Day 42, Noon: The Twin Pine Restaurant

[thatdamnedninja]

Yuffie took the long way around, practically making it a tour of the entire town. She collared--not literally, since the nurses would've thrown fits--a few random citizens along the way, asked as many inconspicuous sounding questions as possible, and then moved on. Wash, rinse, repeat. Sneaking a few covert glimpses into stores and windows

Comments

[4lulzngiggles]

((Closed to Mr. H.))

Mm, last time Joshua had given the Tasty Burger a shot, and he had been unfortunately rather disappointed. Now he felt like giving the other restaurant in town a shot; The Twin Pine Restaurant sounded promising, after all.

The young teen ordered a nice salad with his country-fried steak, taking some coffee along with it. The steak was a little too rich for his tastes, but the salad was fresh and crisp and delicious, and the coffee... well, it wasn't as good as what he got at the Wild Kat, but it was rich and dark, something he just couldn't get in the Institute.

For now, the boy kept quiet and to himself, watching the few people who had arrived and idly thinking to himself. He was finally starting to get somewhere, it felt like; finally, he was starting to find people he could use and manipulate as was his wont. Perhaps now he could proceed... perhaps. But there was one concern that tugged at the back of his mind, a problem he hadn't been able to find a solution to quite yet.

[catstreetblues]

This was almost too easy: all Sanae had to do for a nice lunch was simply switch tables and remember to bring his mug - coffee was always so much better when two could mull over it. The company couldn't be better, of course: he had plenty of things to discuss with Joshua - namely Minamimoto.

"How's it going, Josh?" Sanae sat down and took a quick drink of coffee. Out of the corner of his eye he could see a waitress already moving toward him; he halted her with a hand, said, "I'll have the steak as well. Medium rare.", and then left her to wander off and place his order. Wonderful thing, restaurant etiquette.

The barista turned back to his fellow luncher. "I'm sure you already know what we need to talk about." No sense in wasting time.

[4lulzngiggles]

"Mr. H." Joshua grinned when he saw his contact coming over, and he was glad for that. His barista/moral support/and everything else he was would also happen to be one of the few interesting people Joshua had found, and he would be a bit upset if Mr. H. had been eaten by monsters or something of that nature.

But then he spoke of a topic that made Joshua sigh and put his meal to the side. Just thinking of Sho Minamimoto made him lose his appetite. "Ah... the Grim Heaper. I saw you talking to him a little while back."

[catstreetblues]

[ahjlshljfefe sorry for disappearing; is a late backthread alright?]

So the kid had seen that, had he? Hopefully he hadn't gotten the wrong idea: Sanae didn't fancy being on Joshua's "suspicious character" list.

He shrugged. "Just a little lunchtime chat - you know, to let him know who's here." And to see if he still feels like coming after me. "He's already focused on taking down Landel, which doesn't come as a surprise." Sanae paused and then added, "Said something about a level i flare, which means he came in right after you finished up that Game with Phones."

[opposingheaven]

Once it began to approach lunchtime, Kenren headed off towards the restaurant to meet up with Hanatarou and Nataku. He didn't bother walking too quickly; he'd seen Nataku talking with Homura after all, and who knew what Hanatarou was up to. He'd give them time to finish off whatever they were doing before they came to meet him.

He stopped outside the Twin Pines, taking a look at the menu which was up in the window. He'd eaten here before and the food looked much the same, but it was a decent selection. Better than the Institute. Had it really been a week since he'd been here? It felt like a lot longer since he'd been here with Rhode.

[For Hanatarou and Nataku.]

[mitase]

It was fortunate that Sora at least knew where to find the restaurant, since Hanatarou was convinced that otherwise he would've ended up wandering around completely lost and missed his meeting. It didn't look like Kenren had been waiting too long, though, and there wasn't any sign of Nataku so far, though, so the healer breathed a faint sigh of relief as he approached the building.

