The Perk, Tuesday

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Jon hadn't been having a good couple weeks for...well, nourishment. He'd strained himself yesterday trying to know something for Eliot. And today's class was going to be about the Lonely, which was never a good thing. So he was here at the coffee shop for tea. And a cinnamon scone, because he thought he'd give the comfort food thing a try. At worst, he'd have actual human food in him, so it was worth a try.

Then he'd just sit at a table with his phone and watch cat videos.



[Open post for your Perk or Jon needs!]

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[mother_love]

Billy was having an interesting day to say the least. Between waking up to a mysterious letter to finding he now was evidently the owner of a shop now somewhere on the island.... it had been a lot.

So, as he was leaving the apartment and heading out to try and find the address mentioned in the letter, Billy decided to swing by The Perk for some much needed coffee.

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Jon looked up from picking at his scone and nodded to Billy.

That was about his level of function right now.

[mother_love]

Billy nodded in return and considered Jon for a moment. "Looks like you could use more than a cup of coffee" he suggested with a nod towards the cup.

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"Oh, this is tea." Which probably wasn't the point.

What he needed was some good trauma, but he wasn't going to say as much.

"You're settling in well, I hope."

[mother_love]

"Got everything moved in, yeah" Billy said as he took his cup, with a nod of thanks to the barista and walked over closer to Jon. "Got a weird letter delivered tot he apartment today. Did you leave anything at the door for me this morning?"

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Jon frowned. "No, I didn't. Is...I hope whatever it is isn't a problem."

[mother_love]

"No. Not a problem. Just... a bit confused about it is all." Billy glanced down at the letter again and held up the key that had come with it as he looked back at Jon. "Evidently, I now own a shop here on the island?"

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"Ah. Well," Jon shrugged, "I manage a building. And I teach. And I hadn't heard of this place before I ended up here. It seems to do that."

[mother_love]

"It's really that common of a thing?" Billy asked, raising a eyebrow in surprise. "That's... ummm... something. So, any idea where Surf's Up is? That's evidently where I am working now."

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"East past the park, at the end of the block," Jon said. (Had he seen it in passing? Had he just known it? No telling.) "I wouldn't think there's much call for a surfing shop here."

[mother_love]

"Yeah.. that's what I'm trying to figure out. What the hell Im supposed to do with a surf shop!"

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"Well, erm...maybe once you get there, it'll make more sense," Jon suggested. "Maybe it sells useful things, too."

[white_oleander]

Comandeering a table with optimal people-watching views was something Astrid hadn't done in a while, and that Tuesday, it seemed, the mood had struck just right. So she was there, getting herself a coffee with maybe one too many sugars, and her sketchbook, and she went to have a seat,got settled, flipped it open, and did a pass around the room before setting quietly to work, throwing up the occasional glance to check on the given target, the lighting, the shadows, and whatever other reference to absorb again before ducking her head over her work.

No potential target of her pencil was safe, of course, but she did, generally, attempt to be somewhat subtle about it.

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Unfortunately(?) for Astrid, Jon was well acquainted with the feeling of being watched. He glanced up, frowned a little in confusion, then took in what she was doing.

He shifted a bit awkwardly, but it wasn't like it would hurt anything, so he went back to his cat videos.

[white_oleander]

And Astrid noticed that je'd noticed, which, despite herself, made her grin faintly, although other than that, it just meant pouring herself into the work and not bothering to cloak it as much when she looked back up toward her reference point.

She'd gotten out her charcoal for this one, because, unfortunately (?) for Jon, Astrid's favorite thing to work with were shadows and angles, and for those things alone, he was cutting for her quite the dramatic portrait.

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Well, at least his scars were good for something.

He fidgeted a little, glanced over at Astrid, then confessed just loudly enough for her to hear, "I feel like I should apologise if I have to move."

[white_oleander]

"With all that fidgeting you're doing," Astrid responded coolly, without pausing her work, without looking up, but with a lift of her eyebrow to make up for it, "I'd say you owe me a few of them by now."

She took a moment to smudge something with the heel of her hand, swept a few more marks of the charcoal, and added, "I'm almost done, anyway."

He was a fairly quick study, it would seem.

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Jon scowled. He'd mostly been joking; he did feel a little self-conscious about it, but if you were drawing strangers without asking, it wasn't their fault if they moved. "You could always try drawing a still life instead."

[white_oleander]

Oof. Tough crowd. So maybe, based on that scowl, Astrid would hold back the comment that, when she started, she was pretty sure it had been a still life, and, instead, she said, "Maybe. But a still life can't tell me what they think when I'm finished."

