It's Still Good!

Himari's setup outside of the city, in one of the safer spots near the city walls, on the edge of the one of the many cliffs. She could stay in the city, but it seems that she likes to get out in nature now and then.

She's currently in the process of filling the groud she carries with a bottle of cheap sake, and she's humming something to herself. It's got a fast tempo to it, and she doesn't appear to be paying much attention to things.

It's not like Jazz is unreachable, though it did take her some time to realize she was being chimmed. She was in the throws of updating her latest map of the area surropunding the city. Thus, it is not actually all that long before the smol-sea-witch has arrived at the site of the camp.

"Hullo," she offers, giving it a once over.

"Mmn," she adds a moment later. Very evocative, our Jazz.

Himari's basic tent is a bit singed, and the fire is safetly away from the previously mentioned tent. The single pot beside the fire is also black.

Despite expecting Jazz, Himari Saito still startles when the sea-witch arrives and announces herself. She comes close to spilling the contents of the bottle and gourd and she fumbles with them both. What could have been a messy, only ends up with a few drops spilt onto the ground.

"You came!" she says happily to the Undine. "Thank you for coming! Have you been keeping well?"

"I didn't mean to surprise you," remarks Jazz, having emerged from the darkness like a stealthy thing that stealhs around.

"And you did ask, so yeah I did." She takes a oment to brush off the wide brim of her hat, approaching her with curiousity. "What are you doing, exactly?" She asks, indicating the gourd.

"I was just refilling my gourd," Himari Saito admits as she holds up the nearly empty sake bottle. "It's always good to have some on hand, simply to pay respects at the memorials." She then shakes her head, as she moves over towards the undine. "You did surprise me, but you don't need to apologise for it!"

"I was thinking about making something to eat and having some drinks." she then admits. "Would you like to join me? I'm not the best cook, but I try!"

"... sure," says Jazz after amoment, giving a nod in hre direction. Then she slowly lowers herself across the fire from her, of course, staring at her with almost lambent eyes. All big and amber.

"So, you like to cook?" She offers, perhaps searching for something to talk about. It's not like she's a great conversationalist herself.

Himari Saito smiles brightly when Jazz accepts her offer, as her tail trumps against the ground behind her. She gives a nod of her head, but for some reason, she smiles sheepishly. "Hehehe.... It wasn't an area where I got my highest grades, but I enjoyed it," she admits sheepishly. "I always liked a nice curry."

"I wish I could get a taiyaki," she then comments as she gives a sad little sigh. "I've only had one a couple of times, but I really want one now." She slowly stands and moves to collect a satchel. She then moves back, and places the satchel down and withdraws a bundle of meat that's been wrapped in paper.

Jazuhanzu's tentacles twitch at the mention of taiyaki. "I haven't had one for yeaaaars," she muses. "Not since..." She trails off, then makes a face and shakes her head, dismissing whatever thought was crossing it. "Welp, don't let me be in your way. Do your thing." She gestures at her, eyes going towards the sake. Stare.

"I wonder if we could get the ingredients for it," Himari Saito softly ponders, as she unfolds the paper and pulls the meat out and some of it is tossed into the sauce pan. A few sad looking vegetables follow, and are also added. A small, separate groud filled with water is then carefully withdrawn and poured into the sauce pan.

She picks up the saucepan and moves it, so that it's over the fire. She reaches out to get the sake bottle back, and raises it up to her lips for a deep drink. She then absently offers it across to her companion after finishing.

A pause. Then she takes it and has a drink. From the look on her face, it has been a long time since she had sake.

"Or a reasonable facsimile thereof," she offers, rasping after the burn settles and she hands it back over.

Her eyes go to the sauce pan, then back up. "Reasonable fasimilies are sometimes all we can manage."

With the bottle being offered back to her, Himari Saito offers a sad smile as she holds the bottle up. "I... don't know what it actually tastes like back in our world," she admits sheepishly. "But we can try to make it feel a bit more like it used to at home."

What was once a cooking meal soon turns into an unexpected puff of smoke and fire. However Himari Saito just stares at it, like it's done it to her before as her ears droop and her tail stops. "It's still good. Honest!"

"You never had it?" asks Jazz of Himari and the bottle.

Then there's fire and she flails and throws her arms back and instinctively hurls water on it. Water she summoned from the aether. It might still be good, but she might also get soaked if Jazz's aim was off.

Himari Saito pushes herself back from the unexpected spray of water, but is just too slow. Her tail looks rather pathetic now it's wet and now limp; not to mention the rest of her. "I-I usually add the water in later," she murmurs.

She doesn't answer the comment about knowing what sake tastes like, as she's just started to shake her head and wiping herself down.

... Jazz looks somewhat crestfallen. She just made a bad situation worse. If anything, she's sympathetic. "...sorry about that," she mumbles. "Let me dry you off. Maybe I can make a gust of wind and blow dry you or something."

She's looking prettyu apologetic, anyway, not to mention chagrinned.

Himari's ears twitch as the water drips from them and she gives a sigh, before sighing. "It... It's actually alright, Jaz-chan," she offers sincerely, as she starts to smile. "Usually it burns a lot more before I manage to get water onto it." She does pause for a moment and looks back towards her tail, which thankfully remains flame free.

"No, it's fine! I'm not on fire! My tail is fine. It's alright, I can use wind to dry myself off."

She does quickly move around to the other side of the camp fire, and reaches out to take both of small Jazz's hands into her own. "You don't need to be sorry. You didn't do anything wrong, Jaz-chan! I-I actually can't cook here."

