2023-01-13: Proper Pizza Preparation
- Log: 2023-01-13: Proper Pizza Preparation
- Cast: Emilia Eschonbach, Shelby Korts
- Where: Ashford Academy Kitchens, Nagoya, Area 11
- OOC - IC Date: 12 January, 0097
- Summary: The Mysterious Culinary Student has come to Ashford Academy to learn, but can she teach Emilia the secret to the perfect New Yark Slice- and will it be enough to stop The Noid?
(The Noid is C.C.)
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
Things are continuing to get more and more uneasy at Ashford Academy. Students have been missing for a month now, the student council- depleted as it is- is struggling to maintain order and certain amongst the Britannian Citizens are doing something... secret.
Right now, though, it'sm way too much for Emmy to deal with. The Fantasy Seduction Club Room and even the Student Council Room aren't great places to be. So now she decides to work on her other project- trying to recreate something lost. She put the dough in the fridge a little more than two days ago, in a massive bowl to let it rise. Now that classes are out for the day, she could spend the evening working on it. The master key to the school kitchens is in her hand- she doesn't want to get the Cooking Club's attention.
What she may have forgotten is approving a GUTS request for a roaming culinary student to visit about this time. As she opens the door, she may get a sudden reminder.
<Pose Tracker> Shelby Korts has posed.
The sound coming from within the kitchen as Emilia approaches sounds like some kind of tiny, small-scale machine gun.
The kitchen is not particularly full at this hour; there is no rush of students or gaggle of people to cook for, and it gives her time to learn the ins and outs of school menu-- and ruminate over how Britannian it all is given the time she's been spending in Japan lately.
Shelby Korts stands at a prep station, more or less by herself. Her chef's jacket is a loaner; far too large for her frame with boxy shoulders and the sleeves rolled up above her elbows. Black pants are likewise too big for her frame, and the hems are double cuffed to settle over a pair of absolutely shitbeaten sneakers. Her hair kept back with a bandana, large glasses kept on her face with an elastic strap. Her forearms, covered in skin tight black sleeves from wrists to elbows.
In her hand, ludicrously sharp knife...
... that is being used to split a few large red onions in half with heavy chops before her knuckles curl to the flat of the blade and sit in a claw atop the onion's surface. Like a machine gun again, the edge rapidly tappity-takka-taps the board before a quick twist of her hand, repeating the pattern to evenly dice ingredients before putting them in a small stainless steel bin.
And then she looks up from the station, eyes blinking owlishly wide. "Uh. Hi!"
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
The sound is... concerning, and the opening of the door slows so Emmy can peek in and see who is in there. It's not someone she knows, that's for certain. She's also dressed properly for this, unlike Emmy in her school uniform.
But the first thing Emmy notices is the speed and accuracy with which the mystery chef dices an onion. For all Emmy has been experimenting with cooking, it's only been the one recipe. She hasn't actually seen much... preparation by skilled people- just the tutorials she could fine online.
Emmy, her long hair in a ponytail and her own eyes wide, responds by raising a hand in a little wave. "H-Hi." She pauses for a nervous moment. "Um, s-sorry, I d-d-didn't think a-anyone would be h-here. I-is it okay if, I, um." It's very clear that Emmy's a little offput and anxious, and borderline worried of getting in trouble. "I n-need to. S-s-see if my dough's... r-ready. C-can I c-c-come in?" Something else is clear, it's important to her that she does this. Perhaps unusually so.
<Pose Tracker> Shelby Korts has posed.
The anxiety is real -- enough so that she doesn't need to necessarily rely on her abilities to pick up on it, but she doesn't remark on it. Instead, Shelby laughs a little, setting the large knife down and wiping her hands with the towel over her shoulder. "No, it's fine. Just doing some busy work. Only here for a little bit, so. I get stuck with the cleanup. The prep, too!"
"You probably belong here more than me," she jokes, throwing up her hands a little, fingers fanned out. "I've never been somewhere so swanky before." liar
"If it's the dough I saw in there before, it looks good to go," the young woman says, gesturing toward one of the large fridges.
