1965-02-25 - Two Cats and a Crow
Summary: Hip cats and a crow talk 'bout life.
Related: If there are no related logs, put 'None', — please don't leave blank!
Theme Song: None
kai kevin-cole tchalla reno 


.~{:--------------:}~.


Kevin Cole dropped Tiger Fang.


Reno has been keeping the shop closed right now but accessible. It was hard to focus on business when America was losing icons. Still as a cornerstone and safe place to retreat to for the young and old Reno opted to hold down the fort and make sure if someone needed a place to be from the chaos they could come sit.

Still on the windowsill there was a bowl of shelled peanuts and a shot of whiskey sitting on it. Newspapers from the last couple days were stacked up and that made today a day the crow man was trying to keep busy rather than sit still and useless.


Kevin stopped by the other day and ran into Kai again. During their chat, the man mentioned an event that sounded interesting but it wasn't the time nor place to relate it. This could be the time so he slips into the store, nodding to Reno when he sees him. "Evening."


There's no way that T'Challa came here to get his hair cut. Provided he has some desperate need to escape the embassy, he failed to shake his tail of two statuesque women capable of giving a few Amazonians a run for their money. They loiter across the street talking to a collection of artists painting a bench and a wall in bright colours. His pace is purposeful, expression lidded while the clouded skies conceal something else tracking him at a distance because why not monitor the Wakandan leader remotely to see if you can? Hmph.

Patter on the sidewalk marks his route, a deliberate announcement in ways that aren't. Stacked up peanut shells, newspaper, all that tells a story. "Rough night, is it?"


Reno looked up, hopeful, welcoming, and really deep down hurting at the soul. He played it casual, but Reno was renown for wearing his heart on his sleeve. "Kevin Cole. Is you lucky day man." The slight fella nodded past Kevin's shoulder to the tall man walking in. Reno was no Wakandan, but it didn't mean he didn't respect him. He was also terrible at formalities, but the intentions of him were genuine, "Heeeey, King T'Challa, is good to see you out." He paused and took a deep breath admitting, "My soul hurts, man. The world's hurting right now. I fear for teh community ya know? They had so much hope and now there's a lot of confusion, anger… We hurtin." He looked up and thumbed to the back. "I made coffee. Got some sodas in the back if you want. HOw… how you guys doin?"


Hearing T'Challa's voice, Kevin turns and crosses his arms over his chest, fists to opposite shoulder. "My king." He left word for T'Challa that he arrived a few days ago and has been staying at the embassy but they kept missing each other. He's dressed to blend in and if he were darker, would look just like a native. Which, of course, he is.


"I look with regret upon recent events. Violence does not replace the need for dialogue." The Xhosa influence curls like a serpent around T'Challa's subdued response, for all his English is directly cultivated by experience at Oxford University. With it, the precise upper crust inflections make him more than some kid from the projects, for all he might vaguely resemble it to the typical city dweller. "Milk and honey have different colours, but they share the same house peacefully. Now if people come to see they go farther together, and can abide together, they will do much." He spreads his hands a little, a nod to the offer of coffee. Kevin receives that silent acknowledgment as he brings his crossed wrists up to chest level where, presumably, the anchoring necklace that marks his rule and rank are visible.


Reno listened. In some ways he had wisdom beyond his years, and in other regards he was just a 22 year old guy who grew up here in Harlem. He listened. He looked to Kevin and back to T'Challa and just listened. Finally he nodded, "Yeah I want that too. Sometimes it's just always so hard ya know? but, hey, it's cold outside. Lemme get you guys something warm." He couldn't fix the community at once and he couldn't convince himself things would be magically fine, but he could take care of those that were right in front of him with the small courtesies of hospitality. Sometimes shit started small. "Heeeeey you know this guy's been lookin for you. I checked em out though, he's alright." He came back with a couple mugs and noted to Kevin because T'Challa already made a choice, "Oh hey, turns out we got some hot cocoa too, ya now if you want that. Lil marshmallows. Sometimes is a marshmallow day ya know? well… maybe ya don't I dunno. I promise you some days is those days, man. You missed a good discussion on spirits and theology the other night."


"Coffee would be great." Kevin says to Reno as he drops his arms. "Light. And if you can add some Irish to it…" Shame he can no longer get any effect from it but he still enjoys the taste. "If you have a good brand." he adds. Enhanced taste is a double edged sword. "On second thought, hot cocoa with marshmallows sounds better. Thanks."


T'Challa tends not to make excessive movements, absent a nervous tic or wringing of his hands. Something drilled in while hunting or staring at his father in a lesson, no doubt. "Difficult ventures are worthy for the challenge they present. This time, an opportunity for the voices rarely heard to join the discussion grows. Patience," he advocates, "is a way to avoid riots again. Though the city burns. I can smell the anger on the air." He doesn't venture for the hot chocolate because coffee invariably brings back some semblance of home. No judgment if someone else wants to call it on cocoa.


