Forums » General Roleplay » Students vs Burglars [18+]

The newcomer smirked slightly as the pair approached.

Meg turned to Matt and Danny as they came back down the bicycle aisle toward the cart. "Oh, hey! This is Wednesday! She's the one I was telling you about. We're in the band together," Meg replied excitedly.

"Yeah, that's right," Wednesday replied. "Meg backs me up on stage."

"I just met Danny today. He literally just moved in and we're helping him get a few things to get through the night until he can get stuff ordered," Meg explained. "I met Matt yesterday. He lives in my apartment complex, too. We're all neighbors. Danny plays; bass. If we ever decided to expand the band maybe we can use him."

"I doubt that," Wednesday replied dryly. "First off, we're an acoustic duo. Second, A Week From Wednesday stays an all girl band even if at some point we get new or replacement members. It's an image thing."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Matt. Meg was generous to give us a ride today." Matt said to Wednesday.

"How nice of her," She said rather smugly.

"I'm just hanging around, came to fill up my supplies. Sports is my thing, music unfortunately not. I only know how to ring the bell of my bike. Is anyone hungry by the way?"

"Guess we don't have much in common or things to talk about then," Wednesday remarked. She turned back to Meg. "So, I guess I'll see you at practice tomorrow. Hopefully, your new friends are coming to the gig on Friday? Anyway, It sounds your neighbors need you to take them to Taco Bell or McDonald's or whatever. Talk to you later."

"(Wow. Now that is an effective way to kill a conversation. No room for small talk. What is this woman?)" Matt thought baffled.

He was stunned on how cold Wednesday behaved. He looked towards Danny, and wondered did he had similar feeling.

"So.. how about we go full random? I can open google maps, tap my finger in random spot, and see what comes out first." Matt said, and shared a neutral gaze with Danny and Meg.

"Is she usually like this, or did I just have wrong word in wrong time?" Matt asked when Wednesday was out of hearing range.

Danny raised an eyebrow at the cold reception from Wednesday. Who pissed in her Cheerios this morning, he wondered to himself. Watching Matt's reaction, he was pretty sure that he was thinking the same thing.

"What the hell," Danny asked as Wednesday continued on her way with her cart full of stuff. He waited to comment until she was far enough away she wouldn't hear him.

"So.. how about we go full random? I can suffle the restarant list for us from the website of the mall." Matt said, and shared a neutral gaze with Danny and Meg.

"You mean like the food court? Is the mall close to here? I mean Meg's driving so that's her call I guess."

OOC: Does Matt say the last part aloud? It's not written as thoughts, but I'm confused by "he asked silently". Did you mean to say quietly? Silent means he didn't make a sound, like he's thinking it in his head but didn't actually say it.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure they come to the gig," Meg called after Wednesday as she continued on her way. She then turned back to Matt and Danny.

"Oh, don't mind her. She takes a little warming up to," Meg said quickly noting the guys' reaction to Wednesday's somewhat standoffish behavior. She quickly changed subjects. "The mall isn't far. If we go there, everyone can pick whatever they want in the food court and we could walk around there a bit. That is if you guys all want food. I have a feeling once Danny gets settled, he'll be living off of cheap ramen delivered by Prime or pizza and Chinese food deliveries and may not ever leave his apartment again. While he's dependent on me for a ride, why don't we go to a nice sit-down place? This could be our one and only chance! There's a Mexican place not too far, uh... Chili's, IHop, Denny's, uh... I don't know anything about Vietnamese food, but there's one of those Pho* Bistros..."

*Not knowing any better, Megan pronounces the word "Foe". The correct way to say it is "Fuh". That's a common American mistake for people who don't know Vietnamese culture.

(OOC - matt said his extra comment about the same time with Dannys reply, as soon as Wednesday was out of range)

Matt scrolled google maps for a short while.
"Green Lotus *Foe. How would that sound? Its only 3 minutes away. It has 26 seats and a takeaway service. If you like the stuff, you can order later on again. I have had some delivery orders from there, but not recently. I had forgotten the place already. We can wrap up things here if we need something more, and then get moving. Do you need anything more Danny?"

