The card game didn’t so much as end as Adrianna left. Two other players were joining, and they were interested in spending more money, with the potential of course to gain more money as well through the game. Adrianna departed then, having netted a few coins by the end of the game. She went to the kitchens with her coin, intent on getting herself some food. Though with passage on the ship, all of the guests onboard had access to some stew, she hadn’t been much of a fan. It was much more broth and remains from previous stews than any real meat or sustenance. Earlier, she had seen someone pass a little coin to the chef to get something better. 

It was no surprise to her that the chef, a Naga, was accepting a bit of coin under the counter and pulling out better food, but she just so happened to have some coin to spare now, to engage in some of these activities. “Hey, Gideard, right?” She asked, getting the scaley guy’s attention. The man looked up from the pot he was stirring, looking skeptically at Adrianna. “Yea, what’s it to you?” 

“I’m just a good listener, is all.” Adrianna said. “And I heard that you had something pretty delicious being cooked up in these kitchens.” 

“We got stew.” He pulled out a ladle of the stuff she already knew she didn’t care for. Adrianna lifted a few coins from her pouch and set them on the table. 

“That’s not quite what I meant.” She grinned.

He hesitated another moment, and then went over to the expo counter where Adrianna stood, looking both ways as if expecting to see some sort of authority nearby just waiting for him to slip up. “I got something you might like to try…” He nodded, and slid the coins away, obviously not offering any change. He took out a bowl, and went over to another pot, much smaller, in the back of the small kitchen. He ladled a bit of the contents, and she could see thick cuts of vegetables and meat. There was a dark color to the soup, and as he brought it closer, she could see the small bits of… herbs inside.

Most food on ships was incredibly salty and tough to chew. This soup, on the other hand, was delicious. Adrianna let out a moan when she took a  bite, and Gideard shushed her immediately. She held up a hand and mumbled an apology, and then continued to eat, leaning against a wall of the kitchen. This was possibly one of the best things she had eaten, and she wasn’t exactly a street rat.

“What [b]is[/b] this? How did you make it?”

“You didn’t pay for that information.” Gideard said. Adrianna was surprised by his crass response, but looked up in time to see him grinning back at her, and she chuckled. “We pick up all sorts of herbs and things when we go to ports. But I don’t get enough to feed it to everyone. Besides, the captain doesn’t much care for the taste of the things I make. Says he likes this grub better.” Adrianna spoke with him a little more as she ate, learning that Gideard aspired to be a chef, like a private chef for some nobleman or something, but no one would hire a Naga to do anything except take out the trash. He couldn’t even eat at establishments, let alone be hired to work with their meat and cook for people. He once got accused of wanting to poison the patrons so that he could empty their pockets and skip town.

This vessel gave him a chance, but there wasn’t exactly much room for improving himself. He didn’t say as much, but Adrianna got the impression that Gideard wanted to be ‘discovered’ by someone who wanted a personal chef. Just like young ladies wanted a knight in shining armor to rescue them, Gideard hoped someone would see his talent, even with his sub-par ingredients, and would look beyond his scales to offer him a career. Unfortunately, as nice as he was beneath the gruff exterior, Adrianna had nothing of the kind to offer him, and wished him luck in his endeavors.