my heart's a battleground ( OPEN )

[aguidingkey]

WHO: Aqua and OPEN
WHAT: Aqua's figuring out this barista thing and exploring on off days
WHERE: The Expresso and around
WHEN: Early July
WARNINGS: None for now, will update as needed


Coffeeshop; working days

When Aqua had given thought to helping out around the city and earning her keep, this was not at all what she'd had in mind.

Someone in charge must have thought she needed experience in something mundane and every-day, signing her up for a job at a local coffeeshop. She had considered not going, for half a second, but in the end she knew she needed some kind of income other than whatever stipend the city was giving her and really this is experience she lacks. Maybe it's time to try something completely new. Thankfully, it's only part time work.

So here she is after Dualis Days have wrapped up, learning how to pull a shot of espresso and make a basic coffee or latte. It's a lot to learn and she feels pretty out of her element, but she's doing her best. Anyone who comes into the shop will be greeted with a smile.

"Hi. I'm Aqua. Can I help you?"

Exploring; off days

On the days when she isn't working, Aqua has taken to walking around the city to try to get her bearings. Surprisingly, this was a whole lot easier in the Iteration world. That one at least didn't move around, in her experience. Sure, people got randomly teleported out to other locations at seemingly-random times, but at least the locations didn't change, well, location.

On her first day of exploring, she makes a mental map of everything she comes across. The second day... that mental map gets shattered. Every day after that, she rewrites her map, taking note of where she goes and how she gets there, but every day something seems to change.

Thank goodness the dorms never seem to move. But getting to the coffeeshop on her working days just got a lot harder.

At some point during her wandering, she can be found standing at a corner of a couple of buildings, with one hand at her chin as she frowns thoughtfully down the street. "I thought that curved the other way yesterday. It's like everything just keeps moving..."

Comments

[helpdesk_hero]

“Magical dampening field I expect,” David shrugs. “Maybe they don’t want you putting doctors out of business.”

If only the worldly problems of health could be handled that way. Then again he spent a while without colds or other illnesses due to a healer.

“Have you experimented much beyond what we did with how effective your power is?”

[aguidingkey]

Aqua gives her head a shake. "No, I haven't. I have more magic than just the healing spell, normally, but I know I can't access all of it here." She'd tried to call up a lower-level spell the other day and got nothing. "Maybe everything I can access here is dampened just like the Curaga."

If that's true, she'll be frustrated in a matter of seconds.

[helpdesk_hero]

"And I presume you've been trying other spells you normally have access to?"

Because the more he understands how she is limited, the better chance he has to understanding how all of this works and maybe fixing it. He can't even begin to live his life without considering ways to fix this place.

[aguidingkey]

"Some of them," she admits. "I haven't tried things like Mega Flare or Transcendence yet. There isn't an open space big enough for those."

The last thing she wants is to find out that those two work in the wrong place and burn a couple of buildings down or hurt someone. She doesn't want that on her conscience and something tells her the police force here wouldn't take kindly to it.

"But some of my movement abilities still work."

[helpdesk_hero]

Mega Flare sounds very powerful, and David is left wondering about that. Still, he's left wondering. Maybe there is a space that's big enough for them. Perhaps he can find that for her.

"Movement abilities? Like running fast?"

[aguidingkey]

"Cartwheel with fire, Air Slide with ice, doubleflight. Things like that." And then figuring he probably won't understand what those are, she adds on, "They're like what their names suggest. Cartwheel is how I dodge attacks. Firewheel is a cartwheel with the fire element attached, so if anyone hits me while I'm using it, they'll get burned. Air Slide allows us to move quickly sideways if we're in the air. Ice Slide adds cold and ice damage to that. Doubleflight is like a really high second jump, an extra jump after my normal high jump."

[helpdesk_hero]

That all sounds... intense and confusing. And David stares for a moment. The physics of it makes NO sense.

"I've GOT to see this sometime."

[aguidingkey]

"My shift ends in a few more hours. I could show you after that," Aqua offers.

[helpdesk_hero]

Well, now that's an offer. He smiles briefly and nods. "Yeah, that would be nice. I'm ready to be impressed."

In the mean time, he likes that she's willing to offer. In fact, it pleases him.

[aguidingkey]

That's a start anyway. "My break is almost over. I'll contact you when I get off and we can meet somewhere to talk more, okay?" She wouldn't mind talking more now, but her break really is almost over. Sadly, she'll have to get back to work in another few minutes.