9709/This one time in Salem Center...

This one time in Salem Center...
Date of Scene:	22 October 2019
Location:	Salem Center, Westchester County
Synopsis:	Sara goes to Salem Center for a day off. Meets new friends and learns how to eat beignets
Cast of Characters:	Dragonfly (Armenteros), Nightingale, Witchblade

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Dragonfly (Armenteros) has posed:
     Fall in New York is a magical time, with leaves fading into a riot of colors that, for a time, match the setting sun before falling from their trees in expectation of a new spring a few months in the future. The city of Salem Center is no exception. All around the town, the evenly-spaced and well taken care of trees are surrounded, either by a blanket of fallen leaves or tourists and passerby with cameras, taking in the beauty of a fall morning.

     "Are you /sure/ I look okay?" Despite being told several times before leaving the X-mansion and on the Uber over to the middle of town, Gwendolyn is still unsure. Walking along the sidewalk toward one of the coffee shops on the square, she glances at an oversized wristwatch on her left arm. "It doesn't feel any different."

Nightingale has posed:
     On the ride out with the Uber, sure, Shannon hid her wings. It had become habit. But the minute they hit the safe haven of Salem Center, with the Uber driver well out of visual range, she taps her own wristwatch-like device, to bring her wings into clear view again. "You look fine. You do way better with the image inducers than I do. I oughta ask Kurt or Mr. McCoy just how much these are capable of. It could be fun for Halloween." She's dressed in straight-legged dark blue jeans, a cream tunic sweater with a cable knitting pattern, and knee-length, soft brown boots. Her hair is left long and loose, and she keeps her wings tucked in behind her. "It won't feel different to you, just look different to others."

Witchblade has posed:
Sara Pezini, NYPD detective is out here. She's got the day off, mostly by a horribly convoluted system of shift switching means she's got today off, but is working the weekend when she'd normally have off. Instead, she's driven over here and parked neatly out the way. She's settled into the coffee shop and has her phone in her pocket, and she has her casual wear on, jeans, t-shirt, jacket, boots and her bracelet. Her hair's down in a ponytail, the jacket's zipped halfway, and she's got a coffee and a donut in front of her, with generous helpings of sugar and cream in the coffee, and frosting on the donut. There's also quite a few of those little chocolate pieces on the plate, too. Silvery spoon, as Sara stirs her coffee and looks relaxed and calm.

Dragonfly (Armenteros) has posed:
     Gwendolyn stops and looks at herself in the plate glass window of a nearby store. Staring back at her is the way that she remembers herself looking before all of the interesting events in her life that brought her up here to Salem, New York. Dressed warmly for the weather in a green sweater and long pants with cute brown boots that go to mid calf, she brushes her hair with both hands and looks over at the winged Shannon. "I could see that being interesting. Halloween back home wasn't much of a thing. Now Mardi Gras...that was the best." She swivels, turning on her toe to face the street, watching passerby - a few of which do notice Shannon's wings but seem to pay it no mind. "Come on. I've got a little savings and I'm dying for a cup of espresso that I don't make. And a beignet, if they have them."

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon giggles and grins at Gwendolyn as she looks at her own reflection in the plate glass window. "See? Told you. You look just fine. C'mon, there's some great coffee over here." She nods towards the Grind Stone Cafe, veering off in that general direction. "Don't know about beignets, but their coffee's pretty damn good. We can always make beignets when we get back home." She follows her nose to the source of what smells like the heavenly, universal elixir of life--coffee. "I've heard of Mardi Gras in N'awlins. Never got to see it, though. It was September when I was about 9, when my mom took me down there."

Witchblade has posed:
Sara's not got a beignet, just a regular donut, coffee and chocolate pieces. She sips at it, and savors the taste. Chickory. It's chickory coffee. Mmm. It's also good. Sara's a fan of it. She only started drinking it after watching films, but she's so glad she did. Flagging the waiter over, she orders a beignet coated in sugar. What was it her friend said. Don't inhale the sugar. Sara chomps into her donut, and chews on it. It's good, if plain. Given she's ordered a beignet....she's kind of let down by the donut. The coffee itself is good. She finishes one cup and sits back, caffeinateed, pleased and looking forward to her treat. Sara's a native New Yorker, like the song goes. She looks at the sugary.....thing on the plate. it's got sugar two inches deep and it makes her want to sneeze.

