⚔ // once upon a dream

[discutio]

[You all know the drill by now. Ignis and Camilla have taken over the nearest kitchen, and there's going to be food in the Pokemon Center soon enough; a warm and comforting vegetable curry. Highwind's even out now, welcoming any and all who might need a large cloud bird to hug after everything that was.]

[It's been a long night. Everyone needs a good meal and a long rest, and luckily one of those things is being seen to immediately.]

Comments

[discutio]

It's not a terrible look. You do seem to wear it well enough, at least.

[eudaimonikos]

I'd feel silly looking much younger, now. Used to report to this one guy - his body was maybe mid-twenties, but he looked like a middle schooler. No gravitas.

[Michael's not the most serious person on the regular, but he can have gravitas. It's possible.]

I'd have the authority to requisition a custom body now, if I were still working there.

[discutio]

That does seem a bit ill-suited, doesn't it?

[sure this is just the topic right now]

It sounds odd to simply switch bodies so easily.

[eudaimonikos]

Well, it's a privilege reserved for senior staff. Kinda like getting to...I don't know, swap out the company uniform for some nice business casual? That wasn't really one of the reasons I wanted the job, though, don't know if I even would have done it.

[It's growing more and more difficult to put himself back in those shoes - a demon, enthusiastic about his work, zero qualms. He's got so many qualms about all sorts of things now.]

What are we making, here?

[discutio]

Just a fairly simple curry; I've most of it handled, it's just a lot of vegetables for so many people.

[Sure enough, he didn't seem too bothered by the demon stuff anymore. That or he just wasn't going to ask for details if Michael was going to change the subject like that.]

Doesn't take much thought or effort, and I find both in short supply tonight.

[eudaimonikos]

Fair enough.

[From the sound of things, he's extremely quick and efficient with a knife, at least? Those vegetables won't take too long.

Michael's more than content to let the subject drop; it's not one he's entirely bothered by, but...this just doesn't feel like the time to deep-dive into Demon Stuff. Later, maybe.]

I can do dessert! I spent last week working on a 61-point plan for executing the ideal chocolate chip cookies. [This is nine more points than when Sena encountered The Plan, and yes it's insane]

[discutio]

[...what]

[WHAT]

You...did what, sorry?

[eudaimonikos]

I drafted a plan for cookies.

[absolutely no awareness that this is insane]

[discutio]

That's not...really a thing people do, Michael. A recipe for cookies isn't remotely complicated, what kind of plan did you have?

[eudaimonikos]

Well, first I cross-referenced all the different recipes. [You know he means, like. Literally all that were accessible to him.] I thought it was a very standard human dessert, but there were a lot of differences from source to source. There weren't any clear indications of which was the correct one - most of them claimed to be "the best", but that's obviously unreliable - so I realized I was going to have to conduct my own research.

[He just has no fucking cultural context for how baking works, huh]

[discutio]

...

[Immediate conclusion: immortals are just goddamn weird.]

That's...definitely not how baking works, Michael.

[eudaimonikos]

....but that's what the books are in the library for, isn't it? Research purposes?

[can you imagine ardyn developing a minor chocolate chip cookie obsession tho]

[discutio]

[you say that like ardyn isn't the agent of chaos that wrote those 70s-ish cookbooks with everything in gelatin and with mayonnaise and all that shit.]

Yes, and while baking is itself a science of a sort it's not quite so exact of one. It takes time, testing and altering recipes until you find and refine one you enjoy.

Working in a kitchen is in the sentiment of what you aim to make, as it is textbook education on what to use and in which amounts.

[eudaimonikos]

...the sentiment.

[how do feelings affect the chemical reactions in the baking, sounds fake]

Like not accepting cookies from people who don't like you? [michael that's POISONING]

[discutio]

Not exactly, no.

[michael...]

You're going to hate this, but it's about caring for what you're doing and the people you're doing it for.

[eudaimonikos]

[.....]

Ignis, I know that you're sort of the expert here. But you know that sounds pretty superstitious?

[discutio]

I know how it sounds, but it's entirely true.

[this man literally gives stat bonuses because he's That Good.]

You can't think of it as a purely black and white science, there's simply more to it than that.

[eudaimonikos]

That's what science is, Ignis...

[But you do seem to have hit some kind of chord in him, and that barely comes off as more than a...well, one dying complaint.]

Okay, okay. So what do you do, say nice things to the batter while you mix it?

[discutio]

No, just...

[Ignis faltered, briefly at a loss for how to explain something that wasn't easily put into words.]

Think of it this way. Why do you want to make them?

[eudaimonikos]

Well - they make people happy, don't they?

[discutio]

Good start, yes.

Why do you want to make people happy?

[eudaimonikos]

I don't know, I - [He does know, though.]

Okay, it's like this. I used to handle pretty much everything for my human friends. When we were in the Neighborhood I built, I could create anything for them, and I warned them about what the other demons were going to do so they were never caught too off-guard. And then afterwards, I planned out everything to keep them safe. It just made sense; I knew all about where we were, and I belonged there.

Here, I can't just...make things be better.

[discutio]

[...aw, michael]

That's exactly what I mean. I don't want you to overthink the act of cooking or baking in itself--don't labor terribly over every last detail and struggle to make it some textbook example of 'perfect'. Just find a recipe, follow it, and keep exactly that feeling in mind as you do.

The rest will fall into place, and that intent will come across in the result.

[eudaimonikos]

[Michael listens, nodding along. You can't see it, but he's sort of gesturing with the knife in a way that would be alarming. If you could see it.]

Okay. So, just...do it. Still follow the recipe, with the measurements and everything, but other than that, just do it.

[discutio]

[he can hear you moving, thank shiva, because he really doesn't want to get stabbed]

Precisely so. A task requiring intuition, more than logic.