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]

Questionable food or not, there's not even any Thirium 310 on the buffet, what is she supposed to say. To be fair, if any humans tried to have a glass of the blue liquid the evening would take an unpleasant turn, but still.

Either way, North is just sizing up the human from the corner of her eyes when he just goes and sticks his hand into everybody's dinner. She goes from covert observation to open gaping, brows furrowed.

"I... don't think that's how you're supposed to eat it." She really hopes not. That's gross.

[dumbstruck]

It might be best for some of the humans at this particular feast that it's not set out with the edible goods, because some of the fools might actually try to eat it. For example, the guy who just stuck his hand in a pile of salmon and shrimp isn't looking all that bright right now.

The laugh that comes out of his mouth at her comment is painfully forced it's almost grating to listen to, and he slowly pulls his hand back as he tries really hard to smile. It doesn't quite go with the look of misery and terror in his eyes, but he's attempting.

"Yeah, I uh... that was..."

Another laugh as he nods, like she just made some sort of astute observation here, instead of stating what the both know is the obvious.

[freedomordeath]

Well, if you found a way to solidify Thirium it would probably pass as jelly. Could become a dangerous adventure for some of the more reckless humans.

She just looks all the more incredulous at his forced laugh. Well, at least she's not the only one looking painfully uncomfortable here. Or maybe that's just the shrimps misadventure.

"That was stupid, and kind of gross?" North volunteers. There's no hostility to her tone of voice, though, it's just stated matter-of-factly.

[dumbstruck]

Considering the weird meat cakes currently laid out on these tables, it wouldn't be surprising if someone just assumed that robot fuel was, in fact, another traditional dish and gulped it down. A cultural failing on the part of the Thirium drinker, sure, but a tragic one none-the-less.

It's a good thing no one put that out on the spread, because Hyunseok definitely would have downed some. As it is all he's done is make a fool of himself.

Kind of makes the accidental toxic substance ingestion and subsequent stomach pumping not seem so bad, honestly.

"I was going to say an accident..."

Any attempts at a smile end there, and he looks more like he longs for death as he weakly shakes some of the cake off his hand.

[freedomordeath]

Honestly, she wouldn't have minded the chaos of a thirium poisoning in their midst - it would have given her something useful to do with herself rather than standing around neither socializing nor eating at an event which is all about socializing and eating.

North takes note of that pathetic attempt at a smile, her lips twitch a little. "Ah. Well, then..." She looks around until she finds a pile of paper napkins and offers one to him. "You've still got..." She gestures at his hand. "Might want to clean yourself up before you're put on the food menu."

[dumbstruck]

That's certainly one spin to put on a poisoning. Hyunseok would not be nearly so enthused about that turn of events, especially if he was the victim. As it is the small mishap he had is upsetting enough.

He still takes the napkin, busying himself with cleaning off his hand so he can have an excuse to look somewhere else while he wallows in misery and shame.

"Not like it'd matter. No one is eating the food anyway."

He's just being bitter and sulky now, but it's true a lot of food is still left. Certainly there's enough for him to stick his stupid hand right in it.

[freedomordeath]

Well, that's certainly true for her. North looks around, the frown returning to her forehead as she takes in the other guests and the wealth of different foods still on the buffet table.

It must be coming across as very rude that she isn't eating, she realizes, yet there's not much she can do about it. Getting some food and then refusing to eat it would look weird, too.

"Maybe some of them can't eat these foods. Or maybe the buffet just doesn't meet the tastes of the tourists. It seems to be mostly local food."

Which she knows nothing about, maybe this local food is a global delicacy.

[dumbstruck]

The fact that North in particular isn't eating doesn't really seem to register on Hyunseok, since he's not exactly chowing down as well. He's not sure why anyone wouldn't be able to eat it, but the second point has him absentmindedly nodding in agreement.

"Yeah, it's a little weird looking, right?"

He's had many slices of cake in his lifetime, and not one of them had ever contained meat in them before. It's a pretty wild concept to him, even if the core ingredients sound pretty good for the most part.

[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?