Currently the moon is in the waning Gibbous Moon phase (69% full).
Currently in Saint Claire, it's a sunny day. The temperature is 56 degrees Fahrenheit (13 degrees Celsius). The wind is currently coming in from the northeast at 5 mph. The barometric pressure reading is 30.36 and falling, and the relative humidity is 42 percent. The dewpoint is 33 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius.)
Garcia's Pizza Parlor
The first thing some people notice when they step into this room is the noise: almost always there is some sort of noise, of music or conversation or the employees in the back, cooking. Others see the lights, harsh yellow-white over the counter and on into the kitchen in the back, a dimmer, indeed faint glow above each of the tables scattered around. No matter which sense is first engaged by the room, almost all soon are captured by the smell of pizza; the smell pervades the place, an aroma of melted cheese, cooked tomato sauces, various meats, vegetables, all subtle, yet all blended together into the overwhelming smell. The smell tells the customer that, despite the less-than-classy look of the restaurant, the product is, undeniably, almost guaranteed to be good.
(Type +view for details.)
In the corner near the door is a trio of video games and a soda machine. Scattered around the room are several tables; lining the back, the counter on which the pizzas are put before they are picked up.
J.C. ducks in out of the cold, her nose and cheeks red, the former especially. She snuffles back snot and looks around blearily for a moment before shuffling over toward the counter. Her hands dip into her coat pocket and come up with a crumpled dollar bill and a multitude of change, mostly pennies. This she dumps on the counter near the register and starts counting it out. "Gotta be 'nuff fer soomethin' hot here," she remarks, as much to herself as to the person behind the counter.
Renee make her way into the parlor, shoulders hunched and hands stuffed into her pockets. Some of the patrons look at her, then just as quickly look away. Its just another bum, with a fistfull of change, looking for a meal.
Anneka wrinkles her nose a bit, squints as she glances up at the dark-haired girl. There's nothing hostile about the expression, really, and it fades as she reaches up to brush her hair away from sharp green eyes. Something curious in those eyes, but it's balanced by a quick smile. "Sure. Hi. I'm Annie." The book's about-- something. Sealife. Lots of pictures.
A few sets of eyes are already rolling heavenward amoung the pizza parlor's employees as J.C. finishes counting. "That's 'nuff fer a slice from one'a them cheese ones, yeah?" She sniffles and, in glancing toward the door, spots Renee. She gives the girl a crooked-toothed grin. "Hey, it's you. Right? Fuck, yer /bigger/."
Raven's attention remains on the four giant slices of pizza she's balancing, the chair in front of her that she tugs on, Anneka's book, and Anneka. "'M Raven," comes the reply in a heavy British accent. She squints at the book again, grin widening as she sits down. "The pizza's not all for me," she suddenly adds, gesturing to the German Shepherd outside. "That's for Baron."
Anneka looks around Raven at the grubby kid near the door, leaning with no real effort to hide that she is. She waves, once, then sits back. "I saw him outside when you came in. 's too bad Mama Garcia doesn't 'low dogs in."
Renee grins at the other shabbily dressed woman. "We all gotta start growin' sometime," she rumbles. The Gnawer lifts her head and looks around, eyes eventually landing on Anneka. Ah! Someone to mootch off of.
J.C. wipes at her runny nose, still grinning. "Heh, knew there was somethin' I was forgettin'." She turns back to the counter-person and pushes the collection of sidewalk-currency toward the register. "It's enough, innit?" When the pizza-youth nods, J.C. wipes her nose and gestures toward the displayed menu. "Slice'a cheese, then. And, uh, water's free, right? Gimme a glass'a that, too." As the counter-person rings up the order and goes off to fill it, J.C. turns back to Renee. "So, what'cha been up to?"
Renee shrugs. "Notta much. Wanderin' here and there, finding some neat stuff occasionally. People keep throwing away and loosin' stuff that still good." Once again, the filthy girl glances at Anneka and the food at her table. Wonder who that girl with her is?
