burger flippiiiiin

[nyxus]

Who: Nyx & Anybody
When: Morning and Evening, end of May
Where: Pax Hamburgana
What: Working hard, or hardly working? Stop by for service with a smile! :D
Warnings: G. I will switch to brackets if you prefer that!


e a r l y.

The diner didn't serve breakfast, though understandably there still had to be someone there relatively early. Prep work needed to be done: goodies baked, beans boiled, dough kneaded, pickles sliced, and so on. Nyx wasn't really a morning person but he didn't mind taking the early shifts. One benefit was that he could play music as loud as he wanted to and sing along while he worked without worrying about anyone interrupting his (non-existent) musical talents.

This morning in particular a song with a heavy beat and danceable melody came on, which had Nyx not only singing along but dancing back and forth around the kitchen as he put together the ingredients for the Strawberry Rhubarb Pie. Personally he hated the taste of the pie, but it sure did smell wonderful baking. He was in a good mood, and entirely unaware that he hadn't locked up the diner after himself, nor did he hear any sounds of anyone coming in.

l a t e.

Nights like this reminded him of the bar he and Libertus ran back home. It was dark outside, there were only a few stragglers left eating or drinking, and the mood was super mellow. He was tired; it had been a long day. It had been a profitable day though and Nyx was pretty sure that Kaz Grumpyface Miller might even be pleased with the ledger. No new customers had come in during the past half hour and he began his nightly cleaning ritual.

Nyx might have not had the most spotless apartment but when it came to his job, he was meticulous. He loved the idea of every piece of cooking equipment from the stove to the spatula being shiny and glittering clean. There was something therapeutic about it. Or, maybe, he told himself that because going home alone to an empty apartment really sucked after awhile. Whatever the reason, Nyx was not afraid to use all the elbow grease he had to make sure the stove had not even a micro-atom of grease anywhere on it.

Comments

[nyxus]

Ten seconds, twenty seconds, "Mister? You okay?"

Forty-five seconds, fifty-five, "I'll uh. I'll just be over here, you let me know if you need anything."

Nyx left the man alone, having no clue what was wrong with him but not wanting to make him angry if he just wanted to be left alone. Nyx brought a cup of coffee out to the man a few minutes later but when it hadn't been touched ten minutes after that, he took it back and dumped it out.

When the half-hour mark rolled around, Nyx brought out a fresh glass of ice water, a mug of hot tea, and some plain toast. He really didn't know what else to do. It was as he was setting the plate of toast down when the stranger finally seemed to notice his presence. Nyx smiled, a bit uneasily. "Hiya. You alright?"

[full_of_bad_ideas]

Isaac turned from the server with a furrow to his brow and he looked around the restaurant and then down to the space before him. “Oh, thanks..” He had assumed he had asked for the order of toast and thought that he was a lot hungrier than this. “Di… did … I already get my meal?” He drew his tongue over the front of his teeth and couldn’t taste anything in his mouth so he asked again, “beef and toast with gravy? I mean..” He then reached for his water and felt the cool glass against his palm. He drew in a breath and took back his hand and looked back up to the server.

“Or did I get steak and eggs? … The toast is fine.” He quickly resolved. “Thanks. How much do I owe?” He reached then in his pocket for his wallet.

[nyxus]

Nyx could only stare awkwardly while the man tried to work out his thoughts, and his order. He had a soft furrow to his brow, and at the offer of paying he shook his head. "You didn't order yet. I didn't know what you wanted so I brought you some toast."

It was late, the guy was still the only one here, and by all rights Nyx could have told him to get lost and come back during regular hours. The problem was that at heart, Nyx was a big softy and he could tell this dude was already pretty damned lost. He didn't seem dangerous or unmanageable at the moment, and while part of his brain was saying he should still kick him out, Nyx couldn't.

"I can make you a burger, how does that sound?" He touched the menu already on the table, as kindly as he could. He gave his customer a slight smile.

[full_of_bad_ideas]

Isaac’s brows lifted and he gave the menu a glance before he returned his sights to the server. “Oh, sure.. yeah.” He drew in a sharp breath and exhaled before he brought his hand back to the glass of water. He looked then to the server and blinked as if that would be any help to remember what had transpired in his time here. “What’s this place?” He finally asked before he looked to the menu’s name. “Oh.” He snorted. “Burger is fine.” He nodded and slid the glass closer to him but still he didn’t pick it up.

His back then felt tight and he considered he had already worked a full day and was likely on his way home when he became distracted one way or another and found himself in this place for some dinner. Or at least that’s his pattern after work. It was good his body knew what it needed and worked off of auto-pilot to the nearest restaurant rather than off a cliff somewhere.

