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 Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2024 4:26 pm
It was an awful day. Positively horrible. It had started off with Halia waking up late, her alarm not having gone off due to her phone updating in the middle of the night, then getting splashed with a mud puddle on her way to work, a tear in her tights, and then to top it all off, a Karen yelling at her for not being able to do a "simple coffee order." Well if by simple she meant an intensely complex customization, then sure. She was guilty. But when you order over five different things to be done to a latte, it gets just a little overwhelming.
So currently, Halia was sitting on a box in the supply room, trying to force herself to not cry. Her eyes were watering and her nose was running, but she was not going to cry damnit. Those weren't tears. She was an adult for crap sake. She was not going to let a Karen make her cry. Just... maybe sniffle a little. Sniffling and rubbing at her face was totally acceptable.
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Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2024 12:18 am
Working at Puppy Paws wasn’t always easy, mostly because there were rules about when and under what circumstances Kiyoshi was or wasn’t allowed to read people to filth when they deserved it.
Which made perfect sense, he understood. Blossom wanted people to, like, actually patronize his business, and you didn’t tend to get repeat customers by letting your one (1) employee who happened to also be a drag queen call people out whenever he wanted to. Plus, as Kiyoshi would admit before anyone else, he wanted to call a lot of people out, on a pretty regular basis, and shitty, entitled a*****e customers were at the top of the list. Not a good way to run a business, letting him do that.
He’d noticed sweet little Halia having some trouble with……well. Everything, today, it seemed. But saying that to a coworker, especially one who wouldn’t hurt a fly? Not okay. When she’d had trouble with a Complex Coffee Order Karen, Kiyoshi had swooped in, trying to stand up for Halia while still following policy and not outright reading the nasty a*****e in question (“Ma’am, if there’s a problem with your order, you can ask for us to remake it. But there’s no need to speak to my coworker like that”). A difficult needle to thread, but the Complex Coffee Order Karen had at least accepted the offer of getting her latte remade.
Pumpkin spice latte with almond milk, extra foam, two pumps of vanilla syrup, and four shots of espresso: one regular, one half-decaf, one ristretto (made with half the water of a normal shot), and one blonde (which wasn’t even on the Puppy Paws menu because Starbucks had it trademarked, but at least Kiyoshi knew how to make one). A plain, simple coffee order, his rainbow glitter pumps (not that he ever wore them at work, but still). What a rancid a*****e.
Once he’d taken care of the Complex Order Karen, though, Halia was nowhere to be seen. At least things seemed relatively calm up front, so Kiyoshi could leave Robin alone for a few minutes to go look for her. Break room, nothing. Out back by the trash, she wasn’t there. Nobody answered when Kiyoshi knocked on the door to the employee bathroom. When he’d peeked his head into the supply room, though, finally, he found her.
“Halia?” Kiyoshi kept his tone soft and gentle as he stepped into the supply room and came toward the box where she’d sat down. “You okay, sweetie?”
Like……not really, from the looks of her. But however Halia felt, she had to be allowed to express that for herself.
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Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2024 12:35 am
Okay so she may have cried a little. But only just a little. Halia wiped a few stray tears off her face, not even able to force a smile at her coworker as he walked in. She didn't know him all that well, but she had come to appreciate his vibrance at work. "Sorry, do you need me back out front? I'll just....I'll just be a minute, I promise." She attempted a smile but it was weak and watery. "I just....got a little overwhelmed..." Her voice was quiet and her cheeks were red, embarrassed to admit to crying over a seriously stupid Karen. A whole adolescence of being told every little thing was her fault had shaped her into possibly one of the most guilt-and-anxiety-ridden people in existence. She had never taken criticism or insults well, but especially not in such a condescending tone. It reminded her far too much of her mother, and that was a nightmare she did not plan to revisit any time soon.
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Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2024 11:38 am
“Nah, it’s pretty calm right now,” Kiyoshi said, looking around for something he could sit on. Looming over poor Halia felt both physically awkward and like it could potentially make her feel worse. Smaller, maybe more talked down to. Thankfully, there was no dearth of boxes in the supply room where Kiyoshi could perch. “There’s practically nobody out there right now, so Robin could handle it by himself for a few minutes.”
That could always change pretty quickly around here, same as in any coffee-shop/café. But it would still be okay for a bit.
“Plus,” he added, “federal labor laws and the State of Virginia say we do have to take breaks periodically. You’re probably due for one.”
Even if that maybe wasn’t entirely true based on when her shift had started—Kiyoshi didn’t rightly know, he wasn’t exactly good at tracking everyone else’s shifts for them—Halia’s run-in with the Complex Coffee Order Karen had, in his mind, given her every right to claim one of her fifteen-minute breaks.
For a moment, Kiyoshi simply sat opposite her on his own box, listening and letting her talk, considering what she had to say about what had happened out there. Halia admitting that she’d felt overwhelmed was……not entirely good, as such? Something to work with, though, and a good sight better than her sitting there, teary-eyed, and still trying to pretend that she was fine.
“Getting overwhelmed makes total sense, though,” Kiyoshi agreed, giving Halia a small, gentle smile. “That customer’s order was overwhelming. A simple pumpkin spice latte is something like ‘almond milk, extra foam, and an extra shot of espresso.’ Not ‘almond milk, extra foam, two shots of flavored syrup that aren’t part of the base recipe, an extra shot of espresso, and oh, by the way? Each of her four shots is different, including one we have to bootleg because we’re not Starbucks and one that we have a ‘how to make’ note posted about behind the counter because everybody here has forgotten how to make a ristretto at one point or another. Anybody would get overwhelmed by that, especially when it’s the middle of a mini-rush, and she acts like she’s the center of the universe.”
