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"So he said, basically, 'I met her with her titties out, over a corpse, and they're nice and all, but I have to actually know her', and that's fair, I guess. Vasha and I approach things very differently," Fox explains to Leta. She's curled up in a U-shaped booth, one of her feet tucked under her butt, having ordered coffee and the Trick or Treat waffles along with a giant pile of bacon and some eggs. "He's doing okay, I guess. But he really wants to move on the stuff we discovered."
Floretta appears where the people appear when they come into Maddy's. She's carrying a slightly grown puppy, brown and curly fur, who seem to have had a recent case of the zoomies. Hair bright green, a white, loose sun dress and and running shoes, she looks around curiously for the people who called her here. (Blush Active, W/Sheep's Clothing)
"To be fair, we did meet once before that, but I guess he doesn't remember me." Leta tilts her head to the side, peering at the woman that just walked in with a dog. Leta's wearing her usual formal-ish uniform of a blouse and pencil skirt - though her heels are currently off, and resting on the booth beside her. Fried chicken, waffles, hashbrowns, and tea. That's Leta's order. It's always Leta's order. "I'd like to move on what we discovered, too. Probably just as much as he does - though I'm trying to keep it in my pants now that I'm trying to wrangle cats again." Beat. "Speaking of..."
Leta waves at the woman in the sundress. "Hey! You! Are you Floretta? I realized the flaw in asking you to meet me here is that... I have no idea what you look like -- and you can't exactly send me a picture, can you?" Beat. "Leta Abbott, by the way. Come sit with us."
"Or if you met in some super secret spy way, maybe he was just hiding that you met in a super secret spy way," Fox replies to Leta, rolling his shoulders loosely. "I've always kind of accepted that there's some shit that Vasha doesn't tell me. It comes from, you know, spy." A beat. "Well don't keep it entirely in your pants, I'd be sad." She raises a hand and wiggles their fingers at Floretta. "Hey hey."
"I am Floretta and I could have. I did learn how to overcome that." The dog in her arms gets deposited beside her on the booth and almost immediately tries to climb onto the table. Which the kindred anticipate rather instinctively and block the attempt readily with her arm. She greets them both with a smile and a wave. "This is Herbert and pleasure to meet you again..." she indicate toward Fox. "Remind me of your name?"
"While I can respect the desire to keep super secret spy secrets, I'd already told you that we met - when I met him - so the cat was already out of the bag." Leta winks at Fox before turning to wiggle her fingers at the pup. "Hello, Herbert. You may call me Abbott," and then she drops her baby voice to turning her attention back to the "humans" at the table. Fox can introduce himself, right? Right.
"To be fair, he was drunk when we were talking," Fox offers aside to Leta, as if she's saying 'and also the sky is blue.' "Good to see you again, Floretta." She whines underneath her breath to Herbert rather than talking to him in English, wiggling her fingers at the puppy. Hello, sweetheart. You're so beautiful! Look how good you are, not getting on the table. Low whines, chuffs and growls "Can he come sit with me?" she asks of Floretta, wide green-grey eyes glittering.
The portal activates again as the three talk, revealing a literal statue, clad in blue jeans and a plain red teeshirt. Or a vaguely Greek looking woman, since there are no Changelings present to see Ianthe's mien. The assembled trio get a nod as she moves over to the counter, putting in an order before turning to face them. "Mind if I join you? I could use some company."
Floretta chuckles a little bit and turns to her puppy and does something of a bark herself, she tries again and sigh as the dog seems all too curious about Fox speaking with him and he drops from the bench and goes to jump on the Thyrsus' side of the table. "Sure! My Disney princess powers are failing me anyway" she feigns a pout and then chuckles, adressing Fox. " And just to reiterate, I don't remember your name." She turn to Ianthe and scoots a little bit to make space for her. "Sure, we were about to talk about rats, by the way."
"To be even more fair, he was drinking when we met the first time, so. Mystery solved. The culprit..." Leta pauses for dramatic effect, and then does a sharp turn back to Fox - as if breaking the fourth wall to address a viewing audience. "Is alcohol." Leta makes grabby hands as a blonde woman - their server - brings a cup of hot water for her from the kitchen, which she immediately dunks a tea bag into, and holds it with both hands. "Hello," she offers when Ianthe sits down - gesturing at herself and going around the table. "Abbott." Beat. "Fox." Beat. "Herbert." Beat. "Floretta."
