[prp] hot fries (leila + burning man)

[cibarium]

Being vegetarian meant eating french fries at a place like McDonald's was probably a cardinal sin, but Leila didn't much care and honestly thought people who freaked out over technicalities like that were missing the whole point. It was 11pm, she'd lost track of time between grading s**t and filling out other papers for the police department, and she didn't want to wake everyone up clambering around in the kitchen. Besides, she had a craving. Now she was making a brisk walk to the counter, having been called up after waiting at the condiment table for for large order of fries. The second she turned back around the lighting had flickered and the other patrons had vanished and dammit, she was in other ashdown again.

Alone.

With her fries, and not nearly enough ketchup to eat them. Unlike many of her peers, she hadn't developed any magic that would help her find a way out, so she was probably going to be there for a little while. Also, she wasn't technically alone in here in the. OtherMcdonalds.

Ezra was there.

The burning man was sitting over at a table set against the wall like he was a regular customer, and not a magic man on fire who'd been alive for God knows how long and served on a magic Court to do things like plan human sacrifices meant to bring about the magic apocalypse. The burning man, who'd ******** with Jeremiah's head more times and in more ways than she was entitled to know. And hurt plenty of other people, in plenty of other ways. Was sitting. In a booth. At the ******** Othermcdonalds.

Leila decided that the best course of action was to pretend not to notice him. Just sit down, eat her fries, keep her neck bones rigid as a PVC pipe. She sat not quite on the other side of the lobby, facing away from him, looked down at her fries and tried to eat one, but it turned out she didn't want them anymore.

Ezra was still there.

Didn't he have something better to do?

shibrugane

(grunt voice) shepper

 

[shibrogane]

Ezra didn't seem to have noticed Leila. His face was directed out at the weirdly dry other ashdown night, though whether he's even awake was debatable at that point, since, you know, he hadn't moved at all. His hands were folded on the table before him; his posture didn't scream, but it did say politely I am comfortable here. That'd be a new one for the record books.

He hummed a snatch of song to himself, the first sound or sign of life, and rested his chin on his knuckles. Whatever was out there must have been fascinating.

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

That was... humming. Was Ezra in a good mood? Leila hadn't even considered that possible. Then again, she hadn't given the kind of thought to the man it took to imagine him as a person with moods at all. For all she knew, sitting around in fast food joints and humming to himself was just something he liked to do in his spare time.

She wished she hadn't thought that. It was really depressing.

Welp. This was awkward.

Leila attempted to eat a fry. That worked okay. She tried a second, then a third. The fourth seemed to be a sure bet halfway through it but dammit, she couldn't take it anymore. The humming had been just so uncharacteristic it was insufferable. Now it felt like she was sharing a room with a ******** cartoon character.

And so, against her better judgment, she picked her tray up and wove around the lobby until she'd sat herself pointedly at the adjacent table. "Hi there," she tried. "Pardon me if I don't look at you. It's actually because I don't wanna deal with accidentally having a vision about you."

shibrgane

 

[shibrogane]

Ezra was in a good mood. Such a good mood, in fact, that when Leila dropped in I don't want to look at you he didn't even mind. Or at least he didn't seem to mind, since his attention remained on the starry sky outside.

"Of course," he said. "I imagine such a thing would be singularly unpleasant. I shouldn't like to know if I would continue to be on fire, for instance."

His tone was almost jovial. What the ******** class="quote">

cibarium

[cibarium]

Dear god, he was acting all approachable. Friendly. Infectiously cheerful, even. He'd subverted Eve's expectations too, but not like this. Leila decided to just play along with it. ******** it.

"More like I might see something I can't actually describe and get stuck in a migraine feedback loop until my head explodes," she replied, just as congenially. And ate another fry. "Are you gonna tell me what's got you in such high spirits, or is that another one of Magic Land's big secrets?"

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"Something one of yours did has changed the shape of the cage," said Ezra, who seemed delighted. "It may be that I will soon be free of--" he waved a hand through the air "--all of this. No more tithes, no more fetches. I can be something like what I was again."

He smiled at Leila, though the expression is in his posture more than his face. "Should I not be celebrating?"

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

"Well, when you put it that way..."

It was an unusual point, but a salient one. Eve was probably a little happy about it too even though they had no idea what that all meant yet. But the feeling of being trapped by everything had taken its toll on them and everyone else they knew who'd gotten roped in by it.

"Do you, uh." do you eat? She scooted her fry box in Ezra's direction instead. "I think I overestimated how hungry I was. If you want some fries."

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Ezra took a fry. It got rather charred between his fingers, its neighbors becoming significantly crispier (though not quite burnt). "Thank you," he said politely, and he ate it. "I do eat," he said. "Mostly for pleasure. You're Eve's wife."

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

Leila loved it when fries got extra crispy, so in the most unexpected fashion imaginable this conversation was actually working out. "Yes, I am," she replied, proudly. Damn right she was married to Eve. She kept the fry box where it was in a wordless offer for more fries if he decided it would be nice to eat more, while also herding the crispier ones away for herself. "And you have some attachment to my wife I can't specifically describe," she added, just as candidly. "But honestly, that's between you two."

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"I'm sure," said Ezra. "Is she well? Is she--she took in the girl, didn't she? Tanushka. Little red."

Lady was not little by any means.

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

"Yeah," Leila nodded. "She's living with us. I think she'll be okay. Eve likes having her around."

shibrgane

 

[shibrogane]

Ezra nodded, distraction stealing over what little could be seen of his features. His crackled, cooked flesh didn't stretch the way it ought. It pulled like old, cracked leather pulled. Where his skin warped, charcoal flames shone through. "And how are you?" He didn't have quite the same tender tone in his voice as when he asked after Eve. Still, he wasn't pronouncing doom, so that was something, right?

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

She wasn't expecting to be asked how she was doing.

Even though it was, by all means, a polite conversation. That made it a matter of course. The relative indifference to Ezra's tone was obvious, though, and and it further ignited Leila's curiosity about whatever had gone on between him and some version of Eve once upon a time. But that was still none of her business.

"I... guess... I'm fine?" she offered. "We didn't get to see the Shore collection though, sorry to say. I could go on about the rest of my life, but I don't expect you'd find it too exciting."

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"I may not be as effusive about it," said Ezra, "but you are just as important to me as Eve is." He shrugged about that, taking another fry. How was he eating them when they were so charred?? Dude must like the taste of burnt. "The collection still exists, though it's true your chances of seeing it are slim to none. The witch doesn't like when her things are toyed with."

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

"Sorry, but I don't think I buy that."

Crunch went a crispy fry.

"Not about the witch and her stuff, about me. Eve has this... this whole effect on you. While I might as well be a stranger you thought you'd pass the time with. You must be in a better mood than I thought."

shibrogane