[Mousen]

<sub>A small mop of dark hair bobbed and weaved through the historic streets of the little town. It was an old place, and Connor could practically feel the history around her. The years of fishermen selling the day's catch and smugglers running rife through the streets. Jawan was riddled with tunnels and side streets, each having it's own little history hidden to the naked eye. You just had to know the place well enough.

((Character development RP))</sub>

[Mousen]

_{Connor was a young woman of average height, though her frame was rather thin and something about her was distinctly... Gangly. She seemed like the kind of person that was always in a hurry and an aura of disorganization hung around her. It might have been the fact that half of her dark brown hair was coming loose from the little bun in which it had been, or it could have been the fact that both the shoelaces on her calf-length black boots were untied. The striped tights and just above the knee skirt screamed student, as did the amount of papers clasped under her arm. Two mechanical pencils had been used in place of chopsticks in her hair, she was definitely a student. The really exceptional thing about her was the birthmark on the left side of her face, the dark skin curled around part of her eyelid, right up to the brow before finishing beneath her lashes. The effect was startling, it wasn't unpleasant, per say, just... surprising. Of course, now, it would have been easy to cover up with make up, it would only take time. Time, however, was something Connor Davies didn't have.}

[Mousen]

_{Instead of heading toward the sea, she headed away from it. Wandering up one of the steep streets that people often overlooked, in the winter, a street like this one was more like a slide. She knew people that took to their toboggans rather than their cars to get around! Thankfully, it wasn't quite that cold today. The road eventually flattened out, and on this part of Jawan overlooking the bay, there was a large, wrought iron gate.}

[Mousen]

_{She pushed slid her hand through the railings to flip open the latch, and the gate to the botanical gardens swung open. It was a beautiful place, full of fish ponds, rhododendrons and small, sunken gardens that had long been overtaken by moss and exquisite little beetles with ebony carapaces. The path from here was winding, spiralling around select trees and shrubs in a generally whimsical manner. Today, everything was crisp with frost. Connor exhaled happily, and her breath condensed in the cold air. Tugging her coat around her, she headed for what had once been a glass house within the grounds.}

[Mousen]

_{The door was old, but with a new lick of bottle green paint. 'All doors should be painted this colour.' Connor thought to herself idly as she glanced at her broken reflection within the stained glass of the door. Eventually, she pushed it open. There was two parts to the Masala Chai coffee house, the entrance which was flooded with light and held several mismatched tables and even more mismatched chairs along with various oddities that the owners had displayed there over the years. A grape vine ran along the bare brick wall from this part of the old glass house. It was in it's own huge terracotta pot, and in the late summer you could collect the grapes from the vines and eat them.}

[Mousen]

The second part of the coffee house was sectioned off slightly with use of a painted folding screen. It didn't go right across the room, but it gave a nice effect. The entire building was south facing, but got a little wider towards the second half of the building. It was just as light, with one half being glass, wood and Victorian engineering and the other a rich pink-ish hue-d brick. This part of the coffee house was where all the food was kept and large wooden counter complete with ancient cash register took up a decent amount of space within the room. Two deep green chesterfield sofas sat, one against the brick, and the shorter one against the screen with a small coffee table in front of each of them. Various pouffes were placed around this half of the building, and several glitzy lamps with beaded shades cast a warm yellow in the evenings. There was obviously no place to cook within the old glass house, so all the baked goods and such were brought down from the main house. In one corner, there was a fairly large brass parrot cage. Inside, slept a bright blue and yellow macaw. Connor knew that when he woke up, the first thing he'd do would be to demand a ginger biscuit. Malarkey was spoiled rotten and he knew it.

[Mousen]

"You're late."
"And you look like you've been attacked by a hedgerow." Connor replied, grabbing her burgundy apron from behind the counter. "Macy said you two were going to set up today, anyway."

Connor's cousin, Ambrose had worked for the botanical gardens for as long as she could remember and when the old glass house had been converted into Masala Chai, he was the obvious choice for manager. He was also the one who'd convinced her to apply for a job here. He still did a lot of work on the gardens, hence the amount of leaves in his dark hair.

