Budding Late Than Never (Akane Catch-All)

[mahjongheart]

Who: Akane Tendo, and whom it may concern!
What: Having mastered the five base sauces, the lion's share of preparation basics, food safety, and a level of common sense, Akane's about to be let go from the royal kitchens and unleashed to be a sous-chef basically anywhere in Rosavelle. But there's more to life, and cooking, than haute cuisine...
When: All of Budding, excluding the Hearts Afire Faire
Where: All over the place, but especially Hyacinth Barracks and Dawnfield Grounds
Warnings: None yet.

Comments

Oh No, Life Goes On (Hyacinth)

[mahjongheart]

Akane wakes up to... A lack of people in her room. On the one hand, it's freeing.

On the other hand, it's lonely. The power of a whirlwind romance, she supposes. She clutches the fitted sheet, and pulls herself out of bed, and dresses-- something suited to working a kitchen, but were a change of apron and gambeson away from training wear. She'd admit she missed skirts, but there was something to protecting everything you could.

Still, being away from everyone was no reason to stop her extensive routine, especially because she was up a little before the calyx opened to rosy-petaled dawn. Maybe she'd be awake for it today. That'd be nice.

But first, she heads down the steps, into a kitchen that's become oddly familiar over the last few months. She doesn't light the fire for the kettle (too large. That kettle is the size of a stock-pot), and sets up her personal blend of tea in the pot.

The stove lights as easily as it ever does, with friction and yang chi applied to the striker and kindling. Soon, it'd be a bit too warm, honestly, but the sooner the fire was going, the sooner last night's coals would produce the heat for a good breakfast.

Vegetables, eggs, oats and barley; a single rasher of salt pork out of the soak; herbs.

Idly, she sets aside four eggs...

And then, remembers herself.

There's only her, here.

She sets them aside, and while the stove warms, she goes to the stock-pot sized kettle and runs her ki through it, setting it to nearly boil within a few seconds. "... Thanks, Ranma and Evernight..."

Soon, the smell of cooking fills Hyacinth barracks, just as it had, every morning, since mid-November.

[washandrinse]

Shanpu has experience waking up in strange lands, with strange foreign customs and without anybody she knows at her side. Japan had been an unusual experience, both the first and second time, but this time, she's... not exactly well-prepared, but better prepared for Rosavelle. Especially since she'd made the decision to come here herself.

So she shoves aside any lingering regrets and got up. She always wakes up early, whether it was to train or start setting up the restaurant, so it's ingrained too much for her to turn it off now, especially on her first full day here. It's best to keep busy anyway.

She heads for the kitchens first - food before training - and is surprised that somebody else is already up, cooking. Perhaps she shouldn't be so surprised. She doesn't know what any of the other people living here are like, after all.

....And that is Akane Tendo, cooking in the kitchen.

Shanpu pauses in the doorway, blinking several times just to make sure she's truly seeing what she's seeing, otherwise completely unmoving. "...What?"

[mahjongheart]

For a moment, there is dead silence, aside from the rasher of salt pork in the skillet, boiling off the water.

That. That is Shanpu. Okay. Remember she's not the one from your dreams. She's probably not even from your point in the timeline. Play it. Cool. "Shanpu!?"

She sets a saucepan on the stove to start boiling, and spreads the fat of the rasher around.

Okay, take a deep breath and try again. "I've a habit of making too much for breakfast. Care to join me?"

Without waiting for an answer, she cuts another rasher off the salt pork and gets more water to soak out the salt.

1/2

[washandrinse]

Shanpu's first and immediate thought is - well, no, she doesn't even let it filter through her brain, she just says it, as she often does. "They brought you here before me!?"

[washandrinse]

-But then she takes a moment to process, truly process what's going on here.

Okay, yes, Akane is working in the kitchen like she knows her way around. And so she was probably here first, for some reason.

But she's also putting forth a peace offering - what else would a shared meal be but that? It (probably) isn't a trick, since she did seem momentarily taken off guard by Shanpu's appearance, and also is offering from her own breakfast.

