Ye Ol' coffee shop

[Observer]

- Yes, I do. I study to become an IT specialist, you know. Computers, programming and whatnot. 'Tis pretty hard, but, hopefully, would be worthwhile. Or at least I won't have to find secondary jobs and such... - he replied, taking another sip from his cup. For some reason the young lady was staring at the cup with a bit weird glance. Larry wanted to ask if everything was alright, but she showed her concern before he could do that, thus making clear why she was a bit worried. She withdrawn shyly afterwards thought, believing to have said something rude. Larry chuckled a bit.

- Hey, no worries, you were merely remarking something you saw. Besides, I am getting that all the time from others. Yes, I drink a lot of coffee, to keep myself on my toes, it is better than to fall asleep in class or at work. You know how strict things are here - no room for any kind of mistake. So 'tis alright, I got used to it pretty fast anyway... Everybody is addicted to something, and this is not as bad as, say, smoking, or alcohol, or, god forbid, some other drug... - he shrugged, not seeing much of a problem here. He never really gave it much thought, and since he was neither a smoker nor an alcoholic, one could allow him a small weakness, right?

Then there was an inquiry about combining both work, study and social life. While what he said to her about being a night delivery guy was a lie, the schedule was practically the same, since running around at night looking for spawns was just about as tiring. Jenny blushed a bit, probably thinking she asked another wrong question, but there was really nothing wrong with it. They were just having a chat, weren't they?

- Well, I do have time when I'm not in college, or at work, or not sleeping. Like right about now. Sitting in a nice, quiet place, enjoying a cup of coffee, and a conversation with a beautiful young lady. - he said and smiled kindly. Indeed, what else was there? Larry grew weary from seeing the same grumpy faces of Hypnos workers every day, and running around the filthy back alleyways at any weather or hour for some no good mutant, and this ... this was direct opposite of everything mentioned above. People just needed to appreciate little things in life...

[Jenny]

“Oh I see. Well I wish you luck at that. I can do basic stuff on computers, self matinence and what not, but nothing beyond that. I can kill a mini virus, but something bad I wouldn’t have a clue what to do. “ said Jenny. She learned enough to deal with most, generic problems on her computer, but she would never be the type someone would go to with a problem. And she was fine with that! Technology wasn’t really her thing anyways. But she did do some artwork on the computer, so it was important to know the basics!

“I know, but it still seems kind of rude..” said Jenny as she scratched her head a bit. Why was she so socially awkward? She use to be so popular! Well…sorta…in her head she was. Though thinking back, most kids probably hated her because she was kind of a bitch… “Have you thought of looking for another job that didn’t keep you up all night? So you could rest and not need excessive amounts of caffeine?” she asked him curiously. Addiction was addiction, no matter what it was. And anything was bad in excess, even good things.

Naturally, Jenny had no reason to not believe his story of being a night watchman. Why would he lie to her? Its not like they knew one enough well enough for it to matter. They only just met! And she wasn’t about to go poking at his job to look for holes, because as far as she knew, he was telling the truth.

When he called her beautiful, Jenny looked down a bit and blushed. She k new she wasn’t ‘beautiful’, but she wasn’t ugly. She just figured she was average. “ Thank you for the compliment.” said Jenny, she wasn’t going to argue with him on this, there wasn’t a point. And it wasn’t that she had bad self esteem, she knew she wasn’t bad looking, but ‘beautiful’ seemed too intense a term to use on someone like her. Maybe just ‘pretty’ would fit better.

[Mistral]

Suddenly the peacefulness and calmness of the coffee shop was interrupted when the door was abruptly opened by a strangely dressed girl that seemed to be out of an anime convention and ... actually not many paid attention to her silly stunt, as much one or two clients looked at her, whispered between them something about her oddness and continued minding their own business.

"Guildmaster, I hath completed the quest you gave me!"

She handed to the coffee shop owner a parcel that said "for *insert name of the owner of the coffee shop*" and proudly pounced her flat chest with her right hand, feeing awesome for having completed her mission and getting closer to her goal of leveling up

"Now give me the reward for completing this sidequest. I, the love magician, will stop the demon lords once I get stronger!"

