"Grazie!" Hypatia takes a sip as she finds an open seat at the bar. "όχι κακός," she says, pleasantly surprised. That cat clearly knows where to find quality merchandising.

Concentrating a moment, she brings the shields on her mage sight down just a bit. Some people in this town have auras that will blind you if you aren't careful...

(OOC: anyone using such a power on Hypatia will note a bit more aura than most civilians, but not as much as most super-mages, as she won't be finding the staff until just before the beta ^_^. The shields also would be noticeable to anyone sensitive to psi, it overlaps a bit.)

It was about 45 minutes after she left that Mahala got back. "Hey ya'll," she said, walking the now empty hotbox in. "Had to stop and get gas for Iryet on the way back." Most of the employees were used to this by now, as they knew she'd get gas and a non-alcoholic drink after her first run was completed, especially if the week had been busy. They paid her almost no mind as she clocked back in and returned the hot box to its proper place. Thankfully no other deliveries had popped up yet, as she was currently the only driver on shift that she could see from the hostess stand.

As she turned to look at who was in the place now, she seemed to flinch slightly as her eyes fell upon Hypatia. This seemed to be a little out of character, but whatever composure she lost upon that gaze seemed to make itself up with curiosity as she went about helping with the cut table.

((While Mahala is decently psi shielded, a talented empath would have no trouble reading her emotions at this point. Please let me know if you want to know what they are.))

"A lot of my life a blank. I have skills just no memories of who I was. I have been helping out at the soup kitchen and know my way around a kitchen. A bonus is I'm fire proof the heat of the stove wouldn't bother me and in a pinch I can supply my own cooling tools." at that his hand shifted form becoming solid black and his fingers take up a knife edge like a set of knives.

Out of the corner of her eye, Alexa noticed the biker guy was now standing at the counter, speaking quietly with Ray, who had a quizzical look on his face. When she saw the biker's hand turn black and shift into a set of knife blades, she reacted instinctively. Moving very quickly and quietly for someone of her size, she slipped off her heels and stole up behind him. She slowly rose to her full height of 6'4", standing very close to him, her fists clenched and ready to deal out some pain.

"If you hurt him, I will break you in half." she said, her tone of voice low and dangerous.

"Yeah, just had a scene from Madoka magica pop into my head," She said, "That anime's been pretty gruesome recently, but I just can't take my eyes off it, kinda like a train wreck." She kept her hands busy, but looked back to Hypatia with an embarassed slight smile. She started humming an upbeat song as she got the next cut order ready to go.

((If you're able to notice her aura color, it's prolly green, purple, and a bit of red at this point. It's not the strongest out there, but it's behaving...feline and psi in nature and she doesn't seem to be actively putting up those shields. It also feels like she has a question pointed at Hypatia and is mentally quietly singing the words to the song she's humming to test it. It is not in english, but rather in a old language that almost no one but history buffs and devotees to a old faith know well enough. The words specifically are "udja seneb, udja seneb, ankh udja seneb, seneb nehedjet. Hotep di nisut, hotep di nisut, ankh udja seneb, seneb nehedjet".))

Even with all the things she'd seen over several years as a hero, the man turning his neck 180 degrees freaked her out a little bit. But her reactionary flinch was minor at best and she locked eyes with the biker as he spoke. Once he was finished, she looked over his head to Ray, who gave her a wink and a smile. She relaxed and stepped back from the biker.

"I'm sorry, but from where I was sitting, it appeared you might have been threatening Ray. I reacted accordingly. As for what you did being right and wrong, it is generally considered impolite, if not dangerous to pull... err create weapons in public without good reason. Especially in this town. You never know who's watching or how they'll react." she answered, smiling. She nodded to Ray and then headed back to the table with Sabrina, sitting down and slipping her feet back into her heels.

For a moment he seemed confused "Ah I see now weapons could be seen as aggressive behavior. My apologies seems I'm still have lots to learn." He turned back to Ray "I be outside for the time being would it be alright if I panhandle a bit?"

