Poppin' Arms ~ Cafeteria

[Namohysip]

The heartiest, healthiest foods were the main staple of the Poppin' Arms Guild. Fresh ingredients, the latest advancements of conjured meats and foodstuffs, and of course the usual, vibrant foods that you'd normally expect from a fancy restaurant. It seemed that along with having some of the best fighters, explorers, and rescuers in the world, Poppin' Arms also hired some of the best chefs.

The cafeteria itself was on the ground floor of the Guild, near the back and far past the main rooms. The idle buzzing of Pokemon filled the large room during mealtimes, several of them only vaguely recognizable to Team Spectrum. It seemed that Poppin' Arms was roughly a hundred strong, though they only knew a handful of the Guild prominently--mostly their elite of elites.

Chairs of all kinds lined the walls, which allowed anyone to pick the most suitable ones for the tables they had to sit in, as was customary. Far in the back were other tables and cafeteria workers dutifully serving out the days' meals. In the back, a Typhlosion and Machamp dutifully cooked as a master-class tag-team. Occasionally, they surveyed the tables from afar, glowing at any happy expressions they saw.

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"I'm glad that some of you were able to make it to lunch," S'more commented, smiling. "I might not have put the invitations in the proper place--a bit short notice, more a proposal from Protein, actually..."

The Salamence in question grinned. "Well, I just wanted to meet our little world-savers, is all." He curled his tail around and sat without a seat by the main, white table. "Team building! And nothing builds a better bond than good food and a fun time, right?" His voice and tone was jolly, but there was an undercutting growl with every word he said. A little scary to anyone who didn't know him.

 

[Chibi Pika]

It wasn't quite dinnertime yet but.... fuck it, dinner time. Felt like Starr was burning more energy than ever these days. Sure, there was the tournament, and the usual working out, but still. It was like her body needed more energy for... something. And that was even with her making a deliberate effort to chill the fuck out every once in a while, unlike some people. (Cough, Brisa, cough.)

Normally she preferred trying out new restaurants around the city, but what with the huge death omen in the sky, the general atmosphere around town was... off, to put it mildly. And it wasn't like the food was bad at the guild either. She grabbed a heaping bowl of curry and went to find a seat.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Another mealtime, another opportunity to touch base with a teammate.

[Brisket > Coba]: How do you do, Cabot? I'm taking lunch in the cafeteria in five minutes. If you'd care to join me, I've been hoping to speak with you about shadows. Hope to see you soon! Yrs, Brisa

Brisa went to the cafeteria counter and bought herself some paw food, just in case Cabot declined and she left for training elsewhere, eating on the move... Hopefully he was available. Flexible and adaptive scheduling meant getting more done overall, but it did make things less predictable...

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Lately, for Brisa, to exist was to live in a state of exhaustion and perpetual bruising of body and mind. Normal mon took a few days off after a tourney, hell, even she would under normal circumstances. Instead, with everything the way it was, she'd gone straight to the training rooms the moment she'd recovered, and had been in and out of there all day. ...And the next. But at last, it was time for an evening meal, and hopefully she'd be able to work on something as she ate.

On her way to the cafeteria counter, however, she spotted Starr . . . and so of course went straight to her instead. She hadn't caught her after the tourney finale, and couldn't possibly pass up the chance to talk!

She forced her genuine enthusiasm into her voice despite her fatigue. "Howdy, Starr! You keepin' okay? I'm good. Been busy off my damn paws, but even so, I can't stop thinkin' 'bout that fight of ours–!"

 

[Dragonfree]

Mia sat and ate at the cafeteria. She still couldn't do it for real, but she wanted to anyway, and there was no reason not to, when the God Squad was paying.

She'd bought a hotdog. It was not as good as the ones at the hotdog stand Dave usually took her to back home. She sat and ate it slowly. Maybe she could train later. Or now while he wasn't there she could go out of town. She could do whatever she wanted. That was nice.

 

[BlackHairedPsycho]

Pana walked in, hungry despite just being puked up. She got in line, and when she got to the front....

