[[May change the date of this thread as we go along. And Siduri, I wasn't sure if you meant he worked for the cafe or just used it as a place to do his own work. Hopefully this accommodates for both outcomes providing Siduri is a regular.]]

Jasper pushed through the cafe doors and was hit by the delicious smells of sweet drinks and patisseries. It was mid-morning and breakfast had stopped being served - only the slow eaters had anything to show for the hard labour of the cafe's renowned chefs, who had mostly retired to their rooms upstairs.

The galdor was tall and lanky, with close cropped hair. Ordinary looking. He couldn't stand out from the crowd if he tried.

He made his way to the cafe counter with an air of determined importance that irked the queuing customers. He apologised briskly. One frowning gentlemen turned to Jasper, but there was something in the youth's expression which prevented his rebuttal.

"Is Siduri here?" Jasper asked a small girl counting tips behind the counter.

He leaned back to scour the busy room.

((He wouldn't dream of indulging in anything remotely resembling manual labor...he's just a regular :'D))

The girl glanced up and him and nodded somewhat timidly. "Mr. Sasan is in the back, sir," she replied, pointing in the direction of the far wall of the establishment.

Sure enough, Siduri was seated in the distant corner, alone at his table. His back was ramrod straight, as per usual, and he held a pen in one hand, tapping it impatiently against the table in a precisely even beat. A stack of papers, their corners matched up to lie exactly parallel to the edge of the table, lay before him, and his attention appeared to be riveted to their content. Pushed to the farthest extent of his arm's reach was a cup of rich, dark coffee, as yet untouched.

Siduri was frowning as he studied his work; beneath his dark bangs, his brow was knitted. He made no secret of the fact that he took his job very seriously and, as he had made painfully clear to the staff of the cafe, he was not to be disturbed by anyone, for any reason short of an impending natural disaster. As such, the girl behind the counter was rather wary of directing Jasper to Siduri's seat--but he was the one liable to be chewed out for interrupting the touchy galdor, she thought to herself as she went back to her work.

[[Yeah, I didn’t think so xD And lmao at the almost identical expression of our avatars.]]

Jasper leaned back into the arms of a customer behind to search out Siduri, sitting preoccupied at a far table. The customer clutched his coffee anxiously and muttered something to do with the youth’s disrespect, and Jasper turned on his heels as if those words were a trigger, his face barely inches from the customers own.

“Excuse me.” He said in a hollow voice.

The customer flinched at the closeness, at Jasper’s deadpan expression and at the ugly bruise colouring the left side of his face.

The student picked his way across the café floor, watching Siduri darkly on approach. The man looked busy.

Jasper wondered, fleetingly, if this was a bad time, and whether Siduri would chase him away or merely arrange to meet up later in the evening. If that were the case, Jasper felt positive that the wait would kill him. So he’d say what he came to say, risking the vexation of his old time friend.

“Hey Siduri!” He said, feigning cheerfulness. He dragged a chair over to sit directly opposite the clerk, and then curled a finger around the handle of his coffee mug. Eyes mischievous, waiting for wrath or welcome, he sipped at the coffee as if it were his own.

((Ha ha ha! That is pretty much hilarious.))

For a moment, it seemed almost as though Siduri had not heard the salutation; he neither raised his head, started, nor gave any other indication of having heard. After a moment, however, he glanced up coolly, the expression in his green eyes unreadable beneath his dark bangs. It could easily have been annoyance, except that Siduri nearly always looked annoyed, and this was a milder version of the expression he usually wore. He was toning it down for Jasper's benefit--haughty tolerance as opposed to haughty irritation and impatience.

He was silent for another few seconds after seeing who it was that had addressed him. As it happened, this was a habit he had picked up since he had taken his job as a clerk--it never hurt to let a client know you were in absolutely no hurry, and that they were not worth your immediate recognition. The customer was not, in fact, always right; rather, the customer was always scum.

Siduri was quite good at his job.

Today was different, however.

"Jasper," he replied in acknowledgment of the younger man's greeting, setting down his pen very deliberately. The pen was exactly perpendicular to the edge of the table, and parallel to the long edge of the paper. He noted the bruise on Jasper's face, but decided to save his questions for later. "What brings you here?"

Jasper rolled his shoulders and sat back, legs stretched out and toes tapping against the table leg, knees jiggling like a rickety bridge in a high wind. Coffee seemed the last thing he required, but nevertheless he knocked it back like a vodka shot. Then he sat forward to place the cup back onto the table.

It nudged Siduri’s pen.

“Huh.” He was staring at the cup. “Sorry to come at you like this. But I need your help.” He looked up to meet Siduri’s eyes, “You don’t have to say yes, but hear me out.”

He took a deep breath and exhaled like it was his last,

“But first – what were your plans for tonight?”

Siduri met his eyes for a moment, then glanced down, resisting the urge to straighten his pen. Then he proceeded to give in and adjust his pen, pushing Jasper's coffee cup back out of what he considered to be his demarcated work space. He suddenly remembered his own cup of coffee and picked it up to take a sip. He was disappointed to find it lukewarm at best, and set the cup back down with a slight grimace.

"Your apology is unnecessary," he replied at last, lacing his fingers together and setting his hands on the table before him. "My plans for this evening are...flexible. Do go on."

Jasper hunched forward, following Siduri's movements as if they amounted to some secret, inscrutable form of communication. He was poised at the edge of a gulf - a murky, uncharted place that he feared to tread alone. Catching his image in the reflection of the cafe window, Jasper closed his eyes. His face was pale and the bruise stark, like a wick's tattoo laced across his upper cheek.

It took him over a minute to reply. He was choosing his words as carefully as a court witness.

