Eating At the Ramen Shop [COMPLETE]

Posts : 21 Join date : 2013-08-27

Alphonse laid on a bench in Moonlit Plaza grimacing as he prodded his bruised cheek, trying to inspect the overall damage. Well it sure feels like hell. The youth thought to himself swallowing the sharp sting that pulsed on his right cheek, all while bringing his phone up to his face with the intention of using it as a mirror. Looks like hell too. The male let out a sigh of annoyance at the sight of his reflection on the screen of his phone. With hair in a wild mess, clothes that were distinctly disheveled and, out of place consequently, made Alphonse appear like the stereotypical delinquent he's been branded as.

He sat up slowly, still feeling the aches of various areas on his body gained in the brawl he was just in about half an hour ago. "Well that was stupid wasn't it?" The teen spoke aloud reflecting on the course events that led to his current state and, let out a forced chuckle. "You'd probably tell me I did something bad again." A melancholic expression took over the high schooler's face as his thoughts ventured on the topic on his now deceased mother. Well to bad you're not here to tell me that huh? Alphonse thought angrily forcing the memory of his mother out of his mind, since he hadn't fully coped with the idea of her not being alive.

The male surveyed his surroundings, remembering what he had been told by the ringleader of the ragtag group of troublemakers he hung around with. "Meet up at the plaza in twenty minutes." He spoke the phrase in an imitated tone that trailed off into slight annoyance. You guys are sure taking your sweet time to get here. It was these friends, (if you even can call them friends) that were the cause in the first place for the male being injured and, in a sour mood. His inspection of the park ended when his eyes finally focused on a nearby Ramen Shop, the sudden smell of food reminded the teen of the hunger he had and, his stomach began to growl almost as if it were pleading Alphonse for a hot meal. "Food it is then." Gingerly getting up, the youth made his way towards the small stand and, proceeding to sit on one of the two vacant chairs out of four.

"Let me have one Miso Ramen with sliced pork and, boiled eggs please." It was a simple order however, the chef gave the male a curious look that seemed to spell out do you have the money for that? This wasn't the first time that the teen's appearance caused some concern so in response, Alphonse shaking his head in irritation flashed some money at the questioning cook successfully putting the middle-aged man at ease and, promptly began to cook the male's order. It seemed the modest shop was pretty popular seeing that, out of four seats three were already taken when including Alphonse himself and, as a result only left the chair to the left of the troubled teen open.

Posts : 49 Join date : 2013-09-03

Shannon didn’t have a purpose for being in Nadashiki. Well, that wasn’t true. She had gotten on a train early in the morning to try and understand how people got from place to place and had ridden different ones to and fro all day until she had finally gotten off. It just so happened that she landed in this particular area. It was not in her interest to get lost so early on in her time alone. How would she ever justify that she couldn’t understand how the trains worked and that’s why she had gotten lost? She wasn’t going to just stand here and wait to rust, however. With that, she ventured off to find anything to do.

Her eyes would have widened if they could when she saw the Moonlit Plaza. There were so many humans passing by, going into different establishments. She could sit here all day and watch them go by, but that wouldn’t teach her anything about them. Instead she would have to observe them up close and personal. She watched to figure out where to go to get the best interaction with human culture, deciding on a place that served something called ramen.

Shannon understood the concept of food, as it was part of her data, but she had never seen it. She went into the shop and, based on how few seats were available, decided she had made the correct choice. She went over to the only empty seat in the shop and sat down. She wasn’t quite sure how this entire processed worked, but she was willing to try anything, “One regular please.” With that, she just sat there looking around, until she noticed the boy to her right. He didn’t look normal to her. She pointed at his face, “You appear to be discolored. Are you ill?”

Posts : 21 Join date : 2013-08-27

The chef made quick work of preparing Alphonse's meal and, had it all prepared surprisingly quickly. Laying down the bowl of broth in front of the brown-haired youth the middle-aged cook crossed his arms and, made a wide smiled that showed all his teeth. " Must think he made something special or, something." The male thought as he surmised the reason for the cook's pleased appearance. "Well now, lets see how good it really does taste shall we?" Bringing his chopsticks above the bowl of Ramen, Alphonse made eye contact with the grandly satisfied chef and, through their eyes alone a silent challenge between the two was made.

