The Fire Circle

OOC Thread

Jari rubbed his muzzle lightly and gulped down another mouthful of his rapidly cooling plum tea. He'd been staring at the screen of his laptop for the last 15 minutes trying to figure out what this latest photo needed for color correction, and it just wouldn't cooperate. He glanced up after a while and let his eyes browse the room. Open-mic night was over and the crowd at the Fire Circle was already starting to thin. If anything, the shrinking numbers actually made the place feel cozier and more welcoming to the young wolf. Niko had wandered off somewhere shortly after they finished their set and Jari was too intent on finishing these last couple photos to pay attention to where he'd gone.

Jari slouched into his chair and stretched out with a rumbling groan like thunder. He stared at the ceiling a moment to relax his eyes. The computer screen was starting to wear down on his vision. He absently wondered if he'd need reading glasses in the near future. Just another expense he wasn't looking forward to.

Looking back to the screen, Jari added a mild blue tinge to the picture to give it a cooler atmosphere, put a mask layer around Niko's image in the photo and added a low glow filter. Much to his amazement, that was exactly what the photo needed. The shot had Niko wearing Jari's trenchcoat with his hand placed over a large grafitti mural on the brick facade of an unidentified building. The cool ambience and Niko's light glow gave the scene a strong aura of mystery characteristic of Jari's work.

He quickly saved the file and let a small smile cross his muzzle. Another portfolio finished. He'd drop by with some printed copies tomorrow and see if Sandy would put them in the gallery upstairs.

Meanwhile Niko came back in carrying a Mountain Dew and a newspaper. "What up, dark one?" he asked merrily as he collapsed more than sat into the chair opposite Jari. He guzzled several mouthfuls of Mountain Dew before tossing the newspaper, the Sand Domino Morningstar, on the table and removing the comics.

"Just finishing up on a couple of photos," Jari shrugged as he finished his tea. "If I may ask, why are you drinking caffeine at 10 PM?"

"10:15, actually," Niko corrected as he surveyed the comics. He chuckled lightly and shook his head. "Slylock Fox, you crafty SOB... Anyway, I just need a quick shot of energy. I'm chatting up this one chick online, but she's usually not online until midnight, which gives me a couple hours. She's local, so we're going to meet up this week sometime."

"Women and metal. All you think about," Jari remarked.

"And Parkour," Niko retorted.

Jari simply rolled his eyes and picked up the local news section of the paper.

Niko glanced at his brother over the edge of the comics and tried to supress a frown. He reminded himself to ask his date if she had a roommate or something who was into dark, spooky types. He really hated seeing Jari sitting alone all the time.

Marsha walked in wearing her usual, of a pair of jeans and a t-shirt that advertised her latest play on the front. She walked in and got herself a cup of coffee, before heading to one of the tables, grabbing a local paper to see what was going on. She had a few things she needed to do tonight, and one was to check out the men here at the fire circle. She saw the brothers over at one of the tables, and smiled at them, taking a sip from her coffee. "Evening guys."

Kaylee sighed and scraped at the last stubborn piece of gum stuck on the floor of the laser tag room. The signs and the warnings of the workers, somehow the morons always 'forgot' that there was no gum allowed in here. And then, when it fell out of their stupid mouths, they didn't have to clean it up. Nope, at the end of the night, when she closed, she got to. This was not what she wanted to spend her life doing, scraping gum off the floor. Ah, well. Til she got a car, this was what she had to do. As the last smushed flat piece of gum flipped up and into the dust pan she had set there - two points! her internal coach cheered - she sighed happily. Picking up her cleaning supplies, she dropped them into the closet and picked up her roller blades from behind the counter.

She glanced at the clock and swore; she was supposed to be at the Fire Circle in 5 minutes to meet Ashley. She had to do . . . something because she'd lost bet, and if she was late, she could only imagine what Ashley'd make her do. She pulled off her sneakers and slid her blades on and headed for the door as fast as she could. Locking it behind her, she headed down the street to the cafe.

She waved to Niko as she skated in and slid to a stop at the counter to order a tall decaf mocha and a cookie. He was sitting at a table with another wolf, this one a lot darker than him. Maybe that was the brother he always talked about? Kaylee took her drink and cookie and skated over, almost running over a human male. "Sorry!" she cried and almost stumbled into a chair at Niko's table. "Hey Niko. How'd you do tonight? And whozzat?" She pointed with one finger at the other wolf at their table.

