Of course, I dont yet know what that word is, or anything about what they're going to be, but... I'll be having them, at any rate.

. . .

Anyways, lunch. 

Finding somewhere to eat was the hardest part. I had initially suggested that we go to his cousin's place, the inn back in Starsford, but he didn't seem too fond of that idea.

"Right... Well... I will meet up with her again eventually, but... I got some stuff to think through right now. To be honest, I'd like to avoid Starsford entirely, if at all possible." I think were his exact words. "But I will go there eventually. I just need a while." He added.

I felt it'd be best if I didn't inquire any further. 

"Should we head to the city, then?"

"Right... I suppose that'd work. Unless you'd happen to of anywhere else that's got good eatin'?"

I shrugged. I've only been here, Starsford, and the previously mentioned city/regional capital or whatever the heck I'm supposed to call it. What's that even mean, anyway? Regional capital. The equivalent of a state capital, or something? That'd make sense. That's probably it.

I suppose I might have seen some other towns and such when S and I were making our initial trip down here, but I couldn't remember any of them if I tried. I wonder if I could still warp to them, even if I don't remember a thing about them? The only prerequisite is that I have to have seen somewhere to open a hole there, right? But I generally have to picture a place as I open the hole... Or maybe that's unnecessary? Wait, if sight's the only prerequisite, what's stopping me from opening a hole in the vacuum of space? Would that, like, destroy the planet's atmosphere? 

Nah, there's no way that would work... Maybe. I don't really know. B-But I'm sure DYN2 would have some built in contingency for that sort of thing, even if that were how that would work. He wouldn't just give me the capacity to end the world for no reason... R-right?  

I, uh... Probably shouldn't test it, though.   

But that's a largely unimportant tangent. Back to the topic of lunch.

We spent an embarrassing amount of time walking throughout the city, looking for a sufficient eatery. S seemed particularly interested in sit-down-and-wait-and-probably-tip-someone-y type restaurants.

"I know you don't eat, but would you mind ordering something anyways?" I whispered to Sis. "Oh, and, uh, I'll pay for it, naturally." 

"Why? It'd just go to waste." Sis stated. 

"It'll look weird if it's just S and I eating..." I don't want people to see us eating and her staring off into space or something and getting the wrong idea. To be honest, I wanted to just suggest we get take-out and avoid the problem entirely, but, since I'm not entirely certain S has actually been eating the past few days, I figured I'd let him have this one.

"That's dumb. Although... Actually, yeah. I'll do that." Sis conceded.

"Thank you." I concluded. Glad to see that she understands. Probably. Okay, she probably doesn't. Still, she's going through with it, at least. That's good, at least. 

The place we ended up picking was one of those 'fancy-enough' restaurants. You know the type, nice tablecloth and menus, the staff are all dressed nice, it's clear that the owners want you to believe it's high class, but everyone can see the bar, the cheap booze, the same sports channel playing on 4 separate TVs.

Though, I suppose this world doesn't have TV's or anything like that. Probably. The amount of modernity in this world continues to confuse me. I mean, they got toilets and refrigerators and stuff, heck, even this place itself is pretty dang modern. I wouldn't be all that surprised about encountering a television over here. 

This place didn't have any TV's, though. But they would have. This was the type of place that would have TVs, if such a thing existed. Probably. 

I kinda forgot I couldn't read the menu, so when the server came up to ask what we were gonna order, I kinda panicked and said "uh, chicken something." So now I'm eating chicken tenders in a fantasy world. Which is, admittedly, a little embarrassing, although I certainly don't mind getting down with some tendies from time to time.

Ahk. I think using the term 'tendies' just caused me to deal psychic damage to myself.

S just got some weird meat thing. I have no idea what it could possibly be, but it seemed big and expensive. Probably was. Strangely, or perhaps not strangely, knowing her, Sis just ordered a side of french fries.

I was curious how they'd be called french fries in a world where France doesn't exist. At some point, I asked why they were called that, and S had the following to say- 

"Right, I asked Maurice about that once, actually. Apparently, it's because of some ancient demon from some crazy old legend or something. Basically, it did some stuff, someone tried to write its name down for some reason, but it was utterly incomprehensible, so they scrubbed the ink with a potato, uh, the demon's weakness was potatoes, I dunno why, and when they were done, the ink blots that were on the potato looked like letters that spelled out 'freanch.' So, they put that before the word 'fries' for some reason.  I guess the 'a' got dropped at some point 'cus it's hard to pronounce."

"That's..."

"Right, it's really stupid. I'm not certain Maurice wasn't just screwing with me."

Either way, it's one heck of a coincidence.

Anyways, back to fries, I guess Sis realized that obviously wasn't enough food, so she also ordered sweet potato fries. She also immediately asked for a box. It was clear that she had no real intention of maintaining the illusion like I asked.

The server was visibly disturbed and confused, but they obliged regardless. 

