A Bitter Pill To Swallow

Melissa suddenly turns toward Augusta, eyes narrowed with suspicion as if she is searching her face for something. "You were with Brian? Hmm.". She grows quiet as if she's putting something together. "So here's here? In the TANC?" She's still angry, even livid but now she's jealous and curious all at once.

"Why would he be in here? Wait. Your Brian, he's not the same Brian then that's here?"

"Oh, there are probably a thousand Brians in the two cities. My Brian is Floyd. Handsome, charming." Augusta looks a little dreamy about him. Not that she's lovestruck, but she did enjoy his company. She does think that kicking him to the curb for his own good was the right thing to do, most times -- but there are times when she wished she'd kept him around. After her changes, it was too dangerous. She sighs.

"Maybe next time you realize you're in a dream you should try to 'be' at a buffet. The food in here can't be that good..." Dave offered. "You can probably tell it's just a dream though if everything tastes like chicken." He leaned back against the wall, not unlike Eva, "Either that or next time dream that you're in Fiji. At least that way you'll get more than 30 minutes of sun a day. Although I'm not sure if anyone in Graybridge gets that much sun outside the TANC either. Anyway, I'll brush up on 'Season of the Witch' for our next conversation." He turned to Eva, "Ready to roll, kid? I know this place is getting under your skin."

Eva isn't good at this part. She is good at breaking and entering. At kicking the shit out of people. At taking a punch that would smash tank armor. But at figuring out what the fuck is going on in situations like this? Not so much. To her eyes and ears... they haven't learned a damned thing. The guy in the mask -- is it even really the same guy? -- has been speaking in riddles the whole time. But Draven's been playing along, and now it seems like he's learned what he needed to and is ready to roll.

Her mouth works for a moment but words fail her, then she manages, "Uh, yeah. Ready to roll. All good."

"Your Brian?" Melissa glares at Augusta. "That's my Brian. Unless there are two Brian Floyds in the neighborhood." But Melissa doesn't react to this news as one might expect.

"How was he? Did he do that thing he does? It's the only reason I stuck around for as long as I did." Keeping a straight face she lightens the dagger glare.

Augusta feels a nausea build within her. "You dated him too? And he cheated on you? No, that doesn't sound like him." She thinks back, trying to get a bead on the events.

"Oh no. Did he cheat on you ... with me? When was this, when did it happen?"

She is not oblivious to Belinda's smirk and suddenly needs air. She feels anger crawling beneath her skin, and the need to physically lash out grows strong. She holds her place, needing to here how bad it is, how bad of a guy her crush really was.

"It was recently. Look let's talk about this later. This is hardly the place. We are here to see her, ok?" she says, nodding toward Belinda whose enjoyment of their discomfort was annoying but that was her bestie. Melissa had resigned herself to taking the good with the bad in their friendship.

Augusta smooths her features, dipping her head a little in acknowledgement. Her unbringing has taught her well the necessities of foregoing needs for the demands of the moment. She will be patient even if the goblin inside her wants immediate gratification.

At this moment, their conversation is interrupted as the door through which Melissa and Augusta entered the room is opened and Parker steps inside, lowering her head to not hit the low and narrow frame. "Visiting hour is over," she announces gruffly. "I'm taking your friends out. Time for you to leave as well."

After Melissa and Augusta say their goodbye to Belinda, who reminds Melissa, "Don't you dare wait this long until you visit me again," they are reunited with Eva and Dave and unceremoniously taken back out the door through which they came in, back into the rain...

GRAYBRIDGE, 28 OCT 2023
Sunny Side Up Diner
In order to put some distance between themselves and the prison - as well as the many watchful eyes inside - the group gets back into the car and on the road towards Graybridge. The car, perpetually hammered by the heavy and loud rain, doesn't make for a good place for conversation so the group pulls into the parking lot of a small diner, just at the edge of the city. Eva knows this place. It's one of her very first memories when she arrived in the city, stumbling into it for shelter from the cold and, rather than being thrown out, being given a seat by the radiator and a hot drink.
But while the place may hold pleasant memories for her, to everyone else, it doesn't look too special. It's pretty clean, though the signs and much of the paint outside are bleached with age, leading some patrons to speculate whether the diner's retro look is on purpose or simply a result of it never having been modernized since it was opened. The coffee is alright, the food very much depends on what you're ordering.

This evening, it's not very busy. A table with a small family chatting quietly over a large order of fries. Two men, side by side and whispering to each other as their shoulders touch. A woman alone by the counter, sipping from a huge cup of coffee. Eva does not spot her friend here, just a man in the same uniform Dartella wears for work, currently wiping one of the window booth tables. He looks up when the chime of the door announces the arrival of new customers. "Good evening," he says with a smile, righting his cap with the Sunny Side Up logo as he straightens and looks at the group. "What can I get you?"