She can't fight it. So she sneezes. Three things happen at about the same time. One. She sneezes, and sneezes several more times for good measure. Two. She falls theatrically out of her chair and ends up on her butt on the floor. Three. The beignet just sits there totally and utterly unaffected by it all. It's not even lost any sugar. Which leaves Sara to climb back to her chair, praying nobody filmed the plummet. Naturally, smartphones are held up recording it. Sara takes a bite of the beignet if only to save face and see how good it is. Anser? Very. Very good. Her lips and teeth and tongue have gone from their usual color, to snow white in an instant. Woe betide anyone kissing her, indeed. Her hands are no bettter, really...coated with sugar from tip to palm. just how muchh did they put on this, anyway she's wondering.

Dragonfly (Armenteros) has posed:
Clutching her borrowed bag - a leather courier that's probably seen more miles than some airliners - Gwendolyn nods to Shannon and follows along behind towards the coffee shop. The chunky imager on her wrist, disguised as a watch, is different, but the way people react to her - that is, not at all - is strangely soothing. "We should make a trip. I have a friend or two on some of the krewes down there. Intergalactic Krewe of Chewbacchus is the best one for us, I think. We might even be able to get away without the imagers down there." She giggles and pushes the door to the coffee shop open, looking at the small knots of people at tables, tapping Shannon on the shoulder, and pointing right at Sara or, more specifically, Sara's table. "See? They /do/ have them here."

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon's eyes go wide, first when she sees the beignets--and then her eyebrows quirk, seeing Sara on the ground, sprawled out in a very undignified way. Excusing herself from the line, she heads on over, her wings ruffling behind her, and reaches down to offer a hand up. "You okay there, miss?" She cants her head, smiling warmly at her, but doesn't make a big fuss. Poor woman was probably embarrassed enough already!

Witchblade has posed:
Sara nods. "I'm fine. Just...wasn't expecting so much sugar" she says as she takes another bite. "Please, take a seat" she offers and smiles sheepishly. She's not used to falling on her butt, literally, figuratively. She did both in some style, if falling flat on her buttt is indeed style. It is. Sara takes the hand and grins, "Thanks, so you want a beignet? I'd offer mine but I paid good money and I want to eat it"

Pride's a terrible thing. Sara's determined to conquer the evil beignet that slew her for....all the tile took to till Shannon came over. Sara laughs. "It was a good thing you're around, huh?"

Dragonfly (Armenteros) has posed:
     Gwendolyn has been in that position, many times before. She moves through the line quickly and places an order for coffee and bengiets for two, taking the basket of sugar-dusted pastries and the two heavy mugs to the table where Shannon is helping Sara up. "The trick is to not breathe when you eat 'em." she says, her cajun twang coming in, unbidden, setting the tray down on the table next to Sara's, sitting in one of the worn wooden chairs daintily, leaning forward a little like she has a small backpack on or something, even though she doesn't. Then, to Shannon. "Coffee and pastries. Let's see if you can breathe smoke like a dragon if'n you eat these wrong, like th' lady did there." She grins at Sara. "Easy mistake. We all do it when we first get 'em. Want to eat 'em all at once and end up havin' to take a breath and then poof..."

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon giggles and slides into an empty seat at Sara's table. "Do I want a beignet? Do bears live in the woods?" Her pale blue eyes twinkle merrily, and she makes sure there's enough room for Gwendolyn to set down the basket and mugs. "You sure you're not the angel here, Gwen? Chicory coffee and beignets... I swear, those are food and drink of the gods!" She smiles at Sara and offers her hand, this time as a greeting. "I'm Shannon, and this is Gwendolyn."

Witchblade has posed:
Sara grimaces, "I had to sneeze. Couldn't help it" she says with a nervous laugh. She offers a smile and a hand. "Sara" she says and offers a sticky, sugar coated hand, her mouth and lips twitching in a smile at Gwen's words. "First time trying them" she says and giggles. Unbecoming of a lady, right? Yes, yes indeed. Sara raises her own chickory coffee cup. Which is a fresh one, for that matter, too. She stirs the coffee and looks over to te two women. "So what're you two up to?" she asks.

Dragonfly (Armenteros) has posed:
     That question comes at the perfect time for Sara (and Shannon) to see proper beinget eating technique. Instead of eating like a donut you kind of have to lean over the plate, one handed, so the sugar falls on the table and the plate instead of your clothes, and even the breathing technique, as sugar is moved from a small inhale of breath before Gwendolyn takes a bite, catching both with a deer-in-the-headlights look when the question comes.

"Um..." Gwendolyn catches herself, getting that bite down before taking a breath or a sip of the bitter chicory coffee. "Hello." She grins, wiping her mouth with a paper napkin. "Just coffee and breakfast for me. Getting out into the world. Seeing the sights in the big city of Salem."

