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 Posted: Sun Jan 29, 2017 5:30 pm
Today, like every day in the dead of Destiny City winter, was insufferably cold. Kam never liked having to wear a shirt if he could get away with it, let alone layers, and his somewhat diminished form was currently swaddled with so many that it was hard to tell he'd loss the mass at all. For once he was thankful for his rare forethought - his fingers were almost numb from how long he'd been standing out in the late afternoon air. The plain, unmarked door didn't really seem like much at first. It was a dull, unassuming grey set in the side of an old brick building that was also dull and unassuming. It was what Kam knew was waiting on the other side that really mattered and the door was just one more symbol standing between him and self improvement. His dark fingers brought a low-burning cigarette back to his lips and he drew another drag, leaning his head back into the wall. His next sigh blew the smoke up into the dreary sky overhead, mixed with the warmth of his breath, and he watched it drift away and dissipate. It shouldn't have been so hard to just grab the handle and open it but there was a deep dread burning in the pit of his chest. In his free hand he turned a white card over and over in his palm, running his thumb across the hand-written name and number - he could feel the little indentations in the paper from the woman's heavy hand. Just give them a call and let them know you're coming. That's all. It's just a baby step, right?Right. Just a baby step. Kam pulled his dark eyes away from the door handle again and leaned his body back into the wall more comfortably, clearly intending on enjoying every last puff of his cigarette. Maybe a couple.
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Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2017 10:26 am
Jada... was suffering temptation. Quite a lot of it. Since coming home it seemed like every day she had been looking at the bottles, staring at the liquid she carefully measured out (because she was too week to cut herself off completely, relied too much on her mini crutch) and wondered if she should just... What was it that country song had said? Put the bottle to her head and pull the trigger?And she needed to do something about it. Too much of life had been pounding her into the ground, too fast, and when she started thinking like this- she had to keep on top of the waves. She had too many promises to keep, two little children to protect. Jada couldn't afford to slip. Not now. No matter how much she craved it. Especially with how much she craved it. That was what brought her here, dressed like she was going to a funeral, in black shoes, black sweaterdress, short black coat. Freezing legs, but definitely toasty up top, and her legs would unfreeze. If she could manage to let herself into the building. She had walked around it four times now, each time taking a look at the man standing outside, then ducking her head away. Jada didn't... She didn't have to come to a meeting like this, did she? With people she didn't know? She could... Talk herself out of it? Go home, have one of the two 4 oz servings of wine she allotted herself daily? Curl into a couch and wonder when she would finally snap? Jada wandered closer, at last, her breath puffing out into the cold air. She made it to the door, and moved to grab the handle- then jerked her hand away, heels clacking against the concrete as she paced back in the direction from which she had come, running gloved hands through her mane of hair. "It is just a door," she said aloud, "nothing to be scared of." Just a door. She groaned, and draped her arms over the railing, not even ashamed to be dramatic. Just a <********> door. It wasn't going to bite her, and she doubted the AA meeting was a Negaverse scheme to steal her starseed. A General would be easier to fight though, than the low clench of reproach in her belly. She wanted to stay better, right? She needed to. She had two small reasons at home, and Jada needed to remind herself that that was all she needed. No matter how many more pro-drink reasons she had. "You can do this," she told the railing. "Absolutely."
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Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2017 3:08 pm
Jada was a hard woman not to notice, even for a man that was constantly chased by the ghosts of women he loved - both alive and dead. The second time the woman walked by could have been a simple coincidence but the third raised an eyebrow and the fourth, well. She was obviously here for something and Kam doubted that he was prey today, his atmosphere was definitely of the dark and stormy variety. That left only one thing and, as he saw her approach the door with every ounce of her resolve struggling through her eyes, he knew instantly that they were one and the same. Poor girl. The dark man frowned around the last pull of his cigarette as he caught wind of the words she was speaking aloud to herself, following her with his even darker eyes. As the last puff of smoke exhaled from his lips and dwindled up into the cold, cloudy sky, he watched her retreat and lean on the railing instead. Just a door, sure. Kam exhaled a sigh as he finally dropped his cigarette butt to the ground, grinding it into the cold, wet snow under the heel of his boot. He was rotten at motivating himself but add another broken, lost soul in the mix? Pretty girl or not, he already felt that incessant tug of shared guilt and, true to form, he decided to focus on someone else's problems instead of confronting his own demons. He stepped away from the mottled black and white of the tobacco mixed snow slush and leaned into the railing at her side. "I can pick you up and carry you in if it will help." A joke, of course. He wasn't sure he could open it either.
