It's a bit past midday and the Crossroads Cafe is pretty empty with most people already gone back to their chores after a after lunch coffee. But there, in a booth by the front window, there is a very pretty man. Fairest, actually. He's there, watching the outside idly while a mug of coffee chills in front of him.
Lucky and Sid arrive together, pushing through the door and coming in to sit at a nearby booth. Anyone who's familiar with the look that one has after a rough night would know that they had one for the record books, just from their slow, sluggish body language alone. Lucky practically pushes Sid into the booth, following right behind him as he leans on the man's shoulder, saying, "Do me a favor and hold this for a minute." Still, Lucky at least is all smiles. Whatever mischief was wrought the night before, this particular punishment is completely worth it.
Sid entered the diner with a languid swagger. Who the HELL was this guy? He was a hell of an appealing sight, though no one would ever agree upon why. He couldn't help that as it was a hazard of his kith. On a better note he didn't strut in here like a pompous, arrogant ass either. He also didn't rightly look awake but somehow pulled this hung over look off spectacularly. He reached out without question and did as Lucky asked. Hold something? That was an easy directive to follow. Yeeeeeess. yes he could focus enough to do that and perhaps just that. Sunglasses glided over to look Oberon over a moment and upnodded to him. "Sup?" It was a greeting as much as any. Looking back up to Lucky he asked, voice dry and hoarse, "Dude, coffee?"
Oberon's attention quickly was caught by the two party goers coming to the Cafe. But it's just upon seeing Sid that the Fairest offers a smile. Then he reaches a paper in one of his pockets and shows it to the two to see. It's a drawing in a comic style of a male head with his mouth open and big cross over a balloon chat.
Lucky opens one eye long enough to look at whatever it is that Oberon is holding up. That eye happens to be very red and bloodshot, but the smile is still there. "Ah," he says, nodding. "He's lost his voice." Which isn't really true, but out here isn't really the place to talk about it either. Either way, the effect is the same. "We'll try and stick with the yes/no's then," he tells Oberon. "That way you can, you know. Nod or whatever." Though Lucky apparently meant 'let me lean on you for awhile' when he said 'hold this', as he doesn't look like he's moving anytime soon. "And yes, coffee. Dear god, coffee." And back to Oberon, "You want some too?"
Sid slung an arm around Lucky and dragged him with into the booth having no apparent regard for time, place, or personal space. Hell right now the floor might be declared lava and why would he want Lucky to slip to his doom and risk being bored? Er, why would we risk Lucky's life? A hand patted the side of Lucky's head in agreement. Wording. not a forte, but unlike Lucky he didn't need toothpicks to hold his eyes open. He wore sunglasses and faked it brilliantly. "Shit lost your voice? Must have drank more than we did. Neighbor, we will hook you up." At least they weren't stingy
Oberon grins and nods to Lucky to let the man knows that his plan is a good one. Upon being questioned about coffee, he lifts the mug that was set in front just in time to listen Sid's comment. To that, he smiles brightly. Unable to say anything in response to that, he just gestures to the two of them being together. Maybe a question. Or a statement. Them, he sips from his drink briefly.
"It was a long night," Lucky tells Oberon in turn, apparently understanding his question well enough. "We'd tell you more of the details, but unfortunately we'd be required to kill you afterward, and that just sounds like work. I don't think I'm feeling up to much in the way of work. It's your lucky day," he tells the Fairest. Though he does lean up long enough to ask the waitress, "We're gonna need coffee. Lots of it. And Hazel's Hangover Cure." Because apparently, this has happened before. "Make that four."
Sid made the gesture of rolling his eyes and whined, "Luck, I hate burying bodies and I'm noooot fit to drive right now. Then we have to do that whole thing with the trash bags..." Oh someone watched a lot of movies and had a dark sense of humor. He paused and squint over the sunglasses before conferring with his companion, "Let's let him live. He seems cool and draws comics." There was a lopsided grin looking up to the waitress mouthing (Thank yooooou) to her for agreeing to bring Hangover Cure(tm).
Oberon grins to Sid's dark humour. Then he turns to his notepad and draws something. It comes quickly and when it's done, he shows it to the duo. It's a tombstone with his name (Oberon) and a crow perched over it with a balloon saying:"No, please."
Lucky thumbs up. "Today seems like your lucky day, Oberon. Neither of us are fit for work." Though as to how the story unfolds, he leaves that to Sid. He is, after all, the entertainer here. He's had way more practice at spinning a yarn. Though he does finally peel himself off of Sid, leaning back in the booth as he rubs his face and tries to wake up for real.