"I'm good," Danny replied. "That is if Meg is okay with Vietnamese. By the way, the word is pronounced "Fuh" like the first half of the f word. I only know that because we ate pho a few times back in Portland. Dani knew all about that kind of thing and insisted we try it. She got all red in the face when I said it wrong right in front of our server when I tried to order."

"Sure," Meg answered shrugging. "I'm open to trying it, but someone will have to show me what to order since I have no idea."

Danny began making his way to the front of the store to checkout. He pulled out his phone so he could use his Target app to pay for his purchases. Since he wasn't terribly social, he opted for the self-checkout lanes so he didn't have to interact with the cashier. Once he got his receipt, he waited for Matt and Meg to pay for their purchases.

Matt paid his lamp, and then waited as Meg finished with her stuff. After that they packed everything into the car and took a short ride to the restaurant. As they got closer, Matt remembered the place. It was cozy but simple restaurant with nice large portions. Their pho bowls were unusually large for a takeaway meal. Place was owned by elderly lady, who spoke very little english. If there came any issue, she would summoned someone from kitchen to translate.

Meg parked the car and they got inside. Relaxing oriental music was playing on the background. Place had a decoration theme of bamboo forest and flowers. Primary colours were dark brown and light green. On the celing there were hanging round hats made of some kind of plant. Restaurant was about half full. There was one middle age woman making an order as they got closer to the counter. Menu was hanging on the wall by the counter. Names of all the dishes were in vietamese, and under the names were listed descriptions in english and vietnamese. Vietnamese used english alpabets, but some letters had dots or dashes above or below them. They looked fascinating for Matt.

"No grass! I said I don't want any grass to my portion! This is America! Learn english or go back where ever you came from!" Why do you come here if you can't even understand a simple word in english!" Woman suddenly started to yell to confused looking woman behind counter, Matt recognized her to be the owner.

Young woman quickly rushed out from the kitchen. She had pitch black hair and apparently black eyes. She looked young and kinda innocent, almost like a teenager, but she had very determined and wise look in her eyes. It was difficult to evaluate actual age of asian women, so in the eyes of an average american she looked like a girl, rather than a woman. She also looked very familiar. Matt had sometimes seen a girl kinda like her running at the inner yard of their appartment on very early mornings. But then again, asians looked very similar in his eyes.

"You are using child labour? What is this place? Im gonna call cops!!" Woman shouted.
"Maam*, the order that gave is unclear. We are capable to leave out vegetables in some extent. Are you refering to sprouts, spring onion or lemongrass?" Young woman spoke in fluent english. She looked calm and professional, but she did not smile.
"I dont eat any grass. Leave them all out." Woman said proudly, lifting her chin as she spoke.

"In that case I suggest you choose another dish. Lemongrass is a key ingredient in pho. It is grinded into such fine form it cannot be removed."

Owner said something in vietnamese and young woman nodded. She replied quickly in vietnamese. Owner sounded to be upset, but the young lady had neutral tone.

"Are playing games with me?" Woman asked with hostile tone.
"We have no intrest in games. This is a business. Are you choosing another dish, or would you kindly allow the people behind you to place their orders"? Young woman said, leaning forward over the counter, and started to slowly tap the counter above a place where a wooden sign was attached, which read: "Smile, we have 24/7 recording surveilance system with audio, for all of our security"

(OCC: *polite way to refer to female customer inteded)

Meg had listened to the exchange patiently, although she didn't approve of the woman's racism at all.

"I need to speak to a manager, now," The woman demanded.

"Uh, hey look KAREN," Meg suddenly interrupted when the woman glanced behind her when she was informed that there were other people waiting to place an order. "I'm pretty sure you're talking to her. McDonald's is right down the street. I suggest if you don't know anything about food from another culture or don't want to do business with a restaurant that won't accept your white privilege card, you can get in your BMW and drive your rich yuppy ass down there and order a happy meal. Better yet, if you choose Burger King, I hear they'll make it your way..."

