Welcome to Gaia! ::

Her excitement had led her to arrive slightly early. Well, okay, half an hour isn't exactly slight, by any means, but Maddy most certainly felt there was no harm in getting acquainted with a new place and the new people with it, especially a place so quaint as this one. How had she never come across it before?

Being the little socialite that she is, she had already made friendly conversation with a barista, and picked up the daily special, which she sips in small, savouring portions. Dressed in one of her favourite outfits, a cute white halter sundress with large pink, red, and yellow floral print, with her usual skull hat ditched in favour for the less blatant skull pattern on a chunky green headband, she looks like she's stepped right out of summer itself, regardless of the slightly cooler-than-average temperature outside.

She tilts her head, shifting her weight on her cork-bottom shoes, squinting at one of the larger paintings on the wall of the cafe, hoping through squinted eyes she'd be enlightened as to what it's supposed to be. She brings her cup to her lips distractedly, the warm tea tugging at her pursed lips.

Mid-sip, Maddy hears her name, and swallows hard on the tea, bypassing the whole savouring part as she whirls around in her place. He looked everything and nothing like she'd pictured from the description, though how he does look is immediately very intriguing to her, a good sign indeed. Her face brightens into a genuine toothy smile.

"Oh! Uh, hi!" she half stammers, wondering if she's supposed to shake his hand or something, and consequently shifts her tea to her left if need be. "Nice to meet you too, Shea!"

She smiles wider, glad her handshake offering seemed to have been a good call, but, in turn, almost loses some of the aforementioned tea to a shift in gravity. She catches the cup's handle in her fingers, losing naught a drop, but the ordeal broke her smile momentarily.

"Not long at all!" she half-lied, brushing a stray lock of hair behind her ear absently. "I was just trying to figure out this, er, 'work of art'." Okay, so she'd been there a while, but she hadn't been expecting him until then, so she reasoned that this was the best answer to give without looking like some sort of incredibly eager, desperate woman. That'd be a deal breaker straight away!

Maddy takes a pause, the cafe's conversation and lower ambient sounds replacing her voice as she takes a sip of her cooling tea. Her lips curl into another smile over the rim of the cup at him, and wastes no time in thrusting the teacup forward. "Tastes excellent! Here, try it!"

[I thiiink it would be.. so no worries! ^0^]

Maddy grins in return, cupping her cooling tea in her hands leisurely without drinking it herself just yet. She follows his cues and, too, scans the cafe to examine its functioning, though one would think she would have done so already.

"Mm, I'm not sure! I just ordered from the lady over there," she replies thoughtfully, gesturing toward the counter not too far away. She steals a look over Shea, smiling fondly at his apprehension. She'd long forgotten the awkwardness of meeting new people, being the little socialite that she is, but his offer reminds her of her lack of experience in the dating scene. Should she let him get her something, or be polite and pretend she isn't curious about the pastries?

She brushes that same stray lock of hair behind her ear, rolling forward onto the balls of her feet. "Uhm, something small would be nice, thanks!" That was neutral enough, she hoped!

Madeline is brushing at the hem of her dress just as Shea returns, and no better sight could she have looked up to than a man with desserts in hand. She can barely contain herself, straightening up immediately with a wide smile that slightly crinkles her eyes.

"These almost look too precious to eat!" she practically purrs, looking from one to the other, to the other. Always the girlish one, it isn't a surprise she selects the purple dessert with the flower decoration. She breaks off one of the petals and pops it in her mouth. "Almost," she adds cheekily.

"So, Shea," Maddy speaks up after one more petal, thinking back to how she'd done this, make small talk, countless times before, albeit not under the same circumstances. She decides on, "You play instruments, yes? Which kinds?"

Seeming to strike a chord - all puns intended- with Shea conversation wise, Maddy leans forward on her elbows as he speaks about what she can tell is a dear subject to him, and her, as well. She interlocks her fingers beneath her chin and tilts her head just enough for her hair to blanket her jawline in soft blonde locks.

"I'd love that!" she finds herself purring again, though this time a little bit lower. Her tail, mostly preoccupied with keeping a rhythmic swish, now finds itself intertwining her ankles in a fluffy, constricting, scarf-like fashion. "You've got that musician look all over you. I bet you're a natural on stage.."

Maddy clasps her fingers to her lips in the most unintentionally comical of fashions, blue eyes widened with horror at realizing what he meant. Unfortunately for her, she very much so retains the ability to blush, and turns a nice shade of pink.

"I'm so sorry," she breathes as she brings her hands away from her face and, instead, clasped in her lap. Oh, darnit. Now she'll have to tell him, and, surely, it'll be like all the other times, with her going home with a fractured heart.

Still, he'd asked, and she never thought it fair to lie. Those things come back to bite you in the end, anyway, even if it meant a few more stolen moments of happiness. She averts her eyes a little, her tail now squeezing her ankle for comfort.

"Well," Maddy begins, willing herself to look up, though clearly nervous. She takes a breath and explains, "I'm of a rare little species called Skull Monkeys. But we'renotreallymonkeys, see, no one knows what we are, exactly.. it's uhm, sort of hard to explain, because no one sees what our real faces look like 'til we're Fif- uh, human."

Wow. Eloquent. Maddy chews on her bottom lip, thinking that might have just been one of the most awful recountings of her history she's ever stumbled through.