[FIN] Welcome to Hell

[TawnyAngel]

Oh really? Really? Taavi was naturally a pretty patient guy but he was already frazzled by his fall, his near second fall, and now he suspected this guy had something to do with it, and he wanted less ice!

Taavi's smile was maybe faintly strained as he picked up the glass and put it back on his tray. "Oh, I'm sorry sir I'll get you a fresh one with less ice. I'll be right back!"

When he entered the kitchen he started to scowl darkly, the unusual expression raised eyebrows from a couple of his coworkers who knew him but Taavi didn't stop and to a concerned query he just answered; "Customers!" as he tipped out the glass and then moved to fill it with soda again and even less ice this time than last time.

As he opened the door to step back out into the seating area Taavi started smiling and was soon back by the green-haired man's table. "Sorry, here you go! Hope this is better," he said with slightly brittle cheerfulness.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

If Sync noticed Taavi's strained smile he gave no indication. Instead, he offered the same apologetic puppy look as he said of the new drink, "Ah, that's still a little too much ice." He would subsequently state that the next new drink didn't have enough ice, and after that he would be satisfied with it.  

[TawnyAngel]

What was this now, Golidlocks and the Ursaring family? Taavi managed to maintain a smile as he took the drink away, put a bit more ice in it, and returned. Apparently that made it good enough, to Taavi it looked like just as much as as it had had to start with but who was he to say anything? He was just an idiot in an apron and a cardboard hat right? It was the puppy look that was the worst, at least upfront assholes were- were- upfront! Ugh. Well the guy's food was ready now; Taavi collected it and brought it over.

"Here you go!" he said, still maintaining his brittle cheerful tone as he set the plate. "Can I get you anything else? Any sauces perhaps?" A new attitude? Some sympathy for service staff?  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Hmm, it looked pretty much perfect, so right off the bat he had little option but to say, "Thank you, and no, I have all I need for the moment." Maybe in a couple minutes he could claim it was cold or had gone bad or something...

Sync waited until the waiter had gone again and watched him carefully out of the corner of his eye while pretending to focus on his food. Damn, he wasn't coming close anymore with those trays... But really, even if he did, it probably would have been far too obvious. As it was, he'd seemed to have caught on. Still... The grunt subtly pulled a ball from his pocket and released it onto the bench right next to him, hiding the beam of light between his own body and the wall. It helped that it was below table height, too. The Vulpix that appeared beside him looked briefly confused, but the smells - the wonderful, delicious smells - caught her attention first, before he tapped her on the nose and gave her a quick order, his voice firm and quiet so only she would hear, and acting as if he had merely rested his cheek on one hand for a few moments while chewing his food - definitely not to hide the fact he spoke, of course not.

Vulpix, with her orders, silently hopped down to the floor and hid under the shadow cast by the booth for a few moments until she was sure she wouldn't be seen, or if so not by too many people, and definitely not by her target. She slipped through the restaurant, weaving around chair legs and avoiding being stepped on until she was quite a distance away from her trainer, and she waited quietly for the target to walk by while carrying food. He had to be carrying food, she reminded herself, and not nothing. Once she saw an opportunity where Taavi was walking past while carrying something, the little fire-type tensed before she darted out from under a chair, aiming to either run into or just in front of his feet so that he would trip and fall. While she didn't have any desire to be stepped on or have her tails crushed under a human, she had an order, and orders came first.  

[TawnyAngel]

Thank Arceus for that! With a cheerful parting comment Taavi headed off again and actually succeeded in getting a table paid up and out the door; they tipped fairly but not generously but fair was fair enough. He steered clear of the green-haired man's table though he looked over plenty to make sure he wasn't being signalled, seemed like the guy was just eating though so that was good.

Taavi had just started to think he might get out of today without anything else awful happening when he tripped again, this time while carrying a tray full of ice-creams for a family group.

Ice-cream, everywhere.

Him, sprawled on the floor again clutching his wrist to his chest.

Luckily the ice-cream only went over the floor, and one person who didn't matter.

With Prince's Chocolate Delight all over his shirt Taavi turned to look behind him, he hadn't been anywhere near the guy this time but he'd definitely fallen over something. His wrist really hurt. People were staring at him again, even more than they had last time. Taavi swallowed hard, blinked rapidly a few times and started to clean up the mess again. There wasn't a lot else he could do.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

While Sync did keep an eye on his waiter, he didn't feel the need to watch him closely to see when - or if - he would fall again. The grunt felt sure that once Mark slipped up again, he'd know. And know he did; he saw the stumble out of the corner of one eye and looked just in time to see Mark fall all over himself again, spilling - what was that? Ice cream? - ice cream all over the floor. Had he gotten it on anyone...? It was difficult to see from his vantage point, but Vulpix had obeyed orders and tripped him up well away from his own table. Still, even if he was trying to see where all the ice cream had gone, it wasn't as if no one else was staring. It was as if the whole restaurant stared this time - or at least, more people than the first time - so why would it be odd if he looked too? Sync stuck a portion of his food into his mouth to prevent the amused smirk that tried to force its way to the surface.

With her ears pinned to the back of her head and her back really hurting - shoes were painful, whether they stepped on you or fell on you or anything else - Vulpix made a soft, pitiful whine as she slunk away to 'hide' under another chair. Why did Sync want her to trip up this human? All it had accomplished was a huge mess all over the floor, this human on the ground and now all of the humans in the restaurant were watching... Not watching her though, right? No, watching the fallen human... What was the purpose of this exercise? She didn't understand. Was she supposed to do it again? Was it some sort of training exercise...?  

