Private Eastern Brisshal One Cool Cat With a Hot Dog

[Nobody]

Through the streets of Honeyhome, strode a lean young beastkin man, awkwardly carrying a small bag of gold. Actually, it wasn’t just the gold carrying that was awkward about him, but pretty much everything: from the strange way he was walking, to the way his hand was nervously bent back toward his chest in a timid-looking way not befitting the confident look of the character’s rougher features.

Sai couldn’t help it. It was just so weird, having her– wait, his –chest flat like that. And that was just one of many things that felt wrong, even though he was healthy in every way. The ears and tail were also top of the list, and like his chest, he found it incredibly difficult not to poke them every minute or two, which also drew a few weird looks.

Oh gosh, oh gosh, no, that was weird, stop stop stop!!

…

Relax, Sai! This isn’t the real world, and you have no reputation to defend! Or at least not one that matters, anyway! Think of it as spending someone else’s reputation! Yeah! Yeah…

“Whew…” he sighed, trying to expel all that nervous energy he’d just built up. Gotta get in character! Because today… was the day he went shopping for clothes~!

… In a manly way, of course. Armaments! Equipment! Powaaaahhhh! Yeah! Ahem…… Maybe best he just got to it and avoided overthinking things too much.

Honeyhome, like pretty much every fantasy tower ever created, had a prominent forge which was open to the streets, allowing the heat from all the hot metal to air out while broadcasting the wears to the world with several KACHINKs. A powerful tower of a man stood over a blade, smacking the red-hot surface time and time again, raising it to check if it was level, then repeated the process.

“Heya– I mean… greetin– no… Hey there, my dude!” He suddenly wanted to put his head through that sword as the man looked up and raised an eyebrow. “Uhm… I’m looking for some… armor? And maybe a weapon? I have some… cash… my guy!”

“Yeeaahhh, take a look in the back. It’s all lined up; feel free to give whatever ya want a test run. Just don’t break anything, alright?”

“Mm, mm,” Sai hummed, nodding a couple of times and slipping behind all the strange metalworking gear into the back.


@Tenshi

 

[Tenshi]

Through the streets of Honeyhome strode not only a lean young beastkin man, but a lean young beastkin woman as well. She was constantly toggling her attention between where she was going, and what she was wearing. You see, the tigress was painfully aware of the trope of showing up in a different world with a different body and did her best from the word go to avoid becoming another number in the matter. This in turn meant she had never actually had the chance to dismiss the nagging curiosities supplied hand-in-hand with having such a drastically different form.

At the very least, she had already taken the time to get used to moving her tail on her way to Honeyhome. She had even paused to practice expressions and poses, and what she would do with her tail for each. One of her goals was to be more expressive, and if she could master the art of having her tail and ears move at her whim, it would be anything but difficult to accomplish. Speaking of ears, she had also been occasionally perking them up and lowering them back down in small bursts as she tried to get them to follow her whims deliberately. It was harder than it looked. She wasn't even sure those ears were twitching because of her or the occasional sharp sounds of laughter, magic, and a smith's hammer clinging away at metal.

A blacksmith? Actually, that wasn't a bad idea. She didn't have any gold left after buying a more fashionable outfit, but if she wanted to fight enemies in the area, it would be wise to see what the upper end of armor in the starting town was like. Plus, it gave her even more to do than poke at her new, vastly less flat chest or otherwise.

Speaking of that chest, there was an awful lot to get into in Terrasphere, and the tiger had a pretty rough time deciding where to start outside of her number one personal goal: make friends and establish her new identity. That identity she couldn't have in the real world.

"All right..." She mostly spoke her thoughts aloud to try and get used to her new voice as soon as she could. "We'll look at the armor, and I'll ask to party up with the very next person I see. Worst case, they're a high-level and I can ask them for build advice..." She got a few looks from the people she passed as she effectively talked to herself as she neared the sounds of forging.

She had almost walked up to talk to the blacksmith. She took a deep breath, stood up straight, and brushed her hair out of her face, but before she could take even the very first step she was put on delay by somebody else walking up to him first.

