7th Broken Illusion

[punch_illusions_get_harem]

[ Action : Neutron Diner : Late afternoon ]
[ Guess who's now on staff in the kitchen at the diner downtown?

If your answer was: "That boy who could probably start a grease fire by looking at the cooker the wrong way", you're halfway there!

It's not that Touma can't cook, or doesn't like to. He's had to do it while he lived on his own back home, and he does a fair bit of it around the house (when his "mother" lets him). No, he's pretty content (and by content I mean listless) as he works at filling orders and setting them up for others to take to the tables.

But things just happen around him. It's kind of like that clause in insurance policies that mention "act of God" or "force of nature". Except these kinds of acts of misfortune are not the sort he can do anything about, even if he does have his abilities back. ]

[ Right now the kitchen has been temporarily evacuated as the Mayfield Fire Department handles a bit of a mess in there and he is standing outside away from the drone crew, work uniform and apron on and looking just a bit scorched.

Looking at the building with despair, he sighs quietly to himself and hunches his shoulders. ] This is just my luck...

-----
[ Phone : Drone Filter : Evening ]
Anyone ever switch jobs? I literally woke up with one, and I'm not cut out for it at all.


((OOC: Open to action at the diner or 840 Hastings if you want to talk to Touma. If your character is part of the fire department, feel free to involve them more directly in the first scene!))

Comments

[punch_illusions_get_harem]

You mean before...? [ You know. Droning. ]

[guardiandragon]

Yes. Before. [GDit moving on from that so quickly]

What the hell happened?

[punch_illusions_get_harem]

[ Not blaming her, or stopping her. He just thinks the coincidence is an odd one. Maybe if she had been an employee there it wouldn't be as bad...

Just his luck, right? ]

I dunno, exactly. Everything was fine until something inside the frier shorted out or something. Like I said, I didn't stick around to investigate.

No one got hurt, and the diner's not shut down or anything.

[guardiandragon]

Oh, thank god for that, then... [She lets out an audible sigh of relief at the good news.]

That's really weird, though. If I've noticed anything about this place, it's that at least the trains all run on time. Everything works how it's supposed to. You don't think that's a sign of something coming, do you?

[punch_illusions_get_harem]

[ Oh, it's a sign, all right. Just not of what she's thinking. ] No, uh, it's probably just a fluke. "User error" or something like that. I wouldn't read that deep into it.

[guardiandragon]

Dude, that's the thing about this place. Flukes don't just happen. It's so predictable, it's unnerving.

[punch_illusions_get_harem]

Then maybe it was just my fault. It was my first day of training. [ An unseen shrug. ]

[guardiandragon]

Seriously? I don't know the inner workings of kitchen appliances, but I think you need to actively try to short one out.

[punch_illusions_get_harem]

Let's leave figuring out the exact cause to the firemen and electricians, okay?

[guardiandragon]

And the rest of us who worry about the people caught up in it and don't wanna see them get hurt, what do we do, exactly?

[punch_illusions_get_harem]

They trust the fact that I've seen worse things and come out on the other side just fine.

[ A beat. ] And I mean back home. Not here. [ Wait, didn't that just sort of invalidate...?

Oh, fuck it. ] I'll be more careful.

[guardiandragon]

Glad to hear it. Last thing I need on my plate right now is to have to go to the diner to sweep the guy I like into a dustpan.

1/2

[punch_illusions_get_harem]

Ahah, right, we don't—

2/2

[punch_illusions_get_harem]

[ Hold the phone. Did she just—?

No. She had to mean someone else. Maybe someone else who worked at the diner when she did, or a regular? Yeah, that had to be it. No way was she talking about him. That's why she was so relieved that no one else got hurt in the incident.

Yes. Yes, that's exactly it. Way to rationalize, Touma. He was almost hopeful there, for a moment, and almost confused. ]

...we don't want that happening.

[guardiandragon]

Exactly. If I can't needlessly sacrifice myself, neither can you. Got it?

[She still has absolutely no idea what she admitted to, herself, let alone that she just took away any ambiguity behind it.]

[punch_illusions_get_harem]

[ That brings up a rather vivid memory and a painful pang that overrides his potential embarrassment. He wants to ask "what do you mean by 'needlessly'?" but bites his tongue. ]

Heh. Got it. No bending over backwards just to cook up someone's order of fries.