2023-05-17: Kitchen Talk

• Log: 2023-05-17- Kitchen Talk
• Cast: Roux Louka, Akane Shinjo
• Where: AEU Spain - Villa Mass
• OOC - IC Date: 0097-05-17
• Summary: Roux and Akane talk a little about cooking and how their lives got to this point. Roux creates a bowl-shaped stick of butter by accident.

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<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.

Welcome to the Mass Haus. Where people stop being Earthnoids... and start being real.

Just kidding. It's Earthnoid-accepting.

Roux Louka has lived here, of course, for some time, and she has no doubt nodded in passing to one of the housemates in particular, and indeed, she likely helped move some things in - she is one of the larger people who lives here, and she is often associated with the mythical, legendary figure of the working class, JUDAU ASHTA.

That's not the important part now.

What is important is:

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG

A sound something like a pounding hammer, possibly DIRECTLY underneath somebody's bedroom -- it's coming from the kitchen! (It is early evening; cooking is legal.)

Entering the kitchen within a reasonable amount of time will discover Roux Louka carefully transferring fresh crushed black peppercorns into a bowl of seasoning, swirling it around and eyeballing the mixture carefully. A large pot of something fragrant and ricelike is on the stove, as is a large, broad skillet set out onto the reinforced extra-heat induction burner. Several other bowls are set out, one containing a certain yellowish transparent liquid and another containing a half dozen or so long fillets of white fish.

Roux is wearing a T-shirt declaring EMBRACE THE STAR* on an aesthetic blue-violet gradient and also completely boring sweatpants.

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

It's midterms still! That never stopped being a thing. Akane still has a couple more days of those, actually. Now that she's finally let herself drop 3G operator studies and focus fully on exams, she feels a little less pressure. (She still keeps reading the handbooks that aren't her department, though... the Intelligence handbook is something she finds honestly kind of interesting on its own merits.)

As she wraps up sending a more polished version of a set of project documents to her technology instructor, she --

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG

Her shoulders tense up, and she rushes downstairs. She pops her head into the kitchen, and --

"Oh, you're cooking," she says, breathing a small sigh of relief. Straightening out her Tarabaman X4 throwback screenprint T-shirt and black skirt a little, she looks over the bowls. "Whatcha makin'? I'm actually trying to learn a few fish dishes lately..."

<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.

Roux "I haven't had to take midterms in *mumble* years, heh heh!" Louka kind of forgot about escuela.

That's SPANISH, BABY

Roux looks over, blinking. "Oh!" she says. "Hey there," Roux says as she adds another quantity of black pepper to the spice mix and blends it vigorously. It looks... spicy.

"I'm going to make blackened fish with some rice," she continues. "I haven't made it since middle school and I never really made the spice mix on my own, ssssoooooo if you're interested, just be aware." Looking up, she says, "I can give you the ingredients if you have allergies. -- What're you learning to cook?" As she says this, Roux reaches over to first rinse off her hand and secondarily turn on the stove top. Nothing much happens immediately.

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

"Oooo, that sounds good," Akane says. Even if her life has gotten wild and taken her -- and the city that was once hers -- to a wide range of different locations, she's still ultimately a girl who bounced from Nagoya to Tokyo at a young age. 'Fish dish with rice' is a safe bet for her palate.

"Huh? Oh -- uh, nah. I don't. I have a couple of minor med allergies but that's it." A pause, before she adds, "I'm interested in the recipe, but like -- later. I'm not gonna retain anything that isn't history tonight, ahaha..." Rubbing at the back of her head nervously, she eventually offers, "Thanks, though."

When Roux is done rinsing her hand off, Akane remembers that she, too, ought to wash her hands. As she does, she adds, "I keep working on miso-marinated fish, mostly? Mine keeps turning out a little too sweet no matter what I do, ahaha..."

<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.

"No problem," says Roux, who washes her hands off again and just kind of... stands by. The stove gets vaguely hotter.