"Heya– I mean… greetin– no… Hey there, my dude!"

Tenshi blinked, as simply stared on in awe as the perfect specimen had presented itself. How could she pass up the chance to get some practice talking to someone more socially awkward than she was? It's not like they'd be aware of how bad she is at conversing. Girls were supposed to be great conversationalists, and next to mister 'my guy' over here she'd look like a debate major.

Forget waiting until after the armor, she could do it while looking at it instead!

As the man went into the back, she did her best casual stride up to the blacksmith. "Yo- I mean, hi! Just gonna-" She really had to work on the slang bits, huh? "I... am here to look at armor." She barely even waited for the man's spiel before pacing off into the back, and with her low body temperature she found the heat from the whole forge area to be a comfort and a blessing.

As her target returned to her sights, like a predator going in for the kill, she... totally froze up for a few moments. Her face felt warm. Was it just the forge and the cold metabolism? Surely, right? No time to lose here. Worst case, she spilled her spaghetti and admitted to being on a quest to improve her social skills. Technically not a lie!

With a calm and decently practiced strut, she walked closer to the other beastfolk and paid extra attention to making her tail flow this way and that to accentuate the hip motions she was much more subtly working into her walk. Once she got close enough, she stopped, and her ears twitched a couple times.

"Um, excuse me." She cleared her throat softly and crossed her arms as she looked up at him. Not impatiently, but anxiously. "I just started playing, and... I was looking for someone to party up with for a bit. Did you want to?" She felt her eyes burning as she forced herself to maintain eye contact. Surely it would pay off in the long run!

@Sai

 

[Nobody]

Angel had a history of being way too cold all the darn time. And so, when the opportunity to pick this neat racial trait that promised eternal warmth presented itself, of course Sai snatched it up.

… Never had he regretted a decision so darn fast. Sure, it’d been kinda nice in the open breeze, but the moment he‘d stepped in this place, it was like getting baked alive. Ah well; that just meant he had to peruse quickly. How many different types of combat equipment could there possibly be, anyway?

"Oh. Yikes…!"

Scratching the side of his head (and using it as an opportunity to touch those weird pointy ears again), he began to quickly scan through the available items for something nice and ranged. The sorta long-range weapon he desired, where all that nasty danger would be far away. There were plenty of bows around, but archery seemed… hard. So complex, with the string, and like, where did you even hold the thing?

Suddenly, a presence interrupted the thought process. A "presence," mainly in that he felt her before he heard her: one of the only "objects" in this oven that wasn’t actively radiating absurd amounts of heat. A nice feeling, if one he wasn’t about to explore further. He turned to face the girl, raising his eyebrows as realized the crazy coincidence.

Also, why was she staring so intensely like that…?

"Oh, really!? Another beastkin newbie? That’s a wonderful coincidence, I’d lo— I mean… yeah, sure. Cool cool~ Uhm…" he paused a moment, "You can blink, though, yes? In a place like this, you’ll dry your eyes out pretty fast…"


@Tenshi

 

[Tenshi]

The tiger blinked a couple times, then finally glanced away. "I was blinking..."
She stole a few seconds to glance and shift through the UI to swipe her way into tossing this guy a party invite. The UI didn't show names? How unlike an MMO, yet... how very realistic, just as she hoped for. Now she could introduce herself. What was her name again?

As the man received his party invitation, the tiger girl spoke up again, only offering momentary glances of eye contact this time around. "My name's Tenshi, by the way." So much for being all cutesy and pretty about it. She was almost as bad at this as mister 'my guy' here. Say goodbye to that free debate major.

It was probably a good idea to strike up an actual conversation to solidify the duo's meeting. After all, Tenshi knew just how easily a Friends List could fill up with names you just barely don't want to delete but never talk to anyways. As she still had the UI open, she glanced from the invisible menu to the wolf's ears, then gulped. "So like... Have you tried turning on the game's pain receptors? It makes the ears and tail feel pretty interesting."

