The Bird at the Cheerful Corvid (It's Not Pothy)

Log Info

• Title: The Bird at the Cheerful Corvid (It's Not Pothy)

• Emitter: Slixvah

• Characters: Ravenstongue, Slixvah

• Place: University District - Cheerful Corvid Coffee Shop

• Summary: There's a new part-timer at the Cheerful Corvid Coffee Shop: it's Slixvah Unmesi, and she's slinging coffee and spilling the tea. Ravenstongue stops in and is stunned to learn that her cousin has hired her egalrin friend--Alexandria is truly a small place sometimes. They chat about all manner of things, and Slixvah resolves to commit Ravenstongue's coffee order to memory.

So one is probably wondering how she got here.

A fortunamancer that is notorious for never sticking around in one place for long ends up getting employment at a business. Funny story that.

One day, Slixvah was buttering up a professor at the Society to gleam some information on creating something. As a favor, they wanted some coffee from a restaurant nearby. Swallowing her pride, she went in to fill the order to take it back. Which, the only reason why she even was doing it in the first place was that she ran her beak.

She lied.

She lied that she worked there.

And yet, by some miracle of luck, there was a small, part time position open. So in order to maintain the ruse...

A dainty looking half-oruch woman with pale olive skin, short cropped rust red hair, and sky blue eyes is in a green apron behind the counter, working away at constructing a drink. A white plumed thrush sleepily resting against the tip jar.

And it's the mid-day rush between classes, with students and professors alike waiting in line. Addy Branfeax, proprietor and owner of the place, is working alongside the half-oruch woman. Between the two of them, they're banging out orders left and right, with an apprentice baker in the back making sure that the second batch of the most popular cookies are coming out just in time... Any minute now.

"Order's up!" Addy declares to one customer, handing him his drink and coffee. "Thanks for coming to the Cheerful Corvid, have a nice day!"

The gentleman leaves. The line of orders placed and customers waiting dwindles--

No, another one comes through the door. It's Cor'lana, with her familiar Pothy friend on her shoulder. "Oh wow, it's busy," Cor'lana murmurs. "Maybe we should..."

"Cor'lana Lupecyll, you come up here right now and order," Addy demands as she catches sight of her cousin with a wide smile. "And I oughta have new hazelnut chocolate cookies any--"

The apprentice baker, a khazard woman, opens the back doors, holding a massive tray of cookies. A couple of customers waiting clap their hands appreciatively, and are handed their cookies right off the tray before the baker works on loading the display case with the baked goods.

The oruch-touched woman is explicitly keeping some distance between the proprietor and the baker, though their finesse doesn't abate as she yells out in a singsong, "Tamrien! Your double-shot, triple filtered, Haste touched, marshmallow delight, caramel mocha-"

She carefully places a tiny candy on top of the concoction. "-with exactly one gummy bear is ready!"

An absolutely massive giantborn in robes walks over, grunts quietly and drops a gold in a tip jar before walking away back towards classes.

She fans at her face, eyeing those cookies as they're passed out before looking to the next guest to get ready for their orde-

"Oh shigggg, what's up buttercup?" she coos. An absolutely massive grin plastered on her face.

Cor'lana blinks at the giantborn getting his incredibly complicated order--gummy bear and all--from the barista bar. And then she blinks again as she recognizes the voice. "Slixvah?" she asks. "You work here? For my cousin?"

"No, hon, she just wandered in and started working the register and slinging drinks. Of course she's working for me," Addy responds with a grin as wide as Slixvah's. "White chocolate mocha cappuccino and a hazelnut chocolate cookie again? Pothy special?"

Cor'lana just looks between the two, just... accepting the situation. It's sinking in, at least. "Umm... Yeah, my usual," she says. She fishes out a gold coin from her coin purse for payment plus tip.

Pothy, meanwhile, looks at the little bird by the tip jar. "Sup?" he asks in the voice of a teenage boy.

Half-oruch-Slixvah gives an up nod in affirment along with a wink. "'eyy, yeah, totes just walked in 'ere girlie," she snickers. The order is heard, and Slix is moving (deftly, with a floating spectral hand assisting) to get the mocha worked on. "Naw. I walked in as myself some odd days ago and Addy 'ere needed a lil' hand around the place. I'm trainin' some so she can take some days off, ya dig?"

