A Taste of Home: A night at the Isekai Ryoken

    Hifumi waves as people come in, he's as usual behind the bar working the Yaki grill as the old wolf Cait Sith Lander is bartending. There are spaces at the bar, and at the kotatsu seating as well. A soft bustle of noise and the playing of music, by the young bard with a cat at her feet near the bar, fills the air. Landers and Adventurers alike patron the place, and should someone indicate a desire to head to the kotatsu then one of the waitresses will bring slippers.

It's a mild early November, yet, so Goldenblade doesn't feel the need for the kotatsu's warmth just yet, she will make her way over to the grill and offer a nod to Hifumi. "How's it going?" she asks him, and then, "What have you got on special?" Seems she's going to splurge on real food today, not something she does all the time. She takes a look around the place, then rolls her shoulders with a sigh. "How're things going?" she asks him as she settles into the seat.

"o/~ Warm in the day have a good time,
Cool in the night have a good time. o/~"

For most Bet Tanaka is heard before he's seen, the warbling sound of his voice broadcast loud and not entirely on key. Thankfully the sound doesn't carry too far past the door, where it's drowned by actual pleasant music.

What does carry itself inside is Tanaka himself, stumbling to a halt near the entrance to hand off a pair of sandals to the staff waiting inside. That done the man takes a few wobbling strides to the bar, plopping himself down and flashing a toothy grin at the Cait Sith behind the bar. "Yo." He begins, "What've you got to drink?"

    Hifumi smiles at Golden "Eel, it's the time of year for Unadon." he says "Also a lot of pickled salads... I've been working on a new signature dish to give people buffs much like my Tasty Rat Bento's." he says.

     The bartending Cait Sith smiles at Tanaka and gives a somewhat less 'NPC' response than might be expected from a Lander bartender. He offers several different kinds of sake and beer by brewer name, and with a somewhat over dramatic sigh. "Or you could take the Sake." he says with a look that says buying the cheep mass produced 'menu' sake would be a personal affront or injure him in some way.

    Hifumi for his part runs his right hand along the bartop, his fingers stopping at every imperfection to stroke it almost affectionately, something people who spend a lot of time around Hifumi have likely noticed is a personal tick of his. The small flower drake Snap Dragon hops upon his shoulder with a flutter of leafy wings.

Gwen is in town, why? To get far away from someone under the premises of delivering several clothing orders. With those deliveered she intended to come on over to the Isekai and get something to eat. The towering purple haird Sylph woman topping 6'4" before her shoes comes in. She's beaming and excited

"Been so long since I had a chance to get something here!"

She's also going to be buying a load of noodles and other things as well.

"I'll take whatever you'd suggest Hifumi!"

She also gives Tanaka a look she's not seen him before...

Goldenblade offers nods to Tanaka and Gwen as they enter, and Tanaka draws an Inspect because she doesn't know him. She knows Gwem. Everyone knows Gwen. To Hifumi, she smiles widely, and says, Unadon's perfect, hook me up." She turns her glance back to the new fellow, Tanaka, and asks, "You new around here? Hope you didn't spend -too much- money on singing lessons?"

"I." Tanaka announces with slap of his palm to the countertop, "Want a cup of your best sake." It's only after he actually opens the menu to pay that he corrects: "Second. Second best."

He also seems like this isn't the only bar he's been to this evening, considering what's revealed by inspection. Bet Tanaka, inebriated debuff, unaggressive, moderate threat, lightly injured.

"Around here." He responds amiably to Goldenblade. "And don't worry, they were free. You don't think that's the problem, do you?"

    Hifumi nods and with quick efficent motions filetts a few eels and tosses them on the charcoal grill with a hiss before starting to paint on his special eel sauce. "Unadon all around then." he says before shooting Gwen a wink and chuckling even as Snap Dragon helps him with the eel by torching the glazed tops to help the sauce start to set.

