Chapter 3.1: The party begins

[yhlee]

EDIT: The base is sited in the year 951, in a very odd timeline that has NO h*archate. Supplies have to be brought in via rift from other timelines. Thread here.

Ashari's new base features variable layout, which has been put to use in creating an extravagant ballroom. Tables to one side boast a variety of foods, drinks both alcoholic and non-alcoholic, and the occasional euphoric drugs. Candlevines glow blue and violet, and flower arrangements interspersed with fantastic sculptures of lace-woven wire adorn the tables. The arrangements mean various sarcastic things, if you're familiar with the Andan petal language.

Music plays softly enough not to overwhelm conversation, loudly enough to set a mood complementing the low-key lighting.

Remi is one of the first arrivals from the Cantata, shepherding the mothlings. Because he's a Nirai, he has a slate and is taking notes, although he is happy enough to talk to anyone who approaches him.

The kitchen is currently adjacent to the ballroom. Ashari's voice can be heard, raised in some kind of argument with...a caterer?

Comments

[chomiji]

Dar has a black apron over the dark, shimmering tunic and brilliant turquoise trousers she'd managed to get the matter printer to extrude. She had it make a scarf as well, but it's been abandoned. Her sleeves are rolled up and she folds her arms in exasperation as she looks at the new employer. Her tawny forearms are corded with wiry muscles.

"Look, if you insist I have to do it, boss," she says. "But if we put that dish of nnongzhing pickle out right now, most of 'em won't be able to smell or taste the rest of the food. The Kel can wait, it'll do 'em good."

The two platters of folded buns, one set filled with sliced duck, the other with slices of marinated and roasted giant mushrooms, are ready to go, garnished with scallion shreds and arranged around bowls of sweet plum sauce, each with a long-handled dipping spoon. Dar sees Deyna hovering there, with the air of someone looking for something to do, and nods at the stuffed buns. "Wow, just when I need another set of hands, great timing. Put those out on the big table, please."

Also essentially ready are a set of roasted vegetable skewers, stuck upright in a block of plastic foam hidden by a riot of fresh green and purplish leaves, and accompanying sauces: refreshing sour-milk with herbs (think somewhere in the tzatziki - ranch dressing continuum), and a thicker savory bean puree. A timer pings: Dar grabs a metal skimmer and starts fishing miniature shredded potato pancakes out of the hot oil, dropping them onto a tray lined with absorbent paper.

She notices Shess' handwork. "So that's what you were up to. Good. That huge platter is going to be the sweets, but we don't need them out for a while yet."

It will be interesting to see who eats what. The boss hadn't mentioned any food allergies or whatever.

[hoardingpearls]

[Oh. Waaaaaant.]

[venndaai]

Sulen wanders into the kitchen and enquires whether any of the dishes are vegan.

[rugessnome]

Shess looks at the arrangement of finished desserts in slight dismay, (square rose-almond-walnut arranged in a diamond, boat-shaped pistachio-sesame elderflower in an arrangement surprisingly but deniably similar to the Liozh emblem), then their eyes go back to remaining ingredients they haven't finished--circles of mochi just cut out, chopped cashews and pecans in a bowl, violet syrup, a container of honey.

"Oh, sorry, the ones I've finished contain honey, but I could probably make the violet ones without. That is, if you don't mind violet."

A timer goes off and Shess looks startled but pulls a pan of bars out of the oven. "Lucky for you I could only find coconut milk--these are red bean filling over a sorghum crust and, persimmons atop," As they set the pan on a folded dishtowel, they gesture with it briefly towards a pile of sliced persimmons.

"Dar!" they call, "There any eggs, milk, fish, or meat products in the mushroom buns? Honey? And the skewers and bean dip?"

[I hope I'm not stepping on toes by making another dessert]

[Also, Shess' signifier is probably Mirrorweb Reflecting Sky...when that's available]

[yhlee]

[I'm mired in work right now but Y'ALL MAKE ME SO HUNGRY I may have some cookies later today XD ]

[stormglass]

[I just had to break out some cookies I got yesterday after reading about all this delicious sounding food! Well, they were emergency cookies...this qualifies!]

[yhlee]

[Somebody please publish a cookbook for this party, I WILL BUY IT.]

[rugessnome]

[I'm already thinking I may try to make these things I've made up at some point, although there's ingredients I'd have to go get...]

[yhlee]

Ashari, who is sipping one of the euphorics, looks at the cooks bustling about and shakes their head. "Well, I'm glad that's settled," they say. To Dar: "I suppose the pickles can wait after all."

Ashari then notices Sulen's entrance. They grin, all feral teeth, but Sulen will notice that their signifier is more unstable than usual. "How was the trip? Sasha told me you recruited the target. You'll have to tell me how that happened, sometime."

[rugessnome]

Shess is, by all appearances, pretty preoccupied, stirring together the violet syrup and nut mixture (sans honey) and portioning it out onto the mochi circles, but they cannot help noticing Ashari, and glance up at them a few times. Shess doesn't entirely know what Ashari is talking about, if they even overhear all of it, but their demeanor makes them wary. Is Ashari preoccupied with something worrying? Might it be best to avoid angering Ashari or showing vulnerabilities?