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon is not quite so neat about eating her beignet, a little dragon puff of sugar getting into the air--and her nose. And when she sneezes, it sounds like a mouse. A very /loud/ mouse. "Ahhh-CHOO!" Of course, where one sneeze is, others follow, and she has to set her beignet down to cover her mouth and nose, giggling in between sneezes. "Guess I don't quite... ahh... ahh-CHOO!... have the knack yet!"

Witchblade has posed:
Shannon's sneezes set Sara off giggling, and she sneezes as well. Fortunately this time she's still on her chair, and covered her mouth, though she did bite her tongue with a sneeze. Ow, indeed. She looks a little...or a lot, amused. "Ah I'm enjoying the day off" she says once she's done giggling....mostly, though she's on that edge where she'll start giggling again. It's not the quiet giggling either. It's the loud, contagious giggling. With snorts, and more giggling.

Dragonfly (Armenteros) has posed:
     Giggling, with a beinget, is a dangerous, dangerous thing so, before she starts sneezing and sending clouds of sugar everywhere, Gwen finishes her pastry and sits back, washing it down with coffee and watching the pair giggle. "Days off are nice. They're doing some work on one of our classrooms and we thought we'd make a day of it." She leans forward conspiratorially. "We're the bad kids. Can't you tell? She just has the angel wings to throw people off the scent.

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon swats Gwen very lightly with one wing, giggling a little bit more. "But enough about school, we're out here to have fun. And don't let her kid you, I really /am/ an angel. Or am I...?" She wiggles her fingers playfully, and then goes right for her coffee. "So what is it you do, Sara? Taking a day off, too?"

Witchblade has posed:
listens. "Bad kids?" she asks and lays her wallet on the table, opening it slowly to reveal her ID. NYPD detective's ID, that is as she pockets it. "You'd best behave" she says, and there's a hint of seriousness in her voice. She is fiercely enjoying the normalcy of this. "I'm a detective with the NYPD" she says. "I should be working today but I got the day off" she says. No need to explain the complicated series of shift swaps that gave her today off. She swapped with Marty, who swapped with Rick, who swapped with Rita, that osrt of thing, THe thing that'd show up in any cop comedy movie as a gag. Sara though sips her coffee. "School's out? Ah" she nods, looking over the two girls. "But if you really are bad girls. Even angels fall. That's what they say" Sara says. She's clinging on to the normality of this. Just one time. She wants just one whole day of normality. Being the host of the Witchblade comes with its own problems. So she's hoping now that, well, she can have the normality. Sara looks across the table then watches the two girls for a moment, before returning her attention to the coffee and gestures to the basket. "Mind if I have one?" she asks. This is normal. Exactly what she wants!

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon giggles and nudges the basket over to Sara. "Go for it. Try not to inhale it this time." She raises an eyebrow and smiles somewhat at the sight of that badge, and nods slightly. "Nothing fancy like that for me. I'm hoping to go into medicine one day, maybe a little music on the side. Not sure what Gwen wants to do yet." Oh, heck with it. Time for her to see if she can take her own advice regarding beignets. She plucks one from the basket, listening to the other two talking while she enjoys the little pillow of deep-fried goodness.

Dragonfly (Armenteros) has posed:
Gwendolyn ordered a half dozen of the things - plus one - so there's certainly one for Sara to take if she wants it. The brown-haired girl, as an answer, pushes the basket over to allow for easier plucking without too much loss of sugar, leaning back in her seat with another of the pastries in her hand, snacking carefully. "School's out, yeah." Gwendolyn glances to the badge, then the woman with the badge, and then out the window where SO MANY IMPORTANT THINGS ARE HAPPENING. She's apparently a little on edge, knowing there's a cop sitting right next to her, even knowing she's not done anything wrong.

Witchblade has posed:
Sara does indeed take a beignet and raises an eyebrow at Shannon. "Music and medicine. Is that songs about medicine or will you be a doctor type that sings on weeekends?" she asks. One of them's firmly wrong in her world view. She's not showing which, but....she does manage to not set give the floor another hug with her butt this time. She's slowly, carefully getting the hang of this. "It's an acquired art" she says between bites. "See, you got your futures. Good. I'm old" she says with a hint of sarcasm. Sarcasm from the Witchblade's host. What is this...
^RSara nibbles politely on her beignet, and looks past the two girls for a moment. Then back to them, or more accurately, beignets. The one she's holding is consumed, and she's moved back to coffee. To beignets and coffee is enough for her. She's had enough sugary death by sugar things. The two girls can finish up the basket. Sara will just work it off somehow.

