~Sidewalk Soup Surprise~

[Guest]

Hmm, today was going to be a good day! Tas had woken up bright and early to bring a giant pot of soup after to his big brother's friend Kaede's house. First of all, though, he had to make the soup! So he toiled away in the kitchen a fair part of the morning, until the soup tasted especially good, a nice chicken noodle soup with a bit of habanero seed for added zest, and a sugar cube for a better tasting broth amidst the spiced chicken and noodles. Taking the pot into both hands, he nudged his door open and stepped onto the path from his house to the sidewalk. Kaede's house wasn't too far away, just eight blocks away, so Tas didn't bother driving. As a matter of fact, he couldn't drive anyways, so it made no real difference.

However, as he toted the soup cheerfully along his way, after passing the three block mark, and having worked up quite a sweat from his six mile walk with soup in hand, he had to stop for a bit of shade. So he sat under a shady tree, watching the traffic. But as chance would have it, a dog wandered into the vicinity, and smelled the soup. Being a hungry doggie, it ran full-steam at the soup, and much to Tas' despair, knocked over the pot, dumping it into the streets and onto the road. Just at the same time, a moving truck came into point of view, as did a man walking along the sidewalk, apparently unaware of the truck, which hit the soup like an oil slick and was now headed straight for the man. Thinking fast, Tas jumped to his feet, ran as fast as he could, and tackled the man to the ground, narrowly rescuing him from the truck, which managed to sear off a bit of Tas' left sandal. Standing, he helped the man up. "Sorry, sorry! I hope you're okay, it was just I saw the truck and you and you were gonna get hurt, so I had to do something, sorry!"

[Guest]

Otto has quit both his jobs and is happy as can be. He hated those jobs with a vengeance and now that he has been hired by the empire he can rest easy (as soon as he gets his first pay check). He walks Slowly (this is a common sign that he is content) and easily slightly swaying to either side. He is wearing black shorts, a White button up tee shirt, and black chuck tailors (no socks).

Otto is so happy with himself he fails to hear the truck that could have ended his new career in seconds. In fact the only thing weird he notices before he is knocked out of the trucks path is the distinct smell of a delicious soup and the sad sound of it being dropped. Moments before the truck would have hit him he was going to turn around to meet the maker of this soup and instead would have met a truck. However, call it fate or call it luck the maker of that delicious soup pushes Otto out of the way of the truck and saves his life.

Otto lets out a small shout as he is thrown to the ground by a mysterious man. He raises his head up with a bewildered look and watches as the truck goes right over the spot he would have been in “What the Hell!!!” He says in surprise, then he looks up at the sky with a glare thinking to himself that someone up there has it out for him.
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Suddenly the person next to him chimes in:
"Sorry, sorry! I hope you're okay, it was just I saw the truck and you and you were gonna get hurt, so I had to do something, sorry!"
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Otto blinks several times and allows the man to help him up. He opens his mouth closes it again then finally speaks. “You saved my life on arguably the best day of my life! I can’t thank you enough.” He extends his hand for the man to shake and says “Otto Kamekaze… I am so happy to have met you.”

[Guest]

Oh noooooooo... As Tas hit the man and came to the ground with him, in what he assumed was the same anyone would do for anyone else, he saw that the man yelled in surprise, though to Tas it came off as a lot of anger. So he was just a little frihtened to find out how the man would react, even if the thought was silly; few people would choose being hit by a transfer truck over being saved by being tackled to the ground. Tas wasn't even that heavy! So he shouldn't have been too worried.

Thankfully, though, after his rapid-fire apologies and bowing at a similiarly rapid pace, he stopped abruptly as he caught the awe in the man's face, and especially after hearing the words from his mouth. "Ne...? Ohhh, so you aren't mad!" Putting his palm on his forehead in what would be referred to as a facepalm, he laughed, with relief. "Well in that case, you're very much welcome~ It wasn't much, really, and it was my fault for the truck almost hitting you anyways; I might've used too much chicken, so that was why the dog ran over and spilled it all over the streets, and it messed up the truck's wheels, like an oil slick or smething. Are yu okay, though? And I'm Tasselhoff Akiyama, it's a pleasure to meet you!" He shook the hand offered to him with a smile. Well, it seemed friends were to be made today!

[Guest]

Otto dusts himself off quickly then looks at the person who saved him. The man was average height with short black hair and dark brown eyes. He also had a rather goofy look as he started to brush off the complement by talking rapid fire again:
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"Well in that case, you're very much welcome~ It wasn't much, really, and it was my fault for the truck almost hitting you anyways; I might've used too much chicken, so that was why the dog ran over and spilled it all over the streets, and it messed up the truck's wheels, like an oil slick or smething. Are yu okay, though? And I'm Tasselhoff Akiyama, it's a pleasure to meet you!"
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Otto chuckles then asks with a surprised look “You made the soup yourself?” He looks at the man again now realizing that he had actual talent. “I’m sorry about your soup, but why were you walking around town with a pot of soup; that sounds rather dangerous?”

[Guest]

Tas glanced at the man as he dusted himself off from the smiting blow of Tas' tackle,a surprisingly athletic maneuver for one so accustomed to more mundane tasks like cooking or running errands and messages for people who needed such things done. Finally registering the man's name, Otto, his brain returned to the present. Examining Otto, he gathered that he was Aerugese, as was apparent by his appearance and the ease he spoke the language, but the red eyes fooled not one Tasselhoff Akiyama; he was also Ishvallan!