[TawnyAngel]

As focused as he was on cleaning up and not crying with frustration and humiliation Taavi didn't actually notice the Vulpix under the chair at first. Once he'd got all the ice cream off the floor however he looked around again for anything that could have tripped him and spotted the small pokemon under a nearby chair. The chair and the table were empty; maybe this trip had just been an unfortunate coincidence, perhaps the Vulpix had just lost its group and was looking for them?

Still kneeling on the floor Taavi extended a hand out a little way towards the fire type and offered a tired but genuine smile. "Hey, did I fall over you? I'm sorry, are you okay?"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

All right, well, now that that was done, she just had to wait for another opportunity to do it again... Seriously, what kind of training exer--

Oh no, he noticed her.

Oh no, he was nice.

Her ears flew up as an expression of surprise crossed her face, but was quickly replaced by one of uncertainty and hesitation as her ears tucked themselves back against her head, and she curled her multiple tails a bit closer to herself. He noticed her, she hadn't expected him to notice her; she should've moved so he hadn't seen her. Surely she'd be reprimanded for her mistake. What should she do now? He was reaching for her - not very much or very eagerly, but still - and was addressing her. Dare she trust him..? No, no, she wouldn't dare. The only ones she trusted were her master and her teammates, though the latter needed to work on their skills more, but that was irrelevant at the moment.

In response, the petite Vulpix made a quiet whine and backed up away from the human before turning and darting around tables and chairs - occupied or not - to get nearer the front of the restaurant. She had made one mistake thus far, and wasn't about to make another by going back to Sync's table; she did glance over to see if she should continue, and a Look told her that, yes, she should. So with an internal sigh, she hurried under a booth where she hoped she definitely wouldn't be seen, and awaited another opportunity to trip him. Seriously, why did she have to use the nice human as a training exercise? It didn't make any sense, and she didn't like it one bit.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Oh, no, it's okay wait-!" But the Vulpix was gone among a sea of legs and everyone was still staring and he had to fix those orders again and probably he should change into his spare shirt and grab a clean apron and-

Much as he wanted to go after the little fire type he just didn't had time; Taavi scrambled back to his feet and hurried towards the kitchen, head down and tray held in his uninjured hand. Luckily it didn't take too long to get the ice creams made up again and he had a moment to put on his spare shirt while that was being done, there wasn't a spare apron around but he managed to wipe his down at bit. He tried to ignore his co-workers questions as he tidied himself up, he didn't want to sound paranoid and that last time had just been a coincidence right? He did mutter his suspicions to Gary, it didn't do any good but his friend promised to keep an eye on the guy.

Once he'd delivered the icecreams to their table and laughed hollowly at the jokes at his expense Taavi decided he really couldn't put off dropping by the green-haired guy's table any longer. Breathe in, breathe out and watch where you walk very carefully.

Taavi came up beside the table smiling a plastic smile. Once the man was between bites he asked; "Is everything alright with your food sir? Do you need anything else?" His wrist was throbbing now, he wasn't sure that he'd be able to carry anything else heavy with that hand today. Could he get through the rest of the shift without needing to? Maybe, if he was careful about how he organized himself.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Fortunately for Taavi, Sync made no effort to trip him this time, instead sitting as innocently as possible. It had taken the waiter quite a while to come back again, Sync felt. Too bad. "It's not," he said in his brother's apologetic voice as he pointed to a mostly uneaten portion of his food, "this is so under cooked it's still cold, and this," he pointed to another mostly uneaten part of his meal, "has far too much seasoning on it. I would've called you over but," he tried very, very hard to not look as amused as he was, "you seemed rather... busy." Busy tripping and spilling food all over the floor, more like, which was still hilarious.  

[TawnyAngel]

He hated this job. He hated people. He hated this guy especially. So much! If the food had actually been undercooked it would have been raw in the middle, which it obviously wasn't but he couldn't say that! The customer was king! <******** managed to look apologetic, it wasn't hard really given how awful and cringey and embarrassed he was already feeling. "Oh, I'm sorry sir. I was... yeah. Um. I... guess I'm having a bad luck day. Would you like me to get you a fresh order?" This was going to go badly. Of course it was. It was always bad when people said anything other than 'it's great!', or made vague noises of approval if you interrupted at the wrong time.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Was his food raw or over seasoned? No, not really. Did that matter? No, not really. The only thing that mattered was that he was a customer - a valuable customer - and he had complained about his food. So, rather than be polite, the grunt shamelessly nodded and said, "Yes," then a moment later, as he'd almost forgotten, "please." Words like that weren't in his normal repertoire.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Of course; I'm very sorry about that sir, I'll get you a fresh order as soon as I can." And he hoped he choked on it when it came! Taavi picked up the plate but then hesitated; he ought to ask. "Is there anything else you need sir? Another drink?" A fresh personality?  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Sync merely smiled. "Not right now." Maybe once he'd gotten his fresh order, or thought of something else to lie about.

Vulpix, meanwhile, lurked - more like sat unhappily - in her hiding spot, waiting for Taavi to walk by again with another tray of food.  

[TawnyAngel]

After some kind of appropriate pleasantry Taavi retreated to the kitchen with the green-haired man's plate. He wanted to scream but he had another order to take out so he put in the request for a repeat - because of a Valued Guest - and then got on with his job. He was being careful now though, very careful. He was also carrying a heavy tray in just one hand but it was manageable, he was pretty sure he'd lost strength since coming to Kodo but he still had enough muscle to deal.