The Promise of Harmony (ATTN: Riemaia)

[Riemaia]

"It is nice to meet you Mister Darrus, I'm Princess Lena, and this is Celeste, shes my Lubyakian guest. Please, why don;t you grab a seat and join us? We were just about to have lunch!" She said as she smiled, and then looked over to the owner. "Fatty! Another soup and water will ya?" She then looked back at Darrus and Celese. "Leo is a great guy, but hes fat ya know." She said pointing to the man with an apron and white t-shirt on, with plenty of hair on his arms and a pants size that can make anyone say damn.

Fatty trotted his fat ass over with three bowls of his finest tomato soup, and placed a bowl in front of the three of them, and then slipped a cup of water in front of Darrus. "Eat up scrawny boy!" He said as she slapped Darrus on the back and trotted back over to his seat, where he watched the coffee machine brew coffee.

As the soup was being placed in front of her, Lena looked at the necklace and just started to glow from joy. "Why... why thank you!" She exclaimed as she immediately put it on. :It's so beautiful... I will treasure it always, again, thank you!"

[Crystal Spires]

Darrus Tethyr raised his eyebrow as he cleared his throat looking at Celeste with a genial glance. He folded his hands nervously and with a meaningful glance at her he returned his sight to Princess Lena with a smile of appreciation. She seemed to be a nice girl, but it was beyond his comprehension why she would play host to Lubyakans other than at a threatening gesture. He heard the Lubyakan speak in her own language, but wasn't certain at what she said meant. Somehow he took it to be perhaps thanks for the chocolate, but he wasn't certain so all he did was smile and nod at her, hoping it wouldn't be a gaffe.

"It's an honor to meet you, miss. I thank you for your hospitality. This is always a blessing rarely found in many lands, almost like a hidden gem in a dank cave. In Spirean culture, hospitality and politeness is a valued matter and I hope to not be imposing too much if I were to say your town is lovely. And your people are surely charming." He said as he rubbed his back with a chuckle as he looked back at Leo.

"It is the belief of my people that one can tell a lot about the character of the people by the food they eat." Darrus said after tasting the soup. It wasn't too bad, but of course he was not a fan of tomato soup. It was, however never his place to refuse a gift given especially out of generous spirit, so he did not make a single complaint. "The types of herbs and spices readily available, how one seasons one's food, how one eats, all these things are hints of culture. Up North in the mainland food is more bland and sweet, but down to the southern areas there's more spiced foods. We also don't eat with forks or knives often, usually a pair of wooden sticks or a spoon sort of like this but in more of a pear-like ladle shape. Also, must all this be imported?"

[Lubyak]

Celesta smiled and nodded in thanks as the bowl of soup was provided to her, and gave her thanks to the chef, and tried to avoid glaring at the Spirean minister. As she ate, she rolled her eyes as the man spoke, flattering the Princess with almost ceaseless compliments and blarney. The Spirean had nodded and smiled at her greeting, and she had decided to play it safe: speaking in Lubyakan may not necessarily keep her words a secret.

"It is quite a nice food," Celeste said, smiling at the Princess. "I am sure the type of life you lead here will only rise as your Duchy grows."

[Riemaia]

Lena leaned back a little and tasted the soup, and smiled. "Well the tomatoes Leo found, we have some more traditional foods..." She said as she looked at a few crates in the corner of the diner. "But, i'm not sure you would enjoy eating bio-luminescent cave mosses with a side of rabbit jerkey and dehydrated bread sticks, and not to mention cloudberry sauce mixed with snowberries, it's not really something you would want to go around wanting to eat on a daily basis. Lena wasn't too happy with what her peoples cultural food truly included, which besides what she said also included dried tofu and blue potatoes.

"We want to start growing some of our staples here soon, but if we can get people willing to import some food, that would be nice as well... we Riemaians, we have a very sensitive palate, heavy spices and spicy foods, we don't like, and for most of the members of the Imperial Family like myself, allergic to peppers." She said as she looked at both Darrus and Celeste, but then directly to Celeste. "It's already not that bad here, too warm for my tastes but it's just beautiful here... I want to go see what the mountains to the north are like, snowboarding is quite the sport back home and I want to know if I can continue my hobby here!"

