by P. S. Power
He was dressed all in white, instead of tan, with a strange white hat on. That was because, as Bridget explained it, the man was an actual cook there, not an IPB Operative pretending to it, like the rest of them were. So he was allowed to wear the real uniform of that station.
Warren was also very thin, due to his constant work and exercise, but he appeared to enjoy food. Even what he’d just placed in his mouth, it seemed.
“All right, everyone get over here. Bring forks.” There was no particular discussion as to why they needed to do that, and neither Mark or his friend were beyond shaming someone, if they found a product to be substandard. Including doing it in public, if the need arose. If that happened, you weren’t allowed to become upset either, just having to make corrections. It was similar in a way to Master Hobbs’ lessons. The big difference was that Will actually understood a bit about baking, whereas the fighting portion of things was harder for him still.
The first one to go was Kerry, who had a pleasantly odd face. She was a strange combination of funny looking, a thing that almost made her ugly, and attractive at the same time. Part of that, Will understood was that he wanted to have sex with her on some level. She was dating Tobin however. The small man was incredibly kind, so crossing him would be foolish. It would cost him a potential friend to do that, after all.
Trying to ignore that part of things, without turning his attention to one of the other ladies, he focused as the woman ate his offering. She took three bites of it, smiling at the end.
“Okay, this is fantastic. Everyone else go first, in case I’m missing something, but…”
Mark, who was the master baker there, went next. He too, managed several bites without screaming. His face was highly considering for a time before he spoke.
“That texture is amazing. The flavor is, I have to admit, interesting. I don’t recognize it. Not off the top of my head.” There was a slow, meditative, smile then, but he did look directly at Will, knowing who’d come up with the strange thing.
Everyone else there took a bite, with Cindy smiling at him and Sara looking around as if she were being secretive, then going to get a plate so she could have a whole slice. Which ended up being nearly half of the thing. She had to eat a lot, so it made sense. Besides, the goal was for decorations, so Will had made four of them. That way there would be enough to practice with. It was a flat sheet cake, though only a quarter size arrangement, since it was just for exercise at this point.
He smiled, glad that he hadn’t failed again. The first few times he’d been given pitying looks, even as the people involved sent out waves or ideas that indicated they weren’t actually that displeased. They just wanted better. Something more original.
“It’s an orange-lavender cream cake. Technically, it’s made from lavender tea, instead of fresh, which would give it a slightly softer flavor that way. My concern is how it will hold up to the heavy frosting needed for the decorations. I was thinking of using a buttercream for that, for the flavor, but the weight…” It would be very possible that the whole thing would end up a pile of goo, if they weren’t careful.
Tobin, who always tried to be polite to everyone as far as Willum had ever seen, smiled then. It was charming, as well as relaxed.
“Let’s get to that next, then? I just made an applesauce cake and thought I was being clever doing that. Lavender? I don’t think I even knew that was edible until now. This works though. I can do the buttercream? A single batch?”
An answer came from the man in white, who shook his head slowly.
“I want thirty pounds of it. That, and some fondant. Will, we went over that one the other day, can you set that up? A hundred pounds, which will take four batches. Cake Kings will have to buy theirs, which gives us a better leg to stand on, since we can rework our recipe. Plus, if anything goes wrong, we can mix that by hand, which is a good safety net for us that they won’t have.”
Not that they didn’t use the large mechanical mixers for it that day. Will did that part, while Tobin made the buttercream, which took a lot less time. Just as the last set of heavy rolled icing was being set aside, Cindy walked over and slapped him on the arm.
“So, have you gotten on the list with Georgia?”
Willum grinned, not knowing what she meant at all. The woman smiled at him instantly, since it was kind of clear that just being near the other person had them communicating at a much deeper level than most would have been able to. Her power was different than his, but much stronger after a fashion. She could read words from the air over his head, getting what he was thinking, stories from his past or even what his deepest desires were.
So she already knew that he had no clue what the woman was going on about.
Kerry however, overheard the whole thing and smiled, practically skipping over, her feet light seeming suddenly.
“Nope! He isn’t on the list. That’s an oversight on my part. The thing there is… We don’t have a slot any time soon. Once we opened that up, Georgia suddenly got really popular.”
The words weren’t actually confusing, but he had no clue what it was all about. Which, interestingly, got Sara to come over, her face seeming a bit downcast and shy.
“That… Georgia has a lot of friends. The list is for, adult stuff.” She looked away, blushing a bit, but it was kind of clear that she understood what that meant. First hand. Given that she was only seven, that meant Willum was going to have to find someone and challenge them to a duel.
That, or assassinate them. Though, it could be that in this world the ages for such things were different than they had been in Noram. In which case he’d need to bury his feelings that way and simply try not to think about it all. Except that he knew that one wasn’t right. Lydia was too young for that at fifteen. So it was time to ready himself to kill someone.
Cindy suddenly hugged him, which no one else understood. Kerry wanted to do that as well, but she felt afraid that doing that kind of thing would make her boyfriend angry. Will couldn’t tell if that was true or not, since Tobin hadn’t even considered it yet.
