2007-06-23: Not That Kind of Good Time

Starring:

Randall_icon.gif Kitty_icon.gif Dorian_icon.gif

Summary: Two academics and a working girl, er, boy take a break from the grind. Charlie Andrews, you are not forgotten.

Date It Happened: June 23, 2007

Not That Kind of Good Time


Common Grounds, Midtown West, NYC

It's been a long day. Not particularly challenging - hawking magazines and papers basically just requires a warm body - but a lot of standing around, dealing with thick accents, that sort of thing. Randall mops his brow with a paper napkin as he approaches the counter, a spiral notebook and pencil tucked underneath one arm.

Kitty enters the shop with a novel in her hands and she smiles as she breathes in the smells of the coffee shop. She gets in line behind Randall and moves of strand of her hair out of her eyes. She looks at the choices above and squints her eyes as she thinks on what she wants to drink.

Randall moves up a step, accidentally dropping the notebook and bending down to pick it up. "Oh, sorry," he says as he bumps against your knee, then straightens up to get a better look at who he's speaking to.

Kitty backs up a little and looks down at you and smiles, "That's alright, I've been bumping into people too recently". She winks.

Randall tucks the notebook back into place. "Hard not to," he muses, "things are so crowded around here. Anything in particular?" He mouths a silent 'hang on a minute' to the cashier as the line moves forward again.

Kitty smiles and nods as she looks at the notebook, "What's in the notebook?" she inquires and her eyes catch the light as she becomes clearly excited to learn something new.

"This? Oh, some sketches I've been working on. Abstracts, nothing major." A lie, as it happens, but nothing sinister; he's just selective about coming off as a nutcase. "What about you?" he asks, nodding at what's in your hands. "Book club?"

"Oh this? Well I just love to read and I'm just getting into paranormal romances, they are an actual good genre of books". She smiles and likes that someone is taking an interest in her reading, "Are you going to order your drink?".

Randall nods, settling on a ham sandwich and a soft drink, then arches a brow. "I've heard of both of those apart, but together? What, is there a /lot/ of X-Files fanfic going around these days?" He steps aside to collect some napkins and let the stranger put her own order in.

Kitty snickers and orders a sandwhich with some coffee, "I never seen the X-Files? Is it a good show?", she steps over to you and takes some napkins as well.

Randall heads over to a table with an extra seat. "Well, if you're reading that, then you probably would," he offers. "It was still running till about five years ago… most people think it peaked earlier, though." (OOC: never seen it myself, so I'm relying on second-hand info here)

Kitty nods as she sits down and puts her novel to the side, "I'm Kitty", she holds out her hand with a smile.

"Randall," he introduces himself in turn, taking the hand for a moment. "Hi. Insert the usual teasing about the name here?" The notebook is leaned up against the wall, behind the napkin holder.

Kitty smiles and takes her hand, "I've heard it all, my favorite…"Kitty Kat, purr for me..". She laughs and runs a hand through her hair.

Randall purses his lips, working his way through the sandwich as he listens. "So did he call you back?" he asks.

Kitty shakes her head and takes a sip from her drink, "Nah I told him I purr for no one".

He shrugs and leans back. "Mixed signals? You said it was your favorite— that usually implies you'd at least give whoever said it the time of day."

Kitty bites her sandwhich, "I'm not very good at sarcasm, my cousins say that I shouldn't try it". She licks her lips and wipes her mouth with a napkin. "What do you do?".

"I'll take your word for it." That seems to satisfy his curiosity about the matter. "Odd jobs, mostly," Randall replies. "These days it's another sales gig. What about yourself?"

"English major at NYU, but I love to work on my sweet Lania at home, she's a black and red Ford Mustang". She leans back in her chair and places her hand on the table as she takes another bite of her sandwhich,".

Randall mmms. "I don't really keep up with cars myself, but I get why some people do. Lot of engineering goes into those things. I went to Berkeley, myself, up until a few years back."

Kitty leans forward, "Really? What was your major?".

"History," he admits, sounding sheepish about it. "Not that it's doing a lot for me lately, but… you go with what holds your interest, you know?"

Kitty nods and smiles, "Why hate what your doing when you can do what you love. That's why I'm not working at my mother's company, I would hate it".

Randall inclines his head. "It's not easy, sometimes— but yeah, you're right. What's her company do?" Absently, he reaches for the notebook and flips it open, peering at someone who just walked in and scrawling out a couple of wavy lines.

Kitty looks down at the notebook and looks off to the side, "Some company that makes everything from toys to kitchen applicances. I don't know much, mom wasn't always around, alway traveling".

"I can imagine," he says, pursing lips, "anything that general has to be a pretty big operation, just to keep up at all. Was your dad involved with it?"