[nyxus]

"Sure, man. Relax, try some of the tea maybe. Green tea's calming, right? I'll be just a few minutes in the kitchen." Nyx frowned as he turned and walked to the kitchen, with a backward glance over his shoulder at the stranger. He was an odd Flan, that was for sure.

It took only about ten minutes to cook up the burger, and he added plenty of ketchup while plating it. Nyx stared at the plate a few moments before he turned and got some pie out of the refrigerator and cut a large slice which went onto a second plate. Content, he walked back out to the dining room and placed these in front of the man and gave him a small but warm smile.

"There you go. I'm Nyx; haven't seen you here before. What'll I call you?"

[full_of_bad_ideas]

Isaac did, in fact, enjoy his tea and to keep him in the present he pulled out his notebook where he had various work designs in it for the projects he was running. He did some calculations and focused on some drawings of parts within a transmitter. This busy work helped him keep focus and before he knew it the server came back with his food. His eyes went immediately to the pie and he had a big grin to his face. "That looks really amazing.. something from home.. actually, all of it." He chuckled and set aside his journal and pencil. He looked then to the burger and at the greeting he lifted his eyes. "Oh, right.. Nyx, I'm Isaac Clarke.. I guess I just haven't been here before.. I'm somewhat new to this.. world. Actually, I am." He shook his head and looked down to his hamburger before he felt his stomach tighten with a soft growl. "Thanks, I appreciate it. Looks good."

[nyxus]

Nyx debated whether to leave him in peace or intrude. Leaving him in peace hadn't seemed very great before, and hell, he was basically done with all of his shift closing work. Nyx wondered for a moment longer before he slid his butt along the opposite bench from Isaac. If the guy wanted to tell him to piss off he could.

"You're welcome. I'm relatively new here myself, only been a few months. I'm from a world called Eos. Did you know people can show up from our worlds that we know? I have one person here, who I didn't know personally but was aware of. I think that helps, a little." Nyx gave him a friendly smile, hoping that it did help in some way. Maybe the guy had a wife and kids or a best friend he could hold out hope for showing up through the Ingress one of these days.

[full_of_bad_ideas]

He hadn't realized just how hungry he was, he had about three bites of the burger before Nyx was finished speaking and onto asking him a question--sort of. Isaac thought about having people he knew from home coming here and he was hoping they were here. There was a whole lot of reasons to come to this world and maybe he ended up coming because he died. Although, he sure as hell felt alive. The last thing he could recall was meeting earth with the imposing Brethren Moons. He slowed in his chewing after that thought.

He lowered his hands and his head dipped some as he stared down at his plate of food. The intensity of that moment was nothing he'll ever forget. After all he's done, after all they've been through, it wasn't enough. They couldn't save Earth. They couldn't stop the threat.

Even here, could they hone in on his madness, could they follow his trail to this world? Would they come for him, would they come for them all once again? He wasn't good for anyone, if that was the case, his being here was a curse.

"Eos.." He wondered if that world was in their reach as well. "I'm from Earth.. Although.. I've been to other planets before myself.. this is.. usually done by a ship, I can't explain how I came here without one."

[nyxus]

"Yeah? I've met a few people from Earth. The owner of this place, Kazuhira Miller, he's from Earth." Nyx was glad the man was speaking to him and seemed calm and oriented now, calm but very hungry. "This is my first time on another world. We didn't have uhm, interplanetary ships on Eos. We had a lot of technology but not that advanced."

Nyx gave a shrug and another easy smile. "The Ingress, some kind of worm hole or something. It doesn't make any sense to me I don't know anything about space or physics. From what I can tell, no one really knows much about how it works. Say, if you could choose one person from home to show up here, who would it be?"

[full_of_bad_ideas]

Ellie came to mind almost instantly. However, he just didn't know if he could hope enough to see her. His heart weighed and he shook his head before he stilled and brought up his hands to silence himself with another few bites. There was a lot of reason to see more than just one person here and he had to remind himself that this was completely hypothetical, yet, he still couldn't help but think of John and his family. They didn't deserve what happened to them, none of them did. Well, some of them got what they deserved but either way Isaac couldn't go there, he couldn't judge, he couldn't condemn them.

"Everyone.. if they could come here, I'd take everyone.." He said heavily before he swallowed back some of his food with his drink. Once he set his glass down he looked to Nyx. "My world.. my story, ... I come from a time on earth where alien beings are coming down to wipe us out.. there's no hope, there's just death.. terrible, terrible death. The rebirth... even worse."