Flying Lettuce and Carnivorous Lattes [Open]

[ichoosefight]

🧙 WHO: Stephanie Brown and You!
⚔️️ WHAT: A quest and some failed cloning
🕒 WHEN: Beginning of November
🗺️ WHERE: Out and about
⚠️ WARNINGS: None anticipated

#DoppleDinner
It's probably rude to try to magically duplicate your latte inside the cafe you bought it from. That isn't stopping Steph, but she at least has the decency to be covert about it. She sits in a corner facing the wall as she works with the potions, both magical and espresso-based.

She does manage to create more lattes. 3 large ceramic "for here" mugs, steaming fresh. But when she reaches to pick one up, a fanged mouth opens beneath the handle and chomps down on her hand.

She yelps in surprise as much as in pain and jumps to her feet as the other two mugs turn to snarl at her, eyes like chips in the glaze opening to glare. They jump at her, leaving the original beverage behind and spilling scalding coffee in the process.


#DoppleDinner Take 2
Steph doesn't really mind having a clone. At least, she didn't mind it once they were able to successfully clone her coffee without making it attack her. Now she has coffee and someone to joke around with while she wanders the city. This situation is ripe for pranks, but she'll need a little time to think of them. And since she doubts the spell will last, she's out looking for inspiration.

She chats with herself as they walk, plotting how best to use this strange circumstance to their advantage. They only wish they had matching outfits for extra fun. Instead one has a dusty green blouse on and the other a gray shirt. Maybe they should drop in on a friend, or stop by their boyfriend's place...


Flappy Veg
The name "Butterfly Lettuce" grabbed Steph immediately when she saw it on the Quest Board. She absolutely had to see such a ridiculous creature, and stopping poachers seemed like a pretty simple way to spend a few afternoons.

Happy and carefree as she looks as she patrols the areas the lettuce can be found, her eyes and ears are peeled for human (or humanoid) movement. She can even chat with a partner while she works, though she keeps her voice down to a library-appropriate volume. She's used to patrolling a major city, she can multitask in an open field.

Comments

doppledinner

[reloves]

Maybe some people might call it paranoid.

But Minako herself prefers to call it 'on guard' as she's wandering through the city. You never know what might happen, so it's always good to be prepared and alert for stuff, right? Like that scream, for example. It's a generic yelp of surprise, so Minako has no idea who made that sound, but she's already running in the direction of where she heard it come from anyway.

Just in case there's someone there who needs her help.

And through sheer coincidence, she does actually recognize the person who's getting harassed by what seems like.. moving.. coffee cups..?

It's an oddity, but Minako tries to not think about it too hard. Odd things happen all the time in this city, after all. Instead she calls out: "Are you okay?!"

[ichoosefight]

Normally Steph would immediately reassure Minako that she's fine, this is nothing she can't handle. But she makes the mistake of trying to shake the latte off of her hand, splashing and consequently burning herself on the chest with another yelp. The thing is starting to draw blood as it growls. She manages to dodge the other two, and they turn on her ankles.

"A little outnumbered," she calls instead, kicking one of the mugs towards the cafe's door. If she's going to make a mess she can at least try to take it outside.

She finally thinks to grab the mug with its teeth still in her by the handle-nose, twisting it hard away from her. It gets the thing off, but leaves long, bloody bite marks across her hand and index finger. The mug struggles to bite the fingers of her other hand.

[reloves]

Ouch.

Even if it's hard to see this battle's full impact on Steph from a distance, Minako can see the red because of the blood - and she knows that that's definitely bad news, even if it might be a shallow wound. It's still something that could slow the other girl down while she's outnumbered.

"Alright, I'll get one! Watch out..!"

There might not have been put much thought into this plan.

Because yes, Minako holds out her hand, shooting a beam of light magic out of it and at one of the sentient mugs to destroy it.. but it's also definitely destroying a bit of the cafe along with it, since it's not exactly a precision tool.

Whoops. Hope the cafe owner won't mind that while they deal with the two mugs still attacking.

[ichoosefight]

When Minako said 'watch out', Steph was expecting something much smaller. The blast catches her by surprise, and it's all she can do to keep the one mug from chomping on her hand. Unfortunately, this means that the other one has a chance to bite her ankle.

"Ow," she informs it with the tone of a scolding. Everyone in the cafe is looking at her now, and while it doesn't hurt nearly as much to get bitten through jeans she's starting to get annoyed. It chews, slowly working its way through the denim while Steph maneuvers so she can slam the first mug into the wall. It cracks but doesn't break, and she burns more of herself with the coffee.