Niko and Jari both looked up at the fox at the nearby table just as Kaylee came crashing in rather dramatically.

"Another good show as usual," Niko answered. "And apprently, we've made a new fan," he said gesturing and winking at the fox while inviting her to pull up a chair. "And as for the prince of darkness here..."

"Jari," the elder twin answered as he looked up from his newspaper with just his eyes and not moving a muscle otherwise. "Niko's older brother," He began mentally counting off in his head until one of the girls made a comment about his accent. For some reason, that was the first thing people zeroed in on. That and how deep his voice was, but it was usually the accent they commented on first.

"By like 5 minutes," Niko laughed back. He regarded the two girls once more. "We're thinking of trying out a new set of songs. Jari wants to do a Cure cover, but we're not sure whether to do Killing an Arab or Love Song. He wants to do Killing an Arab, but I keep telling him that Love Song will get him more pussy."

Jari remained still and passive. His eyes simply moved to whoever was moving or talking at that moment.

Kaylee snorted into her drink. "You make new fans every night, Niko, and then you never call them the next day." She held out a paw and shook her hair out of her eyes. "Pleased to meet you, Jari. He always talks about his brother, but I think this is the first time we've met." Smiling, she added, "You have a lovely voice, by the way."

She glanced at Niko and shook her head. "Maybe he's not interested in getting pussy, like some wolves I know. Either song's good, though." She took a bite of her cookie and looked at the door. "God, and I thought I was going to be late. Where the hell is Ashley?"

"All of us settle into routines in our lives. It means different things to all of us. For some, routine is comforting. The steady procession of events and hours makes us feel like we're in control, even if in our heart of hearts we know it isn't true. For others, routine is a prison. They find themselves locked in a rhythm that they didn't make, and do all they can to disrupt it, only to find themselves falling back again each time. For me, routine just is. Sometimes it's a good thing, and there are times when I find that I feel trapped in meaningless repitition, and hoping that something will happen to change it. Anything."

Trevor Mustang's reverie was interrupted by a rush of motion out of the corner of his eye. He glanced up to see a young furry clad in purple bearing down on him, her roller blades clicking on the floor of the cafe. He jerked into action, leaning back and raising his steaming cup of joe and biscotti high overhead.

HookerBoots said:

Kaylee took her drink and cookie and skated over, almost running over a human male. "Sorry!" she cried and almost stumbled into a chair at Niko's table. "Hey Niko. How'd you do tonight? And whozzat?" She pointed with one finger at the other wolf at their table.

Click to expand...

"It's all right," Trevor called after she zoomed past. "I'm, uh, fine." She was talking to one of the other regulars, a wolf with lighter fur that the black one sitting beside him. He smiled as she took her seat and began to talk to them. He'd seen her here before too, one of the many pretty girls who came to the Fire Circle. Her hair changed often, today it was a rather fetching blue. But then, her hair was always fetching. For a moment, he wondered what would have happened had they collided. It would have given him an opportunity to speak to her, but now that she was talking with her friends...

She likely wouldn't want to talk to him anyway. He was the only human here, and often he would be the only human in the cafe all day. A lot of the furries avoided him. Which was unfortunate, but he understood.

"Those near breaks of routine are the really frustrating thing. They always leave you wondering what could have been, and if you missed out on something. In the end, I suppose it doesn't really matter. Any way things happen, it always goes back to the normal routine. Doesn't it?"

Trevor took a seat an am empty table not far from where Kaylee and the brothers sat. Setting down his sustenance, he pulled his laptop from his messenger bag and set it up. Many people did their best work in silence or isolation. Not Trevor. He focused and did his job best when his senses were stimulated. The sound of voices chatting, laughing, the music piping overhead, the smell of coffee and tea, and the sight of all the various furries in attendance, it flooded his senses and prodded him to excellence. His fingers flew over the keyboard as he began entering in the new data. With all this, it would be time to see if his simulation would actually work...

Marsha smiled over at them and continued sipping her drink. She saw the other girl come skating in, and almost trip over anything in her way, oh well. She went back to her paper, not really paying attention to what was going on around there, but also thinking that it was to bad that she had missed open mic night, yet again, because of her classes.