Fiadh, the little bird, sleepily wakes up as they're being addressed, gold eyes settling on Pothy. They perk up. "Apotheosis," they greet flatly. "There is not much at present ongoing aside from the ever present sensation that everything and anything one does has unforeseen consequences that is felt eons later like that of a ripple causing a tsunami in-"

A digit boops Fiadh on the head as Slixvah's mouth makes an uncanny >ca-click<. "No existential dread today, baby doll!"

Fiadh has been muted.

Cor'lana brightens at the mention of Addy actually getting a day off. "That sounds great," she says. "Addy works a ton for this place, and I'm sure you'd be really... Err, is the little one always like that?" She looks at Fiadh in concern.

"Wow," Pothy says in a manner not unlike a certain actor in the Theatre District. He preens his feathers.

"Aww, I like the little puffball," Addy says. "Pretty cute. Especially since I can't bribe Pothy enough to stick around the shop to be our cheerful corvid."

Cor'lana nods with a grin. "He likes hanging around me too much," she says. Addy hands her the hazelnut cookie and a bowl of peanuts for Pothy--the Pothy special.

Slixvah laughs. "Lil' Fiadh's noggin' always has somethin' being worked on. Between helpin' me wit' mojo and they's own musin's, she always a sleepy little one," she elucidates from behind a machine.

Fiadh preens themselves. "I am merely stating facts."

Thud. The drink is made and it slides over to Cor'lana as Slix wipes her hands off with a rag. "Yeah, pretty neat deal. Work here a lil' bit, get ta do my adventurin' business when I need ta. Works out well for me."

She pokes her cheeks with her index fingers and gives them a twist. "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand if we need saaaales, I can be reaaaaaaaaally cute!"

Fiadh closes their eyes. "... Unmesi. Is now really the time to be full of yourse-"

"Absolutely!"

"Poor Fiadh. I understand," Cor'lana says with a sympathetic expression as she accepts the drink. "Sometimes you think too much, and that leads into worrying. I found I distract myself sometimes on adventures either by feeding Pothy or flirting with Telamon if he happens to be there with me."

Addy snickers. "Yeah, that checks out," she says. "You two can't get enough of each other. It's disgusting. And it's cute."

"Poor Fiadh. I understand," Cor'lana says with a sympathetic expression as she accepts the drink. "Sometimes you think too much, and that leads into worrying. I found I distract myself sometimes on adventures either by feeding Pothy or flirting with Telamon if he happens to be there with me."

Addy snickers. "Yeah, that checks out," she says. "You two can't get enough of each other. It's disgusting. And it's cute."

Cor'lana colors a little at that remark. "Hey, you'll go on and on about Algar if I let you--that's Telamon's cousin," she explains with an aside to Slivah. "Really quiet man. Kind of Tel's polar opposite. Hard to believe they're related."

The chatty Addy grins. "Okay, okay, I won't talk your ear off about him this time," she says. "Just means I'll chat your ear about something else. It's the lull between classes now anyway."

Fiadh tweets sleepily. "I do not worry. Everything that is to come will be, and what will be will come as it may."

Slix is staring at the little bird. "One more chirp and you're going in the pocket."

"Do not put me in the pocket."

"Then shush your cute little beak," she coos, petting hte bird once more before turning back to the two. She snorts. "Yeah, Lana all but drapes herself over him all the time, it's disgustingly sweet, inject it right inta my veins."

The disguised elagrin giggles, nodding to Cor'lana. "Oooooh yeah. Addy's told me allllll about him."

Her eyes brim with a michevious smile and cunning. "Yesss, the in-between classes are fantastical. I get to pick every one's brain for more nerd stuff!"

Cor'lana can't help but giggle at the 'do not put me in the pocket' exchange. "Fiadh must be a cute pocket bird," she says. "Now I kind of wish Pothy was pocket-sized."

Pothy just stares at Cor'lana. Stares. Stares. Stares.

"Put me in the pocket," he says, mimicking Fiadh partially.

