2026-02-09: Can Penguins Use Chopsticks?
- Log: 2026-02-09 Can Penguins Use Chopsticks?
- Cast: Saika Kikuchi, Yanagi Nagisa
- Where: A restaurant in Sumaru City
- OOC Date: February 09, 2026
- IC Date: Sunday, September 23, 2012
- Summary: Saika and Yanagi go out to eat at a COLD, COLD, COLD cafe and discuss hidden meat and the dexterity of penguins.
<Pose Tracker> Saika Kikuchi has posed.
When it comes to making a trip out to Sumaru, it's good to go with someone. And Saika Kikuchi sure is somebody.
After arrival, she had bantered briefly with the receptionist and then sat down in the waiting room. As she is wont to do. Like she is also wont to do, Saika challenged visual stereotypes and got out a book. In this case, a copy of the Picture of Dorian Gray, complete with some expanded material in the appendices, which is why you could probably kill a small child with the book itself.
And once the treatment was done -
"You hungry?" Saika said while they were getting on her low-displacement motorcycle and affixing their helmets. (Saika wears a helmet. Nothing else -- OK, 'no other protective gear,' let's be specific -- but a helmet, yes. Always.)
BECAUSE...
IT'S BRANDLESS TIME
An outpost of "Brandless," a purveyor of various household goods who only have the simple 'brandless' mark and a no-frills attitude to presenting various necessities of modernday life at a reasonable price point, appears to have a shop on the first floor. (The shop has four floors and is located just off the K7 road, which is certainly somewhat out of the beaten path.)
"So," Saika says as she dusts herself off, "I don't know about you but I hate to shop on an empty stomach and *this* place I wanted to try for a while. The reviews are pretty good," she continues as a door is held open and the minimalist swedish-light-wood-and-gray-backgrounds cafe looms. It's not huge - maybe 14 tables plus a small counter, none of them big. Nor is it crowded, in this off-peak period.
There is a clapboard at the entrance promising a range of iced rooibos beverages as well as 'cold dishes! cold entree! cold sets! cold, cold, cold!' complete with a legally distinct penguin eating a dish of something colorful with chopsticks. "Huh," Saika says, gazing at that clapboard.
"I don't think a penguin could use chopsticks at all, if I'm being honest," Saika muses. "Do you think we can trust this place after something like this? Right at the entrance? Like is it a surrealist thing?" She is probably taking the piss, at least a little.
Probably
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
Saika Kikuchi is somebody! She's one hell of a somebody, even. Between Yanagi's love for Tsumugi and Same Hat vibes with Pernelle, arguably she's the least close to Saika of everyone in Peacock Silk, but that doesn't mean they're not close at all. Saika is the one driving her to Sumaru for her treatment at Tominaga Chiropractic, and Saika is the one who accompanies her out refreshed and energized (if still needing a walking cane for balance), and Saika is the one who takes her to a brand-new restaurant--or at least, one Yanagi's never been to before.
Considering Yanagi is also in love with new experiences of all kinds, her dark gray eyes sparkled. "Yes!!"
The two of them disembark at Brandless, a place that Yanagi didn't even know served food. It's not something you could guess by the name, though it sounds like it's also got general shopping. Yanagi tap-taps her way in, accepting Saika holding open the door and looking around with bright and curious eyes once they're inside. She follows Saika stare at the clapboard and bounces up and down on the balls of her feet.
"Oh! How cute! And everything is cold!" Yanagi enthuses. Saika's straight-faced joking(?) gets a thoughtful look out of her, though. "Hmmm... Maybe it's a bird like Pernelle. Pernelle can do all sorts of amazing things, so a penguin who's like him could surely use chopsticks," she suggests. "Otherwise, yes, it probably is a surrealist fantasy!"
Sparkle, sparkle. Trust doesn't even enter into the equation for her. Yanagi is ready and prepared to eat at this cold-cold-cold cafe, regardless of anything else Saika might say at this point.
<Pose Tracker> Saika Kikuchi has posed.
You've got to be somebody. Or else...
You'll be somebody's fool.
Saika hasn't felt that they're the least close, at least. If she's a little less intimate than the others, she may simply not have the frame of references. She doesn't talk much about her childhood, after all.
"Yeah, that part I believe, in this weather," Saika muses. (There is clattering in the kitchen, but the place is open. Maybe they're changing shifts or something?)