[Crystal Spires]

"Well, I'm from the City of Mephiste in the northern regions of Crystal Spires, and it sounds to me, like your people have a treasure trove of food resources here! There are all sorts of wildberries here, and cows here practically volunteer their milk. They are after all rather brilliant creatures in these lands." Darrus smirked as he slightly hinted at the sapient beasts common to the region. He was sure that she had never experienced them before.

"Perhaps I should cook for you one of these days! This would be quite fun, I do love a good cook off in this type of weather. Why, I was telling Maven the other day that we should perhaps prepare for the parties for the coming of The Greater Ceremony of Eventide. It's a Spirean holiday celebrating the beauty of the summer season. There are feasts and dancing, and kites fly across the sky as the local birds dance around them and by sunset burn them to the ground, but we then release the floating lanterns high into the sky! It's a full 3 day celebration and is quite fun." Darrus cheerfully stated as he remembered the last time that his lantern got blown up when a phoenix decided to play with it.

"Perhaps I could show you the types of foods that are edible around here. You'll find that many of them are quite delicious. All sorts of herbs and vegetables, all sorts of fruits and nuts. I was just demonstrating to the Lubyakan Ambassador the wonders of Spirean foods. Among these is chocolate made by the Forntian Monks up north. And if you have not tried Spirean chocolate, this is your lucky day, for I have brought with me many treats. It is said that the flavor is so sublime that it mimics the feeling of being in love for the first time." Darrus said as he offered her a bar of silky smooth Spirean milk chocolate.

[Lubyak]

Celeste could only smile as the Princess went on explaining Riemaian cuisine, chuckling at the look of distaste she had for her nativeland's cuisine. "I would not be opposed to visiting your homeland at some point, you Highness," she said. "As much as you may dislike it...I am curious as to what your home's food would taste like. Perhaps, at some point, you could visit me, no? I'm sure you'd find something to your liking in my homeland. Perhaps I could actually try my hand at a stove again..." she said, smiling at the Princess, leaving the invitation in the air.

"As for snowboarding...can't say I've ever gone. Most of the Lubyak rarely gets snow, and the parts that do are flat plains," she said. "I've never been so far inland as to truly engage in snowsport."

[Riemaia]

Sorry for the long wait! Got sidetracked with other stuff

"Both of your countries sound like lovely places!" Exclaimed Lena as she ate her soup, looking at the two of them. "Maybe in the coming weeks I could visit both, as an official representative of Riemaia." IT was quite a peaceful day for Lena, having met two people from two different countries, one of them she was attracted to, the other she thought would make a good friend indeed. She took the chocolate and placed it next to her soup, then patting it as she talked. "After i'm done with my soup, thank you! And your ceremony, it sounds similar to the Riemaian New Years festival, save for the lanterns in the sky..."

As she continued to eat her soup, a young military officer strolled into the diner, a red haired woman by the name of Nida Aelerasse. She was roughly 5'3" tall and had blue eyes, and was wearing the normal Riemaian Junior Officer Uniform, including the hat. "Your highness," she said as she walked up to the trio, noticing the two people she did not recognize. "Oh sorry, you have company... My name is Nida, Lieutenant Nida Aelerasse, it's nice to meet you," she said as she looked to the two foreigners sitting with Princess Lena. "Theres a crashed plane in the forest to the north...." She said as she looked at the princess.

"Crashed plane? Are you sure?" Lena replied, looking at Nida curiously.

[Lubyak]

OOC: The same. Been in D.C. for two weeks and hella busy. :3

"Of course," Celeste chuckled. "Crystal Spires is lovely, assuming you ignore the monsters constantly battering at the city gates," she said, smirking at the Spirean who sat across from her.

Celeste watched the young Riemaian officer as she approached, looking rather surprised at the choice of uniform. An interesting one, no doubt, but even on her, the effect was distracting. She could only imagine what it would be like in combat--though that process no doubt led to an even more distracting direction.

"Crashed?" Celeste asked. "Odd...I'd have thought air traffic here would be ludicrously sparse..."