2017-09-02: Genesis of Sweetness

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=====================<* November City - Chateau de Iles *>======================

The Chateau de Iles is the finest dining establishment in November City. It is a place that requires black tie dress, something few Drifters can do, and serves a blend of food that someone from Earth might call Italian and French. The wait staff is notoriously aloof, and reservations are required in advance -- and undesirables are turned away at the door. However, those who get in are treated to the meal of their lives, underneath fine chandeliers and eating the freshest ingredients.

BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FD4bSgQXT0

<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.

The Chateau de Iles is a restaurant like no other, and it isn't the sort of place -- typically -- that caters to Drifters. The management has tried their very best to ignore the influx of them, after the events to the east. But, sometimes, a fine enough event can draw them out -- and, despite what the upper crust of November City might think, Drifters come in all shapes and sizes. They also have all sorts of tastes.

And, when a free tasting was put on, it was sure to draw attention.

Today, that free tasting is of the new pastries, baked goods, and other desserts they have to offer. Instead of the usual table service, the tables are stacked with beautiful silver platters that gleam under the chandeliers. The rich decor, though, pales in comparison to what is stacked up. Rows of eclairs. Beautiful, frosted cakes with elaborate decorations.

Napoleons, danishes, and bear claws that range from flakey to gooey. Cookies that are fine, crumbly, and dusted with powdered sugar. Pies of wonderful and sweet assortments, with fruit filling that is glazed.

And, standing in the doorway is a princess in her white-and-blue uniform; the emblem of the Sparrowfeathers is on the back. Alisha Diphda has her hands clasped -- her armor and arms are nowhere to be seen -- and her leaf green eyes are bright and sparkling.

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeee," she comments on this, intelligently.

<Pose Tracker> June Lim Ze has posed.

 
Elhaym van Houten has dressed up in the local style. She's even had her hair done up for this occasion and is wearing an elegant if slightly-too-flashy dress with a scandalous hemline. You can see CALVES. The people may faint.

Elly may faint, because she thinks she's looking at heaven. She has had sweets, of course, but the great majority of such things in her homeland have a certain sameness. You may get a big bite of delight in every SoSys Fruit Pie, but they all kind of blend together.

"It's so beautiful," Elly says. "I almost hate to eat any of it, and ruin the picture."

A moment passes.

"But it's going to go stale, or rot, or something. So it's our responsibility to not let it go to waste," Elly then says, possibly in classical permission-seeking behavior. 

<Pose Tracker> Rosaline Calice has posed.

Gluttony..... IS A SIN!!

But it's not gluttony to treat oneself just a bit once in a while. Rosaline has been working very hard to do right by the people of this city's Ethos branch. So much, in fact, that she was all but ordered to take it easy for a day and do something nice for herself for a change.

"Please, Lord, show me a sign," she mumbled to herself as she walked the streets of this hive of scum and villainy. What precisely could she do in this city that would be cheap, enjoyable and, most important of all, legal?

And just as she says this, a beam of sunlight pierces through the clouds above, illuminating a sign in front of the Chateau de Iles restaurant.

"Oh! Praise be!"

And so, a catwoman nun finds herself clasping her hands in front of the sweet, delightful feast in front of her. Beastman senses, let's be real, are often more of a curse than a blessing on the loud, dry, bloody world of Filgaia. Not so today.

"This is so much food... And to think that it's being given away for free... Such generosity. But are we truly worthy of it? Would the poorer and needier not deserve it more?"

A beat. Her ears twitch as she overhears Elly rationalizing the upcoming carnage.

"I-It's true, isn't it? There's no sense in talking about hypotheticals, only in making sure this doesn't go to waste...!"

She steps forward, and finds herself right next to Alisha. "Eeeeeee."

<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.

Matilda has stubbornly stuck to her stylistic guns in November City, labcoat and all; she's always wanted to go to the city but the roads north were always decried as too dangerous. Now that Matilda travels dangerous roads with ease and regularity, of course, she's decided to -- well -- do just that, mom.

To tell the truth, she's at the Chateau for work; she's had great success growing blueberries on the run, and frankly, they're a cash crop to the right buyers. ... however, that doesn't mean that she can't stay for something else.

She passes by the feast on her way out... slows to a crawl... stops... takes a step back... looks again.

"I -- I deserve this," she half-stammers to herself, glancing to the others. Rosaline, of course, is quite familiar, and gets a small, shy wave. Matilda isn't sure quite how to reopen that particular line of communication --

-- oh, who are we kidding, she's not initiating conversation right now because she's having an elaborate pastry fantasy. 

<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.

