(no subject)

[sunbaked_baker]

There are delicious smells wafting from the Milliways kitchens, today. Chocolate smells, cinnamon smells, flour and butter and sugar and cream smells.

Upon looking in, one might find the baker making it all happen.

Don't worry though. She's generally pretty friendly.

Comments

[curlytop]

A tall, broad-shouldered lad of about 19 all but floats into the kitchen cradled in the hands of a wisp of heavenly aroma.

"What on earth is that...that...." He inhales deeply through his nose and exhales through his mouth. "That?"

[sunbaked_baker]

Sunshine looks over her shoulder as she hears someone come in, and grins at the familiar look on the young man's face. "Oh, you'll have to be more specific than that, surely," she chides, cheerfully, gesturing to the array of baked goods before her. "It could be Cinnamon Rolls As Big As Your Head, freshly baked and newly iced. Or Chocoholia, a chocoholic's paradise. Or Bitter Chocolate Death, for the chocolate purists. Or Meringuamania, or the Insomniac's Dream."

There are such delectable concoctions to fit any taste.

[curlytop]

"Yes, all of those things," George says, looking like his head might start spinning from the plethora of delicious things happening here. "Do you work here?" he asks. Surely such delicacies are not available at all hours whenever he'd like?

[sunbaked_baker]

Sunshine laughs, turning and leaning back against the kitchen counter. "I'm just another patron, but I sell my baking here to help pay my room and board. So maybe I work here."

"Rae," she says by way of introduction. "Sunshine to my friends."

[curlytop]

"George," he says. "It's good to meet you, Rae." He's not going to assume friendship.

"So someone could, hypothetically, purchase these fine goods from the bar?"

[sunbaked_baker]

"Good to meet you, George," Rae grins. "I, ah, may have asked Bar - as a professional courtesy, you understand - not to sell specifically my baked goods, unless I leave some with her to sell. I sell them to pay my tab, after all. I wouldn't want to be outsold on my own creations."

"However," she adds, "I am absolutely open to offering free taste-tests, should you want to try something. Anything you'd like?"

[curlytop]

"Everything?" George asks, then laughs like that was totally a joke. "But, I'll take anything chocolate. Or...anything, really."

[sunbaked_baker]

Sunshine laughs. Totally a joke. Of course it is. And not at all one she's heard before.

... Some day she may become immune to flattery, but it is not this day.

"Pace yourself," she advises, gently, selecting one of the confections and bringing a sample over to him. What sits upon the plate she offers him is a crunchy cocoa nib-studded dark chocolate brownie, topped by a soft layer of milk chocolate fudge and a thin top coat of cool white chocolate, lightly garnished by tiny shavings of mint chocolate. A chocoholic's paradise by design. "Try Chocoholia first."

[curlytop]

George takes the plate with all due respect and very deliberately takes a small bite. HIs eyes close, and he sighs in perfect bliss.

"Sunshine, this is...there are no words. I'm certain of it. No words for this."

[sunbaked_baker]

See, she had been grinning, but now she's outright beaming.

"I'm glad you approve," she replies not-really-that-humbly, not worrying about him finding the words.

[curlytop]

"I'll give it the George Lovelace Stamp of Approval. Fit for public consumption and then some."

He grins. "Mind, I can't remember the last time I had a brownie."

[sunbaked_baker]

"Shiva wept," she utters in shock and sympathy at that admission. "Can't remember...? We'll have to change that, you know. There's brownies aplenty here. What's your where and when, that has you not remembering your last brownie?"

[curlytop]

"Ehm, Scotland, 2009. Well, Idris most recently. I've been at school, where the food has been...."

He makes a face. It's...very...animated.

"Well, it was almost definitely food."

[holdingacat]

Cecil feels he can probably go back today... but feels a sudden urge to make an abrupt detour to the kitchens. First: there are kitchens, they are a complete marvel, and he would have never guessed at their existence. Second:

"Masters of us all, what smells so good?" He asks as he wanders in, following his nose. "Oh, um, hello!"

[sunbaked_baker]

Sunshine smiles at the stranger over her shoulder from where she is washing a mixing bowl at the sink.

"Hello there!" the red-haired baker replies, cheerfully, turning off the water and grabbing a kitchen towel to dry off the bowl. "Hungry? There's plenty to choose from this morning, if you'd like to try something."

Gigantic cinnamon rolls, strawberry-swirled meringue cookies, chocolate and vanilla spirals, long, low wedges of moist chocolate cake as dark and rich as sin, multi-layered chocolate brownies, and a multitude of muffins of various kinds are all in evidence.

[holdingacat]

"Oh? That would be ni..." He gravitates to the cinnamon rolls, but brings himself up short when he figures out that no, they really are that big.
"Oh, I misunderstood, that can't all be for one person. Um, is there something to slice it with?"

[sunbaked_baker]

"Oh, you'd be surprised how much a person can put away when they're hungry," Rae remarks, grinning wryly. She steps over to the cutlery drawer and fetches a table knife for him. "Here you go. Choose whichever you'd like. They've just been iced."

[holdingacat]

Cecil boggles just a little (a lot), but doesn't argue. He's not one to look such a welcome surprise in the mouth.

It's so much more polite to maintain eye contact.

"Well, thank you, this is certainly a happy surprise." Cecil notes as he cuts a roll free and dishes it up. He has no idea how he's going to eat all of this. Maybe he'll go back after the sugar coma. "Sorry, I never introduced myself. I'm Cecil Palmer, very nice to meet you."

[sunbaked_baker]

"Good to meet you, Cecil," the scarred but brightly-attired baker replies with a glad smile. "I'm Rae Seddon, though more often I'm called Sunshine. From New Arcadia, in Independencia, on Earth, in early 2004, in case that means anything."

You never know!

[holdingacat]

"Do you have a preference in names?" Cecil asks politely as he pulls over a stool and settles himself on it. "I'm afraid I've never heard of... those places." He adds, deciding that discretion is the better part of valor, and he's mangled enough place names for one week.

"I'm from Night Vale, which is also on Earth, from 2012... if that means anything at all."

[sunbaked_baker]

"I actually prefer Sunshine, to be honest," she admits, with a slight shrug. "Don't worry about not having heard of New Arcadia - so far no one I've met here has. And I've never heard of Night Vale, either, if it helps. But we're from versions of the same planet, at least, and within eight-ish years of one another. That's not nothing."

"What's Night Vale like?"

[holdingacat]

"We are a friendly desert community." Cecil replies with a fond smile and a cadence that speaks to training and repetition. "Where the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful, and strange lights pass overhead while we all pretend to sleep."

[sunbaked_baker]

Sunshine looks at him, blinking.

He looks... human? Very nearly certainly human.

"Hope the people can get some real sleep, at least," because she knows exhaustion due to dire circumstance and those lights sound ominous as hell. "All the tea in the world can't keep me on an even keel if I don't get enough sleep."

[holdingacat]

"Oh, I'm pretty sure we're all okay on that front, or at least able to do something about it if we aren't. I never say no to a good cup of coffee in the morning though." It's one of the first things the interns are trained on - the proper making of coffee for one Cecil Palmer. "That has probably less to do with the morning and more to do with the coffee, if I'm being entirely honest."

[sunbaked_baker]

That gets Sunshine to smile again. "I know coffee-drinkers like that. The quality of the day doesn't really depend on the amount or quality of the sleep they got, but the amount and quality of the coffee being offered once they're up."

"I never actually developed a taste for it, myself, except to use as a flavoring in various baked goods," she admits, wry. "Heresy, I know."