citylogs | [open] welcome to the city

Entry tags:

[open] welcome to the city

WHO: Altria Caster (

excaliburden) & perhaps you!
WHAT: Help out a gal who just got here and is still getting used to magical city things like powdered sugar
WHERE: Across the city! Namely: a convenience store, park, subway, etc.......
WHEN: Early November
WARNINGS: N/A! Will update if necessary

a. local victorian orphan discovers convenience stores

[You're probably popping into the local convenience store for sensible reasons, like to buy a soda or to grab a few things you're missing for your dinner. Maybe for one of those hot dogs. No judgment.

Either way, you're getting interrupted by a gremlin in young woman form, who comes right up to you as soon as she makes eye contact, holding up... one of those small little packs of powdered sugar donuts.]

Have you ever tried one of these?

[She sounds awed.

There is powdered sugar around her mouth and on her fingers. She seems to have already eaten three of the five in the pack. It's a little bit like a religious experience, honestly.]

b. park break

[There's only so much walking around the city she can do before she gets tired. Even a few days in, it's still a pretty overwhelming place, and despite making many plans with many helpful people upon first arriving, she... has not acted on any of them.

So it is that even though it's either very early in the morning or very late at night, Altria can be found seated on one of the benches in the park, shoulders hunched and hands in her lap. She doesn't seem to be asleep, just... thinking very, very intently.

Of course, if she notices that someone's near, she'll immediately straighten, lifting a hand to wave--but with how deep in thought she is, it isn't hard to sneak up on her, either.]

c. subway

[Using the subway today to get across the city? That's a perfectly normal thing to do.

There's a young woman there as well, nose pressed to the window as she stares out as the train moves, even though it's, you know, underground and there's nothing to see. It's fine--she still seems amazed.

Also, if you hop back on the train a few hours later to go elsewhere, she's... still there. She might be leaning back in the seat, staring at the ceiling, or moving from seat to seat idly, or, in particularly empty times of day, sprawled along two seats at once.

Don't worry about it. Everything's fine here!]

d. wildcard

(Wanna tag in but these prompts don't work? Totally fine, hit me with whatever--or poke me over here to plot something out!)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ He offers it only because she clearly has no qualms eating the food here, and she would be a good comparison to what he finds of the taste. His decisions are practical—with purpose, and have absolutely nothing to do with kindness or thoughtfulness.

He takes a chip himself, and after giving it a once over, pops it into his mouth.

... ]

It's just flavour, nothing else. What's so satisfying about this?

[Satisfying, huh...? She considers that for a moment, and then shrugs.]

I guess it's just meant to be a snack? So... if you like the flavor, then it's fine that it's mostly just flavor.

But I guess you're right that it probably isn't very nutritious.

[ He's not used to snacking. As a puppet that didn't need to eat, when he did choose to, it was often for pleasure. So, it never made sense for him to eat anything less than the best that was out there.

That he eventually turned to cooking food himself was because no one out there could impress his delicate palate.

He scrunches his nose at the rest of the snacks in the convenience store. ]

They're not worth the space they occupy.

[ And then, he stills as a thought comes to mind. By this point, he's investigated around the city enough to know where the markets were, and a few specialty stores. If this was the state of the food in this city, then...

He looks sharply at Altria. ]

Hey. You want something better than this trash?

[He's so harsh, but it's an honest sort of harsh; Altria doesn't see any issue with these, but admittedly, she also doesn't need nourishment to survive. So. She just blinks and shrugs a little at his disdain.

More importantly... "better" food? There is never a time she's going to say no to an invitation like that. Not that she thinks there's anything wrong with any of this, but no need to tell him that when he'll never agree.]

Hm? Oh, sure! Did you find something better when you were looking around?

[ He's going to hold out the bag of chips to Altria for her to take—he certainly doesn't plan on eating any more.

Then, once she takes the bag, he gestures for her to follow him. ]

No.

[ ... ]

I can cook something better.

[...!!!

She takes the bag, of course, almost automatically, her eyes fixed on him.]

You're going to cook?

Then--I definitely want to try it! [Yay yay yay homecooked meal!]

[ She's so excited that he can't help the curl of his lips. He's careful to keep it hidden from Altria, though, as he leads the way towards one of the city's supermarkets. They enter, and then he stops at the entrance. ]

What do you want to eat?

[He is met with a blank smile at that.

...?

He's asking... her? What she wants? That sounds... fake. Nothing in her life has prepared her for someone asking her what she wants to eat.]

... Huh? You mean me?

No, I'm talking to the invisible person next to you.

[ A pause, but clearly before she has time to actually check if there's an invisible person next to her. ]

Yes, I mean you.

[He has come to understand her so quickly.

She blinks at him, though, processing that slowly. He's... asking her what she wants to eat. Wow...!]

I want...

[... She has no idea how to answer, she realizes.

... No, wait, she does know.]

I want to try your favorite thing to make.

[ It says something about her life, that it takes so long to process a simple question like this. His life has been tough in its own way, but he thinks, hers must have been tough as well.

His favourite, was it? ]

You sure? My tastes are far different than yours. I detest sweets.

