RATS04
DINER RECEIPT
RECEIPT NUMBER: RATS04
RECEIPT DATE: 11 28 1988
MANAGER TITLE: BALTIMORE
RECEIPT NOTES:
Miss. Others, huh. I didn’t even know you were serving a customer, mon amour. Ah—perhaps that’s what you were trying to tell me, but I was too foolish to listen. Too wrapped up in Fate and all that it brings… Miss. Misc. I’ve been working in secret as well, tending to our more eccentric, et cetera customers. And if I’ve learned anything, it’s that I know nothing. A humbling lesson, but one worth learning early—or perhaps rather late at this point. Things are different now. They’re changing. This rewinding—imperfect as it is—might be the only way things can be once rewound. Lightning rarely strikes twice.
Change is natural. Necessary, even. I’ve repeated this mantra to myself countless times. If we are to ever break free from the machinations of Fate and the Cold, we must embrace it. Yet, not all change feels worth embracing. There’s a razor-thin line between change and predetermined twists. That thin line is what’s been keeping me up at night, locked away in my office.
What is new? And what is novel? Madeline Saturn, Marcus Douglas… Even Eight’s presence here—that was something I never personally anticipated. What I’ve discovered unsettles me. But I can’t stop now; there’s too much at stake. I’ll keep searching, keep questioning, keep sipping the coffee until I understand what it’s becoming—and what it’s trying to tell me.
This cup tastes different. Robusta to Arabica. A sweetness that wasn’t there before. And tell me—am I the only one who thinks Arabica is a little too fancy for a diner operation? If only I could see what needs to be seen. But I lack the vision of mon amour and Eight. I lack so much now. All I have left are memories, and if there’s one thing my trusted associate has taught me, it’s that I lean on them too heavily. I’m too sentimental. Too obsessed with the past. Oh well.
Yours (mostly) in the present,
Baltimore