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

[answerer_sword]

Anything this intelligent must have some method to its madness. Mayfield should have some sort of pattern to its malice; perhaps we have just not observed it yet.

[punch_illusions_get_harem]

If there's a pattern it's over my head. And if one of the people who's been here for years has figured it out, they're not talking. [ At least, not loudly and often enough. ]

[answerer_sword]

Do you know anyone who has been here for years?

[She would try to get a sense of Mayfield's previous events and piece together the "pattern."]

[punch_illusions_get_harem]

There's Rin Tohsaka, who'd have been around for about that long by now. She's the only one I can think of off the top of my head.

[answerer_sword]

Tohsaka has been here for this long?

[It surprises her a little. But if the girl has indeed been here for a long time, then she must have seen friends and allies come and go. She would have also lived through the many traumatizing events created by the town. It would somewhat explain her behavior.]

I will make sure to speak to her about this the next time I see her.

[punch_illusions_get_harem]

[ Sounds like she's familiar with the girl. Interesting. That doesn't necessarily mean she is unfamiliar with him, though. ] Yeah. You didn't know? That's judging by what she told me when I first got here back in August.

[answerer_sword]

I first arrived here in November. From my conversations with Tohsaka, I knew she had been here longer than me, but I did not know how long.

[This is not right. Even if Tohsaka is a mage, even if her physical and mental abilities mean she can handle herself, she is still too young for what the town must have put her through. The Tohsaka in her homeworld was only sixteen, and this Tohsaka did not seem to be much older. A sixteen year old girl, trying to survive in a malicious town that sought to break its inhabitants psychologically if not physically. A sixteen year old girl, watching friends old and new being reduced to the hollow shells known as drones. It seems a wonder that Tohsaka is even functional at this point.]

[punch_illusions_get_harem]

Well, now you know.

[answerer_sword]

Yes...I do. Thank you...

[punch_illusions_get_harem]

No problem.

I should get off of this, or I'll be late for dinner. Good luck talking with Tohsaka.

[answerer_sword]

Good luck to you too.

[After Bazett hangs up her phone, she stays silent for a bit, thinking about what she should say to Tohsaka the next time they meet. She has never been good at comforting; and if she tried, then Tohsaka would surely be offended at what she perceived to be pity. But she could still try to offer some emotional support in addition to the physical protection. Still, Tohsaka would likely start protesting...]

[In a way, the conversation with the boy has changed everything, but at the same time, it has changed nothing. For the first time, she thinks of Tohsaka as something other than Lancer's Master and her ally. For the first time, she wants to protect Tohsaka for a reason unrelated to Lancer...but this would probably not change their relationship. Surely, the next time they met, they would just degenerate into their old argument again.]

[punch_illusions_get_harem]

[ And all Touma can think after he hangs up is: "I didn't even get her name."

Oh well. There's only so many ways of asking without potentially giving away his secret. Maybe he'll bump into her again some other time. ]