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon chuckles softly. "More likely a doctor type that keeps to music on the side. Either one lets me do something about all the pain and misery out there. One fixes the body, the other fixes the soul." She glances over to Gwen, lofting one brow with a look of concern. She's not blind to her discomfiture, not in the least. A smile curls the corners of her lips upwards, and she gently nudges the other girl. "Hey... did you want to check out the music store while we're here? Maybe get a few spare strings for your violin and a little sheet music?"

Dragonfly (Armenteros) has posed:
     The blessing of being young is having a massive metabolism, and, in the case of Gwendolyn and Shannon, regular exercise in many various and some eye-opening ways, in the case of wings, help keep the calories off. Good thing, too, since the amount of cooking that the pair do at the school is usually the high-calorie delicious healthy food, full of butter and roasted vegatables and oil and all the stuff that you're really not supposed to have when you're older, but love when you're young.

     Explains the beignets and coffee that Gwendolyn is currently snacking on. She's got three into her and she's just now starting to slow down.

     "Not much call for fiddle up here in New York. Probably do something when I graduate. I'm just getting my feet wet and learnin' what suits me best up here. Good thing that scholarship came through." She playfully pats Shannon on the shoulder, leaving a small sugary handprint. "I'd like that, though. Havin' a spare set would help."

Witchblade has posed:
Sara smiles. "You know the Irish used to runn the Big Apple, right? Fiddles out the ass" she says with a bluntness. She does though crack a rare genuine smile. "Fiddles. Violins. I know somebody who plays violinn.I accidentally blew my salary on tips and throwing a Franklin and a Grant into the hat" she says, with a nod. She's referring, of course, to the violinist she met in Centtral Park. Looking to the beignets, Sara smiles. Looking to them again, she looks thouhtful. "Music and medicine. I thought music was medicine. Or was that chicken soup for the soul? One of th two" she says. She's relaxing a bit, the normalcy relaxing and a lovely change of pace.

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon laughs softly and shrugs. "I guess it could be medicine, too. There's fields of medicine that actually focus on music, so... who knows? We've both got a lifetime ahead to figure out what we want to do." She tilts her head, nodding towards Sara's wrist with a smile. "That's a gorgeous bracelet. Family heirloom?"

Dragonfly (Armenteros) has posed:
     "That's news to me. Wasn't much call to learn New York history back down in Louisiana. B'sides, Gangs of New York wasn't something I ever watched, though I heard it was good." The cop, not being a cop, is putting Gwendolyn at ease. Not asking for ID - which she has, really! - has helped a ot. She munches on her last half of her bengiet and peers at the bracelet,/.

Witchblade has posed:
"Thanks" Sara says with a smile. She's more thankful for the normalccy and these two girls are absolutely helping, though the Witchblade is restless. Sara's on edge, if the Witchblade finds a reason to show up....Sara's screwed. She does though smile to the girls. "Thanks, it's a good bracelet" she adds as she settles back with her smile on her lips...not that it's easy to tell she's smiling thanks to sugar, lots, and lots of it.

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon smiles and inclines her head ever so slightly. "You're welcome. It's easy to see you cherish it. My mom passed on her love of antiques and music to me." She sips on the last of her coffee, savoring the rare treat. Briefly, she glances over towards the displays in the shop, where they offer little bags of their house blend chicory coffee. Hmmm. Tempting. Very tempting.

Dragonfly (Armenteros) has posed:
     If it's not the reddish orange bag that you get from Cafe du Monde, no thank you, in Gwendolyn's eyes. Lots of the pleasure she gets from chicory coffee is the authenticity of it all, and while this stuff is good, it's not Cafe du Monde good. She sits quietly and listens to the two talk about music and antiques and moms and all and, cradling her cup in both hands, Gwendolyn adds in her own two cents. Keep hold of that thing, then. It looks old, and whoever made it..." She leans forward to look. "It's almost like they molded the metal and then polished it down. I've never seen anything like that. But that's not saying much, 'cause I ain't seen a lot."

Witchblade has posed:
Sara nods, "It's a pretty bracelet" she says and brings her sleeve back down over the bracelet and her wrist. She's a little uneasy about the girls interest in the bracelet. So's the Witchblade and Sara pulls the sleeve down more, and more beignets are needed. So much for her only two beignets rule. That would be the case, if her phone didn't ring. Snatching it up she listens. "Yes, and....yes. No. Really? You got....alright, I'll drive over. Gimme an hour to get through traffic"

With that, she's up and out of th eseat, and gone. She's taken her own bag of beignets. She pauses to wave to the girls then heads out. Work, of a fashion, calls. Her other job. The sound of her car carries to the cafe as Sara's joining traffic and gone