Miho looked out the window of the plane and rubbed her eyes. The plane was sitting on the end of the runway ready to take-off for the next city on their list: Lorient, France. It was just a bit after 8:30 in the morning and she had slept too well the night before and was not able to bring herself to full alertness. She was fighting to simply stake awake.
Her battle only lasted for the plane to rotate and make its turn towards the English Channel, at which time she promptly passed back out.
Her morning had begun at 7 with a wakeup call to get ready for their 8:30AM flight to Lorient, and after showering, getting dressed, and doing a last-minute check that nothing would be left behind in the flat she was staying in, she boarded the waiting bus to the airport.
After the match against Portsmouth the day before she had fallen asleep quite early but was still somewhat tired and felt somewhat… meh. I suppose, Miho hazily mused to herself while waiting in line to board the team plane, not having eaten or anything isn't helping that.
"Here's tea and an omelet for you."
Miho woke with a start and looked over to the man who offered her a tray with her breakfast, which Miho gladly accepted. Folding out the small table from the armrest of her seat she set the tray down. As the flight crew indicated, on it was a fresh mug of tea, a freshly-cooked omelet, a few slices of toast, and a good-sized bowl of fresh fruit.
As she dug into her meal, Miho found herself gradually gaining clarity and by the time she finished her last slice of toast, she was feeling pretty much back to normal. She glanced at her phone, and noting that it was approaching 9:45 she decided to get her bag and move to the pod where Mari and the rest of the group were.
Erika threw her bags down on her bed and looked out the 3rd floor window of the room her and Miho would be sharing for the next week. Overlooking the harbor in front of her was the large concrete structure that she learned was called Keroman, the large submarine base of the Kriegsmarine in the Second World War. She would be joining some of her teammates on a tour of it in about an hour, then joining up with the team for dinner in the cafeteria on the first floor of their accommodations that evening. Others would be going to the beaches of Larmor-Plage. Miho, from what she understood, would be going to downtown Lorient to simply explore the marina and take in the sights and sounds of the city.
Deciding that comfort is more important than how she looked, Erika changed into simple jeans-shirt-sweater-sneakers and, checking her phone, headed down to the lounge to await the vans that would be taking them to Keroman.
Miho smiled (something that was becoming easier to do on demand) and waited for the woman in front of her to take her picture. Hearing the distinct sound of a phone's shutter going off, she looked down to the two children she, Eva, Elodie, and Sabine had posed with and watched as they ran to their mother, who had approached the three women and thanked them for the inconvenience. Miho let Sabine and Elodie handle all the discussion; the two sisters had spent the afternoon explaining the region of France they were in, Brittany, and its culture. Miho learned that the two had grown up in a city called Quimper, which was about an hour northwest of Lorient.
The aforementioned 4, as well as a handful of others with the team, had spent the past two hours walking around the marina area of Lorient. Miho had enjoyed going in and out of various shops, galleries, parks, and attractions. They had also spent a large block of time sitting at a cute little cafe that overlooked the marina itself. The conversations that day had been pleasant, most revolving around either information of the area from the Collette sisters, the upcoming match, or replays of the match the day before. Miho was grateful that she was able to, in her mind, finally relate to her more veteran teammates now that she had been in a professional match.
Miho's phone rang. Pulling it out of her pocket, she unlocked it and saw that she had a message that the vans were at the arranged meeting spot to pick them up to take them back to the team's complex. Looking up from her phone Miho deduced that everyone present had gotten the same message. They made their way to the vans, and Miho saw another group of her teammates and support crew coming from another direction, all carrying bags that looked suspiciously heavy for their size.
As they mingled to get into the vans, Miho glanced into one of the bags that Marianne was carrying and saw that it was loaded to the brim with tall green cans of what appeared to be beer. Miranne caught her eye and winked.
"Brauburger. 50 cents a can."
One of the women that Miho recognized as a spotter pilot snorted.
"That's true, but the whisky is better." She handed a bottle to Miho that was labeled 'Long John'. The label had an image of a rather… muscular, oiled, shirtless sailor on it. It reminded her of the covers on the romance novels that Shelby was fond of reading. As she rotated the bottle in her hand she glanced up and noticed that both Marianne and the woman who handed her the bottle were looking at her with a look of cheeky anticipation. Miho read the back of the bottle out loud.
"Slightly woody with nuts following through. Long John whiskey." She looked up and noted that the two older women were trying not to laugh out loud.
Miho handed the bottle back. "Did I say something wrong?"
"Not… not at all." Marianne forced out.
"Well… something is apparently funny."