It was quiet a while after that, as a few of the waiter kids came in from school and started shift. Also, another driver, Jimmy Fedowski, or "Red" as they liked to call him because of his curly red hair, showed up for shift. As far as Mahala knew, Red was a decent guy in his freshman year at the local community college. If he had powers, he didn't show them at work.

Then the phone rang. Mahala looked like she got a weird feeling off of it, and sighed. "I'll get it," she said and wiggled behind Ray in order to answer the phone. "Famous Ray's Pie Shop, this is Mahala. How may we help you today?" A small pause was there before. "Is this a delivery or carryout?" She grabbed a pencil and the 'special order' pad and started taking down the customer's order. "uh huh, uh huh...let me ask Ray on that one, hold on a sec." She covered the reciever. "Ray, do we have the stuff for a 'Gozaboro 4th of July special'? The guy on the line's asking."

While Mahala waited, Marcus walked in with his laptop, gave her a wave when seeing her on the phone, and sat down at one of the front's unoccupied tables. He gave Enzo a smile before setting up his laptop. Marcus' dark brown bangs got into his face as he worked, his latino heritage showing as he mumbled to himself in spanish.

Unknown walked out of the shop. This was the first attempt to assimilate into the human culture beyond the rank of the homeless man he was. A paper to state he wasn't unstable? Shaking his head the part of him that was once human stated this wasn't possible with out relieving more of his new nature. He was talking even arguing with himself at the shelter. He needed assistance a memory surfaced. It was time to hunt down the Hero known as Lady Nova. Shifting into the semi-cat/reptile like form he raced up a building side and started racing for Phoenix Park.

Mahala nodded to Enzo and turned back to the phone. "No sir, we don't have the space any more to make that since the back kitchen was installed. Ok, then just a pestorini and a Maragrita pizza?" Mahala said, thankful she didn't have to deliver the unstable pizza of legend...even if the pestorini was still special delivery territory, it wasn't near as bad. Sure it'd irritate her sinuses if she didn't seal the container right, but she felt a lot safer delivering it. "Ok, some pepperoni rolls too. Got it. Your total's gonna be 45.71. Cash or Charge? Ok...got it. Yep, it went through. What's the address? Ok. Please be sure to tip your driver well, as it is a special delivery. It should be about fourty-five minutes to an hour, as the pestorini takes a little bit for the back kitchen to make. Thank you for choosing Famous Ray's!" She hung up, having put the order in the POS. "Looks like we've got a prankster wanting to fake out an office party or something, we've got a pestorini up." She said looking behind her at Enzo. Mahala's ears perked up to Hypatia's address.

"Yeah, hon, we deliver to Whitehold, but that's right at the edge of our delivery area," She said as she went past, "I tend to take a double and do it last unless the tip's good." She opened the back kitchen door and fluttered the special order ticket. "Got a pestorini for ya'll!""

Marcus didn't look up from his computer screen for a few minutes. "Just finishing off a bit of code for that game I've been working on in my spare time...there, saved," He said and gave Mahala a grin as she came walking back from the back kitchen. "Lemme guess, the kids are wanting some study tips? Hey M, those guys didn't know a right-click from a password. It's a wonder no one's hacked into their database and stolen the money out of their accounts. Caught a virus too. Sneaky little bugger was doing some key logging, so Rhonda had to do a cleanup. I think the assisant manager of that branch won't go opening up spam mail on his work computer again." He looked like he'd came straight from the job, as he still had his black slacks, green polo that had 'Gigabyte Solutions" monogramed on the right front, and dressy black boots on. The gold Santa Maria medallion and the newer faience scarab pendant Mahala had given him for Christmas still hung around his neck though, as he's never been seen without either. "Sup TC?"

Sabrina chuckles to Alexa, not surprised...

"That was you? Well then, remind me not to get in your way Alexa...of course, I can't let you have all the fun..." Teases

The hunched up girl smiles shyly at Mahala, nodding. "Thank you... very much." She resettled her blanket around her shoulders and hadn't taken more than a sip or two before the red headed boy-- and the huge robot-man he'd come in with-- catch her attention. She gulps a little too hard with surprise, and coughs too vigorously as soda bubbles explode in her nose with startling suddenness.

