Morgan is snuggled comfortably into one of the couches at Kiva Coffee. She has a coffee in ceramic mug, and is warming her hands on it.
Billie pushes open the door to the cafe, looking like she is seeking someone out . Spying Morgan, her lips pull a little, "Hey Red.." Moving around the couch she drops down on it with a flop.
It's evening and our lovely Zoie is not working tonight, but if you want awesome tea and coffee, you come to the awesome place. What makes it awesome? The employee discount. She walks straight up to the counter and puts an order in. "Hey what's cracking?" Her eyes then sweep over the women. "OH! Heya!"
Morgan smiles at Billie, and makes room. Then she sees Zoie, and waves. "heya! Come join us?" She looks at the two. "Have you two met? Billie, Zoie. Zoie, Billie."
Billie is already making herself about ten times comfortable as she now curls up against Morgan, turning her into a semi pillow. Looking over to Zoie, her eyes squint, and she shakes her head, "No, I don't think so..Sup?" She asks with a jut of her chin.
Zoie turns her eyes on Billie for a long time as she looks at her for a long time. A smile curves up on her lips with a happy sort of manner. "Hi, I'm Zoie, Billie is like an awesome name." She gets her drink and drops into a seat with the others.
Morgan seems comfortable enough to let Billie curl up on her. She strokes Billie's assorted braids, dreads and so forth. "How have you been, Zoie? I haven't seen you in a while."
"Zoie..Well thanks.. I like my name a lot.. yours ain't half bad, but mine is better.Then again, I am biased." She grins then rests her head against Morgan's shoulder.
Zoie rolls her Venus green eyes as she thinks it over. "I have been great. Zack is camping and shooting moose." She makes a pouty face and then smiles in a vibrant fashion. "School is doing awesomely. What about you two? I haven't seen you in FOREVER, Morgan.. and I've never seen Billie."
Morgan laughs. "That sounds like Zack." She then nods. "Good - I'm glad school is doing well. And me .. I've been busy, I'm afraid."
Billie murmurs, "Eh, you never seen me cus I only am seen when I want to be seen." Now turning in to tuck her head in hiding between Morgan and the couch, stiffling a yawn.
Zoie smiles. "Yeah.. he likes to find a turkey and try to hunt it. I mean really just think about it, one can go to the store and get one." She offers a giggle and slides in again. "What have you been busy doing?"
Morgan laughs. "but it wouldn't be as tasty if he didn't hunt it himself!" She looks down at Billie, and smiles, stroking her dreads again. "Poor Billie." She turns back to Zoie. "Farming Algae. And processing it. It's been a lotof time critical stuff at this point."
Zoie wrinkles up her nose for a moment. "Algae, you mean like um.. those monkey things that you put in the water and that grow?" Her eyes light up the next moment though. "What do you do with them? I mean algae, or is that an it?"
Morgan grins. "Not quite. More pond scum." She grins. "And yeah, call it an it. But to answer the real question; I'm trying to come up with biofuel."
Zoie lowers her brows for a moment. "Huh.. is um.. oh what is his name?" She sighs softly and thinks it over. "Gus... yes.. is he helping you with that?"
Morgan shakes her head. "Gustavo? The police guy? Ex marine? No."
Zoie hmms softly to that as she thinks it over. Her eyes studying the woman's. "I thought you and he were.. you know.. doing things together." She blushes and then looks down.
Morgan blinks at Zoie, in unfeigned surprise. "What?"
Zoie shrugs. "I just thought you two had a thing. I mean, I could be totally wrong, but yeah."
Morgan ohs, and shakes her head. "Oh. Not on my side, anyway."
Zoie leans forwards a bit with her blonde hair swinging against her cheeks. "Was it on his side then? I haven't seen him since...." She trails off. "Well for a long while."
Morgan says, "If it was, I didn't know about it." She blushes slightly. "I didn't look for it either."
Zoie looks towards the sleeping Billie. "Oh, is that men are not your sort of thing?" She gives a large smile and then hops a few moments. "Catch me up. Who are you dating? What else have you been doing. Share it all with me."
Morgan looks at Billie, and laughs softly. "No - she's dating Mason. I'm not dating anyone." She thinks for a moment. Editing out things she shouldn't tell outsiders. "Mostly some study, and a bit of martial arts for exercise."
