Solstice Happy Hour with Sunshine

[sunbaked_baker]

So, the shortest day has come again. Tomorrow, the sun will begin its long wheel back across the sky. The landscape of Milliways is blanketed in grey and brown and white, while gathered warmth and light shines fiercely within the bar itself. Sunshine has been up since long before the morning's late dawn. She has prepared a selection of foods to prepare and serve, and executes her planned menu over the course of the morning, singing quietly to herself while she kneads dough and while goodies bake in the ovens.

In the relative brightness of noon - she may have overdone it - the baker emerges from the kitchens to put up the specials board for the day. It reads:

Solstice Happy Hour
Come celebrate the turn of the year
and the return of the sun!

Nibbles:
Caramelized Onion and Mushroom Crostinis
Chili Pesto, Mushroom, Roasted Red Pepper, and Halloumi Tarts
Roasted Garlic, Tomato, and Ricotta Pesto Brioche, served with butter or goat cheese
Savory Zucchini Bread, with goat cheese and dill
Pumpkin-basil pinwheels
Gruyere and Sage Babka
Roasted Goat Cheese-Stuffed Dates

Meals:
Coconut, Chickpea and Pumpkin Curry with fresh-baked flatbread and rice, served with a Chili Pesto, Mushroom, Roasted Red Pepper, and Haloumi Tart
Roasted Veggie Pizza, served with a slice of Gruyere and Sage Babka
Saffron Milk Cap Mushroom Tart with Brie and Thyme, served with Savory Baked Pears

Sweet Things:
Pear-Ginger-Hazelnut Cake with Maple Frosting
Lime Curd and Mascarpone Fruit Tart
Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie
Cinnamon Streusel Sweet Potato Pie
Cinnamon Rolls As Big As Your Head
Bitter Chocolate Death
Morningstars
(Devil's Bargain: 20% discount when ordered with Irish Cream or the Irish Hot Chocolate)

Drinks:
Hot Buttered Rum
Hot Mulled Cider
Irish Hot Chocolate
Oaxacan Hot Chocolate
Non-Alcoholic Hot Chocolate
Coffee


She had to write small to squeeze it all onto the board. Once it's up, Sunshine settles in and sips her tea, a little tired but feeling accomplished. "Happy Hour, everyone! Happy Solstice!"

Comments

[star_bespangled]

Urania comes in the door, in a jolly mood. Tonight is the longest night of the year - her favorite night of all!

She sees the sign and her eyebrows raise.

"Goodness, that's quite a list."

[sunbaked_baker]

Sunshine grins at the woman, knowing it's a bit more than the usual Specials board offerings. "Solstice is one of the bigger holidays in my world, celebrating the turn of the year. I like to go all out."

[star_bespangled]

Urania nods. "It is where I come from as well. It's my favorite." She has no particular love for her uncle Poseidon, but she loves the long night.

Speaking of home, she's eyeing the stuffed dates. "Might I have some of those?"

[sunbaked_baker]

"It's one of my favorites, as well, though I'm not much of a fan of the cold and dark season," Sunshine admits, smiling.

"Of course you may. Let me fetch you some." Rae fetches a pretty glass serving bowl, about the size of a cupped hand, and serves up a good number of the stuffed dates for the customer.

[star_bespangled]

Urania smiles. "I'm an astronomer, so I don't mind."

She takes a bite. "Thank you. They're delicious."

[sunbaked_baker]

"I'm glad you like them," Rae says cheerfully, with a touch of pride for a thing well-made.

"Astronomy is very neat - do you have any particular favorite area of study? I've never done more than look at the stars, myself, and sometimes I forget to stop and enjoy them."

The night is lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
etc.

Her night time outings are not nearly as pleasant.

[star_bespangled]

"Mostly stellar astronomy, but the field is always growing and changing. I try to stay updated on all aspects of the subject."

[holdingacat]

Cecil, fingers smudged with ink from the typewriter (let's be honest, after a long few hours of copy-editing, there's ink smudged in his hair and on his face too), wanders into the bar, hands full of just-barely-legal typed-up copy.

Not that the Secret Police would have tried to arrest him for work for the station. That could lead to a... decidedly uncomfortable and potentially terminal meeting with Station Management. No one wants that.

No one.

Still, better to stay, if only in theory, on the side of the non-existent angels. Thus the typed up papers, the ink smudges, and now that he's oriented himself, a cup of bar's...

Wait.

"Sooooooooooooo..." It's a drawn-out, considering sound, a verbal tic for covering what would otherwise be dead air while he figures out where best to go with this. "How does this work? Do you have to order one from each category, or...?" Look, it's important to get ordering right. You just don't play around with that, in some places.

[sunbaked_baker]

"Heya, Cecil," Rae smiles at him. "I did go a little overboard, didn't I? You don't have to order one from each category - no need to order any more than you'd want. I think the only... combo?" the word's fast-food connotations hurt her soul a little, "is if you order a Morningstar and some Irish Cream or the Irish Hot Chocolate together."

And she was given explicit permission for that one.

[holdingacat]

"Well, I mean, as long as your wheat and wheat byproducts did not come from Night Vale, I don't see how this could be a problem. Potentially disastrous to someone's diet, perhaps, but what are diets, anyway?" He asks, like he'd heard the word somewhere as the punchline to a very bad joke.

Like mountains, you know?

