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

[heromaniac]

*ring*

Momoko wasn't sure what she and Dinah had said to him, but she could apologize to Priestly anyway. She also wanted to just talk, but all of that depended on whether or not he answered the phone...

*ring*

How many rings until voicemail picked up?

[lovemykilt]

Not as many as it took him to answer, thankfully.

"Momoko!" he said cheerfully.

"No more references!" said Grody the noodle cart guy. "Do you want noodles or not?!"

[heromaniac]

"I want noodles!" Momoko replied eagerly, smiling. "If they're any good. I totally have high standards when it comes to noodles. Hi Priestly! Where are you? That man's accent sounds weird."

[lovemykilt]

"I don't know if they're any good," Priestly said. "I haven't ordered any, yet."

"My noodles are the best!" Grody said, looking annoyed. Priestly held up one finger, then some money.

"Gimme one of . . . whatever," he ordered. Grody grinned, possibly thinking of what sort of Filipino delicacy he could foist onto the unsuspecting American. "I'm in Manila," Priestly said to Momoko. "The Philippines are awesome!"

[heromaniac]

"Ah! The Philippines?! AWESOME! That's near Japan! Like, almost next door! You totally need to go to Japan. You'll definitely get better food there. The best noodles are from Japan. So you really are travelling all over instead of school?"

[lovemykilt]

"Travelling all over is way better education than school," Priestly said. "And I was thinking I might head to Japan next. Then maybe the Himalayas. I would rule at Nepalese."

He wouldn't. Not right way, anyway. He'd be better off hitting up Vietnam and wowing them with his attempts at making banh mis.

[heromaniac]

"You totally have to call me. I'll come and show you all the best places!" Momoko gleed for a moment, then added a serious note. "It's a different education, that's for sure. Are you okay, though? With that? I didn't know the whole story or I totally would have called sooner."

[lovemykilt]

"Yeah, it's, uh." So not something he was going to explain on the phone while standing at a noodle cart in Manila. "I'll tell you about it when we hang out, next," he decided. "I'm so going to take you up on that tour."

[heromaniac]

His hesitation made her wonder, but she was totally willing to let it go. "Good! I really do know all the best places. If we went to my Japan, I could probably even get you a job! If you don't mind a boss who sometimes transforms into a monster."

[lovemykilt]

"Depends, would it be a nice monster, or a mean monster that I'd then have to fight off with a frying pan?"

[heromaniac]

She laughed. "She turns into Sedusa, dresses really wild and attacks anyone who is interested in her boyfriend. Or any girl her boyfriend is talking to. I think you'd be okay. Unless you got in the way or tried to stop her, of course."

[lovemykilt]

"I totally wouldn't do that. Unless she was directly threatening someone and there're no superheroes around to help."

[heromaniac]

Momoko was totally going to ask her friend now. The idea was totally awesome!

"And you also can't tell anyone Sakurako is really Sedusa. I mean, Souichirou knows, but no one in town really knows who becomes a monster and who doesn't except for us and the Professor."

[lovemykilt]

"Secret identities are one of my specialties," Priestly insisted. "My friends back home don't even know who I am when I turn into a girl."

[heromaniac]

Momoko rolled her eyes, chuckling. "I meant! That Tokyo City is weird. She and some others don't really have a choice in changing... It's like a werewolf kind of thing? A reaction? But there are some others in town that are just monsters all the time. It's hard to know who you can talk about. I am totally going to ask her, though, so you'd better be ready if she says yes."

"So, how are you? Other than full and about to dine on totally average noodles?"

[lovemykilt]

"I'm good. It's like an awesome adventure. You? Dinah mentioned that things were, uh, not so amazing back in Fandom, recently."

[heromaniac]

Ooh. Momoko bit her lip. "Which did she mention? Jaime or the monster?"

[lovemykilt]

"Uh, the latter, I think. Something about gray skin and claws."

[heromaniac]

"Oh, good," Momoko sighed. She wasn't sure she could go over that on the phone. "Uhm. Yeah. This weird rock appeared and somehow infected some of us. I got changed and attacked some people... But I'm better now! Almost no trace of any grey! And no desire to hunt or eat anyone!" Her voice grew a bit insistent at the end.

[lovemykilt]

"I approve of not wanting to hunt and eat people."

[heromaniac]

"So do I! I also suddenly totally approve of not remembering things that happen here."

And of not having scar tissue that reminds you of the time you had to be put down by your ex before you hurt another friend.

"But yeah. I'm doing better. I talked to one of the teachers about it. And I've apologized to everyone I tried to hurt."

[lovemykilt]

"There should be a rule or something. A blanket policy that no one can be held accountable for what Fandom makes them do."

[heromaniac]

"That's an awesome rule! Except, that's... sort of the problem? I wanted to do it. At the time, I mean! Not now, of course!"

[lovemykilt]

"Yeah, and future-me wanted to do what he did, too. But without Fandom, you'd never be in the position where you've got the thing going on that makes you want to do the things you end up doing, right?"

[heromaniac]

"You're logic has totally won me over," Momoko giggled lightly into the phone. "I know it was more Fandom weirdness and not me-me? I just... it's totally something I'm afraid of becoming, I guess. And yes, from what I've heard about future-me, I totally don't want to be her, either."

Which reminded her... "When we meet up next, I am totally grilling you on her, me, by the way. Dinah said you remember that weekend."