The gang regroup and head off to the shop over on Raymond Street, which proves rather easy to find, even if they have to dodge a somewhat dinosaur-infested crossing on the way. The place has got a giant cupcake sign on it, for Pete's sake. Not really the most difficult thing to spot. As they approach, the mages split into two distinct groups - the first group, made up of Halesey and Larry head to a nice, shady spot where they can loiter about - outside a convenience store located on a nearby street corner. From there they observe - well, Halesey does. Larry is a bit busy making making faces and preparing to magic real hard in a moment, though he does not make great strides in concentrating on hat summoning. Perhaps it's all this rain. Or maybe it's the fact that Halesey's shampoo storm cloud still hasn't gone away. It's becoming mildly distressing.
Elizabeth, who is the only representative of the second group, and rightly so - wouldn't want to unduly spook Ms. Walters - heads into the fancy cake and tea shop with the giant cupcake sign and looks for her first priority at the moment - fancy cakes, tea and sweets. Luckily, all of these can be had for the low, low price of 10 dollars for a whole lunch's worth of desserts. When that's done, she looks around for Ms. Walters, who appears to be a portly, short-haired and jolly-looking woman currently enjoying a slice of cake in a nearby booth - Elizabeth assumes it's her, considering that she's the only one in here on this rather terrible Saturday. She shuffles over to the woman and speaks.
"Hello. Would you by any chance be Ms. Walters?"
The woman looks up from her cake, giving Elizabeth a good look at her whipped cream-stained teeth as she smiles widely at her.
"Why, yes! You're the woman I spoke to, I presume? Pleased to meet you. Now, you seemed eager to speak to me about something. This does not happen often, so I am understandably curious as to what it might be."
"Yes, well... perhaps we could speak about this elsewhere? I have an apartment not too far away, maybe we could hash this out there?"
Ms. Walters takes a great spoonful of cake and quickly scarfs it down before answering.
"That's awfully forward of you, Ms.-erm... hm. That's one thing, I don't even know your name yet. And this place is so wonderful, too. There's cake and tea, and the sweets are rather nice as well. Speaking of, may I sample some of yours? Those little brown candies look scrumptious, but I haven't ordered them before. What're they like?"
Some distant, emergent part of Elizabeth's brain has little patience for conversations like these. It just wants to do magic right here, right now. Make a napkin portal right there on the ceiling. However, a part of her brain more well-versed on human etiquette is strong enough to stop the urge... for now. The question is, can it last?
Author
Topic: The Forgotten Art: Approaching the Nexus (Read 272764 times)