part 11 of the China Pearl Inn

[JackHemingway]

True very true Jack. If not then why are they here?

Yes, you don't need to be a member for all the lovely stories. I don't know why people write that they don't want to explore ideas in role-play with others. I think you get such insight. Even table top roleplaying games can be so inspiring.

Well, I wrote about Miami. next, I am to write about the Old West...well, Cait and I's version of it anyway.

 

[JackHemingway]

Ah, Western Trails is up, and writing when things get moving is so enjoyable. Cait is a delight, but our characters haven't even connected yet. Now that will be fantastic.

 

[cgraven]

Seems like you and Cait are becoming quite the writing partners Jack.

 

[JackHemingway]

Well, I enjoy writing with her, something so many don't do here anymore in the roleplay section. This is supposed to be erotic literature and someone who writes like that is appreciated.

 

[cgraven]

That they are Jack.

 

[JackHemingway]

People need to take the time to read, write, and be creative in many ways. It feeds the soul, and people don't want to do it. I like using AI, but it is a starting point.

I could fill the hours with many creative things if I didn't need to work.

 

[cgraven]

Ah that is the rub. One must work.

 

[JackHemingway]

Yes, I know I will always do something, but I wish it was more on my terms. However, it is what it is. I also feel I'm fortunate, and I enjoy myself.

 

[Dogoda]

It's been many moons since I wandered these streets. People have come and gone, yet...... we all find our ways "home". Sailors always do. Tonight i found myself in an old haunt in San Diego. No old friends, but there were new ones made. life is beautiful ! Truly blessed !!

 

[cgraven]

Dogoda good to see you old friend it has been a while since we we last met how are you and what have you been up to?​

 

[DarkWarrioress]

JH, you and CG are making me blush. How is this weird weather treating you both? We have some major flooding going on here. So far, my neighborhood is good. The basement isn't filling up either. Today is clear but a tornado watch has been issued for tomorrow evening and we're in for more rain this week. We crossed over the local river yesterday and it's risen to the bottom of the bridge we had to cross over. Downtown, which is not far from me, the manholes were blowing up water like Old Faithful. It's getting pretty bad.

 

[cgraven]

Weather here Cait is just yoyoing between winter and summer one day highs in the 40s and the next high in the 80s. Other than that it is just annoying no real threats so we are lucky.

I will keep good thoughts in mind for you and yours Cait.

 

[TarnishedPrincess]

From the kitchen comes the clanging and clattering of pots and pans and the irreverent voice of the cook can be heard loud and clear as he chastises the scullery maid. The rich exotic aroma of foods so strange and yet so familiar teases the senses.

At the chastising of the cook, the scullery maid pulls her focus from the main room—bustling with an influx of travelers—back to the soup she was supposed to have been stirring. The flames beneath the pot sizzle and flare as the soup bubbles over the edge.

With a curse, she pulls back her delicate fingers—burned by the spilling liquid—and pops them into her mouth.

“Sorry!” she hisses around them through the pain, then shakes her hand in the air to cool down what’s left of the burn. She remembers to stir the soup with the hand still on the ladle, chastising herself mentally along with the frustrated cook.

“Sorry. I got distracted.”

“I can see that,” grunts the cook, taking the ladle from her and shooing her toward the door separating the kitchen from the dining room. “Make yourself useful and see to the guests.”

Nodding and wiping off her hand on her apron, she smooths an errant strand of hair behind her ear. The auburn locks, stubborn in their haphazard curls despite being tied in a bun at her nape, continue to peak out from behind the maid’s scarf covering her head. But at least it keeps the stragglers out of the way, for the most part.

Taking the newly dished bowls of soup from the cook, she pushes through the swinging doors of the kitchen into the dining hall and begins serving the guests.

((Not sure I’m doing this right, but new to this site and this seemed like a good thread to get my RPing feet wet, so to speak. Haven’t done this since the AOL chatroom days, if anyone remembers that time of the internet, lol.))

 

[cgraven]

Very nice Miss. Welcome to the China Pearl Inn.

