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It’s been a while since all the drama. The investigation of the stolen dough. Sometimes Asher could not handle it either. But there was something about that ordeal that made it different: it was exciting. Something new.
But when Julius Cheeser was defeated, his power sealed forever in ice, things dulled for Asher. Asher missed that spirit of competition, that feeling of doing something more.
He’s been telling himself that it’s wrong to want the mystery to go on, but sometimes he can’t help it. That feeling of mystery, being able to talk to people. Asher missed that.
He missed being able to talk with Cicero, or seeing the Plant Lady teach him about gardening or getting new seeds. Heck, even fighting with other pizzeria owners like Alicante, Angelica, even Dr. Keh was more lively than this.
Talking with Nasir, or being with Flash, talking with them and interacting with them during the case was the most human conversation he’s ever had in a while.
But now, he just continues to serve pizza, as the numbness and the repeating days of it all stay the same. Sometimes Asher can still feel the cold and frostbite from his hands when he was using the freezer to permanently seal away the dough. His hands would shake and Asher was sure that he could still see tiny marks of frostbite and snowflakes on his hands, making his hands cold to the touch.
The only thing he has left is pizza making, as he gets lost with placing toppings on a pizza, and having to listen to the weirdest orders he’s ever heard, or the most complicated ones that required Megabyte to do.
The days just keep going on and on, staying the same. He would open the shop in the morning on the dot at 12 noon, and the shop would close at exactly 10PM at night, where Asher would spend the nights alone, noting down the profits, the total revenue, the ingredients cost, the rent of his place, and the daily repairs of the oven and warmer with bug spray.
But he keeps going, as the days go on. Sometimes he missed when things were simpler, when all he could make was a simple cheese or pepperoni pizza.
Maybe things will change again. But right now, life is dull. Life is like a pizza. And right now, it was a simple cheese pizza, bored out of its mind.