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Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 4:36 pm
"ESTRELAS-"
"Hi, hi, Epaninny!" Estrelas popped out from the doorframe like a grinning mushroom.
Eponine's breath came in panicky, rapid gasps. "Estrelas!"
The Portuguese woman disattached herself from the doorway and popped over to the table. "Oh, so you see!"
"Yes I see! There's a dead pig in the middle of the room!"
"On table!" Estrelas corrected.
"Yes! A dead pig on the middle of a table in the middle of the room!"
"Yes, yes! Take me long, long time to drag pig all the way up stairs! Ah have to go long way to avoid Mista Sian!" Estrelas declared proudly.
Eponine was nowhere near as gleeful. "Oh my GOD we'll be- like- arrested for murder! Estrelas, we gotta get the body away-"
"Don't you worry!"
"NO! NO! I'M NOT WORRYING! DEFINITELY NOT!" Eponine cried hysterically. "THE POLICE ARE GOING TO COME, AND THE MANAGER-"
Estrelas couldn't quite comprehend what the heck Eponine was talking about. So she pulled out a few large butchering knives, a chopping board, and a very large basin.
"OH MY!" Eponine whimpered.
Estrelas looked up and smiled like a million nuclear suns. "Headcheese!"
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Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 5:23 pm
Shee suppressed the feeling of dread that rose in her as she followed the sounds of what were definitively the voices of Estrelas and Eponine. Something smelled very odd...
That was the door the voices were coming from; she was sure. Someone who was deaf would be sure. She peered inside delicately, and gasped as she saw what appeared to be a pig (but couldn't be... where had it come from?) lying on the table in the middle of the room.
Blinking, she looked back and forth from Estrelas to Eponine, and her eyes rested on Estrelas, who was alarmingly carrying multiple knives.
"Ummm... Estrelas? What are you doing?"
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Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 5:36 pm
OH MY GAWD YOU DIDN'T SEE ANYTHING!" Eponine screamed in alarm and jumped too high in the air for a normal human. Without thinking, she bolted under the table- and the dead pig.
Estrelas beamed to Shee as if she had done something extremely noteworthy (and in a way she had). "Ah get pig!" she declared happily. "And Ah show Epaninny how you butch pig and make thing to eat! You join too?" Estrelas offered pompously.
"EEEEK!!! IT'S DRIPPING!" Eponine howled and shot out from under the table, looking as if she were about to cry. The normally-quiet girl, in her panic, could rival Estrelas in one of her manic moods.
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Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 6:02 pm
Shee took a few steps back at Eponine's jump and general alarm.
"Eponine! It's alright! Uhh... calm down?" Even though she knew it wouldn't have any effect, it didn't hurt to try. She tried inching towards Eponine slowly, which would accomplish two things: moving away from Estrelas, and hopefully show Eponine that she wouldn't-- at least, not yet-- say anything about the very odd happenings that were currently playing out.
"I-- sorry Estrelas, but I don't eat meat. So I'd-- rather not." Shee looked curiously at Estrelas. "But where... where did you get the pig from?"
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Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 6:17 pm
MANAGER!
Eponine tumbled backwards and rolled over to the opposite wall before realizing the whole situation. She flushed heavily and ducked her head under her hat. "Hi Shee!" she squeaked, covering the face with her hands.
Estrelas nodded sympathetically to Shee. "Ah understand. One year big people come and take cow and pig for city and they not pay us well so we eat nothing all year," she said. "But no worry, Ah make lots-" Estrelas stopped at Shee's question. "No crime. No problem."
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Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 6:35 pm
Shee lightly padded over to Eponine and extended a hand. "Need some help?"
She was distracted from her task by Estrelas's comments. "No, I mean-- I don't eat meat on purpose, because of religious reasons. Not because we can't find it. But-- you can't really find pigs in the Himalayas. So, I mean, I was just wondering. Where the pig came from. Because that's odd."
She was relieved that there was apparently no law-breaking involved.
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Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 7:51 pm
Eponine stared at the extended hand, then remembered what she was supposed to do with it. She tenatively extended her own hand and gave Shee a high-five.
Estrelas stared at Shee for a while, not quite comprehending vegetarianism. Her grasp of religious reasons extended as far as walking to church on Sundays. She nodded slowly and mentally censored it out. "Ah know!" she declared triumphantly. "Very hard to get pig but Ah do it-" Estrelas's face clouded over. She padded over to Shee and Eponine and sighed.
"Okay. Okay. So. Where pig come from. There a mommy pig. And a daddy pig. And then... Well, God let them have baby pig. Lot of baby pig. And so they.... Well, the daddy pig go on top of mommy pig and..."
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Posted: Sun Nov 02, 2008 6:48 pm
Shee's hand hung in the air awkwardly as she tried to process what was happening, and, failing, erupted into a fit of giggles.
She stifled them as Estrelas moved closer, and tried to look more serious. As Estrelas began to speak however, Shee realized that was beyond the realm of possibility and started giggling again.
"No! No... that's not what I meant. I don't want to really know what pigs do... in their spare time. But how did you get a pig past Wraith? I don't think he'd be especially happy having that," here, she stopped to point dramatically to the pig, "in the building."
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Posted: Sun Nov 02, 2008 10:10 pm
Eponine squeaked and hid her hands. Oh no! Why was Shee laughing? This was probably some human thing- oh no, oh no, had she revealed herself; was that too... Robotic? "HAHA!" Eponine choked, laughing along and praying to any otherworldly powers that might take care of frightened little robot girls that Shee would just pass it off as an idiosyncratic trait of France...