Marsha smiled as she put the paper down and joined the three others at the table. "Hey boys, ma'am, hows it going?" She was being a bit of a flirt, but she didn't care, she was in a good mood, and they were all cute.

'27 seconds,' Jari mentally noted as he took Kaylee's hand. "I assume you're Kaylee?" He'd never admit it out loud, but he did envy Niko his ease with people. Starting conversations just seemed... kind of awkward.

"Fan-fuckin'-tastic," Niko responded to the vixen's query. "Anyway, here's the thing with Jari. You should hear this guy sing Cure songs. Instant fuckin' panty-dropper. But which song does he want to do? The most controversial song they ever wrote."

"It's my favorite Cure song," Jari replied as if stating the sky was blue.

"And Sword Chant is my favorite Ensiferum song, but we can't cover that until I get the clean vocals down. At least I have an excuse."

Jari just stared at his brother a moment then muttered in Suomi, knowing full well that neither of the girls would understand him.

Niko merely smirked and gave a short reply back also in their native tongue.

Jari merely quirked a brow in response and leaned back in his chair, resuming reading his paper.

I look at the two of you with raised eyebrows, wondering what the fuck you two are talking about. "Well I'm Marsha, if you didn't know that. I also sing, but I keep missing open mic because of school." She frowned at the two guys but also shrugged, not knowing whether they would really care to hear her troubles.

Ashley served a cup of coffee to the customer sitting at the table, and went back by the counter. Customers were getting fewer by the day, and she knew it wouldnt be long before loss of customers started meaning loss of employees too. She brushed off the thought. She was beginning to get frustrated too. Where was the girl who was supposed to take over from her for the next shift? she wondered.

After waiting for a while, which felt like ages, the next girl came in. She was quick to say a goodbye at the owner, and quickly headed to Fire Circle. She knew she was getting late. And knowing Kaylee, she may already be there. She just hoped her friend wouldnt be upset. Or wouldnt want to bail out now because she was too late.

She quickly headed over, and saw her friend talking to two wolves. She quickly headed over, and with a quick nod at them, looked at her friend and said "I am sorry. I really am. The girl at the cafe, she got late. And that doesnt mean you bail out now"

Crossing her eyes at the tiger, Kaylee grinned. "I was worried I'd be late." She gestured for Ashley to sit down. "Niko, Jari, this is my friend Ashley. She's not as easy as she dresses. Ashley, Nike and Jari. They're brothers who sing occasionally." She waited until the others exchanged greetings, then took a sip of her drink. "Well, now that we're all here, and I don't get to bail, what do I have to do to even up this bet?"

She cracked her knuckles and smiled as she glanced at the boys. "We had a bet on a basketball game. Strangely, I lost, so now Ashley gets to name her price." She shrugged and kicked her foot so that the wheels on her rollerblades spun. "Name it, Ash, and you've got it."

Marsha just watched the two girls and shook her head. It was like she wasn't even there, but she was used to that. 'Sounds like it could be interesting to see what she would want you to do. Sorry for butting in there." She gave a smile.

Ashley threw a dark stare at her friend as she introduced her to the two brothers. Just like her to tale digs at her. Well, she decided, she will go ahead with the dare she had in mind for her friend.

She looked at the two brothers, and now for the first time noticed she had seen them before, though had never got to know them. She nodded to them, and held out her hand for the two brothers. And added to Kaylee's explanation "And she thought it was a good idea to always play for forfeits."

Then she turned to look at her friend and added darkly "Okay. Heres what i have for you. You havent been all that friendly with humans of late. I want you to correct that. I want you to go, and try to pick up a human male" and then added, with a wink "Female will do too."

She then settled back, and studied her friend's expression, and then again leaned in closer and whispered "You see that guy back there. The one with his laptop? Thats the perfect geek for you to pick up" and winked at her again.

Kaylee had been grinning until Ashley told her what she'd have to do. Her smile fell like someone had cut the strings holding it up. "You're joking." When Ashley only smiled more broadly, she shook her head. "God, Ash, that's not fair. Humans don't like me; if you're a female furry and not a cat, they barely notice you! And I almost ran him over a few minutes ago." Ashley only shook her head and grabbed a piece of Kaylee's cookie. Sighing, she stood up and grabbed her mocha. "Fine, if that's what you want." She skated over to the guy's table.

