Coffee is my best friend (Open)

Ah, New York...the city that never sleeps--or bathes. Being the first American city he ever step foot in, it was always a bit of a nostalgia trip every time he came here, but such heart-flutterings were always dashed the moment he walked onto the busy, trash-littered sidewalks.

Dusan was feeling a bit of jet lag after the long haul from Las Vegas, and once the taxi had taken him out of the airport he was quick to end the ride and dart back out onto concrete so that he could take a refreshing walk in the motor smoke. The stench streetside was awful but the people were sublime in a way, even though they were crude and unfriendly; sometimes the man thought he had a bit of Chinese in him, the way he loved crowds. Really, it was a terrible thing to adore bustling cities and yet be plagued by such a stimulatory disorder as his own.

Dusan ambled his way through the city at a lackadaisical pace, headphones clasped to his ears and a wisp of not-so-fragrant smoke wafting from a cigarette hung lopsided between his lips. Sometimes, during such visits as these when old memories were stirred, he would wonder if perhaps he shouldn't bash the city as much as he did. Then once he had gone again the reminiscing ended, twisted by terrible tales that he should love to put a comedic spin on. He used to live here once, why shouldn't he continue retelling those hilarious, horrid stories? Especially when the piles of garbage bags and the rank, leaking sewage problem only grew bigger with every visit.

After a few miles into his stroll he finally settled on a row of storefronts beside him. His eyes wandered over the sign for a coffeehouse, and his mind decided that caffeine would be a good way to stir his brain and help him sleep once the night struck mid and he had finally retreated to his hotel reservation. Strangely enough, there was an armored vehicle parked just outside it, but he shrugged it off and wandered through the door in as careless a manner as may have been humanly possible.

There was a slight tilt to his frame as he walked in, due in part to his sleep-deprived brain. In this quieter setting he pulled down his headphones and stubbed out his cigarette on his boot heel, tossing it in the trash just in case smoking wasn't allowed inside (it so rarely was anymore). He leaned an elbow on the counter and ordered a caffe mocha, and while he waited for the drink to be made his eyes wandered around the building, taking note of the people therein, of the way they sat and where they were looking.

Once his mocha was in hand, he sauntered past a woman with four arms and sat down at the table behind her, on a chair that put the table between them and her back within his view. He took a long, slow sip, breathed a sigh of delight, and then called out to the woman: "You in the hero business, miss?"

New York city was not too different from Grandfather in so many ways that Rheia and Dio were quite comfortable in the congested streets. One of the major differences they noticed however was a lack of common decency and manners among pedestrians, people could be rude and vulgar with little provocation but a touch. Dio and Rheia were in New York taking a bit of a break from Dio's medium work, New York being a place Rheia had wanted to visit for a long time. Being a bit of a shopaholic Rheia wanted to see if the passing rumors she heard were true about New York being one of the biggest commercial shopping cities in the world. While Dio was burdened with carrying the heaviest of Rheias bags the spirits that accompanied him were no help squabbling and taking shots at Dio, Rheia and even the city they were walking through. Truly spirits have nothing better to do than to complain, Lu-Bu even going so far as to curse at passers by who rudely push past Dio without an apology. After a while of wandering through the streets and various shopping centers and boutiques Rheia mercifully lets Dio rest taking a break at some decent looking cafe, Dio stops just for a moment looking at a peculiar heavily armed vehicle.



"Now that looks like something dangerous, dont you think?"



"Hm? The car there? I suppose it looks a bit out of place. I dont know about dangerous."



"Huh... Never a good sign when you see government vehicles around, anywho let's go inside my back is killing me."



Walking inside Rheia and Dio pass by a four armed catlike woman, that alone wasn't enough to garner Dio's attention. There were so many varieties of beings in Grandfather seeing the strange was never strange. What did bother Dio however was the combination of her presence, the government vehicle and the rather tense atmosphere in the cafe. Dio also noticed another man, rather tall and lanky with darting eyes. Rheia and Dio sat down as Dio let out an audible sigh letting down the bags. Rheia ordered her usual two cream two sugar and Dio had it black with one sugar. Though hidden under his clothing Dio was surely armed with his trusted Tsurugi, not that he ever invited or predicted trouble but the tense air in this cafe was getting more so.