"Hello. Got any bamboo?"

 

[Negrek]

Pretty much anywhere in the Guild was a good place to avoid Mudkip, and of course there were so many people there to meet. It was so nice to be able to go out and actually talk to people, instead of being stuck around Mudkip, hanging out at home or way out of town unless there was some reason they really needed to go talk to a person. Rocky was going to make so many friends!

The infernape was down in the cafeteria, tray piled high with berries, looking for somewhere to sit. There were some people already off chatting in their own groups, that rhydon, she wasn't very friendly, and there--oh! That electrike! Was that one of the new people?

Rocky grinned hugely. This was great! New people were so interesting. And maybe he'd get to show them all the cool things in Destiny Village, too!

"Hi! You're one of the new people, right? On Team Spectrum?" Rocky asked, approaching the electrike's table. "Can I sit with you?"

 

[Navar]

The discussion back at the tree went places. Or rather, it was too convoluted. Shiron just hoped they could bring everyone back from the Voidlands. He wondered what it was like, but ignored it.

Brooding wouldn't help, and neither would an empty stomach, so he decided to get something to eat. The cafeteria came to mind, and soon, there he was, eating an apple slowly, taking his time to chew the fruit. Somehow, it had no flavor, nothing at all. Honestly, that apple was more boring than the usual one, for whatever reason.

"...Eh. I've had worse. At least there's something."

 

[kyeugh]

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Cooking and combat were not so different, Lauchs discovered.

There was a bit less punching and kicking, to be sure, but many of the elements that had thrilled him about the warrior's life were present in cooking, too. Chopping wasn't quite the same thing as slashing, but practicing his technique—trying to get the slices just right—was sort of like sword practice, if he thought about it.

He'd started his tenure at the kitchen preparing salads meticulously to the recipe, but as he became more confident in his skills, he began to experiment with his compositions. It was like the difference between drilling techniques with his sword instructor and actually engaging in combat on the field. In both cases, he'd learned the essentials by the book and developed his intuition, and then once he was in the field with no holds barred, the chaos didn't feel so chaotic anymore. He knew how to play the competing elements off one another to deliver the outcome he desired. Before that outcome had been a defeated opponent—now it was a particularly tasty salad.

... Or maybe this metaphor was a little contrived. Was he trying to convince himself that cooking was still a legitimate use of his time, that it was okay to have stepped away from the fighting and the glory? Ultimately, he couldn't delude himself—cooking and combat were very different in an important way. Combat was about destruction: inflicting pain, neutralizing threats, hacking things to pieces. Cooking, on the other hand, was about creation, the synthesis of ingredients to create a harmonious whole. As a duckling, Lauchs had thought his father's job ruling the kingdom seemed horribly dull, but now, so many years later, he was finally beginning to see the appeal. There was real fulfillment to be found in putting things together rather than tearing them apart.

Besides, it meant he got to be near the leeks.

He didn't particularly miss the fighting and heroics—he'd had a lifetime of that business already. And while working at the salad bar had given him plenty of time to introspect, he was beginning to grow a little lonely. Chopping vegetables and tossing salads wasn't the most social of activities. That's why, when one Nathaniel the Great caught his eye one day in the cafeteria, Lauchs didn't hesitate to shove his utensils into the sink, frantically wash his hands, then shout across the room—

"Nate! My good friend! Long time no see, eh? How's it going?"

 

[Phoenixsong]

"Did we really need to take out this many at once? I don't know if even you can read that fast, Skara."

The stack of books on Araun's back wobbled precariously as the growlithe-shade loped into the cafeteria, and Skara wobbled yet more as she tried to keep herself balanced on top. "I don't think we have to go through all of them in-depth," she said, eyes screwed shut to counter the disorienting swaying of the stack. "This is just an initial... survey, I guess? A chance to skim through all of these to determine which ones merit a deeper dive. That library has more books than I've ever seen in my life, and there's no telling which ones might have useful information; I've got to start narrowing it all down somehow."

