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Post by Cassandra Karpusi on Mar 13, 2012 19:58:52 GMT -4
For once in her life, twenty seven year old Cassandra Karpusi had woken up early. Get dressed, write that essay on the use of epithets within Homer’s ‘The Odyssey’ and get to work. That was the plan today. Then just sleep the day away. Perfect. Eventually pulling herself out of bed, the Greek woman got washed, dressed and fed herself. Just as she was going back upstairs, she took a look at herself in the mirror; wavy hair was in its usual, somewhat tousled way. She just shrugged and pushed a piece of hair back. Oh well. What was the point of trying? Not like she was doing anything important at the moment anyways.
Long suffering Odysseus. Noble Odysseus. Aegis bearing Zeus. As much as she loved these things…she was pretty sure she understood how much he suffered, but it was tedious to read. That and she began to wonder why on earth Penelope stayed faithful to Odysseus in the first place. Considering how he was. That was beauty of oral story telling. It was supposed to be oral. Oral and oral only. She sighed and put away the book and the piece of paper. How tedious.
When she noticed one of her cats slowly creep towards her, she closed her eyes and put her hand out to stroke it, a small smile on her face as she imagined just sleeping by the cat peacefully. Unfortunately the bliss of sleep didn’t fall upon her, and she opened one of her eyes to see why she didn’t seem sleepy all of a sudden. Only to see her cat absolutely and utterly wrapped in the embrace of either Morpheus or Hypnos on the table. Perhaps she should be a bit more careful as to where her thoughts wandered in an attempt to jump into the embrace of Morpheus, in case someone else happened to have the pleasure instead. And people thought the original Cassandra was cursed.
After that somewhat disappointing morning, Cassandra grabbed her jacket and walked to her destination, among the various bars and other places, that seemed much more 'hip' and modern or whatever people called it these days, there stood her family’s pride and joy. Her father’s restaurant. Turning around to make sure no one else was in sight she closed her eyes and inhaled the familiar scent of Greek food when she walked in. “πατέρας, I'm here.” she called out, not waiting for her dad to say anything, she sat down at a table, waiting attentively for someone to walk in. The place was pretty desolate today. Oh today. This was one of those days that made Cassandra really hate her power…she could have done with a nap or something somewhat time consuming. How dull.
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Post by Sadiq Adnan on Mar 14, 2012 4:15:41 GMT -4
An alarm rang in Sadiq's ear and he groaned… why did he have to get up at such an early hour on a work day. Oh yes, a shipment of supplies was arriving at the club early and he had to make sure it was all there. He had a few problems with missing items before and he now personally checked it to make sure everything he ordered was accounted for.
Rolling out of bed, he turned his alarm off and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. He got up and got dressed, making sure his various weapons were in place before he left the house. He was glad that his brother was old enough to get himself to school and everything now without his help. Locking the front door with a yawn, he took off in the direction of the club. It was a good walk from his place, but he preferred to walk, it helped wake him up and he saved money that could be spent on other important necessities.
A few blocks from his home he realized that he left without his usually cup of coffee. Grumbling in Turkish under his breath about the origins of whoever created early morning work days as he looked for somewhere to get a decent cup of coffee, and that was hard to find. Most places served theirs so weak it had no taste and not nearly enough caffeine. Though he was exhausted, he still scanned the area for potential enemies. One could never be too careful; especially a former thug likes himself. He had cleaned up his act to take care of his brother after his parents died…he would do anything for his brother.
Shaking his head, he noticed a small restaurant that he had heard great things about. With a sigh, he walked to the door and opened it, entering the building with barely a glance at the name. Noticing that there was no one else in the restaurant, he sat down in the nearest seat and propped his chin on his fist, only interesting in getting a cup of coffee before he had to be at the club. Looking around, he noticed a clock on the wall and sighed. His alarm clock at had gone off two hours before it should have, no wonder he was so tired. He really wanted a cup of coffee.
