Description: Satsuki has her first outing in the real world, and encounters a certain capoeirista. From there, she learns the value of free ice cream... /OR DOES SHE/?
It's a typical day for Southtown. The streets are packed with a throng of bodies in constant motion as people go about their daily business creating a stream of motion powerful enough to have its own river-like current. New bodies press in from the outsides to take the place of those that disconnect from the herd, mostly students from the local school come to enjoy their down time at the popular gathering spots in the outdoor mall.
The crowd is less stifling within the mall grounds themselves. The lack of cars on the streets provides a wider area for the visitors to disperse amongst and the parks are filled with small throngs of chattering friends and quaint picturesque families enjoying their evening meal in the warmth of the fading sun. Still more venture in and out of the dozens of small shops that line the outer ring of the mall like bazaar stalls, adding a veritable collage of bright-colored shopping bags to mix in with the canvas of humanity.
Not everyone is here to shop or hang out, however! This mall provides ample space for another popular pasttime which is the performances of street actors. Okay, really, it's just one person who comes here to do that most of the time but she's garnered something of a name for herself ever since her friends convinced her to display a little of her skill.
A small throng of people, mostly students, encircles a patch of grass off the main thoroughfare. At its center, a girl who looks like she might be no older than twelve spins about in a series of what appears to be some sort of complicated dance moves. A cheerful rythmic beat chirps out from a pair of small but powerful speakers nearby, belting out some kind of upbeat J-pop song.
The girl moves to the beat with a fluid grace, her legs and arms flowing as easily as water between dazzling spins and precarious hand-stands. Each time it looks like she might have overextended herself there are a few gasps of surprise but no matter how bold her motions become she always manages to land with a casual bounce and hops into the next step as if it were planned.
Bizarrely, many of her more daring flourishes are accompanied by a sudden stream of sparkling motes of light that emanate from her bare feet as if by magic, growing into a dazzling golden and pink stars before winking out just as quickly. Some sort of elaborate pyrotechnics? Technology can do some crazy things these days.
Even though the lives of the Dolls are in some respects vigorously, thoroughly managed, in other respects they have a great deal of opportunity to approach their objectives as they see fit. While Satsuki's current assignment is to gather intelligence on the fighters of Southtown, she's chosen not to do so by fighting just yet.
It's not that there's want of confidence in her abilities, either from her or from her masters; rather, she knows that some degree of her strength is retained through its mystery. Her first strike must be a complete surprise.
As a result, she's walking through the mall, clad in a perfectly normal white shirt and blue-black skirt; only her gauntlets give any indication of her true nature, and even then -- fighting culture is quite... expansive.
When she passes that patch of grass, something teases at the corner of her perception, something electric. Taking a relaxing, calm breath, Satsuki turns her attention to the girl, watching her movements carefully as she spins and hand-stands.
She gently shoulders her way through the crowd, eventually taking up a place at its front. The way she watches her is different from the way most of the crowd does; while most are awed, /she/ seems more... appraising.
Momoko goes through her routine with an almost unfair amount of skill and casual grace and she gets more than a few looks of obvious envy from some of the other girls in the crowd. Still, none of them are actually upset enough to say anything or interrupt the performance and if the small girl notices them she doesn't display it on her face.
She earns a few more strong looks when she displays just how flexible she is, dropping down into a splits position, her legs perfectly parallel to the ground in opposite directions. Rather than landing on her butt, however, she plants her hands on the grass and supports her weight upon her palms. Her legs immediately begin to swing around like a gyro and she pivots her hips back and forth, turning her lower body into a spinning pair of pendulums that leaves a stunning swirl of the pink stars in a ring around her.
The music rises in pitch, apparently indicating that the song is nearing its climax. Momoko puts on a burst of speed, accelerating her wild leg motions until her pants blur into a smear of off-white and the shimmering sparkles become an almost solid barrier around her. On the final note of the music, which hangs in the air for several long seconds, the young performer suddenly pushes down and flips herself inverted, legs still spinning madly. She twirls like some kind of human helicopter for several seconds but as the music fades into nothingness she tucks her legs inwards and propells herself into a roll that lifts her body completely off the ground for several seconds.
