In Pursuit of Coffee (Open to Everyone)

"Are you sure it's this way?"

"It is according to the directions."

As if to illustrate the point, Ando pulled up his sleeve to reveal a writing covered forearm.

It was one of the rare afternoons where neither of them were working. Hiroshi had heard about some cafe in Kitazawa that was loudly claiming to have the best coffee in Tokyo and since they had some spare cash for once and felt that after certain recent events they could do with doing something to take their minds off things, they'd decided to see if it lived up to said claims. Now, if only they could find it.

Finally, after a few more minutes walking, they reached the much hyped Cafe Diem. Inside it was a bit too arty for their tastes but they weren't here for the decor, they were here for the coffee, which smelled pretty good at least, even to Hiroshi's nose. Said nose also informed him that there were multiple ghouls in the cafe, which given the "best coffee in Tokyo" claim wasn't that much of a surprise, although he was pretty sure that the cafe itself was human run.

Finding table near the back, they sat down, Hiroshi claiming the seat with a view of the door and Ando somewhat grudgingly sitting in the one opposite, and waited for a waitress to approach.


OOC: Okay, so we've got a cafe in the northeast part of the Twelfth Ward (aka Setagaya) that is sort of vaguely inspired by a real one and which has made the rather ghoul-attracting claim of having the best coffee. Open to everyone, so if you can think of a reason for your character to be in the Twelfth Ward, feel free to join in. You don't have to interact with my characters, you can just happen to be in the same cafe as them while doing something else. I'm just trying to get the ball rolling.

Yuuki walks into the fancy place. It was high time he treated himself to some coffee using some of his looted cash. Some of his bros told him this was the best stuff out there. And for humans, they seemed to know what stuff was good. Thats what they always said anyway. Seeing... or really smelling, an interesting pair, He pulls over a chair and sits down at their table.

"So, you dudes mind if I take a seat?"

Yuki walks into the cafe, seemingly led by his nose, his shades still covering his eyes as he walks over and buys himself a cup of coffee. He smiled at the person serving his coffee and nodded his thanks, walking over to the corner of the cafe and sitting down, watching everyone as he drank, doing his best to keep his mind off his hunger.

"33 days since I last scavenged." he muttered to himself.

Hiroshi turned to the newcomer with a look of polite suprise, beneath which he was sizing him up. His nose said 'ghoul' so appearances could be deceptive but if nothing else he didn't match the description of Mr Breaking and Entering.

"Er, aren't there any tables free?"

Meanwhile Ando was studying the newcomer himself. Blond, kind of girly looking and younger than them but taller. He caught Hiroshi's eye and raised on eyebrow, to which his friend responded with a barely perceptible nod. So, a tall, blond, girly looking ghoul then.

"Yeah, but where's the fun in goin to one of these places and having no one to talk to!"

He pats his new friend on the back and laughs.

"Tell ya what, I'll pay for ya if you let me join ya."

The two friends exchanged looks, both thinking along the same lines. On one hand, he was an unknown ghoul and seemed like he might be annoying. On the other, free coffee. Besides, they were on the other side of the ward from their home turf so it wasn't like he'd find out where they lived and with a bit of luck they'd never see him again. A look at the prices cinched it.

"Okay, you can sit with us. We're not all that interesting though so don't blame us if you get bored."

Privately they were both kind of hoping that he'd get bored and leave. After paying for their coffee of course.

Yuki lightly taps out a small rhythm, draining his coffee cup as he stares at the room around him, seeming almost jitterish as he notes the other ghouls by their smell, a small grimace on his face as he thinks to himself.

"I may need to get out of here. In the state I'm in, a ghoul might be able to cannibalize me."

"First off, you two are way more interesting than ya make yourselves out to be."

After giving them a look that showed how very much he thought they were interesting, he then turns over to a third, table-tapping, depressed looking ghoul sitting at another table. Yuuki taps his shoulder.

"Ya know, as good as that tune is, you start to look like a really creepy dude if you frown like that all alone. How about you join us over here? I assure you we are an interesting group."

The two friends went from wondering if the coffee buying weird guy's comment about them being interesting was referring to their apparent curiosity value and how worried they should be about it, to groaning (Ando) and glaring (Hiroshi) when he went and invited another random person to join them, which they were pretty sure went against some sort of rules.

"What is it with this guy? I'm not sure that free coffee is worth it."

