2018-06-16 - LOTUS DREAMS: On The Road To Nowhere
| Title: On The Road To Nowhere | |
|---|---|
| Summary: Natsuki takes a break from her post-school road trip to visit a friend at a roadside diner. | |
| Who: | |
| Where: Western-style diner | |
| OOC - IC Date: 2018-06-16 - ??? | |
<Pose Tracker> Natsuki Kuga [Ohtori Academy (12)] has posed.
It's been a long few days of travel, but Natsuki was ready for a meal that wasn't fast food or sandwich she bought. She drove up at the diner and removed her helmet letting the wind play with her long hair. Duran gave a soft bark and a quick lick on the cheek as he climbed out of her passenger seat. "Ready for something to eat, boy?" she askes with a smile.
Duran gave a happy bark as he followed her inside. She found her favorite spot and pulled out her cellphone as Duran sat next to her in the booth. "Hi, Mom," Natsuki said. "Just wanted to check in...Yes, I'm doing fine." She rolled her eyes. "Yes, I've been eating well enough." She reaches over to scratch at Duran's ear as her mother continued to chat. "I know, I know, but you know lots of girls my age go on road trips after high school...Yes, Yes," she sighed. It was always this talk.
"The agreement was that I had four months to myself and then I would decide what I wanted to do, right? ....Yeah, yeah okay. Love you too, Mom. Talk to you later."
Natsuki sighed as she hung up the phone and sighed. "I wonder if Shizuru would let me crash at her place again tonight?"
<Pose Tracker> Mai Tokiha [Ohtori Academy (12)] has posed.
Here it stands, a nice little roadside diner. Some days, some nights, it caters to truck drivers - but this time of day, it's nice and quiet. There's a little jukebox in the corner, where someone has physically removed the button for 'What's New Pussycat'. The fan overhead turns slowly, giving just enough of a breeze to scatter the aroma of coffee around the room.
There's footsteps on the floor. Tap, tap, tap, as a menace approaches bearing a tray. The waitress has arrived, apron and all, setting down the drinks while this customer finishes on her cell phone. Drinks, plural - a glass of ice water before Natsuki, and a bowl of ice water before Duran so that the pup can get a nice drink.
"You do realize that one of these days, I might have to actually enforce that 'no pets allowed' rule, right?" Mai does her best to give Natsuki a condemning glare, but the smirk kind of ruins the effect. She twirls the now-empty tray on one fingertip, tossing it up before catching it. "...but you've got a knack for dropping in when the place is dead so who gives a damn. How goes the vagabond lifestyle?"
She pauses a moment, grabs a menu. "Well, I shouldn't forget to make sure that my favourite customer gets properly fed. So..." ...and then Mai crouches next to Duran, holding the menu in front of the pupper. "...what'll it be, boy?"
<Pose Tracker> Natsuki Kuga [Ohtori Academy (12)] has posed.
Duran wags his tail as he licks up the water and gives a soft woof at Mai. Natsuki smirks as she looks to Mai. "What can I say? I have a knack for timing." She scratches Duran's ear. "Some cooked up chicken and rice if you have it, but today's special for me." She gives a shrug. "Not so bad, although I did have to challenge a biker to an arm wrestling match at the last diner I was at." She reaches into her pocket and brings out a bird keychain. "By the way, found this for you. Thought could match that bird of yours." She pushes a button as the keychain lights up and makes a twittering sound. "And I got one for Mikoto too."
She leaned against her hand. "How are things for you?"
<Pose Tracker> Mai Tokiha [Ohtori Academy (12)] has posed.
Mai looks up from the dog's perusal of the menu. "Oh, did you want something too?"
She takes the menu away, breaking whatever longing gaze the dog might have had for the steak platter, and nods. "Chicken and rice, and the omelette platter. Sure thing - though I might as well hold off before putting the order in, the chef's taking a bit of a nap. And...you won, right? It'd be a black mark on our record if we started allowing arm-wrestling-losers to just walk in and claim a table."
She rolls her eyes at the keychain, though takes it. "You and your bribery, I swear. Thanks, though - and I think Mikoto will like having something to match. She went off and rescued another litter of kittens the other day, so it's been a little nuts - having something like this to distract them's going to be a godsend."
She tosses up the keychain, glances at the phone. "...oh yeah, did you catch the latest news? Investigation went and found another three conspirators - kind of nice to see everything getting dragged out, if I'm honest."
<Pose Tracker> Natsuki Kuga [Ohtori Academy (12)] has posed.
Natsuki made a fist. "Of course, how could you even think such a thing?" She then laughs. "More kittens huh? Need me to ask around for potential owners again? I did actually run into a pair of nice ladies that might like them." She leaned back in the chair and sipped her water. "Yeah, I saw. Glad to see that all of my hard work in high school wasn't needed huh?"
She shook her head. She spent so much time investing that crash that nearly cost her mother, and yet it turned out it wasn't needed. The people involved got caught by the press without her even lifting a finger.
She should be happy, and she was, but she still hadn't figured out what to do with her spare time now.
She looked to Mai. "When does your shift end? Want to get some drinks tonight?"
<Pose Tracker> Mai Tokiha [Ohtori Academy (12)] has posed.
Mai laughs and laughs, because there's just so much to unpack. But hey, she's the kind of friend who can laugh, after all.
"Yeah, she'd appreciate a few more potential victims - I mean cat owners. I would too, because at this rate we're going to lose the kitchen entirely, and that'd just be a travesty." She grins, and gives Duran a scritch behind the ears. He's a good dog.
"Eh, look at it this way. Having to hide their stuff from your 'too cool for school' investigation is probably what made them slip up in the first place. Just sit back and enjoy watching the dominoes come crashing down - or are you suddenly too good for schadenfreude?" That smirk is vicious, and while Natsuki mulls it over, Mai ducks over to the window to tack up the latest order.
She pokes her head through the window, visibly sighs, and calls through. "Hey, there's a couple of customers - I'd call it a custom order but we both know it's number fifteen." A pause, when the chef's reply can't be heard from the booth. "Hey, I say it's on the menu because I'm the one who lets you know when the boss is dropping in!"
With another sigh, Mai comes storming back to the table. "...coffee? It's only mostly burnt. Or drinks later if you're still in town by then, that honestly sounds great."
<Pose Tracker> Natsuki Kuga [Ohtori Academy (12)] has posed.
Natsuki holds up a glass. "Sounds good, and I'll give you a lift home in exchange." She sipped her water. "And yeah I'll take a cup of coffee. Burnt is better than the stuff I had at the last diner." She shivered. "I'll tell you that horror story later." Natuski leans and lets Duran lay his head in her lap and lets herself doze slightly, and try not to think about what she'll do the next day.
