♩ gentle and warm as the light

[shiritai]

Who: Violet and you!
What: Violet decides to step up and take a shot at cooking. She has... decidedly mixed results.
When: March 26th, early afternoon and night
Where: The kitchen (afternoon) and the viewing deck (night)
Warnings: Terrible violence comitted upon the concept of a scrambled egg.

[ So if you go down to the woods the kitchen today, you might be in for a bit of a surprise. You'll find one (1) Violet Evergarden hard at work at one of the counters with a recipe book cracked open and... just some eggs? Well, if she's starting simple, eggs are a good place to jump off from. How wrong can you go with eggs?

Very wrong, it turns out.

Maybe you'll find her utterly failing at cracking eggs into the bowl. It's a bit of a crapshoot whether she ends up with egg all over the counter or actually gets it into the bowl, but either way it ends with her having a mixture composed of roughly 60% egg and 40% shell. Or maybe you'll find her pouring that mixture into a bowl and... doesn't that look like way, way too much egg for one girl?

Or maybe you'll just see Violet examining the sorry results of her work once she's done. It looks sort of like a badly mutilated omlette but it's so huge she's had to spread it across two plates. One side is burned to a crisp, one looks slightly soggy and undercooked and the whole thing just looks like a slightly greyish yellow hunk of rubber. Violet stares down at it pensively for a long moment before carefully picking up both plates and making her way straight to the trashcan. Atta girl, Violet.

That night, if you happen to be the sort of weirdo who lurks around on the viewing deck after dark, you'll find you've got company. Violet's there, settled on one of the seats with the duvet from her bed wrapped around her nice and snug, to stave off the worst of the sea breeze. She's got her eyes up to the roof, where the night sky would be, if it wasn't for the absolutely torrential rain pouring down and obscuring much of anything. She looks a little bit disappointed (or as disappointed as Violet ever looks, anyway) but she's sat there gazing up diligently at the roof anyway. Very odd. ]

Comments

[shiritai]

Yes.

[ She's busily cramming the Hell Omelette into the trash, where no mortal's eyes shall ever be cursed by it again. This is made slightly more difficult by the fact that the Homelette (Hell Omelette) is slightly too big to comfortably fit in there. ]

My first attempt has not proved successful.

[riderofcharlemagne]

[God, this is a depressing sight.

But, he can't let it get her down too.]

Well, that's what first attempts are for anyway, right? You make a mess of it, and then you make less of a mess of it the next time.

[shiritai]

Yes. I believe the phrase "practice makes perfect" applies here.

[ At least now it's breaking apart, even if Violet is having to savage it with the fork to make it happen. So brutal... ]

Though first I will need to identify precisely what mistake I made, so I do not repeat it a second time.

[riderofcharlemagne]

[He wants to help her tear it apart to be rid of it. His hands itch to just take the plate out of hers and free her of this burden.]

That's the spirit! [Except the "reflecting on your mistakes" part, he can't understand that.] It's best not to let yourself get discouraged with these kinds of things.

[shiritai]

[ And finally, to the relief of all witnessing this horrid display, the Homlette finally disappears into the darkness of the trashcan where it belongs. Satisfied that the monster she created has been dealt with, off goes Violet to put that plate into the dishwasher. ]

Perhaps before moving straight onto cooking, I should try my hand at preparing a meal made with raw ingredients.

[ ... in the meantime though, she should probably figure out the dishwasher controls before she gives anything else in the kitchen a try. She's got it open but now she's just sort of staring at the buttons like they might bite her if she presses the wrong one. ]

[riderofcharlemagne]

Maybe, but your ambition to go straight towards the complicated [Using that term very, very liberally.] is something to be respected! The feeling of accomplishment in finally taming the omelette will be second to none!

[After posing enthusiastically during that rousing speech, he notices that Violet's actually moved from where he was standing. Moving back beside her, he tilts his head at the washing machine and frowns. The Grail failed to give him the knowledge of how to operate this kind of thing.]

[shiritai]

[ Violet s t a r e s down the dishwasher for a moment, eyes narrowed just a touch. She reaches out like she's about to press a button and then... oh, nope, back to her side it goes.

This is already shaping up to be just as much of a disaster as the omelette. ]

There aren't any machines like this in Leidenschaft.

[ or at least, Violet hasn't encountered any if it does ]

Are there any instructions?

[riderofcharlemagne]

[Astolfo quickly scans around the room for any signs of a handbook or notes left on how to use it.]

Not that I can see...

[He returns to staring at the dishwasher.]

It can't be that complicated, if we just press a bunch of buttons that'll probably do something, right?

[Just. Mash all of them.]

[shiritai]

I suppose not. If it were a complicated machine, it would not be left out in a communal area such as the kitchen.

[ Sound logic.

And with that, Violet just presses every single button and then shuts the door.

The dishwasher rumbles, ominously. ]

[riderofcharlemagne]

[That sound is promising enough for Astolfo.

He throws Violet a thumbs-up, beaming with pride.]

You nailed it!

[shiritai]

[ After a moment of hesitation, Violet gives him a thumbs up in response. That's... probably what you're supposed to do, right? ]

Yes. I nailed it.

[ the dishwasher gives a dull screech. this is probably working as intended. ]

Are there any other machines such as this in the kitchen? Do they all function in the same way?

[riderofcharlemagne]

[He gives her an appreciative head pat for her good job of it.]

I'm not sure. I haven't really done much cooking or cleaning in here. I can't imagine they'd be much different, though.

[shiritai]

[ A pat on the head... truly, Violet must have exceeded expectations to be praised to such an extent. ]

Then once I've mastered the preparation stage, cooking shouldn't be a problem any longer.

[ rip to the entire keystone station ]

[riderofcharlemagne]

[He gives her an encouraging smile.]

See! You've got it all worked out, you'll be a master in no time!

[Astolfo can be blamed for the destruction.]