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 Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 3:15 pm
It takes a lot to annoy Luna. It takes a hell of a lot to annoy Luna. And right now, as she places both palms firmly on Sofi's shoulders and guides (read: pushes) her into the Udon-ya, she teeters dangerously on the edge of her patience, one stiff breeze away from pulling Sofi by the ear and demanding that Setsushi tell her to "BEHAVE" in his sternest, most angry voice.
"Ow ow ow ow ow ow Luuuuuu quit pushing!" Sofi protests. She isn't digging in her heels (yet), but it's obvious she doesn't like being ordered and pushed around like a small child.
At least, until she catches a whiff of udon.
"Oh hey! What smells good?"
The transformation is jarring and immediate. No longer is Sofi a panicky, loud, flailing girl with too much imagination and not enough self-control (Though you should have seen her just a month ago!). Now, she's something resembling a normal human, walking under her own power, sniffing the air curiously, and standing quietly by Luna's side, patiently waiting for further instructions. "Ohhhhh," Sofi declares, eyes widening in realization. "You're just treating us to dinner!"
Luna nods firmly, obvious relief on her face. And Jokeph, keeping a distance of double arms' length from Sofi, signs a "Thank you" to no one in particular.
FINALLY. They can talk without destroying anyone's sanity.
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Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 3:25 pm
Setsushi has at least stopped wringing his hands and chewing through his lower lip, but he still seems distinctly nervous -- though he is somewhat eased by Sofi's positive reaction to the smells of the kitchen. He smiles slightly and nods; "This is my little kitchen; the food here is nothing remarkable, but...
"... What flavors would you like?" he asks, looking at Luna -- if Miss Sofi isn't familiar with udon, could Madame perhaps predict what she might like?
... And, ah, what does Master Jokeph eat...? sweatdrop
A Porcelain woman already seated at one of the inside tables looks up from snarfing her deep-fried prawn when the party enters, fixing her blank and emotionless, yet keen gaze on Sofi as Luna ushers her in... ... ... but then becomes much more interested in the male of the party. Setting down the half-eaten morsel, she licks her fingers clean, then adjusts her monocle as she stares intently at him, her eyebrows high. Though she still gives off no projections, it's obvious that she finds Construct extremely fascinating...
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Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 3:33 pm
She's rather picky, Luna projects, frowning as she attempts to remember all of Sofi's bizarre dietary quirks. Normally, she doesn't learn of any of them until the plate is set in front of Sofi and she loudly states that she can't eat it.
Now, what did she throw fits over...?
No pork, no shellfish, no dairy and meat in the same meal... Ugh, what was the rest of it? Luna simply can't remember!
And Sofi answering "Whatever's tasty!" does NOT help matters.
Jo's favorite is hot and sour, Luna continues, glancing back at Jokeph as if to confirm that point. And if you have anything spicy, I'd like to try it.
Jokeph would nod at Luna, but he suddenly seems overcome by unease. His jaw clenches, his brow furrows, and he instinctively shifts behind Luna, as if she, a whole foot shorter than he, could shield him from Rika's gaze.
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Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 3:45 pm
"No shellfish?" Setsushi repeats, his brow creasing a little -- that's a pity, he was thinking of using the prawns and batter he already bought and prepared for Rika... sweatdrop
"Is kelp all right?" he asks, looking at both Luna and Sofi.
... As for Madame Luna and Master Jokeph, their orders shouldn't be too difficult... though he humbly confesses that he is not quite sure how tasty his hot-and-sour preparation is, being less familiar with it than other flavors.
And exactly how spicy does Madame Luna mean...?
Rika's intense scrutiny of Jokeph continues a moment longer before she decides to finish that last piece of prawn, biting off the rest of the meat above the tail and chewing it, her cheeks full in a rather unflattering way, though she doesn't seem to mind the strange look Setsushi gives her.