Alisha looks sideways at the catwoman nun standing next to her, knowing of Rosaline Calice from the times that she encountered her before. Once in more friendly circumstances, and before in more dire. She smiles at her, before she nods once at her. "I must assume that we are," she says. "And... and, ah--"

There is Elly, offering the suggestion that they could do it. A rationalization, perhaps, that could get them into a lot of trouble. Alisha looks at the collection of them -- and then smiles a little brighter, laughing sheepishly. "Y-Yes, as you say, Miss. It... it would be a waste! It would..."

She trails off, then looks at Matilda. She is staring too. Alisha turns her head, looking away from the pastries -- it isn't hard -- and then to the tables without goods. The tables where people are sitting. There is one with four chairs, otherwise empty, in a room full of very hungry people. She nods, with determination.

"...We should take it," she says. "It--it was meant to be. Look at it!"

<Pose Tracker> June Lim Ze has posed.

 
"Just because you're in a good place doesn't mean you can't suffer," Elly answers Rosaline distantly. Then she steps forwards with great decision, taking a deep breath of this heavenly smell --

"You're right," she says, before immediately making a beeline towards that table. She leans forwards and puts a carpet-embroidered purse on the table, clearly laying CLAIM to it - which is one thing you pick up awful fast on the surface.

"What do we do now," she asks, looking towards Matilda and Rosaline and Alisha with wide, haunted, hungering eyes. 

<Pose Tracker> Rosaline Calice has posed.

Rosaline snaps out of her contemplation to wave back to Matilda in a similarly reserved manner, and only then does she recognize Alisha, offering her a tiny smile. She last saw both of them roughly half of a continent away. Elly... she doesn't know, and really missed the whole story there. But the more the merrier, right?

"It's... It's providence," she confirms with a determined nod. And-- There, Elly has it. Good.

"I think we're supposed to prepare our own sampler plates," Rosaline says, hesitantly, as she spots a pile of clean plates right there and figures that must be it.

And so, she sets out to do just that. That she isn't waiting for any sort of confirmation is testment to the allure of baked desserts.

Yet, to probably no one's surprise, Rosaline's plate is actually quite conservative, mainly limited to the pastries whose very existence don't SCREAM sin made manifest, all totalizing a mass that might actually fit into a human being's stomach.

"These remind me of the cookies we would make back home, the few times we had all the ingredients," she comments as she takes her seat, a glass of milk in hand.

<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.

Matilda snaps out of her brief reverie. "Y -- yes, of course," she practically stammers out to Alisha, taking a moment to compose herself. "I -- I think I should very much -- like, that." She takes a deep breath, then another, looking around the room. It's... a little crowded to be alone in, Matilda reflects -- and while she only knows Rosaline, she recognizes Alisha by reputation, too...

She looks longingly at the food -- and strikes, nabbing an eclair without hesitation. "We eat," she answers Elly, brightly. She loads up her plate with light, fluffy pastries, rather than going for the heavier stuff -- some of them are almost insubstantial. Her sin quotient is much higher than Rosaline's.

"You know -- this is strangely... I shouldn't call it nostalgic if I don't want to feel old, but... that really is it." She nods to Rosaline, saying, "My father loved to bake -- it surprised me a little when I really thought about it, because baking is so scientific and he wasn't... exactly... the type, but..."

As she settles down with her plate, she says, "I've tried to -- bring the tradition forward, I suppose. We almost always had all the ingredients for things like choux pastry and muffins on hand, at home, so..." She smiles -- though there's a hint of sadness in it. "... this is getting away from me -- ah, a-anyway, I love this kind of thing..." 

<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.

"Th-they have it!" Alisha says to Elly, with a nod after Matilda answers her so honestly. She smiles, hurrying over to get a plate. She puts a few cookies on it -- and then a slice of a triple-layered vanilla cake, with no small amount of raspberry filling between each lair. She beams, eyes lighting up happily, and then puts some of the cookies that are called out.

Then, she picks up a pair of simpler things: slices of swirled cinnamon bread, dusted in brown sugar. "Do they?" she asks Rosaline. "That sounds--oh, that sounds wonderful, Miss!" She looks at Matilda and smiles. "I never had the chance to learn to cook. It was... ah, not encouraged, for princesses. But I've wanted to."

Rose sort of showed her how to. Sort of.

"But, my mother--she was not of noble birth--took me to the markets when I was young. We would get bread like this." She sits down -- and a server brings by some hot tea. Alisha's eyes light up. "Oh, please forgive me. I am Princess Alisha Diphda, of the kingdom of Hyland."

<Pose Tracker> June Lim Ze has posed.