"I'm Shelby. I'm a culinary student doing some work study."
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
"O-oh!" Emmy feels a bit awkward. Of course. "R-r-right. L-like with my club." That makes lots of sense. She seems a bit old, but maybe this person's situation is like Milly. She pauses though. "I... I don't kn-know." She says after a pause. "I-I'm n-not really a cooking s-student. Th-this is... personal."
Would Britannians even accept a 'half-zeke bastard' if they knew?
"Oh, th-thanks!" She starts to move to the fridge, before Shelby introduces herself. "O-oh, sorry! I'm E-Emilia. I'm th-the, um, Student Council Treasurer. For Ashford. A-a-and GUTS t-too." She smiles, a little proud of the title now. But there's worry, too, as she turns to get the dough and put it on a steel bench near Shelby.
[:99]Milly, Kallen... Everyone's okay, right? You'll be back, won't you?
"Ah!" She remembers, looking at Shelby. "Y-you're the one who. S-sent th-that request, r-r-right? I-I'm glad y-you. Got here okay. A-Area 11 can b-be dangerous." Emmy starts reaching out for the things she needs, starting by flouring the bench, and looking for the dough separator. It's risen nicely, it looks like there's enough for three, maybe four attempts. A good rise. There's one thing that becomes very evident quickly- Emmy's dextrous, and has good control of her hands, but lacks technique and experience, as she starts to get the dough out of the bowl.
"S-s-some of the students h-here can be... r-real jerks to th-the kitchen staff. Please t-tell the student c-c-council if th-they give you any. Problems."
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
"O-oh!" Emmy feels a bit awkward. Of course. "R-r-right. L-like with my club." That makes lots of sense. She seems a bit old, but maybe this person's situation is like Milly. She pauses though. "I... I don't kn-know." She says after a pause. "I-I'm n-not really a cooking s-student. Th-this is... personal."
Would Britannians even accept a 'half-zeke bastard' if they knew?
"Oh, th-thanks!" She starts to move to the fridge, before Shelby introduces herself. "O-oh, sorry! I'm E-Emilia. I'm th-the, um, Student Council Treasurer. For Ashford. A-a-and GUTS t-too." She smiles, a little proud of the title now. But there's worry, too, as she turns to get the dough and put it on a steel bench near Shelby.
Milly, Kallen... Everyone's okay, right? You'll be back, won't you?
"Ah!" She remembers, looking at Shelby. "Y-you're the one who. S-sent th-that request, r-r-right? I-I'm glad y-you. Got here okay. A-Area 11 can b-be dangerous." Emmy starts reaching out for the things she needs, starting by flouring the bench, and looking for the dough separator. It's risen nicely, it looks like there's enough for three, maybe four attempts. A good rise. There's one thing that becomes very evident quickly- Emmy's dextrous, and has good control of her hands, but lacks technique and experience, as she starts to get the dough out of the bowl.
"S-s-some of the students h-here can be... r-real jerks to th-the kitchen staff. Please t-tell the student c-c-council if th-they give you any. Problems."
<Pose Tracker> Shelby Korts has posed.
The young woman snaps her fingers. "Oh! GUTS, that's the -- okay. School program thing."
As Emilia takes out the dough and starts to work, the lingering thought is caught up in her mind: Milly and Kallen. Area 11 can be dangerous. Is this related to Tsutsujidai? Or the ongoing issues with the Black Knights? Being in the thick of it here has, at least, given her some insight into at least a *little* of what's going on in this side of Japan...
"Well, nice to meet you, Miss Emilia." For all the politeness, of course, she doesn't look *that* much older than her, if not *fairly* close in age. But, as the culinary student picks up a few of the steel storage tins, she loops around closer to Emmy and starts loading them up into one of the fridges. "If it makes you feel any better, Area 11's been pretty good to me, all things considered. Backpacking across Japan's been interesting."
Her head turns, craning to peek over the student's shoulder. "What's on the menu? Just for you?"