"Oh, I probably should have said this earlier, but this one's on me. So, feel free to order more if you want." S said soon after we got situated.

"I'd have ordered more if I knew that." Sis said, very matter of fact-ly.

"Y-you, don't have to, I have-" I began.

"Nah, I haven't the opportunity to spend money in a while, so I'm feelin' generous." S explained.  "Plus, I... Well, just let me have this one."

"Okay. Uh, thanks." I saw no reason to argue any further. 

Naturally, after a while we started eating and stuff. Well, most of us ate. Sis just poured her fries into the box and sat there.

Other than that, mostly we just talked about things. Even though talking about things while eating is wildly inconvenient. 

"Did you eat before this, or something?" S eventually asked Sis with a quizzical look. And food in his mouth.  

"No." Sis said.

"Oh. Did you not see anything you liked?"

Sis just shrugged.

"What?"

"I don't eat."

Once again, his nose twitched, ever so slightly. "R-right..." He seemed visibly confused, and also vaguely frightened.

Regardless, everyone kept eating. Except Sis, obviously.

 Later, I asked S, "So, what exactly were you doing on the mountains that whole time, anyway? And what was... That last bit?" The blood vomit bit just kinda got glossed over in the mess of things that happened, but I couldn't help but be curious.

"Well, mostly I was doing the same stuff I usually do, trying to hone my understanding and control over stuff and all that." S explained.

"Is that what the sand spinny thing's for?"

"Kind of. Anyways, I quickly realized that I'd gravely underestimated that cat freak..." Then he sighed, "No, that's not it. Perhaps I simply overestimated myself..."

"Pfft. They're not that strong..." Sis muttered disdainfully, despite having ample evidence of the contrary. "Probably really stupid, too..."

"I quickly realized a week wouldn't be enough. Not nearly enough... I was... lost, for a while. To tell ya the truth, I was damn close to calling it quits, just camping out alone or making my way down the mountain. But I didn't." 

"Why?" I said, because that's clearly how he wanted the story to progress.

"'Cus of you, actually. Rather, something you showed me." He said, looking me dead in the eyes.

"Praise me more."

"You see- Wait, what?"

"How. I said 'how."

"Right. Anyways, you see, when we first met Catface, on that trip with Baldy, you managed to land a hit on 'em. I didn't think it was odd at the time, but, looking back, it was slow enough that they should have been able to dodge it quite easily. That's when I realized, it wasn't strength I needed, it was cleverness."

I feel like he just inadvertently called me weak, but I'll let it slide here.

And, while I didn't bring this up at the time, I don't think he was right about that last bit. But that's something I want to ask Catface about...

S continued, "Basically, I just needed to surprise them. But none of my usual tools would work. There's just nothing surprising about the way I fight." 

That's just objectively untrue.

"So I had to make some. I knew that my sand spraying technique wouldn't be enough, they'd certainly see it coming, just like they did before... But it was the right idea. I just needed to evolve. So, I did."

Calling throwing sand in people's eyes a 'technique' seems a bit generous, but I guess he is pretty dang good at it, so I'll gloss over that. 

"So... You forced yourself to vomit blood to blind them? That's your evolution?" I asked, with a little disbelief.

Sis yawned at this point. Guess she's not fond of training montages. 

"Precisely. She would have expected an attack from my hands at any moment. But the sheer vulgarity of what came out of my mouth would leave them shocked, and vulnerable. That's what I was gambling on, at least."

 "All that for a chance it would work? Heck, how did you even know you'd vomit blood? Have you done this before?" 

"I was relatively confident. In truth, I can't really take credit for coming up for any of this. It was..." He sighed once again. "It was based off my brother's technique."

"Your brother? What, he fight with blood magics, or something?" That'd be cool as heck. I should be able to do that. That's dark-y, right?

 "No. I'm not sure if that's even possible. My brother's just... Well, he's got some odd tendencies. He's... He's odd."

From the look on his face, I could tell he didn't want to discuss this further. So I didn't. Still, I'm glad to know he has a brother. I wonder if I'll ever meet him? . . . I wonder if I'd want to?

"Anyways, once I had that dealt with, all I had to do was overexert myself until things were in position. 'Course, I had to keep up the illusion the entire time. That was the hardest part, that's for sure, playing along with their weird-a*s game. After that... Well, you know."

"Yeah... That's gonna be pretty hard to forget."

"Right. I can imagine. Doubt I'll ever forget it, either. I certainly didn't expect that I'd pass out afterward. I guess it was all that training finally catching up with me... I don't think I've ever been that exhausted."

"You only slept for, like, a few minutes."

"I'm a light sleeper."

"Uhuh..." That's... Whatever. "At any rate, at least you only had to do the vomiting thing that one time."

S just looked me in the eye.

"R-right?"

He shook his head slightly. 

"Just a couple times?"

. . .

. . .

"How are you alive?"

"sand, baby."

"That doesn't... Okay."