There is an audible gasp among those new to her performances. Momoko pinwheels for three full revolutions before her tiny bare feet alight upon the grass once more. Her arms snap out in an obviously showy fashion and she diverts the momentum of the landing into a quick bow, regaining her footing before she can tumbling face-first into the soft soil.
The twirls and spins continue, and Satsuki continues to watch her. Is she a fighter? She almost has to be, Satsuki thinks -- that level of style, grace, and speed doesn't come without a certain amount of training. She /could/ just be a dancer, but there's that energy... that /feeling/, instinctively.
When Momoko finishes her routine, Satsuki is eerily quiet for a moment, compared to the rest of the crowd; she glances to either side, seeing applause and cheering, and after a moment realizes that that's probably what /she/ should be doing, too, so she gives a cursory, almost soundless clap. The gesture seems out-of-place on her.
After a moment, she steps up, saying calmly, "Impressive performance." She's probably breaching some degree of street performance etiquette, but she also doesn't seem to care instead, she just asks, curiously, "How do you accomplish the effects in your performance?"
It's an innocent question -- save for the sense of dread that seems to roll off Satsuki in waves.
The wave of applause and cheers brings a huge smile to the girl's face. Momoko pulls herself upright and then gives another, more elaborate bow. Several people toss coins into the small can sitting next to her speakers and more than a few stuff actual paper bills in as well. There are a few call outs towards her, cries of admiration and obviously over-dramatic professions of love which cause her to blush a little but she just gives smiles and waves in return.
One fan, however, seems to be a little bit bolder than the others. As Momoko turns to plop herself down on one of the nearby benches she finds herself face-to-face with the older - well, atleast taller - girl. The dancer has to pull up short to keep from planting her face square into Satsuki's chest, which she quickly notes isn't too shabby. Pulling her her eyes upwards, however, Momoko peers up at the Doll with a mixture of curiosity and surprise.
"Wh-whoa! Oh, I didn't hear you step up, ha ha, sorry about that!" Momoko's face lights up at the casual praise and she plants both fists on her hips, smiling as brightly as the sun. "Ehehehe! Did you like my dance? It takes a lot of practice but its tons of fun!"
Her expression takes on a different tint for a moment at the question and she rubs the back of her neck. "Well, it's just a bunch of fireworks and stuff, you know? Just a little extra flare to dazzle the crowd." Her smile returns quickly. "Say, I've never seen you at my shows before! Is this your first one?" She extends a hand towards the other girl enthusiastically. "I'm Momoko!"
Now that she's much closer, Satsuki's curiously flat expression is a lot more noticeable. It's not /inhuman/ -- but it doesn't really seem in-place for someone who just watched, and enjoyed, a performance. The comment about 'fireworks' makes it dip just a little into something that might either be irritation or just surprise -- she proves a little difficult to read, given her careful neutrality.
"That's correct," Satsuki says, calmly. "My name is Satsuki." That much she can be honest about, she thinks; there are many Satsukis. it doesn't compromise her; even giving her the characters to write it with might not lead to a problem. "It is good to meet you, Momoko."
It takes her a long time to put together something else to say; maybe she's shy, or maybe talking just isn't her thing. When she does open her mouth again, it's to say, "You should consider fighting... you have excellent agility and command of your body. Much of what you did there would be adaptable to combat." One corner of her mouth ticks oh-so-slightly upward as she adds, "Even if you do not, however, I think I shall be returning to watch your shows in the future... though my schedule is irregular." Strange for a girl her age to have an irregular schedule -- she can't be older than sixteen.
Even if this performer's not a fighter... she still /could/ be, Satsuki thinks with her natural grace and agility, and this is simple threat assessment. Surely she wasn't interested in the shorter girl's actual routine; surely this sort of frivolous, normal day out isn't a feeling she wants to reacpture.
Satsuki nods almost imperceptibly, having finished tying her own psyche in a knot.
Momoko's hand slowly lowers are a few moments when the other girl chooses not to accept the greeting. Her smile only waivers for a moment and the boundless pep that seems to fuel her returns in full force. Maybe she just doesn't like being touched, some people are like that. Instead, the diminuative dancer offers a bow, inclining her head towards the Doll.
"Nice to meet you, Satsuki-chan!"
