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 Posted: Sun Aug 08, 2010 11:01 am
"I don't really cook, either," Amane admitted to Dai. He didn't. Watching his parents was different from cooking, himself. He chopped his asparagus slowly, but well. "I also find the smell of garlic overwhelming," Amane added, noticing Dai's eyebrows knit as he peeled the cloves. He often left out a little more garlic than he ought to, simply because he disliked the taste and smell of it. It frustrated his parents.
Amane nodded in response to the thanks. Each lunarian that had some of the tea made him feel a little more at ease, until he was nearly glowing with comfort, radiating calm. Finally, he didn't feel overwhelmed or upset. Just content. He almost smiled when Xiu called it delicious. He had made it rather crudely, but the others were so polite. He wouldn't fault them for it. Lien seemed very occupied with his cooking. Amane left him well enough alone, though he listened to the conversation.
"Nothing to apologize for, in being quiet," Amane answered Cais, "Doesn't mean you aren't still here, part of this," he finished. Amane smoothed his hands against his pants and took a deep breath. "I don't know very much about cooking, in practice, but my parents tried to teach me things." He picked his knife back up and stared at the second half of the food. "For example, they taught me to cut on the diagonal, so that the food absorbs flavour and cooks better. Like this," he said, chopping so his asparagus matched the other pieces, slanted slightly, more of their tender surface exposed. "Posture is important when cutting, too... but I can hardly remember what they tried to teach me," Amane admitted. "My parents are much better at this than I am."
((Edited because I forgot the darn tag again = 3=))
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Posted: Sun Aug 08, 2010 2:51 pm
Cais nodded to Amane's mention of him. "Right." he said, "Means I'm being a better listener." With a smile he pushed himself back in his chair lightly, watching Amane's hands work. It seemed that the boy beyond him, Dai - or that's what Cais thought he heard - was busily preparing his garlic. One thing in the Trinh household that was rare. He was unaccustomed to the smell, but it rather intrigued him as to why his mother often left it out of her cooking. He logged the thought away and turned his full attention back onto Amane.
Watching his hands work Cais took great care to listen to his advice. Surely if his sister could work her hands into cooking, so could he, let alone with the fact that he had his new classmates to watch and learn from, even without getting shooed away. That was his best fortune of the day, and he, now no longer dwelling on his awkward morning, enthusiastically was going to take to it.
With knife in hand he straightened himself in his chair, cautiously moving his arms down and cutting the rest of the asparagus before him. Taking note of Amane's advice he cut in a diagonal pattern underneath the already savagely cut parts. When he was satisfied with their completion he set the knife down and reached for a large clove of garlic. Rolling it in his hand he felt the rough texture of the husk rub against his palm. Odd, he noted in his head, taking into consideration he had only seen it in his house on rare occasions. Otherwise his knowledge of garlic had been limited to market days where the neighbors of his families' display often sold large cloves. Come to think of it, his father had never sold any...
Shrugging the tangent of thoughts away he began peeling it back slowly, going off of what little he saw from Dai. Lowering his hands to the table he wiped the outer peel and laid out the innards of the clove. Turning his attention back to Dai, he noticed the mincing. Blinking he stared back at his clove. "Well, here goes nothing." he said, taking the knife and cutting in small strokes to mimic a mincing motion. It was turning out less than perfect, but he pressed onward. Suddenly his hands stopped as he finished. A defeated stare looked out from under his brow at the freshly cut garlic. "I think I did that wrong." he sighed, turning his attention back to the others, eagerly awaiting for them to continue. He was hoping there was still a way to salvage his version of the dish.
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Posted: Sun Aug 08, 2010 6:06 pm
"I very much agree~" Liu smiled at Xiu's remark. It was true in many ways - when he was brewing a hot sour stew, or perhaps baking a cake, Liu always felt ... at ease. It was almost as if the rest of the world had stopped outside of the kitchen, and he was humming along, melding new creations. It was the one thing in Liu's life that he didn't predictably mess up - after all, being so clumsy was definitely a predicted hazard in the kitchen, but he had never cut himself before.
