paixaorpg | Father Son and Holy Ghost, who eats the fastest gets the most [Active]

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Father Son and Holy Ghost, who eats the fastest gets the most [Active]

Character(s): Kariya, Sonic, eventually Uzuki
Content: Reapers' Ramen is almost ready for its grand opening! Predictably, Sonic is early.
Setting: Reapers' Ramen [G9, not too far from Niflheim Gate]
Time: Early afternoon
Warnings: None

It wasn't a bad place they'd found, all told. The building may have been abandoned, and there was some water damage going on if you looked close, but it had a kitchen with a stove, and even some leftover soup pots big enough to serve a prison mess.

The front room was small and quaint. A decent-looking bar, these little Victorian style tables and chairs, plus some big armchairs in decent condition, the comfiest of which Kariya had claimed almost instantly and pretty much been sprawled out in ever since.

Technically, Uzuki had him set to work the register. Except they hadn't actually been able to find a register, and Kariya had interpreted "work" to mean "Google a Solitaire download from the comfort of your armchair."

(He hadn't found one.)

This shop. Terrible idea? Sure. More work than it was worth? Most likely. Completely missing the point of a vacation? Oh hell yes.

But he was getting paid ramen-and-a-half. Couldn't damn well argue with that.

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It had taken Sonic a good amount of time to figure out that he could get the map on the journal to talk to him, but once he had that down it was no problem to figure out where he was going. It hadn't taken him too long to head up north and find the Namine girl he'd met over the journals, and after a quick introduction and an inquiry as to whether she wanted to go fast, he was carrying her through the streets of Paixao at incredibly high speeds (well, it felt normal to him at least), eyes peeled for this ramen place. That guy'd said it was on the south side...

He nearly missed the hand-lettered sign outside the building. "Ha!" Skidding to an abrupt stop, he nodded at the sign, then the door. "Found it." Setting the girl lightly on her feet, he opened the door and in a rare moment of propriety held it open for her to enter. He whistled appreciatively as he followed her in. "Pretty nice setup they've got here."

Now where was the guy he'd been talking to...?

That Naminé wasn't used to traveling at speed was an understatement. She'd had to keep her eyes shut tight for most of the trip, and even then her stomach was still doing backflips when Sonic finally jerked to a stop and set her down. It took her a moment to get her bearings again, and it was only belatedly that she realized he was holding the door for her and scurried in.

She stayed close to the door, though, letting Sonic pass her again as soon as she'd passed him. It wasn't unusual for her, but she just felt as if she shouldn't be here.

Kariya's armchair, while rather out of the way of the door, more or less faced into the dining room, so he noticed the pair almost as soon as they entered. Briefly he wondered why they hadn't set off the bell over the door, before he remembered they didn't have one.

Come to think of it, was the shop even open yet? He wasn't sure. Well, if it wasn't, he'd leave it to Uzuki to throw them out if she wanted; frankly he didn't really care one way or the other.

"Irasshaimase," he said halfheartedly, returning to whatever he was doing with his journal.

Sonic wasn't so taken with the ramen shop that he didn't notice Naminé's hesitance. Maybe he'd been going a little too fast for her...? He turned to her, concerned. "Hey, are you doin' okay?"

He waited for a response before turning to look at the guy he'd been talking to earlier - Sonic must've missed him when he first walked in. Of course, he had no idea what had just been said. "What?"

Naminé swallowed and nodded quickly. "I-I'm fine." She opted not to mention that the ride had quite taken away her appetite. (Not that she ever ate a lot anyway, but...)

After a few more seconds, Kariya looked up again, and in fact appeared mildly surprised to see they were still there. "Means hi," he explained briefly.

Finally, he let out a long sigh, swung his legs forward and sat up properly. He could just ignore them, but there were a few different ways that could end less-than-optimally for him. Which was kind of ironic, actually, considering who was actually whose boss back in the real world.

He pointed - or maybe "gestured vaguely" was more accurate - to a smaller handwritten sign propped up on top of the bar. "Y'want something? Menu's over there. It's the only one we've got, though, so don't mess around with it." (This he'd added because he'd been the one who got stuck writing it in the first place, and didn't want to do it over.)