Flushed with a brief exertion to get control over herself again (and ebmarrassment), panting slightly, she tried to keep her blue eyes from wandering again... but inevitably flicks her gaze and turns an ear to the conversation. Was someone hurt?... Did she dare even think to ask?... In her previous efforts to get a hold on herself, the blanket had slipped away from her shoulders a little, displaying a thin flash of radiant white beneath. She quickly shrugged the blanket around her throat again, still listening, waiting for her slices. Her stomach gurgles again, and she puts a hand to it convulsively, hoping to hide the sound with it, perhaps.

The girl watched the red-headed boy and the intimidatingly large metal man come toward her booth, and her knuckles whitened a little around her cup. She took a slow breath, and managed a shy smile at the boy, at first-- then stares widely at the metal man, named Levi. She clears her throat a little, and manages to find her voice among her scattered wits as she metaphorically gathers them, and her blanket, around her again.

"Ahm... S-sure. I wouldn't mind-- as long as you don't mind /me/."

She scooted back as far as she could against the booth seat, pulling the table towards herself, right up against her stomach, to clear the opposite side of the bench for them to sit. Thankfully, she'd unbent enough to make an amused sound at Levi's cut-off statement, giving him a more direct smile.

"Sorry. I hope that's enough room for you to sit down..."

She was admittedly a bit uncomfortable, but would gladly trade that for the possibility of friendly company-- that also might answer some questions she has.

"Oh... I'm Grace." Another shy smile, though she seems to be making every attempt to relax some more.

Grace had smiled a far more /natural/ smile at how easy this all seemed for Nick. Rubbing a finger across the bridge of her lightly freckled nose briefly, she'd replied with a soft, direct gaze across the table, "It's really nice to meet you, Nick-- and you, Levi."

Her two slices of Original landed in front of her, and she thanks Mahala sincerely, her stomach giving another anticipatory burble as the stuff reaches up it's steamy scent to remind her just how hungry she was. Regardless of how hungry, she wouldn't burn her mouth /this/ time, and so makes another comment as she waits for the pizza to cool just enough to be eaten.

"I'm not bad, just... weird." She fidgetted a little at the admission, it sounding as though she genuinely believed it. She seemed to be getting used to Levi, smothering another amused sound at his obvious personality developing. She picked up a slice carefully by the crust and blew gently on the near end, trying to speed the cooling of her pizza along.

"And yeah, I'm... I'm 'new' here. I just got here yesterday..."

Wren had entered the premises, and Grace, naturally curious, had turned her head toward the podium at the sound of her cheerful voice-- and immediately dropped the slice of pizza back onto the plate with a startled gasp. Her dark blue eyes went wide--she knew she shouldn't stare-- but her palms are suddenly cold and slick with a little sweat, and she's forgotten most tactful social conventions.

Grace's heart is racing-- suddenly, everything seems to make just a little more sense. She turns back to Nick with a slow smile, a definite blush rising in her face. She's forgotten about the pizza briefly, which is amazing considering how starved she'd been. This... this was satisfying on a /soul/ level!

"A super?... A super..." She repeats this, as if she'd never heard the phrase before, and going by how she'd just been staring at Wren, it seems likely that she hadn't. "It's cool? It's-- it's okay to be super like that?" She sounds a bit breathless.

Grace has changed appreciably in the last few moments at Nick's reassurance. The tension seems to be going out of her by the moment. She winces a bit, smothering a chuckle with her hand, not wanting to embarrass what could be her first new friend.

Her chin falls just a smidgeon with tentativeness, but she solidifies her resolve and meets Nick's gaze across the table. "Yeah, this stuff is really fresh... I didn't expect it to be that hot, either, or I would have eaten it all already. ...Here-- I can help-- Take my hand?" She lays out her hand , palm up, on the table. A touch of color remains in the highest reaches of her lightly freckled cheeks, but she tries to smile encouragingly.

