Dining In

 -AGAMA, CIELITO LINDO-

"Hmmm."

Emilia Lanterby looks up at the small restaurant in front of her. It was apparently a very local joint. Run by one person, and cooked by one person. She'd asked around about why it was so understaffed, and all she'd gotten was that only the owner was set for the nature of the restaurant. And that she'd better like syrup if she went there.

Well, she couldn't know her way around cuisine if she didn't get to the bottom of this. And so, Lanterby enters the door, and looks around. There's a woman behind the counter, who looks up in surprise.

"A customer! Hello. I'm Maple Sugar, and I'll be taking your order today.

Hmmm?"

Lanterby's staring is obvious, but... how could she not stare? The blobs of syrup in Maple's hair just... hang there, never actually becoming detached or falling. And for that matter, the hair... Lanterby can't tell where the hair begins or ends, and why it flows so seamlessly into the syrup.

But she has a job to do. Snapping herself back to reality, Lanterby sits at a small table. 

"I'll take the waffles with syrup, the maple milkshake, and the maple bacon poutine... I've gotta ask. Does all your food involve syrup?"

"The majority does, ma'am! That's my signature style. I'm surprised you came here without knowing that. Most people know what I can do and how I cook."

"Coulda fooled me. Most of them just told me to check it out for myself."

"Oh! They probably wanted you to be surprised by the live demonstration!"

"The what now?"

Lanterby looks on in confusion as Maple heads into the back and begins to work in the kitchen. While the food critic waits, and looks around at the small place - there was only room for a few people to sit, but this was an out of the way section of Cielito Lindo, making it very unlikely that anyone would stumble across it for tourism without knowing about it already. And a local area like Cielito Lindo would have people who understood waiting. 

Reading her menu a few other times, and mulling over the previous restaurant she'd eaten at - they hadn't even bothered to pay up when she asked for it, who did they think they were? - Lanterby is able to kill time well enough, until the proprietress emerges from the back, carrying a full tray. She sets it down, and as she unloads the dishes, Lanterby looks at them. The poutine looks reasonable, and the maple shake looks the right color... but her waffles are perfectly syrupless.

"There is a problem with my order." Lanterby says flatly. Maple, however, shakes her head.

"No, no, this is the unique part." Maple holds her hand over the waffles, letting her fingers hang down. All of a sudden, syrup begins to drip from Maple's fingers, the chef moving her hand to properly cover the waffle. It doesn't take more than twenty seconds for Lanterby to have a properly syrupy waffle, but she's still staring in confusion as Maple leaves to take up her post again.

Well. She's eaten weirder for the sake of her reviews. And Cielito Lindo probably wouldn't talk highly of it if the syrup being generated by a person was a problem. But... there were still a lot of questions Lanterby had.

For her part, Maple just works at her counter, taking another order that comes in, while occasionally checking to see if Lanterby is done. Once her plates are clear, Maple comes over to collect them. "How was everything?"

"I'll be frank." Lanterby drums her fingers on the table. "I'm Emilia Lanterby. Professional food critic. Maybe you've heard of me, maybe you haven't. Doesn't matter.

This wasn't bad. Acceptable. Heck, I'd even go so far as to call it good. 

But before I can publish any review, I need to ask you. What was with your hand?"

Maple, who'd tensed up during Lanterby's introduction, quickly unwinds at the positive reception. She's happy to explain. "I'm a syrupmancer, and I can create syrup."

"...That's it?"

"That's it."

"So you just use it for cooking?"

"I mean... why wouldn't I? It makes it easy. And I've always liked cooking, so I thought it'd be a good way to use my abilities. So I opened my own restaurant that I could use my abilities for."

"Hmm." Lanterby looks at Maple. Surprisingly open! Not exactly what Lanterby would have expected. Then again, it made sense. If magic and magitech were this commonplace, surely they'd just be normalized parts of society. 

Well. It would definitely be a hard sell when she made her future book, and perhaps future offers. Either way, though, this was definitely a place to keep in mind. Lanterby pulls out the money - an exact change, plus a generous tip thanks to actually passing her standards, and slams it down on the table.

"I'll be here again." is all she says as her parting words. And that was a commitment Emilia Lanterby intends to keep.