"You just hurled! Why do you want to eat supper from someone who can't even open a can?!"
"Well, whenever there's food, hunger strikes."
"That's just common sense."
"Be quiet, GI6."
As Arthur and Assam went downstairs, they noticed that Orange Pekoe was setting up for dinner.
"Assam-sama, Arthur... I need to tell you something..." Orange Pekoe began to quiver as she finished setting the table.
The two spies walked up to her and they all began to huddle near the wall.
"What's this all about?" Arthur asked with confusion.
There was a moment of silence in the air. For a brief second, the only thing you could hear a microwave whirring in the background.
"Wait, what?!"
"She's reheating everything in the microwave..." Orange Pekoe answered with a bleak tone. Suddenly, her eyes widened and she went blank.
Arthur felt a sense of dread loom over him upon hearing this. However, he didn't go blank. He then looked over at Assam and-
"YOU TOO?!"
Assam had the same expression as Orange Pekoe, albeit more blank (surprisingly enough.)
The loader spoke up once more. "I also need to mention that she also made jellied eels-"
An immediate groan came out of her and Assam. Arthur looked at them and sighed, "I should feel bad, but I kinda don't..."
Suddenly, Darjeeling barged into the dining room. "I hope you're hungry! Darjeeling's cuisine specialties are about to be ready!"
Assam turned back to face her friend. "And when you mean by 'about to be ready' do you mean-"
"I MEAN RIGHT NOW!"
"Oh, bother..."
As everyone sat down, a sense of dread permeated the dining room. Arthur sat with skepticism as Darjeeling herself served the food.
"Everyone, I hope you enjoy dinner from yours truly!" exclaimed Darjeeling. Immediately, she ran to the door and put on her jacket.
"Uh, Darjeeling... Why are you heading out so late?" Arthur asked politely. All he got was a death stare from the blonde commander.
Orange Pekoe asked her the same question, "Where are you going, Darjeeling-sama?"
"I have to grab more groceries. I'll be back shortly." Darjeeling said as she opened the door. "See you later!"
The door closed behind her and a sigh of relief immediately came out of the two girls.
"I hate to be that guy, but are we going to acknowledge that I asked the same question as Pekoe and she flat out ignores me and gives me a death stare?!" Arthur exclaimed as he turned back to face the table.
Orange Pekoe quickly glanced at Arthur with her death stare. "Don't shorten my name again, okay?"
Intimidated, the dimension hopper silenced himself and replied with a simple, "Yeah, got it..."
Opening the silver dome cover, dinner was revealed to be fish and chips and jellied eels. Already, there was a problem:
Too much seafood.
Not only that, Arthur's plate only had one jellied eel, 5 chips, and half a piece of battered cod.
"Thank you for the food, Darjeeling..." Arthur sarcastically whispered.
Looking up from his plate, it looks as if he got lucky tonight. Assam and Orange Pekoe's plates were filled to the brim with a mountain of chips, tons of battered cod, and a heap of jellied eels.
Immediately, everyone's eyes went blank.
Arthur woke up from this trance seconds later and hoped for the best.
I mean, it can't be that bad...
Right?
Arthur picked up his dinner fork and stabbed the lone jellied eel.
"Pale in colour, a lot of jelly... and there's no discernible scent..."
Bits of jelly peeled off from the plate itself as Arthur lifted the eel. Taking a breath, he sighed and put it in his mouth.
Chewing ever so slowly, Arthur took note of its foreign texture. The jelly covering the eel was absolutely slimy while the eel itself was surprisingly tough to chew. As it turned into mush in his mouth, he gulped it down with a bit of hesitation.
"Seriously? No flavour? I mean, it isn't as bad as I thought but... it's so damn bland!"
Overall, the jellied eel was a bit of an unpleasant sensory experience.
Next up were the chips (or fries, as Arthur is an American.) He picked one up and instantly, a chill went down his spine.
"SOGGY FRIES?! YOU'RE KIDDING ME!"
He hesitantly took a bite into one chip. Like the jellied eel from before, there was no flavour. However, things quickly went downhill.
"At least with the jellied eel, I think it was meant to be cold. But fries are meant to be hot! These are frigid and lack crispiness! Not only that, there isn't any salt on these!"
With the chips down, there was only one item left to try: THE BATTERED COD.
To give credit where credit was due, the battered cod looked very crispy. For once, Arthur perked up at Darjeeling's cooking and he cut through it, hoping for the best.
Bad idea.
Arthur's eyes immediately went blank as he looked at the content. Turns out, there was barely any cod.
"DARJEELING, YOU'RE SCREWING WITH ME, ARE YOU?!"
Struggling with every bite, he managed to down the horrid 110%-batter and 1%-cod monstrosity in a solid 7 minutes.
And with that, he had finished Darjeeling's dinner.
As Arthur looked down at his empty plate, he gave out a sigh of relief and looked up to face Orange Pekoe and Assam-
-Aaaand they're dead.
Arthur became increasingly worried. "You guys alright?!"
"I really hate her cooking..." Assam groaned heavily.
"Kill me now." Orange Pekoe mumbled with a sickened tone.
"I have to do something about this..." sighed Arthur.
He got up and walked into the kitchen. He turned over to the fridge to see what he can quickly cook up for the two.
However, his eyes were instantly affixed towards a poster sticking on the fridge. It was an advert for an Italian restaurant a couple of blocks away.
Arthur had an idea.
Grabbing the flyer and walking back to the dining table, he simply asked one thing to the two girls,
"Do you guys like Italian food?"