"I'll explain it later." With that, both Marianne and the other woman got into a van and with a wave closed the door. Miho could see, as she walked to the next van, that the two of them were doubled over in their seats laughing.
Miho frowned, and as she climbed into the van with her bags, ran through the interaction. Nothing stood out to her. As the van filled up Miho decided to run it through with Eva to figure it out.
As the van pulled out onto the street, Miho leaned forward from the rearmost seat and asked "Can I run something by you?"
Eva cocked her head back. "Sure."
"I just had a talk with Marianne and some others, and I can't figure out what's so funny about it"
"Oh? What did you say?"
"I read a bottle of whiskey out loud."
"And? What did it say?"
"It was called Long John. The back said 'Slightly woody with nuts following through'."
Two of the other women in the van burst out laughing.
"What is so funny?" Miho demanded.
One of the women, who Miho recognized as Erinn, sighed and shook her head.
"It's an amazing innuendo. The whiskey, it's description."
"I don't follow."
"Long John."
"OK?"
The woman turned and looked at Miho. Her expression was one of pity.
"Oh, honey. Uhhh. Long John… you know? Like, dangly bits?"
"..."
The woman's eyes started darting around, obviously trying to find some explanation.
"Uh… well. The dick. Y'know? The, uh, penis."
Miho felt her face slacken.
Long John.
Slightly woody.
Nuts following through.
Long John.
Shirtless, oiled, muscleman.
Long John.
Penis.
Slightly woody with nuts following through.
She had said it out loud, in public.
Miho slowly turned her head to look back at Eva, who looked back at her with a mix of pity and amusement.
Miho felt her face get hot. With a defeated groan, she rested her head in her hands. She was mortified.
Eva cracked first, an almost silent chuckle, joined soon by the other women in the van. Miho looked up, her face was surely bright red and looked at her reflection. She was definitely bright red, and a smug smirk on her face. She turned back to the rest of her teammates, who were still laughing. As embarrassed as she felt (which was akin to wanting to crawl into a hole) she couldn't help herself and very quickly devolved into laughing along with them.
"There you go." Erinn said to her after a few minutes, while wiping her eyes. "Harmless fun. If you can't laugh at yourself, you have no right to laugh at anyone else."
Miho was still embarrassed, but found herself oddly at ease with it. She could, after some time, recognize how amusing the whole situation was.
"As to Marianne… we'll help you figure something out."
"What do you mean?"
"You can't let her get away with that. You need to get back at her in some way."
"I can't do that! That's not right."
Erinn turned fully in her seat to look at Miho.
"No no. Pranks and jokes are a tradition. Everyone does it. Even Mari does it, although her pranks take weeks to become apparent. Don't do anything mean, mind you, or anything hurtful. Tape the ends of her sleeves up in the locker room so she can't put her covers on. Weaken her laces, put jello in her socks… something dumb and annoying but ultimately harmless."
Miho stared at her incredulously.
Another woman in the van cocked her head. "Jello in her socks. I like that one, I'm gonna use it sometime."
Miho just turned and stared.
Erika walked into the dining room and looked around. The whole team was in various states of sitting, eating, and simply milling around. She spotted Miho at a table closer to the back and maneuvered herself that way; careful to not upend her tray on herself or a teammate. Luckily, Erika made it without any mess or accidents, and smiled at everyone present at the table as she sat down.
Seated at the table was Miho, Shelby, Eva, Anchovy, Sora, and a woman that Erika didn't know.
"Hi. Agatha Jónsdóttir, pilot extraordinaire."
Erika could only smile and shook the offered hand.
"Erika Itsumi. 'Pilot Extraordinaire', you say?"
"Well, I am the lead pilot."
"Fair enough."
Erika picked up her fork and took a bite of her meal. It was some form of chicken in a creamy sauce, and was immediately in love. The sauce looked like it should have tasted like a white gravy, but was surprisingly tangy and spicy. She took a forkful of what she assumed was potato and mushrooms and was surprised when instead of potato she instead tasted apple.
"Do you like it?" Elodie had been walking by and decided to check in.
Everyone at the table nodded, faces full of the dish in front of them. Erika swallowed her mouthful and asked what the dish was.
"Well, it's called Poulet au cidre. Chicken in cider. Mushrooms, onions, apples, chicken, cider, cream. It's like comfort food to us Breizhiz."
"To what?"
"Breizhiz. Bretons. Locals, if you will."
"Oh, OK." Erika looked over at Elodie. "Is there a separate language in this area?"
Elodie nodded.
