The raw and weeping thing at the bar jumped a little at her outburst, as did Janet, though she controlled hers in time to stop the neatly-plated nigiri from sliding off her serving tray.
"There you go, sir," she said to the skinless corpse, setting the dish down in front of it. "Wasabi, soy sauce and ginger are on your left. Let me know if you need anything else."
She smiled, bright and breezy, then turned to Melanie.
"Mel," she said carefully. "Are you doing okay?"
Melanie took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. This was not the time to go all Marshall Teller on her best friend just because...
Just because...
Because there was a revenant sitting at her place of work, carefully separating a set of disposable chopsticks with bloody fingers that left red-brown smears over the cheap alder wood.
Janet's expression became one of concern.
"Do you need to sit down? We're kind of crowded today because of the King Tide, but there's room at the counter."
Melanie swallowed hard, shook her head, and forced her expression back to something that, if not cheerfully unconcerned, was least pleasantly neutral.
"No," she said. "I'm good. Just stopped by to say hi and pick up some takeout is all."
"It'll be a bit of a wait," said Janet. "Fred's compulsively impersonating a high-strung perfectionist right now, so there's a lot of drama going on in the kitchen. I'm actually hanging out with the customers for some peace and quiet, if you can believe that."
Melanie Monroe looked from her friend, to the heavy steel door that lead to the kitchen, to the bloodied tatterdemalion peaceably eating sushi dipped in way too much soy sauce, and raised an eyebrow.
"Seriously?" she asked.
"Trust me," said Janet. "It's that dire."
Ongoing Verse: Janet( Read more... )![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
