Shades of Purple

Tasty Treats

"I thought I was 'grounded.'"

"I said you couldn't go out by yourself, my dear, but there's no problem if I go with you!"

Tenn raised an eyebrow. She half-expected him to retort back, but instead he seemed to be trying his best not to snap at her; guess he was still trying to make up for nearly ruining her mission. Honestly, she wasn't that mad anymore; she merely pretended that she was, as it made him far more compliant and less aggressive, as Lena put it.

As long as you draw a line, he'll do everything to erase it. That means he'll try to please you as much as possible. Use it to your advantage, but don't abuse it, or he'll figure out what you're doing.

"Will you least tell me where we're going?"

"It's a surprise, my dear."

"We just passed through a Foodcourtia sign." 

Tallest Purple flinched visibly."I mean that the place we're going to eat at is a surprise."

Tenn rolled her eyes and centered her attention on the flying ships coming in and out of the planet. To her surprise, the zhook cruiser headed towards the 'interplanetary' area with the more average restaurants. She had imagined Tallest Purple would be more into fancy restaurants, being used to luxury and all that; then again, most of his diet consists of regular snacks, though they were tastier than the average ones. 

Their chosen area would also explain why Tallest Purple was wearing a cloak; he couldn't afford to be recognized. This area was filled to the brim with aliens whose planets were either conquered or in the process of being conquered by the Irken Empire. Since Foodcourtia is a neutral planet, there were more chances of a rebel alien shooting a laser gun at the Tallest's head and getting away. The cloak covered Tallest Purple's entire body, hiding his armor, the symbol of his position, from view. Tenn was glad that she didn't need to hide; she could pass for a regular taller Irken unless they happened to encounter a... what was their name again?

As they were dropped off in one of the hangars, the pilot and four Irken Elite soldiers who would act as their bodyguards got off the cruiser; a laser beam converted it into digitized particles until they later came to retrieve it.

"So, what now?" Tenn inquired.

"How about you pick the first place?"

"First?"

"You didn't think we'd only eat one kind of food, did you? Where's the fun in that?" Guess he had a point. She had never been able to taste many types of food for free. 

Looking around, Tenn picked a random restaurant with neon yellow letters. "That one."

The place, Treatt' ret, was run by an alien species resembling horned equines with long hair and swishy tails that used a sort of telekinesis to move things around*; their waiter didn't look at Tallest Purple twice as she took their orders and then returned with the dishes minutes later; they consisted mostly of fried dough or noodles. Tallest Purple was poking on the long, tendril-like orange noodles.

"Want the noodles? I'm not fond of too much spice."

Tenn shrugged and pulled the bowl closer. Her lekku twitched at the pleasant aroma, and she couldn't resist the temptation of taking a big forkful of noodles; as Tallest Purple mentioned, they were heavily spiced, but Tenn didn't mind. Meanwhile, he was enjoying a dumpling-like dish. 

"Hey, these are good! They're filled with a sort of soft meat!"

"I didn't think you were the kind of Irken to eat meat."