[Log] Tea and teriyaki whatsit

=============================================== Eavesdown Docks - Persephone ===============================================
Eavesdown on a sunny afternoon is a chaos of motion. Ships touch down and lift off, sending clouds of reddish dust swirling amid the cargo crates and silent hulls. The warehouses skirting the dock are fronted with colourful stalls and vendors selling pungent foods. It is at one of these vendors that Saienne is standing, munching on something unidentifiable but undoubtedly flavourful. She is in animated conversation with a fellow diner. Her broad-brimmed hat keeps the sun from her face, and its feather bobs and ducks jauntily as she talks.


Keiko enters the docks and she doesn't seem to be wrong at this place, as she carries a large backpack, a long cylindrical in silken sheets wrapped object attached on the backpack as she young asian woman straightly goes to the tattoo shop and presses her nose against the window of the body art shop for a long time until she remembers her primary task and turns sighing around, pulling out a long shopping list made of paper, hunting for the next point on the list: Teriyaki sauce concentrate (hyperspace proof), which leads her walk to the next food vendor, following just her nose.


"An' I swear, I absolutely do, that that was the last time he saw that gorram pig!" She grins an entirely crooked grin at the man next to her, who appears to be shaking his head - possibly in disbelief at the tale, but equally possibly out of a nervous politeness. "Ain't never met a man fonder of his pig than him. Up an' vanished, I swear it." She takes a big bite of whatever she has in front of her - some noodles, a dark sticky sauce, and some unidentifable chunks that may or may not be meat - and chews thoughtfully. In the lull, Saienne turns her attention to the people milling around Eavesdown. The young Shepherd preaching over by the shipyard; a pair of bulky cargo haulers meandering drunkenly down towards the spacer's district; a young asian girl wih her nose pressed to the window of the tattoo shop. It is this last face that Saienne fixes on, watching as the young lady turns from the object of her desires to the object of her visit: shopping list.


Keiko slowly arrives at the food vendor closest to herself and shyly eyes the persons eating already there a man and an elder woman, eating some lady. She shrugs her shoulders and adjusts the strapd of her heavy backpack, the large pack on her back letting the woman even appear smaller then she really is. She comes to the woman, who eats the noodles from the shop and carefully tries to peek into her bowl, which type of taste she has choosen, before she suddenly starts to do a bow, but as she notice the moving backpack on her neck, she quickly stops her motion and simply offers a friendly smile to the elder woman and the man talking with her and asks in a pleasant soft voice but with a heavy Japanese accent, "Um.. Sorry to disturb... but how are the noddles?" she curously asks, not wanting to buy a bad product for her ship.


"Ain't bad," Saienne replies, amiably. She tips her hat a little further back so that she can properly see who she's talking with. "But truth be told, I ain't got the means to be fussy at present." And it's true: Saienne's coat is shabby, the feather in her hat brim a little bit untidy. She turns at the counter, the noodle bowl cradled in one hand and chopsticks held poised in another, and scrutinises Keiko. "You lookin' for somethin' in particular, ma'am? You can find just about anything on Eavesdown, if you know where to look." She grins crookedly again, the unfortunate recipient of the pig story more or less forgotten.


Keiko oohs "Teriyaki concentrate is next on my list." she quickly explains with a slight blush on her pale cheeks, and she waves with her long shopping list right before the eyes of the older woman, as to proof her duty at this place, "And since I am still on probation, I fear to buy the wrong brand and so looking around for somebody who acutally just enjoys some teriyaki." she explains her strategy... she sighs and looks at the variation of possible asian food shops, "They all sell it... but which one is the best?"


Saienne blinks back at Keiko. She shakes her head and the feather ducks and bobs crazily. "I ain't got no idea what teriyaki concentrate is," she says, a little mournfully, "But our Josephine always used to shop for the expensive stuff over there." She levels the chopsticks and points down an alley made of crates towards a dark little shop. "She ain't been here for a decade or so, but I ain't in the least bit surprised that place is still in business." A pause, and she looks around at the human ebb and flow all around here. "Even on Eavesdown." She lifts her bowl to her chin and manages to transfer some noodles to her mouth with a minimum of mess. "You're a chef, then, I'm guessing? Probation on with a crew?"


Keiko follows the other woman's glance into the dark alley and her mood drops a few levels, lacking the motivation to get into troubles at this time _and_ being in an important task. She slowly turns her head back to the woman, "Josephine?" she shyly asks, not knowing a person of this name but soon brings a honest warm smile on her lips, nodding her head to let her black hair fly, "Oh yes, Well basically I am not even a cook, but since I seem to be the person with eh best knowledge about food on the ship, I took the job!" she proudly tells.


"Josephine was our cook." Saienne looks down the alley, off into the middle distance, and a curious melancholy briefly descends. "But that ain't neither here nor there. Don't mean nothin'." She shakes herself like a dog would shake off water, and then she grins crookedly at Keiko. "Well hell, you don't need no one to tell you which teriyaki-whatsit is the best, surely? No crew's going to let you cook if you don't know your food." She leans forward. Beneath the brim of her hat, her eyes are very wide. "Follow your nose."


