((nothing you make is EVER as good as mom's cooking, if your mom cooks. i could go to culinary school(which i plan to) and still not be half as good as her or my grandma))
"I do, actually." Cala had a thing for buying way too big hoodies in the winter to sleep in. Men's sizes obviously made that very easy, and anywhere from a large to a triple x-l sat in her dresser somewhere. That last one would definitely swamp him, but she figured he wouldn't want to drown in a hoodie. "If I'm going to be helping out actual criminals," She said, her tone light enough to make it obvious she was far from judging. "Then I need to at least be friendly with people like that. Well, the ones who are worth it. I would sooner turn myself in for any crime, than bother trying to get into officer Rennal's good graces. I don't even want to know what that would take."
She cringed at the thought of the man. Rennal was one of the local officers she come upon semi frequently, and she despised him. He was a leerer, and every time she saw his car outside the grocery store, she had to fight the urge to go home and come back later. He also had a thing for harassing the female employees of any establishment he went to. "Regardless, you can look as shady as you want while with me. Speaking of, are there very large differences in the taste of different gas station slushees? Do they vary much?"
(agreed!!! i can never make anything as good as them. i'm in yeongs position where i also have a latina mom and grandma, so it's tough lmaoooo)
Yeong would have been comfortable in a large or extra large. His height and build would make them fit perfectly fine. His head tilted to the side at the mention of the specific police officer. He did not ask, though. He assumed the worse about most officers, so he could assume many things about how the officer might be. "I am barely a criminal, what are you on about?" he asked jokingly. "But yeah, that's something really smart to do while you work with the big, bad cartel."
"Oh yeah, there is a huge difference. There's usually blue raspberry, cherry, orange, grape…" he listed off, having a thoughtful expression on his face. "There's a ton. It varies from place to place, but those are usually the ones that are always there."
"I'm an unlicensed medical practitioner aiding criminals. You're not the only one to ever come here." Cala pointed out, gesturing around her apartment with her fork. "I'm pretty sure I've had multiple non-convicted murderers sleeping on my couch. Which is…weird to think about." She made a face at the couch, chewing thoughtfully on a pancake piece as Yeong listed slushee flavors. "Ah, the elusive blue raspberry. I'd like to try that one, honestly. I know for a fact they don't exist as plants, which is disappointing. Imagine being able to put home grown blue raspberries in pancakes. How come they haven't been created as actual plants yet?"
Yeong’s brows quirked upwards as he glanced over at the couch. “Do you work with other people or is it just the cartel? I know my dad told me about you and what you do vaguely so I would know where to go if I was hurt and couldn’t get home, but I don’t know much else,” he explained. He continued eating as Cala talked about blue raspberries. He finished his first serving of food pretty quickly, helping himself to another pancake and a bit more of the scrambled eggs. “Blue raspberry is by far the best flavor of slushee and I will take that statement to my grave. That has to be the one you the first. But that would honestly be amazing if it became it’s own thing. How would you even make that, in some sort of lab?”
"It's mostly the cartel, and the people connected to it. You know, your odd job hires, the people who aren't as concerned about keeping out of directly illegal activities. Most of them are polite enough." Most, because there was a reason she had a lock on the inside of her bedroom door. A reason she slept with a gun under the pillow next to where her head lay at night. Hino didn't like it, but she never failed to remind him that it wasn't his job, it was hers. "Word spread pretty quick, so I sometimes get people completely unrelated to the cartel showing up. I've been told I have a 'bleeding heart'. I'm just lucky none of the cashiers at the store care enough to ask why I buy so many medical supplies."
Years ago, Cala had been the type to eat like she was never going to get the chance again. That had been habitual, from growing up without much food. She had been terrified her access to it would go away, that she'd be taken back or killed and never get to eat again. Now, though, she was slower. She savored everything, because if it was going to be her last meal, she wanted to enjoy the hell out of it. "I'd have to try it, and learn more about crossbreeding plants, but I wonder if certain berry flavors out there could be combined. Like, combining the plants through crossbreeding, or something, and eventually getting a berry with the taste. Somebody would have already made it though, if they could."