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Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2017 4:06 pm
Face down in the railing, Jada was still aware of the crunch of shoes on snow. Grinding, then walking- she assumed it was the man who had been standing outside. Probably wondering if she was lost, or if she was just a coward. <********, why couldn't she just... Open a door? It was a simple thing. A handle. Put your hand on it. Push, pull, lever. Open it up. Look what is inside- people who might understand. But it wasn't that easy, and Jada sucked in cold air through mouth and nose, wondering if it was possible to drown on air. Because right now she felt like it. The familiar scent of nicotine brushed her nostrils, and Jada sighed, wondering why there were just- so many smokers. It was a habit not unlike drinking, but when was the last time anyone mentioned Smokers Anonymous? No. It was all "tobacco cessation" and s**t. She was avoiding again. "I am heavier than I look," she told the faceless stranger, and turned her almond eyes on the stranger, considering him briefly. With that many layers on, she would almost think he was cold- and her eyes brightened with a little humor, and dry friendliness. "You have to add an extra hundred for emotional baggage, you know." It was a safe bet he was here for a reason not unlike her own. She may as well just say it.
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Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2017 2:35 pm
Well, at least she had a sense of humor about her own short comings, that was something that Kamboja himself could appreciate in anyone. It made him laugh, full and hearty, rumbling through his thick chest as he leaned an arm on the railing and turned to look out at the world beyond their little, impassible door. "I could still move you, easy." If he wasn't so damn tired and depleted from an overly long stay in a merciless, law-driven wonder on Mars - but that was something she didn't need to know and he couldn't explain despite it. Too, it was his major reasoning for not walking through that door himself. Human foibles were easy to explain and recover from, cosmic imbalances weren't something the average mortal could weigh him for. Small talk with a pretty girl was a lot easier. "If you're done pretending you're going to walk through that door short of anything but the horsemen of the apocalypse chasing you through it, would you like to go get a cup of judgement-free coffee?" The dark, chocolate brown eyes shifted sideways to look at her over his easy, clumsy smile. Kam was obvious when he was hitting on someone for lecherous, lust-dominated reasons - when he wasn't being a pig, his charm was easy and innocent. With Tanais, Ariel, Ida, Hver, Fiona and so many other judgmental, beautiful women constantly screaming their opinions in his head, it was hard to get up to his usual shenanigans. Today, coffee was just coffee between him and another troubled soul.
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Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2017 6:57 pm
He laughed at her bad joke, which immediately raised him in her assessment by a hell of a lot. Not many people seemed to find her funny anymore. Clearly it was time too try and find a new group of friends, but the general populace of Destiny City seemed to be shrinking to mostly pre-teens and grandparents. Her own age group was fleeing to safer places, or growing up and being adults. "Maybe." Jada assessed him quizzically. "Probably." She was lighter than she looked, but there was a lot of stuff in her pockets. "Maybe another time on the lifting, though; I'm waiting for my four horsemen." her mouth quirked, and she dropped her arm back to the rail. "To be fair, it wouldn't take an apocalypse," she said after a moment, pursing her lips. "I have a few exes I'd dive through that door to hide from, and anyone with a camera would find me some instant balls." Coffee. Jada tilted her head, trying to gauge if she was being picked up in front of an AA meeting, or if he was just cold and needed some judgement-free companionship as much as she did. It was the smile that decided her- he could be a total creep, but if he was, he was very practiced at awkward smiling. "I thought AA meetings were supposed to be chock full of non-judgmental instant coffee?" She tilted her body away from the door, though. "Have someplace in mind? If not, there's a place within walking distance, I think. Never been there, though, so it could be something on par with high school cafeteria food, caffeine version."