Sid sat still while weight moved off of him. In response Lucky was rewarded by the Satyr moving the sugar from the far end of the table over to in reach. "Can't argue with the cartoon. Also I won't hurt a guy named after a good beer. I think that's like a law or something" Well there was a general law against assault, it just didn't matter what someone's name was.
Oberon grins to Sid once more and turns to his notepad. This time, though, there is no cartoon. In a matter of seconds, the tiny paper is ripped off from the block and sent to the other table folded. The message, once unfolded, says:"I can take care of that hungover if you guys want some help with it. We can go to the Back Room."
The door from the street opens, and in walks one tiny little dark-haired young lady. Kseniya's got on a multi-layered skirt, black on the bottom layer, a red mesh on the upper, with fishnets, combat boots, and a top as vivid a red as heart's blood. The streaks in her hair have changed yet again, as they do, and are currently acid green. Blue eyes scan around, then blink upon catching upon a familiar figure, even if part of the familiarity for her is that he keeps on changing in subtle ways. Still. She knows a Sid when she sees a Sid, and she heads that way, glancing at the others around.
Lucky takes the paper, looking at it with bloodshot eyes, then folds it up and hands it to Sid, letting him think it over for a minute. To the Satyr, he says, "I dunno, man. It's ours. We earned it fair and square. I don't think it'd be entirely fair to have it leave so soon. Might soil the memory of how we earned it. But," he tells the other, "I leave it to your most wise discretion." Lucky's currently seated next to Sid in one of the booths, both of them looking dangerously hungover. Well, Lucky is. Sid has managed to carefully disguise his underneath a layer of exaggerated swagger and sunglasses, his Kith doing wonders to hide how he looks. Lucky has no such power, and so looks like he had a hell of a night. Oberon is at a table next to them, apparently doodling in a little sketchpad.
Sid and Lucky look like they have not slept in days and like they were trying to out drink the entire British Army. He looked at the written note and chuckled. "Hot dining ware this city is hospitable." He totally took that note in a different direction. An eyebrow arched to Kseniya and said "Hey, beautiful, you arrived just in time for Lucky and I to enjoy the sweet suffering that is natural selection trying to teach us a thing." Yeah, he mush have taken lessons on how to be thrashed and make it a statement from studying Tony Stark. Holy shit. There was a solemn nod that yes they had to reap what they sewed, though he pointed, "He's got me curious though."
Kseniya glances curiously at Lucky. More than just mildly curiously, in point of fact, it's -really- curious, though it might be hard to tell why. Still. The state of the two fellas does have her starting to grin as she moves closer. Oberon gets a nod, a sort of 'didn't we speak for like two minutes that one time' kind of polite nod before her gaze returns to the booth. She leans over the back and plants a noisy kiss on Sid's cheek. Possibly deliberately noisy. "Hey, big brother." Which.. explains that, in a way. "What are we curious about? And who is your friend?"
Lucky blinks as the dark-haired ball of energy seemingly comes out of nowhere, clutching his head as he tries to follow her movement. "Ok. No. Movement bad," he pines. Oberon is forgotten for the moment while the other woman is there, trying to focus on her while he talks to Sid. "We can take him up on it later," he tells the man. "Could get awkward here. A friend owns it. There are better places." Whatever they're talking about, it makes Lucky grin, which just looks painful given that his eyes are bloodshot enough to be slightly worrisome. Whatever they got into last night, it seems pretty hardcore.
Sid was a ad slow on the speech but greeted 'little sister' with a languid flare all the same. "Kseniya, you must... not move so fast that we fail to appreciate all the you that is...you." Yup. Hangover from hell. "How she moves so garden digging fast right now I do not know. Kseniya?" he held up a finger and paused and then moved it four inches to the right. There she was!, "Kseniya, this is Lucky. He might be my very favourite person ever and likely making a starring role on my epitaph if things continue to go well." There's a compliment if there ever was one. He gestured to Oberon, "He's Oberon. Like the beer. We are neither permitted to drink him or bury him in the woods. Too much effort and seems cool." Wooooow thanks for the summary Sid.
Kseniya seems to pick up on Lucky's discomfort, for she leans around Sid, still standing behind the pair, and goes cross-eyed, evidently on purpose, and grows more cheerful. Some people just thrive on observing other people's hangovers. "Oh, _really_, now? Hello, Lucky. Heeey. Wait. Wait. I should be your favourite person in the world." She grins, then bounces around and sliides on into the seat across from them. "Hey. I could show you guys my latest fire dance moves. Wouldn't you like that?" Oberon's introduction earns him a look. "...Oberon? That's your name?" Then, back to Lucky. "Soooo. You are my brother's favouritest person, are you?"
