2021-03-11: Impromptu Dinner Party

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<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

WHY IS THE TEAM HERE?

Because Elly van Houten completed so many custom fishing deliveries for them that she unlocked a minigame. Then she placed in that minigame with the help of her pwecious widdle dwagon swaying swacker, and as a result, they're willing to rent the small banquet room out during the slack period.

The Red Shell's smallest banquet room is usually for a party of about eight, so there's plenty of elbow room. It is not the most sumptuous appointment, but there is a cold-water bucket holding some mild white wine as well as a carafe of lemonade if you don't care to get your lean on during a slightly late lunch. BUT THE MENU IS -

The two newest dishes!!

"You'll love both of these," Elly says. The cornflower-blue sundress she has on has a new decoration, a small silver badge at the collar.

DISH ONE: BARRACUDA WITH WINE: Barracuda steaks, sliced fairly thin, and simmered in a rich wine sauce. Served over ziti al dente, with a 'add your own' pepper mill and small pot of shredded cheese, along with a wedged lemon.

DISH TWO: SPINDLECRAB POTATOES: Rich lumps of spindlecrab leg meat in a creamy sauce with chopped red potatoes, lots of garlic, and a blanket of shredded cheeses. Baked in an oven and served with a spoon.

There is also a small tray of tempura-style shrimp and mashed-rice dippers to go with a soy-based sauce. Also, salad.

"It does seem a little more refined than it did then, didn't it...? I suppose that's the miracle of the restaurant industry," says Elly, as she serves herself some of the barracuda.

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Lily Keil is willing to drink wine at a late lunch. She's willing to drink wine at breakfast! It doesn't tend to do a lot to her, frankly. And it complements the new dishes pretty well in fact!

Lily is actually dressed in something other than old military gear, a light purple dress and shoes instead of boots. ...No prizes for guessing that she still has her knife on her, but it's at least not visible at the moment. The familiar strange old pendant with the ancient language on it is present.

And here and now, Lily is acquiring servings of the barracuda, the potatoes, the dippers, and the salad, as well as some of the wine. And the pasta, obviously. Her plate is efficiently organized, managing to fit everything at once somehow.

She tries a bite of the barracuda first. "...I do," Lily agrees with Elly about it. "This is very good."

More refined...? Hmmm. "I do like to eat things that aren't rations every so often," she quips. 

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

    Riesenlied is always terribly charmed to have dinner with friends; she also was insisting on cooking for everyone but eventually got bullied into relaxing for a day so they can go out and have a nice meal at a restaurant instead.

    She giggles quietly as she reaches for some of the food trays on her wheelchair, perhaps with Lily or Elly's assistance. "This does look good... how has everyone been?"

    She's mostly restricting herself to the salads and carbs; she does sneak a piece of barracuda, though.

    "I have to remind Lily of that sometime, on the Fereshte," Riesenlied beams. "It is bad enough that Janey herself enjoys rations..." 

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Fei Fong Wong may have had a HAND in this FOOD DANGER you are about to embark on. Except it's not really danger because Fei and Elly already ate this stuff already and... well, okay, Fei will eat literally anything you put in front of him that he can chew into smaller bits and some things he can't, but Elly--Elly actually has TASTE. So it's probably safe. Fei would eat anything. He even enjoys the fucking soylent.

Fei is in his village garb as usual. He isn't a fashion icon by any stretch of the imagination, but he seems to be pretty pleased with both himself and Elly.

"It's pretty good...! I'm pretty sure this guy can make anything taste incredible...!"

Will they manage to get their gourmet badge today?!

"Hanging in there!" Fei admits. He is doing pretty well all told. Aside from that last meeting with SIN he's been fine! "Glad the war's over. COnsider this an anti-war celebration if you'd like!" 

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.