What on earth was she thinking?! But he had /said/ it was alright... Hopefully it would be. She hadn't shown anyone yet, though she was sure she'd at least been seen without purposefully trying to be... She tries to make her thoughts be quiet, slender-fingered hand still resting palm up on the table.

Grace looks unutterably relieved that she hadn't weirded Nick out too much yet. She closes her fingers very gently around his hand, palm to palm, her dark eyes go a bit unfocused briefly, and she leans forward a bit in concentration... The hunter green blanket starts to slip from her back, but, concentrating, she doesn't notice as it starts to again reveal swathes of vividly bright white, moving slightly...

It only takes a moment or two, but it would become quickly obvious that Nick's burned tongue felt-- better. Totally better, as if he hadn't burned it at all, in point of fact.

Grace takes her hand away quickly, but doesn't jerk it rudely or with fright out of Nick's grasp-- feeling just a /touch/ awkward, but still bolstered by his previous reassurance about 'supers'. "...There... Is that better?"

Grace nodded shyly, admitting to making him feel better. "I don't know how I do it-- it's been happening for five years now, though maybe I could do it before..."

She had shrugged, and the answer to his question becomes pretty obvious as the blanket finally gives over. Her wings are fully fledged and a most incredibly pure /white/. As soon as they are free of the blanket, they seem to take on a sense of... /life/-- they spread slightly behind her, cushioning her against the booth seat and stretching themselves just the tiniest bit, stiff from confinement. They seem to sigh a little, with the rustle of feather against feather, and rarely are totally still, constantly adjusting in the tiniest increments for comfort, now that it seems it's at least reasonably appropriate to show them openly, in public...

Nick's rush of questions and his excitement get the better of Grace for a moment, and she scratches the back of her neck a little in mimicry of his own embarrassed motion beforehand. Apparently she isn't used to folk getting /excited/ about /her/. She answers the two questions he'd managed to get out before he stopped himself, though, wanting to display a willingness to talk about it.

"It hurt a lot at first-- I didn't know how, and I didn't have the coordination or the muscles for it... but now, I sure like it better than walking." She smiled tentatively, amusement creeping into her face.

"As for clothes... well, it has to be a racer-back shirt or something like it, and even then, I have to have most of my stuff custom made or, well, make it myself..." The scent of her pizza calls her name again, and she picks up a slice, now reasonably cooled and tears off a healthy mouthful, heaving a sigh that makes her wings droop a little in the obvious way she enjoys it. It does seem as if she hasn't eaten in awhile, though, as she goes through her first slice as if chewing were only optional-- but despite how ravenous she seems, she's a pretty /neat/ eater.

Grace finished her first slice and sipped her soda, all that much more sweet because she could feel the kindness that went into it, and the thought behind it being free for her.

She pushed a finger into the crust of her second slice, watching it dent a little as she says shyly, "Th-thank you ...No, I wasn't born with them. The... the healing stuff came first. They had to grow in... I was fourteen... It hurt. It hurt an awful lot."

She swallowed, pushing /those/ memories firmly away again, wings rustling as a shiver passes over them. Her foot kicks at the floor under the table a little, her eyes lowering to the plate in front of her. "...I can't really do much else, except fly and help people heal. Well, people, and animals... Living things. Maybe I can do other stuff, but I just... I haven't found out yet," she said in a soft voice.

She's almost ashamed, for the first time in her life feeling that maybe being able to heal with her hands wasn't 'cool' enough, if she had to be.... how she was.

Grace flicks her gaze up and smiles a bit crookedly at the stream of questions, trying to keep track of them in her head. In truth, she was a creature of questions-- always wanting to know the /why/ of things... but she rarely asked questions of others. Usually only of-- and about-- herself.

"It's okay-- I am, uhm... kind of /distracting/ at first..." She says when she gets the chance, stifling another amused sound. "And I think being really smart is a gift, too. I thought you might have built Levi. Almost /nobody/ could do that, so it's pretty special, I think." She smiled at Levi, then. "You're pretty smart yourself, for being that young."