    The old wolf nods his head and sets a small caraf a glass in a small box in front of Tanaka. "Also since I don't recognize you I will say the boss takes animal and monster meat as well as foraged herbs and vegetables in place of coin in payment. I know sometimes you Adventurers are better able to keep up with your tab if you can skip the market place and trying to sell your Loot." he says Loot in a slightly odd way, more like someone parroting the word than using it correctly.

Gwen then catches sight of Goldenblade grinning at her friend. She then looks to Tanaka for a moment "Gwen Pendragon and you are sir? You sound like you could use some work."

She notes as she looks over to Hifumi again. She claps her hand at Hifumi choice it should be good.

Gwen nods to the olf Wolf with a grin.

"It really does make things a bit easier and Hifumi gets access to things for meals avoiding fighting with other buyers over. It's a pretty good deal really.

Goldenblade arches a brow to Tanaka and his free singing lessons. "Well, you get what you pay for," she observes, but doubts he's worried about that. He's a friendly drunk, it seems, and not causing trouble, so she'll humor him. She smirks about him being new /around here/, but of course, since no one's /joined/ a game that you can't log out of. It's funny how that works. "Nice to meet you, kid, I'm Goldenblade." If he inspects her, he will find that her name overflows the space allowed for names by a considerable amount, but 'Goldenblade' -is- her name. One of her names.

She smiles as Hifumi starts on the unadon, licking her lips in anticipation. She likes unadon a lot. She's one of the people that will occasionally bring meat drops here to sell, but she's no Hunter, so she doesn't get a lot. Gwen gets a smile of greeting as well, amused. "Just met and already trying to get work out of him?"

"Seriously?" Asks Tanaka when the bartender educates him on policy. "Who's the boss? They sound like my new favorite person."

"It's like you're saying it's bad." He responds to Goldenblade, and the smile that cuts across his face indicates he probably knows it is. "Nice to meet'cha, Goldenblade."

Swiveling to face Gwen, he seems momentarily surprised. As if he completely missed a giant, purple-haired woman. But he favors her with that same bright grin. "Tanaka's fine. Normally I'm work-averse, but what'cha got?"

    Hifumi smile as he keeps grilling the eel watching it with a trained eye. "I'm the boss." he says "Hifumi." he offers "The Isekai Ryoken is mine, I make the menu, I craft the recepies, I pay the bills." he chuckles "So I can take whatever I want in payment. Ingreedients just saves me a step, and makes sure that Adventurers don't cause problems by going bandit and killing Landers to steal from them."

Gwen says "He's the boss , hey everyone has to eat right and trust me? Hifumi's food is divine. Though I still need to swap a few things with him! Oh Hifumi later tonight I'd like to talk about some orders from you if you have the time." She looks to Goldenblad and then to Tanaka. "How about I cover your meals tonight?"

She looks to Hifumi for a moment

"Hows the staff doing is my favouite bard settled in good now?"

Goldenblade says to Tanaka, "I'm not saying yourt singing is /bad/, no." She nods. "It's awful. Atrotious. If it were only 'bad', it'd be much better than it is. It's at /my/ level." Because she can't hold a tune in a bucket, here in game, despite not being awful in RL. Not skilled, but she doesn't embarass herself when she sings, 'Happy Birthday'. In Real Life. Here, she sings like Tanaka.

She nods and smiles at what Hifumi says, though she generally pays with gold, when she comes by here. Which isn't too oftem, sadly. She lives a somewhat austere life mostly on menu-crafted food. But she'll turn down Gwen's offer to pay, "Nah, I've got it." This is a planned expense, and she's not dependent on handouts. It's about saving face.

Tanaka is probably impeded from fully expressing his opinion on bandits by several filters. But the words are both concise and very uncomplimentary.

The sake cup is raised in a muted toast and placed to his lips after. He replies to Goldenblade once he's finished sipping: "Hurtful." The nonchalance in his tone probably means it's really not.

"And yeah?" He asks of Gwen, adding, "Wow. This must be what love is like--Boss! Give me some eel too!" Handouts? Yes, please.