Raven turns around in her chair to see who Anneka greets, a bite of pizza in her mouth. She works her way around the cheese with effort, struggling to speak. "You know her?" she asks of the philodox. Her tone of voice lacks disgust, merely sheer wonder. It's not an opinion that she can smell Renee from where she sits. If even vaguely.
Anneka, for a moment, looks immensely curious, an expression that sharpens her eyes and her features, stills her motion as she moves her stuff around, enough to give room for Raven to spread the pizza out. Certainly, she's looking at the two women, one runny-nosed, the other filthy. "Uh-huh," she says. "I do." The book's open to a picture of a sea urchin.
J.C. reaches under her coat and scratches at an armpit. Her concept of personal hygiene is about on par with Renee's. "S'what people do. Nothin' changes."
Renee slings the backpack she is wearing round front and unzips it, as she begins to dig around inside. J.C. catches sight of a tupperware container, a pencil case, and a badly beaten sketch book. From the bottom the bag, she pulls out a change purse and takes a look inside.
Raven looks about to speak, but lets her gaze drift onto Anneka's book instead. With her appearance as loud as it is, she looks remarkably smaller than she is when mute. She studies the sea urchin intently, chewing, chewing, chewing.
J.C. wipes at her runny nose and snuffles. She glances behind the counter, where the pizza people seem to be taking their time, and looks back to Renee. "So, y'sittin' anyplace in partic'lar, tablewise?"
The book is rather canted towards someone younger than the sandy-haired woman. By a good deal. But there are quite a lot of pictures, and it looks informative enough. The sea urchin looks like a sea urchin. Anneka gives Raven a bit of a look, follows her gaze down to the urchin and back. She grins. "Library book." There's a little tag on the spine, when she lifts it up.
Renee isn't all that sucessful at begging, her high Rage driving off those who would normally be sympathic toward such a young girl. Her purse is decidedly thin and mostly filled with pennies. "Naw." The depressingly thin purse is droped back into her knapsack.
J.C. spots the other gutter-rat's lack of coinage and wrinkles her bony nose up in sympathy. "Y'can share wit' me," she offers, in a easy, matter-of-fact kind of way.
Raven nods, bluntly eyeing Anneka more carefully this time, as if -- naw, this can't be her usual reading material. "'S'a echinus esculentus," she says after a pause in bite. "...Uhm...edible kinda sea urchin. Think dog'd taste a bloody good deal better, myself. D'ya ever read the Zoo books? I used to go through 'em over and over again when I was a kid."
Renee gives her head a shake and Anneka gets another quick glance. "Naw. Go sit down. Got someone here who is usally willin' ta spare a little food. I sit with ya after I check with her."
J.C. follows Renee's gaze over toward Anneka, and squints at both the sandy-haired girl and her table-mate for a moment. Then she nods to Renee. "Roger wilco," she says. Her pizza's come up, glass of water sitting next to it on the plastic tray. She grabs both and shuffles over toward a booth. It's not that far from Anneka's, though not right next to it.
Anneka pulls her legs up, heels clunking on her chair. Her shoes are scratched and blocky, look like she's been walking through mud in them. Probably has given what the cuffs of her jeans look like. "I guess." She looks over the top of the book at its cover, as if there might be an offhand chance that this is one. "Nope!" She grins. "I haven't eaten too many of them. Mostly fish an' crabs an' clams. Stuff you can catch from the beach." She gives Renee a quick grin, as the girl starts over this way.
Renee makes her way over to Anneka's table, draging the knapsack behind her. "Hey Anne. Ya got any food ta spare, or money so I can get somethin'?" Question asked, the grubby girl looks over at Raven. "Allo. Who are you?" Despite her obvious youth, the girls' voice is rough and gravely.
