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 Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2010 5:26 pm
 
This is a private roleplay between Miaoyin (Venexia) and Jianyu (Kuro-Mizuki).
Setting :
The Qian House.
Miao attempts to teach Jianyu to bake a cake.
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Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2010 5:42 pm
Jianyu was staring at the flour.
He lightly ran his fingers through the soft powder, frowning slightly. It was an interesting thing, flour. Such a versatile ingredient that could be used for a myriad of purposes, all of which resulted in some quite...interesting things, to say the least.
None of which Jianyu could make whatsoever. Letting out a sigh of frustration, he set the bowl back down on the countertop. Along with the flour, there was a series of other ingredients, including a small basket of eggs, some goat's milk, and something brown and sticky that tasted sweet. For Chuntao's sixteenth birthday she had begged Jianyu to make her a homemade cake, and after quite a bit of persuasion on her part, she had managed to convince him that it was, in her words, "absolutely necessary" for him to bake her a cake.
And so, here he was, staring down dismally at the foreign ingredients. A little desperate, Jianyu had invited over someone he hoped could help.
Not Yuudai. Jianyu was not quite that desperate. Someone much more appealing than that damn innkeeper. Picking up the flour, Jianyu was examining it carefully when it slipped from his fingers, cracking against the countertop and letting out a haze of white powder all across his front. Jianyu coughed, waving a hand in front of his face.
There was a knock at the door. Jianyu stumbled from the kitchen and ran to the front hallway, throwing up the door as an expression of relief crossed his face.
"Miao!" he cried. "Thank Lunaria you're here! Please, come in!"
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Posted: Sun Aug 01, 2010 5:51 pm
Miao was not a baker. He was not a chef. He was an opera singer. However, he cooked before. He was no expert, sure, but he could whip up a late of dumplings, cook a duck, and, at the very, very least, make food look pretty. (Miao liked making things look pretty much more than he cared to admit – it was one thing to wear earrings, it was another to, well, anyways…) When it came to the delicate subject of cakes, however, Miao only knew the simplest of recipes. Most of them had been picked up rom eavesdropping while washing dishes at the Ichi-Koi Inn. So, needless to say, he had be slightly surprised when Jianyu had called him.
Still, Miao was a friend – and friends didn’t leave their friends hanging there, waiting to die a metaphorical or other death. He had ran through his house, hurriedly picking up scribbled baking recipes that his mother had jotted down, and arming himself with a simple wooden spoon. He had hesitated there, his fingers hovering over the fork, the knife, and the spoon. The knife made him look like he was looking for trouble, and the fork and the spoon looked equally stupid. So he had taken the one that felt right. The fork was just too threatening, and Miaoyin had always been a flight-not-fight sort of guy, the fork was just too damn intimidating.
As the door open, he was greeted to a sensation of smells – some of them burnt – and a maze of ingredients. He sucked in a breath, waving timidly at Jianyu. At least there was a familiar face within the chaos. The spoon raised defensively over his face – not because he didn’t trust the older boy, but because he was just unsure – he walked into the household. He had been here before, but Miaoyin had been too exhausted then, and recalled these rooms only as dreamy blurs, not quite as he pictured them, but somewhat like he remembered them. They all had walls, for instance.
“Jianyu,” he smiled up at the man, “I see we have a major situation at hand… Where do we start?”
This couldn’t be so bad, could it?
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Posted: Sun Aug 01, 2010 7:54 pm
"Miaoyin!" Jianyu cried gratefully, relief flooding through him at the sight of one of his newest friends. "Thank Lunaria you've arrived! I am in dire need of some assistance, and I apologize for the rather unusual circumstance, but my sister is rather desperate for me to bake her a cake and I am not a particularly good cook, but as her brother I am bound by family ties and so I agreed, but it is all a disaster, I'm afraid."
Jianyu stopped, sucking in a breath of air. Realizing that he was standing there gripping Miaoyin's arms, he let go and stepped back, exhaling slowly.
