In this world, Magic is Everything. All people, all races, are granted with the power to perform mystical and magical feats via grimories, mystical tomes granted to each and every child on their 15th birthday. Those blessed by the mana can have their names written down in legend.
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Post by Kingsley Farebrother on Apr 27, 2024 12:24:02 GMT -5
Kingsley Farebrother
He who fears not the blade he wields has no right to wield that blade.
Beginning to emerge from the ambient pollen cloud that surrounded the floral arrangements table, Kingsley's nose was able to pick up on the smells of spice and meat over open flame, and the evaporated juices of fruits, drained for their nectar. He legs followed on the signals, making Kingsley feel somewhat like a zombie, being directed by his senses and hunger so flagrantly; he just couldn't help himself, having missed breakfast due to the long broom ride to Raque. The Vice Captain had admonished some of the Knights for not waking up earlier, Kingsley included.
Finally arriving at the food area, signs abound caught Kingsley's attention, advertising the 'all you can eat' deal that Kingsley recalled overhearing in the throngs of people attending the festival. He slowed down his pace and got close to one of the fliers, carefully reading what sort of price there was for a buffet option. His eyes finally glossed over perhaps the most important word in the advertisement: contest. The greatest chefs of Raque prepared each dish, and the only way to win the prize is to 'eat all you can'. It was at that moment he felt he had misheard those citizens speaking earlier, perhaps the cacophony of people altered the way he heard it, or they had misspoke about the topic.
Still, the Junior Knight felt he had walked into the vendor area committed to eating all he could, and it seemed like all of the vendors would have separate menus and only serve individual dishes. Perhaps those who had a kitchen nearby could offer their full menu, but for those that cooked on borrowed stoves, or used their own magic to prepare food were forced to scale down their service. Lured in by the idea of eating everything in one sitting, the eating contest won out in Kingsley's mind. Signing up was easy enough, but the Purple Orca could help but feel intimidated by some of his opposition. A particularly large man stood out, his orange and gray beard braided; Kingsley could only assume it was to keep it out of the food he was eating. When the time came to approach the table, Kingsley steadied his breath and did everything he could to relax. Stress would only impede his body's ability to digest, and panicking would activate his fight or flight reflexes. It was a particular lengthy table, longer than even those used in the floral arrangement area, which had held almost every variety of blossom in the kingdom, some of which should be dead this time of year.
Kingsley glanced down the table, which was covered in dishes, each hidden with an ovalene serving cloche. The silvery finish on the dinnerware reflected the competitors faces, and the attendants stood at the ready to clear away dishes and bring in additional food from the kitchens. On the competitors side of the table, each diner had a pristine set of silverware, and even a small set of chopsticks, whittled from a fine birch. Of course these were all optional, and Kingsley had noticed a previous contestant in the eating competition forgo the use of any utensil and scoop food into his mouth with his bare hands. It was.... grueling to watch. A hostess came over, using communication magic to echo her voice across the small area the contest was being held in. She explained the rules, her campy enthusiasm spreading to the small crowd that gathered to watch. Only ten minutes were allotted per diner, and the dishes ranged from local specialties to immigrated foreign meals. Raque's coastal nature made it a natural crossroads where cultures met and melded together. His own upbringing in the Common Realm meant that his palate was mostly trained on soups and simpler dishes, though a particularly skilled chef in the village put in their elbow grease during special festivals or a loved one's birthday.
Sometimes, Gawain honestly felt like he was the only one of his species, and that everyone around him was an entirely different brand of human being. And who could say, maybe he was. He was clearly built different since no one his age managed to keep up with him in terms of capabilities and potential. And while that was in and of itself not all that terrible, it kept him from really making any friends or rivals his own age, which hadn’t been the best thing for him as far as personal development went. Sure he was strong, stronger than most, but there were plenty of things he needed to learn that most his age had already picked up on. All things considered however, he wasn’t doing all that bad though.
But there were times where being what he was could get somewhat lonely. He was after all, very much alone in this world after everyone around him systematically lost their lives due to the Skjaergardian raiders or their policies towards slave ownership. His father and grandparents were killed by raiders, his mother died due to the negligence of the slaver that had bought them, and he only survived because he was willing to do what was needed to be done for food, water and rest. On those islands, nothing came for free. The people here on Clover often seemed to underestimate just how free they were in their day to day lives. Even now, they were enjoying what Gawain believed to be his third festival of the year. Between the Samhain and Yule festivals, now there was this flower blossom fete, which just proved how good the people here truly had it. Or at least, a good majority of them did.
