DC 79

Nothing ground breaking, but this is slice of life after all.

* * *

Feng Jiao had never been particularly great at names or faces. Even as a child, he had never found it particularly important to remember the names associated with the bodies that constantly milled around his home village. He’d tried to practice remembering people to combat this, however. Just because the majority of those he met would not live as long as he planned to didn’t mean that he wouldn’t be able to form connections with them.

Networking was what his father called it, Personalization is what his mother called it. They both drilled into him that it was just important to remember a name and face as it was to make sure that the other remembered his own. The girl he saw in the front of the line, surrounded by a few disciples wearing the Radiant Gardens pin on their lapels and collars, was familiar to him. She had, afterall, made quite the impression on him an entire year ago.

Huang Niao, the daughter of the mayor of Willow Mountain City. She’d awakened a powerful C grade crane that reminded Feng Jiao deeply of Aideen. Besides himself, she’d awakened the most powerful martial spirit that day, one of three at the grade of C. Funnily enough, all three of them had apparently chosen to join the God Tree Grove, even if she had refused to tell the assembled sect scouts her choice at the time.

From her robes, Feng Jiao could tell that she’d either already condensed her Qi or had received special treatment as she was wearing outer sect robes the same as his own. Judging by their quality, he assumed the latter.

The two of them made eye contact and she was visibly confused, which made sense. She’d left the arena before the nobles even finished their portion of the awakening ceremony. It was very unlikely she would recognize him from the crowd of young girls he’d been standing with and she hadn’t been there for the spectacle that was his own awakening.

He averted his eyes and her gaze appeared to move on as well. At the end of the day, he didn’t know her and had no reason to approach her either. The only reason he’d been interested in her in the first place was the familiarity he felt from her martial spirit, a sense of nostalgia he had no use for after his own awakening had returned Aideen to his life. Seeing her again did nothing but bring forth the pain that was Aideen’s absence once more.

Before long, the doors opened and the line started filtering into the Mess Hall. This Sunday proved to have reduced traffic just as the previous one seven days prior. He’d only been twice on that day, but thanks to the shifting formation’s rest day, there was always a shorter line on that day of the week. It also seemed to Feng Jiao that there seemed to be more meat dishes served on that day as well, perhaps a reward for those willing to walk so far.

They even seemed to have the same disciples working the front line as they did the previous Sunday. Feng Jiao looked around for the one most likely to go along with his plan, observing not just their outward appearances, but their workstations as well. What he wanted, and what he eventually found in the form of a chipper young lady with slightly rounder cheeks, was somebody who seemed to have a good disposition and care about cooking rather than just filling her duty. The second was just an assumption he formed when he looked at her workstation, noting that it was cleaner than most. His decision to approach her had nothing to do with the sliced ham she was doling out to the few who she deemed earned it. Nothing at all.

“Good Sunday morning to you! I don’t think I got your name the last time I was in here? My name is Feng Jiao, I joined the sect a couple of weeks ago.” Though he often found it tedious to speak to people, Feng Jiao liked to believe that he’d picked up plenty of people skills to use when needed.

“Yeah, I recognize you. You were the one arguing with the Radiant Gardens fellow a couple weeks back, weren’t you?” Rather than give her name back, as would have been polite, she asked about his relationship with the Radiant Gardens alliance in a roundabout fashion. Feng Jiao cringed as he realized that her station was right next to the bacon station where he’d had his first interaction with the alliance that would most likely grow to be one of his enemies.

“Ah, that. I wouldn’t call it an argument so much as a misunderstanding. It was my first day in the sect and I didn’t really understand what was going on yet. No worries though, I know exactly who the Radiant Gardens are now.”

“Oh, you must be one of those disciples who missed the normal induction time by months! I heard about you guys. Well as long as you know what's going on now and you aren’t going to get me in trouble for associating with you, I guess we can talk.” Nothing said about serving him any of the ham, as he expected. The entire argument with the guy she was talking about spawned from one of the nominal disciples who worked the serving line blatantly lying about not having a heaping ton of bacon in front of him.

“I was hoping we could do a little more than talk.” Feng Jiao mentally reached into his storage ring and wrapped his will around a paper package he’d prepared the day before. At the same time, he raised his hands to cut off the tirade that was coming, “I know that the meat here is usually reserved for friends, family, favors, and powerful alliances. I was just curious if you were interested in a trade.” With a thought and a little bit of essence, he pulled the package out of his ring and set it down. Due to the decreased traffic, there wasn’t yet a line beehind Feng Jiao at that specific station which worked in his favor.

“Just because I’m one of the few outer disciples who works at the Mess Hall doesn’t mean that I’ve got the authority to-,” The chubby girl trailed off as she opened a corner of the paper package after sliding off the string that held it shut. “Tell me exactly what this is, I want to make sure I’m not seeing things.”
“That, my dear fellow disciple, is mana-ahem- essence dense garlic scrapes as well as green onion and parsley. All of which come from the newly reclaimed ‘Rat Fields’, new name pending of course, which found itself under the control of me and mine. As you’ve been around longer than me, I’m sure you know the reputation that plot of land held before the infestation.” Just like that, Feng Jiao tipped his hand a bit and let the girl know exactly why he was so confident.

“I see. Well, I work Saturday through Tuesday, always breakfast. Dinners on Saturday night as well. I’d suggest finding me after my shift at some point and paying forward in bulk.” Just like that, the girl heaped a generous portion of the ham onto Feng Jiao’s plate and indicated for him to keep moving. It made sense, the disciples who worked at the Mess Hall didn’t pay for the food they served at all, so any amount of benefits given to them would return a reward worth even more. She still didn’t get Feng Jiao her name, but he was pretty sure she’d just forgotten at that point rather than intentionally withheld it.

Feng Jiao went to the self serve area where the vegetables and salads were. As the food was free, he saw no reason to go light on it and heaped all of the roasted vegetables on the plate alongside his ham. When he was sure nobody was looking, he even loaded up a decent amount into his ring for later.

People filtered in and out as Feng Jiao slowly nursed his meal and contemplated what he’d do for the rest of the day. He’d still not heard back from Duan Cao or Wang Jin. Wuwei De had mentioned that he knew of them and last he’d checked they were doing well, not at all affected by the waves that the group of them had been making in the slightest. Feng Jiao decided it was probably best to keep it that way and hadn’t attempted to get in contact with them since the first week.

With little else to do, he figured he may as well try and find one of the libraries that he’d heard about. He stopped by the self-serve area on the way out and grabbed a loaf of bread to carry with him, covertly storing a few more in the ring, and headed for the front door. On the way down, he even saw an unattended plate covered in bacon wrapped vegetables, ham, and other meats. He quickly scooped them into his ring with a twist of his hand before speeding up his steps. He even took the plate for good measure.

“That’s strange, I swear that I set my plate right here. This is our table right?” Feng Jiao heard the young girl’s voice trail off as she turned around and risked a look over his shoulder to see who his unfortunate victim was. Seeing Huang Niao and a few confused looking girls near her, he looked straight and kept walking with the same slightly-brisk pace he’d already set.

Though the shifting formations were down for recharge and repair due to it being their rest day, Feng Jiao’s destination still brought him through the shift hub, as he’d taken to mentally calling it, to find a map of the sect.

‘You are here.’ it took a few moments to locate his current location on the sprawling map of greens and browns. For some reason, they labeled the current location in a shade of green as well. He couldn’t help but think that red would have made it easier to figure out where he was faster, but the little green circle worked he supposed. With a finger on the map and the mess hall labeled to help with his orientation, he plotted his course to the library and stepped away, happily munching away at a small bread roll.