"I'm not late, am I...?" he asked as he paused close to where Kenren stood, hood up and hands jammed into his jacket's pockets against the cold. It didn't seem so, but he still wanted to make certain.

[opposingheaven]

Kenren smiled when he spotted Hanatarou heading his way along with another kid. He stepped away from the wall and gave them a wave. He couldn't help but grin at Hanatarou's jacket though. That was just immensely cute. He kind of wanted to have Goku there and put him in a monkey jacket like it. He thought that Goku and Hanatarou would get on as well as he and Nataku seemed to. Hanatarou seemed like he could use a few more friends.

"Hey, good to see you," he said genuinely, smiling at him. "And you aren't late. No worries."

[mitase]

Hanatarou blinked once, then gave a shy smile in return. "Oh. Good." He hesitated a moment, glancing around uncertainly as he shifted his weight from foot to foot. "Was, um, Nataku coming too?"

Maybe the History Club people would want him to work with these two again? That didn't seem like it would be a bad thing. Even if he would have to be careful to avoid Nataku when he had a pen in hand.

[high_prosecutor]

At least that morning's business was done. If the elder von Karma was around, he was either hiding or avoiding Edgeworth. Both of those outcomes were acceptable, and it was a lucky turn indeed that a mutual acquaintance had been the one to witness that conversation with Franziska.

He stepped into Twin Pines, looking for a girl that fit Miss Kisaragi's description. He found her relatively quickly, bowing politely. "Miss Kisaragi, I presume?", he asked, extending a hand. "Miles Edgeworth. It's a pleasure to meet you."

[thatdamnedninja]

The place was filling up fast. Yuffie kept a casual ear out for interesting tidbits of conversation while she worked, doodled, and waited. It wasn't too long before the guy showed up. Or, at least, she was assuming that this was the guy; he was heading straight for her, after all. He was kinda tall-ish, prematurely grey, and had a serious sort of face that reminded her vaguely of Reeve. When she shook his hand, she found it smooth; whatever this guy was, he wasn't a fighter.

Yuffie grinned, nudging the chair across from her out using her foot. “Just Yuffie, okay? Like I said on the board, formality makes me sneeze. This might be a business lunch, but it doesn't have to be made of cardboard - speaking of lunch, you wanna get something while we talk?” She left out the 'I didn't eat breakfast because I was too busy puking everywhere' part.

[high_prosecutor]

First name basis already? She reminded him of one Maya Fey, who tended to be the same way about things. He smiled a little - yes, Yuffie and Maya would most likely get along fabulously. "All right. And yes, lunch sounds good."

First things first, though - tea. The moment the waitress came by, he asked for a large pot of Earl Grey, waited for the girl to order drinks, then nodded.

"All right. As I'm sure you know, there are a lot of places in the Institute that aren't mapped, but I don't necessarily think mapping them is all that needs to be done. A map can be useful, yes, but knowing what you can expect when you go there is more useful than that, most of the time. What do you think, Yuffie?"

[thatdamnedninja]

Her stomach had settled down by this point, content to stay where it was supposed to instead of trying to crawl up and out of her throat. Since Yuffie'd prefer it to keep that way, she just asked for the house lemonade. She'd have killed for something with even the vaguest of kicks to it, but she was more likely to get flying Tonberries.

But this Miles Edgeworth dude, he'd ordered tea. Yuffie couldn't help a flash of a grin.

Maybe she'd finally come to accept it; her friends were gone, were probably stuck out in this weird world, and could get dragged back to the Institute at any second. Sure, she still missed the old fart, still missed Cloud, but she couldn't keep on trying to forget them. That'd be like… like sticking forks in their eyes, or dancing on their graves. She couldn't mope around and just wait for them, either; they'd kick her ass for that, and she'd kick her ass too. Nope, the Rose of Wutai was fully capable of running this show all by herself

[knived_grin]

Bel had more or less demanded the position of this place from one of the civilians, and once he got there, he had to say that he wasn't impressed. Of course, coming from a prince, especially one used to some of the finest restaurants in Italy, it would take a lot to impress him. Still, upon the first glance around, he had to admit that it was more than he'd been expecting, at any rate- from the quality of the rest of the trash here, he was half-expecting some awful roach-infested waste.