Speaking of the game and its options, one of those meters on this other newbie beastkin was looking a bit dangerous. Temperature? Ah, right, it was pretty hot in here. She had been enjoying it because of her chosen racial trait, but it seemed this tent needed another vent or two for everybody else's sakes. "More importantly... We should get you to somewhere cooler. Your temp gauge is looking a bit worrisome." She paused for a moment.

"And if ya need something from here, I'll grab it for ya. It's a lot cooler for me, so."

@Sai

 

[Nobody]

Sai didn’t wait for the invite, returning to selecting his gear. It wasn’t so much a matter of being rude, but wanting out as soon as possible. He quickly glanced it over as soon as it arrived, eyes widening in surprise as the blank name suddenly shifted to match the name she gave. So it just set it to whatever name you gave? Neat.

He hit accept.

"Ahaha, yes, I did earlier today, actually," Sai nodded. He wanted to twitch the ears a few times just to show illustrate, but the most he could manage was raising them slightly before they drooped right back down. It seemed those ears instinctively wished to match his mood in this place, which was positively miserable. Something Tenshi picked up on real quick.

Come on, Sai! You’ve been under worse than this! Those burning stage lights would cook anyone alive.

"I’ll be fine, I’ll be fine," he insisted with a dismissive wave of his hand, before realizing that might’ve been a bit too feminine. "Ya know, I gotta… check this stuff out myself… make sure it’s all tough enough for… huff… everything I’m gonna put it through!" Saved it. Was Tenshi spinning? Strange girl.

Oh. All the weapons were also spinning. That wasn’t a good sign.

"I just need… some armor… and…"

Thirst level: CRITICAL!

Suddenly, Sai collapsed toward his new party member.


@Tenshi

 

[Tenshi]

Tenshi yelped in surprise as her new party member had collapsed onto her, fearing that he would be too heavy for her to hold up without any of her planned buffs to strength meeting fruition yet. Thankfully, she seemed to be stronger than even her real life self was as she caught the man in an awkward and admittedly chilly hug. Usually, something like this would be yet another 'trope moment', but she had actually had this happen at work before as well. It was just a little piece of reality in fantasy for a moment. "Hey- Hang on, okay? We're going to get you some water!" She was probably being a bit too optimistic thinking he would hear that.

She struggled to get the wolf behind her for a bit, but finally was able to lean forward and get him onto her back, whereafter she began to carry him back out into the open. As she passed by the blacksmith, she stopped at the edge of the tent, trying to get him out of the heat as quickly as she could. "Hey!" She called to the NPC. "He needs water!" Now that she thought about it, she also hadn't had anything to drink since she got here. Maybe once her nameless party member recovered, the two could get some fantasy world lunch before going to test out the combat system for a little bit.

-- -- --

When Sai next gathered himself back to the land of the conscious, he would find himself sitting in a padded booth at some sort of brightly decorated cafe. His hair and face was damp, but a towel loosely draped around his neck and shoulders made sure that only his hair and face were that way. Not only that, but the same tigress from before stood over him with a cool, damp cloth against his forehead. Less importantly, the table had four glasses of water on it, as well as two colorful, hand-drawn menus rife with calligraphy.

@Sai

 

[Nobody]

The next several minutes passed by in a haze. Sai wasn't sure if he was moving or not; everything was spinning, but it was pretty obvious why. Obvious, at least, if he had the capacity to think clearly. In reality, the game had even turned his mind hazy, which was... worrying. But also kinda cool.

Cool...
Something felt nice and cool...

As Sai felt his senses return to him, his eyes opened, feeling the cool towel, and then turning to the water. WATER!

The four glasses last about half a minute, and even that was being a bit generous. Every drop was a relief he was delighted to receive. And once he'd finished devouring way more water than his stomach was comfortable with, he sighed in relief and turned to address the lovely angel helping keep his forehead cool.

