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Maddy's has busy times and lulls, and it just so happens that this is one of the quieter hours. Those tend to be the ones where Maddy isn't so busy she doesn't have time to socialize with customers! She's seated in a booth near the portal that leads from the city to the diner, drinking a cup of tea and staring off into space like she's lost deep in her thoughts somewhere.
Cue an entering customer! One Maddy will recognise, too, even if she's lacking a flower crown at the moment. Spotting the mage, Annie smiles as she approaches, ever-present background klezmer music providing at least some notice of her arrival. "Mind if I join you?"
Someone coming in grabs attention, even if it's only in the periphery of her vision, and Maddy glances over at Annie and takes just a fraction of a second before there's recognition and all of her attention turns. "Hello again!" she says when that realization dawns. "Sure, take a seat. Can I get you anything? Don't let my slacking about fool you, I'm actually working." She shifts her eyes side to side suspiciously. "In theory."
"On your break, then? Do not let me interrupt that," Annie chuckles quietly. "I know how valuable those can be." She takes the suggested seat, glancing at the menu casually.
"Pffft," Maddy says with an eyeroll. "I own the place. My break is when I say it is. I mean, realistically I have enough people staffed that I don't really need to be here, but it makes me feel like I earned my wage." She laughs. "Can I get you a drink, while you look the menu over, at least?"
"Just some water, please." Annie shrugs slightly. "I wanted to thank you for the gift the other day, by the other way. It helped a lot."
Maddy hops up from her seat pretty quickly, tea left where it is, and goes off to grab a glass and a jug of ice water from behind the bar, which is like 10 feet away. She pours a glass, comes back with it, and sets it down in front of Annie before turning to her seat. "Did it bring you all the good luck I hoped it would?" she asks.
"It did, actually," Annie says, smiling. "I also got to meet a pretty girl, which is always nice." She pauses to take a sip of her water, then.
"Another one after me?" Maddy returns the smile with her own smirk. "Or were you just talking about me?" She leans forward and rests her chin on her hand. "In either case, if the flower crown brought you the gifts I hoped it would, maybe I can ask for a small token from you in return?"
"Yes," Annie deadpans, matching the lean in. "I cannot make any promises, but if it is within my power, I shall certainly consider it."
"Could I have your name?" Maddy asks, and the smile comes back in force, but less smirking this time. "In retrospect, I don't think I ever heard it. Nevermore and I were far too busy being far too dramatic. Well, appropriately dramatic for a meeting between two such dramatic people, but probably too much for some other people who don't know better."
"Oh, well, that I can definitely give you," Annie grins. "It is Annie, by the way." Beat. "And there is nothing wrong with being dramatic. Some of my favourite people are very dramatic, in fact."
Maddy reaches out like she's snatching something in the air, then holds her fist in the air and lets out a dramatic cackle that makes a few heads in the back of the restaurant turn. "Mine! Your name is all mine! Freely given, freely taken!" She drops the act, offers another smile, and returns to a relaxed seating position. "Kidding, of course. It's a pleasure, Annnie."
Annie arches an eyebrow at the act, but then chuckles. "I suppose I should have expected that." She glances down at the menu briefly. "Could I get a Green Forest omelette, please?"
The first part gets a laugh, the second a nod. "Of course!" Maddy says, before she slips out of her chair again and heads over to the window back to the kitchen, where she puts an order on a slip and leaves it for the kitchen to get before she returns to the table. "One of my personal faves," she admits. "Despite the amount of meat on the menu, I'm mostly a vegetarian."
"Oh? Do you mind if I ask whether that is for ethical or religious reasons?"
"A combination of things, mostly ecological. Partly ethical. Mostly not religious. My faith is primarily about harmony with nature, and it's natural for animals to eat each other, but the way that animals are raised for food production isn't very natural, is it?" Maddy slips back into her seat as she offers these explanations. "So to answer your question," she adds impishly. "No, I don't mind if you ask."
