ArchivedLogs:Sawdust

Sawdust
Dramatis Personae Hanna, Jayna, Thea	2013-09-13 Cupcakes and coffee - breakfast of champions
Location <NYC> Happy Cakes Bakery - TriBeCa
Happy Cakes Bakery is a cheery little spot of vintage charm amidst the hustle and bustle of the Manhattan neighborhood, a refurbished pair of row homes that hardly resemble their previous selves - the front walls are almost entirely gleaming glass, with the logo of the bakery painted onto the top, and rainbows of cupcakes dancing along the edges. Eclectically styled, it seems homey and welcoming - if the cross stitched sign by the door wasn't obvious enough - "All are Welcome!" it reads, with the "All" underlined in a sparkling bubble gum pink and yellow dotted line, with the logo of the bakery, a cheery smiling pink and white cupcake, beneath the lettering. Once inside, the walls of the combination bakery and coffee shop are covered in crisp clean white ceramic tile, with the occasional randomly placed tile with an color engraving of a tropical flower, or tile made of reclaimed China. Ambient music reminiscent of the Big Band era plays through the shop, loud enough to be heard, but not loud enough to make conversation difficult. Tables and chairs in a variety of sizes, colors, and styles fill one side of the room, none of them quite matching each other, but all of them seeming to work together. The other side of the shop is a long series of gleaming glass and chrome bakery displays, filled with colorful sweets and treats of every description. To one end of the counter is a gleaming chrome espresso machine with far more tubes and bobbles than is really necessary, but producing excellent espresso beverages. At the other end is the old style cash register, a chrome and cherry wood relic from a bygone age that dings cheerily with each sale. The wall behind the counter is covered in photos of a tropical island, as well as a pair of shops that look like a smaller version of this one, several including a pair of dark haired women. It is early enough in the morning that very few people are out and around on the streets, let alone in search of pastries. Regardless, Happy Cakes Bakery has been abuzz with motion and activity, preparing the pastries for the day, brewing the first pots of coffee for the soon to arrive breakfast crowds. Jayna and Hanna are alternating who is out front, bringing out trays of fresh baked goods of nearly every description to fill the shelves in the display cases. At current, it is Hanna’s turn out front while Jayna is tucked away in the kitchen behind swinging chrome doors, presumably working on some other preparation for the day. Despite the in progress setup, the sign announces “Come in! We’re Open” in cheery, if slightly saccharine pink lettering on a bright blue background. Hanna is currently bent over, filling the case with a tray of cupcakes - bright green icing in ruffled rounds, with a four leaf clover of green chocolate placed neatly atop the pile. The overhead speakers are softly playing a selection of big band swing music, while the entire shop smells like a marvelous combination of fresh coffee and still baking pastries, just waiting for the first of the customers to come in for the day. At 6am sharp, Thea appears from the direction of the nearest subway stop. She walks briskly, and with a sense of purpose, though not in any real hurry. She wears a scarf which covers her head (and apparently presses her antennae down against her scalp. The wrap drapes down and around her neck, doing a fair job covering up the silvery chitin patches on the back of her neck. She also wears large sunglasses, Hollywood style, which she leaves on when she comes in. All in all, it’s really not a bad blonde Jackie Onassis impersonation. She also wears a high-neck, black wrap dress with sleeves to the wrist, and light, expensive-looking black gloves pick up where the sleeves leave off. Even with the gloves though, she can’t hide the inhumanly long fingers, each one possessed of an entire extra knuckle. Her dress reaches a little past her knees, where calf-high boots take over. She moves with a stiff, almost regal posture. Either regal, or un/able/ to bend much. It’s unclear as to which. She pulls the door open and steps inside. She takes a moment to glance around at the preparations and finally steps up to the counter. “Good morning,” she offers, evenly. “Looks like I snuck in before the crowds. I’ve heard this place is /aways/ busy.” She smiles, but it’s hard to tell exactly where she’s looking behind the glasses. The cluster of silver bells over the door chime when Thea enters, drawing the attention of the baker woman still hunched over and filling the cases. Hanna stands up, brushing her hands on the crisp white apron she wears over her bright blue swing dress, a genuine smile crinkling her rounded features. “Hello and welcome to Happy Cakes! Let me know if there is