Welcome to Gaia! ::

Dasher was browser her phone as she waited in line to order. She was currently at some burger fastfood restaurant. Many thought that might be a bit weird considering she looked like a reindeer and was part baphomet, but she wasn't eating beef so clearly it should be okay! Besides, did it really count as cannibalism if the race was farmed as food?

Well, it could, but she really didn't want to think about it.

Eventually she was able to order her usual chicken sandwich combo and sat down at one of the empty two-seater tables, looking at her phone again until she heard her name or number called. She wasn't sure which one it would be this time, they seemed to switch it up every time she came here.

Eventually, they called her number out, which definitely meant that she was the only one, and as she was walking up to take the tray of food, someone had decided to take it and then complain to the cashier about it not being their food.

Before the cashier could respond, Dasher stomped up and slapped one of her hands on the counter. "They didn't get your food wrong, because that's NOT your food!" She said a bit loudly. Not quite to the point of shouting, but she was certainly getting there. She was protective of her food, and she wasn't sure if this was one of those places that would be happy to re-make the food, or would make you pay again if it was stolen, and she sure as heck wasn't going to wait to find out!

The thief screamed at her, saying that she had been waiting for 20 minutes, which wasn't true since Dasher had been ahead of them in line, and Dasher decided to just grab for the tray, but the thief had a good grip on the tray, and wasn't letting go!

Dasher continued to keep a death grip on the tray until a Geist had come over and asked about the situation. He then came over to Dasher and told her he would handle it. Of course, Dasher was hesitant to trust him at first. Why would some random guy be telling her to trust him? Maybe HE was here to steal her food too! Or maybe she was even with the THIEF?!!?!

Still, there was a presence about him that made her feel like she could trust him, at least for now. And she let go of the tray. He then told the cashier to re-do her food and that Thief would be paying for hers. The Thief did and then went out of the restaurant.

It took all of Dasher’s willpower not to throw the tray at the Thief as they walked out.

The man then came back over to her, and she was about to thank him, until he called her “young one”. Now, she didn’t think of it as an insult, but it certainly threw her off. This Geist guy looked young too, so either he was super old but looked young and spoke weirdly OR he thought she was younger than she really was. She felt her eye twitch a bit. “Thank you for that, but I’m not sure how young you think I am. I’m most likely older than you think though.” She kept her tone even, though she was burning up on the inside, just wanting to yell at him about it. She knew he hadn’t meant it as an insult, so she had to keep her temper in check.

She watched his as he placed his order, and when she heard her re-done one, happily went up to the counter to get it. When she looked back at the Geist though, he looked tired. Like, really tired. She didn’t want to butt into anyone’s business, but he looked like he was about to collapse at the counter. She hesitated for a moment, before deciding that she would butt into his business for now. “Are you all right? You need some company to keep you awake? You look exhausted.” She had concern in her voice, which was sincere. She didn’t want the guy who helped her to collapse at the counter after defending her! After all, they might say it was her fault then! And well, it would be bad for him too!

"16 Hours?! I couldn't even imagine working for that long! No wonder you're so tired!" She said incredulously. The job of a police officer, she assumed that he was one, was not one to underestimate! She sure felt a bit more respect for him for that. After all, she knew she certainly wouldn't be able to do such a job.

She scanned the restaurant for a table while the officer went off to go and fetch his food and she spotted one a bit away from everything else. Quiet, but not too quiet. It should be out of the way in case any little kids decided they wanted to start running around the place.

They both walked over to the table with Dasher plopping herself down in the chair and staring to eat her fries like a great potato famine was bound to happen within the next few days. After a moment, she noticed that he was sorting his food a bit. As long as he didn't bother her about it she didn't care. Some liked their food not touching other food and that was certainly understandable. If you wanted to dip fries into ketchup, you wouldn't want them covered in mayonnaise now would you? Or at least she wouldn't. But to each their own! She wasn't one for getting up into others' businesses unless it somehow involved her, her friends/family, and/or something illegal. But otherwise that was it!

"Zelig huh? Interesting. I'm Dasher. Being an officer must be interesting. I don't have a steady job myself, but I do odd jobs here and there to pay the bills and get some spending money. I couldn't even imagine doing what you do though." She noticed that her poor chicken sandwich was still alive and well. That would soon be changing!

“Well, boring is better than being shot at or something, right?” She said, and quickly took a bite out of her sandwich. She almost felt like moaning after taking that bite, it was so good! She had company now though, which meant that she needed to keep herself toned down. Instead, she would make sure to savor every bite!

After listening to him talk a bit more she frowned and once she was done with that bite said, “Well that’s because they have something to hide and know they’re doing something wrong, usually. Though I know that sometimes it’s just from experience. You look like a good cop who doesn’t go around stereotyping others, but just like in other professions, there’s some bad cops out there too. The problem is, cops tend to have a lot more power than a random manager at a fast food restaurant or something when it comes to the general public. Not your fault, but that’s just how it is unfortunately.” Even she had been accused a few times of things she hadn’t done. She did look like a troublemaker and that made others suspicious of her, but so far, she had been cleared every time. It wasn’t like she was doing anything illegal anyway!

