[EP] aliens control the coffee supply

[st_artliving]

Xavin, for the most part, hadn't actually bothered keeping regular hours at her little coffee nook. She spent some time there most days, how long depending on how many people wanted coffee or how interested she was in whatever books she'd selected for the day.

Today was probably going to be a longer day, if only because she'd had to restock a little from the kitchens. She'd found a little cart to haul things and was currently engaged in putting her supplies away. Milks and whipped cream into the little refrigerator, beans stashed in their cupboard, disposable cups stacked and non-disposable cups cleaned and put away. (Some people liked those, particularly if they didn't intend to leave the library. But it meant that her kitchen time included doing dishes, which was often more fun than drudgery. Especially when she accidentally overdid the soap.)

Comments

Scanlan/Xavin

[st_illsinging]

"Okay, I concede" He walked up with a pleasant smile. "Convince me to love coffee."

The gnome had faith that Xavin could do this over anyone else. Except, perhaps, Pike, but he'd do anything for her.

Re: Scanlan/Xavin

[st_artliving]

“I accept your challenge,” Xavin replied with a grave nod. “What kinds of flavors do you like, generally?” With an idea of what Scanlan liked, she could construct a drink that leaned on it.

Re: Scanlan/Xavin

[st_illsinging]

"Hmmm... Ale's my favourite. Wine is next. Water, if I absolutely need to. That Coca Cola stuff isn't too bad either, but it has a lot of sugar." Scanlan, of course, assumed she solely meant beverage flavours.

Re: Scanlan/Xavin

[st_artliving]

Hmm, that was not helpful. Beyond ‘not too sweet’ being important. Some to smooth out the coffee... “I will try this.” One shot of espresso, steamed milk, some maple flavor, and one more things: a little bacon salt (because salt in coffee was delicious).

Maple bacon latte. Xavin placed the cup in front of Scanlan. “Several attempts may be called for before we find one that works. This one first.”

Re: Scanlan/Xavin

[st_illsinging]

"I should probably say that coffee flavour basically tastes the worst. It's bitter, but not in the 'at least I'm going to get drunk' sort of way."

Still, when the concoction was ready, Scanlan took it in hand and sniffed. It didn't smell too bad. He took a sip and it looked like someone doing a wine tasting. He smacked his lips a few times and swished around. He swallowed though instead of spitting it out.

"Do I detect a note of bacon?"

Re: Scanlan/Xavin

[st_artliving]

"You do." Xavin nodded. "Bacon salt. I understand that bacon and maple work well together as flavors."

Re: Scanlan/Xavin

[st_illsinging]

"Bacon is fantastic. You know though, I only take maple for the first time here. Which is a shame, really. That stuff is delicious."

He took another sip, but didn't look entirely sold. "Still tastes a little too coffee-y"

Tony & Xavin

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

At the smell of coffee beans, Tony's synapses began firing back to life as he wandered the halls. The effect was all the more intensified after a night full of wandering the halls doing "research" (as much as it was an excuse to stay out of his still-unacceptable assigned room.) The sight of the coffee stand was enough to bring a tear to the eye, and he approached it like a fly drawn to honey.

"Anything ready yet? I'll take a drip straight." His dark eyes were glazed over with the anticipation of his nectar of life. "Literally. Straight into my mouth. Shove me under the dispenser."

Re: Tony & Xavin

[st_artliving]

“I will not. That is unsanitary.” The man was familiar, but not from the Inn. From before, then. Xavin busied herself drawing a cup of drip and setting it in front of him before, and only then did recognition set in.

He was lucky she had better control than to flinch back and knock over the cup, and enough presence of mind to turn and busy herself about lining up six of the tiny glasses for espresso shots.

Tony Stark. head of SHIELD, administrator of the Superhuman Registration Act provisions and likely general of Earth’s forces in the last Skrull attempted invasion she remembered. A man who, back ‘home’, would capture or kill her out of hand. And that was all without the armor.

She took a subtle (she hoped) steadying breath, pushed the buttons to start the shots brewing, then turned back. “You can have those when they are done if you promise your face will not go in my machine.”