The girl studies her blank expression as if trying to figure something out. Maybe she offended her? Or she could just be shy. But if she's shy, why would she approach when no one else did? It's very odd. Momoko wears her puzzlement on her face openly but when the next question comes it quickly shifts into a mask of surprise.
"Fighting?" Momoko blinks slowly a couple times, the wheels visibly turning in her mind. After a few moments she grins. "Oh, you mean like sparring and stuff? I do that all the time!" Her playful grin returns and she lifts a finger to waggle it at Satsuki in a knowing fashion. "My moves are based off a martial art you know! It's called capoeira! It's kind of like dancing but it was developed to be a secret fighting style in Brazil! It's tons of fun!"
So she /does/ have that sort of background... Satsuki's intuition is rewarded -- though it doesn't prompt a smile. It's just a fact, albeit a fact that she feels has worked out to her advantage. "I see," is all she says, for a few moments; she needs to think of what, exactly, to say to that.
"I think you move very well... it is clear you are dedicated to your art." Raising a red-gauntleted hand, she notes, "It is important to commit yourself completely to something." In that instant, something more than the quiet, faintly /dis/quiet/ing/ Satsuki seems to show on her face; there's resolution there, an absolute clarity of purpose seen rarely in someone so young.
It passes, though -- and once again, the questions start. Satsuki sure likes those, doesn't she? "Do you consider this training, then? Or is this simply a show?"
Wow, this girl asks a lot of questions. But she also weaves compliments in between them so Momoko simply endures the strange interrogation from her stoic new fan. Her hands lock behind her back and she starts to sway back and forth in place as if unable to stand completely still at any point in time. In fact, she seems to almost literally hum with barely contained energy which is made all the more apparent in close proximity to the small performer.
"Well... I just really like doing it, you know? I don't really have any other talents so when I found out I could do this, I just kinda latched on! Some of my friends at school thought I should make a show out of it and the rest~," she says spinning gracefully on the tip of one foot, making a full revolution. "Is history, hehehe~."
So she just decided one day to be a fighter... what a sad existence, Satsuki thinks. Purposeless. Empty -- or rather, full of nothing. And all that energy, practically rolling off of her... It's something that Satsuki can only really think of as genuinely depressing.
"Understood," comes Satsuki's characteristically clinical reply. "You should continue honing your abilities. It is important that all skills be honed to the maximum possible extent." The fact that it's an art first and the show came later isn't lost on her, either; someday, perhaps, this young lady will come around to the right path.
"Are there any questions you would like to ask me? I will answer to the best of my ability," she says, a little abruptly; she's realized that her probing has become a little intense, but has no idea how to let a conversation flow like a normal person.
"I...err... I guess I will?"
She scratches her head. This girl is so weird! But that's okay, everyone is different! Momoko's smile doesn't fail her this time, now that she's used to the odd statements and she segues into the next phase of the conversation without pause.
"Hmm... aha! Ofcourse, I must ask the most important question first!" Momoko's hands ball up and she leans forward, expression becoming suddenly intense.
"Satsuki-chan!"
She narrows her eyes, brows furrowing. The energy around her seems to grow to a new height. Is she preparing an attack?!
"What..."
She dramatically lifts a finger at the Doll!
"Is your favorite flavor of icecream?!"
The sheer feeling of energy is enough to get Satsuki to back into her fighting stance; even in her civilian outfit, she's ready, and her stance indicates the years (days) (minutes?) (... time?) she's spent honing her own style. Her legs tense, and she readies herself to launch forward --
'... is your favourite flavour of ice cream?!'
... Satsuki falls right back out of her stance, staring blankly. For an instant, it's like everything in her brain has suffered a kernel error and is desperately trying to reboot something -- /anything/ -- to deal with what's happening.
Eventually, she comes up with something. "I have never had ice cream," Satsuki says, calmly. There is a faint wrongness to that answer, but Satsuki glosses over it in moments, closing her eyes and giving herself over entirely to her inner void. Eyes still closed, she continues, "I have very strict dietary guidelines." ... but then, those don't really apply out here in the world... do they?
It is Momoko's turn to have a mental short circuit. "Never... had...?" She stares up at the Doll with wide eyes, disbelief and horror evident in her dainty features that somehow only makes her look more cute. For a moment it looks like tears might well up in her big brown eyes and her lower lip quivers in sympathetic emotion.
