Spice from Beneath the Ice! - A New Threat Emerges!

Onoma had only learned about it by chance after a recent stride into Central City, but his entire mountain was simply beyond compare. It was more than Onoma had ever bargained for, more than he had ever expected to see, more than he was told it was...

For it had more than chocolate, more than icecream, cinnamon sticks and wafers. No, it was truly magnificent.

It also had coffee. It was everywhere, it outshone everything else in its presence, to the point where Onoma was in a state of pure unhinged happiness, near paralyzed in awe. He couldn’t stop himself from grinning ear to ear with true joy. It was bubbling up within him and it couldn’t be controlled for long.

“YYYYYEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOOO”

Onoma let out an excited shout as he dove right towards the mountain, headfirst into a mound of icecream with a coffee river swirling through and around it. Giggling gleefully, Onoma would feast upon the bounty of this mountain, punching out chunks of honeycomb from walls, scooping up coffee with the honeycomb as a cup before munching it down as well. He outstretched his arms, grabbing crystallized iced coffee and crunched it into nothingness in seconds! Cutting through a bunch of cookie crust, Onoma held the remains in his hands, but before he could eat any of it he heard a voice nearby.

They said something about sharks? Onoma couldn’t see any. “No, this is cookies.” Onoma responded bluntly.

Onoma blinked a few times before crunching down on a block of apple crumble he had ripped from a nearby wall. “Well, now that you said it like that— I think you’re upset.” Onoma, in his infinite (stupid) wisdom, simply assumed that the new arrival’s tone of voice was an attempt at sarcastic positivity to obscure their real feelings.

“Then again, how can anyone be upset when, well, this.” He gestured to the area. In his infinite stupid (wisdom) Onoma completely disregarded the possibility of this other person being upset at all because he himself was just that unrelentingly happy right now given just where he was.

The stranger offered their name, or something. As loud as the Majin was, Onoma’s ears could pick up the inflection and tone. “So you pronounce that, like, with emphasis, yes? So it would be Bean!, and not Bean. You’re very loud so it might be hard for other people to understand how to say it.” The Namekian advised. “Anyway, I’m Onoma.”

With the introductions done, he noticed something about the Majin, this Bean! character and the environment around them... Something very very important; the caffeine vibe. “A guide? So you live here, then? Shiiiit, of all the things to be super jealous about, it’s this. I never thought I’d see the day.” Onoma finished off the apple crumble he had swiped and looked over at Bean!. “Okay, yeah, you know what, a tour sounds rad.”

“Yuh huh.” Onoma reasserted, barely even thinking about whether or not Bean! was actually disappointed by the news of there (currently) being no landshark present. The idea of such a creature was pretty cool, unlike the menaces of the general housing market that had the same name. Those people were universally pretty annoying.

Whereas Onoma pronounced Bean!’s name correctly, Bean! on the other hand didn’t seem to register Onoma’s name at all and instead assumed it was some sort of statement. “Huh? I didn’t lose anything. I was telling you my name. Hmmm.” The Namekian folded his arms, trying to think of how he could properly get the point across while making a note of that conveniently placed sauna in the distance. Maybe it would be easier for Bean! to understand Onoma if the Namekian tried to match the Majin’s sentence structure? “Me am Onoma.” There, nailed it.

Regarding the conveniently placed sauna though, it seemed like a solid place to start as Bean! had said. While it wasn’t coffee, fondue was pretty good, especially with the right things accompanying it. Or maybe this fondue in particular had coffee in it? Stranger things have been done before when it came to food. “Sure, we can start there.”

Onoma blinked a few times, he wasn’t actually expecting his attempt at speaking like Bean! to work, even remotely! At least he got the important information across by doing so. “That is what I said first. But, whatever, no biggie.” Onoma decided to let go of the particulars and details, it made no sense to go around in circles about it. If there was any need to say something in a way that Bean! would immediately understand in the future, Onoma knew how to, so that was a win in and of itself.

Figuring that it would at least be amusing to follow Bean! around for a bit, Onoma floated upwards and held his hands in his pockets as he watched Bean! comically struggle to waddle his way through the confectionary slush on the ground.

Since it was a funny sight to behold, Onoma chose to ignore Bean!’s choice of nickname. “Say, can you fly?” Onoma asked casually. “Hm.. Favorite snack...” Depending on who was asked, it was a pretty broad question. “I have a few, actually. Depends on the type of flavor you mean— like if you mean sweet or salty, sour or bitter.”

Ah, so Bean! took what Onoma had said quite literally. He wasn’t asking Bean! to ask any question, he was just making casual conversation! There was just something about this that was really funny. The Namekian sincerely tried his best to keep himself from laughing, and luckily Bean! couldn’t see his face because he was astonishingly close to failing. Clearing his throat, Onoma calmed himself down and chose to just roll with it. “Why yes, I can fly. I’m doing that right now.” In a majority of other situations, Onoma would have probably found this encounter really annoying, but there was just something so inherently charming, whimsical, and likeable about Bean!. Ok, maybe it also had something to do with Onoma being in a massively positive mood given the raw awesomeness of this new paradise he had found, but still!

Onoma thought about how to actually ask Bean! if he could fly, and speaking similarly to how the Majin did seemed to work, so he decided to go with that. “Can Bean! fly?”

Soon enough, the both of them would arrive at the sauna building and Bean! ate his way out of the slush to announce that they were here. Thinking about it for a moment, Onoma decided to answer Bean!’s prior question of his favourite snack by using chocolate and cheese as the two baselines. “Meatimite toast is pretty good. Tamtims— they have a blueberry flavour, it’s pretty good. Probably the best one they’ve made besides the coffee one.”

So what was the likelihood that this super cozy rest stop had either of those? Realistically, a non-zero percent chance was good enough! “Does Bean! have a favorite snack?” Onoma asked as he approached the entrance.