Watching curiously as Amane retreated to the cupboards and somehow drew out some tea leaves, Liu's heart jumped; who would have known the school had tea leaves in their cupboards? If the word 'therapeutic' was meant for any type of edible thing, tea leaves would take first place. They healed in all types of ways, and Liu, at the moment, would have loved a cup of tea. Smiling, Liu grabbed a few pieces of asparagus (and seeing as Amane was busy) cut up a few more pieces than he should have. He was talented at cooking, and Liu could cut vegetables and meat quickly enough.
By the time Amane had finished, Liu had finished his chopping as well - ending up with more asparagus than he'd first intended. There was something about the anticipation of tea that made him feel ecstatic. Smiling at the other boy, (and well, feeling like he'd read his mind ... really) Liu poured himself a cup of tea and sipped some easily, a sigh washing itself from his mouth. It didn't matter what type of tea it was, really ... but the steam and the gentle fragrance was enough to relieve him of his exhaustion. "Thank you so much, Amane." Liu slid him some asparagus slices in compensation for his time spent making the tea - and in that moment, Liu believed he could almost kiss him~
As Liu watched Lien talk to Xiu conversationally, he realized that he was hardly the helpful nor the social one of the group. It made him undesirable, perhaps - what with both Lien and Amane being so talkative and intuitive about what others needed. Somehow he felt like he was the one that was lagging behind - and there was no way that Liu was going to keep lagging behind. He wasn't known for being a lollygagger ...
Noticing Dai Wu having some trouble with the garlic, he poked out his tongue in distaste. Garlic was a very troubling vegetable - from the way it made him cry to the annoying length of time it took to peel. However, after a long time of tending to all cooking matters within his household, Liu had learned successfully how to peel and mince garlic without crying his eyes out, as he had at first. "I do it like this~" Liu offered, motioning towards his cutting board. "First, we just pick off the cloves - then you take the knife, and put it on top of one of the cloves -" Then he slapped his hand down on the flat knife ... and took the knife out, revealing a perfect unpeeled garlic clove. "Voila~" Liu smiled. "Do you want to try? That's just my way though ..."
Once again noticing that after Cais had been helped by Amane, he was now having trouble mincing the garlic (though he hadn't peeled that well either), Liu decided to continue his makeshift lesson. Though really, the teacher wasn't teaching them anything ... "Right, so for mincing, you'd follow the same rules as with onions ..." Liu said, gesturing to his garlic. "First cut it horizontally, then vertically." He did so, settling into the familiar gestures easily enough. "The rest you just cut however you want, though you have to remember to wipe the garlic pieces off the knife." He smiled encouragingly. Gosh, now Liu felt like some kind of old man teacher or something ...
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Posted: Sun Aug 08, 2010 6:27 pm
“Of course they’re just fine.” Xiu soothed after hearing the defensiveness creeping into Lien’s tone. “It’s only natural to love your siblings.” Nodding as if that settled things, he took another drink of his tea, wanting to drink it while it was still hot. He finally set the cup aside through and resumed the rest of his chopping, glancing out of the corner of his eye at Cais and Dai. Amane seemed to be helping them though, so Xiu left them alone.
Lien’s next question brought Xiu up short and he paused in his chopping, biting his lower lips before starting up again. Siblings? Sure, he had one. However, they were estranged in every sense of the word. Heck, Xiu wasn’t even sure if his brother knew he existed.
“No.” He finally managed to choke out, feeling horrible for lying as he stared at his salad ingredients. “I.. don’t have any.” Trying to smile, Xiu looked back to Lien. “But, that’s okay right?”
Desperately needing to steer the conversation elsewhere, he blurted rather wildly, “So, where are you from Lien? Your accent doesn’t sound like one from the city.” This was a rather harsh comment in Xiu’s opinion, but he couldn’t stop it as he stared at Lien, brows furrowed again.
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Posted: Sun Aug 08, 2010 6:56 pm
Lien nodded at Xiu's comment and thought of Quy. Well, he was sure Quy loved the rest of the family. In his own way, maybe. His own subtle way.
