At work, again

[Desdemona]

Des sighed, smiling to herself as she brewed the first pot of coffee for the morning. The early birds will be flocking in soon, wanting that free morning coffee cup. In her light blue skirt and white blouse, Des prepared the counter with empty mugs. Her co-workers wandered in and smiled. All the girls wore the same thing - A blue sort of Alice-In-Wonderland dress with a half apron that was hemmed with lace. The apron was white, though by the end of the day it was usually stained by coffee, tomato sauce, or other various food groups.

"Where you been, Des?" The Lion-manager asked curiously as he came around the counter, putting on his apron and preparing to cook.

"Maternity leave." Des told him and showed him a small picture of Lakhea as a baby. "She's so cute. My boyfriend wouldn't let me leave the house until I was ready and well." she lied, but no one noticed. The girls all cooed over the picture - until the morning rush all came in. Most of them, as mentioned before, were early birds - literally. Bird demons of all sorts were comming in and sitting at tables and counter tops all around the rather large diner. Des happily took orders, ran them into the kitchen on a wire and poured coffee. This would go on until 10 in the morning, then the lunch people would come in with their large tips which she would quickly and easily pocket under her apron.

She loved this job, yet she didn't really need it. The friends she made during this job, they were ok, but she kept her disance as she usually did.

As the lunch crowd died down, Des decided to take her break then because the dinner crowd wouldn't be in until a few hours from now - now being about 3pm. The other workers closed shop, but kept the door unlocked in case someone wandered in. The other workers would leave Des here, knowing full well that she could handle a few wanderers inbetween the special hours. So Des sat on the the stool infront of the counter and made herself a burger and a mug of coffee, pouring sugar into it. She smiled as she dressed up her burger with lettuce and mayo.

[Kale]

With the rush hour gone now, and the traffic outside down to a bare minimum, and school all over town and in areas near by were letting out, allowing the students to go home, or wherever else they would please – more or less to get them out of the hair of the teachers, by now gone bibbidly over the stress and absolute insanity that ensued during schooling hours.

Conversations wafted through the air outside the window, almost inaudible, though one in specific seemed to grow louder – muted and muddled by the door and the front window – until the door swung open and closed with a comical ‘whomp’, something that sounded sucked right out of a video game.
”So, you know that crazy old man that lives in the house behind us?” The first figure that would have come into focus was a boy, who was bordering adulthood, perhaps in the range of seventeen or eighteen. ‘Audio’ was scribed across the single strap of his book bag in silver sharpie, the handwriting messy and typical of some teenage boy, let alone some messy punk rocker; classified under the amateur section, in means of talent. Both his car seat styled belt and skate shoes, not to mention the patches sewn with lack of TLC to his bag, were decorated with black and white checkers, and his shirt held the classic anarchy symbol scribed across it in a sketch style done with red ink.
Well rounded in the question of physical form, Audio Sinclair was technically the oldest member of his odd ball ‘family’, currently headed by one lonely lady who’d adopted half a baker’s dozen of children – at least one of them couldn’t be counted as a child, or as a being of human or demonic qualities at all – and had only two of her own; the girl that walked in along behind him being one of them.

It took her a moment to comprehend what he was saying, seeing as Audio lived with them now, and there was no crazy old man living near their house. Oh, apparently he meant his old house, back when he lived with his parents rather than with their rag-tag band of relocated orphans. The fact he’d not yet switched his use of words in relation to family and home life irked her sometimes, but Rai let it slip with a casual, “Mmmhmm?”
Rai was, by standards when compared to the children of the Maelstrom family, girly. She wore jeans that fit well and showed off her natural curves, fitted tank tops with spaghetti straps – the kind most preppy girls wore – and worst of all, on most days she wore flip-flops. Not those annoying five dollar Wal*Mart brand plastic ones, the kind that caused mayhem with their annoying flopping noises. Hers were fabric for the most part, olive green and brown, comfortable, and easier to slip on than sneakers. Her tail swished around her skinny, almost willowy legs, long and slim, with a lightning bolt-styled shape at the end, flat and yellow and very handy for slapping things with.

“Well, it turns out my old man cut it down.” Audio stated, reopening the door and holding it open for the third member of their party who had, before, been lagging behind.

The boy who entered now was of obvious Hindu decent, dictated by the tint of his skin, and the small amount of traditional flare he wore paired with his basic collared shirt and well fitted, clean cut jeans. A few golden bracelets jingled on his left wrist, the sound apparently pleasant to his large ears that twitch from beneath his floppy newspaper boy styled hat, while his right sported a large, bulky digital watch that displayed the time in green numbers across a grey screen. His tail was just a large floof of black fur, which seemed to match well with his hair, similarly black, and rather floofy itself, having an odd natural wave to it.