    When Seraph Lanval is around, he's pretty sure any time is a good time for a FEAST. ...or you know a late lunch, that's kind of like a feast? They're both five-letter words, close enough, if you try hard enough you can equate any five-letter word to 'let's eat a lot of food.' (Please don't go hunting for other five-letter words for this purpose, nothing good will come from this. Something funny, maybe even awesome, but nothing good.)
     "I love all of 'em!" The Water Seraph slash spokesperson for one of the primal elementals of the planet says, reclining where he is as such that he both does and does not take up one-point-five spaces, depending on the level of Resonance. Then again, he has never really been all that discriminatory about edibles. He has, so far, set himself up with a little of everything - it's not very well-organized, but he does seem to be a little more enamored with the salad today than the rest. (There probably isn't a deeper meaning.)
     One of the bottles of mild white wine is in his hands, though, which may be a much more significant concern given his track record with this sort of thing! ...In so much that he grows increasingly contemplative-looking as he considers it. "...'ve had thish kind before," he says, only a bit more soberly than usual. "Mmm. 'll... pour shome fer anyone." Because wines are best shared with everyone, of course. When Riese asks how everyone is, both eyes flutter half-open with a series of blinks, as if taken out of some sort of reverie. "...'m fine! 'm fine. Ha ha ha!" He's still holding onto that bottle like it were something precious (and he needs to make good on his promise to pour it). 

<Pose Tracker> Emeralda Kasim has posed.

Emeralda is here, because -

Wait, does Emeralda need an excuse to be at a lunch that includes Fei and Elly? Because that's it, that's her entire excuse.

Emeralda is perfectly willing to try anything given to her, at least once, though sometimes it is indeed just the once. Fortunately, barracuda and potatoes both appear to be popular, though - probably for the best - she has not been given any wine. At least, not yet.

"Did you catch it?" Emeralda asks, excitedly, from where she is sitting. She still looks like the ten-year-old everybody knows, which is getting increasingly unusual because she has looked that way for two years now. "Or did someone else catch it?" She knows Elly fishes.

"Wait, is Janey taking my rations?" Emeralda you don't have rations 

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

"It was made by the chef, but Fei and I were their testers," Elly tells Lily as she finishes loading up her plate. She has gone easy on the potate. "I can take some credit for that one... we were taking turns, picking things out for each other to try... and I picked that one for Fei."

"But the potatoes were his idea," Elly says. "It's hearty stuff!"

Elly gets a glass and holds it out to Lanval for the sake of pouring. It is a water glass. A pint water glass. She probably does not expect it to be completely filled, unless...?

"I did catch this stuff originally, but I think this particular barracuda's not the one I caught," Elly explains to Emeralda. "I did bring in an entire three buckets full of spindlecrabs, though, and they're probably still getting through them!"

IN THE BACK OF THE KITCHEN

A live well with a connection to the sea and a pump handle for primitive water cycling seethes. An old wooden sign says: DEADBEATS GO HERE V

Inside of the live well there is a single menacing sound: *snop*

BUT HERE AGAIN, on the topic of rations: "Do you mean preserved stuff? You do get a taste for things like that..."

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Lily laughs to Riesenlied at her comment. "Not sorry for that one." A beat, "You know how I've been, anyway. Well enough." And the whole war ending thing is good. Lily of course has one of the bottles herself because she tends to consider alcohol by the bottle rather than the glass in the first place, but she notices Lanval's... interest in it. "Something special about it?" she wonders.

Then to Fei, "Seems like he can. I should'e come here before." Pause. "...Likewise glad the war's over."

But Elly explains! "I see!" Lily says. "So this is something of an inspired effort, then." 

<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.

    "My, this is quite a spread..."

    Citan, here because he was invited with the others, has opted to pass on the wine. Unlike certain old friends of his, he prefers to not imbibe before evening. His own plate leans towards the fish and the salad; for reasons of his own he's given the crab-potatoes a wide berth (they're not good reasons but they are his own reasons).

    "Did it take them long to make this, Elly?" he asks; he has yet to take a bite. "I would not mind trying to make it, myself."

