ic mailbox / messages

[vertrauen]

Hello, you've reach the mailbox of Petra Ral. Leave me a message, and I'll write back! And then you turn it off, like this?

Comments

[copia]

Nope! A good chunk of us are not from here. [ Kaede moves to grab a cookbook from the coffee table and come back with it. She shakes her head at the question, moving her hair from her eyes when the ends land on her eyelashes. ]

No. I mean, I normally do my own lunches, and sometimes for my dad, but we did prepare dinner together. You appeared the same day he left.

[vertrauen]

With your father--[Petra frowns. He left, and she appeared? She has no idea if or how that may be connected, but she can only imagine how it'd feel to have her father disappear suddenly, even if it only meant that he was returning to his proper home.]

I'm sorry.

[copia]

Mm, yeah. [ She shrugs lightly, flipping through the cookbook as she moves past Petra to go to the fridge. Her ultimate motive is to hide her face, to keep the tears of her dad leaving and her still being here at bay. A minute passes before she opens her mouth. ]

It's— it's not okay, but there isn't much I can do about it. He'll be okay back home, though.

[vertrauen]

I see.

[Petra doesn't honestly know how to comfort the girl, but is somewhat relieved that she'd not pretending to be feeling okay after losing her father, even if he's just going back to their home world.]

If you just tell me what to do, then I can take over cooking.

[Petra moves to fiddle through the drawers, reexamining their contents before remembering the small knife she had stolen earlier, still tucked in her boot.] If you'll excuse me for a moment.

[It'd be good to give the girl a moment to herself to collect herself, Petra figures as she ducks out of the kitchen. That, and she didn't know how Kaede would react to her pulling a knife out of her boot right in the middle of the kitchen...

[copia]

[ Kaede nods, not opening the fridge to turn and place the cookbook on the counter. ]

Well, I don't mind helping with the cooking. It is a nice distraction, too. And sure.

[ Her face is in the cookbook as Petra ducks out to take out the knife. The preteen certainly would not react favorably to such a move, and it would make her feel like Petra has some sort of hidden motive for Kaede.

She raises her voice a bit as she stops on one recipe. ]

What do you like to eat, Petra?

[vertrauen]

I'd eat anything at this point. [Petra calls back, slipping the knife behind the bookcase. She'll come back for it later to clean it and place it back with the rest of the cutlery.]

Something simple will be good. [Petra will return to the kitchen after a few minutes, jacket off and her sleeves rolled up past her elbows.] Honestly, I'm sure anything you'd make would be better than the rations we had packed.

[copia]

Rations? [ She lifts her head as she closes the cookbook, pulling out and starting up the simmering metal pot for hot pot. She keeps speaking as she pulls out a variety of vegetables and several packages of meat. ]

So you are a part of the military? Also, steak, pork, or seafood?

[vertrauen]

Pork? [Just staring at all the meat Kaede's pulling out. A world of prosperity, indeed.

Yes. I wasn't much older than you when I enlisted, actually.

[copia]

Pig! Hm, maybe we'll just stick with the steak and seafood for now... [ So she's putting the pork back in the fridge. ] Shall we cut up the vegetables together?

And wow, really? [ It's hard to imagine herself in the military, let alone kids her age enlisting so young... ] Was it mandatory, or you chose to do so? If you don't mind my asking...

[vertrauen]

Yes, just let me know how much and how big. [If nothing else, Petra does know how to use a knife]

It wasn't mandatory, but many do. If you don't enlist, you start learning some kind of trade. My father's shop wasn't doing well at the time, anyway, so I decided to enlist.

[copia]

Medium-sized is good! And for how much, well, I guess it depends on how much you would like to eat! [ Kaede has a smaller but still effective knife in her hand, cutting the tofu into chunks. ]

I'm sure he was worried about you doing that... [ She looks up at Petra as she takes a vegetable to chop. ]

[vertrauen]

[Petra says nothing for a moment, focusing instead on cutting a carrot]

He did worry, yes. Less so now than he used to, but yes.

