Day 35: Twin Pines Restaurant

[byname_bynature]

( From here!)

Artemis walked into the restaurant and glanced around at the decor. He wasn't impressed, but he wasn't disdainful either. He simply smiled. It was nice... for a town with a population of barely three hundred.

The boy smiled up at the person up front. "Two, if you please."

Comments

[secret_orchard]

[from here]

Finally, he had to admit he was too cold to stay outside. Armand entered the restaurant, looking through his coupon book again until he found the right one. He tried to look inconspicuous and not like he was following anyone at all. After all, they were only given two choices about meals as far as he could tell. At least he could eat. His stomach was growling.

The others were ahead of him, but when it was his turn Armand told the host, "Only one. Thank you." He hoped he'd be able to see from where he was seated.

[OOC: for someone who is writing a character trying to be stealthy, I'm sure failing at subtlety tonight. :D]

[secret_orchard]

Once he was seated, Armand was disappointed to learn that his roommate seemed to manage to avoid talking about himself much at all. He ate some of the 'chicken fried steak,' decided it was an abomination against the gods of cuisine, and departed. He didn't think they'd even noticed him listening.

[gone here]

[31st_of_china]

[From here]

The bar would've been his pick, except what they had as currency only went to the Twin Pines restaurant, and other than that, he was broke. That in itself was something of a novelty considering that, 1) he had a bottomless pit of a gold card and 2) minus that, people seemed more than happy to throw offerings at him (whether he wanted them or not).

Sanzo wasn't about to go and stoop to petty theft either. Maybe Gojyo didn't mind scrounging around for a living, but Sanzo was different.(He c could only imagine what the kappa was like before Hakkai got his hands on him, but Sanzo's imagination wasn't particularly generous towards the roach)

The monk liked to think he was above that.

It didn't take too long to locate the restaurant. Not the most ornate deal, but he'd seen much worse too.

Sanzo glanced back at Goku.

"Don't you dare pig out." he said under his breath. "I'm not covering for your ass if you eat them out of their entire kitchen."

[prevails]

Goku followed behind Sanzo, taking glimpses of some of the buildings they passed.

At Sanzo's remark, Goku suggested, "We could run?" It wasn't like they never had before, like that time when Sanzo they'd lost the Gold Card. Somehow, he doubted Sanzo would accept that idea (too bad, it might leave the nurses to pay for the skipped check. Heh, he'd like to see their expressions at that one). The situation was exactly like he feared then, he probably wouldn't get enough to eat. Hopefully they'd give him more at the institute, if he could wait that long.

Eh, he didn't think they'd give them that much food if they knew they weren't "good" for it either. They were paying in the same coupon everybody else from Landels had, and there must have already been an arrangement for this as well as a preset limit to what a meal was supposed to be.

Would they even be able to pick from the menu?

[31st_of_china]

What, run like they were common criminals? Not that they'd get far, but it wasn't like he'd encourage this kind of stupidity anyway.

"No," and Sanzo glowered down at Goku. "If it comes to that, I'll go on ahead, you can stay back and wash dishes or something. Take responsibility for once."

Eventually the monkey would have to learn it. It was always jump headfirst into something, think it over later with Goku. This would be something of a test for him.

And that black hole that passed for his stomach.

Sanzo went up to the server.

"Two."

[prevails]

... was it worth it? He stared around the room for a few minutes trying to figure it out and then decided against it. If he tried, he'd be here for about a hundred years before he paid back the debt. He didn't want to risk that while Sanzo and Kenren were still searching around Landels

[cigarettes_plz]

"Not in my experience." Artemis wasn't the only one with 'mismatched' eyes after all. Badou wanted to ask just who went about telling the boy he looked 'exotic' but he decided against it. Exotic was a nice way of putting...whatever it was Artemis could be called that wasn't as nice. There was just something about the kid that made him uncomfortable no matter how he acted. He had yet to decide if that was Artemis' fault.

The only greeting he gave the person at the front was a half-assed wave from behind Artemis and a weary I-just-got-pulled-along smile. He was well aware of what a strange pair they made, especially with Artemis playing alpha, but the people here had to be expecting this sort of thing by now.

[byname_bynature]

[Meta-ing us some NPCs... because nothing fantastically horrible is going to happen... yet. XD]

The seating hostess sat both Artemis and Badou at a small table near the windows. The boy smiled up at her, but Badou would probably be able to detect the small muscle that went in Artemis face when the waitress set a children's menu down in front of him. For the love of...

