strixhavenuniversity | Busy Day at the Café

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Busy Day at the Café

The Firejolt Café is a hot spot of activity on Strixhaven campus. If you're not studying in the Biblioplex next door, you're likely here poring over tomes at its study tables or dozing off in the lounge. Well-lit, clean, and with no bounds on the selection of coffee and tea beverages offered, the café draws in customers at every time of day.

Rhodie Berrycloth is practicing magic in the seating area and accidentally shoots off a spell at the barista station. Ned Underhand dodges the attack, but their elbow knocks the all-important Employees' Handbook, full of recipes and operating instructions, into a muddy cleaning bucket. The spell hits the espresso machine, which begins sparking and malfunctioning. By noon, there's a line to the door and impatient rumblings from the customers.

[Character C] gets a pumpkin spice latte that causes their skin and hair to turn bright orange for an hour. On the other hand, they now emit an alluring pumpkin spice scent.

[Character D] figures they'll be safe ordering tea instead, but a stray spark from the espresso machine lands in their drink. The tea causes their hair to become electrified and stand up in all directions, and for an hour, they'll receive an unpleasant shock whenever they touch metal—or other people.

Due to a mix-up, Helmine Blackwater gets the firejolt latte (the cafe's signature drink, costing a whopping 10 gold pieces) instead of their actual order. Normally, this drink confers magical fire resistance, but when they take a sip, they instead blast the next table with a spew of flame from their mouth, setting all of the books and papers on fire. No one is seriously injured, but [Character F]'s homework (due next class!) is burnt to a crisp.

[Character K] orders a seemingly normal coffee that grows liquid wings and escapes their paper cup to fly around and leave scalding burns on anyone it attacks. Icarus Ioannides fights and subdues the demonic coffee creature. (Anyone in the café can roll a check of your choice and beat a DC 10 to avoid getting coffee burns.)

Cosmo Mallory is convinced they can fix the magical espresso machine, even without the Employees' Handbook. (To succeed, roll a DC 15 Intelligence check.) If they're struggling, Narcissus Theodoracopulos offers to help, and between the two of them, they get the espresso machine working again so the employees can knock out the long queue of orders.

Quentillius Antiphiun Melentor III skips the long line and offers an absurd amount of money for any of the customers at the front to give up their spot for him. Edie vch Daffyd accepts, despite waiting in line for almost 20 minutes already. Barista Czernobog Anger refuses to accept Quentillius' impossible drink order, which results in a loud argument that ends with Cze throwing an entire blender at Quentillius. Quentillius ducks, and the blender beans Myrto Wings Most Splendid instead.

Czernobog Anger is fired and gets the dubious distinction of being the first freshman student to receive detention.

Characters are welcome to use the areas below for any café-related scenes.

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The front counter has a magical tip jar that tracks the amount of money in it. Here, the cashier will take drink orders from customers. The back counter is stacked with magical equipment that helps baristas prepare drinks. Saloon doors on either side of the back counter lead to a small break room for employees and has shelves with café and cleaning supplies.

Edie doesn't mind waiting. She is patient to a fault and blessed with an overabundance of time. Besides, she finds Quentillius a little charming. He's just so awful. When she lets him cut, the crowd behind her begins to groan and mutter in frustration. Her lips twist up in an ugly, pinched little smile. Grinchian.

She watches enraptured as Czernobog and Quentillius begin shouting at one another. She is certain that Quentillius is about to be physically harmed, which she doesn't necessarily promote, but would like to see happen anyway. When the blender fails to connect with its intended target, Edie looks disappointed. "Aw, he missed."

Instead of Quentillius, the blender strikes a dramatically gestuiculating Myrto, interrupting the parable she is pondering aloud to a trapped peer in line. It knocks the croissaint straight out of her hand.

"Who threw that???" she bursts out, clutching the side of her head.

Cosmo grabs an obscene amount of napkins from behind the bar to bring to Myrto, but in his haste, his hooves slips on the remnants of the very drink that had assaulted Myrto. Napkins go flying, wasted, like sad little paper moths doomed to the garbage. He didn't even get close to delivering them.

Mind-obliterating rage dissipates at the sound of a girl crying out, and Cze checks over the counter to see Myrto clutching her head, the blender next to her spilling its icy contents all over the floor, and the red-headed upperclassman looking smug and unharmed.

"Shit! Sorry!" Cze calls out to Myrto, just as Cosmo and his napkins go flying. He takes in this entire clusterfuck of a scene. Oh man. This is so bad. He's going to get expelled. "You all okay? Not you." He points at Quentillius. "You can shut the fuck up."

"I am quite all right," Myrto insists, but there are telltale storm clouds gathering over her head. As she stoops down to try and help Cosmo clean up the napkins (difficulty: hard, as she's determined not to look him in the eyes) the newly falling rain turns them into paper muck that only makes everything worse.

