Jessica watches as Yan Sun fabricates a fork for herself, her eyeroll undercut by the fond smile still lingering on her lips. Yan Sun's words cause her to shoot a quick glance towards the bowl, but she seems to be content with the crab for now. They're in no rush, after all. "You are such a show off." she groans, gesturing towards the woman across the table with the crab claw before she begins tearing back into it with her fingers.
#HongKong – November 30, 2025
Yan Sun giggles, a smug smirk on her lip as she extracts the remainder of the crab leg's meat with her freshly made fork. She doesn't deny the accusation, merely shimmying a little in her seat, looking pleased with herself as she chews. On finishing with the leg, she scoops some veggies and rice onto her plate, and then grabs one of the skewers before pausing and watching Jessica dismantle the crab claw by hand, raising an amused eyebrow.
Jessica shoots a scowl Yan Sun's way, holding eye contact pointedly while violently cracking into the shell with her hands. She pops a piece of meat into her mouth and gives a victorious, barbed smile as her refusal. Yan Sun's decision to load up her plate seems to inspire her to do the same and, for the moment, she sets what's left of the mangled crab claw down as she gets to work on collecting other food to try. "...This is where you
would come for foods a lot?" she asks idly, her distraction from the sights and sounds that surround them apparent.
Yan Sun snickers at Jessica's pointed refusal, the question that follows tempering her smile a bit. She looks out across the tables, and the other nearby food stalls, and nods. "Not... here specifically, but... yeah. Whenever we got tired of the stuff we got from poaching, we'd head out to a place like this. There's a lot of them across the city. The crappier the seating, the better the food, usually." A small smirk accompanies the last
addition, the rickety, makeshift nature of the table and chairs certainly supporting the notion. She pierces a couple of the fried fish balls with her skewers, turning them around in the curry sauce to make sure they're fully coated before waving the tip of the skewer in front of Jessica's face. "Try one."
Jessica continues to glance about as Yan Sun speaks. The makeshift nature of the restaurant isn't much of a concern to her. While there might not be anything quite so sprawling as this in Adrasteia, it certainly wasn't uncommon for outdoor markets to pop up, usually piggybacking off of local farmers' attempts to sell their crops or whatever big event of the moment might be going on. There were no health inspectors. No government branch
ensuring some sort of standard. Just people trying to make a living. So a stall selling crab legs out of the side of a building to serve on some rickety tables feels far more like home to her than drone-delivered groceries. She snorts at Yan Sun's assessment of the accommodations. "One time-..." she begins before a skewered ball is shoved into her face, distracting her from whatever she was about to say. She studies it for a
second before shooting Yan Sun a glance. "These are the fishies' balls, yes?" she asks, though the answer doesn't seem to be relevant to her decision as to whether or not to try it, since she reaches out to steady the skewer and tilts her head, plucking one off of the skewer with her teeth without apprehension.
Yan Sun lets out a snort, and nods, suppressing a grin as she opts against trying to clarify the actual meaning of 'fish balls'. She uses her teeth to drag the second ball of the skewer herself, chewing with a pleased look on her face, enjoying the familiar taste for the first time in many months. Most of the flavor comes from the curry sauce, the ball itself offering a crispy fried shell, and a soft, fluffy fish core. It's hard to go wrong
Jessica chews in silence, as if giving it her full attention so she can properly make a decision. "Is good!" she decides with a pair of nods, licking at a stray bit of sauce left behind on her lip from the awkward retrieval method. She refocuses her attention on the newfound delicacy, reaching for a skewer to begin collecting some for herself. Her brow furrows as she pokes some skewered balls into the sauce as Yan Sun had previously,
trying to recall what she was about to say amidst the sheer sensory overload of the smells, sights, and sounds that surround them. "One time..." she begins anew as it returns to her and, with it, her smile, "...Aleenin makes a deal with hunters for a lot of meats." She shoots Yan Sun a glance. "A lot of the farmers are having this big-... big-..." she gestures in place of the words she's currently lacking so she shakes her head
instead, "...they are selling their shit, yes?" she settles on and shrugs, gaze turning to the food briefly as she sets it down on her plate. "So Aleenin is wanting us all to-... to cook the meats and sell them because a lot of people will be there. She is thinking that these will be easy credits. And so we do-... did-..." she corrects her tense, "...something like this." She gives the table a pat for emphasis.