Kitty shrugs, "Don't know him, just know his name is Bob. My stepdad Luke? He's a mechanic. What about your parents?".

Randall mouths a silent 'oh' and nods. "Housewife and plant manager. They always kept pretty busy, too." Another quick curve is added to the page before he sets it aside once again.

Kitty nods and puts a napkin on her plate as she is done with her sandwich, "Mind if I take a look?", she says motioning towards the notebook.

Randall hasn't quite taken his hand off of it yet, and nods as he hands it over. "Be my guest." It's not clear what any of it might represent, except for a couple of darker shaded areas that bend and intersect like streets.

Kitty looks through the notebook, "It's nice, I like trying to match up all the lines in my head and see what I end up with", she hands it back and then sighes as she downs the rest of her coffee.

Randall leans over and peers. "Match them up how?" he asks, taking the book back and setting it on top of the napkin container.

Kitty shrugs and twirls a finger through her hair, "I don't know..just match them up and make random images in my head, it sounds kinda weird huh?".

GAME: Kitty has rolled SEE BY ACCIDENT and got a result of MEDIOCRE.

Dorian has arrived.

Randall is sitting at a table off to the side, talking with Kitty. "I've heard stranger," he says to her. And seen a fair amount of it first-hand, he doesn't add.

A young man pushes open the door of the coffee shop and slowly walks in, his eyes are bloodshot from a lack of sleep and he makes his way over to the counter to order a coffee, black. He doesn't seem to bother to look for any no smoking signs and lights up a cigarette with his chrome lighter then sees Kitty out of the corner of his eye. He grabs his coffee and invites himself to sit down, giving the young lady a friendly kiss on the cheek, "Hey there, suga, long time no see," he says taking a sip of his coffee as he exhales smoke from his nose.

Kitty smiles at Dorian and hugs him, "Hey there! Where have you been? Oh by the way, Randall this is Dorian, one of best friends and Dorian this is Randall, a stranger I just met". Kitty beams and puts her empty drink to the side.

And Randall is somewhere in the middle, emotionally speaking: not perky by any means, but not worn down to the bone, either. "Kitty Kat?" he asks, even as he offers a hand to the new arrival.

Dorian grins, "Usual haunts, mostly the Village," he says and smiles to Randall, "Nice to meetcha, any stranger of Kitty's is a, umm, never mind," he says waving his hand through the air as if to erase his words from the air then reaches out to shake his hand. He takes another sip of his coffee and follows it with a drag from his cigarette before emptying out the sweetener caddy to use as an ashtray.

Kitty snickers at Randall, "Dorian would never call me Kitty Kat, he knows I hate that," she says and takes a sip of Dorian's drink, "Eww I forgot, you and your straight black coffee", she makes a face and wipes her mouth with a napkin, "Has anything interesting been happening?", she directs her question to Dorian but smiles at Randall to let him know that he is not forgotten.

Randall smiles faintly, nodding as if to acknowledge the gesture. Erase, erase, erase. Though he doesn't have any smokes of his own, he takes Dorian's in stride, finishing off his Coke while the others catch up a bit.

Dorian takes another long drink of his coffee, "Can't help it, I've been up for 18 hours. Besides I need to stay alert, gotta pay the bills." The cherry on his cigarette burns the paper away to ash, which he promptly flicks into the caddy while exhaling bluish smoke rings. "Besides I know a Kitty Kat, /he's/ much taller than little Kitty over here," he chuckles as he slouches down in his chair and slaps himself in the cheek trying to wake himself up. "As for anything interesting, well," he says rubbing the back of his neck, "Somebody told me those gnarly mosquito bites on the back of my neck, ain't mosquito bites. But I did meet that chick in Time Square, so I'm guessin' she was just yer typical junkie."

Kitty leans forward slightly and tilts her head, "What did she they were? And you know you can sleep at my place to get some rest, I don't like to see you all tired and dead, you know that". She ruffles Dorian's hair and smiles faintly.

Randall nods at the mention of bills, and smirks as the taller Kitty Kat is brought up. "I've heard some weird stories about rats before," he offers, "but mostly further down south. Something about the Gulf of Mexico agrees with their stomachs or something like that." Picking up a notebook sitting on top of the napkin holder, he leans it back against the wall before getting up for a refill.

Dorian laughs, "Yeah, somethin' about bein' tracked or somethin', sounded waaay too M. Night Shyamalan to me." Just as he puts out his first cigarette he pulls out another one and tucks it behind his ear, then looks over at Randall, "So, what yer story bud? Other than rat stories," he says looking back over at Kitty, giving her a nod of approval.

Kitty nods, "Sounds different..but come on…how long do mosquito bites stay on your skin?". Kitty plays with her fingerless gloves and smiles absently, "I met this guy today, and I think he was totally gay Rian! Heh, and he was a cutie. If I see him again, I'll tell him about you. You need a REAL man, not a minute one".