Zoie does something totally unlike her. She looks disgusted. "I hate him. He's not allowed in here when I'm working. I hope that he just leaves or something.. horrible." She doesn't seem to know how to insult Mason, but she really doesn't like him.
Morgan looks surprised for a moment, but only for a moment. She then nods, apparently understanding. "He doesn't have good boundaries, and he'll flirt - and more - with anything in a skirt. Billie's grounding him a bit. But ... yeah." She strokes Billie's hair lightly, then looks at Zoie, direct eye contact. "He knows that if he hurts Billie - especially that way - he will have to face me." The little red-haired geek suddenly shows a dangerous side, albiet briefly.
Zoie shakes her head. "He made me dinner and told me I was expected to put out. Then he called me horrible names and said horrible things about me when I wouldn't do it."
.
Morgan's expression suddenly goes hard. "When you see Billie next, or if she wakes up, tell her about it. Believe me, she punishment she will dish out to him will be ... very appropriate." She looks at Zoie. "Even if it was before the two of them got together. Billie is training him to respect women as women." She then extends her free hand to Zoie, and her expression softens. "You .. know whatever he said isn't true, right?"
Zoie shrugs her shoulders to that last part as she drops her eyes. "I'm waiting to marriage to have that sort of relationship with someone. I know that is strange. I don't know if I should tell Billie. I just.. he's not a good person, Morgan. He is a horrible person and there is no heart in him. No heart."
Morgan smiles at Zoie. "It's not strange, Zoie. It's admirable. Sex is something that is, and should be, personal to each individual. We're all wired differently, and we should respect each other's wiring. I have a set of rules for sex, myself. Informed consent - which includes that the consenting individual needs to be capable of understanding what they're consenting to. So no children, and noone mentally incapable of understanding. Safe, so no having sex while hanging off the Eiffel Tower or anything stupid like that." She grins, trying to life your mood with that one. "And sane. So nothing that hurts anyone, to the best of my ability. If someone is married, their partner must be also willing for me to have sex with the someone." Then she laughs softly. "Not that I've actually /had/ sex for nearly two years."
She changes topic, then, and sobers. "Then Billie needs to know, wouldn't you say?" She frowns. "But I don't want to hurt you by making you tell her. Making you relive the experience. Is there someone who you've already told who I can ask to warn Billie?"
Zoie shrugs. "A lot of people know about it." She looks towards the sleeping Billie. "He was pretty.. well.. I don't know if I want to make him angry."
Morgan smiles slightly. "You're a dancer. That means you're strong. If you stood hard on someone's foot, you could break all their tarsels and metatarsels at once. That's the small bones in the foot itself, rather than the toe. It's hard to hurt someone when you can't stand or walk."
Zoie looks up in surprise. "I never thought about doint that." She hmms thoughtfully at that. "I never thought of using the my dance movements as a resource to fight."
Morgan nods. "Can you do a high kick /fast/, and without letting on that you're about to do one?"
Zoie laughs. "Of course I can. I am use to doing a change up for most of the movements in dance. You have to stop and start on such things."
Morgan nods. She then touches her chin. "What do you think would happen if you caught me under the chin with your full strength?"
Zoie studies her legs on her short form and then looks at Morgan. "I have really strong legs. I'd probably break your jaw or at least mess you up pretty good."
Morgan nods. "May well break my neck, too."
Zoie nods her head. "I suppose I could kill you with something like that." She studies the woman a bit. "Huh... I'm not so defenseless."
Morgan says, "I have some friends who'll be setting up a martial arts studio at some point soon. If you like, I'll give you their card. They're very good at gauging their students' strengths and weaknesses, and teaching them self-defence based on those." She grins. "Oh, they can do the 'win tournaments for style and doing the right moves in the right way' martial arts. But what they *prefer* to do is give people like you and me the tools to keep ourselves safe.""
Morgan lifts her hands, looking innocent. "No. I'm just making sure that next time you are in a situation where you might feel helpless - you realise that you aren't."
Zoie sighs out a bit to that as she leans forwards on her hand. "Well.. I mean, he's a big football player though." Zoie is sitting at a table with Morgan while Billie is actually sleeping next to them. Her eyes study the other woman and then Zoie looks back to her own legs.
Morgan nods. "That just means that you stomp down HARD when you're breaking his foot bones. They'll be tougher than Joe Average's. But weaker than a ballet dancer's who dances en pointe."
