[open] TIME TO GET SWOLE

[emotive]

Who: emotive & hoasen and ANYONE who wants to hop in!
When: IC: 8/11 | OOC: 7/22
Where: THE MACHO CAFE
What: It's a mingle log! Appliances and machines aren't working as they should, Vietnam and Ai Thao have turned to the Macho Cafe to use their STRONGER and BETTER kitchen. And then they ended up with muscular volunteers because they couldn't say no. Vietnamese chicken porridge for all plus a few fun games from the scary dreamy muscled employees!
Rating/Warning: Really strong, muscular waiters, a lot of food.

[ It was about that time again where Ai Thao and Vietnam wanted to share their culinary passion with the rest of Cerealia. Since their pho dinner went pretty well last time and there's yet another influx of new arrivals, they wanted to cater to them again! Problem is... The usual equipment sure hasn't been heating up or chilling their food well. But that problem seems to have been solved.

If you pass by the Macho Cafe, there seems to be a fun event going on involving a delicious special on chicken rice porridge (free bowl for every customer including new arrivals). The savory aroma wafts throughout the cafe and out of the door hopefully enticing new customers.

You'll probably spot Ai Thao and/or Vietnam walking around the tables taking away plates and asking how the food is and totally not staring/looking away at the masculine workers nope. There's a bit more to do here other than get free food though.

Ai, here waves cheerfully at new people who come inside. ]

Hello! Please come in and enjoy yourself! Um, we should have more seats than we do at the Sanctuary and there will definitely plenty of chao ga to pass around.

Oh, and I think one of the guys might have set up some games? They were really excited about it...

[ Looks like there's more to do than meets the eye!

a. EAT AND DRINK

Sit down, have a drink, and free chicken porridge. The muscular workforce is all too eager to pull you into a chair thrust a bowl at you, oops, hope some hot porridge didn't spill on you?! Other then that, you might be seated across from someone you know, your best frienor someone completely new! Chat it up, see if you can make heads and tails of Cerealia if you're new, or discuss Athena's Timeline Document. It's more fun over food after all.

b. MO' FOOD MO' PROBLEMS

There is a humongous bowl of steaming hot porridge sitting menacingly at the biggest table. In fact, it's so big, it nearly takes up the whole table, it might as well be a huge pot. There's a sign in front of it:

"FINISH IN 1 HOUR!!
GRAND PRIZE: 350 CREDITS!"
Ai Thao Kha is banned from the contest

c. DEM GUNS

Here's another sign at another table! With a lot of the handsome muscular men who flex at you as if daring you to come close!

"ARM WRESTLING.
DEFEAT ONE OF OUR SERVERS.
BEST 2 of 3
FREE CHICKEN SALAD."

So do you dare for the chicken salad!? ]

((ooc: MINGLE POST. Feel free to make a top level and tag each others threads!))

Comments

[emotive]

This is our second time giving out free food like this! We're always glad when people respond well, especially to something she and I would have both grown up eating.

[She really does look stupidly happy, what a dope!!]

So have you been acquainted with Miss Vietnam for a while now?

[drinkscola]

[ wow, she does... he'll be sure to finish his bowl. and "would have"— so she's vietnamese, but he thinks that two of them likely weren't personally acquainted, back home. but of course, that's just an assumption... ]

[ a nod at her question. he'll answer her between bites, chewing with mouth closed, etc, as a proper gentleman should!! ]

For a few months. [ ... ] She was the first person I met here, actually. I don't know if you recall CERES dragging everyone onto ViViD, and then announcing that we have to murder each other if we want to make it out alive.

[emotive]

[So he had arrived a while ago. Of course, Ai doesn't expect to meet every new person in the way that Athena always seems to bump into new company. Heck, now that she thinks about it, she's still a little shy meeting new people.]

I recall that somewhat, but if I were to be... Morbidly honest, a lot of the ViViD games where we meet new arrivals seem to be deadly in one way or another.

[she has seen things]

But I'm glad you met here there then! No doubt she did her best to make sure you were alright.

[That's the type Vietnam is after all, Dependable Thug Protective Big Sis!]

[drinkscola]

[ if it would make her feel any better, marco hasn't met athena either... apparently he might be a loser shut-in.

and he nearly laughs at that response. he would have, if it wasn't so... well, it's as she said. ] No, no, that's definitely an accurate way to put it. The least morbid event, that I remember, was when we had to wear those awful swimsuits— and even then, there were still fatalities.

[ #justcerealiathings. ]

Absolutely. [ he was a skeptic of it all at first, but hey. ] ... She kicked ass, I'd say.

[emotive]

[Athena may also somehow inflict physical injury for some unknown reason]

Somehow, that doesn't surprise me. [Ai can't say she's seen Vietnam in action, but she doesn't doubt her prowess, whatever those may be.]

... It must have been scary right? Having to land in the middle of chaos and being told it's a game with your life on the line.

[Her expression is serious for a moment.]

This is sort of why she and I wanted to set up something like this. Even if it's just free food, it's a way for people to gather together and at the very least collect their thoughts and feel welcome in a new world where everything is ridiculous and dangerous.

[drinkscola]

... Admittedly, it was, a bit. [ no, he was terrified. don't let the casualness of the response fool you. ] So, it's good to become accustomed to that sort of thing as quickly as possible.

