faderift | [ Open ] You are a Giant Redwood, Falling on a Family of Deer

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[ Open ] You are a Giant Redwood, Falling on a Family of Deer

WHO: Avery and OPEN
WHAT: Another post-shardbearer-plot (this one) post! This one a slightly wider spread catch-all
WHEN: Late September/early October
WHERE: Around Skyhold
NOTES: Warning for grouchy, injured baker! Also, potential references to violence and torture and gore from said shardbearer plot

Kitchens

Anyone coming in for a visit or just down here passing by over these few weeks is probably going to be hearing a lot more banging and clattering and cursing than usual before they even reach the doors. Sounds which further investigation will reveal to be the sweet music of a very frustrated Avery trying to navigate the narrow spaces between counters in here sporting a sling on one arm and a crutch under the other. What with her junked-up shoulder and still heavily bandaged leg, y'know?

If they're lucky, they might even get the pleasure of seeing her fumble at doing simple tasks one-handed or knock over a tray of breadrolls with her crutch and transcend anger into a quantum state of silent fuming. The kitchen has never betrayed her like this before.

Healing Tents

Hopefully it won't be like that for too much longer though. And it's this hope that has Avery diligently visiting the healing tents at the appropriate intervals to have the progress of her wounds checked on. The shoulder, thankfully, is not so bad, as long as she makes sure to keep from moving it around too much for a while, but the leg... Well, it turns out giant, magical wolf bites don't really give a damn about magical healing. They're stubborn like that and refuse to go away on anyone's schedule but their own!

Stables

During those moments when Avery doesn't have reason to visit the healing tents but has been shooed out of the kitchen to do this thing called... relaxing? (She thinks she might have heard of it once, but she really has no idea what such a strange and foreign concept could truly be. It sounds like a trap.) She usually wanders down to the stables to check in with some of her favorite horses and maybe have a go at brushing out their manes and tails while she's at it. Hopefully without being disturbed by anyone, but everyone knows how likely that is to work out for her.

Training Grounds

Though lately she's been spending a little time watching the soldiers train as well. She's not a terrible fighter herself, but most of what she knows is about how to make your average bully or mugger eat their own teeth. If she'd had real battle training like these people, would things have gone differently on that last mission? She can't help but wonder about it as she silently observes.

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Yes, thankfully it's Avery's non-dominant arm that's having the shoulder problems, but it's clear that even holding something so small up high enough to show off for this long is giving her a bit of discomfort. She keeps trying to pretend it doesn't though and sets what she's holding down to, ostensibly, focus on observing Josephine.

"Aye," she confirms with a nod. "We'll not need many. This won't be too big a batch, and the potatoes are mostly meant to thicken this soup, not flavor it."

Without any further ado, Josephine picks up the knife Avery had set down. It takes her a moment or two to find a comfortable grip on the handle, but once she does, she takes a potato from the pile and looks at her equipment with a look of steadfast determination. Her tongue peeks out of the corner of her mouth as she attempts to peel her first potato; it goes better than she had anticipated, although she does hit a snag here and there when she loses her rhythm.

"Is this right?" she asks Avery.

"You're doing well," is her answer, as she tries not to laugh at how serious Josephine's expression is right now. If she looks kind of amused still, well, no one can blame her for that, right? "You're sure you've never done this before?"

"It would be a strange matter to lie about," Josephine protests, her voice laced with amusement nonetheless. "If I have, it was not frequently enough to remember ever doing so." Successfully peeled, she places the first potato down and picks up another.

"Should I keep going?"

Avery nods, "One more should do it."

She reaches for the two heads of broccoli she'd set out earlier and pulls them close. "Then we'll cut those and these up, and a little of a few other things too, but until much later these are the only things you have to worry about, really."

Josephine goes about peeling the second potato, with slightly more success than she'd had with her first. "How are we going to cut them up?" she asks.

