2025-03-12 - March Madness: The Winding Vine

Artemisia is dressed in a pair of leggings, an oversized yellow flannel, and a band tshirt. She's already shed her jacket for the warmth of the Cafe, sitting at one of the tables with her foot (in its walking cast) propped up on the chair opposite as she sips slowly at a chai. It's perfect people watching while she idly makes notes on a score.

Is it too stereotypical for Cedric to be in the cookbook section? Because that's where he is, whoops. He's not got any books selected yet but he is scanning the shelves with some intent, eyes narrowed as he reads the spines. He's dressed semi-casually in jeans and a button-up, sleeves rolled up to his elbows. Eventually he steps forward to select a book off the shelf, his gaze lit up with glee.

The title reads Food To Die For. Immediately he opens it up and starts flipping through.

Jack turn up looking more than a little hungover and bringing Arte a gift in a small paper bag from down the street. It rattles like aspirin and probably is. The truth? Oh yeah he's here for the coffee. He asks the barista only, "Save me from my own choices please. Double shot Americano. No whip sil vous plait. Thank you." He waits and looks around, not because he's a reader but because he's nosy. While he's squinting trying to see if he can ID the people on the other floor he asks, "Arte, how are weeeeee?"

Ravin strolls in wearing a kilt, a sort of coordinated blouse-y shirt, and a half-cape. Someone's clearly been taking sartorial cues from Alan Cumming on Traitors. They give Artemisia and Jack a little wave on their way past towards the counter to order.

Grinning, Artemisia wiggles her fingers in a wave at Ravin. "They always look great," she says with a smile as Jack joins her. "I'm hobbling along. How are you doing? You look like you need these more than I do."

Apparently Cedric is not much for browsing because he found one singular book and immediately heads for the register to check out. That done (and a minimum of small talk made with the cashier, because he's too friendly not to) Cedric makes for downstairs and the cafe.

Which is when he spots Artemisia, who gets a wave in her general direction as he queues up at the counter. His order is an overly complicated sugary milkshake disguised only barely as coffee, but sometimes you just deserve a treat, right?

Jack looks to Ravin and Cedric walking over to there he is with an upnod; the Quebecois greeting, "Allo allo." It's to Artemisia he promises, "Soon. I got my own. Promise. You should see the other guy." There was not another guy, there never are, but he keeps on with the story for the fun of appearances all the same.

It's noticing the vines and leaves allegedly moving he stares and asks the room, "Curious, how drunk do I look right now because I am starting to hallucinate or I am a ghost." Off-handedly he says "Ravin, loving the cape, chere, is very you. Makes a Tuesday very exciting. Chef, allo...serious, is that moving to anyone else?" He points back to the foliage.

Once their attention is drawn over to the moving foliage, Ravin frowns. "That's... weird. Do we have someone who can make plants grow around? I ran into someone who could drain plans the other day. There's probably... someone who can make them grow." They do give Jack and Arte a grin for the compliments, though.

"Is the other guy also named Jack and comes in a bottle?" Artemisia quips wryly, but then her face shifts to delight at Cedric's wave. Excitedly, she waves back. "And good. We both need it." The aspirin. When her attention is drawn towards the plants, her dark eyes go wide with shock. "I mean- I imagine but... I've never seen anything like this." At a loss, she casts about with empathy as if that will help her with plants, her eyes flashing pink for a moment.

It takes someone else pointing out the plant situation for Cedric to notice, so focused on his little treat as he is. But he does look up when Jack greets him and he's still looking up when Jack then indicates something strange is going on, frowning in puzzlement until he spots one of the wayward vines.

"What?" he asks, dumbfounded. Even that single syllable is enough to peg him as being from England; his accent is pretty strong.

"Arte, you know they both are." There's a wry smile from Jack as he watches this murmuring in French "Sorry I said anything. Why do I feel like this is my fault?" But to Ravin he translates, "I am a ghost problems guy. If this is someone I am not it." And then the lights are partly obscured. "Aaaand they're throwing shade. Okay. Sure why not." Looking to Cedric he asks, "This is not revenge for the salad I hope." He says to Ravin, "the chop salad was great. He used a decapitated head of lettuce- very on theme. Spooky salad dressing. Loved it."

There's a long pause before he admits, "If it attacks us I will miss you all most. I will be happy to pass on any messages and water you plants." He's so not a hero nor aspiring to be, if that's even true. Hard to tell with him.

Having been on the third floor where all the used and discounted books are Lee, has been unaware of what has been going on below. The slithering and such has gone unnoticed until they begin to wander back down stairs a few books in hand. Lee going down and the winding of vines going up is not the natural order of things, and least the latter of those, and so rapidly too. "Please tell me it is one of you folks that is just having some fun." they say as the look around that the gathering of cafe patrons

That barista is a baller. Artemisia will buy them a drink later. At the moment she's watching grass sprout out of the floors. "What are we- I mean- this humidity can't be good for the books?" She says weakly, lifting her chai to take a long and fortifying sip.

Ravin continues looking around at the plants as they comment distractedly to Jack. "Decapitated head of lettuce and spooky salad dressing sounds cool, but... I feel I must resist the urge to break into songs from Little Shop of Horrors. At least I'm not seeing any teeth, yet, or any requests to feed them. Maybe they're just feeling like it's Spring?"

