Do You Even Read?! [Kari]

[Kokomo]

COFFEE
HERBAL TEA
SCONES
HOT WATER
MUFFINS

What a menu. A menu full of a bunch of words that didn't make any sense to her. They were on a menu, so they had to be edible, but what were they? Could she even pronounce them, had she decided she wanted to buy one? The food here had so many strange names, and one plant could come in so many forms. It was almost unfathomable. She had spent her childhood eating plants in their raw form. That's it. But these people cooked them, and turned them to liquids, and used some to make their houses smell good. It was unbelievable how creative this culture was!

Monogoi Kurai was new to town, obviously. A young woman with hair the color of ripe strawberries, and eyes the color of sunshine stood out in the crowd, no doubt. Because of this, despite her high Shinobi ranking, she dressed as a civilian to avoid more stares and confrontations than she was comfortable with. She was finally becoming familiar with the common language, and how things worked in this strange city--no need to over complicate it.

"Um, coff-eh?" Her accent was thick like caramel, and her lips seemed to tremble as she spoke in a desperate attempt to be understandable. The woman behind the counter gave her a strange look, her thick black hair pulled back in a pony tail. An eyebrow raising slightly, "Coffee?" Kurai stared for a moment before nodding, "Er, sure." The woman waited for something, looking at her with her pen on a sheet of paper. "Black?" She finally asked impaitently, and Kurai shrugged, "If that's what color it normally comes it." The counter girl laughed, and gave her a price. Kurai pulled yen from a little purse that laid across her torso and onto her side, and paid, moving to the other side of the counter while she waited for whatever she just ordered.

Her foot tapped impatiently as she looked around the little cafe. It looked like a library, but served food. Like a... book cafe, of some sort. The smell of books, and some strange drink that Souji had once. The woman came up with a styrofoam cup, it was steaming and hot. She took it, and gave a slight smile, turning to leave as she moved towards a door, putting one hand on the door and pushing it as the other raised the cup to her mouth to sip it--

OH JESUS FUCK HOLY GOD?!

Kurai dropped the cup, it exploded on the sidewalk as she stumbled backwards and put her hand over her mouth. "Ó, cac. Tá sé te!" She cursed in her native tongue, her lips and mouth burning as she did a little dance of pain. "Ow ow ow!"

 

[Kari]

She was exhausted. The pace the crowded streets of Maruishi maintained was damn near impossible to keep up with; furthermore, if you even desired to break through to get inside a place, you needed the force of an army. It was some miracle Kari didn't end pushed down, broken, and stomped all over by them. Rather, she somehow managed to break her way to a sidewalk, vendors aplenty, and the crowd respecting their space enough to allow for Kari to no longer be pushed forward. She needed to rest, that much walking was far out of her comfort, and she wouldn't be able to manage the crowd nearly as well as she had before again. Rather, she'd have to wait activity dwindled.

Back to the setting: a sidewalk, a cafe. The hung board with what they served was the only indication of what it was, really. It had no distinction from any other place. Was she even able to eat or drink anymore? She haven't felt pangs of hunger nor desire to drink since the Incident. Kazuhiko felt no need to provide her with anything of like, either. Even if she weren't to consume, purchasing something for the sake of loitering here for now would be fine enough. She stepped in, slowly. There was another ahead of her: some woman, she was just took a cup, the steam rising from it obviously visible. Without any hesitation, she sipped and made the mistake of her life. Kari might've laughed, if she could. Rather, her amusement remained hidden. "Let it cool next time," she offered the obvious advice. "Want another?" she walked towards the woman behind the counter. "Two coffees. Light cream, no sugar." She looked to the woman whose tongue was just burned, pausing for a moment to catch herself. Extensive speaking still wasn't easy, but she could sound more natural in how she talked now. "Cream for her too...no need to burn tongue again."

Kari was incredibly amused with it all, it was the least she could to buy her another coffee after that short show. "I'm Kari," the small girl introduced. "Are you okay?"

WC: 368​

 

[Kokomo]

The dance of pain continued briefly as she hopped around and regretted her mistake. Foolish, really. She could have guessed by the steam that it was hot--but that was hot. And did she mention absolutely disgusting? But by the time she was finished, and her tongue had forgiven her, there was a woman before her. Kurai gave a slight stare to her, and she seemed to stare back before offering a bit of friendly advice. Yes, well, duh, she had figured that out. But, she offered another to her, swooping past her, skipping over the spill, no doubt, she moved towards the counter. Kurai stood momentarily, before following the mysterious girl inside. She was short--like, really short--but cute, nonetheless. She ordered coffee, again, and she almost spoke up to let her know that she was not interested in that hell drink--but she added a few things to it.

Cream. Hm? What's that? "Thank you," The strawberry girl said, slightly embarrassed by that. "Kurai," Her accent was thick, and strange. One never heard before in any of the military villages. Even her own name sounded odd with the way she said it. "I'm a little scarred, but fine." A bad attempt at a joke. Her lips twitching slightly back and forth as she thought quietly in the sudden awkward silence.