Suddenly, a surge of undeniable purpose rises up to dispel all other thoughts. Momoko's eyes narrow and she sets her mouth into a thin-line of determination. She takes a step forward, boldly intruding into Satsuki's personal space as she latches her tiny grip onto the other girl's wrists. She pulls downards on the Doll's arms, using leverage to draw the taller girl downward until they are face to face.
"Satsuki-chan," Momoko says, very serious. "Allow me to introduce you to a whole new realm of wonder and delight."
Every inch of Satsuki's body tenses up as she's grabbed. She knows there's no ill intent there, but there's something about being grabbed with such a sense of purpose that puts her on edge; she lets herself be drawn down to the shorter Momoko's level, though, and looks into her eyes as she finds herself drawn into Momoko's wake inexorably.
She can't really find the words to object. Everything about Momoko's sudden enthusiasm indicates that there is a conflict to be had if she refuses, and little to lose if she accepts. "I see," Satsuki says, calmly. "Understood. Lead the way."
She has no idea what she's getting into, beyond that ice cream is a thing and she's probably about to put it in her mouth.
Momoko stares directly into her eyes, her own gaze unwavering until she gets a response, at which point she nods once, in a grim, resolute fashion, and then smiles brightly.
"Good! Come with me!"
The dancer releases her grip on one of Satsuki's wrists but the other stays firmly clamped on like a tiny part of handcuffs. She pulls them first over to where her small backpack lies on the ground, nestled neatly up against a bench. The bag, which looked like a large stuffed animal from a distance, turns out to be some sort of cutesy rabbit design with the head serving as a flap. Momoko flips the top open and deftly nudges the pair of portable speakers attached to a small audio-file player into it with her foot. The small metal can, which is now practically filled to the brim with coins and bills, is collected next and she tucks that into the bag as well before hefting it up over her shoulder, leaving it dangling by one 'paw' in an adorable fashion.
With her gear collected, Momoko turns to give her passenger another smile and then slips her grip down into Satsuki's hand and starts to lead her through the milling crowd towards her favorite cafe.
"I can't believe you've never had icecream before," she says, incredulously as they walk. "Every girl should be allowed to indulge in sweets from time to time! It's plain criminal to deny such simple pleasures!" She glances over her shoulder. "Your parents must be really strict, huh?"
Parents? That's a word Satsuki has never actually heard before, as far as she knows. She is dimly aware of the concept of family, in the sense that Momoko talks about as she leads her around, but 'parents' have literally never come up in her life. The tiny dancer's question, then, takes a little thought; Satsuki needs to recontextualize it.
When she answers, it's quiet. "My family is very serious about personal health," she explains. "It is important that we all optimize our food intake, at least when at home." It's not /wrong/ -- it's just... incomplete.
The Doll walks along toward the cafe, continuing, "I'll need to make significant adjustments to my diet to accommodate this..." Then again -- it's also important she not draw /too/ much suspicion.
Momoko just sighs and shakes her head a little. "That sounds pretty intense. But don't worry! A little snack here and there won't ruin your figure!" She leans in close to whisper up at her conspiratorily. "Girls have an extra stomach for sweets, you know."
The trip across the mall-part only takes a couple of minutes. The crowd thins out to reveal a small section of the pavement protected by a waist-high fence of painted metal bars worked into an elaborate swirling design. Around a dozen small circular tables are arranged in an almost haphazard fashion within the fence's borders, large umbrellas open above them to shield the occupants from the glare and heat of the sun.
Momoko hurries towards the nearest of the vacant tables and guides Satsuki into one of the seats before hopping cheerful into the one across from her. Her feet dangle several inches off the ground and she kicks them back and forth like a little kid. A thoughtful look overtakes the dancer and she puts a finger to the side of her face.
"Hmm. Now let's see... what should we start you off with? A parfait? Or maybe a mille-fueille sundae? Hmm... no, we should probably start basic and let you work up from there. Can't ruin all the surprises at once!"
Looking the circular tables over, Satsuki finds herself slightly repulsed by the irregularity of the spread. At base, everything is so perfect -- the logic is always so clear. This... this seems wasteful, somehow. The space could see so much better use!
