Reopening of the Tanuki Express - RPLOG
Participants
Date
15/1/479
Log
Tam is back in town! The big tanuki sailed in today on a merchant freighter with a happy smile and a whole new kitchen! He has decked out his old cart with new utensils and set himself up under a large, open awning in the marketplace for the day. Delicious smells waft from the cart that has been converted into a portable kitchenette. The tubby tanuki is just wiping his hands on his apron after setting up a sign that reads "TANUKI EXPRESS! Grand Reopening! First 10 Customers EAT FREE!"
Cirra is back in town as well, having been back in Cliffside to settle some affairs. She's been back a couple days, but has been laying lowkey in the Silver Lining Shipwrights' loft. When she heard about Tam's return, as well as the return of his food cart, she had to be there, even if she wasn't one of the first. Her mouth waters slightly as she heads towards the awning. She currently dressed in her regular outfit of a seaman's oilskin coat over a Creator wetsuit, sturdy boots on her feet and the mark of Hephestia on her caudal fin. She is without her custom swords today, but doesn't mean she is undefended.
A figure lands not too far out of the way on a pair of wings, landing quietly and shrugging on her usual robe, whilst revealed to be a bat as they make a proper entrance into the market square. Flying is not her usual mode of transportation, but who can turn down a properly free meal? They look at the food with hungry eyes, approaching the tanuki on the cart to make sure she actually got there in time. "Hello, there! Did I get here early enough for the free food?
Cara walks by wearing her red sleeveless vest and baggy white pants. As expected, her gauntlets and boots are still on her. Upon glancing to the side, the green runed feline turns toward the kitchenette, "Well, this is new, but free food is worth it." She casually strolls over to the cart and waits in line behind the bat and the nurse shark.
Rascal had wandered past this area earlier the same day, and had seen the odd sight of the Tanuki setting up some sort of stall but hadn't thought much of it at that time. It just so happened that, with his business now complete, sheer coincidence happened to bring him back to the location at only the most opportune of times. Rascal would never turn down free food - it violated the very essence of his being - and so with a brisk pace in conspicuous contrast to his formal attire and orderly appearance he resolved to investigate this scene in further detail, as a small band of other individuals had seemingly also resolved to do. He entered the queue behind the tiger, hoping that he was indeed amongst the first ten people entitled to a complimentary treat.
"Welcome! Welcome!" Tam calls out from his little cart kitchenette, "I'm fresh back from the Jadelands and ready to cook up a storm!" He waves a thick arm at Cirra, then turns his grin on Kilani. "You're right on time, lady!" he says, "You folks are my first customers since my tour of the old homestead!" Despite his talk of the Jadelands, a far off exotic locale, he sounds just about as home grown as they come. "Come and try the new and improved tanuki express!" he calls out, both to those in his little tent and to passers by, "I got the best Noodles, Dumplings and exotic foods this side of the Aqua Magna!" He gives Cirra, the first customer in line a conspiritorial wink. "And probably on the other side of it too! What's your pleasure, Miss Cirra?" The tanuki makes note of the beings lining up and bounces happily over to remove the FREE FOOD sign, leaving his other advertisements in place.
The nurse shark's eyes widen as she realizes she is the first in line. Cirra smiles toothily, looking over the spread. She signs quickly. <I'd like to try each type of dumpling if you don't mind. I'll get back in line to actually pay for a full meal afterwards.> She looks over the line, hoping it doesn't get too long. <Maybe add a second dumpling of each type and I'll pay for those.> She waves to the Bat behind her, vaguely recognizing her, though her memory for names is escaping her.
Cara rolls her eyes for a moment and waits patiently while deciding what to eat. The meat dumplings sounded good, but maybe they might have some spicy chicken. Then again, it is a noodle shop, so, why not? For now though, it's best to wait since while she could talk to Cirra, it would be rude to interrupt. She glances behind herself for a moment and grins, "Hey there."
Cara waves to the tanuki and shouts out, "May I have an order of meat buns and possible some chicken if that can be done?"
Rascal often considers himself fairly well-versed in the various foods and delicacies of Sweetwater and beyond, but never before had he heard of the 'tanuki express' nor sampled the delights that the tanuki alleged he could produce. As he waited in line patiently he did briefly consider asking for something particularly exotic but dared not to exploit the tanuki's generosity; he could investigate those dishes in his own time and at his own expense. Rascal reciprocates the feline's greeting cheerily before likewise attempting to catch the tanuki's attention. "A helping of your very best noodles, if you please!" He exclaims amiably, and returns his attention to the feline and the other customers. "I do not believe we are acquainted." He asserts, his hand extended in a gesture of courtesy. "Call me Rascal, there's no need for my formal nomenclature in this situation."