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
"S-someone I c-care about a lot p-put it together, and I-I'm trying to keep it r-r-running until... sh-she gets b-back. A f-few students f-from other sch-schools are helping too." But Miss Leina and Kaname are dealing with so much already... and they're still helping her.
"O-oh, Emilia's f-fine. I-it's okay for me to c-call you Shelby?" She flinches a tiny bit at the clatter of the tins, but manages to hide the worst of it. "...Th-that's g-g-good. Things h-have b-been... bad h-here. A-Ashford is j-just in the... p-protected part of t-t-town. Getting t-t-to work c-can be... scary some days." Which work, she doesn't say. She blinks though. "Th-that sounds... amazing. I-I'd l-love to travel l-like that s-s-some day. Maybe w-w-with f-f-friends." She pauses. For all her nerves, Shelby's attitude make her comfortable. Just existing in the same space.
Emmy smiles. "I'm, um. T-trying to m-make pizza." She looks a touch awkward. "B-b-but not just any p-pizza... I-I'm trying t-t-t-to. Um. I-I was. B-born in N-N-N-New Yark. S-s-someone took m-me to h-have p-pizza there... when I was l-little." The taste of freedom.
"E-e-every so often I c-c-could. G-g-get a slice, wh-when I w-was on a sc-school trip. B-Before..."
Before Mom died. Before Getter Robo and the Dinosaurs killed her. Before Grandfather abandoned her to die because she loved my Father. So he could take away the only person who loved me.
Emmy bites her lip. "A-a-any way, I want to. M-make it for s-s-someone. S-show them wh-what a p-proper p-pizza is like. Not th-th-th-this... o-overtopped m-monstrosity."
And so Milly can have some, if- *when* she gets back.
<Pose Tracker> Shelby Korts has posed.
Wait. Leina and Kaname? "Shelby's fine."
Her face half in the fridge, the open doors provide her with just enough cover to keep her expression from being seen. Half-Zeke, too? It's quite the experience, being in Emilia's presence: It's not just that Shelby can read her thoughts, it's that she's so *open* that it's almost like she's trying to *broadcast* those thoughts. Were she more paranoid she would consider if this was intentional, but this is ...
She's so ... earnest. She stands out against the noise.
"New Yark-style pizza. Mmmf."
Closing the doors with a couple of steel-rubber thunks, Shelby is back to a faint smile. "Well, that sounds really good. Do you have everything you need? Or I could get things out... if you'd rather. I don't have much else to do in here right now," she says, her hand making nebulous, vague gestures. While Emilia has her stutter, Shelby seems to have the occasional issue with getting a firm sentence out, speaking at a bit of a staccato rhythm.
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
For all she knows her to close off her facial expression, her body language, use the stammering scared girl to hide from danger, Shelby isn't dangerous. She never knew one might need to hide their thoughts, and Ashford is her fortress. With all the work her friends have done to open her up, there's no reason to even try to hide.
"Y-Yeah! The st-stuff here is all... st--uffed crust with mayo-n-n-naise and w-weird toppings..." She seems *deeply* disappointed with someone for suggested that was Pizza. Miss Cyzarine was pretty but her tastes are impossible.
"Ah, w-well, I still need to m-make the s-sauce, um." She pauses. "I t-t-tried using the fresh stuff the kitchens have but..." She looks to Shelby, perhaps availing herself of the Culinary Student's knowledge. "It... never t-t-tastes right." Emmy can hear Shelby's staccato speech, and equally chooses not to make a deal of it. Shelby's showing her that consideration. "I... n-need to get it r-right. I w-w-want them to h-have as c-close to the r-r-real thing as I c-c-can get." She pauses.
"Um... would y-y-you be w-willing to h-help? Y-you know a lot more about this st-stuff than I d-do."
<Pose Tracker> Shelby Korts has posed.
"I'll accept the occasional stuffed crust. But."
Shelby's face scrunches. Her expression is nigh-irascible, with every fiber of her being drawn into the way she goes from polite and cheerful to ... this. Her hand lifts up to her chest, fingers coming together as though she were pinching something in the air, then pulling it down. Her feelings? Her will? Her uncontrollable, utter fury?