"My dad was beat up." He wasn't looking Siduri in the eye, "And we know who did it."

Jasper was one of the few students at Brunnhold to remain in regular contact with his biological family. His parents had both worked at the university, his mother a retired professor. The two, along with his older brother, Oscar, lived very close to the campus. Jasper's mother was determined to remain actively involved in his education and welfare.

Jasper didn't say much about his father. He was a well-known Bander wolf tamer and breeder. He traded with galdori mostly, but often sold pups and working wolves on the human market.

"He wouldn't tell us at first. He was too ashamed, I guess." Jasper forced himself to meet Siduri's gaze, "But then he showed up the bruises... They got him all over. The humans. And... and Oscar said maybe we should go over there and find out what really happened... to the human's place I mean. Yeah," He laughed, "I said it was a stupid idea but then wolves started going missing and the passive said she saw someone near the house when everybody was out..." His voice was beginning to shake, "I'm worried for mum is all. A-a-and Oddy's gone, but I think he might be at home but I don't know. I don't know. He goes where he likes but..."

Jasper sucked air through his teeth, a sharp noise that seemed to signal his resolve. "Maybe Oscar was on to something after all. They need me... If something goes wrong. They're both not too great at magic, and mum won't get involved... no way..." For the first time, Jasper looked directly at the clerk, and when he spoke his voice was steady, "I need you to come with me. Just come with me. Just look out for me. I'm not going to do anything stupid. I just want to find out why they did what they did to dad. To us."

Siduri listened silently as Jasper spoke. His face was utterly impassive, and he made no movement other than to raise one eyebrow slightly at Jasper's request for his presence. When the narrative ended, he glanced down, seemingly lost in thought as he turned the coffee cup meditatively in its saucer. Then he sniffed delicately and folded his hands again.

"At the risk of sounding terribly callow, there's a reason I generally disapprove of associating with plowfeet." He pronounced the word as though it were the cause of a bad taste in his mouth and he was happy to have it out past his teeth. As per usual when talking about humans, he made no effort to disguise his scorn. "They have absolutely no sense of loyalty to their betters, not to mention simple decency; even presuming the culprits were civs, I wish I could say this surprises me."

"...However," he began again after a momentary and rather pensive pause, "I am still unclear as to what you expect of me in this matter. Of course I would be willing to lend my support to your...endeavors." Siduri waved a hand languidly in a somewhat vague gesture, possibly meant to be illustrative of Jasper's endeavors. He leaned forward slightly, then glanced around at the other occupants of the room. "What I need is more information about what you're planning. But not here."

Jasper was staring at Siduri as if he was his whole world. A certain shine to his eyes was all that separated his expression from a lover’s doe-eyed adoration to a madman’s feverish intensity and desperation.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah” He said in one breath, scooting back his chair and getting to his feet. “Get your stuff,” he waved at the paperwork in front of Siduri, immediately giving his friend a sheepish grin to soften the brashness of his command. Then he led them both out of the café and to a park on the other side of the street.

The sky was grey and mothers were hurrying their children home, fearing it would rain. The two galdor stood uncertainly under a willow. Jasper felt like some kind of conspirator - an enemy of the state. He was shivering, wearing only a white shirt, arms bare and goosepimply. He desperately wanted a drink.

“My brother… you know Oscar,” He didn’t wait for a confirmation, “He said he’ll meet me on the moor at the back of my house. But… I don’t know. I need you with me in case he does something stupid.” He smiled, “We’re ten times stronger in magic than him.”

Jasper withdrew his hand from his pocket to look at his watch,

“You’ve got a level head on you. For all my luck, the mona will probably outright ignore me when I need them the most,” He sighed, “I’m all jittery like. But it’s only because I feel something bad is going to happen.”

He looked around them, subtlety not high on his agenda, “I know I said we wanted to find out why they beat on dad, but it’s more to… to scare them a little bit. Let them know they can’t get away with doing those kinds of things. Put them in their place a little bit.” His nose crinkled as he sneered, “They’re… they’re taunting us, Naulas-damn plowfeet.”

Jasper put a hand to his face, to the bruise, and looked at Siduri almost pleadingly, like a lost child, “You don’t have to do anything Siduri, just watch out for me.” He checked his watch again, “I’m meeting Oscar in a half hour. But… but like I said, it’s up to you.”

Just telling somebody about his situation, and what he planned to do, relieved his stress – however, Jasper knew his friend’s help would be invaluable if anything was to go wrong.

[[Apologies for the ridiculously long absence! I blame the part where I had to move 4000 miles for college :'D]]

Siduri listened silently as Jasper spoke, his face absolutely blank. Although he would deny it if asked, a certain sadistic part of him was enjoying this--the fact that, for once, he was not the one suffering the misfortune, the humiliation. It was too bad for Jasper, really...but at the same time, Siduri reminded himself, if he were to lose his superiority in the younger fellow's eyes, he would lose Jasper's respect and friendship as well. It made perfect sense, really. So he told himself.

When at last Jasper finally finished speaking, Siduri nodded precisely two times in acknowledgment and turned his glance away. He scanned their surroundings with the carefully evaluative eye of one who is accustomed to making silent observations and, of course, passing silent judgments. He couldn't help but wish the Jasper had picked a slightly more pleasant day; rain would quite possibly soak through his shoes, and the prospect of squelching his way home in a downpour was not one he cherished. One of these days he'd have to reevaluate his mode of transportation... And there was also the fact that he got cold rather easily, despite the overcoat he wore. He hunched his shoulders slightly to try and keep himself from shivering.

"Alright," Siduri replied at last. "Someone has to put them in their place, and I suppose it might as well be you. Although I will be very much displeased if I get dirty or wet," he added somewhat peevishly.