10621/Random Coffee Run

Random Coffee Run
Date of Scene:	01 April 2022
Location:	The Coffee Bean
Synopsis:	An errant remark almost gets the wrong Spider-man in trouble.
Cast of Characters:	Courtney Whitmore, Susan Sullivan, Kamala Khan

---

Courtney Whitmore has posed:
It's a Friday afternoon, and it seems there is no shortage of patrons trying to find just enough caffeine to make it through the day and into the weekend. One of those is Courtney Whitemore, who bounces into the coffee shop looking like she probably does NOT need more energy, but who knows? She gets in line and glances over towards the menu, trying to decide what she is in the mood for today.

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Susan, meanwhile, has ordered a glass of skim milk and some manner of pastry. Gotta keep the non-coffee-drinkers spending their hard-earned cash in your shop, right? She stands near the counter and waits on delivery of her incredibly complicated order. Looking at Courtney, she says, "The coffee cake is good, here."

Kamala Khan has posed:
Kamala Khan is busy typing away at her keyboard, fingers blazing as she's perched at a small table, with a still-steaming mug of coffee by her laptop... and a small stack of peanut butter cookies. Fingers barely slow as she perks up and flashes a bright smile to Susan and Courtney, "Oh, it really is! Also, the peanut butter cookies are... like... _magic_. I'm pretty sure they've got a witch working in the back enchanting them or something! ...I mean, probably not, but like... maaaaaybe?" She frowns thoughtfully and eyes her cookies... it's not like there _aren't_ witches around...

Courtney Whitmore has posed:
Smiling broadly at the sudden set of recommendations, Courtney bobs her head to each of Susan and Kamala. "Sounds great!" Her turn comes and she steps up, ordering a latte and a coffee cake, as recommended. She steps down along the counter to let another patron present their requests, as she waits for the drink to get served up along with Susan. "I haven't been over this way yet, but heard a lot of the other students saying it was good." She glances over at Kamala, eyeing her feverish keyboarding for a moment. "Seems like a good place to come and work, too."

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Susan takes a breath and lets it out through her nose. She leans over the counter to peek behind at the baristas. "I feel like they're making them fresh, too." She comes back over to the customer side and says, "If you can't take the service speed, go to a McDonald's, I guess, right?"

Kamala Khan has posed:
Kamala's slowed typing is, apparently, on a rather dry essay about modern journalism... although her word processor has several other tabs open all titled in some bizarre, rambling combination of 'Fanfic' and then utterly untinelligble acronyms. She laughs softly and bobs her head with a grin, "Yeah, it's way more like... chilled out for working. And the coffee's better than McDonalds or something else, and you don't have to worry about the smell of the deep fryer tempting you into eating _so_ many orders of fries..."

Courtney Whitmore has posed:
"Oh, I'd much rather have fresh and wait for it. I'm in no hurry!" Courtney seems to follow Susan's gaze, popping up on her toes to peer back, and then falling back on her heels. She moves with a bit of nervous energy - and that's BEFORE coffee. She looks over towards Kamala and grins. "French fries are a creation of the devil. So tempting, and so bad, but yet so, so good." She tries to avoid peering at exactly Kamala is working on, trying to remain polite.

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    "Clearly," Susan says. She considers something while waiting. "I don't think I've ever eaten McDonald's, actually. I may not be qualified to offer an opinion on their french fried potatoes."

Kamala Khan has posed:
Kamala sighs out loudly and nods her head solemnly, "Yeah, they're like... oh my god, when you smell them you can't help but want them even though they're just _carbs_ all the way down! Well, carbs and salt... delicious salt..." She eyes her cookies and then picks one up to devour it... as daintily and politely as possible while still definitely earning the 'devour' verb. "I mean, at least living in New York it's easy enough to work the calories off figh- uhhh... running away from all the super crime!"

Smooth recovery, Kamala!

