The Piemaker

[stressbakes]

Who: Ned the Piemaker & ???
What: Everyday stuff
Where: The Pie Hole


When Ned began the day he had high hopes that it would be completely normal. When Olive called out sick, he figured it was just a tiny ripple of inconvenience that everyday business owners had to deal with. It was a Wednesday. Not many people ate pies on Wednesdays, and he knew how to run The Pie Hole by himself. It was his place after all.

It might be better to keep busy anyway, since Chuck had gone to spend some time living with Lily and Vivian again, and even though it was just one day without her already he was feeling lonely.

They were small changes - tiny insignificant changes - and he thought that just maybe for one day he could be okay with that.

He was wrong.

For some reason, the place was packed with strange looking people. They were certainly not regulars, and some of them were even wearing some kind of robes or armor. Was there some kind of convention going on? Adding to that, some of them didn't appear to have money at all, and there was a shortage on pies because Ned had been so busy up front. It was time for panic to set in.

Ned pulls out his food order pad and a pen. When he speaks, it's a bit rushed sounding.

"Welcome to The Pie Hole, here we have lots of pies. Only not so many right now because I'm working alone, which is usually my preference but not so much today. Do you like cherry?"

Comments

[freeasabook]

Nageki would really like to tell him to be quiet in the library, but it's apparent that he's not there anymore, somehow. He does know that should be impossible. So is a human looking right at him.

"...who knows?" he says faintly. Nageki, of course, is a truly enormous mourning dove. His surroundings are cold.

[stressbakes]

It was probably the massive amount of pressure he was under that prevented him from noticing the giant bird until he was right on top of him. When he does notice, Ned takes a half jump back in surprise.

"You're a bird!"

[freeasabook]

Nageki gazes at him, his eyes like black holes of cosmic disdain. "You're very observant."

[stressbakes]

"Why are you a bird?"

Well, that might have been rude, so he backtracks a little as he crosses his arms and hikes up his shoulders uncomfortably.

"I mean I didn't know they made costumes that realistic. Are you from a circus or a stage play or any other situations in which wearing a bird costume would be considered normal?"

[freeasabook]

Nageki blinks blue outer eyelids, the skin of those so thin that the dark of his eyes is visible through them. He doesn't say anything right away, considering the circumstances and the human's reaction.

Finally he says, "...what year is it, do you think?"

[stressbakes]

Anybody asking what year it was would have set off alarm bells in Ned's head, but at the moment he was talking to a giant bird. You would think for somebody who brought dead people back to life with the touch of his finger might be okay with other strange things, but that wasn't the case.

"The year? It's 2007."

[freeasabook]

"That explains a lot," Nageki says drily. He considers for another moment, then says, "You'll probably prefer to think I'm a hallucination. Don't worry about it."

[stressbakes]

At this moment Ned would, in fact, love to think that this was a hallucination. Truthfully now he wasn't sure if it was one way or the other, but he really wanted to just retreat into his kitchens at this point.

"If you're a hallucination and I'm not saying you are, I would really rather not be talking to you in front of my customers because that really speaks poorly of my establishment as it it entirely not normal. On the other hand if you are a bird I think that's some kind of health code violation."

[freeasabook]

The cold of being around Nageki for this long is making itself apparent. In reality it's bad enough to make a tropics-adapted friend of his have serious trouble.

"If I am a bird, I believe the time I could be carrying any infectious diseases has passed." He's not sure why he believes that, but there it is, a heavy and reassuring fact. Nageki can't carry anything harmful. "If I'm not, you've stood here this long."

[sandwormie]

For half a credit Luke would have run outside, but he left off trying to peer at the sky through the window to sit back in his booth, about as happy as he'd ever been.

"What are cherries? Are they anything like zherries, Biggs gave me some once and those were kinda nasty, but they'd been bottled since the Clone Wars, he said." Blinking, he actually looked at Ned for the first time and frowned. "Are you okay?"

(technically he's a star wars geek, but I'm going to avoid the fourth wall here)

[stressbakes]

"You don't know what cherries are? Who does't know about cherries? It's a fruit, a delicious fruit when baked into a pie that when you eat it gives you warm and happy feelings."

