Coffee Break 1 (Gina)
"There you are! I've been looking all over for you." I moaned at the light touch of my shoulder and the feminine voice. I turned around and frowned at a white-haired, twin-tailed tactician. I felt her look over my shoulder and hum while he looked over the books on the table. "So that's what you've been doing."
"Well... trying and failing." I blinked and clicked my tongue while I drummed my fingers on a magic textbook. "I can't read any of the books in the library."
"Why not?" Reflet blinked. "We can understand each other."
"I don't fucking get it either, but I'm too tired to give a damn. " I sighed and closed my fists on the table. "If I'm going to take my job seriously, I have to do everything I can to help and I have a lot of work to do. "
"I understand, but you don't have to burn yourself out. " Robin looked down at the books in front of me and hummed while rubbing his chin. "You have me and the others in the Order."
"I'll take it as I will, Reflet." I huffed. "Now that I think about it, it explains how I was able to understand Red and Pineapple when I met them."
"Takumi, the Hoshidan archer?" Reflet blinked.
"Yes, him. Thanks to my near-sighted vision, his head does look like a pineapple." I nodded and drummed my fingers on the table.
"Shame about your spectacles. Gods know how important it must be to you." Robin shook her head and rubbed her chin, "What in Naga's name is a pineapple?"
"A pineapple is a golden, spiky tropical fruit with green, sword-like leaves on top." I explained and continued, "They smell sweet with a tangy aftertaste."
"That explains a lot." Robin chuckled while she wiped a tear from her eye. "You don't have to carry everything on your shoulders, Summoner. You also have me and the Order of Heroes to help."
"Ugh, just call me Gina. Or Regina if you want. I ain't one for titles." I grimaced at my title and hung my shoulders with a resigned sigh. "As far as I'm concerned, I've only earned that title because I'm lucky to be alive. That doesn't mean that I'm havin' everyone do stuff for me all the time outta battle. Ain't that helpless or vain."
"What about strategy meetings?"
"...I'm not so crazy that I'm going to do strategy meetings myself either," I replied. "If anything, I'm more likely to stand in the back, take notes and ask you a lot if I don't get it. That being said, strategy meetings ain't so different from college lectures."
"You were a scholar?" Reflet blinked. "Do you study magic by any chance?"
"Where I'm from, magic doesn't exist except in fiction, parlor tricks, and computer programming." I shrugged and continued, "But yeah... I was a scholar at one point, complete with late nights, a crapton of homework, a crapton of research, and seven years' worth of coffee strong enough to hallucinate."
"Gods..." Robin blinked twice and shuddered. "That much coffee is enough to keep Ylisse's magic guild awake for a long time. When was the last time you drank coffee?"
"As of now, two days ago," I answered and returned to drumming my fingers on the table. "It's part of the job and force of habit from my old life."
"Dare I ask, but..." Reflet flashed a smile and sat down next to me. "You were a scholar before, but what sort of trade requires that much coffee?"
"I was a baker." I blinked and frowned after I closed the tome in front of me. "I wake up before the crack of dawn, then I clock in, clean the kitchen, prep everything, and bake enough bread to feed a small city ten times over. I work in the back of the house- replenishing every loaf of bread for the folks at the front of the house to sell. I make new batches of coffee every half-hour while I'm waiting for the bread to finish baking. Oh, and I've also been doing all that for the last seven years."
"Gods... that IS a lot of work..." Reflet rubbed her chin and pursed her lips.
"It is." I grinned and waved her off. "But it's nothing new and I have a truckload of studying to do."
"Nice moves." I heard a chortle. "You tryin' to dance?"
"So much for training." I turned around to see an armored bear with a golden ax on his shoulder sporting a wide grin. "Hector, right?"
"Yeah." Hector nodded and dropped Armads on the ground. He stepped closer and looked at me while rubbing his chin.
"...You say that we've kinda met before, but I can't say the same about you." I dropped my ax and glared up at him.
"But I have." Hector drew back and crossed his arms. "Eliwood was about to introduce me to your counterpart when I was summoned here."
"Oh, that." I groaned.
"You don't have to apologize, Gina." Hector shook his head and continued, "You look like someone I'd want to help, even without magic in the way."
"Wait, the stupid gun has a geas!?" I gaped.
"Yeah. There's a strange feeling in the back of my head, preventing me from directly harming you- which I won't." I paled while Hector rubbed his chin and dropped his ax on the ground with a rumbling hum. "Are you alright, Gina?"
"No. No, I'm not." I looked up at him with a firm stare and huffed. "My stupid blinky gun can break time and space to summon heroes and now my stupid blinky gun can pacify people to do things for me."
"I appreciate the concern you have for me, but you're thinking too hard about this. " Hector offered. "Say, why don't we spar with each other? I'll go easy on you."
"Well... since you offered, fine." I let out a resigned sigh and picked up my ax after I rolled my shoulders.
"Mayonnaise is not an instrument..." I mumbled when I felt pressure on my shoulder. The room was dark and mostly empty save for a wardrobe and a pair of chairs in the corner. I lifted my head and locked eyes with a tall blonde in white sleeves and golden pauldron and cuirass holding a lantern with a candle inside... I left out a soft groan and ran my hand through my mohawk. I tore out a sheet of parchment attached to my cheek and looked down to see Briedablik next to a small pile of parchment, an overturned inkwell, and another sheet of parchment with a large blot of ink near my hand. Luckily, there wasn't anything important written there.
"Thank Askr, you're still here. " Sharena let out a relieved sigh.
"What?" I leered at the blonde sitting next to me. "You're gonna... hafta... try harder... if ya want to... seduce me..."
"...Seduce you?"
"Not with... a bucket... of chicken." I wrote a bunch of scribbles on a sheet of parchment and handed it over to her, "See- a way to... a woman's heart... is through... her stomach."
"These are scribbles." Sharena frowned and looked at me with a quirked brow. "When was the last time you had any sleep?"
"Hell... no. "I mumbled. "Uh... two days ago?"
"That explains why I haven't seen you at dinner then." Sharena sighed. "You have to stop giving Alfonse heart attacks. It was funny the first three times, but I worry that you're taking it too far."
"Heh... Boss go brr." I laid my head down on the table and mumbled, "No promises... but... try...zzz"