She glanced over and noticed Danny was standing a few feet back now and filming the whole exchange on his phone.

"How dare you! Stop filming me right now! I'll sue you," The woman snapped.

"Best of luck, we're in a public place. The security camera is also on you. The courts will get two angles, plus you have 3 witnesses. It won't end well for you, Karen," Meg replied with a big fake grin on her face.

"Well...," The woman stamped her foot and turned to storm out the door. Her face was bright red at this point. "I'm going to get on Trip Advisor, Yelp, and every other review site I can find online and leave your business a terrible review," She threatened before exiting. "I'll tell all my friends to do the same!"

"Sure, just go ahead. This is country of the free and the brave!" Matt yelled back at her.

"People like you keep giving these parasites a signal that they can just walz in here, sell weed, traffic children to work for food, and evade taxes and what ever! You should be ashamed of yourselves! When tax inspectors come to raid this place, you should be grateful! Im doing this country a favour! Because of people like these, our society is always lacking tax money!" Karen roared, and grabbed the door handle.

"Alrighty then! Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out," Meg called after the rude woman. "I can't believe that. I bet she was just here to troll. Why else would she have come in here in the first place?"

"Bye, Felicia," Danny added as he turned the camera off. He turned to the woman behind the counter. "I can get you the video if you need it just in case. She's a coward and knows she's in the wrong here, so there is little chance of her coming back. In fact, I'm happy to leave my contact info. if you need any witnesses. It wouldn't hurt to file a police report just so there is a record of this. You don't have to press charges or anything. That will just ensure the incident is documented in case she and her friends harass you or your business in the future."

Door was slammed shut, and a loud F-bomb echoed from outside. The woman was finally gone.

Young woman gave strong sigh of relief. "Karen has left the building. Thank you for your help. My name is Hue, and she is Manager Phan, the owner of this restaurant. We are deeply grateful to you all. We do get difficult individuals from time to time, but this one was clearly in the upper half of hard mode. You also recorded that? I think I might wanna look that mess again once I have calmed down. We will gladly take your information."

The owner shook her head.
"She come here.. ask pho.. say, no grass, no grass. What is grass? Pho, no grass. Mung bean, no grass." Owner said with strong accent in broken English.

Hue tapped her to the shoulder and they said something to each other quickly in Vietnamese. Hue wrote a quick note, that had a phone number and email address. She gave the paper to the trio

"She is not very skilled with computers, so you can send your video to me. Also, she probably missed a lot what you said, so I will share with her all the essentials. I think I will also give a call to police department, and ask for advice. I see no reason to make legal issues, unless she sends something more to our direction. Of course, the owner makes the final decision on legal demands. So, this is just my opinion. I don't know is this individual serious with tax and child labour accusation claims. I suppose I do look like 14 year-old for her. Which authorities would handle such accusations?" Hue wondered. She did seem small and young, but clearly her looks was misleading. She was wearing a white a apron, which had noticeable number of small fresh food spills.

"Hey no worries," Meg replied. "I'm Meg and this is Danny. We're all neighbors. Danny just moved in today and Matt and I met the other day. We were just showing him around and went to the store to get him a few things to get him by tonight until he has a chance to order some stuff online. It was getting late and we figured we'd grab some food here. If your boss wants to call the cops we can stick around and talk to them. We can just eat here. Uh, I'm kinda new at this, though. Danny and Matt have some experience with Vietnamese food but I've never had it. Any suggestions on what to try?"

Hue looked at Meg with the big smile.

"Sure thing, you are here for the food, and Im your chef today. This one is on the house, for all of you. The manager wants to show her grattitude. I find pho is the best to start with. Basic pho is 10-hour broth noodle soup with thin sliced beef. If you want specialized pho, we can combine beef, pork slices, tofu cubes and beef meatballs in any variation. When I say meatball, don't expect your standard mincemeat powder mess. These ones are nearly as sturdy as a steak. I personally like to combine beef slices and meatballs in my pho. Every portion has mung bean sprouts. If you like spicy food, we can add sriracha chili sauce to your portion. All spices can also be added later.

