Pictures in the Dark

[formidable]

General PSL/FUNBOX post for aurajen and formidable. Lots of OC shenanigans. ➢ Cool Mood Music No. 1 ➤ Cool Mood Music No. 2

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[oren]

No bleeding.

Keeping the rest to myself.

[Well, in a way that answers her question too. He's got a lot of individuality for a creature made of earth.]

[lyrelyre]

Okay, fine, fair enough. [She can just leave the rest to her imagination or something.]

Where's the other owner?

[oren]

Class.

[He never discloses which school Iona goes to in LA of course.]

Semester's almost over.

[lyrelyre]

Class and running a cafe? Talk about multitasking.

[oren]

She manages.

[It's okay, Oren does most of the work... That isn't to say, Iona's energy and welcoming nature is one of the factors at work that helps bring back customers and her ideas on what to serve tend to be exciting for regulars.]

May catch sooner or later.

[lyrelyre]

Cool. I wouldn't mind that. [She's heard very briefly of Iona, from the same information she heard from Morgan. Of course, Lyra knows her only as "Jackie" right now, and has no reason to think otherwise.]

But this place -- [she looks around at the crowd it's drawn] --looks like it can get busy. Don't tell me it's only the two of you? You'd have to practically live here. Unless it's one of those things where, like, you guys live up on the second floor if there is one, or something.

[oren]

Close enough.

[Iona and Oren share the entrance that leads to their apartment in LA. The Midnight Grind's close to their hearts and right next door even.]

Weekends are the busiest.

[lyrelyre]

That's what I mean, though. No extra pair of hands? I don't care if you're a golem barista savant; here's only so many drinks you can make in a short amount of time.

[oren]

Extra help on weekend. Another person helps throughout when available.

[Marianna "Monts" is a rather popular hostess in the cafe, if a bit off putting because of her very presence. No matter, she's the second person Iona trusts the most to look after the Grind in her absence.]

[lyrelyre]

So like, your own little team?

[She grins just a little. She prefers to think of it that way. She bets that their Midnight Grind team is not as dysfunctional as her "team", though, but it doesn't make it any less intriguing. She likes searching for people with parallels to her own situation; it makes her feel a tiny sense of camaraderie, though she'll never say as much.]

Does everyone get along well? My "team" sometimes fights like cats and dogs, but that's because everyone is so... different, you could say? Basically, I'm surprised you can keep the peace with so many different kinds of people here.

[It's an over exaggeration that the five of them fight so fiercely; they actually get along most of the time, but they have been known to butt heads to the point where the mansion has suffered collateral damage as a result. (She's tries to stay out of fights like those, though. She's not really on the side of brawn, given her powers.)]

[oren]

Not quite.

[Monts isn't acquainted with Michael yet and the way Oren sees it, it's not really a team. Maybe Iona could be called a leader considering how much she accepts people so easily and they tend to follow her whims.]

People working on different days. Don't always meet.

[lyrelyre]

That's too bad. [She actually sounds a little deflated at that. The idea of a group of employees at a nexus-like cafe, dealing with their own problems and dramas and the weird customers that come in here...

It'd make a good indie comic, she thinks. Lyra, your mind jumps to weird stuff sometimes.] You've dashed my imaginative hopes, Oren.

[oren]

Been told I do that.

[Oren is such a downer!]

A lot.

[lyrelyre]

You're pretty direct and to the point. But I like people like that.

[Which is ironic, considering she's terribly good at putting on an act, herself. It's all a part of her repertoire, and perhaps her familiarity with it is what makes it... tiring, in a way.]

...Though I guess it wouldn't hurt to smile more.

[oren]

[Too much effort. Emoting is too much effort these days.]

Don't really need to.

You. Smile because you can or because you want to?

[lyrelyre]

[That gives her pause, not really expecting the question to turn back around on her.]

Both? Besides, smiles are easy, even if you don't really mean them.

[oren]

Which one are you more used to?

[it's an oddly whole sentence coming from Oren]

[lyrelyre]

[A shrug.] Probably the ones where you don't mean it. It's easier to get your way when you're smiling, and people think you like them more than you do -- if you practice it, I'm sure you can get a lot of women to order more drinks just so they can see that smile. A win-win.