[log] adulting with decent success

[itsjustanaccount]

Who: Yamaguchi and Tsukishima
What: A pair of teenagers went out to shop and make dinner. You're welcome, you bunch of weirdos.
Where: Home's kitchen (plus a thread in Domina)
When: Day 2, evening
Other: This is a joint post, so let us know if you'd prefer one volleyball obsessed teen over the other! Choice 1: Yamaguchi, a good child who deserves better, bad at people. Choice 2: Tsukishima, a shittalking nerd who fakes manners, worse at people.


Anyone who pays particular attention to the people heading in and out of the tree will probably pick up on the fact that, in the morning, Tsukishima and Yamaguchi head off together towards Domina carrying their (now emptied) bags. They're out most of the day, and anyone else who pops into Domina can probably see them going through the market.

Eventually, however, they do come back with significantly less empty bags, and promptly head into the kitchen. There's a brief moment where Tsukishima ducks out to get water from the well around back, but then he stays in there with Yamaguchi.

Eventually, the smell of cooking starts to drift out into the rest of the first floor. Anyone who investigates will find Yamaguchi doing most of the actual cooking, but Tsukishima is doing his share of food preparation.

Feel free to bother either of them, although food isn't ready just yet.

Comments

no character pref!

[horseproblems]

You know that pressure you get on the back of your head while you're eating or doing something in the kitchen? That pressure that can only come from a pair of mournful eyes. That pressure that belongs to an animal that is doing its very best to send waves from its brain into yours so that you will share a bite of your delicious whatever-it-is with it?

That was the pressure Maurice was giving off as he stood awkwardly in the kitchen doorway (and took up the entire passage with his horse-end). Yesterday he'd been too busy having an existential crisis to eat. In all the excitement he'd sort of forgotten food was a thing, but now he smelled it and it smelled amazing.

But he didn't know these guys.

Social interaction was not his highest stat...but that animal instinct that had been coldly inserted into the back of his brain like an old NES cartage demanded he stand there and stare and surely dinner would come his way.

It also didn't help that he had no idea what they were making or what he could even eat. Everything was stupid.

[itsjustanaccount]

For a nice long while, Tsukishima steadfastly ignores their half-equine lurker. Honestly, it’s half his way of coping. There’s just too much that’s weird here- robots, half animal people, talking ponies, the works. He needs to get used to it, because he has no idea how long he’s going to have to deal with all of this, but he’s going to do it at his own pace. Hopefully he’ll have enough time to do that.

Besides… Just a look over the guy is enough to make him suspicious. Like one of those scruffy sorts that you’d give plenty of room on the train because of how much they stink. With the force of his willful ignoring, Tsukishima hasn’t been able to tell if the guy stinks just yet and, frankly, which end could you tell that sort of smell would come from: the human half or the horse half?

Yeah.

It’s when he’s finished with some peppers that he finally gives in. After handing them Yamaguchi’s way, he turns to their “guest” with a cold stare. “Are you just going to stand there all evening?”

[horseproblems]

In all honesty, Maurice smells more like motor oil and cheap booze than horse.

When the boy turns, the Maurice's ears perk forward--as though he's had a question prepared for one of them all this time. But when he sees the look on Tsukishima's face, the question dies on his tongue. He takes an unsteady step back but forces a smile.

"Uh--howdy! I was just...wondering...what you were making." He mentally kicked himself. "Need any help?"

[itsjustanaccount]

The good news is that the second Maurice actually offers help, the cold look in Tsukishima’s stare seems to ease up into mundane teenage apathy. With what they were able to get, more hands isn’t exactly a bad thing.

...But seriously, that smell.

“You’ll need to wash your hands first.” And everything else, honestly, but he’s not going to be that rude to an adult (no matter how dirty) that quickly. He nods to a small bucket that’s set to the side, full of water. “Use that and then empty it out. We need more water from the well in the back, if you can get it for us.”

[horseproblems]

"Sure! Sure!"

Maurice has no idea where this well is, but he's going to do his best to make a good impression. He also thinks it might be better to wash up outside and not risk getting water all over the kitchen floor. Grabbing up the pail, he shuffles around to make an awkward turn and disappears from the kitchen for some time.

Eventually he returns with a fresh bucket of water. It's obvious that his arms have been scrubbed up to the elbows. His shirt is also soaked for reasons.

"How deep d'you think that well goes?"

[itsjustanaccount]

When he hears the distinctive sound of hooves on wood, Tsukishima is already turning around as Maurice comes into the kitchen. He looks a bit more cleaned up, which is an easy step up, and he's eager to help. There's a moment as Tsukishima looks him over critically before he shrugs.

"I don't know," he says, taking a bowl full of potatoes and holding it out. "You need to dig in pretty far to hit water. Can you clean these?"

It should be a simple enough task, after all, and if this guy is chatty, well, he can do it while not messing up.

[horseproblems]

Tsukishima managed to pull Maurice's thoughts from just how big was this planet, was it even a planet, was any of this real, where did the water even go he hadn't seen a single river--with potatoes.

