day by day [open]

[sweetdeath]

Who: Tsuzuki Asato and you!
When: August 27 - 29
What: Bartending, adventures with baking, and meeting ghost puppies
Where: KINYOBI bar, Konohanasakuya-hime's temple and the Far Shore park!
Warnings: Really bad cooking? Otherwise this should be tame.

The Bartender's Nightmare - August 27, Kinyobi

[So it's a Saturday night, Tsuzuki's managed to help Gojyo get most of the place cleaned and organized, and it's just that time in late summer when the stores are full of fresh fruit and it's even mostly affordable.

Tsuzuki has plans. He's also got a book of gourmet fresh fruit cocktail recipes, and he's taken up camp behind the bar with a cheap blender, a shaker, a cutting board, eggs, rimming sugar (and salt) and an extremely hopeful expression.

There's a small chalkboard swinging where he's hung it next to the shelves behind the bar, reading:

Persimmon Fizz (persimmon, gin, lemon, egg white) Y800

The Hot & Sweet (Asian pear, ginger beer, bourbon) Y1000

Watermelon Martini (watermelon, vodka, lime juice) Y1200

Total Eclipse (blackberries, whiskey, lemon juice) Y1000

TASTING MENU -- Y500/glass -- Bartender will custom mix!!

Order at your own risk... or take the easy way out and get something more classic.]


Free Cookies, No Strings Attached - Aug 28 - Outside Konohanasakuya-hime's temple

[All the sign says, actually, is FREE COOKIES. It's neatly hand-calligraphed, with an arrow, and a really clumsy drawing of what might be either a cookie plate or a lopsided lotus seedhead (probably cookies; the little circles inside the big circle have spots inked on them.)

Follow the arrow, and the pleasant odor of baking chocolate-chip cookies wafting from an open door towards the back of Sakura's temple will guide you the rest of the way. Inside, Tsuzuki's waiting eagerly next to an oven, double-checking the timer on his phone, and waiting for a pretty plate of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies next to him to cool.

(Eater beware. He misread the amount of salt they called for, and added cinnamon, because he thought it would be good. A lot of cinnamon.)]


Petting Puppies in the Park - Aug 29 - Far Shore Park

[They don't have any pets around the temple, but it's okay; Tsuzuki's found it's not too long of a walk to get to the park in the Northwest district. Not nearly as long as the walk to get to the meeting hall, anyway, or the library.

He's started a habit of dropping by in the early afternoons with dog biscuits, because, he's found, the best thing about the park is that it's positively full of animals. Most of them are wild (although tanuki apparently like dog biscuits too) but there are some domestic spirits hanging around, and Tsuzuki's trying to coax a half-grown mutt closer bit by bit with cooing and treats.]

Here, puppy, puppy! C'mere....

Comments

Cookies! :O

[welcome_home]

[ There's a little girl peeking in the door of the kitchen, shyly peering around the doorframe. The scent had drawn her in before she'd seen the sign and now she blinks at the unfamiliar person in the kitchen. She gives him a bashful smile when he notices her. ]

Hi.

[sweetdeath]

Oh, hi, kiddo!

[Tsuzuki beams, dropping down into a crouch so he isn't towering over the kid, and ducks his head in a hello-nice-to-meet-you bow.]

I don't think we've met before, have we? My name's Asato. I'm this temple's head shinki.

What about you?

[welcome_home]

[ She gives him a warm smile and comes out from behind the doorframe. ]

It's nice to meet you, Asato! I'm Nanako. Ah, or Nanshe, but you can just call me Nanako.

[sweetdeath]

It's nice to meet you too, Nanako.

[He smiles brightly at her, and stands back up, stretching until his back pops. He makes a comical face.]

Wow, I'm getting old, huh? -- Do you want some cookies? I'm trying a new recipe!

[welcome_home]

[ That gets a quiet giggle as she nods and steps inside, tucking her hands behind her back. ]

Is that alright? I saw your sign. but new recipes are always fun to try out! What did you make?

[sweetdeath]

Chocolate chip! Cinnamon chocolate chip.

[He picks up the plate with a flourish, and leans down, holding it out to her.]

I haven't tried one yet, so we can test it together.

[welcome_home]

Ooooh! [ She leans up on tiptoes to peer at the cookies curiously. She's never had this kind before. ] They look really yummy! Thank you!

[ She reaches out to carefully pluck one of the cookies nearest to her. ]

[sweetdeath]

Thanks for helping me test them!

[Tsuzuki beams at her, picks one of the cookies off the plate for himself, and bites in.

His expression freezes, and his eyebrows draw worriedly together.

Maybe the cinnamon was a bad idea? Or... that's weird. It's kind of salty....]

[welcome_home]

[ Nanako had also taken a bite before pausing and then chewing thoughtfully. Well. She's potentially had worse, considering how much customizing recipes her big brother's friends tended to do. But still. Clearly, something is not quite right with this recipe. ]

Hmmm. I think you might need to experiment a little more, Tsuzuki. [ Not wanting him to take that badly, she smiles up at him all the same. ] But that's the fun part about trying a new recipe, right? You get to experiment until you find the combination that works best.

[sweetdeath]

Yeah, I think the cinnamon's a little weird.

Maybe less salt, too...

[He takes another thoughtful bite. He seems to have a high tolerance for terrible cookie, because he's not spitting it out right away at all. In fact, he's finishing off the cookie in another couple of bites.

Sure it's a little weird, but it's also chocolate chip, and that's not to be wasted.]

What do you think?