Kilani dips her head forward in a nod, before contemplating food choices, being that she hadn't exactly been to this specific place before, and, the Jadelands might as well be the moon for all she's head of it's culture. After yet another second of awkward hesitation, she asks, "Hrm.... What do you recommend, Mister Tanuki? Or, whatever your name is. I'll take one of those, please." The bat's attention turns to Rascal as they introduce themselves, an eyebrow raising minutely as they tilt their head to the side and stare at them curiously. "Well, hello, there! I am called... Kilani, yes. That's my name."
Tam laughs, a warm, pleasant sound. "Such an appetite!" he says, "Pop would be sorry he missed out on an appetite like yours!" The burly tanuki expertly takes a pair of little paper cartons in one hand and stacks four steamed dumplings on each before drizzling little helpings of several different colored sauces over the top and passing them to Cirra. "I'll have to name a special after you one of these days!" He points out the little tables and stump stools he has set out for his customers to sit on.
The chubby chef nods to Cara. "Sure thing, Miss," he says, "We got just about anything you could want. I got noodles and dumplings and even some of them fancy curries out of Shralesta! Best trip I ever took!" The tanuki thinks and then laughs. "Hell if it isn't the only trip I ever took!" He produces a paper carton and spoons in a large, white bun, then opens another hatch on his cart and forks out a chicken wing and breast skewered and apparently grilled from the rich, spicy smell that wafts from the open hatch.
Even as Cara's order leaves his hands, Tam has already produced a paper bowl and ladled in a healthy helping of thick noodles and spooned a hearty broth over them, along with a sprinkling of prawns and herbs. "No sooner said than done, Sir," he calls with a smile, passing the bowl over and waiting for the next order.
He gives Kilani a wink and whips out another noodle bowl, giving her a slightly smaller portion than he gave Rascal, but piling on a thick, white bun and a crackly skinned spring roll. "Give that a try," he offers, "I think you'll like it!"
Cirra quickly metes out the required coin for the second plate, grinning as she quickly responds. <I enjoy food. It will probably be the death of me someday. Not to mention it might make me soft before my adventuring days are over.> She grabs the pair of plates and sets herself down not to far from the stand, nibbling at her dumplings happily.
"Ah, excellent! Thanks!" Kilani stares helplessly at the bowl of food for a few seconds, before acquiring the required utensils and heading out to a nearby table, sliding into one of the nearby chairs and prodding at the spring roll with a fork, as if it were some kind of strange, pale-skinned worm. Eventually, the bat does take a bite, and seems quite delighted and suprised by the texture and taste! She keeps an ear out for conversation, however.
Cara turns around and raises an eyebrow for a moment, but shakes Rascal's hand anyway, "Formal nomenclature? Rascal, we just met." She glances back and happily accepts her chicken and meat buns, "That was surprisingly fast. Thank you. I'll have to come back and pay for another too." The red haired feline walks over to one of the tables with her meal and waves Rascal over.
Rascal is quite visibly impressed by his meal, punctuating his acceptance of it with a sincere expression of gratitude. He suspends his own conversation and carries his food over to the sitting area with the others, trying to assume a position which does not appear to neglect either individual. "Do you often have to think about your name... Kilana?" He smirks as he takes a seat, his speech an impish mimicry of the bat's own apparent hesitation. "It is, nonetheless, a pleasure to be of your acquaintance." Despite his best efforts to remain informal in this situations his voice is audibly that of a refined individual, nor is his vernacular particularly detached from his noble roots as aptly noted by the feline. "'Posh name'," he translates, "Rascal is a much less wordy designation, and I'm rather fond of it. I don't believe I happened to catch your name?" He allows the feline to introduce herself now away from the fray of ordering food, and in the meanwhile tucks into his noodles with ravenous resolution.
Fenris laughs warmly again at the silent shark's hand gestures and swoops her coin away to some hidden reserve, then goes back to serving the next customers in line. The business is brisk for a bit, keeping the Tanuki very busy with customers, both those coming in for a free lunch, and a bevy of what must be old customers, happy to see the tubby tanuki back from his travels. He does manage to keep an eye on his earlier patrons, watching their reactions to the food. He seems pretty pleased with himself so far.