[reloves]

Minako glances over at the other girl, seeing that her situation still isn't too great. At least, she can't imagine that all of that hot coffee is really doing her wonders.

On the other hand, they don't really have the time to look at it, let alone get it treated, while they're still not done. And while Minako did notice the other girl slamming that one cup into the wall, that still leaves...

"Hey, where did the third one go?"

It's so low, sitting there on Steph's ankle, that Minako doesn't even notice it yet.

[ichoosefight]

"Trying to eat my foot," Steph growls, doing her best to ignore the pain. She's had worse, and once this is finished she can heal herself. She slams the mug into the wall one more time, shattering it at last.

The pressure on her ankle turns sharp, telling her that the little monster has gotten through most of the denim. Her socks don't make much of a barrier.

"I'll clean this up," she shouts in the direction of the staff, most of whom have no idea what they're supposed to do in this situation. One or two of them are simply carrying on as though nothing is happening.

[reloves]

The moment Steph tells her about where the third mug is, Minako's attention is already turned towards to that little problem here.

It'll be hard to blast that thing out of existence like she did with the other one, considering that might mean she will also explode Steph's ankle on top of it - which is the scenario here that no one wants. So instead Minako frowns, putting her hands together and forming a sword made out of light with it, cutting straight into the mug.

It makes half of it drop to the ground, though there's still a bit of it stuck in the other girl's ankle. But she should at least feel less pressure on it now it's no longer animated.

"Sorry--" Minako says, immediately apologizing to her as the sword disappears from her hands. Her expression is sympathetic as well, since that.. doesn't look like the way it was chomping down on Steph's ankle only hurt a little bit. "I think you'll have to pull that last part out of there yourself."

[ichoosefight]

Steph ducks away from the sword with as much of herself as she can without moving that ankle. The thing's death doesn't make much difference with gravity making the little teeth twist in her flesh instead of fall off. Looking cautiously at the cereamic jaw, she tries gently shaking her foot and winces. That did not help.

"I'm cleaning this up," she assures the staff again with a warning in her voice as she twists to sit on the floor where she is. Then she pulls the thing off slowly, carefully, thinking a whole slew of curses as she works.

She heaves a sigh when she's done, letting the ceramic sit on the floor for a moment while she catches her breath.

"Thanks for that," she finally tells Minako.

[reloves]

"It's okay," she says, shaking her head. "I should've been a little quicker so this wouldn't have happened.."

'This', apparently, being Steph's ankle. Minako is still staring at it, trying to see if it left behind a wound, and if so, how bad it is.

"Why were those things being so aggressive towards you?"

[ichoosefight]

Steph grimaces. She's not sure she could have avoided an ankle-biting either way.

Carefully she rolls the hem of her jeans up and her socks down, revealing a very ugly-looking bite mark. At least it's only bleeding enough to leave a small mark on her socks. The cuts are wide rather than deep. She starts picking threads and one or two tiny ceramic chips out of it.

"Can't be sure, but I don't want to think too hard about what coffee is in relation to mug biology." Is it clothes? Is it their blood?

"Could you grab a napkin for me? If I can make it stop hurting long enough to focus I can heal myself." She'll need to make sure there's nothing stuck in her hand, either.

[reloves]

Minako is of half a mind to gently asks one of the staffers if they have a medical kit available, even if it means inconveniencing them a little more on top of already having destroyed some stuff.. But thankfully she doesn't have to go through that, considering Steph telling her she can heal.

That makes matters a whole lot easier.

So she just nods, getting back up on her feet to grab a napkin. Usually Minako would've helped to stop the bleeding with another one, but.. thankfully that doesn't seem to be a problem right now, or they also would've had to spend time mopping up the floor.

Which means she instead just hands the napkin over to the other.

"Here. Sorry, I'd help heal you, but.. it just doesn't seem to be one of my talents."

And, you know, firing light blasts at things usually tends to break them, rather than fix them. Strange, that.

Take 2

[morganknight]

You ever have one of those days when you come out of the backyard, into the training room, only to discover two of your girlfriend coming in the other entrance?

Well, first time for everything.

Morgan took exactly one moment to process. Okay -- neither of the Stephs looked angry, they weren't fighting, they seemed comfortable with each other's presence. This wasn't some thing where he had to shoot the Steph that didn't say, 'you have to shoot us both to be sure!'.

So a joke was safe.

"Did Christmas come early this year, or is this a late birthday present?"

[ichoosefight]

Both Stephs think for a moment.