Ned stands there a minute, wondering if what zherries were, and if they could be made into pie. If they were indeed pie material, Ned thought that he should have at least heard of them, but he ignores the thought for now because he was happy with his simple, ordinary, fruit filled pies that everyone loved. He'd only just added cup-pies to the menu let's not push it.

"Me? Uh, no... I mean yes, I'm fine. We're all fine here just a bunch of people gathered together to eat pie."

[sandwormie]

[Awww. |D]

"Offworld fruit's luxury goods, mister. We don't muck around with those on a working farm, nossir, pallies do just fine." Luke seems like he's quoting someone there, rolling his eyes with heavy, inexperienced young sarcasm.

He also ignores Ned's babbling. "Because you look spooked. Like, really spooked. Drink some water." As a desert kid, the importance of water has been drummed into him since before he could talk.

[stressbakes]

Now Ned is really confused. Cherries weren't exactly luxury goods by any standard he could think of. The word "offworld" was also throwing him for a loop, so it was probably best if he just pretended not to hear it.

"I don't think water is going to be helpful unless it can take orders for me so I can get back to baking."

[sandwormie]

"You drink it," he points out. "You drink it, and an electrolyte tablet or something. But I guess that won't do so much good if you throw up. Are you gonna?"

[stressbakes]

"Throwing up wasn't in my plans, but I'd also appreciate a topic change while all these people are trying to enjoy pie."

Ned fidgets a little with his order pad before picking up one of the menus with a slight stiff movement, showing just how tense he was. He gives it to the customer in front of him to encourage him to order.

"Ordering something to eat is typically what you do in a restaurant, not that I'm trying to tell you what to do or make your choices for you, but there are a lot of people here and there's only one of me.

[sandwormie]

Luke seems unconcerned. "You really don't look that good! You could kick people out, y'know. I'd go! I kinda wanna go now, the sky is so weird. Why's there so many white things?"

[stressbakes]

"Kicking people out is not conducive to business, but it is something I'm considering right now."

Ned pauses, not sure he heard the question correctly.

"White...things? Clouds? Who doesn't know about clouds?"

[wingsign]

Of course Watanuki couldn't physically step foot out of the shop, but only physically. He could most definitely use dreams to move about, even if he rarely did so, as his dreaming could still be unstable at times. Which meant that this outing was practically rare for him, and the very first time he went out for pleasure, not business.

He moved easily through the crowd of people, and despite being dressed in a kimono with an elaborately-patterened hakama and haori, no one seemed to notice him, much move aside for him. Which suited him fine, because to most of them, he probably wasn't there at all. He was only here for the piemaker and his pies after all.

"Cherry's fine, thank you. Do you have any other flavors today, or just cherry?"

For an obvious foreigner, his English was pretty damn good, huh?

[stressbakes]

Definitely some sort of club meeting or something going on. Ned clings to this thought because it is the only rational way he can think of the situation. He's still a little stiff as he stands there holding his note pad, but at least this person actually was acting pretty normal, even if not dressing that way.

"Um, I think there's some apple and blueberry left too, but cherry is what I have the most of right now. I would never want to make your choices for you but if you ask me cherry is really the way to go."

He half smiles nervously, as if to say 'please, oh please pick the cherry.'

[wingsign]

Watanuki didn't smirk, but it was a near thing. He had an idea of what the man wanted him to do, and he didn't need to be a wish granter to figure it out.

"A slice of cherry it is then, for here." He wasn't going to be mean right now-- just tease him a little, perhaps. He did know what it was like to be in a position where the people he was serving were whimsical, silly and extremely moody after all.

"You made them yourself, I take it?"

[stressbakes]

Ned nods, taking the order, inwardly very relieved that he didn't have to suggest something else. At least one typical customer-server relationship could happen today, strange costume aside. His posture relaxes just a touch.

"Do you want that à la mode?"

Ice cream he had, so he didn't mind serving out as much of that as he needed.