She's faced the razor's edge of life and death. She's seen what's beyond the rainbow. She has struggled with dreams and ghosts and half-remembered specters of her own past. The infinite vastness of space. But the one thing that pushes her over the edge?
Shelby draws in a deep breath through her nose, her head tilting back slightly.
"Mayonnaise pizza."
Exhaling the rage of the dragons, she tries her best to give Emmy a firm nod before clapping her hands together. "Well!"
"We should have everything here," she says, glancing around, as though she's making sure that the academy staff is not present. Unbuttoning the jacket, Shelby shrugs right out of it and throws it over a nearby counter. When she turns back to Emmy, it's with her t-shirt exposed, bearing the faded markers of an obscure TV show from the early 0080s, the sleeves missing. She is Fit.
At closer examination, her arms also seem have numerous faded scars.
Disappearing to gather up a few tomatoes and digging around for a box of stock, she definitely seems to be in her element. "Let's get to it, then. The sauce will take a little bit to make, since it needs to simmer down."
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
This, this Emmy understands. This is a rage she shares. In this moment, two souls are aligned, their feelings as one. Never has such a momentary bond been so strong.
You just don't put mayonnaise on pizza.
Emmy smiles at that 'Well!'- only for Shelby to strip off her chef's jacket which... well, maybe all clubs do it, not just the Fantasy Seduction Club. Emmy does blink and blush a tiny bit, but only a bit. Still she sees the scares... Maybe it's tough to get that good with a knife. "R-right." While Shelby goes for tomatos, she goes for the mix she's been working with. Some basil, some oregano, sugar and salt (clearly separated), some garlic and some olive oil.
"I f-f-figured I'd... see if I c-can get a cheese pizza right, and then... t-t-try for pepp-epperoni if that works? But if I c-c-can't get the sauce to t-t-taste right. It won't come together."
<Pose Tracker> Shelby Korts has posed.
Her hands show some signs of callous, though they used to be far more rough to the touch until recently (thanks Roux!)-- the scars visible, however, are on her shoulders and upper arms. If Emmy chooses to look closer, some look almost exactingly perfectly spaced. "The thing with a sauce is, as long as you hit the basics, you're good. Rustic, fresh ingredients if it isn't too hard to get."
Setting ingredients down adjacent to the stove, Shelby turns on one of the back burners while looking around briefly to find a saucepan, rolling onto the balls of her feet to snag it off a hook overhead with a *clink* and setting it up on the stovetop.
Easing around Emmy's sideFantasy Seduction Clubwhat
Her footing shuffles, accidentally brushing arm against arm with the student as the sudden thought sets her off-balance with a flicker of red in her cheeks. "Ah-- er. Um. Sorry."
"So, first thing-- the sugar is something you may not want to add. For example..."
Twisting around to where she *was* working, she reaches out for a long black strap of knives unrolled across the counter. Fingers dancing across the handles, she pulls one blade out before turning back to the ingredients and Emilia, tapping the tomato with the blade. "You wanna check these first. If they're too tart, a pinch of sugar. *Just* a pinch. If they taste 'good,' then don't worry about it."
She starts to slice with motions that are exacting and swift, first splitting a tomato in half before slicing it into chunks in short order. Picking up a piece braced between her thumb and flat of the knife, she holds it up for Emilia to take. "So go ahead and try it, and let's see."
BBSYS: Post 606, 'Green Crystals' has been published to Shuffle Alliance by Leina Ashta.
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
Emmy continues to obesrve, and that means oberving the scars. Is Shelby in some kind of trouble? Or was she? "...W-we're pretty w-well off. Th-there's a g-g-garden and everything." She pauses. "The c-c-cafe uses canned and f-f-frozen st-stuff more. B-But the menu is s-s-straightforward." She blinks as Shelby shuffles accidentally, but blinks. "It's o-okay." It's just a little bump, Emmy continues to watch as Shelby works
That gets a little bit of embarrassment from Emmy. "I... d-d-didn't realize th-they'd taste different." Grandfather wouldn't let her learn to cook, after all. It wasn't appropriate.
