Here's one of the regulars! He's never given his name, but one of Julien's co-workers swears he must be an esper because he's so hot, even though his hair is not neon. "Mocha and a maple eclair please."

"Coming right up!"

Oh god oh god - it's fine.  This is a sign that something bad is going to happen to him, but everything is a sign that something bad is going to happen to him, so he can handle it.  Here's the card reader.

He taps his phone. Beep.

And then goes over to the here's-your-order counter, right?  Away from Julien?

Yup, there he goes.

It would be an exaggeration to say that Julien experiences relief, but he does experience: the lack of an extremely bad thing happening to him.

The next day, a coworker says something seems different about him, like, in the way he looks - and Julien, extremely importantly, has not done something different with his hair (he's been very carefully showering on exactly the same schedule as before), has not started or stopped wearing glasses (his eyesight is as vaguely-slightly-weak as ever), has not stopped or started wearing guyliner again - nothing about him should be different.

So... that's it, then.  That's the thing.

He should still, definitely, keep an eye out for other things; it would be idiotic to let his guard down even a little.  But this is where his primary focus should be.  Because now, now that someone's commented on it, he absolutely cannot look in any mirrors.  Because whatever he sees there is probably not going to be something he likes.  He's 100% going to be some sort of monster, the instant he looks, and then... it'll be all over.

The next day he has a late shift, and this Timmy Ho's has a west-facing window.  So it's totally normal, Julien reasons, to wear sunglasses.  The sun is right there, shining directly at him.  In his eyes.  It's normal.  Everything's normal.

He doesn't take them off even after it gets properly dark.

In comes a regular. "Hi, I need to be conscious and capable of human speech for the next four to six hours or so, can I get a double double please?"

"Of course!"  Oh god.  Also: putting orders into the tablet involves sooo muuuch looking at his own hands, but probably they're not going to change right in front of him, into - crab claws, or praying mantis arms, or whatever monster they're going to make him, so as long as he's careful every time they leave or enter his vision, then, it - might - be okay.

...Fuck, was that too long a blink, after the nights filled with 'mares - safer to keep his eyes closed for a minute, until he regroups; it's not even like anyone can tell that he's doing it.  (Or, the people running things can definitely tell, but none of the characters can, not without giving themselves away.)  He will - feel - around for - there it is, the card reader - here you go, suspiciously hot regular.

"Are you okay?" Reach.

Aaaaaaa.  "Ye -"  Bump.

"- dude, you are not okay, you have more backlash on you than I do and I just did a dungeon, are you awakening?"

What.  What?  Is this - this is how things are going.  Okay.

"What?"

"I'm an esper - and espers can tell when we touch other espers - did you just start awakening recently with some kind of symptom -" He has his hand extended where Julien could clasp it if he wanted to. "Something which is compatible with me but that doesn't tell me exactly what it is..."

"I -"  If he accepts this questline then in a week he's definitely going to be some sort of ravening beast.  But he probably already was going to be, and sooner than that, and also... realistically there's no way he can unobtrusively maneuver out of this.  He already failed that when he touched this guy's hand.

"I... have to wear sunglasses."

"Well, that's three for three on people compatible with me who have to wear sunglasses, I guess. Uh, you should possibly be in the hospital, or else I could take you to my house, backlash is dangerous and I do not think you should be working at Tim's while awakening because that is insane."

It's..... well, first of all he, yeah, takes the esper's hand, finally.  He's cooperating.  It's after dark, in the summer, so it's got to be pretty late.  He doesn't want to look at devices any more than he has to.  "We close at ten?"

"I am almost positive that you can get time off for having an esper awakening and if Tim Horton's sucks about this for some reason you can flip them off because you are going to be an esper, even if your powers suck you can do better than a coffee shop job. - if you have some kind of short term money problem for which you need this week's paycheck in particular I can cover it?"

"Julien oh my god, go the fuck home."

"- Mind your own business, Elise!"  Also home isn't even the place he'd be going.  Can he avoid going with this man.... doesn't seem so.  Aaaaaaaa.

"It is reasonable to not to want to walk off with someone you have barely met to be clear! But like at least go home with a family member who can watch you or to the hospital, it is vanishingly rare for it to be outright impossible for a backlash to kill you - admittedly it is also vanishingly rare for a backlash to allow you to work at Tim Horton's but if I had for some reason been trying to do that with mine I could maybe have done some of the tasks before I, you know, died."

...Hospitals definitely have a lot of torture equipment in them, whereas options for random dudes are like.... kitchen knives baseball bats rape?  Mayyyybe a chainsaw???  And psychic pain rays, of course; esper.  Back home in the country with Mom is.... no.  Absolutely not.

"No, I can... it seems fine?"