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Post by Cassandra Karpusi on Mar 14, 2012 16:59:27 GMT -4
Cassandra was pretty happy about the fact no one seemed to be here today, usually they had one or two regulars, but it was early and honestly…she didn’t want to do anything. If she spent the few hours she had to spend at her father’s pride and joy. Then so be it. If it made him happy, that was alright. In fact it was much better than alright, it was good. It was what children did…make their parents happy from time to time. Even if the ‘child’ in this case was a twenty seven year old that still lived at home. She worked. As she looked outside one of the windows she yawned. That cat better be waking up soon…if not she wasn’t going to be able to sleep for a while.
However for the second time today, Cassandra’s hopes had been seemingly dashed. This time it wasn’t because she accidentally sent her cat to sleep. She didn’t throw an apple at someone’s head, not that she wanted to anymore, she was just a child then. No. Someone had to walk in. She could only hope they didn’t want to order a lot…or just didn’t talk much, or what seemed like a rather nice alternative; got the wrong place and would walk out any moment now, this was way too early for someone to be up, even the occasional busy businessman wasn’t around at places to eat around this time. “Wishful thinking” she thought to herself as she walked towards the person in question. Was asking to sleep for 17 hours a day too much? Really?
“βλακας” she muttered in her native tongue. No annoyance was all that visual on her face. She avoided contact with the person who had just walked in and she wasn’t planning on ‘service with a smile’ it wasn’t usually her thing. Though someone who knew her for a while would know that anyways. She would occasionally have a content look on her face. But it wasn’t often the Greek woman smiled unless she was asking for something that was.
“Γεια σας” she greeted him. “I’m Cassandra and I’ll be serving you today, please may I take your order?” she tried to be cheerful…but she was really in need of a nap right now. “Or would you like a moment to decide?” well the longer the guy took the longer she had to think, so it was all good. When she got a closer look at the only customer in the building, her eye twitched. Oh no…it wasn’t who she thought it was, was it?
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Post by Sadiq Adnan on Mar 17, 2012 3:38:55 GMT -4
Sitting there in the quiet restaurant was peaceful to him, but it was also tempting to fall asleep for a few hours, which he wouldn’t do. Never fall asleep in a public place when someone could get to you unawares. He did close his eyes though, just observing with his other few sense. While he was listening, he also thought about which one of his associates or who could possibly be taking some of the supplies he ordered. It wasn't anything major each time, but it added up after a while.
Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he let it wonder where it would. An image of a woman with brown hair appeared and he wondered why that could possibly be thinking of her all of a sudden. A voice drifted to his ears and he returned to the present, realizing why he had thought of her, she was in front of him and talking to him.
"Coffee, strong as you can make it with lots of sugar, and a pastry or something similar. Don't worry about having to talk to me, I'm not in much of a mood." The sentences was punctuated by yawns, which he covered with his hand, not wanting to appear too rude, even if they didn't usually get along.
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Post by Cassandra Karpusi on Mar 17, 2012 6:46:51 GMT -4
The Greek woman rolled her eyes when she realized who it was. Oh she had much better thing to do with her life than serve an annoying man who seemed to eternally be the bane of her life. That didn’t even make sense. But the feeling remained; she really couldn’t be bothered with this. Well at least his order, he showed he wouldn’t be staying too long.
Honestly, it didn’t take a genius to figure out she worked here. Her dad’s name was on the sign. Did he turn up to purposely annoy her with his…his…just his presence that irritated her every single time? Though she had to admit…she got some kind of thrill from their arguments from time to time. “Good, good and excellent my dear Turkish friend” the way she said it went down from the seemingly happy voice she had on earlier back to it’s normal…somewhat deadpan one, perhaps there was even a hint of sarcasm in there. “I’ll be right back”. The Turk was lucky Cassandra didn’t offend people, treat others as you’d like to be treated and all of that.
As she walked back into the kitchen she smiled softly “Don’t worry papa, I can take care of this you just sit down and relax a bit”. She hadn’t done this in a while, just make coffee. Deep deep inside, she was probably hoping she’d accidentally put salt in instead of sugar. She came back a few minutes later to give him the pastry and the coffee, exactly how he ordered it. Unfortunately for her and very fortunately for him…she couldn’t bring herself to put salt in the coffee. “Galaktoboureko, you didn't specify what sort so.... So enjoy, tell me when you want the bill” and with that, she went to go and sit at another table, jotting down things to put for this essay of hers.