Buffy looked at the person who asked her a question, an for a momemt tought on how to answer it. " Not at the moment, as you can see, but yes, i help fight crime. " She smiked slightly with a faint smile. She however also saw two people staring at the vehicle outside and then entering the cafe. The two new commers sat down. It took a few seconds for Buffy to understand the growing tenseness, most probably cause by the armored car. 
Buffy glanced at the second agent who was sitting near the door, and gently nudged her head to the side, siginaling for him to go out and park the car a little further away. The agent let out a smirk and a gentle shook of his head, and got up, going outside. Soon the armored vehicle started up and dissapired from sight. 
Buffy hoped that this would easy the tension in the cafe. She did not want to fight now, she just wanted some off time. 

Dusan smiled wryly at the mutant's response, and saw as she tilted her head at a man whose garb matched that of the woman sitting next her; he promptly stood and left the cafe, passing by a pair as they came in. Dusan took another long sip of his drink, watching the man step into the armored car and drive off.

"You a soldier?" Dusan continued around the lip of his cup.

Rheia took one look at Dio and knew what he was thinking, Dio had often been hassled by the authorities on local and federal levels in multiple realms. Seeing the obvious military like presence was bound to make him tense. 

"Oh I dont think they're here about you love, look the car is even leaving."

Rheia says in a hush tone as the armored car leaves. Dio finds this turn of events somewhat interesting and was also not blind to the four armed woman who seemed to be in command of the other units. Dio looked at Rheia and gave a sly smirk.

"So who's gonna go over and see what's up with the fuzz?"

"Wait what? No I dont want to play that, just go over there and ask yourself."

Rheia pouts as the two talk in hushed tones but very animated in their movements.

"No that's not how this goes, fair is fair now call it."

"no."

"Sissy."

"Jerk."

"Brat."

"douche."

"You'll do it or you can carry back everything yourself."

"Fine geez I fucking hate you. Tails."

Dio takes out a coin and flips it catching it in his hand and puts it on the table, it comes up as the tails side of the coin as Rheia sighs.

"I guess it should be me to say hello, people dont like you anyways."

"Love you too sugar."

Dio says taking a sip of his coffee that had just come. Rheia shyly walks over to the feline woman and tall man having a conversation and stops between them. She waves at the two of them and does a small bow, her long emerald earrings jingle slightly as they hang off her long pointed ears.

"He hello there, sorry for interrupting your conversation. My name is Rheia, Rheia Cilbranch. I couldn't help but notice."

Looking at Buffy.

"You're in command of those um... officers? Is there any particular reason they left just now? I mean if you're allowed to tell me I dont want to interfere with police matters. It's just... My boyfriend um... Well he's not got any warrants or anything but we dont really I guess what I mean to say is."

Rheia is now rambling awkwardly and blushing deeply as she goes on trying to explain herself to these strangers.

Another day, another chance to gain something new, another step towards an impossible future. Arthur was prepared, taking in the smell of green tea and coffee beans with a hint of cooked meat and sriracha sauce. He loved his job, he loved the community, he loved the food. It was a good place to be, Homebrew, place for empowereds to take a break from the usual struggle of fitting in and just being themselves among others like themselves while eating warm food and sipping sweet or bitter refreshments.

He had his usual big smile on, t-shirt, jeans, leather shoes, and an apron holding many coloured markers, he had an aura of joy around him, apparently it was a reason some people came back to his humble place, one day he wanted to upgrade the location, make an activity centre, have a restaurant, hell, a while freakin mall would be awesome, but hard to achieve, maybe someday… He could build a place for people like these to enjoy some good times and good food.

Buffy walked in, and Arthur tried his best to be accommodating, wasn’t often someone with such extreme features would show up, she sat away, he knew she would likely want something soon. Never seen her before, might be good to say hi, Quinn could handle himself with the serving. He singled the shy guy over.

“Hey, Q, I would really appreciate it if you could operate the register, new people and all, want them to come back. Now, remember, be loud, be fun, be getting it right. Good?”

Quinn would pause for a minute, looking like he was about to object, but after a moment he nodded, he got the job handled. Arthur knee he didn’t like doing the register, taking orders and such, he did though like making the hot drinks, he liked hand people warm cups, ones heated by his own hands, and he liked experimenting with flavours, he had a good mind for taste, but he was too shy to get anything else done, so grow him where he’s strong right?

Arthur turned around, and took some strides forward, looked like she had three more people show up, all of them new, a huge grin would envelop his face, wonderful, more people! He would enter and begin talking, maybe a bit too loud.

”Hello! Welcome to the Homebrew! A place where empowereds of all kind can get some respite! I appreciate you all coming here,would you be interested in a drink or sandwich of some type or another? And if that doesn’t interest you, a piece of cake or pie?”