Oberon wiggles his finger to Kseynia in a greeting. Then he points to her outfit and thumbs up. Probably in a compliment. Then, he turns back to his notepad and draws something. It takes only a moment before he shows it to the three other Lost. It's a Ksenyia in a cartoon style. Then, he rips if off of his notepad and offers it to her. Then, he starts another drawing. This one is is folded and delivered to them so other people around can't see it. It a drawing of himself and, below it, there is a saying:'Master Illusionist and a recruit in the Greenies'. nods to what she asks and makes a light bow on her direction without getting away from his own booth.
Lucky has to chuckle a bit, the waitress choosing that specific moment to bring them Hazel's Hangover Cure and coffee. She sets two of the plates in front of both of them, staring at Kseniya for a moment as she reaches for her pad, clearly ready to take the woman's order, letting them continue their conversation until ready. Lucky, though, takes a sip of coffee, listening to the others before answering, "Don't let him fool you. I'm only his favorite person because we have this uncanny knack for making each other's ideas more fun." Which means that they make each other's terrible decisions even more terrible by orders of magnitude. "Nice to meet you though, Kseniya. Don't worry, I'll try my best to invite you to the wedding, if I remember to invite people. Or if I remember agreeing to get married. You know. It all just sort of depends."
"...thanks." Kseniya pauses, when the cartoon is drawn, and handed over, then laughs a bit. "And.. again, thanks, and.. " But there's another drawing. She leans in to peer at this one, instead of taking it. "You're... with Greenpeace?" She looks puzzled. Of course. Y'know. She also lacks any sort of Mantle, pointed ears, odd eyes, or.. anything else odd. In short, she -looks- mortal, her own bit of time in the Hedge having left her outwardly unchanged. Just with the added 'gift' of seeing the rest of those not so "lucky" as she.
The waitress gets a thoughtful look, her expression suddenly solemn. "Pie," she intones. "I need pie. Wait. I need to find out if I won pie for a year. But until then, I will pay for pie. And coffee... and.. heeey." She turns to Lucky. "...if you marry my brother without me, I'm.. I don't know. I'll beat you up." Kseniya, it should be noted, is 4'10". Not exactly intimidating.
Sid said blythly, "Even in Vermont it is illegal to marry more than one person." Apparently he took that statement the wrong way. Hooray for semantics. The sunglasses were drawn down to the bridge of his nose as he addressed Lucky, "My sister gets invited or no pre-nump." The glasses went back on and he noted to Kseniya slowly, almost with a languid drawl, "That happens a- of course you'll be there. b? My publicist would have a heart attack if I decided to stand still long enough for that to happen... Kinda worth it to see Joey D have a monster trucking conniption fit." A faint grin game to him as he dug into his breakfast slowly. Very, very slowly. Oberon's note got a glance though and he seemed confused the savvy Satyr. he looked to Oberon and seemed to pick up on a few things that didn't connect as they ought and looked to his sister. "Yeah Greenpeace. Save the rain forest. Save the whales. Put the wales in the rain forest so they stay wet and safe. That sort of thing."
Oberon nods to the statement he is part of the Greenpeace. Then he writes down a simple message and shows it to them:"Greenpeace and also a decent stage magician. Or used to be a while ago. Now I prefer my violin." He writes down trying to fix his slip. When they read the message, he pretend to lift a top hat. Like a magician would do.
"Nuke the whales. Gotta nuke -something-." Lucky puts on his best Simpsons impersonation, there. Because why not? Though he does grin up at Kseniya. "I said I'd do my best! Though you're welcome to beat me up," he notes. And then, back to Sid, he says, "There's a very high likelihood that we don't even remember it the next day, what makes you think either of us is gonna remember a prenup anyway? Chances are, we just wake up the next morning with an awful lot of questions. The way it damn well should be, the way god intended." Though he does reach over long enough to ruffle Oberon's hair. "I'm sure you do the whales proud, distracting all those hunters with the card tricks and Bach and whatever."
"There's just magicians everywhere in this town, aren't there?" Kseniya seems happy enough to accept the explanation. After all, she came up with it. But. Things might get more confused when she turns back to Sid and Lucky. "So. I met this girl. At that house. And she invited me to a party later, it sounds all swanky. Aaand.. I'm not sure that's how you save whales. But. I dunno, we never had any whales to save. Just that one mermaid, and, let's be honest, it was a girl in a costume fishtail who could hold her breath for a long time." Carnies. So weird.
