World Tree MUSH

    Trollskull Manor may not be open yet, but the kitchen is absolutely getting a full-tilt shakedown cruise tonight. Half the spices and ingredients in the cupboards have been replaced, the cookware has been meticulously cleaned (and a couple of cast-iron skillets re-seasoned), and Lether has been carefully questioned - not just about her food preferences and favorite dishes, but also for any allergies or intolerances. It's been an uncannily in-depth process, and now the kitchen sounds as if a small team is working.

    And if anyone glances in, Crimson isn't even using her superhuman speed; she's just moving fast and juggling multiple tasks at once, with a precision and confidence that would look a lot more at home on a professional chef than it would a wandering sellsword.

    So first and foremost, grilling (hah hah) Lether on her food preferences, well...
    Her diet revolved around a lot meat. Usually bloody and or raw if not cooked. Allergies? That earned a sideways blink.
    But here she is now sitting at a table in the taproom looking bewildered. She's never really had anyone *cook for her before*. A lot of her experience with food...
    Suffice it to say it has not been the best.
    So a curious lizardfolk leans over around the corner into the kitchen to watch Kanna juggle the various burners and pots and skillets and whatever she may be working with.

    At first, it seems as if the ronin doesn't notice. She's dipping what looks like pieces of chicken in some kind of batter, then dropping them in a pot of oil with a basket in it - where something else is already frying, by the look of it. And shortly thereafter, she smoothly steps over to a stove, gives a stir to one small pot of... some kind of sauce, then picks up a second, and uses a brush to take that sauce and coat what looks like a pair of chicken skewers over a grill. But as she's brushing on the sauce, without so much as looking, she calls over her shoulder, "Y'know, most cooks would badger you right back out of the kitchen." She doesn't seem particularly bothered.

    The smell of frying food is... It's not something Lether is used to. And the playful threat of getting badgered out of the kitchen is met with a sideways blink.
    "I'm not in the kitchen." She says matter of factly from where she leans around the corner to peek into the kitchen without actually entering. Dumb semantics aside though she is eyeing that chicken.
    One hand comes up.
    "That is perfectly good chicken. What are you doing to it?"
    Oh the poor thing.

    "Makin' it better," Crimson replies without skipping a beat. She shifts from brushing the sauce on the skewers over to a section of counter where there's what looks like a pot of rice, and a cut of raw fish - and while she takes up a knife and starts cutting, she's still talking. "You got an iron stomach compared to most folks, but cooking doesn't just make meat safe for the rest of us. It changes the flavor and the texture. And then you add seasonings or sauce, and you get something special. Flavors that combo together real well, ways to prepare meat that makes it more tender, there's a whole world of ways to make food taste amazing."

    After hand-rolling three pieces of sushi, the adventurer smoothly slides over to a griddle, flips a steak, then shifts over to the deep-frying pot again, this time to remove the 'something else' - which turns out to be chicken wings. "Time was, I didn't know a thing about all this, I just ate the fancy crap that was put in front of me. But now that I've learned, I like to share it."

    Making it... Better?
    Oh no, this is going to spoil Lether's palate isn't it? Not that she knows what she's about to experience as she makes a bewildered face for a beat. But iron stomach?
    "Obligate carnivore." She points out, but listens all the same. She is, at least, willing to try this out.
    So she watches the sushi get rolled, the steak get flipped, and the chicken wings get pulled out from the fry.
    "I've never had fancy." She points out. "Never needed to and never had anyone to make it that way for me." She says before struggling for a beat.
    "... That's a lot of good meat."
    Lether painfully stops herself from asking again: 'what are you doing to it?'
    Instead she slowly leeeeeeans back out of frame from the kitchen to return to her seat and wait warmly.

    There's a moment where Kanna finally looks directly at Lether, just briefly after wrangling one item and before wrangling the next. "Everyone oughta, at least once." She doesn't reply to the comment about the meat - but something in her grin suggests she can hear the second part, even if it's not spoken aloud.