"Whew, thanks so much... Tenshi!" He always made an effort to remember names. Raising his hand to hers, he took the cloth from her hand to save her the effort. "So... uhm... it seems this game has some... pretty realistic thirst too, ehe-- cough, hah!" Did guys go hah? Yeah, probably. Better than the giggle he'd almost gone with.


@Tenshi

 

[Tenshi]

As she watched him lay waste to the generous amount of water in front of him, Tenshi let out a long sigh of relief as the cloth was taken from her. The tiger girl crossed her arms and looked on at Sai with a slight smile, and also concern, probably. "That sounds about right for what I've read about it online. It's painfully realistic." She sat herself across from her still unnamed party member and suddenly shot up as she meowled loudly in pain. "P-... Painfully realistic...! See?"

She reached back and massaged the base of her tail for a bit before sitting down more carefully this time. It seemed she either had to lean slightly forward while sitting up straight or sit sideways, and given her new life goals it just had to be the former. With her wrists gently resting against the edge of the table, she began to peer at the menu. "Anyways, I think it'll be a good idea for us to have something to eat and drink before we go out and actually do things. What do you think... erm, sir?"

@Sai

 

[Nobody]

Sai stifled a chuckle as irony came to bite Tenshi in the… tail. That was a lesson he was glad to have learned this way instead of the hard way. "Wonderful example~" he smiled with a hint of sarcasm. That was bound to come back and haunt him some day, but for now, he was already seated the right way, so bullet dodged!

Although come to think of it, wasn’t fainting in public supposed to be embarrassing for guys or something like that? That wasn’t really the chillax vibe he was going for though. He’d just brush it aside with a quick, "Really though, thanks for the help. That kinda came out of nowhere."

With a shrug, he channeled his inner chill (metaphorically speaking; he was still a bit hot), crossing his legs and grabbing the menu to casually looking it over. Getting called ‘sir‘ was interesting. Definitely never heard that before.

"Yes… yeah, that’s—" Wait a minute! No, she hadn’t done that just to validate his newly acquired masculinity! That was clearly a subtle request for a name! Jeez, he was really out of it today.

"Uhm… well…" he felt a bead of sweat drip down the side of his head, though it might’ve just been water from the towel. He’d thought about it quite a lot, of course, but this was the first real introduction, so there was something very final about; as if speaking the name locked it in. For the UI, it probably would.

"Sssssss Snnnniiii," his eyes shut, as if he was trying to speak some forbidden incantation and couldn’t quite push it out. "… Sai. Just call me Sai." He couldn’t. He just couldn’t. There was a limit to the chill attitude, and that was where he drew the line.

"Anyway, I’m all for a quick meal. I noticed there was a ’Hunger’ meter too, so… I guess it’s pretty obvious how that one works."


@Tenshi

 

[Tenshi]

"Mhm. Have you not read about them yet?" She didn't really wait for the seemingly obvious response, caring more about this poor player's well-being at the moment. "Health and Energy are mostly combat-related, so you'll figure those out. Rest is basically just making sure you get enough sleep, Temperature can let you know if you're overheating or freezing to death, and Hunger and Thirst are self-explanatory. Actually, I'm curious. How quickly does your Hunger gauge lower?"

She looked up from the menu or glancing here and there as she recalled each of the gauges to explain and actually looked at Sai now. "See, I took that one racial trait that makes your hunger gauge deplete slower, but also makes me colder. Cold Metabolism, or something. So I was wondering how it compares to the base rate of depletion."

Tenshi buried her eyes in the menu as she could hardly even read it anymore. She was too busy chastising herself internally for speaking like such a nerd. Slowly but surely, she pulled her thoughts to the menu. What she should order... Instead of some actual meal, she was more insistent on trying to figure out what a girl would order, and that riddle was taking a while to crack.

@Sai

 

[Nobody]

"I… glanced at them," Sai countered. He’d been too busy with all the mastery and racial stuff to worry about the basics, which was evidently a mistake. "Right, yes, I saw health and energy in the mastery screen a lot. I’m still learning, okay?"

