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

[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.

[sunbaked_baker]

Sunshine grins. "This is not so much breakfast food - it's most popular with our evening crowd. The cinnamon rolls, though..."

She gestures to the tray of ludicrously large spiral baked goods upon its cooling rack, still warm and fragrant from the oven.

"Those are breakfast foods. And not just because we tend to run out of them before midmorning no matter how many I bake," she adds, cheerfully. "My SOFs can put them away like they're nothing, but then, there's no question that they'll burn through whatever they eat."

[cultivation_npc]

"Cultivator food, even," Nie Mingjue says, smiling even more widely than before.

Then, he eats the next spoonful of the chocolate cake and is rather distracted by it once more.

[sunbaked_baker]

"As sayings go, 'armies march on their stomachs' is only slightly metaphorical," the baker remarks, with a bright, beaming smile. "They're best when it's cold out. Some of the warmth of the cinnamon stays with you."

[cultivation_npc]

"I will have to try those next," Nie Mingjue says, "but I don't want to rush this. It's so new and amazing, and I doubt I'll ever taste the like again. We don't have those beans where I am from."

[sunbaked_baker]

"You can taste-test whatever looks good to you to try," she nods, no rushing. "Then you'll have to let me know what you'd want more of, to take back and share with your friends."

[cultivation_npc]

"I absolutely need one of these" -- he points at the remains of the Bitter Chocolate Death -- "for my little brother. As for the rest, we will see. It would be amusing to see my sworn brothers get a bit sticky with this. One of them is always very poised by nature, and the other is peculiarly genteel, even though nobody asked him to. At least we didn't."

[sunbaked_baker]

Sunshine chuckles, grinning a knowing grin. "Ah, not having chocolate where you're from, you get to witness your little brother's reaction as he tries it, unaware of what he's about to experience."

It is absolutely the kind of big-sibling shenaniganry she knows and loves.

"And I understand the desire to see what might disrupt a polished and proper façade for a bit, so to speak, especially if it's done through something as innocuous as intense flavors and potentially messy food."

[cultivation_npc]

"And my little brother tends to react very dramatically," Nie Mingjue grins. "Seeing him try this will be extremely funny."

[sunbaked_baker]

"Augh, now I'm jealous I wouldn't get to see it," she laughs, cutting another generously-sized piece of the Bitter Chocolate Death and packaging it onto a piece of tissue paper and into one of the leftover small Solstice gift boxes so it can be transported and won't be jostled by movement too much. "You'll have to come back and tell me how it goes."

[cultivation_npc]

"I can't possibly do Huaisang's antics justice, neither by words not by mime," Nie Mingjue laughs.

[sunbaked_baker]

"I will have to rely on my imagination, I suppose," she sighs, more clearly cheerfully than the mock-wistful tone she'd been aiming for. Her face hides nothing, even in play-acting.

[cultivation_npc]

"I can't paint, either; that's my brother's realm of expertise," Nie Mingjue grins, "and I can hardly ask him to paint a self-portrait while stunned by chocolate, can I?"