Menus and Hairstyles

Olin cannot seem to stay mad at you for long, his gaze uneasily wandering around, trying to avoid you, but not being very successful. You put your hands on his to stop his fidgeting and look him in the eyes. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get you in trouble with your mom." He looks down, only briefly glancing at your cleavage before resting his eyes on your delicate hands. "It wasn't your fault." You can't help but smile again, not used to getting out of trouble this easy. You retreat your hands and watch him follow them with his longing eyes, until they are under the table and out of sight. "Where did she go?" He turns to look towards the door, his expression sad. "I don't know. She wanted to get something to punish me. I'll get to feel that later." The bitterness in his voice is not to miss, so you try to give him some comfort. "Maybe if I tell her it's okay she won't be too hard on you?" He looks up at you and shakes his head. "Don't. She thinks I'm a pervert and if you say that she'll think you're one too and call the guards. But thanks for offering." You study him more closely. He seemed like a dumb brute at first, but underneath he appears to be a kindhearted man and not at all as stupid as you thought at first.

"So ... tell me something. It looks like we'll be sharing a house for some time so we should get to know each other. Is she always like that?" He looks at you in surprise. "Like what?" You play with your hair and look at the door, wondering how soon she'll be back. "Like when she is hitting you or yelling at you." He keeps looking confused and then laughs loudly. "She always yells at me and hits me, it's true. She means well though, she is my mom. I just wish she would let me do my own thing every once in a while." You looks at him with interest. "Do what? What would you do?" He looks over to the bar and is about to get up, but then slumps back. "I like this tavern, I've worked here all my life and some day I'll take it over when Mom is too old to work. I made menus" he gives you an inquiring look, then points to the bar. "They are behind the counter in the bottom drawer. Mom thinks they are useless."

You get up and go behind the bar, seeing various bottles, dishes, cutlery and towels and finally find the rough paper. "This?" you hold it up and he confirms your finding. You bring the menu to his table and study it. It has three points, beer, wine and food, neatly written in a child's handwriting, with lines to make sure it's straight. Your hair feels like it's dying under the towel so you put that aside, getting some drops of water onto the parchment, leaving a stain. "Sorry." He waves dismissively. "It won't get used anyways. Ma says it's useless. Anyone can remember three points, some people cannot read and it'll get dirty in no time with the guests spilling beer everywhere." He sighs in frustration and then continues. "But then she says we shouldn't have multiple types of wine because then everyone would be confused which wine is meant." You sit down and eye one of the candles. You're not an expert on taverns, but some things carry over from your world.

"Well, first off, you can prevent the stain problem. At home we'd use a plastic cover or hairspray" he looks dumbfounded, but you ignore it "but here you can at least use candle wax. A thin layer of wax will protect the paper from getting ruined by most liquids, as long as they aren't hot." His eyes go wide. "Also you shouldn't just write it as text. It looks boring. You should draw little pictures. A wine glass, a beer mug, some food ... this will make it look better and also people who don't speak the language or can't read can just point at a picture. Plus if you draw well people might get hungry just by looking at the food which increases orders." His eyes go even wider, making you a little uncomfortable, but you continue. "And finally consider protecting the paper better. It still rips easily even with the wax, but if you can clip it to a piece of wood it will be much more resilient. Also, and that's a custom from my home, you must put a menu outside for passerby to look at and get interested." He finally manages to close his mouth again. "Are you a bar maid?" "Uh ... no." "Then how do you know this?" "I went to restaurants before. I can't guarantee it will work here, but it worked in my land."

He looks again at the menu he made, reevaluating what he can do. "How do you draw food so it makes them hungry? Can you do it?" You wonder if maybe you said too much. "No, I don't. But maybe you can pay someone to do it for you. At least the initial design." He looks at the menu again intently and you now realize that you can read it just fine as well. You see a beer costs 4 silver, wine 6 and food 10. You think back to your starting money of 100 gold. "How much silver is 1 gold?" you ask and again he stares at you in confusion. "You don't know about money?" You bite your lip, trying to find a reasonable explanation for not knowing some basics. "We don't use gold and silver back home." You give him a weak smile and see that his impression of you being a genius for your suggestions have made way to doubting your sanity. "100 silver is 1 gold. 100 copper is 1 silver. People rarely use gold here, only nobles, and they almost never come here. Well, besides ..." he looks up and towards the window and in a quick motion disappears the menu under the table. You turn to the door and see Maira enter, seemingly less angry but with an evil grin on her face, carrying a bag. "Oh Ooooo-liiiiin! I have something for you!" she says in a mocking voice while Olin stares at her looking as dumb as when you first met him. "Oh, right, elf girl. I'll have to fix you up first. Come with me."

