Colors of Remnant

After their hangout on the rooftop, both Forrest and Kailyn made their way into the Residential District in search of some good food. Taking a gander at the local restaurants, they were clearly spoiled for choice. Forrest had changed into his usual "going out on the town" attire. He had grown to like this outfit, he felt very modern and sophisticated. Looking down the strip of road, Forrest kept his eyes peeled for any good restaurant.

Hmm... Where to go?... They all seem good... Forrest mused, until his nose picked up the scent of a pizzeria. Looking over to the sign, it read "Pie in the Sky Pizzeria".

"This seems like a good place, what do you think?" Forrest asked, turning to Kailyn.

"Works for me," Kailyn agreed. She'd changed into a purple t-shirt and a clean pair of jeans before meeting Forrest for their dinner excursion.

Pulling up the Notes app on her Scroll, she added the name of the place to a new line. "I'll try anything once, them's the rules," she said as she floated the device into her back pocket while moving forward to tug the door open and motion him inside.

"After you, my verdant friend," she teased.

"Thanks." Forrest replied, walking into the pizzeria.

When the pair walked in, they were immediately hit by the scent of pizza and... smoke? Forrest looked around to see that the place was basically empty, save for a single figure by the register. It was a tall young man in about his mid twenties with slicked back black hair and a thin mustache. Perched atop his head were wolf like ears, and the man wore a pair of black pants and a black shirt along with a white apron. In his mouth was a cigarette, undoubtedly the source of the smoky smell. Five o'clock shadow had permeated his face, which seemed to recognize the fact that customers had entered the restaurant.

"Ah, dammit..." he quietly muttered to himself as he let the cigarette fall to the ground from his mouth and stamped it out, his nametag which read "Nero" became more visible by now. His gangly form adjusted itself from hunching to standing up straight before clearing his throat.

"How can I help youse?" Nero spoke with a distinct accent to his voice as he regarded the two.

This place reeked of 'family business' and Kailyn was 132% here for it.

"Table for two," she replied to their maître d' with a gesture between herself and Forrest.

"I dunno about you," she said to Forrest as Nero grabbed menus and motioned with his head for them to follow, "but I could probably eat an Ursa. Or something Ursa-sized," she corrected, "seeing as I don't think the remnant motive spirit of a defeated enemy would taste very good."

"Me too, I'm really hungry." Forrest replied as Nero lead them both to their table. Forrest took a seat before Nero asked them both what they would like to drink as he also handed them their menus.

"Water, please." Forrest answered as Nero would also take note of Kailyn's beverage of choice before walking over to get their drinks.

"Now that I think about it, they probably wouldn't taste good at all." he added as he perused the menu. His eyes scanned over a few sections before an important question came to mind.

"Were we gonna do one big pizza to share or do two personal pizzas?" Forrest inquired.

"Water's good," Kailyn decided. She'd met her soda quota for the week - gotta keep them pearly whites shiny, after all.

"One big one's prolly cheaper," she mused in response to Forrest's question. "You don't put anything weird on your pizzas, do you?"

She'd had a lot of pizza lately. Hopefully she'd exhaust Vale's supply of pizza places soon so she could mark down her top two before moving on to other genres of culinary construction.

"Yeah, a big pizza would be cheaper." Forrest started, having done some quick math in his head.

"I don't think a meat lovers pizza counts as weird, right? When you say weird you mean toppings like anchovies?" he inquired. Anchovies, let alone most seafood for that matter was something Forrest wasn't super keen on. He did like freshwater fish, but just about anything from the ocean seemed a bit too alien for his consumption. Perhaps it had been from a lack of exposure to said seafood, or the fact that some sea creatures looked as if they were from another planet, maybe both. Oakhearth wasn't exactly in a prime location for seafood either, being landlocked and all that.

"Meat lovers can't be weird, it's one of the options on literally every pizza menu ever." Kailyn shook her head. "Anchovies are fine. Olives are fine. Put them together and that's entirely too much salt to put on a pizza."

"A large meat lovers, then, yeah?" she asked Forrest as Nero returned with their waters.

"Yeah, that combination sounds too salty to even be edible." Forrest replied as Nero came back with their waters.

"One large meat lovers pizza please." he said to Nero as he wrote down the order and walked over to the kitchen.

"Ever since I came to Beacon I've been trying to increase my protein intake. I mean, a meat lovers pizza isn't the healthiest option but I'm still getting some protein from it, you know?" Forrest said, trying to make some idle conversation as they waited for the pizza.

