Soup's on, but who's cooking it?

[greatcleavage]

[After a productive day out in the fields earning money, Roy heads back down the streets of Mac Anu, his arms laden with sacks and piled high with -- groceries. Did he really expect to eat them all by himself? Of course not -- he had guild members to feed!]

[But the fighter Edge Punisher had a faint frown on his face as he made his way carefully to the @Home...]

I hope someone can figure out some way to cook all of this...

Comments

[greatcleavage]

Yes. It's surprisingly nice to have a home again. I didn't really realize I'd missed it...

But I can reminisce on my own time. Let's go.

[tank_sniper]

[She raises an eyebrow at this, looking... questioning. Those three sentences certainly sounded like there was a story behind them. But then again, that's not really any of her business, so she won't ask.]

Uh, alright then.

[greatcleavage]

[He glances back as he heads for the door, then catches that look.]

Oh, sorry. It's nothing major, I'm just used to the adventuring lifestyle. Either you're sleeping in an inn, a bedroll under the stars, or a blocked-off dungeon room whenever your spellcasters are running low on memorizations. And before that I was in college. Believe me, a dorm room with a roommate can never be home.

[tank_sniper]

[...He's still talking about strange things, but she can kind of understand what he means nonetheless.]

...I think I know what you mean. My apartment wasn't exactly homey, either.

[greatcleavage]

[In turn, he's not sure how to address this, given her insistence on having a body somewhere else that isn't the one here, but...]

Not much family around, I take it?

[tank_sniper]

I lived by myself in an apartment while I attended school in the city. My mom and grandparents stayed back home.

[greatcleavage]

Ah, school. [It makes sense to him; his sister, after all, went away to school.] It's definitely not the same.

You got lucky not having a roommate, though.

[tank_sniper]

It's just high school, so most people attend from home. But... I guess it's lucky, not having to deal with a roommate.

[greatcleavage]

Oh, it is. Trust me on this one.

[No, Roy isn't bitter or anything, why would you think that?]

Still... it'd be nice if we could find a way to continue education for those who need it, here. Fighting is about more than just "THOG SMASH" for forty panels.

[tank_sniper]

...Thog smash?

[greatcleavage]

[Roy hangs his head.]

Thog was a barbarian in -- Okay, to start from the beginning, our party bard Elan has an evil twin brother named Nale, who was the head of his own party, the Linear Guild. Thanks to his penchant for needless dramatics, his entire party was supposed to have an 'evil opposites' theme. So instead of an elven wizard, they had a dark elf wizard. Instead of a psychotic, murderous evil halfling, they had a psychotic, murderous evil kobold. And instead of -- well, me -- they had Thog, a half-orc barbarian with mental ability scores that dirt mocked.

[tank_sniper]

...This is starting to sound like a poorly written story.

[greatcleavage]

Then I've pretty accurately described to you just how the minds of both Elan and Nale work.

[tank_sniper]

It's really that cliched? I know they say art imitates real life, but that's going a bit far.

[greatcleavage]

Elan was a bard. He knew a lot about stories, quests, adventures, and -- well, he had a lot of virtues that weren't really obvious on the surface.

[Roy is just a little bit guilty, here.]

Despite his many... many, many, flaws, his advice was very helpful a lot of the time. It's thanks to him that I managed to form my adventuring party in the first place.

[tank_sniper]

[She almost wants to ask if being a bard was what made his life so cliched, but this is obviously not the time.]

...You miss him?

[greatcleavage]

He was my friend. And though it took me a while to appreciate them, he had some very good qualities. It's easy to get wrapped up in the goal, or the build, but Elan helped me remember that what makes a hero is the heart.

[tank_sniper]

...I see.

[Her reply is short, but... well, after seeing the black swordsman fighting she can actually believe that much.

...

Wait, weren't they doing something before?]

Where is the food shop, anyway?

[greatcleavage]

Oh. Yeah, it's down here. [He turns into a side-street, then heads into one of the quaint Mac Anu shops.]

[tank_sniper]

[Wow, she'd totally missed this place.]

So this is where you've been finding ingredients...

[She'll have to see if they have anything good for quick lunches, too. It doesn't take her long to orient herself in the shop, quickly finding the area where they keep their different sauces. The ones that stand out first are the red jars of spaghetti sauce, but with a little searching...]

Here. This should do for a while.

[She grabs a container of soy sauce and hands it over to Roy.]

[greatcleavage]

Something else I learned in college: where to get food cheap. It's true what they say about the value of life lessons.

On that note, see anything else you'd recommend?

[tank_sniper]

[A nod.] And even cheap ingredients will do for a meal if you know what you're doing.

Hmm... I think if we get some cooking oil, we should be fine for a while.

[greatcleavage]

Cooking oil, hmm?

[Roy promptly heads off down the aisle, looking as if he knows what he's doing. He is way, way off base. Stop him before he gets lantern oil.]

[tank_sniper]

[She follows, keeping an eye on the shelves as she goes. It's by luck that she actually does spot the cooking oil.]

Hey, I found it. They have some over here.

[greatcleavage]

...What was it doing over there? Shouldn't it be with the other oil?