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Posted: Fri Feb 10, 2017 5:37 pm
Kam felt the easy smile on his lips as she spoke, not just because she was keeping up with his silly banter, but because she wasn't frigid - he thought the people inside would be and knew, deep down, he was probably going to make a bad joke and upset the wrong stiff. She was a breath of fresh air for his nerves. "You're right, they have nice, non-judgmental coffee water. I'm sure it's the finest coffee water around." The dark eyes widened with the emphasis on finery, adding flair to his dripping sarcasm. Then his wide eyes crinkled with quiet laughter and he looked down the street to their left, judging a distance with the knowledge of a Destiny City street rat. "I think you probably mean The Cosmos Cup. It's an old dirt stain of a coffee shop but they actually make some fine damn coffee." He would know, too, since he'd kicked up his habit in an attempt to stay dry. One strong arm pushed him off of the railing he was leaning into and he nodded his dreaded head in that direction. "I used to go there in high school and their food is definitely better. So we're safe." The amused smile remained in place on his charming face, though the tiredness in his bones was still obvious beneath all those layers of clothes. There was no sense in wallowing in his pain today if he could just find a kindred soul instead. Not every stranger was a useful one but it didn't ever stop him from trying, especially when it was a pretty girl. He was a sucker for a pretty girl. "Ladies first," he chimed, holding out an arm in the direction of the cafe.
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Posted: Sun Feb 12, 2017 7:32 pm
"The finest coffee water for two offices in either direction," Jada murmured, just loud enough for him to hear. It was.... relaxing, to look away from that door which so terrified her. She needed to enter that little room, and get some support before she drove herself backwards a hundred steps. There was only so much she could take, she supposed, and so much temptation and despair lay around her, pushing her towards that road she'd left behind. "Cosmos cup?" Jada blinked at him, startled for a moment. Then she smiled, a model's vapid humor, and said, "I assume the tagline is that their coffee is Out of this World?" A dirt stain of a coffee shop wasn't Jada Chamberlyn's usual sort of place to go, but then neither was an AA meeting. Perhaps in starting with one, she could work up the courage to go for another? "Honestly, I think bad food for a high school is some kind of a requirement. Even Crystal's food was sub-par." her companion held out a gesturing arm, and she moved past the dark-skinned man, leading the way away from the door and towards the promise of caffeine. Tall heels clicked down the ramp, and she turned at the bottom to peer up at the form of her 'rescuer' as it were. "I'm Jada, by the way. If we're to go get coffee, I suppose I should at least know your name."
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Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2017 11:19 am
The little quip made him chuckle at her back as she walked, drowned by the confident click of her heels against the concrete ramp beneath them. As he followed her down to the sidewalk, he nodded along with her words, reaffirming exactly what she was saying about shitty high school food. Before he could think up any sort of witty retort for the conversation, he came face to face with her as she rounded and found himself staring down into those deep oceans framed by her dark lashes. “It’s Kam.” His dark eyes didn’t falter beneath her gaze, suggesting his own confidence was pretty high when he wasn’t facing some overwhelming task like walking into the AA meeting. He knew that Ariel had asked him, kindly, to sit in those stupid little metal chairs and talk to the other stupid, nervous people around him but it was too hard today. One nervous, like-minded pretty girl in an old coffee shop was close, right? “That is one of many taglines,” the dark gaze drifted past her and down the sidewalk as he brought up a hand to hover just above her mid-back, urging her back into step next to him with the polite gesture. He was careful of his forwardness - not too creepy, but familiar enough to make her trust that he was a good guy. Walking the line between friend and creep was sometimes hard, especially with women too accustomed to cat calls. “I think they probably sell about fifty different T-shirts at this point. My mom had that slogan printed on one from when she was in high school, although my favorite is ‘Watch Out for Flying Saucers’.” Another terrible, dad-joke level pun.
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Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2017 7:03 pm
"A pleasure to meet you, Kam." Jada meant it, too, and kept her tone carefully warm and genuine as she considered him. Interesting. With a wordless, arched brow, she turned and moved down the ramp more slowly now, letting the large hand comfortably settling at her mid-back guide her way. It was a surprisingly gentlemanly gesture- some would take advantage of her openness to let their hands slip too low, or put a hand on her hip. He had responded to her lack of boundaries by setting some of his own- she categorized him, therefore, as taken, gay, or incredibly mannerly. Either way, it settled her still further, placing him into the good guy category, until proven otherwise. That made her relax still further as they moved along, allowing some of her stiff professionalism to melt away into the cold. "I can't believe I've never heard of it, if it's been around that long," she confessed. She shouldn't have been surprised- coffee shops weren't something her family did, and most of her friends in high school had been of the sort that wouldn't be found in an area quite like this one. "I am not sure I can think of 50 Cosmos-related puns to put on a T-shirt, but then I haven't had potentially 20-odd years to try and come up with them." Grinning, she asked, "Is there a Bean me Up, Scotty shirt? Because in the interests of transparency, I might purchase one. Immediately."
