🍁🎑🦋 Bug Eater Farm: Autumn Catch-all 🦋🎑🍁

[pactmarshal]

🍂 WHO: Kaspar and/or Trahearne, and you!
🍂 WHAT: Joint catch-all for two good tall boys
🍂 WHEN: Throughout autumn
🍂 WHERE: Here, there, everywhere
🍂 WARNINGS: To be added in headers!

[ details and toplevels in comments below ]

Comments

[pactmarshal]

[ Kaspar had been such a different person in the memory that it served as a shock. It leaves him to wonder what sort of trials his housemate had to go to, to get where he was when they first met--the gentle, soft-spoken man who'd gently held his hand and showed him edible worms. At the same time, Trahearne wonders if he himself has changed any since coming here. And if Kaspar would live through the same shock he did if he saw him in an earlier memory, too.

The first batch of pies come out, Trahearne inhales the scent, pleased by the combination of buttery pastry and spices and meat. He pauses in his cutting again to glance over his shoulder at them, and at Kaspar, if he should be looking, with a smile. ]

I take it homemade pies were not on your menu, however.

[ At least at Fort Trinity, even in their downtime, involved baked goods like pies were a rare treat, often brought from elsewhere. Trahearne could probably count on one hand the amount of times he'd had a pie in his life. ]

[bluminescence]

[ Kaspar breathes a laugh and glances over to return the smile out of habit. Since he is looking anyway, Kaspar simply shakes his head no at first. The food back home had a variety of its own, but nothing here was exactly like anything he knew how to cook in Groscia. Some of his habits still set him apart from most other humans on the island. It was obvious in the little ways long before he added worms to the pot.

His diet before had been full of worms and grubs, snakes and lizards, all paired with mosses and fungi, and seasoned with healthy doses of minerals, like salt, from the mines. And on special occasions, fish and other aquatic catches from underground lakes. ]

Nothing like this.

[ He says as he returns to the first batch, taking the time and focus to carefully fill all but one with the gelatin rich stock he'd prepared before Tra showed up. They are left to cool to room temperature. The recipe calls for them to chill overnight, and so most will. That does not mean Kaspar can resist one now.

The previously neglected pie is set on a small plate that Kaspar brings with him when he returns to Tra's side. Looking pleased, he cuts into the only slightly cooled pie. The crispier crust gives way, a satisfying contrast to the inside full of grouse meat, pork fat, and herbs. Gently stabbing a small bite of it on the fork, he blows on it softly before offering it to his farm mate. The plate dutifully follows beneath it, just in case. ]

[pactmarshal]

[ Trahearne only smiles again at the response before returning to his peeling, cutting; making sure everything is as precise and exact as it needs to be. But he isn't slow. It's been weeks, and he's gotten better with a kitchen knife. He isn't sure if he would have gotten this far without Kaspar's constant experimenting in the kitchen, and Trahearne's constant willingness to help.

The sudden intensity of the scent of the meat grabs his attention, and he turns to see a forkful of pie right in his face. ]

Oh!

[ His face lights up, and he leans forward to bite it off the fork. It's hot, but nothing he can't handle. It's so...juicy. And good.

Except he's too busy chewing to say anything, and he's a sylvari with manners. Though he can't exactly smile in his state, his eyes light up, and he looks at Kaspar in approval. ]

[bluminescence]

[ They've spent far too much time together for Kaspar not to glean the meaning from that expression just as well as if he'd used his words. The next bite has already found its way to his own mouth when their lit up eyes meet. A success. It had taken some experimenting, but the result brings tears to Kaspar's eyes. He too, has come a long way, since they don't leave his wet eyes.

This is break time apparently, since he casually offers Tra another bite instead of getting the apple pie filling ready. Kaspar glances back to the cooling meat pies. Only to Tra would he wonder aloud so openly-- ]

... I wonder, why they eat them cold?

[pactmarshal]

[ Trahearne notices that, too. He has always been impressed--panged by slight nostalgia--by the way Kaspar expresses his joy so freely. Too many of the other races are much too scarred by their upbringings to embrace how they feel, and it was refreshing to see his housemate embrace his emotions. In a way, though, it impresses him to see that he has better control over them, that he is no longer overwhelmed so easily. He smiles, when the piece of pie is finished.

And when the last of the apples are done, he scoops them into the bowl as he takes the next offered piece of pie. And as he chews, he stares in consideration at the cooling pies, then back to Kaspar.

It's not like he has much experience with how pies are meant to be eaten, so he eyes Kaspar curiously. ]

Who is they?