Cor'lana laughs. "Pothy, I don't have a single pocket that can fit you!" she says.

She turns back to Slixvah. "I'm sure it's great," she says, "but I tend to come here in the dead of night on the weekends when it's pretty slow. Too many people can sometimes give me... a little more stress than it's worth."

"Not to mention those rumors, ugh," Addy says with a roll of her eyes. "I don't care how dangerous that guy is. I'll totally kick my boot up his ass if I see him next."

Slixvah snickers. "Fiadh is usually asleep in one of the many pockets I gots on me." Such chuckling grows to a proper laughter at Pothy's antics, her grabbing a rag to wipe out the metal stirring spoon she was using. Fiadh doesn't react, they've fallen back asleep against the cool tip jar.

The part-time bird-ista shakes her head. "I love people," she hums, leaning forward on the counter with a playful smile. "So many wonderful fol-"

Fiadh wakes from sleep only to peck at the hand next to her.

Slix winces and shakes her hand off. "Oh yeaaah. I recall somethin' 'bout that. Didn't think it was true tho'. Since Lana is. Well. Ya know."

She gestures vaguely. "Denser than a rock of diamond on a gobbo ran speed datin' show and the whole cast has-"

Her voice raises "-Haste touched brew! Get a pep inta ya step so ya can prep for tha test!"

Cor'lana huffs a little, although she's still smiling. "I'm... not that dense--"

Addy just folds her arms and looks at Cor'lana. "Honey. Girlie. You told me when you developed a crush on Telamon, you thought you were dying. You are dense. There are people who look at you and do a double-take all the damn time, and you just go about your life like la-dee-da-dah."

She just turns to look at Slixvah and snickers. "Love her to death, but we gotta keep her accountable. And fed with plenty of brew."

There's a student in the corner who already looks like he's gotten a cup of Hastetouched brew. He's writing a million miles an hour.

Addy points at him. "Not that guy. He's cut off."

Slix snaps a finger gun towards Addy. "It's tru. Ya a looker."

She starts working on another order, the machine hissing. "Respectfully o' course," she adds after a beat. Though, her smile tugs sideways in a lopsided grin. "I getcha. One of my brothers is like that too. Hella cute. Gets all the attention from others. But has his head in the friggin' clouds."

She gestures towards the finished mocha. "I'll try ta remember that order for Lana next time she rolls in here."

Her gaze drifts over to the student. "Yeeeaaah... poor guy is cramming for Advanced Fundamentals of Physical Manipulation. Rough class. All about the blurred structures between evocation and conjuration schools, identifying which is which while understanding the capability of using one of the other to bolster the other. Allows for more explosions."

She reaches over from her water cup nearby. Siiiiiiiiiiip.

A look to Lana, and she smacks the countertop. "Chimse! Now! Ya got any? I want that tea all over the floor."

Cor'lana blinks. "Ch... Cheese-may?"

"Chisme! Órale," Pothy crows.

This gets a slow nod of recognition from Cor'lana. "Oh, I see, you mean... Gossip? Dame Paenitia's language is actually quite fun. I'll have to learn it sometime. Err... not really any, no--"

Then a look of realization flashes in her violet eyes. "Oh! Telamon is making magical alcoholic drinks now," she says. "You should come by sometime to try them, both of you."

Pothy bird-blinks. He looks at Addy. There is something in his blue bird eyes that suggests that he thinks this is a bad idea.

"Órale!" Slixvah crows back, sounding similar to Pothy (she is a bird too, after all). "I dunno who tha' is. Just 'eard it befo'."

Another order processed, and she passes it off after payment (and more tips! So many tips!). Though, her face lights up as she leans forward on the counter, elbows propped up with her chin nestled on interlaced fingers. "Ooooooooo! I love trying fun magic mojo! Just the other day, I was tryin' out bein' an elf. Did you know you can wiggle those long ears?!" she grins happily. "I thought Patch was just doin' it out of habit or somethin' but no! You can totes do it!"

Fiadh opens their gold eyes and looks to Pothy. Then towards Addy. Adopting a similar look of 'bad idea'.