Re: Tony & Xavin

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"You drive a hard bargain." Completely unwitting of the barista's obvious discomfort, Tony leaned in. His pupils were dilated at the sight of his next fix.

"Where was this godsend for the last few days? I've been having withdrawals like no one's business."

Re: Tony & Xavin

[st_artliving]

"It has been here even if you came while I was not here." The machine was too bulky to haul around conveniently. At least, conveniently without using Super-Skrull powers she was still wary of displaying.

Each of the little espresso shots was poured into a larger cup, so the end result was just a lot of espresso with nothing added. Which, as promised, Xavin offered to him. "I find it difficult to believe Tony Stark does not know how to operate a simple coffee machine."

That was actually teasing, or at least a clumsy attempt at it. The Skrull Empire was more advanced than most of Earth, and Xavin had still almost blown up the machine several times. As well, it seemed doubly important now not to hide. Even if it turned into a fight now, if she didn't hide, she was not acting like a typical Skrull.

Re: Tony & Xavin

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Sliding it over his own way, Tony indulged in a long inhale of the sweet roast. Everything else seemed to fade into the background as the scent filled his chest.

"Thank you, oh my goodness." He couldn't have cared less about the clumsy end product or the fact that this person somehow knew his name (he was getting used to that fact anyway). "You wouldn't think so, but it's been a few years." Having said that, he was sure a few seconds with it and he'd put two and two together.

Re: Tony & Xavin

[st_artliving]

“You are welcome.” He was politer than she might have thought he’d be. And clearly desperate for coffee. Not many people were willing to drink six shots of straight espresso. Xavin considered, not quite biting her lip, then said abruptly, “I am a Skrull. So you know, in case at matters to whether you drink that.”

Lillith x Xavin

[st_rangepalette]

Xavin had not been long in her coffee niche when she was approached by a small pen on four legs with an insectoid head and eye stalks. In its pincers it carried a note on a scrap of paper that read:

Make a special coffee drink that seems like me to you? Love, Lillith

Which Tiefling was sitting in a reading nook just outside of Xavin's line of vision.

Re: Lillith x Xavin

[st_artliving]

Xavin considered the note, then smiled when inspiration struck. Espresso, white chocolate, steamed milk, and marshmallow syrup went into a cup, as she'd made for Scanlan earlier. Unlike Scanlan's drink, however, she added a little cayenne pepper; not enough to change the color of the drink or anything, but enough to add an utterly unexpected spicy kick. On the cup, she drew a little heart shape.

Sweet and warm, clearly strong, fire underneath the surface. It seemed appropriate.

Once the drink was made, Xavin tried to fit it into the pen-insect's pincers. If Lillith had sent it for the purpose, surely it would be strong enough to ferry the beverage back to her.

Re: Lillith x Xavin

[st_rangepalette]

The tiny servant tried to lift the cup, but with its limited intelligence and too-small pincers, it couldn't, and flopped meaningfully on the counter. From where she sat, Lillith heard the clatter and let out a bright giggle. She quickly covered her mouth to keep from being too loud, then Sent a brief message to Xavin:

You'll have to make one for yourself, too, and join me.

Re: Lillith x Xavin

[st_artliving]

I can do that. Where will I go? Xavin replied immediately. Not far, unless her mind was linked with the pen-insect. But it was better to know rather than to search. While this conversation-ish thing was going on, she busied herself making a drink for herself.

If anyone came to the stand while she was with Lillith, then... too bad.

Re: Lillith x Xavin

[st_rangepalette]

In the reading nook. I have pulled up a chair for you.

The tiny servant, having less brain than a rabbit, but similar mannerisms, like flopping found itself with nothing to do and then flopped aggressively once more on the counter. Lillith told it to return to her with Xavin and so it waited until she had done with her coffee making. When she had, it lifted up its front half to tap 'politely' on her wrist. Its eyestalks waved around expressively, although what they were expressing was anyone's guess.

Re: Lillith x Xavin

[st_artliving]

Without the pensect, Xavin would have carried the coffee cups one per hand. But with the odd construct looking at her, she pulled out a tray, put the cups on it, and gestured to invite the pensect aboard as well. While it decided, she put a few pastries on a plate and set that on the tray too.

