The glass shard inspection bot sets the box containing the strawberry sponge cake on top of one of the few still structurally sound portions of the counter. Shortly after, 23 collects the Miss Masher-requested beverages, puts them in a cardboard 5-cup holder, then places them alongside the cakebox.
“If you don’t have any other requests, that should be everything for you and your companions for this evening, Miss Masher.” As 23 addresses her, it nudges her share of the order towards her.
“Hmm? Oh, nice. Yeah, that should be everythin’.” Miss Masher shuts off and pockets her phone as soon as she realized 23 was speaking to her.
Once it’s safely tucked away, she lifts up the severed limb that was still hanging off of her shoulder and waves it from side to side. Considerin
While Miss Calculated and Miss Chievous crowd around Jonathan near one of the sinks in the men's room, Lucas is instead looking at the jagged edges of the forcibly opened section of the wall.'That's... a way bigger opening than he possibly needed. Did he hang out and smash the wall a little extra just for fun?'[...While you were within task range, you weren't close enough for me to monitor his actions at the time. I'd speculate that he was angered by how loud the process was, or with how uncooperative the wall was, so he likely vented some of his frustrations on it.]‘...Yeah, probably...’Miss Calculated making a soft “Ah” pulls Lucas’
After Lucas and Jonathan have given their partings to 23 and 08, they are now on the sidewalk near the intersection...“Jon. Jon. Hey, Jon.” Lucas’s enthusiasm caught Jonathan’s attention right away, but he takes a moment to respond.“Um, w-what?” Once Jonathan looks up at him, Lucas cracks a huge grin.“Look what I can do!” Before Lucas is even completely done shouting, he starts taking a few running steps towards the crosswalk in the direction they need to go.It’s a rather noisy process, considering how much shattered glass is scattered around the area. As he runs to the edge of the crosswalk, he should have slipped and eaten concrete at
Lucas pulls open the large glass outer door to Pie Palace’s vestibule, beckoning for Jonathan to go in ahead of him, as usual.Thankfully for Jonathan, he doesn’t have to touch the handle on the inner door either, as the service bot maître d' had noticed their approach and opened the door for them. Its gaze stays on Jonathan long enough to acknowledge his presence before shifting its attention to Lucas a few steps behind him.Once Lucas walks into a comfortable conversational range, the bot addresses him. “Good evening, honored guests. Would you care for a table for two, or..?”“Huh? Oh, uh, we’re actually meetin’ up with a bunch of people that are already here.” Lucas has an absent-minded tone as he answers, peering past the programmed ‘person&
Once Lucas and Jonathan are mostly settled into their seats, the service bot that led them over approaches and sets the two menus it brought with it in front of them. Upon Lucas noticing just how thick the nearly 20-page black leather-bound menu is, he flinches and grimaces slightly.‘Holy shit. After the way today’s been, I do NOT have the energy left to choose between that many options.’[Executive functions aren’t exactly your strong suit in the first place.]‘Hey! Watch it, buddy! Not cool!’[...The amount of money you wasted on excessive clothing because
Upon Mark’s shift in his attention, Josephine makes an amused snort and turns her focus down to her own recently arrived meal as well.Now that Lucas is no longer being amused by their drama, he pointedly looks away from their plates, as he’s uncomfortably aware of how hungry he is.Jonathan, on the other hand, is actively coveting the tasty treats. At least the threat of GDV loss is stopping him from snatching some at super-speed for himself.‘Hey, wait a minute. If there’s anyone I know with a compellin’ reason to be vegan, it’d be Dan, yeah? What is he..?’Lucas turns to look at Dan in time to see his nose twitch a bit as he takes a big sniff.Dan finally stops focus
Once Josephine is done with her introduction, Alley Cat’s soft gasp carries through the phone.“Oh! Josephine Hendry, the violinist, right? Your latest album was lovely! Hehe, Miss Calculated wouldn’t stop gushing over it. Will you be doing any more performances anytime soon?” Alley Cat’s genuine enthusiasm makes it clear that they aren’t just being polite.Mark snickers, but largely represses it. Sort-of.Josephine smiles at first, but it shifts into a sheepish expression after the reminder of Miss Calculated’s relatively recent antics. She quietly clears her throat as she subconsciously leans closer to the phone before speaking up.“Yes, thank you. She, ah, told me herself.” Josephine pauses in the middle of giving her answer, waiting out the mixed laughter from both her local and remote companions. “And, yes, actually. I just finished the negotiations for the dates and venues for several performances not that long ago.”“Oh! I’ll be sure to have someone on the lookout for tickets o