    Hifumi nods his head towards the young girl happily playing and singing with her now quite large kitty laying lazily at her feet. "See for yourself." he says with a warm chuckle even as he fills three bowls with rice and tops them with the hot glazed eel slices. He lays a bowl infront of each Adventurer. "There we go."

Gwen looks to Goldneblade for a moment. "You might want to get some training in song. I know a few people who might be willing to teach you!" At least she's offering help to get better. " Gwen seems to be pretty happy as she now will get her food.

"Eels. Not even eels like eels you know...they are delicous however!"

Goldenblade nods to Tanaka about hurtful. "That's how the truth is. We just need to deal with the world as it is and not how we'd like it to be." She nods gravely. To Gwen, she shakes her head. "If I had the time to learn singing, I'd never get anything done," she says reegreetfully. "I don't have the time to pick up the skills I -need-, singing's a luxury, sadly." When Hifumi serves up the unadon, Goldenblade gives a quick, "Itadakimasu," and wastes no time digging in. Seems she was hungry, though the anticipation of watching it being prepared helped whet her appetite.

Tanaka sets to the food with gusto, devouring rice and eel in hefty chunks. There's an impressive single-mindedness about how he consumes the meal, and it probably won't last too long under such a vicious assault. He does pause to say, around a mouthful of food: "Maybe." Another few big bites and he gives a thumbs-up in Hifumi's direction. "S'good!"

Gwen pauses for a moment "Well what about work songs?" She tilts her head a little bit then will start digging into her meal. "Singing has power here, some forms of magic use it. Ever see Uta or Kau go at it?"

Goldenblade is eating quickly, it's true, but she can't keep up with Tanaka. She doesn't try, and after the first few greedy bites, she'll slow down to savor the food. It's too good to rush.

As far as singing having power, she just sighs. "Don't even get me started on this silly singing and magic business," she says wearily to Gwen. "I mean, the fact that it's real in the game just really makes it all worse. When my kids were in high school, it was Lynn Minmei and 'songs have power' and singing to the aliens defeated them, or some business like that." She shakes her head. "it's become part of the genre, sadly, and it's as silly now as it was back then. Even if it -does- work."

The rest of Tanaka's food disappears in short order. His hands clap together once he's finished and he drains the rest of his sake cup after. A short nod to the others next to him after.

"Alright!" The food seems to have filled him with a new sense of conviction. "I'd love to talk, and sing, but I gotta scrounge up a potion. For real this time." Maybe that was the plan before the drinking started. "Nice to meet ya'll, it's been great."

With that he heads toward the door. "See 'ya!"

Goldenblade raises her own glass in salute to Tanaka as he finishes eating and prepares to head out. "Nice meeting you, Tanaka." She's still working on her own supper, but when she does finish it, she'll head back to her Academy and crash there. No point in paying for a room. She finishes her flask of sake.

She sighs a bit to Gwen, and says, "See. This is the problem with all you kids. You want magic that solves everything and has phenomenal power. It didn't used to be that way. Back in the day, swords and sorcery stories were about people with swords fighting against sorcerers. Wizards had amazing powers, but used them for evil. They were cheaters, bad people, they didn't have -real- power. Real power was the strength to swing a sword, the wisdom to know where to swing it, and the nerve to do so at the risk of life and limb. Good guys weren't wizards, they were tough people who fought hard, though. Wizards, if they were good guys, mostly gave wise advice. They didn't throw magic around."

Not that Goldenblade knows, but In the first two editions of D&D, wizards were nearly useless at low level. Or useless /as casters/. They were meant to dispense advice, not fireballs. Then in later editions, the wizards got wildly upgunned, and now the non-magical heroes are the useless ones.

"But you kids, it's all wizards and magic and sparkles, and no one cares about a hard day's labor anymore, and wants me to solve all my problems with magic."

She finishes the delicous food, pays Hifumi gratefully, and will head out, maybe a bit unsteadily.