A Thousand Sugar Stars, Oh Put Them in a Jar (October Catch-All)

[ricebird]

Characters: Kotori Iida [Sweet Porridge Girl], Della Duck [Icarus], Master Crane [Crane (Tsuru no Ongaeshi)], Disciple [Jekyll and Hyde], and YOU!
Campaign: Break
Format: Starting with brackets, but will match
One Open, Two Closed
Summary: Kotori comes back from a brief trip home, makes lots of tasty food with people, and wakes up at an ungodly early hour to train. (Oh, also, Hyde happens.)


A. I Looked at the World Through Apple Eyes (Closed to Della Duck and Master Crane)

[Wild and unpredictable as restoring The Little Mermaid had been, Kotori is very, VERY glad the ending turned out happy, with not a speck of mermaid-derived seafoam in sight. Coming back to the Index and seeing the city dressed in autumn colors, though… is it already close to a year since the Storyteller first brought them here? Close to a year since she last saw home… She should fix that.

So after telling a few of her closer friends and asking them to watch her place and let any other Aspects who ask know so no one panics ROXAS, she asks the Storyteller to send her home, just for a little while. By Index time, she’s only gone a few days; in Japan, it’d only been a few weeks. It was… weird being back in a completely normal world after spending a year here. Going through school, cooking more with Inuzuka-sensei and Tsumugi-chan, her mom working hard again. Shinobu had even been visiting her during lunch break lately, even if it felt a bit awkward not telling her about cooking with the Inuzukas… or this place, for that matter. The remembered it vividly for a few days, but… then started writing it off as a dream. Huh. The whole business is weird, really, like the time differences, and her feelings for…

But she can think about all that later. The Storyteller brought her back in late at night it seems, and she’s already really tired. One good thing about all her schooling being left at home is that she can sleep in as late as she wants tomorrow. …… Which, if her memories of the Index had been a little fresher, she’d remember as having scheduled a certain meeting with a certain duck. This should be interesting.]


B. And Cut Myself a Slice of Sunshine Pie (Open)

[Between this new routine of cooking sessions with the Inuzukas, her pot’s new shapeshifting ability, the pub’s brand new kitchen, and actually having a recipe collection to work with, and creating the massive feast during the ball, Kotori’s not only started getting used to cooking with other people, she’s actually starting to crave it even more than she had been. So whether she asks you herself, or you ask to come over to practice a recipe (especially for a date coming up~), from late morning to a little bit into the evening, Kotori’s available to make just about anything.

Or maybe you smelled good food inside and decided to invite yourself into this strangely cauldron-shaped pub. (Especially if it involves daikon GOBO.) Those in this category might be confused to see that the space is clean and well-kept, if rustic, there doesn't seem to be much of a crowd. In fact, the only person here is a teenage girl, in the middle of cleaning the kitchen in the back, sweeping and polishing the floors and counters up front, or sitting down at the bar for a meal for one, depending on what time of day you catch her.

Still, yes, Kotori’s door is open, so come on in, cook, and eat!]


C. I Danced with the Peanut Butterflies (Closed to Disciple)

[Of course, even with how fun these cooking lessons are, a little quite time in between is always nice. (Not to mention kitchens don’t clean themselves…) So after doing some sweeping and mopping for the day, Kotori’s sitting at the bar counter with a nice, simple dinner with a steaming bowl of nyuumen and a cup of hot green tea. Perfect for a cool, peaceful autumn day like this… ……. Okay but maybe a miniature apple charlotte after this would be nice. After seconds, of course.]


D. Till Time Went and Told Me to Say Hello but Wave Goodbye (Wildcard)

[[Got something in find other than the prompts listed here? Feel free to hit me up on Plurk or Discord so we can plot!]]

Comments

[sonrises]

Lunch?

[He pauses for a moment, then shakes his head - he's got new powers to figure out, so he hasn't exactly been keeping up with regular meals.]

I guess I forgot.

[ricebird]

[Varian... That's not good, Kotori will never understand people who are indifferent to eating.]

That's okay. I can make something now before we get started on the cookies. Is there anything in particular you'd like?

[sonrises]

Oh, uh-

Well, I don't really mind. Anything is fine, although...

My dad used to make Gefulte noodles - do you know anything like that?

[ricebird]

Ooh! I can make a few different noodle dishes, but I haven't heard of those before. What are they like?

[She's definitely intrigued.]

[sonrises]

They're noodles - well, kind of more like dumplings, really - with beef, onions, and parsley. You eat it in a broth soup.