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Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2017 8:53 pm
It made him smile to see how utterly enthusiastic she was, even without him trying to hit on her. Although he rarely considered himself a good guy, he had (maybe for the first time) recognized some mutual feeling in the woman that he felt obligated to cater to above his own sex drive. Not that she wasn't plenty appealing, he noted, stealing a quick and appreciate glance at the hips rocking below his perched hand. Yet the moment they were securely off of the ramp, his hand dropped - and so did his eyes. "There could be, I honestly have no clue. I haven't been in a while due to some.. troubles," though there was a pause, it was only slight - just long enough for him to decide on omission instead of a lie, " - and I'm pretty sure they just constantly let their highschool meme jockies cycle through their favorite ones." Despite his falter, his smile remained, and he found his mind wandering to some of the most recent additions he had seen in the collection. As he did, his dark eyes swung ahead of them and both hands shoved into the pockets of his pants, buried away from the chill he only felt now that they were moving into the open walkway. That damn building had been good for something. "It's just a gritty, underground thing. It's not nice enough to get reviews or a lot of chatter - just quirky enough to stay afloat." His words floated on puffs of smoky breaths and he shrugged his shoulders awkwardly, unwilling as he was to expose his dark fingers back to the chill. " But the pleasure's all mine, Ms - ?" The dark gaze caught hers sidelong and both thick, dark eyebrows raised questioningly as the sentence trailed off. "I'm not buying you a single coffee without a name."
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Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2017 3:40 pm
He had a pleasant smile, and she relaxed as they strolled, stuffing her bare, manicured hands into the pockets of her jacket. "We will just settle on fifty as a rough estimate of a couple high school meme jocks a year striking coffee pun gold." her lips quirked. "I've been away a while myself, so I can't really blame you for not keeping up on the hip-hoppiest and spaciest of puns." She was already tiny, but Jada found a way to make herself even smaller as the cold wind whipped through her body. She'd lost weight in Europe, trying to do what she had to for work, and her frame felt hollow. All of her felt empty, with the wind whistling right through her core. She knew what would warm her up. To go home, and have whiskey. To go quench that ever-lingering thirst. What were the lyrics of that song? Put that bottle to her head and pull the trigger? It had been a growing thirst. She swallowed, pulling her mind away from the thirst licking at her toes that had driven her here in the first place. "Gritty and Underground," Jada repeated with a grin. "Sounds just like not my usual. I look forward to it." overpriced heels clicked on the sidewalk, dark curls bouncing with each energetic step. Long and muscly next to her shrugged, and she gnawed idly on the corner of a red-painted mouth, stepping alongside him. "Jada," she repeated her name to him with a grin. She supposed there weren't too many with a name like that wandering around. Or maybe there were. "I didn't know you were actually planning on paying for the coffee, Kam. Not that I'm complaining. That just means next time we're avoiding the meeting, it's my treat."
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Posted: Sun Mar 26, 2017 8:25 am
“Right. Jada. Sorry, my memory isn’t exactly what it used to be but don’t worry about it,” he mumbled, trying his best to sound reassuring and gentle when the demons in his head were anything but. He hid them easily and he knew, if she was standing outside that door and unwilling to go in, that she must, too. Coffee was the least he could offer to another battered soul. “Pay it forward and all.” The wind bit as his cheeks until they felt chapped from the cold, the redness barely even noticeable with how dark his skin was even in the dead of winter. His large hands were warm in the depths of his jacket but he was all too aware of the way she curled in on herself - women all seemed to do that. If she had been Sana, he would have put his arm around her to stave off the worst of it but she wasn’t and it wasn’t his place to try and soothe her woes. “It’s my fault you’re not sitting on an awful, uncomfortable metal chair drinking instant coffee so it’s really the best I can do.” Ahead of them, he saw the old wooden sign of the cosmos cup, though it seemed as if someone had recently taken it down and repainted the chipped lettering by hand. A fresh, vibrant galaxy of colors spilled from a tipped cup above the door frame and he nodded his head at it. Just as they neared the door, a charming bell dinged and a pair of lovers strolled out, huddled together against the difference of temperature that suddenly overcame them. Kam reached out and caught the door with a broad palm so that Jada could remain huddled, then waved her ahead of him into the dark, but homey interior. “Ladies first.”