Anneka looks at the half-a-pizza on her plate, furrows her brow, then over at the coat bundled up on a chair next to her. "Think I've got some money, maybe." She sniffs, once, rubs her nose, then starts rummaging around in coat pockets. A handful of pennies end up on the table, a quarter, a bottlecap-- "Somewhere."
From afar, to the room, Raven gahs. You've got to be kidding me. Someone needs the phoneline...just say Raven's dog started causing a ruckus, and she goes out to take care of the mess? Apologies all around. x.X
J.C. hunkers down over her slice of cheese pizza and digs in. She picks it up by the crust and eats it backwards, taking small, quick bites.
Renee shrugs. "S'Okay. I'll get somethin' later."
Anneka grins, sharp as she finally turns up a dollar, then another. They look like they've been doused at some point, but there you go. She passes the money and the handful of coins and even the bottlecap to Renee. "Should be more'n 'nough for pizza." She blinks as the dog tied up outside starts barking, and Raven heads out to see what's up.
J.C. glances up only briefly at the barking and Raven's departure, then returns her attention to nibbling at her pizza. Though she doesn't linger over her food, the small bites she takes makes for a slow disappearance.
Renee bares her teeth in a quick grin, as she statches up the money. "Thanks. I owe ya." Prize in hand, she makes her way over to the counter and orders a slice of cheese pizza. When the food arrives, she picks it up and heads over to J.C.'s table.
Anneka pulls her shoulders into a shrug, settles down to gnaw on the end half of her pizza. "It's okay," she says. The Galliard's friend gets a curious glance now, a quick grin. "Hey. I'm Annie," she says, loud enough to be heard over the restaurant's din. The tables aren't close enough for easy conversation.
J.C. swallows and looks up. She peers blearily at Anneka for a moment, and then returns the grin with one of her own, the signature J.C. grin, broad and crook-toothed and friendly. "Jenny," she responds. "Jenny C. J.C. fer short."
Renee crawls into the seat next to Jenny, while her knapsack and pizza are deposited on the table. She takes a huge bite out her pizza, chewing and swallowing in rapid succesion.
J.C. takes another few small bites of pizza, pausing between them to lick greasy, dirty fingers. "Y'doin' okay then, kid?" she asks Renee.
Renee chews on her pizza, checks bulging from taking too large a bit. "Huh-huh," she mumbles past the food in her mouth.
"Y'heard of anybody disappearin' lately?" J.C. asks after another bite. "Y'know, street people? Was some a while ago. Ain't heard it happenin' recently, though."
Anneka finishes up the rest of her pizza, crust and all, and thumbs up a few crumbs from her paper plate. She doesn't seem to care that her fingers are smudged, crescents of dirt under the nails. The pizza across from her, left behind by the young woman with the dog, get a glance. She sits up a bit, looks toward the front door, then shrugs. For now, the pizza's safe.
Renee shakes her head. "Heard somethin' about it, but not for a long time now. People go missin' on the streets and nobody cares. If someone was doing somethin' bad, they probably left cause nothin' has been happen' lately." Is the kids goomy reply, as she pokes at the remains of her pizza.
J.C. bites into her pizza again, working her way down from the broad end toward the point. Her fingers, along with the ragged cut-off ends of her gloves, get pizza grease dripped over them, not that she notices. "Yeah, guess so." She seems unsatisfied somehow.
Renee chews on her pizza. "Yea, I know. Its fustrating. If someone was doin' something bad, then left, they'd just be doin' it somewhere else."
J.C. nods. "That's what I'm 'fraid of."
Anneka scratches at her skinny stomach, absent, looks at the pizza sitting there, steaming. This doesn't go on for long before she's rummaging around in her coat pockets, wriggling her way into the thing before she's scrounged up a dollar, a handful of quarters. She grins. "Cool." The pair at the other table get a glance as she works her way past, heads on over to the counter.
Renee finishes off her slice of pizza and removes the grease from her fingers, wiping them on the front of her shirt. "Mabye they bit of more then they could chew and somethin' got them instead?"
