--- Kamiko --- (Directly follows on from last chapter ti wise)
Kamiko couldn't help but muse on the amount of cooking she'd been doing recently as she put down two plates of steak and vegetables. It wasn't fancy, and compared to even the more basic stuff she'd been doing later but she needed to feed quite a few people.
The exact number wasn't clear, as she didn't know if her own group was hungry or not but that was still twelve or thirteen people depending on if Pip had another al or not.
Kamiko had decided just to set things up to do a big lot of twenty. She'd brought out so of the steak from her ring, a way to give the group sothing new and different. A taste of the outside you might say… without going overboard with a bunch of flavours and spices. Kamiko wasn't entirely sure they could even eat at, but their draconic ancestry did imply it would be fine.
Kamiko had warned them all.
For the vegetables, Kamiko had gotten help from the workout crew minus Pip. Who was more than a touch annoyed she wasn't allowed to go into the kitchen. Apparently she was too young, at least according to Ben. Kamiko was pretty sure the younger girl had been making her own als for quite a while but Pip wasn't willing to fight over a chance to avoid work.
The workout crew handled the vegetables, much more familiar with the specifics of the ingredients here then Kamiko was, while she worked on all of the steaks. Sure they didn't really have at here anymore, but the facility was clearly set up to deal with it. Kamiko did have a bit of an issue juggling it all.
She'd put on the steaks in four big lots of five… which in theory wasn't too bad but she was the only one who knew what they were doing in regards to them.
She had to constantly shoo away the others lest they be splashed with hot oil from the pan or disrupt the cooking in other minor ways. They were all clearly quite curious, and while that would normally be a good thing she may wish to encourage at the mont it was annoying because she was nominally 'in charge' of the lot.
Bower had poked his head in at one point but Kamiko was firmly in 'fight' mode and glared him out of the room before he'd spoken up. There was technically space for him to help with the steaks but Kamiko was already watching the entire kitchen to ensure none of the other occupants did anything silly. Excessive? Most definitely.
They'd clearly chopped vegetables before but Kamiko couldn't help but put them in a box labelled 'don't trust in kitchen' simply due to their lacking understanding of steak.
"Is it wrong that I want to eat that?" asked one of the twins. Kamiko had never really worked out which was which and she'd lost track of them at a few points so she wasn't even certain what na she'd assigned the one talking as they'd fixed up their outfit sowhat and they were both a bit sweaty now. Perhaps if she had a better understanding of how to use her sense of sll she could work it out…
"Um… er… what's wrong with it?" asked Kamiko as she glanced over at the plates she'd just set down. As far as she could tell it looked good to her. dium rare, which might not be to everyone's taste but it was standard and a good enough place to start. "It looks like it should… I an I could cut into it and check but this isn't my first ti cooking steak…"
"Right I know it's just… that was a thing once right?" asked… Kamiko was going to just go with Chen.
"It's from an animal yes?" said Kamiko confused.
"Right but… like it could think though? Isn't that sort of weird?" offered the other twin "Shen".
Kamiko glanced over at the steak. "I an… in so ways? It can't think like you and I can. The level of intelligence is… an order of magnitude lower, or several actually?"
"Right but like… we've seen videos and stuff of animals talking, and while we know most of them were just that… stories… so seed to be true, or close enough to it. So like… what makes it ok?" asked Chen the first twin.
Kamiko shrugged, "Um… for demons we tend to go based on our translation ability? If we can work out that… it has… intent? Like we can almost always understand soONE, even if they can't speak. If they don't et that threshold then they a sothing and not afforded… well much if any consideration by most demons. I an we have pets and stuff but that's obviously different,"
"Right… so like it isn't weird?" asked Shen as she went to poke at the steak on the table. Kamiko glared at the digit as she quickly took the steaks back and put them in her ring. "Hey!"
"They're not gone forever, I'm just abusing the fact ti slows down to nearly nothing inside of my storage ring… and as for if it's weird? Um… not for ? I'm sure if you got Hunter or g in here they'd have sothing more… profound to say about it? They hunt things for a living so… hunting and eating their food is a much bigger part of their culture.
I um… I don't normally eat much at at all, or not quite as directly. Sotis its helps makes up the food?
"Err… how do I put this. No it doesn't bother . It's just how things have always been? I an… I know so vegetarians but I also know so PEOPLE who are more plant then animal, and I know Kat knows more than a few. So like… maybe that helps? Because I imagine you would be a lot less interested in eating a thinking plant then a non-thinking boar," explained Kamiko.
"Wait plants can think?" asked Malt.
"Err… so of them? So more than others? The line between plant and animal is… fairly blurry when magic and monsters get mixed in. It's worse in so places then in others too… but um… yeah sentience has always been the big one for .
I know the thing that made up those steaks never had a single complex thought and likely had limited if any ability to rember things longer then like… a month tops?" offered Kamiko.
"I guess… that's… still weird?" answered Chen. "I an, I'm still going to try it because it slls really good… or it did before you took it away from us!"
Kamiko glared at them as she put on another set of five steaks to cook. "I understand why you all think it's weird but I'm really not the one to have this discussion with. I'm not offering steak to everyone because I particularly like it, nor make it particularly well. If I never had a chance to have steak ever again in my likely to be long life? Like longer then Corela long?
I wouldn't be the slightest bit upset. My family mostly eat jelly. Specialised so we don't lack in nutrients and likely including at at so part in the process, but still jelly at the end of the day.
"The reason I'm handing it out? It's because this sort of thing is quite normal on the outside. So people won't eat at… but usually because of the cost. If you guys beco adventurers or even just profitable rchants? Eating at will be considered quite normal and you might get more than a few odd looks if you avoid it.
I'm really not sure… what the culture of this planet is in particular so it might be more or less weird here then elsewhere.
"I guess… what I'm really trying to provide is a literal taste of the surface. A way to show you all, in a small way at least, that things outside are going to be different. Perhaps you'll love it… perhaps you'll hate it… but it WILL be different and steak is just the start of things. I'm only offering you like… so of the cheapest at I have.
Not bad necessarily but common so like… I don't know what I'm trying to get at…" finished Kamiko trailing off with a pout.
"No, no, I think I get it," said Malt. "This is a good but subtle way to show us that we're missing out on a lot of stuff, perhaps even a major amount of things. None of us have ever… tried steak before. We've seen it in old movie clips but I guess we've never thought about what that actually ANS for us all here. Plus, if we can't handle it we've got privacy to throw up,"
Kamiko winced. "Um… yeah even if you all DO like it I wouldn't be surprised if soone throws up. You've all gone your entire lives without any at and it ans that even if your stomach is capable of processing it in theory… it has no practice at it. So um… just make sure to let everyone know that again before they dig in?
I'd hate for soone to devour the whole thing and then have issues so… maybe just go slow,"
The three of them just laughed, as if they already knew there'd be no chance of that.
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