littlemiss-mochachino

[littlemiss-mochachino]

a-merman-not-a-guppy​:

Home for the Holidays | Open

Oh no. He’d spilled someone’s coffee.

Finn grimaced, sitting up with cheeks coloring in embarrassment. He definitely hadn’t wanted to do that. But now that he had the only thing he could do was move forward and try to fix it.

“I’m so-so-so-so so-so-sorry,” Finn apologized again, bowing a little to add to the apology. “Let me b-b-buy you a new cup of coffee?” He offered, hoping that maybe he could make up for it a little. If not, at least he’d tried.

He just didn’t want to make any enemies on his first full day back in town.

-

Mocha closed the book, finger marking the page and sighing slightly. She didn’t want to embarrass this person. It was a mistake and annoying as it was, she could get free coffee whenever she wanted. Just the universes topsy turvy sort of way of figuring things out she supposed. 

“Don’t worry about it. I work at Hatter’s. I drink coffee like water. Most people tell me I should cut back. My foot was kind of out in the middle of the sidewalk anyways.” She waved the townsperson off slightly. “Appreciate the offer though.”

a-merman-not-a-guppy​:

a-merman-not-a-guppy​:

Home for the Holidays | Open

It was funny..the anticipation that Finn had been building up once he’d known that he was moving back to Swynlake. His professors in Paris hadn’t really thought it the wisest choice, but they didn’t seem to care much about his homesickness. Then again, they were also so busy it wasn’t as if they could look out for much but the courses they were teaching and making sure students were understanding. 

But now here Finn was, hands in his pockets as he slowly drifted down main street, feet squishing the snow. He passed by a few shops, not really focused on going into any of them. He just wanted to appreciate the fact that he was here at all. 

He turned in the direction of the park, grinning to himself as he found a good spot and let himself drop to the ground and make a snow angel. Finn didn’t really mind that it was cold or uncomfortable in the moment. He just found himself full of excited energy, buzzing almost as he rolled around in the snow. 

His leg kicked out again and he blinked in surprise as it hit something, sitting up a bit and eyes going wide. “O-Oh I’m so-sorry. I di-didn’t see you there.”

--

Mocha had been attempting to read on a bench in public. Usually, this was fine and really a testament to her ability to concentrate. But things were a little different around the holidays. Her mother was constantly needing her for things (especially now that she refused to work at InterPride and the woman was trying to get her to move back home etc etc), and Barbie was around but not always feeling like she was around? There was something going on there. 

So, she thought, why not, let’s go read in public. Not quite. As she flipped the page in her book, her coffee resting next to her splayed out form on the bench so no one would attempt to join her, her foot was kicked by a passerby (not the first really, she kind of took up as much room as possible) and her leg smacked into her coffee which ended up on the ground. Hot liquid dumping out onto the snow, brown melting white as steam rose from the mess. 

She glanced up from her book, not uttering a word, but rather giving a pointed look at whatever person had interrupted and disrupted her time. “Would’ve been a bigger slight if you had.”

[littlemiss-mochachino]

a-merman-not-a-guppy​:

a-merman-not-a-guppy​:

Home for the Holidays | Open

It was funny..the anticipation that Finn had been building up once he’d known that he was moving back to Swynlake. His professors in Paris hadn’t really thought it the wisest choice, but they didn’t seem to care much about his homesickness. Then again, they were also so busy it wasn’t as if they could look out for much but the courses they were teaching and making sure students were understanding. 

But now here Finn was, hands in his pockets as he slowly drifted down main street, feet squishing the snow. He passed by a few shops, not really focused on going into any of them. He just wanted to appreciate the fact that he was here at all. 

He turned in the direction of the park, grinning to himself as he found a good spot and let himself drop to the ground and make a snow angel. Finn didn’t really mind that it was cold or uncomfortable in the moment. He just found himself full of excited energy, buzzing almost as he rolled around in the snow. 