"Miso-marinated going sweet? Huh... what kind of fish are you using?" Roux continues. "I don't know much about soy sauces if you're using those but I know they have sweeter ones in Japan. This is old cuisine from my dad's restaurant, so it kind of IS history, sort of." She dips a pinky finger in the yellowish liquid and flicks it onto the pan, but nothing much happens. Nevertheless she keeps her eye on the droplets. The smell tells the truth: It's melted butter. "While you're moving around, turn on the vent fan, could you?"

"Are you liking the place?"

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

"Cod," Akane answers, as she takes a deep breath in. Oh, that's definitely butter. ... man, the rest of the world is so butter-forward with the cooking... she's really going to need to start making the gym more than an incidental priority.

"... Man, though, it seems like everyone's cooking kinda has some history to it, huh? I know Sayla has that seafood paella, and a lot of what Rikka can make is stuff she learned from her mom..." With an awkward laugh, she admits, "I mostly just look up recipes online. I was only really ever cooking for myself until the last time I moved before here..."

Akane flicks the vent fan on, and then gets into the meaty question. "It's really different. Sometimes it freaks me out, but... I guess that'd be true anywhere." Laughing at herself, she scoots a little closer to Roux, and drops her voice a bit.

"... is Sayla really into obscure fitness gear or are those anchors in her room, you know, sex stuff?" Akane asks, discreetly. ... she's interrogated the room she's using pretty thoroughly.

<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.

"Cod's pretty neutral," Roux muses, "so it must be something else doing it... same miso every time?" She then laughs a little. "I guess so. I was talking with Leina about my family shit the other night, so I guess it was on my mind..."

"... Huh? What do you mean?" asks Roux, honestly confused. "I think I went in there once to steal her credit card to buy a propellant tank," she continues, frankly, before flicking another droplet of butter. It sizzles! And that's why one of the fish fillets gets scooped up!

Dipped in the melted butter! (Pretty gently. It's whitefish after all.)

Dropped in the seasoning bowl and flipped over! Roux mashes on a little extra seasoning before scooping it up, reaching over, and - FWAP!

It immediately starts to sizzle violently!! Roux reaches for a spatula nearby to nudge it to the side and starts preparing another one. Raising her voice over the noise, she says, "I don't think you'd need anchors for sex stuff on *Earth*."

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

"Yeah, same miso every time," Akane confirms, before saying, "Leina's pretty easy to talk to, right? I haven't known her as long as you guys or anything, but I feel like I've known her for..." She pauses. "Huh. I guess it kinda has been most of the way through a year already."

Akane watches -- oh, of course, she's frying. Blackened. She updates her mental model on cooking. "Oh, no, that's why you need them?" Akane volunteers, casually. She feels a little weird talking about this with Roux, but she didn't seem to lose stride at the idea of it coming up -- so she decides to keep going with the inquiry.

"The idea is that you use them to make sure it's safe to, like, tie someone up and suspend them in the air a little bit?" ... Akane, why do you know this? Doing her best to avoid turning too pink -- she needs to look cool! -- she adds, "But yeah, I guess I was just wondering, since it's that or like three separate remodels to hang fitness equipment..."

<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.

Roux frowns in thought over the sizzling. "Yeah," she says, "she always was a little bit that way..." Why the frown? Either way, she seasons up the second filet and frowns in thought even more!! There are many thoughts!! They are making her frown!! It doesn't seem ANGRY, it's like the frown you would make when you're being told about how the new console is using Blast Processing to render up to 3,600,000 Tarabagons at once.

"Hmmm... I'm not sure," she says slowly. Splat-SIZZLE goes the second fillet!! "You're sure it's something she put there?" Roux continues, glancing back at Akane as she steps away a bit to stir the rice. "It could be something old that she never took down... if it is some kind of... mount or whatever, you'd have to really screw it into the joists."

"This house has to be like, at least eighty years old," Roux continues, "and if I know anything about people who own houses like this, it's that they're weirdos." She takes the lid off the pot to release a heavenly sort of rich smell - it's rice, but it's not white rice. She stirs with the spatula, probably getting a little fish juice and spices in there.

"If I'm in the house I want to try that cod next time you make it," Roux continues. "I mean I didn't really do a TON of cooking but I learned some stuff around the corners, you know? Was it like a family recipe?"