"This is wild, isn't it?" Cedric says, totally distracted now. People are definitely talking at him - sorry, Jack - but Cedric is awe-struck by the sudden transformation of the cafe. He lifts one foot and then the other as the grass starts to grow beneath them, and he's just grinning like a madman at the lot of it.

He doesn't even care about his little treat, now. In fact he's entirely forgotten about it, which is probably a good thing given the barista is busy anyway, wielding their tongs against the oncoming plant invasion.

Jack's watching the vines on the ceiling until Ravin says something that hurts his shriveled little soul, "Must you thoooo?" There's a disappointment that there's no song being broken into right now. "Fine, I'll look. Someone get me a holder for my coffee please?
They won't. He is unlikely to blame them.

Jack folds like human origami for a moment and shifts into an actual jackdaw belying his stage pseudonym. He takes a flight up there to get a better look at the vines.

The books in their hand forgotten, Lee studies one of the buds blooming right beside them on the stair railing. Their gaze then follows the wrapping vine downwards where other colorfully hued flowers are blooming. Lee descends the rest of stairs, stepping out of their slip on sandals to stand barefoot on the grass that has sprung up. "Wild doesn't even begin to cover it."

Crouching down Lee runs fingers over the green grass before standing and turning to the vines that have made a trellis of the stairs and leans over to smell one of the flowers, though they start in surprise as a bird, formerly the human formed Jack, flies past them.

Artemisia holds up a finger, staring after Jack. "Did everyone else just see that?" Yeaaaaah. She missed a trick for sure. A bird. "I knew he talked to ghosts, but damn," she whispers to herself (loud enough that everyone near her can hear) - impressed. "I have no useful skills for this." Also see: cast. "Unless someone is freaking out and needs to calm down but I don't know if we aren't supposed to be freaking out." She glances at Cedric. "What say you, Earl Grey?" Oh. She flashes Lee a smile. "Hi Lee."

Then that scent begins to creep through the air and Artemisia takes a giddy inhale, which unfortunately because of her empathy she shares with some of her friends nearby. Ravin. Lee. It's like a soft cloud to the warm comfort that the plants are emitting - a hand to hold. "This is," she takes a sip of her chai. "Possibly even nicer than rainbow bookcases." It's a good feeling.

The worst is that Cedric didn't see it, he totally missed the human to bird transformation because he was marveling at grass. Which is, you know, grass where it's not supposed to be, but it's also not a person turning themselves into a bird. A shame.

"See what?" he asks, and then soon enough Artemisia is questioning him, and all he can do is shrug. "I'm clueless here, yeah?" He looks to the others, offering only a shrug and then a wee little giggle. And that's before the fuzzy feeling of euphoria hits, and then he's outright laughing. "This is mint!"

The light brightens a little, but not much, there's too much interfering and Ravin's too distracted. "Oh this could easily turn into the lotus eaters." Still, they're smiling as they start humming 'Somewhere That's Green'.

Jack flies around a bit investigating. Is it a perfectly direct line? No as Jack said he's amid the fallout of a hangover. Flying down he lands on the bookshelf, then hops to the counter then down to the grass that should not be there. There's a tap tap of talons inspecting it and then he just rubs his face and beak on it. Ooh this is nice.

Lee was already leaning over to sniff a flower, so gets a generous amount of the fragrance as as the flowers seem to just expel the scent all at once. Double whammy of the empathic projection provided by Arte. The giddy feeling left in the scent's wake has them covering their mouth as they burst out in silvery giggles.

Plucking one of the flowers, they stick it behind their ear, before they begin to skip around on the springy grass, picking a flower of each color and tucking into one of the two braids that circle their head, soon they will be crowned with the flowers. They stop at Arte, handing her one of the flowers, and then goes to replace the color they gave her.

Lee's gallant off of a flower is met with a light-toned giggle as Artemisia accepts it with a smile. Her fingertips play over the end of the flower, drawing in the petals as she admires it. So pretty. Eyes half-lidded, she barely notices the thumpthump beyond a dreamy, "Anyone hear that?"

Jack the jackdaw has tucked his feet under him. This is nice. Being small is comfortable and he interior lawn likes them. Is he worried about bathroom guy? Nah he's got facilities he's fine- better than being trapped in an elevator. There's a "Craaaw." to answer Arte's question. He cannot be bothered to be a person right now, but that could be a yes. That could have ben 'shit I can't reach my coffee' in bird too

Cedric slumps down into an empty chair in the cafe, book abandoned on the table next to him. All he's done since this has started has been basically just staring, and this he continues, marveling at the spread of plantlife around them.

"Hear what, Lady Grey?" he asks, but then he does hear the follow-up voice from inside the restroom, and he laughs again at the whole predicament of it. But then he does get up and head over to the bathrooms, to investigate the vegetation over there instead. And maybe try to free the person stuck, if he can stop oohing and ahhing over it all.

Ravin, likewise, heads over to try to help out the person in the restroom. Seeing if he can move vines out of the way of the door. "I do worry why the plants want us relaxed and euphoric. This does lean to poppies putting people to sleep and lotus eaters and such."

Lee is giving flowers to anyone that will take them, including Cedric and Ravin. "Hear what?" he answers Arte's question with a question, though their attention shifts from the woman, over to where Cedric and Ravin are gathering near a vine covered wall. "Isn't there supposed to be a door there?" the extra whammy of Arte's empathy is starting to wear off and Lee is starting to get some of their mental clarity back. "You may need something sharp and pointy to cut through the vines."