"Okay, that sounds good. I'll go with your recommendation," Meg replied.

"Sure, I'll do the same," Danny said. "If you want to give me your email and phone number, I can send you that footage. It will be too big to text unfortunately since it went on for several minutes, but I can upload it to my Youtube account and set it to private and share the link with you. I can give you my info., too."

Danny then stepped aside so Matt could take his turn placing an order. He then picked a table for the group to sit at and waited for their order to be called.

Hue exchanged phone numbers and email with everyone, gave a short call to each to make sure that she got the numbers correct. Then she took a note where she started to mark the orders.

Matt gave her very curious look at this point.
"Do you by chance happen to live at Foxlake appartents?" He asked.
"Umm, why do want to know"? Hue asked with uncertain tone.
"I have seen someone who resembles you walking at the yard somewhere in very early hours of the day"

Hue looked even more puzzled.
"That must have been someone alse. Many asian look alike for western eyes." She said.
"Ok, never mind. I order pho with tofu."
"Thank you." Hue said briefly, wrote the order down and vanished to the kitchen.
"That would have been quite a coincidence." Matt said plainly to others.

Suddenly Matt's phone gave a signal for a message.
"FoxL.App B5. Dont tell to other customers. I hate stalkers. This is a small place. You can show this to your group."
Message came from Hue's number.

Matt turned the phone accross the table, so they all could see the screen. Hue was living direcly above Meg. There was literally just a floor between them.

Meg leaned in and read the message. She looked back toward the kitchen and gave a thumbs up. Then she texted Hue back on her own phone. You're right above me. Danny is next door.

Meg then looked over at Danny. "Well, now you have a third new friend. Maybe we'll start eating here regularly," She suggested. "Unless they deliver. Of course, I'm sure you could use DoorDash. Matt and I can come in in person and text with you while you eat from the seclusion of your little cave. It's too bad Aaron missed out."

"Actually, they do deliver. Now that we are here, I remember I have been here before. I havent got orders from here very often, but I do remember the decorations, the manager and large portions. I never paid any attention on other staff, since I was busy getting the delivery and moving on. Just you wait until you see their stuff. These guys are not serving any french syle à la carte design portions for hamsters. They are BIG." Matt commented.

"Ha! See, we'll just have to meet up via text as I enjoy my pho from the privacy of my secret bunker which I will not have to leave now," Danny gloated when Matt confirmed that delivery was an option. He caught Meg making a face at him and grinned innocently at her.

Danny scrolled through his phone to pass the time as they waited for their dinner. He occasionally stole a glance in the direction of the kitchen. The day had been busy and he realized he hadn't eaten since arriving at the airport to catch his flight. A lot had happened in the past few hours since his arrival.

"Oh, it looks like she may be finishing up and coming this way," Danny announced after a few more minutes passed.

Young woman came out from the kitchen with three massive bowls. The newcomer was also in her early 20s.

The capacity of each bowl must have been nearly 30 ounces, if not more. They was loaded with noodles nearly as thick as spagetti. Once the group started to eat, they noticed that the noodles were rather sturdy, making it truly feel like a meal. Beef was cut into thin tastly slices. Meat balls were cut in half, since the original size was close to ping pong ball. This was probably to make then easyer to consume. They were somewhat neutral, but overall tasty as well. Stucture was indeed sturdy, even slightly chewy. It was propably done with some powder, but it had formed a stucture closer to sturdy gel rather than soft pastry. Still, it clearly tasted like meat. The broth was ritch in flavour and slightly sweet. It was combination of many spices, but the only one they could recognize was cinnamon. There were some hebs floating on the top. On the table there were spoons, choopsticks, knives and forks for the food.

"Yup. That is big. I dont know is it the shape, but in the bowl it looks like even larger than takeaway portion. We need to show this place to Aaron." Matt commented with wide smile.