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

The idea that it was a previous owner actually starts to make sense to Akane... though on the other hand, Sayla's certainly not sex-negative. "Hmmm... I guess I'd have to ask her instead of just going fishing. Thanks though!"

They get back to food, and Akane takes a deep whiff of it. "Oh wow that's really good. I can definitely tell where this is something that's had a bunch of time to get built up and made super good." The spice mix... that she'd definitely need to ask for to get.

"Oh, sure! I was actually thinking of trying again after exams are over, so I'll be here. After that I'm going on a road trip so I won't be around for a bit... if you miss that one, you're kinda screwed!" Giggling a little, she adds, "Oh, uh -- no, like I said I usually just track down recipes online. I, uh..."

Rubbing at the back of her head, she concedes, "... My parents never really taught me to cook. I've kinda been fending for myself on the food thing since like... late elementary school? They both work and it's a lot of travel. ... I'm actually working on getting a separate family register for just myself, lately. Apparently you can do that as young as 15 ever since the Zentradi War, so..."

<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.

"Thanks!" Roux says, sunnily. "You're going to like this, I just gotta - hold on." The fish fillets are... smoking, at the moment, because the butter infusion was enough to make them rich and savory but these are not going to be Lightly Fried Fish Fillets.

Roux flips one, then the other, and then goes back to the first and PRESSES down. The smouldering gets even more pronounced. Fortunately, the vent fan is in play. After a few seconds she does the other one.

"What do you mean a family register?" Roux asks, glancing over. "... I don't have room to talk but if you want to reconnect with your parents, after..."

To herself, Roux thinks: What was it again? Some kind of space disaster? Dimensions? Kaiju? Gaogaigar was involved?? Koji beat up a Britannian in hyperspace where all crime is legal???

Yeah, Roux thinks. That sounds right. She picks her thought back up: "Anyway, it's a possibility, I guess. Leina got ME thinking about that too... but I kind of lucked out." Beat, beat: "This spice mix probably isn't exactly the way my dad did it, I did look that up. But that press right there?" She taps the side of the iron pan with a klan-klang that promises bounteous delight. "All him. He'd have like six layers of crap on his face at night!"

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

Akane's sensitivity to particulate is high enough that she was coughing and sputtering around fire even when she was a substantially invulnerable god; she brings a hand up to her mouth and averts her face just slightly, until the vent fan deals with it. "Jeez -- I'd need to mask up for this kinda thing," she mumbles.

Straightening out her dark hair a little as she reorients, she continues, "It's, like -- oh, I think this may be an OCU-only thing? It's like, a document that lists who you're related to and junk like that, that's on file with your local government..." She pauses, before wobbling a hand, saying, "I'm guessing most colonies do the birth certificate thing instead?"

A beat, before she adds, "Anyway -- I actually kinda don't, if anything it's the opposite, hahaha..." She shrugs, before moving on.

Food's easier, anyway. "It does smell really good, even if it's probably not the kinda thing I'd make for myself. I'd probably go way salt-heavier..."

<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.

"Yeah," Roux says. "I have a little folder with my stuff in it. I think Judau has it."

Roux frowns slightly.

She shakes her head for a moment. "Anyway. And you think this isn't salty, girl? You're going to be disappointed! Well," a lean over to grab a plate, "I guess probably not disappointed but rest assured, there is definitely salt in there." She uses, funnily, the SPATULA to wedge out a chunk of seasoned rice with provencial herbs mixed in with a dusting of garlic and fine-chopped shallots. Onto the plate.

The fish is watched... and...

Scoop and plop! "Tell me how you like it," Roux says, proffering it to Akane. "I'm guessing you don't want hot sauce."

Back to the earlier topic. "I actually kind of never called them after I left for the war," Roux half-sighs. "I figured I'd be back in what, like, two years maximum?"

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

"Hrrmmm... no, probably not. I'm not totally against heat or anything but I kinda wanna try it just as it is first," Akane says, as Roux plates up some fish. It looks a little burned to her untrained eye, but she takes a bite and --

"Oh, wow, this is actually really good. ... I still think it could use more salt, or maybe a little soy sauce? But like. It's good." The smile on her face looks genuine, at least, as she goes back for a second. "... that probably says more about me than the dish though," she clarifies, because, well -- she doesn't want to offend.