J.C. finishes the last of her slice and licks her fingers clean, one by one. "Aah. 'N that's what I tell m'self when I'm feelin' optimistic 'n stuff." She grins briefly. "Bugs me fuck-all not t'know, though."
Renee returns the grin, but fails to comment as she give her empty plate an acusing glare.
Anneka talks with the person at the counter for a bit, grins, and in short order has a couple pieces of cheeze pizza. She balances the plates, one atop the other, rubs her freckled nose as she wanders back to her table. One of the plates gets set down near Renee, along the way. She glances at the grubby kid, grins. "Hey, got another for you."
Renee flashes Anneka a grin. "Thanks. Ya want some?" She offers J.C.
J.C. glances up, left thumb still in her mouth. She pops it out, saliva-wet and sniffs back a noseful of snot. "Don't gotta ask me twice," she says. She gulps down a mouthful of water, sputtering a bit as some goes down the wrong pipe.
Anneka grins, shows off her own piece. "Doin' okay, thanks." J.C. gets another glance, the faintest of furrowed brows. "You okay?"
Renee rips the pizza in half, droping one section onto Jenny's plate before she begins chewing on her own.
J.C. coughs once, twice, and noisily clears her throat. The process seems to dislodge a knot of phlegm, which she spits into napkin. "Mm, *cough*, m'fine." She takes another sip of water, then plucks the pizze up between both sets of fingers and bites into it.
Renee chews on her own pizza, watching J.C. out of the corner of one. "Ya don't sound that healthy ya know, alwasy sniffilin'."
The sandy-haired young woman nods, reaching up with a now-free hand to brush her curly hair away from her eyes. "'kay." Her coat brushes the back of Renee's chair as she makes her way back to her table, sets her pizza down before gathering Raven's slices into a stack. Her brow's still furrowed a bit.
J.C. shrugs. "S'nothin'. Colds 'n shit. 'N then fuckin' allergies when it gets warm. S'what'th'fuck ya call it. Hayfever."
Renee hehs. "Glad I don't suffer from that crap. The allergies, anyway."
Anneka chomps her way through her pizza, right down to the crust where she stops and wraps what's left up in a few napkins. This goes in her pocket, before she heads back to the counter. If this were a movie, she'd be wandering back and forth in the background, while a young werewolf and rat person talked about allergies in the fore. At the counter she gets a brown paper bag, heads back to bundle up the extra pizza.
"Yeah, it's a fuckin' bitch," J.C. replies. She watches Anneka with a minor slice of her attention, but pays most of it to Renee and the shared pizza. "But, y'know, whatever. Shit, I dunno what I'd do wit' my spare time if I wasn't hackin' up shit." She grins.
Renee nods. Second slice of pizza finished, the girl slides off her seat. "I gotta get gonna. Catch ya later?"
J.C. nods. "Sure 'nuff. Have fun, kid."
Anneka tucks the pizza bundle under one arm, grabs her book with the other. The latter gets tucked into one of her pockets before she looks back at the pair. "You okay for food'n all, 'ne?" The furrowed brow's gone, now, but those green eyes have a sharp edge to them.
Renee nods. "Yea, I'm fine," The girl grumbles on her own way out the door.
J.C. adds a final, "See ya," before Renee vanishes out the door, and then slouches back in her chair.
Anneka's coat looks like it may have been dragged around behind a car at one point or another. There are scuffs all over the back and elbows, tears that were mended some time ago, by a practical sort of hand. Pockets all over. She glances towards the door at Renee as she leaves, then back at J.C. She shrugs, grins. "Should get goin', too. Gotta find out where this pizza's s'posed to go."
"Yeah," replies J.C. with a grin. "Tell the dog-girl I said hi 'n stuff. See ya."
Anneka nods twice, looking down at the pizza. "If she's not gone." She shrugs again, grins, then heads for the door.