    This may be where alarm bells should be going off for Fei -- Fei might be willing to eat a great number of things, yes, but isn't the doctor's cooking just...
    ...really... bad...?

    "I am well, Riesenlied. And yourself?" They have not had the opportunity to speak casually in a while, after all-- but the same could be said of most of those present. Including the 'spirit' in the room.

    "Ah, I shall pass, Lanval, if you do not mind... Have you been well?" What does 'well' mean, for a Seraph? 

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

    Riesenlied does nod towards Fei and Lily. "We have been very busy assisting everyone in the war... and avoiding direct conflict as well. I think we should be about able to return everyone displaced to their families, however!"

    She pumps her hands at that, looking a bit pleased, and nodding to Lanval when he says he's fine too. Citan asks how she is too, and...

    "Hmm... some of the Drifters investigating found a lead to the whereabouts of Ming of the Bronze Tigers, but I think it would be too dangerous for me to be involved directly. I may leave it to them..."

    ... unaware the world has other designs for her this weekend, as usual.

    Emeralda asks if Janey's been taking her rations, and she blinks. Then looks to Elly and Fei. "Ah? Not to my knowledge, but..." 

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.

    Lanval does, beyond expectations... fill the glass as much as Elly desires, as she related the story about who caught the fish and who arranged the food in the state it's in (which is to say, it is food, and it is good food).
     Lily asks as to whether the wine's special. One eye remains open half-lidded with a tiny little cat-like smile. "Mmm... in sho much ash the bottle here aloooooone~" He seems uncertain how to phrase this, like he might be holding back A Story(tm). "...If ya ashk me, all wine ish!" Yeah that is absolutely A Story(tm), as Citan asks how well he's been.
     "...Shure got a lot goin' on... but 'm alwaysh up fer a good shmall joy, here 'n there."
     The discussion goes to the war, how it is by all appearances over. A slow nod - but even in its wake there's a whole bunch of difficult questions about whether they will find a better way to overcome the Clysmian. Difficult questions he's not going to ask aloud because this is a great lunch.
     "...'m gonna tell ya shomethin'," he says, pointing out a finger from the wine bottle he is still holding, "...Filgaia cookin'... it'sh shomethin' shpecial." 

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Fei immediately becomes a bblack and white horror drawing with his pupils vanishing and despair lines washing off his entire body.

"Ahah..hahaha...." Fei laughs at Citan's suggestion. "Ahah...hah...hah...."

Is that his soul escaping his mouth? No not yet. The future is open. Maybe he can feed it to Chaya. Would it hurt the chimera pup?? He hopes not.

"...Rations?" Fei asks of Emeralda, blinking as he is restored to his proper self--but only for now, only for now.

He reaches to pat Emeralda's head and ruffle her hair before remembering she doesn't like it and he pulls his hand back and just places it on her shoulder, smiling at her.

"We had a hand in picking out the ingredients, but the chef made it work! I don't think I would've been able to hanlde it."

He looks to Lily and smiles at her. "Had a feeling you'd be. Less work for us, but hey. That's a good thing."

He too hopes to just avoid the Ming problem but well. 

<Pose Tracker> Emeralda Kasim has posed.

"Yeah! I like the meats in a can. How do they get it in a can without it going bad? Because it's *salty* but salty isn't always bad..."

Emeralda trails off so she can shove a forkful of potato and crab in her mouth, and she has good enough table manners to not talk while she's got her mouth full. Having not yet experienced Citan's cooking, it does not fill her with terror and so she accepts the possibility with aplomb.

She also accepts a near hair-ruffle with aplomb. It isn't that she hates it so much as she's never sure what she's supposed to do with it; people complain when you shake their hand back with your hair, so she's stopped doing that, but the impulse is still there. 

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

"I can certainly ask them, but they may not want to reveal the secret ingredient," Elly tells Citan. "That said... I can make a decent guess. We had to pick the meat, the starch, and the primary seasoning... it was wine for the barracuda here -- I think they cooked all these slices up in a big pan, the one Fei had was a lot chunkier."