Kailyn snorted as Forrest lamented his eating habits. "Who cares if it's unhealthy, it's got protein and carbs and the dorms are literally a hundred feet away from the gym. If you manage to put on weight that isn't muscle while you're here, you're clearly not training enough."

"And if you're not training enough, I will gladly be your gym buddy," she added with a grin after a moment.

"That's true..." Forrest replied as he raised his glass of water to his lips to drink. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to savor the refreshingly cold water for long...

"And if you're not training enough, I will gladly be your gym buddy."

Very poor timing for Forrest, he felt his chest seize up as the water went down the wrong way due to Kailyn's words. He practically slammed down his glass with urgency but with enough gracefulness to not spill a single drop, turning his head to violently cough into the inside of his elbow. It took him at least ten seconds to stop his violent coughing fit, thankful that the place was practically empty.

"You good?" Kailyn asked Forrest as he coughed violently into his elbow.

For once she hadn't been trying to make a joke or to flirt, though it certainly could have come across that way and it definitely came across that way didn't it.

Wouldn't you know, she might actually be okay with that. Huh.

Looks like tree boy's got the goods after all, she thought dryly.

As Forrest's coughing fit came to a close, he noticed that Kailyn was concerned rather than mischievous. It would seem that he misread Kailyn's tone, as his Pavlovian reaction didn't illicit the expected response from Kailyn. For once she actually wasn't messing with him...

"I'm okay, just went down the wrong way..." Forrest replied. Technically an honest sentence, but he was omitting the reason for its occurrence. Just to be safe, Forrest wanted to steer the conversation back to its original course, not wanting to explain why he nearly coughed his lungs out just a moment ago.

"But yeah, a gym buddy sounds nice. It's useful to have another person hold you accountable." he added.

"It's useful to have another person hold you accountable."

"It's useful to have another person to go with," Kailyn added. "At least half my problem is that it's boring as hell to go to the gym by yourself. I want to have a friendly competition with someone, to hype and be hyped, to be happy about someone else hitting their goals and have them be happy when I hit mine. That's the thing I miss most about home," she admitted, realizing in the moment just how true that was. More than being with family, it was the passive support and cheerful high-fives when she hit a new benchmark from people who truly understood and cared for her that she missed. She was making friends here, no question, but she wanted that easy feeling of mutual support again.

That got heavy fast, she thought.

Before she was forced to think of another topic, Nero came out with their pizza.

Listening intently as Kailyn went on, he could empathize with the need for support and friendly competition. It made him think of his own childhood under the tutelage of his great-grandfather. Silvanus wasn't one to pull punches, and at times his methods seemed downright barbaric, but the intense training came from a desire to see Forrest become the strongest person he could be. Though motivational support was lacking from Silvanus, his mother Hazel filled that void for him. Just then, Nero came by to drop off their pizza.

"Thanks." Forrest spoke to Nero before he walked back to the kitchen.

"I understand that feeling too. It's great to have another person go with you and help reach your respective goals. If that's what you want, I'll do that for you." he replied gently before grabbing a slice of the meat lovers pizza for each of them.

"Let's just avoid doing the training regiment I had to go through as a kid, that was brutal." Forrest joked, chuckling a bit, hoping that the humor would lighten the mood.

"Let's just avoid doing the training regimen I had to go through as a kid, that was brutal."

"Deal," Kailyn agreed with a smile.

+1 gym bro hell yis

"So the big thing I'm trying to practice with my Semblance is the fine control aspect - using it to pick up specific objects without touching the stuff around them, that kind of thing. What about you?" she asked. Knowing what his goals were would help her be the best workout buddy she could be, and your Semblance needed a workout just like your muscles did.

Noticing Kailyn's smile, Forrest couldn't help but crack a smile of his own. He was always one to lend a hand to others, simply happy to help. As for what he needed to work on, he already had something in mind...

"I've been meaning to see how my Semblance interacts with various types of Dust. I feel like that could help me cover some weaknesses or enhance my strengths." Forrest replied.

Dust, huh? Kailyn was about the furthest thing from a Dust expert there was, but hey, that just meant she didn't have any preconceived notions of how it was supposed to interact with Semblances.

"Sounds reasonable. There isn't really any axis for interaction with Dust when it comes to my Semblance, but I've been working with Lin to make some infused blades that I can throw around. That enormous explosion in my fight with Bartok was one of my early attempts. Definitely need to make something a bit less kamikaze next time, right?" she laughed.

Grabbing the spatula with her Semblance, she dished them each a slice before snapping her napkin open and placing it in her lap. Pizza wasn't normally a particularly messy food, but she wanted to get at least one more day out of these pants.