Sid widened a grin to Kseniya "Yeaaaaah she could. good morning I miss her. She was cool." He ate his omelette considering the rest and finally nodded. "Aaaaah fugue it. I trust you. Fine. Waking up naked upside down and tied together hanging from the ceiling of a warehouse in Brasil the way nature intended it is. I accept these terms" Dear lawdy these boys were just an fusion bomb of trouble. He watched Oberon and Kseniya while he ate and said, "I could never do magic. Juggling yeah, running on fire across a high wire on roller blades? I'd give it a go. Keeping pigeons in my pants? That's scary as cinnamon man. I salute you."
Oberon laughs at Sid's silly examples of stage magic. Then he writes down and shows his notepad to those in the other table:"Invite me to your next night out. It must be fun to hang out with you guys."
"You mean how we woke up this morning?" Lucky asks, putting on his best 'grinning devil' face. Which, in this case, is painfully transparent. He's not even capable of summoning the effort to look deceitful about it. "Guess we'll have to get an annulment then, if only one of us has questions. Mulligan." Though he looks to Kseniya, adding, "Plenty of people who are good with their hands that -pretend- to be magicians," he says. "Makes the cops ask less questions when you can claim it was all part of the show. Makes the people you're lifting shit from ask less questions too, and clap and applaud like grinning fools as you bleed them dry." Though he does raise an eyebrow. "Party? I like parties. Tell me more about this party." And then, over to Oberon, he says, "You have to get initiated into the group first. We have a very strict set of rules concerning proper behavior at these things." Which means, usually, that they aim to misbehave.
Kseniya wads up a napkin and tosses it at Sid. "Rollerblading while on fire across a tightrope is -my- gig, you stop stealing my shtick." She sounds serious. Well. Serious about it being a thing she does. Her pie is delivered, which has her making big, grateful eyes at the waitress.
She turns back to Lucky, and grins. "Well. You've just more or less described every midway game ever, you know. Oh. Right. Party. Rich guy named Logan. Met him once, but I think the party is an invite-only thing, so you need to know someone with an invite, but I do."
Sid nodded without question or breaking stride, "Only in Brasil. And no taksie-backsies. You pinky promised me you Sunday of a brunch." Oh listening to him swear and get dubbed over was its own event. The Sassy Satyr arched an eyebrow. "Lucky, I formally invite you to that Logan guy's party" He blinked all formal and what have you and with a flourish of a fork he said "See? Now I can go too. Lucky, we got to find out where this place is." Party to crash? Check! Balls to do so? Double check. On the note of membership there was a grim nod, "He's not making that up. Exclusive membership that requires one being unable to be offended. I think that was rule three There are others but I'll be honest I just skimmed them."
Oberon grins and shakes his head. Then he writes down:"I used to be a decent party crasher. But I must say I do have an invite to Logan's party. He invited me himself. Regarding your rules. Fuck rules. Who does need them to start with?"
"Only in Brazil. Agreed." Though the smile on his face when he says that should make at least Sid nervous. Perhaps there is a plan there. Perhaps not. "No take-backsies. You heard it, ladies and gentlemen. You'll be witnesses." Though at the mention of Logan's party, he nods. "That party, huh? Yeah. I think we can crash it, for sure," he tells the others. "Logan needs a little adventure in his life. And I think we're the perfect people to provide it to him."
Kseniya hops up, having eaten her pie in amazingly -fast- time, and drops bills on the table. "Well. If you guys find an invite. I'll totally drive you in my awesome van of awesomeness, I'm driving that girl. Now. I gots to go sew lights onto a dress." And off she bounds.
Sid should be nervous. Sadly he wasn't the nervous type. It was not in the Dusk's cards. He cheek smooched his 'little sister' bounding off. For a VERY brief moment there was a brief flickering of some emotion that turned into a rather gregarious grin to Oberon and Lucky, "Lights on a dress... I love my sister but I think we cna do better or die trying. Or try tie dying. Whichever works."
"Tie dye body paint. Nothing else." That's what Lucky has to offer in the moment, at least. "See how long it takes people to notice." It should be at least moderately clear why these two get along as well as they do. That little sparkle of Lucky's Mantle springs up again, before quickly being battered back down by the Dusk's, a feeling like that awkward, eternal moment of potential that hasn't come to fruition yet.
Oberon glances around suspiciously before hopping from his booth to the boy's. He then writes down a message, rips if off of his notepad and folds before giving it to them. The message asks:"Does your sister know of us?"
