trans_9 | In which the former queen...makes soup? [closed to WITCH bus]

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In which the former queen...makes soup? [closed to WITCH bus]

Arika has already helped herself to the pots and pans in the kitchen. As well as the stove and the refrigerator filled with food. She has taken out meat, vegetables, spices, and other ingredients that she will need. She takes a fairly large pot and fills it with water from the sink, then sets it atop the stove and turns the lighter beneath it on.

While the water boils, she sets to laying out a carrot on a cutting board and starts to chop it into tiny slices with a knife from a drawer she'd rummaged through. The meat would come last, as it would ruin the taste of the concoction before it would even begin.

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Rein has a nose for food, and after months of living on the ship's nutritional but... uninspiring fare she's especially sensitive to the smell of delicious food, or even delicious ingredients. The scent makes for a sure guide through the somewhat labyrinthine interior of the bus - Rein herself takes an obscure joy in creating new rooms and is partly to blame - and soon enough she's in the kitchen with Arika.

"Would you like any help with that?" She asks straightforwardly. The rendering of aid to others is the purpose enshrined in her name, after all... and in this case she harbors the somewhat less altruistic hope that if she helps cook, she'll be able to partake of the meal as well.

"Yes. I would," Arika sets down the knife on the cuttingboard and points to the bag of potatoes on the opposite counter. "Four potatoes must be peeled. Please do so."

Despite the 'please' Arika's words convey the feeling of an order, and Rein stares at her for a second. The pause is not defiance, though, some empty point of pride - she is used to taking orders. It is just that she has known many nobles and royals before, and meeting a person who gives her the distinct impression of being one as well she is inclined to take her measure.

But it is only for a second, and then she is moving to the potatoes with a polite nod. She had never held a knife or any other cooking implement before she met Hayate, but she'd gained at least a basic proficiency in tasks such as these since she had fully joined the family in this form.

"I am Reinforce," she says plainly as she begins peeling. "I don't believe we've met."

Which was to say she was absolutely certain they hadn't.

Arika finishes cutting the carrots and moves to take the spices and starts to sprinkle the ingredients in the pot. "I do not believe we have met. My name is Arika." She turns to the girl, putting a hand on her shoulder gently, "It is a pleasure meeting you, Reinforce," then continues to move about the kitchen.

The touch is strange to Rein. She is not used to being touched, except by Hayate. She was too feared in the past, and even now, her history unknown but to a few on the ship, she does not exactly give off an approachable aura. Such was the prerogative of kings...

"Do you live here?" She asks with a glance Arika's way. If she'd brought her own ingredients Rein wouldn't give her any trouble over borrowing their kitchen, but she found it a bit curious they'd never met.

She takes the carrots and dashes them into the pot. There's a simmering-like sound, before it settles. "Yes. With my son." She open the drawer in the counter and rummages through...until she pulls out what Mat had called a 'peeler'. She places it in Reinforce's hands.

"This is much safer for you to use."

"Negi?" Reinforce asks; the boy is the only obvious candidate. "I've seen him here a number of times and been introduced, but we've never talked at length. I do live here in name," she hastens to explain, "But I have few possessions and do not mind sleeping outside, so I am not necessarily here as often as the others. And I am frequently deep in the bus, too."

"Ah." She makes a not-very-surprised sounding exclamation when Arika hands he the peeler. It's not as if a knife can cut her, but it is good to use the most appropriate tool for a job. "Thank you."

Arika can tell when someone is trying justify themselves. She takes a wooden spoon and stirs the mix in the pot. "I see."

She then puts the spoon aside and takes an onion from the pile and sets it on the cutting board. She begins to peel away the first layer. "Do you enjoy eating soup?"

Rein almost feels that she is being tested with that question, but... "I do."

She's done with potatoes now, and looks to Arika. "Is there anything else you would have me do?"

"Would you kindly cut them into small pieces? It is so they mix well with the broth."

A good thing she had kept the knife at hand, then. Rein gave the blade a cursory cleaning, then cut up the potatoes on a board and handed them to Arika.