Rai whipped her head around to look at Audio, her jaw dropping open slightly, and her cinnamon-brown hair flinging out of her face, some of it falling out of her cute little bun that was tied up behind her ear. “Oh my god, you’re kidding?!”

“Not even the best part,” Audio assured her, chuckling and holding up his hands to stop her before she started on some banter he wouldn’t be able to avoid, blowing a piece of razored and dyed black and white hair out of his own face. “It fell on the guy’s house.”

The girl seemed even more shocked, looking a little odd standing there in the doorway with her triad and seeming more and more out of place by the minute. It was then that they seemed to realize Des was sitting there, eating, while they were standing around like idiots. Obviously, they were hungry if they were here – correct.

“Oh, erm, hello,” Rai stated then, rubbing at the back of her messily done up hair, her odd ears twitching almost nervously. “Sorry if we’re disturbing your break or anything.”



((*lost train of thought* There was supposed to be more, but... like.... my brain died again D: ))

[Desdemona]

((GOOD! x-x))

Des began to listen to the conversation, had been since they left school. IT was one of her favorite hobbies to do. Listen to the MAelstrom kids' thoughts as they left school. She'd often send warnings to Kale about who had gotten in trouble and who needed to get into trouble for they hadn't been caught. Things like flinging crap to making fun of the teacher, she'd heard it all. But these new three, she didn't quite know them well, And they were new to her, so why not listen in? She listened to them and soon realized that they were behind her. She spun around in her stool and stood up, dusting crumbs off her apron.

"Oh, hello! Come to get an after school snack?" She asked, smiling kindly at the three as she finished her mouthful. Des carefully made her way around the counter and banged on the bell for the cook to wake up. "Oi, Charlie! We got customers!" She called into the kitchen. There was a large crash and a jolly man appeared over the counter. He gave a warm smile and disappeared behind some large appliances as Des turned to the three of them, hiding her burger on a stood on her side of the counter.

"What can I do for you, kids?" Des asked. "Three milkshakes? Anything sweet for my sweeties?" She giggled, her tail wagging. It really did please her when kids came into the shop. Unlike most demons, Des loved kids, especially teens. She loved interacting with them because they were easy to make smile. "Anything you want?" She asked again

[Kale]

Both Rai and Sanjaya offered a smile in reply to Des' obvious enthusiasm towards their appearance at the cafe, as so many adults lacked any sort of joy in seeing children of any age past the years the mumbled and stuttered out their silly little sentences.
Annoyed with his adopted sister interrupting his story, Audio seemed less intrigued and stood there looking just a little bland - almost oddly so, almost zombie like, rather blah at the moment now.
Sliding onto a stool, Rai smiled at Des and nodded. "Sure, I'd love a milkshake." Sanjaya slid into the seat beside her, and Audio slid in beside Sanjaya, letting his bag fall to the floor with a 'thump.'
"Same here," the Hindu boy stated, nodding his head up and down and letting his bracelets jingle down his arms as he folded them before him, leaning on his hands which rested on his elbows. "And.. uhmm... what kind of sweets do you have? Any eclaires or-"

"Meat?" Audio questioned, blinking a few times. "Do you have any burgers, kinda like the one you were just eating?" He raised an eyebrow quizically, his ears twitching along with the antenna ears that fell in large arcs by his head. "I'd like one of those, and a milkshake."

Sanjaya sighed, picking up where he left off, " cakes?"

[Desdemona]

Des pulled out her pad, writing down two milkshakes and knocking on the wall. "Hey, Charlie? What kind of sugary goodnesses do we have today?" She called back, looing over her shoulder at the window.

Charlie didn't pop out again, but called. "We got a fresh delivery of cakes and pastries, so we got the entire list and then some!" He then laughed his deep laugh and the grill could be heard sizzling at the mention of meat.

"Yeah, we got a ton of meat. You want the same kind I have here?" Des asked, flashing her burger to Audio and smiling as she wrote down burger with works on her pad, then looked to Sanjaya. "And what would you like? Name your pastry, Charlie can make it up for ya."

Des was so happy now, her tail wagged. Charlie, who had heard the order popped up finally and handed Des two chocolate milkshakes, who in turn handed them to Sanjaya and the girl. "Hun, did you want one as well, you didn't specify." Des glanced at Audio. She'd noticed his stare, but really didn't pay mind to it at all, having to equalize her attention to all three of them at once.

[Kale]

Sanjaya leaned back a little, keeping his balance on the stool as he pondered what exactly he'd want to eat. He opened his mouth, about to speak, when Rai piped up over his non-existant words.
"Don't you dare order one of everything, I don't have the money for that."
With his sweet tooth, for the most part, foiled, Sanjaya closed his mouth and thought again. "Alright, alright, I'll just have a few eclaires, if that would be possible."