Cor'lana blinks. "I... actually have never tried to wiggle them?" she says. She looks at Addy. "Do I do it unconsciously?"

"Sometimes when you're overwhelmed," Addy says with a snicker. "Like that time I took you to the lingerie shop and you looked like you were going to die."

Yup, that gets the ears wiggling. It's more like a twitch. It's subtle, but it's there--and Cor'lana flushes fiercely. "Only because...! Only because I didn't know the difference between a swimsuit and lingerie, so I really needed someone who did to come help me!" she admits. Twitch, twitch, twitch.

Pothy laughs. He's not helping.

Slixvah blinks, turning slowly to Addy with wide eyes before abruptly turning towards Cor'lana with a tinge of rubor on her face. Her grin is fierce. "Oh my gods, this is the spicy tea I live for~" she rumbles in a low laugh that builds to a boisterous laughter. "A little bit of elf! A little bit of wiggle! Holy moly you're so feckin' CUTE HONEY! Oh goddness gracious I can't wait to tell Patch that you can do that too."

Cor'lana's ears just keep twitching as she continues to flush. "I-I'm not... Well... Wait, maybe I am, I mean--Telamon has to think I am, right? He wouldn't just be with me and tell me all of those wonderful things if I wasn't, right?"

The ear twitching gets faster. Twitch-twitch-twitch-twitch. Pothy's just laughing, and even Addy can't help but stifle her own laughter. "She's right, you are pretty cute," Addy tells Cor'lana.

Finally, Cor'lana just knocks back a looooong sip of her drink. She probably wishes it was alcoholic at this point. "Do you and Patch talk a lot?" she asks Slixvah, trying to change the subject.

Slixvah too is snickering behind a hand, her clutching at her gut with one hand. The laughing morphs into a unfitting bird-wheeze for the half-oruch Slix. Her head clonks lightly against the coffee machine, her taking deep breaths to get herself under control. "Hon, you're cute. Full stop."

A long breath, she shakes herself out and smacks her cheeks. "Okay! I'm good! I'm good!"

The question makes her straighten up slightly, her cheeks dusting lightly as she starts the next order. "Yeah uh, you could say we... talk a lot," she coughs in an elbow. A glance to Addy, hoping her employer would fill in the pieces if Cor'lana didn't catch it.

Cor'lana just continues to smile pleasantly. She doesn't get it. Probably. "That's nice," she says. "I'm sure you two must really enjoy that."

Addy just facepalms. "Gods. Oh gods. Lana. Sweetheart," she mumbles. "I know that Nadina didn't teach you much, but..."

Cor'lana just looks at Addy. And then a slow realization dawns onto her face. "Ohhhh," she says. "Okay! I think I get it."

Pothy just looks at her in disbelief.

Slix just gives a weak smile. "I mean, she's cool ta talk to too. We get along well. We also... get along well."

Another order out, and the half-oruch ambles over to rest against the counter. Her hands come together, and she twiddles her thumbs. "... she's cool. And accepting," she quietly hums, eyes softening slightly.

A feathered brow quirks, her looking up at the ceiling. "... who's... Nadina?" she asks slowly, drumming her fingers on the countertop. "Des... cribe them?"

"Nadina was my mother," Cor'lana says, finally calming down from the twitching and the flushing. She smiles more comfortably. "She was beautiful and intelligent. The shrewdest woman I've ever known. I actually get my magical talent from her."

Addy scoffs. "Also drop-dead gorgeous," she says. "Granted, everyone in the Branfeax family's got good looks--my mother even said the first thing she thought when she met my father is that he was probably the most handsome gent she ever met, and that's a lot coming from an elf lady surrounded by elf men--but I met Nadina when I was little, and she was as beautiful as they come."

"Yeah, I didn't inherit all of that," Cor'lana says with a snort. "I got the hair and I got a lot of her face, but not everything else."

Slixvah drifts her gaze from the two cousins, her adding up features that match and subtracting ones that didn't match with Cor'lana's. Taking in the words. The information. The history...

She smacks a hand onto the countertop. "Wait. Did she run a magic shop in Rune? Soft face? Dress really well? Had a voice that I wish I could copy?"