The Coffee owner gave her an "epic sandwich of epicness" as reward and congratulated her for a well done job. Said man used to know the old Mayumi (who was a regular client of the ship) before she become mentally ill and felt pity for her current state, so he went along with the role of "guildmaster" and gave her some innocent and easy chores AKA "secret missions only warriors of justice can do" to keep her entertained and busy enough to not get herself into troubles.

"A happy end, now it's time to continue spreading the magic of love and defeat the enemies of all that is good!!"

She had completed an important mission in the crusade to save the world from the forces of evil ... but her ultimate war against the demon lord was far from over. She was going out of the coffee shop nibbling the rare item "epic sandwich of epicness" when she heard two people talking weird. She couldn't understand at all what they were saying just like how she couldn't understand the rules and that thing called "common sense" that the sad, corrupted people of this world have and decided that the only thing they could be doing is ... PERFORMING A DEVIL SUMMONING RITUAL!

"You!"

She said pointing with her right hand at the man and the girl, who most likely were evil sorcerers speaking in the arcane demon language used to summon evil things from an equally evil place

"You speak in tongues! You must be summoning a horrible monster with your evil ritual, this is a job for the love magician Mistral!"

She pulled from her inventory a D-arc and pointed it's screen at the man and the woman, expecting it to emit the same light it emitted when it "purified and healed" that one strange looking wizard that become a smaller creature. Alas, it did nothing

"This holy item isn't working, this must be the work of those servants of evil!"

She put the D-arc inside her pocket again and pointed her magic wand at the duo, ready to use it to invoke her magic. Meanwhile, the coffee shop owner was looking at the sad scene and as soon he stopped being busy, he would get next to them and dispatch the girl before she could cause more troubles to the clients.

[Observer]

- Well, I am happy with the fact I even managed to get a job, so I cannot be picky. I'm an foreigner, and a student to boot - they never ever have jobs for us. I managed to get my workplace thanks to a friend of mine who gave the recommendation, and I work for 2/3 of average salary. So ... I don't think I will be getting hooked off from coffee any time soon... - Larry replied, taking another sip of hot coffee, answering the question. He would have said something else too, continuing the conversation, but it was ... rudely interrupted by ... something unpredictable.

Out of nowhere some weird kid sporting a sort of clothes theater knock-offs use to wear, came around in a rather rude fashion, not paying attention to privacy or tact, and yelled something too stupid to comprehend. The sudden yelp startled Larry, as he was about to take another sip from his cup, and he accidentally spilled the coffee all over his coat, which he did not take off. A grimace of utter annoyance and disappointment appeared on his face, Larry was not happy, not one bit.

- Oh f...fiddlesticks! - he barely held himself from cussing loudly, mostly because he was in presence of a lady, but that didn't make him any less disappointed. Eye twitching in irritation, he put the now empty cup back at the table, standing up, towering above the small crazy girl, before starting yelling, switching to japanese:

- WHAT ARE YOU, NUTS?! DID THE ASYLUM HAVE AN OPEN-DOOR DAY TODAY OR SOMETHING? - and he would have continued yelling, not listening to hat magic nonsense, if the girl didn't point the weird thingamajig at his face. Larry blinked a few times, not quite believing what he had just seen. It was a digivice! A flippin' digivice, for crying out loud! So the girl was... Yeah, that had to be it. - Jeez, seems just about anyone can become a tamer these days... - he thought warily, as his initial anger started ebbing out, as he sat back. His eyes focused for several seconds on the girl's face, however, meaning to remember how she looked like. Making a phot would have been too suspicious, but his memory on faces was good enough.

- Goddammit, this was my only coat too... - the young man said in disappointment, looking at the big black stain all over the front of his coat - the spill spread out, and the material soaked the black liquid rather quickly. Scratching on the surface with a fingernail, without any results, of course, Larry sighed out: - I wonder if it will even wash out.... He had reasons to be angry - his coffee was wasted, his favorite coat - stained, and he was embarrassed in front of a lady.