His leg kicked out again and he blinked in surprise as it hit something, sitting up a bit and eyes going wide. “O-Oh I’m so-sorry. I di-didn’t see you there.”

--

Mocha had been attempting to read on a bench in public. Usually, this was fine and really a testament to her ability to concentrate. But things were a little different around the holidays. Her mother was constantly needing her for things (especially now that she refused to work at InterPride and the woman was trying to get her to move back home etc etc), and Barbie was around but not always feeling like she was around? There was something going on there. 

So, she thought, why not, let’s go read in public. Not quite. As she flipped the page in her book, her coffee resting next to her splayed out form on the bench so no one would attempt to join her, her foot was kicked by a passerby (not the first really, she kind of took up as much room as possible) and her leg smacked into her coffee which ended up on the ground. Hot liquid dumping out onto the snow, brown melting white as steam rose from the mess. 

She glanced up from her book, not uttering a word, but rather giving a pointed look at whatever person had interrupted and disrupted her time. “Would’ve been a bigger slight if you had.”

Home for the Holidays | Open

[littlemiss-mochachino]

paulette-moi​:

littlemiss-mochachino​:

PSL Season Reprieve || Open

`

“Need caffeine to enter to lion’s den,” Paulette sighed. She pouted, thinking about going home.

She’d gotten in a nasty tiff with Claudette before storming out the door for some space.

“Had a row with my sister.”

-

Mocha let out a rueful chuckle, “I know that feeling all too well. Constant state of caffeination to deal with family is kind of a general status quo around here.”

She flipped a travel cup in her hand, “Which regular will it be this time? And how many shots of espresso? Blows about your sister though. What’s the row about this time?”

[littlemiss-mochachino]

foreverydinger​:

PSL Season Reprieve || Tocha

🎷

“Ian doesn’t get the tea thing. I’m trying to teach him but you can take the boy out of America but you can’t take the American out of the boy it seems.” Tony chuckled, knowing that Ian tried his best to understand his wayward boyfriend. Ian had been markedly resistant to change in any capacity, but especially when it came to changing his American-isms. There were few exceptions that Tony had noticed, one being the adoption of the use ‘mental’ which he found endearing.

“What’s your drink of choice here?” He asked, realizing he’d never really gotten to know Mocha over the last however long she had worked at Hatter’s. He’d always been so focused on spending the time with Pip that he supposed the others had fallen to the wayside in his sphere of attention. “I bet it’s nice to be able to switch it up so easily.”

-

“Well, I can’t say that I prefer tea over coffee.” Mocha smirked and shrugged one shoulder. “I’m half-French, exhausted with people most days and in need of a warm cup of reprieve, so I’ve got a bit more of an inclination towards coffee.” 

She steeped the tea bag into the cup, draping the tag over the side and pressing the lid to the top, fingers moving with more experience than anyone could wish in pushing lids down expertly. She placed it down in front of him, “Hard to choose, my choices blow through and slip past me. I have a few a day sometimes. Today’s choice though was a french vanilla cappuccino.”

[littlemiss-mochachino]

Waiting at the station with a workday wind a-blowing / I’ve got nothing to do but watch the passers-by / Mirrored in their faces I see frustration growing / And they don’t see it showing, why do I?

[Beautiful by Carole King] 

3/25

A randomiser advent aesthetic for @littlemiss-mochachino

[littlemiss-mochachino]

straythisway​:

littlemiss-mochachino​:

PSL Season Reprieve || Mocha & Reba

Reba hadn’t been in town long, maybe a few days. Maybe a week. Just like when she’d come in, it had been…basically the middle of the night. She was angry and spittin’ fire. It had been better that she not be around people. She could have a temper, though it was mild compared to some of her other explosions over the years.

Tonight, though, the little tea shoppe was a beacon of light in the dark of Main Street - a street that, thankfully, was the only one that didn’t move around. That was different. Reba’d heard about it, of course. The entire band had. But seeing it in real life was daunting.