Elly obtains a pint of wine which is probably going to be a good time for someone, even if this will likely not be enough for her to hit Full On Finger Wobble Drunkface. Not with a meal. Hopefully there's no battles in the immediate future, though.

There are chairs and smaller tables arranged to allow for a general conversation-pit effect; Elly sets down with her everything and picks up fork and knife to take a bite out of the fish.

To Riesenlied, she asks, "Ah? The Bronze Tigers?" -- but then Emeralda has a question.

And she put food in her mouth so Elly can speak freely. "I assume it's the same process here as it is anywhere... they put the meat and the seasoning in the can, and then they cook the can. And with it, the food within... and since it's already sealed up, the external world's contamin- I mean to say, dirt and germs and everything, can't get inside. So there's no way it *can* go bad, at least not for a very long time."

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

"I stepped in a little," Lily admits. "At the end." But she doesn't elaborate too much on that. Instead, she smiles back at Fei. "Yeah. There's war enough places; we can find work, it's not an issue." Lily could probably handle Citan's cooking, meanwhile. "Yeah?" she says. "I didn't know you cooked, Doc."

Ming and the Bronze Tigers... "Hmmm. Doesn't sound like the kind of thing I can really let loose at much," she admits. She has to think about things like 'collateral damage' after all.

All wine is special! Which is kind of an answer and kind of isn't. "Hmm. I guess you would think so," she says, though she says it with more respect in her tone than people might usually apply to Lanval. But Filgaian cooking...

"Hmm. I guess I take it for granted, since I've been here most of my life. Is it something mystical? Or do you just like how we cook things?"

Elly handles the explanation for the can, so Lily sees to eating her food instead. Delicious. 

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

    Riesenlied smiles a little at Lanval's joy of wine -- she certainly also expects him to be quite the connoisseur! And, at the same time, not picky about his wine.

    "I am glad you like Filgaian cooking. Lunar cooking is also good... Vane treated us well when we visited," Riesenlied reminisces. "I got some recipes from the Premier."

    She nods at Fei as he and Elly explain how they had a hand in picking the ingredients, then Emeralda asks how they preserve meats.

    "I do not know too much about it, but salt makes it dry, and therefore does not spoil... I think?" Riesenlied is not up on the latest of canning technology. But Elly has a better explanation!

    She nods at Elly, though. "Those ones who were after our bounty that time in Kattelox..." 

<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.

    "A secret ingredient, is it..." Citan rubs at his chin thoughtfully, seemingly unaware of Fei's soul actively exiting his body. "Perhaps with some experimentation, then!" He turns his attention Lily's way. "Not as much as I would prefer, to be honest. I do not often have the opportunity to do so." Back in Lahan this was (mostly) prevented by Yui's timely intervention, but since then...
    It may just be the work of fate or good fortune that no one (except Fei) has had to eat his cooking.

    "'The Bronze Tigers'? Hmm," he muses, when Riesenlied mentions that particular topic. "Perhaps that is as well. From what I have heard of it..." He pauses a moment, as if in thought. "Well, I would not recommend confronting a group such as that on their own territory, as it were."

    He at last takes a bite of his food, chewing it tentatively. It seems to pass muster, though--

    "This is wonderful, Elly. My compliments to the chef."

    Given his eventual remark.

    Turning towards Lanval, he nods at the Seraph's response. "I see... even with the war at an end, there is still much to be done." 

<Pose Tracker> Emeralda Kasim has posed.

Cooking... in the can? Emeralda is slightly dubious, but if everyone agrees... either it's the truth or they're really trying to hide it from her. Maybe she should experiment. It's not like she can't get a can...

This may not end well.

But none of it shows on Emeralda's face. Also, she got distracted. "Are the Bronze Tigers... bandits?" Everyone on Filgaia hears about bandits. "Do they have a bounty?! - Wait, they're getting YOUR bounty? That means they're bounty hunters instead. ...But you make them sound like bandits."

