Welcome to Gaia! ::

Malodore blinked. "Given that my abilities involve invoking assorted pathogens, that..."

It was going to say 'would be a bad idea', but the concept was unexpectedly intriguing. Could the miasma work its way into consumables and then affect others after the fact, as a sort of biological weapon? Would it taint creatures killed by it? Hmm...

"... could be interesting," the plague doctor finished.

Giving Thackery a quick, "Oh, ya's a charmer, why so ya are!" Ginger shook a finger at Junko's hair, along with a cheerful, "I best not be finding ya anywhere's ya shoulna be!"

Once everyone had arrived, Ginger raised a hand to the students, "Awrighty then, class, simmer down now. Simmer down." The lunchlady gave a gruff chuckle, "Jess a lil' joke o'mine...'cause we're in a kitchen n'all."

With a large smile, she continued, "Now as y'all should be knowin', FEAR makes up our world. An' techni-cally we don't be needin' ta eat anythin' at all. So why do so many o'us be eatin' all th'time?" The smile widened, "Well it's delicious (if ol'Ginger be cookin' it at least!) and it makes y'feel nice n'full, right? But thass not t'only thin' it can be doin' for ya's. Rightly prepared, a proper chef can use FEAR to enrich the vittles, giving 'em an extra bit o-'Oomphf!' As it were."

She paused here to sit down on a rather dainty kitchen stool and gestured for them to do the same. "So an important aspect o'proper cookin' is FEAR awareness. Now some teachers, bless their black lil' hearts, like to show you students this through physical contact o'the most violent sort. But cookin' requires a bit o'subtlety, so we'll be doin' this through some good ol' meditationating and see if we can kindle some o'that awareness."

Taking a deep breath, Ginger closed her eyes and held it for a moment before exhaling slowly. "Close ya eyes now, lovies, and clear tha mind. Those o'ya that breathe, slow it down some. Jessss...liiiiike...sooooo." If any of the students had taken a gym class, they would have sensed a gentle chill down their spines. "Now, dearies, I'm lettin' a lil' bit o'my own FEAR leak out a bit. See if you can get a sense o'it."

Tahki took a deep breath but just couldn't feel anything. What was she supposed be feeling anyway?

The gryphon stood there a little dumb founded feeling like she was missing the point to this.

Miss Ginger's answer made Junko sigh with relief, tucking the kerchief away in the pocket of her apron. "You won't! She promises! Right?" She sighed and seemed to consider it. It was hair...but...if She got hair everywhere She could get Junko in trouble, and then if Junko was in trouble She was in trouble, and if She was in trouble Junko could do some pretty nasty things.

"Ugh, fine." She eventually conceded. If she had eyes they would be rolling now. Junko smiled and turned back to Ginger, anxiously listening to the introduction. Wow, really? That wasn't so bad! And here they'd all been so worried (or were some of the others excited?) that they'd be fighting with the food! This wouldn't be hard at all! Right? When instructed to do so she closed her eyes, doing her best to...er...clear her mind? That was hard! She managed it, or so she thought, and slowed her breath and waited...

...Um...how long was this supposed to take?

Nothing was happening. Was this supposed to happen? Junko peeked one eye open to glance around motionlessly at the rest of her classmates. She made a soft tisking noise and wrapped Her hair around Junko's head to cover her eyes, causing the girl to squeak quietly. Gah! Now she had to do it all over again! "No cheating." She scolded. Junko sighed and relented, sitting quietly. Okay...clear your mind, even out your breathing. She managed it again, trying to concentrate on finding Ginger's FEAR.

Ugh! She couldn't sense it!

... Cooking? With FEAR?

Well, Malodore figured it wasn't entirely useless; after all, sometimes medicine and food were deeply connected. And it did prefer subtlety to brute force in any case.

The plague doctor awkwardly perched on one of the stools, its long tail wrapping around one of the legs. It let its eyes slip shut - though, naturally, the breathing advice was lost on the undead - and tried to focus, relax...

... was it supposed to be feeling something? Malodore opened its eyes again, just a tiny bit. This didn't seem to be working...

Come on, Junko! You can do this! Just think about nothing! No, wait...don't even think about nothing. Just don't think. Oh, maybe she should stop thinking about not thinking. Oops, that seemed rather counterproductive.

She still didn't sense anything. This was rather frustrating.

Junko wasn't going to give up! She'd sit here as long as it took before she begged Ginger for help, but she really didn't want to look like an idiot who couldn't even sense FEAR. She wouldn't give up, she couldn't give up. How could she show her face in the monster dorms if she couldn't get past this?! It'd be so embarrassing! She sighed again, quietly and deeply, folding her hands neatly on her lap and sitting as comfortably as she could on the stool. No thinking...no thinking...boy it sure was quiet in this room. That helped a lot, actually. Even She was being nice by keeping quiet and still for her! They were meditating, right? Meditating looked like sleeping sitting up...so maybe if she just pretended she was about to sleep.

Apparently that worked! Junko suddenly felt a chill run up her spine and she gasped softly, sitting up straight as her fingers pressed to her lips to keep from making any noise and disturbing the other students. She couldn't see, her eyes were still closed and She was still covering her face, but she did look around a bit. Wow! That was different! Was that FEAR? She hoped it was. That was so cool!