The waitress set down two glasses of water and walked away. Artemis gave a small sigh. "Would you lend me that," he indicated the adult menu. "When you are finished?"

[cigarettes_plz]

[Oh, dear. D: *fears?*]

Ok, he had to admit that was sort of funny at Artemis' expense. What did he really expect? Honestly, this kid... Badou glanced over the menu, grinning very slightly, and handed it over to Artemis after a few seconds.

"Brace yourself. You're not going to like it."

He leaned back in his seat, fingers folded behind his head. "I thought you'd be used to stuff like that by now. You can't tell me everyone back home knows you don't like being treated like a kid."

[byname_bynature]

Artemis took the menu, "Badou, back home, I would be at a five-star restaurant in Paris in an Armani suit. Granted, currently I can't wear the suit during the day, but that doesn't mean that I won't run the maze as a well-dressed rat.

"And the last time I received a children's menu, I informed the waitress that no doubt the menu itself would taste better than the food on the menu. ...and accused her of denying fish to minors."

The boy looked over the menu. Country fried steak. Three words that did not belong together.

[vladville]

[from here awaiting Soubi]It wasn't so bad... at least, it was better than a fast food restaurant. Soul food? Vlad wondered if there would be a preset menu, and hoped he would at least have the chance to order something that wasn't chicken fried steak. At the worst, he supposed he was in good shape, but he didn't want to risk letting himself turn to Jack Fenton proportions during his time of somewhat enforced inactivity during daytime at the Institute. And it still sounded a bit repulsive on basic principles, despite the reviewers' effusive commentary. At least the coupon claimed a free lunch, which was rather open-ended and soothed some of Vlad's worries. And it was still not Tasty Burger

[beloved_less]

Sobui was going to let Ritsuka miss him. He knew it was cruel and he wished he could watch the boy, but... Ritsuka wanted them both to make friends. So Soubi was merely obeying that order and hopefully letting the boy realise he shouldn't need or want friends besides Soubi.

He looked around for a place to sit. There was little chance of being alone and he was on a mission, so he picked out the person he felt would be the least annoying. And that was the man who looked like a ruthless art dealer. He ought to do.

Soubi approached and smiled. "Do you mind if I join you? The place is a little busy and maybe we'll be served quicker this way?"

[vladville]

Vlad smiled warmly at the younger man who approached him. "Why, of course. It's always a pleasure to meet friendly new individuals." Inwardly, he found himself returning to his previous line of thought about appearances and actual maturity and skill... not to mention species. At least the man appeared to be past puberty, whatever else he might be

[beloved_less]

The man seemed pleasant enough, be it an act or not. Soubi didn't care. This was simply an order to obey. play nice. Make a friend. If he made a few wrong choices, he'd just forget the person and find somebody new.

He almost laughed at the introduction. It seemed to be the fashion. Name, time. And, occasionally, home planet.

"Agatsuma Soubi," he smiled. "And...longer, I suppose. This is my second time here, at least. So, shall we extend this greeting to where we're from? Your name doesn't sound too out of this world," he joked lightly.

Soubi waited until the waitress was gone before he spoke again.
"Always seems to work. I don't think they trust lone diners..."

[numberii]

((From here.))

"Well, here we are," Xigbar lightly said as he strode through the front door of Twin Pines, hoping that Teisel was following behind closely. There seemed to be a fair amount of crazies as it was, but no more than a busy lunch service would have; hopefully that wouldn't influence things.

"Might not wanna make that 'bazooka' comment too loudly," he cheerfully added, "pillaging's not so much fun if you can't get away from the scene of the crime."

[no_barbarian]

Now, what the hell would some random insane asylum have to do with- Wait. Hadn't Xigbar mentioned being an asylum inmate earlier? Teisel had dismissed it then, along with most of the gibberish Xigbar had been spouting, but now he was curious. And irritated. Just because he was a traveller didn't mean he had to know the name of every asylum, hospital and prison in the world.

He put aside his questions for now, though, content to follow his half-baked companion inside the restaurant. It was a pretty unassuming little dive, but food was food. Maybe lunch would help. I'm not sure what it'll help at this point, but it's gotta help something...

"There's one thing we can agree on, yeah," Teisel sighed. He wasn't sure what would be worth taking in this town, much less worth getting caught taking, but he could probably find a few thing that were worth blowing up. "I'd feel a hell of a lot better, though."