Regenesis

[oogie]

How long had it been? How much time had passed? There was no way to tell. This town, this world, was cast into an everlasting night for which the dawn never came. Not exactly the brightest beacon of hope for the lost and weary. An eternal darkness that was only ever broken by the artificial lights of the town, it was now home to a variety of individual; ranging across all genders, ages, and more races than one would care to count. This is the beginning of a story. A story, like so many others in this town, started in a torment of shadow, doubt, and fear; yet in spite of the overwhelming darkness, their light shone strong. Now, a new challenge arises; adjusting and finding their place in a world of worlds upon worlds: a much broadened horizon.

A violet glove pressed against the counter, followed shortly by the rest of her body. She leaned against the counter, weary, tired, and hungry. She was dirty, though not filthy; as though she had just been in a scrap in a school yard rather than a lack of hygiene. Her body's posture reflected her state of weakness, just as her eyes reflected her weariness.

She didn't know how long she'd been in this dark, dark place; there were no days to count, not even a moon to track. One thing was certain- she couldn't remember the last time she had eaten... or bathed. Oh what she wouldn't give for a meal and a nice, hot, long bath. As if to emphasize her point, her stomach chose that exact moment to growl. Had she been home there would have been dinner on the table by now.

Home...

The cute little fuzzy had explained it all. Home was gone. It had sunk in rather quickly. She had wept for hours... or at least what she had estimated were hours. Death was something she had been trained to except. It was not only a part of life, but uncannily common amongst warriors. You make friends, you fight by their side, sometimes they die. But acceptance of death does not remove the sorrow, the deep sense that something has been torn from your insides.

Hungry, dirty, cold, and bearing the weight of the news that her home and everyone she knew and loved was gone, she had been making her way through the city for a while now. She was alone. The citizens seemed more occupied with their own agendas than they were with a lost, scared, and scantily clad young woman.

Now she leaned over the cashier's counter at the cafe, staring longingly at the items of the menu and basking in the delicious scent of the cooking foods in the kitchen. The act of leaning over the counter thrust out her shapely backside. Her ridiculously long braid of blond hair ran down to her lower back, where it then veered slightly to the side and off of her body entirely, leaving the view of her posterior unobstructed. A tiny pink skirt that seemed to have been draped over her, only just covered what needed to be covered; however, a sudden gust of wind could have easily revealed exactly what color panties she was wearing.

This display in turn, unbeknownst to her, had attracted the eye and attention of nearly ever male patron present, and even a few passers-by from the street who now gazed at her from the window.

"Ma'am, like I told you before," said the lady behind the register, "If you haven't got any money, I'm afraid I can't give you anything to eat."

"But I..." the girl's stomach then growled again to argue her case for her. The cashier merely stared, as if the girl leaning over the counter had done something intentionally rude.

"I'm sorry ma'am, but if you can't pay, I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

Slowly, the girl stood and turned, hanging her head. As she turned, the room filled with gasps from the same men who had been fixated on her "visage" before. Her backside was not the only thing shapely to her.

Her shoulders began to quiver as though she were suppressing the urge to weep. This in turn set her large "charisma boosting assets" into a motion of their own, which only merited another round of gawking, staring, and lewd whispers amongst the male clientele. A tear began to trickle down her face as she began to march slowly towards the door...

[heaven]

Black rimmed, hypnotic eyes watched intently as the minor event take place, laid back in his chair, the gothic man seemed rather comfortable, he was well groomed, with midnight blue hair that looked rather unkempt yet it was clean along with his porcelain features that had no pimple to mark his perfection, the only thing that seemed to ruin his looks was the dark bags below his eyes, due to lack of sleep.

Haunt didn't seem all that interested as he stared at the rather overly curved woman who looked as if she were about to cry, sorrow didn't seem to amuse the gothic man today, especially not after noticing the looks the young woman recieved from the other men. He groaned with disgust, but soon dismissed it, the rather angelic looking woman seemed cold and hungry, he thought of options. One, was to ask if she would like to stay with him just until she was fed, bathed and well rested, but that seemed like an offer she'd refused. As for two...

The man sighed as he stood. "Ma'am...I'll pay for her..." he said.

[oogie]

"Ma'am...I'll pay for her..."

The young woman froze in place. She turned towards where the voice had come from. In that moment, where her eyes fell upon her benefactor, she smiled, wiping away her tears. She took a sudden deep breath in an attempt to dissipate whatever sobs had built up in her chest in order to prevent them from surfacing later. The deep breath also happened to cause her chest to heave a bit.