Yan Sun smiles softly, grabbing her chopsticks and starting to dig into the rice and veggies as she listens to Jessica. "How'd it go?" she asks between bites. The flood of impressions that surrounds them doesn't phase her - sure, it's nice to have a quiet moment now and then, but after months on Aite, surrounded by empty wilderness and dark, quiet skies, there's something comforting about sitting like this in the middle of the city's buzz,
Jessica holds up four fingers. "We do it for four days." she snorts, her tone implying that they were a long four days. "I am only having maybe fourteen years. After four days? I say I am never doing it again!" she snickers. Her gaze turns down to her food, smile softening. "But it did get us some credits. Aleenin did lots of stupid shit like this." she explains a bit quieter, perhaps giving away that her life in Adrasteia wasn't all
weapons deals and turf wars and chaotic excitement, as much as she'd probably like others to think. There were actual communities beneath it all. Working together. Doing what they had to do to survive. "I think-..." she seems to reconsider voicing what she was about to say, but powers through, lest her discomfort over the topic become apparent to Yan Sun. "...Martin liked it. Whenever Aleenin is having ideas like this? He is
helping. And since he is such a fucking idiot who could not do anything right without me?" She gives a tilt of her head and a fond roll of her eyes, an unspoken implication that she found herself dragged along for these little hustles more often than not. She does her best to push aside the guilt that comes with realizing that Aleenin's involvement hasn't quite soured these memories for her. Not entirely.
Yan Sun listens silently, warmth in her eyes as Jessica shares virtually unprompted. Her soft smile lingers, and she nods. "Most of the stuff we poached we'd either use ourselves or sell for cheap to the N.W.C. At least if it was like, food, meds, or clothes. Tech, Hotaru would fence it. I remember one time though, after a big haul, her little brother, Hiro, he had the bright idea that we should set up a market stall and sell it ourselves. I
was still pretty new, I didn't know that this was a terrible idea, so he talked me into helping out since I knew the tech," she offers in return, smile widening as she reminisces. There's a brief pause as she takes a sip of her soda. "It... did not go well."
Jessica listens in turn, eating another fish ball as she does. "Why?" she asks before another question seems to hit her, causing her brows to furrow as she interrupts Yan Sun. "And what does this mean? Poach?" she asks, splitting her attention between Yan Sun and her food, "You would steal the shit, yes?" She leans forward in her seat, seeming to look for something on the table but not finding it which only brings on more confusion.
Yan Sun opens her mouth to answer, but the question that follows makes her stop, only now realizing that she hasn't explained the term. "Oh. Uh, yeah," she confirms, impaling a trio of fish balls on her skewer and depositing them on her plate before retrieving her chopsticks. "Sort of. Poaching is how we'd get most of our basics, and how we made money between jobs. It's, uh, hunting delivery drones." She pops one of the fish balls into her
mouth, chews a moment, and resumes after swallowing, gesturing with the sticks for emphasis. "Usually we'd target them with a high-gain antenna and do a remote hack to change their route. Then once they'd landed, we'd grab the cargo, wipe the flight log, and initiate its RTB protocol. It's safer than the crude way, bringing them down with an EMP, and you don't have to worry about making sure it has a soft landing."
Jessica listens as she continues to scan over the cluttered table. "Even when you are stealing shit you are a big fucking nerd." she teases, her brown eye flicking across the table. She does a bit of a double take and her confusion turns to misplaced annoyance as she watches Yan Sun use chopsticks with a familiarity that she most certainly lacks. With a brief glare, she rises off of her seat just a bit to give herself a little more
Yan Sun snorts quietly, rolling her eyes and sticking out her tongue at Jessica before having another bite of food. Her eyebrows furrow in confusion as Jessica snatches the crab fork. "What-" She cuts off as the cause of Jessica's confusion settles in. "I forgot you don't know how to use chopsticks..." she says, voice full of amusement at her dinner partner's expense. "Come on, just give it a try, it's not that hard. You should probably get
Jessica scoffs, brows furrowed. "I know how to use them!" she lies, Yan Sun's amusement only furthering her annoyance as she stabs the comically small fork into her rice.
Yan Sun tries her best not to break into laughter, although her lips twist and a muffled snort slips out. She nods. "Suit yourself..." she manages, going back to eating, going just a little slower than normal as if to demonstrate proper usage of the chopsticks, in case Jessica were to lose patience with the tiny, tiny crab fork. "Anyway, yeah, it didn't go well. As in... we very nearly got arrested. Hotaru had to get us out of trouble, and
she was pissed. I hadn't seen her that mad since the day I joined," she says with a snicker, gaze just a little distant, thoughts on the past.
Jessica is nothing if not stubborn and so it probably comes as no surprise that she carries on with her tiny fork for now. Grateful that the conversation has turned back to Yan Sun's story and away from her alleged lack of chopstick skills, her smirk resurfaces as she listens and takes a tiny bite of rice with her tiny fork. As Yan Sun finishes, it looks as if she's going to say something but thinks better of it, merely casting a glance
Yan Sun 's attention refocuses on the present as her eyes go to Jessica's face, eyebrows furrowing slightly. "What?" she asks curiously, a soft smile on her lips before she takes another bite of food.