Listed were some common varieties of ramen - shoyu, shio, miso - if you could make out his handwriting, anyway. Not listed, though he'd forgotten about it, were the prices.

Naminé didn't look too okay, but Sonic was going to let it slide for now. He'd ask her about it after they got a table and some food.

It took the guy long enough to answer, and he sure wasn't acting like he wanted them there. Why was he advertising if he didn't want anybody around? "Okay...thanks," Sonic replied to the directions begrudgingly. This ramen stuff had better be really good after all this.

Of course, that was when he realized that not only did he not know what ramen really was, but he couldn't read the menu either. Oops. He looked at Naminé and grinned, trying to play it cool. "I'll have whatever you're havin'."

Naminé nearly jumped as the hedgehog seamlessly laid the choice on her shoulders. To be fair, it wasn't entirely because of that that she was startled; she'd been staring with a little apprehensive at the waiter's(?) strange wings, and being noticed for another reason was almost as bad as getting caught outright. She gave the man one last glance before joining Sonic at the menu.

To be perfectly honest, she was having only marginally better luck reading it than he was. The second word seemed to consistently spell out "ramen," but the first words down the list didn't seem to spell anything at all. Or be in any particular order. At random, she picked the most legible of them and sounded it out.

"Um... 'sh..shoyu ramen.'" Purely by chance, she pronounced it right on the first try, but she looked to Kariya for confirmation - and a second later decided maybe it was better to ask Sonic instead. "What's shoyu?" she whispered.

Kariya sat back unhelpfully in his chair. It was bad enough when his bosses made him come in on his week off, but his partner, too? It was understandable if he was a little grumpy about the whole thing.

Really, Uzuki was lucky he liked her as much as he did. Sure, he wasn't much of a restaurateur, and his marketing and customer service could almost be classified as corporate sabotage, but for anyone else he wouldn't be playing along at all.

He watched the two customers with detached interest. The blue guy looked vaguely familiar, but he just couldn't put his finger on where he'd seen him before.

Sonic hadn't really expected Naminé to know much more about ramen than he did, but he'd sure been hoping. Oh well - what was life without a little adventure, even if it was just an adventure in dining? "Dunno," he whispered back, unfazed. "Let's try it."

Without skipping a beat, he turned back to the other guy. "Yo! Dude!" he called. "Shoyu ramen, please!" See, every once in a while he did have manners. "Two of 'em."

"Two shoyu, comin' up."

Now, the business was new, and the system was imperfect, and Kariya considered briefly how he could pass on the order to Uzuki without having to get out of his chair. The problem was, though, he would have to collect either way, and he didn't remember what he'd put down for prices.

So a few seconds later, he was forced to get up anyway to join them at the menu. "That'll beeeeeee....." The last vowel trailed off into the air as he deciphered enough of his handwriting to notice the problem. "Oh." He stood back and stuck his lollipop in his mouth, thinking, then removed it again. "What've you got?" he asked.

It wasn't every day Naminé got to try new and exotic foods, especially without knowing for sure what they were, and the prospect was... a little frightening, really. She took an unconscious step away as the strange man came and stood by them.

What did they have? She'd almost forgotten about paying. The people who lived here would accept anything shiny, but this man didn't live here, so what would he want? She didn't have any munny.

Her mind flashed to Larxene's bag of coins, but she tried not to think about it. That wasn't an option, anyway. Maybe Sonic had something...

Sonic may have been paying more attention to the guy, but he sure noticed Naminé's step back. Seamlessly, nonchalantly, he stepped between them. If Naminé was worried, he wasn't going to make her face him.

As for what he had...well, he had his power ring, but he wasn't giving that up in a hurry (or at all). "What d'you want?" he replied, figuring he could always go get some of those weird gold leaves or something if that was what this guy was after.

"Hm." Kariya had to think about that one. Somehow he doubted a blue hedgehog would have a lot of money on him, besides which, money didn't do you much good when you could pay all your bills with twigs. He'd need something... a little less easy to come by.

Then the idea came to him, and it was so clever (in his humble opinion) he was surprised he hadn't thought of it sooner. "Tell you what." The catlike smile widened, and for about the first time he looked Sonic straight in the eye. "Tell me a story, and we'll call it even."