Thinking a moment, recalling the questions Nick had asked, she carefully answers each one as best she can. "Yes, I can heal broken bones. I'm not sure about terminal illnesses or cancer-- I never met anybody with either one, at least not yet, so I haven't tried... I /think/ I could though, but it's... Doing it is tiring. Sometimes I feel sick or hurt, too, when I'm doing it, if it's really bad..." She rubs her neck for a moment, her left wing stretching out a little, feathers fanning, before sagging back against the booth seat.

"I don't know if my bones are hollow, or really, how fast I can fly... I never needed to fly anywhere in a big hurry, really, and nobody where I used to live had anything to measure, ahm... bone density... or speed. They didn't really care about how fast I was-- that was sort of second to the healing people thing."

She snuck in a bite of her second slice, eating at a far more regular pace this time.

Grace experienced a brief squeezing of her heart, her brows drawing together a little. Her wings sag downward away from her shoulders with an ensuing, quiet sound, and she leans forward a bit to say quietly, privately, "...I'm really sorry, Nick."

Her expression starts to smooth over a little, not wanting to dwell on the sadness if her company didn't want to think about it. She instead interjected, "You don't have to be sorry about questions. I usually have a lot of them, too-- I just don't... don't ask anyone about them. Usually because nobody /can/ answer them, but sometimes just because I want to find out on my own."

Grace actually giggles under her breath at Nick's blushing admission of talking a lot-- the first unrestrained sound of humour she'd made without trying to stifle it, though her natural reticence made the expression come out quite softly. "...This is the longest I've talked to anyone, probably in my whole life." She confesses with a small smile. Her expression neutralizes a little bit as she munches her way to the crust of her second slice, moistens her throat with the sweet soda.

"...I'm not sure what-- what I am, you know," she says hesitantly. "...Nobody ever said 'science' where I-- where I was from. I heard the word 'Miracle' a lot though..." She trails off, her wings tightening closer to her body, as if trying to protect herself from those memories. They weren't exactly /bad/...

"...Do you want to know the biggest questions I ask myself?" She asks suddenly, looking up from her plate.

Grace drags her finger back and forth across the edge of the table, smiling a bit... She had to put her hand to her mouth once, biting her lip to keep from laughing at the back and forth. "I wish I could make a friend like that," she says sincerely. "I wouldn't mind the interruptions all the time, if I could have one." To Levi she says warmly, "Thanks for the clarification, Levi."

She fidgets a little, but replies after a moment, picking crumbs off of the crust of her second slice, just to occupy her hands. "...I'm from Massachusetts. Originally. I didn't exactly know where I was going, when I left, but I heard about this place on the way, and, well..." She makes a gesture with her right wingtip that is a lot like the flicking of a wrist, a sharper sound occurring at the snap of feathers together. They're quite expressive, dexterous appendages. "It seemed like the right place to start... you know... asking questions. Looking for answers..."

She fishes her wallet out of her pocket again and looks up at the menu, before counting out the correct payment for her food and laying it on the end of the table-- so she won't forget, not that she would. Her wallet goes back into her pocket afterward-- looking quite thin, all things told.

"That's the thing, you know. I'm not exactly sure who I am either, since..." She makes a gesture over a shoulder with her chin at a wing. She paused for a long moment, then, wanting to continue, to say something else, but holding it back, unsure. Instead, she apologizes, saying, "Sorry... I haven't tried to make any friends since uhm... /this/ happened... I feel like I'm not doing very good. Well. Doing very well."

Grace actually laughs a little, the expression carrying slightly more volume, unable to stifle it this time. "Well, I'm not annoyed, and you seem like a 'swell' enough guy, Nick."

To Levi she says with sincerity, "What I wouldn't give to have the memories of past, other /me's/... It would simplify a lot, but I guess humans are more complicated than robots. If that's what you call yourself, a robot." She looks a bit surprised, and adds in a bit of a wondering undertone, at first just to herself-- "...and if /I'm/ even human at all..."

She reaches over her shoulder to rub one of her wing joints at her shoulder, elaborating with considerable embarrassment, her gaze sliding back down to the picked crust in front of her. "That's why I left you know. Nobody though I was, or, ahm, really /treated/ me like a human anymore..."

