Act 6, Gnaw.

Rounding a corner onto a busy shopping street was where the quaint café sat.

It was bathed in natural light, covered in greens and muted but natural colours, upon approaching the exit Kacper reached out, holding the door for Emily - letting her put her parasol down first before stepping inside the cafe.

Inside was just as beautiful as the outside, the overall plant based theming following on to the interior.. it was calming, a sense of calm that not even his shower offered him this morning, or.. well, maybe it was being with Emily that tamped down his nerves?

Emily gestured with the end of her parasol to a table near the corner, away from the sun, he noted. She tucked the parasol back into her bag, following Kacper over to the table, they both sat and Kacper let his gaze drop to one of the menus on the table, slipping his student ID down to grasp it - he was overwhelmed by choice. He slowly placed his bag down, scanning the menu.

"Any allergies?" Emily asked, skimming the menu briefly, before setting it down, she clearly knew what was on it already, "Uhm.." Kacper pondered before nodding "hazelnut, but not too badly.. it just makes me tired and makes my throat hurt.." Emily hummed in response.

She got up, fetching her wallet from her bag and leaving Kacper alone at the table, walking up to the counter - she was ordering for him, it was almost motherly. He placed the menu down.

Emily felt like he needed protection. He somehow knew such.. he sensed it.

Emily was all polite smiles and friendly gestures with the cafe staff, striking a conversation as she waited on her order, she came here a lot, that was VERY obvious by now.

He let his mind wander now he was alone, there was a sort of gnawing feeling deep in his stomach, a wrongness. Thinking optimistically, it was probably left over anxiety from the nightmare earlier.

His fingers found a crease in the wooden table, driving the pad of his finger over it again and again, it felt nice under his touch, calming.

Emily was still chatting away, so he decided to use this time to check he had everything for school, lifting his bag-

Phone

Books

Keys

He hummed to himself, giving a nod of assurance, setting the bag back down on the cafe floor. Though he felt like he was forgetting something, he chalked it down to nerves.

At this point Emily was handed a tray, she'd ordered a bunch of things.. he was going to have to pay her b-

He was cut off by the tray landing on the table and her waving her hand dismissively upon seeing his startled expression "No need to pay me back, it's ok."

She tugged her skirt down before settling back into the seat across from Kacper, delegating certain food items between them both.

"I got you a sandwhich, a brownie and a dark chocolate hot chocolate," She smiled "My favourites, well, when i was younger anyway.." She said it with such confidence he almost didn't grasp that she was indeed treating him like he was a child, not that he particularly minded.. he didn't mind at ALL as long as she was happy with it.. "I hope that's ok?"

Kacper nodded, smiling "Yes.. yes, uh, thank you." his fingers slid around the cup, his other hand reaching for the sandwich to which she let out a little gasp, overcorrecting her instant response with a small giggle, gesturing to Kacper's palm with her spoon "Bit early for *Ash Wednesday*, no?" she mused, tilting her head aside, her white hair following like a curtain being pulled askew.

"It's just-" Kacper let out a flustered noise, going to wipe his hands off on his jeans, but she halted this motion, taking a handkerchief out of her pocket and handing it to him, this small physical interaction caused a shiver to shoot up his spine, he never wanted her to let go.

He blushed, a "Thank you," following such, he used the baby pink handkerchief to clean his hands, hasty with his actions - not wanting to keep her waiting, but also not wanting to let go of her belonging, holding it brought on a general sense of.. calm.

Like the calm in a storm. His head felt silent for once.

He blinked back the emotion, slowly handing her the cloth back, before digging in, casually putting in: "I was on incense duty today.." She paused drinking at this, cocking her head to the side - again "Incense duty?"

Kacper bit his lip momentarily, scanning the table "Y-yeah.. like for our home shrine?" clearly, this was a foreign concept for her.

He spent 10 or so minutes explaining what it was, and the basics of the religions in his household, before they reached back around to.. well, the morning, he wanted to confide in her about his dream.

"Eve?" He started, poking the bottom of his cup with his spoon, she hummed, so he continued "I had.. a nightmare, i don't usually like- you know, talk about 'em.. i just move on, but i feel the need to tell you." She nodded, so once again he kept speaking - explaining his nightmare in detail, some information missing, forgotten upon waking, but most of it was there.

Emily looked unsettled for a moment, placing her spoon down, eyebrows pinching together in what looked like fear, but he must've been misreading.

"Well." She started, bluntly "Just a dream, right?" He couldn't help but agree, *Just a dream, indeed.*

"Do you get religious dreams often?" She inquired, between bites of her own food, he shook his head, rolling his shoulders "I don't really think much about religion, i haven't really thought much about religion until-" *Until yesterday, when Emily had seemed oh-so-keen on the Augans* "Until i.. had started learning religious studies... in school."

She then went on a spiel about Auganism, he couldn't say he was paying rapt attention, but he WAS paying a bit of attention. She spoke enthusiastically about the story of Agus, Augans God, about how the religion was a folk religion which believed Agus was reborn as two people every couple of centuries and how Auganism sat at just around 2000 active participants in France.

Apparently these "Augans" were often mislabelled as Christians, making the official sum of people who practice certain religions per capita wrong.

She also spoke of the debate between the main stream religious label and the ethnoreligious and folk religion labels, apparently anthropologists, historians and theologists found this debate one that was worth continuing for years - at this point she was showing archived forums on her phone.

By the time they had left the cafe to walk to school she had this look on her face, as if to ask 'so, whats so cool about you?'