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Coffee and Bibliophiles [P, IndigoBook]

Postby Palenski » 10/07/2012 5:15 AM

The young woman with pale hair sat alone in a coffee shop. She wore a long black coat over a pink shirt and a pair of old shorts and striped leggings. On her feet were a pair of simple sneakers. She hunched over the small circular table she sat at, sipping at a hot cup of mocha, eyes focused on the open book in front of her.

She was a regular. No one knew much about her, since she was fairly quiet, but she always had a book with her. She never stayed with one genre, always jumping around from romance to horror to self-help to the occasional autobiography. From what the baristas could get out of her, they knew that her name was Emma and that she lived nearby and, of course, liked to read.

On this particular day, she was reading a mystery novel of some kind, and seemed to be very involved in the plot, judging by how rarely she remembered that her mocha existed. Occasionally a slight frown would cross her features, as though reading a twist in the plot that she had not expected.
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Re: Coffee and Bibliophiles [P, IndigoBook]

Postby Indigo » 10/07/2012 4:17 PM

He was aware that he looked vaguely sinister as he came in, but there wasn't much he could do about it. He didn't own any clothes that weren't black or white, not that he wore on a day-to-day basis anyway, and as for the rest...it was hard to stop a thin, pale, stiff man from looking either dangerous or dead. He preferred the former; it stopped people from talking to him.

He had to repeat his order twice because he was mumbling, but eventually they got it out of him and he was able to go sit down. There was an armchair in the corner near a little square table, and he sat there, crossing his legs and taking a rolled-up newspaper out of his pocket. He absently took off his hat and ran his fingers through his hair a couple of times. Something about wearing hats inside always made him uncomfortable.

The way the barista smiled at him when he went to pick up his drink made him nervous, although he managed not to drop the mug. He was never this clumsy normally. He knew he ought to appreciate the day off, and he really did, because he knew Helix had canceled something in order to work today, but he just didn't know what to do with himself.

As he walked back to his chair he bumped into a table where a woman in a long black coat was sitting, almost knocking her drink over. He steadied the table with one hand, said "Sorry" as quickly as possible to discourage any response, and then went and sat down.
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Re: Coffee and Bibliophiles

Postby Palenski » 10/07/2012 8:48 PM

Emma looked up, startled, and reached out to put a hand on her cup. She nodded her head in an absent minded fashion, watching the nervously apologetic man make his way to his sit several feet away.

The man was wearing a black suit that wasn't exactly tight but seemed to be a bit snug, perhaps to an uncomfortable extent. He was tall, with a mop of red hair up top that may, at one point or another, have been neatly parted and combed. He seemed like a severe person.

Emma continued to track him for a moment, as he sat back down and brought his newspaper up to hide himself from the rest of the coffee shop. Curious, but none of her business.

She went back to reading.
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Re: Coffee and Bibliophiles [P, IndigoBook]

Postby Indigo » 10/07/2012 9:21 PM

He could feel her watching him, but by the time he lowered the newspaper a little she had returned to her book. Good. She didn't seem like the type to bother him, anyway, and he was about to return to the fairly interesting article he'd been reading when his eyes fell on the title of her book. The Case of the Missing Hourglass.

He'd been skeptical when he picked it up in the bookstore--what a dull title, it didn't even have one of those dreadful puns ubiquitous in the titles of bad mysteries--but it had been recommended to him by several people, so he'd thought he might as well give it a try, even though he wasn't usually big on mysteries. It had been wonderful. Every plot twist brilliantly executed, every character living on the page (and sometimes also brilliantly executed), and so absorbing he'd occasionally read it under the counter when business was slow. And up until now he'd never met anyone who even knew it existed, possibly because of the title.

Struck by a hitherto unheard-of desire to actually talk to someone, he set aside the newspaper and walked up to the table, and said, "Excuse me--"

How did you go about talking to people about books? Is that even something people do? He stared down at his hands. What do you say? "I read that once, it was nice"? What if she thought it was terrible? Also, she was probably expecting him to say something else, and he couldn't exactly apologize for bumping the table again.

"Um. I see you're...reading The Case of the Missing Hourglass...what do you think of it...?"
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Re: Coffee and Bibliophiles [P, IndigoBook]

Postby Palenski » 10/07/2012 9:38 PM

She took several seconds to respond, once again startled by this seemingly flustered man. Once everything clicked into gear and she was able to open her mouth, she said, "It's good."

What else was she supposed to say? Was she supposed to go into great detail about how the most recent plot twist had affected her emotions, creating a bottomless pit in her stomach that made her almost nearly read ahead with the importance of knowing how that turns out? Was she supposed to talk about how mysteries weren't her favorite but this one had looked interesting purely because she, herself, had recently lost one of those cheap little plastic hourglasses that people used when brushing their teeth in the morning?

She took a sip of her mocha, feeling somewhat awkward. Wanting to not disappoint, she added, "The main character is clever in a bumbling sort of way." She nodded enthusiastically. "It's very amusing."
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Re: Coffee and Bibliophiles [P, IndigoBook]

Postby Indigo » 10/07/2012 11:15 PM

"Ah...um...yes. Yes, I thought so, too." He fiddled with his cuffs. "Um."

He didn't know why he was so nervous, but it wasn't helped by her short responses. Even though he knew there was no way of being sure of what she was thinking, he still twisted it into all kinds of things: I'm bothering her. She doesn't actually like the book, she's just humoring me. She's still angry about the coffee--okay, come on, even he had to acknowledge that didn't make sense. All in all, it made him feel about fourteen. Stupid, really. No wonder Helix said he needed to get out more.