Kilani tears into the bun in her bowl with renewed vigor and confidence in the foor, glancing up to Rascal with a roll of the eyes. She gets up from her table and moves to the one the is sitting at, for the sake of convienence and ease of conversation. One of the bat's ears twitches as they again, inspect Cara closely before actually saying anything of note, besides a veritable cacophony of 'hmms' and 'hums'. "I do believe I've met you before. Once. Somewhere. Wasn't... wasn't it at that village? You know, the one with the crazy, rhyming, juggling person?" She then, turns to look at the mephit once more with a roll of the eyes, shaking her head. "No, I do not. Just a temporary lapse in memory, see? I can recall my name just fine. Most of the time."
Cara shrugs for a moment and answers casually, "I'm Cara for the most part. Anyway, I've been around here for some time now. For the most part, I just try to do work as a member of the Freeswords and so far things have been going rather well." She picks up one of the meat buns with her hand and takes a large bite out of it before placing it down. She swallows, happy for the delicious taste. "These are delicious by the way." She turns to Kilani and nods, "Yes, we met there. How have things been, Kilani."
Even Rascal, the self-professed gourmet and otherwise hedonistic glutton, was taken aback by the taste of the noodles, acknowledging this fact with muffled expressions of contentment. He did his best to retain some level of decency, although that proved a tricky task indeed whilst simultaneously ravenously imbibing noodles at a remarkable rate. "Don't worry Kilani, I'll keep track of your name for you." He grins, reducing his eating pace as to better facilitate civil conversation. "Kilani and Cara. A pleasure to meet you both, I'll be sure to remember your names. Just 'Rascal' will suffice for now." Possessing eidetic memory, his statement was quite accurate indeed!
Tam gets orders taken and people fed in incredible time. The tanuki finishes up with a last customer, then saunters over to his early bird customers. "What do you think, folks?" he asks, smiling.
Kilani holds up a forkful of noodles in Tam's direction at the question, chewing on the remnants of her spring roll as she does. After actually, you know, swallowing the food, she notes, "Excellent! I've not had anything quite like it, in my travels. Quite tasty." The bat quickly consumes a length of noodles before nodding in Cara's direction, talking inbetween bites of food. The best things in life are free, after all. "Yeah. I've been doing fairly well, Cara! How've you been doing? Did your people's bug problem end well enough?" She considers for a second, before adding, "And, which idea did you finally end up going with?"
Cara continues eating her meat buns and she swallows before answering, "Well, it's delicious. Thanks again for the free meal." She takes a moment to look at her chicken and smiles, "I wish I could have more food like this." She frowns for a second, "Err, I'm from Shralesta, not Summerwood, Kilani. Also, Fenris collapsed the cave on the queen and because I was hasty, I almost got crushed. I got out of it fine though."
Rascal addresses the tanuki with an appreciative expression, somewhat blemished by the remnants of a noodle on his lower lip soon dispatched with a quick motion of his tongue. "Quite spectacular, it must be said." He replies, continuing eating whilst averting the bulk of his attention to the conversation between Cara and Kilani, content to savour his meal with the added entertainment of their reunion. Comparatively, Rascal had not yet experienced much of a heroic past and had little to add to their tales of bugs and queens, and so opted to relax somewhat.
Tam grins at the assembled group. "I think this turned out pretty good," he says, "Didn't think I would have so many returning customers after being gone so long!" He looks to Rascal and pats his own, round belly. "It better be good!" he says, "Hate to think I got this thing off of mediocre eats!" He nods back at his food cart, where steam rises from the covered cubbies. "Dad left me the cart and all he knew about cookery and I plan to use em both as well as I can," he says, "And this trip abroad has expanded my horizons and my supplies!"
"That's good! Being crushed hurts, last I've heard." She nods, devouring the last portion of her noodles with effervescent haste, letting the utensil rest in the bowl as she moves her arms to a more relatively comfortable position. She turns her head towards the tanuki with a nod, turning herself to a catacorner position in the chair. "Yeah! You must be cooking up a storm, back there. How far away is the Jadelands, anyways? And how do you keep all your ingredients fresh throughout the journey? Water magic?"
Cara finishes her last meat bun and swallows, "Well, that's a pretty nice life for you. I'm glad that you get to do what you love." For the most part, she just stays quiet for now and eats her chicken.
Rascal would have likewise patted his own belly, were it not for his own relatively lithe build - in place of an impressive belly was nought but a meagre, almost unnoticable paunch. With food of this quality available, Rascal imagined that it might not be too difficult to fuel a more 'insulated' form much like the tanuki's. "I'm glad to see a family business in operation, and doubly so for one to be of such a respectable calibre." He remarks. "If you ever do happen to encounter a rough spot, however, let it be known that the noble Blackbacks would be more than glad to see a culinary artist such as yourself in its employment."