Here they had petting zoos, egg painting, egg hunting, an eating competition, flower arranging and more. Back on the islands, people were happy as long as the raiders came back with a good haul, and their few crops didn’t get ruined by salt water streaming inland due to heavy storms or monsters stealing their children in the dead of night. The stark difference between these two countries was massive, though it also allowed Gawain to appreciate what he had here. Speaking of, the petting zoo he had just come from earlier had seen a bit of turmoil, though all seemed to be fine by the time he left it. And strangely enough, wrangling that massive goat and the couple of geese had made him somewhat hungry. Luckily, there were eating competition going on back to back. So even if he had missed one or two of them already, there would likely be another starting up soon or just finishing up by the time he arrived.
When he did in fact arrive, it seemed that he was mostly right in that a new round was just about to start. Not quite sure as to what exactly they would be eating, it was likely going to be something that wasn’t easy to work down, but didn’t exactly go down like dry wood either. It was a competition after all, so the people in charge likely wouldn’t make things needlessly simple to the point where all it took was having the bigger stomach. Because if that were to be the case, any fat guy could just plop their butts down into a seat and win by default. But truth be told, the boy had not come here today to win. He just wanted to get his fill while taking part in something fun, be part of said fun and then be on his way to see what else this festival had to offer. There was after all a special Silver Eagles event coming up real soon as well, which was something he as of yet had rather mixed feelings about. But that was something to worry about some other time.
Spotting a bunch of people gathering for the competition, he also noticed one of the people he had actually met before and remembered. It was the guy that had tried to tackle a golem and got punched into a wall, Kingsley if his memory served. He was a pretty funny guy and seemed like a good bean back when they ventured through their dungeon. Figuring he would make for a decent challenger in this challenge of feeding, the boy made his way on over to him to see how he was doing, and whether or not he felt up to the task.
“Hey there, good to see some other challengers here from the magic knight squads. I’ve been wanting to see which squad had some of the best eaters around. Do you happen to know what it is that they’ll be feeding us?”
Post by Kingsley Farebrother on May 2, 2024 22:13:11 GMT -5
Kingsley Farebrother
He who fears not the blade he wields has no right to wield that blade.
Happy to finally see a familiar face at the festival, Kingsley's lips split into a grin, showing the full gleam of his teeth to Gawain. His friend from the Silver Eagles squad was just a few meters away, his gray crop of hair standing out from the crowd of blond and brunet civilians that were enjoying the festival too. "I'd wager they're taking advantage of Raque's diverse population to make it a tricky game." Kingsley's mind drifted through a slide slow of some of the 'foreign' dishes available at Kikka. His wages were put to good use sampling Kikka's markets, so Kingsley felt he had an inkling of the menu.
Nomotato (though some communities fervently called them 'Pop-potatoes' and would look at anyone strange for calling them otherwise) curries, Mana Beast sushi, strange fruits wrapped in a fried flatbread, spiced seaweed noodles with slow-roasted boar; his mind danced from dish to dish incessantly. "Though I personally wish for the spiciest foods they have!" Kingsley roared, his normally calm demeanor overcame by a sense of courage and excitement. His unusual tolerance for spicy foods was his ace in the hole for this contest. He could overeat, to an extent, but difficulty in taste or texture was an easier hurdle to victory for him to ignore.
Glancing out of his periphery, Kingsley noticed a contestant on the table's far side, a teensy twig of a girl, start to get cold feet. A younger member of the crowd spoke out to her, "Stop, if you do this the boys will think you're gross!" Easily swayed by the peer pressure, the girl abandoned her spot at the table, dashing into the crowd, no doubt to meet up with her friend and/or oppressor. The Purple Orca glanced expectantly at Gawain, clearing his throat. "Looks like there's an opening if you want to find out."
It was still strange, being so casual with members of other Magic Knight squads. While Kingsley was in truth very happy to count Gawain among his friends, his mind still thought of the squads as more divorced than they truly were. Friendship between a Purple Orca and a Silver Eagle spat in the face of this preconceived notion, which tinted Kingsley's joy with an undertone of jitteriness. After all, Gawain had witnessed his shortcomings firsthand, and that meant he had presented his Magic Knight squad as weak. Perhaps his overacting at the moment was an attempt to counter that.
