Luke's Diner, Saturday

[what_the_shock]

When Miguel headed for the coffee pot this morning, he found the dishwasher already there. He scowled and crossed his arms, waiting. The dishwasher gave him a bleary toast with his mug before downing the whole thing and going back to work.

Miguel watched him go, then narrowed his eyes - the cook looked a bit out of it, too. Miguel frowned, then realized... "Are you both hung over?"

They glowered back.

Apparently Annie's party hadn't been the only one last night.

Miguel shook his head. "Fine. Just don't set the place on fire or anything. I'll make more coffee."


Today's Specials
Breakfast smoothie
Breakfast ramen
Chipotle chilaquiles

Luke's was open!

Comments

[alwaysonguard]

Perhaps wandering what he fairly quickly realized was a tiny island who knew where, with nothing but highly caffeinated coffee in his system wasn't the best of ideas. So, it was with a bit of relief that Edge saw the diner and headed inside.

He glanced at the sign out front as he went in and shook his head. Hopefully they would have 'normal' food as well. Though nothing about this place- or how he had ended up here- felt very normal... And why were none of his calls and text messages going through?

With a sigh he sat down on one of the barstools at the counter and looked around before speaking up.

"Got a menu, or is what's on the board the only options?"

[what_the_shock]

"Hey, Dwight." Miguel came over to stand nearby. "Nah, we've got pretty much anything. What can I get you?"

[alwaysonguard]

That was going to earn you a bit of a stare and a confused blink there Miguel.

"I don't know who Dwight is..." Edge said, giving the man a bit of an odd look... what was the deal with the sunglasses indoors anyways? "But I would like a couple burgers and fires to start with."

[what_the_shock]

Huh. Okay, one of those weekends, then. Miguel shrugged. "Sorry, you look like a friend of mine. Two burgers and a double order of fries. The burgers come with lettuce, tomato, onion, ketchup, and mayonnaise, that okay?"

[alwaysonguard]

Edge nodded still fiddling with his phone. Glancing up a minute or two later he held up his phone and looked over at Miguel.

"Normally this difficult to get a signal out here? Wherever here is..."

[what_the_shock]

"Fandom island, off the coast of Maryland." Miguel wrote up his order and handed it back to the cook. "It sort of varies, depending." Mostly depending on how real you and/or the people you were trying to call were.

"What brings you here?"

[alwaysonguard]

"I'm assuming the show's booking agent sent me here ahead of a show to do some promo work... but this," Edge said waving around the place in general "seems a bit backwoods, even for a wrestling promotion to bother with."

He looked up at Miguel and added "not that there's anything wrong with the whole small town vibe if that's your thing." It most definitely was not his thing but you know, some people obviously liked it.

"Name's Edge by the way" he said offering a hand across the counter.

[what_the_shock]

Miguel grinned and reached out to shake. "Miguel. Nice to meet you. Yeah, this is definitely small town; I'm from New York. It can be nice, though, and we get all sorts through, even wrestlers."

[alwaysonguard]

"I've played my share of small venues over the year" Edge said with a nod. "It's been a while. Usually we don't place this small unless it's near a bigger venue we are performing at."

He looked at Miguel for a moment before venturing a question. "What's the closest big city? Maybe there was a mixup with booking and they sent me here instead for some reason."

[somethingwithturquoise]

A few awkward encounters, several PSLs, and a long, long, long, loooong shower later, Summer was feeling much better and even managed to raid that closet that seemed conspiculously suited specifically to her tastes, and picked out an outfit that was oddly familiar and almost made her feel...like herself again. Even managed to get her frizz under control enough to make a decent enough ponytail again! Man, she missed hairties!

But she was starting to get a little hungry, and with this island apparently devoid of Cronenbergs, she wasn't exactly sure what to do, until she followed her nose again and stepped in, blinking around at an honest-to-god diner that seemed to be in service and everything.

"Wow," she marveled, walking up to the counter and leaning her spear unceremoniously against it as she looked around in awe a little, and then looked at they guy behind it with a shake of her head. "Damn. I don't know if it's just because I haven't seen a human man that wasn't my own father for more than a year, or what, but, damn, my island cousins are all hot."

[alwaysonguard]

Edge glanced at the spear and then over the woman holding it, less phase than most would have been at the craziness of someone bringing a spear into a place like this. I mean he had seen his fair share of gimmicks over the years, special involving wrestlers as head hunters, savages, and the like. So, it would take more than just a spear to get him on edge.

Still he gave her a slight smile and nodded towards the weapon. "Nice spear. Where'd you get it?"

[somethingwithturquoise]

And despite the icons that she was now using since she'd had a shower and a wardrobe change, Summer definitely did have the muscular physique of of a wrestler, thanks to actually wrestling viscious disfigured human-monsters for well over a year, just so she could actually eat that night.

"Thanks!" she said, looking over at the next presumed distant relative and once more hoping that that distance was looooooong. She was beaming, too, which was a little weird, she couldn't really even remember the last time she'd even smiled, but a shower, a shit ton of caffeine and sugar and actual food that wasn't disgusting and covered in goo could do amazing things for a person, and she was filling out these old nostalgic pink tank tops like a dream right now! She lifted it up again to show it off. "I made it myself! I shaped this tip out of an old hubcap, once the car finally ran out of gas. I suppose you probably don't have much need for something like this..."

Not with those arms. Not with those hands!

"...since it seems your island was spared from the invasion of the Cronenbergs."

Who'd have thought something like water could stop a massive mutatation of the entire human race, save for those with a certain shared common DNA?