Randall arches a brow at Dorian as he heads back over, fresh dose of caffeine in hand. "Shyamalan? More like tinfoil hat conspiracy, sounds like. 'No more than two people may gather anywhere without permission!'" He grins as he sits back down. "Oh, nothing special, mostly odd jobs. Like I was telling Kitty earlier, a history degree's about worth the paper it's printed on, these days."

Dorian laughs as he starts to bounce his knee, "Romance don't pay the bills, suga," he says to Kitty then turns to Randall with a chuckle, "Tinfoil hats, fashionable and functional. A history degree? Well at least you are eligible for any job involving a paper hat." A smirk appears on his face as he pulls the cigarette from behind his ear and lights it up, blowing out a smoke ring from his first drag.

Kitty grabs a refill of her coffee and comes back and sits down, "It's good that he does what he likes though, I think at least," she sips her coffee and sighes in relief, "Now that is good coffee". She licked her lips and looks at Dorian, "How many times do I have to tell you hun, get another job. I love you, you know I do but come on, a nice strong man that can take care of you and show you a good time, and not THAT kind of good time would be good for you. I don't care what you say I am going to set you up on a date with him", she smiles in triumph and winks at Dorian after another sip of her coffee.

The 'minute man' line went over his head earlier, but this time Randall starts to clue in about what (who) Dorian may have been doing during his long hours on the job. He stays quiet about it, though. "You'd be surprised, actually, some places think you're overqualified. But there are still some who actually know what's up."

Dorian waves the trails of smoke out of in front of his face, "He does what he likes, I do what I like," he says, then looks into Kitty's eyes, "Besides, what else would I do with my, erm, talents? I don't think I would fit in on Wall Street. He finishes off his coffee and follows suit by getting a refill, although the thought of short-counting the barista crosses his mind, he decides against it. As he walks back over to the table he grins while sipping on his coffee, he recognizes the look of clarity on Randall's face and nods once.

Kitty sighes and looks at Dorian as if to say that they would talk about it later. Kitty looks about the crowd of people in the shop and just gazes off, spacing.

Randall shrugs at Dorian. No one's judging here. "Whatever leaves you enough spare time, right? Speaking of, I should probably get going myself— missed a stop last time, had to wait nearly an hour." Ah, the joys of public transit. "Nice running into you both, though."

Dorian stretches his arms his head as he sits his coffee down on the table, then relaxes taking another drag off his cigarette before putting it out halfway, "Nice ta meetcha," he says as Randall prepares to run off. He shudders a little as the lack of sleep starts to get the best of him, "Oh it's gonna be a long night."

Kitty smiles at Randall, "See ya later! Be safe!" she looks at Dorian and gets ready to suggest something but then stops.

Dorian takes another sip of his coffee, "It has been a slow week, barely a bite. I think I have a total of four hundred dollars to my name," he says as he looks over his coffee and obviously gawks at the gentleman leaving. He smiles at Kitty, "Not a bad catch though, good for you," he says winking at her.

Kitty smiles and laughs softly, "I'm not really getting the 'date' vibe from him. He is a nice guy though. I think I met someone that has a gift like us, I got a vision off oh her and she seems to have some funky whodoo that can make peopledo what she says or something, I'm not sure, but she freaked the hell out of me, when she told a woman to walk into traffic in Times Square and the other woman actually was trying to do it!", she whispers to Dorian and nervously plays with her gloves.

Dorians jaw drops, "That's fucked up, are you sure? Do you think it's like my pheromone deal, I mean I don't think I could make someone walk into traffic." He looks around the coffee shop then back at Kitty, "Maybe that's why that crazy chick said I'm bein' tracked, you don't think /we/ could do somethin' like that do you?"

Kitty pauses to think for a moment and looks at Dorian's shoulder, "I don't know, I mean my gift is only passive, yours is a more active power. I think the only way we can know what we're capable of is to use our gifts and strengthen them. Maybe we're being tracked cause we're dangerous? I don't know, but I am going to start keeping a file on my laptop of anything that happens involving people like us, maybe the crazy chick you met was like us to and was trying to warn you of danger. This can all be very confusing at times," she massages her temples and looks at Dorian.

Dorian shakes his head, "What happend to the good ol' days when you only had to worry about bein' raped and mugged?" he asks as he bangs his head against the table top three times. He looks back up at Kitty and shakes his head, "And people wonder why I don't like New York."

Kitty smiles at Dorian and rubs his head," Good ol days?", she shakes her head, "I love New York hun, always will. It's full of surprises and adventures!" She laughs and drains the last of her coffee, "So what esle is new? Where are you living?".