“My jobs? I don’t do anything explicit if that’s what you’re thinking of.” She said, giving him a smirk, knowing full well he didn’t. “Well it’s stuff like plant-sitting, familiar-sitting, house-sitting, other random odd jobs like deliveries and temp jobs. Nothing too exciting, though I like familiar-sitting the best, even if the little buggers can be very mischievous and exhausting at times. Way too many fennekins in one house is always trouble in fluffy little bodies.” She said, sighing at the memory of the last job she had involving them.

Dasher took another bite of her sandwich and when she was done with that stuck another fry into her mouth. She was just too hungry, and this meal was just too good! It was interesting though getting to talk to Zelig. She hadn’t ever talked to a policeman before, or at least, not in a normal way. Most of the time when she had talked to one it had been accusations like shop lifting or something. She would then usually get a gruff apology from them when the tapes eventually showed that she was innocent and that the store owners had just been stereotyping her.

She had to keep herself from going to a lot of shops because of it. It made her sad since she had never stolen anything in her life, and yet somehow her face and apparently the way she walked just led others to believe that she was up to no good. It was always nice though when their faces fell, and they realized that they had been wrong. Though she had still shown them at the finger a few times as she was leaving still. She already wouldn’t be coming back because of what they thought of her, why did she need to leave on good terms? And if she needed something special from those shops, well, that’s what online orders were for!

So, it was nice to just talk to an officer. And Zelig seemed sincere.

She nodded, though she couldn’t help but look at his food as it stayed in his hands in mid-air. Perhaps she was just too hungry, but what he was eating looked good too. “I’m always looking for a job.” She said, chuckling a bit. She then watched the food be put back. Good. It was too tempting when it was at her eye level.

“All of those are fine. I’ve never really had too much trouble with familiars, though I do know that some need special care. At least that combination sounds better than the last job I took. Five feenekits in the same place was way more than I could handle, but somehow, I did a good enough job that they wanted to hire me back. I said they would have to double my rate for that unfortunately. Good familiars, but way too mischievous together.” She took another bite, put down her food, and quickly took her pocket journal and wrote something down on it. When she was done, she ripped it off and handed to him. “Those are my usual rates. I change them depending on how hard/easy the job is/how far it is, you know. It shouldn’t be too much, or at least I try to be reasonable with them.” She said, taking a sip of her drink afterward to wash down the food taste.

Dasher had her chicken sandwich half-way to her mouth before she heard Zelig make his offer, and she only just managed not to slam the poor thing down as she jumped up from her seat, and offered him the cleaner hand. "You have a deal!" She said, not even caring to ask about where he lived or anything else that was actually important. She heard the food offer and immediately jumped onto it. Heck, if he really was offering her food, then she would save on food bills too!

At least if he had food that she was willing to eat. If it was all weird stuff that she didn't like then it just wasn't going to happen and she would be bringing her own stuff to eat.

She grinned at him. "Sounds interesting. If there are any specifics I can think of, I'll give them to you, but I tend to eat almost anything and everything." She just loved food, what else could she say? "That's interesting, so you guys have your own little community then? I'm kind of jealous that you're surrounded by all of them. It sounds like a pretty safe neighborhood." Maybe that's where all of the first responders were hiding? She would have to check it out a bit more if possible. Maybe if she took some of his familiars on walks or something.

She took another bit of her food and finished off her fries. "I'll make sure to give you the form to fill out and I can send it to you by email or mail, whichever you prefer. I know some like the snail mail option still. And some of them don't have any printers." Printers were so cheap, that most people she knew with them would throw the printer out and get a new one because the ink cartridges were more expensive than the printers themselves.

"I'm glad to have met you today Officer Zelig. And thanks for taking care of that situation too." Though when she thought about it, she still wanted to punch the thief in the face and then stomp on them. Getting stomped with a hoof had to hurt, right?

She finished up her food. Picking up her drink she made sure that she had some left to take with her. "I'm glad to have this opportunity and I can't wait to start working for you." She smiled at him. At least she would have a semi-stable job now. And it would be nice to go to a home where some familiars were waiting for her. That and it would be interesting to have someone come home while she was there. It was a bit lonely to live all by oneself after all!

She waved her hand at him, silently telling him that it would be fine, and moved to throw away her trash too. "I mean, I could have kicked that thief's a** if I really wanted to, but you calming the situation down probably helped to prevent me from being banned by the restaurant." And she would have hated that. Sure, there were a bunch of others of these restaurants, but she still didn't want to be banned from one!

"Well, nice meeting you again Zelig. I'll be waiting for your email." She said, before quickly giving him a kiss on the cheek. She smirked at him and with that she left the restaurant, happy that she had finally gotten food in her stomach and an interesting guy to, at the very least, be friends with.