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Post by Sadiq Adnan on Mar 18, 2012 3:50:42 GMT -4
Turkey realized that he had known all along that he had walked into the restaurant that belonged to the father of his….how would he classify her anyway. Turkey opened his eyes and looked at the wall, deep in thought. They weren’t friends by any stretch of the imagination, and he didn’t purposely go out of his way to bother her, it just kind of happened that one of them would somehow start an argument and they would end of fighting. Hearing her call him her dear Turkish friend, he chuckled a little bit. “A friend am I, just last week I was the scum of the Earth and wasn’t worth a hill of beans in your opinion.” He never took her insults to heart, that was just the way they were. Insult each other and go on their marry way. Though if someone started really picking on her in his presence, he would step in. No one could insult her and start fights with her but him. It was just what they had always done and probably would always do; it was what they were comfortable with, even if she did claim that she didn’t need his help.
He watched her walk off and chuckled to himself again. She hadn’t changed in all the time he had known her and he doubted she ever would. He didn’t want her to change, she was who she was and that was that. It would be too weird if she started acting differently, not that he would be worried or anything, it would just throw off his entire way of dealing with her and he didn’t want to take the time to figure out how to deal with a person who had changed.
Seeing her come back from the kitchen with his coffee and a pastry, he sighed and had the beginnings of a smile on his face. Blessed coffee, it should be classified as a wonder of the world with how it kept nearly the entire population awake when they needed to be. Hearing what she said after she put the food down, he was going to tell her she could just leave the bill, but she walked off too quick. Shrugging, he picked up the cup and inhaled. The aroma danced along his senses and he couldn’t wait to try it. Taking a sip, he had to hold back a moan at how good it was. It was either the best coffee he had ever had or he was just so in need of the caffeine that it seemed like the best. Setting it down, he started in on his pastry as he made plans for where to put the new shipment and how to catch who was taking his supplies.
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Post by Cassandra Karpusi on Mar 18, 2012 20:21:45 GMT -4
Cassandra rolled her eyes when he had mentioned what she had said just last week. Scum of the earth? Not worth a pile of beans? Was that the best she’d come up with? When there were phrases like as cruel as a Turk around, she chose not worth a pile of beans? With all the good insults she could have, no should have come up with? The Greek was almost ashamed with herself, almost. “Oh Sadiq you should know I must have been lying, to me, my dear friend, you’re not even worth a bean” she let out a small yawn. She had no clue what they were. Was it even worth calling him an enemy? No their fighting never had any true malicious intent; she knew that…even if some others didn’t. Honestly, she couldn’t imagine not fighting with him; she forgot how their fighting even started. But she didn’t want it to come to an end any time soon. Now, to get back to this damn essay.
Honestly, she wasn’t sure what to write for once. That wasn’t possible. Cassandra Karpusi could not be failing this of all classes. She was Greek, all she could think of was oral poetry nothing about Troy…she shouldn’t be mentioning why the Romans hate Odysseus…why was this so easy to go off on a tangent about? If it was oral why did they print it in the first place? Better yet why on earth did people bother? She wasn’t sure, she really could have done with someone else coming in…or being able to sleep.
Sleep, it was a shame her power didn’t work on herself, wasn’t it? It would have been rather nice to just…take a nap there and then. Her father wasn’t particularly busy at the moment…all she had to do was wait for a certain Turk to finish his food, drink his coffee…pay his money and walk out.Then by luck no one else would come, and she could…laze about or something. Maybe go and bother a certain Cypriot? Go to the cat shelter? She’d have a whole wonderful day to herself. Though, the Turk seemed pretty stressed come to think of it, he could have done with a nap himself.
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Post by Sadiq Adnan on Mar 18, 2012 21:52:53 GMT -4
"Trust me, I know you were lying, you commonly say worse to me every day. And that's not exactly what you said, I was paraphrasing." He waved a hand nonchalantly and took another drink of his coffee. It was waking him up.
hopefully he'd be fully awake by the time he had to get to the club, to watch over the shipment...now that he thought about it, he should install some security camera in the docking area and stockroom. He wondered where she should put them in the rooms. He thought about the layout and how he could hide them...he knew the perfect area for them, and no one would ever find them if they didn't know where to look for them. He would have to make sure no one was anywhere around because it could create a lot of noise when he hid them. That was definetly one drawback about his power, it wasn’t quiet by any means when he had to manipulate pieces of metal the way he was planning too.