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Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 3:50 pm
"Yeah, no shellf--ewwwww," Sofi interrupts. Not that she's ever HAD kelp before, but it sounds distinctly unappetizing. "Uh. Maybe plain?" That sounds like the safest bet since the blue-haired guy seems hell-bent on putting WEIRD things into his food.
And as Jokeph sighs in relief (It almost felt as if Rika's eyes were burning a hole through him!), Luna can't help but grin mischievously at Setsushi.
Oh, she doesn't know... How spicy can he make it?
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Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 4:04 pm
Well, to give Madame Luna an idea, when Setsushi tries to make a dish with just a little bit of kick, he ends up giving Kouyo a stomachache for a week. sweatdrop
Perhaps he'll go for medium and allow Luna to add more pepper to her liking?
When his suggestion of kelp is shot down, though, he's troubled -- he can't very well make something plain, there must be some sort of broth... "Anchovy instead?" He asks Sofi but keeps glancing to Luna, hoping for her input.
"Cold soba," says Rika, and emits thoughts for the first time; he can make the sauce without shellfish or kelp. Probably. ... Or he could deep-fry her some bony fish.
...Setsushi could deep-fry Rika some bony fish.
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Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 4:10 pm
Luna isn't one to back down from a challenge. She'll take it hotter than hell itself, thank you. wink
Sofi doesn't seem enthusiastic about anchovy, but when Rika says "Cold soba," her face immediately lights up. "Yes! I want what she's having!"
At that, she peers around Luna at Rika. Uho! Another monocled character,eh? Sofi would bust out with the "Pip pip, cheerios", but there was already a person who earned herself that nickname. And Sofi makes it a point not to double up on nicknames.
Butler, perhaps? No, no, she doesn't dress like a penguin. Dandy? No, there was a Fa'e with that nickname. Jeeves? No, that goes with butlers.
"Old money!" she finally declares, jabbing a finger at Rika. "That's what I'm going to call you! Money for short."
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Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 4:24 pm
"A, actually, Rika was hoping for deep-fried fish..."
But Rika, at the moment, is rising to her feet, intrigued by this greeting/naming ceremony that has just occurred, wonders, aloud, how to respond? "What shall I call you?" she asks Sofi, fixing her monocle a bit as it was jarred when she moved.
Quickly and privately, Setsushi conveys to Rika that Sofi cannot hear mindspeech, and that it would be better to speak as she normally does--
-- "Oh?" Rika fixes her gaze on Sofi now, moving around the table to come closer and have a better look. "Is it congenital deafness or is it characteristic of your species?"
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Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 4:30 pm
Sofi beams with glee, seeing as how she's on the road to earning her own special nickname from Money. "My name's Sofi, but if you wanna give me a nickname too, I'd like it very much! Then we'll be friends!"
But at Rika's second question, Sofi goes quiet. She hadn't heard the conversation about mindspeech, but she's so accustomed to remarks about her "deafness" that she immediately grasps the question. (For once.) She doesn't seem bothered by it, but she still treats the question with the utmost seriousness.
"Oh, um." A pause. "You know, I really don't know. I think it's the first one! Genital deafness."
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Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 4:40 pm
Rika stares at Sofi with a blank and unreadable expression, then -- ... glances at Setsushi and snorts, giggling at his look of abject horror.
She pauses a moment, reining in her smile while she adjusts her monocle, and holds back from making a comment about Sofi's potential husband, finally replying, "... I think I will have to get to know you longer before I can name you properly, so until then, I will call you Sofi."
... ... ... Setsushi will just go make those fish sandwiches now sweatdrop
Rika looks over Luna now, then Jokeph again -- her eyes lingering on his hands and his wings. After a moment, she addresses them. "I'm Rika. You are...?" Projectionally, she acknowledges that they are Luna and Jokeph, but she is not sure of the pronunciation, so if they are able to communicate that to her it would be helpful.
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Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 4:45 pm
"They can't speak," Sofi offers helpfully. "But THAT'S my cousin Luna, and that's Jokeph!"
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Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 4:56 pm
Rika nods, repeating, "Luna, Jokeph." ... She apparently does not use titles the way that Setsushi does.
