THE JARS THAT BLEED BEFORE THEY BREAK.

[glassjar]

Congrats! You've somehow stumbled upon the pocket dimension where five people with questionable morals (some more questionable than others) live and operate. Are you here on business? Do you have an appointment? Or are you here to see a friend? (Come on, don't make us laugh.)

Maybe you're here on accident due to some multiversal, magical, or otherwise supernatural nonsense? It's happened before, it was bound to happen again.

You can wander towards the house, see if anyone's home. Or you can explore the lush grounds, and maybe run across the wolfman groundskeeper who might try to usher you out towards the nearest portal, anyway. The world is your oyster, just try to be a good guest.

Comments

[nerine]

Mm. A little ominous, huh?

[Monts don't play with Jacob's nerves, that's not nice.

It's just gonna be the both of them for now so Monts gets to work on making her own drink. She'll keep talking to him since it's kind of interesting to sus out any other details that might be relevant.]

The door just kind of works the way it wants or if the desire or need to return here is strong enough. Who knows? For me, it was just a stroke of dumb luck.

[ghostpranks]

[Yeah, don’t. He’s already wound tight enough as-is. Let him live.]

Meaning what? It just showed up for you randomly?

[nerine]

["I was on a murderous rampage and then my future boss punched me."

No one needs to know that story, much less him. Monts shrugs as she whisks her tea.]

I guess so. This and that happened and now I'm one of the few baristas in this cafe. So it worked out in the end. I really do like working here. There's no other place where I can chat with a medieval fantasy knight about how an espresso machine works.

[ghostpranks]

[Is it really that straightforward, he wonders? Surely not just anyone can pop in and ask for a job.]

“This and that”. Why do I get the feeling you’re skipping over the important parts.

[nerine]

That's because I am!

[She's so chipper about it too. Her own latte is finished but Monts keeps stirring it with her straw before partaking.]

Besides, I'm just a barista. Nothing that magical about me besides the cafe we're in.

[ghostpranks]

[Yeah. It's not surprising that he doesn't win a straight answer from her. If he remembers correctly, she never doled them out in the first place.]

Bullshit. Nothing "magical" about the rest of us, either. [His little crew, he means.] Doesn't mean that we're not special.

[Jake just rolls his eyes, though. The look loses some of its edge when he takes another long sip.]

[nerine]

[Monts hums as she sips through her straw.]

Special huh? Mm.

[Her blue-green eyes contemplates the word almost seriously.]

At any rate, I mostly make drinks, serve food, and make conversation. I don't think I'm trying for anything considered special.

[ghostpranks]

["Special". He certainly means it.]

I'm not saying you're trying. I'm just saying you probably are. "Special" isn't something you always ask for, or want.

[Believe him, he knows.]

It just is.

[nerine]

[Monts falls silent, thinking. She wonders if she wasn't the way she... Well, was... If the Midnight Grind would ever appear before her. Or maybe she wouldn't be lonely enough for that to happen.]

Seems like you've been through a few things.

[What, with the way he speaks about his brother and how he was bad news.]

Guess you don't live a normal life, do you?

[Her on the other hand? If it hadn't been for Iona and Oren, Monts wouldn't have the life she had with her grandparents currently. The cafe is literally out of this world but it made her actual home feel precious.]

[ghostpranks]

What do you think?

[It comes out harsher than he intends, but then he tries again.]

...No. The people I live with, the life I've chosen for myself... I abandoned "normal" a long time ago. We've all been through a lot. [Done plenty worse.] That's how it is.

[And that's just how it will be. He's trying to accept that these days.]

[nerine]

Hm.

[And he's not happy about it at all. Like being stuck between a rock and a hard place for so long, it's hard to imagine yourself elsewhere. Monts sips her drink regarding Jacob neutrally.

And then she asks a rather... Peculiar question.]

Does it hurt?

[ghostpranks]

[He arches a brow at her.]

Does what hurt?

[His grip around his drink, though, tightens incrementally.]

[nerine]

...

[She sets down her glass and points first to her head.]

Here.

[And then she puts a palm over where her heart would be.]

And here.

[ghostpranks]

[He watches both gestures closely. Pinches his brows together.

(Feels something ugly stir in his chest. Feels like a concoction of glass and oil.)

He clicks his tongue, harsh and dismissive.]

Came here for a quiet drink, not a therapy session.

[Sorry Monts. Your Social Link is not there yet.]

[nerine]

[Therapy for him, or is it therapy for herself? Is it even that?

She's seeking something elusive so that maybe she could make some sort of connection and not feel so untethered.

Or she might just really wonder how he's dealing with himself.]

That's all huh?

[But Monts, ever so airy and amiable, smiles at Jacob and even manages a quip.]

If you wanted quiet, you need to come in when Oren is behind the counter. Lord help you if it's Iona.

[ghostpranks]

[He doesn't like to ruminate with someone else. He does enough of that himself. Morgan always tells him that he overthinks, that he feels too much; that maybe his head and heart isn't where it needs to be for work like what they do. Jake's started to believe he's right, and not in the way where he wants to take a step back and leave. No, in a way where he needs to try to shear away the things that make him a bad fit. He can't be a bad fit.]

Yeah, I remember. She's got a mouth on her.

[Yes, we're moving on from discussion of hurts and other things he'd rather skate over.]

[nerine]

You know, when it's me, I can take what customers dish, but with her, try to not be an overt asshole?

[Oh, how she advises him so blithely.]

I give her crap too— the employee needs to keep the employer on her toes after all— but seriously, Oren will get testy if he thinks she's being disrespected.

[ghostpranks]

[Wow. His eyebrows fly up.]

Hey, if I'm being an asshole, you'd know it. [He'd break shit.] I just said she's loud and she's got an attitude.

Truth hurts. And even then, she can take it as a compliment.

[Plus she RUINED one of his jobs. Jake looked like an idiot in front of Lyra and Morgan. He didn't really need that, and he's still nursing that wound now that being back in the Midnight Grind is unearthing it again.]

[nerine]

Okay, you're being somewhat of an asshole. "Somewhat" is the word doing some heavy lifting here.

[Monts picks up her drink again, enjoying this weird exchange.]

Still, I'll be the first to rake her over the coals. She's exhausting at times but actually means well.

She did feel bad about breaking that urn by the way. The girl doesn't know her own strength sometimes.

[ghostpranks]

[She tells it like it is, huh?]

Being sorry about breaking it doesn’t mean much if she was planning on stealing it from us in the first place. One’s barely worse than the other.

Either way, it turned the whole thing into a bust.

[nerine]

It sounded so fun! I should have come along to see the swarm monster, but I was helping out my grandparents.

[Monts, don't look so gleeful.]

But hey, you're alive and well! Well enough to visit the cafe again after all this time.

[ghostpranks]

It was a pain in the ass.

[THIS NEEDS CLARIFICATION]

Me and your golem friend did most of the work. Morgan and Lyra just stood around and did jackshit. Believe me, it wasn’t fun.

[nerine]

I see, I see... Well, good work.

[Or so she says airily.]

Oren's good at that. Cleaning up messes I mean, so you could have worked with someone worse.

[ghostpranks]

Probably. [He has worked with worse people. Sometimes his own group feels like herding cats on the less-than-ideal days.] What's his deal anyway?

[Oren, he means. What's his story. The golem seems competent enough, but also like a stick in the mud.

(Pot, kettle.)]

[nerine]

Oren?

[Bemused, Monts sets her empty glass in the sink.]

He's just... Oren. I mean, you can ask me something more specific about him and I'll try to answer. I haven't known him as long as Iona though.