"Much obliged, Lord Blackback," Tam says, bobbing a respectful little bow, "If you should ever desire my services, my kitchen is certainly a portable one! I do parties and events on commission." Not just a cook, but a business man! The tubby tanuki looks to Kilani. "Too Damn Far," he says firmly, "Pardon my language. It was weeks on the ships and let me tell you, three days is too long to be on one of those tubs. But it was totally worth it to see where old Dad came from and to try some of the foods there for myself." He swells with pride. "I can tell you that there ain't anything over there that's any better than what I make at my own cart!" he says, "And I think I learned me a thing or two over there."
Kilani nods, pushing the bowl just a tinsy bit away from her own person. Too long next to it, and she'll be tempted to acquire some more. "No problems with the language. You hang around freeswords enough, and you'll hear those enough over time. I doubt most of them could cook much better than you, at this point." She pauses for a second, contemplating a thought, before continuing. "So, if your family comes from the Jadelands, do you know what your father thought of Firmament? Or, you, for that matter? I'm quite curious to hear an outsiders view on this, you see?"
As Rascal scoops the last remnants of his meal into his mouth he resolves to find a situation in which he can justify the hiring of Tam amongst his fellow Blackbacks, generously influenced by his significant enjoyment of the free meal. All in all, this venture seemed to have been quite the advertising venture for the tanuki! "Rest assured that your name shall fall well upon the ears of the nobility, Blackback or otherwise." He smirks, in an unusual gesture of kindness given his usually unpleasant personality; the stomach is the gateway to the heart, so it seems. Kilani seems to do a fine job at asking many of the questions that Rascal wished to ask himself, and so as to not barrage the poor tanuki with an additional set of inquiries he instead patiently awaits his responses. Despite his immaculate memory Rascal struggles to remember any other significant interaction with people of Tam's species nor can he recall if they are represented amongst foreign houses of nobility, and mentally notes to research these things upon returning home.
"Always happy to be of service, Sir," Tam says to Rascal, scooping up empty plates and discarded cutlery, "I look forward to serving you again." The tanuki laughs and shakes his head at Kilani. "Sorry, Miss," he says, "I'm about as native as they come. Born and raised here in Sweetwater, so I don't know that I can help you much. And Dad was a quiet kind of guy, you know? He didn't talk much. I guess he thought about opening up one of them dojo things that they got all over in the Jadelands, you know, fighting schools, but his heart was always more in his cooking. As were my fingers! So that's what he did."
"Ah, darn. Such a shame." She gives a slight nod of appreciation at the collection of the items, and leaves a few crowns next to her bowl before it's vacuumed up. "Cooking is great and all, but it'd been interesting to see what kind of fighting style he had." She glances at the Tanuki's rather pudgy form for a second, contemplating the implications of a similar-looking creature attempting to attack somebody. Amusing, that. "So, what about you, Rascal? I've not heard much of the Blackback house, besides it seemingly being quite prominent. What can you tell me about them?"
Rascal could somewhat empathize with Tam's own backstory - his own father had been heavily involved with military-based endeavours whilst he himself had ended up pursuing something decidedly less dapper: the life of an entertainer. Rascal would rather strum the neck of a lute than slit the neck of a foe; Rascal would rather sing about the beauties of the world than bellow fearsome war-cries to those who oppose him. Rascal did eventually pick up some martial proficiencies, of course, although none of a nature most would consider honourable: underhand, stealthy or otherwise indirect means to an end were Rascal's forte. "We're a decent bunch." He replied, tersely. "I could sing songs of our greatness, if you wish - great ballads of the heroism and courage of Blackbacks through history. Or, as I imagine you'd prefer, I can give you something a little more grounded in actuality: we're certainly amongst the more respectable of houses, as far as the nobility go, but I daren't speak for all of my relations. Each house has their dirty little secrets just as every diamond has its flaws." His impromptu speech was quite the inspired piece, betraying his numerous forays into oration and poetry and his obvious pride of his house, although regulated with a reasonable, humble tone.
Tam gives Kilani a wink as he walks away, arms piled high with used dishes. "Didn't say the old man didn't teach me how to fight," he says, "But I always liked the cookery better."
With the lunch crowd dying away, the Tanuki starts the arduous task of cleanup. "Not too shabby for a little food cart, eh?" Tam asks generally, "Hope to see you folks around again soon!"