She takes the piece of tomato offered, and tastes it. "I... th-think it tastes okay? S-s-so that means n-no sugar, right?" She's not super confident in her judgment, but if these things can change... maybe that's why she wasn't getting it following the recipe. "...Y-you're really good at th-that. I-it must h-have taken a l-lot of practice."
<Pose Tracker> Shelby Korts has posed.
"Considering the amount of food. Student body? Staff. That's a lot. Canned and frozen I expect, I mean. And it's not bad to freeze stuff you make in. Er. in batches."
Inappropriate...? That sits in the back of Shelby's mind like a lead weight; the girl seems nice enough-- even if she's horrificially nervous. It tickles something in the back of her mind. A stray thought, a nagging micro-feeling that she can't quite ...
"That's right!"
Shelby sets her hand in a claw-like pose atop the other half of the tomato, slicing it into chunks and working her way through a few more as the saucepan heats up. "I've only been doing this seriously for a few years. It's not hard, really. The two big things for cooking is to taste as you go... And, remember that if you think something needs... Salt. Pepper. You can add. You can't take away. So it's okay to start light on seasoning and tweak as you go."
"Go ahead and chop more. If we make a bit extra you can put it in a jar. Throw it in the fridge for later. Impress your friends. Stick it to the mayonnaise weirdo."
Setting the knife down next to the tomatoes, she dips into the fridge, taking one of the prep tins from earlier and fishing out a handful of diced onion to cast into the skillet, adding a quick swirling drizzle of the olive oil, letting things start to sizzle.
"So do you live on campus? This school is huge. Lots of big old buildings and stuff. I was expecting like. Knights and armor and stuff."
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
The lavender haired girl nods, taking in the advice. "R-r-right." Most of the Elevens- the Japanese don't get food like they get here, either. Is it really fair for her to spend time doing this?
Only a few years? Emmy looks impressed. "Th-th-that's incredible..." The fact that someone could pick up something so quickly... Still, she nods, and gets to chopping. Her technique needs work but she does a decent job. Her technique is slower, without the claw grip Shelby uses. It's... fine, really. She smiles a little. "I-it's m-my first time... c-c-cooking for friends. I r-really want them to l-like it."
Emmy gives a nod as she works. "Y-yeah. Y-you t-tend to get th-that at the... really ex-expensive schools. On the m-mainland. But... Ashford's the f-first boarding school I l-liked." The first one she had friends at. The first one she fell in love at. She's quiet for a second.
"But I like th-the schools i-in J-Japan better. L-like Jindai. O-or th-the ones on th-the Macross f-fleets..." There's a sense of wonder in her voice. "I... r-r-really want to s-s-see what it's l-like on the c-colonies one day..." She looks down. That was probably too much... but Shelby's not Britannian. There's no reason she'd tell anyone, right? And not anyone who would tell him.
"Wh-what about you? Wh-what's your c-c-culinary school like?"
<Pose Tracker> Shelby Korts has posed.
Not much of this is entirely surprising to her. Hearing it in a rich kid school like this? That much is. Britannian society hasn't exactly been the most kind to her. Hell, part of that is why she started on her little journey that eventually led her out into space...
"I'm sure they will. Yep, chunks like that, good."
As the onions sizzle, Shelby retrieves her onion knife, wiping the blade off with a hand towel. She smacks the flat on a few cloves of garlic, then uses the edge to flick the skins off. "Oh, no, er-- I-I still have a ton to learn. I've been picking up a lot since I got here." Her head lifts a little, tilting from side to side. "My Japanese isn't the best, so it's been good for that."
Gripping the handle, she shifts the saucepan back and forth with a sharp snap of her wrist, the contents briefly sizzling louder as they roll and flip in the pan. "Okay. See how the onions are getting kind of translucent? Chop this garlic, then toss it in."
"Is Jindai another big school?" Friends. Love. Her smile is a small and faint bend of her mouth as Emilia works.
