› not for all the tea in china

[Raven]

[/b] Tag, Nina! About time I got this thing done, sorry for the wait.

Anyone else feel free to join, too, if you wish. This doesn’t just have to be limited to Terra/Raven interaction, heh.

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Pulling a grimace, Raven sighed another long, airless sigh.

For years she’d honed the virtue of patience, needing it to keep herself from saying things like ‘No, I really don’t like you’ or ‘Actually I think that idea is quite stupid, but to claim it as such would incorrectly imply you have some trace of intellect’ and other similarly impolite, if honest, responses. She’d worked to carefully maintain a visage of unreadable indifference since she was a toddler, lest she feel any emotion she displayed, nodding when needed and only truly being herself around those closest to her (given, of course, that such a thing was possible without imminent destruction and doom). At this moment in time, however, a deep sense of shame, frustration, and pure outrage were all vying to break past her emotional barriers.

On any normal day, the volatile witch of Titans Tower wouldn’t be caught dead at this nationally-yuppie-loved establishment; for her to even be seen within a five-mile radius of the place was usually unfeasible… And in previous years, the first Tuesday in September at nine in the morning had been a normal day, but this time, things were different.

Naturally, Raven wouldn’t dare submit herself to such ungodly torture if things were normal; but they most certainly were not. Her favorite teashop—the only decent teashop in Jump City—had been treated to Cinderblock crashing into it last week and had remained closed since, still undergoing repairs to its storefront. The only teakettle she owned had been inadvertently destroyed and she had yet to purchase a new one; and though she would’ve easily found another way to boil water for her tea, she had no teabags left. Only a few stores carried the rare brands she favored, and they weren’t due to open for another few hours… and she had an itch that needed to be scratched before she went insane.

It was a shame there wasn’t any sort of Alcoholics Anonymous for other beverages—“Hello, I’m Raven… and I’m… I’m a tea addict”—but in all truth, even if she did have that option, she surmised she wouldn’t be willing to change her ways. Coffee was like the disgusting bastard cousin of tea, soda and diet soda hurt her teeth, smoothies were too thick, water contained no calming nor energizing kick, and considering she was both a superhero and five years underage, anything that contained alcohol was out of the question.

Right now, though, she was beginning to think a few beers wouldn’t be so bad. The store was packed with businessmen and –women, frazzled soccer moms with kids in tow, and some teenagers… but to an empath, it might as well have been a kaleidoscope. A multitude of auras pierced her mind’s eye, a million thoughts that weren’t her own piled and jumbled upon her psyche, and a variety of emotions wrenched at her theoretical heart. Not that the owners of these niggling musings and feelings knew how loud their souls were; nor were they aware they were being heard by anyone but themselves. Hunched in on herself as she was in her civilian clothes, the hood of her jacket pulled down as far as it could go over her face, she didn’t stand out any more than any regular sullen teenager did. The day was still normal on some level: she never would be caught dead at this place, after all.

In any case, it didn’t matter at this point whether she was recognized or not; she had been here for an hour enduring the noise of chatter and machines whirring, cups clinking, patrons obnoxiously slurping and crunching in addition to all that previously-mentioned internal noise, and she was only number fourteen in line.

Azar forgive me, she silently prayed, for ever going to Starbucks.[/ul][/size][/font]

[Terra]

The crowded streets were unbearable, she felt small, useless compared to the massive amounts of people around her. Claustrophobic to all the things constantly moving changing, everything was so much more complicated in large numbers. She was just trying to fit in, trying to remain unnoticed. She just wanted to be normal for a little longer.

Her eyes moved everywhere taking in all the things possible in such a short period of time. Her fingers tugging mindlessly at the bottom of her tank top, curling it around her thumb as she looked around, dazed. Nothing seemed irregular about a blond girl walking down the street to get some type of caffeinated beverage in her bloodstream. Nothing even seemed wrong with Terra herself, she was just paranoid. Although she was trying not to be a normal girl once more, just to remain hidden, it was already a known fact that Terra wasn’t capable of normal; she was far too different from them.

The little bell rang quietly as she stepped into the door, a decorated tank top and a gauzy sweater with a pair of jeans. She could have been any girl walking in to get a drink. She exited off the large streets with pleasure, though bewildered to find the same atmosphere in what should have been a tranquil coffee shop. There was nothing special about this shop, it help the same strong aroma as all the others she’d visited on her many years of traveling yet it was crowded. Looking around the store for something recognizable she realized this was just an overpriced well advertised coffee shop.

Shaking her head in despair Terra looked at the line bewildered by its size. A whole twelve people? It was just ridiculous to have that many people with the chaotic atmosphere following. People of all ages were scattered among the coffee shop kept at a low lighting, and tight area.

Her face pulled downward thinking about how much she craved the boost of energy. Terra had managed a measly twelve hours of sleep in the past five days, it wasn’t anything to live off of and that’s why this bittersweet liquid would provide the much needed caffeine.

Glancing once more at the line Terra couldn’t help but feel panged with depression, such a long wait but there wasn’t near enough daylight to waste such an unreasonable amount of time here. Her thoughts becoming selfish as she thought of how she could just threaten everyone to leave now or else she would tear the place down, it was too bad she had no decision of the sort to make. She looked at her hands gently, calming herself as she realized that doing such a thing would attract unwanted attention to herself, she was still afraid of the teen titans and a girl with super abilities threatening people at a coffee shop seemed right up their ally way.

Shaking her head in defeat Terra walked a couple steps towards an empty table. The granite top littered with left trash, and the chairs creating a large squeak as she pulled herself into them. This wasn’t the fun she expected to take place here. She expected to down the caffeine in a couple of seconds then be on her way not sit here waiting for the line to die down.

All Terra could think to do at this point was watch other people; she observed everything about them trying to key in on them and guess the silly details of their life. A childish game but fun none the less.