The weirdness has only just begun.

An hour later, Charlie had left for her shift at the hospital and Jess had started hers. The lunch rush was just beginning, and she was practically leaving a blazing trail behind her as she ran refills to tables, bussed others that had become free and helped Cathy at the counter. The good thing about the craziness was that she didn't even have time to dwell on yesterday.

"Alright, fellas - would y'all like more coffee?" Giving a group of tourists in their early twenties her practiced customer service smile, Jess held up her half-empty pot of black brew with her right, her left scratching her ear absentmindedly. "Or can Ah get you anythin' else to drink?"

"Thanks, gorgeous," one of them replied and lifted his mug with a cocky grin. "By the way, you wouldn't happen to be on the me--"

"Let me stop y'all right there, sugar," Jess said with a sugary sweet smile that somehow conveyed the willingness to deal grievous bodily harm - just as well-practiced as her other smile. "This here establishment reserves the right to bar anyone that harrasses the staff from service. Now, anythin' else Ah can getcha?"

"Uh, n-no, thanks. Coffee's great, thanks," the tourist mumbled sheepishly as his buddies teased him good-naturedly about getting shot down.

Jess, meanwhile, her coffee pot empty, returned to the counter to refill it, the itching on her ears getting stronger as she went. Shaking her head lightly to get rid of the sensation, Jess put the pot into the coffee maker and turned to her colleague.

"Hey Cathy, could y'all do me a favor? Mah ears're itchin' like mad, are they red or somethin'?" Turning her head left and right, Jess tried to give her friend a good look at her ears. "Ah hope it's not a rash or anythin'..."

"Hm?" Glancing up from the register, Cathy took a quick look at Jess. "Can't see any red, no... Listen, can you do me a favor? I'm all locked down here, and we're out of creamer. Could you get some out the back?"

"Mah pleasure, sugar."

As Jess walked towards the back, turning right just before the restrooms, she kept scratching her ears every now and then, trying to get rid of the incessant itching.

The storage room was small and cramped, shelves upon shelves filled with creamer, sugar packets, jam glasses and other things that a proper café needed. But just as Jess reached for a cardboard box with little creamer tubs, the itching on her ears became unbearable.

"Rrrf!" With a strange little snarl, the Texan began scratching her ears again, shaking her head wildly and making her hair fly as she did so.

Something weird was happening under her fingers, and there was a strange, floppy feeling growing on the top of her head that grew... floppier as she scratched, but as the itching also lessened considerably, Jess didn't really care, and cared even less once the itching was gone completely. Sighing contentedly, the southern belle could finally stop scratching the sides of her head and grab the creamer to bring it to the counter. Jess head still felt a little strange, little muscle twitches running through her scalp as something seemed to bounce lighty with every step.

Back in the café, Jess quickly brought the box of creamer to the counter before grabbing a cleaning cloth to get to bussing a few tables that had become free while she had been in the back. As she speedwalked through the café, Jess couldn't shake the feeling of strangeness on her head, a weird breeziness - the air seemed to flow differently somehow. But she had work to do, so checking this would need to come later. It didn't feel wrong, though, just new and strange. Speaking of strange: Jess was getting a few bewildered looks from some patrons, others grinning at her - particularly the tourists she'd rebuffed earlier.

"Nice cosplay, gorgeous!" Some people jus' never learn, Jess thought to herself as she cleaned a table. The guy from before's back at it again... Hold on, cosplay?! "Looking cute with those ears!"

"Uh..." Jess right flew to her ear, finding only hair at the side of her head. Feeling strangle calm, she let her hand wander higher, until... "Wh-wha...?"

Sticking out of Jess' hair, right on top of her head, was a roughly triangular, fuzzy shape - and, as her left confirmed, there was another one on the other side of the crown of her head. A little bit of gentle groping confirmed two things: They were, first of all, undoubtedly real as Jess could feel her fingers running over the soft fur, and secondly, they seemed to be animal ears.