You get up and follow Maira upstairs, happy that Olin will have time to put his menu back where you took it from. You also have time to estimate your starting riches. 10 silver is a meal, so a silver is roughly a dollar. 100 gold would be equivalent to ten thousand dollars. You internally kick yourself for not leaving the coin bag behind in the alley before going on your suicide mission, but you couldn't have known. It would have been nice to have the money though. You wonder how different your start could have been, equipped with decent gear, ready for adventure and a ton of money to either buy even better equipment with or hire helpers or just live like nobility for quite a while.

Maira leads you to her room and you see a similar bed to yours, a bigger wardrobe and a smaller desk with a single chair. "Sit" she directs you and then has you face the window to the side. She takes a hair brush from a drawer and starts brushing your hair, getting stuck in tangles repeatedly and somewhat painfully removes them, but she keeps talking over you not hearing your complaints. "Don't worry about Olin, I finally know how to deal with him. He will not bother you anymore, I guarantee it." Anger wells up in her voice, but she quickly gets over it. "I always wanted a daughter, someone who wouldn't just be chasing any skirt they saw, but he is just like his father." You gasp as she roughly pulls the brush through the tangles. "It wasn't meant to be. So now I'll do what I can to make Olin be a good man even if it kills me." She pauses and changes from simple brushing out the tangles to giving it direction. "Today you'll be taking orders and bringing them to our guests. Olin fills the mugs and settles the bills, I'll be making food. Normally I have to help out with orders, but today I expect someone, so hopefully we'll make some extra money with food which means I'll be busy in the kitchen." Then she suddenly stops and looks at you. "You do know how to wait tables, right?" You look at her unsure, but give her a tentative "Mhm?" "Good!" she exclaims as she puts down the brush, then starts braiding your hair. "Be nice to our customers, especially Edwin. But not too nice, he does shady business and you don't want to be involved with him." You don't quite understand all the tavern politics but are reasonably sure you can win most patrons over with a simple smile.

Seeing your dreamy look she pauses and becomes very serious. "Although ... maybe you are exactly what he is looking for. Tell me, what did you do before you came here?" The question takes you by surprise and you're unsure how to answer it. Sticking to the truth as close as you can seems most reasonable. "Well, I spent most time at home. I had an easy but boring life, plenty of food and accessories, but not much to keep me occupied besides games. One of those games must have been cursed because the next thing I knew was waking up in an alley here. I'm not from here and have no idea what I'm doing." Maira becomes impatient, apparently this wasn't what she wanted to hear. "No, I mean how did you make money? Were you the plaything of a man?" You look at her, slowly understanding what she is getting at. "I ... no, I wasn't. I lived alone." You see her inquiring look and add "And I'm not a whore. I'm still a virgin actually." At least your new body is, so it wasn't technically a lie, depending on how one defines 'virgin'. She now beams at you with a smile. "Good. Maybe you can be a good influence on my boy. It'll be hard on him, but he has to learn to control himself."

You feel her braiding your hair now and are thankful for someone to do that for you because you don't actually know how to do that yourself without even a mirror or any tools. You'll have to buy some, except you don't have your money anymore and you apparently won't be getting paid either. "There you go! Now nobody will suspect a thing!" You again wish for a mirror, but don't want to risk pissing her off. "Go downstairs and tell Olin to come up." You nod and leave her, seeing her open a drawer with a wooden something before you're out of the room, but you can't quite make out what it is.
You go down the stairs and find Olin exactly where you left him. "She wants you upstairs" you say while looking down, knowing that his punishment is coming and that it's partially your fault. He gets up and slowly walks towards the corridor. You see the menu still in his hands; he didn't put it back for some reason. "Give me that, I'll put it back." You hold out your hand for the menu and after a moment of hesitation he gives it to you. "Don't worry, I'll just put it back in the drawer. Again, I'm sorry. I ... hope she'll go easy on you." He nods and goes up the stairs.

After putting back the menu you sit down and wait, unsure if you want to hear the yelling upstairs or not, but your keen senses pick it up without giving your a choice. "No Mom! Please!" you hear Olin beg, the most defiance against his mother you've witnessed so far, followed by "I've had it with you! You have only a single thought in you! But now you'll be under control." You wonder what she is doing to him as it doesn't seem to be any form of whipping or beating like she did previously. Before you can get tempted to sneak upstairs to get a peek at what's going on the tavern door opens and a man enters, then stares at you. "Who are you?"