"Right."

He accepted the basket before shuffling over to a spot where he wouldn't block the kitchen entrance and started washing them. It had been a long time since he'd touched a fresh vegetable and a part of him wanted to take a big bite out of one of them, dirt or no dirt. That was...troubling.

Maurice managed to resist but it was getting harder and harder to let the silence stand between him and the two boys. He knew they were doing their own thing, but with his nerves shot, the centaur just could not keep his damned mouth closed.

"Some weather, huh?"

[itsjustanaccount]

Casual silence, alas, is Tsukishima’s preferred way of doing things. Yamaguchi is his best friend, so it’s no surprise that this works out so well for them. It’s companionable silence, the kind where they’re content to just be next to each other. Maurice being added into the equation throws things off a little, but Tsukishima isn’t the type to let something like that bother him.

...At least until Maurice actually talks.

There’s a sigh, but he doesn’t look up from what he’s doing. “It’s been pretty much the same since we’ve been stuck here. Maybe that's just how things are here.”

[horseproblems]

All two days of it.

Maurice was glad Tsukishima wasn't looking because he was already starting to turn colors from embarrassment. The weather? Really? Why was he so bad at people. Blessed silence returned until the potatoes were finally clean and ready to be cut up. Heavy hooves on wood made his approach impossible to miss.

"Here y'go. Has anyone been to that town yet? I can see one from my window but it's way off."

[itsjustanaccount]

It would be a blatant lie to say Tsukishima isn’t judging the centaur at least a little bit. However, for the most part, he’s keeping it off his face. There’s only simple disinterest, paying more mind to his task. As hoofbeats signal Maurice’s approach, he turns to accept the potatoes from him.

“Thank you.” At least he’s polite. Not much else there, but you take what you can get. Setting the potatoes down on the counter, he nods. “It’s where Yamaguchi and I got these vegetables. It’s actually not that far…. If you walk for thirty minutes, you’ll reach the town.” He pauses, glancing over Maurice’s horse half.

“...Maybe you’d reach it sooner than some of us.”

[horseproblems]

Maurice's ears swept backwards as he glanced away in search of something else to look at. Like the rest of the vegetables.

"I dunno about that...I'm still gettin' used to the whole four legs thing."

But he did bring up a good point. Once Maurice got his bearings and quit moping slash having occasional breakdowns, he could probably run incredibly fast. He knew he had the lungs for it because he had screamed for a very very very long time the previous day.

[itsjustanaccount]

For once, something like a flicker of interest comes across Tsukki’s face. He’d actually assumed that, well… Like all the weird things here, that was just how Maurice was. There’s a talking cat, multiple non-human races, and robots around. He’s given up on reality making sense like he thought he did.

“You mean you weren’t always a centaur?”

[horseproblems]

"No!"

Maurice stamped a back hoof. Time to c o m p l a i n.

"I was just like you a couple of days ago! I had a job and a truck and a trailer and a life and now I'm some kind of zodiac freak that draws flies!"

[itsjustanaccount]

He’s pretty sure this guy wasn’t “just” like him. Still, that seems like semantics that he doesn’t really want to get into while this guy is stomping his hooves around. He takes care to keep the knife away from his fingers, more than aware that this place isn’t the most earthquake proof. When it looks like Maurice is done, he starts working again.

“Considering the kind of people that are around here, it seems like you actually belong just fine.” He quirks an eyebrow up at him. “Besides, couldn’t it be worse?”

[horseproblems]

Maurice opens his mouth, more than prepared to be upset and to demand what THAT was supposed to mean...but then the boy brings up a very solid point.

He could have woken up with no legs at all.

And this is what gets him to shut up and stare thoughtfully at his the potatoes.

[itsjustanaccount]

Well, if Maurice wants to marinate on that, he’s free to do that for as long as he wants. Tsukishima gets back to work, careful and patient chopping up the potatoes. When he’s around halfway done, he starts to talk again.

“I guess we all could be considered lucky. Usually in movies, when people wake up in a strange place with no memory of how that happened, you can expect it to be a horror movie, right?”

He’s just saying.

[horseproblems]

The centaur's ears perk right up, new worry forming on his face.

"Who's...to say...this isn't one?"

He looked up and turned in a tight circle, his hip bumping the counter and jostling a few pots that were stacked there. The whole tree could devour them or some terrible wizard could show up or what if they ALL TURNED ON ONE ANOTHER AND PUT A PIG HEAD ON A STICK AND THEN--

Maurice swayed on his hooves and shook himself.

"I think I'm going to go see if anyone needs something...plowed..."

[itsjustanaccount]

As Maurice sinks into his panic spiral, Tsukishima pauses in his potato chopping to watch the show. Wait, no, that’s not quite right. He moves the cutting board and potatoes away from the unsteady looking centaur, just in case, and then watches the show.

“No horror movie starts out this nice,” is his deadpan answer when it finally looks as though Maurice isn’t going to die of a heart attack. “But fine. We’ll tell people when dinner is ready.”