Lucas’s wandering attention somehow meanders its way back on track.“So, Cafe Cup, yeah? Got it, catch ya there, then?” Lucas’s question is quickly answered by an agreeable hum on Alley Cat’s part. As there wasn’t much of a need for Lucas to keep staring at the phone during the conversation, he was looking around the restaurant. Upon noticing a service bot heading their way from the kitchens, his face lights up in anticipation of noms.“If there isn’t anything else, I’ll let ya get back to whatever yer workin’ on.” Even though Lucas is clearly addressing Alley Cat, his attention is wholly on the approaching bot. As it gets closer, he reaches his arms out in its direction, rather reminiscent of a child begging to be picked up. He’s even bouncing his legs and repeatedly opening and closing his hands, earning a few chuckles from his local companions.These not-so-subtle movements quickly catch Jonathan’s attention. Seeing the incoming tray leads to him putting his own phone away, eager
Abe glances over at Lucas as he sets down his fork, then turns his attention over to Mark. “And on the subject of busy days, some of us are going to continue being quite busy for a long time. Until those fancy new sewing machines you were talking about are ready, assuming they even work, I have no business staying up too late.”‘Abe is my hero. 10/10 cranky old man.’[...]Mark sighs as he waves a hand back and forth. “Yes, yes, I know. I’ll walk you home. We’ll all be seeing each other plenty anyway, I just wanted to make sure you, Lucas, and Jonathan actually met each other. Well, and also so Josephine could let everyone know the results of her meeting.”Dan, who finished eating while the others were chatting and quietly switched to using his phone like Jonathan, glances at Mark and rolls his eyes.He could be hanging out with Willy right now, he didn’t need to be dragged into this. So rude.‘Pff, walk him home?’[Well, Abe’s power isn’t particularly well-suited for self-defense. Me
Lucas and Jonathan—dressed decently but nowhere near as fancy as yesterday—are most of the way to Cat’s Paw Cafe, pointedly not utilizing the stinky subway station to get there.‘Ya know, it’s been surprisingly peaceful, yeah? Though, not havin’ people gawk as much as yesterday is kinda nice. All that attention was gettin’ old fast.’[Ahem, well, fortunately, Boss System approved my long-term task priority filtering proposal.]‘Oh? Whassat?’[Compared to before, now it requires an opt-in before being bombarded with every single task in range. Before receiving alerts—and therefore penalties for ignoring them—we’ll run the calculations of the tasks’ estimated impact vs. potential unwanted attention. This effectively weeds out a majority of minor tasks—plus some moderate ones—by accounting for how suspicious it would be for you to know the event was taking place, let alone be believably compelled to interfere. I knew there was no need to ask if you were interested in activating it immedi
Once the allotted thirty minutes have passed—precisely down to the second—427 tentatively undeafens Lucas. At first, all he can hear is a booklet’s pages being flipped through, followed by Lucas grumbling.Hesitantly removing the remaining sensory suppressions one at a time, 427 nearly sighs with relief upon discovering that Lucas is standing in the kitchenette by the new automatic drip coffee maker—thankfully dressed—in the midst of poorly attempting to demystify its instruction manual.‘How the hell is this so complicated?’[Ah, making good on your promise to Jonathan?]‘Oh, thank fuck; yer back. Took ya long enough.’[…Hello, again, to you, too.]‘Yeah, yeah, yeah. Welcome back. So, anywho, can ya scan through this or somethin’ and tell me how to use it?’[…I already looked up the instructions from everything’s model numbers earlier. First, measure out—]427 guides Lucas through measuring and grinding a serving’s worth of coffee beans and setting it up in the machine with such in-d
For a few peaceful minutes, Lucas delights in demolishing the delicious delicatessen delivery. As Jonathan reaches for his coffee cup to gauge if it’s cool enough for a sane person to drink, he ends up cutting himself off with a yawn, earning a side-eye from Lucas.“Hey, ya barely got any sleep, yeah? Instead of havin’ caffeine, shouldn’t ya go take a nap?” Upon Lucas’s question, Jonathan pauses, looking at the contents of his mug with an obvious longing. “I’ll make ya a fresh one in like half an hour; I’m sure 427 can figure out howta use whatever newfangled machine ya got,” Lucas continues, his eyes also fixed on the beverage.[…I suppose I appreciate your vote of confidence.]Jonathan’s gaze lingers on the coveted coffee for a moment before he sets it back on the table. As soon as he lets go of it, Lucas lays his claim upon it.“Um, o-okay, yeah. I just, um, sh-should take a shower first,” Jonathan stammers as he stands.Lucas hums an agreement around a mouthful of coffee.[Did y
Thankfully, there are no further interruptions during the rest of this round of deliveries. Or even during the next one, either.Once Jonathan finally has the fourth and final load of freight, he makes a detour to a delicatessen. More specifically, the one where he previously purchased yesterday’s breakfast.After equally uneventfully acquiring milk, third breakfast for himself, and first breakfast for Lucas—since he’d totally only eat sugary baked goods if real food wasn’t conveniently available—he makes his way home.With his back to the recently re-locked front door, Jonathan reclaims the last armload of supplies as he looks at Lucas’s still-shut bedroom door.‘…Our food will still be too hot to eat for a little while; I’ll make some coffee first.’Jonathan may or may not be making up excuses to keep putting off waking up Lucas in the hopes that he’ll do so on his own, knowing full well that he probably won’t.While taking longer than necessary to decide which appliance to christen