 

[cgraven]

Poo Ming scowls at the new kitchen maid. Occidental kitchen maids were always less efficient than Chinese kitchen maids. Yet there were certain pleasures to having young round eyed girls in his kitchen. As the young auburn haired beauty was stirring the soup it boiled over burning her dainty fingers.

As she waved her hand to cool her fingers Poo Ming took her hand and gently suckled her fingers to ease the pain. The act was a simple act, yet he made it a sensually seductive affair. He let her fingers slip from between her moist ripe lips. The young girl took the newly dished bowls of soup from the cook, she pushed through the swinging doors of the kitchen into the dining hall and begins serving the guests.

I smile as the winsome young Miss severs the soup. “Your new aren’t you? My name is C.G. Raven but you can call me C. G. and yours is?” I let my eyes boldly roam over her sensual curves and know Poo Ming must have some dark sexual plans for the young Miss. Well, the Inn’s kitchens is his domain.

 

[TarnishedPrincess]

Elle nods politely at C.G. as she drops a bowl of soup on the table before him. She was flustered by the unexpected move by the cook, and wipes her uncalloused fingers upon her apron unconsciously as she answers.

"Yes, I only recently started working here. You may call me Elle..."

She follows C.G.'s eyes as they roam her figure, and thinks back to the cook's most recent attentions. Perhaps becoming a maid at an establishment such as this carries certain other expectations than she is ready for. Although she hated to admit it, her father might have been right in what he'd last said to her before she ran away. She had a feeling she'd be in for more "rude awakenings" if she continued to try to prove him wrong--but what other choice did she have?

Elle forces her attention back to the guest before her, smiling as pleasantly as she can. "Sir Ming was kind enough to give me a job. I may not have much experience, but I am a quick learner. What brings you to the Inn, Sir C.G?"

 

[cgraven]

“Elle that is a pretty name.” I give her a roughish smile. “I am a China Station sailor without a breath and down on his luck Elle. I tend bar here from time to time, make sure the coffee is fresh and on a well.”

I sip my soup having no wish for the conversation to end with this ravishing young brunette. “Elle the sea is like a woman one moment sweet, a soft breeze ruffles your hair. The next moment she is raging in a gale ready to tear you limb from limb and dash you to pieces. When you are in a safe harbor you swear you will never return to sea. Then the soft siren’s call warps around you and you go once more to her outstretched arms Elle.”

My tale told turn my face to the young girl. “A pot of green tea Elle.”

 

[TarnishedPrincess]

“You’re quite the poet, Sir C.G.” Elle smirks with an appreciative glint in her hazel, blue-green flecked eyes. “If you’re down on your luck, you might try distributing pamphlets of sea stories for the land-locked nobles, who waste away from boredom in their silk-strewn towers. I’m sure you’d make a pretty coin that way.”

She nods at the new order, “Green tea, coming up,” and has to stop herself from giving a traditional curtesy. She had to remember that this was not her land, and her home traditions would stick out here like a sore thumb. If she didn’t want her father tracking her down, she had to keep a low profile.

She turns to head back into the kitchen, keeping her eyes averted from the cook and avoiding his gaze as much as possible while she prepares the tea. Once the leaves have steeped according to the time taught her, she hurries with the pot back to C.G.’s table and sets it down, pouring a cup with an odd mix of grace and awkwardness. Grace in the natural way she moves, but awkwardness in the motion of pouring the tea—as if she hasn’t performed such a mundane motion much before.

 

[cgraven]

Elle’s journey into Poo Ming’s Domaine once more brings her in contact with the imperious cook. As she prepares C G ‘s green tea Poo Ming slides up behind her his body so close to hers that she can feel its heat through their clothing. “You are quite attractive Elle. As he speaks the stray whips of hair at the nape of the young brunettes neck dance seductively in his breath.

Knowing Poo’s sensual appetites for young western beauties I call out. “Where is my tea.” In hopes of rescuing Elle from a fate worst that death. The stunning young brunette hurries from the kitchen with the pot of tea back to my table and sets it down, pouring a cup with an odd mix of grace and awkwardness.

