1221/Mochi Days are Here Again

Mochi Days are Here Again
Date of Scene:	02 March 2024
Location:	Nounamu Sweets
Synopsis:	The warmer weather has lured several visitors to Nounamu sweets. Ren, Bow and Hinote pop in and Chiyo shows them around.
Cast of Characters:	Chiyo Sakai, Bow, Ren Morimoto, Hinote Kagari

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Chiyo Sakai has posed:
Nounamu Sweets was very close to campus. In fact it was located on the first busy street outside of the RHA campus, so it was very easy to find and a good place for students to grab some sweets when they didn't want to head all the way down to the konbini. It was definitely a favorite, having been kept open for years thanks to kids and adults alike who grew up on the sweets here.

It's a pleasant March afternoon, the sun is out, and though it was still chilly more people were entertaining the thought of spending some time outside in the sun. Which is precisely why Chiyo is out front of the shop setting out the few little portable cafe tables they had with some matching chairs for those that wanted to enjoy their treats in the warmer sunshine.

Bow has posed:
While in class, Luke had heard some of the students talking about the candy shoppe. And after the battle last night, he could use the pick me up and wanted to do a little shopping. Having learned how to use the little map app on his phone - which really, where was this back on Etheria? - he made his way through the city streets.

Still dressed in his school uniform as he arrives at the shop, the dusky teenager draws in a breath of the air scented with warm sweets and he blinks a few times. It smells like Brightmoon's bakery just before a birthday celebration for a Princess.

Noticing the young woman out in front of it, he lifts his hand in a greeting. "Hello!" he offers brightly. "I was told that there was candies here?" comes his question. "My apologies, I'm new to the area."

Ren Morimoto has posed:
    It's the kind of March day that's perfect for sports. Sunny but chilly, so when you work up a sweat the cool air will keep you from overheating. Which is why Ren is here, rather than hanging out with the baseball club.
    He has a bag slung over his shoulder, one of those bubble backpacks that people can tote their wee little pets around in. Right now it's containing an orange tabby cat, who is curled up against one side of the backpack, dozzily licking one of its paws.
    Meanwhile Ren himself is tapping away at his phone, giving Chiyo a multitude of updates regarding his approach to Nounamu. Snaps of interesting things he saw along the way, mostly. A dog sunning in an open window. Some street art tucked down an alley he cut through. A sort-of artsy shot of the sun peeking through the clouds overtop a rail line.
    When he arrives down the street, he calls out "Chiyo-senpai!" and waves furiously at her, upsetting the cat in the bag, who lets out an annoyed mrowr in protest. Ren hustles the rest of the way over to the storefront, smiling as he sees someone in RHA uniform. "Hey there," he says, more generally than just to Chiyo.

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Today's Mystery is the Mystery of 'Why do I have a high risk for diabetes' and today's answer is 'because I like sweets too much'. So Hinote Kagari, clad today in a light black vest, closed up around a white button down shirt with khaki pants arrives into the the area of the sweets shop.

Next to his head hovers a tiny tiny detective fairy, clad in yellow trenchcoat and fedora that only magical folks will be able to see.

Tracy was not narrating today because it turns out getting candy isn't a big mystery to figure out.

"Hey." he says to Chiyo. "Need some help with those tables?" he asks curiously.

Chiyo Sakai has posed:
Chiyo Sakai glances up as a small gaggle of sweet seeking students arrive earning a bright smile from the purple-haired girl. She's dressed in her work attire of black pants, a white button up shirt, and the pink apron decorated with candy sprinkle pattern with a little embroidery stating the name of the shop on the corner. "You're in the right place, then," she assures Luke at first before her gaze snaps over to Ren's breathless approach, and Hinote's polite offer to help.

A quick dusting off of her hands on the apron earns a shake of her head. "Hi Ren-kun," she greets the redhead, before adding to Hinote, "I'm just finishing up setting up out here, but thakn you!" With the basic greetings settled she glances among the trio. "Why don't you all come inside and see what you'd like? There's free hot tea as well," she assures. "Green tea, and yuzu fruit tea if you don't like the traditional sort."

"I'm Chiyo Sakai, grade 10 at Radiant Heart, by the way. This is my Ojiisan's shop," she explains as she turns to lead the way inside where behind the counter is the old man in question currently working mochi into decorative floral shapes.

There were a few cafe tables inside as well, and a table against the wall with two large caraffes of the tea she had mentioned along with cups for serving. The well-lit glass cases displayed So. Many. Sweets. It went from the traditional mochi wagashi that were in various floral shapes with a multitude of fillings, to some Mochi ring Donuts, to candied fruit on skewers as had become so popular.

