"The us that sparred with you was moonsilver - she's a bit clammy and cold sometimes but she's cool. 'm Ruby, the girl who intrreupted me was tpax, 'nd generally the rest 'f us are notionally extant 'n any given mo. My boncvetion, we're girls - Iron's not, 'lways, but it's cool regardless. 'puter has a full list, 'f you want it." 

I drawl.

"Anyways." 

"...I'm still chillin', ultimately? I don't have anything else to do with my day, beyond look up the cool magic I'll be getting, hangin' out with cool magic people, and lazing about workin' on adjusting to my body and playing rando games in the vein of what 'm goin' for. Obviously, I want to fuckin' actually learn, obviously I don't want to bloody waste the ridiculously good opportunity I have, but 'm not gonna waste teh chance to get better on the psychological side, too, okay?"

She snorts faintly. 

"That makes some sense - though that's the sort of balance that's hard to manage, and something that I've heard far too many times that people are trying for when they work themselves to the bone." 

I raise a finger and point up at the ship itself.

She snorts and drinks once more. 

"Point."

"Can we please talk about something lighter? This isn't exactly the nicest thing to talk over good food."

"...Sure?"

I hum, and glance down at the food. 

"'m curious for one how the ambrosial food infused with earthpower compares to and changes your experience of food. I do wonder how much that kinda thing like, generalizes? There's the option to get a buncha cool hedonist shit at a swish party in the black city, 'nd that probably involves food, to a degree. I don't know how fair the compariosn is to say, just buying the normal ass nicer version? My family dragged me to an overly-high-class restraunt where everything was like 2-4x as expensive as normal and for months later I was hyperaware of the some of the details of the normal v. of the chips there? These are about as good as them, incidentally." 

The warmth catchin' properly in the skin is probably the biggest thing - aside maybe the fact that the spices stay reasonably level and right 'gainst my tongue as I dig in. It's really good but 'gain not distractin' or nesscarily the best I expect this sort of sys can do.

"I've never really tried to think too much about it, to be frank. The food was amazing, sure, but it never felt like it was anything about what the food was actually like, persay? It was such a physical thrill to get to indulge in those, and the rest of the empowerment made the taste a blur. It was still..." 

She shivers, a tremble running up and down her spine before she lets out a long hot exhale. 

"It mostly just felt... incomparable. I wanted to have more, I wanted to keep on getting to dig into the delicacies, but all it did was make me want to find out what the rest of the specturm of good foods looks like."

"Oh yeah - there's been so many times where I've dug in and I just got kinda shocked by how much I liked it - even if honestly so much of that was just from not havin' enough of somethin' in my system." 

She smiles and grabs a glass of water, this time. 

"A good workout recovery can be far better then the finest of feasts, that's true." 

I wince, a little. 

She rubs her forehead. 

"'t's fine. Srsly."

"I know just..." 

"Yep."

We sigh, together.

"It feels a lot more like that, to be honest - the ambrosia feels like there's something that you've been craving, your whole life, but you didn't realize that there was something there, in that part of your mind where that feeling surges up. It's... surreal, to be sure, and I'm pretty glad that the Earthborn I worked under had the policy that you should eat those fruits in private. Just watching people come out all weepy, after is enough intrusion, in my opinion." 

She stares down at the food contemplatively, before returning to eating it.

"I wish they were a bit less aggressive about this being tuned for unobjectionability - half the fun of a seedy bar is finding out if it's a marvel or stinker. This is excellent, of course -there's nothing wrong with it, but there's little to say, given that."

I laugh faintly. 

"'t's good to get to avoid the overwhelm, at last. Still, complements to the chef for gettin' teh crispiness just right - 'lways good to get that mix of tearable and melty, once you get properly started chompin' in."

"I've not had too much of a problem with that - if anything, it's just a challenge of focus and endurance to the sensations running and my mind clear and pushing onwards."

I take a deep breath, and finish up a good bit of the meat - gonna be over soon 'nough.

"...To be frank, I don't super know what more t' say? My story isn't exactly the lightest thing to share, 'nd I don't know how much you have the kinda thing that's worth sharing over a meal yourself, when we're not tryin' to dig into the more intense side of things." 

She relaxes, and sighs lightly. 

"You could go and talk about what you'd wanted, before you got the invitation onto the cruise, away from all that. It's fine if you're done for the moment, of course. It'd be nice to hear about your life some."

"Oh that I can air?" 

I chow down on the bloody wedges, trying to make that slower and somethign that won't get me sore and tired after. 

I stim lightly and sigh. 

"Gonna go back into Moonsilver, 'n a bit btw." 

"I..." 

C'mon girl. 

"I had a coupla ones? In the world where I don't super have a ton of power. my breams were simpler things - codn' up somethin' to make my writin' work better, m'ybe throwin' my hat in the ring in th' community org game. There's a more modest dream that's more about the lil thin's and wantin' to get past the time where 'ts my job to figure all this stuff out was gettin' a nice bloody house and gettin' to indulge in the maid fantasy. I alwys wanted to just be 'n standby, I guess? I want to be valuable, in the sorta absract sense that means that there's a ton of real things that can be gotten from me, but I don't actually mind that bein' like, option value?There's nothin' wrong w/ havin' that be how it matters, and 't makes the constance vigilance stuff feel like somethhin' I can play into, a'nd have that be somethin' more sensible. 'sides, I like the sorta faith that people give, when they trust that 'd be there for 'em." 

"Community organizations are a bit hard to picture as an option to sink my time into, to be honest. The Empire wasn't exactly the sort of thing where that made too much sense - the Knights had there own methods to get across the territories, but really most places didn't have enough people for something outside of the details of the town made any real sense. I could see throwing into that myself I didn't have... all this, or I wasn't trying to figure out a way to go for something more demanding." 

"Oof yeah. I can hardly imagine - though the way that transit worked in teh place I grew up with made everythin' seem so far 'way, 'cause it was built 'round a form of transit I din't have my own access to.  Still, it showed me a ton through the 'net, and it's not like I never went 'nywhere. It felt.. obvious, that here were a otn of poeple right ther that you could go 'nd help w. food and basic safety a'nd a bajillion other things." 

She raises her eyebrow.

"...Did you say that some people don't have enough food, in your old world?"

"Uh yes? 't's not so much a thing 'n my neck 'f the woods, 'cause there's gov. supports for that sorta thing but."