"Brezhoneg. It's the traditional language of Brittany. But less people speak it now than they used to. Sabine and I can speak it, but some of our friends back home can't. You'll hear some on Tuesday at that concert we're going to, the bagadou."
Elodie then waved and moved on to speak to the next table.
.Miho sat down on the couch in the compound's lounge and took a sip of her drink. After dinner, a fair number of teammates and crew moved into the lounge for a relaxing night of conversation. Miho had been talking to Agatha, Kay, Naomi, and Galiena about the last match, with various other people drifting in and out of the various groups in the lounge. At some point in the night she was offered a glass of white wine from a member of the pilot's group and Miho found that she quite liked the dry, tangy drink.
And she was having a lot of fun. She felt a bit shaky, and was finding herself slow on the uptake, but she felt great, and she was finding herself becoming more comfortable with listening to discussions about more… adult pursuits.
She also noticed that a few people were looking at her with a bit of concern, but she couldn't find the gumption to care. Erika, in another group across the room, was animatedly explaining something to her group, which elicited a great round of laughter. Downing what remained in her drink, Miho shuffled over to grab another glass. She stumbled a bit after collecting her new drink, and took a seat in a chair not far from where she had gotten it.
Taking a big mouthful of the pale beverage, she looked around the room from her perspective. Of the crowd that was present after dinner, there were maybe 30 or so left in the room; most of the others dispersed to the various other entertainments in the compound, such as the gym or the arcade. A few others were in their rooms likely reading or on their computers.
"How you doin', honey?"
Miho looked up, and found it odd that her vision seemed to lag behind her head movement, and seemed to take a lot longer than usual to focus on the woman in front of her.
"Oh… I'm having a lot of fun, Danielle."
"Are you sure?"
"Absolutely! I could do this forever!"
"...right. Let's get you back to your feet so you can continue."
Miho thought this was a great idea; in fact, that was a perfect idea. With a giggle, Miho downed the rest of her drink and stood up.
And immediately started staggering sideways, the action of standing up sending her already alcohol-impared body over the edge of the semblance of function.
"Oh shit! Miho!" Danielle called out and moved to try to catch the obviously drunk younger woman.
Just as Miho started the fall down to the carpet, a pair of large arms wrapped themselves around her from under her arms; instead of falling to the floor Miho fell face-first into the chest of Matt, who was luckily walking behind her as she started her tumble.
Matt looked down at Miho, then over to Danielle.
"So… this is awkward."
Danielle walked over to Miho. She had heard that both Miho and Erika were getting quite drunk, and while Erika was in a group of quite a few responsible women, Miho was currently sitting on her own, looking ready to pass out at any minute.
"How you doin', honey?"
"Oh, i'm havvving a lota funn, Dan… Dan… Danielle?"
Well, that solves the coherency question.
"Are you sure?"
"Uhhh… Absssslt, could do this ferver!"
Well, that's that then.
"...right. Let's get you back to your feet so you can continue." Danielle had no intent to allow Miho to continue. Danielle was going to get Miho back to her and Erika's room, get some water into her, and put her to bed. She watched as Miho let out a sound that was something like a giggle, finished off her glass of wine, and stood up. As she got to her feet Miho immediately went sideways and was starting the stumble-tumble.
"Oh shit! Miho!" Danielle moved, but was not going to be fast enough to catch her. I'm not going to be able to catch her in time. With a sense of relief he saw Matt catch the younger woman and pull her into a hug. The tall man looked down at the now incoherent woman he caught, and the older woman in front of him who was still holding her hand out to try to catch her.
"So… this is awkward."
Miho felt dizzy.
Her head was spinning and she didn't feel the very best. She felt herself moving but didn't quite know how or why. She did catch a few pieces of conversation as she tried to bring herself to open her eyes.
"... she had how much?"
" 8, maybe?"
"Jesus. That would have hit her hard"
"Well, we see that."
"315, right?"
"Yup. I'll open the door, you put her on the bed."
"Yeah yeah. You'll look after her for a bit, right?"
"Mmm. I'll get Mari or Nielsine to check in on her later."
Miho couldn't place who the voices belonged to in her haze, but could tell it was a man and a woman. She vaguely felt herself being placed down onto something like a bed. Her head was spinning so bad that she forced herself to open her eyes and saw Danielle looking down at her, but couldn't place the expression on her face.
"Miho, try to drink some of this."
Danielle held a bottle of water to her mouth and Miho took a mouthful. This continued for some time until Miho fell asleep.
Been busy with work and music stuff.
I chose Lorient for the team in France because I've spent a fair amount of time there with music. Breton food is amazing, the culture is amazing, the bagadou are amazing.