Hahahaha... I am sneaky

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
Caroline pulled into her work place and quietly chained her skunk powered vehicle to a sign nearby, not quite sure what to make of Jacques' story. Sure it was a little wild and far fetched but nothing about the little badger’s current situation was anything close to normal. She certainly did find the whole white dragon thing a little hard to believe, though she cannot say she didn't hear about it considering the story gelled well with her interests.
But now was not the time for idle musings! Caroline had a job to do! A hefty one at that considering the restaurant looked packed and was brimming with a very raucous crowd indeed. Taking one last look at the passenger in her pocket, who seemed to have nothing but a smile of approval plastered across his face, possibly from all the jovial laughter coming from his building which was a clear indicator that his business was indeed thriving, Caroline gave him one last pat to settle down before taking a deep breath and moving inside.
It was a mess in there.
There were patrons everywhere having what appeared to be a very, very good time singing and dancing on the floor with some particularly jovial individuals up on the tables, dirtying the tablecloth with their feet while the waiters tried desperately to get them down with force if necessary. It came to no surprise that the smell of alcohol filled the air more than the wondrous aromas of any cooking, even though Caroline spotted a decent quantity of meals as she worked her way through the dining hall. When Caroline did finally make it to the kitchen, she was not surprised to see that it was equally hectic in there as it was in the dining area, swarms of white clad individuals were whizzing about to and fro often times unapologetically bumping into each other and moving on as if no collision has occurred.
"You! Catherine the new girl!" Mr.Oxman called from the other end of the kitchen, one hand stirring a pot while the other pointed almost accusingly at Caroline, "I was going to call you in, but as you can see I never got the time!"
"M-my name's Caroline sir..." the skunk girl in question dodged her way past the bustling kitchen over to her boss, "And I guess my spider senses were on the spot eh?" Caroline grinned proudly to herself, "What's going on here?"
"Hell I don't know..." Mr.Oxman replied, sprinkling some salt into the pot he was working on while stirring it in, "All I can tell you is that there's a bunch of rich drunkards who are celebrating something or another and who bought out all the expensive wine... but no time for chit chat now, take this order for a traditional risotto and get it done!"
"B-but I don't know how to make a risotto" Caroline protested, fighting her instincts to take a step back because she feared that she was going to bump into someone else.
"No need to worry about that too much, I doubt these cretins could tell the difference between their food or vomit at this point..." Mr.Oxman growled a little loudly as he removed a slip of paper from his front pocket and shoved it into Caroline's sternum, "Go go go! There's a free stove over there!" Mr.Oxman pointed through a brief parting parting in the swarm of busy chefs at an empty stove top showing signs of heavy use by the mildly fresh sauce stains adorning it.
Caroline didn't protest further since it was painfully obvious that there really was no time for idle banter and hurried off to start working, besides, she's got a little pocket helper who would, with no doubt, totally assist her with out fail no matter the circumstance.
"Hey uh... Jack..." Caroline whispered without looking down so as to not draw attention to herself... not that anyone had time to even glance at her, but there was no harm in being cautious she figured, "What's a risotto?"
"...Really?" Jacques tone made it clear that he was remarkably unimpressed by Caroline's query, "That is without doubt the most famous dish we have to offer! Well in my time at least..." he added with a small cough, "How can you not know what it is?"
"Cut me some slack here ok?" Caroline groaned, "I'm still a little new here ok? And I'm getting the vibe Mr.Oxman is throwing me in the deep end here to see how I swim and by golly am I sinking like a brick right now so come on and throw me a line here would ya?"
"Fine fine..." Jacques rubbed his temples, "Let's start at the beginning then shall we? The word risotto... what does it remind you of?"
"R...Rice?" Caroline bit her lip.
"Tres bon!" Jacques clapped his hands together, "Now go get some, on the double now!"
Caroline obeyed immediately, running off to the pantry to get some rice as well as a pot to cook it in, she was then instructed to cook it in broth in small increments to make sure the rice soaked up all the liquid and left none extra. Jacques was pleased to see that she needed no help save his instructions while she prepared the dish, climbing up to the top of the pocket to observe as she grated the cheese, added the wine and finally added some vegetables before pouring the lovely concoction into a bowl.
"You're being a little too hasty there Caroline..." Jacques tsk'ed as he watched porridge like food slide into some ornate crockery, "You are supposed to taste it before you put it in the bowl, so it's easier to fix if there's a problem."
"O-oh yeah of course..." Caroline tentatively placed the now empty pot back on the stove, "I'm kinda scared to taste it... you taste it for me!"
"This seems like a foolish endeavour mademoiselle..." Jacques frowned slightly before shrugging his shoulders, "However I cannot deny that I want to taste this for myself, it smells... tres bonne."
"Heee..." Caroline blushed, "Well don't get my hopes up before you even try it! Now... how are we going to do this? Should I just put a little on a spoon and hold it up to you or something like that?"
