Summer 1 - Welcome dinner

[kollomods]

[ It's the very first dinner on Norrhamn and the kitchen staff (???) has really gone all out. The counter is covered by a variety of the finest cuisine Sweden has to offer — sandwich cakes of every variety, from the classic salmon and shrimp to ham and horse radish or more modern, vegan varieties with avocado and cherry tomatoes. There's a smaller table set out with strawberry and cream cake, and the traditional spread of seven different types of shortbread cookies. Of course there's coffee and tea by the bucketload, along with other drinks such as elderberry or lingonberry squash. The community center has been decorated for the occasion with bunting and strings of lights leading out into the garden. It's still early summer so the nights are mild and surprisingly bright — the sun has yet to fully set by the time the celebrations kick off. Better get used to the light, it's not getting darker anytime soon. ]

Comments

[freedomordeath]

"I... guess?" Hesitation has slipped into her voice now and she frowns at the food, scrutinizing it as if a closer look could make up for the lack of experience she has with human meals.

"It doesn't look much like the food they have back home," she offers. She is certain of that, at least, she just doesn't know what her experiences eating and drinking, or her database, are worth. She's no domestic model, she doesn't come with a recipe database.

Decisively, she turns her back on the food problem. "Do you think there's anything else to do here, other than eat and drink?"

[dumbstruck]

"Right?"

He's fast to agree, though looking at and listening to her he does have a feeling they're probably not from the same place. He could be wrong, of course, it's always hard to know for sure. Either way this definitely looks like very local food, and he's not entirely sure how he feels about the locals being super into meat cakes.

Hopefully they'll have something that will be more to his tastes later, because he can't go his entire time without eating here.

The question has him stopping to consider something he hadn't before; what is there to do on this island? He'd hopped right on the deal to get out of a bad situation without knowing much about the place.

"It has to. It wouldn't be a very good vacation if it didn't."

And this is, for all intents and purposes, basically just a vacation.

[freedomordeath]

She nods, hopefully like someone with practical first-hand experience of what to expect from a vacation. Not that she's trying to hide what she is but she isn't too keen on spending her first night here talking about painful history either.

"The brochures said it's a place to relax but there should be something to do... I'm thinking of going hiking, mostly. Exploring. I've never had much opportunity to get out of the city before. But I guess that will have to wait until I feel a little more comfortable here in the village... resort. I'm not quite sure if this counts as a proper village."

[dumbstruck]

"Oh yeah, same. I come from Seoul and haven't really gone out into the countryside much, so... I don't really know what village sizing is supposed to look like."

He imagines it has to have at least a handful of shops of some sort to be considered a proper village though. This seems more like a summer camp he's seen in movies than anything else. Not that it's a bad thing, of course, but he's not sure how excited he is for hiking, so hopefully there are a few more activities in the works than just that.

[freedomordeath]

"Maybe there's more to it than what we have seen so far," North remarks, though she sounds dubious herself. "It's a very small island, but there might still be more houses, or farms, or... something at the far side of it. Or something within the woods. I know it's supposed to be a tourist resort but there must be more to it." She shakes her head. "The idea of an entire island set aside just for relaxation seems so wasteful."

[dumbstruck]

"Something in the woods just makes it sound like this vacation is going to turn into a horror movie."

Hyunseok tries to smile at that, but it's a little forced, because now he's got to wonder... He doesn't know anything about this place, not really, and for all he knows he could have just walked straight into a trap.

"Besides some people like places like that. I mean, mostly old people though."

[freedomordeath]

"I guess," she says, now looking even more doubtful herself. It's all well and good to tell yourself it's fine and just paranoia as long as someone else isn't telling you the paranoia sounds sensible.

"I did choose this for myself, I've had enough excitement for a while. But normally you don't get a free vacation just like this. There's always a catch to everything that humans offer you, especially if it's offered for free. I'm going to figure out what it is, if there's a catch."

[dumbstruck]

Ah, yes... being offered a deal only to have it bite you in the ass shortly after. Hyunseok is well familiar with that, and yet he still decided to take this free vacation after all. It seemed to him like it couldn't possibly be worse than what he came from though.

"Yeah it usually--"

He cuts himself off when a particular word choice suddenly registers on him, and his brows knit together in mild confusion.

"Wait... that "humans" offer?"

That's definitely a weird way to word things, isn't it? It's not just him imagining things?