He shook his head. Quy was the only member of his family he didn't like thinking about. He simply didn't know what to make of his older brother, and while he sometimes felt like he understood him, most of the time, Quy just gave him headaches. Instead, he looked over at Liu and went back to write down Liu's method. "That's good," he noted, trying to figure out the most efficient way to make the recipe so that Mei would have an easy time of it. Mei was better at cooking than he was, but her attention tended to wander. The more efficiently and quickly she could complete a recipe, the less likely she was to abandon it for another project.
When Xiu admitted he had no siblings, Lien frowned. To him it made sense to be choked up about not having any, siblings were important and the lack of them was something Lien couldn't even imagine. He dumped his asparagus into his now-boiling water and went over to Xiu again. "It's okay." he affirmed, like he did when Hue broke a vase. It was sad, but he had adopted Xiu into their group, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Xiu sounded lonely, but at least he wasn't being lonely alone.
Lien shrugged. "I'm from the West Farmlands. My town is big, but it's different from the city." The city was much bigger than any place Lien had ever been in his life. "My family owns land and we farm." He paused, thinking of something to ask the group now and open up the conversation. He didn't feel like he could steer the conversation well on his own, when it came to inspired banter, Lien was up the creek without a paddle.
"Where is everyone else from?" Again, he copied Xiu, but at least his voice was at a normal pitch. Lien was so used to taking cues from others, that he was hardly ever able to make up cues for others to take from him.
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Posted: Sun Aug 08, 2010 7:35 pm
Dai nodded at Amane, consciously trying to ease his trouble expression "The garlic is very overwhelming" he agreed.
Dai put the strong smelling garlic to the side, setting it down for the moment as he reached out for the tea Amane had prepared for them. With his hands still covered with the strong smell of the vegetable, he carefully touched the cup, feeling if it was still too hot to hold. He concluded that it was the temperature and with his slim fingers he held it now and brought it close to his nose. He caught a waft of the tea, it was by no means the best smelling or best prepared cup he had taken but the smell was subtle and pleasant. A tea better than he could ever do. He sipped it and then laid it back down on the table, going back to battle with the cloves once again.
With a knife in hand he began to mince the garlic in whatever way he could. It was odd holding a weapon without the purpose of practicing swordplay. He had to resist the urge to swing the knife around.
Dai noticed Cais looking over to him and felt a bit self-conscious. Surely he wasn't the perfect example to follow in this kind of thing. He stared at the other for a good few seconds as he watched the boy's actions. He was surprised when Liu spoke and had to look around him to make sure the other was talking to him. He listened intently though, trying to understand the method he was teaching him. "I see... You are very good at this... Thank you. I will try that." he said in fragments as he turned his attention to the few cloves that were unpeeled on his side.
He was truly thankful to Liu since he had now successfully peeled one of his and it turned out well. The young boy turned to Liu and Cais and saw that there was another mini-lesson taking place. "Do you cook very often?" he asked Liu curiously as he reached out for the bunch of asparagus.
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Posted: Sun Aug 08, 2010 8:10 pm
Hearing a snippet of Lien's and Xiu's conversation in his ear, Liu turned around, blinking. "I'm an only child too." He said, smiling at the other boy - "I wish I knew what it was like to have siblings, really." It was true. Liu had never really known how to treat other people his age - or children, really, even; ever since he had been born, Liu had been an only child. It was troubling, but the Chinese boy made positive and found comfort in his grandfather.
"I live a little ways outside of the City," said Liu. It was strange - you just walked a bit, and then there was a road leading to a lone house on the side of the road. Frankly, Liu had no idea how his grandfather had gained possession of such a home, but he didn't ask. The old man was being generous enough to let Liu and his mother live there anyways.
Liu was incredibly happy that he had helped someone. He was beginning to think that maybe it was out of his power (or maybe he was just stupid) and a smile graced his face as Dai thanked him. Dai was a good student, he supposed - the other boy definitely tried hard, and within a few minutes, he'd gotten it. Having finished his work and seeing that the rest of the class had yet to finish what his group had accomplished (oh, Liu was so proud!), the Chinese boy propped his head upon his hands and watched the other boys, observing their movements.
When Dai asked about whether or not he cooked a lot, Liu blinked out of his reverie and laughed. "Mhm." He said, smiling. "My mother is always sick, and my grandfather finds excuses for me to cook, so somehow I always end up in the kitchen~" Looking pointedly at Dai, he grinned. "How about you? How much cooking experience do you have?"