Araun snorted—or just made the noise, however that worked for familiars. "I still think it's too much. Surely some of the others on Team Spectrum must have some ideas they can contribute, too. Or the pokémon who live around here."

"Of course they do! But considering I've been completely useless for the past... mists, how long has it even been?... look, I just don't think it's fair to expect them to have to do all the heavy lifting. I'm in a better headspace for putting in legwork—uh, such as it is—myself, and I'd rather have actual, solid contributions of my own to bring to the table. Speaking of which, that one in the corner looks like it's empty. Set me down there so I can get a head start on skimming these indices, and then you can jump in when you come back with the food."

"I don't remember volunteering to do any fuckin' reading," the growlithe muttered, sweeping his gaze across the cafeteria to find the table Skara had pointed out. "I wanted to go see if there was any more sign of Sword, and— oh, hey! Isn't that Cynthian over there? Hi, Cynthian!"

Araun wheeled hard to the right and trotted toward a table nearly across the room from the one Skara had chosen; the charjabug tried to object, but all that came out was a startled hiss as she struggled to keep from toppling off after the sudden turn. Bah. She was completely at his mercy. It wasn't like she could carry all her books to the table herself, then go get food, then make it all the way back to her seat again without having wasted all of her lunchtime just on the journey. Socializing sounded like an awfully convenient excuse for avoiding getting some actual work done... but, she had to admit, catching up with someone she at least knew a little about wouldn't be too bad.

 

[Virgil134]

The day following the team's victory over Red, Cabot and Pleo found themselves at the guild's cafeteria where they sat down at one of the tables. Both their plates had a sizable amount of curry on them as Pleo looked at their food eagerly, before giving Cabot a curious look.

"So this curry is just like the one in Treasure Town?"

"Well, I don't know about it being exactly the same, but it looks and smells similar at least," Cabot replied. "Though there's only one way to find out if it also tastes similar..."

 

[Flyg0n]

Koa wandered the cafeteria line, picking out whatever foods caught his fancy. Ever since he'd started training more he'd discovered his appetite was ravenous. And the foods were amazing. After he'd piled his plate with a variety of items, including something that resembled an extremely tasty burger, he turned to find himself a seat.

A moment of indecision struck him as he scanned the tables. Many were filled, with Pokemon he didn't recognize in the slightest. Maybe one of the empty tables instead? He looked around the area, searching for a suitable spot.

 

[TheGOAT]

Why Red was here of all places, Astrid wasn’t sure. She simply went where she was told.

She had carefully chosen a period between mealtimes to approach the guild cafeteria, taking note of a small group of Pokémon socializing near the back but relaxing when their chatter wasn’t loud enough to interrupt her thoughts. Maybe, she thought, with a quiet enough room, she’d be able to hear Red’s voice if he tried to speak.

He was among the few occupants of the expansive room and still got plenty of looks. As she walked up, Astrid got plenty of her own; the mild discomfort she felt probably wasn’t shared by the stout trainer, who gave her a hard look as the distance closed. To her surprise, his gaze helped put her at ease, helped remind her he was an ally.

—An ally who was an inter-dimensional alien and imposed a unique language barrier Astrid had no experience with in her anthropologic years. As far as she was concerned, that was a ripe frontier, but right now wasn’t the time to think that way. Right now, this was simply a person she wanted info from. Someone who could help a bigger cause.

She didn’t speak. For that matter, she’d been standing there for several seconds in silence, having not quite come up with a plan until her paws were already moving. The table thumped as she placed a tiny stack of processed photos down, all of them depicting Blacklight Mewtwo at various angles. Then she took a seat.

 

[Flyg0n]

Koa wandered through the cafeteria, absent-mindedly putting food on his plate. He needed a break and getting some food seemed like the best place to do it. Something about the cafeteria had a... pleasant vibe to it, so he'd chosen it over the restaurants. Besides, he kinda felt like relaxing, not ordering off a menu.

Yawning, he found himself a spot a little ways away from some of the other pokemon and started eating.