Reno grinned faintly and thought about it holding up a finger and considered, "Eeeh I got a bottle of Jameson upstairs. Considering the occasion? I can go grab it for you. Hell you can mix all three. Think they callin it an Irish Mocha. Dunno why the Irish got the corner on bars though. Ain' like they invented em. Eeeeh I dunno. Maybe they make em better? I dunno. EIther way? We hook you up." Crows were, in the end, excellent gift traders. "Yeah been readin up on your place. Seems a lotta different tryin to figure out how to work togehter. How you make that happen though?" He looked to Kevin and T'Challa curious, genuinly curious as he brought the hot beverages back ad held up a finger for him to fly upstairs and back with the bottle. "There."


Kevin doesn't make anything happen; it's all T'Challa's show. "I can't take any of the credit for that. I was just lucky enough to benefit from it. Everything's fine back home." he tells the king as Reno disappears upstairs. "Or maybe I should say everything's normal." There's always politics but it's the usual so technically that's probably fine. Really, he's fine without any whiskey now he has the cocoa but the guy's just hyper.


"No, thank you," T'Challa keeps to that sort of polite behaviour. Not that alcohol does much to him, on the whole, and just in case someone was hanging on an answer from his highness, he definitely opts to tread a cautious line among proper company all the same. "What is well enough among us does not extend to the rest of the world. I should think everyone here has a proper right to peace."


Reno brought things back like the consummate host. The slight man looked between them and looked faintly distressed but said nothing for a long moment. "Must have taken a lot of hard work. GOnna be a long time before the borroughs come back together, but I guess it takes someone tryin. SOooo can We talk, like… honestly? I'm wondering if Bast, the way I'm hearing, looks after your people maybe like Pachamama watches what is South."


"Everyone everywhere has a right to it." Kevin agrees. "And if it ever actually happens, it'll be because everyone is dead." Doesn't have a high opinion of humanity as a whole, it seems. And since /the/ authority on Bast is right over there, he doesn't even try to answer. Though he does ask "Pachamama?"


Enhanced tastebuds do a connoisseur of T'Challa make, however unwitting. All those described inclusions and overtones of flavour erupt in fine detail, distinguishing 'real' banana or full-bodied, dark-roasted bourbon flashes from crap that simulates a taste someone wants. He will keep his counsel about that to himself, accepting the coffee, offering a nod. "The Incan goddess of fertility, the earth-shaker, the harvester." Pays a man to know about whom Bast might be in alliance or abeyance with, or more than likely, he might have read a book. "'Our people.'" Right, let's just split hairs there. The king doesn't, taking a sip of the coffee. "Bast sets us to a particular standard and we do the best we can to honour that, and in turn, maintain the favour. Is it not the same? Those professing Christian or Jewish faith strive to live by the way instructed by their god, using teaching and examples. Why?"


Reno offers as a point of clarification, Also known as Grandmother Earth in Peru. She's still venerated. Keeps company often found with one of her sons Puma, the traveller. Well we was talkin, Kev an' me and the guys the other night. I was trying to learn more how poeople who commune with other spirits talk with theirs… that is well… ya know if they do." He paused and had no good way to explain but waved a hand understating, "I talk to Crow."


"I've never spoken to Bast." Kevin clarifies. They're standing in the shop, drinking from mugs. Cocoa and coffee if the scents are discernible. "I just follow her." Somehow, a more 'real' deity just makes more sense than some ethereal sky god who supposedly does it all in the entire universe. The one is like Thor; the other sounds like a fable.


T'Challa tastes his coffee again, settling in when the temperature is something less than suitable to melt lead into a liquid puddle. He keeps a steady grasp on the handle, more serene. "Crow. A redoubtable figure of story," he says quietly.


Kai tries the door. Upon finding it unlocked, he trundles on in. "Hullo," he says, then, "Kevin, I found T'Challa." He points at His Majesty. There's coffee to be had? He helps himself. Some people just aren't afraid to come on in and make themselves at home. "Hey there, good-looking," he says to Reno.


Reno preened a bit. Yes, yes birds are totally payable in compliments and bagels. Who had two wings and was a pretty bird? This guy! He knew this because elves can't lie; their sprinkles would fall off. "He is that. Nit, Kev, I suppose that make sense too. We like see em though. Sends us visions. Follow the voice and kinda take care of his people when he ask. Some of the things gets kidna hard to do… just tryin to figure that out lately. ya know especially with everything been goin on. Kai, you ever have a bad day? I don' think I ever seen you have a bad day."


"Thank you." Kevin tells Kai, his tone dry. "Couldn't have done it without you." At Reno's question, he studies Kai a moment. "He has." The man's tone when just referring to something the other day made that clear. "Everyone has. It's just whether you show it or not. It can be taken as a sign of weakness." Like on the street. Or on the force.