Audio's ears perked up a little at Des' answer, and he smiled; though it appeared to be more of a smirk than anything else. "Yeah, just like that, thanks a bunch."
Taking the milkshakes that had been given to her, Rai smiled and thanked Des before sipping idly at it, as Audio spoke up once more. "Yeah, sure. I'll have one of those two. Though, do you have 'em in strawberry?"

"For someone who claims to be a tough guy," Sanjaya began, sipping at his drink before looking over at Audio, " you sure like your strawberry frou frou drinks."

"Do not!"

"Your bag is full of strawberry Tab. That is one of the girliest drinks on the market."

"Yeah, and they're supposed to be mine," Rai interupted her adopted brothers' conversation, frowning at the two of them, but more so at Audio as she leaned forward to look around Sanjaya. "So, you're the one drinking all my energy drinks?"

[Desdemona]

Des chuckled, and rolled her eyes. She rang the bell, calling out to Charlie. "One strawberry milkshake, one burger supreme with everythin on it, and three eclairs!" Des smiled as Charlie called out. "Three? Who's eaten the three eclairs?" He called, almost baffiled. "I can't even eat three of these in one sitting!" Des laughed, and shook her head, turning to the new children. Sitting down carefully, picking up her burger, Des smiled at the three. "So, are you all siblings?" She asked, a sparkle in her eye at the thought of meeting new people. They smelled wonderful, and she wondered if they could tell that she wasn't 17.

That was another thing Des did. In order to go to work, she had to be 17 years of age, just so that she didn't feel like one of those women who live in trailers with the one kid and who HAVE to work at diners. She didn't want that labeled on her, so she changed her age to go to work. Fooled a lot of people, that way in fact.

She smiled at her little secret behind the burger that she now held up and bit into, casually leaning on the counter, conversing with these teens.

[Kale]

At the siblings question they all sort of paused, froze, became unnaturally still and seemingly unsure of themselves. Rai looked at her two male companions before looking back to Des, clearing her throat to stop the awkward silence and begin to answer the question. "Well, you see, technically yes and technically no. They're my brother's by law; adoption, actually. My mother adopted both of them-..." the girl paused, her long tail flicking gently from side to side, as she stopped herself before the conversation got sitcky.

Audio looked at Rai from his end of the counter, a small glare in his eye, though it faded as he realized she wasn't going to continue. Clearing his own throat he turned back to Des, the piercings in his lip getting caught in the light and flashing lightly as he looked back to her. "Yup. We're all adopted - cept Rai. She's the only one that our 'mother' actually had."

[Desdemona]

Des raised an eyebrow. "Oh dear, I hit a sore spot, didn't I?" She asked, ears going back. She looked a little worried. "I'm sorry, I was just asking..." Des looked at the three for a while, in the awkward silence, then blinked. "But.. why's that such a bad thing?" She asked before she could even stop herself to think about what she was asking. Des right then wanted to slap herself accross the face for asking that question without warning - but her curiosity was just too great! Sitting as still as she could, Des eyed the three of them again, looking apologetically at them.

[Kale]

"It's not such a bad thing," Sanjaya stated, smiling at Des. "Just an awkward thing to have to talk about, really. Nothing big." The boy played with his bracelets a moment before giving a small laugh to ease the air around him - mainly the air that was passing between Rai and Audio, of which he was in the middle of.

After a moment Rai smiled brightly, laughing herself. "Don't sweat it, no harm done. You just wanted to know, I shouldn't have gone into detail. I have a huge mouth, unfortunatley, and just blather on about personal details that no one should know about. Like the fact that-"

"OKAY! That's enough!" Audio stated, reaching around Sanjaya and slapping his hand over Rai's mouth. "Whatever you were going to asy you're going to regret in a while, so just.... shush."

When his hand was moved from her mouth Rai turned back to Des, offering a sheepish smile as she blushed. "Heh. Sorry. Anyways...uhm... so, where do you go to school? I haven't seen you around before..."

[Desdemona]

Des looked at one in turn as they spoke, now relieved that they weren't mad at eachother or at her - that's a very good thing. Des' ears perked up when she realized that they were talking to her. "Oh... I don't go to school." She told them, and smiled gently and gave a small shrug. "I'm self taught." She explained, and told them that she lived with her very large family, some of which went to school with them, some of which never stepped outside the house and some of which... well... traveled, really. She didn't tell them though about exactly WHO her family was, or that she was royal or anything - no. She wanted a new life to go by... and maybe this was her chance to start over again. She could pull off the part - I mean, she died around this age and never really grew older in mental awareness sooo... Just maybe...

