Candy and Gyros

We took Jess to one of the Cafés we frequented whenever in the city. It was a nice place where they had these tiny sandwiches and finger food snacks that were very cute, despite the price, which was not cute at all.

The food and drinks here were always freshly made with ingredients from local farms. If that wasn’t enough to make us regulars, the service here was very kind, especially to newcomers.

“You really will buy me something here?” Jess nervously twirled her skirt. “Thank you, but I can just use the money I got from before from all those nice people.”

“Save that for when you really need it,” Yamin said, pulling out her crystal ID card to pay for the food. “Let me treat you to something nice. Whatever you want off the menu. Pick out as much as you’d like.” Yamin did a cute little hand clap and gestured to the green blackboard menu.

Why is it called a blackboard anyways when it’s actually green? It doesn’t make any sense!

Jess was practically drooling since we got in here and had been eyeing the big display of foods to the right of the line. When Yamin gave her permission, she did the unthinkable and ordered…

“One of everything!” she exclaimed.

“One… Of… Everything…?” Yamin’s eye twitched as she turned to me, her smile still holding the line. “She wants one of everything…?”

Yamin was eating her words. She had a particular budget she had to stick to, so instead she had to turn to me to pick up the tab.

“I can just use the church funds, I suppose.” I pulled out my own ID card.

“Are you sure about that?” Yamin’s brow fell with remorse. “I know you don’t like to use that money unless it’s an emergency...”

Jess seemed like she needed some food. She had that starving artist vibe to her, especially if she went three days without eating. I just couldn’t get over how she didn’t seem the least bit weakened by that stretch of fasting.

“Well, feeding the hungry is as important as it gets, right?” I rationalized.

Luckily Jess wasn’t listening to our conversation and was busy asking the barista if he’d make her a gyro salad in addition to everything. Kael, who today wore a blond wig with bangs swooped over one eye, eyebrows stylized in spirals, a lollipop in his mouth like a cigarette, and a charming suit, surprised us all by saying he could supplement any meat with gyros for a tiny extra cost, since it wasn’t unheard of for people to request it. There were hearts in that witch's eyes upon hearing that, so I figured there wasn’t any turning back now.

“You're the best, Kael!” Jess said. “I’ve got such a crush on you,” she winked to him. “If you asked me out, I’d totally think about it.”

“Oh my…” Yamin blushed as she covered up her mouth in shock. “So bold!”

“You flatter me…” The young barista looked a little intimidated at first, but gave a charming smile and snickered. “But I already have a girl of my own…” He turned to me with a hint of nerves clearly showing in his expression. 

“Hey, uh, Yalda? Is this girl for real?”

“Empirically, yes she’s real.” I patted her a few times on the shoulder to show she was corporeal. “Emotionally? I have absolutely no idea yet.”

“That’s what I figured.” The barista nodded. “Well, guess we better fire up those rotisseries…”

Jess was a weird one that I couldn’t quite get a read on. She had some social skills and a lot of charisma, but I could tell she probably didn’t interact with people all that often based on some of the quiet parts she spoke out loud.

While we waited for the food to be ready, Yamin picked out a nice table next to the window for us to sit at. She liked that spot because it caught a nice amount of light from the glowing Halloween decorations just outside, and we could still see a lot of the costumes people wore as they passed by.

After about an hour of cooking away, our order was finally completed and our table was as packed with food as it could get. Jess was eyeing everything like it was a prize in a contest she’d won.

“Thank you so much for all this! I hope we can all enjoy this meal together!” Jess said, playfully strumming her bouzouki.

“Wait, did you order all this for yourself, or everyone?” Yamin asked.

“Everyone, of course!” she said. “Food is so much better when everyone gets to enjoy it together. Right? Especially big meals like this.”

I couldn’t argue with that, nor could I imagine Jess devouring a table’s worth of food alone, or so I assumed. Once we said grace, that girl polished off plate after plate like it was a race, and this was her last meal.

“Where is she putting it all?” Yamin whispered to me. “If I ate like that, I’d blimp out.”

Maybe she was like me. We Exceed could eat a ton because our bodies broke the food down very quickly into subatomic particles.

“Don’t forget, Indena and Marek can really pack it away too,” I said. “Some people just know how to eat.”

If there was one thing that I knew humans practically built their civilizations around, it was specific food items that catered to their culture. To be honest, I’m glad they did, because the things they made were always so tasty!

“Sometimes I wish I wasn’t a vegetarian.” Yamin sighed as she consistently snacked on any vegan finger foods available. “There's so little options to choose from...”

She talked like she was mostly exempt from eating, but anything that wasn’t gyro meat on this table was either on her plate, in her hands, or already in her mouth or stomach. And there was PLENTY for her picky pallet.

Seeing as I wasn’t super hungry, I just pecked away at the scraps that those two left behind. Plus with all the candy I had stuffed in my bucket, I was fine letting them get their fill.

“So…” Jess finally decided to speak up after about ten minutes of stuffing her face. “What are you both dressed up as?”

I’m surprised she didn’t ask that earlier, but now was as good a time as any to wonder.

Yamin was in a bright orange martial arts gi and blue belt and undershirt, which she explained was the outfit of a super warrior from another world. It’s more of a legend, but spawned a lot of merchandise and stories about monkey boys traveling west.

