[Dragaera] Unstoppable Force vs Immovable Object

[Scott Schultz]

I have this impression, for no particularly supportable reason, that the
Emperor doesn't go out a whole lot. Doing so would probably entail dragging
a substantial portion of the Court with him, not to mention the requisite
detail of bodyguards. Valabar's is a fairly cozy place if we go by Vlad's
descriptions. A visit by the Emperor would tend to overwhelm it and ruin the
carefully cultivated atmosphere,I'd think.

To the left, I can recall a real life example of royal patronage to just
such an establishment. There's a restaurant/bakery near where I live called
The British Pantry. It's run by Brits and, for as long as I can remember,
has been THE place to go in the Puget Sound area if you want authentic
British food, baked goods, and general candy, groceries, and knick-knacks.
(<homer>Mmmm... Pasties. Butter tarts. Mmmm...*arglarglarglargl*</homer>)

Several years ago now, Prince Charles and Princess Diana were visiting
Vancouver, BC. That put them about 100 miles from The British Pantry, give
or take a few kilometers. Mind you that British Columbia is, well, pretty
British already. I'm sure that they could have found whatever goodies they
had a hankering for within the city limits of Vancouver. Despite that, they
had their people call down to the British Pantry (in another country, mind
you) and order up a bunch of whatever it was that they were craving, and had
it shipped up to them there in Canada. By all accounts, they enjoyed the
goodies.

The point being two-fold. The British Pantry is not so different size-wise
from Valabar's,  and one can easily see how the Royal Couple would have had
to take over the entire place and then some in order to eat there safely and
securely. Even if they had been physicall in Redmond, WA, it's likely they
wouldn't have wanted to bother the owners to that extent, or to put their
retinue to that kind of inconvenience. Despite this, the fame of the place
was such that they had no trouble ordering "to go", as it were, even if the
food had to "go" over 100 miles and across an international boundary to get
to them.

Given that Valabar's is just a few miles from the Palace (or cubits or
whatever system of measurement is currently popular in the Empire), I'd
imagine that Empress Zerika has almost no trouble ordering out from
Valabar's on those days that she's taken with a desire to sample their
cuisine. It might not be the whole "Valabar's experience" but I'm sure it's
close enough to suit the purposes of the Empress.