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Posted: Sun Aug 08, 2010 8:31 pm
Listening to the garlic lesson beside him he took notice of Liu. "Oh." he mentioned, staring down at his garlic. He attempted to fix the rather large bits of garlic he had previously cut. Wiping pieces off he followed Liu's instructions. It still wasn't going perfectly, but it was a definite improvement over his improvised method. Sliding the rest of it off he smiled. "That really did work." He turned back to Liu. "Thanks. You know a lot about cooking it seems. I'm not even allowed in my kitchen. My sister won't let me" He laughed a little.
From his seat he hear Lien and Xiu's conversation and he chimed in on the conversation as well, "I'm from the city. Born and raised." He said, working towards the next part of the cooking procedure. "My family owns a glass shop connected to our house a few streets over from Main Street." He nodded. Cais wasn't used to talking about himself with... anyone. It was a calming notion to be in a group with others sharing stories. He was even learning something.
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Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2010 1:51 am
Gods, but she was a most elegant creature...it was perhaps something akin to narcissism the way that their similarities called to him that struck his mind with such a thought. Veryuu so very rarely enjoyed the company of others, his usual solace a lengthy tome or willing piece of parchment...however, limited doses of such hospitable souls could be truly called enjoyable. Oh Haote would have thought the apocalypse had come, should he be told of such a thing. "Ah good." He murmured, "Some are sincerely adverse to nicknames, I've found." He himself had only allowed one other the privilege of shortening his name. Luckily, Veryuu was such a title that most had no trouble pronouncing it, as it so easily whisked its way off the tongue.
"That is one thing that sincerely gladdens me." He had been deeply concerned that he would find but rare enjoyment from those who frequented this place. For though the purpose of such a house of learning was quite noble in and of itself, many of the beings within, though they might bear the title, were anything but. Shin-mu, however, was clearly a lady of graces and impeccable etiquette. She would have made his mother proud...mind, there would have been garnered the inevitable heckling that proceeded from the usually frigid-tempered Veryuu possessing a friend of the feminine persuasion. Ah gods...he would so miss his mother's playful smile.
Expression falling for but a second, the ice water that had swelled to engulf the very core of himself causing the world to slow about him, he closed his eyes...and found that calm. Always he'd looked to himself, and it did him well in times of duress and social interaction...those oft being one and the same where Veryuu was concerned. He was somewhat relieved, were the youth to be perfectly honest with himself, that Shin had become flustered with her own mannerisms, as it drew attention away from the male's own slip. "Ah, I would suppose that to be true. Honestly, callous fool that I can be, it did not come upon me to see it from the other side...I suppose such a refresher is necessary." He gave that almost-smile once more, knowing that she understood its sincerity. "Though your excusal is quite kind."
As she spoke of the spirits, for a fleeting moment, he wondered if mayhap she had ever chanced upon his mother or sister...or indeed ever would, if such had not occurred in months past. That, mind, was not the thing one asked of a stranger, that question he would harbor until she was not merely a passing acquaintance, but instead a friend. And likely as not, the answer would be a dismal and disappointing one...but the small comfort would mean worlds to him all the same, that small percentile that spoke of hope worth the risk of failure. "It must be very calming at times, to hear the voices of those dearest, even though they no longer walk the earth as we do." There was an unmistakable wistful undertone as he spoke, utterly ignorant of her own familial woes.
What he did not expect of her was an apology, of all things, and rather quickly he raised hands, a pacifying, dismissive gesture. "No, no...never should a lady beg forgiveness for rambling if her words are intelligent and interesting." It was something that his parents had ingrained into him, and as such, despite his oft-rude actions, there was a vivid streak of gentlemanly habits lurking in wait, surfacing in moments such as these for onlookers to see. As though self-conscious of this fact, graceful fingertips swept unruly bits of hair from his features, and garments were then tugged into a semblance of order, as though they had been about to spring into disarray all on their own.
Speaking of onlookers, he supposed the others had finally dilly-dallied off to their classes. Odd that he would be the truant today.