Bow has posed:
When Ren arrives, Luke recognizes him. "Oh! You were in the library when that monkey was running around." he offers, and then coughs. "I didn't realize you were trying to get my attention until after I had left, I apologize!" With the Chiyo making the first introduction, he adds in his own. "I'm Luke Armbruster, grade 10, also Radiant Heart. I guess that's obvious!" After all, he's in the uniform - even if his bares his midriff a little.

'Ojiisan?' he mouths to himself, but to cover it, he adds, "I'm a transfer from America." Cover story, go! There's a wave as well to Hinote as he arrives, and he reaches up to tug lightly from the crystal earring he wears, as he follows Chiyo into the shop.

His eyes are immediately wide, taking in all the delicious looking candies and other tiny items that would make Entrapta squee with excitement, especially the small mochi flowers that Chiyo's grandfather is working on. "...there's so much here." he admits quietly, a look around, little sparkles in his dark eyes, excitement on his face mixed with happy curiosity.

Ren Morimoto has posed:
    It takes a moment for Ren to place Luke, but the explanation Luke gives does spark the right memory. "Oh! I was going to suggest a few sci-fi novels for you," he says, a smile spreading across his face. But the time for reading is not now, because sweets are on the menu.

    He sets his backpack down just outside the door to Nounamu, cracking one of the zippers open so that Umeboshi (secretly his spirit guide as a Culinary Guardian!) can stick his head out and people-watch. Or, as the case apparently is, just get a little bit of fresh air while he snoozes.

    Then he steps inside, looking back to Luke again as he reveals he's a transfer student. From America! Immediately switching to English, Ren says, "Welcome to Japan!" He hardly has an accent at all, too, so he's clearly well-practiced. But then he switches back to Japanese to say, "Nounamu has the best stuff there is to try in--oh my god are those donuts?!"

    So distracted he is, that he almost misses the flit of something in the corner of his eye, and he turns to look at Hinote briefly before deciding that tiny fairy is probably not something he should comment on, and so pretends he saw nothing. Best for his own secret identity. Though he definitely did look that way for a moment or two before his attention returned to donuts.

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Hinote Kagari nods and smiles, looking over to Ren and Luke as he walks inside and examines the sweets on offer, but also, watching Chiyo's granddad's work as he huhs a little appreciatively and looks over to the donuts as Ren points them out. "Eh. Mochi donuts." he says.

Tracy, the tiny detective chara, has taken out a magnifying glass to examine all the sweets as he glides through the air. "Eh ask 'em if they got a deck of pops, kid." says Tracy.

Hinote clears his throats. "Right. Lollipops. Do you guys carry those." it's a dumb question. It's a candy story. They probably do.

And they're probably delicious here.

Chiyo Sakai has posed:
Chiyo Sakai smiles at Luke's apparent uncertainty toward her use of the familial phrase. Especially once he explains he's from America. It did explain his complexion though: He certainly wasn't local! "My grandfather," she explains with a little chuckle as she moves further in.

Ren's cry at the Mochi donuts earns a laugh. "Yes, we started making them a bit ago, but had stopped to focus on Valentine's Day chocolates for awhile. So they're super fresh!" She assures while slipping behind the counter. "And spring flavors are out so we have strawberry glazed and yuzu glazed," she explains of the pink and yellow mochi donuts on display. "We tried sakura ones, but it didn't hold up the flavor as well," she remarks with a little grown. Alas. "It tasted too 'fake'."

Hinote and his chara are noted, and she's already heading down the case toward lollipops before *Hinote* asks. Luck? We'll go with luck. "Yes! We have our Silver Crystal Lollipops which are pineapple flavor a well as strawberry and cream swirled," she explains showing off the standing case atop the glass with several neatly wrapped in celophane. The Silver Crystal ones looked like little gemstones dusted with edible silver powder to give it a glittery sheen.

Bow has posed:
'OH NO.'

In Setsuna's set up to explain that Luke is from America and the same village as Adora in fact, there was something forgotten in all of it. While Crystal Hope had primed him for Japanese, she did not prepare poor Luke for English. It takes several moments for the little crystalline figure on his ear to translate and he offers a stilted, "Thank you!" in English.

It might make it a little muddied if he is in fact, from America. Fortunately for Luke, there is the distraction of so many candies to draw the attention away from his little issue. Which is something else he's going to need to figure out.

She's describing the different donuts, and Luke can just consider them all. "They remind me of tiny cakes." he admits quietly, his eyes wide in wonderment as he glances over when Chiyo introduces the lollipop. "Oh, look at the crystals!" he says in a bit of excitement. "They look *pretty* awesome."