She hesitates again, then says somewhat more quickly, as if to rush herself before she can stop the words coming out, producing one giant, run-on sentence, "...Everyone said I was an Angel, a blessing from God to my parents and the community, but I've never been able to hear God and I don't remember Heaven or anything, but I can't really prove I'm /not/ one, either, and I just didn't want to spend the rest of my life there healing people and horses and stuff because if it /is/ true and I /am/ one, I didn't understand why just the people where I lived should get all the benefit, you know..."

Grace hunches in the booth seat, her wings as tight as ever against her back, as if she's trying to reabsorb them again. She's flushed pink with mortification at the rambling, the blurting out of those thoughts that had plagued her since the beginning. She had closed her mouth and sealed her lips closed for a moment or two, but opened them again to apologize-- and only managed a small squeak at first.

Her mouth snaps closed, then she sighs and opens it again to say somewhat miserably, "Sorry..."

Outside the shop shadows seem to start moving on their own pooling into a puddle on the ground then spring up forming a vortex portal. Out stepped Ron Bolton work boots, blue jeans, biker belt black tank top shirt and a black leather jacket. What was really stunning about him was that he was clearly not living. His skin was harden like leather and his face had a skull look to it due to the flesh being tightened over the bones. He adjusted his glasses and snapped his fingers closing the portal behind him, then headed into the shop.

Walking up to the counter "Hello yeah a bit back you got a call for a large order to the Whitehold apartments. I decided to come pick them up figured all those pizzas and drinks would be problematic to your driver, quicker for me to just port. So how much would it be?"

Nick smiles. "Neigh. I've never really understood that phrase. All I know is that I can tell when someone needs a friend."

Levi looks to the man at the podium. "That male does not show any life signs. Does he require resuscitation, Master Ridley?"

Nick shushes Levi. "I think that'd be a bit late, bud."

Nick looks over at Grace and back to the guy, and says quietly, "Do pizzas come with toppings of brains?"

Nick feigns pain silently, miming as she'd broken his leg with her kick. He's grinning and trying not to laugh.

Levi looks over at Nick. "Do you require medical attention, Master Ridley?"

Nick shakes his head, unable to speak. He then attempts to mime a zombie eating pizza. Which consists of him grabbing the pizza in handfuls and attempting to shove it in his mouth. He starts to laugh again and chokes slightly, his face turning red, and then Levi softly punches his diaphragm, allowing him to chew and swallow again.

After this happens he tries to contain his laughter silently.

Nick coughed and regained composure, if awkwardly. "Uh, uhm, yes, you seem...very dead." He coughs again. "Uh, so, how are you alive and dead at the same time?"

"Names Ron Bolton thought nowadays the news papers call me Rotten Luck." He reached over and offered his hand to Grace "Welcome to Titan City. As for how I got this way? Well like I said more of a mummy complete with magical curse artifact. I picked it up and then there was a flash. Next thing I was waking up in the city morgue."

Nick and Levi nod almost in unison when they are introduced. Nick decides to let Ron handle that question. "She's new around here."

Aftrf Ron's greeting, Levi tilts his head to one side. "Would it be acceptable to acquire a tissue sample from your body?"

Nick shushes Levi, "Levi, that's rude," Nick looks to Ron, "Sorry, he's only about a year and a half old." The steel giant was nearly as tall as Ron while sitting down. "He, uhm...grew quickly."

"Machines do not grow in that context, Master Ridley. I was born with this height and weight. You created this unit, I had thought you would have--"

Nick coughs to interrupt Levi. "Yes, I know Levi." He had just been caught making fun of the dead man in front of him, and now Levi wanted tissue samples. This could have gone much better.

"Uhm, so, Mr. Bolton, sorry about that whole zombie thing. I was just kidding around." He scratched the back of his neck in embarassment. "If it's any consollation, you look very good for a guy that's been dead for three years."

Nick notices Grace's epiphany about her abilities. He smiles. Maybe she'll figure out who she is much sooner than she thought. "I haven't had much up-close experience with magic, myself. I've seen it plenty of times, though. Pretty potent stuff."