"I suppose not, no." Annie shrugs slightly. "I rarely eat meat these days anyway, so I have not thought about it much." She pauses to take another sip of her water. "How have things been for you?"
"Why is it so rare for you? Any reason in particular?" Maddy asks, just reflecting the curiosity. "Things are mostly pretty great for me, I suppose. There was a big fluffy cow here earlier, you know. Out in the clearing." She gestures out the window. "It was pretty cute. Made my whole day. How about you?"
"...A legacy of my time Over There," Annie admits after a moment, glancing out the window. "Truly? I take it it was not just a cow, then, if the gardens are still intact?"
"My curiosity hadn't yet overridden my sense of courtesy enough to ask," Maddy says with a sudden laugh. "I don't think it would have taken very much longer. The cow was outside the fence, thank goodness. Especially when it tripped and fell."
"That sounds adorable, though probably for the better that it was not present much longer, then." Annie grins. "To answer your other question, I have been good, for the most part. Worried about my friends, of course, but there is not much I can do for them right now."
"What's the worry with your friends right now?" Maddy asks in sudden seriousness. "Is there trouble brewing that I might want to know about? Any reason why I should tighten security?" She leans back and her eyes get distant for a moment. If Annie were a mage she might feel a the working of magic, in whatever way she'd feel it, but instead there's just a brief lack of focus on Maddy's part as she starts the routine work of re-severing all the sympathetic connections people have built up with the diner during the course of the day.
Annie pauses for a moment, blinking. "You have seen the news, right? What the pigs did to the Imam, and Rabbi Cohen?"
"Oh. Yes." Maddy says, but that actually seems to make her relax, rather than make her more tense. "Some of the people from my community are working on that still, I know. I was involved early on, but other people have been more hands on with the situation since then. Is there news with their cases?"
"Not that I am aware, but it is early days yet." Annie sighs. "I have done what I can, of course, but for now there is little to do but wait, on that front."
"That's the court systems for you. In few other places can you find such interminable delay, followed by frequent travesty." Maddy sighs too. "I'm glad I don't have to be involved personally, but I'd get involved if I thought there was anything useful I could do."
"At the moment? Just fundraising to help defray the legal costs for the Imam and the other arrestees not part of our broad community would mean a lot, I think." Annie sighs again. "I believe the team representing Mei and Aaron specifically are working pro bono, or the next thing to it, but I am not sure about the others."
"Do you know if there's a GoFundMe set up already or anything?" Maddy asks. "I don't exactly roll in cash running this place, which mostly just breaks even after I pay all the bills, but I might be able to put up flyers asking people to donate and so on."
"There is, actually. One I helped organise, actually." Annie shrugs slightly. "One benefit of being a medical student is knowing a lot of people who want to help others."
"Hold that thought," Maddy says when she hears the call for Annie's order. She gets up again, goes to get it, and comes back with the plate, plus utensils wrapped in a napkin. The plate gets slid in front of Annie, the silverware beside it. "There you go," she says as she sits again.
"Thank you," Annie says, smiling at the other woman. "Do you mind if I eat while we talk? I would not want to let the food grow cold, after all."
"Oh, no, not at all. I can let you eat in peace too, if you want, but you're here to eat, right? So eat." Maddy reassures with a smile and a one-sided shrug. "What were we talking about? Oh, fund raising. Get me the info for the thing, and I'll post it?"
"Of course. Could I get your number, to send the info to?" Beat. "And possibly for other things, if you would be okay with that?" Annie grins slightly, tucking into her omelette.
"Of course!" Maddy says as she reaches for a pocket, realizes she doesn't have a pen on her, and scoots out of the booth to get a pen from behind the bar. She writes her number on an order slip, then comes back to give it to Annie. "In case you need more flower crowns."
"Who would not need more flower crowns in their life?" Beat. "And does this make you a swain gifting me things?" Annie muses semi-rhetorically.
With a laugh and a wink Maddy says, "a great mystery of our age. I should get back to work, but enjoy your meal, and let us know if you need anything else?"
"Of course. Pleasure talking to you again, Maddy."
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