Have cleared herself of all signs of woe, she smiled cheerfully at the man again, completely ignorant of his vestige and demeanor.

The cashier looked at the dark gentleman as though he had just literally popped his own skull, yanked his mind out, and pitched it with all the force he could muster out the cafe window. She sighed, consigning herself to the customer's wishes. After all, the customer was always right, right?

As the cashier turned around and approached the window between the register and the kitchen to speak with the chefs, Cassie Levia approached her mysterious benefactor. When she had drawn near to the opposite side of the table from where he sat, she stood up straight, ankles together. She folded her hands over her lap and bowed, bending approximately forty-five degrees at the waist. She stood erect again, leaving her hands where they were as she introduced herself.

"Thank you sooooooo much!" her soprano voice carried a melodic and cheerful tone. "I haven't eaten in days! Or at least I think it's been days." She stood normally now, raising a finger to her chin and focussing her eyes upwards as she though aloud. "Well, there really aren't any days here, so I guess I've never eaten. But I know I had to have eaten at some point, because I remember what it tastes like. But it was night when everything went dark and I woke up here. So if there are no days, and I'm still stuck in tonight; I guess that means I haven't eaten since yesterday."

Yes indeed, she was a rambler. And from the sound of her logic chain, she wasn't the sharpest crayon in the box either: thinking that time was dependent on the rising and setting of the sun. In any case, having finished her (flawed) thought, she pulled up the chair across from the pale man and sat down. Her elbows went immediately to the table as she propped her head up, cupping her chin between her hands and smiling again.

"Anyway, I haven't eaten in a long time, I thought I was going to die. There aren't very many nice people in this town; the only one who helped me was that cuddly fuzzy that helped me get inside the gate, and then he disappeared."

Good God, she was rambling again...

"But anyway, I don't want to be a charity case. I'll find a way to pay you back Mister... Um... Ah.... Hm. what was your name?"

[heaven]

Haunt just gave a cold stare at the cashier as she looked at the man as if he were something strange. A light chuckle formed in his throat, to give this woman such horrific thoughts was a bit much, but God if she kept staring at him like th--...

The Gothic man soon came to his senses as the blonde woman approached him, speaking in a tone far opposite to his, hers seemed jovial and compassionate, whereas his was cold without meaning to sound it, quite desolate one would say. He could feel himself develop a headache due to the beautiful woman's rambling.

He watched as she took a seat at the table he sat at, it was impossible not to stare at the woman's overly sized curves, but Haunt could find better, more striking features on this woman to stare at, her face was far more suitable to look at.

The young man tried his hardest not to seem rude as he watched and listened to her, somewhat uninterested, but didn't make his boredom seem obvious, it was bad enough that this woman appeared to be quite sensitive from what he had witnessed. One thing was for sure though, he couldn't stand her rambling, but it made it quite obvious that no one really bothered listening to her, the least he could do was listen.

He could feel his eye twitching behind his messy bangs, just as he was about to snap, the girl asked him of his name, he took a deep breath, which was one out of relief, hopefully she wouldn't notice this, he'd rather not tell her that she was a bit dim. "Haunt Loveless, just call me Haunt...I dislike it when people are so formal towards me," he spoke in a rather soft yet deep tone as he sat back comfortably in his chair, he soon relaxed "you're no charity case, that's for sure, my lady.......but, please...just order whatever you want, I don't expect you to pay me back, so you may as well take advantage of this opportunity..."

His attention soon turned to the outside, he looked up at the sky, he began to wonder why he had never even seen Traverse Town during day time, he didn't know, either he slept through them, or they never existed in this town. "So...what's your name, my lady?" he asked quietly.

[oogie]

"Oh! I'm Cassie!" she smiled again as she sat up. "And I must pay you back... somehow. You see, it's against the code to accept charity from others when it can be honestly earned."

It was weird. Even though most people in this town had ignored her with their actions, most stared at her. Perhaps it was because she hadn't bathed, and was covered in dirt? But this man seemed to make a point of it not to look at her. She could only imagine the reasons why. There was probably dirt just caked onto her face; the thought of which gave her a feeling of dread. Cassie was not one to bathe out of purely hygienic reasons. She enjoyed them. No. That's an understatement. She LOVED them. The thought of herself covered in grime made her skin crawl. He probably refused to look at her to be polite, to not draw attention to whatever filth may have accumulated on her face. She fell quiet at the thought of being dirty.