"I don't think that's necessarily gonna follow," Saika says. "What would make sense is if like --" She brings up her left leg in front of her, arching the foot forwards and wiggling it as if to evoke one of Pernelle's noble and dextrous limbs, "he did it like this. But I think if he tried to use his wings, he'd just end up swallowing the chopsticks and we'd have to pull it out."
"Let he who pulls this chopstick from the bird's throat be rightwise born King of England," Saika says, as the hostess comes out.
Hostess's opinion: '-'
SMASH CUT
They are seated at a table. The menu has some standard favorites, and Yanagi can see a prominent vegetarian section, which may be where Saika chose it from. The front side seems to be everyday favorites (sando set, omurice, 'hayashi brandless' which seems to be a "pick your own meat" option...) with the back being the COLD COLD COLD specials.
As she considers the cold options, Saika looks upwards. "I still can't get over the chopsticks thing. I'm going to order, like, this chawla bean salad and I'm going to get through half of it and find there was a hamburger steak under it." A slow shaking of her head.
(Hostess opinion from the counter: '-')
That being said, Saika looks up. "How'd the treatment go, by the way? You seem refreshed~."
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
Arguably, Tsumugi is the least intimate just because of their nature. Saika is certainly warmer than them by far. It's all a matter of perspective.
Yanagi leans forward, cane in hand for support, to get a better look into the place as something clatters off in the kitchen. One can hear her say, "?"
But then she llooks back at Saika as she wiggles her foot in demonstration. "True," she says thoughtfully. "But a penguin wing is shaped differently from a peacock wing. I think they'd have a tough time using chopsticks in their feet when they have to waddle everywhere." A beat. "Pernelle would definitely eat the chopsticks, though."
She smiles at Saika's dramatic proclamation. "Anyone who can retrieve anything Pernelle has swallowed deserves to be king of something," she says, paying the hostess no mind.
BUT THEN!
This is a COLD cafe. Yanagi naturally is looking at the COLD COLD COLD offerings. Her cane hangs from the edge of the table as she peruses that section of the menu. "What does the hamburger steak have to do with chopsticks?" she wonders without looking up.
No, that comes when Saika asks about the treatment for today. Yanagi smiles brilliantly up at her. "It was great! Mr. Tomi's Gold Finger truly is a miracle," she enthuses. "You should try it sometime, Saika! Even if you aren't dying, it still feels good!"
Good to know??
"Nothing really stands out to me on this menu, though. It all seems rather straightforward for a cold menu. Salads, hiyashi noodles... Oh, that shaved ice looks good, actually," she interrupts herself, digging her nose into the menu.
<Pose Tracker> Saika Kikuchi has posed.
"Hmmm... you know, I never thought of that," Saika says as she holds out her hand, fingers held together. "Penguin wings are really more like flippers, yeah? I suppose they could curl the tip around like a big finger... but that's not going to do it for chopsticks. They COULD use a spoon or a fork, though."
Or a knife.
"They're not connected, I just mean that once you've lost trust, it's hard to regain it," Saika says, shrugging a shoulder. "But I guess the worst that can happen is that they slip it in and I throw it back up for them, which is just sort of settling the score, right? Not what I ordered, have it back."
The hostess's response, at this point: '-';;
After that, her lips purse for a moment. "Well... if he can pencil me in... I do get a cramp in my back sometimes if I was doing a lot of carving. Maybe I need to get a better chair for the work bench..." Saika looks down at the cold ice, lets out an 'ooh.' "I wonder if they let you have as many of the flavors as you want."
The hostess comes over... time to order!
"Yeah, I want the chawla bean salad - that's vegetarian, right? I don't want meat, got that? Ah, yeah, and some of these chilled zucchini noodles... is that peanut sauce spicy? Great. Oh! And the ice red tea you had there." The hostess writes this down, perhaps relieved that these two strange young women are just talking big.
Right?
It's also Yanagi's chance... FOR DESTINY
After the hostess leaves, Saika rests her elbow on the table. "It's mostly along the lower back, though, right? Or is he getting your legs and arms, too."
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
"What's that you've got in your flipper?" said the human to the penguin.
"A KNIFE!!" the penguin shrieked, waddling past at top speed.
"NO!!!" the human shrieked back.
...
So anyway.
"Ohhh, I see," Yanagi says. A beat. "Actually, I don't see. But I hope they don't put hamburger steak in your salad! Do they tend to do that sort of thing here?" Yanagi considers this, then, fully unfazed by talk of barfing up salads, muses, "Maybe I should try the salad... I've never been surprised by a steak salad before...!"