"Is anyone joining you for your meal?"

"You," Arika says, as if it is orderly, "Negi and perhaps his friends. If I make the soup correctly, then there will be enough to serve eight persons and have seven servings left over."

"Thank you." Rein smiles slightly. Arika's manner may be stern, but she is glad for the chance... and she believes, at least, that Arika means it as a favor. "It will be good to have a chance to talk to them all."

And eat. Definitely to eat.

"It is no trouble," the former Queen says, tossing the slices of potatoes into the pot. She then takes out another pan and sets it on a burner, turning on the lighter. She tosses on some spices and then takes the meat from its package and sets it on the cutting board. She begins to unbind it.

"There is celery on the counter behind me, would you kindly cut it as well?"

Reinforce moves silently to the new task... or at least, without acknowledgment. She is still curious, and wants to confirm...

"You are of noble birth, aren't you?"

Arika nods her head. "I am from the royal Vespertatia family of Ostia." She finishes unbinding the meat and pulls out another knife, and begins to cut the meat into thin slices.

The name means nothing to her, of course, but her impression is confirmed. "It is easy to see. Even here."

By 'here' she does not mean the ship, but in a kitchen, cooking, doing what is essentially servants' work unless Ostia, wherever it is, has exceptionally strange views on the role of royalty.

It is, at least provisionally, a respectful observation. She had been originally crafted to serve the Belkan royalty, and she was by her nature well-disposed to such persons.

"Oh?" Arika turns her head, pausing her knife over the meat.

"It is what people would call a 'noble bearing' or 'air of nobility'." Reinforce picks two of the more common phrasings. "Those who are raised to lead, with the expectation of absolute power, behave differently. When it is combined with the trappings of courtly protocol it is very noticeable."

It was a textbook explanation, suitable to her nature. And as for her personally...

"I have served many lords, so it is especially recognizable for me."

"Ah." The former Queen finishes cutting the meat and tosses it onto the heated pan on the stove. It begins to make sizzling sounds on contact. "Well I hope that you were free to choose who you serve in the matter." But then, she knows that even in her kingdom, there had been people had not had free choice.

Rein's circumstances are such that it is not a question that can be answered simply... or at least, not briefly. Precision is required. Not just because she is inclined towards such encyclopedic dispensation of knowledge, but because it is a matter of vast importance to her.

"...there is not a choice. I make the determination, but it is not subject to executive interference and can be considered the same as an unconscious, autonomic action by a human."

That need for precision serves to scrub most of the emotion the topic inspires from her words, but not all. It is a painful admission, a truth that has created a great many painful memories...

Arika nods her head in understanding. "I see." She goes to the pot and takes a wooden spoon from one of the holders in the corner on the counter and begins to stir the concoction. "Perhaps you may have some rest from servitude here...at least, for a while." After all, the Ohm will be there someday to cause more trouble.

"I do not, and have no need for it. The meister who is here is a kind one. It may have been an accident that I am hers, but it is a happy one."

And Hayate was much, much more to her than simply a kind owner, but for reasons she would rather not bring up now, in a first conversation. The repeating fate was too sad a topic for this time and place.

Arika looks to the girl, wondering to herself quietly, before turning back to stirring beginnings of a delicious soup. "If you are happy in your servitude, then I cannot judge whether or not it is right for you to be under ownership of someone." Actually, she can judge, but Reinforce seems happy, so she lets it go.

Rein smiles softly. "You will understand if you meet her, I think. I hope you will some day."

But... she looks curiously at Arika. "Is that also how you see this time? A rest?"

"If she is as you describe, I suppose I would enjoy meeting her."

She pauses in her stirring, lowering her head a bit, thoughtful...before she continues to stir the pot. "No.Not all the time. This is a war we are in, is it not? These moments, small though they may be, should be given to rest and practice."

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In which the former queen...makes soup? [closed to WITCH bus]

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...sorry on long wait for short post. And generic icon spam.

It's all right.

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