The door opens with a quaint little jingle and it transports her, momentarily, back to Georgia. She smiles, a little wistfully. Only shakes herself out if it when she hears the barista. Reba moves closer, shaking her hair out from the high ponytail she’d tossed it into earlier in the day.

“Bit of the first an’ the third?” Technically she had a job, or was starting one, but it was like riding a bicycle. She knew late hours from singing an’ touring but not as a Waitress. “Can I get a dirty chai, hot? Please?”

-

Mocha just smirked a bit, “Sounds about right.” She gave a nod at the order, telling her the price and ringing her up before grabbing the cup she’d need, “What’s the name? Usually I know everyone’s name for the cup. Comes with the small town territory, so that just means you flew in on the latest migration breeze, chickadee.”

She scribbled on the cup and grabbed the container blend of chai they used to set it out on the counter as she moved to tamp down her espresso without a second thought and steamed her milk for her dirty chai. It was all second nature really, so long as no one messed with her organizational system. She was glad at the moment for a quiet night. 

[littlemiss-mochachino]

davidhatter​:

littlemiss-mochachino​:

–

“Night shift,” Hatter replied without missing a beat. He had only just stepped out to run down to Blue Oven, double checking on an order for the weekend.

There were only so many people he felt comfortable enough to leave the shoppe in the hands of. Two people, to be exact, and that was Mocha and Alice. Which was why he waited for one of the two of them to be on shift to go do things.

He shrugged out of his coat, replacing it on the hook in exchange for his apron. Hatter glanced over the people lingering about the shoppe, wondering if the kid in the corner who’d been there all day long was going to be alright when they did have to close for the night.

“I miss anything?” he asked her absently as he went to wash his hands.

-

“Oh no, just the usual. Seasonal Pumpkin Spice rush and others asking when we’ll begin our peppermint mochas again when we’ve just started Autumn.” Mocha snorted, “Big name coffee places have mainstreamed and ruined things for the smaller ones. I’m just glad we’re not to the point of online orders requesting giant waters or every syrup in stock.” She was on a roll with the rant, and honestly, she’d known Hatter long enough for him to know it was the norm. It was just how things flowed between them. She’d basically been his second for the last several years, organizing shifts alongside him, helping him with inventory and new and inventive specials. 

She wondered if Hatter had ever wondered if she’d chose to leave once all of her schooling was done. If he knew all along that she’d reject the corporate world and stay with the bags and beans, steeping in the rich flavor of life and the day to day struggles of humanity, rather than counting those beans at a desk away from everyone. 

Would she be here forever? Probably not. But she made sure that as long as she knew she was staying here, she’d be at Hatter’s.

[littlemiss-mochachino]

foreverydinger​:

littlemiss-mochachino​:

PSL Season Reprieve || Tocha

Tony’s tea supply was at a Critical Low tonight. He hadn’t realized just how low it had become but suddenly he’d gone to brew himself a cup and it was fucking empty in his cabinet. So, for the safety of his boyfriend, the annoying neighbor kid, Eilonwy’s weird childhood friend, and really every other person in Benbow, he had beelined it to Hatter’s to remedy his craving.

Tony was an addict, alright, and his hyperfocus of choice right now was his tea rather than drugs. It was becoming a problem in and of itself but now was certainly not the time to address it!

“Choosing not to kill my boyfriend by coming here,” Tony chuckled at the question. “Can I get an Earl Grey over warm milk, please? I think I’m going through withdrawals.”

-

“Messing with the caffeine supply is a capital offense so... really only a natural conclusion.” Mocha smirked a bit and rang the customer up, scratching the name Tony on the cup and making sure to glance back up, “Especially when its Tea in the UK.”

She started gathering the appropriate amount of milk and the correct tea bag. “Withdrawal of anything will drive a person mad.”