Bringing up the noodles to his mouth, the teen took a half bite half slurp out of them and, as a result of his not so good eating etiquette created a bit of noise when he swallowed down his food. Seeing this, the chef let out a large laugh because, of feeling victorious in satisfying his customer. In response, the high schooler shrugged in defeat seeing that, if you were to ask Alphonse to describe the meal in one word, he would respond with delicious. The youth couldn't deny that the food was pretty darn good perhaps, it was the combination of the cold weather and, his own hunger that gave the dish that extra spice of delicious flavor that made it taste so good. Alphonse didn't have the time nor the care for that matter, in trying to find the reason for the tastefulness of the meal. All he wanted to do is enjoy his food and, that he did.

Not long after the teen had begun his eating did a new patron come to the Ramen Shop and, sat in the only available seat, which was right to the left of Alphonse and, ordered their own meal. The teen paid no attention to this new arriving customer and, seeing that he wasn't the type for much socializing, he chose to focus his attention on the bowl of noodles in front of him. He would've kept to himself however, if it weren't for the comment about his bruised face. " Yes, it's an illness called getting punched in the face." The youth allowed himself a wry smile at his snark comment as he turned to face the one inquiring about his well being. " You should be careful of not to catching it." He spoke in a monotone voice which made his sarcasm a bit difficult to catch.

Posts : 49 Join date : 2013-09-03

The young robot stared in bafflement at the scene at her right she was playing witness to. It was an act of wonderment in her mind. She had never expected humans to behave this way. This was truly the best way to observe them. She would do her creators proud in no time if she just learned how to be like these people. Why did they do this though? It seemed like a bit of a hassle to have a staring contest every time one went to eat. Or was it just something they did when they were served food? Was it the proper way to compliment someone’s cooking? There was nothing in her data banks about that though. Maybe it was something only done in this region or maybe only this restaurant.

When the boy finally responded to her, she believed him when said that getting punched in the face was an illness, “Do not be concerned with such a thing. I don’t believe I can catch the illnesses you suffer from. Though I would advise seeing a-- what’s the human equivalent to a mechanic-- doctor to receive the proper treatment and medication. It would be unfortunate if your illness were to worsen or spread to others.” Her concerns were perfectly serious, but her face should no emotion other than a blank stare, “Unless you are trying to build immunity to this virus or they have been protected against such a thing.”

It was her turn to get her ramen. She tried to do the same thing as the boy next to her had done. It wasn’t working very well, since she couldn’t get her face to emote just yet. Instead, she would stare at the chef for an uncomfortable amount of time until it occurred to her that she didn’t know if she could even eat. She grabbed the chopsticks and poked at the soup, trying to pick it apart, seeing what it was made of. Maybe she could figure out a way to make it disappear if she just did as the others. Then again, she had never needed to eat before, so it would stand to reason she had nowhere for the food to go. Until she could figure out what would happen to the food, she would just continue to move it around the bowl.

Posts : 21 Join date : 2013-08-27

The male gave a curious look at the woman next to him, not sure if she was playing along very well or, being dead serious when she made what seemed a poker faced response to Alphonse's obvious quip. " And what was that about a mechanic? " The male mused to himself wondering what kind of person the female next to him was. " Definitely not from around here. " He thought, coming to the conclusion by taking notice of her appearance that consisted of shoulder length purple hair and, distinctly colored red eyes that put together with her unusual sense of humor, made the teen repeat the term " Foreigner. " Constantly in his mind. In any case, the youth shrugged off what he thought was her foreign country's strange sense of humor as something not worth fretting over and, brought his attention back to his bowl of food.

As he resumed eating, Alphonse couldn't resist peering to his left trying to inquire what he was seeing. " What is she doing? " Utter confusion raced through the young man's mind at the sight of the foreign woman just staring blankly into space before finally snapping back into reality and, took her eating utensils in hand. That awkward moment of stillness and, silence promptly caused Alphonse to raise a questioning eyebrow at the chef. " Weird. " The two men came to a metaphoric telepathic agreement with each other as they nodded in unison. The strangeness however, didn't end quite yet. Once again finding himself glancing from the corners of his eyes, Alphonse looked on questioningly at the woman whom he'd come to gauge was around the same age as him. " Does she not know how to eat it? " It was a ridiculous thought and, yet it sure seemed that the youth was correct.

Alphonse chose to ignore the woman, not wanting to get involved with such an unusual person. However, the youth in spite, of his usually anti-social nature found something impulse tugging at him in his head. His conscience? The male didn't know but, the impulse had won. " Hey, you eat it like this. " As he directed his words at the foreigner, Alphonse made a pincer-like motion with his chopsticks, proceeded to pinch a few strands of noodles, bringing them into his open mouth and, chewed before swallowing. The actions were made deliberately slow as if he were trying to teach a toddler how to eat for the first time. " pretty simple right? You should try it, the food definitely taste better then they look. " The male said after finishing giving his small how-to course on eating Ramen and, immediately wnet back to his own dish.