%TYanagi considers what Saika has to say, but before she can answer, the waitress comes by. "Oh, yes! I'll have the mixed fruit shaved ice! And... a bowl of gazpacho. That's a soup, right? It has a funny name!" Beam, beam. Then she lights up in memory. "Oh! And a small salad. With no meat, got it? I don't want any meat!" Wink, wink, wink.
This poor hostess.
Once she's left, Yanagi focuses back on Saika, both what she says now and what she said a moment ago. "Mr. Tomi could definitely help you with your back cramps. His Gold Finger can help with just about anything that ails you! He usually deals with spines, you know, as a chiropractor, but my circumstances are different from usual, so he actually mostly focuses on my legs, since that's where my muscles are weakest. But yes, he gets the lower back and the arms too. My arms are doing fine for now, but that's why they need some love too, so they can stay strong!"
Yanagi needs her arms to be able to carve jewelry, after all.
<Pose Tracker> Saika Kikuchi has posed.
Doo bee, doobie do...
"I mean I've never been HERE before," Saika says after the order's been taken and shiped off. "But some places, it's usually more thoughtless? Like they'll use meat broth in curry even if it's not, like, they have pieces of actual meat in there. Or they'll just put a strip of crab stick into a veggie sushi roll or something. You have to keep an eye out!"
At the explanation, though, Saika leaves the other questions alone, listening in detail. She has perhaps heard aspects of this in question, but Yanagi could be asking Saika to drive her to a crack house so she could sell some crack to American servicemen, and Saika would almost surely be 'fine with it.'
"Mmm," she says. "That makes sense. Everything goes down the spine, right? So it has to get all the way down to your legs. You ever bang your toe and sort of go 'oh crap that's going to hurt in a minute oh there it is?'" There is a pause here, in case Yanagi... well, she may have never been in a position to stumble in quite that way.
The thought moves Saika, quietly. The only part that will materialize now is that Yanagi is going to get an extra dessert in the next several days. She doesn't know when yet, but it will happen.
"Though... what you were saying... gazpacho is actually awesome," Saika continues. "If you really like it, I can probably whip some up at home. It's kinda like borscht? Did you ever have borscht? A lot of vegetable soups get this *really* intense color..."
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
"Ohhh, I see," Yanagi says, a little disappointed. Not for Saika, although a little bit for Saika since she keeps getting forced to have meat she doesn't want, but because she was hoping she'd get Surprise Meat in her salad and it's sounding like that's not going to happen.
"I think so," she says of the spine. "I think it's where all the nerves travel? Like a superhighway in your body." Yanagi's not really sure about that. She can get away with sounding educated by repeating the language used in her beloved operas, plays, and movies, but those same things don't necessarily discuss medical issues, and doctors inevitably end up telling her all the same thing anyway. "Anyway, it's not my nerves I have a problem with, it's my muscles. Well, it's a few things. I guess I do have some nerve problems too? I think?" Yanagi looks down at her hands, turning them over and upright again. "No, it's just the muscles," she says with confidence that may or may not be earned. "I do stub my toes pretty often, though..."
She looks up at Saika thoughtfully. "Do you have nerve issues? I don't think I realized."
Has she had borscht, though. "No, but I want to try it! It's that famous Russian soup, isn't it? We should have that that while summer was still in swing!" Really, they should've come here i general while summer was still in full swing. "But let's see--I haven't had gazpacho before. Though it'd still be different to have your homemade version, too!"
<Pose Tracker> Saika Kikuchi has posed.
There can always be surprise meat, especially at Big Bang Burger, Yanagi. Don't give up those meaty dreams...
"I read something about that once," Saika nods along, even as the dishes come back out. "Technically, we're all like descended from fish, right? So there was this one fish that was like, OK, I'm tired of being some kind of octopus, I'm going to put ALL my nerves in a BIG TUBE, and maybe I'll grow some bones around it."
"So if you ever do look at a fish, you should look at their fins, real close," Saika says as she brings up one hand. "And then look at your hand. It's gonna be nearly the same, if you can imagine parts of it stretching or shrinking. We just *think* this kind of thing is normal because of all the flesh on top... and we're used to it."
Can you imagine Pernelle without his feathers?