Hard to know where the notice originates, whether the bracelet he wears or some feline instinct attuned to higher things. For the moment, T'Challa turns as Kai enters and gives him a nod. "We did. A good turn, is it not?" Though the social call will need to continue another time. Soon, as time allows." After drinking the last of the coffee in a slow — if somewhat steady — swallow, he puts down the mug with few remnants on the counter. Barring a sink, he has limited options. "Thank you for your hospitality, Reno." That said and done, the Wakandan king heads for the street where the two women apparently now fully involved in contributing to the ransacking of a bench for artistic purposes cease their work a few moments later. Niceties exchanged, it's time to roll.


TChalla goes home.


"There was that day I was almost eaten," Kai says. "Though I wasn't, so I guess it turned out pretty good after all." He beams. Parking himself on a chair, he stretches out his legs and gives a nod to the leaving T'Challa. He nods to Kevin, then. "I try to put a positive spin on things."


Reno knew it was. Hell that's how SOl Roja got his ass landed in jail a while for shit he never even agreed to do. Reno quieted and he jsut shook his head, "Yeah well your boy almsot got me eaten once soooo yeah I can sympathize. A lil bit. Things can bite you thouggh, still, that is scary as hell, dude. So. COffee's in the back Kai if you want that or cocoa man. Tryin to keep thinks on the up and up. I was thinkin about takin a trip out eat this summer and ya know, that seem kinda far, already being on the coast and all so I thought I might go out visit some of mi abuela's family. I dunno. I need to learn how to manage some of this stuff. SO hard to find liek a shaman these days t' learn from ya know? Was kinda hopin King T'Challa knew more but I guess it a lil different. Can always look though. It's still how we find shit."


Kevin nods to T'Challa as the man leaves. "It's very different. He is the chosen of Bast but he is not a shaman or priest." Glancing around, he drinks the last of his cocoa then sets the mug down next to the other. "I should be going as well. As I said to Kai, you can get a message to me by calling the embassy. Let me know if you need a hand with something."


Kai tips a wave to Kevin and says, "Always a pleasure, man." Then to Reno, he says, "Oh hey, he took care of those guys, too. They won't be trying to eat anyone anymore. Not on this plane of existence." He looks so dippy in love as he says it. Whoever his boy is, so dreamy. He tilts his head and studies Reno for a moment. "So how does the shaman thing work I never asked? I don't really question these things much."


Reno grinned to Kevin and offered him a hand. "We'll have to call you up. It's still good seein you back around the neighbourhood man. Harlem can always use people that love her." Looking to Kai he held up one finger, "THeology is a one shot minimum." He held up the second finger, "SHamanism is two flat out, though knowing you? eeeeh like eight or nine."


Kai grins. "Well, we can save it for a bottle of whiskey and a late night after everyone's gone off to be responsible adults." He takes a swig of his coffee. "It's funny. I never think about religion much. It's all just stuff that happens. Like, I yelled at an angel at my party. I don't know if I believe in the Christian god? But there's angels. So there being spirits? Sure, why not."


Reno pointed to Kai with a laugh, "See not you're scary close describing the first date I ever been on. But yeah like this is… well my mama's family is Catholic so I get it. And I don't wanna be like I'm talkin about the people that do stuff but like… the great spirits and stuff. The ones that will manifest but don't like reside ina physical form sot htey gotta borrow us to do that. They need a name for that cause "Guy that turns into crow and takes all Crow's phones calls for him' is like …bad for making an acronym out of."


"No, I get it," Kai says witha grin. "You've got to call it something, and just because most people don't know how to fathom it doesn't make it real. My people live among gods. It's just that we know they're not really gods but people with technology that, to people of Midgard, look like magic. It's a matter of perspective, what you call it, and I don't know that there's only one right answer."


Reno couldn't argue that and said, "Oh totally you know what my ancestors would say if they knew about telephones? THey be like daaaaamn son hook me up! That shit'll safe a ton of walkin. But I was thinking less big G and more little g. I think.." He paused and furrowed his brow looking to Kai, "There's a guy Loki mentioned up in Asgard… if you guys ever go back and it's okay I'd kinda like to meet em."


"They're all little 'g' to me," Kai admits. "No disrespect to anyone intended. From the outside looking in, the only reason there's a big 'G' is because one of them's pulled ahead in the polls." He nurses more of his coffee. Mmm, coffee he didn't have to make. "Who do you want to meet in Asgard?"


Reno pressed his lips together and seemed really detached from teh god thing and more was still in world messenger mode which made Kai's statement really super easy to agree to. "We know of the brothers Hugin and Mungin. They an extension of him too and I wanted to see if maybe they had answers taht might help me out."


Kai's brows lift. "The All-Father's ravens? Goodness. I've seen them once, though it was from a distance. They seemed really neat, but I don't know if it's worth getting that close to the All-Father." He considers, then says with a wave of his hand, "I'm sure you'll be fine. You couldn't drag me there kicking and screaming, but you'd be okay."


Reno chuckled and grinned a bit, "WHy he sound like an alright guy. But It's kinda like related but not related? Look Crows the worlds over have a function to send and carry those messages abck and forth. It's just… I got questions and weirdly so far only Suriel knows much about any of it to help me figure some of thisestuff out."


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