That answer threw Naminé for a loop. A story? She didn't know any stories. Even if you counted true ones, that still left none she could actually tell, not without the risk of betraying herself.

And that meant... she wouldn't be able to pay. So, what would happen? Would they throw her out? She shifted from one foot to the other, eyes downcast. Probably she should just admit it and get it over with, but she just couldn't bring herself to do it yet.

A story? Sonic blinked in momentary confusion at the guy: of all the answers he'd expected, that certainly hadn't been one of 'em. Still, if it was what the guy wanted...

"One story for th' both of us, right?" Without waiting for an answer, he immediately launched into his tale, an epic story of a scientist driven mad by power, of a valiant (and speedy) hero, of races across six zones for gems of unimaginable power, of an explosive final showdown, and of the hero's triumph over evil. Finishing with a huge grin that left little doubt as to whom the heroic protagonist was, he looked expectantly up at the guy. "Well? Pretty awesome, huh?"

Kariya listened attentively for as long as his attention span would allow - and to be fair, he had a pretty long attention span. But he did, pretty soon, take a seat on the nearest barstool, and discreetly shot off a text to Uzuki to get the order going while he waited. Actually, it was the first of several he sent her over the course of the story, but who's counting.

He did try to stay interested, at least, since after all he was the one who'd asked for the story in the first place. But the blue dude just kept going like a battery mascot.

Kariya made a mental note to specify "short and sweet" to the next customer he tried this on.

When it ended, he nodded less than enthusiastically (although that was normal for him) and adopted a hopefully sincere-looking fake smile. "Oh, yeah. Sounds epic. So... you won?"

Uzuki had been in the back of the restaurant for the duration, oblivious to the happenings in the front of the store, cleaning and preparing and generally keeping busy--in short, doing the exact opposite of Kariya.

So technically the place wasn't open, but the doors were unlocked, and shoyu was easy enough to make, so she had made the ramen and, after exchanging words with Kariya--she had the feeling he was avoiding something--she was just about to send out the food when she realized that Kariya still hadn't told her just what he charged. And he didn't seem to be responding to his journal.

Everything had been going just too well, obviously. "What did you charge them?!"

Her voice reached the front of the store before she did, but not by much. The food was ready but she had left it just inside the preparation area, bursting through the door to glare at Kariya.

Naminé quietly pulled up a chair (was she allowed to move them? but if she wasn't, the winged man wasn't objecting...) and did her very best to listen to Sonic's entire story. Apparently it would pay for her meal, too, which was a relief, and so it was only polite that she pay attention.

... Even if, well, she didn't understand everything he was talking about. But she was trying!

Right at the end, though, the roar from the kitchen made her squeak and jerk bolt upright in her chair, where she froze, not taking her eyes off the furious-looking woman in the kitchen doorway.

Shouldn't be here shouldn't be here-

...the winged guy hadn't listened to him at all. Jerk. Sonic was miffed, but not too much - he was getting food out of this deal, after all. "Yeah," he replied a little less than enthusiastic, "I did."

His attitude changed completely when he looked over at his guest. "What'd ya think, Nam?" he grinned, thinking nothing of the new nickname he'd just given her. "Pretty cool, huh?"

He whirled around again at the shout and the sudden (and rather furious) appearance of the pink-haired girl, dropping into battle stance. If anything happened he was ready to roll-

Except that the girl looked pretty ticked at the winged guy and nobody else. Oh. Well. That was okay then. Sonic loosened up and leaned against Naminé's chair, waiting for the winged guy's answer.

Kariya, though, appeared flatly unfazed by the outburst, merely leaning away from her on his chair as if blown back. It was not by far the first time she'd blown her stack at him, and frankly, after their conversation he'd been sort of expecting it. But he was of the reed-in-the-storm school of conflict resolution, and the storm in question could be unwittingly hilarious when she was mad.

Anyway, he smoothly dodged the question yet again. "Uzuki, I'm right here." (Not that that ever mattered to her volume, but still.)