Sid couldn't help that his mantle was blue balling Lucky's. The Dusk and the Dawn were polar opposites in dichotomy and somehow indistinguishable. He paused, bacon half way to maw. The hanger door closed and instead of questioning this simply say, "I'm sure Joel's got an airbrush artist somewhere. We have the tools." Hot DAMN it was like one of those perpetual motion desk toys. He said plainly, "I cannot promise you'll come out of that alive or un-smudged" Fair warning. When Oberon moved over to join the dynamic duo he dropped his foot from the other side of the booth and read the note. He didn't comment on it but for that they were in public. He squint at the note and in all earnestness completely misinterpreted it, "I get hit in the head a lot for work. If we went out I'm awful and do noooot remember though I think I would have. Why do I owe you money?" He chewed his bacon though, all the world, thoroughly apologetic. He was serious!
"At this point, I think we owe each other a good smudging," Lucky reminds the other man, nodding earnestly along. "I'd almost bet there's a rule for that somewhere." Though at the note of Oberon's, and Sid's answer, he can't help but snicker a bit. "You're such a dick, sometimes," he teases the Satyr. "The safest answer is always 'no'," he tells Oberon in turn.
Oberon looks confused at Sid's answer but when Lucky gives him a better answer, he nods and writes down:"Fair enough." He says and sips from his drink longly until it's finished. Then he puts some bills under the empty mug and writes another message. The second one says:"It must leave. I'll be playing my violin later in the Riverside's Market if you guys want to come by." Then, he stands up, grins to the both of them and leaves.
Sid was sipping his coffee with his hangover sunglasses (That by no coincidence he was almost always wearing) and was grinning unapologetically ear-to-ear. It's like he took being called a dick as a sign of status. He leaned over to read Oberon's note and lifted his coffee mug and said without bullshit, "Oh that's bad atom, dude. Yeah if we're able to you bet your adder' we'll be swinging by." He sipped his coffee and couldn't stifle the chuckle looking to Lucky, "What?" He snickered and promised, "Here's to getting smudge and trussed' up." Which perhaps had double meaning but not the double meaning implied. He sighed in spite of himself and ate his good Dan breakfast.
Lucky waves to Oberon, reading his note. "Yeah. Sure. We'll be there. I mean, if you're boring, I'm totally throwing fruit and rousing the crowd to riot. No pressure or anything." Though he flashes the fairest a wink as he leans over to rub Sid's shoulder. "There, there," he tells the man. "It's 2017. I'm sure the Censors will lighten up as time goes on, and then you can talk like a normal person. From a hundred years ago."
Sid gave Lucky a flat look. "I'll slap you with bacon. I will. I'll slap you with bacon so hard you'll be on your knees in cookie dough saying 'I'm sorry, Chef, forgive me' and it won't be sincere because I've met us so I will slap you with bacon again. But at least? At least it will be bacon so go ahead and keep picking on me about that." He sighed and didn't seem to actually want to fight Lucky though, because he was an honest man, nose booped him with the ribbon of bacon before eating it as menacingly as one could... which was to say not very.
"So let me get this straight," Lucky says, rolling his eyes. "Something awkward happens, and your immediate response is to threaten to slap me with your meat? Yep," he teases. "You're you, alright." Though at the mention of bacon, he does reach out to steal a piece of Sid's. Because that's apparently the price one pays for bringing up bacon. "
Sid shrugged and sighed apparently accepting this. He did give Lucky a bewildered look shielding back whatever else he had invested into the argument and defended instead with, "I didn't want you to miss-" he watched the bacon go and wobbled his head with a wave of his hand. That was fair, "out." at the 'you're you' comment he chortled and said with dry amusement, "Dude if you only knew what last week looked like you'd laugh at that statement with me. We're good. Though if you're gonna make me go Gordon Ramsy on your armadillo I need to get the outfit first. You caaaaannot do that without the right chef's coat. It's just..." his brow furrowed and and said "Look my boat signals has a standard." He pause and boggled at the drek coming out of his mouth and it even confused the hell out of him. One hand went in the air flapping "I can't even take myself seriously anymore"
Lucky seems to follow along. Right up until 'boat signals'. That's when he seemingly gets lost. "Dude. We've so gotta work on some actual code words here. This randomness thing that happens is just -too- random." He rubs his face, sighing. "Though I guess it does leave a whole realm of possibilities open. I can only imagine what you actually meant to say there. And my imagination is pretty damn wild." As Sid damn well knows.
Sid sighed and muttered, "You're too good to me. Sorta takes the sport out of it though. I will admit when I'm bored sometimes I just spout out the best profanity I can think of and see what pops up. Could totally take bets on that." He cracked a grin and shook his head. he moved some of the remainder bacon onto Lucky's plate. "Shut up and eat my meat. Also don't tell Gisa I was eating Bacon. She's gonna give me the look. I can feel said look from here."
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