EP - tiny!Emcee

[i_am_your_host]

The door works in the strangest of ways.

So when a certain someone is holed up in his room, his younger self, his much, much younger self, enters the bar.

Small and pale and undernourished, the elfin ten-year-old boy (who could be mistaken for even younger than that) is dressed in secondhand school clothes from a distant era: knickerbockers and knee socks, a cardigan and cloth cap. He stares at his surroundings with large brown doe eyes.

Has he been here before? Perhaps in a dream? Why does it feel so familiar, when the door shouldn't have led here at all?

But this is a pub, and the little boy knows pubs. He goes up to the counter, peeking over it on tiptoes, to look for the barman. But there is none. How odd.

Even odder is the glass of milk and the plate of cookies that suddenly appear out of thin air.

This must be a dream.

Comments

[cottoncandypink]

"It's, uh. Kind of like sushi," Wilford says.

It's pretty much exactly like sushi.

Wilford picks up one of the rolls with his chopsticks and drops it onto the boy's plate. Inside the dark seaweed wrapper and rice layer, there's a variety of colours stuffed into it. Bright orange carrots, yellow egg strips, green spinach, and some strips of beef. Wilford sure seems to be enjoying it, so it must be tasty.

"You'll like it. It's good."

[i_am_your_host]

"I...don't know what sushi is."

He peers at the roll and stares at it, unsure of how to proceed. He's never seen anything like it.

"What's the black stuff made of?" he asks, poking at the wrapper with a finger.

[cottoncandypink]

Well, he shouldn't be surprised to hear that sushi is a new concept to the kid.

"Seaweed," Wilford says. He's never understood the point of trying to hide where one's food comes from.

Then, as if to demonstrate, he pops one of the rolls into his mouth.

[i_am_your_host]

"Seaweed?"

He's never even seen the ocean, much less actual seaweed, or even knew that it was edible.

But if the man is eating it, then he supposes he should, too. He tries not to be picky these days, and remembers to be grateful for any food that comes his way. So he gingerly picks up the roll between his thumb and forefinger and shoves it all into his mouth before it falls apart.

It's clear on his face that he's never tasted anything like this before.

The seaweed is weird, the rice is weird, the seasoned beef is-- well, that's tasty. And why is there egg? All of this together takes getting used to.

[cottoncandypink]

If Wilford laughs a little bit, well. It may be because he kind of set the kid up to stuffing something into his mouth that most people even where he's from turn their noses up at.

Having grown up eating this sort of thing, he thinks those people are stupid.

"Not bad, huh?"

Buster wants one! He yips, and then suddenly remembers he's supposed to be ignoring Wilford.

[i_am_your_host]

The boy makes a muffled sound, since his mouth is still full. Not clear if it's a yes or a no, but he's not spitting it out.

Finally, he swallows. The seaweed leaves a bit of a fishy taste on his tongue, so he washes it down with a few gulps of milk.

"It was good. Thank you." It didn't hurt to try it, even if it was weird. "Is that what you eat all the time where you're from?"

[cottoncandypink]

"Yeah, some people. The ones who know what's good."

He takes pity on Buster and tosses him a roll. It bounces off of Buster's face and lands on the floor in a mess. He doesn't seem to mind.