Ianthe blinks at Floretta's words. "Rats? That's an odd topic for here." Beat. "You don't mean hosts of rats, do you?" She gestures at herself, then. "Ianthe."
"You can call me Fox or Naika, and any pronouns," Fox offers distractedly, entirely taken with talking to the little dog. They whuff and growl and chatter with each other, as the Orphan of Proteus pulls the dog into her lap and starts asking him about what he's doing and what his day has been like.
"Yep, that's what we mean! Pleasure to meet you Ianthe." Floretta raise her hand in greetings again. then, grabs the menu and studies it for a moment, places an order for simple waffles and tea. "I wonder if they'd respond to powers that communicate with animals." she then looks to Fox "Right, I remember now, thank you!"
Herbert responds with enthusiasm, as if the art of conversation was a familiar thing, somehow, mentions of staying inside all day, then a visit to the park, then running with Floretta and sleeping under a desk for a while. Chronological storytelling does not seem to be the puppy's forte.
"Yes," Leta confirms - perhaps a touch annoyed. Though, honesty what she's annoyed at is probably anybody's guess. She clears her throat, continuing on. "Who exactly - beyond you, and Nevermore - is working on this problem? From what I can tell there're several groups - multiples per community, even - and we should consolidate our information. Working together will prove to be much more effective than in cells -- we should take inspiration from the Beshilu in that regard, at least."
She sips her tea. The bag hasn't even finished steeping! She's just drinking hot water, what a weirdo.
"Are you volunteering to take point on coordinating them, then, Abbott?" Ianthe asks, thanking the server as her coffee is dropped off. "Working together does sound better than dividing and being conquered."
"No, probably not," Fox offers, scratching behind the dog's ears, listening to the story with fascination and making all the right noises at all the right times to convey that this is the most exciting day that anyone could ever have had in all of time and space. "Beshilu aren't animals in any meaningful way. They're spirits. Fucked-up spirits, but spirits all the same. It would be easier for me if they were just rats."
"I put on messages all over our gathering space, I contacted one of the Changelings, to let them know about the iron cages, I don't know if Luci passed on that message." she leans forward. "I'm aware that at least 2 of my closer colleagues are invested in this, though their abilities have a more martial focus. Guy and Rena are their names." A shrug of her shoulders "I don't currently know of any other of my people who are involved, but that doesn't mean there isn't any."(edited)
"Well, I don't need to be in direct contact with everyone in your community. I'm a firm believer in the chain of command, so I'm more than content to reach them through you - unless they need to reach me personally for whatever reason." Leta reaches over to give Herbert scritches behind his ears- and she also gives Fox a pat on the thigh. "Unfortunately, I can't speak for the Changelings. As I understand, someone named Artie is attempting to coordinate from that end of things, but he's yet to respond to the texts I've sent, so." Beat. "I've yet to make direct contact with anyone from his community."
"Iron?" Ianthe shudders. "That's not... seriously? That kid? I wouldn't trust him to organise a piss-up in a brewery." She sighs, pulling her phone from a pocket. "Here, give me your number, I'll make sure the information gets to the people who need it." Beat. "Do you have rough teams of who does what worked out yet? Recon, combat, healing, that sort of thing?"
"I definitely don't coordinate things," Fox offers absently as her plate full of pumpkin-flavored waffles and lots and lots of bacon and some eggs is delivered. "Can he have bacon?" she asks of Floretta, adding, "Pumpkin is good for the digestion of dogs also." She glances across the table, and wrinkles up her forehead in mild confusion, before looking back at the dog.
"Yeah he can have a bit of bacon, he's been pretty good on the normal dog diet so far so It,s okay if he gets a treat once in a while." She smiles "And I didn't know about pumpkin, I'll remember that for later." Floretta seems happy about that, then pulls her cellphone with the trans flag case and starts to writes herself some notes on there. "I'd be good for scouting and doing some research on those things. I can turn into a swarm of spider and make people forget I'm there for a while."
"I cannot even begin to organize those sorts of groups until I know who, exactly, I have to work with - and what their sets of skills are." Leta waves a dismissive hand, and then her plate is delivered, too, and she turns her focus on cutting up and doctoring her wafflea with butter and syrup. "My phone number is on the board by the portal in," she points at the bulletin by the door for Ianthe. "If you would please be so kind as to take a picture on your phone, post it in whatever common area you share with your community, and then draft a list of your allies names and their particular skills."