Sai opened his mouth again to answer the question, but his stomach did the answering for him, howling like a…… hungry stomach. A bright red blush fell on his cheeks as the deep-seated fear of such things took hold against his will. He fought hard against it, though, pushing through with an awkward chuckling. "Haaahah! Well… I’ve been playing for a few hours so far, so… that fast," he answered.

"That’s quite a coincidence though, I actually did the opposite! I get cold really fast on the outside, so I thought I’d change it up in here. That smithy really made me rethink that decision though; being warm is great, but hot is another thing entirely…" Sai dabbed the delightfully cool cloth on his forehead, then went straight down his arms. All that awful sweat… yuck. Some powder would be really nice right now.

Returning to the menu, his first thought was… quaint. No creme brûlée, no caviar, no sirloin steak; just "cheeseburger" or "french bread" or "ham sandwich." Well, now he wasn’t signing business contracts with huge sums involved, he supposed the tiny prices were a blessing.

"This pepperoni pretzel sounds nice…" Sai nodded. "Do you know what you want? I can ring for the waiter. Where’s the bell…?"


@Tenshi

 

[Tenshi]

"Oh, you took the hot one? Nice, bro!" Her eyes widened, and she began a panic-mode recovery. Girls don't say bro like that usually, so she had to play equalizer against it. It wouldn't be easy, but she had to. "W-What are the odds? That's pretty cute of us, right? One hot, one cold, like a freshly baked brownie topped with ice cream!" That was so cutesy, and her execution was... decent! Recovery successful, though she'd have to stay on her toes.

She decided to give the menu another glance over before she closed it, just in time to hear Sai mutter something so strange that it made her ears twitch and do their best to align such that such a whisper could be heard more clearly. "Nya? A bell?" She looked around until she made eye contact with a waitress down the way, then waved her down, looking back to Sai. "I wish I'd ever been to a restaurant with a bell on the table!"

As a totally different waitress was sent over to help the duo, she did an ask of their orders. Tenshi literally almost gave the go ahead nod to Sai without thinking, but then realized that this was the only time she would ever be able to take advantage of the whole 'ladies first' thing.

"May I please have a water? And to eat I'll just take a cheeseburger and fries, please." She was polite smiles all the way through.

The waitress dotted down Tenshi's order, then looked to the wolf. "And for you, sir?" There she was, hitting him with the second 'sir' of his career. Two further along than Tenshi's 'ma'am' count.

@Sai

 

[Nobody]

Sai’s eyes widened slightly as Tenshi performed her legendary “save.” Was she… flirting with him!? It wasn’t like Sai wasn’t used to this sort of thing in the outside world, but being on the other end of it was beyond weird. Plus, had he seriously picked up interest after just a few hours of playing…!? Was this a date!?

Gah; awkward!

“If you don’t have a bell, then how do you–” he cut himself off as the question was answered by example. “O-oh… right, yes.” It was actually incredible that she’d heard his whisper, but he should’ve known better. These ears really were pretty incredible.

Sai wasn’t used to going last: mainly because anytime she was ever in public, she was usually the first person anyone addressed, along with a quick “OMG I love your music” and some short squeeing. He always loved that, but flying under the radar wasn’t totally unpleasant either. He had some extra time to think about his order, which as it turns out, would be rather necessary, because…

“Right, I’d like one of these pepperoni pretzels, medium rare, lightly browned; I’ll leave the remaining details to the chef. Also, a side order of the mixed salad: cheddar for the cheese, a lightly applied sweet-and-sour dressing, with–” It took until this point to realize the waitress had stopped writing down his decrees and instead opted to throw him a strange look.

“Uhm… or… the pretzel and a salad… however you usually make… those…” Sai’s grin was strained, but even so, he had a natural charisma that was hard to remain angry at.

“Ooookay then, they’ll be right out.”

“Thanks…!” Sai nodded, turning to Tenshi. While the idea of this being a date was certainly awkward, he wasn’t about to let silence make it any more so. “So, why’d you end up picking a tiger, out of curiosity? I picked a wolf because they look kinda carefree to me. Awoooo~”

That was a terrible howl. He’d work have to on that.