anything you have questions about, or want to know more about something,” the greeting is cheery, perhaps a bit too chipper for this early hour, but as genuine as her smile. Her eyes the color of milk chocolate, edged in a bright gold that almost seems to grow brighter when she smiles. “Oh, goodness. We’re well liked enough, and we have our regulars, but we aren’t to the point where people line up outside. Thankfully,” Hanna says with a smile and a sheepish shrug, “I don’t know if I could bake enough to make everyone happy. We’re a relatively little shop, in the grand scheme of things in this city.” She slides the door on the glass case shut, and leans against the counter top, “So, what can I get for you this lovely morning, miss?” Thea’s initially reserved expression softens somewhat. At a glance, she looked like someone expecting a harsher welcome, but she seems more at her ease now. She smiles warmly, glances over her shoulder at the big windows looking outside, and then back to begin looking through the cases. “Wow, everything looks… terrific.” She reaches up to tuck a stray lock of blonde hair back into her colorful head wrap. “I assume you have something in the Red Velvet family? I just don’t see it in here. I’m a little googly-eyed, frankly.” She smiles back up at Hanna, and shrugs. A slight blush creeps up to Hanna’s cheeks at the compliment, accompanied by a slight chuckle, “Oh, thank you. I try to make things tasty /and/ nice to look at. It’s quite cathartic at times, and I haven’t gotten any complaints on the sweets or the colors, yet, so I keep going.” The question about red velvet gets a quick nod, “I’ve got two right now, a fairly traditional red velvet with cream cheese icing on top. Little shreds of chocolate on top of it. And then a vegan version of the same cupcake, with just a hint of cinnamon in it. Don’t let the vegan descriptor scare you off - it really a rather nice, if a bit dense cake.” The googly-eyed comment brings Hanna’s attention briefly up to the customer’s face, though she doesn’t stare, just glances up as though to confirm that she in fact had a face. “Hm, I’ve got a large print picture menu in the back, if you think that might help some? There was a young woman who was a regular who could not speak, among some other troubles - I had the menu made up for her to let her order easier. It’s got my normal menu, but doesn’t really have the seasonal specials on it. If you think that would help see what we’ve got to offer, I can get it for you?” No hint of judgement, no resentment, just an honest offer of assistance. Thea smiles again and says, “Oh no, but thank you. I can see ok, normally. Your cases are just stunning.” She glances up at Hanna with a grateful smile, and adds, “It’s the digital menu screens some places use nowadays. I just can’t make sense of them.” She follows along with some of the things Hanna points out and then says, “Well, could I try one of those vegan numbers? AND the regular one? I’m a sucker for the red velvet, so I’d love to try both side-by-side. Also, I’ve heard people sing songs about the coffee here. I’m gonna have to try that too.” Speaking more, Thea’s accent puts her pretty firmly in the Jersey-girl category. Hanna nods, leaning against the glass with a smile and a chuckle, “Ah, yes, I’m not too fond of the digital menus. Too much of a strain on my old eyes. And they just didn’t go with the vintage kitch look of the place.” She nods to Thea, already starting “Certainly. Would you like to eat those here, or do you want me to box them up for you to take along? No pressure - I have reusable plates for eating here, or nifty little boxes for taking along. Or, can do half and half, if you’d rather?” When coffee is mentioned, Hanna chuckles, “Oh, you’ll have to tell Jayna about that. She’ll just be tickled pink.” Hanna calls out to the back area, and after a moment a younger woman, wearing a fluttering green sundress emerges through the chrome doors, still in the process of tying her brown apron around her midsection. She would be largely uninteresting, were it not for the thick mass of autumn colored cotton dreadlocks that cover her head, almost all of them with tiny leaves poking out between the somewhat loose wrappings, ranging in color from deep summery green to the golds and reds of a forest in fall. “Hello, miss. How may I caffeinate you, this morning?” Jayna asks with a chuckle, her leaf green eyes standing out in stark contrast to her earthy skin. “Oh, um,” Thea begins, considering Hanna’s options. “Actually… I think I’ll just eat them here, both. I have a serious sweet tooth, so I think I better satisfy it first. Then I might take a backup supply to go.” She grins when Jayna greets her with ‘Miss’, and says, “Oh, just ‘Ann’ will do, thanks. But, the bards sing songs about your espresso, so I think I better try one of those first. Better make it a double though. Was a rough night