Open/Welcome to the Okami

5PM IN THE AFTERNOON, just an hour before the the afternoon peak of traffic would end. Not car traffic, mind you, gods no. That traffic doesn't end until 5, maybe 6PM at the earliest. That's the time when everyone is hurrying along to get home. No, no, the traffic that we're talking about is customers who walk the streets. The ideal customers for whenever a particular tomato-headed young man isn't working his professional gig. Shujin Kagakuma - a young magician who was making quite the name for himself when it came to live performance entertainment. That's right, he could do it all - card tricks, escapism, illusions, - you name it, he's most likely done it. Now, what pray tell, was a 19-yr-old young man doing in a bar, let alone, the bar district, of all places? Well.. he's here to get a drink, of course! See what the coming night life has to offer in terms of faces and information. And if there was any juicy information to be heard, he already knew there would be at least one person floating around during the night life who would want it. ...Okay, so that last bit is kind of lie. Shujin himself wouldn't know the first thing to do with any juicy gossip, even if it hit him in the face. His other selves however..

Oh, right. You don't know that yet. Or at least, you shouldn't. Ah, well, no skin off our noses here. You'll find out what the guy is about soon enough. At any rate, the young man pulled up a chair at the bar counter, drumming his fingers upon the counter as he bobbed his head up and down to the tunes. Anyone else who was already in the bar, be they employees or customers were casting the dual-color-headed male strange looks, wondering why some "kid" was waltzing his way inside as if he was a regular customer. The bartender definitely stared at him with a raised brow, watching patiently to see if this would-be-patron was going to order anything. After about twenty seconds of patiently waiting, they leaned over and wrapped their knuckles upon the counter in front of Shujin, bringing his attention to them as those headphones came sliding down from his ears. "Eh? Ah, gomen.. I was in my own little world..", he said, scratching the back of his head as he offered a sheepish smile. The bartender gave a light shrug as she placed his hands upon the counter, still patiently waiting to see what the young man would ask for.

"Ettou.. can I get a cup of coffee? A teaspoon of honey.. oh! And some cream, if you don't mind." This of course, got the bartender to raise her brow once again. However, she wouldn't argue, as this confirmed that the young man was most likely underage, and was well aware of what he could, or could not partake in at this establishment. A small nod was given to Shujin, the bartender soon moving away to prepare the cup of coffee the young man asked for.

The night was something of a let down for Tsubame. She had lots of things on her mind, though the majority of it revolved around her love life, or....lack of love life? She was almost 30 and so far she only had either one night stands or one ex-lover from years ago. What brought about this train of thought was her recent encounter with her best friend. They went out for dinner due to her forgetting to eat, which happens more than one would think, and ended up in an awkward kiss outside her home's door. It beat through her head like a drum, getting louder the longer she thought about it. Then there came the thoughts of her ex-lover, or rather current lover? She wasn't sure at the moment since they were not of the normal variety. Long story short, Tsubame was a mental mess and needed something to help calm it down long enough for her to think straight and hopefully have a peaceful night of Go with one of the old neighbors who tends to stay up late with her to play games and drink tea. But before she could get to that lovely part of her night...she needed a drink, or several, she wasn't sure what her limit was at this time. 

Walking into the bar, she looked around. This one was one she hadn't been in before and wanted to see what it was like. The fact that it was away from UA had nothing to do with it. Kinda. She wore a black skin tight short dress with no straps. Around her neck was an old pendant of her mothers that was supposed to bring about good luck. It was a sparrow carved out of plain quarts crystal. On her feet she wore black strap heels. Tonight was a night she was going to treat herself so she wanted to look nice. Over her shoulders she wore a scarlet red cardigan. Her hair was tied up in a ponytail like usual since she didn't want to do her hair. She saw that it was almost empty and decided to seat herself at the bar. Motioning towards the bartender, she asked for a short gin and tonic. Might as well start small and work her way up till she was finished with her mind numbing. She knew that her best friend didn't like her drinking, but he wasn't here and she wasn't about to let her 'me time' be for naught. Once she got her drink, she sipped at it while looking at her phone. She got several texts messages, some from the school, some from family, and then others from certain people she didn't want to think about. Without much thought, she shut off her phone and slipped it back into her purse. She didn't bring her large hip bag with her since she didn't think she'd be here long. Food was something she needed, but she didn't think she'd get into any fights here and she could eat when she got home or when she was on her way home. 

