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Prompt 9: Small custom shops and stalls always seem to open up this time of year, and Destiny City has no shortage this yeart. Several seasonal themed shops have already recieved raving reviews, and among them is a small cafe. Outside it looks like a cute vintage cafe, but inside, the shop has been decorated so convincingly that you feel like you've just stepped into a snowy northern forest. They have an array of delicious, cold drinks, and the trip would be worthwhile for that alone--except, shortly after the first sip, anyone who has ingested the drink will find that they sneeze a flurry of tiny snowflakes. The more drinks consumed, the longer you will find you are sneezing little snowflakes. It feels like there is a tickle up your nose for an hour or longer, depending on player choice; drinking more can also lead to longer effects. There are no negative impacts--just the need to sneeze often, and a little burst of cold snowflakes along with each one. Surprisingly, the shop still doesn't have any bad reviews.
"This place is great, you'll love it!"
Isiah lowered his phone, not bothering to press the button on the side to fully turn it off, and just stared at the exterior of the cafe his friend had been nagging at him to visit for a while, now. Why he hadn't yet, he wasn't really sure. He'd just kept...Forgetting. The bakery had been busy much of December, of course, but it wasn't like he'd been too stressed out after work to enjoy the company of a public space. And even if he was stressed after work, he wasn't the kind of person who decompressed in the solitude of their own quiet. He enjoyed the chaos of people all around him. He fed off socializing with others. He was very much an extrovert, very little of an introvert.
Thomas, however, had been here before. Many times, by his account. Below the text was a list of suggested drinks, along with the promise to meet up later to get it straight what Isiah thought of the place. Raving reviews from Thomas, apparently. Which wasn't saying much to Isiah. Thomas seemed to like everything. Especially if it was sweet. And all of these drinks listed neatly in a row were, or sounded, sweet. No coffee ever on his list. The closest Thomas would ever get to coffee was a mocha every once in a while.
Isiah noted there was a heavy chocolate mocha on the list. He, too, enjoyed his fair share of sweets. He happily worked in a bakery, after all. But he also enjoyed a good coffee with little cream and sugar.
Stuffing his phone back in his pocket, he decided to just look over the menu over his friend's list or a boring coffee. He waited for a couple to exit the building, one of them sneezing shortly after entering back into the cold breeze blowing along the street. Must be terribly warm inside or dude had a cold. Neither one was very good.
It was indeed cozy and warm inside. And also impressive. Isiah paused just a few feet from the front door to stare in amazement at the interior of the normal looking cafe. He couldn't even put into words how incredible it was. Even the wallpaper gave him the impression that he had walked outside the city into the forest. Were those real trees sitting in fake piles of snow all over? Must be. He was about to reach out and touch one, when the door behind him opened and someone cleared their throat directly behind him. Quickly uttering an apology, turning his head just slightly to look behind, Isiah moved further into the cafe and off to the side, to allow the one behind him to cut ahead while he looked over the menu. Or, forced himself to stop looking at the decorations and look over the menu.
Coffee was out of the question. He initially was going to order something warm, but it was already cozy enough in here, it would just be unbearable heat. So instead he looked over the cold drink menu, decided one from there instead, and walked up to order it.
Spying a free table by a window, Isiah sat down just as his friend was walking through the door. He waited for Thomas to order and turn around before waving him over to join him. Earlier than Isiah had been expecting him to be.
The instant Thomas sat down, he eyed Isiah's choice with a frown on his face. "You didn't take any of my suggestions."
"Nope," was all the blonde said as he took a sip of his drink. Flavor exploded on his tongue and his eyes widened before he could stop them. He looked up to find Thomas giving him a "I told you so" look from across the table. "Yeah, fine. You have taste."
"Why do you always doubt me?"
Isiah merely rolled his eyes. And immediately felt the need to sneeze. Closing his eyes, he leaned to the left into a corner, hoping this wasn't the table the sneezing dude had been at. No one liked having a cold, least of all in winter where it was so difficult to stay warm. When he righted himself back in his seat, having not noticed the flurry of snowflakes that were falling gently to the floor, he caught a funny look on his friend's face. He merely raised an eyebrow, raising his cup for more of one of the tastiest drinks he'd ever had. Once more, there was that tickle in his nose and he leaned back to the same corner. This time, he opened his eyes just in time to see the snowflakes. He looked above his head, expecting there to be some machine shooting out plastic snowflakes every so often. There was none.
Again, he looked back at Thomas to see that funny look on his face, like he knew some secret he wasn't sharing. This time, Isiah raised both his eyebrows and titled his head, probably looking very much like a mother eying their disobedient child who was refusing to tell her who broke the priceless plate.
All he got was "It's delicious, isn't it?"
"It's one of the best cold drinks I've ever had, but that's besides the point. Why do you look like the cat who has the family mouse hidden under their behind while the family looks all over the house for it?" Thomas just shrugged. "You're being very weird, even for you." Again, his friend said nothing, just merely grinned wider and watched strangely closely as Isiah took more gulps of the delicious drink. He would definitely have to return in the future to try more of the menu.
A few more rounds of sneezing followed, with him constantly looking above and around him for some machine to be causing it. Thomas, who had ordered something hot, had been waiting the whole time for his to cool down and now drank heavily from it, giving a cartoony "Ah!" as he placed it back on the table. Silence followed, until Thomas started wrinkling his nose and sneezed into the same corner Isiah had been. As he did so, a flurry of snowflakes seemed to materialize in front of his face and drift slowly down to the floor.
All he could do was stare for a bit as Thomas continued sipping at his drink, every so often leaning to the side to shoot out more snowflakes from his face. Isiah by now had been sneezing into his sleeve, which he noted was becoming much too wet for a normal sneeze.
"Did....Are you...."
"Yup."
"Have I been...."
"Cool, isn't it?"
Without a word, Isiah downed his drink and got up, throwing the empty cup into the garbage on his way out the door and back home, sneezing all the way there and than some.
