|
Esther Swift-Danger:
It's late-breakfast time, but every time is breakfast time when you're Etsy! She loves breakfast food. For such a tiny creature, she eats a lot, too. Half a dozen eggs, six strips of bacon, four sausages, a large glass of milk, and coffee that's more 'half and half which a carafe of coffee has once looked at sternly' than anything else. She's wearing a loose sea-green linen dress and her usual tatty little slippers, humming to herself. A happy merm is happy.
Michelle Hawthorne:
And a hungry Spring Joyeux enters, hearing--then spotting--the little mermaid and smiling. "Etsy, isn't it? May I join you?" The pretty Nightsinger is dressed in jeans and a tee shirt with The Ramones logo on it. The black of the shirt washes out her already alabaster skin, but she doesn't seem to care. Her purple jacket is left open, and she stands near but not crowding the mermaid.
Esther Swift-Danger:
Her webbed hands spread happily, and flutter indicatively toward the seat across from her. "Mmmhmm! Do a joinings, please. It is a happiness to have a friends to join." She turns toward the diner in general, and flutters her hands again, calling the wait staff over to pick up an order for the Nightsinger. Etsy's sea-change eyes are a clear, nearly Caribbean blue at the moment.
Michelle Hawthorne:
Chelle happily sits after taking off her jacket and setting it aside, and orders a large coffee--"Largest you're able to bring over, please, with lots of refills!"--and an order of strawberry and cheese stuffed brioche french toast. Someone has a need for decadence today, it seems, despite being dressed down. "How are you doing, Etsy? Settling in okay?"
Esther Swift-Danger:
A little flutter of her hands, and Etsy's weight subtly shifts back and forth in her seat. She picks up an entire over-easy egg in one hand and shovels it into her mouth. That, at least, hasn't changed: Etsy's happily carnivorous nature is a thing of comfort to her. "Oh, with a Reggies, is always a goodness. When to have a Reggies, is always a goodness. Yourselfs?"
Michelle Hawthorne:
Chelle smiles. "I need to meet your husband, but he sounds wonderful. You seem happy, and that's most important." Her coffee arrives, and she profusely thanks the server before doctoring it--not quite as half-and-half'd as Etsy's, and with more Splenda, but still. Pretty much "candy coffee". She shrugs at the mermaid's question. "Life is pretty okay right now. I'm doing well, my partner is well."
Aurelio Menegi:
As the two women talked another one of the local Lost made their way into the diner, the Elemental dressed in black jeans and t-shirt that contrasted the white of the marble that made up his form. Dark eyes - or pale blue, as far as those who saw behind the Mask were concerned - looked over the room, pausing as he spotted the other two and giving a polite nod.
Esther Swift-Danger:
"An excellence!" Esther is a tiny woman -- there are shorter Lost in Philadelphia, like Wren, for example, but Etsy just has a feeling of overall tiny, on account of her porcelain features and profusion of black curls that diminutize her features further -- and her feet swing a little under the bench at the booth she shares with Chelle. "Oh, a Reggies is lovelies, of courseness would think so because of doing a marries." Etsy's approach to the English language is sort of like aiming buckshot at ... anything. Just fire enough ammo in the general direction and you'll get something there. She slowly blinks at the incoming Changeling and wiggles her fingers in his direction.
Michelle Hawthorne:
Chelle smiles politely at the unfamiliar Lost, looking to Etsy afterward with a questioning glance. "Should we invite the gentleman to join us?" she asks the tiny mermaid, before she sips her coffee. Coffee is a goodness, and so is the French toast approaching on its plate toward her.
Aurelio Menegi:
Aurelio smiled a touch at the finger-wave, giving another polite nod and a "may I?" sort of look.
Esther Swift-Danger:
"Am not doing a know," Etsy answers, absently smoothing the hand that she didn't just use to scoop up eggs over her skirt, "but am thinking a yesness." And then she scoops up yet another egg and delivers it, over-easy and whole, into her mouth. "Please doing a join, hello hello. Am an Esther Swift-Danger, callings an Etsy."
Tiny! Delicate! Beautiful! A MOUTHFUL OF PIRANHA TEETH INTO WHICH AN EGG DISAPPEARS WHOLE! Awww
Michelle Hawthorne:
Chelle just kind of watches Etsy in fascination for a moment before her French toast and bacon are placed in front of her. "Hi," she says to the man with the Summer mantle. "I'm Michelle Hawthorne. Join us, sure." She picks up a piece of crispy bacon and munches on it, before flagging down the server at their leisure. It's not too terribly busy, being midmorning on a Friday, though the lunch rush is going to start soon.