She ignored the other two in the room, and, for the most part, Kariya's response--because it wasn't what she was looking for, and her attention had locked onto the question like a lion sunk its teeth into prey.

"That is not what I asked you," she snapped, eyes narrowed as she suspected that he hadn't charged money at all--but what would he charge, then? "What did you charge them for the food?!"

She looked very much like she might throw something, or shoot something. Or maybe both.

Naminé shrank back in her chair involuntarily. She was trying not to show her fright, but her efforts just made her look like a deer in the headlights. She recognized Uzuki, had talked to her over the journals... but she hadn't been this scary then. What was different?

And from the sound of it, the man wasn't allowed to charge them stories. Had they gotten him in trouble? Was that why? Oh no...

This was gonna be interesting. Sonic wasn't too sure what the problem was, but it looked like the winged guy had screwed up somehow. That kinda sucked for him, but Sonic couldn't say he wasn't just a little bit pleased to see the guy get taken down a peg or two after he'd ignored his story. Served him right.

It was then that he noticed Naminé's actions. She looked scared, but there wasn't any reason to be - they weren't the ones getting yelled at, after all. "Hey," he said, putting a hand lightly on her shoulder. "Don' worry 'bout it." He didn't see why she'd be that upset over somebody else getting chewed out, but with any luck this'd help.

Sadly, it really didn't look as if Uzuki was gonna let this one slide. He was well and truly busted, and getting back out of the doghouse was gonna take a little smooth operation.

Kariya clicked his tongue disapprovingly. "Tsk, tsk. Now is that any way to act in front of our first customers?" he said, indicating them with a wave of his hand. And to a degree the concern was genuine; the little girl, at least, seemed to be a timid sort, and it was pretty obvious Uzuki was scaring her.

Still, his question was rhetorical, and he didn't wait for an answer before (finally) answering hers. "Anyway, I gave 'em a discount," he said. "Buy one, get one. Call it kind of a grand opening special." And just to put all her fears to rest, he added, "Oh, and I didn't forget to collect, thank you."

There, that didn't really sound like skirting the question, now did it? And with any luck, it'd take her a minute or two to realize what he'd left out.

It did buy him a bit of time, as she turned her attention to the customers in question. She smiled at them, just barely managing to hide the annoyance on her face, at least.

"Sorry about that, Kariya can be kind of stupid sometimes," she said, partially addressing him as she slipped back into the kitchen and gave them their food.

It was when she returned with the third bowl, requested by Kariya, that she realized he'd once again managed to not tell her what he'd collected. She didn't hand over the food.

"But what did you collect, Kariya?"

Finally, Naminé was able to relax a little bit, though she was still on edge. She sat up straight for the food, and was sure to say "Thank you, ma'am" as politely as she could. She did not want to wind up on the receiving end of Uzuki's wrath, and because of that she kept her nose out of their conversation.

The ramen looked and smelled terrific, a weird salty scent that she couldn't quite place. Quietly, she looked for a spoon, but found a pair of chopsticks instead. It took her a minute to figure out that those were all she got, but asking for silverware didn't even cross her mind. She could make do.

Completely guessing, she took them one stick in each hand and studied them, and her soup, with a perplexed look on her face. There wasn't any way to scoop up the broth like this...

Sonic still had one ear keyed on the conversation - he wanted to know just how the jerk was gonna weasel his way out of it - but the arrival of food definitely had the majority of his attention. He'd been singin' for his supper long enough - it was time to enjoy it.

Except that the food's arrival presented an entirely new problem - how to go about eating it. Somehow he wasn't expecting this "ramen" stuff to be soup, and there weren't any spoons around. Huh.

Lucky for him, he didn't have near the inhibitions about manners that Naminé did, so he had no problem picking up the bowl and slurping down the soup, noodles and all. He hadn't really noticed the chopsticks, let alone considered their use as utensils.

Kariya reached for his bowl when she came back with it, but found (to his dismay) that Uzuki was holding it out of his reach. Well. Begging the question wasn't working, and he was hungry, so he changed tactics.

"Kind of a long story," he answered, completely sincere.

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Father Son and Holy Ghost, who eats the fastest gets the most [Active]

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Order switch AND right place this time

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