Day 28: The Twin Pine Restaurant

[ham_fisted]

[ from here ]

The detective almost crushed the slip of paper in his hand with excitement. He hadn't eaten the miserable breakfast that'd been issued to every patient, too miserable himself to actually realise he was starving. Not that he had the slightest idea why; wasn't like he'd done anything strenuous last night, unless gathering enough

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[spandexorgtfo]

((coming from here))

Kratos followed Leon leisurely up to the restaurant entrance, starting a bit in surprise as the younger man stepped abruptly to the side after opening the door. The surprise was gone in an instant, however, replaced with a faint smile. It seemed as if old habits died hard, and Kratos couldn't blame Leon. He would have done the same had he been in that situation.

And then Leon had held the door open for him. Therein was another slight shocker, and Kratos paused slightly, blinking in surprise. Wasn't it usually men who held the door open...for women? Perhaps the young man was simply being respectful? Or was he simply a bit misinformed in the ways of etiquette? Kratos wouldn't have been surprised if it was he and not Leon was mistaken; however, an open door was an open door, and he quickly recovered, striding past Leon into the restaurant with a brief "thank you" as he passed.

The interior was...cozy, to say the least. Not being used to restaurants in the slightest, Kratos felt slightly uncomfortable amidst all the tables and waitresses floating around. Stepping to the side after entering to allow to Leon to catch up, he looked around. A good corner table would be nice- at the very least, it would be secluded, giving them some privacy.

[for_marian]

Leon had no more experience with restaurants than Kratos did, so he paused awkwardly after following Kratos inside. Shoving his good hand in a pocket, his other hand still hidden in the overlong sleeve of his sweater, Leon looked around nervously. There did seem to be other patients in here, already sitting at tables in pairs or alone.

"Do we just... sit anywhere?" Was it like eating at another person's home? Leon had never really done that, either, though. The staff members looked busy, and that made Leon especially reluctant to ask one for help.

[damned_town]

It was starting to get busy in here, leaving the teenaged girl to hurry from one end of the restaurant to over here. Ah, her parents really needed to hire more people!

Sarah peered at the customers, up at one, and down at the other. They looked a little lost.

Two menus clutched in her hand, she greeted them with a friendly smile. In such a small town, she wasn't used to strangers, but newcomers weren't unwelcomed, either.

"Come with me," she announced, starting to lead them to an empty table. "Our steak here is very popular, but we have a nice selection of other things as well." As she spoke, she poured them both some ice water. "Take your time and call me when you're ready."

[spandexorgtfo]

Kratos sat down without a word, murmuring a word of thanks to the girl as he did so. Their waitress seemed amiable enough, unlike his nurse, whose friendliness always appeared to be a bit forced. The girl's nature seemed to fit in with the general atmosphere of the restaurant: deceptively cheerful. It seemed strange that after only one day at this Landel's, he was already viewing everyone and everything with natural suspicion.

Taking a drink of water, Kratos opened the menu he had been given. What had she said was their popular item? Steak? Perhaps he should try that- after all, he would be fine with anything as long as it didn't have tomatoes...

[for_marian]

Leon had wanted to ask if dessert was included in the free lunch, but he didn't manage to work up the nerve before the girl wandered off again. Oh well, at least they were seated and had menus.

It did occur to Leon, though, that eating with only one hand was going to be needlessly awkward. He decided he might as well get it over with and reveal his mangled hand now, and make handling the menu easier on himself as well. Sighing softly, he pulled his right hand free of the concealing sweater sleeve and started looking through the items on the menu. The missing fingers and portion of his hand were still blatantly obvious through the thick bandages--Leon was a little nervous about finding out tonight what it looked like without the bandages, frankly.

[OOC: sorry, sorry, so sorry about the insane lateness, I got sick. ;_;]

[spandexorgtfo]

Steak it was, Kratos supposed. If they were famous for it, it was therefore meant to be at least decent, right? If it turned out some other way, at least the lunch was free; there would be no money to have wasted. He set the menu down, intent on inquiring on Leon's selection, but rather got a nice view of the man's right hand. "What...huh."

He'd known all along that Leon's hand had something to do with the young man's bitter reaction on the bus when he'd brought up the healer's group, and now he knew exactly what was the cause. It was rather evident that something (oh how awkward it would be if that was actually someone) had made off, to put it that way, with part of Leon's hand, fingers and all. Kratos knew immediately that saying something along the lines of sympathy or pity would do no good, for Leon had probably gotten more than his due of that. There was also a matter of the man's pride...

Kratos quirked a brow, his eyes drifting up from the hand to Leon's. "...monster?" It seemed the most obvious cause, but one could never be too sure.

[for_marian]

Leon decided fairly quickly on a "club sandwich," with a side of baked potato. The ingredients in the sandwich sounded fairly safe--turkey, bacon, tomatoes, lettuce--and it seemed like a difficult sort of thing to screw up. Of course, he would have said the same of apple juice, before today...

Kratos' comment got Leon's attention, and he braced himself for the pity. Fortunately, it never came--Kratos took the revelation like an experienced soldier, and Leon sighed in relief. "Yes, though aside from the two eyeless heads, it was fairly human-shaped."

[spandexorgtfo]

His previous intention to ask Leon about his meal selection was now discarded. Having done so, Kratos focused in on the more interesting topic: the human-shaped, eyeless, dual-headed monster that Leon had described. It was probably within his best interests to learn as much as he could about the horrors prowling the institute; after all, he'd be witnessing the damage done by them for sure throughout the following nights. "Know thine enemy", as so many often repeated.

"I see." He hesistated, wondering if he should really press Leon for information. If the memory was still too fresh for the young man to handle...well, he could always stop if so asked. "How exactly did it manage to bite you if it was eyeless?" Yes, he could always stop if asked.

[for_marian]

Leon had been trying to find out more about the native monsters himself, ever since that attack, so he fully understood why Kratos would focus in on that, too. "I don't know. Hearing? Some other unknown sense? It didn't seem to have noses, either, just... teeth, mainly. But however it did it, it was very accurate. It also had a fireball attack, and that hit one of my companions." When she pushed Leon out of the way of it. "It knew I was attempting to cast an energy attack, and sent the fire at me. And it was fast, especially for its size."

[spandexorgtfo]

"Curious..." There seemed to be no possible explanation for the monster's movements. "It might have been moving based on...mana? Perhaps." It would explain how the monster had managed to zero in on Leon when he was casting if said monster moved by detecting mana or something of that nature.

"It's certainly nothing I've ever come across before." That was saying something too, considering how long he had lived.

[for_marian]

"I have no idea. It wasn't anything like I've ever encountered, either. Monsters where I come from tend to be either very much animal, or very much human... this was something inbetween." Though Kronos could probably be counted as being somewhere in between human and monster, considering he'd spent 1,000 years living in a sword, only to finally resurrect himself in truth with the power of Dycroft, Belcrant and the Eye of Atamoni.

Leon chuckled darkly and shook his head. Technically, he might now qualify as something in between monster and human, having been raised as a zombie once already, and now as... whatever he was.

"Is that waitress coming back...?" The place seemed very busy, now.

[spandexorgtfo]

Kratos turned away and scanned the restaurant, searching for the girl that had seated them. "I suppose we'll have to call her over." It was rather hard to tell where she was over the constant shifting of patrons and hostesses.

Finally, he spotted the teenager. She didn't appear to be in the middle of something, so he assumed that this meant she was free to call. "Excuse me." Not being used to speaking over his usual tone, Kratos was forced to repeat himself. "Excuse me-" His barely-raised voice somehow made it all the way to her ear, and the girl turned to walk over.