As for me, I just kinda’ picked this dress from the costume store. Someone told me it was about an angel bird girl who really liked singing and pulling carriages… But I had no idea who they were talking about. I guess I related pretty well to her because of my wings?

“So, Jess.” Yamin smiled at her. “Who are you dressed as?”

Jess’s eyes went wide as she took a bite out of a hunk of meat. “Uh, myself.” She said with her mouth full.

“Y-yourself?” Yamin’s smile fell. “What does that mean?”

“I’m dressed as a…” *BURP* “...dressed as a witch because I am a witch.”

She said that loud enough that the whole room twisted toward her in shock. Even the record playing in the corner abruptly came to a stop for some reason too and made that all too iconic scratchy sound.

“Yaaalda…” Yamin side eyed me. “She says she’s a real W. I. T. C. H.”

“I heard,” I sighed, recovering from nearly choking on food. “Actually, now that she mentioned it…”

She didn’t just look the part, but her face looked like a younger version of a particular witch we were both well acquainted with. Depending on their relationship, this might get kinda’ ugly.

“Uh, sweetheart…” Yamin said to Jess. “Do you happen to have a sister named Mel…”

“Melpomene!?” Her eyes shot with wonder and her smile filled with glee. “Yeah! She’s one of my big sisters-Are you friends with her-Oh-I haven’t seen her in a long time-You know she’s always so nice and ‘really’ cool-Like she’s the bestest older sister ever-Eeeh-I just love her to death-There was this one time she took me to the forest and taught me how to hunt for berries but I ate the wrong one by accident and got really sick and she had to take care of me for like a week inside of a cave until I got better-I got to meet her spirit animals and they were so cute and cuddly-This really big spirit husky was my bed and pillow-I loved him so much because he was a good boy and his fur was so soft and fluffy…”

Holy ADHD Bat-man… She said that in a single breath!

“Wow!” Yamin cheered out loud to get her to stop talking. “You really love your sister, don’t you?”

“Yeah, I do,” Jess nodded. “She’s really the nicest of my sisters, at least when you get to know her.”

Unfortunately, we were introduced to Melpomene by her trying to kill Yamin. But we kept that detail out. And if Mella was the nicest of those mana witches, oooh boy…

“She helped us save the city before,” Yamin mentioned.

“Oh, no way?!” Jess’s eyes lit up bright green. A magical aura of wind lightly trailed out of her and blew away anything paper on the nearby tables. “She’s so kind. A real good Samaritan!”

Double unfortunately, we had to keep that detail off the official records, since a lot of people wouldn’t have been happy about a witch aiding their angel savior. Personally, I didn’t like that we couldn’t give her proper credit. But it was what it was.

“So, Jess, what brings you to Urnan?” Yamin asked. “You mentioned you want to be a pop idol, so did you come here looking to get a contract?”

“I want to be 'the greatest pop idol!' But, I’ve been trying to get discovered and all that…” she rested her chin on her hand. “There’s a lot of competition here. No matter how good I am, if I don’t stand out, no amount of talent matters.”

She was crazy to think her music didn’t stand out. The few songs I heard her perform nearly brought me to tears, like they had some magical aspect to them, and she was just playing around. If she got serious, I couldn’t imagine anyone outdoing her music in any way.

“Jess, Urnan is a pretty big place for music and artists right now,” Yamin mentioned. “I find it hard to believe that someone wouldn’t sign you up for a record…” Yamin looked her up and down a few times. “You’re extremely cute, and you’ve got talent. Perfectly marketable.”

Yamin was right. Ever since I saved this city before, it had become a major hub of talented people flooding in from all over the Known World. Everyone was talking about this place, and not just as the holy crowned jewel of the North anymore.

Jess couldn’t look Yamin in the eyes.

“W-well, it’s the truth. Okay?” She looked even more bummed out now. “O-okay… Actually, a lot of the record companies don’t trust me because I’m a witch.”

That was unfortunately making a lot more sense. There’s no way anyone could hear her music and turn down the opportunity to make billions without some bias getting in the way. Nobody would want to risk public outrage over a witch making the music their children listen to.

We kinda’ reached a strange point with that. Because in order for her to really get good attention, we had to show the people that she was a good witch. In some ways, her older sister laid the foundation for that by helping me save the city once before.

Jess was weird, but she was my kinda’ weirdo. I really wanted to see her succeed, so I was willing to help her become that pop idol if I could.

Something outside caught my attention, so I peeked around Yamin to see children holding their buckets up in the air to catch some sort of falling flakes, too big and fast to be snow.

“That’s odd…” I mumbled to myself. “Maybe it’s candy?”

Candy was the only thing I could rationalize, considering the excitement on their faces. Had that been the only strange sign, I might have been content with just leaving my worry there. But there was a bad feeling in my bones…

“W-what’s wrong?” Yamin asked. “Oh, I don’t like that look on your face because I know what it means…”

The air grew stale and cold-unnaturally so, like in the middle of a brewing supernatural calamity. I stood from the table and walked to the door, getting a very strong reading of an energy I was hoping wouldn’t pop up tonight of all times…

-WARNING! DARKNESS LEVELS RISING!-