 
Elly picks up her plate and makes her own expedition. She comes back with two thick slices of strawberry napoleon, an entire chocolate eclair, and slices of various forms of fruit danish. It's like two days' caloric requirements in one plate of sheer sugar.

"My mother didn't cook," Elly offers as she sets down.

"Um," she then says when Alisha leads in. "I'm Elly... van Houten."

Was that a good idea? She immediately second-guesses herself, but she eases her worries with a forkful of napoleon. "It's a pleasure to meet you all, but I hope you'll excuse me if I'm quiet for a moment."

Because: HOMF

Elly's eyes crinkle in sheer, sugar-induced delight.

Also the butter. The butter is often overlooked. 

<Pose Tracker> Rosaline Calice has posed.

Rosaline nods along to Matilda, at the word "nostalgic". She's been away from home for less than a year now, and already it feels like a lifetime has passed. It must be that way for her fellow travellers too.

"They did," Rosaline quietly corrects Alisha's wording regarding the nun's past, though for once doesn't go into the dire stuff at the merest provocation. It would be very much of a mood-killer.

Matilda speaks of her father, and of a fine baking tradition. She never did get to taste that muffin Matilda had made that one time, a fact that has haunted her to this day. She looks thoughtful for a moment, but doesn't comment.

Alisha speaks of her mother, and of the market's bread. The offhand mention of her princesshood doesn't surprise Rosaline, who had already heard and is starting to get accustomed to how incredibly motley a crew Drifters can be. She already knows of two confirmed exiled royals, at least. Maybe there are more?

Elly... doesn't speak of her own mother much. The name doesn't ring a bell, for probably obvious reasons.

Rosaline looks faintly downcast for a moment, but it passes. Having one of the best cookies she's ever tasted in her mouth right now helps, but only a bit. "I grew up in an orphanage," she explains. "I... I eventually tried to learn to make cookies for the children myself, but it didn't go very well... One batch was burnt, one I dropped into the sand, one was stolen by a sandworm..."

She sighs. Her ears droop.

"O-Oh, but I forgot to introduce myself," she says, looking up, mainly at Elly since she's the only one she hasn't met before. "I am Rosaline Calice. As you can probably tell, I'm part of the Ethos."

<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.

Matilda has, for the moment, settled on a choux a la creme; she takes dainty little bites, rather than going to town on it. She doesn't know everyone here, after all -- it would be unbecoming to open one of her six mouths and sing the song that ends pastries.

"Dr. Matilda Whitehead, Academy of Linga College of Compounding and Pharmacy," she says, with a practiced ease. If she notices anything about Elly's name she doesn't say it. Instead, she turns her attention to Alisha, replying, "It's -- well... I sort of had to. Truthfully I'm comfortable with almost everything in the process of making food -- I'm from... we're a little ways south of Dazil, on the Krosse side of the border..." She doesn't comment on princeshood -- she's met some strange characters drifting, after all.

Rosaline relates her extremely anime cooking background, and Matilda sips her tea. "That sounds awful!" she says, sympathetically. "You really ought to try again... I find baking almost -- therapeutic, in its way?" 

<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.

Alisha, really, wouldn't know to find Elly van Houten a strange name. She looks sideways at Rosaline, with an apologetic expression. She doesn't push that further, before she looks down at her plate. She nods, once. "Oh--ah, a sandworm? Do those exist?"

She has never seen one before.

"But I am sorry to hear that, Rosaline," she says. "But yes, I agree. A friend of mine demonstrated the technique for creating tree cake!"

She does not explain. She looks sideways at Matilda, instead, with a smile -- and a sip of her tea. "I have heard the lands down there are pleasant. Less, ah, desert than here."

Then, she looks at Elly -- and makes like her example, taking a hefty bite of the three-layered cake. Another of the cookies is devoured next. The princess, it seems, is a fast eater.

<Pose Tracker> June Lim Ze has posed.

 
"Oh, goodness... I feel like I'm eating above my station!" Elly says, though she's smiling afterwards.

Rosaline's story makes her frown in sympathy. It's not deep, but she does say, "Did you only make them the once? Losing something you worked so hard on must have hurt badly. Did you ever try again...?"

She then blinks at Alisha as she picks up an eclair. "Tree cake?" she asks. "Do you mean like... maple sugar?" Which Elly has heard of (in school). To Matilda, Elly asks, "What do you find theraputic about it?" 

<Pose Tracker> Rosaline Calice has posed.

Rosaline is extremely anime, it's true.