[littlemiss-mochachino]

waitingona-mirabel​:

littlemiss-mochachino​:

PSL Season Reprieve || Open

Mirabel was volunteering to do the coffee run for her late-night study session. She was always volunteering to do the coffee run, actually, not that she was telling her study partner why. It wasn’t that weird. Maybe she just liked to stretch her legs. Get out of the library. Talk to some people. That was all.

Also, maybe she had a crush.

It wasn’t Alice who was at the counter, though. It was Mocha, whom Mirabel also recognized, but had never really talked to outside of a “hello” or a “thank you.” She was cool. Intimidatingly so. “Uh, second one,” Mirabel said, chuckling nervously. “Could I get a black tea, cream and sugar, and a flat white with oat milk, please?”

[outfit]

Mirabel. Alice’s Mirabel. Well, well, well. She leaned against the counter and just gave a slight lopsided grin. “Got it.” She grabbed the cups and continued talking, “Study session huh. What’s the course that’s got you up so late cramming?” She moved to the spout for hot water and grabbed the cream, oat milk, sugar and tea bags from their locations before tamping down the espresso into the basket and locking it into the machine. 

She glanced up from the espresso machine as her hands did the work without really needing much of a second glance to think about anything. Coffee and tea were her life. “For me it was this comparative lit course that had me writing essays every week until all hours because of the amount of pages of reading assigned.”

[littlemiss-mochachino]

PSL Season Reprieve || Open

Mocha needed a break. It was PSL season and Hatter’s had been swamped day in and day out. Every hour was pumpkin this and pumpkin that and scones were pumpkin or gourd flavored. She would’ve thought someone would’ve made the actual autumn leaves edible in some type of strange French pastry by now, foliage spiced something or other.

Regardless, it was starting to slow down and they were getting towards closing time so she could finally breathe. Now was the time she felt more like a bartender than a barista with the later night customers. They always wanted to chat more when the sunset. 

She heard the door open and close and glanced up, “Night shift, late night study session or just craving caffeine at this hour for no particular reason?”

[littlemiss-mochachino]

go-askalice​:

Pastry For Your Thoughts? || Coffee & Tea

-

This was why Alice had decided to talk to Mocha of all people. Because Mocha understood her on a particularly intimate level. It was not that they were particularly close —- not that they weren’t close, but it’s not like they shared secrets or wrote each other long letters when Alice had been away. But they were kindred spirits, parallel to one another, lives reflecting each other like the moon and the sun.

Once, when they’d been a little drunk on wine, Alice had said something like that to Mocha and told her it might make a lovely poem.

This is all to say that Alice listened. She nodded.

“Oh, you’re right,” she sighed. “I knew you’d be right. I was getting so stuck in my head, but you just took it all out and ironed it for me.” She laughed a little, leaning to brush her shoulder against Mocha’s. “You’re quite good with words, but I think you already knew that, now didn’t you?”

“I’ve been known to cause a little steam now and again.” Mocha’s lips curled into a smile as she looked over at her, “I know, a gift, really. I don’t tire hearing it though, so feel free to give me all those accolades.” 

She looked towards the door as another customer came though, “Well then, back to it.” She pushed her hair back and stretched her arms a bit, turning towards the register before looking over her shoulder again, “Oh and Alice, I expect a full report after you take her out, I have to know what all my good advice went to.”

[littlemiss-mochachino]

go-askalice​:

Pastry For Your Thoughts? || Coffee & Tea

–

“Maybe I should,” said Alice. She tilted her head one way and then the other and then she sighed. “I do like her. I think she’s wonderful. I just — well, this is silly, but I haven’t dated anyone in Swynlake for a while and I think I just feel like if I do, that means I’m going to stay here, you know?”

The words tumbled out of her before she could stop them and when she spoke she felt like some great weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

It would be almost a year since she came back to Swynlake, at her parents’ beck and call. They were not going to let her leave. They wanted her to get a respectable job — or at the very least, stop traversing across the world. Alice did not want to do those things. She did not want to stay in Swynlake. 

