Para's Normal Pizza was fairly unassuming despite being a large three-storey five-sided building with a large asphalt carpark and being placed between heavy conifers, pleasant semidetached homes and the ugly concrete blocks of flats.
Open all day, every day, the stone construction drew people from the other side of Vancouver, and today was no different.
As the brief winter sun set behind the snow covered trees, cars pulled carefully into and out of the ice free carpark and patrons flocked through all ten doors.
The roof and underground entrances were just as busy, spirits and goblins mingling with gnomes and valkyries. The servers and waiters shuttled around like ants, carefully seating newcomers in areas most suited to their paranormal awareness.
The pizza bikes were just as busy buzzing away with pizzas into Vancouver's streets or into the opening to Faerie. The kitchens, spanning all five floors in a great central column, had all hands on deck.
Para strode amongst it all, checking the settings of the unglamour enchantments, fixing the servers' uniforms and supervising access to the rarer ingredients in stock.
She paused at the north corner, as she always did on a Friday, and surveyed the ground floor. Para's Normal Pizza sold normal pizzas, but it was a selling point that nothing else was - the servers were dressed as paranormal beings, the walls and columns were decorated with mystic symbols and pictures of all the famous hoaxes, and costumes were encouraged amongst the patrons.
Para caught a nearby catgirl's eye and gestured to her hairband. The server adjusted it closer to her ears, the unglamour spread through the building making them look fake, like delightful ornaments to her costume.
By the nearest entry to the kitchen a woad-covered Pict put on a display of cutting pizzas with a broadsword to the delight of a nearby teenage birthday party. As he wrapped up and spooled out the slices, Para caught his eye.
"I'm meeting some interesting parties in the bunker," she murmured to him. "Mind heading down to provide security?"
With a nod, the brawny man headed towards the stairs.
Para circled each floor once more before heading down into the second basement where the atmosphere was more subdued and entering the meeting room to wait.
She didn't have to wait long. The first to arrive at the doors, greeted by the catgirl, was...
Open all day, every day, the stone construction drew people from the other side of Vancouver, and today was no different.
As the brief winter sun set behind the snow covered trees, cars pulled carefully into and out of the ice free carpark and patrons flocked through all ten doors.
The roof and underground entrances were just as busy, spirits and goblins mingling with gnomes and valkyries. The servers and waiters shuttled around like ants, carefully seating newcomers in areas most suited to their paranormal awareness.
The pizza bikes were just as busy buzzing away with pizzas into Vancouver's streets or into the opening to Faerie. The kitchens, spanning all five floors in a great central column, had all hands on deck.
Para strode amongst it all, checking the settings of the unglamour enchantments, fixing the servers' uniforms and supervising access to the rarer ingredients in stock.
She paused at the north corner, as she always did on a Friday, and surveyed the ground floor. Para's Normal Pizza sold normal pizzas, but it was a selling point that nothing else was - the servers were dressed as paranormal beings, the walls and columns were decorated with mystic symbols and pictures of all the famous hoaxes, and costumes were encouraged amongst the patrons.
Para caught a nearby catgirl's eye and gestured to her hairband. The server adjusted it closer to her ears, the unglamour spread through the building making them look fake, like delightful ornaments to her costume.
By the nearest entry to the kitchen a woad-covered Pict put on a display of cutting pizzas with a broadsword to the delight of a nearby teenage birthday party. As he wrapped up and spooled out the slices, Para caught his eye.
"I'm meeting some interesting parties in the bunker," she murmured to him. "Mind heading down to provide security?"
With a nod, the brawny man headed towards the stairs.
Para circled each floor once more before heading down into the second basement where the atmosphere was more subdued and entering the meeting room to wait.
She didn't have to wait long. The first to arrive at the doors, greeted by the catgirl, was...