A noodle cart in Manila, Monday

[lovemykilt]

After a brief stint in a drunk tank in Kuala Lumpur -- he really was going to have to learn how to shut his mouth instead of antagonizing the local police force before he ended up facing off against a cop much less inclined to humor an irritating American -- Priestly had made it to the Philippines.

Manila, he decided, was made of awesome.

He was currently arguing with a man running one of the noodle carts that peppered the streets, trying to talk him into giving a punk (literally) kid from the States an under the table job dishing out glass noodles to tourists. Apparently, the guy wasn't going to make any decisions until he'd talked to the owner -- who lived in the States.

Priestly was beginning to wonder if he maybe should have stuck to Tex Mex in Austin.

[ooc: The sporadic installments of Priestly's international culinary adventure continue! Open for phone calls and such, unless any other character is likely to be hanging out in Manila right now.]

Comments

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

*riiiing* Hope that ring-tone isn't embarrassing around potential employers, Priestly.

"Hey, it's me."

[lovemykilt]

Honestly, the noodle cart guy had probably heard worse.

"Dinah!" Priestly practically crowed. "Tell my new friend . . ." He paused as he frowned at the sign the man was pointing to. ". . . Grody? Really?" The man nodded, and Priestly shrugged. "Tell my new friend Grody that I'm a totally reliable, stand up kind of noodle cart minion."

He held the phone out in Grody's direction. Grody, having been in the food car business for a long time, willingly tilted his head to better hear what Dinah had to say.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Priestly is completely reliable!" she said immediately grinning. "Every time I needed help or food he was there! Also, he makes a mean sandwich, and totally wants to learn from you. He'll be your apprentice in foodness! You will not regret hiring him!"

And.... "Also, if zombies attack, he will so have your back!" Unless he has a PTSD moment!

[lovemykilt]

Grody's eyebrow went up. "Zombies?" he said.

"You never know," said Priestly.

Grody nodded seriously. "I still have to ask the boss."

"I can respect that," Priestly said, returning his phone to his ear. "Dinah!" he said again, turning to the side so Grody could serve other customers while he talked. "Tell me I get the pleasure of actually answering when you drunk dial me, this time!"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Grody?" she asked, just to check that she'd heard that right when he was back, then groaned, laughing. "Oh, man. I'm not drunk! I'm not! I am so, so sorry..."

[lovemykilt]

"Are you kidding? That kept me entertained when I was waiting for my layover in Hawaii."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Where are you?" Dinah asked, curious now. "And when did you leave Tex Mex world? And did we ask you for barbecue? ... we were really hungry after all that booze."

[lovemykilt]

"No, I think you were too busy arguing over the words to 'Don't Stop Believing'. I'm in the Philippines. I was going to try Malaysia first, but, uh. They didn't like me much, there."

That one cop didn't like him much there, anyway.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Okay, that was funny enough -- and the memory was funny enough-- to have Dinah laughing, then then to gulp. "Waaait. Why didn't they like you in Malaysia? Priestly? Did you advocate the peaceful overthrow of a government again?"

[lovemykilt]

"Only a little!" And not actually to the cop who arrested him. "I maybe got a little drunk and called a cop names in a park in Kuala Lumpur."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Oh, Priestly." See, and now their possible near-misses with the cops didn't seem so bad! He was a great friend like that. "What did he do? Did you have to pay a fine? We didn't run into any police while we were smashed, but I suspect Helena was running interference and leaving them tied up in squad cars behind us."

[lovemykilt]

"Can I have a Helena to do that, too?" Priestly asked. And for once, he wasn't asking for a Helena to do other things as well. "I spent the night in the drunk tank. Which is so not something I ever need to do again."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Oooooo, ohhh, I'm sorry. How nasty was it? And call when you do that!" Dinah scolded. "I might even send Helena to help if you really really need it, you know."

[lovemykilt]

He might've done, but it was pretty embarrassing. "Hey, I can handle plain old human cops. And, anyway, Manila is way cooler than Kuala Lumpur. I think it's working out for the best."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Do you still have money? And a place to sleep?" Dinah asked, because that's what she worried about. "You're not sleeping under park benches, are you? And when did Naomi take over my brain? Don't answer that."

[lovemykilt]

"Well, if I can bug you about trying to ride on top of trains, I guess you get to bug me about not sleeping under park benches." Which he totally didn't do, anyway. "But yeah, I'm cool. Staying in a local hostel."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"... I didn't actually do that." A beat. "This time." Aaaand: "Good, I'm glad. And jealous. And I want photos! Also, recipes. For Alfred to make me what you're working on."

[lovemykilt]

"Photos and recipes. I can totally do that."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Yaaaay." Dinah grinned. "Wish you'd been with us. Although I'm not sure Momoko would've liked it. Half the reason we were drinking was 'cause she got monstered=up during the last invasion, and needed to chill out and not think about it."

[lovemykilt]

"Wait, she got what?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah grimaced. "The last invasion was some space rock that tried to take people over, and it turned their skin gray and their eyes black and gave them claws and made them crazy violent." She huffed softly, still sad Momomoko had to go through that. "It messed with her pretty bad. As you can guess."

[lovemykilt]

"Holy crap." That was about all Priestly could say to that. "Man, Fandom can be so screwed up."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"There are days I do not miss it." She made a face. "She was already a lot better the next day, eyes and fingers back to normal. Just a hangover from hell, and Helena laughing at us." Dinah smiled a little, then caught herself thinking of the last time Fandom messed with them, and then sighed and rubbed her forehead. "How long do you think you'll be in the Phillipines for? Don't they have hurricanes?"

[lovemykilt]

"Probably. They have lots of alcohol around here," Priestly said, deliberately misinterpreting. "Also, they might be called typhoons."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah snorted, and said, "And now I will be making Barbara text me updates from the Weather Channel in your world. Although if there were an Alcohol Channel, I could know if you were risking the drunk tank again." She made a face. "I'm not doing that again soon, regular school starts a week from Monday for me."