Epsilon Twilight
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17. Café
🕑 Added 2025-01-11 12:29:28 +0000 UTCThe streets of Selen were lovely, and even if the early marvel of her first impression had already worn off, Aloe was still enchanted by the sights. Even though she had experienced years on the chasm, the outside world had changed far faster than her.
Instead of finding that oppressive, she was ecstatic.
The old world had been a source of oppression already, so seeing it changed filled her with the soothing coolness of vitality. It was a different world, a new world she had to discover, one that still hadn't wronged her, even if she very much intended to do so to it.
But now it wasn't the time.
She and Xochipilli walked with one destination in mind, a fancy café they had spotted beforehand. The boy skipped tiles on the pavement as he hummed happily energized by their destination and his newfound ability to sense vitality.
Now that he had achieved the first step of vital arts, she would be able to teach him her ways, but that was for later. Now they rested.
Aloe had to be surefooted as the child skipped his steps. Not just to help him walk, but to be his pillar, someone where he could support himself. The child had gone through a lot, and even though she had also gone through much and more, she was an adult. That was the key difference.
It didn't take them long to reach the café in question. Such establishments didn't exist in her time; there existed some coffee shops, but the purpose of them was wholly different from that of a café. Cafés were gathering spots and 'restaurants' where people could eat and rest, but coffee shops from her time were – as the name implied – just shops. You could get one here and there that allowed you to drink and enjoy a prepared coffee, but most likely you would just buy your grains and be done.
The café had a lovely façade with a turquoise canopy and many chairs and tables for those who wanted to eat outside. For those tables that were too far from the canopy, they even had their own turquoise parasols, though these ones were thrice as big as her own in radius alone.
Even though it was close to lunchtime and from what she had gathered these places attracted more customers during breakfast or tea time, there still were some customers around.
So far, Aloe had been lucky enough to enter enclosed spaces with few people around. She couldn't count the bank as it was massive, and she never came close to people. But now, a budding anxiety grew inside of her. She may have not shown it, but she had issues communicating with people. She had to make an active push to talk where before words just naturally flowed out of her mouth. Who would have thought that two centuries in a chasm would have that effect? But that didn't worry her as much.
The problem would be her glamour.
Part of her was worried that people would see through it, but another part of her was more preoccupied with what they could do once affected by the glamour. Perhaps the pill maker was mostly unaffected by it, but the banker girl today was blushing like crazy, and the tailor from yesterday had literally sexually assaulted her. Such offenses had never happened befo… They have. And a lot. The sexual assault from the man was so pathetic and casual that she had forgotten what actual violent and serious assault was.
Perhaps the effects no longer lingered in her new body, but they certainly did on her mind. Even after centuries. Even after the world had forgotten about her.
"Aloe?" Xochipilli looked up to her. The child was so small that every time he wanted to talk to her, he almost had to tilt his head to the maximum. But what mattered right now were his eyes of concern.
"Oh, sorry," she apologized. "I've spaced out for a moment. Let's get something to eat, shall we?"
Xochipilli nodded but those words weren't enough to dissipate his worry.
Aloe asked at the counter for service, and she was partially embarrassed to discover that if they sat down a waitress – what she assumed was the barmaid walking around – would attend her. She covered her embarrassment with her skills and glamour, but the bartender had clearly seen that. Those people had a sixth sense of capturing those emotions.
They sat down on a table on the outside and Aloe haphazardly placed her still-open parasol on the chair to provide her with some cover. Yes, they were underneath one of the table's parasols, but she was a bit conscious of the bandana on her head. It was a bit silly, but the white cloth didn't match her attire, and that made her uncomfortable. The parasol was a way more fashionable way to hide the plant in her head.
I should either rip that Aloe Veritas out of my head or buy a hat, she pondered. Ah, but this parasol is too cute! If I were to wear a hat, I wouldn't be able to carry around the parasol. Or could I? I mean, who says I can't? Social norms? Barely heard of them either way.
Whilst she was slightly panicking with fashion, Xochipilli awkwardly grabbed a small booklet – page size-wise, the book was quite massive for one – from the center of the table and started reading it.
That imagery alone made Aloe snap back to reality.
"I thought you couldn't read," Aloe teased him.
"I… uhm…" The boy blushed and panicked at being spoken to. "I only know letters and basic words…"
"Can you read anything from here?" Aloe grabbed the last booklet on the table. It was lined with good leather, and it had a word etched with golden thread on the cover that spelled 'Menu'.
"Uhm…" Xochipilli glued his eyes to the menu as he tried to read. "Tea?" He pointed at one of the columns of the paper.
"Correct!" She patted him. "Anything else you can read?"
The child tried reading more, but even after two minutes and a very fried mind, he was unable to come up with a single word. It was then that Aloe read the menu and she herself was unable to understand most of its contents.