last night.” The skin around her sunglasses suggests she just winked at Jayna, but it’s hard to be sure. “Well, Ann, lovely to meet you. I’m Hanna,” says the baker, setting a large, brilliantly colored China plate on the counter for the customer to take, two cupcakes sitting on it like some sort of photoshoot setup - one has a little toothpick with a happy little V flag in bright green on a white background. “The one with the pick in it is the vegan one, just for reference. And we’ve got a seating area, with extra napkins in the despensers on the tables if you need them,” she says with a cheery grin, “Let me know how they stack up to each other. I’m always a bit curious.” Jayna, in the meanwhile, has begun the espresso prep, the massive machine whirring to life at her touch as she begins working her magic. “Ah! Oh you flatter - I hope my wares meet the standards these wayward poets have built up around them,” Jayna says with a chuckle, providing the espresso, double, of course, in a charming little vintage teacup on a mismatched saucer. “If you need sugar or creamers, we’ve got them just over there on the end cap bit. Enjoy, Ann!” Jayna says with a grin, not feeling the need to reintroduce herself after Hanna’s initial statements. Thea leaves most of her cover-up-clothing on; the glasses, the head scarf, etc. But she does pull her gloves off while Jayna makes the coffee, and tucks them into a pocket. Perhaps seeing Jayna up close finally put Thea at her ease, even given what everyone says about Happy Cakes being a ‘friendly’ place. The extra joint in each of her fingers makes her hands look long and spidery when she reaches up to accept the plate of cupcakes, and eventually the espresso saucer. Luckily for her, this physical feature never made it into the news, and only marks her as some mutant off the street. She sets the cake plate down on a nearby table and walks the espresso over to the add-ins bar. She speaks up, to keep the conversation going from there. “You know, I heard so many good things about this place, it was kind of hard to believe. There just aren’t that many places in the city supportive of…” She waves one spidery hand to indicate Jayna and herself. She smiles and shrugs in Hanna’s direction, unsure and unworried on how to classify the shop owner. Thea adds a little milk but no sugar to her drink, and sits down at the little table. Hanna smiles broadly at the assessment of the bakery, and nods, “We do what we can. It’s gotten us a little flack from the neighborhood, but honestly, the feedback from the community has made it so worth it.” The baker continues stocking the shelves as she talks, sliding even more colorful cupcakes and pies into place in the cases, “Makes it worth it. If I can bring a smile to someone’s face who is having a bad day, for whatever reason, because of this place? It’s a good thing. And I’ll keep doing it.” There’s a touch of pride in her voice as she speaks about the place, her ample chest puffing up slightly when she stands, like a proud pigeon. Jayna snorts slightly at Hanna, fixing the older woman with a skeptical look, “Uh huh. Little flack? We were closed for a week after those thugs threw you through the display case, and you can still see the graffiti on the windows when the sun hits it right.” Despite the heavy subject, the barista smiles as she speaks, “You’re stubborn, but it’s not a bad thing.” Her attention turns back to the sole customer in the shop, leaning on the counter near her espresso machine, “Let us know if you need anything else. Pay no mind to the bickering. This bakery is really a safe zone - at least as best as we can make it one in this city.” Thea nods, looking away politely when the women begin to argue, but her head snaps back up when Jayna mentions the violence. She watches intently through her glasses while they continue to discuss the topic, and forks a bite of the vegan cupcake into her mouth. Her eyebrows hike up from behind the dark glasses for a moment, and she raises her fork in a kind of salute to Hanna. She chews, swallows, and gestures with the other end of the fork at Jayna. “That must have been awful for you. I’ve suffered violence in this city too. Honestly, it makes me wonder if we’re all /ready/ to live together.” She sips at her coffee and continues. “I mean, it took East and West Germany generations to come to terms. Israel and Palestine are /still/ trying to work things out. I just wonder if we wouldn’t be better with our own space, just, you know, until the world comes to terms with our newness.” Hanna shakes her head, giving Jayna a pleading look momentarily, “It was not the worst thing that has happened in my life, but it was certainly not fun. We bounced back well enough, and the supposed “neighborhood watch” they declared themselves to be haven’t shown their faces around here again.” She works on polishing the counter top with a rag, sighing