Meeting Strawberry

Goldenblade emerges from the church here in the town of beginnings, and pauses, taking a deep breath and glancing around to see which way she should go. She picks a direction, and begins going that way with a slow, tired tread. It's been a long day. She'll pause at a shopkeeper's stall and haggle over the price of something, sighing when he won't budge, and she pays for it and stuffs it, after a moment's fumbling with her interface, into her inventory.

With a wicker basket tucked under one arm, and tail bobbing up and down as she walks, the diminutive cait sith known as Strawberry makes her into the small down of Carmina Gadlica. She is absently whistling a tune very off key, and scanning the area for anything out of place. Stopping outside the church to pick up a flower, and tuck it next to one of her giant radar dish like ears before continuing onward. She finally makes it to her destination, an ingredients vendor. She has to stand on tip toes, to look over the counter at the proprietor of the market, who she begins rambling off an extremely long list of ingredients in very specific ways and amounts in a squeaky little voice.

Goldenblade overhears Strawberry's long iingredients list, and turns to peer at the small Cait Sith. There's not a lot of people smaller than she is, but she seems to have found one. Also, she seems to have found someone who has a very specific plan, with regards to food, and she will sidle over, nodding her head to Strawberry and saying, "Good evening. I'm Goldenblade. Are you preparing a feast someplace?" She chuckles, then asks, "Will you be able to carry everything you've ordered? I could help, if you like?"

Once her basket is filled to the point of nearly overflowing, Strawberry pays for her goods and lifts the now considerably heavier basket. The petite creature swaying a little and having to widen her stance a little to keep the contents from toppling. The mousey creature, finally seeming to reach equilibrium with her items, before audibly squeaking when she is addressed. "No no no! I'm fine I've goooot it!" She tries to peek out from behind her shopping to smile at Goldblade, only to cause the dozen eggs perched atop her precarious basket to fall and crack on the ground. "....Okay maybe I do need some help."

Goldenblade chuckles, buys some more eggs from the vendor, and will take one side of the basket, letting Strawberry take the other side. With two people carrying it, the load is much more manageable, and she says, "I'm glad to help. What's your name, anyhow?" She'll let you lead the way to wherever you're headed, carrying her side of the basket without too much trouble. The cracked eggs pixellate and despawn. Such is life in the database.

Strawberry takes her side of the basket, and steadies herself. "Strawberry!" The tiny mouse squeaks. She starts making her way toward wherever she is going. "What's yours?" She asks, tail bobbing up and down. "And what do I owe you? I don't have much but I can cook a good dinner.

Goldenblade chuckles and says, "You can call me Goldenblade. And I would be pleased if you can cook dinner. It's a thing I can't do easily for myself. I never had much skill at it, unfortunately, and my skill here is at other things." Walking along, she keeps an eye on where we're going, so she can find her way back after, and she wonders, "I don't think I've seen you around before. Do you get out much?" In a place where people hadn't been locked in together for months, she might ask if Strawberry is new, but none of us are really new by now.

Strawberry continues to walk ondward. "Umm...No, I don't really get out much, haven't really met anyone or anything worth getting out for." The tiny mouse explains, sighing softly to herself. "And yeah, I can cook up something good! I have a deal with the local inn that lets me use the kitchen as long as I wash dishes for them from time to time." She explains, leading on to said inn. The inn itself is very run down, and the kitchen....well, it exists. It's small, crampt, and everything looks like a million years old."So since you bought the eggs, how about breakfast for dinner?" She says, tail begining to happily swish back and forth as she unpacks her ingredients. "Eggs, sausage and scones with some preserve I made last night!"

Goldenblade follows along, carrying her half of the load with no trouble, heading into the inn and finally to the kitchen, where the groceries are set down. "Ah, I see," she says as Strawberry explains her situation. "You know, if you talk to a fellow called Hifumi, I think you two might have some interesting conversations. He cooks, and runs a small restaurant, himself." She nods to breakfast for supper, and says, "That sounds delicious!" She'll sit down, then, and let you do the cooking thing.

"Ooh I have something I wan to try!" Strawberry exclaims happily, scurrying over to pick out 2 rustic potatoes and a knife, "Haven't had in the longest time...." She tails off, and starts preparing the meal for the two, "Hi-Fu-Mi!" She squeaks in a sing song voice a few times, "Okay, got it...I'll try and find him, I honestly would frickin kill for a bigger kitchen!" She ends up cutting the potatos, pulling out a bottle of something, before seeming to change her mind and instead pan frying them with a tiny bit of oil, as her player's player assumes oil might be a bit rare. She then adds some pork sausage to the pan, and last some eggs, all of them crackling and popping in the sausage grease. When she is finished she would plate up the meal, adding some scones which she lightly butters and covers in a strawberry looking jeelly, before handing the plate to the other woman."Enjoy! I know it's rather simple but I didn't expect to be cooking for someone so I didn't have anything better preped."

Goldenblade boggles at the complexity of what Strawberry calls a simple meal, and she chuckles happily as it's presented to her. She takes a bite, sighs beatifically, and says, with her mouth still full, "Delicious!" Chewing and swallowing, she says, "What you call simple is wildly complex for most players. Myself included. I'm a bricklayer by profession, my wife always cooked, at home. I've started to now, but just simple things." She has another bite of food, savors it, sighs happily. "You've done well to hide away this long in this little backwater inn, but you really need to come and hang out with the other players. I'm sure a place of high honor awaits you." For cooking.