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Post by Cassandra Karpusi on Mar 19, 2012 19:34:25 GMT -4
“Then you’re not worth a bean, and you’ll be worth less than a bean when your teeth fall out from all that sugar you take with your coffee…then you’ll need false teeth” she rolled her eyes, still scribbling things down. “You need a nap, grouch. No wonder you’re getting all those frown lines and wrinkles. And bags...lots of bags under your eyes”.
What if she got the date wrong and class was today? It was nearly her birthday it wasn’t like the teacher could go mad at her was it? Maybe if she just skipped it…? That would work wouldn’t it? This was the first time the Greek had ever felt even a bit anxious over something so so simple. ‘Calm down Cassandra, what are you, a woman or an idiot?’ she sighed as she took a piece of notepaper and scribbled down the price of the coffee and the price of the pastry she had served him, then added on two or three dollars before handing him his bill. “And then there’s the tip too…” she shrugged, not really caring about his thoughts, what she had interrupted or anything. When it came to him, when had she ever cared, really? Never. Never in a million years. And she wasn’t going to start caring today, that was for sure.
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Post by Sadiq Adnan on Mar 19, 2012 22:35:15 GMT -4
“That’s the best insult you can come up with? Really? Well, it doesn’t matter, that you’re off your game today. Though I still must thank you for making me a cup of Turkish coffee, it is excellent. I didn’t know you had it in you to fix something that wasn’t a part of the Greek heritage you are oh so proud of.” A part of him wondered why he was hiding his insult behind a complement, but it didn’t matter, it was already said so that’s how it would be. Catching the rest of the insult, he frowned. “I do not have bags, nor do I have lines…I take offence at that, I’m not old!”
He grumbled to himself at the insinuation that he was old. He wasn’t even close by any stretch of the imagination. Sure he had a few rough years, but they didn’t leave their mark on him other than a few scars here in that that were easily hidden beneath his clothes. Some of them were quite ugly reminders of the fights he had been in, but he never regreted any on them. They were each lessons that he needed to learn, and if he had to have learned them painfully, than that’s how it was. Shaking his head when he heard her speak again, he sighed. He had zoned out, that wasn’t good. Hearing her add in the tip, he just shrugged and didn’t argue about it. Pulling out a bill from his wallet, he laid it down over the check and went back to drinking his coffee.
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Post by Cassandra Karpusi on Mar 20, 2012 7:14:03 GMT -4
“You want more? I could come up with better, but I can’t be bothered wasting my time on a 33 year old man who is going to do nothing with his life, until he hits 60 and that thing would be realize he’s an idiot” wait! Turkish coffee? He did not just say that. She should have added salt to his coffee. How dare he. “Obviously there’s something up with your taste buds as I obviously did it in the Egyptian style which the Greek way of making it is derived from. If our dear Egyptian friend liked you enough to serve you coffee you would have realized that” she shrugged, pretending not to care and absentmindedly getting an apple from the counter. “I’ve seen how old you are and how old you look, I think I’m right”.
Had she gone too far that time? Did she regret it if she went too far? Sure they had their arguments but it wasn’t like either of them would over-step some invisible line. They never brought…certain things into their arguments. It was like an unspoken code between the two of them. Though that didn’t mean she was going to apologize. However if he stopped talking, he would cease to provide her with a distraction. Placing the apple on the table she picked up the bill and put it in the cash register. She stared into space for a moment before chucking the apple at him. “Eat something healthy for once…”
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Post by Sadiq Adnan on Mar 20, 2012 16:23:12 GMT -4
“Oh Cassandra, we aren’t that far apart in age, I’m not old compared to you, and If I have wrinkles, that means you’ll be getting them soon too. What I have might be nothing to you, but it’s something to me. I’ve got a flourishing business and a brother that loves me, what more could I need?” He took another sip of is coffee and had to laugh. “You don’t know much about the Egyptian style of coffee making do you? While it is true that the Greek style is derived from it, so it the Turkish style of coffee. So essentially different names, but same style.”