slightly, “I’d like to think there’s still some hope for coexistence. Back home it was nowhere near the level of tension here. But I’ve traveled, I’ve seen the state of things, and, I’d almost agree with you on that matter.” The baker woman shakes her head again, eyes seeming to have darkened to a slightly less vibrant brown as she looks around the shop, “I have human customers, mutant customers. Hell, we have dear friends from both sides who put everything aside, and were there for us when everything fell apart after we were attacked.” Hanna leans against the counter and shakes her head, clearing her throat, “Sorry about that, Miss Anna. Didn’t mean to spoil your breakfast with such unpleasant talk. How’re the cupcakes this morning? Good, I hope?” Thea waves a long-fingered hand dismissively. “Are you kidding? I don’t think anything could ruin this breakfast.” Her smile beams at both women. “And really, just Ann. No need for ‘Miss’ anything.” She pops another bite into her mouth and washes it down with espresso. She also seems to take the hint that Hanna would rather move the conversation along. “Honestly, I’m not sure which one of these I like better. Which is shocking, because I’ve been the biggest nay-sayer of vegan for years. I feel like I owe you an apology!” She grins and takes another bite from the one with the ‘V’ poked into it. “Oh! Good. Glad to know we haven’t put you off your appetite with all this talk, Ann,” Hanna says, bouncing about behind the counter as she does, neatening things here, prepping things there. The woman doesn’t seem to slow down in the process of preparing for the day, continuing to talk. “I’m always surprised how people react to the suggestion of vegan baked goods. Sure, there are some that aren’t exactly the best, but these are recipes I adapted from my mom’s cooking,” Hanna says with a gesture at the selection of vegan pastries, “Sometimes eggs were hard to find, or milk wasn’t available on the Island, so, she started experimenting with this, and I learned from her.” There’s a cheery chuckle, and she nods to Ann/Thea, “Glad you enjoy it, though, even if it was a bit different than what you were expecting.” Thea nods along with Hanna’s explanation, tucking into her breakfast properly while the other woman goes about her preparations. Neatly and efficiently, she polishes off both and then sips her espresso. “I’m glad too! I was sort of expecting the sawdust-y things you get other places. This is a pleasant surprise. And this coffee, Jayna…” Thea glances over her shoulder to make sure the place is still empty, but then still lowers her voice and offers a rueful grin. “Does your mutation allow you to turn angels into coffee or something? This is unbelievable.” She picks up her cup to wander over and look through the cases again. “Well, Hanna, the regular red velvet is still my favorite, and yours was amazing. Do you have a six-pack box? I’d like three of those, and then three different vegan options, if you have them. I don’t have any food allergies, so just surprise me.” While her posture is still stiff, her initial aloofness has all but faded. “Oh, heavens no, if anything, vegan cupcakes tend to be even more moist and dense than normal ones. Occasionally low fat cupcakes can be sawdusty and generally a bad plan,” Hanna says with a laugh, patting her hip, “But I can’t say I’m one for diet type baked goods. Defeats the purpose in my mind.” She chuckles and nods at the request for more pastries, “Oh, certainly. I’ve got takeaway boxes for singles, twos, and then half dozen and dozen cupcakes. I’ll get them together for you now.” And off she goes, bouncing around to pull the cupcakes from the cases and into the pristine white carry out box to be taken home. Jayna smiles, a greenish tinge of a blush coloring her cheeks, “Thank you, Ann. And no, not really. I just have a knack for coffee, and a love of roasting and preparing it - even if I can’t drink it anymore.” She pats the espresso machine, as though it were a trusted companion, instead of a hulking machine, “My mutation pretty much just makes me a mobile tree. I photosynthesize in sunlight, which means I don’t really need to eat often in the spring and summer. Downside is I’m sluggish and bald in the fall and winter.” There’s a snort from the barista as she takes a sip of water, “I just really love making coffee, and making coffee /well/ when possible. No angels were harmed in the making of this espresso.” Thea seems dubious about the condition of any angels caught near the barista, but smiles anyway. “Photosynthesis, no kidding? That is fascinating!” She seems genuinely enthused about this, possible even with a scientific bent to her curiosity. She watches as Hanna fills the box and picks it up when its ready to go. She pays with enough cash to leave a healthy tip and adds, “Well, I know I’ll be back in before long, so I’ll just say, ‘See you soon’. Thanks again!”