Nevertheless, she sticks with Momoko, letting herself be sat neatly down. Her posture is perfect; you couldn't 3D-print a more perfect spinal column. She sits quietly as Momoko ruminates on what to feed her, blissfully unaware of most of the terms. 'Start basic,' though -- that /does/ seem reasonable enough.
"It is important to have a foundation on which to build subsequent experience," Satsuki says, without even a hint of irony regarding the fact that her memory extends backward, at the moment, about two weeks. "I think you are correct that we should begin with something basic. I will trust your judgment regarding basic ice cream."
She's still tense all over, though; maybe it's just hearing something that she knows to be as false as 'an extra stomach for sweets.' Either way, she studies the dancer's body again, asking, "Are any of your friends fighters of note as well?" as Momoko thinks about food.
Satsuki's prim and perfect posture clashes completely against Momoko's slouch, her body practically melded to the curved surface of her chair as if she has been poured onto it. The performer grins at her new friend as she lays out her tactical analysis of the situation. Icecream is srs bsns.
"Yep! If we started you off with something too complex you might not be able to properly appreciate all of the subtle flavors. Plus, once you've had a triple decker caramel strawberry mint creme parfait surprise, it's kind of hard to go back to plain vanilla. It's best if you stretch these things out!"
Within a moment or two, a young girl who can't be much older than either of them steps out of the cafe to take their order. Upon laying eyes on Momoko, who hasn't noticed her yet, the waitress smiles leans down to hug the little dancer from behind which elicits a squeak of surprise followed by an amused giggle as she hugs her back.
"Miki! You shouldn't sneak up on me like that!"
"Sorry, Moko," she says, affectionately ruffling her hair. "It was too good a chance to pass up!"
Momoko sticks her tongue out at her and then gestures across the table. "Miki! This is Satsuki. She came to watch my performance!" The girl leans in, her eyes going wide again. "She... she's never had icecream before!"
Miki boggles briefly and turns to look at Satsuki alongside Momoko, both of them staring at her like some sort of alien. "R-Really?! Well... it's a good thing you brought her! We can't let this situation continue!"
Momoko nods gravely. "Start her off with something small, Miki. Wouldn't want to overwhelm her."
"Right. How about a milkshake?"
"Perfect!", Momoko says with grin. "And the usual for me!"
The waitress casts a meaningful glance down at Momoko's slender waist and pokes her stomach with the back of the pen in her hand. "One day you will tell me your secret. Alright, I'll be right back."
Miki turns and vanishes into the store again and Momoko turns her beaming smile back towards the Doll. "That's Miki. She's worked here ever since I found the place." Satsuki's question about fighters seems to have been forgotten in the sudden excitement. "If you come back here without me, make sure you talk to Miki. She'll set you up with the good stuff!"
Staying perfectly calm as she watches the exchange between Momoko and Miki, Satsuki finds herself wondering why on Earth she would ever let someone she doesn't have constant knowledge of that close to her. It just seems like an exceptionally poor idea -- and renders someone so vulnerable...
Questions she'd consider asking do get answers, at least -- totally unprompted -- and that seems to distract Satsuki from the unanswered ones. "So knowing the employees leads to better results when ordering..." She nods once, saying, "Understood." It certainly seems to make sense to her.
Small talk is all but impossible for Satsuki, so in spite of the relatively normal situation, she remains tense. The Doll tries to find /something/ to talk to Momoko about... and ends up at something in that conversation. "What secret are you hiding from Miki?" she asks, clearly not /really/ getting that dynamic.
"O-oh that?" Momoko rubs the back of her neck sheepishly, still grinning. "She's just jealous because I can eat tons of junk food without gaining weight. She spends all of her time working or at school so she doesn't have time to burn it off like me, ehehe~."
The dancer's expression becomes wistful for a moment. "Ofcourse, she has other...assets... that I lack." She goes silent for a few moments, blushing for no apparent reason. "I wish she'd tell me /her/ secret..."
Satsuki is spared the pressure of attempting to engage in idle chatter for long. In less than a minute, the waitress returns bearing a small platter balanced on her palm with ease born from years of practice. She slides up to the table and sets a tall crystal glass infront of the dark-haired girl. The vessel is every bit as elaborate and fancy as the decor, its rim shaped into curved petals that fold outwards from the top. A dark brownish substance fills the interior almost to the top where it is capped off by a generous mound of whipped creme. A single cherry rests at the center of the fluffy topping, offset on one side by a long straw and the other by the handle of a spoon.