"It's a culinary school up in Side 6. I actually took a year off so I could ... I dunno. See the world... Get more experience than I ever could in a classroom. Living out of a backpack. All that."
Neutral space. Certainly far enough out to be hard to immediately look up, but reasonable enough as a Federation-adjacent neutral colony.
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
Emmy responds well to clear, gentle instruction. As a result Shelby's current method is working nicely, as she works diligently. "O-okay." She moves her head over to look in the saucepan, noting the process. The garlic, right. It looks like her first instinct is to dice, and she starts to before remembering Shelby said chop. She goes a bit bigger. a bit rougher, but still not big. "O-okay, I add it a-a-all at once?"
Emilia shakes her head, waiting for whatever the next step will be. "N-Not really. It's a n-normal school for J-Japan, but the p-p-people are nicer. A-and Sousuke, one of m-my f-friends goes there. A l-lot of g-g-good things seem to have happened there." She looked up at the boy who poked his head over the pit trap, with the scar on his face and his guileless approach. He didn't scare her at all. "And the vice-president of GUTS attends t-t-too..." It's clear it's a place of fond memories now, if also some embarrassment. A little room, secured. A young woman, with red-blonde hair. "Hello. Emilia, right? I'm Mineva! It's such a pleasure to finally meet you." A gentle nudge from one side, a hand releasing hers, and Emilia rushing into a hug.
"...I'd l-love to s-see it." Emmy says, her voice wistful. "I... g-g-got to visit S-Side 3 l-last year. It w-was my f-f-first trip into space. W-w-we saw a Sh-Sheryl Nome concert, b-but didn't have t-t-time to l-look around. But I want to g-g-go back some day." Almost as much as she wants to see Milly and Kallen again. Almost.
<Pose Tracker> Shelby Korts has posed.
"Yep, slide it right in. Use the back edge of the knife. That way you're not scraping the blade. We're gonna let that sit in there for a minute. The garlic's gonna get a... golden brown color. You'll be able to smell it, too."
'And Sousuke, one of my friends, goes there.' Wait, does she mean SAGARA--
The image flickers in her mind in the next moment, with Sousuke acting ... well, pointedly like himself. And the VP of GUTS, the student group that signed off on her being able to do some work here-- Wait. Was that *Audrey*?!
Shelby closes her eyes and inhales as Emilia speaks, using it as cover to hide her actual reaction from hitting her face. Did she hit some kind of black hole of Shuffle operations? Is this girl associated with them?
Who *is* Emilia?
"It's a nice place. Open, too, so you could get ... well. Not quite 'the sky,' but views of space, and the Earth and Moon, sometimes."
The pink-haired young woman gestures toward the other prepped foods. "Okay, let's start adding the tomatoes, and turn the heat down. We need those chunks to cook down a bit -- you can mash them a little with a fork if you think you need to break them down a bit more. But... outside of adding your basil, oregano... the salt and pepper, that's it. We let the heat break them down, and keep stirring. Let it simmer with the tomatoes' juice. Should be fifteen minutes minimum, or until it looks good."
"I worked at a food stand for a couple weeks before I came here, over in Japan. Really... best food you can find, in stands, shacks, and trucks."
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
"Ah, okay, so..." Emmy follows Shelby's instructions, getting everything in going. She is fortunately so focused on the task at hand she doesn't notice Shelby's minor crisis. "Th-that sounds... nice." She sighs. "Y-y-you can s-see the sky h-here... but o-only if you l-look away from what's happened." She shakes hger head. Zero's gone too... What's going to happen?
"R-right, I th-think I've got it." 15 minutes or until it looks good... then she's got to roll out the dough. Okay.
"Th-that sounds... p-pretty fun. H-hard work but... the g-good kind." She pauses. "Uhm, if y-y-you want to stay, I d-d-don't mind. It d-d-doesn't seem f-fair for you to h-help so much and not t-taste the finished food." A pause. "A-a-and it'd be nice to h-hear about the places. You've been." Another pause. "If... If it's o-okay, that is."