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Posted: Sun Mar 26, 2017 11:54 am
"You're getting so old," she teased him as he mumbled his apology. "Seriously, I forget names all the time. now if we were regular coffee-drinking avoidance-buddies, and you forgot my name a month or so down the road, I'd be a bit upset." Jada gave him as warm a smile as she could manage in the chill, and tried to focus on him and not the anxiety of the door that the two of them were leaving behind. The thirst didn't go away just because the door was vanishing, but she would take one victory at a time. Lifting a hand to tug at the top of her coat, and lowering the other to the short bottom, Jada tugged it both up with one hand and and down with the other all at once, wishing she had worn leggings, or a longer coat. She had goosebumps all up and down her bare legs, and she was starting to not be able to feel herself from the waist to the ankle, in just about any capacity. Damn. She had not been prepared for the anxiety that would come from the idea of that small metal door, or how long it would take her to even get the courage to approach it. She'd thought-- Jada didn't know what she had thought. It didn't matter. She wasn't facing that door today. "I would say it is my fault, not yours," she disagreed with him with an easy laugh, "But I'd be quite happy to take the free drink." Last time she'd gotten a free drink as Jada was when she went out to dinner with her father, almost 6 months ago. Scylla had gotten a free drink, but then, it had come with strings. She'd paid them back, so technically, she was still looking at about 6 months since she'd had a free drink. Honestly, it was hell on the ego, and even if it was a pity/buddy drink, she was going to count it. Bright violet eyes flicked to the shiny, attractive sign, and she smiled. "I like it," she decided with a bit of a nod, manicured fingers tightening their grip on her collar, "It doesn't look that much like a dirt stain, what with a nice new sign like that." she flicked an amused glance at him from under her lashes, and stepped aside as the lovers came out, and Kam grabbed the door. Unwilling, her head turned to watch the people exiting, and the longing hit as hard as the desire to drink her emptiness away. Someone to have beside her against the cold... She looked away, and her smile was dimmer than before as she nodded to Kam, moving past him into the warmth. "Thank you," she called back to him, and waited to let him step inside before she moved too far in. Her legs prickled immediately as the air hit her, the heat almost painful against the half-freeze of her flesh. "Oh gods," she muttered with a laugh, and wiggled her legs in place. "It was so cold out there!" her head swiveled as her legs jittered, and she took in the decor. It was... nice. Old, and a bit outdated, but clean enough.
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Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2017 4:57 pm
The dreadhead let his gaze swivel past the lovers as they curled closer and marched down the sidewalk past him, then back up to her as she slipped past him. It was brief, and he wasn’t even quite sure, but he thought he saw Jada’s expression falter. Maybe he was making assumptions, but a man carrying demons recognized a kindred spirit and it hit him with a sense of gut-wrenching empathy. The door swung shut behind him with a tinkle of bells and he unzipped his coat as he stepped up beside her. She was laughing and playful now and he wasn’t about to be the sort of man that poked fingers at elephants so he drew a deep, comical breath that made his chest swell and blew it out loudly for effect. “Yeah, but smell that? Decades and decades of burnt coffee.” A young woman with a messy, magenta bun and a stylized diner dress that read ‘cosmos cup’ across the back of her shoulderblades happened walked by just as he spoke. The way she rolled her eyes at him and smacked him across the abs with her tray suggested familiarity but she didn’t stop to chat with the burly man. Instead, she slipped through a swinging door at the end of the counter and simply shouted back over her shoulder at him flippantly. “We don’t burn coffee here, Kam.” It made him chuckle in a way that said it was good natured, even if it caused several patrons to look over at him from where they sat huddled around warm cups of coffee and tea. Whatever Kam’s problems were, they had nothing to do with shying under attention. “Here, take this,” he pulled a laminated menu from a set of wooden holders dotting the wall to their right. The chips and dings in the wood had simply been painted over again in charcoal gray and there were definitely more menus there than seemed plausible for such an out of the way place. After he grabbed his own menu he waved her forward with him, past the small entry marked with half-walls that matched the menu holders, painted-over dings and all. He stopped just short of the counter and dropped his menu to his side, patting it against the fabric of his jeans as he looked down at her expectantly. “Need a sec?”
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