[ because, hey, CERES don't let up. ]

[ and he inclines his head as she continues, his expression becoming more neutral, his tone to match her seriousness. however, there's a hint of optimism to his own: ]

That's kind of you. [ a smaller smile, this time. ] Even if it's "just" free food— It's more than that, really. Even if temporary, you're allowing people a reprieve from it all. I've had fun so far, and I'm grateful for it— and I'm sure everyone else is, too.

[emotive]

[Even if it's a little bit, if there's something Ai Thao can do to make her circumstances and those of others around her a bit better, than she can say she's glad she did something.

And yeah. Fun. Sometimes she forgot about that whenever tragedy and hardship threatened her and her friends here, but the esper thinks about the hilarious and good times she's had rather than the bad even if there were painful times that lingered in her heart.

Marco's words were quite nice though. Her smile is a response to that.]

Keep enjoying yourself then!

[There's a pause before she sets off to help out in the kitchen.]

Oh, and Marco?

[drinkscola]

[ pleasedon'ttellhimyouactuallylistenedtohisthoughtsabouttheporridge ]

[ he looks up, blinking, pausing in gathering a spoonful. ]

Yeah?

[emotive]

Um... I hope this isn't too bold or presumptuous of me, but... If you ever find yourself in a pinch, I can help you out! After all, a person with weird powers ought to be doing useful things like that right?

[Sure, back home, she might have indirectly helped people, but to her, those jobs felt empty. There was no connection, just deployment and expectations of a mission success. It's different here.

She'd help out all of her friends of course and after being here so long, she'd stake her life for them if it came down to it. But Ai also wants to take care of other people and if it's within her power, of course she'd do it (Archer would have called her an idiot though)]

I know we just met, but um... You're not alone! We support each other here.

[drinkscola]

[ what the... what is this precious cinnamon roll. it's a good thing he'd paused in his porridge consumption, or else he might have choked on it. marco's eyes widen, his eyebrows tilting upward as he's not sure what to think or believe. after a moment, in which he processes that and fumbles in gathering his thoughts into something coherent: ]

Yeah... Yeah. Same to you, I'd say. [ except he's twenty billion times more useless than her? he hopes she's figured that one out already.

and one more thing, one that's super important to doublecheck.. ]

I don't— look lonely or something, do I? [ "you're not alone"... he knows he came here alone, okay!! ]

1/2

[emotive]

I-I'm sorry did I make it sound like that?!

[Lordy, this girl]

It's not that, I just thought that you don't seem like a bad person and I don't want to be half-hearted in my interactions with others. I never got to talk to so many different people ever since I was young and--...

[Actually, that brings up something that just occurred to her...]

[emotive]

...

Actually, Marco how old are you?

[womp womp]

[Yeah, she just realized that she didn't quite discern his age. He seems like around the same age as her? A little older? Maybe the same????]

[drinkscola]

No, not at all! That's nice of you, really— [ he waves his hand around. not the one holding the spoon, thankfully. ] —And I'm glad I don't come off that way.

[ as an uncool guy that looks pitiful or something... awful. so, to him it sounds like she might have been the lonely one, once upon a time, if she hadn't had the chance to speak to so many people— and. oh.

a question that he fails to connect the dots with, so his brain kicks into overdrive. what should he say?? should he lie??? what's the age of adulthood in cerealia? in vietnam? eighteen?? it's twenty in japan. is that a better answer? could he even pass off as a twenty-year-old?? ]

I'm— sixteen. [ oh, he went with the truth anyway. ] Why's that relevant??

1/3 she's so embarrassing im sorry

[emotive]

Ah.

I just couldn't tell and I wanted to ask.

Sixteen.

[give her a sec]

[emotive]

[!!!!!!]

I-I'm older than you!

done

[emotive]

[AND THEN SHE COVERS HER FACE]

B-But you look more like an adult than I do!?

[She suddenly feels self-conscious now, not because of her own age which she's fine with, it's just that she doesn't feel like an adult even after trying to say she'll be helpful and stuff, save her]

no omg im laughing

[drinkscola]

[ WHAT HAPPENED ]

[ it was the wrong answer after all, is what. and it's unexpected enough that he loses his cool. so, okay, marco drops the spoon into his bowl, probably getting up out of his seat. and then he's holding his hands up in front of him, in a manner that he hopes is placating, or something— ]

Hey— That stuff doesn't matter...! [ it does, just a little bit. moving on. ] You look just perfect the way you are, and you sound mature too, I'd say! I didn't think you were younger than me, or anything...

[ maybe like. same age. not technically a lie. ]

[emotive]

R-Really?

I-I was just thinking what I said might have sounded condescending instead.

[drinkscola]

[ marco bites his tongue, suppressing a sigh. ]

... Really. That was just me thinking too much on it.

[ he doesn't want to say "being self-conscious"; that's tmi. ]

Don't worry about it, all right?

notifs noooooo

[emotive]

I just turned nineteen last month... Regardless of that!

[DETERMINED FACE YET AGAIN.]

What I said still applies! I'll help you out either way!

yea theyre being ridic for me too 8(

[drinkscola]

Happy belated birthday. Next time, I'll be sure to have a gift.

[ a brighter, more easy-going smile; her determination is hard not to admire, and he's glad that their momentary crisis has passed!! speaking of crisis, though, he's left his porridge for too long... he'll sit himself back down, refolding the napkin back into his lap. ]

... Thank you. [ with notes of sincerity. ] I do appreciate that.