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[Something was very wrong. The night before, he observed something like the Aurora Borealis outside his window, a strange, unusually long stuffed toy appearing in his apartment, and all the while a strange app had installed itself on Killia's phone. He attempted to delete it, but accidentally booted it up, uncovering quite a lot of strange stuff. He didn't believe most of it, other than another person having one of these weird cursed toys.

So he went to bed. Got up in the morning, same as any other day. He rolled into the shower to get ready to go to work, and when he stepped out to take care of the rest of his morning routine, the man looking back at him through the mirror was... not the same. His plain, unremarkable brown eyes now were a bright, vivid yellow, pupils narrower, like a lizard. The start caused him to snap his toothbrush into splinters in his hand, as though the plastic was breakaway glass.

...This was... not good. But he needed to get to work. But these eyes would surely freak people out. All he could do was grab his cheap pair of sunglasses and throw them on as he went out the door. It wasn't the best solution, but it was all he could come up with for the moment. That, and complaining of light sensitivity if anyone at his work asked.

So here Killia is, working his usual job at The Paradise Taste, bouncing between waiting tables and cooking, wearing these cheap sunglasses that look very out of place for him. If it's a slow moment you might be able to catch him doing some cleaning around the restaurant, or if you're here to eat, he'll eventually approach your table.

His voice still calm and smooth, belying the strange self-aware anxiety boiling up within.]

Welcome to the Paradise Taste, can I start you with something to drink?

[Nailed it. Right?]

[Text, UN: AbsoluteZero]

I thought all this stuff about the supernatural was a bunch of play-acting. Some kind of bit.

And then I lifted a washing machine with a single hand trying to get a quarter I dropped.

Seriously. What the *hell* is going on.

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[It's a little bit after school's ended for the day and Katida has decided to take a detour to stop by instead of going straight home, because lunch at school didn't feel like enough today. She's looking down at the menu to decide what she's in the mood for when Killia approaches, so he doesn't immediately see her face.]

Uh, just the usual. [She's here often enough—with or without her parents and cousin—that even her voice should be somewhat recognizable by now. Then she actually looks up and one of the first things that he might notice is she's basically a palette-swap of herself; her hair and eyes, previously brown and a grayish light-blue, are now white and aggressively pink.

Oddly enough, nobody else has called any attention to this.]

[It takes a solid moment, him pausing at the familiar voice, but the less familiar appearance. He impassively raises an eyebrow when told "the usual," taking a moment to run that through the old brain. It's not until she looks at him head on do the gears start to turn.]

...You going to a costume party or something, Kat?

[Says the man with sunglasses on inside. And the fact that it's currently getting more overcast outside.]

A costume party? Why do you think I would go to a— [It clicks right there.] Wait. [And there's an easy way for her to confirm whether he actually does see it or not.]

Lemme ask you something real quick: brown or white?

[...Okay. Something very strange is going on. Maybe it's not just him.

Maybe the weird stuff on that app wasn't so weird.]

White.

[The answer is calm and matter of fact, but quiet. He definitely got the meaning behind the question, if nothing else.]

Yeah.

[She rests her head on one of her hands.]

It's been like this since yesterday afternoon. [And Killia is among only a few that have noticed her change so far.] Not sure how or why, just that this— [She uses her free hand to motion to her phone, which has Libra up right now. To anyone else, the device looks like it's just on its home screen.] —has something to do with it.

[He recognizes the logo and the app itself on her phone. Killia quickly steals a glance over his shoulder, and thankfully, none of the family seems to be paying attention.]

...That same thing ended up on my phone last night.

That's too much to be a coincidence.

Anyone that ends up getting this has weird stuff start happening to them that nobody else will notice, for whatever reason. I'd have said supposedly, but well, look at me. Also, one of my friends teleported—literally teleported—to my house yesterday, so there's that too.

[Turning her attention away from the phone, she looks him in the shades.]

So, I'm just gonna take a guess: your eyes went and did a thing?

[He doesn't have too much more time to hang around at the table without drawing suspicion. And either way, the cat's out of the bag with her anyway, so.

He removes the sunglasses, revealing his eyes. Though pink is quite an unusual color, Killia's eyes are bright yellow, the thinner, draconic looking pupils appearing even less human than many simple eye changes.]

You tell me.

[Essentially asking brown or yellow, without so many words, before putting his sunglasses back on. Just in case. Once she answered, he nodded.]

I'll be back shortly with your drink. We'll talk more then.

[It'd be a few minutes, but he would be back.]

Huh, so that's something. Looks kind of neat.

[With that little confirmation, he's off to get her drink. She just idly fiddles with her phone, swiping the Libra app into the background to do a little poking at one of the mobile games she's been playing recently, while she waits.]

[He returns a few moments later, after checking on several other tables and heading back to the kitchen. He remains diligent, despite the questions swirling about his mind.

He set the glass in front of her, very carefully. His toothbrush breaking in his hand this morning was not far from his mind, and he spent the entire day being very careful with his hands.]

Here you go.

By the way, did you see anything unusual in the sky last night?

[Killia then produces his notepad and pen.]

And are you ready to order?

I usually keep my window covered up. [Especially at night. It's directly next to her bed, so...yeah.]

It did look a little brighter than normal out during the day, though.

Anyway, think I'll try a slice of that pie you've been hyping up lately.

Fair enough.

[Killia's not about to criticize or think that's weird. If anything, that's fairly normal, and he's not about to question it. If it keeps happening, she'll see it eventually.]

The apple pie? Sure. Anything else?

A couple of those cookies probably wouldn't hurt a whole lot. Any kind as long as they're not the raisin ones.

So the experimental apple pie with the homemade vanilla, and two non-raisin cookies. Simple enough.

