fandomhigh | International Cuisine | Monday, first period

Class today was met at Portalocity by Hannibal wearing a lightweight suit much less formal than the previous week's. "Good morning." He nodded to them. "This week, in deference to those of you who had difficulties with the utensils last week, and because there was a request for coffee, we will be heading to Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia, for some traditional food of the region."

He smiled. "This food is eaten with your fingers, which hopefully you are all fairly adept at. And coffee in Ethiopia is very serious business; there is an entire ceremony surrounding it, which I have arranged for us after lunch."

He let any discussion die down, then raised one hand in caution. "There are many local languages, the primary one being Amharic. Unlike our previous outings, I do not speak it, either, but most of our hosts should speak English or French, and they do have English menus. Please continue to be courteous and polite, and if you have any difficulties, ask."

He waited for any last-minute questions, then waved them through the portal, which dropped them off on a wide and somewhat dusty street, bright and sunny, in front of Kategna restaurant.

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No, she wouldn't ever want to find that out because she'd feel the need to stop him - even if she had to kill him - and that would make her very sad.

"Well, sure," Kaylin said, as if this was the most obvious thing ever. "But you eat what you've got. You don't always have a choice. Here... things almost don't seem real. So much food, so many choices. It's, well, it's certainly not what I'm used to."

"It took me some time to become accustomed to it," Hannibal said. "It can be quite an adjustment."

"Was it hard for you too?" Kaylin asked curiously. "I thought you came from a place and time like this one."

"I come from a similar version of Earth, and have traveled in time only by aging," Hannibal agreed. "But I spent most of my childhood in an orphanage. I can't imagine such places are terribly different in other worlds."

Kaylin's only experience with anything like an orphanage was Marrin's Foundling Hall which was most likely far different from Hannibal's experience. Marrin loved and protected all of her kitlings fiercely. They were well-fed, well-clothed, and knew absolutely that they were loved.

"I can't even imagine how different my life would have been if I'd been in a place like the Foundling Hall," she said quietly. "I envy them a little."

Or maybe a lot sometimes.

"But, well... I survived." Even if some of the things she'd done and had to do still gave her nightmares and had given her a deep sense of being a terrible and thoroughly unworthy person.

"It was..." Hannibal thought about it. "Both better and worse than being left on my own. But it was far from luxurious, and for the food, you ate what you were given, and it was designed to be more or less nutritious, not tasty."

"Marrin, she runs the Foundling Hall, she bullies people into making sure the kids have everything that they need. And they all know how much she loves them."

If her face looked more than a little wistful and homesick, well too bad.

"I think you'd have liked being there better than where you were."

"Very likely." He probably would have preferred anywhere. "It's good your children have someone to look after them."

"There are only human children there," Kaylin said thoughtfully. "I always wondered about that. None of the other races seem to have abandoned children living on the streets."

"There are a number of possible reasons for that," Hannibal noted. "Some more charitable than others."

"Yeah, but half the people I ask don't really know and the others tell me I'm being rude," Kaylin said, "So... it's hard to say in Elantra."

And given Kaylin's demeanor, there was a better than even chance she was being rude, though it could also be people's aversion to questioning.

He nodded. "And I suspect the answer is a combination of a number of things. Where people - of any species - are involved, the truth is rarely simple."

Oh, she most definitely was. It was just the way she was - blunt and uncompromising.

"Yeah..." Kaylin sighed and took a bite of the food the waiter slid in front of her. "People are weird."

"I should hope so." Hannibal smiled. "It's one of the things that makes life more interesting."

"Personally, I think life could stand to be a little less interesting sometimes," Kaylin admitted.

International Cuisine | Monday, first period

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