"That's odd. She never mentioned that to me. I haven't seen her all day either, I had to get the airhead-ess to help me."

[Mousen]

Connor felt a little flicker of concern for their friend. "Do you think she's okay?"

"Unless a demon turned up while she was messing around with that infernal ouija board of her's..." Ambrose chuckled, slightly shrugging her shoulders. "You know what she's like, she probably just overslept then panicked. She's probably hiding behind a maple in the gardens wondering what to do. You know Macy."

"Unfortunately."

They laughed.

[Mousen]

"Didn't the airhead-ess complain about breaking a nail? You remember what she said to me last time we spoke, don't you?" Nicknamed the 'airhead-ess', the eldest daughter of the owner of the house wasn't quite your usual candidate to be called an 'airhead'. She was well educated, yes, but possibly the most impractical person on earth. She'd never had to lift a finger, so quite simply, she hadn't. She was also particularly cutting.

Ambrose clenched his fists. He'd been looking after his younger cousin for years, and the remark had possibly offended him more than it had offended her. "Yeah. I do."

Sighing slightly, Connor fixed her bright blue eyes on him. "It doesn't bother me, what she said about my face. Don't worry about it. I still look better than her, but mind you, most people do."

[Mousen]

This time, their laughter must have woken up the macaw, for Malarkey opened his eyes and gave his colourful plumage a little shake. He blinked his eyes at the two figures in the shop before rattling his brass cage door and cawing. "Connor! Connor! Ambrose!"

"Two tea, one coffee!" The parrot called after a moment. "Two tea, one coffee!"

Connor obliged and shoved a biscuit through the door of his cage. He accepted it and shuffled off to carefully crunch his well-earned treat.

"Well, that's one customer taken care of." Ambrose remarked.

[Mousen]

"Should I give Macy a call?" Connor asked after a moment, fishing an rather battered looking mobile from the pocket of her little jacket. Not waiting for an answer, she flicked through her contacts and after a series of short beeping noises she'd found the number on her phone, pressing the call button she put the phone to her ear.

It rang, and after a little while it went onto Macy's answer phone and Connor frowned. "Hey Macy, it's Connor. Just wondering if you actually intend to come into work today, like, at all. Hah. You're not in any trouble or anything, Ambrose isn't mad. Well... He's not angry, whether or not he's actually mad is another matter entirely... Oh! I'm rambling again! Anyway, I'm a little worried about you and stuff, so if you could call me back pronto that would be brilliant."

[Mousen]

"She's not picking up?" Ambrose asked, raising an eyebrow. Out of the three of them, Macy was by far the most sociable. Her mobile phone was like an appendage. His worry was clearly portrayed in his face, and Connor's mirrored it slightly. "Well, she does always forget to charge her phone." He rationalized. "This isn't the first time it's happened."

"Yeah." Connor agreed slowly, biting her lip a little. "Do you think we should phone her Mum or something? Just in case?"

The young man nodded as Connor dialled another one of her contacts and it was five minutes later that she'd gotten the assurance they needed. Macy had come in very late last night from what she claimed to have been a reading with a medium and she was still fast asleep. Something about this didn't sit right with Connor though, Macy was forgetful enough and often rather dizzy... But even so, it just didn't seem like the kind of thing she'd do. Deciding to push it to the back of her mind, Connor started to sort out the tables.

[Mousen]

It was a grey day and they were still at the beginning of the season, really. There was no reason to expect a rush of people, they lounged around by the counter waiting for the first early bird customers to come through the door. Eventually a couple of older women came through the door, clucking like chickens and making pointless small talk. Connor actually liked these kinds of customers, they usually had something interesting to say, even if most of it was just pointless drivel about the weather and they were always nice. As they commented on how sweet the parrot was, and Malarkey played up to the attention Connor still found her attention wandering. Perhaps it was just the damp air and the amount of studying she still had to do that was getting her down. Her books were actually hidden behind the counter, part of her wondered if the old women would notice if she disappeared behind the counter to revise.