Wait, What? [Finished]

[Dark]

Suha had spent an uneventful day making herself more familiar with the city--it's layout, and it's inhabitants. It wasn't the most stimulating exercise, but it was a necessary one. If she needed a bit of foxglove to slip in someone's tea--now she knew where to acquire such a package--and if she was feeling social, she was now familiar with the tea parlors and salons favored by the wealthy, and the pubs favored by the working class. Whatever she might require, the city was more than capable of supplying.

It had been quite a bit of walking, though, and she was feeling rather tired after her exploration. Picking something up at the cafe and retiring early sounded like a delightful way to end the evening. Perhaps a bath, too--she'd picked up some lovely oils earlier in the week.

[Bee]

"I don't suppose," Thalia asked the barista, pleasantly, "that you have a marshmallow mocha with koi-flavored syrup? Burnt marshmallows. They're nice and gooey in the middle. Oh, with rainbow sprinkles on top. I don't much care for them, actually, but I like the color on top of my whipped cream. Otherwise it's too white and it creeps me out."

The barista looked at her like she had ingested some manner of psychotropic intoxicant, which Thalia resented, because she did not do drugs. (The thought of her on crack seemed to rank among some people's greatest night terrors. She didn't know why.)

Her diet was just a little stranger than usual. It went through phases like this. If this cafe didn't have what she wanted, she was sure she could find the necessary ingredients and make her own.

"I'm, uh...I'm sorry, that's not...available."

"All right," she said, cheerfully. "The last few cafes didn't have it either. You might look into it. I think it could be a great hit. Thanks anyway!"

[Dark]

Suha was very good at waiting--in matters concerning such things as her ex-husbands and her courtly aspirations--but it was another matter entirely when her chai latte and raspberry torte were at stake, and she was experiencing a rising level of ire that might have resulted in her doing something rash--it had been a very long day--when she happened to focus on the scene unfolding at the counter.

Marshmallow-koi mocha with rainbow sprinkles? What an interesting young woman; she had a horrible taste in drinks, but at least she seemed cheerful enough. Suha didn't generally like cheerful people; optimism tended to suggest a certain level of nativity, and that got a person no where in life. The girl would probably mellow with age. Maybe. Suha had her doubts, after an cursory inspection.

She must have been more tired than she imagined, spending so much time in consideration of a complete stranger.

[Bee]

Thalia hadn't even realized there was someone behind her in line until she turned around and saw something very red with a very interesting tongue.

"I bet that's great for whipped cream," she said, happily, and thought momentarily if she could rig up a tongue like that one. She really probably could. A day or so in the lab, maybe...She'd need something that could both expand and retract, because she didn't want something that would be hanging out there all the time. Something like her tentacles, with magic, maybe? Getting the right magical effect was usually kind of trickier than science. "How did you do that?" she asked. There was the chance of course that this was some sort of natural mutation, but if the woman had somehow engineered it onto herself or knew someone who had, she wanted to know.

[Dark]

Suha blinked, slightly taken aback by the directness and complete absurdity of the strange girl's initial approach; it took her a moment to realize just what exactly the girl was talking about, and as realization struck she retracted her tongue quickly. It had a habit of slithering about most unbecomingly on its own, and while it fascinated a certain type, it wasn't particularly acceptable for most polite company.

"A misfortune of birth, I suppose." Suha didn't know who exactly was to blame in her family tree for her genetic oddities, exactly, but she would have appreciated it if they had removed themselves from it. A slithering tongue and sharp fangs did not befit a lady, or someone with any sort of aspiration. Such mutations tended to be slightly off-putting.

She supposed the girl's curiosity stemmed from her obvious Corvie background--Suha eyed the waving tentacles and curling hair--but it was still rather rude to ask a total stranger. It didn't help that she'd just happened to touch on a sensitive subject.

[Bee]

Thalia was surprised at the phrasing, and she was unable to completely process the fact that someone might be less than happy to have turned out such a way. Perhaps it was a byproduct of growing up with Corvie genes and a family of freaks.

The tongue (and the fangs!) were what made memorable. Thalia had an extreme aversion to plainness. She didn't process it well. As far as she was concerned, such manifestations made people even more attractive; had she not told Tosiek that he had become even more handsome when that jawbone had attached itself to his face? He had already been quite striking, even more so with his hair and glasses, but the jawbone gave his face such wonderful character. She should go give him a kiss...

"A misfortune?" she asked, perplexity evident. "Oh, no! I would do something unpleasant to something else to have been born with that."

[Dark]

Suha supposed that the response shouldn't come as such of a surprise, considering the company, and while she would doubt the sincerity of the statement from anyone else, she had the sneaking suspicion that the girl was entirely serious. It was a disconcerting feeling, after so long dealing with the two-faced.

"I--suppose." Suha blamed the lack of a clever response on the horrendous delay between her desire for a chai latte and her actual acquisition of said latte, and if her order was given with a bit more fang than usual, who was she to blame?

Latte and torte in hand moments later, Suha found herself at an awkward social dilemma. As conversation had been initiated, it would be rude to just leave--no matter how much she might desire to escape strange company--but their dialogue had been casual, no introductions, and that made is awkward to continue. Suha despised gray areas of proper etiquette.

[Bee]

Thalia asked the nice barista for a little slip of paper and pencil and scribbled her name and the address of the Apartment down.

"If you ever delve into your family history and come up with someone responsible, or wanna get some testing done, come on over and we'll get you set up all nice and cozy in the lab. My mom makes cookies."

As easy and clean as kidnapping was, sometimes it really was easier to have a willing subject, though really she might not be able to examine this tongue-beast at all because when you invited people over you kept having to ask questions like "Is it all right of I jammed this needle up through the roof of your mouth?" and "This doesn't hurt does it?" and "Do you wanna quit for the day?"

All of those questions, in her limited experience, slowed science down a lot.

[Dark]

Suha accepted the tiny slip of paper as graciously as she could manage; she had no intention of ever getting into contact, ever, but it was the polite thing to do. She couldn't imagine how strange the rest of the family was, after her brief interaction with this--Thalia, as she glanced at the piece of paper--and she didn't particularly care to find out. Suha had no intention of stepping inside a lab, willingly or not.

In some ways, though, it'd almost be worth it to see if anything could be done about the fangs--they were dreadfully inconvenient--but if she ever did decide to have a procedure done she would not fall back on the strange, marshmallow-koi mocha loving stranger that had decided to talk to her in local cafe. Research was to be done, first and foremost, before she made any sort of decision.

"Many thanks," she said with a brief nod of her head, "If the occasion does arise, my name is Suha. It was a pleasure to meet you." Or something. "Have a nice day."

She made a quick, but graceful exit.