She isn't quite sure exactly what to make of it.

Still a little suspicious, she decides, well.... best to be direct. "Why? What do you get out of it?"

[mahjongheart]

"Aside from a chance to practice my cooking?" ... When had it become an end in itself? ... No, it's still a means to an end. No one ever starved after learning to cook, after all. Akane spreads her hand atop the bowl to speed the leaching of the salt from the pork, and there's a faint pink glow to accompany that action.

In that time, she contemplates what to say-- and sighs, defeated. "Despite everything... It's that I know you, and while everyone here engages in some form of gongfu, it's not in the combat arts. Having someone to talk to again is welcome."

Satisfied for the moment the entire thing wouldn't burn, she takes the far-too-large-kettle and pours the water for tea into the teapot.

[washandrinse]

Shanpu has to concede that point. She'd just been thinking herself about how she doesn't know anybody here.

And now she does.

"I suppose that's a good enough reason."

Shanpu finds a spot to sit and watch. She hadn't known Akane had any skill in the kitchen - it is passable, at least, and Shanpu isn't quite sure what she's even doing with that pork.

After a couple moments, she finds herself unable to hold back the question that first popped up into her mind. "How long?"

[mahjongheart]

Well if she'd asked that five months ago--

The glow stops and she sets the rasher with the other, dumping the salt-water into the sink. "Nn, it's... March, isn't it? So this would be... The fifth month, I've been here?"

And so much has happened already...! "How many eggs would you like?"

1/3

[washandrinse]

"What!? Five months! I just saw you not long ago! How can - "

2/3

[washandrinse]

"- Oh, two eggs is fine -"

[washandrinse]

"- five months!? You were almost a duck just last week!"

[mahjongheart]

She blinks. It's one thing to know that, in fact, everyone comes from different moments in the timeline, spurred on by the invitation she stuffed into her striking dummy before Ranma ever arrived without reading it.

It's another to be struck, yet again, with the fact that they all have experiences months apart. "Ah-- right, Ranma almost married that normal duck..."

Akane hasn't really the heart to tell her about Pantyhose FUCKING Taro at this point, nor the four extra months in slumberland. "And yeah, it... Never stops being wild, does it?"

She turns over the rashers and separates them, making sure to move the skillet away from the heart of the fire so all the fat can render out. "... After a while, I decided I was willing to do anything. So... I did."

[washandrinse]

Shanpu isn't, despite what some people may think, stupid. There had been some mentions of time when she arrived, though only in the context that no time would go by when she went back home. This is something else, something new, and... people don't really think about things like timelines or time travel or whatever else might be going on.

So Shanpu is left trying to piece things together from nothing but context and a couple sentences, and she... isn't quite grasping the right picture. But she does understand that Akane has been here for a long time, and that's probably something to do with how time stops back home while they're here.

She doesn't press for more answers - ultimately, it doesn't matter that much, and she can circle back around to it later if she needs to.

"'Willing to do anything?' For what?" Instead, she focuses on the thing Akane says that sounds the most like... well, like something a warrior of her own village might say.

Pursue your goals relentlessly. Do whatever it takes. Yes, that's familiar. But what's driving that?

[mahjongheart]

Akane pauses.

"I got tired of being scared of everyone. Tired of being the striking dummy. Tired of being kidnapped. Of being everyone's prize." She scrambles the eggs, with the herbs inside.

The water in the saucepan begins to boil, and Akane adds the oats and barley, and slowly stirs the pot. "Do you know how tiring it is, Shanpu, to not be taken seriously by your own intended?"

[washandrinse]

Shanpu gives Akane a Look. The Look communicated: Are you serious?

In case the Look isn't enough, though, Shanpu follows up.

"Yes. Ranma never even considers me. Never looks at me like..." ...like he does Akane? "...like I'm wanted. It doesn't matter if I seduce him or trick him or offer him a cure for his curse."

Shanpu may have taken the phrase "taken seriously" differently than Akane meant, but it still struck something - the reason Shanpu was even here.