“Ah! Um…” Jonathan’s face scrunches up a bit as he looks over his pending purchases.‘Can we at least turn off tasks while my hands are full? I really don’t want to drop everything and have it get broken or stolen by the time I get back to it… It will be annoying enough having to run back and forth a bunch.’[Requesting temporary task suppression… Permission granted; disregarding minor tasks for one hour at no penalty, effective immediately.]Jonathan barely represses his urge to sigh with relief.Before Ji Soo works up the nerve to express concern over Jonathan’s vacant stare at the wall behind the service bot, Jonathan’s attention returns to reality and redirects to said bot.“Um, c-could you hold some of it for a few minutes once I’m done paying? I-I won’t take long… Like, five minutes?” Before fidgety Jonathan even finishes asking his question, the bot is already nodding.“Certainly. Do you wish to use a private scanning kiosk to complete your order?”‘I’m surprised it’s even an
Jonathan, however, doesn’t hear the utterance of recognition. Unaware, he continues his quest for a coffee maker.A short time later, Jonathan stands--while quietly grumbling--before a row of two-in-one coffee/espresso machines.Behind him is a sea of drip coffee machines, with cold press equipment further off to the side. Alongside the arrangement of two-in-ones sits a selection of espresso machines, both automatic and semi-automatic.‘How are there so many!? What even are the differences? Wait, no, don’t answer that. The technical details will probably just be even more confusing.’[Understood.]Although Jonathan notices movement in his peripheral vision, he doesn’t outwardly react to the recent arrival at the end of the aisle. Instead, he pulls out one of the two-in-one machines set at eye level, rotating it so he can read the back of the box.“Ah! Don’t get one of those! That entire line is overpriced trash,” the newcomer blurts out, muffled by the layers of carbon-filter fabric f
After the harrowing--see also; totally normal--experience of getting his hair professionally cut, Jonathan blinks a few times as he looks himself over in the mirror. ‘Oh, wow. That’s way better.’ He’s now sporting a long-top, backswept, tapered hairstyle with a rounded back. Given how clearly tense he was throughout the entire cutting process, a trendy skin fade would have fairly obviously been too much for his liking. After giving Jonathan a few moments to make his mental evaluations, one of the hairdresser’s dreadlocks uses a soft-bristle brush to clear away the loose hair clippings around the collar of the barber cape. A few other coils of his hair organize the various tools he used, setting them aside for cleaning. Meanwhile, he quickly sweeps aside the bulk of the rogue tufts of hair on the ground in a much more conventional hands-on-broom method as he uses the mirror to make eye contact with Jonathan again. “Lookin’ good, mon. Well? Whaddya tink?” His question pulls Jonath
Once Jonathan is finally en route to the hairdresser...[Safe distance from Mikah’s power detected. Alert; you have exceeded 10 GDV. You have one enhancement available.]‘Oh! Um, you said before that rank three vision should be good enough to see through Maria’s powers, right?’[Correct, rank three should be sufficient as long as her target is in motion. Rank four would be necessary to see anything stationary, given the current strength of her powers. Please be aware that going beyond rank three for any individual enhancement has additional requirements.]‘Three should be good enough to avoid most of her pranks... Use my upgrade on vision.’[Please confirm that you would like rank two vision.]‘Yeah.’[Understood. Please close your eyes during calibrations to avoid nausea.]Jonathan slows from running at enhanced speed into a normal-paced jog for a few steps, then stops and shuts his eyes.[Bzzt... Calibrations complete.]He opens his eyes and looks around, blinking several times.‘Wo
The duo’s fiery funnel further forces the growing multi-car pile-up towards the middle of the street for a few seconds longer. Finally, the flames falter and fade. After a short delay, the wind wanes as well.‘Oh, I shouldn’t give them any extra reasons to think I’m a threat.’Jonathan swiftly shuts and pockets his switchblade as he follows the sidewalk. While doing so, his attention flicks between the ongoing chaos in the street and the front door of Howling Cartographer’s HQ lobby.Ashley steps through the door with Jason right behind her. They both take a moment to appreciate their destructive handiwork with smug expressions. Considering that Jonathan is conspicuously the only person still in the immediate vicinity, they quickly focus on him.Before either of them manage anything beyond a glare, Jonathan raises both hands in a submissive gesture, showing that he isn't wielding a weapon. "I-I just wanted his gun!"Ashley's exposed eye squints with amusement, the not hair-hidden cor