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Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2010 9:13 am
It was not lost on Amane, Cais' careful effort to learn both from his brief advice and from the much more instructive advice of Liu. Amane ducked his head away, under the guise of having dropped a piece of asparagus onto the floor. He did that he could allow the small smile to pass, the one Liu had fixed there with his gratitude. When he looked back up, wrapping the fallen asparagus in a cloth and placing it to the side so it wouldn't go into any of the dishes accidentally, his face was placid. "Any time, Liu. I do love tea, and it seems like perhaps you share that appreciation. Not to mention you seem to have significantly better cooking skills than mine," Amane said. He wasn't trying to flatter Liu, just saying exactly what he thought. In fact, he was able to learn from Liu's display about the garlic, though Amane still loathed the smell of it. It was a smell that, he felt, clung to his skin and clothes long after he had finished cooking.
"I'm only from the Quiet Roads," Amane answered Lien. He was a little quiet in his reply, because he didn't find it all that interesting. He wasn't from anywhere special. Amane listened to all the talk of siblings, or other members of the family that his friends were close to. He had none of that. His parents were all he had, his parents and his combat and dance instructors. He had been well-polished for comfortable living, really. Those relationships weren't exactly fulfilling; his parents were close to him, but they were very much a duo with no room for a third person. They were so in sync it was impossible for Amane to even try to move along with them; he was always offbeat, out of line, mis-stepping. They never brought it up, never pointed it out, but he knew. So to have siblings, grandparents, friends... these were all new ideas to him. It was, perhaps, why Lien and Liu meant so much to Amane.
"A glass shop, Cais? What kind of goods, or art, does your family produce? I find glass work fascinating. So much stamina for such delicate work," Amane said, staring at his asparagus and garlic. He had only seen a few lunarians work on glass before, because he would visit the Artisans' neighbourhood, but he in no way claimed to be well-informed. He looked up at Cais, and hoped the boy would forgive him his probably blatant ignorance. To observe a craft was hardly the same as to live it.
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Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2010 3:04 pm
Swish, swish, swish.
The sound of blades sharpening resounded throughout the Academy’s modest armory. Van, the room’s only occupant, sat amidst the rows of starter weaponry, quite happily sharpening her butterfly knives. For the Legionnaire, the sound of steel striking steel was comforting, and the constant, metered pace with which she pulled her knife across the slab of steel was soothing. In all the chaos that accompanied her battles, when nothing else was sure, it was good to know that she could at least depend on her weapons to be sharp and primed.
Sure, she was supposed to be in Weapons History right now, but why sit through a lecture about the armaments of the past when one could touch and play with the weapons of now?
It wasn’t as if the class had seemed particularly lively when she walked by the closed door earlier, anyway. In fact, it was the eerie silence that had reinforced her decision to skip out on that day’s particular session and instead make a beeline for the armory. Van never minded silence, so the uncanny stillness of the Academy on this day was not taxing on her senses. It was only when others challenged her perfect, self-induced silence that she took issue with the quiet.
As if on cue, it was upon the completion of this musing that Van thought she heard another sound in the room. Someone else had taken residence here without her notice, and between strokes, the student could make out the distinct noise of another blade being sharpened.
Swish, swish—
Van stopped abruptly, hoping to catch her visitor in the act. But the sound stopped just as quickly as Van halted her own movements—there was not even so much as an echo, just the sound of the muted reverberation of metal on metal from Van’s last strike before she had stopped.
Mood visibly soured, she resumed sharpening her blades. Nothing. It was nothing, and Van was simply hearing things. Perhaps she’d move onto sharpening her deer horn knives now? Yes, that was a pleasing prospect. As soon as the Legionnaire began to sharpen these knives, though, there was that sound again. Furrowing her brows in concentration as she listened for the interruption in her pattern of noise, Van knew for sure this time that she was not alone.
Throwing down her knifing steel with a loud CLANG, she stood up from her seat to investigate. Knives held up in defense, it was time to put her long-practiced skills in stealth to use. Violet orbs darting everywhere as she quickly, noiselessly padded through the narrow corridors, Van searched for the perpetrator of the noise. She would at the very least give him a piece of her mind when she found him.