When the blonde woman, who was about five-four or so, moved back, she nodded.
“Already taken care of. We don’t have duels here. We can get death warrants however, which is totally different, but did the trick in that case. Anyway, we can get you a date, if you need? That shouldn’t be all that hard around here. Especially if you do guys as well. There are more than a few people that have been thinking about getting with you here so far. We can cover that later?”
The words got a strange mix of concepts from the room. Sara, interestingly, was focused on the idea of duels, and worked out that Willum had been thinking about fighting, possibly killing the people who had been with her. She didn’t love the idea, actually, missing the attention, but she liked that people there were that willing to stand up for her.
Cindy was marvelously blank on the idea, but Kerry glanced at Tobin, afraid that her boyfriend would be more interested in Will than her. Even though the small man wasn’t attracted to other men, normally. Tobin wasn’t thinking that, just wondering what they should do next. To his mind that was probably eat, even though he was only a bit hungry.
Across the room, Den actually winced, then felt bad about it. That became conflicted fast, since, while the man wasn’t interested in Will that way, a part of him wanted to own the other man. As a prize or possibly a sexual conquest. That cut out fairly rapidly and was odd, but also had to do with the sense of constant and unremitting greed that came from the fellow.
Warren just smiled, checked out his behind closely and winked at Cindy. The feeling there was that he was interested in that kind of thing with Will, but wasn’t going to act on it. Being in a long term relationship already.
Mark nodded a few times, not caring about anything like that.
“After the buttercream sets in the chill-chest for half an hour, I want one of the sheets done up for dinner. Get me test designs. Then we’ll head over for the meal.” They didn't always eat
together, but there was a bit of a collective that way.
Interestingly, even though no one there seemed to understand it was happening, it mainly centered on Olga, from Team Two. The few times she’d settled in different locations in the large dining facility, everyone had moved to be with her. So, two hours later, when the meal time came, Will moved in that direction himself. You didn’t infiltrate a group by being constantly outside of it, after all. Even he could see that pretty clearly.
That evening they were along the far wall. Instead of moving in across from her, like normal, Will settled directly beside her, even though no one else was there yet. That got her to look at him, wondering if something was going on. A mission that had to be passed in secret or a thing along those lines. She tried to keep her senses open, in case an attack was about to start, as well.
Honestly, Willum knew that he was just lonely. The woman was huge, but nice, as well as interesting to talk to. She wasn’t the best looking woman in the room, but to his way of thinking, that was often a bit overrated. After all, there were a dozen or so things far more important to him than that at the moment. For instance, she was clean. Everyone there was, but given his sense of smell now, that made a big difference to him. Also, the woman was kind to everyone as well as hard working.
She also was a bit of an outsider there, at the base, but was from the same world. That allowed him to blend in more easily, since she was taking part of the interest away from him that way. She did every time they met.
Interestingly, that night they also got several people that were new to him. As well as someone he recognized. Even if the man didn’t seem to understand who Will was, though they’d met.
Troy Lopez, the human one, settled across from Olga, a flash of familiarity lashing out toward her. It wasn’t returned. Not in the same way. She recognized him, as being big Tobin, but that was all.
The man stroked his small mustache once.
“Hey! I was told I had to get my butt in here or else people would come looking for me. Plus, free food. So, how have things been going?” That was spoken directly to Olga, because, Will understood finally, she was, in another world, Troy’s girlfriend. Hilda. The looks had thrown him off, but it was kind of clear that was the case, now that he’d thought about it.
The giant lady looked down at the man across from her, then at the others there. Will had to work to figure out who they were, since it was kind of clear that he was supposed to understand that kind of thing. If only from television. Luckily, Bridget moved up to them then, sitting right next to Troy. She didn’t squeeze his leg, but the desire to do so nearly overwhelmed her after a few moments. Then she nobly fought it off, using fairly decent meditative skills.
“Oh! Right, you don’t know everyone, do you Will? Over to the side here, is my grandpa, Brian Yi. Proxy. Don’t get confused, I know he looks twenty-five and he is… There was time travel involved when he got my grandma knocked up.” She glanced at the man, who was away from her by several seats and then smirked, since she was being mischievous.
Which was all about covering up the fact that she loved him. In a real fashion, not just as a family member. That was stuffed down inside of her hard however, using the same trick that she had before.
“Next to him is his girlfriend, Karen Young. Lady Glory. They’re both famous here, so be ready for that. Then we have Georgia… Which…” She stopped then and finally shrugged. “Her power and first mode make her kind of need contact with a lot of people. It’s sexual in nature, so she’s sort of seeing everyone. Cindy mentioned the list earlier? It isn’t a bad thing. She can’t help it, so…” There was a bit of floundering then, which was cute, but strange. A big part of it wasn’t about how Bridget thought of the other woman, but that she honestly didn’t see an issue there at all, but knew that most people did.
Will got that, but realized everyone there, including Troy, who was from a different world, clearly wanted him to be understanding of the situation. Which he was.