Keiko feels the woman lacks a story behind the name of this Josephine but doesn't want to push into this topic, she only nods and shows a friendly smile, "Well Teriyaki is done by mixing and heating soy sauce, sake or mirin, and sugar or even honey." she tells with a glance on the woman, how she just could know such a simply fact. "But more important about the scent is the taste." she disagrees and pauses, eye the woman very carefully, "since you didn't droped dead until now, this means this shop isn't at least selling some deadly food." she does a check on her inner list, that this shop procedded from 'probably deadly' to 'almost uneatabl'. "And I am not even a cook!"


Saienne glances over her shoulder at the stall behind her, appraising it doubtfully. "Surely hope it ain't deadly." She settles her now empty bowl back on the counter and pats her stomach. "But too late if it is, ain't it?" She listens as Keiko describes how to make the Teriyaki sauce, and her eyes narrow a little. "Sounds like you know how to make it. Ain't you able to get the ingredients and make some yourself?"


Keiko blinks and would have never thought about it, not wanting to damage the honor of real cooks by the tries, "But.... but... I know how to make tea!" she quickly tells and shyly explains to the older woman, trusting her, "I am only a maiko." she states, as this would describe all of this strange situation at once.


Saienne's dusty boots have stamped their way around a lot of the 'Verse in their time, but she is clearly not well-aquainted with the finer points of Japanese cuisine. She wrinkles her nose. "What in the six hells is a maiko when it's at home?" Her question is robust, but honest, and she waits patiently for an answer from Keiko.


Keiko eeeeeps and her face looses for a tiny moment her happy expression, as she notices her own faux-pas towar the other woman, "Oh.... well " she blushes again and her accent even gets worse as she nervousdly stammers, "Well its a geisha in training." she tries to explain but then most people dont know what a geihsa is as well..."I do dance and sing and entertain others, cooking tea or serving sake." she tells... "Very much like a Companaion, well of course not with the...." she is now red like some tomato, "not _That_, you know."


Saienne begins by looking a little aghast at the reaction her question has caused in Keiko, but soon enough she grins her crooked grin - at about the time 'that' is mentioned. "Bein' a Companion ain't nothin' to be ashamed of, even with the 'tween the sheets shenanigans." She reaches out to pat the younger woman's hand. "Known plenty of Companions, an' they've all been right civilised folk. Good with the tea, as you say." She pauses, ruminating. "An' you ain't wrong - couldn't name one of them as could make teriyaki whatsit."


Keiko happily smiles as she older woman doesn't seem to be rejected by her profession, "Oh ... well thankyou, Ma'am." she shyly chirps but suddenly starts to blush again, forgetting her good manners, "I am Keiko!" she suddenly introduces herself, this time performing her usual very formal and deep bow of her torso, but she forgot about her heavy backpack, which slides to her neck as she bends her torso down, resulting in slamming into the ground, right before the other woman's boots, and Keiko letting out a shriek of shock and pain.


Saienne tumbles forward at the shriek and grabs the bag in an effort to relieve whatever pressure its weight is placing on the young lady's neck. "Keiko, Keiko," she says, "Pleased to meet you, an' all, but don't go doing yourself a gorram injury!"


Keiko crawls out form under the backpack, and rub her sleeve over her face, not wanting to show her red face of shame to the older woman, "I am a clumsy oaf." she judges about herself and slowly gets up on her feet again.


"You ain't, at that." Saienne's voice is gentle. "Carryin' half a hundred weight, I don't doubt." She lets go of the bag only when she is sure Keiko can take it again. "My name's Saienne," she says, and she ducks her own little bow - nothing more really than a polite incline of the head. "An' I am pleased to meet you. I learned something about teriyaki sauce an' what a maiko is, ain't it so?"


Keiko shyly nods as she peeks over her sleeve, still crossed before her face, "You ... you dont think I am?" she wonders, after such a show before the older woman and suddenly puts down the arm again, clapping her hands, "But you do like tea, dont you?" she asks hopefully.


"Just an accident, weren't it? We all have accidents now an' again." She nods at the tea question. "Surely do. Ain't never been one for coffee." Saienne smiles lop-sidedly and points down the dark alley again. "But do trust me on the shoppin' front. Josephine wouldn't set us wrong."


Keiko oohs and is already on her way to the dark alley, the older woman showed her before, "Well , sorry have to run." she calls back over her shoulder, "I am coming late to prepare dinner, but I hope to invite you soon for a tea ceremony!" she hopes and nearly bumps into an old grumpy man, as she doesn't look where hs eis moving to.


"You take care of yourself, Keiko. An' good luck with the sauce hunt, an' all. I look forward to the tea." Saienne watches as the girl heads off down the alley, then she turns back to the bustle of Eavesdown. "This place is makin' me feel gorram old," she mutters darkly.