Café Yumm [Finished]

[Dark]

Minh was four cups of espresso and one cream cheese pastry in before she remembered she had company. Minh had never really caught onto the concept of basic etiquette, but from the slightly aghast looks on the faces of surrounding patrons she was guessing she had broken some social conventions. Again. She took a moment to clean her whiskers in what she hoped was a properly mollifying manner.

The walk to the café had been a quiet, uneventful one, everyone wrapped up in their own thoughts too much to really take part in a conversation. All Minh really remembered was heading towards a more modern section of the downtown shoppe district, not far from the library. But as soon as the heavenly aroma of a fresh roast hit Minh’s nose the rest of the journey was a bit of a blur.

Taking the edge off her hunger had quelled the insatiable beast within, and restored higher brain function. As such she was able to better take in her surroundings; and her companions.

She was in a delightfully wretched, sunny atmosphere with large banked windows that were probably supposed to be welcoming. According to the backwards text written decoratively on the glass she had wandered into Café Yumm, a horribly modern, trendy place where today’s intellectuals liked to gather over bean sprout salad to discuss the latest dissertation.

Besides suffering vague discomfiture, she decided it was almost worth crossing the entryway for the coffee. Almost.

Though it was rather amusing when one reflected that illegal mischief would very shortly begin to formulate; here in Café Yumm, with its low tables, and yuppie cushions, and high ideals. How deliciously ironic.

She raised a brow at Mnemosyne, offering for her begin. And in the meantime Minh started in on a piece of cheesecake.

[Bee]

Mnemosyne herself had ordered a slice of cheesecake, some coffee cake, and an ever-flowing stream of espresso. She figured that any tendency to gluttony she might exhibit would be more than overshadowed by Minh's display, not that she cared much anyway.

The cafe had a certain allure, she thought. She thought the whole thing would function better as a sort of spoken-word place, with dim lighting and and a parade of dreary youths dripping terrible poetry out of their drug-numbed mouths. She could almost hear it now, actually, and wondered if there would be any way to persuade the little cafe to sponsor a once-a-week spoken word night or something.

She almost stayed adrift in her own little imaginary world, but she did have things to talk about, and she didn't think that Minh and Kelasia were going to be the ones to initiate a conversation. Minh was too socially awkward, and Kel was too socially terrified. So Mnem took it upon herself to make the first move.

A little small talk should ease them both into the flow of conversation, she thought.

"So," she said, after taking another bite of chocolate cheesecake, "why don't you both tell me a little about yourselves?"

[seraaches]

Kelasia sat awkwardly at the table, feet primly together and tail tucked as close to her body as she could get it. A biscuit dribbled with a touch of honey sat befor her and a cup of tea, but so far she had yet to touch either of them. She was very uneasy here with two veritable strangers, but she -had- been the one to suggest they come. Still, her rounded ears lay back and she was obviously nervous.

The cat was (still!!!!) eating, so Kel thought that was a pointed statement for her to begin. "Uhm... I'm Kel..." Wait, she'd already said that. "I work for West Lakes Firm; it's a shipping firm."

That was just about the sum of her life right now and her short summary certainly covered the high points. Sad as that might be. She couldn’t think of anything else that was fit to be shared, so she subsided into silence, eyes on the table.

[Dark]

“Shipping firm, eh?”

Some vague notions of slipping goods of a slightly delicate nature in through a legit company flitted through Minh’s mind—there were a delightful range of opportunities such a contact opened up—but she pushed them aside for later to answer Mnemosyne.

“Minh Thi D’Alessio. Twenty-two. Single. Self-employed.”

And that pretty much summed it up. It didn’t really serve a purpose to get into her family—they were all just a bunch of loons, anyway. The parental units blew themselves up when she was five, and after that Gran and Pap raised she and her slightly pyromaniac brother, Thanh. She started selling homemade cocktails when she was eight (mostly to kindergarteners), and by the time she was eleven had made enough to start her own private lair and move onto more serious things.

After a moment of consideration, she told them about it anyway.

[Bee]

Mnemosyne listened in amusement while Minh issued forth her tale, and part of her delight came from the fact that her imagined version of Minh's life was actually not too far off the mark. Though with her general aura, Mnem did wonder exactly how successful Minh's more "serious" things were.

She still debated for a moment telling them more of her own exploits. In light of Minh's experiments she didn't feel quite so reserved regarding the ever-so-slightly illegal activities of her former enterprise. Besides, she was on hiatus at the moment, safe in anonymity in Capital City, and she didn't really feel like Minh and Kel were going to betray her, as such.