Kendrick walks into the cafe, it looks like Ken has been out for most of the night hitting clubs himself. He glances around for a moment and he finds who he's looking for Zoie. He walks over and he nods to Morgan as he comes to stand behind Zoie. "Talking about Mason again are we?" he says with a soft smile.
Zoie turns her beautiful green eyes towards Ken and she beams. "Kenny! Hey.. hi.. you look like you had a great night. Like totally great night." She turns her eyes towards Morgan. "Do you know Kenny? He has like forty kids."
Morgan smiles at Kendrick. "I think we've met, once. Maybe twice." She then nods. "Yes, we were."
Kendrick looks over to Morgan and smiles. "I guess in a way Zoe's right." he leans down and he sighs. "Hey Morgan." he looks to Zoie. "It was an ok night, but I thought I'd come by and see if you needed a ride home?" he looks back to Morgan. "He seems like an ok dude, but I've only met him twice now myself."
Zoie smiles. "Of course I could use a ride home. Did you want to go now?" Then there is a blush. "Oh! I'm not sleeping with him, Morgan. We just live together." That's Zoie, clear as mud for you. Her eyes move between the two before she frowns at Kendrick. "He is /not/ alright or okay. He's a jerk."
Kendrick smiles between the two and he steps back. "I'm just going off what I've seen hon. But yeah he's one that like to party for sure." he looks to Morgan and back. "Well I'll just be out in the car when you are ready to roll Zoie, I rather you not have to try and get back out to the house this late."
Morgan grins at Zoie. "None of my business." Then she nods to Kendrick. "Mason has his ... well, his 'user' side."
Kendrick looks back over to Morgan. "Many say I have that side as well." he shrugs. "Sex and using are two diffrent things really." he rubs Zoie's head softly. "I'll be in the car, just poke me awake."
Zoie smiles at him and then tips her head to one side. "He is so odd sometimes." Then she looks back towards Morgan and grins. "No really. He already has um.. you know.. friends. I just have Zack. I'm happy with just having Zack."
Morgan smiles at Zoie, and says "Well. Good. I'm glad to hear that Zack has someone." She grins. "And that you do."
Zoie grins, "Oh I don't know if I'm just his. I'm just happy to spend time with him when he's like here." She pauses. "I talk about him too much. What about you?"
Morgan shakes her head. "I honestly don't have much about myself to talk about."
Zoie frowns. "You should have stuff to talk about. I mean you are your biggest fan right? You want me to find you a boyfriend... erm.. or a girlfriend?"
Morgan smiles slightly. "No, I'm not really my biggest fan." She pauses for a moment, then says quietly "I guess to be honest, I don't like myself much." A shake of her head. "No .. no thanks."
Zoie lowers her brows a bit and leans in. "Why don't you like yourself much?" Her voice filled with that inquisitive interest that rings through her tone. She definitely has the sound of a singer or something in that voice of hers. It makes one want to listen.
Morgan curls herself up a bit, and looks down towards the floor. "I just .. I .. " She closes her eyes. "I just don't like myself."
"Well what don't you like about yourself exactly?" Zoie offers as she watches Morgan. There is a glance to the door as she wonders if Ken did pass out in the car. She shrugs and looks back towards Morgan for the answer.
Morgan turns her head away, closing her eyes. She says quietly "I think I'd better go home."
Zoie reaches out to try and touch the woman's hand. "No really, why don't you like yourself? It cant be that bad. Trust me."
Morgan swallows. "I don't like some of the things I do. It .. it doesn't matter."
Zoie nods her head to that. "What do you d..." She pauses and looks around. "YOu want to go somewhere else and talk or something? I mean, I don't see how you could do anything that bad. We all do bad things."
Morgan shakes her head, and rises. "I'm sorry, Zoie. I shouldn't. I really shouldn't." She eases a cushion under Billie's head. "I will head off. It was good talking to you."
Zoie reaches out to touch her hand. "Maybe you shouldn't, but maybe you need to. I'd be happy to listen and try not to judge."
Morgan looks at Zoie, and says quietly "Thank you. I .. I seriously do thank you. But I can't."
Zoie smiles to that. "I will try not to press, but if you know me, you will know I will." She grins in that happy sort of manner. "I won't tell anyone either. I can keep secrets."
<FADE FOR SECRETS ABOUT MORGAN>