It is clear that Elle was not used to serving and I suspect by cut of her clothing that she is much more use to being served.

Me a poet Elle no nor do I see myself pandering to nobility. I judge a man, or woman for that matter on what they do and how they do it rather than who they were born to.” I give her another roguish grin “Join me in a cup of tea Elle?”

Hopefully it will give Elle relief from Poo Ming's wandering hands.

 

[JackHemingway]

I'm looking at the new maid and wondering what she is doing. I've quietly set up a table with pencils, paper, a typewriter, and many empty coffee cups.

I leave a note for Cait on the bulletin board noting the need to increase the order of ice cream. As to the real world, it is hot and intense for other reasons, but he'll survive as he enjoys his time in this one.

I continue to eat cheeseburgers, fries, cold beverages, coffee, and ice cream as part of the writer's diet. I don't use drugs or cigarettes, so that is something, but I thank Cait for helping me feel like a writer again. I finished a 3,700-word fictional online letter response after so many months of not working.

 

[TarnishedPrincess]

Her breath catches at the cook’s words at her nape, heart hammering in her chest. Overwhelming gratitude flows into a relieved exhale at C.G.’s interruption. With a half-hearted, “Excuse me,” mumbled as she grabs the kettle of tea and a cup, she ducks around Ming’s burly body and pushes through the doors back to the dining area.

At C.G.’s invitation to join him at the table, she smiles genuinely for the first time since he’s seen her. Perhaps not everyone was out to get something from her as her father had warned. Then again, she shouldn’t trust a stranger too easily, either. She’d already learned that the hard way.

After a hesitant glance back at the kitchen, wondering if Ming would scold her later for neglecting her other duties, she nods at C.G. and lowers herself into the chair across from him.

“For a moment, then. I think I’m due a small break, at least.”

 

[TarnishedPrincess]

I'm looking at the new maid and wondering what she is doing.

((In real life, it’s also a very hot day where I am. Just staying cool in AC and enjoying a chill Sunday with my doggo with an occasional walk in the heat. Glad you were able to be productive! I’m starting to get back into story writing myself. Feels so good to work the craft, eh?))

 

[cgraven]

Elle after a hesitant glance back at the kitchen, wondering if Ming’s suggestive moves would escalate, would he scold her for neglecting her other duties, she finally nods and lowers herself lithe young body into the chair across from me.



“For a moment, then. I think I’m due a small break, at least.”

“Well, you can’t do a days work Elle without a good breakfast. “ As she pours her cup of tea. As she set the pot back down I took her dainty hand in mine. Turning it over I note the lack of callouses the soft pamper manicure just now showing signs of fading. “You have led a pampered life Elle what drives you to the shores of China and to take a manual job a kitchen maid?”

Do I see a flicker of fear in her soft hazel eyes.

 

[TarnishedPrincess]

Elle pulls back her hand at C.G.’s sudden observation, trying not to make it obvious or suspicious. She smiles slightly and says, “Pampered, perhaps. Sheltered more like. And let’s just say that I wanted to broaden my horizons and earn my own place in the world. So I find myself here, until a new opportunity presents itself.”

 

[cgraven]

Elle pulls back her hand quickly her voice as her eyes show a bit of fear that seems to haunt her. “Pampered, perhaps. Sheltered more like. And let’s just say that I wanted to broaden my horizons and earn my own place in the world.”

Her speech, her small smooth dainty hands all speak of a refinement and a privilege status in her past, that peaks my interest in how a refined white girl ended up in the menial position of a kitchen maid in China. There was a sweet naivety about Elle that would more than likely end up with her in the hands of some very unscrupulous people. Poo Ming was just an old lecher with an eye for a pretty young Miss. But there were others who would turn Elle’s youth and beauty to a darker trade than kitchen maid.

“Elle I could talk to the owner and see if I could get you a job as a hostess just waiting on tables and greeting guests.” I saw no reason to let Elle know that I was the owner of the Chian Pearl Inn. “…….and a room under the eves of the Inn far from the kitchens.” And I thought of the grasping hands of old Poo Ming.