Happy New All Skate!

[raptorcanaria]

"You know what, let's have a party."

Dinah threw her platinum card (thanks, Oracle) on the Bar and as a result there is free flowing champagne for everyone whose culture, age and religion permits champagne - and top quality soft alternatives for the rest. There are bar snacks doing the rounds around the tables, and delicate winter flower arrangements on each surface.

And most importantly, on the TV screen is a lot of dancing, a giant countdown, and a big ball ready to drop.

...and when the ball drops, something happens.



Welcome to another Milliways All-Skate!
All welcome - yes, that means all. Whether they're retired, deleted, AU, original or already being played by someone else, bring 'em along.

Usual all-skate rules apply:
1. Everyone's stressed out of their mind right now, so have fun!
2. Communication is key.
3. Gratuitous behaviour (either of a violent or sexual nature) will not be tolerated in the bar proper. Take that to an OOM, and then Content Warning the hell out of it before you link it.
4. Much like Vegas, what happens in All Skates, stays in All Skates (in most cases)
5. Please don't be a dick.

Comments

[cultivation_npc]

"You've been in wars yourself?" he asks, as he notices the scars. Acknowledging a fellow warrior is more important than pandering to some female vanity she doesn't even seem to have.

[sunbaked_baker]

She hesitates, then smiles again, though there's a wry acknowledgement in her smile rather than any attempt to deny it. "Officially, the Wars in my world ended when I was seventeen."

Unofficially? Well, some of those scars are still new. None are older than five years.

[cultivation_npc]

"I guess the wars didn't exactly adhere to the official pronouncement," Nie Mingjue guesses.

[sunbaked_baker]

"Not in the slightest," she admits, lowering her eyes as she pours the toasted nuts and seeds in with the dark amber-colored caramel and begins mixing them together. Once mixed, she pours the hot mixture into a pre-baked pie shell, and begins tamping it down before it begins to cool.

"They are on-going, unfortunately, just without the public's knowledge or support."

Except the tiny bit of the public that includes a random baker, apparently.

[cultivation_npc]

"Who is fighting whom?" Nie Mingjue asks while watching her work.

[sunbaked_baker]

"The Special Other Forces - that is, those dedicated to preventing inhuman harm against the populace, as well as their international counterparts - against the vampires who prey on humanity and seek to drink their blood."

"The Wars were officially humans against the Others - non-humans - but really it was mainly the vampires we were up against."

[cultivation_npc]

"So these Special Other Forces are the cultivators of your country -- the ones charged with fighting evil?" he guesses.

[sunbaked_baker]

"Not... really," she hesitates. "Few members of SOF - Special Other Forces - are magic-handlers, and SOF is officially charged with policing the non-human members of the populace and preventing inhuman harm."

Not fighting evil, technically.

"But most of what they do is, yes, preventing evil harm from vampires befalling people."

Their publicly-acknowledged task and the bulk of the actual need don't exactly line up.

[cultivation_npc]

"Then who fights these evil monsters?" Nie Mingjue asks.

[sunbaked_baker]

"...They do," she answers, with hesitation.

It's probably not worth it to argue to definition of monster with someone she just met.

And with greater hesitation, "And me."

[cultivation_npc]

Nie Mingjue nods, as if that was something he suspected. "You fight monsters, and you bake," he states. "I suppose fighting monsters in secret wouldn't feed you."

[sunbaked_baker]

"Much like baking, the pay is laughable and the hours are hellish," she confirms, with a faintly wry grin.

Neither of them are something one chooses for easy hours or simple thoughts of payment.

One does it because one is called to do it.

[cultivation_npc]

"But baking smells much better," Nie Mingjue says with a grin.

[sunbaked_baker]

Sunshine laughs, setting the pie onto a cooling rack among the other goodies. "Oh worlds better. Eons better." In the kitchens, dried flour and sugar being the only thing sticking to her hands and wrists, she can laugh.

She gives the vast array of baked goods a nod, wondering if there's anything he might like to try (before she assembles a care package blind). "What looks good?"

[cultivation_npc]

"The black thing," he says. "I don't know why baked goods would be so dark, but whatever it is, I'd like to try."

It might be blood based; but then, the Nie ancestors were butchers, and a little black pudding doesn't disturb him.

[sunbaked_baker]

"That'd be from the chocolate," she replies, moving to cut a slice from the long, low, very moist, dark chocolate cake lurking upon its white plate like a shadow of ill-intent. "It's made from the fermented and roasted beans of the cocoa tree, and has that dark brown color to it. It's a perennial favorite, whether sweetened to near unrecognizability, or - in this case - showcased in a dark chocolate flourless cake."

[cultivation_npc]

Nie Mingjue nods. Fermented beans sounds almost familiar.

"How do I eat it? With a spoon?"

[sunbaked_baker]

"Fork is usual, where I come from, but a spoon would work just as well, really. It's a pretty dense cake." Once a long, low wedge of darkness is cut from the whole and placed upon a smaller plate, Rae fetches a fork and spoon from the cutlery drawer and offers him the plate and his choice of utensil.

[cultivation_npc]

Nie Mingjue takes the spoon, as the fork looks weird -- the spoon looks weird as well, as where he is from, spoons are larger and made of ceramic, but it still is basically a spoon.

He takes the first bite of the chocolate cake, eats it, and stares at Sunshine in wordless astonishment.

[sunbaked_baker]

The baker awaits his judgements, not entirely able to hide the small, hopeful smile.

Chocolate has a way about it; it really does. Especially when its flavors are allowed to shine.

[cultivation_npc]

Nie Mingjue eats a second spoonful; a little chocolate goo clings to his moustache.

"This is beans??"

[sunbaked_baker]

She can't help the delighted laugh that escapes. "Yes, indeed. The cocoa beans're fermented and roasted and ground up very fine, then heated and processed to make chocolate. Then, in this case, some baker takes the resulting chocolate and mixes it with butter and sugar and entirely too many eggs, and bakes it into a cake for people to enjoy."

[cultivation_npc]

"This is -- very good," Nie Mingjue says, eating yet another spoonful. "These are excellent beans. I don't exactly have the eloquence to describe how and why it is good; I'm sure my little brother could improvise an entire poem and then paint a fan with it. I can just say that I like it."

He notices that there is a bit in his moustache, and tries to lick it out of it.

[sunbaked_baker]

The baker smiles at him, and the bit stuck to his mustache, before offering him a napkin as well. "People show they enjoy something in many different ways; an enthusiastic second bite is genuine and immediate proof, no need for eloquent words."

"At the coffeehouse back home, where I'm the Head Baker, I'm not often out among the customers. My baking gets compliments via the urgency of the regular customers to arrive before we run out of cinnamon rolls in the mornings, the sounds they make when they take their first bite, or their sometimes-not-resisted temptation to wipe the lingering crumbs from their empty plates with their fingers."

[cultivation_npc]

Nie Mingjue smiles at her. "So this is breakfast food?" he says. "For it, I can be a little uncouth."

He does wipe his moustache in a civilised way, though.