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 Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2011 10:06 pm
The old, worn out sign that reads Maggie's overhead was no more familiar to the pale girl with blonde dreads than anything else in the city was. Given the obvious signs of aging just at a glance, Kaia had to wonder if she had ever eaten here before. It was old enough to have been around for most of her life. Though other teenagers probably smiled about it fondly and told stories of their families sitting in the booths for Friday night out, Kaia only had one purpose for being here.
Ashley.
She pushed open the front door with a little 'ding' of the overhead bell and let her eyes skim along the semi-crowded diner. She saw the familiar purple head bustling near a table and chose to instead take a seat at the bar, ignoring the creak of the old bar stool and letting her messenger bag slide to the floor at her feet.
Out of a need to not be a completely useless suck of Ashley's time, she picked up the menu and gave it a quick once-over. Then she smiled at the pretty waitress that sidled up to the other side of the bar and ordered a lemonade. Once she walked off to start the process of squeezing the lemons, Kaia's bright eyes looked up and caught Ashley's. She gave her a smile and a small wave, just so the girl would know why she was there.
Not that Ashley would have thought anything else, considering Kaia's love of being alone as a civilian in public was almost nil.
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Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2011 9:09 pm
This job really wasn't so bad, in spite of the mixed feelings she initially had. Her energy turn-in had taken a hit, but she was still above quota for the most part. The turn in from the lieutenants she ran in helped with that, through she would much rather the loose lieutenant find their own teams and stay safer that way.
It had never occurred to her to actually make her own.
She was finishing up with an older couple when Kaia entered and took her seat, but she turned just in time to spot the familiar blonde dreads. She still had to take off the dishes and clean that table, through, and by the time she was done that, Kaia had her lemonade in hand.
"Mind if I take over this one, Mel ?" She called out to the other girl, and with a nod, was able to focus on Kaia for the time being.
"Kaia ! Hey." She said with a smile. "Do you want something to eat ? I get off in about..." A quick look at the clock. "...Half an hour or so, so you got time."
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Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2011 6:52 pm
Kaia had simply taken her lemonade with a 'thank you' and waited patiently until her friend had a moment to spare for her. As Ashley called out and made her way up to the counter, Kaia pushed her lemonade to the side and waited for her attention.
"Oh, uh," not what she had expected. As a rule of thumb, Kaia didn't normally eat in diners - she wasn't much into greasy food, which was what she associated with such places. She gave the menu a quick once-over though and shifted a little in her seat. "Do you have any kind of chicken sandwich or something?" At least chicken was fairly hard to fake, and not as greasy as hamburger.
She glanced away from the menu and back up to the purple haired teen, letting one hand trace doodles into the condensation on her cup. "I can wait either way though, I have something to.. talk to you about when you're off. Not here." The last words were spoken softly, as an indicator that this wasn't just friendly chatter.
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Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2011 8:47 pm
"There's a grilled chicken sandwich on the secret menu. Lettuce and tomato, no mayo unless you ask. I kind of invented it." Boasting ? Perhaps. Nonetheless, she'd special-ordered that for lunch once, a few clients had seen her, and it had stuck.
Usually she didn't outright tell anyone about anything on the secret menu... But this was Kaia.
At the mention of 'not here', Ashley caught on easily. "Should I be worried ?" Her small features were into a cautious frown now, fingers drumming along her notepad. She hoped Kaia wasn't there to announce her brother was back at her apartment with a broken arm, or something.
Alunite and trouble. Often went hand in hand.
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Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2011 9:10 pm
"Secret sandwich, light on the mayo then?" She laughed softly and took a sip of her lemonade after Ashley finished explaining it and she had ordered. It didn't surprise her that her friend knew exactly what she'd like, or that she had some hand in creating it. It was just one of those perks of being her friend.
As she asked about being worried and showed Kaia the frown, the dreadhead shook her head emphatically and waved one of her hands at Ashley to try and stave off her worries - all the while still trying to swallow down the lemonade.
"No," she croaked quietly, coughed a little to clear her throat, and then tried again. "No, no, it's nothing bad. I have a favor to talk to you about, something to do with this.. thing I'm organizing." She smiled as she spoke to reassure Ashley that it really wasn't anything serious or terrifying.
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Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2011 9:48 pm
That was enough for Ashley, at least for now - her face immediately smoothed back out, and she smiled again. "Oh, good." There would be no elaboration. Not here, at least.
She noted down the order on her notepad, ripped the sheet off, then pinned it against the back. Then she had to wander a bit for her last pair of client who were ready to pay up. Once the young couple was gone, Kaia was the only person she had left to worry about. It was useless to snag another table when she only had a few minutes left, yes ?
By that time, her sandwich was ready, and was then carried to the blonde girl. "Sorry about that." She leaned against the counter. "I'll be able to just punch out whenever you're done, you're my last client."
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Posted: Sun Jul 03, 2011 6:42 pm
Kaia watched as her friend took her order and then excused herself to finish taking care of the people that were left. She just smiled and turned in her seat to sip her lemonade and stare at the glimpses of the kitchen she could see beyond the swinging doors.
When Ashley returned with her plate she took it with a smile and a thank you, and was carefully picking it up to take a small bite when she said she was just waiting on her. She finished the bite, chewed, then set her sandwich down.
"I can just take this to go if you want? You don't have to sit here and watch me eat." She laughed a little at the thought, but she would have been infinitely more comfortable curled up on the couch at home with her food, even if she had her own personal scavenger there.