"Well, first we'll cut the florets from the stalk," she explains, pointing to a couple of the spots she'll be cutting. "Then we'll chop it all up just into chunks but keep each type separate."

With a shrug, she admits, "I mean, you can keep them together, but the longer it cooks, the more color broccoli loses, so if you want it to look any good, you'll want to add the florets later than the stems." Which implies something that could come as a surprise to some people...

Avery actually cares about the aesthetics and presentation of some things. Shocking.

Josephine, sadly, just stares at the broccoli with a look of utter bemusement on her face. "Uhm," she starts, feeling suprisingly more flustered than the situation truly entails, "What is a 'floret'?" Flushing slightly, she drops her head before adding, "I tried to watch your hands as you explained but... it still escaped me, I fear."

"Sorry," Avery says, but smiles as she does so. "They're each of the little... leafy bits that make up the head."

Getting a sudden idea, she takes a knife from nearby and cuts away one the aforementioned florets, then holds it out for Josephine to have a closer look at. "I guess someone thought it was a little like a flower."

Josephine leans in and peers into the depths of the broccoli with such intensity one could he forgiven for thinking she suspects it is hiding secrets from her. "Floret... a little flower. Ah, I think I get it!"

Maybe it is. The secret of delicious soup, perhaps?

"Something like that," Avery answers and then suddenly stops and glances off to the side. The whole motion of holding the floret out to Josephine like this has struck a memory that slipped her mind until now in all the madness since the mission she was on went sideways.

Clearing her throat, she sets the broccoli down next to the rest of its kind and tries to casually slip in, "Remind me before you go, I have something for you."

Edited 2016-10-16 14:00 (UTC)

That declaration from Avery nets her a little surprised noise. "Oh! You didn't have to. But--" She cuts herself off before she can begin rambling. "It is appreciated. Thank you. I shall try and remember."

Feeling the need to fiddle with something in her hands, she picks up the broccoli and looks at it once more. "Should I start cutting off the flor-ets?" She draws out the last syllable.

Little flowers, indeed.

"Yeah, no, it's no huge thing or anything," Avery starts, in what could potentially turn into an awkward ramble for her as well. "Just a little something I picked up while I was away that, um..."

Realizing how many times she just said the word 'thing,' she waves a hand vaguely and then grabs onto the peeled potatoes for dear life. "Well, you'll see. So... yes. You go ahead and do that. Once you're done, you don't have to peel the whole stem but there might be some harder spots that'll need removing. And I'll chop these potatoes up into chunks while you do all that." That at least she can manage without much issue, if still a little slower than usual.

If Josephine has anything to say about Avery's rambling, she does not put voice to the thought; she finds it endearing, actually, but she is not sure that the woman will take that as a compliment, so instead, she smiles to herself more than anyone else and begins to busy herself with the deflowering (de-floreting?) of the vegetables. She makes reasonably quick work of them for someone who hasn't spent much time in a kitchen before, and she sets the knife down briefly to ask, "How do I tell what parts of the stem need removing?"

The potatoes are easy enough to take care of that Avery has been able to keep an eye on Josephine's work, for the last little bit of it at least, so she's quick to respond to the question, "Oh, yeah, it's not too complicated."

She steps in close and demonstrates as she explains, "Just run your fingers across, maybe add some pressure. Most of it should feel pretty much the same, but a few bits are going to be a little tougher, especially near where the branches led off. Like here." She pokes one spot in particular she's found and nods for Josephine to touch it as well. "If you miss a little, it should still be fine, especially with the way we're about to cook this, but it's good to take care of what you can, yeah? I don't know about you, but I'm not a big fan of tree bark in my soup."

She wrinkles her nose ever-so-slightly at Avery's suggestion. "That does sound most unappetising," Josephine agrees, following the instruction to touch the rough part of the broccoli, her hand brushing Avery's as she gets her fingers into position. She runs her thumb over the spot in question. "I think I see what you mean," she says, even though she's honestly now more confused.