    And fortunately, Lether won't have to wait long before the Crimson Wind comes bustling out of the kitchen, with two separate platters, each with a couple different plates. As the redhead sets them down, she points and explains. "Figured I'd give you just a nice and easy steak, cooked rare, seasoned simple. Salt and pepper, little bit of garlic powder. That right there next to it is chicken wings, little heavier on the seasoning. These sauces here are 'ranch' and 'buffalo', that one's spicy. Still getting the hang of those, not sure how well I did 'em but they should be passable."

    And then onto the next tray, which already has Crimson grinning. "And this is a little closer to my own homeland. This is chicken karaage, chicken dipped in batter and deep fried. My own blend. That right there is teriyaki chicken skewers. Sweet and salty. And this is just some nice, simple sushi. Just rice and fish. You can try dipping it in this here, it's a kind of soy sauce."

    The entire spread laid out, Kanna reaches over with a foot, hooks a chair, drags it under herself, and plops down. "Go for it, whatever looks good."

    That's a lot of meat.
    And the smells coming from the kitchen are frankly...
    They're *good*.
    Though Leter stares ahead at the nearby wall, she's doing her best to not let Crimson Wind catch on that she's been quietly drooling this whole time.
    So when all the food comes out she almost stiffly turns her head to follow Kanna and the trays.
    Then the food is revealed.
    "..." For a moment Lether doesn't look like she knows where to start.
    She kind of doesn't.
    Golden eyes blink.
    There's no hiding the thin line of drool creeping down the lizard's jaw.
    She gulps pre-emptively and listens and Kanna explains the courses of the meal and sits herself down.
    It takes a concerted amount of effort to not just start tearing into things as Lether picks up a fork-- and stabs into a piece of the chicken karaage.
    Slowwwwwwly the fork inches towards her mouth and the serrated maw of killer teeth before she pops it in and takes a bite.
    "..."
    ...
    ".........."
    She's silent for several long beats, slowly chewing.
    "This... This is..."
    How to word this...

    Lether has gained HEROIC INSPIRATION.

    "... Holy shit..." pause. "--I mean--- the food's not shit it's- that is- I mean-..."

    "Holy *shit*."

    And Crimson is content to sit and be patient, watching the lizard girl's reaction to all that food. She rests her elbows on the table, folds her fingers together, and rests her chin on them, watching. She's completely unmoving, unflinching as the fork sticks in. She tracks the piece of karaage with her eyes as it moves, saying nothing. She holds herself silent and still until Lether chews...

    And then the reaction cracks that poker face entirely, pulling a great big grin onto the swordswoman's face "Haha, see?! Pretty great, ain't it?"

    The girl finally sits back in her chair, relaxing a bit. "I ain't gonna say I eat like this all the time, this is definitely some special occasion food. But even when you're cooking over a campfire in the wilderness, taking a little extra time to make it nice is always worth it." She folds her hands in her lap, settling a bit, and her voice softens. "We only just met, but I can tell you ain't had it easy. Felt like you deserved to see the other end of the scale. I like making good food for good folks."

    Slowly, forcibly taking her time, Lether works on some sushi next, dipping it in the sauce before shoving a piece in her mouth.
    "... This is raw?" The question sounds like she's never had anything raw like that, that actually tasted so good. "... *How?"*
    Now she's really eyeing Kanna, golden eyes narrow for a beat while a piece of sushi hangs half out of her maw.
    It's only visible for another second before it gets snarfed down.
    "You're right." She says matter of factly. "I didn't have it easy." Lether admits between bites of this or that.
    "Only this year things started looking up for me. When I met..." She trails off as if saying any name in specific might make that person turn on her.
    So Lether shakes her head.
    "When you live in the sewers off slop and grabage, you start to think anything or anyone can be food." She says.
    "But this..."
    ...
    "This is *food*."

    Kanna closes her eyes at the question, but her smile only gets a little wider. "Good ingredients, fresh ingredients, careful prep. And my sushi still ain't up to par yet. There's masters back home that'll make it a work of art. Sometimes the simple stuff's the most amazing." She opens her eyes again, content to listen to Lether's story, however sparse on details it may be. It's that last remark that puts a softer look on her face again, drawing a faint nod. "That's how it is. When you're starving, anything is fine. But when you can, you should take care of yourself. You deserve it. Everyone does, I think." A pause, and then she adds, "...whoever it is that pulled you out of all that, you oughta take care of them. It sounds like they're a good person."