Now a bit closer, Rika's eyes alight on Luna's makeup, which she studies, her face inexpressive as usual... though it doesn't keep her attention long before she looks again at Jokeph, staring at him with fascinated curiosity. "What are your species?" she asks. "... If it a rude question in this land, I am sorry for causing offense, but the only sapient people in my homeland are Porcelain."
Setsushi doubts Gaia will run out of wonders to amuse Rika for a long time, he tells her while making preparations in the kitchen, only partly privately.
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Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 6:10 pm
"We're Neilani," Sofi answers, and suddenly stops. "...Wait. Lu's half." Another pause. "And I guess I'm not at all..."
Hoo boy. This is going to get complicated.
"Luuuuuuuu," she whines, glancing to Luna for help.
Half, Luna confirms, nodding toward Sofi. Though we're genetically similar to humans. Nearly all Neilani are empaths, and those who aren't... Another glance toward Sofi. Have difficulty in our society. As for me, there was an... incident prior to my birth that caused my mind to develop abnormally. I gained the ability to project in words, but lost the ability to speak with words.
Luna then nudges Sofi, as if to prod her to speak.
"Oh, me?" She quickly collects herself. "I grew up on Neilan and stuff, but I'm not empathic or anything. They did a lot of tests on me and stuff and Dad got me classified as an alien, so I could go to school and stuff, and we came to Gaia for a barbecue and I met Bunny and SURPRISE! It turned out I'm a Fa'e!" She puffs her chest out with pride. "It means I've got SUPER POWERS! Like during dodgeball and stuff, my face used to cave in when I got hit! And my head once dented around a baseball Zod threw at me. And there was this other time my eyes fell out and the time I was put through a wall, and also sometimes my hair sticks up like a RADAR ANTENNAE and if I'm scared I can jump REALLY REALLY HIGH, and you wanna know what's creepy? In pitch black, APPARENTLY YOU CAN STILL SEE MY EYES."
As Sofi continues to list off her "powers", Jokeph reaches into his pocket, produces a pen and pad, and writes his own life story (so to speak)-- which he hands to Luna to pass to Rika.
"--And I got to be empathic once," Sofi continues, oblivious, "But it sucked so I said NO THANKS and got rid of it."
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Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 6:20 pm
Rika glances at the pad briefly before tearing off the page and returning it to Rika, sticking it in her pock-- ahh, she doesn't have her jacket on. She puts it on the table instead.
"Your people seem similar to the Porcelain in ways," she says to Luna, and, after a brief pause, asks, "Why do you paint your face that way -- is the similarity coincidental, or have you perhaps been adopted by some Porcelain?"
She ponders a bit longer, then finally returns her attention to Sofi. "If you indeed have such extensive abilities, telempathic deafness seems but a small thing. Your language is fluent, besides." Her tone of voice remains flat and her face blank, so it is difficult to tell what she intends by this.
Meanwhile, appetizing crackling sounds come from the kitchen as Setsushi places the whitefish in the pan of oil and resumes tending the noodles for Luna and Jokeph.
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Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 6:31 pm
Ahhh, the issue of Luna's makeup. And mindspeak dialect, which she lapses into.
She wasn't adopted by Porcelain, per se. The Porcelain outside with the long hair, declaring "Naked" and giving out hugs... that is Luna's elder brother, Boyan. Her mother adopted him when he was a very young boy; by the time Luna was born, he'd married and had children of his own-- one of whom is expecting her first child, by the by. (At this, she lets out an audible noise of glee.)
But most importantly, her own mother's mind is weak at best, which is part of why Luna's own mind had to form differently to protect itself. So the bulk of the projections she experienced in the womb, or so she heard, were Porcelain. And though she was far too young to remember her godfather Tsukiba, Boyan (And his daughter Melody) both recall him fondly as Grandfather (and Great-grandfather).
And though Luna was far too young to remember what Grandfather Tsukiba was like, she can't help but feel that Setsushi strongly reminds her of him...
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