[Killia wrote that down anyway, even if he had already memorized it. Though now he was figuring what to pair with it.]

Fair warning, though. You're the first one to ask for the pie, so you'll be the first customer taste testing it. I'm going to want your honest opinion about it to see if it can be improved.

Baking's iterative. And harder than normal cooking.

[If he didn't think it was ready, they probably wouldn't have stuck it onto the menu.

So, her response to the warning is:] Bring it on.

All right then. I'll be back in a few minutes.

[Katida's self-assured choice earned a nod, firm, and resolute.

Killia isn't worried that the pie will turn out poorly. But whether or not it'll be up to his own standards and the standards of a customer base was another thing entirely. And it was something he put a lot of time, and shockingly, research, into doing. While he had improved quickly at cooking thanks to a surprising diligence and work ethic, baking was generally more harrowing.

Either way, he let no more of that show as he walked off calmly to see to his duties. After taking a couple of more orders, he headed back to the kitchen to get everything ready.

A few minutes went by before he returned, on his serving tray a plate with a single, though generous slice of apple pie. Plated with it was a scoop of ice cream, and two cookies. A simple arrangement, but in such a way that suggested care in its humble presentation.

He set the plate down in front of her.]

Apple pie, with our homemade vanilla, and two cinnamon cookies.

[He said nothing else, having set the plate down. He seemed to be waiting for her verdict.]

[There's little point to being hesitant about it, so Kat gets into it right away.

After having a few bites of it, she pauses.

The taste is incredibly familiar; it's not exact, but it's very close to how— ... To how who, exactly? She remembers someone close to her having their own apple pie recipe, but she's blanking on who that could possibly be. She doesn't remember having any apple pie at any of her family's more-recent gatherings, so it probably wouldn't be any of her relatives.

What's even stranger is she thinks she remembers the recipe itself, but why would she know it when she doesn't recall ever having learned it? She stares down at the rest of the slice of pie with an odd look of contemplation, before she surprises herself by giving Killia an actual response using some of this unexplained and unexplainable little bit of knowledge.]

The vanilla's just a little on the strong side, you could probably stand to ease up on it a tiny bit. Adding some cinnamon won't kill it, but that depends on if you want it to be completely sweet or if you want it to have a bit of a kick, and same goes for if you want to consider adding any Fujis to the mix.

But like, even as it is now, this is really good.

[The man made a harsh humming noise as he took notes on his notepad.]

Thought I balanced the vanilla better this time. Maybe that brand of extract is stronger... gonna need to look into that.

[That was more for his own mental note, more than a reaction to the criticism. It's close, he knows it is, but it's an exacting science.]

Truthfully, I don't want it to be too sweet. A good apple pie is sweet, but never overpowering. Balancing it with the consistency of the apple so it's not too mushy or grainy is the real difficulty I've had.

A previous iteration had Fujis in it, but the flavor just didn't come out, and the texture was too thin. Fujis are great to eat raw, but... baking isn't kind to them.

Doesn't help that apples are out of season either.

That's why you don't do just Fujis; use some Honeycrisps too if you can get your hands on them, they can handle it better.

[Before she even knows what she's doing, she's digging into her backpack to grab at one of her notebooks and a pen. Flipping to a blank page, she starts scribbling something down, then tears the page out and slides it over.] Give this a look when you've got time.

[Then she grabs one of the cookies and takes a big old chomp out of it.]

[Ever since Caesar got a job at the nearby florist's, he's been making a habit of heading to The Paradise Taste--not terribly often, but it's enough at this point that he's started to become a regular. He's not looking up when Killia first approaches his table, busying himself with fiddling with something on Libra.]

Yeah, the usual'll-- [He looks up partway through that sentence, then pauses.] ... You okay?

[A familiar face is welcome, and as he approached, he caught sight of a familiar app. ...Curious. But for now, he said nothing about it. It'd be bad form to be snooping.]

The usual then. I'll get that for you in a minute.

[He pauses at the question, debating how he wanted to answer. Brushing it off would be rude to a customer, and... well, to one of the few acquaintances he bothered to make so far.]

...Eye problems. Of a sort.

[It's evasive. Definitely hiding something. And knowing Killia, if it were something simple like eyes being bloodshot, he wouldn't otherwise bother concealing it.]

[Yeah, that earns a sympathetic wince.]

Must be serious if you're going this far to hide it.

[He nods.]

I'd rather not alarm anyone. Don't think it's... ordinary.

[If you catch the drift.]

... Not ordinary, huh?

[Yeah, Caesar's definitely picking up what Killia's putting down there.]

If you want to talk about it, I'd be more than happy to lend an ear.

[The fact that Caesar seems to understand puts his mind at ease, somewhat. As much as it can be given the circumstances. He doesn't know too many people here, all things considered, so this was at least... something.]

Thanks, though I'm not sure how much there is to talk about yet, but...

[Remembering back to Katida earlier in the day, he looked over his shoulder, then back at Caesar, and nodded once. He placed a finger on the rim of his sunglasses, and moved them down a bit from his nose, and then quickly pushed them back up.]

Brown or yellow?

[That'd be the tell, ultimately.]

[... Ah, yeah, 'not ordinary' indeed.]

Yellow.

[Which, really, is all he needs to say on the matter.]

But at least it means you're super strong so it can't be that bad, right?

Edited 2022-03-24 20:27 (UTC)

It probably has its upsides, but I'm not some superhero.

And I'd rather not hurt anyone with it by mistake, either.

[He considered himself lucky that he hadn't dropped or thrown the washing machine out of shock.]

Probably not but at least you can protect people should a tree falls on them! Or even a hard building! Or even a ball too!

[Just saying.]

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