"Huh?" She mused in dumbfounding.
She was able to understand each separate sections' titles like breakfast, tea, lunch, and whatnot, but the contents of each item were a resounding mess. Croissant? Brioche? Consommé? Éclair? Macaron? What the fuck is a quiche? She kept the curses to herself. It was faster to name all the items she could understand than those she didn't.
"Actually, Xochipilli, you did quite a good job. Most of these words I can't recognize myself." Aloe groaned but quickly switched to a sigh as she didn't want to pester the boy with her constant groans. She didn't want another person groaning around life like her. "Let's just ask the waitress when she arrives."
As it would appear, waitresses struggled to recommend anything when you had no specific tastes. Most lunches were 'light' as she called them, liquid foods like soups in their entirety. Considering soups were the only thing she had had for centuries, even before falling into the chasm, Aloe was reticent to try them. Instead, considering she was with a child, the waitress thankfully led them to an assortment of pastries and desserts.
Somehow, the waitress convinced them to buy two drinks each, something about tastes for different snacks or whatever. In the case of Xochipilli, he got lemonade and a cup of cocoa with milk. In Aloe's case, she got chamomile tea – her favorite one – and a black coffee.
Now, as for the pastries and dessert… the word assortment made it quite justice. They got many things: scones, madeleines, caramel treats, weird tubes with chocolate, and different fruit tarts.
She wasn't worried about the food going to waste as she could easily eat everything, Aloe doubted her stomach had a maximum capacity no longer, but she kept an eye on what Xochipilli tried.
"Come on, eat!" She encouraged him. "But first try everything or you will be full before getting to another pastry."
"Yesh!" The boy nodded enthusiastically and gorged on every treat. It brought her joy how much he was smiling with each new pastry and dessert he ate. The fruit tarts seemed to be his favorite by the sheer radiance in his eyes.
The dressed lady doubted the child could get through every course, so she calmly enjoyed her first chamomile tea in ages. Quite literally at that.
"Ah~" She moaned in pleasure as the beverage warmed her throat. "Oh, that hits the spot~"
Crash. Aloe carefully left the teacup on its plate and looked around. The sight was quite… picturesque. A man had fallen to the ground with many papers scattered around as also a waitress had dropped a tray to the ground – thankfully it was empty – but her eyes didn't linger on them however were directed at the many people in the café and the streets. They all were looking at her, and more than one with vibrant red and pink colorations on their visages.
Note, don't moan in public with glamour on, Aloe was quite aware that this mass chaos and blushing had been her work. Dunes, this is almost an area-wide attack.
She preferred not to weaponize this internal infusion, mainly from her bad experiences with it, but also because heavens knew what a person addled with the charm stance would do. Lust was but a scourge on humanity.
Xochipilli didn't seem to be affected by this wave of ecstasy as he continued eating the many snacks at their disposal, though he had some coloration to his name. She blamed it on the hot cocoa he was drinking.
Acknowledging the hysteria induced by her moaning would be no different from throwing fuel to the fire, so Aloe directed herself to pastries and tried them for the first time. She first had to remove her gloves before eating them, and she swore someone fainted when did so, but she chose to ignore it.
"Oh, great heavens!" She almost unconsciously moaned but held herself at the last moment. "These are truly marvelous!"
She combined the weird chocolate tube – éclair, she remembered it was called – with the black coffee she had gotten and the combination of the two items was utterly sublime. Holding a moan was almost blasphemous, an offense to the cook, from how exquisite the taste was. She licked the leftover chocolate from her fingertips, and she heard another crash.
Alright, this is excessive. She thought as a frown formed in her visage. I don't want this to happen every time I want to eat outside.
"Could I get some privacy?" She voiced aloud with a honeyed voice laden with glamour.
The words were meant at no one in specific, but her use of the charm stance was potent enough that she didn't require a target, much like Rani had once done every time she breathed.
Many individuals started furling around and clad in embarrassment after standing still for a few seconds looking at her before going back to their business.
"Ah," Aloe sighed as she observed Xochipilli happily eating. "It seems I won't be able to enjoy the delicacies of this new era in public." The boy raised his head in confusion as he chewed on some madeleines. "Eat with your mouth closed, Xochipilli."
The boy nodded and furiously chewed with his mouth closed. Still, he had many crumbs around on his face. Aloe slightly raised her bottom from the chair, grabbed a handkerchief from the table, and wiped Xochipilli's mouth.
"Better," she added with a smile.
"T-thanks…" The boy responded sheepishly before going back to the pastries.
There were no words to describe how much she enjoyed teasing the child.
Comments
Epsilon Twilight
Literally this time
The3rd
Infinite sweets and goodness are here 🍨🍦🍪💖🍫🍬🍭🍮🍯🍰🍩🎂♾️
Zachary Patterson
Thank you for the chapter!
