[Because rice is literally the only food Kija can think of that you could manage to do all those different things with. Or half those different things with. Sugar, perhaps? But nobody ate sugar by itself, or at least you weren't meant to.
[It is all very confusing.
[He lets Zeno sit him down; he pretends to understand what anything on the menu might actually turn out to be. It all sounds basically the same to him, and all equally baffling. Soup seems a fairly safe choice, except that even that seems to have been made out of absolutely nothing he's ever heard of. He ends up settling for basically the same as Zeno but without the terrifying-sounding flavor combinations. If the worst comes to the worst he can always pick it off the fluffy tasteless stuff...
[And then that part is over, and he has nothing to do but look at Zeno and wonder where to even begin.]
no subject
[Because rice is literally the only food Kija can think of that you could manage to do all those different things with. Or half those different things with. Sugar, perhaps? But nobody ate sugar by itself, or at least you weren't meant to.
[It is all very confusing.
[He lets Zeno sit him down; he pretends to understand what anything on the menu might actually turn out to be. It all sounds basically the same to him, and all equally baffling. Soup seems a fairly safe choice, except that even that seems to have been made out of absolutely nothing he's ever heard of. He ends up settling for basically the same as Zeno but without the terrifying-sounding flavor combinations. If the worst comes to the worst he can always pick it off the fluffy tasteless stuff...
[And then that part is over, and he has nothing to do but look at Zeno and wonder where to even begin.]
How do you manage it?
[No, not like that.]