[OPEN] [May 8th-10th] Busy Bees and First Impressions

[redshoerevenge]

 

a.  FISHING
Gipsy on the road again felt good, like she always did, with that purr and the hum of the open road.  It had been five years of the road in her blood, wild and free with a mission under her belt.  Mako might have been at the top of her class five years ago but the road had sharpened her to the finest of points.  But for now, she was leaving that behind and relaxing a little - or trying to, at least.  Fishing was one of those things that gave her a little breathing room, not to mention a good snack.  She had a nice fire pit lit and crackling behind her, the warmth at her back, a rod in hand and an empty bucket for her catches.

A sound, the rustle of bushes, that preternatural prickling at the back of her neck, told her she wan't alone as she pulled a decent sized fish from the water.

" If you are looking for lunch," she said quietly as she put the fish into a bucket, "let me catch another fish and we'll see about that.  Meanwhile, you may enjoy the fire."

b. COFFEE
It is difficult, sometimes, to get a cup of coffee that is truly good.  Mako stood in line at Cafe Poirot debating her choices.  It was like picking some sort of jewel out of a line up of the finest in the world.  The cappuccino was good, the machination was fantastic, the lattes were among her favourite and--  She turned to the person behind her at a loss.

"Which do you like from the menu?  I am debating on the latte but everything looks so good today."

c.  GARAGE
Far more than fishing, working with mechanics of any type makes Mako feel complete.  Anything with a motor, anything with gears, she knows how to put it together.  It's been like this her whole life.  Machines are an intrinsic part of her life, personal and professional.  Setting up her garage, her workspace, makes her stay official.

She's very much the newest member of Hillingdon House, now.

Mako even has a little sign that says: Gipsy Danger's Quick Fix.  Okay, so it's a borrowed garage and a borrowed workspace but it's off the road and she's had a shower - a long one.  It's real enough that she hopes it'll stick.  At the moment, Mako was working on restoring an old engine, which has been neatly disassembled and placed on a sheet as she went through each, cleaning them.  A noise makes her look up from her work and she stops what she's doing.

"Did you have something that needs to be fixed?"


d. WANDERING HILLINGDON HOUSE
New places are often difficult to navigate and getting the lay of the land is something that Mako had learned to do before truly settling anywhere.  She had been wary of it but in rather dire need as well.  She moved carefully, looking for the kitchen and hopefully some tea.  But mostly, she was just looking.  She turned the corner and nearly bumped into someone.

"I am so sorry!" she said quietly, backing up a little.  "I am Mako Mori and I am also very new to this place.  Is there somewhere that I may make tea?"

e. Wildcard; pick a situation and we'll roll with it.

Comments

B

[cabins]

Another day, another coffee, more stacks of hand-written essays on birds to grade. Thank goodness the holidays were fast approaching. She'd only been here a few months, but goodness, she needed that good old summer vacation.

"Hmm?" Laura's pushed out of her reverie by a young woman speaking to her. "Oh, I'm always partial to a chai latte myself. But you're right, everything is good here."

now I want a chai latte

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"I do not think that I have had a chai latte in a very long time," Mako says, her soft, polite voice heavy with her Japanese accent.

She glances up at the woman and her blue-streaked hair swings back a little against her jawline. Speaking of hair, the other woman's is beautifully done and such a pretty colour.

"I enjoy this place, it is very much like a detective novel come to life. It is very...quaint, perhaps is the word." Mako smiles a little dipping her head a little as she does so. "Is this a place you come to often?"

I had one!

[cabins]

Laura nods, looking around. "It does- though no, I don't come here much. But I try to make a point of stopping in whenever I am in the neighborhood." She smiles.

"Besides, I like to support local businesses."

me too, it was tasty mm oregon chai

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"That is a good reason to come, both of them are. I could, maybe, not come here so often but it is difficult to not go where they make your favourite drinks just right," Mako says, enunciating her words clearly without losing her thick Japanese accent. It comes out as earnest as she is.

"Is home far from here?" she asks curiously as the line moves up, finally. Maybe she will get a chai latte. It is sounding very tasty about now. Would it be gluttonous to get both a latte and a chai? It is a difficult choice.

I live on Nordstrom's chai. it keeps me sane.

[cabins]

Laura laughs a little, "Yes- I can understand that completely." Her smile is warm, encouraging, almost. This girl was impossibly polite. It was refreshing.

"A bit- I'm in Redbridge." She gestures airily. She'd thought it was best to start her life in London living in East End Pack territory. Far safer that way.

Yum!

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"Mm," there's a moment where it really does seem as if she's trying to track that area down by rote before she lets out a soft huff. "Ah! It is the place with many gardens. I do not think I have been that but I have heard that it is very beautiful. I prefer open areas, it is much easier to believe you are out of the city if you are wholly distracted by flowers and wild things."

Re: Yum!

[cabins]

"That I can relate to," Laura says. "I grew up in Upstate New York. Beautiful there, rolling hills and amazing autumns when you got past all the rain. I used to love going on walks through the woods. There are a few places I've discovered that have a similar effect."

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"I was in a place called Baldwin in this New York," Mako said, "a few years ago but it was very near the ocean. I visited a woman who had small boat dock on her property. The view was very nice and it was a quiet place to live, I imagine. I was not there long, though. It seems like it would be wonderful in other parts of that state."

She glanced at the woman curiously.

"Is the rain a terrible thing? I think it is wonderful, myself. I like to watch the storms come in to give the land water. It smells good when it comes and leaves, too, - earthy, alive, filled with new possibility."

[cabins]

"Baldwin, yes, I've been there. It really is beautiful. I'm glad you enjoyed my state." That was the sort of life she wanted, when she retired. A small cabin between two mountains, where it was quiet. Maybe with a lake or a stream.