Aurelio Menegi:
The Elemental didn't seem terribly perturbed by the method of the eggs being eaten, the low heat of a covered kiln following behind him as he made his way over to the table. "Good morning." The greeting came out smoothly, the English well-colored by his native Italian tongue and not just in the 'we've been here for generations' way that seemed to be the trend in South Philly. "Aurelio Menegi. Good to meet you."
Esther Swift-Danger:
Etsy's favored means of eating her bacon is to shove an entire piece of it into her toothy maw at once; it splinters and shatters into delicious crackly bits because she also likes her bacon cooked to the point that some people would call 'burned.' (They are wrong. That way is what is known as 'perfect.') "A morning of goodness," agrees the mermaid. "Please do an ordering of foodness. A treat of mine."
Her Mantle is Spring, unmistakably so: sharp sea-sweet-and-salty air from a late May morning when the air is pregnant with possibility, and the scent of lilies, though that may just come from the water lilies blossoming in her hair.
Michelle Hawthorne:
Chelle blinks over at Etsy. "Does that extend to me? If so, I should have ordered something... less." She looks horribly guilty, despite treating everyone she meets similarly. "Anyway, Aurelio--the pleasure's mine. Are you new to town?" But she keeps glancing at Etsy with golden-topaz eyes, afraid she's upset her fellow Spring somehow.
Aurelio Menegi:
"Grazie." Aurelio nodded to Etsy, putting in an order for a coffee black enough to make up for the other two cups at the table and an omelet with toast the next time one of the staff came by. "Somewhat. Been here since January."
Esther Swift-Danger:
Another fluttering of her webbed hands -- there's a glittering sapphires-and-diamonds wedding set somehow managing to stay on her hands despite the fact that it rests above her first knuckle due to that whole 'webbed fingers' thing -- and Etsy assures, "No worryings. Is a payings of my Reggies. Am an Esthers extremely spoilings." The sigh which follows mention of Reginald H. S. Danger is a winsome one, worthy of silver screen sirens of the Golden Age thereof. Her attention swings back to Aurelio curiously, and her sea-change eyes blink slowly.
Michelle Hawthorne:
Chelle nods at Aurelio. "Welcome to Philly, if a few months late, then," the Joyeux declares, before smiling at Etsy. "Your love for Reggie is so inspiring! I really like that." Her smile turns crooked. "I know Mikey and I are in the 'tooth-rottingly sweet' phase, but I hope we manage to stay so devoted to each other."
Aurelio Menegi:
"Thank you." He looked to Etsy in kind, giving a small nod. "Those here have been welcoming, so no complaints."
Esther Swift-Danger:
"Would say a welcomes, but you are having a longer time in a Philadelphias than an Etsys," the mermaid offers cheerfully. Her pale cheeks blush a soft blue at Michelle's words, and she picks up another piece of bacon. "Oh, is a works to maintains, but is a worthness. To stay tooth-rottings is a tasks, but good."
Michelle Hawthorne:
"I'm glad we have been," Chelle says to Aurelio, before smiling to Etsy. "That's true. Relationships are harder work than one thinks," she agrees. But her tone is fond, and she's obviously thinking of her current partner.
Aurelio Menegi:
"Usually worth the effort, though." He smiled a touch, although there was a bittersweet note to it. "Hope it goes well for you both."
Esther Swift-Danger:
Another piece of bacon disappears into her sharp-toothed maw, followed by a sausage. Etsy tips her head slightly to the side, not pressing but definitely noting that bittersweet look. "So!" She offers cheerfully, swinging her slippered feet lazily under the table as if she's stirring some non-existent current with fins that also do not currently exist. "Do you likes an oceans?" The important questions.
Michelle Hawthorne:
Chelle beams, also carefully ignoring that bittersweet look Aurelio gives. "I love oceans. I'm from Vermont originally. I think we knew each other in passing then." She shrugs. "I should go swimming soon as it's warmed up some."
Aurelio Menegi:
The divert was noted and quietly appreciated, with the Elemental giving a nod at Etsy's question. "I do. I grew up on the water, although more a lagoon than the ocean."
Esther Swift-Danger:
"Am told is a road of quickness from her to Cape Mays," a cheerful rejoinder from the mermaid. A little nod from Etsy to Michelle, "In a passings. Was a time of not so much goodness for an Etsys. Went followings a little bit after an Elmos, which... such a badness, the ex-boyfriends, and also there was no oceans whatsoevers, but did meet a Reggies in Vermonts so not so bads. Should definitely go swimmings with a soonness, though waters of oceans very colds until late summers on East Coasts." Cronch. More bacon. "What kind of a lagoons?"