Grace nods in agreement with Nick, then listens intently to Ron again, a tiny crease between her brows as she thinks quite hard. Her wings sag a little, and she shakes her head.

"...No. The place I grew up was really, ahm... /religious/, I guess. Magic isn't something anyone really did or talked about, except to say it was evil." She made a little face, rolling her eyes a bit. "Faith was something everybody had and did, but not really magic."

She looks a bit disappointed, but simply resettles herself, wings flexing a little near the shoulder in idle motion. "...Is it something anybody can learn to do, or... do you /have/ to have an already magical thing-- object?"

((Dropping a post in the OOC thread for information!))

Grace looks both excited, and very apprehensive about the thought of meeting other people-- en masse. She involuntarily flicks a glance over her shoulder at her wings, tucking them tightly against her back, as if to protect them.

"O-Oh!... Well, that might solve... solve a /few/ problems, because I really didn't know where I was going to stay tonight, either..." She rubs the back of her neck until it turns pink with the embarrassed motion.

She folds her arms on the table and turns back in entreaty to Nick and Levi, her dark blue eyes a bit imploring. "...Do you know where that place is? ...Would you go, too? If it's okay with Ron, that is..." She adds the last hesitantly, and maybe a bit hopefully. At least if she knew some people there already, it wouldn't be so hard to adjust, and maybe she wouldn't have to worry quite as much about looking disgustingly ignorant or stupid.

Grace had opened her mouth a little and stared at Nick, his offer seeming somewhat absurd, and more than a little awkward considering their genders.

She closed her mouth again, wings drooping a bit with the rush of relief at Levi's clarification that Nick hadn't been there in... well, a long time. It was a genuinely nice offer, not-- 'uncouth', as her mother would have said. She still had a qualm though.

"Uhm, that's... /really/ nice of you, Nick. Seriously. But... I don't have a job yet or anything. I've only got $23.55 left in my wallet... I dunno if I could pay for it. But-- maybe just for today or something?"

She's gone a bit fidgety, her feathers rustling softly as she traces her finger around the edge of her now-empty cup, flicking a glance and a bemused smile up and across the table.

"As long as it doesn't have rats or anything," she added.

Wren's wandered down from the second floor by now, bouncing down the stairs as she humms merrily. Having heard the invitation from Ron, she slides up next to the three of them and grins.

"I heard that. My last class was earlier, and I'm heading back there anyway. Anyone want a ride? Finally able to fly another person since last weekend!" Short, slightly chubby, she certainly doesn't seem strong enough to carry someone... though with the huge wing span, who could tell? "Or birdy and I can carry the food." she grins kindly at Grace, a sort of cheerfulness seeming to enfold those around her, should they let it affect them.

Ron raised his hand and drew a circle in the air. A small portal formed and on the other side of the table a second portal formed. Then Ron stuck his hand through and wiggled his fingers his hand seemingly severed hovering in the air. "Flying so over rated. I came here because for me it's just a few steps between here and the lobby. Thought I bet flying more fun like riding my bike."

Grace had stared, momentarily distracted by Ron's hand going through the portal, her mouth unbecomingly open. Everything was just so... /overwhelming/... that she simply took all her experiences at face value, lest she get dizzy trying to contemplate it all.

The sheer /friendliness/ of the people she's met, even just on her first day, is overwhelming in itself. Moisture gathers up for a moment in her eyes, and she smiles happily between everyone at the table, ending with her gaze on Wren. She sniffles, and quickly uses a hastily snatched up napkin to wipe her eyes, giggling a bit. "Sorry..." She apologizes lamely, seeming amused at the upsurge of emotions.

To Wren, she says firmly, "/That/ would be /really/ nice, Miss. I've had to stash my bag in hiding spots and go back for it... I didn't even know anybody else could fly, until I heard of this place and came here. Nobody's helped me-- it's just something I've been learning, alone."

She moves to wiggle out of the booth, her payment still sitting on the edge of the table. She reaches back into the booth seat and quickly folds up the blanket she'd been using to cover her wings, hugging it to her stomach with her arms crossed over it.