't been able to let that go for three centuries."

He really kind of wished they would, but a town identity was a town identity, horrible as it was.

[died8yearsago]

"I guess if nothing else has even happened there for three centuries..."

Still, weird thing to latch onto. And then there's this place, where so much weird stuff happens you could barely keep track of it.

[always_someone]

"The witch crazy was kind of broken up by zombie crazy for a bit," Norman offered. "But people already had all the witch decorations, so they just kind of slipped back into it."