Article 7: School Lunches

MSF High is home to nearly one thousand students from a wide variety of racial and cultural backgrounds, and while the vast majority of them are omnivores with humanlike standards of what they can and can't eat, special care must be taken to provide for the occasional plant-person who desires a can of sunlight, the carnivorous or herbivorous varieties Demi-Human, odd Mecha with more regulated dietary needs, or even the standard peanut allergy that no amount of magical healing seems to get rid of. Thankfully, Mahou City is home to a creature known as The Borl, a satiation elemental with supernatural levels of ability to properly feed the students of MSF High.

At first glance, one is likely to be repulsed by The Borl's appearance. It is, after all, a concept elemental, and many of them can have rather way-out looks. In this one's case, it would be a common mistake to think of The Borl as some sort of massive oatmeal Golem, as it seems to be made of constantly churning globs of thick, pasty goo. It's thickly built, with no discernible gender, and stands at nearly seven feet tall, towering over most of the students. Despite its messy appearance, it neither trails any of its mass behind it nor leaves any of it on the utensils it uses to prepare and serve food, and students that have come into physical contact with it describe its texture as thicker and tougher than its almost fluid appearance implies. While it doesn't accidentally drip anywhere, it has been known on rare occasion to, in place of serving normal food, exude portions of its body onto a tray for a particularly malnourished or sick student to eat. Those brave enough to try tasting the alleged gruel say that it has almost no taste at all. What benefits this has are hard to pinpoint without a sample, and I'm not exactly up for starving myself to find out.

Serving up portions of itself is not something it does regularly, however. Instead, for most students, it seems to possess the ability to determine any student's exat dietary needs, probably as they arrive at the school, and prepares dozens of food choices ahead of time. When most students approach with their tray, they simply allow The Borl to choose which they'll get, as it's often exactly what they're hungry for whether they know it or not, but a student can also point out what they'd like more of. If it's not terribly unhealthy, The Borl will allow it and give them an extra portion, but too much of any particularly unhealthy food substance will provoke an adamant refusal to serve any more. Most students don't need seconds, but it understands that a student could, for example, be carbo-loading for a race later that day. Because it doesn't exactly have a face, The Borl usually responds silently, though when it gets emotional, it can reply with a series of bubbling gurgles from the area where its face would be.

While some students may initially think of The Borl as some sort of monster or perhaps a summoned creature serving at the school, this is further from the truth. It is genuinely intelligent and caring, and also has a great deal of knowledge of different students' cultures. When a holy day calls for a special meal, a feast, or a fast, The Borl seems to already be aware of this and will adjust their meal plan accordingly. It also seems happy when friends of a student participate in their cultural holidays, and meals prepared for these occasions seem to be tastier than usual.

In an attempt to gauge the cooking skills of The Borl, I've asked a number of students what their favorite lunch at the school has been. I made sure to get a mix of students with unusual dietary needs, as my own experience with The Borl has been excellent, even though I am leaning now towards the herbivorous side of omnivorousness. Here are some of the responses, which I suppose are the closest thing we could get to a set of signature recipes the creature offers:

Shiela, Domestic Bovina(Herbivore Demi-Human, possibly by choice): Oh! It was last spring, before I set out to start my own restaurant! I guess it overheard or maybe even knew that I was planning to do that, and when I saw what I thought was a hamburger on my plate, I was horrified! I tried to push my tray back, but it...well, insisted. It was only after I smelled it that I realized that it wasn't meat on the burger or even soy, it was a new blend of wheats and vegetables that complemented the bun perfectly! For all the other students could tell, though, it looked and smelled as good as any other burger. I guess it was trying to teach me that I could cook without meat like I planned but still cater to a bunch of the other students. I use a similar recipe in a lot of my entrees, and I hope I can match it perfectly someday!

Buster, Martial Lupina(Primarily Carnivore Demi-Human): Yeah, I remember. My first day here. I thought I was dead, and I had been limping through the day in sort of a haze until I smelled that delicious steak. I thought that I'd been woken up by the smell alone, but that was before I tasted it. It was gone in about three seconds. The day after that was pretty good, too. Pork roast with a glaze that--no, wait, it was the third day for sure! I mean, it was just a meatloaf, but I didn't know meatloaf could taste like that, it had just the right amount of searing along the top. Jeez, but the fourth day...(This went on for quite some time.)

HB-KX, Android(Fusion-powered Mecha): The hydrocarbon mix that I was offered was more than adequate for my fuel cells to fully recharge their stocks, and it came in a can with a straw that was very long and twisty. This added levity to my meal, and was appreciated.