Jazuhanzu still seems vaguely apologetic anyway, but when the sordid truth is unveiled, she looks sympathetic instead.

"I actually have the cooking skill," she tells her. "I could, you know... help you."

The words are not quite grudging, but she seems willing, anyway. "I'm on the road a lot, but I could try." It seems important to Himari. She has that kind of sense of her.

Himari Saito keeps a gentle yet tight grip on Jaz's hands, and offers an apologetic look of her own. She quickly shakes her head at the offer. "Y-you don't need to help. I'm actually used to eating what is left," she admits.

Both of her wet ears perk up, and she gives the Undine a wide eyed look. "But you'd help me cook? I'm pretty useless at everything, so I don't have much I can offer you back."

Typically, Jazz is not one to let herself be touched, but she can hardly stop Himari at the moment. It feels like it'd be like kickig a puppy. A tiny, useless puppy.

"...ah, well. You know. I don't need to. But I can. I don't really do a lot of cooking but ..." She lets out a breath. Something about her, here, is definitely causing her to Feel Something.

Himari's wet ears droop again, and while she tries to offer a wag of her now not so fluffy wet tail, it just comes off pathetic. However she does muster up a bright and sincere smile.

"Jaz-chan, I don't want you to do anything you don't want to do," she then offers.

"Believe me, I won't," says Jazz, gently, to her. "No, I can just see ... you feel sad." There's a pause there, again, and she looks back up to the sky. "I suppoose that makes sense, seeiog what it is you do with your time and how I met you in the first place." She does sound approving, anyway. "No. I'll help you."

"Jaz-chan," Himari Saito offers with a little sniffle. "I-I... Thank you so much!" She then blinks and pauses. "Wait, are you talking about the memorials or getting the booze?" she then asks with a hint of concern in her voice. That doesn't stop her from trying to give Jazz a friendly hug in exhcange. "Again, thank you!"

Did... did she get hugged? She's going to need more sake for this. As the hug gets there, she has already had more. And she has more afterwards.

"Yeah, uh, well... thank me after we're done," she offers. Her whole body tighttened up. Clearly, she is the kind of person who tenses up when hugged.

Himari might be from the school and believes that everyone needs a hug, as she continues the hug even when she realises that Jazz has stiffened up. Once she's satisfied that her hug is long enough, she settles back and sits on her legs again.

"Okay! Once we're done, and everything is good, then I'll find something nice to give you," she chimes happily.

"You don't need to do that," remarks Jazz, taking a moment to compose herself. She brushes herself off and then brings her legs around to sit back on her knees, hands folded together neatly on her lap then. All very proper.

"There are better cooks out there than me by far. You could seek them out, too," she points out, casually, wondering what she's getting herself into by helping.

With the claim that there's better cooks than Jazz around, has Himari nod her head in agreement. "There most likely are. But I think everyone is a better cook than me, Jaz-chan" she remarks sadly. "And I-I don't usually like to ask people to cook me anything." She offers sheepish smile as she admits that, though at the same time tries to make herself look cuter.

She pulls the bag back to herself, and rummages through it again. She pulls out a bunch of meat, which might be chicken, as well as several assorted vegetables.

Given the earlier whoosh of FLAME, Jazz pauses a moment and then extends a hand towards her.

"...why don't I do that. You don't have to ask. It's fiiiiiine," she coughs delicately once, trying to put her at ease.

Really, she just doesn't want to lose her eyebrows.

Himari Saito frowns slightly, and surrenders the back to Jazz. She gives a soft sigh, and then leans to the side. "I'm not usually this useless, Jaz-chan!" she remarks with a sigh. "Well, okay cooking and anything to do with making things, I aam this useless."

"I wish I specialised in something with cooking in it," she whines. "Everything is either burnt or brought!"

Jazuhanzu's face screws up as she hears Himari call herself useless. It has the side effect of making her look abominably cute. It's just her way... unfortunately. She clears her throat, then adds, "Well, if I'm going to teach you, I might as wel lstart now. Right?" That's her way of getting around the disappointment.

Himari Saito looks conflicted at the offer at being taught. While she might enjoy being able to cook for herself, it also means that she can't get others to cook for her. "I-I don't know, Jaz-chan. I can cook back in our world." She gives a snort. "Usually I was too tired after school and work, but I could cook."

"I know what you mean, believe me," says Jazz of the fatigue, a note of sympathy etched into her voice. She's scootching closer and around the fire so that she can sit beside Himari. "Now, let's get this started. I'm going to cook this tiny piece, then we'll have you try it, and if we can do something simple, we'll take it from there. Game logic is annoying."

When Jazz gets closer to her, Himari Saito leans gently against her. It's more sisterly than anything else, as well as letting her watch Jazz cook the small piece of meat. "It'll catch on fire again when I try. It usually does. It's all down to luck to how things go for me."

Jazuhanzu twitches at the lean. What else is she gonna do? She doesn'r protest, at least.

"It might," she agrees, "but you know, only one way to find out! Now, here we go..."

She does explain what she's doing as she does it, keeping the seasoning of the chicken and the cooking very basic, and to the point. What can possibly go wrong when its Himari's turn? This is very simple, right?!

Himari remains close to Jazz, and carefully watches as the her friend prepares and seasons the chicken. Her soggy wet tail thumps against the floor as she watches and waits. It's soon her turn, and she tries her best to follow the instructions that are provided to her.

She holds her little bit of chicken over the flame, only to be awarded with a sound of something catching alight.
% "Jaz-chan! I think it's failed again."