Her story earns sympathy, which is sweet but, like a GREAT MANY things in life, makes her feel a bit guilty. "Those were the three attempts I made. I... didn't really get a chance to try again since, especially since I'm on the road all the time nowadays."

Of course, some people find ways, but she hasn't had much luck there.

"Maybe I should, yes," she muses, staring off into space, considering the endeavor. She then nods to confirm the existence of sandworms, with a tiny smile. "They aren't as big as they say, though."

She has never seen the HUGE ones before.

<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.

"Tree... cake?" Matilda pauses -- and then puts it together. "Oh! The almond-and-chocolate layer cake, yes?" Matilda looks haunted, noting, "S -- so many bowls... the wood grain look is gorgeous, but it has such a time and effort overhead..."

Comments on Krosse draw her attention back to reality, and she says, "Yes -- we haven't yet undergone the same desertification as Aveh... though Krosse is starting to dry up, too, I believe. Even without four-plot crop rotation, the harvests of my grandparents were apparently much outsize from our own..."

Like Elly, Matilda switches to an eclair, and nibbling. "It's -- well... this must sound silly, but... baking, I think, is a way to assert yourself to your ingredients. Compounding is the same way, yes?" She looks to Rosaline as she says this, for some mysterious reason. Maybe this constitutes encouragement, to Matilda? "It's a way to sort of... well..." She sets down her eclair briefly and twists her thumb in her opposite hand a little. "It's a way to feel like you have control of something, can accomplish something!"

She takes another bite, chewing and letting out a contented sigh. "Things like baking, gardening, compounding -- you set an end for yourself and see it through, even if your ingredients start out recalcitrant, uncooperative, and -- in the compounding and gardening cases, anyway -- possibly toxic..." She laughs nervously at this point, saying, "... I suppose that isn't -- a terribly flattering thing to say... Ahahaha..." 

<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.

Alisha tilts her head. Is tree cake something only eaten on Lunar? "Oh--well, you take a long, wooden rod or log, and then you baste it in layers of cake batter. You paint it on, with a brush," she explains. "And then rotate it over a fire, so it cooks, and you have a cake! On a tree. It is, I am told, a delicacy of certain merchant groups."

She smiles, like this is perfectly normal.

She quiets, though, and lets Matilda explain. It does sound therapeutic, she thinks. She doesn't have anything like that. She has her talents...

But there is little she has ever made.

"Ah--well, I see what you mean!" she says. "It is important to feel that... you have accomplished something, especially when events make it difficult to. I always thought--mm, well..."

She looks down at her plate. It is, rapidly, becoming decimated. She eats another cookie, before she continues. "...I always enjoyed eating baked goods. I couldn't cook, but it felt rewarding to be able to eat what someone worked so hard on -- to appreciate the craftsmanship, in a way that they meant it to be. I was grateful for what they did, but... it was a chance to see how they lived, too, I felt."

Then she tears into a bear claw, ruining some of the effect.

<Pose Tracker> June Lim Ze has posed.

 
Elly accepts Rosaline's statement with silent yet empathetic consideration, even as she picks up the knife to dissect more of the napoleon. She puts it in her mouth, even as Matilda explains about crop rotations not stopping the advance of the desert and the erosion of the healthy and wholesome lands.

Matilda paints a pretty picture.

"... I'm glad to hear about other people's lives, even if I wish all of your stories had gone better for you," Elly says after Alisha speaks. "It sounds like you've all had to deal with so much."

"That would be very crispy, from what you're saying, wouldn't it?" Elly asks Alisha after the tree cakery is outlined.

"I've been looking for some kind of hobby myself," Elly then says, glancing back to Matilda. "I just find myself doing nothing but... reading the newspapers and worrying. It's not a lot of fun." 

<Pose Tracker> Rosaline Calice has posed.

Rosaline is quiet for a moment. Matilda explains her analogy, which is interesting, though gives off the uncanny feeling that the nun is missing something there.

The explanation of tree cake gets a puzzled look from Rosaline. No, it's not anything she's ever heard of. "It sounds... interesting, at least," is all she says.

The corners of her mouth twitch when Elly says they've had to deal with a lot. She doesn't confirm or deny, which says enough in itself.

She's still silent for a while. She looks in turn, to the three women assembled alongside her. One who's never had the chance to learn to cook, but would like to. One has been keeping a noble tradition alive. One who is looking for a hobby. And... herself, one who has been plagued by culinary misfortune.

She gingerly deposits her eclair and clasps her hands. "Could this be... providence too?" Her expression lights up as she speaks, though doesn't immediately explain further. 

<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.

