The Muse

~ Welcome to Sanctuary ~

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Reya raised a brow as Ruben instructed her to eat and handed her the bag of scones that Emma had left. Apparently, he had been too enthralled in conversation with Emma previously to notice that Reya had already stuffed her face with one scone earlier that morning. Still, it was a nice gesture and one scone certainly wasn't going to hold her over for long. Shrugging, she took another scone out and set the bag back down on the counter. "Fiiiine..." She smiled and tore off a piece and put it in her mouth, "You happy now?"

That playful feeling quickly fled her body as Ruben asked if it would only be them going out to the bar. He must have thought she was asking him on a date! Instantly filled with embarrassment, she quickly tossed her half eaten scone into the nearest trash can and dusted her hands off. "You know... I-" She cleared her throat, feeling the heat enter her cheeks a bit. "I'm sorry. If you don't want to. Sorry! I, uh.... Yeah." She gave him a sheepish smile, hardly keeping eye contact with him as she began to make her way out of the kitchen. "I didn't mean to intrude.. I, uh.. I'm gonna go check on the guests."

Scooping up the order that was ready for the travel couple, Reya exited the kitchen as fast as she could. How foolish of her to ask an employee to spend time with her! For a moment she had forgotten that Ruben was her employee and she his superior - they weren't just friends working at the same place. Even if it felt that way to her, it clearly didn't feel that way to Ruben. Admittedly, Reya didn't have many close friends she could have asked to go out with her to the bar tonight. Work had been her entire life for many years and most of her "friends" were people who worked with her, but that connection was especially hollow when you had just become your "friends" boss one year ago.

"Here you are." Reya smiled as she set down the breakfast orders on the table of the couple. "I'll be right back with a coffee refill for you."

Hearing the door open, Reya looked over to find a brand new face she had never seen before. The older man looked around the tavern as if he was searching for something, which Reya usually took to mean that they were looking for a room to stay and were confused to find that the entrance of the tavern entered directly into the bar instead of a front desk. Originally, the building had only been a bar and the rooms had been added on later on - not the best building concept!

"Hello, sir!" Reya approached him with a bright smile, putting her previous feeling of embarrassment in the back of her mind. Again, she was thankful to have just enough work to keep her mind completely occupied. "Welcome to the Fox Hole. How can I help?"

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Interactions: @Pagemaster @OddApproved

~ Welcome to Sanctuary ~

@OddApproved Lol! That's true, fair point. Haha!

~ Welcome to Sanctuary ~

@Rodiak No problem and that's fine! Appreciate the update. I hope everything is okay!

And sorry for the delayed Reya post everyone! Work has been draining me haha I'm definitely working on it tonight though. Will have it up soon.

~ Welcome to Sanctuary ~

Welcome @Pagemaster! :)

I'll get Reya's post up most likely tomorrow evening. Been having a very busy last few days.

~ Welcome to Sanctuary ~

@davefromdiscord No problem! I'm looking forward to it :)

~ Welcome to Sanctuary ~

@Hawlin Aw, thats a bummer. You sure we can't convince you to stay? Haha I understand though. Best of luck.

~ Welcome to Sanctuary ~

I just want to clarify: Lily is talking about Beth when she's chanting draw her, since she was the one staring back haha I just realized both Beth and Veronica have red hair, but Lily hasn't taken notice of Veronica yet haha

~ Welcome to Sanctuary ~

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Good morning, sir. Do you think Sheriff Williams will give me some time to personally eat some breakfast? I don't think the day's going to get wilder than that driver.

Levi smiled a bit as he read Jake's text message. The kid was still in the phase of doing everything by the book. He couldn't blame Jake though, he was still relatively new and Levi did the same thing for a few years, they all did.

I doubt he'd even notice. Meet you there?

Levi pulled out of the parking lot of the police station and began to head towards the Cosy Bear Café. This town was so small he'd reach it in about five whole minutes. At times it was nice that the main part of town all had their businesses fairly close to each other, it was very walkable. Other times it made Levi feel claustrophobic.

After parking his black Ford F-150 into the cafe's parking lot, Levi glanced inside from the window and was surprised to see how many people were inside. Levi had only been here once before and during that time it had been dead as a doornail. He sighed, hoping that his police uniform didn't gather too much unwanted attention. No doubt word had gotten out that the town had someone new on the police force, and they likely weren't thrilled about it. Levi had found that most folks loved the Sheriff and that was largely due to how much he had let slide.

Steeling himself, he entered the bustling café and found an empty table. Just a few tables down, two women appeared to be having a lively conversation with one another while two other women sat at the counter. Trying not to eavesdrop on the conversation, Levi grabbed a menu and pondered to himself what sounded good to eat.

"I am so sorry everyone! Two seconds!!" Levi looked up to see the brunette he had seen at the café the last time he was here. She had been a good server the last time, so he was happy to see her again. Hopefully he'd get the same sort of service, even if she did appear to be late.

