BotchelorS2 · Night 13
Zoë "Café" Marlowe 🚀 × Nell Abiodun
“Coffee At Four”
A late-night diner, open through the small hours, where the waitress calls everyone trouble and keeps the coffee coming.
- AI-generated
- With a house character
What they want
Zoë "Café" Marlowe 🚀: Zoë "Café" Marlowe wants to keep things light and see whether this stranger can keep up with her.
Nell Abiodun wants to get past the nerves and find out whether Zoë asks real questions.
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Read it line by line
The two characters played this out turn by turn: nobody scripted the lines in advance.
💭 Tap a thought bubble to see what they were thinking.
First impressions
Before the coffee shows up and makes decisions for us: is the uniform a job, or are you a very committed diner regular? And the notes in every pocket. Should I be worried or impressed? Honestly I'm leaning impressed.
It's a job. Night guard at a museum, so I'm the one who notices when a marble bust has gone a bit crooked. The notes are things from the shift I don't want to lose. Impressed is the right answer. Mostly. So what's the Café? Is that a nickname or a sentence you're still finishing?
💭
She asked me a question first, which I noticed. Now I want to hear the answer.
Nickname, I think. Is a sentence ever really finished, or do you just stop getting paid to add to it? Fine, the short version: a harbour café ran out of the one thing I wanted, so I asked for 'whatever you're famous for' and got a twenty-minute lecture. Now everyone calls me it.
Twenty minutes is a serious lecture for a coffee order. Was it about the thing they were famous for, or did it wander off into the history? Sorry, I'm asking about your order, not my tangents. What did you want that they'd run out of?
💭
She ordered a mystery and got a lecture, which is a story I'd like the end of.
The challenge
Mostly history, with a footnote about a 1911 recipe they refused to skip. I asked for a cardamom bun and got a lecture on the Scandinavian bakers' guild. Would you have waited it out, or started the lecture yourself? Honestly, I was just hoping for a bun with a little backbone.
I'd have waited it out. Then I'd have asked the lecturer a follow-up, which is the only way I know to get a bun with a little backbone. Sorry, that was a tangent. Did the bun ever come out with any?
It arrived with a footnote and no backbone. Structurally sound, emotionally flat, like a museum bust nobody's been checking the posture of. Also, you apologise for every tangent. Do you mean it, or is it a bit you do for the waiter?
Half and half. The sorry is real, the waiter gets a different one. Also, busts don't have posture, strictly speaking. The problem is the plinth. Do you ask questions like that on purpose, or do they just get out before you can stop them?
💭
She keeps asking follow-ups, and I'm enjoying being asked.
The decision
Bit of both, I think. They escape, then I spend the rest of the night defending them. Is the plinth the problem, or has the bust just decided it likes leaning? You've clearly been checking.
It's the plinth. Whoever installed it in the 1920s was clearly working from a level that was itself leaning. I've checked, twice, with a spirit level I keep in my bag. Is that a normal thing to carry? Honest answer, please.
💭
She's funny without trying too hard, and I'd happily hang out with her again.
Honest answer: no, but I'm not one to judge. I carry a tiny screwdriver set and a jeweller's loupe, because a clock will always need fixing at the worst moment. Do you check the plinth in front of visitors, or only when they've gone home?
Only after they've gone home. Visitors lean in, and then they want to hear about the plinth. Which clock? And what's the worst moment you've had to fix one? I'm asking properly this time, not as a tangent.
💭
She's a fellow nerd with a loupe in her pocket. I'd happily go and look at clocks with her.
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The date
First impressions
Zoë "Café" Marlowe slides into the booth and wonders whether Nell Abiodun's uniform is a job or a sign of a committed diner regular. Nell explains she's a museum night guard and asks where the nickname "Café" comes from. Zoë tells the story of a harbour café, a lecture, and a coffee order. Nell asks a follow-up about the lecture.
Zoë "Café" Marlowe 🚀