Yeong hummed as he nodded his head slowly. He only heard about Cala and what she did because of his dad, who had apparently gone to her a while ago. He chuckled at the mention of not being questioned. "If they ever ask, say you have like… A sick grandparent or pet, or something like that," he suggested, shrugging his shoulders as he tilted his head against the palm of his hand. He listened to Cala talk about a blue raspberry plant, seeming interested with the topic.
"Maybe the government is hiding it from the world. Like, it's such a powerful thing that would be created so the government killed who created it and it's stored away in Area 51," he said with a loud bit of laughter, shoulders shaking as he did so.
"That, or introduce them to Hino. He goes to the hospital almost as regularly as I get visitors, he's so lucky his family is rich enough to cover so many hospital bills." Cala mused, working a strawberry out of her pancake to eat. She told him that, nearly every time, but she wasn't quite sure he believed her. Despite dressing like he was on the verge of homeless, Hino's parents had four different homes and a fortune at their disposal, and by extent, so did he. He had probably never even seen a medical bill.
Yeong's comments had her snorting, hunched forward slightly as she laughed. The sound was always soft, like she was scared to laugh in some way. "But what would it do? Is the natural flavor just enough to cause the government to keep it a secret? What's–" She paused, brows scrunching up as she stopped herself from asking what Area 51 was. It may have sounded familiar, but she wasn't sure. Maybe Hino or Davey had brought it up?
(hi hi, sorry for the delay! i just had midterm week and am finishing up finally, so i’ve been very busy, but i’m back!)
Yeong continued to eat his pancakes, his uninjured leg bouncing. He had a lot of energy. Being injured in the way that he was seemed to be already killing him. He loved to be active, and he was unable to due to his torn ACL. But the talk of medical payments made his brows raise. Cala was going to be buying medical supplies for him, and his family was immensely rich. “Do you need help paying for the medical things for me? It’s probably obvious, but I have a lot of money to spare,” he spoke up.
At the sound of Cala snorting through her laughter, he began to also laugh a bit more. He grinned wildly and pridefully, feeling like he had made an accomplishment because he made her laugh. “I don’t know! It was just a theory. There might be something about it that we don’t know.”
((you're perfectly fine! i just started working, so my response times might be varying lmao, and my other roleplay partners have been waiting longer periods of time because of it. i hope it went well!))
"I'd feel bad taking your money." Cala said simply, finishing off her pancakes and eggs finally. She stole another chunk of egg off the serving plate with her fork, happily munching on it for a moment. Obviously, it was kind of stupid of her. Those medical supplies went to treating Yeong's father's men, effectively keeping them out of the hospital as much as possible and keeping him in the clear. And right now, they'd help treat Yeong himself. But she really would feel weird taking the money, after all they had already offered her.
"You know those things from space people talk about a lot? The uh…aliens! It could always be an alien fruit that we stole the flavor of. If it came from a planet with a super different climate and soil from ours," She started, tone half amused and half considering. "Then it would make sense that we couldn't grow it here and hadn't ever managed to. The aliens just invaded food companies instead of the government."
(i think it went well haha, and ok ok, it'll be all good!)
"Don't feel weird. It's just cash. Besides, it goes back to the cartel anyways, and we have plenty of money," Yeong drawled, moving his hands a bit as he spoke. He shoveled the rest of the eggs that were on his plate into his mouth before taking a bite of his pancake. He was almost done with that too. He had been right when he had said that he ate a ton of food. His appetite was large, and after all that he had been through the past couple of hours, he was obviously low on energy.
His brows raised in surprise when Cala brought up the theory that blue raspberry could be some sort of alien fruit. "Holy shit, chica. That would make a lot of sense. We discovered it and recreated it the best that we could to market to the population," he said, seeming to be thinking long and hard about the theory. He enjoyed having those types of silly conversations, no matter how dumb they were.
"I'll think about it." Cala hummed, one hundred percent lying. She was good at spending money carefully, having grown up with barely any, and was sure she was managing fine. New medical products just meant no books or plants for a month or so. And that hadn't killed her yet. She watched him as he thought, smiling slightly at how serious he looked. "Does that mean it might taste better on the planet the fruit comes from? I've never tried it, so I can't imagine, but how good would the fruit itself taste? Like how real strawberries taste better than artificial."