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Posted: Sun Jul 03, 2011 7:12 pm
"Oh, yeah, we can do that." There were definitively better places to discuss... matters than here, really. Sometimes talking code didn't cut it, and you just needed the privacy to just express yourself freely.
It was looking like one of those times. "Just let me wrap that up for you..." And so she left with the plate to do that, and returned with said bag - all that was left was for Kaia to pay and finish her drink before they could punch out and get going.
When that was done, Ashley took a moment to stretch as they finally came outside. "Oh god, today was long..." She muttered. Sometimes working in the diner was a pain. When it was slow, mostly. It seemed like time stretched forever on slow days.
"Where are we going ? Your place ?"
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Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2011 12:10 am
Kaia waited while Ashley exchanged her plate for a bag, then paid the money and took one last sip of her lemonade - she'd had her fill of the semi-sweet concoction a little over halfway through.
As glad as Ashley was to be out of the diner, Kaia was probably even more so. It was true that she didn't work there and would probably never quite understand the stress of customer service, but being cramped up with civilians and restricted from speaking about the only parts of her life that really mattered was not high on her priority list at the moment. She just smiled sympathetically at Ashley's complaint and curled her hand around the top of the bag even tighter.
"We can, though I want to talk about it along the way if that's alright. Khal isn't always.. helpful in negotiations." Despite the fact that her words were quite the opposite of a compliment, she half smiled and shook her head at them. "I think this might be easier to explain without him interjecting."
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Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2011 12:31 pm
"Lead the way, then !" She said. Weither they would walk here or... take the more express route she would leave up to Kaia herself.
She didn't want to power up so close to her workplace, anyway. That was basically asking for trouble.
"You're making me so curious now, you realize." She said with a warm grin. "Come on, tell me~ !"
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Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2011 11:18 pm
"Alright, alright," Kaia laughed softly as she glanced around them just to make sure that there was no one close by, or following behind them. She never felt careful enough talking about the Negaverse in the open, even though she was extremely cautious. Better here than at the apartment where Khal could potentially run Ashley off - she never knew if he was going to behave.
"It's not much, I suppose, it's just something I've been thinking about a lot since.. the BMC situation." She crossed her arms over her chest and rubbed her hands against the back of them, as if she had somehow gotten a chill in the midst of the muggy, summer weather. "We need a support system. Not just the ability to call a General King in the middle of an emergency if its important enough. We need a real response team, people that everyone can count on."
She stopped suddenly as she realized she was somewhere between rambling and a passionate speech, suddenly conscious of the volume of her voice. Her eyes had risen during her talk and bored into the distance, trying to set anything in their path on fire. It was rare to see calm, humble Kaia so openly passionate about anything but this was something she felt she could do and help people with.
"I can't do it by myself. Khal is a help but even we're not enough to do it like it really needs to be done." She stopped in her tracks then, turned to Ashley, and reached out to put a hand on her shoulder and stop her as well. "I need your help, if just for a while."
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Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2011 1:53 pm
Kaia's voice was getting louder and louder, and Ashley's head was going back and forth for people before the dreaded girl noticed, making sure that they were truly in the clear. After all, if they could walk down the street like this...
The senshi could very well do the same.
"So this is like... People on call in case something happen ?" She asked. "That sounds like a very good idea... We can't have a repeat of... that."
Selfishly, Ashley wasn't sure if she could deal with carrying another dead body from a torture chamber.
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Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2011 8:08 pm
"That's it exactly." A smile formed on her lips as Ashley all but read her mind. She was pleased that she didn't have to keep explaining or try to pitch it to her when she didn't understand.
She glanced around sheepishly for a moment to double check once more, then nodded her head back towards the direction they had been heading before she fell into step once more. She should have been more careful, just in case, but it was so easy for her to get carried away.
"It's not the most exciting job, but I figure there are always those of us that prefer downtime instead of.. constant work." Well, that and she knew that Khal preferred it. Even as a General he would take any excuse to slack off if she let him. "Plus it's a good opportunity to slowly introduce new lieutenants who aren't comfortable jumping into this headfirst."
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Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2011 10:45 am
"Maybe it's not exciting, but it's been proved that it needs to be done." She would never allow something like the BMC kidnapping to happen again. Not if she could at least try to stop it. "I've been watching new lieutenants... They're... much like I was ? They're not completely sure where to begin and where to go." She pursed her own lips in thought.
In her mind, her own introduction had been a little different. She'd come into the middle of a hurricane, and had to adapt very, very fast. Which thankfully was something she was good at.
"What do you need, especially ? Just people to keep watch ? Or people who knows how to take care of wounds ? I don't know much about that beside the basics, but... I'd like to learn ?" It could come very handy, indeed.
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Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2011 11:23 pm
"True, not everything about the Negaverse has always been exciting." She could recall her own first weeks, roaming the halls of Beryl's lonely castle by herself and looking for anything interesting that never appeared.
"I can help them with that, or Hematite can, or some of the other recruits. No one in this war should have to do this alone, you know?" There was flash of something in her face before it was gone. Maybe she was thinking of something or someone a long time ago. Whoever it was, it passed.
"People that know what they're doing, most of all. To wait on the calls but to help rescue whoever needs the help. It's a good job for lieutenants but I'm not sure I'd.. only want them." The idea of an entire team of new bloods? That was horrific. "I think I have the first aid thing well under control, but if we need more, I can teach people. I can teach you if you want to help, too?"
They were fast approaching the apartment at this point, walking through residential areas of town already. "I also need people to help me get the word around that this is happening. Our public service announcements don't travel as fast as the moon kingdom's do." She frowned very slightly at that, but shrugged in the end. Nothing for it.
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