After turning it over a little, she says, "Actually, let me try it with the hot sauce next." The topic drifts back to parents, though, and --

"Right, I get that. ... are they, uh..." She gestures with one hand, not wanting to press on what could be dire.

<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.

Roux seems mildly surprised at the salt comment. (The crust is quite good, if maybe not as tough as it might be; but there wasn't any breading involved.) "Sure, put a little on if you want, it's your plate. Just don't go nuts with sodium or you'll have to pee all night."

Roux had a bottle of Lord McIlhenney's Patent Pepper Sauce out, which she scoots forwards for offering.

"As far as *I* know they're still alive," Roux says, with a spread of her hands. "We didn't get hit by the war or the Titans crackdown or anything! I mean, that's why AEUG was recruiting so hard, and the EF before that, because we were like, okay, these people are still alright." Roux is letting her fillet cook a little extra crispy as she dishes up herself some rice. "Leina offered to use her spy network or whatever to check up on them, but I just..."

"I mean I'm probably going to get my ass kicked because I went to Jupiter instead of writing them a letter," Roux continues. "I have to *assume* someone in the AEUG told them, though. I know they didn't get suppressed or anything and I *did* always get my paychecks."

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

Akane considers explaining something. Then she instead elects not to, because she'd have to explain several earlier steps, and then it'd get weird. She doesn't... Roux seems nice but at the same time they're not that close yet. She doesn't need to read Sayla's house in on absolutely everything.

Instead, she applies the hot sauce -- and gets a little more of it than she meant to. After spreading it around a bit, she takes another bite, and concludes, "... Hm. It was better without, but it's still really good. I'm a fan."

She scoots to one side a little, giving Roux a bit more room to cook and dish up rice. After taking a couple bites of rice herself, she answers, "Ahaha... a couple people have offered to track down my parents too? They're divorced, so like, I haven't seen my dad in ages. I'm not really interested."

On the other hand, Roux's relationship sounds kind of better, so... "... You sure you don't wanna reach out though? Seems like a weird thread to leave hanging."

<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.

Roux lets out a huge sigh. "I just -- ugh!! I have bad memories, that's all. They're just regular bad memories, nobody did anything awful or anything. I was glad to get out of there. I think they were hoping I'd go to college or something, but I wasn't thinking that far ahead. Then I had to go and win a stupid war and got a job shooting at pirates instead."

Roux fishes herself up. "Lemme see that," she says, about the hot sauce.

"It just doesn't ever feel like the right time, but I guess there isn't going to really 'be a right time.' I guess now I'm just waiting for Leina's... spy network which I guess is a thing she apparently has, to tell me what's up. I can go from there."

"It was a pretty good restaurant though," Roux adds. "It was mostly brasserie style except on Friday and Saturday nights when they had a prix fixe menu."

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

Passing the hot sauce back to Roux, Akane says, "That's kinda fair. I guess with me it's... there aren't a ton of memories and that's the problem." ... It feels good to say it, and feel like it's not weird to say it, for once.

"Yeah... I don't think there's ever a 'right time,' like that?" Akane replies, with a shrug. "But... I get where you want it to feel like that." She wants to be smarter about it, but... in the end, no, she absolutely gets why you'd stop cold.

"And, hehe... Leina's pretty dangerous. It's pretty impressive how much she can get done when something strikes her..."

Gesturing toward the dining room and away from the kitchen, she says, "Let's go grab a seat and talk food? I wanna hear all about the menu."

<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.

"Yeah," Roux huffs out. "I know Judau and Leina, they were... kind of left to themselves. I suppose Judau grew from the experience..." And of course it worked out for Leina.

But...

"It really kind of is, it's intimidating!" Roux says as she contemplates what Akane says. "Good plan. I'm gonna put this stuff in the fridge and fry it up for the house later, though. I don't want to leave fish out with these damn cats around." Or, for that matter, clarified butter.

SOON

Roux discovers she now has a bowl-shaped stick of butter.

AND SOMEWHERE IN SIDE 1...

... we'll all find out, one of these days.