[ricebird]

Oh, wow! Those sound so tasty~! Not to mention really similar to sui-gyoza! [Boiled gyoza, sometimes also served in a broth.] Hm... I can't make them with Nabe-chan since I haven't made them before, but if you don't mind, we might be able to make them from scratch. Otherwise, I can make you something with regular noodles real quick.

[If only she'd stayed at home a couple more days, she might be able to offer some sui-gyoza from the pot. Funny how that works...]

[sonrises]

[Well... It's not like the cookies are a pressing matter, and it would be nice to help someone make the noodles - or a similar dish - again. It's been too long.]

Um, yeah, okay. I don't mind.

[ricebird]

Great!

[She leads him into the magically refurbished kitchen. She'd already set some of the ingredients for the cookies out that don't need to stay chilled, like the flour, sugar, and three jars of jam, so it shouldn't be too hard to get everything out for Gefülte noodles and clear some space.]

Let's see... you said beef, onions, and parsley... I think I have all three of those. Do you have a recipe for the rest?

[Because pasta doughs and broths can vary a lot, depending on the recipe.]

[sonrises]

Yeah, actually, I'm pretty sure I remember, at least for the dough. That part's really simple, and we usually just used leftover broth from the rest of week.

[ricebird]

Ah, that's perfect then! I think I have some leftover chicken stock we can use, hm, but would that go with the beef... Maybe we could make dashi then?

[sonrises]

Um, maybe? What's dashi?

[ricebird]

Oh, it's a stock we use for cooking all the time back in my home country. It can vary depending on which area you live in or what you need for a recipe, but for my house we usually make it from konbu and katsuobushi- seaweed and skipjack tuna meat shredded into super thin flakes!

[sonrises]

That sounds really good... I'm not sure if it goes any better with beef than chicken, but I'd like to try it, anyway.

[ricebird]

Yeah, we can do that! It's actually really easy to make too!

[She pulls a few paper packages out of the ice box and begins to fill one of her non-magical pots with water from the sink pump, talking as she goes through the rest of the process.]

First you put the konbu in the cold water, and then set the pot on a medium flame.

[VERY thankfully, Kotori's new stove has gas burners, so she can control the intensity of the flame a LOT better than her old medieval-style kitchen.]

[sonrises]

Alright, neat.

[He just watches her for a bit - he's torn between not liking standing around doing nothing and... Being in a place where helping someone makes him worry about them taking advantage of him. But, eventually, the former wins out.]

How can I help?

[ricebird]

Let's see... for this we need to wait until the water's simmering before we do anything next... Oh! Do you know how to make dough for the dumplings?

[sonrises]

Yeah, I definitely remember - that was usually the part I did. [He chuckles a little, though it fades into a sigh.] Let me get started on that.

[ricebird]

[Yeah, she... definitely catches that sigh, but doesn't comment on it. They're not good enough friends for her to press, she things.]

Awesome! [She grabs a basket of eggs from the ice box and puts it next to the flour.] Eggs, flour, you can use the water pump too. Do you need anything else, Varian-kun?

[sonrises]

Just salt... Uh, thanks.

[He flashes her a very brief smile, then sets to work cracking the eggs open into a bowl. He's downright meticulous about it, too - intently focused. That holds true as he fills half the eggshells they leave behind with water, one at a time, and adds that.]

[ricebird]

[Perfect then; Kotori points to a box of salt among the cookie ingredients.]

Oh wow... you're really good at that!

[And she's not humoring him either, she's clearly impressed by that little trick!]

[sonrises]

Oh... Thanks.

[He chuckles a little, and there's even a hint of genuine warmth to it.]

My dad taught me that, and my mom taught him.

[ricebird]

[Ah, that gets her own faintly warm smile out of her.]

I hadn't really made much of my own food before I came here... but I have watch my mom cook a lot growing up. She's the chef of our family's restaurant.

[Almost totally solo too, with Kotori helping wait tables and clean. ..... Or... it is when her mother's not too busy with TV work.]

[sonrises]

[Talking about others' families stings, but at least it'll help him not focus on his own father.]

A restaurant, huh? That sounds pretty cool. I bet you had a lot of... Good food?

[ricebird]

[A soft nod.]

I did. I still do, when she's not too busy.

[Aaaand time to cover it up!]

Ah, here we go! So we take the kombu out just before the water begins to boil, and then it's time to add the katsuobushi.

[As she talks, Kotori takes out the envelope and pours out lots of pieces of dried skipjack meat, shaved so thinly that they're curled and floating like feathers or cinders flying off a campfire.]

[sonrises]

[Busy parents? He can understand that, and it brings up a mess of somewhat conflicting feelings in him - so he's ultimately glad when they're focusing on the food preparation again.]

Wow, that really is thinly shredded. You can hardly even tell it's fish.