A Nice Meal [Open]

[saint-sami.livejournal.com]

For the most part, Sasami knew that the newcomers would be looking for something good to eat. While she had forgotten to mention it in her introduction post on the omnicomms, she made sure that her little restaurant was set up and ready for anyone who wanted a nice meal away from the slop.

The rules were pretty much laid out for what the crew - new and old - could and couldn't have and made sure that they didn't try to get more than she allowed - the food had to last until their next stop.

Now, came the hard part - waiting. Would anyone notice and stop by? The First Tree Cafe's open for business, everyone!

Comments

[quick_strike]

Oh, slop. What Alend wouldn't do to get her hands on some fruit. Just simple fruit. Nearly starving yourself wasn't fun in the slightest and Alend had done it before so, this time, she simply grinned and dealt with the disgusting stuff that seemed to placate the mon-keigh palate.

Speaking of the mon-keigh, none of the humans around here seemed to mind that she was Eldar, so Alend had stopped hiding her pointed ears beneath her hair. But cafe was a human word she had seen before during her travels across human border colonies. It usually related to re-caf but that was better stuff than she was already used to having.

She ended up stopping and staring at the place, wondering if she needed money, the typical human bartering object.

[saint-sami.livejournal.com]

Sasami caught sight of Alend outside in her thoughts. She couldn't help but tilt her head slightly in wonder before calling out - maybe she could help.

"Hi there!" she said. "Is there something wrong?"

[quick_strike]

She turned to look at Sasami, pondering on her words for a moment. Yeah, there was something wrong. What was she even supposed to do here. Her mouth twisted as she spoke back, still not used to speaking the human words.

"How much do you charge?"

[saint-sami.livejournal.com]

She blinked at the question being asked. Was she serious? Seemed like it.

"It's free. Really! All I ask is that you don't ask for anything big! I have to make sure everyone else gets a meal!"

[quick_strike]

"Nothing?"

It could be a practical joke. No human would say no to money, right? Well, if the girl was going to run with it, Alend would play along. Not like she could be outsmarted anyway.

"I just want fruits and vegetables. Do you have that?"

[saint-sami.livejournal.com]

"Nothing at all! We kinda don't have any sort of currency here, anyway, so..." Sasami said. She really didn't have any need for money - she preferred to help people when they need it, not when they had money.

"Of course I do! What kind do you need? I got plenty during our last shore leave!"

[quick_strike]

...if she had that then...well, hopefully she wasn't trying to get anyone's spirit up.

"Whatever you can spare. Just nothing with meat."

[thisclinchesit]

Clearly, the most important part of doing patrol was making sure nothing unsavory was going on in the places where the food was served. Unless it was referring to food that's supposed to be savory.

Shoutarou stepped in, raising a hand in a wave. "Heyo. What's on the menu, miss?"

[saint-sami.livejournal.com]

Sasami raised her own hand in return, chuckling a bit as she did.

"Just about anything! Is there something special you had in mind?"

[thisclinchesit]

"A good ramen bowl would do me good right about now," he answered as he took a seat and removed his hat.

[saint-sami.livejournal.com]

Oh, well, that was simple enough! Best to play it simple than go all out, right?

"Okay, then...! Give me a moment!" she said, turning around and running back into the kitchen.

[thisclinchesit]

For such a halfhard-boiled man as Shoutarou, the simple things were often the best things. He nodded at Sasami before she turned around in acknowledgement, then relaxed into his chair to wait.

[saint-sami.livejournal.com]

A few minutes later, Sasami returned with a bowl of nice, hot ramen. Setting it near Shoutarou, she handed him his utensils and backed off a bit. "Hope you enjoy it!"

[radiantcourage.livejournal.com]

Hoshi had decided to come by to primarily help her little sister out, if they needed an extra pair of hands to make the food, but she was hungry. Oh, well. That could wait until later!

She walked up and gave Sasami a smile. "Hey, Sasami! Did you need another chef to help out?"

[saint-sami.livejournal.com]

"Hoshi-neesan, hi!" Sasami called out, noticing her sister. "I could use another hand, yes...!"

More help the better, right?

[radiantcourage.livejournal.com]

"All right!" Hoshi said, giving her a nod. "Do you have a spare apron?"

She already took her gloves off, stashing them in her pocket and rolled up her sleeves. The scars were visible, but then again, she was comfortable showing them by now, at least.

[saint-sami.livejournal.com]

Sasami saw Hoshi's scars, but hid any sort of worry or concern. Hoshi wouldn't want her to pity her, would she?

Instead, she focused on getting her sister a spare apron. A bit of searching and she tossed her one. "Here you go! I hope it isn't too small!"

[radiantcourage.livejournal.com]

Hoshi noticed her looking at her scars before she gave her a confident smile. It was in the past and she was working on leaving it behind her for a better future.

She caught the apron and tied it around the back of her neck and then her waist. She already shrugged off her vest and placed it down. "There we go! It's a perfect fit!"

[saint-sami.livejournal.com]

"Great!" Sasami said, smiling as she went to take Hoshi's vest and hang it up. It was best not to leave it hanging around - might get taken or dirtied up.

Taking on her own apron, she moved to join Hoshi before leading her into the kitchen. "I try to have some desserts ready from time to time in case anyone wanted some first... or last, it depends." she said, chuckling at the end.

[indeliblepast]

Sumeragi had been here all of three days, and was already starting to come to the conclusion that each job she took was an increasingly downward slope in food quality. The military mess halls had been - well, not good food, but acceptable. Kept on to reheat a little to long, but if you got the crunchy edge off the rice, the rest of it was fine. Celestial Being's space headquarters was much the same, though this time with the slightly off flavor that hydroponics in artificial gravity and a lot of preservatives tended to produce.

Then she'd gotten a ship, and while that was something worthwhile, the reconstituted vacuum-packed food was not. Never mind that it contained all essential nutrients, half the time it had the texture of soggy cereal, and a flavor to match. The vegetables would do British cooks proud, and the meat... well, that was rare enough, but at least the flavor was okay, usually.

Here, though - it was like someone had taken the Ptolemy mess hall's MREs and put them through a blender. And then took out anything resembling flavor. A particularly nasty part of her mind thought that Tieria probably approved.

With that in mind, she was happy to see a sign with the ever-important word 'Cafe' on it. Maybe, hopefully, they'd have real food. Or a coffee. Or an Irish coffee.

...Okay, the last one was probably pushing it.

[saint-sami.livejournal.com]

Sasami tilted her head slightly when she saw Sumeragi approaching. It seemed like she was more than a little confused (though she was also very happy to see her store as well).

"Hi! Can I help you with something?"

[indeliblepast]

Sumeragi grinned. "Can I hope that the 'cafe' sign out front means there's food with actual texture here?" Because really, that was worse than the lack of taste. She could... just pretend her nose was stuffed up or something.

[saint-sami.livejournal.com]

Sasami couldn't help but laugh at what she heard. "Yes, there's food with actual texture. Is there something you want?" she said, ready to make another person happy with some real food.

[indeliblepast]

"Well, I think I'd just about kill for a fried egg sandwich and a coffee right now," Sumeragi replied with a grin. That would satisfy her right now. Cheese would probably be a little too much to hope for.

[saint-sami.livejournal.com]

"Is that all? I can fix that easily!" Sasami said, nodding before returning to the kitchen.