With their privacy finally secured and night falling, the first order of business was to stop back at their temporary new home to change - Yan Sun had ditched the hoodie in favor of her vest, which has spent most of her time on Aite stuffed in her bag thanks to the cold winter air that dominated her stay. She had also taken the time to do her makeup. The second order of business? Food, of course! Rather than subsisting entirely off of the food
#HongKong – November 23, 2025
that they stocked up the apartment with, Yan Sun has led them back outside, back to the massive nearby market, which has only gotten busier after sunset. It's a very different sight than it was in daytime, colorful lights, antique neon and fizzling holography combining to create an overwhelming, glowing rainbow of booths and signage unlike anything seen on Aite. They pass many vendors on their way to the food stalls, the goods an eclectic
mixture - some sell mass-produced garbage that could probably be gotten cheaper online, some handcrafted trinkets, others rare tech, second-hand omni-tools, collector's items, or VIs of dubious origin. There's some more unusual booths as well - a fortune teller, a piercing & tattoo artist, and someone who seems to be selling novelty mechs and drones. The food stall section of the market has no less variety - while the majority is local fare,
there's offerings from around the world - and in a few cases, beyond, with rare stalls selling alien imports. Jessica and Yan Sun have settled at a folding table near a seafood stall near the side of a building. The smell of spices and sizzling sounds of food being open-flame grilled by the busy cooks behind the stainless steel counter fills the air as they wait for their order. Just to their side, marketgoers are passing by, a steady stream in
both directions, and the sounds of them, and of vendors hawking their wares, and of distant skycars far above, drown out the conversations of those at the other tables. A strange sort of privacy through oversaturation. The air is pleasantly warm, albeit a bit humid. Entirely unlike Aite's temperate zone, in which both Freedom Falls and Adrasteia sit. Yan Sun has an excited grin on her face as her eyes leave the crowd to focus on Jessica. "It's
been sooooo long since I've had some real seafood. You're gonna love this, trust me." The order that she put in was fast and in Cantonese, and with the noise of the crowd, translators struggle to keep up. Whatever it consists of, the order seemed fairly pricey overall. Certainly more so than drone-delivered junk food at any rate.
Jessica has opted not to change, though she has ditched the haphazard disguise. Just sneakers, a tanktop, and jeans. Though given the hour, she opted to shed her sunglasses back at the apartment. She still seems to be in high spirits after their successful outing, smirk plastered across her face as she watches the crowd. She's done well at keeping up a calm and collected facade but there's glimpses of just how overwhelmed she is by it
all that slip out. It's in the way she finds herself distracted by the chatter and hustle & bustle of the city, or how she occasionally lags behind because something captured her attention. But right now she seems content to just be sitting down- a moment of reprieve to regain her bearings. Her gaze dances around the busy street, people watching. Her smirk widens as Yan Sun chimes in. "What is the food?" she asks, tearing her
attention away from a particularly colorful booth down and giving away the fact that she has absolutely no idea what Yan Sun even ordered for them.
Yan Sun 's grin widens as she realizes Jessica didn't catch the order. "Well..." As if in answer to Jessica's question, an overencumbered young man in an apron and sweatpants speeds over to their table. In the center he places a bowl of fried fish balls in curry sauce, with a pair of skewers to impale them on, and on one side, a crab, still in its exoskeleton, on a bed of spicy bread crumbs full of garlic and herbs, and on the other side, a
green bean stir fry and some rice. Aside from the skewers, the only cutlery is some chopsticks and a pair of scissors, and their sodas remain in their bottles, glasses seemingly deemed an unnecessary complication. The server and Yan Sun share a quick exchange, this too going untranslated, before he disappears over towards another table, picking up a stack of dirty bowls to bring to the dishes counter. The food, fragrant, garnished,
and stylishly presented, seems at odds with the makeshift nature of the establishment - folding tables, plastic stools, and a 'kitchen' that seems to be half aluminium foil, and centered around a roaring, smoking kerosene stove. It's quite a bit of food all in all, and Yan Sun seems to realize this, offering a sheepish shrug as she tears her gaze away from the plates to look at Jessica. "Might've gone a little overboard," she admits
Jessica's eyes widen as their table is overtaken by food. It's arrival, however, doesn't seem to answer her question. She scans across the food as it's set out, but one item in particular seems to catch her attention. She eyes the crab suspiciously for a moment before looking to Yan Sun. Unsurprisingly, her knowledge of Earth fauna is not all-encompassing and that is definitely not a rhinoceros. But she's far from a picky eater,
and her suspicion quickly turns to curiosity. "What is this?" she asks, nodding to the vaguely familiar-looking creature.
Yan Sun 's eyes dart to the crab, hit with the realization that she had no idea if Aite even has anything resembling a crab. "Oh, uh, crab. They, uh... they're crustaceans? You have to get it out of the shell, but the meat is really good. Try some." She grabs one of the claws for herself, peeling it by hand after a moment of searching for a good grip. She manages to yank out the entirety of the claw meat intact, waving it with a triumphant
grin and popping it into her mouth. "Mmhg... they used to just get them straight from the ocean back in the day."
Jessica's eyes spark with recognition as Yan Sun names the creature. "Mmm! This is on Aite, too." she says. She follows Yan Sun's lead, grabbing a claw of her own. "Is... different, but is crab!" she explains, the name likely a colloquialism amongst humans for an Aitian crustacean. "Verrrry big. Not like this." she continues as she looks the claw over.
Yan Sun smiles, chewing as she listens to Jessica. "Mmm..." Her final comment makes her let out a snort. "How big? Earth still has some big ones in the deep sea. Car-sized." A far cry from the little mud crab they're eating. Somewhere near by, music has started to play. It sounds live. A band putting on a street performance? Guitar, synth, and singing fills the air, adding a more pleasant layer to the relentless background noise.
Jessica shrugs distractedly while she works at the shell, her technique nowhere near as practiced as Yan Sun's, leaving something of a mess of discarded shell on the table beneath her. "I have seen the-..." she starts and stops, gaze briefly darting around for the source of the music, but when she's unable to spot the source, her focus turns back to Yan Sun, unable to restrain her smile given the positive atmosphere. "...They are as big
The crab meat is juicy, tender, and salty, with flavor from the same herbs and spices that fill the breadcrumbs it sits on.
Yan Sun seems to be enjoying the atmosphere as well, their table a tiny island of peace in the busy market, her own smile lingering as she watches Jessica taste the crab, eagerly awaiting her judgement.
Jessica's thoughts are pretty immediately obvious as she licks her fingers clean and gets to work on freeing some more meat. "Is good!" she says. "The ones on Aite? I only have them a couple of times. And they do not taste like this!" she continues, her tone seeming to imply that this is a better experience.
Yan Sun grins, grabbing a leg for herself. On realizing that it's too sturdy to peel by hand, she eyes the flimsy scissors, but quickly dismisses them, and instead, her cybernetics light up and she turns her left hand palm up in a by-now familiar gesture. Blue lights manifest above her hand, marking the edges of the mass effect field that suspends the omni-gel that her fabricator reshapes into a a thin. elongated crab fork. She snatches it
as it lands in her palm, wiggling it a little to make sure its solid before digging into the leg, using it to scrape out the meat. "Wait until you taste the curry fish balls," she says with a nod towards the bowl in the center of the table before having a bite of crab from her brand new fork. "They're the best."