“Nice to meet you all. Will Baker. I know Troy of course.”
That got the man to really look at him, then shake his head.
“You do? I… You look familiar, but I thought that was just because you seem like a friend of mine, Kyle.”
That got him to nod.
“Kaitlyn’s male form? I…” He stopped then and looked over at Georgia, who felt a lot like that, really. Only she wasn’t the same person of course. No, in the world they were in, Kaitlyn’s second was Marcia Turner. The thing there was that the woman felt like an Alede.
So he waved at her, over his plate of food.
“Kait is… Kind of like you? Kyle is her male form. She needs a lot of sex though, and can produce the desire for it in others, so that’s kind of similar.”
Troy sat up straighter, but just seemed puzzled.
Will had to snort then.
“I was cornered by her in a special side room of demon Zack’s book store. I know you didn't see me there, but I was at your house, Hartley’s palace, for a few hours. Then I had to train for several days straight, with Zack. We met though, in Tor’s world? I introduced you to Count Lairdgren?” That was how it was referred to, even if the wizard wasn’t that important to Will personally.
Half the people were puzzled, but Troy just beamed at him.
“Ah! That Will Baker! The messenger. Neat. You should go and collect some things soon. May has some for you. I didn’t know you were here though…” The man glanced at him meaningfully, looking around at the others for some reason.
It wasn’t clear from what came in concept wise however. Mainly because it was just an alien thought to him at first. The man thought that he might have been infiltrating them, to see if they were enemies.
Will just shook his head.
“I’m learning to fight, with Master Hobbs. That and baking, as well as cooking, with Masters Mark and Warren here. These are good people, though part of my task is to try and fit in. You know, get rid of the thick Noram accent and all that? I was caught so many times in my first days here that everyone knows about me, but that doesn’t get me out of trying my best.”
Everyone just stared at both men for a moment, with Troy finally breaking the silence. Playfully.
“So, how are they treating you? Are you getting enough to eat? Plenty of exercise? Is the hazing too painful for you to bear?”
Will didn’t know what hazing was in English, rather than admit it, since that could give him away, he shook his head slowly.
“There isn’t a lot of discomfort here. I do get fed a lot, and everyone is pretty nice so far. I’ll take your advice and go see to my rounds later tonight, so that I don’t disrupt too many schedules. That… I have to hit some places with different time ratios, so that might make a difference that way.” It had been a thing he’d considered before that moment. After all, a week in the world he sat in just then was the same as two months back home. If he stayed too long without a visit, everyone would forget him or think he was dead.
The idea got a nod from Troy.
“I pretty much just run on Lopez time now. I get places when I get around to it. Not that I don’t keep up on everything pretty hard, but the fact is that it’s way too difficult to keep track of everything that way. So, as rude as it feels, everyone else has to wait on all of us line walkers. It’s part of our mystique, so far. You know, instead of us being the a-holes that are always late?”
Interestingly, Brian nodded then.
“I need to do more of that. I don’t know that many fun locations, or I’d take some people for a vacation. Any ideas, Troy?”
That got a nod, at least, as well as a big smile.
“For shopping, hit Lesser Shia. You can buy almost anything there. I mean that. Robots, genetic modifications, a lifelong companion that will be your perfect match, laser guns and foods that will alter your sense of what eating means. Magic as well, from a hundred or more different worlds. So that’s worth heading to, if you get a chance. As for good places to get
away, my world isn’t awful. You all speak English already, so that helps. Plus, no one there understands what Infected people are at all. Not even that vampires and shifters are a real thing, so you can go out in public no matter what you look like and just slap on a sign saying that you’re part of a movie production. You may end up signing a few autographs, but other than that it wouldn’t be a problem at all.”
It wasn’t a horrible plan, really.
Willum nodded.
“You could also go to Pine Creek. Where my family lives? It’s kind of primitive and no one speaks English, but everyone would treat you well. There you could just explain that some of you look different, because you come from a different world. It will be expected.”
They ate as they spoke about things, with his arm nudging against Olga’s more than was proper. She was slightly embarrassed by that, but kept making it happen, since she enjoyed the contact at the same time. No one noticed it except for Georgia, who smiled at them as they were about to get finished.
“Are you two dating?” Her interest was personal, rather than casual.
Everyone else stared at them then, which meant Willum shrugged. It was clear that he’d set that in motion already. Even if it had been days before and he hadn’t had time to act on anything yet.
“I’m working on that? I… Really, Olga, we should head to Noram in a few days, if you get a chance? You won’t know the language, but some of the people there will speak English. Besides, you really need to meet the version of you there. Neesa is awesome.” Which was simply true.
She also could speak English, he thought.
Instead of making fun of her over it, given the size difference, Bridget just went wide eyed.
“Ooooh. That sounds fun. You should do it, Olga. Plus, if a guy takes you on vacation, it’s almost a sure sign that he plans on putting out. Not that you have to wait for that. Will likes you, I can tell.”
Olga hunched in on herself expecting rejection, but Will nodded, touching her arm.