[welcome_home]

There might be a little too much salt. But cinnamon should go with chocolate chip, right? [ She couldn't think of any reason why it wouldn't. Either way, it was still worth a try!

Nanako gamely finishes the cookie as well, trying to figure out what was missing. ] Maybe more sugar instead of salt?

[sweetdeath]

Huh... maybe.

[Is he -- he is reaching for another cookie. And biting in.]

Cinnamon should go with chocolate! I saw this recipe for American chocolate cake that had cinnamon in it.

... Definitely too much salt, I think, though.

[welcome_home]

Yeah. [ She agrees with him. But she's not reaching for another cookie. ] I think it needs to be a little sweeter instead. But it was a good try! [ She smiles brightly at him in encouragement, hoping he wouldn't give up. ]

booze!

[kokuyoyo]

[Chikusa isn't particular sure he's pleased about what happened at Nari's little get together, when he'd.... set something off in Urashima. While Chikusa doesn't mind being something of a nuisance, or actively being petty, he's not the type to harass anyone. (Well, maybe Hibiki.) He's not the type to get pleasure from that kind of thing. In fact, it's actively uncomfortable sometimes.]

[His response to such situations is to turn around and leave. Thus, that's probably why he's drifting through the bar doors, shoulders hunched and his slouch has bad as ever. This hadn't been the kind of place he'd had in mind, but his original plan had been to stay at Nari's where all the food was. With Urashima being both his shinki and now upset, well... In the end, he'd never even gotten to the meat of the questions he'd wanted to talk about, either. How troublesome.]

[He's looking for Gojyo, hoping to get whatever is cheapest again just to pass the time, when he spots Tsuzuki and pauses.]

...Oh.... You work here...

[sweetdeath]

Yeah.

[He blinks suspiciously at the kid (that's definitely a different knit hat than the one he'd had before; how many does he own, anyway?) before going back to trying to scrub a stubborn smear of blackberry juice off the counter. It's getting more pink than blood-red, but it's not quite gone yet.]

... Are you even old enough to be in a bar? Seriously?

[kokuyoyo]

Sure.

[Truly a reassuring answer. Chikusa suffers a little closer to get a better look at the new things gathered on the bar.]

So you're bartending this time.... The redhead didn't do those kinds of things.

[Those kinds of cocktails, he means. Then again, Chikusa hadn't inquired.]

[sweetdeath]

Okay, what's your age?

[Twenty year old minimum, whippersnapper. But it sure sounds like he's been in here before. Maybe Gojyo just wasn't worrying about checking? After all, it's not like the cops are going to notice a shinki who looks something-teen in a bar, and they're all dead anyway.]

Yeah, I'm trying out a couple new cocktails for the menu. All the upscale places have them!

[And this is totally an upscale place, now that they've scrubbed it and Gojyo fixed the hole in the ceiling. Yeah. Okay -- look, they have aspirations, even if no one's buying fancy fruit cocktails that cost a thousand yen yet.]

... Want one? I can make it virgin. [He winks.]

[kokuyoyo]

[Reaching up, Chikusa adjusts his glasses.]

I'm a shinki. How would I know...?

[Well. Arriving in a middle school uniform has certainly given him a rough idea. Still, this guy doesn't need to know that. While he lets him ponder that question, he lingers near and slowly starts going over the list of cocktails and their prices. 1000 yen...]

[Tsuzuki's cheek slowly has his gaze drift over again, and he doesn't look impressed.]

...No one comes to a bar on their own for virgin.

[sweetdeath]

Yeah, well, teenagers don't usually come to bars on their own period.

... but fine.

[It's true shinki might not know. Tsuzuki doesn't know himself, except that he looks twentysomething.

Plus, Chikusa wants a drink, and if a cop happens to wander in, he really won't notice, so it's fine, Tsuzuki reassures himself, and waves at the menu.]

What do you want?

[kokuyoyo]

..I got whatever was cheapest last time... but...

[He leans forward a little, squinting at the menu.]

...These are pretty expensive for a drink.

[sweetdeath]

I'm letting you buy a drink even though you're probably 15. Don't complain.

-- Anyway, fresh fruit's expensive.

[And it goes bad if no one orders any! Which... not enough people have been doing.

Maybe this isn't going to be as successful an idea as Tsuzuki had hoped.]

[kokuyoyo]

You should get them from a temple or something...

[There have to be plenty of temples that have fruit and things like that. Probably. Still, after a long moment of thought, Chikusa sighs a little.]

What's the tasting menu...?

[sweetdeath]

[Tsuzuki glances down at the bar, wrinkling his nose as he considers the variety of fruit he's gotten.]

Um... Beach Party?

[Yeah, that sounds like a good drink name! So, what goes into a beach party?]

... blue curacao, watermelon, simple syrup, light rum and lime juice.

[That sounds pretty good, if he says so himself. He grins at Chikusa.]

[kokuyoyo]

[...This sounds like a questionable life choice, but still. Chikusa lets himself slump into a seat as he glances down at the various fruits.]

[...Rum is good. Apparently.]

...Sure. I guess I'll try it.

[sweetdeath]

You won't regret it!

[Says a guy who's tossing a slice of watermelon directly into a blender even as he speaks.

The rind is still on it and he hasn't taken out the seeds, but that's what blenders are for, right? It'll be fine. He's getting out a shaker and lining up an amazingly cheap rum, triple sec, blue food coloring and a bottle of shelf-stable lime juice next to it as he waits for the straining blender to finish pureeing the watermelon base.]