He wondered if his comment about the coffee, but it was too late, if it make her mad he would back off. It had been years since he made her mad on purpose. He liked poking at her and getting her frustrated, she did the same to him, but never mad. Seeing the apple flying his way, he reached up and caught it while grinning at her. “Thanks for the free food, always enjoyable.”
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Post by Cassandra Karpusi on Mar 20, 2012 16:40:19 GMT -4
“6 years and sleeping and sex, they do wonders for the skin, people actually don’t think I look my age” she shrugged. “No, it doesn’t matter to me. To me, you need more than that”. One day he was going to be retired and his brother was going to grow up and maybe leave him. Probably not. But she wouldn’t say that, she wasn’t that mean. Even to him she could never be that mean. “Oh shut your mouth, Turkish style is always a copy of something else. Always. Why else would you walk into a place that serves Greek things? I bet you do the same with Bulgarian food don’t you?"
When was the last time he’d made her mad on purpose again? When was the last time either of them had taken anything the other said to heart really? It was part of the reason she never mentioned how much she disliked his brother. She didn’t want to upset him on purpose. “…I can’t have you dying of a poor diet now can I? Do you know how hard it is to find argumentative Turks who have lived close to me for a while…?”
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Post by Sadiq Adnan on Mar 22, 2012 2:21:07 GMT -4
"Sleep and sex, while they may be good for the skin, what kind of life is that? You should get out and enjoy yourself for one. You should come to my club one night, I think you'd enjoy yourself. And if it would help, I'd personally guarantee your safety." He had to grin, wondering if she would accept his offer. He knew he didn't actually need to watch out for her, they had fought before and she could hold her own in a fight pretty well, but he had to add it in anyway. As much as they fought, he still felt the need to protect her if she seemed out of her depth. Only he was allowed to fight and argue with her, he knew that he wouldn't injure her. Hearing what she said, he laughed, having to put his cup of coffee down so he wouldn't spill it. "Nah, I don't do the same to others, just to you, you know you love it when I tease you." He winked at her and wondered how flustered this would get her.
He finished the coffee and looked at his watch. He still had another hour and a half before he had to be at the club. With a sigh, leaned his head on his hand and smirk. "If all my years of fighting hasn't killed me, my diet won't. I'll be around to bug you for years yet, don't worry your pretty head over me." It was good to know that she actually worried about him, not many actually did, and in a way, he preferred it that way. Less people to hurt that way if something really did happen to him, not many would miss him. "You know I don't die easily, hell, look at all the shit I've been throught, and I'm still around and kicking."
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Post by Cassandra Karpusi on Mar 22, 2012 18:33:21 GMT -4
“They combat the stress of studying, that’s for sure” she muttered, besides who was he to question what on earth she did or didn’t do with her life anyway? Then she raised an eyebrow. Go to his club? Seriously? It wasn’t like she went there all that often. “I’ll go but I can take care of myself, stupid” she muttered, although she decided that maybe going would be a somewhat good idea. Something new or interesting, she quite liked that she wasn’t going to lie. New as in she couldn’t remember the last time she’d actually stepped into the place. She looked away for a moment “If I hear you’ve gone around bugging some Bulgarian or Serbian I’d beg to differ” she mumbled, not looking at him for a minute. Would she be jealous if he started bugging other people? Probably. Not jealous…she’d just end up wondering why on earth he decided to make new arguing buddies all of a sudden. “It’s entertaining that’s all it is, nothing to do with loving anything”.
“I’m serious do you have any idea how many Turks I know who argue with me like you do?” None, that was how many. She wasn’t going to find an arguing buddy like that guy ever again. He’d better be around to bug her for years, so when she finally is old enough for a walking stick she can hit him with it or something. “By still around and kicking I do hope you mean flopping like a fish right?” she asked. She wasn’t going to let this end kind of…sad. No way. “So when do you have to get going anyways?” she asked, a bored look on her face.
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