"Great, another ghoul I don't know. I'm starting to wonder if Ando has turned into some sort of ghoul magnet."


OOC: On the off chance you don't know, italics=thought.

Yuki flashes the ghoul a small smile, looking down at the watch on his wrist

"As much as I would love to introduce myself to new people, I'm afraid that my shift starts shortly. If you'll excuse me."

With that, he stands and exits the cafe, melding smoothly into the crowds in the streets

"Well that was a bust."

He turns back to his new pals and grins.

"I just realized I haven't told you my name. Yuuki, good to meet ya."

Yuuki offers his hand to the nicer sounding human.

Ando stared at the proffered hand for a fraction of a second, then gave it a firm shake.

"Hi, I'm Ando."

His friend quickly followed up with his own introductions.

"I'm Hiroshi. Pleased to meet you."

That wasn't entirely true, but to be fair it was probably more to to do with Hiroshi being twitchy about unfamiliar ghouls after Ando's recent close call than anything personal.

Just then a waitress came over.

"Hello, what can I get you?"

"Just a black coffee please."

"Same for me, thanks."

"I'll have an Americano please."

He smiles charmingly to the waitress, then turns back to the conversation.

"Hey hey, Hiroshi, I know ya don't trust me, and ya have no reason to. Ya know, guys like you and me can learn a lot about how people think on the streets, and I can tell you're like Ando's mum, keeping him out of your troubles... our troubles, Just wanna let ya know, I mean no trouble to what ever you got goin with him."

Ando supressed a snort when Yuuki said that Hiroshi was like his mother.

"Got that one wrong; my mother wouldn't give a crap what sort of trouble I got into unless it interferred with her social life. He's not very subtle; it's lucky that I already know everything because I didn't I'd be suspicious as hell right now."

Hiroshi was thinking along the same lines.

"Short of actually using the word 'ghoul' could he have been any more obvious? That said, he's more preceptive than he looks."

He had a discreet look around but everyone else seemed to be too busy with their own conversations and coffee to have noticed what was said.

Then something else occurred to him.

"Oh shit, does he know that Ando's in the know? No, how could he? At most he's just guessing."

Not letting his worries show, he smiled and replied to the younger ghoul.

"That's good to know. I'll hold you to it."

Yuki walked around the ward, doing his best to keep to himself and avoid other people, taking side paths and generally just staying away from everyone as he aimlessly wandered.

"Alright. Keep it together Yuki. You can last until you can find a body. The dead can't complain."

With that, he clenched his jaw and kept walking, seemingly determined, but with doubts in his mind

((ooc: sorry for not replying sooner, crazy shenanigans going on.))

Yuuki looks at the two silently for a second, the grins widely. "Ohohoh, seems like no one is surprised, suspicious, or pissed, so i'm gonna go out on a limb and say you already knew about it Ando?"

"Oh shit."

"That sneaky little...."

While Hiroshi gave Yuuki a very dirty look, Ando decided to play dumb and did his best to look clueless.

"About what?"

Privately he wondered which euphemism the ghoul would use. He and Hiroshi favoured "dietary issues" or "allergies", partly because Hiroshi sometimes claimed to have the latter as a way of avoiding human food without suspicion, with Ando backing him up with dramatic and completely fabricated tales of emergency trips to hospital if he was present, but there was quite a variety out there.

Meanwhile Hiroshi wondered if free coffee was worth putting up with this guy and continued his glaring.

"We're in public you dumbass. Please, please shut up before you say something that'll ruin everything."

Further conversation was interrupted by the arrival of the waitress with their coffee, which was accepted with polite, if less than genuine, smiles and thank yous.

Like his two companions Ando ignored the bowl of sugar cubes, what had started as a gesture of solidarity having long since become actual preference. Holding the hot cup somewhat gingerly, he blew on it to cool it while he waited to see what either of the two ghouls would do next, with the intention of following Hiroshi's lead.

After a few hours of walking almost aimlessly, Yuki stopped, sniffing at the air with a mixture of delight and despair. A human corpse was nearby, and it was just a few hours dead. Following his nose, albeit warily, he headed toward the enticing smell.

(Secluded part of the ward and all, probably gonna play it off as a murder victim or something. That cool with everyone?)

A small bell in the entry-way rang as Nikuya entered the bar, stretching his lengthy arms in the air with a tremendous yawn. The smell of this place was more than enough to guarantee it's quality.

