Cookery Chaos [Closed: Micah, Yuru, Collin, Gao]

[AmJanky]

"In some parts that is considered a serious threat..." Notably he pointed at Micah's action with a slight nod of the head, not with the new pair of chopsticks he'd retrieved from Lani's serving station. It coloured him surprised that the other gents didn't make a move at all, but a stab at food with chopsticks in Kakariko had been met with a figurative dagger at his throat at one point in time, in the form of an extremely stern 'Do that again, and the next meal you eat is steal.' That had been an educational day for all of those involved. "Though, I don't know if even the Kakariko Sheikah would overlook it, because it is the world's most impractical tool for Goron... I won't be mad if you use your hands, mate."


The conversation meanwhile carried on, Yuru lost in the pocket book beside him. A quick glance showed the youth getting particularly lost on the page on wildberries, after a thoughtful moment the book snapped close, Yuru questioning if he could surely keep it.

"Yeah, don't worry about the book. There's a freshly printed expanded edition waiting for me in Hateno." He gave a quick wink, before returning to Gao just getting to the interesting part of his explanation of his scholarly work.

As curious as Collin had been about what exactly made the big man tick before he abruptly didn't seem to want to mention anything further acknowledging his proudly painted skin, and as much as he had expected the man to be a hunter like himself, the story Gao told was as much removed from that as Lanayru from Gerudo Desert. Of all the things it could have been this was least expected. Gao spoke with adoration, with pride, with anything but what Collin had been taught to believe and trained to achieve.

The paint, the scars, the bulk, thus clicked somewhere else in Collin's brain. A part that had so far been laying dormant - a part that had seen him through strife he would not wish upon others.

And so Gao's account struck a nerve so severe Collin stopped functioning for a fraction of a second, his drink was still hovering mid swig while he changed the view from the bottom of the glass to the strongman. Present company nor location permitted a silent brood in a dark corner and a swift exit; no harm, no foul...
Instead, the glass hit the table with a firm clunk. There was no real frown on his face, but the intensity of the glare Collin gave Gao bordered on feral, even through the shadow cast by his brow the orange pupils spit fire. Adrenaline rising with the long silent breath the hunter drew, when he let it out it came as a snarl.

"If I were you, I'd hide that gargle of 'blins you hold so dear very well from the likes of me. Our first reaction would be to shove a blade down the blinded moblin's gob so far it would reach the guts through the gullet."

Hello, my old heart.
How have you been?
How is it being locked away?

In some parts that would be considered a serious threat... His face contorted into realization, followed by immediate regret. His eyes seeking purchase on something entirely non-invasive as the food on the table, while visibly straining to release the built up anger taking a couple of breaths.


Scouting the monstercamps, counting their ranks, planning attacks, just generally loafing about being an extra pair of eyes and ears to the writer and artist of the book he'd given Yuru; Collin had personally seen the ways the monsters acted among themselves. They were in a roundabout and distorted way akin to the camplife his peers and he knew; roasting meats, preparing meals, telling stories amongst each other, sleeping - weather permitting - under nothing more than the stars. Normal daily activities.

He'd also seen their ferocity, their unstoppable urge to maim and fight. He'd seen them run in with their crude arms ablaze, he'd seen them chase travellers, he'd seen their entire uncaring nature towards another of smaller stature, he'd seen them being thrown and stepped on by their own kind, he'd seen them burn villages whenever they got their loincloth in a twist, he'd seen them bite and scratch those he cared about the most, he'd seen them ki- Stop.

In short, they were every bit as uncaring and psychopathic as the one who'd granted them a stay in this realm. To want to study them and make friends with the monsters was entirely unthinkable to someone trained to hate and eradicate them from a young age.


Still...

"My apologies, that was altogether uncalled for..." Though he hadn't completely lost the snarl to his tone, his face had set into a practiced calm. A look that refused to give into the fury he had previously let get the better of him.

