The Perk, Tuesday Morning

[intraspective]

"Huh? Yeah, sure! I'll take some!"

Ino had no problems with them adding pumpkin spice to her drink. The fish hadn't traumatized her. She also grabbed an apple fritter and flopped down in one of the chairs by the windows.

Sure, she was supposed to be at class, but… eh. They were good kids but what was the point of a final if it didn't encapsulate the class they were teaching?

What she and Reno had left for the kids was more than enough of a final. She was just going to kick back, relax, and enjoy her treats.

And contemplate further teaching possibilities.

[Open, yo!]

Comments

[myownface]

Whelp, Sparkle was still on the island since coming here on Sunday night. He figured he'd kind of lurk around, make sure all his people were in one piece here before heading back to Coruscant maybe after his shift tomorrow, and call it good.

But so help him if he didn't get a cup of coffee in the process he was gonna scream. So here he was, ordering something that was honestly more sugar than coffee anyway, and looking around the room for either an empty table or somebody to pester.

... Hey Ino! Incoming minion.

"You liiiiiive."

Which was good, since he'd missed the excitement and he was barely with it right now.

[intraspective]

"I super live!" she said, laughing. "Oof, hi minion!"

But, hey, she was definitely on team more sugar than coffee all the time. She supported his choices.

[myownface]

"Hey, boss," Sparkle said easily, slipping into the seat nearby and saluting her with his coffee. "How goes it? Heard there was some shit going on this weekend? I haven't listened to all the radio podcasts yet."

[intraspective]

"The fish got mad at all of us," Ino said, shrugging as she pulled a piece of her apple fritter apart. "Some of us got grabbed and stuck in the woods to face up to things we did in the past and had stuff try to get revenge on us. Like carjackings I did--the cars tried to kill me for it."

She shrugged again.

"It weren't bad for me, 'cause I ain't the sort to feel bad 'bout things. But for a lot of people... it were bad. Then the fish took to rampaging and it got beat by givin' it a trophy of itself."

[myownface]

"I saw some of the aftermath," Sparkle sighed. "Came back to the island because I got a heads-up Kaidan was banged up pretty good. I really need to stop having to drop everything and go because people I like are getting shit-kicked, dammit."

He shook his head.

"Of course it was the fucking fish."

Fandom.

[intraspective]

"Yeah, well..."

Ino still didn't mind the fish. Sorry not sorry, everyone.

"Really, I'm not sure why none of us thought of that given that the fish was our collective toy for basically the whole summer."

She frowned at him.

"How badly is Kaidan hurt? Does he need me to take a look at him?"

[myownface]

Sparkle shrugged his shoulders a little.

"The physical damage is all superficial. Bunch of glass to the chest and arms. He's got gunk he's using to heal up with, Hernando's been practically force-feeding him for a few days. The other stuff? The head stuff? That's rough. We're working on it." He tilted his head a bit. "I think he could probably use a friend who doesn't stand a chance of getting scared by him, though."

Iris seemed like the sort who could handle 'weird powers and oops some murder happened.' Just a hunch.

[intraspective]

That... that was a pretty good hunch, yeah.

"I can stop by," she said lightly, tapping her fingers against the table. "I mean, if you'd think I'd be welcome. I may be an obnoxious brat but I have some manners."

[myownface]

Sparkle quirked a tiny smile.

"He's had a few days to compose himself and he knows I'm a little shit," he shared. "But really, I think he'd appreciate the company. Hernando's got him under house arrest, basically."

[what_the_shock]

Miguel came in for his usual coffee, gave them the usual very firm insistence on getting it black, and managed to come back with nothing worse than a cafe au lait.

"Hey, Iris." He gave her a little wave and grinned. "I heard Zack got to carry you out of the woods."

[intraspective]

"Yo, Miguel!"

She wrinkled her nose at him cheerfully and kicked a seat out in invitation. Sit with her, Miguel.

"Zack insisted on it. I weren't hurt."

[what_the_shock]

"Just humoring him, then?" Miguel grinned as he sat. "Probably a good thing considering parts of this were our fault."

[intraspective]

"Totally humouring him! I'm going to miss that disaster of a fish," Ino sighed, then grinned at him. "But weren't it amazing at super-size?"

[what_the_shock]

"Yeah, just until it barfed pumpkin spice all over me." Miguel made a face. "Blaming you for that one."

[intraspective]

"I accept the blame," she said shamelessly, and toasted him with her cup. "I got pumpkin spice in my drink today."

Ino was terrible that way.

"And, besides, you probably did something in the past that means you deserve pumpkin spice barf."

[what_the_shock]

"Nothing deserves pumpkin spice barf," Miguel said firmly. "At least that was the worst we put in it."

Well, there had been fireworks. But given the potential things in Ino's lab, at least the thing hadn't been actually spewing poison.

He lifted his own coffee. "I'm doing good to have escaped with milk. I don't know why they seem to sometimes have an aversion to serving it black."

[intraspective]

Hey now, she'd only put poison in it if they weren't using it for a game. Seriously, she was going to miss that fish.

"Because drinking it black is disgusting," Ino said primly.

... Every drink she drank was either straight up herbal teas or at least 60% sugar.

[what_the_shock]

"More for me." Miguel shrugged. "How've you been apart from that? How's Zack?"

[ponytailedturk]

Tseng had gotten a delivery from the island.

And while Tseng had come to worry about deliveries from the island ever since that Reno had gotten himself a job at the sex shop, he'd opened that delivery all the same.

And so now there was a mug sitting on his desk, saying only, "Good Morning, I See The Assassins Failed."

This warranted a phone call to Iris.

[intraspective]

There was... maybe... a bit of a happy flail when Tseng's ringtone went off on her phone.

Shut up.

She knew what he had to be calling about.

"Iris, yo!"

[ponytailedturk]

"Iris," Tseng greeted. "Tseng."

Which, of course, she knew. But there were some formalities that he was going to damn well observe even as he reached to pick up the mug from his desk and give it a once-over.

"I recieved your package."

[intraspective]

Yes!

"Did you like it?" she asked brightly.

Look, it was a cup made for Turks.

[ponytailedturk]

Tseng was silent for a long moment.

"I'm putting coffee into it right now, actually."

So, yes. He actually did like the mug, very much.

[intraspective]

That was Ino beaming at nothing at all, it definitely was.

"I saw it and couldn't resist," she admitted.

[ponytailedturk]

"Well," Tseng replied, and he paused for a moment so that he could in fact take a mouthful of the coffee he'd just poured, "it's... fitting."

There was no mug in the multiverse more suited to a Turk, really.