2021-06-21 - Where the Wild Things Are

The Waffle Shoppe. A perfect place for a late night snack, early breakfast. Late lunch. Really, waffles were the perfect food no matter what time you ate them. So you might as well eat them where they were made best. Right?

Typically this is true. Though today, Fern isn't here just to eat. Instead, she's on a job for H.O.P.E, picking up giant bags of waffle mix and some waffle irons that the restaurant was donating to be used at the High School during the storm. Currently she has claimed a booth table near the window to keep an idle eye on her car - because she doesn't quite trust everyone on the Outskirts of town - while she takes inventory of everything laid out on the table.

Her hair is pulled up in a high ponytail and she's wearing a navy blue and white striped shirt with a red skirt that looks like it could be made out of denim and also has pockets! A pair of black flats would typically finish off the look but they are currently carefully placed on one of the booth seats instead of on her feet for some reason.

The Waffle Shoppe is one of Ashley Jones' go-to places for coffee before work. He's a night-shifter and has been for a good decade or so. It's excuse enough to sleep scant hours and to not do any of them at night. So while the world is settling in to dinner or TV at the end of a hard day, he's just getting started. Jeans, the classic three-wolf moon t-shirt, a black-and-white flannel, the olive green anourak that has become a standby as the weather worsens. The Carhartt beanie is sticking out of a coat pocket; his blonde hair sticking up at the odd angles that shows he didn't bother combing it today.

As he walks in, the waitress smiles his way and moves to set a coffee out on the counter for him. He upnods her, path slowing a step or two as he passes Fern and her table o' things. "Someone's craving waffles."

Fern blinks a bit, looking up and over as she hears a vaguely familiar voice speak up. "Oh! Hey there." She flashed Ashley a smile and then laughed. "I don't think I could eat all the waffles this would make even if it took me 5 years." Probably an exaggeration but nothing wrong with that now and again. She turned some to face Ashley better. "I'm gonna be lugging all this into my car and driving it down to the high school. Just some final prep before the deluge."

She glanced to the table and marked off another thing on her clipboard. "Could you pour me a coffee too, Danielle?" She asked the waitress behind the counter with a smile. Danielle seemed agreeable enough, getting another mug out and filling it.

"How are you doing?" Those wide blue eyes focusing on Ashley again. "I...don't think I caught your name officially the other day." Extending a hand out to him. "I'm Fern."

There's a look to his coffee and Ash takes a deep breath of thought. He finally looks back to Fern. "Ash," he says, taking a few steps forward to accept the proffered hand. "Or AJ. I DJ over at WKRW." Which explains the recognizable voice if she ever listens to the local station at night.

Another look to his coffee and then back to her table of stuff. Finally, he gives in to that little voice inside: "Want a hand loading that all up?"

The handshake is brief but confident and her smile ever present. Fern has a naturally cheery disposition these days. He's likely been in town long enough that he may or may not vaguely know her as one of the regular town drunks from a few years ago. "Ash, good to officially meet ya. I think I've listened to your show once or twice, but I'm planning to tune in more frequently because I wanna hear about this possible Boardwalk Troll." Fern chuckled, though she did seem sincere about it.

Fern looks to the table and then back to him. "Oh, sure! But there's no rush. We can at least drink our coffee first." She assured him, laying her clipboard down and finally snagging her flats to slip them back on before heading to the counter where their respective coffees waiting. Fern began to load hers up with sugar and hazelnut creamer.

"So how long have you been DJing for anyway?"

"Oh, that story's still in the works. Might not even be ready 'til after the storm! Gotta see how the trolls fare, after all." Ash seems to have zero qualms talking about this. As if it's an everyday thing and not abnormal in the least. Might as well be discussing salmon migratory patterns.

"About a decade, give or take a few years." He does look relieved when it's said he can appreciate his coffee first. With a rolling stride, he makes his way to the counter and grabs up his coffee, taking a long drink as soon as it's in hand. He, clearly, has no qualms drinking his black.

"Hopefully they're okay." Fern agreed, also seeming to take the conversation in stride. She's not immune to the crazy shit that goes on in town after all anyway. "Maybe they're clever enough to hide out in the forest or something till it passes." She shifted to settle on to one of the stools and took a sip of her coffee once it was sufficiently doctored. "That's a pretty long time! I have to ask then, what's the wildest story you've reported to date?" Brow quirked ever so slightly.