"Here you go, Satsuki-chan. One chocolate milkshake, on the house."
"Huh, really?!", Momoko says, looking somewhat surprised.
"Ofcourse!" Miki counters, winking. "Can't very well charge a girl for her first milkshake!"
Her attention returns to Satsuki as she turns to leave. "Enjoy, cutie. I'll be right back with yours, Moko."
At the very least, Satsuki pretty much instantly parses that this is the object in question; she's used to brown, liquid food. Indeed, food substitutes constitute most of her diet! They're easier to optimize. The Doll looks the object over once, carefully assessing it; she starts with the straw, because she gets the feeling the spoon is for scooping the last little bits out once everything else is finished.
"Thank you," she says to the waitress, nodding. "I appreciate the generosity." Sipping at the beverage, she goes at it with the enthusiasm of someone who doesn't know what a milkshake is... which means, after a moment, her head starts to bother her. She reels back a little, her eyes screwing shut for a moment. "I... I am experiencing referred pain from my mouth, in my forehead," she says, calmly, as if she's never experienced a brain freeze before.
Staying in her reeled-back posture, she takes a few calming breaths, asking, "Is this an intended part of the experience?" with incredulity. Truly, the world outside Shadaloo has some strange things.
Momoko watches as the girl digs into her frosty treat, staring with the intensity of someone watching a monkey prance around in the zoo. When Satsuki reels and relays her distress to her, the dancer's face screws up and she has to clap first one, then both hands over her mouth to keep from laughing out loud.
"Pffttfff...!" It takes her a couple seconds to get it under control. "N-no, silly! You're not supposed to inhale it like that! It's really cold, so you have to go slowly and savor it."
Momoko hops out of her chair and circles around the table, reaching up to massage Satsuki's temples, assuming she allows it. "Just..." She almost loses her composure again but reigns in the giggle that was building. "Just wait little bit and the pain will go away, then you can try again."
Once again, the abrupt touches put Satsuki on edge -- but she begins to assume this kind of thing is normal, given her dynamic with Miki, and she can't draw attention to herself. As a result, she just lets it happen, allowing herself to be massaged through the brain freeze.
The dark-haired young lady feels it pass, and sits back up again, saying, "Thank you. This is an unfamiliar style of food... I am mostly familiar with --" It takes her a second to find the conventional words for what she's used to eating, before she finally finishes, "... medical food."
She shakes her head, drinking from the shake a second time. It's... this is a sensation she'd like to experience more often, she reflects, distantly. "How often do you drink these...?" she asks, a little confused. Surely something so sugary must make it impossible to maintain optimal fitness.
Miki comes back while Momoko massages the cold out of her head with slow deft rolls of her fingertips. She looks at the two of them and immediately deciphers the situation which makes her break out into a broad grin.
"Went too fast, huh? Don't worry, everyone makes that mistake, just most of us are little kids when we get our first one."
There is a dull thump as something is set on the table and when Satsuki sits up and opens her eyes again she is greeted with what can only be described as a mountain of icecream. Momoko squeals in delight and rushes back over to her seat, practically bouncing in place as she picks up the spoon resting on the edge of the colossal sundae.
Atleast four different colors of icecream are heaped upon each other in a pile. Thick layers of chocolate and caramel coat everything, mixing together in swirls of brown and black. The bottom half of the monstrosity is made entirely out of cake with a heavy saturation of some thick gooey red substance. Whipped cream and slices of fruit make up the final layer atop it all and as with Satsuki's milkshake, there is a lone cherry at the peak of the fluffy pile, a lonely king of the mountain.
Momoko wastes no time in digging into the side of the treat, practically shovelling mouthfuls of everything into her face with a disturbing amount of gusto despite her earlier warning to Satsuki about taking things slow. Miki watches this with the patience of someone used to such displays but she still puts a finger to her temple and sighs, answering Satsuki's question instead.
"She's here pretty much every day. Honestly, I have no idea where she puts it all."
That's no sundae; that's a monster. Satsuki stares at it like she's found the Ark of the Covenant for a few moments, trying to comprehend how much food that even is; she can sort of puzzle it out from the ingredients, but there are too many variables. Still -- even the most conservative estimates...