Sliding to a stop at the edge of his table, she smiled in what she hoped was a winning way. "Hi. I, um, wanted to apologize for almost running you down. Let me buy you something to drink to make up for it?" She tilted her head and held out her free hand. "I'm Kaylee, by the way."

Interesting. Snippets of dialog from the other tables tickled at his ears. The numbers were looking good. Snatches of a language he'd never heard before. A new voice, and then an irritated response. Numbers streamed across the screen as he entered data points. Very good.

Maybe the most remarkable thing about routine is how hard it is to change. Even when you're presented with a very good reason to change. But change is frightening, even when it comes in the best form possible."

HookerBoots said:

Sliding to a stop at the edge of his table, she smiled in what she hoped was a winning way. "Hi. I, um, wanted to apologize for almost running you down. Let me buy you something to drink to make up for it?" She tilted her head and held out her free hand. "I'm Kaylee, by the way."

Click to expand...

Trevor looked up, his eyes startled. "Oh!" "I'm Trevor." He stayed sitting for a moment, then shot to his feet, taking her offered hand and shaking it. "Trevor Mustang." She had a light grip, and her fur was soft and pleasantly warm. He smiled a bit shyly. "You don't need to apologize, Miss, I mean, Kaylee." "It would have helped if I was watching where I was going."

"Even when a beautiful girl came right up to me and introduced herself, part of my wanted to just brush the incident off, be friendly but get back to my work. If I could get all this data in, I'd finally be able to see if the last three months has been anything more than a waste of time. I almost did too."

"There's nothing to worry about." "If you'll excuse me though, I..." Trevor paused, suddenly wondering what the hell he was doing. Was he really about to push away a girl? Especially one who was this cute? "I'd be glad to buy you a drink as well." "Then we'll both be even, right?" He hit save, closing the laptop. "Please, join me." "Unless I'm taking you away from your friends..."

She was just glad that he didn't tell her to get lost. "It's nice to meet you, Trevor." She sank into a chair across from him with a smile. "And my friends will be fine without me for a while." She tapped the laptop with a fingertip. "So what do you do?" Kaylee tossed her hair over her shoulder and idly rolled her skates on the floor. "I bet it's interesting. Anyone with a computer in a cafe does something fascinating."

She glanced over her shoulder at Ashley, who was watching with delight as she fumbled for small talk.

"It is fascinating, really." Trevor warmed to being able to talk about his research, he loved talking astronomy. "I'm an astronomy student at San Domino State, and I've been working on a computer model that accurately maps..."

"It was then that the hair toss and the smile sank in, and I realized something. Kaylee didn't know or care about my research, certainly not in depth. She wanted to talk to me, and was looking for something to talk about. Rattling on about my research wasn't going to do anything but be aggravating. And prove that I really was the greatest geek of all. Of course, I am a geek."

Trevor shook his head, "You know, it's not even that fascinating to me." "You give me too much credit." He shrugged, "I'm an astronomer, or I'm trying to be." "I go to school and spend a lot of nights at the observatory, staring into space, looking for stars, and anything else I happen to find."

He took a sip from his coffee, "Nothing exciting, I'm sorry to say." "What about you, Kaylee?" "I've seen you here before, and in the neighborhood."

She looked at him steadily. "I think it's fascinating. And I know you think it's fascinating too." She smiled slightly, her fingers running around her own cup. "Your face when you started was . . . you looked happier than I've seen anyone in a long time." Kaylee gave him a tilt of her head. "And I'm the laser tag girl at Colony 13, as well as coach for the girl's high school basketball team." She shrugged. "Nothing too impressive." Grinning at him, she tapped the computer again. "Now, what will your model map? I promise, I'm smarter than I look."

"Although I've been wrong before."

Trevor actually blushed a little at her words. "Well, it really is, for me." "It's...well, fascinating is a good word." "I know it's kind of foolish but, I really enjoy working on it." He smiled, sliding the laptop to the side, and lifting the screen so they could both see it. "What I'm trying to do is make a model that maps gravity." "Taking a point in space, say the Earth, and from the data we have, seeing if there's actually enough objects in the right places to be creating the gravity that keeps the object in it's orbit." He hit a few buttons, running the program with the current incomplete data. It showed a sphere, which was then surrounded by several lines, each one coming in from a different direction with a number beside it. More lines were added over several seconds, until finally at the bottom of the screen, the words "Insufficient Mass" appeared in red. "This is using incomplete data, but it shows that there isn't enough mass in the right vectors to account for Earth's position." "Which means we're either missing something, or our theory of gravity is wrong."