“It’s not that I don’t want to date,” Alice clarified. She leaned on the counter, knotting her fingers together. “And it’s not that I don’t want to date her. I do and I do. I just — I dunno. Maybe I’m making this complicated for no real reason. I can go on one date, yeah?”

--

Mocha looked at Alice and couldn’t help but think that this was all just the cosmic universe’s way of having a sense of humor. It was like looking in a mirror of her own thoughts, reflected back at her in a way that she hadn’t fully faced them before. 

“Believe me, I do.” The barista sighed out, thinking about her own relationship with Barbie. “I’ve never intended to stay in Swynlake, to stay at Hatter’s. I still don’t, not entirely. At the moment, Barbie does tether me here, but that isn’t to say that we won’t travel together or that the future won’t hold something more.”

She took another sip from her drink, holding it between her hands, “Alice, I do think you’re a bit ahead of yourself here. I mean, it’s a date. Feel things out.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder as it fell into her face, “And it’s good that you’re considering these things. You should talk to her about it. Not right away, but maybe once something’s there. You might find she wants to travel as much as you do. Who knows, right? The future is a constant thing of unknowing. Why try to figure something out that you can’t ever touch or experience? Why not figure out the girl in front of you first. Deal with the intangibles later.” 

[littlemiss-mochachino]

go-askalice​:

Pastry For Your Thoughts? || Coffee & Tea

–

Alice rolled her eyes — it was all playful, though, and mostly to accompany the little giggle that bubbled out of her throat.

“Well, if you must know, my dear Mocha,” said Alice, gently placing her pastry back down on the little plate. “It is Mirabel Madrigal. You’ve probably seen her family around town — her aunt is the one who saved prom night and her older sister is that very pretty girl with the flowers.” She shrugged. “I never talked to her before the first dream and then I said hi to her, because she was in here and then we’ve hung out a few times… I think she is very pretty and she’s got a lovely smile…” Her voice trailed off a little.

“I suppose the question is: do I fancy her because she was in my dream or was she in my dream because I fancy her?”

Mocha just let the smile creep up into the corners of her mouth as Alice spoke. Ah, that was really the question on most people’s minds wasn’t it? The town worked in mysterious ways and they were just pieces of sand lost in the magical current, deposited elsewhere and left to take in their new surroundings. 

“Mirabel. Of course I’ve seen her around, she’s stopped by, hard to forget her name when you’ve written it on a cup a few times. You know the deal.” She pulled the cold brew she made for herself earlier from behind the counter and took a sip from the straw. 

“Lovely smiles do that to you.” She narrowed her eyes a bit, figuring out how best to think of this situation. “I think the real question is, does it truly matter to you which way or how you fancy her? Some people think their subconsciouses are linked to the Swynlake dreams like actual dreams are. But sometimes you get set up with people you’ve never met or people you think are absolutely terrible in real life.” She gave a shrug of one shoulder, “This seems to not be the case. So you fancy her. In dreams and out here. Make a move.”

[littlemiss-mochachino]

@littlemiss-mochachino

[littlemiss-mochachino]

go-askalice​:

Pastry For Your Thoughts? || Coffee & Tea

–

Alice munched on a pastry. She tried to figure out the best way to ask what she wanted to ask, and then decided that the best way to ask what she wanted to ask was just to talk until she figured out what she wanted to ask. 

“Well, you know those lovely dreams the town throws us,” she said. “I’ve never really thought anything of them, you know. We grew up with that sort of thing, so they’re always just a fun time. Except when they’re not. I mean, there are some awfully frightening ones, aren’t there?” She made a face, scrunching her brows together, but then shook her head. “But anyway, have you ever had… well, someone appear in them to you a few times over and over again? But they’re not already your girlfriend or boyfriend or whatever?”

She tilted her head.

“I know it’s random and that these things happen, but I dunno. What if it’s not random?”