"No, no! I can do this, just you watch," Cosmo insists. It takes him a while to convince more senior employees, but in the end, they're too busy to stop him. Orders keep coming in, and Cosmo's left to his own devices with the espresso machine. All of the pipes and switches and blasts of steam remind him a little of home.

The first thing he does is disassemble, well, everything. Piece by piece. He finds rust and wires and, so, so much espresso, so with deft fingers he gets to work. The rest of the café might be in chaos, but he's lost in his own little world. It seems to be just a matter of neglect after countless hours of work.

With pieces of the espresso machine scattered around him on little white towels, he reaches behind him and grabs the sleeve of what he assumes is a passing coworker. "Oi! Spare a moment? I need a few things," he says, not looking up, hands filthy with grease and coffee grounds. His touch immediately leaves a stain on their clothes.

Edited (nat 20 (25) to repair, just dirty hands as he does so) 2022-10-04 03:26 (UTC)

Pocket pouts as grubby hands leave a smear on her shirt. Sure, there's already a smear from her own various misadventures in life, but now there's someone else to blame.

"Like, I guess," she whines and glances around. She doesn't know where anything is, but Pocket's been around workbenches most of her life, and if she can't find the right thing then she can probably find something else that will suffice. It'll all work out fine.

This area, directly in front of the barista station, is populated by large tables and chairs and is commonly used by folks looking to socialize. The surface of each table is enchanted with illusion magic to display animated battles between the colleges' mascots.

Magical steps lead up to two tiers of long benches that overlook the seating area, usually reserved for studying. The benches are magical and are warm during the colder months and cooler during the hotter months.

Annarrgeal goes from a perfectly still, languid sitting position to standing up straight so quickly that the chair she was sitting on is throw backwards, clattering away as she stands aghast. Burning hot coffee is scattered across her arms and blouse, probably staining it, and all she can think of is picking up her own cup of hot tea and throwing it in the face of whoever is responsible. Or maybe taking the little butter knife next to her muffin, and... and...

But how horribly unladylike that would be. It takes several moments before the expression of rage passes from her face, transforming into a serene exasperation. The anger is still there, but she manages to stuff it down, down, as far as it can go.

"I... I must, I cannot... this will stain if I don't tend to it." She's already casting little cantrips on the worst of the stains, and despite all her efforts, her pale cheeks are pink with emotion. "Loud venues like this don't suit me. The stress makes me lightheaded."

Edited 2022-10-04 03:47 (UTC)

Sofas, armchairs, and a series of fireplaces make this lounge a comfortable spot. Customers can be found here reading magazines, napping, or just watching the flames. The table near the center of the room is often occupied by upperclassmen poring over high-level spell scrolls and other advanced magic.

Three smaller rooms are in the northeast of the café. A magical field dampens sound in each of these rooms, making them ideal for students looking to focus on their studies. You can often find students working on group projects here.

this was supposed to be just a flash reactionary and then i went overboard

Can I grab Character E for Helmine?

She is, unfortunately, delighted by this. How exciting!

Added! This is really the café's fault instead of hers. ☺

G for Cosmo? He's certain he can definitely fix this machine no problem.

Added! We believe in you Cosmo... save us from this coffee hell...

H for Narcissus, if Cosmo wants a buddy who's both very confident and very useless

Cosmo would love to have a handsome assistant as he fixes the fried espresso machine

B for Ned please this needs to all be his fault thanks

Added! Thanks to Ned, everyone needs to figure out how to make the golden unicorn frappuccino without the recipe

Character I for Edie, please. Her arc this month is to hustle the upperclassmen.

Added! They are all suckers and she deserves this.

HI slowly trying to exist sob lmao Can I please have Firejolt Employee L for Icarus? He broke the head off a mop and used a serving tray as a shield like a diy hoplite.

btw i really like the code with the dropshadow in the header NICE TOUCH

Edited 2022-10-04 00:27 (UTC)

YAYYYY WELCOME BACK 😍 i love this mental image... icarus is truly a hero

and ty ;3; you're so nice about me always messing around with your codes lmaooo

character j for myrto? :>

Omigod noooo

Edie did not see it

cries lol

Cosmo wanted to be a hero, but failed.

SCREAM cze actually feels bad about this 😭

I FINALLY DID MY WORK i'm allowed to go to dreamwidth dot org now

can i get [character A] for rhodie pleeeeease :)

added! rhodie is being framed

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Busy Day at the Café

BARISTA STATION

BARISTA STATION: Edie & Open

BARISTA STATION: Edie & Myrto & Open

BARISTA STATION: Edie & Myrto & Cosmo & Open

BARISTA STATION: Edie & Myrto & Cosmo & Cze & Open

BARISTA STATION: Edie & Myrto & Cosmo & Cze & Open

BARISTA STATION: Cosmo doing repairs (open+)

BARISTA STATION: Cosmo doing repairs with Pocket's ?help?

SEATING AREA

SEATING AREA: Annarrgeal & open

FIRESIDE LOUNGE

QUIET ROOMS

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