milliways_bar | (no subject)

Neither Childermass nor the wand mean anything to the man in some sort of uniform sitting at a table with a data pad and a mug of caf, but he does give the newcomer a friendly nod.

He nods back, amiably enough but watchful. Always watchful.

"Good morning," Galen says, making room at the table in case the man wants to sit here.

He doesn't seem inclined to refuse, taking a seat at the table.

"And the same to you."

"Can I offer you some caf?" Galen asks.

He glances at it.

"Coffee, I know it as, and I won't say no."

He indulges himself here - a little.

"It's not exactly the same as coffee," Galen says. "Much less bitter, for one thing."

"Does it have the same origins?" he asks, accepting a cup with a nod of thanks.

"No, it's a different universe," Galen says.

"And yet the name is so close."

"And the effect is similar, too," Galen says. "Something about these convergent realities tends to ring familiar, actually."

"How is your caf made, then? Coffee is the ground beans of a certain plant."

"Ground seeds from a plant, freeze-dried and then brewed with hot water," Galen says. "Similar again."

"But rather milder in nature, you said. And is the freeze-drying essential?"

He's more familiar with fresh beans.

"That is supposed to be the beat caf," Galen says, "but for the details you'd have to ask my friend Bodhi. I just drink the stuff."

He takes a slow and judging sip. "It is smoother, you're right. In my home, the beans are brought from foreign places and roasted before or after the journey. Dried by the sun or not at all."

"Well, this is good caf," Galen says. "Nothing like the charcoal and peat bog stuff you get in Empire mess halls."

"What is done to it to make it bad caf?"

"Nobody knows," Galen says. "Institutions happen to it, I guess."

"I suppose mass production will always damage quality."

"Not just that," Galen muses. "There is a peculiar combination of cost-cutting, bad processes and total lack of job satisfaction that will ruin any institutional food."

"Perhaps not every. But in most, the food being provided and hot seems to come ahead of taste."

"Something resembling the food or drink that it is named after," Galen nods.

Real food is one of the perks of finally having got away from the Empire.

"Fortunately, I spend little time in such places."

Now, anyway. He may have seen the inside of a workhouse before.

"Where do you get your food?" Galen asks. "And your coffee."