"Sorry," he said. "I didn't mean to interrupt."
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Re: Coffee and Bibliophiles [P, IndigoBook]

Postby Palenski » 10/07/2012 11:46 PM

"It's fine," she said, tucking a worn bookmark into the book and placing it on the table. "No need to be anxious."

She attempted to appear comforting. With the way he was fidgeting with his cuffs, he seemed to be nervous. From his stiff, almost intimidating appearance, she could guess that he probably wasn't the most social person in the world, and possibly had social anxiety issues.

Not that she knew anything about that, haha. Ha.

"I don't usually read mysteries," she said, hoping to distract his attention. "But, ah, this one seemed interesting."

Remember, palms open, arms uncrossed, muscles relaxed, try not to fidget...
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Re: Coffee and Bibliophiles [P, IndigoBook]

Postby Indigo » 10/08/2012 12:05 AM

All right, calm down. Honestly. Yes, there was some unpleasantness the other day, and no, he hadn't had a particularly good week, but that was no reason to come over all childish. He'd seen other people do what he was doing now, in various situations (particularly girls who wanted to date Helix, for some reason), and he had always thought it was ridiculous. The important thing is to project a sort of calm. Set aside the other feelings until you have time to deal with them--which you've had plenty of already--and think about now.

He spread his hands flat on the table, careful not to push down too hard. "No, I don't normally read mysteries either. I happened to come across it some time ago and thought it was very good." This was better, anyway, even if he had stammered through the initial stages of conversation. It was nice to have something to talk about immediately after meeting a person, nice, in fact, to be talking to someone. On a better day he would have spoken to a stranger in monosyllables or not at all, but this was not a good day, and he needed a distraction.
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Re: Coffee and Bibliophiles [P, IndigoBook]

Postby Palenski » 10/08/2012 12:14 AM

Emma leaned back a little, sipping again at her mocha. There was a sort of careful slowness about her. "Don't spoil anything," she joked. "I'm only about halfway through, as you can see." She nudged the book, showing the placement of the bookmark.

She paused, though not long enough for him to say anything. "Actually, ignore that. Does she die in the end?"

She would probably regret asking, but he had caught her in a part of the book that especially had her worked up, and she was truly desperate for answers. One of the reasons she didn't read mysteries as often—the plot twists always drove her insane.
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Re: Coffee and Bibliophiles [P, IndigoBook]

Postby Indigo » 10/08/2012 12:27 AM

"I don't think I ought to tell you that," he said, and gave a sort of almost-smile. It wasn't obvious--not his private smile, since this was obviously neither the place nor the time for it--just a slight movement at the corners of the mouth, which was gone in a few seconds. "But if you insist..."

He hesitated, and considered lying. He wasn't likely to talk to her again, and it felt wrong to just give away the ending of a story like that. But she might know he was lying, and be annoyed, and then he'd have to make ridiculous excuses. Or, more likely, leave before she could say very much in reply, although to do so would be to abandon his drink, which was--where was it?--oh, he'd left it on the side table. Oh, well. He'd go back to the chair when they were done here.

But lie about the ending, or tell the truth? He just didn't know...

"No," he said.
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Re: Coffee and Bibliophiles [P, IndigoBook]

Postby Palenski » 10/08/2012 12:32 AM

She nodded. He didn't seem like the kind of person to lie, so she pretty much believed him. She had expected that kind of ending. Throughout all the twists and turns, the author always seemed to bring vengeance for any bad thing. The kind of author who would leave the female protagonist living. Makes sense.

"Was there anything else you needed?" she asked as politely as possible. She wasn't being impatient, really, she just wasn't always very good with talking to people, especially strangers, and she wanted to do everything right, to not make a fool of herself in public.

She sipped her mocha.
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Re: Coffee and Bibliophiles [P, IndigoBook]

Postby Indigo » 10/08/2012 12:48 AM

"No," he said. "I've never seen anyone reading that book before, so I thought I might ask you about it, but I don't mean to continue to distract you from it. I have some business to take care of myself, in fact, so I will probably be leaving shortly in any case. Enjoy your book." That was well-done. If he'd still been wearing his hat he might have made a sweeping gesture with it, but it was back on the end table, so he just nodded and went back to his chair.

He picked up his newspaper and sipped his coffee. It wasn't the best he'd ever had--apart from his prowess with gelato, he'd always been pretty good with coffee--but it was all right anyway. He didn't actually have business to attend to, as such, but it was a weekday afternoon and there was a school fairly near the gelato shop, and within an hour or so Helix would probably give him a call to deal with the rush. In the mean time, he could keep himself occupied.

[We're so bad at long roleplays.]
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Re: Coffee and Bibliophiles [P, IndigoBook]

Postby Palenski » 10/08/2012 1:10 AM

Emma watched him go with curiosity. Surely, it wasn't a normal day when a strange man in a suit approached you in a coffee shop to discuss a mystery novel? Not that she necessarily wanted a normal day. It was just interesting.

Speaking of interesting, just a few minutes ago she'd been completely engrossed in what she believed to be a very interesting novel. She set her cup down on the table and picked up her book, opening it and beginning to read. It took a bit to sink back into the story, but eventually she returned to her original, hunching state.

[Obviously we should start planning these things out beforehand.]
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