@Tenshi

 

[Tenshi]

Tenshi couldn't help but to raise an eyebrow at Sai, or anybody else who ordered a pretzel of all things medium rare. Still she remained patient, pleasant, and polite to the very moment the waitress was gone, then looked at the wolf across the table from her. As much as she wanted to ask about his order, he seemed to want to change the subject, and she could respect that. She was kind of terrible at this as well.

"Carefree, huh? I can see that." Slowly, Tenshi began trying to put pieces together to make sense of this man who barely seemed able to take care of himself. At least in a place like this. "I suppose I picked a tiger because... well, they're... majestic. Like a good half-and-half of beautiful and powerful." Her ears lowered and she looked off to her right to the wall next to her as her nerves got the better of her. "Actually, I also picked Cold Metabolism because of how I am in real life. I have to work around food, so the thought of not having to be around it as much was appealing."

Since he was asking about her, she had to ask about him, right? What kind of courtesy was that, though? It's not as though he was asking her about herself so she would ask about him. So why was he asking about her? Maybe it was just small talk, or maybe... he thought she was interesting, or better and worse at the same time: cute. Her face grew pink as she continued to hide it by looking anywhere other than right at Sai. "S-So..."

"Have... you planned out your build yet?" She finally looked at him as she transferred most of her nervous energy into her now practically vibrating leg and tail, which was curled up into the air behind her back.

@Sai

 

[Nobody]

Sai nodded slowly as Tenshi gave her answer. "I see, I see… good choice!" he remarked. "Although, technically, wouldn’t you be a Tigress?" That felt nice to say without worrying about angry feminists shouting at her online. That’d happened at least twice that she could recall. Not a pleasant PR nightmare to live through. It was just one, little reminder of how nice it was to not have to worry about that crap.

... Except he was still worrying about "that crap," so...

...

Also, that blush was not helping calm down the romance vibes either. Sheesh, neither of them had said anything embarrassing, had they? Maybe Sai had just made the character too hot...

With a nod, Sai cartoonishly flashed a thumbs up and grinned. "Yeah, man!" Casual enough? Maybe. But she wasn't a man, so it wasn't too accurate. Eh, remember: casual, casual! "I was thinking I'd fight from a distance, 'cuz..." I'm a coward and don't wanna get hurt. No no no, that's too casual! "I... like guns." Now there was a perfect guy line if he'd ever heard one.


@Tenshi

 

[Tenshi]

Tenshi only began to blush more at being called a 'tigress', mostly due to the 'ess' part. The newly dubbed tigress began shaking even more as her other leg had joined in the festival of nervous tremors while she listened to the just as awkward guy stumble through basic conversation. Granted, she hardly noticed how much trouble he was having since she was very much in the same boat.

"Guns?" The vibrating ceased as her ears perked up, and she chuckled a bit. "I'll be honest, I almost went the way of trying to stack up for an AA-12, but I figured it'd get a little same-y after a little while. You know: point shotgun in general direction of enemy, hold trigger until no there's no longer enemy?" She chuckled just a bit, and her tail began to wave about behind her in smooth, curled arcs as she fell forward into the conversation topic to help get rid of the awkwardness she had been feeling.

"Actually, that should make us a pretty good team, since you're ranged and I'm melee. I went the way of... well, without talking your head off trying to explain it , I really am playing a tigress... Or, at least trying to. I think the biggest problem we'll run into is that I can't actually heal yet, so we'll have to be careful."

@Sai

 

[Nobody]

Sai tilted his head slightly as the girl on the other side of the table suddenly became a tuning fork. That was pretty weird, but she didn't look upset, so the offended feminist theory was out. That was a relief. Not for her evidently, but there was no deciphering that, even though he was usually pretty good at reading people.

...

Suddenly, the nervous vibrations had traveled from Tigress to Wolf. "Ahaha, yes! Maybe I'll also need to... stack up an AA-12 shotgun... when I have enough money, of course." What the heck did that even mean!? Sai knew two guns: pistol (small baby gun), and sniper... gun (longboi that did the far away shooting). And he obviously wished to be as far away as possible!

