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

[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?"