"That's so kind of you! I'd be glad to. That'll help me, too, 'cause I don't have the first clue how to start adapting my recipes to include ink either. No idea what kinds of ink go with what dishes at all." She gets out a pen and a scrap of paper to write down her email address. "Send me an email when you wanna try things?"

"Very well, very well. What about you two, what do you think?"

"Chicken noodle soup tastes like home. It's great, light but savory."

Mama Grendel practically glows.

Bys closes her eyes to focus. She's destroying this meal.

She takes a bite of the steak, chews and swallows.

"-Yes. It's delicious. I didn't know how much I needed something tough to chew on until right now."

She samples the ham and straightens up. "Mmm!"

Sable's taking her time, savoring everything. "Mmmmmmm~"

She tries a bite dipped in the ink and sighs happily, some bit of tension in her shoulders unclenching. "Oh this is good. This hits the spot. You did a good job with this ink. Dunno if it's the right pairing for salmon, we're gonna have to science that sometime, but it's seriously solid start. And the salmon is so lovely."

She takes another bite and makes a positively indecent sound.

Abyssia is eating like a barbarian, fork spearing the meat and gnawing chunks off it directly.

"What even is this sauce? It's sort of like mustard but definitely not mustard."

"Family recipe! It's always so nice to serve good food. Fill you up and make you whole. Can I get you three anything else? Oh, and how are you finding Arcadia so far?"

"I'm good, thank you," Sable says between bites. "And it's only been a couple days, but I like it so far."

"Arcadia is nice, but not everything has been. It's bittersweet, and been a long few days. You seem like someone who'd get that. You mentioned a war..."

(Bys nods along to this)

"Ahhhh. Yes." Mama Grendel shakes her head slightly. "...All I can say to you is, that was long ago and far away, and I'm happy now. I was young and angry and lost, and a great many things happened. It will never not have happened. But I'm happy now."

"Yeah. We all had a rough road getting here, but there are things we can enjoy going forward. Just have to grab hold of those opportunities as best we can."

"Yes, well, go on and eat! I've spent enough time blathering on and bothering you, enjoy you three and leave me to my old lady ramblings!" She laughs - a proper witch cackle, before turning away to another table where the patrons seem about done.

And Sable digs in, snuggling close to Lenora while she eats, stroking her back with her tails to further top off her mana (as well as just enjoy the closeness), and at one point offering a bite of her fish.

Lenora leans into the contact. Her tail winds around Sable's leg lightly as she sips at soup and relaxes.

Cute.

...Too bad she's not a mimi. No, none of that. ...Well, maybe. It'd be embarrassing, but Lenora's lucky and has a relaxing time of it. It's cutesy, saccharine even, but-

She's kind of staring at them with a slight, considering frown. She shakes her head and sighs slightly and continues munching on veggies (the steak is half gone, she's saving the rest for the last part of the meal).

"We'll get used to this place in time," she says, mostly to herself.

"Mmmmhm! Just as soon as you get used to the idea that you could have this too."

"Hmph." She crosses her arms defensively and levels a glare. It's a light glare, as glares go, though. "It's not that... Straightforward."

"Am I missing some subtext here?" She asks, having finished the offered bite of fish.

"Nothing important."

"Mhm, nothing important," Sable says with a giggle, "just Bys repressing her loneliness and longing under the mononormativity and slut-shaming mortal society tried to teach us, that's all."

"I don't want to butt in! It's just, seems nice, that you like each other. Cute, I guess."

"Hmmmm. You need hugs."

"I do not Need hugs."

Sable focuses for a few moments and conjures a spare Hat in her hand, under the table, while she keeps talking.

"I could argue the question of 'need' with the consequences of touch starvation, or the fact that even if none of us are 'human' anymore we're all derived from them and need interpersonal connection just as much, but even if we set 'need' aside, you crave them."

She tosses a Sending to Lenora:

Duck across to the empty spot between her and the wall when I distract her, then wrap her in a hug at the same time I do.

She lifts up slightly and slides her hat underneath herself, masking the motion by leaning in to look intently at Bys.

"You're in a new world, you've been isolated from everything you knew, you've been dealt an isolating hand, and you're surrounded everywhere you look by pretty people sharing warmth and affection and companionship. It's okay to want to be a part of that."

She pulls her primary Hat off her head and tosses it lightly over the table, catching it in her TK to have it end up hovering over the empty bit of Bys's bench seat between her and the open end. At the same time, she sits back down and falls through one Hat and out the other, landing next to Bys with a soft whumpf.

"It's also okay not to know how to ask, at least when you're still starting out."

And then she wraps her arms around Bys in a warm hug.

Well if Sable insists, she will help with the hug! It's surprisingly easy to duck under the table. Perk of being small, perhaps.

She joins the hug from the other side, capturing the dragon. Heheh.

She opens her mouth and manages a 'tch' when she realizes in a moment of half-formed instinct what they're about to do, but it's already too late to do anything about it. She is promptly hugged. Quite thoroughly.

She tenses, sitting up straight, and holds her arms close.

...

She sighs and slumps back, looking up at the ceiling. "That's the kind of roomies I picked, huh? Not everyone's so touchy-feely. Well, whatever." She pushes against Sable a bit, the hug-engulfed equivalent of a friendly shove. Her hands fall to the tail that's across her lap and she breathes deeply. "I'm fine, you know. Really am. You can stop hugging me now."