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]

[ Wow, this woman looked young — a bit younger than Mitsuba. At least three years younger to Kaede. But she seems like she may be nice...?

She sees Petra as she moves closer to the kitchen — it is routine to raid the kitchen for a snack before she got down to the business that is homework. John, having heard her voice, pads over to her, and she scratches him behind the ears as she stops a few feet from Petra. ]

Ah, good afternoon. Hi.

[ Real slick and warm, Kaburagi... ]

I am just assuming John is a dog and not anything else that's fuzzy and needs walks

[vertrauen]

[Petra had mostly ignored the dog--it wasn't bothering her, and she wasn't going to bother it. It was good to see that he recognized the girl, though, helping confirm that the girl really did belong here.

At the very least, it seems that Petra wasn't alone in feeling awkward.]

Hello. I guess we're supposed to live together from here on--my name is Petra Ral.

[Normally, she'd salute and name her unit, but she has the feeling this isn't the time for that.]

LMAO yes you are indeed right

[copia]

[ John the Golden Retriever will warm up to you soon enough, Petra. Then you can bother him all you want~ ]

Yep. I'm Kaede Kaburagi, it's nice to meet you, Ms. Petra!

[ And to keep breaking the ice: ] Did you find everything in the kitchen?

[vertrauen]

It's good to meet you as well, Kaede. Please, if we're going to be living together, you don't need to be so formal with me.

[The kitchen is a strange and bizarre place to Petra.]

I.. I think I did. I haven't seen many of the things in there before, but I can adjust.

[copia]

Oh, I did not want to be rude. If just "Petra," is okay with you, then I'll refer to you as that!

[ She smiles and throws a glance at the kitchen before her eyes widen a bit. ] Well, we should definitely plan what to have for dinner! The appliances are easy to use, I promise.

[vertrauen]

I guess I'm not the only one who's come from a different place.

[But there's something that's starting to concern Petra. Surely, this place wouldn't leave such a young girl on her own...]

Have you had to prepare you meals on your own for long?

[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.