"Nothing like a good cup of-oh crap." he murmurs softly to himself as his gaze lands solidly on Hiroshi and Ando.
He wasn't kidding either. Look at them, sitting together without a care in the world. No clue who that third guy is though. Nikuya gawked only for a moment before turning in as inconspicuous a manner as ghoulishly possible, he agreed to stay away after all.
he opened the door to leave- and was betrayed by that stupid bell a second time.
Crapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrap. What are the freaking odds of me running into this guy again anyway! Somebody up in heaven hates me.

Despite the strong aroma of coffee filling his nose, Hiroshi caught  a faint whiff of a familiar, ghoulish scent, specifically the one associated with Mr Breaking and Entering he'd spent several minutes memorising just in case. Frowning, he temporarily stopped glaring at Yuuki and looked around the room, his gaze quickly landing on a red head by the door.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me."

To be fair, he'd never seen the guy before so he only had Ando's description to go by; he wasn't even 100% sure that it was the same scent. Plus, whoever it was they appeared to be in the process of leaving.

Noticing that something had caught his friend's attention, Ando looked over his shoulder, only to quickly look away again when he spotted a very familiar red head by the door.

"Oh shit, it's him."

His friend's reaction was all the confirmation that Hiroshi needed.

"Oh for crying out loud. Please let this just be a coincidence. The last thing we need is someone stalking us or something."

Another thought occurred to him.

"Could Yuuki be working with him? Keeping us here until the other guy shows up? It'd explain a lot but on the other hand there are things which don't quite fit. Best not to jump to conclusions but not dismiss the possibility either."

Still bemoaning their luck and feeling more than a little paranoid, he set about the ever tricky act of keeping an eye on someone without being obvious about it.

The devious smile grows wider on Yuuki's face. "C'mon man the fact that he likes men! I've seen him around the bars I go to with my bros." He takes a long sip from his cup then frowns. "I forgot, I hate americano." Gulping down the rest of it, he fishes around his pocket for a wallet. Looking up, he sees their expressions towards the newcomer. "Whats with that dude?"

Despite the situation, both friends looked at him with expressions that translated as something along the lines of "what the hell."

"I think that you must have me confused with someone else."

Truthfully, Hiroshi was too busy being relieved that Yuuki hadn't said anything that would drop them in it and worrying about Mr Breaking and Entering to be particularly concerned about someone getting his orientation wrong or outright lying about it, but there are some things which you just don't allow to go uncorrected.

Ando nodded in agreement, privately praying to whatever deity had time for ghoul sympathisers that the red head hadn't noticed him or at the very least would leave without bothering them.

He looked up in response to Yuuki's question.

"He's just someone I had some trouble with recently that we'd rather not run into."

Technically true, but still something of an understatement.

Nikuya, from their perspective, seemed to slump his shoulders in resignation. No chance they'd have missed him this time around, and continuing as though nothing had happened would only ruin whatever scrap of dignity he had left.
He turned a second time, trying not to make an awkward situation worse by making eye contact, and sat at the bar side of the coffee shop. He waved down a worker and muttered something about a cappuccino to go.

Yucca calls over a waitress with a overly enthusiastic grin on his face, looking only a little bit faked. "You mind getting my friend over there the best coffee cake ya got? Tell em it's on the house, just add it to my bill or whatever you call it." Pointing at his new "friend", he waves to the guy kindly, as though he were an old acquaintance.

By bad luck, Ando was taking a sip of his coffee just as Yuuki ordered the coffee cake and consequently reacted by choking on it.

"Are you okay?"

Struggling to get his coughing under control, Ando nodded weakly.

"Is he trying to piss him off or something? Unexpected human food in a public place, I'm not sure if even Mr Breaking and Entering deserves that. Uh, I'm so dead. Looks like a ghoul might kill me after all but I never thought they'd be so creative about it."

While Ando was coughing and choking, Hiroshi gave Yuuki his best death glare. Was he hell bent on geting them in trouble or something? Free coffee didn't really seem worth it anymore.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

His tone was annoyed but his voice was quiet, so much so that even Ando would have trouble hearing him, although to someone who was sat next to him and had ghoul hearing he'd still be clearly audible.


(OOC: Hey, Live to Serve, why did Nikuya order a cappuccino? They've got milk in them.)