Lillith hadn't asked for them, but this too was Lillith to Xavin: providing more than had been asked of her.

Once everything was loaded, she lifted the tray and walked carefully to the reading nook with it. As promised, Lillith was seated in a chair with an empty chair near her. As expected, there was also a small table sufficient for the tray.

Tag Lillith - 8/13 - second domino

[st_ratagem]

Once he knew where the library was, Loki couldn't stay away. No, he couldn't actually take books back to either of the rooms he slept in, but there was nothing saying that he couldn't go and read there. (Cloaked in an ignore-me enchantment of some kind, of course.) And the lovely severe Illyana hadn't, even loosely speaking, forbidden him from her domain.

Not that he would have cared particularly if she had.

But there was nothing in his behavior anyone could complain about. He found what appeared to be a decent collection of the mythology of some world he'd never heard of before, wrapped himself in a spell that would make anyone who saw him (without sufficient power and skill of their own to oppose it) see not nothing but someone reading, I didn't pay attention to who.

Sufficiently hidden, he barely noticed when another person took one of the other chairs in his chosen alcove.

Re: Tag Lillith - 8/13 - second domino

[st_rangepalette]

Since the child, Annie, had arrived, Lillith had taken to appearing in public as an albino human. She did not wish to hide herself any longer, but neither did she wish to frighten a child already far from home and missing her parents. She had not endeavored to talk to Annie, because she reminded her of Beatrycze whom she missed at home. Perhaps soon, she might.

Today she had elected to retreat to the library. After she'd put in her hours of working on her enchantments, she'd gathered her sketchpad and charcoal and her journal in case friend Thor sent more messages and went to see if Xavin was working.

Ah! As she was, Lillith slipped past her by detouring through the shelves and went to take up residence in the reading nook. Upon entering, her gaze fell on another already there and slid off again. She set her things on the small table and looked over again--and slid off again.

Magic.

She relaxed her mind the way that she must when trying to penetrate an illusion and simply allowed herself to know that the person there was of interest to her. She did not try to see them, only knew that she could, and then the careful, simple spell released its hold on her to reveal someone Lillith did not know.

"Oh. Hello," she addressed the sharp-faced man. If he had intended ill, she did not think that he would be sitting in the library with a book. There were more effective ways to plot against people with the magic he had.

Re: Tag Lillith - 8/13 - second domino

[st_ratagem]

Actually being addressed was startling enough that Loki looked up from his book. A young albino woman... no, something else, the human shell was as much an illusion as his own ultimately (kind of) was. When you knew how to look at things, there were always little inconsistencies to anything 'not real'.

This woman's inconsistencies were microscopic, if that. It was impressive, though not as much as her seeing through his ignore-me spell. Simple though it was, it wasn't a simple matter of 'disbelieving'. She had serious skills, and was young enough that they'd only improve with time and practice.

Very interesting. And without a book, more so. "Hello. Hiding from something?"

Re: Tag Lillith - 8/13 - second domino

[st_rangepalette]

"Not as such, no," she replied, lest he think she was hiding from Xavin. But he did have illusion magic so she did not assume that was what he meant.

"One of the new residents is a human child with presumably little experience of non-humans. My kind is frightening enough to adults. As it costs me little to appear as a human instead of a Tiefling, it seemed kind to do so until she had adjusted."

She spread her things on the table so she might choose from among them. "What of you? It's an unusual choice to direct attention away from oneself in a place like a library where most are not inclined to pry."

Re: Tag Lillith - 8/13 - second domino

[st_ratagem]

Ah. Yes. Loki understood about different faces to curb fear. He'd been doing it all his life without knowing it until the last ten years. He was 'lucky' in that his terrifying face took effort to bring out rather than effort to hide.

He flashed a smile. Why not? She clearly didn't recognize him. "I'm not officially here yet. Best I keep a low profile until I am."

Re: Tag Lillith - 8/13 - second domino

[st_rangepalette]

"How is it possible that you are here without being officially here?" Lillith mused over this and scowled at him. Were she wearing her Tiefling face, her fangs would certainly show. "To my knowledge no one has arrived without there being a room for them."

Another thought struck her, one she liked even less. "Do you claim then to be one of those responsible for us being brought here?"