A pause. A small adjustment to a curve.

"Well, maybe around here, they could."

And with that, Astrid considered the work in front of her before lifting her sketchbook and turning the final results toward him. Dark, dramatic, playing on every angle and shadow she could find? Were the chasms of darkness gathered under his eyes deep enough to convey his weariness? Did the shadows roiling off of him like mist properly conceptualize his lassitude, his listlessness? She liked to think so, but, obviously, she would let him be the judge.

"So?" she asked.

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Jon winced. "Disturbingly accurate." He knew he wasn't the best looking man, but he wasn't even at his own best right now. "I hope it isn't going up anywhere I'll have to look at it."

Please don't sell it to the Perk or put it up at school, is what he was saying. He didn't exactly get out much otherwise.

[mother_love]

Billy had gotten his drink and made his way over to one of the tables and sat down, soon losing himself in the letter he had received. And so he sat, somewhat distracted by trying to figure out where the letter had come from and what it was all about, pausing now and then to take a drink of the extra large double shot mocha monstrosity that he had ordered. He was so absorbed in the letter than he didn't notice much of anything else at the moment.

[white_oleander]

Which out nicely for Astrid, who stuck to her charcoals even if this person didn'tvseem to demand it for her work as the other guy did, but this way, it would tie together into a nice set: People Distracted at a Coffee Shop, 09 November 2021

She'd draw one of herself later, too, a bright spot bent over a table, forgotten cup mostly going cold.

[mother_love]

Billy glanced up from the paper and the drink for a moment, suddenly feeling like he was being watched. He caught sight of Astrid and gave her a slight nod. He didn't know exactly what she was doing but Billy was used to having eyes on him.

[white_oleander]

Astrid gave a small nod back, but mostly wrapped herself back up in her work, stealing just a few more glances here and there. But, if left for a moment or two longer to her own devices, she would eventually stop, look over her work with a thoughtfully tilted head, and then, if he glanced her way again, she'd hold up the sketchpad for him to see.

It wasn't as dramatic as the one she'd done for Jon, a whole scene instead of a portrait, although....not quite. Most of the details of the coffee shop had been stripped away, her biggest concession to light and shadows being the large bolt of the latter pouring in through the window onto the one table, Billy's table, and him hunched over it, with his letter in hand, coffee on the table. An attempt to capture that concentration on that single thing in his hand, to make the viewer wonder what could it possibly contain to make a man so distracted by it, in this stark, simple scene.

And then she looked to him for a response or reaction, if there was any at all.

[mother_love]

Billy looked up and saw her holding up the picture. It was quite good. "Hey, good job there" he said flashing a quick thumbs up. "You even got my good side!"

[crimson_sister]

While Tisarwat was at work Lucille had gone for a walk, and then decided she needed a cup of tea and something sweet to go along with it.

"I'll have a cup of tea and a cinnamon scone, please," she said, without having noticed that someone else had just ordered exactly the same.

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Jon heard that (and the accent) and looked up. He got caught a bit on the dress before remembering that time-jumps were also a thing here, then debated with himself for a moment before offering, "They're good today."

[crimson_sister]

Lucille turned her head and smiled at him.

"Then I made a good choice. Do you happen to be from England, or from one of the many places that share the accent?"

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"Other places share the...that is, I wasn't aware there were other places that shared the accent, which I suppose is your answer," Jon said. "Jonathan Sims," he introduced himself.

[crimson_sister]

"Lucille Sharpe. I own the flower shop."

She continued: "We may be from the same country, but perhaps not from the same time."

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"Good to meet you, Lucille. And assuming you're not just a fan of vintage styles, then no. I think it was 2019 in my world when I left."

[crimson_sister]

"I left in 1890 myself."

She picked up the tray with the tea and the scones.

"So my style is quite contemporary for my time. I see no reason to change it."

It was in fact a bit old-fashioned.

Smiling again, she said: "May I join you?"

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"Please." Jon gestured at the other chair. "It's good to meet you. We're a little less outnumbered by Americans than I knew."

[crimson_sister]

Lucille placed the tray on the table and sat down, arranging her skirts.

"It is good to meet you too. Less outnumbered by the Americans, and the people from other planets."

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Jon frowned in thought. "I don't think I've met many people from other planets. I wonder how many there are."

[crimson_sister]

"No? My roommate is one of them," Lucille said, because what else they were besides roommates was nobody's business.

"Tea is quite important where she is from, so we agree on that."

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

It certainly wasn't Jon's.

"I wouldn't have expected they had tea in space, so I suppose that's good to know. There's a book with an Englishman in space that can't get proper tea."