Of course, Belphegor was still almost incredibly sullen from the realization that no, he wasn't going home, and yes, nobody had ever even heard of him here. Reputations were annoying things to build up from scratch, especially without so much as a penknife and razor wire, and he was almost positive that he would bore himself by trying

[piggy_king]

Good Lord, Porky was hungry. As Porky walked to the Twin Pine Restaurant, his stomach grumbled and gurgled, begging to be fed. Those idiotic nurses had actually packed something palatable for breakfast, but no. They had decided to pack orange slices and yogurt. That may have been all well and good for someone like Okita, but for Porky, they might as well have packed garbage. At least they had given him two coupons for meals. Porky would have to hit up the "Tasty Burger" later, but right now, Porky was in the mood for some...well, Porky couldn't necessarily say quality food, but at least it would be edible

[knived_grin]

Belphegor glances up at the sudden commotion, blinking lightly in surprise at the idiot of a man who- sort of faintly resembled- no. He wasn't going to think about it, as long as the fool went past him, it-

Bel could only stare as the other slid into the seat across from him, frowning slightly and a little too surprised at the sudden loud address to exude an aura of 'do not come near me'. At the words, Belphegor just sort of stared towards him, before calmly reaching out and taking a sip of milk.

It's another moment before he can calm himself enough to reply with an utter deadpan tone. "Don't ask the prince questions in such a voice, copycat."

[piggy_king]

There was no doubt about it. The boy that Porky was sitting across from was...Porky! Rude, vain, and called himself royalty! Plus, the resemblance was too close to simply be a coincidence!

"There's no doubt about it! It...It really is you! But...how is this possible?! I mean...there's just no way that we can both be here! Ah, by the way, I'll have some pork chops and a vanilla milkshake, please," Porky said, first to...Porky, and then to the waitress that had approached the booth to see what the commotion was, "Oh, and sorry for the ruckus. We're, uh...family."

Confused, the waitress walked off to send Porky's order to the kitchen. Leaving the two to their conversation.

[secret_orchard]

Armand's hands and face were getting numb from the cold, but the rest of him ached slightly from using under-worked muscles. He was glad when TK called a halt to their training, presumably so everyone could eat. Armand didn't really like modern fast food, so he suggested the nicer restaurant and was happy that TK readily agreed. The agreement was so fast Armand wondered if there was another reason the big soldier wanted to avoid the burger restaurant, but he didn't mind. Not at all

[loyal_soldier]

622 hadn't wanted to work the two all that hard so they could be ready to move when the night started, but it would be good for both of them to build some endurance. And besides, there was food to eat after training. Food that smelled really good, from what he could tell so far. That was a nice set-up, as far as he was concerned.

Seeing what Armand did, he took off his jacket and put it over the back of his seat, looking at the menu. Almost all of it was indecipherable to him, but at least he recognized the word 'steak'. "The stuff at the other place tasted pretty good, but it wasn't healthy."

[secret_orchard]

"Likely not," Armand agreed. Seeing some of the choices here, he wasn't sure this was much better, but the set plates seemed to offer vegetables as sides and he recognized the kinds of meats listed. His fingers were still cold, so he tucked one hand up against the back of his neck, under his hair while he manipulated the menu with the other. His cold fingers shocked his warm neck, but they'd warm up soon enough, and he'd be able to switch hands.

"I wonder if we can get hot tea to drink here."

[loyal_soldier]

Well, by virtue of ignorance, he'd already chosen what he wanted to eat. "That would be nice." Or maybe just a cup of caf. That sounded pretty good right now, although he'd accept pretty much anything, as long as it didn't taste too terrible.