She shoves a huge bite of food into her mouth. "Then I can build teams, 'cause people have been quite bad about responding to my open messages." Beat. "... and I don't know fuck-all about Artie. If you're better than him at organizing, then do what you must to get me the information I need."
"Well, I can't be any worse than him, let's say that much." Ianthe counters, moving to take a photo of the message as requested, before returning to the booth. "As for why people haven't been responding to your message, well, I won't speak for anyone else, but it wasn't up there last time I was here. So."
"Excellent," Fox agrees with Floretta, explaining, "Yeah, if their stomachs are upset, you can alternate plain rice and pumpkin puree, like the kind you buy in the supermarket, until they're settled again." She cronches through a chunk of bacon and gives about a quarter of that slice to the puppy, then forks up a mouthful of pumpkin waffles for herself, and a mouthful for the pupper.
"Hmm, I think I got an idea for ... future events like these where we might require cooperation between the groups, something a little more direct. Forum or something like Signal?" Floretta considers briefly and run her finger over her hair slowly, taking another set of note quickly. Her attention moves toward Herbert and smiles, she even type out the little notes on it.
Herbert himself eats, because of course he does, what Fox offers but the dog appears to settle down from the hectic, almost zoomies-level energy as the conversation goes on. "I'll see if others are looking to involved themselve in it, let me know if you find them before I do, just so I can help coordinate."
"You aren't filling me with confidence," Leta pinches the bridge of her nose. "If the highest compliment you can pay yourself is "well, I can't be worse" then perhaps you should put me into contact with the best among you." Beat. "Confidence is key. Know your own value - or follow someone who does." The impact of this might be somewhat deadened by the fact that Leta's mouth is very full of food at this moment. "Otherwise you're just cutting someone else down - someone who volunteered to help - without giving me a strong alternative." She pauses to swallow. "... and that's just annoying."
She pulls out her own phone. "There is absolutely no way you'll catch me using a forum. I think Signal is probably the easiest of those options to use for the moment - but I'm still not entirely satisfied with the level of security it provides." Beat. "I'll have to look into other options in the future, but for now? Well. I fully acknowledge that I've arrived late to this party, so I'll take any and all help I can get."(edited)
Ianthe gives Leta a cool look. "Yeah? Do you want me, or do you want the guy who thought fucking Joe Exotic was a role model for how to handle dangerous lifeforms?" Beat. "Signal's a good option, for this situation, yeah." She pauses to take a mouthful of her own waffles, then, chewing thoroughly and swallowing before she continues. "If you're looking for healers, put these three on the list." Phone numbers for Annie, Eugene, and Petra get provided.
Little Fox feeds bacon to the pup and listens, petting his side in between giving him morsels of bacon and bits of pumpkin waffles. "Yeah, I can't imagine anyone you hang with being okay with a forum, or any part of my cadre," she agrees. "But I'm sure there's an option."
"Yeah our kind aren't hot on healers." Floretta makes a thumbs down. "But we're naturally pretty resistant depending on what's on the other side." she roll her shoulder and watches her dog slowly settling down and having fun. "Well, 'naturally' is stong word but hey" A shrug of her shoulder, scratching the back of her neck. (I should fade out very soon, kind of past my regular time)
"You're still doing it, but that's fine, I guess. You just still haven't told me what you are g-" There's a familiar Brrrrrink!. Leta's work text tone. "Fuck, I need to take this." She unfolds from the booth, crossing over to a stack of to-go containers, and grabbing a pair. One for herself, one for Fox.
"Like I said, my number is on the bulletin." She waves a dismissive hand while packing up her food. "Fox, I assume you're coming with? Since I'm your ride?"(edited)
"Yup!" Fox agrees, kissing the pup on the top of the head, saying goodbye to him, and handing him back to Floretta. "Thanks for letting me visit with your baby." She scoops her leftovers into containers, waggles her fingers in goodbye, and follows Leta to the door.
"Well, that was educative." Floretta plucks the puppy from the other side of the bench and he barks a few times. "I'll see you later or another time, Ianthe." she smiles at the other woman. "do you want my phone number?" She says as she starts heading slowly.
"Sure thing." Ianthe takes Floretta's phone number, before digging in to her meal properly.
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