Small town. Has to be a small town he came from.

Ren Morimoto has posed:
    The good news for Luke is that when Ren went to America, he was in southern California, which is a very multilingual place! So he just assumes that Luke might be someone who didn't speak English as a first language. That he seems to be fine with Japanese makes the decision for Ren easier to just remain in his own native tongue.

    "Oh no," Ren says, turning his attention to Chiyo rather than focusing on Luke (and perhaps his own little faux pas, there). "The two you have out look delicious, though! But now I have to choose..." Then he laughs, a bit sheepishly. "Or, um, I could get both...."

    Mulling over this opportunity for gluttony means he's stood at the display case for a little bit, while talks of lollipops and other sweets happens. He fidgets with the end of the sleeves of his sports jacket, finding a loose thread there (rather like all the loose threads of his torn jeans). Eventually, he takes in a breath and decides, "Both. Both is good. Could I have one donut of each flavor please?" He looks between Chiyo and Ojiisan, perhaps not certain who he should have addressed that request to.

Chiyo Sakai has posed:
Chiyo Sakai flashes a smile at Hinote saying, "Let me know what you decide on!" After pointing him toward the arrangement of lollipops. Maybe they should start carrying more hard candy? It seemed to have gone out of style awhile ago but lately was becoming more popular again. Such thoughts are fleeting as she moves back over to the mochi donuts to get a pair out for Ren on a plate.

"Here you go, Ren. I like the green tea with them because I think it helps both flavors, but you can eat it however you'd like of course," she assures in case he might think she's being bossy about it. "Would you like one too, Luke?" She asks with a grin. "Or there's the traditional wagashi that Ojiisan makes," she explains gesturing at the flowers. "Most have adzuki bean filling but there's also strawberry daifuku and sakura mochi. It's kind of a pickly-sweet flavor for that though."

Bow has posed:
As the donuts are set out and Chiyo is speaking on them, Luke's head is tilted to the side as if the young confectioneer is speaking in a completely alien tongue. And it might very well be to him. But he's trying to wrap his head around it all.

And it's about that time, from inside of his messenger bag, there's a rustle, and a cat pokes it's head up. Except it's not a cat. It's a tiny alicorn, and he's caught the scent of the food.

"We'll have one of everything!" Swiftwind announces, which is probably a loud meow to Chiyo's ojiisan, but Luke is glaring down at the creature. "I'll have the strawberry one... and a traditional?" he seems unsure, as he's reaching for his wallet and his dwindling funds that he was granted as a transplanted alien.

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Hinote Kagari eyes over the lollipops as he doesn't glance over to Tracy. Tadase said not to look directly at the charas and talk to them in public, because people think you're weird for talking into thin air. Or at them, when you don't mean to be.
"Yeah those Silver Crystal ones will be great, I think." he says as he 'eyes' and hears a sound and looks towards Luke.

Tracy also hears something and floats over to 'investigate'.

"Like a cry in the night. I heard a sound. I went over to investigate. Something was a foot. Maybe fowl." says Tracy, mock gruffly as he narrates to nobody and sticks his magnifying glass into tiny Swiftwind's face.

"Why the long face, bub." asks Tracy, with a straight face.

Hinote has to cover his mouth to stifle the giggle. "I'll take 24 of the crystal pops, if you got 'em."

Chiyo Sakai has posed:
"Absolutely!" The answer is really for both Hinote and Luke. Since there's two order, she glances at Ojiisan who merely gives a grunt and nods. "Interrupting my work," he mutters though he doesn't seem actually UPSET at having to serve someone. It's just an old man thing.

From the case he picks out a light pink daifuku that was split down the middle to have an entire neatly washed and trimmed strawerry tucked inside it to near bursting. It's set neatly on a plate, and then he takes one of the traditional adzuki bean mochi that was designed like a lovely chrysanthemum flower. A bit of pink adorns the snow white mochi and a splash of green near the 'leaves' at the bottom. Both are arranged and offered over. "You better like them," he utters before going back to his prior task with only a glance from the corner of his eye to see if Luke really *does* like them curiously.

Chiyo for her part has begin to package up the lollipops into a little oblong box meant to house such items. They're criss-crossed overtop each other, facing both directions in a neat little stack until she gets to the 24 count total. The box is then closed and a final one is placed ontop the box only for a string to be tied around it holding it in place making it an even 25 instead. Plus this way he could have one immediately if he wanted.

"Here you go! It's," and she rattles off a very reasonable price. "We have a student discount for Radiant Heart students," she explains for all to hear. Which means Luke and Ren's probably won't be too expensive either!