The Hostess produced a small jingling bell from her sleeve, signaling the start of the contest. This would be the toughest ten minutes of Kingsley's life thus far, and he swore to himself he would not let the Purple Orcas down! He steadied himself in his seat, and heard his stomach cry out in hunger. It would be the last time today that he felt hungry. And maybe most of tomorrow too!
*RING DING*
As the bell rang out, the attendants removed the cloches from the dishes by way of Air Magic, levitating the lids away to a nearby table for cleaning between rounds of the eating contest. The meals were layered in such a way that one was incentivized to consume those nearest to the eater, otherwise the wasted time from leaning over to prevent spillage would put one behind their fellows. Frontward was a 3in diameter seaweed wrap loaded with grilled shrimp, rice, and avocado, deep fried in oil. The people of Raque loved fish, and showed that love by putting a local chef's specialty in as the opener in their eating contest. Kingsley had only heard of such a thing, never seen or tasted it before.
The smell was ripe with umami, the locally caught shrimp stuffed inside a fried tube. A small dollop of crimson sauce trailed down the length of the wrap, tinting the smell with a hinge of spice. Gripping the wrap with his hand, Kingsley took the biggest bite he could manage, watching half of it disappear into his mouth. It was his first time having shrimp, as such meat rarely kept for long enough journeys away from Raque compared to the tuna and salmon imported to the capital. Gossip around the Purple Orcas headquarters was that the richest of nobles had spatial mages to speed up the transportation or ice mages to halt the deterioration to ensure the quality of their food. If they were, Kingsley wasn't privy to any of it, only able to afford the restaurants that littered Market Square in his base town of Kikka.
Swallowing a huge lump of food, Kingsley smashed the second half of the fried seafood wrap between his lips, and hoped he was making good progress. He knew at least one of his competitors was ahead of him, but to even look away from the food in front of him felt like an invitation for disaster. Better to just do his best and worry about results later, he reasoned. After this dish, he would have one to the left, and one to the right to worry about before he moved deeper into the table's contents.
**9 MINUTES REMAIN**
POW 08
DUR 14
STA 15
SEN 12
CON12
WORD COUNT: 848
TOTAL WC: 4000
ITEMS IN USE: Magic Knight Mantle
BATTLE NOTES:
Kingsley spots a familiar face and invites him to join the eating. A Wild Sushi Burrito appears! Consume it or lose the tournament! (There's only 1 round...)
Nodding to show that he was indeed interested in taking part in this competition, he made his way over to the nearest seat. Even though he could eat with the best of them due to his upbringing and having to eat large quantities of food whenever he was being rewarded for a job well done and knowing that there might be no food the next day, there was still the fact that he was only fifteen years old. His stomach wasn’t capable of comparing to those of adult men and women, so winning was more or less out of the question. But that was okay. He hadn’t come here to win after all, he had come here to compete and to recharge his batteries before checking out what else the festival had to offer. And a lot to offer it had, even though he had already seen a good deal leading up to this point in time.
With him taking his seat and waiting for the contest to begin, he thought about what was left. An egg scavenger hunt, which could be fun but was likely overcrowded with children. A flower arranging something something, which honestly did not seem to be very much his thing after the borderline panic attack he had experienced when painting eggs. These sorts of things were generally not up his alley, as they reminded him of the childhood that had been brutally stripped from him, replaced with a life of carnage and loss. That was however, before he returned to Clover. But even now, the ways in which he had been changed due to several extremely tough years showed underneath it all, making it difficult for him to enjoy certain things in life. But that was neither here nor there. Because right now, there was an eating contest to be had.
**Ring Ding**
No sooner than after the first bell rung, the contestants threw themselves at the food in front of them while Gawain just looked around to see what was there. Most of the food he was downright unfamiliar with, though there wasn’t anything out there that seemed terrifyingly gross. Reaching for the roasted boar, as that was something he recognized, he took several bites of it and slowly worked it down. Rather than really rushing it, he wanted to savor what was offered. Taking the curry in front of him and dipping the haunch of boar into it, the next bite was considerably hotter as he had assumed the sauce-like substance to be heartier. Coughing for a moment as he got the spices lodged in his throat, another bite of pork being worked down had him adjusted to the hot and spicy flavor right quick. Now that he knew what to expect, the flavor was honestly a lot better.