"Hmm... Aha! Yep, you are Ishvallan, I can see it in your eyes! Do you speak Ishvallan...?" Giving the man a few seconds, he nodded, accepting that the man had no clue what he just said. "Ah, no matter~ Uh-huh, I made the soup myself! I was carrying it to Kaede's house, Kaede Soshi, do you know him? Well, anyways, it was for him, and then I was going to make another pot for Raistlin, and probably one for Empress-sama."

[Guest]

"Hmm... Aha! Yep, you are Ishvallan, I can see it in your eyes! Do you speak Ishvallan...?
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Otto had no idea what the man said but he knew he was speaking Ishvallan the language of his mother.

"I don't speak Ishvallan, but I recognize the language... I recongnize most languages"

He says this in Cretan to test the mans linguist skills, for the man to speak both aerugese and ishvallan was extremely surprsing,it was very unlikrly that those were the only languages he spoke.
"what other langueages do you speak" he says switching back to arugese

_________________________
Uh-huh, I made the soup myself! I was carrying it to Kaede's house, Kaede Soshi, do you know him? Well, anyways, it was for him, and then I was going to make another pot for Raistlin, and probably one for Empress-sama."

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Otto chuckles a tthe mans very unusual way of speaking, saying each word with such excitement.

'I've heard about him," Otto squeezes the bridge of his nose and asks "wow, that sounds like a full day... do you make soups for a living?"

[Guest]

After talking gibberish to the man, Tas was surprised to hear gibberish in return; a language he didn't know! He'd have to look for some audio books in that foreign language...

"Neeeee...? Could you say that again, please? Afraid I don't know that one!~" And then, after requesting the Cretan words to be repeated, Otto asked Tas' knowledge of other languages, to which the boy smiled.

"Well, I speak Aerugese, of course, I speak Amestrian, I speak Drachman, Ishvallan of course, I speak Xingese, I speak Creig, I speak Esparian, I speak Cerisian, And I can sign too!" Ending the long list of linguistic accomplishments that he was so clueless about, in terms of the sheer difficulty in learning all of these languages, with a flourish of rapid sign language following his octolingual speech.

Soon after, the man spoke again, asking about his soups again. "Mhmm~ But it would have been a good full day. It still can be too, I'd just have to go home and make some more soup!" Listening again to the man, he chuckled and shook his head. "Nuh-uh, I just make soup to show how much I care about everyone. I'm actually a soldier, even if I don't look it, though between you and me, the fighting isn't very fun at all; I really just enlisted because Raistlin-sama did, but he was smart enough to become a general."

[Guest]

"Well, I speak Aerugese, of course, I speak Amestrian, I speak Drachman, Ishvallan of course, I speak Xingese, I speak Creig, I speak Esparian, I speak Cerisian, And I can sign too!
____________________

So the man was a linguist a cunning one at that, intriguing. The man was pretty much a walking translator. There is no way someone like him just made soup for a living. Language skills like that are rare.
'Impressive" Otto says once again genuinely surprised

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"Nuh-uh, I just make soup to show how much I care about everyone. I'm actually a soldier, even if I don't look it, though between you and me, the fighting isn't very fun at all; I really just enlisted because Raistlin-sama did, but he was smart enough to become a general.

________________________
He couldn’t disagree the man looked nothing like a soldier but then again what did a soldier look like. He pictured uncle Sam ‘I want you’ and smiled.
“Fighting never is fun the killing, the dead friends, and the death of the land you are fighting on and by extension for.”

Otto raised an eye-brow at Tas’ final statement, “I’d imagine that someone with your skills would have no problem moving up in the ranks… Does this Raistlin hae the same skill as you?”

[Guest]

Neeeeee!? Otto looked genuinely amazed as he said that Tas' mastery of nine tongues and a hand was impressive! Tas blinked twice, surprised a little by the compliment, then grinned sheepishly, chuckling with a light blush. "Me? Impressive? Nah, all I can do is cook and talk! I'm sure there are a billion people in the world more impressive than that, at least!" Eeh, he wasn't so sure what he meant by a billion, but it sounded like a big enough number. So it worked!

After explaining his occupation, he nodded in agreement with the man called Otto, fully agreeing that war was never a fun thing. "Mhmm. During the Aerugo and Xing one, it was really scary; there was a guy from Drachma on our side that was eating people alive at a Xingese medical base..." His eyes gave away the inner conflict and sadness of that event, only topped in somberness by the fact he had, himself, shot a man... It was the day he learned what a soldier was, and what one had to do in war... Rather than bearing the Aerugese flag, he'd so much wanted to bear the niveous flag of peace as he marched his troops home...

Blinking at his next statement, Tas chuckled once more, shaking his head with a grin, not quite as bashful this time, but still with that ever-strong humility and modesty that could strike down the homunculus of Pride himself. "Nonono, not me~ I got put in charge of leading some soldiers, but that was mostly just 'cause I brought empress-sama some ramen and I guess she must have liked it," he noted, not quite realizing Yuuko had picked him to lead the troop because of his unwavering loyalty and nearly complete lack of ambition, living only to serve her and his country, "But other than cooking and talking, I can't really do much else. I don't really even count and write too good. Now Raistlin-Sama on he other hand, he's a genius! He's only twenty, but he can use his alkahestry to do all kinds of stuff to make Aerugo a better place, and he's got a way-high IQ or something, a lot higher than mine, I'm sure." And indeed, Tas was correct; his 73 IQ points were very likely to be much less than Raistlin's, though by how much, he couldn't be sure.

[Csilla Angelis]

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