Bow has posed:
The tiny alicorn snorts. "I am neither a foot or a fowl!" Swiftwind declares with a huff of breath. "I am the heroic Swiftwind, hero of the Rebellion!" Flopping his horned head down so that he can look around, he eyes the shelves of donuts. They look sooo good.

The two donuts are offered to Luke and he accepts them with a grateful smile as he looks for a place to be seated just outside of the cafe, and as he does so, he breaks the pair of them in half and then in half again. That little quarter is offered to the alicorn, who eagerly takes it in and noms on it.

At the same time, Luke's taking his own bite. And their reactions are the same. Huge eyes, big, bright smiles, hooves and fists clutched at the sides. "Sooo..." Luke starts.

"...goooood!" Swiftwind finishes, and they are eagerly gnoshing and devouring the little treats that are absolutely delicious. "You need to buy more!" the alicorn demands of Luke between bites.

"Later, I don't know how things work here yet!" comes Luke's protest, "And I can't spend all the funds Nurse Setsuna gave me here."

Ren Morimoto has posed:
    After getting set up with his donuts and, yes, green tea at Chiyo's suggestion, Ren has done the usual exchange of currency for goods and services, then fallen quiet to enjoy his sweet treat. That he is doing so while studiously ignoring the signs of magic around him, in order to maintain his own secret identity as a totally normal Radiant Heart Academy student.

    Absolutely normal. Sometimes he places baseball, even! That's a normal thing, right? Maybe he should play more, like he used to. He takes a bite of the yuzu donut and chews contemplatively, staring off into the far distance of a nearby wall, or something, so as to not be super obvious he's listening in on the conversation Luke is having.

    "These donuts are delicious, Chiyo-senpai," he calls out, because it deserves to be said!

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Hinote Kagari gets his stack of lolipops in a box and pays for it eagerly, as he smiles appreciatively. "Thank you." he says. "I'm sure these will be just fine." he says as he walks on over to one of the tables to have a seat, and studiously steal that lollipop on top to have a taste, stick sticking out of his mouth a moment as he blinks.

"Rebellion against what, bub. Common sense?" he asks. "Cuz you're a talking horse." he says. But he's a tiny floating detective so who's calling who what here.

Hinote looks annoyed and looks over to Luke, and Tracy and Swiftwind. He's not gonna wanna have to explain a magic misunderstanding. He tries to will Tracy over.

That doesn't work!

Chiyo Sakai has posed:
Chiyo Sakai finishes getting everyone their treats, and dusts her hands off on her apron again out of habit. She did wear gloves when getting everything though! The disposable sort so they've already gone off into the trash. Coming around the corner she opts for some tea herself, going for the yuzu for a nice refreshing citrus flavor since she wasn't eating it with anything else.

This does allow her to sneak nearer to Luke, Swiftwind and Tracy. Near enough she slides one of those strawberry mochi onto the table saying, "Here, this one was about to go out of being considered 'fresh' in a few hours. It's still good, you'd just be doing us a favor so it doesn't go to waste."

A sip of her tea is taken, and she grins, "Plus your horse may like strawberries. I'm not sure what detectives like," she points out apologetically to Tracy. "Maybe a mystery flavor lollipop?"

Ren gets a bit of a wink in his direction as she gathers he's trying to stay low-key on things.

Bow has posed:
"I. Am. Not. A. Horse." Swiftwind gets the flatest looking face as he looks at Chiyo. "Check the wings. The horn. I'm an al-i-corn." What is it with this world?! But he's not going to say no to the strawberry mochi and just like that, all is forgiven as he starts to eat on it.

Luke offers a polite smile. "Thank you." he offers to Chiyo as he shakes his head. "He means well, but he's been on edge while we look for his partner." the Etherian offers as he draws in a breath and glances at the little fairy. "If you don't mind?" he asks Tracy. "Been a rough few days for him." A brief smile. "But it's nice to meet you."

Ren Morimoto has posed:
    The conversation happening over thataway has little to do with Ren. Beyond that he's definitely, almost obviously eavesdropping, at least! He's set up with his two mochi donut (well, more like one and a half mochi donuts... he's trying to savor them) and is content to sit apart, letting Chiyo tend to her newer customers.

    After all, this isn't his first time to Nounamu!

    For the next little while he'll be perfectly busy with his tea and sweets, so no need to worry about him intruding.

Chiyo Sakai has posed:
Chiyo Sakai glances down at Swiftwind-mini when he corrects her only to deadpan oh-so-innocently, "Does that mean you don't want the strawberry, then?" The important parts are covered at least, and she explains a moment after, "Alicorns aren't real in this world. It's no wonder we get confused. I meant no insult." And it looks like he did indeed want the strawberry so she just grins.