Eponine was saved when Estrelas bounced in.
Estrelas slowly maintained the smile on her face.
"Sled," she said brusquely. "Sled. Mista Sian no check garden shed. And Mista Sian go to bathroom at least three time day. And when hall have merde* all over it no one like to cross hall."
Eponine stopped her nervous laughter. "...Errr, Estrelas?"
"SLED!"
"Estrelas-"
"SLEDDD!"
Eponine looked hopelessly to Shee. "Err, at least... It's legal?" she squeaked quietly.
*animal dung
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Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 3:22 pm
"Uhh... what?"
Maybe it was better if she just accepted that the pig was here and didn't think about the mechanics of getting said pig here.
Shee nodded slowly at Eponine. "Legal is... good." She turned towards Estrelas, thinking. Did she really want to know the answer to her next question? Well, it couldn't be... weirder than the first answer. If it could be called an answer.
"So Estrelas. Why exactly did you bring a pig here? Just... to eat?"
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Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 3:35 pm
Eponine nodded faintly. "Legal is... Very good," she said, hiding a tremble in her voice. Estrelas bringing the pig had strained her nerves enough, but being caught by the vegetarian Shee Sian?
"To eat? To eat?" Estrelas said in her thick accent as if experimenting with a concept. "No, no! No eat pig. Eat sausage, pickle knuckle, headcheese- OH WE MAKE HEADCHEESE FIRST!" Estrelas hollered and began to hack away at the pig's head with a huge butcher knife.
Eponine gave a distressed little squeak and covered her eyes. "Estrelas!" she squeaked.
"NO WORRY! KNIFE NO SHARP, BUT AH BE DONE SOON! AND WE ALL HAVE HEADCHEESE!"
"Eeeeeee........" If she could, she would faint.
Estrelas looked up to Shee with a bright smile. "You see, Ah boil water for headcheese. The put head in water. Then leave head in water. Then slice up and make HEADCHEESE!"
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Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 6:55 pm
Shee started and covered her face with her hands as Estrelas swung her knife and brought it down. Again and again.
Peeking through her fingers, she found that Eponine had done the same. "I think... you should find a sharper knife, Estrelas. That might make it easier. Maybe." Shee didn't know anything about cooking, especially anything relating to meat (and especially headcheese... thankfully, Estrelas had just elucidated that concept for her). Her chapattis, she remembered miserably, were never perfectly round like they were supposed to be, instead taking on shapes that had been variously described by Lhamu and Wraith as almost resembling flowers someone had previously stepped on, puddles of mud or that face the rickshaw driver would give you when you didn't give him the fare he asked for.
"Alright... is headcheese something people eat a lot of in Portugal?" Shee couldn't remember her last trip to Portugal, if there had been one. There probably had, she reasoned.
Shee turned to Eponine, still avoiding looking directly at the pig, although her hands had receded down back to their proper place. "Do you, uh, like headcheese too, Eponine?"
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Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 7:15 pm
"What? Sharper knife? But this the only one Ah can find!" she explained. "No let me in kitchen. No let me in pantry. That why Ah have to get pig from-" She quickly shut her mouth. "Ah get more knife next time," Estrelas said meekly.
Eponine took her hands away from her face long enough to peek out, a bit curious.
Estrelas paused long enough for her eyes to mist over. "Once year! Once year kill pig and make everything! Salsicha! Presunto! Fume-o! Ohhh... HEADCHEESE. ONCE YEAR!" she yodeled. "EAT ONCE YEAR! You go to Portugual, Meez Shee? You go to Portugal before? You see it? You see it?"
Eponine squeaked when Shee addressed her. "Ah-" Responses ran through her head. No, I'm not designed for eating. I don't think I have a stomach. They never gave me a digestive tract. I don't think I have a sense of taste- "Yes, very much!" she declared boldly, but then flushed. "Actually, no. I've never had it before."
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Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 1:07 pm
Estrelas was quite good at keeping secrets when she wanted to, Shee decided. She found herself nodding in agreement unconsciously as Estrelas spoke. The cooks had displayed some good thinking in not letting Estrelas in. "Oh! Not more knives! No, maybe it is better if you keep this one." Backtracking, horrified at the thoughts of what she had quite possibly encouraged Estrelas to do, she waved her arms wildly, gesturing that one knife was more than enough for Estrelas.
"I believe we did make a trip to Portugal once, but I'm sorry, Estrelas. It was a short trip for diplomacy or something, so I don't really remember it too well. I haven't seen much of Portugal, then."
Shee smiled at Eponine's answer. "Well, I haven't either! Obviously, I mean. Since I am vegetarian, and headcheese, despite the very misleading name, is not cheese at all, but meat. I think. It is, right, Eponine?"
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Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 1:59 pm
Estrelas looked confused, but nodded politely. "But more knife? More knife better, no? In case one get lose so have extra? Extra-sharp too so Ah no have to sharpen them on Treaded Mill in gym?" she reasoned, but listened to Shee's explanation about her trip to Portugal. She seemed a bit disappointed, but nodded politely again. "You see more one day. Ah show you Portugal, and you see Portugal!" she cheered.
Eponine shied back when Shee addressed her. "Ah- um! Um! It's true! It's all true! I mean, that headcheese isn't cheese at all!" If it looks cheese and acts cheese, does it mean it's cheese, that it can become cheese if it tries hard enough? "Maybe if it tries hard enough it can become cheese?" she said hopefully. "But I didn't know you were vegetarian until now!"
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