"Happy Thanksgiving?" they suggest at the same time, making them both laugh.

"Don't ask her to hold anything important though," the Steph in green notes, pointing to her copy. "She might vanish unexpectedly."

The Steph in gray shrugs. She figures they're the same person, so she shouldn't worry about not existing. She'll just exist a few feet away, right? Besides, they probably don't have time for an existential crisis. May as well enjoy herself instead.

[morganknight]

"I have a lot to give thanks for, clearly." Morgan had a sly smile on, but don't think for a second he was defenseless -- he kept glancing between the two of them, just waiting for the impish mischief to come rolling his way. After all, what better partner in crime could she ask for than herself?

[ichoosefight]

Their smiles are just as sly. He won't have to wait long. They cross the room to meet him, perfectly innocent.

"So, what should we do today?" Asks the Steph in green.

"We could go out for a really expensive lunch," suggests the other jokingly. Even if they did want to go out, it probably wouldn't be for anything that cost money. Steph is too money-conscious to even make her boyfriend pay double for her.

[morganknight]

"Hey now. Just because I don't want a girl who only wants me for my money doesn't mean I'm adverse to using it on a girl. Or two. How do we count you guys anyway?" But hey, if they were gonna move in, Morgan had no objection to stepping right up to put one arm around each waist.

[ichoosefight]

Each of her manages to subtly slip just out of his reach. They maintain that innocent look.

"And just because you've got money doesn't mean I want to waste it," counters the Steph in green.

"It depends what you're counting, don't you think?" the Steph in gray asks her clone. The other Steph shrugs.

"I'd say it's pretty simple. We're both me, as far as I can tell." The Steph in gray nods her agreement.

"There's just two of us."

[morganknight]

Oh. It's gonna be like that, huh.

"Taking a girl to a meal is never a waste, and how am I supposed to count perfection when it's doubled? That's like -- double infinity." Morgan held his hands up by his head to flick his fingers open wide. Mind bloooooown.

[ichoosefight]

"Infinity comes in different sizes, you know," points on the Steph in green.

"I think he wants to look like a playboy," the Steph in gray suggests, covering for the fact that they don't know anything else about the sizes of infinity. It was something Barbara said once, and she was definitely not paying attention.

"Wow," says the green Steph, mock-offended. "Two pretty girls on his arm, like that's a good thing?"

"I dunno, boys might not realize it just makes them look like jerks," the gray Steph guesses with a shrug. They make a point to stay on opposite sides of him while they quip back and forth to each other, just to make things extra difficult for him.

[morganknight]

"Want to look like a playboy?" Fists on his hips, Morgan did his best to project his indignation in two directions at once. "I'm an unmarried billionaire who looks like THIS, I'm a dictionary definition of one. Besides, if the girls want to be on my arm, isn't that a lot more important than random opinions of the uninvolved public?"

[ichoosefight]

The Steph in green waits until he's looking the other way to drop on his shoulder from behind, chin resting on her crossed arms.

"A fair point," she concedes.

"But it depends on us wanting to go out," the other Steph adds, trading a mischievous look with her clone.

Flappy Veg

[quotetheraven]

This was probably going to be weird for her. You know, patrolling around with a guy that looks like a long dead, famous American poet. And to be fair, it's super weird for Poe as well. Flying lettuce, who would have thought it! Easy money at that, or at least he figured it would be.

"Well, this is all quite silly, isn't it? You would think with the increase of mouths to feed, this would have been an excellent opportunity to save a bit of money. Well, I suppose they are local wildlife, and apparently precious at that."

Even if they are... lettuce.

[ichoosefight]

She's fought multiple Bela Lugosi as Dracula literally copied from a theater screen. Edgar Allan Poe as a mission partner is quirky at best. She shrugs.

"Conservationists can be pretty intense. Besides, technically it's less mouths. They're just all in one place now."

[quotetheraven]

That's fair enough! At the very least he wasn't likely to fight her. Or really much of anyone? He actually looks kind of foppish, or at least as best as some poverty-stricken poet from the mid-19th century can manage.

...He ducks his head out of the way of one of the flapping lettuces. "A fair point, I suppose." He shrugged and side stepped another flapping vegetable. "Though I am a bit concerned that they may be actively attempting to attack us."

It's a joke.

[ichoosefight]

"I think you're about a century too early for that phobia," she notes, watching the odd creatures. She can't help a pop culture reference, even if there's no way he knows anything about Hitchcock.

"Do you think it still tastes like lettuce?" She has no desire whatsoever to find out firsthand, but these things do raise some questions.