He weighs the pros and cons of getting coffee, and decides if he can survive the worst of what the barista district can throw at him (and the undrinkable results of new interns making coffee) he can weather anything Rae can dish up.

"A Gruyere and sage babka, then, and a cup of coffee, if you don't mind."

[sunbaked_baker]

"No worries. All of my wheat and wheat byproducts came through Milliways," she promises, with a little, hesitant chuckle. He'd... mentioned his worries about her use of wheat, before.

Remind her not to visit Night Vale.

"Babka and coffee, coming right up," Rae nods. Though she doesn't imbibe, herself, one doesn't work for ten-plus years in a reasonably well-known coffee house without knowing how to make better-than-decent coffee. She pour him up a cup and sets it in front of him, leaving milk and sugar within reach in case that's his preference, then goes to cut some generously-sized slices of the still-warm babka.

"How have you been, Cecil?" she asks, while slicing the soft, pillowy bread. The cheese has melted in between the layers of dough, and the whole thing is swirled and streaked with bits of sage and parsley and roasted garlic.

[holdingacat]

Cecil hums happy contentment at his first taste of wheat-containing bread in weeks.

"Oh, I've been just wonderful, thank you for asking, planning my first date with Carlos." He gushes, gleefully, still not even remotely used to the idea yet.

[sunbaked_baker]

"Oooh, a date," she beams at him, not just for the contented hum of happiness that her bread caused. "What are you thinking of doing?"

What is the usual first date in a town like Night Vale?

[have_no_mercy]

Tess waddles up to the bar, big as a house. She reads the board over and then nods to herself.

"I'll have some of that Chocolate Bourbon pecan pie."

[sunbaked_baker]

"Nice," Sunshine smiles at the woman - she knows she's met this person, but damned if she can remember her name - and nods. "It's a good choice."

Rae almost doesn't say anything more before cutting the slice of pie - it's the woman's own business, after all - but professional ethics get in the way. "There's only about a fourth of a cup of bourbon in the whole pie, really, but it's possible not all of it cooked out, if you're okay with that."

[have_no_mercy]

She shrugs.

"I've been a good girl. This won't hurt."

She's likely to burst at any moment.

"But thanks."

[sunbaked_baker]

"Just wanted to make sure," Rae says, cheerfully, before turning to cut a slice of the still-warm pie. As she brings the plated slice over, the chuckles lightly. "Sorry, I know we've met before - at least once - but I can't come up with your name."

[have_no_mercy]

She smiles in return.

"That's all right. It happens a lot around here. I'm Tess."

[sunbaked_baker]

"Tess! That's right," Sunshine chuckles, remembering. "You asked me to move to you world, for the sake of my Bitter Chocolate Death."

It was quite gratifying to the baker, though not a possibility for the baker also invested in trying to save her world.

[starrydome]

Although the greeting is not reflective of his mood, the time - the solstice - seems strangely fitting.

So he drifts closer, looking at a distance almost like the person she knows. But his clothes are of a different cut (tighter, breeches and tunic, not flowing robes) and quite a bit more sparkly around the cuffs and hem.

And his calm is different too. A mask, not quite molded to his face, an act not yet learned by heart.

An effort.

He is, not young perhaps, but younger. Not a father. Not a husband.

He should eat. He knows this.
But his stomach has no care for that.

[sunbaked_baker]

Sunshine watches him approach, her smile gentling into something pensive but still friendly. Milliways does this, doesn't it? It brings your friends to you when they are not yet your friends, or brings you to your friends when you do not yet know them. Sometimes you remember it; sometimes you don't.

His shadows are... they're his shadows, but they are not yet the restful, still pools of shade they will be in later times. He is younger, yes, and if the mood his shadows suggested something lighter, she would find the additional sparkliness amusing.

(...Sunshine doesn't know if she'll ever be too old for sparkles. The fabric of her sweater, the deep green of another season, has gold sparkly thread spun through it.)

"Good afternoon, and happy Solstice to you," she greets him with a kind smile when he drifts close to the bar.

[starrydome]

"May the sun bring joy to the world as it grows stronger," he replies, inclining his head at her in greeting.

"You present your guests with much choice in keeping with the season," he says, as his eyes run across the board.

[sunbaked_baker]

"As the promise of light wakens in the sleeping land, we carol, feast, and give thanks, love our friends dearly, and hope for peace," she murmurs in the faint sing-song of a snippet of poem.

"I do my best to help with the feasting part," Sunshine's smile is bright, though tempered in response to his own mood. "Good food and something warming to drink can brighten even the darkest day, just a little."

[starrydome]

"So it is often said," he agrees. "Perhaps it will even bring a little brightness to mine. I should like the mulled cider and the -babka?"
Pronouncing the unfamiliar words with great care.

[sunbaked_baker]

"I hope it can," Sunshine nods - his pronunciation was fine! - and steps back from the counter to pour up some of the fragrantly steaming cider. She serves it in a blue and green glazed ceramic mug of a good size and shape to warm one's hands on. With it, she brings over a plate with slices of the savory babka, the still-warm, pillow dough threaded through with thin ribbons of herb-flecked melted cheese.

"The babka recipe was a bit of an experiment, to be honest, but I love how it turned out," she murmurs, setting the plate and mug before him. "Babka is usually sweet, with chocolate filling layered throughout, but I wanted to try a savory version."