Welcome to Gaia! ::

Maggie stared at the woman. She really didn't care? Luciana was being so nice. But why? She barely knew Maggie. Actually, she figured that was probably the reason for her kindness. If Luciana had known Maggie better there was no way she would be so nice. For now Luciana liked her, and Maggie hoped to keep it that way as long as she could.

She didn't calm down much, in spite of Luciana's words. "No..." Maggie mumbled in response to Luciana's teasing. "I'm sorry."

((I guess it's about time I posted!))

Nyssa had lived in Pastora all her life, and yet she had never seen this place before. From the outside it looked like any other small cafe or bistro in the area, the purple stones crumbling around the edges as snaking trendrils of ivy forced their way through the cracks. Once inside, though, Nyssa knew that there was something different about this place. It was clean and bright, for one thing - but it was the custom that really threw her off.

"What have we here?" Nyssa glanced around, taking in the golden rays of sunlight flickering through windows that hadn't appeared from the outside.

She was a small woman, petite and lithe with long dark hair that was coiled in a french braid down her back. Her eyes were blue, and bright with intelligence, although rimmed with dark circles. She hadn't been sleeping well lately.

At the bar, she said, "I guess I'll have a coffee, then. Do you take Exos Notes?"

Nyssa paused before smiling at Luciana, her curiosity eventually outweighing her caution. She paid the waitress and took her coffee. The mug was china, and better quality than she had seen for a while.

"I've heard about places like these," she said. "They come and go all around Exos. Supposedly. But I've never seen one before." She flicked her tongue over her teeth, thinking. "I'm intrigued. Do you mind if I sit with you?"

"Luca," Nyssa repeated. "I'm Nyssa. Just Nyssa. Miss Nyssa to everybody outside of these walls. God that sounds pretensious." She smiled and raised the coffee towards her lips. "I wouldn't count on luck, though. I hear that it's all about..." She leaned closer, her eyes sparkling mischievously. "Magic."

She leaned back and let out a small laugh. It was pleasant to be around somebody who might not take her so seriously - although she was well aware that she had yet to test the ground thoroughly.

Nyssa shook her head when Luciana got her name wrong, but shrugged it off. What did that matter, here of all places? Instead she drank more coffee and listened intently. "If a horse to you is the same as a horse to me, I'm assuming you don't have talking ones? Well, neither do we. Technically." She rolled her eyes and then sighed. "But that's a long story. Anyway, I knew one once."

The coffee was bitter. Nyssa relished as it warmed her throat and woke her up. She was beginning to feel like she should be more nervous about this place, but honestly couldn't bring herself to care. After the worry she had been put through this last few weeks, the young woman felt that she had the right to a little consequence-free relaxation.

((Baha, it's actually a stroke of genius, because people call her Nessa all the time by mistake. =O Also, LOVE Pirates.))

"No, not really. They just... are. Like people, and animals, only somewhere in the middle. They don't exist much any more. Not since the Ban - which, I suppose, you don't know anything about do you?" Nyssa paused and rolled her shoulders. Who would have thought it could be so difficult to simply explain her world, her life?

((So difficult to keep up in a conversation when your character's main trait is "crippled by shyness".))

Maggie quietly sipped at her coke at Luca and the new woman spoke. She was partly grateful for Nyssa's arrival, for it took the focus off her. However, she couldn't help but feel rejected. She knew she wasn't contributing to the conversation, and that was why she had been forgotten, but she was still too scared to break her silence.

Both of the women were so pretty. Maggie felt gross next to them, like someone as average-looking as herself didn't deserve to be in their presence. There was the smallest bold thought that lived in the corner of her mind which she tried to ignore. It remained, however, stirring feelings of loneliness and desire just below her timidity. It distracted her enough that the conversation slowly faded to her. She no longer heard words, only the pleasant mumbles of far-off voices. Until she was startled by the ice at the end of her drink, that was. She absent-mindedly tilted back her glass for another sip and three ice cubes, one after another fell on her nose and upper lip. Maggie jumped and quickly put down her glass, said glass making more noise than she would have liked when it hit the bar.

There seemed to be something a lot deeper going on. If there was something Luciana understood, it was politics. "Unholy. That sounds so strange. Magic is supposed to have descended from the gods where I'm from. Calling it unholy is more of an oxymoron than anything." She gave a little shrug.

She startled when Maggie set down her glass loudly. She glanced over at the girl, giving her a smile. She didn't seem overly chatty, which Luciana was used to, given her usual company. "How's the drink there, Maggie?"