Night 43: Rosmontis, Brown Sugar Glutinous Rice Balls
The Late Night Diner is a part of Rhodes Island's canteen. That goes without saying – to whom had anyone ever heard of a diner in the boiler room?
As the name implies, it opens around midnight. There are only a handful of customers at a time.
Operators off their night shift could take an order and bring back to their quarters. Night owls could sit dining-in while leeching off the Diner's wi-fi. The Doctor would come for instant noodles from time to time.
Drinks are in the cooler. Anyone burdened by their own thoughts could take one and chug it down, anytime.
Menu? No such thing exists. What the Chef prepares is what you get. It all depends on his mood of the day.
Welcome to the Rhodes Island Late Night Diner. In here, you might even meet a familiar face or two.
Note: This story was written for and published on Halloween 2022.
"Trick or treat!"
Eight small baskets of varying style were held before the bar counter. Sarkaz horns and shiny top hats decorated the little heads of the containers' masters, and on their faces painted multitudes of twisted wounds and scars. The Chef brought out the bucket of candies and snacks he had prepared, and placed a handful in each of the baskets. The Children grinned wildly, and after thanking him they formed an uneven line then headed towards their next destination.
The Witch Feast was a lot more lively than it had been last year, the Chef thought. There was even a kid dressed up as Mon2tr, with claws and all. Not sure who came up with the idea and helped them with the costume. The Chef flipped the foam prop sword on his belly. The flaccid sword flopped along with his burgeoning stomach. Originally he also planned for a set of fake innards to hang around his waist, though the Logistics staunchly refused to provide such prop on the ground of "giving children nightmares". Therefore he had to settle for two smudges of ketchup around his lips and pretended to be a revenant of some sort, then giving out candies and sweets by the handful to the kids big and small of the Rhodes Island.
"Ey boss! Trick or treat!" An energetic voice burst into the Diner, followed by a basket twice as large as the ones presented at the counter before. The Chef curled his lips and tossed in two chocolate cookies. He shook his hands and said. "Shoo, go away. You are an elite operator. You know better not to waste your time here. Just look at your get-up – it barely suits the festivity."
"No way! I spend hours coming up with this costume!" Blaze looked up and down at her clothing. It was her combat uniform. Though now it was in tatters and stained with blood in multiple locations, completed with her sharp chainsaw in hand. "Isn't it obvious? I'm the 'Lungmen Chainsaw Massacre' gal!"
"Yeah, right. To me it reeks 'Unruly-Blaze-who-just-retreated-from-operation' !" The Chef tapped on the window of the display cabinet at where her forehead was on the other side. "You should've propped that chainsaw on your head. That way it'd look scarier. Now be gone and go bother Dr. Kal'tsit or something."
Blaze sighed and turned to leave, but not before fishing out two chocolate candy bars from the Chef's candy bucket.
After she left, the small figure behind her finally presented herself to the Chef. The petit girl tip-toed to reach the counter. There was not a single trace of make up on her pretty clean face. Her simple white gown gave the Chef an impression that she mistook her sleepwear as the costume for tonight. She reached out her hand towards the Chef. There was no baskets that shaped like a pumpkin or a skull. Within her palm there was simply a piece of hard candy.
"Is that...for me?" The Chef pointed to himself and asked.
The girl nodded, and placed the candy on the bar counter. "Thank you sir. Thank you for making tasty snacks for everyone." She said.
"Oh, my sweet little kitty." The Chef said, wanting to pat her on the head. Yet his hands were stained with ketchup. So he wiped both hands on his wrinkly apron, and brought out a small copper pot from behind the counter. "I think you should have a try at this. It's something I prepared just for good little kittens like you. You would like it."
Inside the pot was a few gluten rice balls soaked in brown sugar water. The Chef used specifically lactone tofu to mix into the skin of the snacks instead of water. This way the texture of the skin would be much smoother, and would carry a strong pleasant aroma that belonged only to soy beans. The rice balls was made to resemble the features of small Perro beastkins, with pointy triangular ears and round snout and completed with two thin curvy eyes made with black-coloured rice dough. The brown sugar coated the head and ears of the little rice Perros with a sheen of golden brown, and the half-translucent skin glowed like beautiful white jade in the light of the Diner.
"So cute~~" The girl took the pair of chopsticks from the Chef's hands. With tiny gasps and admirations under her breath she picked up a rice ball and sent it into her mouth. The soft skin slid past her tooth and onto her tongue. She playfully twirled it in her mouth. The sweet aroma of the glutinous rice and tofu spread, and when she finally bit down the melted chocolate filling flowed out, leaving stains on her lips and chin and into the pot with brown sugar below. The chocolate tasted bitter and somewhat covered up the taste of the tofu, yet still left a delicate sweetness at the root of her tongue by the end.
"Don't ever tell the others I made rice balls tonight." The Chef told the girl in hushed whispers. "Especially not to the Doctor. Your pudding left here last time was stolen by them. By the way, do you know what day is it today?"
"Yes I do." The girl ate another rice ball and looked up at the foam sword on the Chef's belly. "It's Witch Feast tonight. It's a night when everyone's happy, therefore we need to prepare tasty snacks for everybody."
"Ah yes, snacks for everybody." The Chef peeled the candy she gave to him. It had a pink colour, and he could guess right away it's the strawberry flavour – a favourite among young ladies aboard the land ship. "Speaking of which, where's your costume? I didn't see any strange nor wonderful props with you tonight."
As he spoke, the girl raised her right hand hold the chopsticks. A gigantic "ghost" as tall as a full grown adult flew into the Diner. The white sheet cover had two eye-holes on it, and from behind creepy red glow darkly shined. The Chef was startled by the speed of the thing. If the girl didn't control it with a near perfect precision that almost defied laws of physics, this "ghost" would smash a giant hole into his kitchen and broke quite a few steel beans on the ceiling. He recalled Click showing off through the whole ship of her drone unit decorated as a sheet ghost earlier that day. Compare to the giant thing before him, Click's drone looked more like a little moth.
The girl finished her snacks, and placed the chopsticks neatly beside the pot. She jumped off the tall stool and headed out. The giant ghost floated behind her closely, like a giant white shadow cast behind her.
It's Witch Feast tonight. Rosmontis wrote in her notebook. Everyone wore cute and beautiful costumes and going to each other's dorms for candies. Used a piece of candy for exchange with the grandpa in the Late Night Diner for some brown sugar rice balls. They were soft, but the chocolate filling was a little bitter. But they were very tasty.
And the Doctor stole my pudding.