fandomtownies | Luke's Diner, Friday, 8/8

Entry tags:

Luke's Diner, Friday, 8/8

Absolutely nothing remarkable was going on when Ella opened the diner, and that was enough to put her on her guard as she arranged the supplies, finished the prep work, and settled in behind the counter to read a fresh letter from Mandy as she waited for clients.

Even the specials she selected were bland.

Specials
Oatmeal
White rice
Mashed potatoes

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Mod away!

She has barely been out of her room all week, and would likely talk your ear off given half the chance.

Viki could not help but comment on the specials when she slipped in curiously.

"Is that not terribly boring?" Viki wondered aloud. "Each, individually, would be fine but altogether I'd imagine anyone would be despairing of them."

A pause.

"And hello to you." Amicably.

"I think the kitchen staff is in a mood," Ella said, setting the letter aside as it was dull too. "And we do have things that could be put on them. Oatmeal with banana and chocolate chips is much less irksome than the thing itself."

She smiled. "And hello to you as well!"

Edited 2008-08-08 14:19 (UTC)

"This is true enough," Viki considered that. "I suppose I should not make remarks upon the blandness of such foods then when it can be so easily changed."

"Have we met before?" she continued with instead. "If we have, forgive me, my memory is rather awful, but I am Viki."

"No, I would wonder about it as well," Ella said, shaking her head. "I don't think we have ~~unless GMail LIES~~. I'm Ella." She dipped a brief curtsy, really more like the nod of her head. "Did you want anything, bland or not?"

"It is very nice to meet you," Viki said brightly, sitting herself at the counter and smiling. "And I suppose I almost must, if only to make certain that the bland is not offended by my comments to it. Perhaps the oatmeal with, as you noted, chocolate chips and bananas?"

"Do you think the bland has feeling that could be hurt?" Ella asked curiously as she prepared the bowl of oatmeal, adding little ramekins of banana, chocolate chips, and cream to the side of the steaming bowl. "I've insulted it myself so very often."

"I think that it is possible enough that it's best to be sure," Viki explained. "Whether it does or not, I couldn't guess, but it's better to not chance that, don't you think?"

"Given where we go to school, I suppose it's better safe than sorry," Ella had to agree. "I'll let the kitchen staff know to treat the potatoes andgrains with extra care, just in case."

She set the food before Viki.

"Thank you," she said, smiling. "Have you gone to school before? I never have, and I'm finding it quite exciting really."

"I was at finishing school for a year," Ella said, with the air of one confiding a secret. "How to dance, manners, singing, sewing and writing. All one needed to become a proper young lady."

"Here is much better."

"Did you not like learning to be a lady?" Viki asked curiously, taking a spoonful of oatmeal and swallowing before continuing. "I confess, I never thought of that, merely figured that ladies were born as such."

It seemed almost depressing, really, to think that they must learn it all as well.

"It was dull," Ella said. "And the other girls were mostly not very nice, save one. I suppose not everything I learned was a complete waste of time but I hated how the mistresses -- that's what we were to call our teachers -- ordered us around."

"Ladies," she added, "are definitely made, not born."

"How sad," she said, tilting her head. "Don't you think? All the ladies I have ever met merely were ladies, and never any question about it. And they were quite charming really, though I suppose, perhaps, that it depends on where you are..."

Ella considered this. "I suppose I would find it sad were it not what I was used to," she offered. "I mean, it must not always be so. My mother was a lady -- titled as such, even -- and she was fantastic. Perhaps the girls at school were rude only because their graces hadn't yet become second nature."

Which Ella doubted, but it seemed cruel to disabuse Viki of her notions entirely.

"How did you come to know ladies?"

She brightened. "That is possible yes, or simply that our ladies start learning much younger and so it becomes second nature sooner."

Viki beamed at Ella. "I met them in the army."

Her world had... very odd armies. Yes.

Ella frowned. "Did they ride with the knights?"

Viki had to stop and think about that. "Miss Lilly did, if I remember right," she said, "and if others had wished to then I know that it would not have been an issue, I shouldn't think."

Edited 2008-08-08 16:21 (UTC)

"Oh, how exciting!" Ella exclaimed. "I rode with some once, to a giants' wedding, and they were all such wonderful men." Well, mostly. "There aren't lady knights in my world."

"There is also Valeria," Viki considered. "And Anita, I think. Oh! And Chris! She was even head of the Zexen Knights. It's so hard to keep the names straight."

"I'm very sorry about that," she said earnestly. "People, I think, should be able to do what they wish. Did you wish to be a lady knight?"

"I would have liked the travel, but I'm not sure I should like to always fight ogres," Ella said. "I would rather be a translator, really. What about you, how did you come to know the women in the armies?"