Taking another long drink of coffee, Ashley drops down into a stool himself. He scratches at the scruff along his jaw in consideration. "Maybe. Depends on how well they get along with the river bridge trolls, probably." Those he sounds less certain about, but you never know. When she mentions a long time, he just shrugs and takes another drink. "I like it, I'm good at it. Why change?" He sets the coffee down, picking up a menu. Even if he likely already knows what he'll be ordering to take in with him for when he's ready to eat.

"Wildest story? Oof, uhm. The farmer's cows that turned inside out was pretty out there. Then there was the woman who swore her son had been replaced by a doppelganger. She insisted he looked different, but no one else could tell. Not even her husband."

"River bridge trolls, huh? Guess I didn't think about there potentially being trolls in other places." Fern pondered on this for a minute and then grinned. "Hey, I feel ya. Only reason I had to switch from doing what I love to doing what I'm doing now - yoga teacher - is for some medical reasons. Definitely shouldn't stop what you love if you don't have to." She agreed, leaning on the counter and listening closely.

"Damn. That does sound crazy. D'you hear about the bar fight at Pourhouse the other night? Huge dudes barreling in, wanting to pick a fight. Some of them even had axes. But you ask all but myself and maybe 5 other people? They'll say it didn't happen. Bar doesn't even have a scratch on it. This town is insane." Fern gave a wry grin. Maybe she was also trying to gauge what he might know about Dreams also.

"Didn't hear that one, but I'd definitely like to. Shit like that totally happens. From the small things, like this book I have. It's got a shopping list written in the margins, yeah? Some people see one of the line items as just 'cinnamon.' But some see 'ashes of thrice dead lizard.' Couldn't tell ya why. It's a small thing, but I always wondered who put it there. Got the book at a used store." He downs the rest of his coffee and leans out to catch the waitress' eye so he can get more. "But there's stories of bridge trolls, so I assume they're there, in the river."

"I was there so I can definitely give you at least one first hand account on it sometime." Fern offered. The Waffle Shoppe probably wasn't the best place to get into details over it after all. "That's wild. I'd love to see it sometime. The book. See what it says for me." She chuckled. "You can find some pretty cool things at the thrift stores." She took another, longer sip of her coffee and sighed contentedly.

"They must be, yeah. Seems like the most likely place - since there's a bridge and all." She grinned. "I'll definitely be tuning in for updates. And to see what other stories you might have to report while this storm is going on." She glanced out the window and then back to him. "I got a feeling it's going to bring something big along with it."

"Well, maybe I can have you in to the station sometime," Ashley says. "Do a small interview. You can talk about what happened at the bar." He lifts up a freshly filled coffee mug, offering it up in mild salute to the waitress before taking a sip. "I can show you the book, see what it says for you." He pats down his pockets. "I think I left it at home today, unfortunately." There's a sheepish sort of shrug.

"That could be fun I think. Never been on the radio before. But it was the first actual crazy experience I've encounter that I was sober enough to remember since I've been back. So it could be good to talk about it." Fern agreed, slipping both hands around her coffee mug for a little warmth. "All the more reason for me to come to the station then sometime, hm? Two birds with one stone."

There's a beat of pause before she adds, "Another story I might have for you - rumors that the carousel animals in the park are actually alive. Had a close encounter with that too but..it's being looked into. Hopefully we'll have some answers before the storm actually unloads."

"Radio's easy," Ashley says, leaning an elbow against the bar top. "No worries about cameras for one. It's just a conversation. You don't have to worry about people seeing or watching you." He picks up his coffee, taking another sip. And then she mentions the carousel animals and he leans forward. "Really? Shit, I might have to go out there and poke around myself. See what's going on. That sounds wild."

"That's true. I have done a couple brief tv interviews back in the day and those were a little nervewracking. I imagine it's easier to forget you're being heard by others if the conversation is going well and all." Fern agreed and chuckled, "Well I'm hoping that my friend and I took care of the issue but it seemed too easy. But yeah, I'll go into detail on what happened during that too cause it was wild. All of it. And if you do venture out over there, just be careful yeah?" She flashed him another smile. "I almost got a manticore stinger to the heart. So you never know when one of 'em might go off the rails."

"Well," Ashley digs in his pockets, finds a card. He slides it across the counter towards her. "Howabout you email me sometime, with your schedule. We'll setup a time for an interview. Sound good?" Picking up the coffee, he downs the rest of it. "For now, though, let me put a food order in and let's get your car loaded."