Finishing the curry and the roasted boar at around the same time, he looked into what remained, bringing up the popped potatoes and getting into those first. They weren’t bad, but they weren’t the best thing he had ever had before, not by a long shot. At this point, the boy actually picked up the pace of his eating quite a bit, ripping and tearing through these potatoes just so he could be done with them as quickly as humanly possible. Starting to close the gap between himself and a bunch of the people that were a good bit ahead of him, some of the other contestants around him were visibly seen sweating quite a bit more. If he had kept this up, there was a good chance that he might have climbed to third or second place right there and then. But as fate would have it, the potatoes ran out relatively quickly, allowing him to pick something else.
The spiced seaweed noodles. He had forgotten all about those, even though he had already finished the boar that came paired with it initially. But that wasn’t a problem. He liked noodles, at least he thought he did. They seemed nice enough, though he had never had any before. So when he tried them, felt that he enjoyed the spicy flavor and the odd texture of the weird stringy food, his eating pace dropped considerably as he fell back into joyful eating, rather than high paced gulping.
**9 minutes remaining**
As the timer was gradually running out, a quick glance around showed that he wasn’t exactly dead last, but he was in no way winning either. Feeling as though remaining in the center of the group would be just fine with him, the boy began digging into the flatbread-wrapped fruits, finding this combination to not really be to his liking. Breaking them apart, he dipped the flatbread into the remnants of his curry and worked his food down that way, finding this combination to work a whole lot better for him. The noodles he had prior were a lot better, but the fried bread dipped into the curry was honestly a pretty decent combination of flavors he had never had before in his life. Which honestly just left the fruits that had been inside of them up until a few moments ago.
When taken apart from the fried bread, the fruit was actually not that bad, even going as far as being tasty. Though many of them were on the sour side, so they took him a while to get through after having so many spicy foods. For some reason, it seemed to amplify the sourness, which made it difficult for him to just work it down like a swine plowing through a trough. With how little time there was left, he looked towards the food that was left, the sushi. Another kind of food he had never had before in his life, though he at the very least recognized the rice. Being yet another thing he knew by means of appearance, it was something he had never had before in his life. This of course was also a recurring theme throughout this eating competition, though that just added to the overall fun. Due to his time on Skjaergard, Gawain had never had the luxury of being a picky eater, so as he worked down the remainder of the fruit, he looked forward to trying the sushi.
**Game over**
When the final buzzer went and put an end to the competition, everyone that hadn’t already finished put their food down and sat back in their seats. Everyone except for Gawain. Already knowing that he didn’t end up in the upper echelons of the competition, he got up from his seat and just shrugged his shoulders. Taking the wooden plate that carried the remaining sushi, he slowly continued eating as the contestants cleared out. Looking to the table and seeing that there were quite a few people that hadn’t yet gotten to the sushi, he carelessly wandered over towards it and stacked it onto his plate. Not really knowing what kind of food he was eating perse, this whole ‘sushi’ thing was really quite good, and something he wanted to have more of in the future. At first, one of the aides was trying to take his food away from him, though Gawain refused, saying he wasn’t done yet.
Luckily, the host of the contest intervened and claimed that the food for this round would just be thrown out or given away regardless, so if he wished to keep the sushi, that much wouldn’t be a problem. Thanking the man for his generosity with a somewhat crooked bow, as the boy wasn’t used to this kind of thing at all, he took his food and made his way towards Kingsley. To his surprise, the guy had managed to come out on top, likely because he actually knew what it was like to take part in something like this. He more than likely hadn’t been dwelling on every individual type of food and worked it down in an attempt at taking the crown. In that, Gawain knew that his attempt at winning hadn’t been much of an attempt at all, but it had still been a good deal of fun for him.
“Congratulations on your victory. For what it’s worth, if defending and restraining ever becomes tiresome, you can always take up a life of eating competitions and championships.”
Cracking a bit of a joke with regards to their last dungeon and how that had all gone down, the boy worked down another bit of sushi. Having roughly sixteen pieces left on top of his handy plate, he very much planned on taking it on the go. There were other things left to be seen, things left to experience. And for Gawain, they were things he would experience for the very first time, which made it all that much more of a spectacle. But seeing as how Kingsley was more than likely done here as well, he would stick around until the guy claimed whatever prize they had to give to the victor before making the guy an offer he could very much refuse.
“With that out of the way, I’m going to check out the rest of the festival. You’re free to tag along if you wish, though I’ll be stuffing my face with these, so I won’t be able to talk much as I’m told eating with a full mouth is disrespectful.”