"I was cooking my family's meals since I was 12...well outside of here." Strawberry says, a touch of melancholy in her voice as she stares down on her plate and begins to eat. "Well you must be able to cook /something/?" She asks curiously, "I mean how else are you staying fed?" She says, taking a few bites of potatoes, sighing softly. "I dunno, that sounds like woooork." she whines, ears flicking a little as she swishes her tail back and forth, continuing to eat. Not really savoring it, as she said this meal is simple to her. The mouse continues to eat, taking a large bite of her scone. "I have my little corner of this...place. A warm bed, walking distance to the market ....livin' the dream baby!" The tiny creature squeaks, but despite the positiveness in her words, her voice is hollow and almost aching, the way she keeps her crimson eyes cast down at her plate instead of making contact with the other woman combined with sort of shut off body language tell a differnt story than her mouth.

Goldenblade ohs, nods about cooking for family. "I see. I'm a bit jealous of them now," she says with a chuckle, eating the sausages and eggs and savoring the delicious food. Hopefully virtual food won't make her fat. Her luck, it would. But she burns a lot of calories fighting monsters, so it's probably OK. As to how she's staying fed, she laughs, "A few others cook, and I can cook a bit. As you say, I can cook some things. But it's not nearly as tasty as this, let me tell you." She grins widely, and says with a smirk, "/Everything's/ work, young lady. I'm seventy five, in real life, and worked every day of my life until I retired last year. Anything nice takes work, and the nicer the things you want, the harder you have to work for them. That's just the way of the world." Of course having a delicious meal only cost /her/ the effort of helping to carry groceries, so maybe she's exaggerating about how hard work is.

"Being envious of the dead is stupid." Strawberry says flatly, at the first thing the other woman says. Finishing her scone, and putting the plate to the side, she hops up onto the counter with a little squeak, she seems to squeak a lot. "Well I can teach you! I mean I was never professionally trained or anything but I have a good...more than half of my life cooking to go off of! Or maybe I should keep my secerts if so few know the art...." she says with a little snicker. The words that come with a smirk cause a very dramatic and, admittedly childish, roll of her red eyes. "I do the work I need to be able to cook my meals and sleep in a comfy bed! Okay a kinda comfy bed....well, a bed at least!" She protests, "I mean..." She looks around the kitchen, seeming to search for something to say, but comes up with nothing but a "'dunno, just dunno."

Goldenblade arches a brow at being envious of the dead, and amends, "I'm jealous of being cooked for by you, I mean." She says, "You're quite good, as I'm sure you know. And if I can find time in my schedule to learn to cook, I'll certainly seek you out, now that I know where to find you. Most people," she explains, "have found out by now that you have to cook for real, or food tastes ... bland is too mild a word for it. But there's so much to do, I don't really have time to spend all day in the kitchen. There's quests and missions and dungeons." Goldenblade is the Type A personality that is driven and goal-oriented. She looks around the kitchen, such as it is, and says, "If you're content to do this all day and not meet people, that's your call. But there's a lot of people as would love to meet you. And your cooking. I imagine they'd make it worth your while to cook for them."

"Sorry, sore spot." Strawberry admits, casting her gaze out the window, and very much avoiding looking at Goldenblade. "I am decent. I am limited by this kitchen though...." She admits, "Wait how do you cook fake?" She seems quite confused, most likely having never thought to cook any other way than by hand. "Eww quests. " She makes a rather silly face of disquest, "Missions and dungeons and all of that...blech." She polishes off her plate, and hops down off the counter to go wash off the plate. "IF you don't meet people, you can't loose them."

Goldenblade shrugs as Strawberry admits to a sore spot. She won't prod at it. She nods about being limited by the kitchen, and says, "Guilds and such have much better facilities. Mine runs a small restaurant nearby where they cook food, for instance. Hifumi runs one as well. As to how you cook fake," she goes on, "it's basically to do with the menu and game controls, and I don't know the game well enough to explain it more clearly than that." At your reaction to quests and missions and dungeons, she can only shrug. "I was raised to not sit still. If you're not doing something, you're wasting time, and neither of my parents had much truck with that." Being raised before TV was a big factor also. The idea of just sitting around and being entertained wasn't even a thing for her, growing up. "But you do you," she concludes. "If you're not interested in quests, there are many who are. But it's been nice meeting you."

Strawberry looks a bit guilty. "I'll try to find Hi-Fu-Mi" She repeats in the sing song voice, it seeming to be a mnemonic device thing. "I ummm gave up with that, when I found out I could actually cook. It's actually kinda nice." The bit about Goldenblade's parents, warrants a very angry look, the tiny mouse opening her mouth, and closing it, only to take a few deep breaths. "Well, when my parents start complaining I'll listen." She says, clearly taking an insane amount of mental energy to keep from saying more, "It was nice meeting you as well Goldenblade. I'll...look into a guild or somewhere that I can get a bigger kitchen."

Goldenblade finishes the meal Strawberry cooked for her, and she nods, missing or ignoring the angry look. Her parents are long gone, and that's just how things were done back then. She knows kids today are treated much more gently than she was, growing up. That's just the way of the world. "Well, thank you for the meal, Strawberry. It was entirely delicious, you have a strong talent. I hope you enjoy your time in the game, and I won't trouble you any longer." She rises, bows, and makes to depart.

Strawberry takes the now plate from the woman. "Feel free to stop by any time? I could always use help carrying groceries!" Her attempt to extend a bit of friendship not the strongest, but it is an attempt! Goldenblade could probably hear what sounds like the clatter of either a pan being thrown or just dropped from the kitchen.