She can't stop staring. It distracts her from her own milkshake for what feels like an eternity, with an emotion she really isn't particularly aware of the particulars of. She can't even staple together a sentence, especially when she hears that that thing goes into Momoko's mouth /every day/.
Blinking a few times, she eventually manages, "I understand now why your show and training are so necessary. I do not think you would survive consuming this regularly without doing so." Her neutral expression remains as she goes back to her milkshake, trying to find the optimal pace.
Satsuki's stunned silence is met with a nod from the waitress. "Yeeeep. If she didn't jump around like a maniac all the time, she'd be as big as a house. Atleast, that's what I keep telling myself. Some people have all the luck..."
Miki looks disapprovingly down at her own body for a moment then sighs. "Well, I have to get back to work. Enjoy your milkshake, Satsuki-chan, and don't try to filch anything from the monster. She'll probably bite a finger off." Warning delievered, she wanders off to attend to other customers, leaving the Doll to her fate.
Momoko hasn't stopped eating since the moment her hands wrapped around that spoon. A good fourth of the entire sundae is noticibly missing already, a massive gaping wound in the side of the icecream mountain as if someone had blown it out with dynamite. The smears of chocolate and syrup on the small girl's face mark her clearly as the culprit, however.
"Nah," she says between mouthfuls. "I've always been a big eater!"
Nodding to Miki, Satsuki replies, "Understood," to the waitress. It's not as though there's much else she can say to her, and she's a little baffled by the situation as a whole anyway. Her gaze sweeps over the area as a whole again, just to be certain that she isn't missing some sort of bizarre ambush for which all of this kindness has been setup.
Satisfied with her assessment of the area, she nears the end of her milkshake, having evidently found the optimal brain-freeze-avoiding pace and juuuust skirting it. "You should be more careful with your food, Momoko," Satsuki notes, looking at the mess.
Crisply sliding the glass away from her slightly, she adds, "What do you do after you finish, then? Do you restart your routine immediately, or do you wait to avoid gastrointestinal issues and nausea?" On the one hand, there are advantages to waiting -- but on the other, there are only so many hours in a day...
Down to about half now. Momoko moves with a purpose, mechanically gobbling up bite after bite as if she is a sundae-devouring robot, yet still pausing long enough to make contented noises as she savors the various flavors within. The area on her face around her mouth looks like ground-zero for some sort of horrific explosion. Bits of cake crumbs are scattered about smears of icecream and syrup and the tip of her nose is covered with dabs of whipped cream.
The dancer pauses and looks up, actually having to lean sideways to peer around the half-eaten corpse of her dessert at Satsuki. She stares quizzically for a few moments as if the question didn't quite filter through her haze of cake-feeding frenzy but eventually she swallows and says, "Well, usually I just go to one of the parks and take a nap. There's lots of great spots to curl up on the grass and just doze off." She smiles brightly. "But today I promise my mom I would help her with laundry so I can't hang around too long."
"Understood," Satsuki replies, tone as flat and placid as ever. "I will leave momentarily, then, to allow you more time to prepare to return home. This meeting has been very informative." There's still no real expression there, but her tone, at least, indicates a minimum level of sincerity. "I will be back to see your show again at a later date."
She takes a napkin to clean off her own face, perhaps rendered slightly self-conscious about her appearance by the disaster that is Momoko's attempt at eating. "I understand contact information is traditionally exchanged during a first meeting such as this, but I do not carry a phone," she adds.
Wondering for a moment if there's something she's forgetting, Satsuki seems to freeze mid-stand, trying to process the situation... and then stands up as if nothing had happened, saying, "I am grateful for your guidance regarding ice cream."
Momoko just smiles back at her. If she picked up on the subtle hesitation in Satsuki's demeanor she doesn't say anything about it.
"It was nice meeting you, Satsuki-chan! I'll watch for you at my shows. Maybe we can get icecream together again sometime."
The friendly note in the girl's tone is as obvious as the lack of emotion in the Doll's. She waves her spoon at her one final time in greeting before returning to the task of relocating the rest of the sundae into the impossibly small space that is her stomach.
Log created on 20:36:39 10/27/2014 by Satsuki, and last modified on 02:46:21 10/28/2014.