She decides to try some of the fish. But there's something it's missing...

 "Filgaian cooking is great! And can I have some of that?" Emeralda points at the wine. 

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.

    Lanval will probably not realize his mistake. Is there one? Wine is for sharing! (It may be actual absent-mindedness on his part.)
     "...Where I'm from, ain't much want... in termsh of food." Lunar is, to appearances and often in fact, a lush paradise of plenty. Almost any of his kind would have balked at the idea of him having thrown his lot entirely with the Blue Star, in the state it's in now. Even at its most optimistic hopes, things are... bleak. He nods along as Riesenlied shows appreciation for how much he likes it.
     "...'caushe Filgaia ain't sho much a land of plenty," unless you like bullet casings and sand, which is an acquired taste even among sandworms, "I find... people here, really make the mosht of what they get. I don't get a, mmm," he scratches a finger about his chin, "feelin' of... anything but people makin' the besht of what they get. Every fish. Every plant. Every morshel.... really feelsh like a shmall joy."
     And, at last weighing in on matters of rations, "...Shome of the ration shtuff I've sheen... a lot like wine. Like... a well wish from the pasht, fer shomeone ya may never meet."
     That is the nicest thing anyone has ever said about military rations.
     "...there'll be a lot, yep! But... it'sh important ta note... 'n celebrate what'sh worth it."
     As Emeralda points at the wine, Lanval starts to tilt the bottle in the direction of her cup which is to say that yes he is absolutely being absent-minded in the face of the atmosphere of relief and happiness with only a tiny chance of Doc's cooking horror stories and...
     This is sort of what happens when you normally travel with mortals who have had formative experiences with certain delicious substances way earlier than anyone should. 

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Fei Fong Wong thinks: Meats in a can. His heart grows one size bigger before quickly shrinking back down to normal before anybody notices. Fei wouldn't complain about Emeralda using her hair to shake and has noticed that Emeralda hasn't been using her unique abilities much--but he's not sure if it's because there hasn't been much need or if it is something else. He'd like Emeralda to be comfortable doing whatever she wants to do, but he knows it's not always so simple as that.

Maybe Elly has a better understanding, he thinks, but sets aside the thought for later. There are some embarrassing things even this dad won't do.

Fei sits himself back down and he says, "Yeah. Sure uh--"

He looks at Lily in horror and quickly shakes his head from side to side as subtly as he can.

"Sure," Fei says because he's from a village. "Just a little though." He pours Emeralda a tiny bit. "You might not like it though!" 

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

Elly has been eating for several bites, but then Emeralda has a question.

Elly has a mouthful of pasta so she has a moment to think. After swallowing, she says to Emeralda, "Sure, a little. It may taste bad to you... it's something that tastes better when you've grown, or when you have it with a nice meal!" She indicates to Lanval to give her two fingers' worth, which probably indicates that Elly has been around too many bars for her father to approve. On the other hand, he's in a meat can in the sky, and she's here, so who is the winner?

"Military rations do tend to be, um, more about function instead of flavor..."

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

"Vane is a good place," Lily says, though of course it's also a very run-down place and that isn't great. Technically she's a visiting professor there! ...Sort of. She's taught some, anyway.

"Experimentation! Sounds good," Lily says, and catches Fei's reaction but doesn't really know why he's reacting like that, just tilting her head as she feels the slightest echo of a b s o l u t e d r e a d.

"...Hmmm," she says, and listens to Lanval. She smiles a bit, at the talk of rations. "Yes," she says. "That's a good approach. And I see what you mean."

She isn't going to stop Emeralda drinking either, though she does comment, "Drink too much and you might end up with a headache tomorrow though."

Then a pause. "Bounty hunters and bandits can be the same thing, depending."