The silence, however, was short-lived. The cashier appeared at the table with a large tray perched on her shoulder; and behind her, a man with another tray. Both trays was simply loaded with with a variety of dishes. The cashier took the role of waitress, and began to unload her tray onto the table until there was simply no more room in front of either Cassie nor Haunt. She then turned and set up two tray stands. The gentleman the put his tray down on a stand next to Cassie and excused himself with a smile and a "enjoy you meal".

Cassie separated the chopsticks that had been placed on the table as utensils. She held them out and clicked them together twice. "Itadakimasu!" She dug into the first plate with a vengeance. It was only a few moments before nearly half was gone.

The cashier then turned to Haunt. "There are two or three more trays-worth coming from the order she tried to place earlier. 'One of everything on the menu'. The total comes to one-thousand, four-hundred, seventy-eight munny ($1,478). Would you prefer to pay now or after the meal?"

[heaven]

Haunt's cold demeanour still remained as he listened to the girl talk, at least she was no longer ranting. He was hardly interested in this woman's exaggerated appearance, he had no love of beauty, most people who were beautiful on the outside were ugly on this inside, not due to insecurity, but personality. But surely this was not the case with the woman before him.

He figured that even though she seemed perfect, she was, in fact, not. Haunt could see flaws within perfection, and perfection within flaws, all living creatures were never ending cycles of mystery, frustration, flaws and such. His tired yet bored eyes watched as she began to enjoy her meal, uttering words that he didn't even recognise, maybe due to mispronunciation or because he wasn't listening.

The midnight blue haired man didn't stare for too long as the woman ate, he believed it to be rude to watch a person eat, even if you, yourself, were starving. He didn't touch the food that was placed, he had no appetite at the moment, besides, he had food where he lived, as well as a bed, living room, bathroom, etc.

His dull yellow eyes then focussed on the cashier as the total of all the food was said. It was no problem for him. "I'd rather pay until after she's done...which reminds me, after she's finished, please have a dessert menu ready just in case, and while you're at it, I'll have a glass of Rose Red wine," he spoke in his usual tone, though of course, he was polite.

He then looked back at the woman, watching her eat with gusto, which was quite impressive, though he figured that she had a big appetite as well as not being able to eat for God knows how long. "Go easy, don't rush your food, savour the taste...I don't want to have to carry you out here all because of you going over the top, you'll get sick..." he said whilst facing the window again.

[oogie]

((What is Haunt's source of income? Whoo. To find a 1,000 something dollar meal bill and it be no problem... he's definitely not living off what the Heartless drop. Lucky rich bastard =3= ))

The cashier merely shrugged before she retired to the kitchen to comply with Haunt's request. "As you wish sir."

Once she had gone, his attention returned to Cassie, who was now piling her second place (now cleared) on top of the first and sliding a third in front of herself. It was a chicken and rice, which she set into as she had the previous two varied entrees. "Go easy, don't rush your food, savor the taste...I don't want to have to carry you out here all because of you going over the top, you'll get sick..."

For the first time since this verified feeding frenzy had commenced, she paused. She chewed for a few moments before swallowing, clearing what was in her mouth. At least she had the manners not to talk with her mouth full.

"I do savor the flavor." she said with another smile. "The first one was bell peppers and beef. The peppers had been stir fried in a sweet and salty teriaki. The beef had a pepper-corn rub and was seared to keep the natural juices inside. I'm not sure what was on the second plate, but it was a disc of beef that had been grilled over a savory applewood fire, giving it a pleasant smoke flavor with lettuce, red onion, tomato, and chopped pickle between two pieces of bread with sesame seeds on top. It also had a thick sauce on it that tasted a little like eggs. The little golden sticks if came with were made of salted fried potatoes."

Apparently, she didn't know what hamburgers or french fries were.

"It was delicious! Oh! And this one!" She put the tongs of her fork to her current plate. "Chicken boiled with cilantro. The broth was then used to make the rice. It also tastes really good." She smiled again, reflecting her deep appreciation for what Haunt had just done for her. Then another expression crossed her face. One or realization.

"You can get sick if you eat to fast?" this seemed like complete news to her. She stared at her food for a second before she began to eat again. This time at a "normal" pace. It almost seemed like what Haunt had said about eating too fast had terrified her, as she'd been doing it her entire life.