"I'll do my best," she reaffirms, taking a step back towards her pile of vegetables so she can busy herself with cutting once more.

Wow. Rude.

There is a slight pause, in which Avery looks at their hands and then sidelong at Josephine for a moment, before she pulls away and clears her throat. "Good," she says quietly and... maybe slightly awkwardly, trusting that she has this under control for now. "Once you've peeled off those bits, you can just cut the stems into rough pieces, about the size of the potato ones? I'll just grab some butter and make sure the stove is ready for the pot."

Josephine catches the glance and the following odd qualify in Avery's voice, and makes a mental note to give the woman more space next time. Looking over at the potatoes to determine what size to cut her stems, Josephine nods absently, running her fingers down the broccoli like Avery had shown her to check for any rough spots. "Anything else?"

Yes, excellent. Miscommunication. The most important ingredient to any good developing... whatever this is.

Over her shoulder, Avery says, "Just cutting up that little bit of celery and garlic that's on the counter. Then it all just goes in the pot once the butter's melted. Except the florets. Those we'll worry about in a few minutes."

Josephine takes a moment to look in the direction of the vegetables Avery's mentioned, before returning her attention to the broccoli to ensure the removal of any rough spots she can find. "Will you show me how to cut those as well?" she murmurs.

You know, she thought maybe stepping away from the table would give her a second to just take a breath and be chill again after that moment of clear un-chillness? But all it's really doing is giving her a new perspective on how surreal this moment is. One of the most powerful people in one of the most powerful organizations in Thedas is asking Avery to show her how to cut garlic... "Um," she mumbles distractedly, and then shakes herself back to reality. "Yeah, of course. I'll be right there."

She finishes up making sure the stove will be ready for them as soon as they finish with the vegetables and returns to the table with some butter, giving Josephine a small smile. "How's it coming?"

There is definitely something that seems to be bothering Avery, but Josephine is set upon her task determinedly enough to not push (for now). After attending to the broccoli, probably removing more of the stems than had been truly necessary, she laughs somewhat shakily as she surveys her work. "I've done all I can. I hope it is enough."

At that Avery can't help but chuckle a little as well, especially at Josephine's seeming concern over whether she's done well. As strange as this situation may be, she's still just another person trying something new deep down.

"It looks good to me. Don't worry," Avery assures her with a light touch to her arm, before moving the broccoli aside and pulling the single, small celery stalk needed in front of them. "This'll be a bit simpler. This is leftover from something earlier, so the leaves have already been removed and everything. All you need to do is slice it, but we will need it a lot thinner than the other two, so don't feel like you have to rush.

"For now, just hold it and the knife how you think you ought to."

Josephine does her best to calm herself, which is surprisingly difficult with Avery's proximity, but nonetheless she perseveres and focuses on the task at hand, which happens to be celery. Ah, celery. She twists the knife in her hand so the blade is facing directly down, and so her forefinger is on the top of the handle rather than her thumb. Looking back at her instructor, she asks, "Like this?"

"You've got the right idea," she answers but then reaches over over to adjust her grip a little as she explains, "You'll have better control though if you choke up on it a bit. Have your hand a little further up so you can pinch the blade between your thumb and forefinger."

See? So long as she keeps it well within the bounds of being instructional, the contact is... well, still awkward and distracting, but less so! Sort of.

Anyway, once she has Josephine's grip on the knife sorted, Avery pulls away slightly and drops her hand onto the table, curling her fingers up partially under it. "Once you start cutting the celery, this is the way you'll want to keep your other hand on it so there's no chance your fingertips ever end up under the knife as well. Plus, you can just lightly touch the side of the blade to your knuckles to keep it steady the whole time, yeah?"

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[ Open ] You are a Giant Redwood, Falling on a Family of Deer

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look herian's just jealous

idk she IS the one currently making out with an evil npc or something right??

something like that i think she needs higher standards

...ok thats fair

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