The Munchies - Penny and Josh

[Claymore]

Your search for a cheating middle manager lead you to a commercial district next to the Bank of America and the Blue Rose Innovations. There really weren't many people out this time, which drew your search a little closer to some public areas than you might have preferred. One such place was a plaza that had a monopoly on the area as being the only area open late enough for people working the graveyard shift. The anchor store was an 'open all night' Walmart, with a 24-hour McDonalds in the parking lot closer to the main road. At the edge of the plaza was a coffee shop that was open late enough to cater to the security guards an janitors who worked for the local businesses. The Walmart was too busy for someone on your kind of mission, even at this hour. And the McDonalds was locked except for the drive-through, which was currently empty. Two guards were exiting the coffee shop as you approached, leaving just one man inside, wearing a gray jumpsuit with a name tag.


OC: RP it out, or roll. Your choice. But you also have the option of waiting for Josh to show up before making your next post.

[johntfs]

From Infestation

So far, Josh was a little disappointed and a little relieved that Abigail, the cute Goth girl who'd been serving here earlier, was gone, replaced by a grim-looking older waitress named "Charlene" who was resentfully fixing him a Grande Chocomocha with whipped cream as well as a couple of chocolate-chip muffins (they were out of bagels, according to Charlene). Josh suspected that his order would probably end up tasting of bitterness and failure, but at least it'd be chocolate bitterness and failure, so Josh figured he'd be okay with it.

Still, on another level he was relieved that the Goth girl had left because of his attire. His old clothes, having been worn for five whole days (granted that three of them had been in the Shadow realm) and at least three different dimensions had been getting rather rank, so he'd had to change. Unfortunately, the only thing BRI had for him to change into was the gray janitorial jumpsuit that had belonged to somebody named "Jorge." According to the scuttlebutt he'd picked up, Jorge had had an unfortunate accident while cleaning in one of the armaments labs. A rather messy, fatal one. Thus, his spare uniform was Josh's "gain" from that loss. Luckily, Jorge had been a fairly small man, so the uniform fit Josh pretty well.

He sighed. Borrowed glasses, borrowed clothes... Man, I can't wait until my first payday so I can go out and buy my own stuff!

Still, Josh reflected, the uniform did seem oddly appropriate. After all, what else was he doing right now except for cleaning up other peoples' messes?

He glanced out the window to see a tallish, seemingly feminine figure in the parking lot and noted again that there was no one else in here except himself and the battle axe behind the counter.

Hmmm, he thought. Maybe things are about to look up...

Josh headed into the men's room, which was less than clean and pulled out a comb, looking at himself in the mirror and sighing in disappointment. With lobeless ears, wide-set eyes, freckles and a flat face, he knew he was less than attractive to the opposite sex and normally it didn't really bother him all that much. Somehow, just now, it did. It was a stupid feeling, and he knew it. The odds were that whoever the tallish woman was out there she wouldn't come in. And if she did, she'd probably ignore him. It was getting on toward three in the damn morning. Not even Brad Pitt would look sexy then.

Still, he looked at his flat, flawed face just wished it could be a little different...

Spoiler:

OOC: Essentially, Josh is using Biokinesis to give himself effectively Striking Looks 2 for a scene.
Josh rolled 9d10s for Biokinesis, with a target of 8, rerolls on 10, and botches deactivated.
Dice Results: 2 7 10 (10) 10 (4) 2 6 4 3 1
3 successes

Note that at this point, Josh has rolled a 10 which rerolled into another 10, so the luck thing should happen.

Josh rolled 1d10 for reroll 2nd 10, with a target of 8, rerolls on 10, and botches deactivated.
Dice Results: 4
0 successes

Josh failed to get all the successes he needed to get to Striking looks 4, but he did make Striking Looks 2, which means that at least he won't take minuses from his normal unattractiveness. Using this power cost Josh 1 WP.

Josh blinked a bit at the face in the mirror. It was slightly... dsifferent. Still recognizably his own features, certainly, but... different, perhaps even better somehow. Finishing with his comb, he headed back out into the shop and sat back down at his booth as the doorchime signalled the entrance of the tallish lady from the parking lot.

[PennyDreadful]

Penelope sighed. Janitors and security guards? Pickings were slim tonight, although she was really out too late for this kind of thing. The middle managers were probably already drunk and hurrying to the motel to get on to the cheating part. She briefly debated just putting it off till tomorrow night but decided against it. She needed to feed, and she was scared of what might happen if she put it off too long. She preferred people that she thought 'deserved' to be assaulted and bitten, but maybe the janitor beat his wife or something. Statistically speaking it wasn't even that unlikely.

She hitched her handbag up on her shoulder and walked purposefully into the shop. She glanced casually around as she entered, noticing that the janitor was young and quite good looking, and then studied the menu, pretending to make up her mind on which flavour of gooey, sticky, calorie bomb she wanted. "Erm, you wouldn't happen to have just a cup of tea, would you? I don't see it anywhere on here, but I'm sure I've bought one here before" She refused to buy a triple decker white-and-dark-chocolate shortcake icing flavoured caramel sundae on principle. Her voice was deep and musical, almost a contralto, and fairly distinctive.