He looked over at her, "You know, Kaylee, you shouldn't belittle what you do." "It takes a lot of management and people skills, and those aren't things that everyone has."

She smiled at him. "It's not that I don't think it's important. It's just not that thrilling most of the time. Last thing I did before I got here was scrape gum off the floor." Kaylee looked at the screen and tipped her head. "So if your model's correct, and proven correct, of course, then it might prove the existance of dark matter."

Winking, she took a sip of her mocha and almost grimaced; the stuff was terrible when it got cold. "I told you I was smarter than I looked. I'd be in school, but I can't afford it." He was kinda cute, she thought, when he got excited about something. Normally, humans didn't do much for her, but there was something endearing about this one. She smiled again. "So do you have a substitute theory of gravity, then?"

Jacen stretched, waking up. He'd been at the club all last night, DJing. As a result, his day was barely started.. He climbed out of his bed, and turned on his music, loud techno flooding his rather large loft apartment. He took a quick shower, scrubbing himself down and shaving. Then he took care of his hair, and brushed his teeth. His electric toothbrush whirred for some time as he scrubbed and polished them. He was proud of his smile, of course, but people rarely saw it. Once his teeth gleamed, he got dressed, pulling on an outfit in his usual colors. He started a music upload, transferring new tracks to both his Minidisc player and his MP3 player. He'd made the conversion of the files, as well as making playlists for them, the previous night. Once the process was done, he packed up his laptop, slipping it into the leather backpack he carried at all times, along with the other stuff he'd need during the day. He shouldered it, then put both audio devices in pockets, with headphones. By the time he rushed out the door, heading for the Fire Circle, it was around ten. Four hours used up on his 'morning' routine.

It only took him ten minutes to walk there. He never touched coffee, but they had a special blend of tea that always woke him up. He pushed open the doors, walking in, and immediately spotted several new faces. He loped towards the counter, and collapsed into a seat. "Yo, Niko, how's tricks?" He looked up at the wolf, then turned to study the other new faces. "Morn...er, evening. The club was really jumping last night. I don't think we've ever been that busy. Let's hope tonight's as profitable."

Watching the events of the bet unfolding, Niko puffed a lock of hair from his eyes and turned to the fox girl. "Alright, assuming you could make open mic night, which Cure song would you want us to cover?"

Jari looked up from his newspaper again. "He doesn't give up easily," he muttered before adding under his breath in a deadpan joking tone, "Peräaukko."

"Just so long as you notice me," Niko shot back with a smarmy grin. Inside, he was getting a little impatient with his brother. There were two attractive young women sitting at the table with him and he wasn't paying attention to what was going on at all. And he wondered why he was single.

Seeing Jacen come in, Niko held out his hand for a high five. "And here I was thinking the place wouldn't be busy this close to closing time," he joked. "This is Marsha, by the way. Our new fan."

Ashley looked on at her friend, quite amused at her friend's reaction. She watched carefully as she walked over to the guy. She strained to hear what they were talking about, and noticed she had seen that guy before. A quite, geeky kind of a guy, but she had found him to be quite interesting when she had last seen him. She then shook her head - found a geeky human interesting?

She saw her friend and the human act uncomfortably to begn with, and almost giggled. She looked on interested, almost losing track of her company. She then heard a new guy walk in, and exchange high-fives with the guys on the table, and she turned her attention to them. This new one was another human, and she looked at him with some interest.

She heard the exchange between the Niko, who was clearly the more 'social' of the two wolves, and the fox at the table, and smiled. Niko clearly had his moves right. She smiled again at the human, and held out her hand "Ashley. Dont think we have met"

Jacen rolled his eyes, and grinned. Then he sat down, ordering his usual tea. He turned to look at the one named Marsha, and smiled, nodding his head. Then one of the other ladies introduced herself to him as Ashley. He smiled again, and took her hand, raising it to his lips and kissing it gently. "I'm Jacen. I am one of the owners of the nightclub, Event Horizon."

He regarded Niko's brother with amusement. He'd met the guy only once, and knew that there wasn't little colder in the world. "Still stuck on The Cure? We really need to get you some Takanori or Ayu."