She looked at the tall man who was asking her a question and shook her head slightly. " A Soldier? Not anymore. but i was, back in WW1 and WW2 " Buffy said an remembered a few of the horrific battles that she has faought int, and a few missions that she had led. A few seconds later, her mind was warped back into the present as she got the beer that she had ordered was put in front of her. She glanced at the nice dark gold colored beer, and smiled, letting out a low sigh of easy. picked the nice looking cup up and took a nice long sip of the beer. "Very very good. " She muttered slightly before turning back to the stranger.

" And yourself? You seem to be in the middle of the spectrum. " Buffy asked and then let out a wild guess. The person looked more like a vigilante then a hero, but she could have been wrong.... maybe the guy was a villain. Not that it mattered to her right now.
Suddenly her cat ears, twitched gently and moved to focus on something that was outside. A few seconds later, the male agent returned, and without a word, sat back down at this own table next to the door.

She had clearly head the wierd conversation that the two other people was having, and a few seconds later, the cute girl walked over and started explaing something, and then only managed to be rambling on about something. "Hun, i am not a police officer, no need to think that i will be takeing anybody anywhere. " Buffy said with a straight face, but deep down inside she was pretty amused at the situation. " I am the Director of S.H.A.R.D., not a police officer. " Buffy Rogers smirked. " The Armored car outside was making it tense in here, so i had it park elsewhere... But i am taking it easy now, to enjoy my nice beer and maybe grab a bite soon. " Buffy spoke and as she was a little annoyed, her tails started switching and the ends of her tails where twitching and swaying a little faster then normally.

It took a few seconds for her to calm down, just intime to see a friendly and smiling person, the owner of the Cafe, address the people who where already in the Cafe. After the small gathering was spoken to, Buffy took another long sip from her beer, enjoying the outstanding taste. Tara, the serious looking female agent who was next to Buffy, having been silent until now, spoke, giving her order too. A ham and cheese sandwich. Buffy smirked looking at the list of sandwiches that where for sale. She would have to eat something as well.
"Hello there, we would like a large ham and cheese sandwich, one slice of that fantastic looking apple pie and another one of this great beer, the Golden Grain, was the name of it. " Buffy spoke with a shy smile. 

Dusan groaned quietly. "A director?" All his plans were shot out the window. He thought he'd spotted a perfect opportunity for a client, but it seemed he was wrong.

He stared curiously at the woman who'd walked over to ask the question. She was the same one who'd just walked in beside another, and they'd been talking in hushed tones ever since.

Before he could think much his attention was taken away by the approach of another--the owner of the cafe. He listened with some interest to what he had to say about it. Must have been new, he thought, as he'd never heard of it before. Then again, he wasn't too much of a regular in his visits to New York City. Being some sort of empowered respite, as he called it, seemed like it would be a good place to scope out now and again.

Dusan held up his mocha. "I'm good, thanks." In the next breath he continued, "Nice place you got here. Get many interesting people coming in?"

James Dean and Lucky came out from Dio and looked over at the group remaining in their invisible state as to not spook anyone. James smirks at Dio while taking out a ghostly cigarette from his jacket pocket and lighting up, he hands one over to Lucky and they both observe the crowd gathering around the feline woman.



"You know we coulda helped you out, kinda why we're here buddy."



Says James as he exhales a cloud of smoke.



"She's not a cop dummy, local law enforcement round here dont dress like that. If she was a fed I think she'd be a little less obvious. Maybe some kinda private security or PMC, at any rate no one here is after you."



Lucky says before checking out the owner.



"Looka this guy here."



Lucky says pointing out the owner.



"Guy is pretty stand up goin to take care of the customers. You know in my line of work that was a real asset. A lot of interesting folks gathered here, you should go introduce yourself Dio."



Dio looks over his shoulder at the gathering group warily and pauses a moment to consider as he takes a sip of his coffee. Well if she wasn't here to arrest him then might as well see what's going on, it beats hauling Rheia's crap around.



When the woman explained to Rheia that she wasn't a cop she let a big sigh of relief.



"Sorry if I'm bothering you."



The owner of the shop comes by and introduces himself so Rheia in her infinite formality and politeness bows to him and the man seated who was speaking with. The owners face was quite bushy and reminded her of a Dwarf making her smile.



"Hello to the both of you, my name is Rheia Cilbranch. I'd love to try anything cherry you have."