"I don't really, no. I get some aches in my midsection sometimes but that's just old scar stuff... it only really comes up if I have to like, beeeend to the left for like half an hour or pick up something heavy. I guess if we're, you know, doing stuff," Ateliers "it comes up now and then, but that's its own thing."
At this point the food arrives! Saika's dishes both come at once - so does the gazpacho along with a small salad in a bowl. Just a classic one with some ginger dressing; nothing particularly remarkable. It's all crisp and pretty well seasoned.
After some close inspection of various pieces and scraping some of the bean salad aside to check for *secret hamburger patties*, Saika digs in. It's pretty brisk, alternating between spoon and chopstick-noodles. "Peanut sauce is decent," she muses. "I'd'a used a little more lemon basil, though." munch, munch
It is pretty cooling, too. Not that it probably felt THAT hot on the back of a motorcycle going at any reasonable speed...
"Hmmm... sure, I can do that," Saika muses after. "I'll have to look up the recipes but I'm about due to hit the library anyway. And gazpacho... I THINK I might... hm... do you know if we still have that mortar and pestle or did Pernelle manage to lose the pestle again?"
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
Only the meatiest of dreams for Yanagi Nagisa! After all, she'll be nothing but dust and bones all too soon...
"Ooooh," Yanagi breathes, leaning in with eyes wide in fascinating as Saika shares a history lesson. A biology lesson? A lesson! "A hands and a fin are the same..." She holds out her own hand to study it for a moment. Then she nods decisively and meets Saika's eyes.
"Then a penguin can definitely use chopsticks if it really wants to!" she declares, because obviously that was the point of this exercise.
A featherless Pernelle... Would that be an atrocity? Or would it be the gateway to a new definition of beauty?
"Hmmm... I think it would still be good for you if you got a massage from Mr. Tomi every so often. You don't want to throw out your back in the middle of a fight!" wait what was that about a fight "Especially since we have two Homunculi crawling about right now." wait what was that about--??
Oh, food is here. The hostess has probably heard weirder, it's fine. "Oooh," Yanagi breathes, lighting up as she sees her food arrive. But there's no shaved ice. Her face clouds, but before she can say anything, the hostess explains that she'll bring the shaved ice out afterwards so it's as fresh and cold as possible once she's ready for it. Yanagi cheers up at that, and she nods her assent.
She digs into the salad first. She's disappointed to find that there is indeed no meat, none whatsoever, just like she requested. Oh well. The gazpacho comes next, and it comes with a bit of dipping bread. It's quite nice, actually, and it is indeed cooling. Not that Yanagi was overheated before coming here... It's a decent ways into fall at this point.
"I'm not sure. Even if we definitely had it last night, Pernelle could've knocked it out the window this morning," Yanagi points out in between bites and slurps. "But I think so. I remember you put it pretty high up in the pantry, so we only have to worry about if Tsumugi left it out for Pernelle for fun."
<Pose Tracker> Saika Kikuchi has posed.
And so, she should have meat while she can.
But it's not today, is it? At least today there's gazpacho soup.
"Mmmmm," Saika muses as she crunches up some of the zucchini noodles while raising up the bowl with her other hand. She gestures a little with the chopstick: "I'll ask 'em next time I take you over. Preventative maintenance, right? If I'd do it for my bike, I should do it for myself."
She clicks her tongue at the mention, though. "Now there's two... hope this isn't going to be an intensifying trend."
"Yeah. I mean, I understand wanting to grind things up, but it's a little hard, you know, since they're not linked together but one isn't much good without the other. Though," Saika continues, "I guess I COULD put a chain on the pestle now that I'm thinking about it. I'll try it out."
Is she going to superglue jewelry chain onto some antique mortar and pestle first bought by an apothecary back in the Meiji era that they managed to find in a second-hand shop and buy as a lark? Is she really going to just defile history like that?
Yes. Next question.
"I still can't figure out what they wanted it for," Saika continues with a shrug. "Well, they had their reasons, I'm sure." Munch, crunch.
Towards the end of the meal, when it's time to look for that shaved ice, Saika renders her judgment:
"So... this place has excellent food, even if I feel it could be a little spicier with the zucchini, you know? Just to sorta give you that heat to go with the cold, even if the heat's kind of what you're trying to avoid. Service is pretty good, but I think we're kind of getting a bad look from them, you know?" (Saika, notably, doesn't say this when the hostess is in visible earshot.)
"Three out of five," she concludes, in a tone of compliment. "It'd be worth coming by when it cools off, see if they change up the menu."