Affurgato Mingle: December edition

[necromanswers]

♥ Who: Open to all
♥ Where: Affurgato
♥ When: This week
♥ What: A grant reopening of the best restaurant in town!
♥ Rating: probably PG/13ish?



What a sad, sad month November was. The local cafe, Affurgato, has been closed. However, at the start of this week, a surprise notice is sent out to all communicators:

Affurgato's open again! Come save your sorry tongues from those replicator meals. Or come pet a cat, if that's more your jam. We don't judge here, we only charge.

Also: it's Candlenights! Bring the staff a present. If we find it interesting enough, you might get something extra in your meal. What do the staff like? Well, that's your job to figure out. <3

The restaurant hasn't gone through any sort of redesign, but it is somewhat decked out more than usual; soft colourful lights line the outside, candles on every table (fake or magical, so they are cat-safe and non-flammable), and even Ditto appears to be a little more seasonal this month. Hard to tell whether or not he's okay with this, he's a tough read.

One notable difference is that Lup isn't out running front of house as much, with the kitchen more bustling now that they're down one chef. She's keeping up pretty well, but the seating arrangements have been shuffled around to make the max capacity a little lighter to maintain things if there happens to be a rush. The menu is gently simplified, but the ingredients taste better than ever, and for this week in particular, fresh turkey dinners are back on the menu, alongside a crunchy treat that is called "fried unicorn dick", but is... probably just a battered candy bar. Probably. Maybe. Who's feeling brave?

On the 9th in particular, a fresh message goes out to friends of Honerva, gently pestering them to swing by the cafe for an open mingle. And maybe you should volunteer for a little bit at the cafe, serve, assist Honerva... it's terrible for a lady to have to work on her birthday, after all. You know, if it was her birthday. Wink.

On that day in particular, every visitor gets a free slab of delicious and delicately frosted cake.

Come on over, Havenwellians! Or whatever you're called. The cats have missed you! And you've missed the food, no doubt.

Comments

[shroudedsecrets]

It certainly was a lot to try and become accustomed to, and she'd certainly started off her journey of it in a similar position that he now finds himself, often feeling awkward and uncertain, but one continued to try despite that.

Truthfully it's on the side of overwhelming... in a good way, while she still adjusts, to his presence and his openness, the weight of her emotions and this opportunity that they have that even as she sits down with him and still is process that he is glad to see her, glad to be here, he's...

"Lotor, you...?"

There's a brief moment, as her expression turns momentarily puzzled while she looks to his offered envelope, before her ears shift, eyes soft, one hand pressed to her lips, the other curled at her chest. She was still uncomfortable in some ways with the notion of even having a birthday, but for him to want to be a part of it at all and then on top of that, to bring her a gift? And not only that, his own... art, something so personal and...

He didn't have to to do this at all, and yet he thought to, customary or not, and doesn't that just say so much for the kind of person he is?

"All that I could enjoy is right here. This... kindness that you have and are willing to share. The fact that you are here. Thank you... I will treasure this."

She hasn't even received it from him yet to look at but it already has meaning to her. They were parts of his personal journey that she had never known before.

[waitatick]

Lotor shifted a bit uncomfortably. He was unused to sharing such blatant emotion truthfully, and it was by no means something he'd get accustomed to easily. But...

"Being in Deerington taught me the futility of the concepts of time. Permanence is so often impermanent, and we have a great deal of time to make up. I would not waste it, unless of course such gestures discomfort you."

He paused to look at the table and try to gather his thoughts.

"The version of you that I know - the only version I have ever known - is so opposite to who you are in this place. I would very much like to know you, if such a thing is welcomed. You will have to forgive my inexperience in these matters - affection for others was seen as a weakness all my life, so it is rather new territory for me."

[shroudedsecrets]

"... I am grateful for them. Please, do not mistake my surprise for discomfort. That you should be willing to spend this time with me... despite everything... of course it is welcome. I can't even begin to tell you how much it means to me."

It is not his fault that she is surprised by his gestures, ever surprised he would give her this much time of day, but it is just more proof that they had never truly known another until now. Time and knowledge in other realities offers far more than they might have had anywhere else.

"I know that it can be frightening at first, to trust those inclinations. I believe you will... find your way with this, on your own terms."

[waitatick]

"I am glad you like them. I had feared I would bring something you would not enjoy. Interpersonal relationships are not something I have a great deal of experience in."

Which was a drastic understatement, but he didn't want to darken her day.

"I am attempting to do so. It... helps to speak with you."

[shroudedsecrets]

"Having this time makes all the difference. There is much I am still learning that I have the capability to enjoy. But this..."

Finally she'll reach to accept the envelope properly, expression a little misty, but she's smiling.

"You... took the time to think of this. Knowing that you put that much care into your decisions makes it all the more dear to me."

i know this is late, feel free to ignore!

[waitatick]

Lotor shifted a bit uncomfortably. Not at her words, but at the feelings they inspired in him. Foreign, yes, but this also felt so very dreamlike. He'd wanted to converse with her for so very long...

"It is truly nothing so special. I enjoy drawing; it is a nice way to visually record things and it helps me to concentrate and focus on things when I am at odds with myself. I know your memories are quite fractured and I thought it may help to see some of the worlds that have been obedient to you for so long."

you're not late, shhh. all tags welcome.

[shroudedsecrets]

Her ears lower a little.

"... Not to me."

