Chapter 349: Table for Two
Jace sat at a table outside of a decent looking restaurant and waved at a woman who came rushing over. "Can I get some water and a menu?" Jace requested and the waitress nodded and rushed off. Jace looked across from him as Cho climbed up and sat on the chair across from him.
Jace made an expression of confusion. [What? Cho can sit and eat. Cho did it all the time at Echo place.] Cho told him while sticking out her tongue.
The waitress walked over with a menu and a glass of water. She slowed down when she saw Cho sitting in a seat. "I apologize sir but your pet... um..."
[Cho is a tiger! Cho is daddy’s good girl!] Cho called out mentally. Jace realized almost immediately that she was broadcasting to not just Jace and the waitress but a few other people in a radius. She limited it to just beyond the wall, he could tell because he saw a few people inside look around in confusion.
"What was that?!?" The waitress asked in confusion.
"That was Cho, she was speaking telepathically." Jace explained as she robotically walked over and handed him his menu and set his water on the table. "She is adopted." Jace told her as he began looking through the menu.
"Okay then, do you want me to bring... a bowl of water?" The waitress asked, looking at Jace. But then Cho nodded her head vigorously. "Okay, please refrain from broadcasting your thoughts to others. It will be disruptive and I now have a killer headache." Cho nodded in response. So the waitress walked off, "I will come get your order in a bit."
Jace nodded as he looked at the menu. "Okay, they do not have lasagna. But there are a few cheese dishes you might like."
[Cheese! Bubbly drink too!] Cho told him as she swayed back and forth.
"Okay, is there anything in particular you want to do? We are going to be on station for a few months. It might be a good idea to figure out something you can do. Maybe you could even take on a human form." Jace pointed out as he looked over the menu.
Cho tilted her head as she seemed lost in thought. [Cho will try. But Cho cannot do perfect human form. Cho will end up more like Vana. One of Daddy’s lovers.] Jace was in the middle of taking a sip of water so he did a spit take in response.
{Cho did you go digging through my memories?} Jace projected his thoughts. He saw Cho look away shyly so Jace shook his head. "That will work just fine. As long as you have a humanoid form it will be easier to take care of you." Jace told her as he took one last look at the menu before deciding on what he should eat.
The waitress was walking over when she looked in the direction of the entrance of the restaurant and gasped. "What happened! Who did this to you?" She ran over to a pair of girls. One was a much younger beastman-human hybrid who appeared to be about five years old. The other girl was a young human woman about fourteen years old, she was the same one who tried to rob him yesterday.
The young woman still had part of the bandage on her wrist. But it was partly torn and appeared to have been unwrapped and then badly rewrapped. But her face and bleeding lip were what the waitress was freaking out about. The young woman had visible bruises on her face along with a bleeding lip.
Then while he could not see her expression fully he knew that it had changed from the stubborn and indecisive one from before. Now she was looking more resolute and angry. She looked over at the waitress and went to say something but then her eyes flicked over to Jace and went wide in surprise.
The waitress was already upon them and fretting over them. She crouched in front of them and looked worried for a moment. But then she looked toward the restaurant, "James! Grab the first aid kit!" She called out before looking for an open table to rush the pair of girls to.
The older girl, the one who tried to steal from him, seemed to come to a decision. She walked past the waitress and went right toward Jace. She stopped momentarily when she saw Cho sitting in a chair. But she looked back at Jace, seemingly deciding to just ignore Cho’s existence for the moment. While she walked she dragged the younger girl with her who was dressed in a cloth bag. It looked like the most basic piece of clothing available and was clearly a hand me down as well with how filthy and covered in dirt and grime it was.
He had noticed it before but the older girls’ clothes were the bare minimum of what one would call decent. Ripped jeans with a black short sleeve shirt and shoes that looked like they were falling apart. In addition to her face being bruised and having a split and bleed lip, her hair was disheveled, unbrushed, and looking a bit closer he could see it looked like some of it was torn out. Which must have been painful on its own.
"I heard what you did. Haunson was furious. Can you finish what you started? Can you kill him as well?" The girl asked shocking not just Jace at her blatant words but also some other people and the waitress.
Jace could hear hushed whispers as people started looking away nervously. "Who is that?" Jace asked, already having an idea of who she was talking about. But he wanted to add a bit of levity to the situation as he rested his head on his arms.
"The... ha... the farting man." The girl mumbled and the waitress almost tripped over herself as she burst into laughter. While Jace could see some muffled laughter from the other tables. "Can you kill him?"
Jace smirked at her. An idea was already forming in his head. "No."