"My apologies." he said, his face tinging the slightest shade of red. He had been babbling quite like an idiot, and here his friend had come to help him. Jianyu was somewhat ashamed of himself for acting so irrationally. "I...that was quite ungracious of me. I am glad to see you, Miaoyin, regardless of the situation."
Gesturing for the younger boy to follow him, Jianyu led him back towards the kitchens. Miaoyin had been to his home before, but he had been dizzy and disoriented from overexertion, and would probably not remember his way around. Jianyu stepped aside when he reached the kitchen, letting Miaoyin walk in first.
It was quite a disaster. Flour and other spices littered the counter and a good portion of the floor. There was a half-cracked egg with the yolk spilling out sitting on the cutting board, and a half a dozen burnt items were scattered haphazardly throughout the room. Jianyu's flush deepened slightly.
"Er." he said, shifting from side to side uncomfortably. "I am...that is...I am not a particularly good cook...as you may have already guessed."
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Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2010 7:25 am
This was a Jianyu Miao was not used to seeing. The last time they had met Jianyu had been so confident, cool, and so elegant. He had processed so much skill, and Miaoyin had been impressed by every single movement – from the shuffle of his fingers, to the artful release of a suspended arrow – now, however, Jianyu seemed much more… mortal. He could’ve laughed at that, how absurd to view Jianyu as something more, and yet there had been something about that meeting. Miao had discovered an idol, a real, tangible idol. Before he had only aspired to be those portrayed in writing, no one he could touch, or watch, or study beyond the depth of scrolls and paper. Jianyu, then, had seemed so impressive – flesh and blood and truth. Now, however, he was less than that initial image.
But this wasn’t a bad thing. Miaoyin allowed his body to relax; the chaos and dusty air – almost thick from flour - were familiar. The fragile vulnerability of the moment was, dare he say it, perfect. Miaoyin felt so much more secure in this mess, though he loved to be organized, he did love something he could organize just as much. This was a perfect opportunity.
He turned to Jianyu, smiling – there were no expectation here, other than making a cake, and there was no need to make Jianyu think impossibly highly of him anymore. Jianyu was a Lunarian, Miaoyin was a Lunarian, and that was all they were, when you boiled everything down, anyways. Sure, Jianyu was the best archer Miao had ever laid eyes on, but other than that, they were both no one and nothing special. Special people could bake amazing cakes. Miaoyin could deal with this.
He flexed his fingers, “There’s no need to apologize, Qian Jianyu. I prefer to know the facts of the situation before I dive headfirst into them.” Though, whether or not Miaoyin always provided himself with the details was another matter entirely. He forced his smile to grow wider, trying to use his acting means to calm his friend’s nerves, “I am not… an amazing baker by any standards, but I can certainly make something edible,” he allowed himself a cautious laugh, “and I’m sure between the two of us we can conjure up a cake your sister will enjoy.” Miaoyin wasn’t fond of making promises he couldn’t keep, at least not with friends, but this situation called for hope.
He tentatively stepped into the kitchen, trying not to set off an avalanche of ingredients. Miaoyin breathed in slowly, scanning the room. “A fresh start, I suppose, is in order,” he murmured as he reached for a broom resting in a nearby corner. Quietly, carefully, he swept away the a tide of colours of smells from the floor, giving them more space to work.
“Okay, let’s see… do you have a specific recipe?”
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Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2010 11:04 pm
"Er." said Jianyu uncertainly, glancing around the spacious kitchen. It looked much better, now that Miaoyin had set to sweeping away some of the mess that he had created earlier, but there were still some spills on the countertop and several of his mother's cooking books lay open beside them, stained with various colored liquids. Jianyu frowned.
"No." he answered, stepping over to stand beside the younger man, flipping through the pages of one particular book. Most of the words were completely foreign to him, and he did not understand the directions of how to bake a cake properly. His mother or the servants (and sometimes his sisters) were always the ones who prepared the meals, and Jianyu had never bothered to learn how to cook. He supposed he should have, but growing up he had not seen the point. Now, however, he did somewhat.
"I do not have a specific recipe." Jianyu said, turning a pleading (and somewhat desperate) gaze towards his friend. "My sister did not specify what exactly it was that she wanted!"
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