[johntfs]

Charlene's irritated voce informed Josh that his order was up and told the tall lady that they were expecting tea in a shipment some time tomorrow. Josh noted several packages of various teas, coffees and other various items for sale in and around the register, each bearing the imprint, "Ugly Mug Coffee" after the shop. He sipped a bit of the cocoa and found it delicious. However sour she was in other aspects of her personality, Charlene could certainly make a good cup of cocoa.

"You should try this," Josh said to the woman, indicating his large drink with whipped cream floating in it like an iceberg in a brownian sea. "It's really good."

He abruptly realized he needed a napkin, took one and used it to wipe a bit of the whipped cream from his nose.

[PennyDreadful]

Penny looked at the coffee for a moment. The thing looked like a root canal waiting to happen. "No thanks, I don't have much of a sweet tooth." Turning back to the waitress she added "I'll just have a regular coffee then, black, no sugar." She had pretended not to notice the cream on his nose so the guy wouldn't be embarrassed, and took a seat at a table near him.

"Long night?" she asked. She was very careful never to look either him or the lady behind the counter full in the face. Instead she kept her face at an angle, or else obscured partially by hat or hair, so that her full features wouldn't be easily discernible.

[johntfs]

After a few moments of pensive thought, as though she were trying to recall what exactly a "regular coffee" was, Charlene moved to fill the woman's order.

Josh snorted slightly. "Long week," he said with a slight grin. "Feels like it's been years long, you know?"

He took another sip of his chocomocha and wiped his nose again. The woman's body language was a bit strange, though perhaps she was just shy by nature. She had a lovely voice, though, with a Hispanic lilt. If her voice were a flavor, it'd probably be caramal.

"So, do you come here often?" Josh asked, then immediately regretted asking something that was effectively one of the cheesiest of all pick-up lines.

"Gah! I mean, um, I haven't seen you here when I've been here and I'd probably remember you. Sorry," he continued hastily. "I mean I know it's not 1974 and all. Though, if you just wanted to tell me your sign, that's okay. For the record, I won't ask your place or mine, mostly because mine is off limits because it's being fumigated."

Well, this is either the point where she sits down well away from me, or just flat-out dumps hot coffee on my crotch. Good things these uniforms are tough, he thought ruefully.

[PennyDreadful]

Penny let out a very un-Penny-ish giggle. This was why she preferred the company of working class people. They were so direct and honest, without any of the pretentiousness of the middle or upper classes, who would loudly and heartily congratulate you on the new car you just bought while silently planning to buy a bigger or more expensive one, or else just hoping you'd wreck it soon. This guy's embarrassed honesty was far more likeable than some macho guido trying to impress her with is porsche.

"No, I don't come here often. I don't really hang out on this side of town if I can help it. But I know the long week feeling. Mine's been kind of long too, but it happens in fits and starts. Tuesday takes forever, but then it's like I skipped straight over Wednesday and go on to Thursday." She accepted her coffee from the counter lady and pretended to sip it. She felt a slight twinge of guilt over what she was planning to do here, since it didn't look likely that this guy even had a wife to beat, and he was reasonably likeable on top of that, but on the other hand you couldn't make an omelet without breaking some eggs.

[johntfs]

"I've known that feeling before," Josh said, a bit pensively. Memories of his time in the asylum rose in his mind. There'd been times when whole weeks seemed to blend together into a kind of timeless "now" that wouldn't end. He shook his head to break the spell of his past. One of the unfortunate side effects of being eidetic was that he was immune to nostalgia. So his memories never softened or faded. They stayed in his head as cold and crisp as when they'd been made.

"Anyway, I never used to come here either, but I just got a job with BRI and decent caffeine is a must for me," he told her. "What brings you down here to Corporateland? You don't sound enthusiastic about it."

"Oh, I'm Josh, by the way," he said extending a hand for her to shake if she chose, his slightly nasal native Boston accent asserting itself a little more prominently. It usually did that when he was nervous, and actually talking to pretty girl who was returning some interest instead of blowing him off was more than a little nerve-wracking.

So much for a relaxing snack, he thought. But perhaps this may be a rewarding one later, assuming I survive the rest of the night...

[PennyDreadful]

"I'm Penelope" she said. Penny shook his hand briefly. She wasn't about to use the nickname the media had given her here, even though she kind of liked it. It would be just her luck to be overheard using that name by the counter lady, who likely spent most of her shift watching talk TV, waiting for a customer, and would likely know her right away after that. "Whats BRI? I never heard of them and I try to stay on top of things in the news and stuff." Perhaps if she could get him to giver her a tour, so to speak, she'd get an opportunity to jump him.

[johntfs]

Her hand felt oddly cool as he shook it, though to be fair it was pretty cold outside and "Ugly Mug" hadn't exactly turned the heat up, probably to encourage people to buy the coffee. He was also a bit distracted by what to say about BRI. It's not like he could tell her the truth.

"Ah, Blue Rose Innovations," Josh clarified. "They do a lot of cutting-edge research and development for private companies and the government, stuff like that. I'd offer to give you the tour, but visiting hours won't start for another six or seven hours or so."

A shrill beeping noise began emitting from his pocket and he sighed, pulling out the cell-phone and seeing the time.

"Ah, dammit," Josh said, annoyed that break-time was over.

"I gotta get back to work now," he said, getting up and dropping some money on the counter to cover his drink and muffins, one of which he wrapped in a napkin to take with him. "It was nice to meet you, Penelope. I hope I can see you again some time."