The hell-drink maker would soon set them down on the counter, and Kurai would approach the two cups with her. Strange markings on it determined which was which. "Will this burn?" She asked, blinking a few times, "Should I wait a moment?"

 

[Kari]

Cream? Of course cream. It was key when it came to coffee; it was what made it into the lovely drink it was rather than just some combination of brown and water. Add a bit of sugar to it, and voila: you've got the perfect beverage to keep you running for a few more hours. That the little puppet girl was capable of drinking it was questionable in and of itself (albeit, that was one question she couldn't openly ask and had to ponder herself); that the woman who just burnt her tongue would accept and drink the gifted coffee was another event questionable in its occurrence. It was a negligible fee, the coffee was; just until she was enrolled into the Academy did she have to make purchases like coffee on rarer occasions.. Without the funds that belonged to Karurosu, she wasn't exactly wealthy; still, minor acts like this were no big deal.

The miss with the thick ponytail working the cafe provided, thankfully not questioning what one her age was doing buying coffee. It didn't take long before Kari was given the two cups. Hot, that's what they were supposed to be. She couldn't feel them; she couldn't feel their pressure, their weight, the eat just behind the styrofoam. She couldn't feel, still; that was perhaps the most worrying thing about this life since the Incident. It wouldn't hinder her, not with the coffee, at least. As quick as she could after receiving the cups, she made her way to the woman, offering her a cup and nodded off the thanks. She had a certain accent, not one Kari was familiar with from here or places seen in her past life; interesting, not in a bad way, and fortunately understandable. She had no comment to offer to the remark, after their names were exchanged. Conversation was still difficult; even Karurosu wasn't exquisite at idle chatter.

She was silently only until Kurai, as she called herself, finally spoke again. "Not enough for you to drop the cup," she joked, "should be warm." Steam rose from both cups. Obviously, the coffee would be fairly hot. "If you'd like." Kari, herself, only hesitated on drinking due to being unsure if she even could. Otherwise, encouraging the woman to do so would have been a priority. "Haven't had coffee before?" It was a bit strange, that a woman fully grown wouldn't have had coffee, or the sense to know not to drink it immediately (or black, but that might have just been a matter of personal taste).

 

[Kokomo]

Small talk.

It was difficult for her, too. She didn't speak the language well. She didn't understand the conversation manners--such as talking about the weather and work when things got awkward or dull. Folding both hands around the cup, she gave a slight smile as she made a joke about her dropping her cup. She took a sip, preparing her mouth for the worst. It burned, but not near as much. It started bitter, and soothed down to some sort of sweet taste. She stood there momentarily, thinking over the taste as the other red head in the room asked her a simple question. "Um, no." Was that strange? "Never heard of it. We do not have such...luxuries...where I come from," She admitted with a shrug. They didn't have electricity or gas in Aigean, so of course not. But, of course, Kari didn't know that.

Did anyone?

"Do you drink it a lot?" Her question was pretty innocent, "I mean... it is okay...but..." She trailed off briefly before giving a nervous laugh, "I hate it," She admitted, giving an awkward smile. She shouldn't have said that, afterall, Kari did pay for it herself. She was being rude--but really--it was absolutely disgusting. Bitter and hot. She prefered something sweet, like, from fruit. Not wha-- what was this made of?

 

[Kari]

The red-headed woman seemed as socially inept as Kari had become since she came to Maruishi. Whether it was due to the fact that it was someone who appeared as a child giving her a replacement for her coffee or actually her being uncomfortable with conversation, she wasn't too sure of. Kurai spoke in small, broken phrases, as though she was trying to carefully build each statement and hadn't confidence in its correctness.

Kari looked upward, void of any kind of obvious emotion, to the woman. That she apparently wasn't from here might give some reason to that. "I see..." Kari brushed the shrugged comment off; the common tongue was just that: common. Someone without proper understanding of it would have to have lived outside of the influence of most major countries, nowhere could she consider a place like that. Countries warred, traded, had all forms of diplomacy going on: for some place to not have the language seemed impossible. It probably was, too. The matter of not having coffee wasn't as bad; it could suggest living in some seculed village or simply in a place where it wasn't traded. Given Kirigakure's ports, trades flocked from everywhere: in her past life, she truly tried everything.

"Not often...no..." There were only a handful of times she had, none in this life, though. She had only gotten this cup, in particular as a reason to avoid the crowded streets for a while; glancing to them only proved such. There was no way Kari was getting through there. Kurai mumbled something, then, catching her out of her reverie. Then came the nervous laughter and the comment. Kari blinked slowly. If she could have, she would have laughed so hard then; of course she'd hate it! Its flavour wasn't exactly appealing and she just had a mouthful of it at its worst. Bitter and steaming, a terrible combination. Rather than any kind of witty comment or joke that she could've given, the first thing to come out of Kari's mouth was: "okay."

She paused for a moment and looked away from Kurai, placing her own coffee, which she hadn't touched down as well. "Now what?"

WC: 362​

 

[Kari]

[Inactivity leave. If you wanna continue this in the future, lemme know.]