Michelle Hawthorne:
Chelle nods at Etsy. "There is one. And.. ugh, ex-boyfriends. The less said of THOSE, the better." She doesn't sound bitter. She sounds resigned. "I have an ex-husband myself." And that's all she's going to say about that! She turns to Aurelio then. "Lagoons are pretty. Somewhere fancy, then?" Her smile turns bright, cheerful, the unpleasantness of exes swept away under the rug for later examination. Or unbottling at the worst time! WHO KNOWS. She cuts into her French toast, takes a small bite, and makes a happy little noise of joy.
Aurelio Menegi:
"Venice. On Murano, in particular." He gave the passing waiter a nod as his order was brought by, taking a sip of his coffee and nodding with approval before continuing. "Could call it fancy, perhaps. I call it home."
Esther Swift-Danger:
Laughter from Esther, then, a bright and brilliant thing, wild like waves crashing against the shore. "To our exes and our presents, may they never meet." She gives Chelle a sympathetic little look aside and moves on. "A Venices is in Italys." Philosophically, she offers, "Is a fanciness for peoples if is not yours. If is yours, is just.... yours."
Michelle Hawthorne:
Chelle lifts her mug in silent agreement with all of Etsy's words. "Have you been back recently?" she asks of Aurelio, simply.
Aurelio Menegi:
"True indeed." He nodded to Esty at that. "Was there for a year after I got back, then came here."
Esther Swift-Danger:
Etsy's phone goes off! It is Reggie. She pays the bill and skedaddles, passing her phone number to those what don't have it. Fwoosh!
Michelle Hawthorne:
There goes an Etsy! Chelle waves after her and smiles at Aurelio. "So. What brought you here?"
Aurelio Menegi:
"A change of scenery, and work. I was trained as a glassblower from a young age, and there is a studio here that follows the old techniques. Decided to try my luck and join their work here, and it's gone well so far."
Michelle Hawthorne:
"Oh, glass-blowing is a beautiful art form!" Michelle leans forward, last few bites of her French toast forgotten. "I'm jealous. I just sing."
Aurelio Menegi:
"Just as beautiful, I say. I can't carry a song in a bucket, so we're even." He paused after he spoke, thinking a moment. "That is the right phrase, yes?"
Michelle Hawthorne:
"Carry a tune in a bucket, I believe. That phrase has always seemed a bit weird to me," Chelle admits with a cheery shrug.
Aurelio Menegi:
"Ah...thank you. Still learning." He nodded with a small smile, taking a few bites of his own food before it got cold. "Have you been here long yourself?"
Michelle Hawthorne:
"Philly? December. Barely beat you here," Chelle says with a smile.
Aurelio Menegi:
"What brought you here, if I can ask?"
Michelle Hawthorne:
Chelle's smile turns.. sad, a little bitter. "Remember that ex-husband I mentioned? I needed to get away from the memories."
Aurelio Menegi:
"Understandable. Part of why I left. Was familiar but not, and too familiar at times. If you follow."
Michelle Hawthorne:
"I totally understand." Chelle's smile, still wry, twists to the side. "Well, the Arts are glad to have you, friend."
Aurelio Menegi:
"Glad to be here."
Michelle Hawthorne:
Chelle considers him, trying to find something happier to talk about. "I'd like to see some of your work sometime. I sing at Stardust Jazz Club tonight and tomorrow in the Gayborhood; you're welcome to drop by. I'll put a drink for you on my tab, if you like?"
Aurelio Menegi:
"Murano Glassworks, few blocks south of Geno's and all that, easy enough to find." He nodded, smiling a touch. "Can definitely come by. Thank you."
Michelle Hawthorne:
"I'd like to. It's open to the public?"
Aurelio Menegi:
"The gallery is, and there are demonstrations sometimes. Can let you know when one comes up, if you like."
Michelle Hawthorne:
"Please! Let me give you my cell number."
Aurelio Menegi:
He nodded and pulled his own phone out, fiddling with it a bit before pulling up a blank contact screen. "Ready."
Michelle Hawthorne:
She gives her name and number, pulling her phone out of her pocket as she does so. "If you'd like to text, that's cool, or you can just tell me." A smile.
Aurelio Menegi:
After making sure it saved properly Aurelio gave his number in kind, smiling a touch. "Look forward to hearing from you."
Michelle Hawthorne:
Chelle takes the last bite of her French toast. "And I hope to hear from you, soon. But I should run. Sound check is in an hour." She smiles and tosses a bit more cash on top of the pile Etsy left--the mermaid will never know, and a nice tip is awesome. "See you later!"
|