Function instead of flavor... "Yeah," Lily agrees with Elly, "That's part of what's so interesting about them. You get to see what they thought was most important to ensure the soldiers had--sometimes it's sentimental, sometimes it's pure practical, and sometimes they think it's one or the other." 

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

    "Ah, yes..." Riesenlied nods at Citan. "I feel a bit bad about it, but it is not something I can do much about as I am right now."

    Her tail swishes gently -- she's careful to not have it knock over anything. She's been getting better at that!

    "I think they might be both bandits and bounty hunters... but very organised," Riesenlied expresses with a quiet smile to Emeralda. She glances to Elly as she mentions rations--

    "Hyadean rations were... um. It was a difficult time for me, certainly. The most infamous ones were nigh indistinguishable from iron bars."

    ... she doesn't sound like she's exaggerating either. But she does nod to Lanval. "I think I understand that approach, yes... and if it were not for the rations, Janey and Mikaia would not be with us! So I am grateful." 

<Pose Tracker> Emeralda Kasim has posed.

"I thought this was a nice meal," Emeralda says, poking at the fish with her fork again. "And bandits and bounty hunters are different, aren't they? One catches the other."

But she's getting WINE. Which is new. She's never had it before. Everybody (well, almost everybody) telling her that she's not likely to like it only makes her want to have it more. The colour reminds her of juice but the smell does not; she realizes she may have made that mistake when the glass is to her lips and she's already starting to pour.

...

Yes that was a mistake.

Emeralda does not sputter because she's trying to look like Fei and Elly weren't right about it, but there is a definite airy sound from her as she exhales sharply through her nose and almost manages to avoid making a face. She coughs. That seems to be the end of that, because when she gets another drink, it is lemonade.

"Iron rations aren't actually iron," she informs Riese, as if she didn't already know. "I checked." 

<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.

    "Yes! Perhaps I might be able to 'reverse-engineer' the secret ingredient?" Maybe everyone will get really lucky and something will come up in the meantime. Or maybe everyone will have to eat the doctor's cooking...

    Citan shakes his head. "No, there is no need to apologize. It is important to know one's limits," and if his smile takes on a slightly more weary cast at that, well, he did treat and monitor Gwen in the aftermath of her... situation. He may have it on his mind. "I am certain there are others who will do their 'due diligence'. As for myself..." He shakes his head. "...I believe I will refrain. This is not the sort of situation in which I should become involved."

    He glances Emeralda's way when she asks about the 'Bronze Tigers'. "They are a... group, perhaps one might say, located in Guild Galad. 'Bandit' might not be a poor description of them, from what I have gleaned," remarks the doctor, readjusting his glasses as he weighs in. He really is remarkably well-versed in such things -- but then, he has been aboard the Thames for a time. Perhaps he heard of them there.

    The topic, though, turns to the subject of rations...

    Citan pauses a moment. "I do not... miss the days of food rationing," he remarks, before picking up his glass and taking a drink. It's lemonade, of course.

    He might at best glance Elly's way when she -- and Fei -- offer Emeralda a (small) sip of wine, but in the end he seems to leave it to them to decide. 

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Fei smiles at Emeralda but at least he warned her. SOME PARENTS JUST SORT OF LEAVE THIS GRAPE JUICE LOOKING BOTTLE NEXT TO THE GRAPE JUICE AND DON'T TELL YOU IT'S WINE AND THEN YOU POUR YOURSELF A FULL GLASS TAKE A BIG GULP AND YOU SUFFER. MOM, DAD, WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO ME? I DIDN'T DESERVE IT. I HAVEN'T FORGOTTEN. NOT EVEN AFTER ALL THIS TIME. I HAVEN'T FORGOTTEN. OR FORGIVEN.

Fei is ignorant of all that though and he laughs uneasily as Citan speaks of EXPERIMENTING and REVERSE ENGINEERING.

He focuses on the food instead, trying to eat some fish and put some good tastes in his mouth.

"All good," He says. "All good. I'm proud of you for trying new things, Em."

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