"Transportation is my specialty," Viki said, smiling impishly. "So naturally, the armies wanted me, and I was not inclined to argue with a having a job or food or shelter over my head."

"Jobs and food and a roof are all valuable things," Ella confirmed. "Transportation, really? What sort?"

She expected to hear Viki cared for horses, or perhaps that she drove one of those noisy things with the wheels she'd seen on the mainland.

"Teleportation," she said. "Of the magical sort, since this world seems like the sort where you have got to specify. I'm supposedly pretty good at it."

Viki was, in fact, the premier teleportation specialist in her entire world. Not that she was aware of that.

"Are you a fairy, then?" an impressed Ella ventured, fairies being the only creatures she knew of with such abilities. Of course, at home they would never use it outside an extreme circumstance, but Ella had come to realize her world's rules about magic use were not in place everywhere.

"I don't think I am?" Viki offered. "Or, at the least, I have never been called such before. Do you have fairies then, in your world?"

Ella nodded, playing a little with her braid. "They're the only magical creatures we have, really, but they aren't meant to use it too often," she explained. Twisting up her mouth, she added, "I can tell, if you aren't sure. Are your feet small?"

Viki glanced down, lifting the edge of her dress to check. "I would say that they are not especially large," she said, dubiously, "though I haven't any idea how small you would consider small."

Her feet were, in fact, rather on the small side.

Ella stood on tiptoe to see Viki's feet. They were large for a fairy but small for a person, like Ella's own. "You might have fairy blood," she judged. "Or that's what I've been told, anyhow."

"Do you think that might make it easier for me to teleport then?" she wondered. "I suppose it's possible as I don't remember my parents."

Viki shrugged cheerfully. "Have you fairy blood then? That you know so much about it?"

Ella took a moment, but decided to be honest. She wasn't in Kyrria, and no one here would care. "A tiny bit, not enough for me to do magic," she allowed. "I was told I'm one of the last to have any at all."

Hesitating, she added, "That is meant to be a secret, by the way."

"I shall do my best not to remember it then," Viki promised. "So if I forget what you told me about fairies, don't be surprised."

"I shan't," Ella said. Then, hesitantly: "Do you often forget things?"

"All the time," Viki admitted easily. "It's easier, really, that remembering things."

"I never thought of it as a choice..." Ella wavered.

"It's not exactly a choice, in a way," Viki tried to explain, "but I remember very little of things unless I make an effort, and for most things I don't because it's dangerous for me to remember too much, I have no wish to go mad," some would say she was mad already, but ah well, "and so, the effort is saved for the important things."

That sounded kind of horrible, actually, and sympathy washed through Ella. "I['m not sure if that is a curse or a gift," she said.

"I'm very grateful for it," Viki said earnestly. "It's terribly useful, if rather inconvenient at times."

[Fleeing home! Back in an hour or so!]

Ella tidied it, and it's ready to be posted on.

My inspiration is broken.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Luke's Diner, Friday, 8/8

Mod Your Service [8/8]

Talk to Ella [8/8]

Re: Talk to Ella [8/8]

Re: Talk to Ella [8/8]

Re: Talk to Ella [8/8]

Re: Talk to Ella [8/8]

Re: Talk to Ella [8/8]

Re: Talk to Ella [8/8]

Re: Talk to Ella [8/8]

Re: Talk to Ella [8/8]

Re: Talk to Ella [8/8]

Re: Talk to Ella [8/8]

Re: Talk to Ella [8/8]

Re: Talk to Ella [8/8]

Re: Talk to Ella [8/8]

Re: Talk to Ella [8/8]

Re: Talk to Ella [8/8]

Re: Talk to Ella [8/8]

Re: Talk to Ella [8/8]

Re: Talk to Ella [8/8]

Re: Talk to Ella [8/8]

Re: Talk to Ella [8/8]

Re: Talk to Ella [8/8]

Re: Talk to Ella [8/8]

Re: Talk to Ella [8/8]

Re: Talk to Ella [8/8]

Re: Talk to Ella [8/8]

Re: Talk to Ella [8/8]

Re: Talk to Ella [8/8]

Re: Talk to Ella [8/8]

Re: Talk to Ella [8/8]

Re: Talk to Ella [8/8]

Re: Talk to Ella [8/8]

Re: Talk to Ella [8/8]

Re: Talk to Ella [8/8]

Re: Talk to Ella [8/8]

Re: Talk to Ella [8/8]

Re: Talk to Ella [8/8]

Re: Talk to Ella [8/8]

Community Bulletin Board [8/8]

OOC Diner [8/8]