Courtney Whitmore has posed:
Courtney is following along with Kamala, a grin on her face at the girl's energy. At the end - does she catch something? She is, of course, legendarily bad at speaking out of turn about who and what she is. She flashes a grin, and gives Kamala a bit of a once over. "Huh." Then she looks back to Susan. "On the one hand, go you! On the other - you really should try them sometime. If you have a cheat day." She looks at Susan for a moment. "Although you don't have cheat days, do you?"

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Susan's brow furrows. Does she have cheat days? She's in a coffee shop ordering skim milk and a pastery. What is that, if not a carb-filled cheat-day? She decides not to answer the question. "Hey, why are the bad things always hitting us, anyway? If they wanted to hit the most people, wouldn't most bad guys hit, like, India or something? I can't believe New York is more densely populated than Dubai."

Kamala Khan has posed:
Kamala's shoulders lift and fall and she heaves out a loud sigh, "I think it's just... chance? Like, all the super crazy weirdo whatsitstuff started here, and now it just keeps happening here out of like... self-sustaining momentum. If you find a crazy gem, or build yourself a robosuit or something, you wanna make a _name_ for yourself, so you show up here to tangle with the big names... and then, because people keep showing up here, anyone who gets powers and wants to do good winds up in New York half the time, even if they've gotta like, bus in from Jersey and the traffic's always bad and stuff."

She clears her throat and mumbles out, "I mean, y'know... probably."

Courtney Whitmore has posed:
"I have no idea." Courtney seems to ponder that question. "Maybe it's like with the baseball, everyone wants to be a Yankee. Because that's when you know you've hit it big." She ponders for a moment. "You know, like that super old song - if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere."
$rHer gaze turns toward Kamala, an she tilts her head a bit. "Um. Ok." Definitely gets a bit of a look. "You, uh, a fan of capes or something?" She chews on her lip in thought.

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    "Probably not," Susan says. She reaches out and puts a hand on Courtney's arm. "Best not to ask," she says, leaning close and speaking quietly.

Kamala Khan has posed:
Kamala isn't drinking her coffee, so she doesn't do a classic, laptop-destroying spittake, but her eyes _do_ go wide as dinner plates (probably not literally) as she stammers, "I, what?! No! No!! I'm not a superher- Who even is Ms. Marvuhhhhh...." She blinks and takes a slow, deep breath, "Oh, a fan? I mean... kinda?" She clears her throat again and reaches out to pick up her coffee with both hands and take a slowwwwwwwww sip... eying Courtney, "...What about you?"

Courtney Whitmore has posed:
"I said fan, girlfriend." Courtney chuckles a bit, looking at Kamala now with a great deal more curiousity. She looks over at Susan. "I mean, it's not like Eclipso is going to come walking in here or anything." Courtney shrugs and looks back at Kamala. "Uh. I met Spider-man once. He was kinda cool." She shrugs, playing it off. Acting cool. Not like she has a dumb grin on her face or anything.

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    At the mention of Spider-Man, Susan can't help but smile. It's definitely the kind of fan-girl smile of a girl who's got a crush. "Oh yeah?" she says. "Yeah, he's definitely cool." She pulls her shoulders up as she pushes her hands into her pockets.
    "Hey! Miss?" someone says from behind the counter.
    Susan turns and blushes. "Sorry," she says, reaching out and taking the bag and large, plastic cup reserved for colder drinks.

Kamala Khan has posed:
Kamala rolls her eyes a little and grins, "What? I heard that! I totally did! I was just... /acting/! Yeah!!" She nods solemnly and grins, "Yeah, Spider-Man's pretty... well, I was going to say cool but... nice! We'll say he's nice. Although I don't know how he manages to talk so much while he's jumping around."

Courtney Whitmore has posed:
For a moment, Courtney's eyes look like she's afraid she's stepped into the twilight zone. She looks around for a hidden camera. Looking at Susan, she tilts her head. "You ok there?" She grins and looks at Kamala. "I mean, yeah, I guess nice is a better word for it." She giggles. "I think we ... " She stops for a moment. "Uh. My friend and I waved at him while he was fighting some baddies, and we got him a bit flustered. Yeah." She bites her lip, and her cheeks flush slightly. NOT a good poker player, this one.