Well, don't you worry, 'cause in there, you're safe
And it's true, you'll never beat
But you'll never break

"I realize my opinion on the matter is very strong... For reasons I am disinclined to share, but given you hail from Lurelin - and, incidentally, judging by the looks you're getting - you must know what kind of reasons they are." Gao's loss of appetite signaled clearly that he could not truly combine what he had decided to live for and what his people would want him to live for. The atmosphere had all but changed, there was an edge to the looks that Collin could feel prickling down his spine.

"I don't mean to criticise your way of living, nor discredit what things could be gleaned from a research like it - especially since you have shown us such great hospitality - but this might be a subject that is best left where it lies."

He turned to the Goron who had posed the initial question that had brought on Gao's story.

"I personally don't think that we should even begin to seek peace with a being that has been created with the sole purpose of warmongering. But would also be the last to dissuade anyone of their found purpose." By now Collin's voice had lost its snarl, there were no visible remainders of how bristled he had felt and acted. There had been a time where this instinct had been useful, that time was long ago from where he found himself at the beach in Lurelin enjoying some dinner.

"If peace ever comes to be, then I certainly have more profuse apologizing ahead of me." The return of his carefree demeanor got punctuated with a signature shrug.

[El]

Yuru's response to Gao's heartfelt admission was the most surprising of them all. So rare was his genuine apathy - dressed as it was in the shallow warmth of cordiality - that the scholar began to suspect he hadn't been listening at all. Not truly. Few in their right minds, in this day and age, would compare their own blood to genuine monsters. Either that, or Yuru wasn't taking him seriously, and had zero interest in trying to: that wasn't something as novel.

Gao bit back a caustic smile, knowing well the true origins of the foul taste on his tongue. Even if he hadn't noticed the wisp-tails of reverie's clouds leaving the other Sheikah's eyes as he snapped closed the book, the truth of the matter was not worth the cost. For his own sanity, Gao ruled the reaction as the reflex of distraction, a clipped and hollow laugh just as politely sounding in response.

He took another sip of his drink to hide the insincerity of his smile, though it warmed into something much softer when Micah chimed in.

Disbelief: but honestly so. His question was posed with a childlike curiosity, hesitant but brimming with wonder. Gao knew the Goron to be in possession of a precious heart, but it was revealed then just how pure it truly was. Another rare response. Doubt in itself was not, but usually its origins were rooted in mockery and fury, much like-

"If I were you, I'd hide that gargle of 'blins you hold so dear very well from the likes of me. Our first reaction would be to shove a blade down the blinded moblin's gob so far it would reach the guts through the gullet."

Gao slowly set down his glass. Not gently. Not with strength either. The tense grace of the movement was akin to an animal stalking amongst disturbed reeds, poised, steady, primed. With a flick of blood-red his eyes locked onto Collin's. True enough, there it was, the predatory violence of ill intent.

Gao's eyes never left him. Unblinking. Even as the golden flames roared and the vitriol spluttered like searing magma across his scarred, butter heart.

His expression didn't shift.

Whatever emotion had been on Gao's face prior had drained entirely, leaving behind a cold, steeled mask that bore the brunt of the stranger's malice. A neutrality so pure, it was uncanny. A composure that betrayed how much worse he'd weathered. This was the normal response. Behind him - unseen - the hand which supported Gao's reclining weight curled, grabbing a fistful of hot sand and its sharp glass.

After a long pause the man then began to snarl out an apology.

Gao didn't respond.

Then the apology was elaborated upon, remarking on personal details as evidence to his case and retreading ground he'd so violently incinerated mere moments before.

Gao did not respond.

Eventually the openly aggressive hostility had subsided entirely, revealing the artful wordsmith of a man Gao had met earlier that day. Quick on his feet. Charming and playful, but with a snide sting behind every seemingly simple remark.

Gao was silent.

The hard set of his jaw was entirely immobile.

He wanted to leave.
He wanted to snap his neck.
He wanted to ridicule his empty apology and his equally pathetically duplicitous pride.
He wanted to sob, chest heavy with shared grief, and assure him that he need not apologise - what he felt was true, and just. He wanted to apologise for all that Collin had been through.
He wanted to comfort and protect and assist. He wanted to confess and share his own wounds in camaraderie and promise to slaughter the fiends that'd hurt his loved ones.
He wanted to tear his heart out and crush it while he still breathed.
He wanted to laugh, to play along as the bestest of buds to keep this fragile peace.
He wanted to seize this opportunity in the name of a greater good and open up a discourse from which they both could learn.
He wanted to scream.
He wanted to fight.
He wanted to leave.