Then Vatale came to her mind, and she had to pause that train of thought before it got out of hand.

[Kale]

The three of them listened to what Des had to say with some bit of interest, although Audio did seem to zone in and out of concious state of mind throughout her explaination; not a side-effect of her speech or story, more of a rebound effect of his single track mind and short attention span.

"Our family is similar, in a way," Sanjaya piped up, his ears twitching gently. "We're all very much different, mainly because we're all adopted, except Rai of course. Leaves alot of room for personality differences."

Rai nodded at that, smiling softly to herself more than anything. "I would say you're lucky, but our mother wouldn't do so well with homeschooling. She's got her heart in the right place, but she tends to hit the drinks a little too hard some nights, and is a bit of a screwball." It was true. Their mother was kind of a basketcase, like Kale x 498693406853. Not to mention that fact that their mother did, infact, drink, and most days forgot how many children she had, where they were, or forgot to pick them up from school... etc etc.

[Desdemona]

Des tilted her head in interest, looking at Rai very curiously. Worse than Kale, hmm? ~I wonder if I could do anything for them..~ She thought, her tail swinging back and forth behind her.
"Well, sounds like your mom's going through some hard times, no?" Des asked, now more comfortable with what she was saying. She seemed to be more interested in what Rai was saying than the other two - her eyes sparkled lightly, staring right into Rai's, watching for hints of a troubled child or someone in need of help. The usual. Then after Rai would finish talking, she knew she'd look at the other two and take a look into their souls. Plus, this was the natural born into the family - she should know a lot about her own mother. Maybe not know, but Rai must have seen things that she knows it wrong, right?

[Kale]

Right, wrong, right, left, up, down, either way Rai didn't seem to be spilling much of anything. A few flickering memories - a ballet class full of little girls and eagerly watching parents, one single seat in particular standing out by it's lack of occupancy. Midnight bumps and thuds on the lower floors of the house accompanied by drunken laughter - but more than those flashing flickers, poorly cut together movie strips of memory, Rai didn't seem to have much more on her open mind or even on the first few layers of her subconcious.
As she seemed to realise Des was staring at her, a little too intesly for the girl's liking, Rai turned her eyes down to the counter - breaking the instant eye connection that had been going on between them. "Yes, she's been through hard times. She's good for the most part, like I mentioned a little forgetful; sometimes at the worst of times. But she tries, that's all I can ask for." Sighing Rai rested her cheek on the palm on her hand, supported by her elbow that leaned on the counter. "Can't say I had a childhood different from most normal people."

[Desdemona]

Des smiled gently at Rai. "Well, if you're really happy, Rai." She said, nodding as she took a large bite out of her burger. The memories stuck in her mind, drawing them in and soaking in all the information, calculating and speculating that Rai couldn't be all that happy... No, not happy, but used to these actions or maybe even just bored of it.

Des then turned to Audio and smiled. "So what's your story? How did you obtain your name?" Des asked as she smiled kindly and innocently at Audio. Charlie came 'round front and handed Des a strawberry milkshake which she took gratefully and sipped deeply. Extra-thick. Just how she liked it.

[Kale]

Rai blinked at Des, almost a suscpicious look crossing the girl's face as she nodded in response to Des's half-questioning statement. "Relativley. Life could be better but I don't have too much to complain about. I'm almost eighteen, and I'll probably move out then - well, maybe. I don't know." The girl sighed, tracing an imaginary circle on the counter top. "Audio, Sanjaya and I were planning to pack up and head out, but I'm not sure if mom'll need me or not. I'd feel bad for leaving if she ended up needing help and all..."

"I was born with it, that's how," Audio replied, reaching down and over towards his bag; most likely to get one of the drinks that was in there, the kind brought into the discussion earlier on.
Unfortunatley just as his fingertips brushed the strap of the bag, it was jerked away. "Hey!"

The long and cord-width tail slithered back towards it's owner with it's prize, the flexible end of the tail unzipping the bag and sliding inside. "Oh, please, get over it," Rai muttered, her tone somewhere between bored and teasing. "They're my drinks anyways, not yours, you shouldn't have them in the first place."

Audio's face scrunched up as he threw Rai a glare before turning back to Des. "I was adopted, and that's really all there is too it. Sanjaya here was shipped here in a box," Audio stated, patting his brother on the back.

Wether the spew of milkshake that nearly flung out of Sanjaya's mouth - a good bit of it dribbled out from the cracks in fingers as he flung his hand up to stop the flow - was from the statement or Audio patting him on the back was really quite obscure, but Sanjaya seemed taken aback either way. "I was not shipped in a box! How many times do I have to tell you, I'm not a mail order little indian kid like you can get from China," He stated, a little high pitched with almost a sound of whining to it in response to what Audio had to say.