Sighing, she sat and sipped her drink with a mildly blank expression as her yellow amber eyes closed, drifting into silence.

Dreamer

LET
ME
FORGET
MY
FEARS♔

[attr="class","aiuedaimgtop"]

[attr="class","aiuedaquote"]I'm the owner of the Okami. You can call me Ai.

[attr="class","aiuedamain"]
Normally running a bar was relatively easy if the patrons that entered were normal folk, but this kid seemed anything but normal. Once again the kid seemed to enter his own little world except for this time it was the dream world. Watching the teen clack his face against her bar seemed to wake him up enough that he removed his goggles. Hah, serves him right to fall asleep shortly after addressing someone; the poor kid has giant circles around his eyes from the goggles. He seemed to refuse to start up a tab for coffee, which made sense normally it was one and then you were done but she knew a few people who could down cup after cup, treating it like beer. Still, the kid was ordering and he most likely still wanted that cup, so in response, Ai tapped away on the tablet that acted as their register. As she did a familiar ding came from the front door, and instinctively Ai blurted aloud, "Hello! Welcome to the Okami. I'll be right with you."[break][break]

As she finished greeting the newcomer she swirled the tablet around to show the price of the coffee to the teen. It was cheap, surprisingly as most bars in the area did not serve non-alcoholic beverages cheaply. It was mostly a tactic to dissuade minors from entering the bars mostly but as proven here, it didn't always work. Ai certainly wasn't one to punish the young ones for going to a bar. Just then her eyes locked onto the woman who had just entered.[break][break]

She was dressed quite fancy, almost presenting herself to those around her. Goodness, it was years since Ai would have even attempted to wear something so aggressive. It reminded her of the kind of outfits she wore around Kichirou before she had her two kids, ah those were the days. Too bad they didn't last; the memory stung her bad, causing her eyes to lose their smile for a brief moment; the rest of her expression was still unwavering. The slight wave to Ai was met with a simple nod as she waited for the teen to turn around to the screen. Luckily for Ai, her order was quite simple and very easy to prepare.[break][break]

From below the counter, Ai procured a small glass, added the ice cubes then poured the gin, followed by completing the drink with tonic water. It was almost complete, but was missing the final ingredient to make it perfect; a single piece of lime. Just below the counter, amidst all the various hard liquors designed for mixing, was a single cooler; inside, several lemons and limes. Everything was pretty much done below the counter, but with the use of a handy slicer, the lime had been separated into several pieces, with a single wedge being brought above, and onto the glass. Finally, one final flick and the drink slid down the bar, landing directly in front of the woman.[break][break]

Then her attention as back to the small narcoleptic goggle-head. If he finished payment, she would step into the back room, mixing the coffee with a single teaspoon of honey and some added cream. It would have been a large mug, certainly not small portions but enough to put most coffee shops to shame and it would be left in front of the teen before she stepped over to the dressed woman.[break][break]

"Hey there, haven't seen you idling around my bar before, nice to meet you." She'd have a welcoming smile on her face as she extended a hand while leaning on the bar counter. "I'm the owner of the Okami. You can call me Ai." She'd lower herself on the bar to get a better look at the woman's face. "So, I take it you are waiting for someone huh?" She was rather blunt in her observations. Not many came to her bar dressed all fancy and the like; after all her bar was not the fancy style. Almost all of her traditional patrons were older men who just wanted to unwind after a day of work; sometimes she wondered why they picked her place and not another, but perhaps it felt calming to them. Normally she wouldn't ask these questions of a patron, but she stood out like a sore thumb among the other patrons, and her curiosity demanded she satiate it.