Mocha took a bite of a danish that had been set aside for being misshapen and quirked a brow as the other barista started. Dreams. Swynlake was pretty famous for them. She’d had them growing up and now even. You just sort of got used to them after a while. 

Mocha gave a nod to the frightening ones. Certain ones ended up with half the town’s college students massacred or something. Others were more entertaining and a little more mortifying for when you woke up and realized you made out with someone’s conservative leaning boyfriend in a dream. 

“Well... I think Barbie and I got sorted together a few times before we were official if it means anything for your theory. I’ve heard of certain people giving it a go afterwards when they’ve been randomly paired. Opening their eyes to the possibilities that they wouldn’t have thought were there earlier.” She gave a slight shrug of one shoulder, “The dreams seem to do their own thing. Sometimes they sort people together who were ex’s. Sometimes they put strangers together. And sometimes they manage to get a combination right or not split off a pair. It’s all a game of chance. But, find enough combinations, you’re bound to get one right.” 

She leaned up against the counter with a sigh, wry smile on her lips, “So who’s this person you’re clearly hung up on, hm?”

[littlemiss-mochachino]

go-askalice​:

Pastry For Your Thoughts? || Coffee & Tea

“Mocha, darling,” said Alice, on one lazy summer afternoon after the lunch rush. She turned to her coworker, her friend, her confidant in the world of coffee and tea, and propped an elbow on the counter. “Can I ask you something a bit personal?”

Alice actually wasn’t sure what she wanted to ask Mocha — something about the Swynlake dreams, about seeing the same people in them time and time again. Now, Alice had grown up in Swynlake, so she knew that these dreams were just… silly dreams, that’s all. But she’d never had the same person pop up in them more than once, unless she was actually dating them at the time. Maybe something different had happened to the Swynlake dreams in the past few years whilst she’d been gone?

“I’ll trade you a reject pastry for your thoughts,” Alice teased, pulling out a reject pastry before Mocha confirmed anything.

@littlemiss-mochachino​

Mocha looked up from the counter, in mid calculation of what they’d need to restock, her brow quirking. She never really knew what Alice was going to say, but starting off on a personal note would be interesting. She wondered what it could be. Her views on her future, her poetry, her views on Barbie, her views on her future with Barbie? 

“Sure,” She breathed out, pressing her back to the countertop and crossing her arms, “You’ve got my curiosity and its a slow day in here anyways. What’s on your mind, Alice?” Whatever it was, Alice was definitely higher in her rankings as far as original and tolerable people in Swynlake went, so it would probably be fine right?

[littlemiss-mochachino]

wilde-fun​:

littlemiss-mochachino​:

Do You Believe in the Bohemian Ideals || Childe

It was fun to watch the way people shifted when they no longer needed to be in character. Nick felt the need to straighten for a little while, Mocha slouched again, and the both of them spent some time stretching to work their way back to normal out of what was for them an unnatural posture.

He nodded at her reading of the situation as he agreed with it. He thought she was picking it up fairly quickly, but it had been awhile for him since he’d needed to take someone else’s direction over coming up with the character himself. “Yeah, that’s a relief. Pitchy’s a more annoying point to fix than hearing yet again that we need to make sure we’re cheating out to the audience.”

He chuckled with her as she talked about the message that they were singing. “I’ve definitely heard worse ones. Do we take bets on how many couples come out of this?”

“Yeah, if I have to hear cross stage left and not right one more time, I really don’t know what I’ll do. It’s like the fifth time through this bocking.” She looked out to the still confused looking ensemble with the director waving their arms about and saying how they need to project and convey more.

“Ooh showmances? That’s a tough one. I usually have something on the side,” She smirked a bit, crossing her arms over herself, “but this year I happen to be taken by one of the lovely costumers over there.” She motioned to Barbie who was currently in a meeting with a few others going over, “But I don’t put it past anyone. Really, after the way that Arista Triton and Tom Harrington went all doe eyed at each other last year only for it to fall completely apart, I believe anything is possible on the stage.”