[The thing about this coffee bonding business is, Rufus knows they're being played. It's a fairly straightforward attempt at psychological manipulation — break down the populace through enforced isolation, unpredictability, and extended duress, and then suddenly put them back into conditions of hospitality and comfort in a manner designed to be social. After weeks of situations where survival often hinged on having others present, interspersed by abrupt periods of long loneliness, who wouldn't be primed to take full advantage of that newly-conditioned impulse to read the presence of others as safety?

It irks him, of course. He knows he's being played. It doesn't mean he doesn't still turn up to the coffee shop, anyway. Notably, he's not dressed in white for once — but instead is wearing a dark Oxford shirt with the sleeves rolled, khaki-ish pants, and a pair of aviator sunglasses that are doing a great job at concealing the fading black eye he's still sporting. Darkstar is, as ever, at his side; don't try to tell him that there are no animals allowed in here, she's his emotional support killbeast. Or something.

The available food and drink are a welcome relief, at least, after nothing but water and MREs and only whatever minor comforts they might've risked bringing with them. He finds a booth and orders one of those drinks that makes Starbucks employees ask "Are you...okay?", then peruses the bookshelves and digs up a few books at random to read while he waits and broods at his table.

(For those getting close enough to spy on him, it appears he's got The Great Gatsby, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and somewhat unfortunately, a Regency-fiction bodice ripper that boasts some sort of title like The Marquis and I, which he probably thought was similar to The Prince except that it is, uh. Most definitely not.)

When he's not drinking his horrible coffee beverage, reading, or staring out the window, he's also doodling on napkins — some sort of round, wheel-like image divided into wedges delineated by spokes that cut from the center to the perimeter, as well as a sort of dark blob shape that might, with some squinting, resemble a figure in a hood.

His placard reads: Hello! My name is Rufus Shinra, and I'm a lonely brat with no friends!

In another time and place, he might've torn it up or sought to scribble it out or throw it away. Right now, it just seems to bring him a measure of very sardonic amusement, and he leaves it where it is, preoccupied as he is by other things.]

[It's not that he really means to participate in the scavenger hunt, outright; that said, Rufus is certainly interested in all the new architecture that's gone up in the city in their absence, so playing along with the game isn't overly burdensome when frankly it gives him even more of an excuse to be nosy about the new buildings — plausible deniability says he can just blame it on the hunt.

The first code he gets, however, demands a flower from the Sector 5 church, and for a second it stops him in his tracks, because that...can't be right. Only — well, on further thought maybe it does track, all things considered. They'd recreated Shinra Headquarters for him. It only follows that they'd accommodate others from Gaia, as well — however strange it might seem, given how few Gaians are here by comparison, next to all the people from "Earth".

Well. He's heard a lot about this church, though he's never been there himself. Evidently there are...flowers. In it.

(He wonders, idly, how you're supposed to get at them without breaking what he presumes will be the pneumatic glass, safeguarding them from people precisely like him who might try to touch them without authorization.)

Only one way to find out, he supposes.]

un: shinra | text

I'm looking for the services of a medic.

[...WELL, YOU CAN'T FAULT HIM FOR BEING CONCISE, I GUESS.]

[OOC: If none of the above prompts work, feel free to hit me up with something else, or message me to plot or discuss! I'm available in the game disco as alex | rufus shinra.

Additionally, if your scavenger hunt happens to be taking you to Shinra Headquarters and you'd like an encounter with Rufus / more specifics about what you might encounter there, please feel free to let me know!]