What she did not expect was for her silence to be broken by a low, male chuckle. The girl gripped her weapons tighter. There were no teachers around at this hour, and the tenor of the voice was certainly too mature to belong to one of her classmates. Who was it? Before she could ponder the answer, a loud, shrill scream barreled across her senses, completely shattering the calm of the armory. Frozen in shock, Van could feel the hairs standing up on the nape of her neck. When the wet sound of liquid hitting the stone floor reached her purple ears, followed by the slump of something heavy dropping onto the ground, the girl knew she was up against something much too great for any student to handle. She could feel her stomach twisting painfully, and this was not helped by the sensation that she now had a pair of eyes watching her every move.
With this, she began slowly edge toward the door. Her eyes were still probing all over the now-hostile room for signs of movement, but to no avail. She had reached the large wooden door now, one hand resting on the doorknob in the event that she had to make an abrupt leave.
Why was it silent now? Why was this bad? The once-friendly room had suddenly taken an ugly descent to become a room filled with malevolence. Van wasn’t sure what she was waiting for in the pregnant silence, but something kept her rooted to the spot until she could be incited to leave. The air held an ominous sense of foreboding. Something was going to happen.
Van didn’t have to wait long. As soon as her eyes registered the leftmost bow rack falling to pieces, she had bolted.
The Legionnaire ran as fast as she possibly could down the deserted halls, and it was only now that she noticed how empty they were. Where was everyone? Behind her, she could still hear the crashes and clatters of the shelves and the weapons they housed falling to the floor, even as she moved farther and farther away from the sounds and the unknown beings.
As she finally collapsed against a stone pillar somewhere across campus, Van managed to convince herself that she’d been running simply because she didn’t want to get into trouble for the mess in the armory.
Then why, why was her heart still pounding?
[[ Do not reply to this yet. Just keep going as you have been. Nobody should notice Van yet. ]]
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Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2010 3:43 pm
Fascinating? Cais blushed lightly while placing his freshly cut ingredients to the side, preparing a bowl for mixing near him. Shaking his head lightly to rid himself of blush he looked back at him. "We all do work in glass, in particular glass-blowing. That's where you use molten glass which has been heated and a blow pipe. It takes a lot of work, but using breath and shaping tools you can make a lot of things, like vases and ornaments." He paused, he had never actually explained his families' business to others. "My mother and father can do a lot more than just glass-blowing though. My father is very skilled and can do just about anything involving glass, he really enjoys large projects like stained glass windows. My mother prefers making useful items, so we often sell decorative mirrors that she makes."
He paused slightly and poured his garlic into the bowl, remembering what he could from the lesson. "It's become harder to sell goods though..." he said, the tone in his voice lowering. "My father recently started a venture once a month to exchange our glass works to outside farmers and traders to bring in other goods for market days. We met some families here in town that have helped us, we're becoming good merchants ourselves." Blinking again he turned back to Amane. "Oh, sorry for going off there for a while. What do your parents do? If it's not too much to ask."
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Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2010 4:15 pm
With eyes sparkling in quiet satisfaction, Dai started to mince the cloves as Liu had done earlier. While doing this tedious step he replied to Liu's question, "I don't have any, really..." he avoided the others eyes, a bit embarrassed. "...So I do admire people who have experience in these things." The young boy felt a bit more helpless as the other smiled at him in such a casual and friendly way that he wasn't used to. He gave Liu a small genuine smile in return that was mixed with a look of nervousness (which frankly, looked a bit ridiculous). Hearing Liu speak a bit about his family made Dai feel happy but a bit bad about the situation the other was in. "I am sorry about your mother, I hope her health improves." he paused, finishing up the garlic and cutting the strings that bound the bunch of asparagus. "I'm not very good at housework in general. I have three brothers so we usually practice with swords all the time."
Realizing he was a bit late in answering Lien's question, Dai hurriedly followed suit with his own reply. "I live in the city as well..." he said simply. Dai did not want to delve into further detail since he might bore them with his useless banter. Though admittedly, hearing where the others had come from interested him. He felt like he was getting to know them and this small fact made him feel elated.