[Jenny]

Jenny had actually been enjoying her conversation with Larry. That is until an incredibly odd, not to mention rude, girl appeared. Jenny had ignored her when she had come in and presented the package to the shop owner, but when the girl came over and started yelling at them she frowned. Before she could say anything she heard Larry shout as his coffee spilt into his lap. Oh damn, that wasn’t good. Standing up she glared at the girl. “That was incredibly rude of you. Apologize to Larry right this instant!” said Jenny in Japanese.

“And speaking in tongue, child are you deaf or dense? Its ENGLISH, heck half or more of the people in this country speak it. The schools teach it, I believe it’s a required course but I never went to school here. There must be some sort of screw loose in your head girl.” said Jenny as she crossed her arms. Jenny was normally a sweet and quiet girl, but one should learn not to push her. Then she reverts back to her older self, for a bit anyways.

The D-Arch meant nothing to her. Why should it? Digimon was after her generation. She was a late teen, young adult when the craze started. Much too old to be getting into digimon. “Now apologize or I will make you.” said Jenny, arms crossed as she frowned at the girl.

[Mistral]

"Bad guys don't deserve an apology!"

She stomped the floor and aimed her magical wand at the rude she-devil in front of her, this offense deserved punishment of the magical kind. She completely ignored whatever the she-devil said about this "english" thingy, probably a superweapon of the bad guys, and decided that it was time to summon the devil slaying magic of love.

"No school would teach your english evil sorcery, magical schools only teach about the magic of justice and love!"

Said that, she raised her wand and declared that she was going to zap the girl with a lightningbolt .... buuut then the coffee owner appeared from behind and swiftly covered her mouth with his right hand as he lowered her staff-wielding with the other hand.

"Excuse her for anything she could've said, she's .... she has issues, don't let that ruin your culinary experience here"

"My only issue here is that the she-devil and the evil summoner are trying to destroy THE WORLD with their english thingy that summons demons ... and I bet they are controlling you to stop me!"

Our beloved and charismatic heroic magician girl tried to get free from the clutches of her mind controlled ally the guildmaster, but the mind controlling magiks used by the evildoers proved to be too strong and nothing she could do managed to restore her ally to his usual self. Everything seemed to go just as the evildoers planned, but then in a weird plot twist, her friend revealed a great truth that not even a genius-level heroine like Mistral could've discovered by herself

"Listen, those clients are actually warriors of justice, they are training to learn how to fool the evil ones and infiltrate into their lair to learn about their secrets"

The coffee shop owner winked at the clients as if requesting them to play along with the lie. It was the quickest way to stop this strange situation unless they really, REALLY enjoyed this kind of stuff.

"Oh really?"

The magician of love was now puzzled, were they really evil or they were simply training to spy the real evil? Appearances could be deceiving and maybe they weren't the evildoers she thought. She quietly waited for their answer as she looked at the two clients with inquiring eyes.

[Observer]

- Hey, hey, take it easy, Jenny. I can take care of this... - Larry tried to calm down the girl, who kinda took the offense a bit too personal than he did. But, before he could say anything else, the shop-keeper appeared, effectively closing the insane girl's mouth with his hand, thus stopping this flow of bumbling foolishness coming at them, before explaining things.

Larry facepalmed. So the girl really was nuts. His anger mellowed fast enough after hearing that - you cannot be angry at a person who cannot control herself, could you? - Jesus, what do those computer games and cartoons do to people... They should be banned, as far as I am concerned, if they to THAT to people... - he thought, before saying to Jenny in english:

- Let's play along for a short while, shall we? Maybe it will calm her down enough and make her leave... - he figured the nutsy will not understand what he said, so their "secret" was relatively safe, and so he turned to the magician girl, acting really mysterious, pretending to be ... someone else...

- Tsss, quiet... - the young man whispered, looking around warily, as if looking for something. This was all acting of course, but still, afterwards he continued: - Sorry about the masquerade, the evil has eyes everywhere... - he added quietly, and, unseen to Jenny, extracted his digivice from inside the inner pocket, quickly showing it to the magic girl, before hiding it again. He figured there would be no harm in that...

- We're infiltrators, supposed to infiltrate the demon's secret lair... And ... you have attracted enough attention to us already. Don't shout, scream or ask more questions ... just go like nothing happened. And do not tell anybody... - he said, looking around warily again. - In our line of duty, even the walls have ears... - he remained completely serious, but inside he was laughing his arse off at the load of crap he invented in a second to tell the insane cosplayer girl to make leave them alone...