She crosses her arms, smirking lightly. "She's certainly a looker." Eyebrow waggle. "Hell of a surprise when I was trekkin' ta one of the mage's colleges. Sold me some reagents and a spellbook. Yeah.. I remember her now..."

Both Addy and Cor'lana blink and slowly turn to look at Slixvah.

"You knew my mom?"

"You knew Nadina?"

They're said at the same time, although Addy's quick to add, "Pinch, poke, you owe me--no, you didn't say exactly the same thing, damn it. Anyway, you met her?"

Cor'lana turns more thoughtful. "That sounds like mother's 'shop'," she says. "Mother had a room at the front of the house where she accepted an occasional visitor who wanted magic done for them. I was never allowed in there when there was a customer. We didn't actually need the money--she was a retired adventurer. She only had the shop as a cover story in case anyone asked around about her."

Slixvah blinks as she's asked questions from two fronts. Blink. Blink blink. "... y... es... I did, I think. Did she look like-"

The part time barista ducks under the counter out of sight. And a new figure pops up.

A shorter, shapely human woman, with voluminous black hair, faintly glowing blue eyes, and a well fitting dress. The complete details aren't correct, some minutia were borrowed from the daughter as the reconstruction was smeared from the test of time.

A student spills their coffee.

It's dropped with a waver back to the half-oruch. "I didn't sleep with her, honest to gods Alethna as my witness," she makes a warding gesture.

Cor'lana looks for a moment like she saw a ghost. In a way, she has. The rattled expression on both Addy and Cor'lana's faces disappear as Pothy says, "She didn't," mimicking Cor'lana's voice.

Cor'lana just draws in a breath. Sighs. "Yeah, she... settled down after I was born," she says, matter-of-factly. "I think you missed your window with her by a decade or two."

"Would have given the Crimson Pen a cramped wrist with all the things she did. The people, too," Addy cracks with a snicker.

Slixvah rubs her neck, looking sheepish from Lana's expression. "Ah, sorry honey, shoulda asked first."

Though, the window of opportunity being missed is met with a dramatic slam of a fist on the counter. Fiadh flops over from the impact, still asleep. "Damn it!" she hisses. "I want cramped wrists!"

Fiadh sleepily burbles out in a snooze tweet, "You have that sun elf."

"No one asked you!"

Addy just laughs. Cor'lana, meanwhile, doesn't seem to catch what Patch and cramped wrists have anything to do with each other. But she does finally finish her coffee she's been sipping from the whole time and pushes the mug back onto the counter. "That was good," she informs Slixvah with a smile. "I'm easy to make things for--I get the same thing every time. Maybe I'll run into you on your shift again?"

"She'll be on-boarded fully by the end of next week," Addy says. "I don't believe in the whole 'two shifts and you're just like any other employee who can run the place by themselves' nonsense. Then I get to go... take a vacation. Go make kissy-faces at Algar or something. I don't even remember the last time I took one."

Cor'lana snickers. "You totally deserve one, Addy," she says. "I mean, look at this place. You've come a long way."

Slixvah pretend pouts for a beat before it breaks into a snicker, a finger snapping as the mug is cleaned with a magical poof. "Thanks! I've picked up on a number of odd jobs in my life, so I'm glad I can work this contraption," she jabs a thumb towards the coffee machine.

She bobs her head along with Addy. "Yep! We worked out a schedule so that I'm here for a couple days, then off a few days," Slix mentions. "So... if ya see me, get it quick! I'm a limited time special!"

She reaches over, patting Addy on the shoulder. "Yeee, take a vacay. Appreciate 'cha fo' givin' me a chance. This place is great! Plus! I'm a bird! It's a perfect match!"

Some of the students' heads turn. She looks over at them, reaches up to her face and 'peels back' the illusion to give a hawk-eyed wink before letting it go so it >paffs< back into place. They look at their empty cups, blinking.

Slixvah grins, inhales, then projects her voice. "Next period of classes start in ten minutes! It takes five minutes to run there! Haste touched shots are five copper a piece!"

Twenty shots are placed on the counter top. "That was four minutes ago, ya teleporting addicts!!"

The sound of wooden chairs scraping the floor floods the shop.