"Non! You’ll surely drop the spoon where and dirty your garments further! The smell from the last food stain you put here is bad enough! Any more and I would surely pass away from the stench!" Jacques peered down at the red stain at the bottom of his enclosure and shuddered, "just lean over the bowl a little, I'll grab myself a handful."
"N-no I won’t! But fine, alright, here we go." Caroline spoke meekly as she leaned over the food, far enough to bring the pocket at the front of her chef’s jacket close enough so that Jacques could reach it if he leaned out far enough himself, Caroline watching precariously as her mentors tiny little hand inched, or rather millimetred in this case ever so closer to the hot rice pudding-
"Caroline!" Mr.Oxman suddenly appeared behind the lady in question and slapped her on the back without warning, causing her to yelp in surprise and jump a bit, "Hows that risotto coming along?"
"F-fine!" Caroline stammered as she collected her wits and noticed that her pocket was critically lighter than before, snapping her gaze downward revealed the bottom half of a badger poking out of her otherwise immaculate dish of risotto, "It's going great!" Caroline said quickly, using her body to block line of sight between the black blemish in her carefully prepared meal and the one person who could fire her in an instant should any form of blemish make itself apparent, "I just gotta... uh... taste it!" Caroline said quickly, whipping out her spoon before any of the three parties involved could protest and shovelling a hefty amount of risotto (badger included) and snapping it into her mouth in under a second.
"Whoa there Caroline!" Mr.Oxman chuckled somewhat uncomfortably, "You're only supposed to taste the food, not gulp it all down for yourself!"
"Mmmm..." Caroline grinned sheepishly and rubbed her belly giving a thumbs up to signify that the dish met her approval since her mouth was too full to adequately reply. For the most part her gesture was sincere, the amount of risotto that surrounded her target was amazingly delectable, so wonderful in fact that she sucked it away as she turned the badger around on her tongue, it was only when all the risotto was gone that she realised the folly of her ways. The proverbial core of this apple did not taste good, at all, Caroline herself could say that it was legendarily awful.
"Well then!" Mr. Oxman chuckled towards Caroline's earlier gesture, "I'll take it you approve of your dish huh? I'll say that I gotta try a little bit for myself to share in the experience." he winked as he pulled out his own spoon and scraped away a minute amount of the meal to compensate for his subordinates voracious gobbling earlier and put it in his mouth, smacking his lips a little before raising eyebrows as high as they can go and giving an approving frown, "Wow... I mean... whoa, this is pretty good, I'd only expect this kind of quality from someone who worked here a few years! This is- Hey, are you ok?"
Caroline's ears perked up when her boss' concerned gaze fell upon her, she just then noticed that her eyes were welling up and watering, she didn't suspect Jacques was privy to such luxuries as a regular bathing schedule but such unholy levels unpalatableness could not simply achieved by mere neglect of hygiene. Caroline felt her throat closing up to the point of asphyxiation, as if the thought of swallowing the apocalyptically rancid morsel in her mouth even crossed her mind for an infinitesimal moment of a second. 'Oh my god' Caroline thought, 'I'm going to die. I'm going to die right here because someone forgot to take a bath for a million years.'
Tears streaming down her face, Caroline whipped around and ran straight for the bathroom leaving a bewildered Mr. Oxman behind wondering if it was something he said. Bursting into the restroom, Caroline hastily looked around for anyone else present and once finding the room deserted, expelled the contents of her mouth into the nearest sink before collapsing on the ground hacking and coughing.
"D-dude!" Caroline managed to say between her desperate, fleeting gasps for air, "The way you taste is just... unreal!"
"Well excuse moi mademoiselle!" Jacques sputtered himself, curled up in the sink surrounded by a viscous puddle of saliva, each participant of this spat being in a position where one cannot see the other, "It's not easy getting clean like this for your information!"
"Oh don't give me that!" Caroline grabbed hold of the sink, appearing to Jacques as a set of four large fingers slamming down into the rim of the ceramic sink her was in before the disgusted giant head of his apprentice rose up behind it, a string of drool trailing from her bottom lip, "You taste like a crap took a crap!" she growled, "A double crap if you will!"
"Of course of course..." Jacques did his best to hold back a sensible chuckle despite lying in a pool saliva, "We can discuss my personal hygiene later... for now I think you did pretty well with the boss, non?"
"Hee..." Caroline smiled as she wiped off her bottom lip, "I guess I did do pretty good back there huh?"
"Oh yes of course mademoiselle," Jacques slowly got out of his bed of saliva slowly and tried his best to shake some off of him, "I'd say you are a shoe in so to speak... Now get me out of here before someone comes in and sees me."
-----------------------------
As before only complaints D:<
RIP Baggy52.
Mutual Benefit - In Progress... 21/40 -> 52%
Cause for alarm - In Progress... 5/10->50% >|+|< No Cause for alarm - COMPLETE