[Italic text=Shess' thoughts]

[venndaai]

"I would like to," Sulen says. They take a tentative step closer. "As soon as you have the time."

There was a time when being near Ashari was a relief. Whatever face they wore, all they had to do was smile and Sulen would relax. But time has passed since then. More time for Ashari than for Sulen. Things have changed. Sulen wishes they hadn't.

"I would be interested in hearing what you've been doing." Sulen remembers the long letters Ashari used to send, describing the day-to-day of their life. Half of it had been lies, Sulen knows now, but then, hadn't their life been a tower of lies, too?

[GM query]

[yhlee]

[I know I'm stepping in with a character formerly run by a friend of yours, so: what do you, as a player, want out of this interaction with Ashari-being-run-as-NPC? Angst? Reaffirmation of the relationship? Something else?]

Re: [GM query]

[venndaai]

[Oh, sorry, I should have realized that was probably something that could do with some clarification. Thanks for being a thoughtful GM!

I think I'm just after a good continuing source of angst. Ashari probably wants to keep Sulen safely away from whatever they've gotten embroiled into, and might push Sulen away to accomplish that, or implying that Sulen's presence would endanger them would also work. It'd be nice to have a good reason why they're not chatting to each other whenever the spacetime continuum permits.]

Re: [GM query]

[yhlee]

[Got it!]

Ashari says, with a hurtful breeziness, "I don't want to bore you with the minutiae of running this base. Things have been quite busy. But there will be time enough tomorrow, after the party, to discuss next steps, given that we're all alone." They are perhaps a little too drugged to be as discreet as they should be.

Re: [GM query]

[venndaai]

Sulen doesn't take another step forward.

"That's not quite true at this moment," they say, aware of Dar and Deyna and Shess's presence in the kitchen. In a lower voice they say, "Sasha isn't sure it's true in a larger sense, either."

They will at least discharge their duty to Sasha.

[chomiji]

[Well, I suppose if I'm terse I can answer via phone ... maybe.]

"Yeah, yeah, the mushroom buns are vegan-safe, the veg skewers are if you use the bean dip, so are the crispbreads and curry dip coming out later, and for sweets, the glutinous rice balls with jujube filling and the sorbet should be OK, likewise the grilled fruit skewers. I got ya covered, kids."

[Do non-faction plebeians have signifiers?]

[yhlee]

[Everyone has a signifier.]

[flowersforgraves]

Deyna rolls her eyes at Dar's back and smiles at Sulen. The twinge of anxiety in her gut intensifies briefly, then resolves back into bog-standard nerves. "I'm going to put labels out. Dar didn't say anything about allergies or anything, so if there's other stuff to know about you should tell me now."

[I do hope I haven't contradicted anything I may have missed in my reading of the current threads /o\]

[chomiji]

[No one asked her about allergens, so she didn't mention allergens.]

"I'll have the grid print the ingredients." She gives subvocal command to make that happen. The kitchen is getting crowded from her viewpoint, but she knows they've been fending forthemselves; she's the newcomer.

She gets the still-hot potato pancakes nestled on a platter lined with fresh pape, arranging them around a triple-bowl serving dish loaded with sour cream, fruit sauce, and a tart aromatic chutney. "OK, hot stuff coming out," she says.

A little printer on the shelf/desk in one corner starts chattering as it prints out ingredient lists.

[flowersforgraves]

Deyna collects the ingredient lists, sliding them into the chest pocket of her bibs. "I'll set things out?" she asks, looking for Dar's approval. She's honestly more concerned about not being let back into the kitchen than that she'd be doing something wrong, but it's not worth distinguishing that in front of someone she doesn't already know well. "Or I can do dishes."

[oh, that sounds so good. I maybe need to eat...]

[chomiji]

Now here's a type she understands. [Or so she thinks.]

"Thank you, sweetheart," she says. "Yeah, take out the buns. Good idea about the labels."

[Calling Word of God - what's the deal with dishes? Are the matter compiler thingies efficient enough that most of this stuff is essentially discarded into the machine, to be re-extruded as clean dishes? Or do we actually have dishes to wash? I'd guess the big platters are uncommon enough that they may have come in with the more luxurious ingredients.and not be re-compilable.]

[chomiji]

She continues: "After that, there's the big mixing bowls. But don't you want to go hang out, have some drinks?"

[venndaai]

"Uh," Sulen says. "Thank you." They give a half bow to cover up being slightly taken aback by Dar's low level of formality. "Allergies are not a concern, to my knowledge."

[flowersforgraves]

"Great," Deyna says. She's getting good at breezing past other people's discomfort. In this case, maybe it's a bad thing, but she'll remember that for later. "Thank you." She mimics the half-bow in turn, just in case she's made an unforgivable mistake.

[chomiji]

Dar's gaze drops. "Pardon," she mutters, with a creditable bow.

Damned Heptarchate. She wasn't used to having anyone in the kitchen who cared that much.