[Mistral]

"Oh, you have an evil cleansing magical artifact too, that must mean you are an heroic person!"

He to had the same holy artifact she possessed! That was all the evidence she needed to understand that the man and his partner were actually heroes of justice and love in a mission to understand the evil and destroy it from inside. She comically bowed many times in front of them and forcefully had a handshake with the glasses-wearing man first and later with the girl.

"When your secret mission is over we should team up and beat together the forces of evil! My partner is a magician too, he shoots lightning balls and is cool ... although now he got smaller for some reason, I think this holy artifact purified his corrupted body after being tainted by one of the servants of the demon lord"

She picked her digivice again and wondered looking at it if it's "purifying light" could return her partner back to his awesome wizard form, then put it back again in her pocket. She really loves that guy, he did lots of things during that battle before the big, bad wolf.

"You should have seen it, he was a high level magician and did a lot of amazing magics against an evil wolf demon. I tried to help but he single handed defeated him alone before I could cast a demon killing spell. I call him Mir but he said that he was wizard man, lizardmon or something when he was a cool magician."

"Quiet now, I have to continue attending the "guild" so be a good heroine of justice and leave them alone"

The worst part of the situation was over, so the coffee shop owner ordered one of the waitress to bring the glass wearing man an extra cup of coffee as compensation for the one the magician girl made him drop and returned to the corner to attend the customers. As for "Mistral", she simply continued looking at the pair, eager to listen about their epic tales and adventures

[Jenny]

Wow…this kid really WAS nuts. She was SO nuts in fact that the coffee shop owner had to lie to her. Why was this girl walking around the streets? She should be in a straight jacket! It would be one thing if she was a small child, but this girl looked only a few years younger then Jenny and Larry! She had real issues! Sighing and placed her hand on her forehead and turned away. What sort of customer service was it when one of the employees attacked you, and then you were told to lie to help her delusions? This couldn’t be healthy.

As Larry began to go along with the lie, Jenny just sighed and figured she would go along with it to, but maybe they should call a mental institution later…speaking in English, she responded to Larry. “Fine but this girl is nuts. She shouldn’t be walking around the streets when she is so delusional…” she said before responding in Japanese again.

“You must keep quiet, or you risk exposing us. Then the…bad guys…will get us. And our efforts will have been wasted.” she said in a low voice before she backed up. “Now, go away. You are obviously a lunatic! We are not ‘evil’ and I don’t know what you are saying.” she said a little louder before winking at the psychotic girl. Trying to ‘pretend’ to act like she normally would, so that the ‘evil demons’ would think she was still on their side….or something…oh whatever as long as it got the girl to go away!

[Mistral]

"Ohhh, and the next time I'm beating you with my magic wand, you evildoers!"

She winked back at the duo of heroic souls and talked a bit more with the guildmaster after going to the corner. She requested for the name of the warriors of love and justice who are so valiant that decided to fight evil with evil, but nothing would come from the mouth of the guildmaster, probably the mission was so super secret that it could end up in failure if somebody else knew about their identities. She went back next to the table where the two heroes gathered and decided to say something else before leaving.

"Evildoers, my name is the love magician Mistral, I'm going to be watching you!"

She said that with a smile on her face as they were her allies and left the coffee shop with the intention of returning to her home, she was sure that the magician turned little white creature with a moon motif was missing her and she also needed to share this vital information with him about her newfound allies.

Meanwhile, the poor coffee shop owner sighed again after she departed and wondered exactly what happened to poor, little Mayumi, she used to be such a nice and helpful girl who loved the chocolated milk and the pastry he sold and even called him uncle, but now she was trapped into a delusional world of fantasy and believed herself to be a powerful magician and believed he was a guildmaster. This was a cruel trick of fate of the kind that was painful to everybody that cared for the ill person ....

He looked at her as she left with sadness in his eyes and continued working, he still needed to earn the vile money and giving her something to eat all the days and keep her distracted until she got tired were the only things he could do for the girl.

[Exit thread XD]