Still. She chose her words carefully. They didn't know much about the Gardens, anyway, and the secrets it held. Most of her people were very careful to keep the Rupture and its poisonous flora to themselves. It was safer that way. And more...profitable...for Mnem.

"Mnemosyne Eumeleia," she offered. "I ran my own business, for quite some time. I'm taking a break right now, due to certain, shall we say, unwanted attentions from...rival companies. So I'm just out and about enjoying what the Capital has to offer for a bit." She smiled. "I've concluded that it...offers decent coffee."

[seraaches]

Kelasia had been absolutely correct: these two were a very strange and odd pair. Her eyes were wide at the end of Minh's tale-- a lair?! wot?!-- and she was frightened by Mnem's shorter history. She had the feeling Theofilus would not approve of friends such as these.

She was still drawn, however, to the two confident creatures. That much she wanted to emulate, and perhaps sticking around would help teach her wot she needed to know to be like them; at least, the poise they had, not the, ahem, craziness. She had enough of that sort of behaviour in her own family, or so the skunk gathered from Theo’s reactions to her mother’s attitudes, that she really didn’t want to pick up any more such quirks.

Nevertheless, she had the feeling that her mother would approve of these two ladies; especially Mnemosyne and her innate, alluring personality. The matron skunk was all about confidence and using everything in her arsenal to pursue wot she wanted.

[Dark]

Minh nodded in agreement with Mnemosyne’s assessment. It was true—the capitol did offer an outstanding variety of superior blends. Minh just tended to like something a little bit sweeter than what they were being served at the moment.

She smiled at Kelasia, who seemed equal parts intrigued and mesmerized—in a morbid sort of fashion, anyway—before taking another bite of cheesecake—oh joyful, sweet sugary goodness…

Thanh’s bakery goods were better, of course, but she was a long ways off from the fire-proofed disarray of his kitchen. And it really wasn’t bad when you considered it was shoppe-bought.

Thinking about her brother’s cooking, however, made her salivate. He made such fantastic dinners for the occasional enforced family get-together. It almost made family time bearable—still, it was a matter of principle to try and worm her way out of it. Relatives were such a drag.

But, yeah.

She turned to Mnemosyne, “On a scale to one to ten, how would you rate this cheesecake?”


((Charlie the Unicorn, anyone? X3;; ))

[Bee]

"Perhaps a six or seven," she said, though the cheesecake wasn't really something she had thought about. It was good. That was all that could be said for it, and that was enough. She wondered if she should shift the conversation to more serious matters--she had a lot of them on her mind--and then decided that the best route to go would probably be to get information out of Kelasia. She wasn't sure how long the skunk had been in the City or what she knew about it, but she knew more than Mnemosyne did, and she wanted to gently exact some information concerning her new environment.

Besides, it would be a lovely opportunity to get Kel to speak up and voice an opinion or two.

"And while the cheesecake is perfectly delightful," she said, turning to look Kelasia directly in the eye, "I think perhaps the next time we should meet elsewhere. Do you have any nice ideas on what the City has to offer, Kelasia dear?"

[seraaches]

On the spot again! Kelasia bit her lip uneasily, trying to fight the extreme shyness in the face of so much confidence. She took a deep, steadying breath however and tried to meet Mnemosyne’s gaze. It worked for less than a second, but she was still proud of herself for the effort.

”I-I d-don’t really know t-to much, actually,” the skunk flushed as she stuttered, but neither of the other two seemed to care and were still listening with care and patience. ”I spend a lot of time at the libraries, but other than that… I just go to work.” She worked quite a bit actually, though it was mainly through desire. There was enough work for her, so it all turned out alright in the end. Except for when Rogers sent her out of the office for awhile to ‘clear her head’. But that didn’t really have any bearing on this conversation..

[Bee]

And that, thought Mnemosyne, was not terribly interesting, but at least the skunk was talking. Someone who spent a lot of time in libraries was sure to know how to look for useful information, and perhaps could become a well of good tidbits herself. The idea appealed the Mnem. Kel was perhaps not as creative as Minh or as--persuasive--as herself, but there was a lot to be said for someone who could quickly retrieve relevant information. She was happy she finally found a decent niche in which to stick her hesitant companion.

And Kelasia did not appear to have many other interests, and certainly not a lot of friends, so Mnem suspected that she was probably very competent at the one thing she did often. Or could easily be trained to be competent. And working for a shipping firm could be used to great advantage, as well.

"That's lovely," she told Kelasia. She decided to fish for a bit more information. Perhaps Kel had a few areas of expertise. "What kinds of things do you like to read about, Kel?"