Gao's heart bled and he was suffocating on it. ...Did it ever stop bleeding, or did he just stop noticing?

No matter. It was good to be reminded. He'd almost been lured into a false sense of security and would've slept here tonight. How easily a man could forget the daggers lowered to his slumbering throat after a few jokes and a good meal. A civilised man had tried to kill him in his sleep more often than any monster had.

With a twitch of his lips, the Sheikah drew in the quietest of breaths and turned to Micah - his priorities readjusted and reset. The first words out of his mouth were, "Collin is right." Gao agreed with a humorous lilt, gaze motioning towards the chopsticks: or rather chopstick which the Goron had used to impale the pumpkin. "Use your hands if it's more comfortable, mate. In some households that's actually preferred, as a more genuine way of appreciating food and its many textures - a part of the experience."

But he paused then and chuckled, eyeing the bountiful spread with a shifted perspective that troubled him as much as it perplexed him. "Though... speaking of texture, I hope this doesn't all just feel like mush given your usual diet. I'm not even sure how we'd solve that actually... unless..." The half-finished drink swirled in an idling, thoughtful hand. "We 'packaged' it in crab shells maybe? That's not unheard of. It'd tear our softer throats to bits, but I know a fair few Zora who enjoy their meals like that."

[LuckyBlackCat]

And just like that, from an innocent question about professions, all good humour vanished from the conversation like sunlight behind clouds. Micah's alarmed gaze shifted from Collin, to Gao, then back again, barely-repressed feral animosity tightening the features of monster hunter and monster researcher alike, blazing white-hot in their eyes. This discussion, for both of them, had prodded at some old wounds.

Even Collin's response may as well have come from the mouth of a different person, a growl of controlled rage bordering on a threat, every trace of his usual laid-back and jokey self gone. The silence that followed only lasted a few seconds, but seemed to stretch out endlessly as palpable tension crackled in the air, a prelude to a storm of bitterness and barbed words.

A storm which, thankfully, never broke out. Although Collin's tone still simmered with disgust, he apologised, hinting at his reasoning. A reasoning the glowering onlookers shared, going by his mention of Lurelin... Micah cringed, shoulders and spine hunching as if he tried to shrink into a pebble. That confirmed it. Something had happened here, something which had left deep scars.

He really should have kept his mouth shut.

He didn't even realise how tightly his fingers had clenched around the chopstick until he heard the snap. Looking down, he grimaced at the two dangling halves of the utensil, connected only by a few splinters. Was he going to break everything he touched here, literally and figuratively?

"I'm the one who owes an apology... Shouldn't have brought the matter up in the first place," he piped up, a feeble attempt to restore the peace. "Or asked further questions about it."

Gao, taking Collin's advice on agreeing to disagree, was quick to change the subject back to food. Setting aside the third chopstick he'd broken that day, Micah picked up a chunk of pumpkin, his grip gentle so as not to render the fruit even mushier. "Eheh... Impractical is putting it mildly," he replied to Collin. "F-For me, that is! For Gorons." Utensils in general seemed impractical to him, but was it really alright to use his hands while all the other customers used chopsticks? With two Sheikah present, no less, even if one had given him the ok?

At Gao's suggestion of giving the food extra crunch with crab shells, Micah looked at the plates of grilled crustaceans resembling the rooftop sculpture. "Those?" His appetite had waned from the turn in the conversation, and the prospect of consuming bug chitin struck him as odd, but he couldn't dismiss it without trying it first. If the others couldn't eat crab carapace, that way it wouldn't go to waste.

"Sounds worth a try!" A smile lifted the edges of his lips. The mood was resuming its buoyancy, the chatter growing friendly and casual once again. Yet after those revelations, it was too much to hope that the dynamic would be the same.