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_{Interactions: @Inertia
Mentions: @Artemis Arts@Rodiak@ArticBeaver}

~ Welcome to Sanctuary ~

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"Dude, watch it next time."

Lily furrowed her brows and pursed her lips in a bit of a pout, upset that this stranger had taken such a stern tone with her. "I didn't even reach for it!" She thought, leaning back into her chair as to further herself from the girl and her artwork.

As the woman turned the sketchbook back to show her more, Lily's concerns instantly melted away. Her bright green eyes scanned the paper excitedly, taking in every bit of the detail as she could. "Woooooow. That's amazing! A tattoo artist, huh?" She turned her gaze back onto the woman, looking over her body to look for any tattoo's she might have.

"Please don't ask me to draw you."

Lily looked up to see if the woman had been talking to her, although her eyes looked past Lily instead. She turned her head in the direction the woman was looking, finding another person staring back at them.

"Oh, but she'd be a beautiful drawing! Look at her gorgeous hair! So bright and wonderful!" Lily giggled, smiling at the red-headed stranger while she admired her. She turned back to the blue-haired girl, holding her bright smile, "Draw her, draw her, draw her!" She chanted playfully, giggling again.

_{You're so loud! Shut.UP!}

Suddenly, Lily's demeanor changed and her giggle died down while her smile slowly faded away. There was that voice in her head again, that intrusive little voice that repeated phrases she had heard in the past. She took a deep breath, keeping her previous therapist in mind. "It isn't real. You're here, now. Focus." She thought, shifting uncomfortably in her chair as her eyes zoned in on the ground of the cafe.

Pulling herself back into reality, Lily cleared her throat and turned back towards her table, grabbing a menu that had been sitting there. "So what's good to eat here?" She glanced over at her two new "friends" in the cafe, forcing a smile onto her lips again.

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_{Interactions: @ArticBeaver@Rodiak}

~ Welcome to Sanctuary ~

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Although Reya didn't always enjoy the waitressing duties, she did often appreciate the way that it almost never gave you a moment to yourself while you were working. On your feet, greeting people, taking orders, serving drinks, entertaining conversation, cleaning tables, restocking supplies... depending on how busy you were, the tasks went on forever. It could be exhausting, she imagined, if the tavern had been a more popular spot. They were never extremely busy, but just busy enough that Reya didn't have to think about her own problems for awhile. Thoughts about her mother, her sister, her father... she didn't have to worry about that. The things she had to worry about in this moment were simple problems, things that could be changed and fixed at a moments notice. It was comforting in a way.

Currently, there were five guests sitting in the tavern. Two of them were a couple, they had stayed for just the night to get rest before getting back on the road - apparently they were making a cross country road trip with one another. The other three were truck drivers who had either stayed for the night or just took a stop to grab a hot meal while they tried to wait out some of the weather. This was just about as busy as the Fox Hole ever got in the morning. The night shift was typically their busiest, as people usually came to the tavern to grab a drink and relax, although even then it was not much busier than this.

"Here's your drinks. I'll be right out with your food."

Ten minutes earlier Reya had made her rounds to each table, took their orders down on a small notepad, and hastily gave the orders to Ruben in the kitchen. One "Pancake Special", one omelet with hash browns, and three "All-American Breakfasts".

Just as she turned to go into the kitchen she heard the door open. She turned her eyes toward the door and beamed a smile when she recognized a familiar face. "Ulises!" She called, raising her left hand in greeting while she held an empty serving tray in her right. "It's good to see you." She gestured toward the remaining tables that were open, "Take a seat wherever. I'll be right over!"

Returning to her original mission, Reya headed into the kitchen. "Phew. It's a little busy out there today." She set the serving tray down on a counter and let out a sigh of relief as she leaned herself back against the counter, watching Ruben work his magic in the kitchen while she waited for him to finish up the orders.

Suddenly, with just another moment to herself, a wave of sadness rushed over her like an ice cold shower. Her dad normally would have been helping her with the guests at this time of day. Although he wasn't all that much help with serving, he was great at keeping up conversation with the patrons and distracting them while they waited for their food. She missed his gruff laugh and the way he would ask each person one thousand questions about their life. How nosy he was use to embarrass her, but now she found herself missing it.

"Hey..." She looked at Ruben, her voice having lost it's more chipper tone that she had been managing to uphold, "Er... Do you want to grab drinks at Bandits later tonight?" A sheepish smile crept up onto her lips as she waited for his response. Bandit's Bar had been well known to be one of her fathers favorite places to be. If he couldn't be found, you'd likely find him there by happy hour. Reya wasn't a big drinker typically. In fact, she hadn't had a drink for over two years at this point. Today, however, felt like it called for a special occasion. At least to her.

"I just... was thinking that I need to get out for a bit."

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Interactions: @Rodiak @OddApproved