GRAYBRIDGE, 28 OCT 2023[/b]
Sunny Side Up Diner

Augusta white knuckle drives her Acura MDX SUV to Hu's Golden Fist, but then misses the turn and instead parks outside of the greasy spoon, Sunny Side Up. She let's out the others, all of whom have been silent during the drive. Her gut clenches repeatedly, knowing that Melissa and Brian were a thing but not knowing when. And she called him a cheater. What's happening? The mad cacophony of the windshield wipers against the hard pour accelerates her heart even further.

Letting the others out, she gestures at the diner, and follows them inside. As they're seated in a vinyl covered booth, she orders a green tea, wanting something comforting.

OUTSIDE GRAYBRIDGE, 28 OCT 2023
Sunny Side Up Diner
So she and Augusta shared the same lover. While she wasn't so naive as to think that she was Brian's only lover, now she found herself wondering how many women Brian had been with. A few times during the ride she snuck a glance at Augusta in the rearview mirror. She looked pretty stressed out and her white knuckles on the steering wheel didn't go unnoticed either.

At the cafe which she generally avoided because of its skeeziness, she decided to forget about the whole mess for now and get a nice steaming hot cup of coffee. Slipping into the booth across from Augusta she offered up an attempt at a smile.

"I'll take a cup of coffee if it's fresh," she says to the waiter. If not I'll have a hot chocolate."

Augusta kind of stares at her tea, the beverage slowly stirring itself as if there was a tiny whirlpool in the cup. She looks up at Melissa and then says, "I dated Brian about six months ago. It was during that time that I experienced my first goblin change, that things began to get weird. It was terrifying, I lost control of myself several times. He was such a sweet man, I dumped him. You know, to save him from me. I couldn't trust myself, and especially couldn't take the risk that Brian would get hurt."

She looks at Dave, and says, "It's taken a lot of Dave's time for me to realize that it was possible to live my life. I've been thinking of calling him again, maybe for a date."

Her pretty face winces a little, pain running around her eyes. "But that was before today, before you told me about ... I don't know what, but it kind of sounds like he moved on." Her eyes glisten. Do I care that much about him?

Eva is quiet on the car ride over. It's a familiar feeling, being chauffeured, as she has more muscle memory than she wants around being brought somewhere so she can do something. She's spent her fair share of time in the back of cars and trucks, in helicopters, even once on a submarine... waiting for the signal. Waiting for go-time.

Go time right now means she gets to order her usual, a grilled-cheese sandwich with fries, though she doesn't get to order it from Dartella, and that's a little disappointing. Lacking manners, she chews her sandwich open-mouthed at times and hunches a little protectively over her food as Augusta and Melissa talk.

"Goblin change?" she asks around a mouthful of French fries, making eye contact with Dave.

Melissa echoes Eva, her eyes wide with surprise.

"Goblin?" As if trying to see her thoughts Melissa looks at the troubled woman.

"When did the goblin stuff start? As soon as you started seeing him?"

Augusta leans closer, and then says, "Sometimes I get really angry, and then my body transforms into an oni. No one here really knows that word, but it's like a goblin. Green skin, claws, sharp teeth. And strong, too!"

She resists stealing one of Eva's fries; she does not look like she's comfortable sharing food, even though comfort eating would make Augusta feel better. "It's really quite alarming, but the worst part is how good it makes me feel. Righteous, and unshackled by my worries and conscience."

She clutches her arms over her chest defensively. "That freedom from guilt scares me. I had to push away anyone I was close to."

Eyebrows winging up, Melissa's shock heightens. "That's ... that's awful. Horrible. My God, Augusta. So ... this happened soon after you met Brian?"

Absentmindedly stroking the handle of her coffee mug the blond begins to put some puzzle pieces together. "You know ... um ... something weird happened to me in the store." Twirling a few strands of her hair around a finger she continues. "I've never had any kind of superpowers, at least not until the store. When that guy went nuts and debris was scattered all over the place, I ... well I could see through it all like I had x-ray vision. It scared me. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what happened or how but now, after what you've told me Augusta, could it have been Brian? Did he slip something into our food or drinks maybe? And if he did, why? To what end?"

"It was a few weeks after we met. In fact, it was the night after the first time he stayed over at my house." She frowns, her smooth delicate features struggling against the unfamiliar expression.

She's uncertain about this line of thinking. "But Brian would never do that, he's just a really great man."

Still the coincidence is remarkable. She can barely bring herself to ask the question and finally steals a fry from Eva before asking it.

"When did you and he get together?"