About this time, Randall wanders back into the coffee shop, shaking his head. "I should just shut up now," he muses out loud, "I talk about missing the schedule, and what do I go and do?" He stops by the counter and orders another drink, waving as he sees the others still hanging out.

Dorian takes a drink of his coffee, "A lovely little shit hole in Alphabet City, where the cops beat the bums and roaches eat the cops." He smiles as he sees Randall enter again, "The worst part about public transport here is that hitchhiking is usually safer." He relights his half of a cigarette and pulls his emergency Snickers bar out of his jacket pocket, taking a bite of it in-between drags. Classy.

Kitty shakes her head and bops Dorian over the head, "You know you can stay with me!", she looks at Randall and waves and smiles.

Randall shakes his head as he heads back over, cup in hand. "Don't need to tell me— I was driving a cab for a while. After about the /third/ time I got a window shot out, I decided to move the hell on already."

Dorian rubs his head, "Ow, you know I would but I wouldn't want to risk anyone pounding down yer door to find me." He takes another drag off his cigarette as the sugar from his candy bar works it's way into his blood stream. He looks over at Randall, "See, there must be somethin' in the water, other than the /favorite/ school yard game 'Smear the Queer', there really wasn't any violence back in Midland."

Kitty shakes her head at Dorian and she looks at Randall, "Cab drivers have it the worst around here,". She looks around the coffee shop as she leaves to get a refill of her coffee and some more food.

"I dunno," Randall says, sitting back down, "how big a city is Midland? Maybe it's just putting this many people together in one place, you're bound to get a few crazies somewhere in the mix."

Dorian laughs, "It's almost as big as this coffee shop, it's barely a village." He takes another sip of his coffee and yawns a little, "I think the worst thing that ever happened there was some waitress got her head slashed open, but that was after I came here."

Kitty bounces back over after getting her food and drink and pauses as she hears what Dorian said, "What waitress had her head slashed open?", she pops a chop into her mouth and bites into her tuna sandwich.

Randall shrugs. "Well, anyway, a town that small, that's another reason— pretty much everybody knows everybody else, right? Here, you can key a stranger's car and then probably never see them again, so some people are enough of a dick that that's exactly what they do."

"Sweet little thing, real good at her job, hell I never saw her write down an order and always got it right," he says to Kitty "even with as picky as I am. My mom told me that the waitress was workin' in the kitchen and somebody hacked off the top of her head." He finishes off the last drop of his coffee, "The messed up part is, nobody saw anythin'." He nods to Randall, "Yeah ain't nothin' worse than knowin' everybody's dirty lil' secrets, unless you know how to make a few bucks off of it. God bless capitalism."

"Sometimes knowing everyone's secrets isn't all the fun," Kitty says softly and takes a quick drink of her coffee. She puts her hair in a ponytail with a red hairtie and she plays with her sunglasses ontop of her head.

"Oh?" Randall chimes in, naturally not catching Kitty's true subtext. "Got dragged into some gossip here and there, huh?" As the waitress's story is told, he shakes his head and leans back, resting his spiral notebook in his lap. "Yeah, guess it would be all or nothing— anybody messed up enough to do something like that, dirty looks from the neighbors are the least of his worries."

Kitty smiles slightly and nods at Randall, "You don't even know the half of it,".

Dorian nods his head as he stands up and gives Kitty a kiss on the cheek, "I gotta run sweetie, you behave," he says then looks back at Randall, "And you don't encourage her to do otherwise," he says with a wink. He stretches one more tiem and lights up another cigarette as he heads out through the door blowing a kiss to Kitty.

Randall smirks at Dorian. "Who, me? I'm a harmless little fuzzball." The thing about straight guys is, you throw them a line like that and they're practically forced to go against it. It's like waving a red flag in front of a bull.

Kitty winks at Dorian and smiles, "What am I going to do with him?".

Randall waits till Dorian is safely out of earshot, then turns back, looking impish. "I don't know, you tell me," he teases.

Kitty rolls her eyes playfully at Randall and eats more of her sandwich and drinks more coffee, "How exactly are you getting home?".

Randall shrugs. "Well, in theory, there's supposed to be another pick-up in about twenty minutes— I just figured I might as well wait it out in here if I'm gonna wait. What about you, did you drive here on your own?"

Kitty nods and smiles as she talks about Lania, "Decided to take Lania out for a drive today and I'm so excited for when all the work on her is done, I-", Kitty's cell phone rings and she holds up one finger as she answers it. "Hello? Hey Dad, yeah I'm just at the coffee shop, do you need me?", there is a slight pause, "Alright I'll be right there", she clicks her phone shut and grins at Randall, "I gotta go help my dad with this car that he is fixing up. She gets up from the table and grabs her novel as she makes her way to the entrance of Common Gorunds, "I'll see ya around!" She smiles and waves.

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