Posts : 49 Join date : 2013-09-03

Her chopsticks were starting to change color from being in the wet broth for so long. She was coming to enjoy watching the noodles move back and forth as she pushed them. Why didn’t more humans do this with their food? Her attention was pulled away from her learning experience when the boy next to her spoke up. He was doing something, and he obviously wanted her to mimic him. She used her chopsticks to grab a noodle and put in into her mouth. It didn’t seem like the food was going anywhere so she opened her mouth back up and reached inside to pull it out. When it was completely out, it was clear it had never been chewed, it didn’t even appear as if it had been in a human mouth. Technically, it hadn’t been, but they didn’t know that, “I apologize. You were kind enough to try and show me how this works, but I do not know where the food would go once I consumed it and I do not wish to have it stay stationary in my mouth. I am also unable to taste it. I regret that. You made it sound very good.” She pushed the bowl away, “If you want, you may have it. I would rather that someone who can use it properly experienced it.”

She made a mental note that she would have to ask for the ability to eat if she ever got an upgrade. It would certainly be useful to eat the food someone had kindly offered her. She also kind of wanted to be able to try the food. Though, maybe there was a reason she was created without the ability to eat. She would have to ask about it someday. Or she could just check her blue prints. Wait. Did they even leave her blue prints in her stuff when they left her in this region? She couldn’t recall. Maybe her memory was fried. No, a warning would go off if that happened.

She took out a small coin purse and pulled out two 1000 yen bills. She slid it on the table in front of her, “I hope that is enough. I haven’t quite learned the concept of trading paper for goods and services yet. It just doesn’t seem like a very valuable thing to me.” Thank goodness she had learned the importance of money before they sent her out into the world. She looked at the boy next to her again, “I believe it is also within custom to introduce oneself and I have forgotten to do that. My name is Shannon. May I inquire what yours is or is that too presumptuous of me?” So far so good. She thought this acting human thing was going fairly well.

Posts : 21 Join date : 2013-08-27

A queer sense of satisfaction came over the male at the sight of the strange woman doing as he instructed. " If this is how it's like to take care of a kid then I want no part in it. " The thought sent shivers over the teenager and, consequently detesting children already, the male made a note of adding having kids on his mental not to do list. A sudden buzzing noise in his pants caused Alphonse to veer his attention away from his protege in the art of eating. Reaching into his pocket the high schooler brought out his phone. He had a text from his friends, telling the male that they were just around the corner. " Took long enough. " He brooded shaking his head in irritation on the tardiness of his acquaintances before bringing his gaze back onto the exploits of the foreigner.

" Why aren't I surprised? " Were the first thoughts that came into the teenager's head as he watched as the female next to him took the noodle out from her mouth. " Did you even chew? " His words were half confused and, the other half annoyed at seeing the noodle still whole. " Stay stationary in your mouth and, you're unable to taste it? " Alphonse repeated the woman's phrase slowly with evident disbelief and, raised a questioning brow to physically show that he didn't buy what she was telling him. The thoughts of being the victim of a reality prank he's seen on t.v. quickly came to mind as the male grew more suspicious of the female's actions. " You have a-- interesting sense of humor. You know? " Coming to the conclusion that the foreign woman is playing some elaborate joke on him, Alphonse shook his head no to her offer of finishing her bowl of Ramen.

The male now done with the Ramen proceeded in drinking the broth that remained in bowl. " What do you use for money then?" Alphonse questioned internally in his mind, not understanding what she meant by her comment on the subject of money. Forcing the comment out of his head, the teenager brought the bowl down once he had finished the broth and, began making the payment for his own meal. " Alphonse." He answered plainly and, without much emotion to the woman's inquiring of his name.

The familiar sounds of hooligans roughhousing in the distance prompted the high schooler to find the source of where it came from and, at the sight of them the youth promptly got up from his seat. " It was-- amusing to meet you. " Alphonse spoke, finding it difficult to accurately describe his interactions with the woman. " I have to go now." Stepping away from the counter, the teen began walking towards the group he had been originally waiting for. " Also, be careful at night around here. It tends to get a bit chaotic at night." Stopping to turn around and, warn the woman, Alphonse tried to find a better way she could understood what he was saying. " How should I say? You might catch getting punched in the face illness from someone if you're not careful. " He began to point at his own discolored cheek to solidify his statement before turning away with a brief wave goodbye and, leave with the troubled band of teenagers.

EXIT

OOC: (I feel that making their introductions is a good point to stop for their first interaction and, this was pretty fun we should definitely thread again. ^^)

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