Re: Oh No, Life Goes On (Hyacinth)

[racingheart]

It's Oguri Cap's first morning in this strange place (a place with no umamusume...) and she's stumbling out of her room with a growling stomach. The barracks are quite a lot like the dorms at school and so it all feels very familiar, though she finds herself missing the cafeteria. That's why the scent of cooking food draws her into the communal kitchen. She stands in the doorway for a moment, ears and tail flicking, then steps towards the stove.

"Ah..." She seems unsure of what to say.

"Is this for everyone?"

Re: Oh No, Life Goes On (Hyacinth)

[mahjongheart]

Akane had felt Oguri's presence, but that wasn't uncommon in the barracks; once everyone had introduced themselves, they had all settled into their own routines and chores.

Still, the voice was new, and so she turned. "Oh! Good morning. I usually cook for myself, but I'd be glad to make you something, as long as I don't need to get out another pot."

Speaking of, she finishes setting a saucepan and filling it with water, placing it over the hottest part of the stove. "I was planning a salt pork rasher, eggs, and frumenty, along with my own blend of tea. It's a little idiosyncratic, so I can't guarantee the flavor."

Re: Oh No, Life Goes On (Hyacinth)

[racingheart]

"Frumenty...?" Oguri has never heard this word and it feels strange in her mouth. "Furu-men-ti. It sounds good..."

The umamusume moves across the kitchen, hovering awkwardly near the stove and watching as the cooking proceeds. It's morning. She's hungry. Sorry if she's not terribly focused right now, Akane.

Re: Oh No, Life Goes On (Hyacinth)

[mahjongheart]

"You've had hot cereals, right?" She takes the giant kettle and has no trouble at all balancing the awkward several-gallons oversized mass to carefully pour her teapot full. "It's hot cereal with other things added in. Fruit, butter, that sort of thing."

Re: Oh No, Life Goes On (Hyacinth)

[racingheart]

"Oh. Like rice porridge or something..." Oguri says with dawning realization. "That sounds really good." She continues her careful hovering. Food--delicious food. Cooked by this nice girl!

"Lots of good energy for the day."

Re: Oh No, Life Goes On (Hyacinth)

[mahjongheart]

"Yeah, I've needed it. I train pretty hard, you know?" She sets another rasher to soak. "So-- how many eggs?"

Re: Oh No, Life Goes On (Hyacinth)

[racingheart]

"I have to train pretty hard too," Oguri Cap says with a look of commiseration. There's so much energy that goes into running the way she does--and she needs lots of fuel no matter what anyone says, thank you.

"...Half-dozen." Yes. That sounds like the right number.

Re: Oh No, Life Goes On (Hyacinth)

[mahjongheart]

She's... Not sure how this woman wouldn't have an upset stomach after that, but she nods, and immediately gets a larger bowl, fills that with water, and adds an extra three rashers to it along with the one she was working on.

In fact, adjusting for the asked-for portion sets her into wild motion.

... are some of those kitchen utensils floating? Surely not. Surely she's just moving that fast?

The bowl with the rashers glows a faint pink as she commands the water to be infused with Salt.

Re: Oh No, Life Goes On (Hyacinth)

[racingheart]

Oh, Akane. You haven't met a glutton until you've met Oguri Cap. She continues to watch as Akane begins cooking, an admiring little smile on her face. The fact that there's glowing water and floating kitchen utensils seems not to phase the girl. Maybe she's just really focused on breakfast? That must be it. She squints.

"...What's the water glowing for? Is it the stove?" Okay maybe she's a little phased.

Re: Oh No, Life Goes On (Hyacinth)

[mahjongheart]

"It's Infusery. Most of this is. Specifically-- hm. here."

She cuts a single piece of the raw salt pork and lets it cook on a little metal dish, then hands it over to Oguri. "Here, taste."

It will be way, way, WAY too salty. "When you salt something for preservation, it's got too much salt to be healthy or tasty. So you have to soak it out before cooking or eating."