"I like the rain well-enough. Just too much of it tends to be difficult. Though in New York, the rain was freezing most of the time, it seemed."

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"It is a very different sort of place than Japan or Anchorage in Alaska, Hong Kong as well. But I have travelled much in the last five years, though, it seems I shall be staying in London, now," Mako said thoughtfully and then let a soft smile touch her face.

"Sometimes," she said quietly, "I remember, as a child, the warm rain that came. I would stand out in it and get soaked but my father always has a towel ready for me when I came in." The memory made her smile with its bittersweetness. "He used to scoop me up in his arms and call me his little koi fish. He would tell me that someday I would make it far up the river into the mountains and when I reached the very top I too would become a dragon like in the legend."

She shook her head a little, the slices of blue hair that framed her face flashing brightly.

"I would settle for being a cat, I think," she said with a soft shrug. "They can be fierce, after all."

[cabins]

She listens, her attention rapt as Mako described her childhood. It sounds so idyllic, but the cover of nostalgia tended to change things.

"It sounds as if you love each other very much." It made her miss her own father. Her mother had died from breast cancer when she was young, so her father had been the one to raise the three Roslin girls. He'd done amazingly, she'd always believed. She wished she'd been able to tell him more.

The mention of a cat gets Laura to sniff, her eyes darting from side to side, because cat. She'd always liked them, truthfully. Maybe that was her witchy-side coming out, still.

"They can. Nine lives, all that."

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"We did and do," Mako said quietly. "I was ten when my family and I were in an accident on our way to Tokyo." She cannot forget the squealing, tearing sound of metal, or the crunch as something tore into the vehicle. Her red shoe in her hand, her sock wet, crying out for her parents. Mako watched the line, flicking her eyes away with a strange look as she diverted the memory. When she looked back her expression had settled to where it had been before.

"My godfather adopted me the soonest he could and so, Alaska, Hong Kong, military academy for me the soonest I could get in. The Marshal is as much my father as my own father was even if he is not blood-related. The lessons he has taught me have helped me more than he will know."

Make drew a breath and nodded.

"So far, I think this will count as my second life. There is much to it that is new, even if this is not my first visit to London. I did not stay long the last time but this time will be different, I hope."

[cabins]

"Oh. Oh my-" she, too had lost her family in a car crash, though she'd been miles away at the time. Her sisters and her father- and her unborn niece, worst of all, had all been gone in the blink of an eye.

"I'm very glad you had your godfather to look out for you." Odd that she referred to him as The Marshal, but it's not that uncommon in military families. This Mako confirms by mentioning the traveling, the academy. Yes, she certainly was an army brat.

"We're in the same boat, it seems. I've only been here a few months. I'm truly enjoying my time here, however."

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"I would not be who I am today if not for him. He is as much my father as the one I lost." Mako smiled and nodded, folding her hands neatly in front of her as the line grew shorter. It was always worth the wait, always.

Her laugh was very soft.

"It is a small boat on a large ocean," Mako said. "I am here in London for him and I have not been here all that long. He is terminally ill and has, perhaps, months left. He wishes me to continue the investigation of my family's roots so that I may make him and my ancestors proud. Knowing him, he will not leave until he is ready."

Mako was silent for a long while and then made a soft sound and she looked down, her blue-streaked hair falling to frame her face as she apologised. It was the truth, though. She was losing her second father and it was as if the world was splitting again into a yawning breach, taking him somewhere she could not follow.

"Life brings us many things," she said a moment later, glancing back up at the woman almost shyly, "even in coffee lines where people share tiny boats with familiar baggage. I am pleased to meet you. The city is not quite as large as it was a moment ago."

[cabins]

"I'm sorry to hear that," Laura says in the silence, reaching a hand out to gently touch the girl's shoulder. "I lost my mother to cancer when I was young. It's incredibly hard, and you're brave to try it in a new place." Her smile is sympathetic.

There's a sparkle in Laura's eyes. "It does. I'm pleased to meet you as well. I'm Laura Roslin." She extends a hand. Now they can be friends.

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"Everywhere is new," Mako says wryly, "when you are in it without your parents." She understands though and it is never an easy thing to live with loss be it family or friend. The relationships that one has when they are young, these things, they shape who a child will become.

She is a survivor, a brave warrior, and never, ever, a victim of anything.

"I am Mako Mori," she say with a soft smile, taking the woman's hand in a grip that was neither too loose nor too tight. If her hand stays there for a moment more than it ought to have, Mako's expression makes it clear that she is a bit struck by, well, the entire conversation and their similarities. She does let go, though, just in time for her to order.

She winds up ordering the chai latte and waits for Laura, looking smaller than she is as she leans up against the wall.

[cabins]

Without your parents, or without her magic, Laura couldn't help but to make the comparison. Magic had been a friend, part of her entire life. She'd gone so long as one thing. And now, here she was. Something else entirely.

"It's lovely to meet you, Mako," Laura says. When it's her turn to order, she opts for the same chai latte. She doesn't expect Mako to wait, but she finds herself pleasantly surprised when the younger woman remains nearby.

"Shall we get a table?" She asks, pointing to one in the sunlight.

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"Please," Mako says. "That is a good one, the sun is always so nice in a spot like that. I enjoy it very much and in London, such sunny days seem far rarer than they should be."

Mako takes her seat and pulls herself up close to the edge of the table until her chin is over her drink. Her hands warm against the sides of the cup and there is still a glimpse of the content little girl she once had been.

[cabins]

She's absolutely adorable, and Laura knows she shouldn't think that about a grown woman, but there's something so innocent to her contentment in the moment. Laura takes the moment herself to let the warm smell of chai waft over her.

"They are. I like to savor the sun while I can."