Not obedient to her, that is, or certainly not of any desire to be. As High Priestess she served the Emperor's will, but was no true ruler, the empire becoming so much wider than it had initially been when she was considered an Empress, once the Galra were forced into a star-traversing race. Still she smiles. If this is dreamlike to him, it certainly has the same effect on her, feeling the wonder with him might never cease.

"Nothing would make me happier than to look upon these worlds in the way you perceived them. You were so capable of... knowing and valuing them instead of minimizing their existence for their output, and I am almost ashamed to admit at how... much of them I put behind me now as much I wish to go forward. Though to be able to look upon them, with your words to guide me would be as though we were... taking a journey together, through your words and your pictures. You're... an explorer at heart, aren't you?"

<3

[waitatick]

"Perhaps not to you specifically, but to the power Haggar represented. And perhaps for some, to the memory and legend of the Empress that became legend."

Because while Zarkon had forbidden her true name be spoken in his presence and public records of her were hidden, many of the Galra revered her even in his own timeline. The Alteans on his colony had known her not as someone who had assisted in the attempted genocide, but as a figure who had made many scientific advances.

But he would not tell her of the colony. Not yet. There was still the residual fear that this might be some sort of trickery, that she would take the information and use it to destroy him as well as the rest of the multiverse. But he wanted to, regardless.

"Ah, then I suppose it is obvious. Yes, I do love exploring. It was one of the few things to bring me peace and joy. Learning the ways of other peoples and their environments gives me much fulfillment."

[shroudedsecrets]

Legend it may have been, she had not yet the time to do such research into her own past, to know what was hidden from her and the more current generations. There were far too many who doubted the witch and only wanted her power. While Lotor may have discovered Alteans she had not encountered any, personally, not until the shock of Allura's existence.

Those earliest memories were gone too; the loss of Altea, Lotor's birth, Zarkon's decision regarding their future, few snippets of that could even be had with the many millennia of loyal servitude and stagnation between. But now she knew far better than to fixate on the problems of the lost past, so long as there was chance of a future away from that universe entirely.

"I am quite glad that it is. The fact that you were able to make some happiness of your own, when your father wasn't watching so closely..."

Would it have made a difference, had she the chance to raise and love him herself? Her ears shift slightly, as she wrestles the thought; it shouldn't matter now, it is past and he is here, but the sting of it hits her hard anyway. Instead of focusing on that though, instead she opens the envelope, sliding the first piece of art out so they can look at it together.

"Is this..."

[waitatick]

He could only scoff.

"Yes, though his spies were everywhere - "

But he forced himself to stop. Zarkon had most certainly had spies on him, but the main source of the bitterness in his voice had been the witch and her ability to know things about him that science and logic could never explain.

But Honerva was not the witch, and he would not tarnish her day with his past. Instead, her question made his ears perk up as he looked over at the drawing.

"That is Oriande, yes. Merely the cliff face and the sky. It was the most lovely shades of pink and purple. There are also several of the Temple and the Guardians, from what I can recall from memory. Sadly they cannot be completely accurate."

[shroudedsecrets]

She well understands his bitterness is warranted. Even as Haggar, while she had paid him little heed until he was called back to rule, it was only to wonder why he was not being more visible within the Empire as Emperor pro term, if only to keep the grumblings of the commanders away from Zarkon's chambers and his status.

Whatever else the witch had been, she had been quite dedicated toward that legacy, however twisted the roots may have been. And now what was left but the painful reminders? But here, her son in the present, had gifted her with images of what Honerva herself had once sought after, so long ago and not even at the heart of what she wanted now.

His art at least confirms what she had seen in an unexpected vision while here, the same one which had heralded his fate to her, and that is what has her gasp softly for a moment. It was not something she had fully understood at the time, but now she knew why it had been so haunting.

"... Art cannot be expected to be accurate, but you would well come close, I feel. The colors, the lines... the warmth." She murmurs, instead; for that at least, is something known to people who study history, who go off of ancient images in the hope it might lead them to more. He does not feel confident in presenting this, and yet he has; she wants to reassure him that he has done so well.

"These... surely capture how you felt about being there. And for you to have made that journey! It is so bright and... Altean. For such a hungry mind wanting to break down barriers about knowledge I might have missed... everything else about it, should I have had the chance. All that you were able to capture here. This is... wonderful, Lotor."

[waitatick]

"Well. Though I would not go so far as to consider it wonderful, my performance there certainly wasn't. I'm afraid I was unable to pass the test presented to me, and thus failed to learn anything of alchemy."

Admitting even that much was a big risk, as was revealing the existence of Oriande itself. But he did not feel the churning of anxiety from such things as he so often had during his life with the witch. Still, being too open could cost him in the future, and his eyes grew a bit sad as he considered the possibility that for all Honerva may not wish it, she could again become that which he feared.

"I do thank you for your kind words."

He meant it so much more than he had the ability to express.

[shroudedsecrets]

"That is not your fault. You were not raised to know the Altean ways."

Again, he dwells on the notion of failure, when he was not the one who had failed anyone. Even if it was his mistake to make, the fact was he sought that route to rectify the mistakes of his parents, a nigh impossible task without the support he never seemed to receive.

"Whatever path it was that led you there... to arrive and bear witness to such a place and what it may have offered... you did have that. It did impact you."

She wishes she could say he was stronger or better for it but that was denied him, surely, much as anything else had been. But, above all else, he did reach it, he did experience it. And they had this chance to speak on it, as much as he would allow.