"Ahah! Yes, we could be a great team, ma-- my gal~!" Another thumbs up. "Assuming I don't... you know... miss. That might take some practice. Although, the biggest problem is actually that I can't find a gun at all! The menu said they existed, but I'm pretty sure the smith didn't have any. I dunno, maybe they're rare items you gotta find?"


@Tenshi

 

[Tenshi]

Yeah, so this guy doesn't know a thing about guns. To be fair, Tenshi wasn't exactly an expert, but poor Sai probably couldn't actually explore his interest in them in the real world, and that was why he was trying to use them in here. She wasn't going to lay into him for something like that.

Could his awkwardness just be the result of a lack of confidence? Maybe she could help him with that, though she wasn't sure how. Just like she wasn't sure how to find a firearm in this game either.

"I wouldn't worry too much about missing. Just turn on Auto-Assist and it should aim for you. As far as finding a gun... At the very least, since this is the starting town of an MMO, we should be able to find a more veteran player who can help us." She paused for a few seconds as she realized something terrible, bringing a smirk to her lips. "Maybe even just straight up give us one. Sound good?"

She looked at her hands for a moment, then to Sai. "Um, by the way, can I see something really quick?" She held her right hand out with her palm facing towards him. "Put your hand against mine for a second?"

@Sai

 

[Nobody]

That moment of silence was pretty telling. Just how bad did he screw up the gun lingo? Best not dwell on it, or he'd never sleep tonight. Then again, that might help. Clearly, he had some firearm-related Googling to do later.

"Auto-Assist... that sounds helpful!" Sai nodded. As for finding a veteran to help, that just made loads of sense! "Ah, that's a great idea! People can be extremely helpful if you ask nicely! At the very least, a local should be able to point us in the right direction, I'd hope."

Wait a minute... how much was that real life position playing into her view of strangers...? Well, Tenshi was already psyched to help him find a weapon, and she'd helped him after the collapse, so maybe people were just generally helpful? Just maybe with fewer people willing to pay hundreds of dollars for his autograph.

"Ah, great! Food!" He leaned back to make way for the waitress to present the dishes, which were... definitely food. Sure, the presentation had a lot to be desired, but the smell was pretty mouthwatering, and he was hungry enough that just about anything would be satisfying by that degree alone.

A few bites in and he sped up to the point where it was gone before a minute was up. There was just something so satisfying about eating when that hungry! Then he turned to the salad, and it was... a bit less satisfying, honestly. Still, it was finished fairly quickly as well, and by the end, he felt like he could go for seconds. Incredible, honestly: in the real world, he would've been full after half of that pretzel.

"Huh?" Strange request, but he shrugged and held his hand out, placing it against Tenshi's. "Wow, that 'cold' part really isn't metaphorical, huh..." Not to mention the difference in shape and size; that felt pretty weird.


@Tenshi

 

[Tenshi]

Tenshi for her part was practically drooling at the sight of this strangely homemade village burger. She lifted the top bun and grabbed a few fries to put onto the actual burger, careful to use only her left hand to keep the other clean. Suddenly she paused. The way she usually ate this sort of dish was pretty messy. Maybe she shouldn't.

As she did her best to hide the disappointment from her face at the prospect of adhering to manners instead of eating the best way, she simply took a bite halfway down the cluster of fries she had picked up. It was still good, actually!

She did the 'put her hand out' thing with her clean hand, and paused as she focused more on how it felt. "Hah... Yeah, it's... It isn't, huh?..." Rather than the stinging warmth of being colder than the air outside, Sai's hand was a rare and pleasant sort of warm, like an electric blanket in the winter. Not to mention how she hadn't noticed until now just how different hands can be from one another, much less... well, given her situation, hers from her own.

She got too lost in the comfortable warmth for a bit to remember to pull away for the time being, stuffing the once-bitten fries in her mouth.

@Sai