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Susan looks very seriously at Courtney. "Flustered how?" she asks, her voice and expression suddenly stony and a bit chillier than before. "Be specific."

Kamala Khan has posed:
Kamala's own reaction is less chilly and more 'cheshire grin and tab over to another document on her laptop', "Oh, yes! Be /very/ specifica about the flusteriness. And what you said!" She bites her lower lip to old back mischievous snickering. Because she's definitely not immediately planning mischief.

Courtney Whitmore has posed:
The tonal shift from Susan catches Courtney by surprise. "Uh. Like, I dunno. It sounded like he was just a little boy, in a way?" She tilts her head, studying Susan for a long moment, and then shrugs. "I don't think he was used to girls talking to him. It was kind of cute." She pauses. "Wait, no no, it's not the old one." She shakes her head, curls bouncing. "I appreciate you looking out for me - I'm sure the old one is nice, he was totally not creeping on us. It was the other one. Shadow Spider, I think?" She looks over at Kamala. "You're the fangirl. Who's that other Spider-man? The cool one."

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    "What?" Susan says. "Geez," she says, shaking her head. "I really need to memorize all of these caped dorks running around pretending to be spiders." She takes a deep breath and holds it for a second before letting it out. "I should probably go. It was nice meeting you both."

Kamala Khan has posed:
Kamala _heaves_ out a sigh and rolls her eyes, "Oh my god, there's so many Spiders-Man now! Uhhh... was he... Ghost Spider? Black Spider? Scarlet Spider?" She frowns and chews her lower lip for a long moment, brows furrowing as she taps at her keyboard and eyes the screen of her laptop, "Yeah, there's... people saying _all_ of those are right and also 'Cool Spider'..." She sighs and shrugs lightly, "I mean, I guess... like... do you think they all share some sort of company for branding? Could they all _possibly_ have gotten their powers from spiders? Like how many spiders could there be crawling around with super powers to give out?!"

Courtney Whitmore has posed:
Courtney Whitmore snappoints at Kamala. "Ghost Spider! That was it." She shrugs. "I kept calling him Spider-man and he kept correcting me." She looks over at Susan, and smiles. "Yeah, I know. Those caped dorks." She reaches over to pick up her cup as it comes out. "I should probably get going too. I've gotta an early patro---" She trails off. "Uh, study date. Tonight."

She looks over at Kamala, and smiles. "It was nice chatting with you both." She looks at Kamala. "Maybe I'll run into you again around here. Or somewhere?"

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Susan looks between the two ladies and says, "Both of you, really? Can I not meet normal human beings in New York?" She shakes her head and aims herself at the door. She stops and turns back to look at Courtney. "And don't fluster Spider-Man," she insists before pushing the door open with her back to leave.

Kamala Khan has posed:
Kamala snorts and snickers, nodding solemnly, "Oh, totally! Us superhe....eeeeroic fans gotta meet up!" She grabs a napkin and pulls a pen out of her backpack, scribbling quickly and handing it over, "Here's my number! Text me or whatever!" She frowns thoughtfully and mumbles, "I guess I could've just told you and had you text me _now_..." She sighs and shakes her head. And then points at Susan, "Hey! I'm from New Jersey! Don't go blaming New York for me! Or me for New York or whatever!!" And then she's back to typing away on her laptop... _possibly_ looking up more on this Ghost Spider and maybe checking who he's been seen fighting alongside recently.

Courtney Whitmore has posed:
Courtney takes the offered number and smiles winsomely at Kamala. "I gotta book it, but I'll text you later!" she promises, as she heads towards the door. "I'm really curious to know what you know about that Ghost Spider!" Her cheeks flush a bit, and she ducks out.