[alwaysonguard]

Edge had to give her credit, she really had her storyline down pat. And she was pretty damn good on the selling aspect of it too. Her experience in the ring had to be pretty extensive to, that was apparent just by looking at her. He was impressed, especially since as far as he knew, it was still that bygone era where the wresting industry was still largely dominated by male talent, something Edge always hated with a not so secret passion.

"Don't know about any Corne...whatever you called them. And can't say much about the island. Not from around here either. I've gathered it's and island up north and its called Fandom, Beyond that, all I know for sure is they have terrible cell service out here" Edge said holding up his phone, with the first hint of a grin that he had had since waking up with that faux hangover that morning.

[somethingwithturquoise]

Excuse Summer for a moment. As soon as Edge held out his phone, her eyes locked right onto it, her breath catching slightly, her eyes glazing over with some long-felt desire suddently bubbling to the surface and she leaned in almost as if she could hear it calling to her. Twitter. Snapchat. Dear precious Instagram, all faded and gone like distant memories of a world long gone...

Even if she had such things, who would have even liked her posts, in that time? Her mother? Her father? They had been the only other two humans for so long, and now...this beacon of connectivity, to other humans all around the world....

"Terrible service?" she then asked, her voice with a desperate hope as her eyes flicked back to this presumed-distant cousin also from a distant place. Her hands even began to reach out slowly. "But still....you....have service?"

After the whole thing with the shower, you'd think she'd have known better than to outright dismiss that ancient relic she'd found sitting there, teasing her, on the bedside table of that apartment she'd woken up in!

[alwaysonguard]

Edge glanced at the phone for a moment and gave it a half-hearted glare.

"Yeah usually I get decent service. Right now all I can seem to do is pull up old texts and voice mails."

He glanced up at Summer and saw the look on her face and smirked. Whether she was legit, just putting on a very good show of her character, or was a fan just wanting to talk, she was growing on him. After all, compared to the rabid fans he had encountered over the years, she was mild by a mile.

"The photo folder seems to pulls up fine too" he said tapping the button before handing the phone out towards her with a slight nod and smile.

[somethingwithturquoise]

Summer had been developing a lot of quick reflexes and hunting skills over the past year and a half; that phone was practically out of Edge's hand before he probably even realize it. And Summer may have changes into some new clothes and washed that year and half of dirty and grime and mutated human guys off of her, but now a very different primal urge was sparked inside of her as she just hunched over that phone and began scrolling through it, her thumbs practically moving as if they had a mind of their own, old muscle memory sparked as it it had never truly left her.

And, boy, if anyone thought her ability to relate to people other than her parents had dimished, you could just forget about it now that she had a functioning phone in her hands again.

[alwaysonguard]

Edge watched her for a moment and grinned, probably bit broader than he realized.
"Probably cant get much in ways of the social media pages with the spotty service, but something may come up. The Instagram photos should all be downloaded already to the phone."

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Mmhm," said Summer, a small hum of acknowledgement as she was wrapped in the warm embrace of technology. Sure, it wasn't much, just like he'd said, but it was more than she'd had, and it just felt so good, just to be back. "....cool...."

[what_the_shock]

Miguel laughed. "Well, thank you." Clearly this was not the usual Summer, but she seemed friendly enough, human-interaction-deprived or not.

"I'm Miguel. Guessing you came in here for food, though, not me." He grinned. "So what can I get you?"

[somethingwithturquoise]

"What do you have?" asked Summer, her eyes going wide and she seemed to not being able stop sniffing the air around her because it all smelled ah-maze-ing. "This...definitely doesn't smell anything like roasted Cronenberg. This smells like....like real food. You guys totally have real food here, don't you?"

Real food, running water, pumpkin spice lattes. Were Summer a more religious person (this Summer hadn't even slept with any version of the devil, much less two of them!), she'd have almost thought she'd finally died and went to heaven.

Nope. No. Scratch that. Definitely not the case, because in heaven, she wouldn't be surrounded by insanely attractive people she was probably all related to.

[what_the_shock]

"We totally have real food," Miguel agreed with a grin. He tried to remember what Summer liked. There was, of course, one obvious answer.

"Pancakes?" he suggested. "We can do them with fruit if you want, or chocolate. Or both, even. And bacon or sausage. And coffee."

[somethingwithturquoise]

Pancakes. Pancakes! Summer hadn't had pancakes in ages!

(Although there was definitely an awkward moment earlier where she had tried to eat Pancakes, but this was a frequently recurring theme for her on these sorts of weekends, so precautions have since been put in place so the cat could easily get away).

"Yes," said Summer. "That. All of that. Everything."

A beat.

"Do you have pumpkin spice pancakes, too?"

She had to make up for lost time!

[what_the_shock]

Letting Pancakes get away was a Good Thing, yes.

Miguel thought about it. "Not on the menu, but we could use pumpkin puree and add the spices." He might have to do it himself. Or challenge the cook by saying he couldn't possibly manage as hungover as he was, so he'd do it just to be contrary. "Add chocolate chips to that, for the chocolate part."

He grinned. "Maple pepper bacon? I've got a great recipe. And coffee while you wait. If you want fancy, you'll have to head to the Perk, but I do a solid high-caffeine brew."

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Oh, no," said Summer with reassurance, a shake of her head and a wave of a calloused hand. "I already hit up the Perk, we're good there, I had three PSLs from there already. But, yeah, all of that, you have no idea how amazing that all sounds, oh. My. God."

[what_the_shock]

Miguel grinned. "Should've guessed you'd have found it already. Okay, hold on." He went back to talk to the cook about the pancakes and bacon, then stopped by the coffee pot to pour a cup for Summer and another for him, and brought hers along with the creamer and sugar.

"Sounds like you've had a rough time of it."