[She didn't want to imagine her father's reaction to the news of her death.]

Are you super hungry? I haven't eaten much today, so I'm afraid I'm going to look like a pig.

[copia]

[ Oh, if Kaede only knew that her new "mom" is also dead in her home world. What is with her luck and dead maternal figures... ]

I'm sure he's proud of you! [ A smile forms on her face before her attention is back on the cabbage, cutting it into hearty chunks. She giggles a bit at that, shaking her head. ]

I am hungry, yes! You won't "look like a pig," I just hope you like what I chose to have us make for dinner.

[vertrauen]

[And if Petra has her way, Kaede won't get to find out about Petra's current status.]

What did you end up choosing? [It looks like stew to Petra, but you don't really use steak in stew...]

[copia]

[ Hopefully...

Kaede moves the cabbage to the side to cut the steak into strips. ]

It's kind of like a stew? It's called sukiyaki. The beef is cooked first in the pan, and then the other ingredients are added with a liquid mixture and simmer away. I thought you would like it.

[vertrauen]

[Petra will move to start on some mushrooms, moving to rinse them off just a bit more before she's completely satisfied with their cleanliness.]

That sounds good. Do you have it often?

[copia]

Not often, no. It's the best for when it's cold weather, like now! Sometimes my grandmother will make it during the summer.

[ She judges the first few strips for their thinness before continuing. ]

What's nice is that food is free in the grocery store, so we can experiment with all sorts of recipes!

[vertrauen]

Free food...

[Sorry, Petra's going to think long and hard on the entire concept of "free food." She remembers seeing the rioting and fighting after Wall Maria fell.]

There has to be a cost, somehow. It doesn't make sense.

[copia]

Well, in my opinion, the cost is that the Landlord gets to mess with us and we can't leave this place. Every month he does something to some residents.

[ Kaede looks up at Petra as she stops for a moment to grab a bowl. ] There's also the fact that death isn't permanent here, so we can't leave Holly Heights that way, either.

[vertrauen]

They don't expect us to work the land, but give us as much as we like to eat?

[The little factoid about death unsettles Petra even more than she had been.]

What do you mean? Are there corpses wandering the street?

[copia]

Well, he expects the adults to work, but that's to support the family for like, clothes and stuff. Kids can work as long as they're 14 and up, and sometimes he posts jobs that any age can do. But the adults don't have to worry about paying for electricity or anything like that.

[ "Corpses" makes Kaede think "zombies" and how gross they look. Ew, she hopes that never happens in Holly Heights. ]

Oh, no! You just get brought back to life and your wounds are completely healed; it's like you never really...died.

[vertrauen]

That would explain a bit, if he can somehow reanimate anything that he likes.

[Her words come out more bitter than she would have liked. She would probably have more questions about jobs and other things, but the part about about being brought back to life jars her. It's terrifying to image anyone with that kind of power.

But she's quick to recover, forcing a smile back on her face.] I'm sorry, I'm not being of much help right now, am I? Tell me what I can do next to help.

[copia]

He can also change our surroundings. During the summer, we were a set of islands. He wields a lot of power...

[ Kaede notes the bitterness in Petra's tone, and she can understand why she would feel that way. Death not being permanent here is something that the preteen is still conflicted over, but that topic is for another time. She looks over the counter at the various vegetables strewn about after tossing the strips of beef into the pan. ]

Hm, I think we only have water to drink. Should we make tea or lemonade?

[vertrauen]

What a terrifying person...

[But there's more immediate things to focus on--no need to linger on that person longer than need be, especially if there's nothing that can be done.]

Water will do for now. Let's have tea after dinner. What kind of tea do you like?

[copia]

Green tea is what I normally have, but I like to try other varieties! What about you? [ Liquid mixture going into the pan now... ]