[Second Proclamation] Create Jobs for Orphaned Replicas.

[bloodreign]

[As it turns out, the town isn't a hallucination or a dream. No amount of puzzling over facts has yielded any useful results. Thus, Asch of Kimlasca Lanvaldear has had no choice but to temporarily assimilate with this place, busy himself, and try to forget about stuffy dinner parties and indignant wives.]

[Lorelei knows he needs it. Sitting and contemplating everything he's left behind would be far too easy to do. Far, far too easy. Damn it...]

[So maybe you're hungry. It might be you're stopping by for a hot chocolate or a bowl of soup to take home and help you thaw. If you happen across the proper business at the appropriate time, you're likely to find Asch stalking solemnly towards your table, his hand poised over a notepad and his hair pulled back out of his face. He might even look like a king...if he wasn't stuffed in a waiter's uniform.]

What do you want?

Comments

[antiseptic]

[Well now, this certainly isn't a face he's expecting to see in a uniform like that.]

Now now, is that any way to treat your customers?

[bloodreign]

[Asch scowls, but remains fixed where he is.]

It's one way. Are you going to order or not?

[antiseptic]

I'm afraid I simply can't abide such terrible customer service.

[bloodreign]

If you're expecting empty-headed flattery, then you picked the wrong table. What I can tell you is the coffee's instant and the wine's overpriced.

If you want a recommendation, the chicken almondine is decent.

ah sorry for the delay

[antiseptic]

Well, why not? Chicken almondine it is. And a glass of water for now, please.

It's fine. /o/

[bloodreign]

...Right. I'll return shortly. [Asch offers a curt nod, saying nothing else, and marches away to hand off the order to the cook and retrieve a glass of water.]

[He returns in perhaps three minutes. To his credit, Asch actually makes an effort to set the glass down on the table carefully.]

[last_puppeteer]

[Anise gazed up at him with a well trained smile, not even faltering as she answered his question.]

A decent man and a fountain flowing with gald, what do you want~?

[bloodreign]

[Asch doesn't even stop and think about it. His answer is automatic and blunt.]

A one-way trip back to Baticul.

[He indicates the menu with his free hand. Something between a point and an impatient wave.] We don't serve either of those things. Try again.

[last_puppeteer]

Hmm, what about just company instead~?

[bloodreign]

[Asch gives her a sharp look. It lasts for a few moments before he glances around the establishment - they aren't very busy, and most of the customers have already settled into their meals.]

[He turns back with what might be a nod. Barely.] ...So long as there are no complaints.

[last_puppeteer]

I have none at least~♪

[Anise leaned forward, already anticipating this to be a rather engaging conversation.]

So you're not the type that strikes me as a waiter, what made you choose this job~?

[bloodreign]

[Why is he getting the feeling this is some sort of trap? Asch takes another brief look around before setting his notepad down on the table and lowering himself into the chair opposite Anise.]

There was an opening, so I took it. What more reason do you want? Besides, with people in and out of this place at all hours, if something unexpected were to happen, everyone would be talking about it.

[last_puppeteer]

That is true somewhat...

But what if they were attending to the unexpected? I suppose this place would be Choral Castle~

[bloodreign]

If everyone was busy combating it, this place would be empty.

[Yes, that's the point.]

[last_puppeteer]

Well aren't you on top of everything~♪

What do you do besides working all the time~?

[bloodreign]

Why are you so curious to know?

[His head tilts slightly, and Anise may get the impression Asch is trying to figure out what exactly she's up to - if anything.]

It's not as if I'm the only "Asch" who's been stuck in this city. What I do in my free time can't be that important to you.

[glasses_gleam]

Oh my. Can you send out the version that doesn't scowl so much?

[Why yes. Jade is amused by your new job. How could you tell? The man looked up after a moment and smiled boldly at the redhead]

[bloodreign]

[Asch frowns at this remark. Almost - but not quite - as if it's some sort of personal insult.]

That's not possible.

[glasses_gleam]

Perhaps it is ungentlemanly to complain, regarding what one has been offered. My apologies.

