Welcome to Gaia! ::

Maybe three minutes after Bae'd found a chair, the shop door opened again, accompanied by an alarmed squawk and blur of brown and pink as the person pushing it promptly tripped, spun, and fell on her furry, pink-clad butt. Dalia hissed as the door thwacked her knee in an attempt to close itself.

"Oh poot," she muttered, ears flattening against her skull. She rubbed her knee with one hand as she turned her other leg enough to see the broken heel dangling from her favorite pair of heels. A low, keening whine vibrated in her throat as she flicked the offending heel, still danging by a hair from the sole. "Aw, shoe. I needed you."

Looking appropriately sheepish, Dalia took Bae's hand when offered, allowing herself to be helped off the floor. Despite the fall, Dalia smiled bright as morning itself. Her knee hurt, and her shoulder where it had been wrenched from holding the door as she fell, but it wasn't bad. Keeping her weigh on the toes of her broken-shoed foot, she managed to stand on her own and dropped Bae's hand. "Thanks! I'm fine, I think. My shoe isn't, but you probably aren't worried about that. They're old, not new, so I guess it could be worse. Of course they were my favorite pair so I suppose it isn't as good as it could be. I'd be better if I could do that on command--then maybe I could at least charge admission. See the famous clutz in action! See her murder shoes at the speed of--"

As she spoke, Dalia's hands never seemed to stop motion. She froze, hands framed above her in a headline pantomime, her eyes cutting to Bae. "I'm babbling, Right?" That was, apparently a rhetorical question, for Dalia dropped her hands and resumed what she could only hope was a 'natural' stance. Forgetting about her heel long enough to drop suddenly onto the flat of that foot. "Of course I'm babbling."

"Oh would you?!" Dalia clapped her hands together once, bouncing on her toes before immediately pulling her heels off. She deposited them on the extra chair without another thought, waving excitedly at Bae and gushed, "Thank-you-I'll-be-right-back."

It was quiet enough in the shop that Dalia's stream of chatter carried easily through the room. "OK-lets-see-oh-my-god-you-have-pumpkin-spice-eeeeee-that-is-my-favorite-oh-but-do-i-want-it-cold-or-oh-my-gosh-are-those-cake-pops-those-look-so-cute-i'll-have-tweleve-straberry-no-chocolate-no-vani--wait-yes-the--oh-can-i-have-them-split?-you-are-so-awesome-thank-you-oh-right-my-drink-order-OK-ummmm--eee-you-have-so-many-choices!-The-frapachinnos-are-so-good-though-so-i'll-have-a-venti-um-pump-no-OH-MY-GOD-DO-YOU-HAVE-PEPPERMINT?-you-do!-you-are-amazing-oh-gosh-a-peppermint-frap--no-no-make-it-the-hot-thing-like-what-is-that-called-the-hot-one-YES-THAT-ok-and-yes-that's-all."

The entire scene played out with Dalia bouncing on her toes, occasionally punctuating comments with claps of her hands. When she was done, the relieved looking barrista swiped her debit card, handed it back, and set about dutifully fullfilling an order. Free of her broken heels, Dalia's movements were actually graceful as she seemed to dance her way down to the "pick-up" area--completely oblivious to how ridiculous she must have looked to anyone else. There, she waited with an energetic sort of patience, alternately bouncing in place and looking around at anything and everything. Once, she caught Bae's eye on accident and instead of jerking her attention away, she waved both her hands excitedly before her attention was caught by a passing mote of light.

Finally, her order came. Taking her drink and bag of cake pops, she thanked the barrista with a cheerful grin and skipped back to the table. Her shoes fell, forgotten, onto the floor as she slid into the chair. Depositing her bag of cake pops on the table, she lifted her drink and pointed to the name scrawled there. "Dalia, by the way. It is so good to meet you Bae, you have no idea. I just moved into the city and I was kind of scared that everyone was going to be mean and grumpy all the time--you know like you see in the movies--but oh my gosh you are just so nice and the barrista is so helpful and this is really just the best day, The. Best."