[Wow!! She wants to fuss at him, but in truth, she's still too touched that he wants to make something she wants to eat for that.]

I'm sure! I'm definitely sure. I like to eat more things than just sweets, you know!

[He would have no reason to know this, given she basically has been existing on sweets for the past two weeks.]

Alright. Suit yourself.

[ He walks forward, now intent on scouring the market for the ingredients he needs. It's going to be a guessing game, since nothing was labeled, but since it was all free for the taking, no one would care if he opened a bunch of packages looking for what he needed, would they?

The rice is easy enough to locate. So is the eel, thankfully. But the smaller ingredients—the spices are harder to figure out. ]

We have kombu and shiitake... nori should be easy to find... sesame seeds... still need sake, mirin, soy sauce, sugar, salt...

[ He's muttering to himself he examines the myriad of bottles on the shelves, trying to puzzle out what is what. ]

[Altria seems content to just follow along behind him, arms tucked behind her back as she peers at the items on the shelves. Huh... huh!! Huuuuh....

The stuff he's bringing up are, for the most part, completely foreign to her, but she that's fine. She's going to learn so much today!]

Are those common spices back where you're from?

[ He eventually manages to pick out the spices, though some bottles, he takes just in case he's guessed wrong and it's the other choice instead. What he picks out, he brings to the front of the market, and gathers all the ingredients in one place.

He should just catalogue the entire market with pictures on his phone. It would be way easier to deal with, then. ]

You could say that.

[ Looking over everything... yep, he's got everything for the dish he wants to make. But... he glances over at Altria for a moment, a look of consideration on his face, before he turns back to the shelves to search for more things. ]

You could help by putting all the stuff I've already gathered into bags for us to carry.

You got it!

[Now that's something she can do. The bags are left out as if someone should be there bagging the products (not that Altria's familiar with such a practice), so it's easy for her to bag everything up and then pick up the bags with a proud beam.]

I'm a lot stronger than I look, so I can carry everything!

[ He brings back a few more items—flour, eggs, butter, and some other things and bags it all up as well. Then, he gives her a look that clearly says he's not letting her carry everything. ]

You take half.

[ He takes the bag with eggs and two more bags, leaving the rest to Altria. ]

There's a restaurant next door. We can use that kitchen.

[............ wow!!

She picks up the bags he leaves to her, of course, but huffs.]

I really could carry all of it...!

[REALLY! TRUST HER!

She is following, huffy or not, because of course she is.]

I believe you.

[ He's not being sarcastic, for once. He does believe her. He just doesn't like the idea of leaving the work to someone else. Still... her huffing in mock anger is amusing to see, and he lets a smirk grace his face to obscure the honesty of his words. How she chooses to interpret his words and actions is up to her.

Luckily, the trip is short, and once they enter the kitchen, he indicates to her where she can place the bags. ]

It's going to take a while to cook. What are you gonna do in the meanwhile?

[Honestly, that mollifies her easily; he says that, and she smiles a little to herself, shifting back to looking as pleased as can be. So long as it's not because he thinks she's weak, then splitting the load is perfectly fine with her.]

Oh, I was going to watch you cook. Is that okay? I can tell you about the stuff I found when looking around the city at the same time.

[Like she promised! ... Not that he expected her to bring anything useful to the table, but she did it anyway!]

[ He thinks for a moment, and then shrugs. He'd thought about surprising her with a dessert, but it doesn't matter if she watches him make it. She'd be equally awed either way. ]

Suit yourself. It doesn't bother me.

[ He shuffles around the kitchen, pulling out things here and there—knives, a cutting board, a pan, apron, and more as he prepares to cook. It's a good thing he took the time to understand how these kitchens worked, though he hadn't exactly planned to cook often here. There were a lot of strange devices he wasn't familiar with, but it hadn't been to hard to figure out what they were meant for after a bit of testing. ]

So what have you found out?

[Well. He's shuffling about, and she'd like to be out of his way, at least, as fascinated as she is... ultimately, she moves to one of the out of the way counters, hopping up on it to sit there so she has enough of a vantage point to see what he's doing, without risking being in his path.

And only then does she answer, eager to, perhaps, show that she's at least a little reliable.]

There's this huuuge building that has a lot of locked boxes. The placard said it's the... "bank"? [Weird word but ok.] But each of us has a little locked box in there!

[ He stops for a moment, facing Altria with a puzzled look. ]

You mean to say you found a box in the bank with your name on it. And you saw boxes with other people's names on them.

That's right! Well, they were boxes that were built into the wall, anyway. Like little square holes. And there were keys that went to them too.

My box was empty...

[Oh well. It was worth a try.]

But I thought it was interesting. And maybe you would be interested in checking out your own little box.

[ So the kidnappers were making it very clear they knew who they were bringing into this city. Just another way to disturb them and make them scared, he thought with a scoff.

He resumed his actions, this time pulling the ingredients they gathered out of the bag and opening up the bag of rice to measure portions. ]

Sounds like they just want to scare us. If they're empty, then they're not worth checking out.

[ He'll regret dismissing it as a scare tactic weeks from now—but that's for another time. ]

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