[No, it wasn't an Asch he knew, certainly not. This does cause Jade's smile to lessen somewhat; he seldom meant to intentionally offend, on a first meeting at least. Being true to himself however, the smile didn't leave completely, instead, the Colonel inclined his head. Introductions had concluded; Jade projected himself as a smarmy jerk. Asch projected himself to be as rough as a cactus.]

Perhaps you might impart the contents of your menu, Asch? Or would you like it to be a guessing game~?

[bloodreign]

On occasion it's detrimental not to.

[Asch has serious doubts about the sincerity of any apology coming from Jade Curtiss; nevertheless, he manages a small nod. Not a grunt, snort, or skeptical coughing sound, but a silent movement of the head.]

...Hardly. [Plucking a menu from between the pages of his notepad, Asch slides it across the table as if it were some sort of confidential and time-sensitive document. Of course, it's only the list of lunch specials. Nothing more.]

Here. Unless you're expecting to have it read to you.

[glasses_gleam]

Point~

[Though now we have the problem of how to proceed until Asch makes it easier by presenting a menu. Though Jade might assume it was instead Kimlascan documents and Asch was secretly a double-agent of the Kingdom.

At least he guessed. This one had more bearing still than the Asch he knew, so he expected at very least this one had a closer connection with his former life than his own. Glancing it over, he decides on something simple.]

While I might appreciate it at a later time; my glasses are still just for secondary purposes at the moment~ [Yes, there was something fun here to be had still. He was sure.] The soup of the day. When are you on break, by chance?

[bloodreign]

[Easy enough.] Did you want a drink with that?

[A double-agent he may as well be - but isn't. Asch's attention flicks briefly towards the clock on the wall. Hasn't he already wasted enough time in between taking orders? Of course, there's still the off-chance that Jade actually has something important to discuss. If nothing else, Asch has to give the man credit for being a genius. An infuriatingly difficult to decipher genius, but a genius no less.]

[The redhead contemplates an intentionally unspecific answer.]

...At the end of the shift. Why?

[glasses_gleam]

A coffee~

[This was again one of the more interesting things; this Asch had more of a sense of purpose than most he's met as well. Everything seemed so deliberate that he couldn't help but suspect the waiter job was just a cover for what he really did here in the nexus. Not that Jade minded; if it led to way out or perhaps at least a better still understanding of the place than he had already he was game. Perhaps if they could cooperate he might show the Arrancar-Luke to this Asch.

That was perhaps asking for a lot though, and while it was fun to entertain cooperation here; that tended to fall through if only because of the wide difference of the lives the people here had lived. So in common yet so different all at once. Jade snerked at the answer, resting his chin into the palm of a hand that was now propped upon the table.]

Oh, just some small talk. Despite what some versions of mysel may say or act as, I am not unfond of you, Asch. [He just liked to tease. You should know this by now of course.]

[bloodreign]

Small talk, huh?

[Asch scrawls this down unhurriedly even though he doesn't need to at all. Jade is, in fact, on exactly the right track. The job is a cover, or more appropriately put: a distraction. However, for all Asch's talk and refusal to sit still and bide his time "vacationing" here, he doesn't have much to show for it, and certainly no dark or mysterious purpose. He just wants to return as soon as possible. Home. To his...family.]

[Now that he's had a moment to pass judgment on his customer, he realizes Jade has inconveniently left him to interpret the blend of coffee on his own. Dark, he thinks.]

[Asch snorts at that last remark before he can stop himself.] I'll try to keep that "shortage of unfondness" in mind the next time some bastard jams a needle into my arm.

[He turns to go.] Fifteen minutes.

[glasses_gleam]

[Now while he was waiting for Asch to write everything down, it was time for Jade to give a bit of thought about what they were going to talk about. The topic would surely surge around "going home" and how that tended to work out. Jade had been home, he was sure of it, but he had found himself back here several times.

Then there was the matter of settling into life here when he was here for extended periods...Well, that was a private matter. Looking up again, Jade smiles and inclines his head.]

Medicinal purposes, Asch~ [Besides, being a Doctor meant never having to say you were sorry for the horrors inflicted on others.]

I'll be waiting~