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Posted: Wed Nov 13, 2024 11:57 pm
When Kiyoshi sat down, Halia felt herself relax. She wasn't great with feeling small, and even less so when someone towered over her, or at least felt like they did. She gave him a small smile and wiped at her face, sniffling a little. It was fortunate that she rarely wore makeup, she though, or it would have been smeared all over at this point. "She was just....really rude. I could have handled it if she would have been even halfway decent about it, but..." She shook her head, frowning. She had never understood why people would go out of their way to belittle others and be condescending and mean. What good did that do? Was their life so miserable that the only joy they were able to feel was derived from the misery of others? "It's ...been a rough day. Rough few months, actually. I'll pull it together, I promise." She spoke almost as if she expected to be scolded for having emotions, as if it was common for her to be told to 'pull herself together'. The combination of awakening as a senshi, the events around Halloween, outing herself to a friend as a senshi, and then saving a civilian? That was enough to overwhelm most people. Not that she could outright say that, of course. "I'm sorry if I made you worry."
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Posted: Mon Dec 09, 2024 10:12 pm
“Gurl, no, don’t do that,” Kiyoshi told her gently, shaking his head and trying to give her the best earnest eyes that he could. Anything to help reassure her that she was good at their shared job, and she did deserve nice things. “Like, yes, both of us have to keep ourselves together enough to perform our duties for capitalism. But you don’t have to apologize or beat yourself up for having emotions. Especially not after that customer was genuinely really rude to you.”
Maybe this wasn’t the same sort of bigger picture approach to helping people that Kiyoshi got to do when out and about as Murikabushi, but that didn’t make it any less important. Didn’t mean that Kiyoshi wanted to just skimp on reassuring his coworker that she was doing a good job and that didn’t change just because one customer had been awful to her.
“You’re only human, Halia.”
……Well. Unless she’d secretly been an alien senshi this entire time, but if she was, then she was remarkably good at passing for human in ways that eluded some of the other alien senshi in town. Sure, Soren and Huanxi did pretty damn well—at least partly due to Huanxi being the strong and silent type regardless of how glamoured he was or wasn’t, but that still counted. On the other hand, though, Grieve was always gonna be Grieve, whether she was glamoured up as Kuroi or not. The same seemed to go for Corvina, albeit in significantly less endearing ways than with Grieve. Either way, Blossom probably would’ve told Kiyoshi if Halia was an alien senshi so he could be ready to cover for any weird social faux pas that might have come up.
“When somebody insults you for just doing your job, it’s natural and fair to get upset. And real talk? As stunning and gorgeous as I make reading people to filth look when I’m off the clock, it has gotten me into trouble more than once.” But he’d gotten off several cutting remarks, which had no doubt done serious damage to some choice egos. “It will probably do so again in the future.” Not that it would stop him from continuing to do it. Even if he couldn’t see them right now, his Obaasan and his drag mom had raised him right. “And if either of us handled conflict like that on the clock without way more provocation than Miss Karen already provided, Keiran would have some very good points to raise about why we shouldn’t. Needing a few minutes by yourself to just feel upset is totally fair, though. You’re not doing anything wrong.”
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Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2024 6:21 pm
Halia sniffled just a little and gave Kiyoshi a small, albeit watery smile. "You're really sweet, you know that?" She wiped at her face, rubbing her eyes to get rid of any tears that lingered. "I wish I had even half the confidence you have. You're really amazing."She had spent the vast majority of her life trying to be invisible, drawing as little attention to herself as possible. Then suddenly she found herself in the spotlight of sorts with being awakened as a senshi, and it upended everything she was used to. She had to learn to be strong, be bold, to help people where she could. And frankly? That was exhausting when you were used to being a quiet little wallflower.
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Posted: Thu Dec 12, 2024 8:22 am
“Well, I try my best,” Kiyoshi said with a shrug, as though simply making an effort explained everything (even though he knew perfectly well that it didn’t). Worse, leaving any kind of explanation at I try my best might not help Halia very much. “I have my grandparents to thank for a lot of it. My whole family, really. But my grandfather is the one who most taught me the importance of kindness, while my grandmother taught me to stand up for myself.
“It’s not always easy, and it can take a lot of practice and hard work?” Still, Kiyoshi gave Halia a warm smile, one that he hoped she might find encouraging. “But confidence and knowing your worth really are skills like any other. Even if it takes time, you can learn. And for what it’s worth, I think it’s worth it to do the work and treat yourself more kindly. Even when the hard work sucks, you deserve better than beating yourself up for just being a person and having needs.”
Treating yourself super-harshly always felt, to Kiyoshi, like doing the worst, most difficult work for rude assholes like Miss Karen. But offhand, he didn’t know if he could say that without risk of it sounding too close to victim-blaming. Just because sentiments like that motivated him didn’t mean that they’d motivate Halia in the same way.
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Posted: Fri Dec 13, 2024 3:51 pm
"I've been....doing my best to work on it. It's hard to unlearn years of being told otherwise." Halia offered a small smile, her eyes finally having stopped watering. "I... haven't had a lot of experience with people being encouraging towards me, so... thank you. I'm trying to be better about standing up for myself. Really." It sounded almost as if she were trying to convince herself of this fact. Halia had gone nearly her entire life being talked down to and both physically and verbally beaten down repeatedly. It would not be a change seen overnight, no matter how much she desperately wanted to be stronger emotionally, but it would be something she continuously had to work on and would gradually change over time. But for someone who didn't know her all that well to encourage her, it meant the world to her and would help drive her to work harder on self improvement.
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