He turned to Cais upon hearing more about the glasswork his family does. "That sounds really amazing..." he was quite enchanted by how the boy had described it. The things Dai knew were limited by the walls of his house, he had never really gone out much ever since he was a young child.
Looking over to the asparagus in his hands he turned to Liu, as if looking for assurance. His eyes looked questioningly as the other. The words "what now?" were clearly written all over his face.
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Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2010 9:01 pm
"No problem." Liu said absent-mindedly in response to Cais' remark. He laughed along with the boy - funny how different they were. As far as he was concerned, Liu had decided over the years that he would never, ever, ever let his grandfather or mother into the kitchen. It would be a calling for disaster - once, when it had been his birthday, Liu had let his mother use the kitchen.
The results had been unspeakable.
"A glass shop~" Liu murmured. "That sounds so interesting! I've never seen real glasswork before ..." Liu hadn't actually seen a lot of things before - his mother and his grandfather had kept him isolated (stingy old people) and the Chinese boy didn't have much knowledge of the world at all. Glasswork sounded interesting though, and Liu guessed it was molding the glass into perhaps ... a vase? Or a mug? Watching the boy reply almost immediately, Liu's doubts were answered in detail. It really was molding, then? Liu had seen the making of pottery, he'd even made some before (but as soon as the pottery had been finished, he'd ended up breaking it) but glasswork sounded wonderful. Obviously nothing he could do - sadly, but he figured Cais must be skilled with his hands. "Fascinating," he breathed.
Amane had dropped a piece of asparagus on the floor, and Liu was actually quite concerned. It definitely wasn't ... er, clean to use ingredients that had dropped on the floor, and he stuck his tongue out. Liu was extremely glad that Amane wrapped it up in a small towel, otherwise he probably would have flung the dirtied vegetable into some unknown corner of the rather large room. "Tea is most definitely one of the best things in the world," Liu said, a sparkle in his eye. Truly well-prepared tea was something that could rejuvenate the soul and prepare you for battle. That was what his grandfather always said (though really, that was the only edible thing the old man could make) and Liu was happy to believe it. Amane had most definitely proved himself a true friend for preparing as such.
Liu smiled softly as he watched the other boy mince the cloves. He was rather good at the art, really - it didn't take much time for Dai to learn what needed to be learnt. "You have natural talent, you know~" he gestured at the boy's hands. "And cooking isn't something that's actually hard to learn - what I find hard is the deal with swords." Liu grimaced quietly, and reminded himself again about the Fighter ordeal. There was no way he was changing his career path now, but as it was, he was clumsy and not fit for becoming a Fighter. He hadn't found a weapon that suited him, nor could anyone believe after meeting him that the tiny boy wanted to become a fighter. Really. "Even though I want to fight." The boy added quietly.
"Oh, if you want to cut, what Amane said was right. Cut diagonally and mind your posture. Yes." He said, looking pointedly at the other boy. "If you want to spare yourself the work ... well, I chopped up more than I should have." Liu said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head and looking at his cutting board and the extra slices of asparagus.
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Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2010 8:25 am
Lien nodded, pleased to hear about everyone's different backgrounds. He was a little surprised at how many small families there were, though. In the West Farmlands there were mostly large families, since more relatives meant more helping hands come harvest time. Lien's family wasn't done growing itself, and he already had more siblings than everyone here, it seemed. However, he chalked it up to city life, which he figured was all upside down and backwards from normal life anyway.
He didn't have much time to think about it, though. Just as he opened his mouth to comment about fighting when Liu murmured something about it, there was a commotion behind their group. Turning around, Lien blinked in surprise to see that the outside of someone's robe had caught fire, presumably because they didn't roll up their sleeves while heating up the water. They were trying to take off their outer robe, and it wasn't burning enough to hurt them but it would be if it didn't get removed soon. Their water had been knocked over in the commotion, and if someone didn't do something soon, the fire was going to pose a threat.
Lien bit his lip but he was unable to do anything. If he threw his boiling water on it, he'd harm the person worse, and that wouldn't do any good. He couldn't throw anyone else's water, living in a family as large as his, he and his siblings had developed a strong sense of mine and thine, as in, this is mine, get thine own. "Cold water!" he barked just as the teacher noticed and exclaimed.
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