"... Hhhhhuh. That's -- I thought you were talking about a completely different type of cake," Matilda says, laughing. "I've never heard of such a thing! It sounds like a terrible mess -- though, hmm..." She considers the possibility of using an iron vessel to contain it while still maintaining the ring shape; in practice, this means she makes a few weird gestures with her fingers.

Three of them, each implying -- or outright stating -- a desire to learn... and Matilda herself, an experienced batterwitch. The thought strikes her at the same time it strikes Rosaline -- and she smiles when she sees it.

"Well, Miss van Houten," Matilda says, "I suppose I shall simply have to teach you to bake. Sister Calice, too, of course. And perhaps Miss Diphda, as well? ... though it sounds like she has her own tutor." She pauses, reflecting -- a baker with an unusual style, cooking foods much beloved of 'certain merchant groups,' who articulates her findings in the most ridiculous way imaginable...

"... Miss Diphda," she muses, "Your friend wouldn't happen to be Miss Barber, Miss Croze, or Miss Rose, would it?" It's a bit of a stab in the dark -- but drifting is a small world. "And -- would your friend, perhaps, be interested in sharing their baking secrets with the rest of us...?" 

<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.

"Mine, ah," Alisha hesitates, "mine... burnt. But I do want to try again."

She looks up -- and then she looks between them. It isn't hard to see where this is going, especially with Matilda's stated expertise. Alisha all but said she would like to try her hand at it more. Rosaline and Elly both said that they would enjoy it -- and Matilda poses her a question. "Rose, yes," she says. "How did you know? I think--I think Rose would be very interested."

She thinks Rose might learn a thing or too.

She flashes a smile, then, and nods. "Oh--this would be a great deal of fun! I... I might also suggest..." She looks around the restaurant, and then leans in over the table, voice dropping to a near-whisper, as if this is scandalous.

"...As we learn, we may want to find more baked goods to sample," she says. "To study. Of course."

<Pose Tracker> June Lim Ze has posed.

 
"How would it be providence?" Elly asks, but it's kind of rhetorical - abstract. She also stuffs the rest of her eclair in her mouth which shuts her up decisively for a moment or six.

Her eyes reutrn to Matilda then and her eyebrows raise as she's informed that she must be taught to bake. Elly points at her nose as she does, cheeks slightly puffed out from pastry packing, before her attention whirls back to Alisha.

She swallows.

"You mean," she asks Alisha, "that this isn't a representative assortment. There's more to it than this? Are these just the local highlights?" Has she been kept from a bakery all her life? Maybe. 

<Pose Tracker> Rosaline Calice has posed.

A plan is devised, an alliance formed. Rosaline nods along, quietly excited at the prospect. All the sugar coursing through her veins right now is probably to blame at least in part.

"How could it not be?" Rosaline answers Elly with something resembling cheer, as she possibly misunderstands the question.

She continues nodding. It's true, they should study too. "You're right. I... I'd like to try tree cake sometime, too." Elly gets a mildly puzzled look, but it passes.

"I like it," Rosaline concludes, as a ringing endorsement.

<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.

"Well -- truth told, I've been working with her off and on! I wasn't sure -- truthfully, my frontrunner was Miss Barber, and I'm a little surprised it was Miss Rose instead -- but, well... she seems like the sort of person who would generate tree cake." Matilda smiles, and then when Alisha whispers about the possibility of sampling additional baked goods, adds, "... agreed."

"This isn't even everything local to this side of Ignas," Matilda notes, to Elly and to a lesser extent Rosaline. "This is a very... how to put this... it's focused mostly on pure bread products -- there's some fruitier pieces, but they aren't making use of November City's vaunted agricultural output! Surely we could get some tree fruits or something, to add a more complex sort of sweetness... I'll have to teach you." 

<Pose Tracker> June Lim Ze has posed.

 
It's an odd way to put it, but Elly is a little odd. She says, with a slow widening of the eyes, "And it's possible to make all these things? In your own home, without all these... fancy things?" She picks up her other eclair, putting it into her mouth.

Not quite biting in, she pauses to say, "I had hardly any idea... How long have you been researching pastries, Doctor?" she asks Matilda, even as she glances back at Rosaline as if to say: She's a doctor of sweets!!

<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.

"Oh! Oh, yes--I do not know Miss Barber well. But... yes, this was Rose. She is, ah, resourceful!" Alisha smiles, brightly -- and then she looks to Elly. Her eyes widen a moment. She stays quiet.

But there is much to teach her. Since they are, after all, going to pursue even more baked goods. And learn to make their own, now!

She claps her hands together, beaming. "This will be a great deal of fun. I have always wanted to learn!"

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