driftfleet | 'cause it's better than nothing

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'cause it's better than nothing

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Otono-Tachibana Makie

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Sandalio "Biffy" de Rabiffano

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(last updated: 1/25/19)

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[Picking up the book feels safe and warm, an intensely pleasant feeling of having come home after a long absence. The feeling is soft and gentle and entirely overwhelming until the scenery around Mikleo blurs away into sunlight. As it comes back, it brings with it a matronly voice that gently chides as she laughs.]

Oh, stop it, you.

[The new room isn't especially big, but it's cozy. An open kitchen attached to a well-used living room, a round wooden table with six or more chairs crowded in around it. It's obvious that there are more chairs than the table was built for, but somehow it's working out. An older elvish woman, hair rolled back up under a handkerchief is at the kitchen counter as she mixes a cake. There's flour and sugar in bags nearby, eggs in a bowl waiting to be cracked, a glass bottle of milk, and fruit washed and dried. Standing next to her is a young elf - 12 or 13 years old - his blond hair is short and tied back in a small ponytail as he laughs at the older elf.]

Shouldn't make it so easy to sneak a taste then, Auntie.

[It's Taako's voice, lighter and higher in pitch, but definitely Taako. He isn't as adorned as he is in his older years, but there are hints of it. His clothes are worn and patched in places with mismatched fabric in the shape of stars and he has no jewelry, but he has a flower tucked into his ponytail. And? He's smiling. He's actually happy here and it shows.]

You're terrible. Go crack the eggs the way I taught you. [His aunt laughs again and moves the frosting bowl out of his reach.] I'll see who does it better.

[He turns away and there's a fritz of static that races from the other side of his aunt's side, something moving but unseen. The entire scene dissolves for a moment into static as Taako looks up, his words eaten by the crackling sound. Then as suddenly as it appeared, it's gone and Taako has the eggs cracked in the bowl. He hands them to his aunt and laughs again, a joke eaten by static.]

You're getting better. You both are. Maybe one day you'll be as good as me.

[Taako beams and starts pouring the eggs into the batter as his aunt mixes. The static moves again, pressing in against Taako's side, then the entire scene melts away as his aunt continues explaining.]

Now the important thing about this particular cake is...

[The scene pauses, and if Mikleo looks at the book in his hand, he'll see that it's open now and the scene in front of him is the same one as on this page. The memory is preserved here in place of a recipe, like a photograph that could start moving at any moment. There are more pages to the book. Does he turn the page or close the book?]

[Okay, that static blur is weird, but Mikleo focuses on what he can see instead, and what's there is... nice. Homey. He watches in fascination because he didn't really have that for cooking, but he'd had moments like that for plenty of other things, so he knows this sort of scene well. The water seraphim of Elysia helped him with his artes, Gramps had he and Sorey each perched on a knee as he taught them the Common and Ancient tongues, Kyme guided him through tracking and navigating the wider world for the day he and Sorey would inevitably leave home. Someone older, gentle and loving, to walk them through the steps. It's a good, warm feeling.

He probably shouldn't, he knows, as it's awfully invasive, but... one more time, at least, can't hurt. It's hard to resist, so he goes ahead and turns the page.]

[When Mikleo turns the page, the scene in front of him morphs, the passage of time fading in and out until it's settled again on the kitchen - familiar and alien at the same time.

The warmth of the place is gone. The pots and pans are put away and it looks as if no one has been at the stove in awhile. There's a fire in the fireplace, but even that warm glow isn't enough to replace what should have been here. Instead, Taako - a little older, maybe 14 or 15 - is hovering, concerned, hidden just out of sight in the doorway into a bedroom, ears perked as he listens. There's a large patch of static right next to him, eating away part of the scenery right behind his shoulder. Some cousins are in the bedroom, elves that resemble Taako in the way all relatives look a little like each other. They're older and gathered around the bed, which is piled high with blankets over his aunt while she sleeps, brows creased. His cousins are talking in hushed whispers, but it's loud enough for Taako to hear.]

She's been pushing herself too hard, trying to take care of them-- [Suddenly, the scene freezes and reverses with a burst of static.] --trying to take care of him. I can't believe she collapsed in the middle of cooking.

He's just too much of a burden. She's too old to care for kids anymore.

We never should have let her take them-- [Static.] --him in.

I knew he was bad news. I knew it.

Do you think we can send him to another house for awhile? Give her a break?

Maybe just one. If we give away both of them, she'll get mad when she wakes up.

[Taako doesn't wait around to hear more, his eyes lingering on the fragility that plagues his aunt's once vibrant face. He backs up out of the room and disappears out the door, out to a barn that sits separate from the rest of the house. He climbs up to the loft where there's a little nest built in the straw there, blankets enough for two for some reason, and bags. Static comes up his side, tugging on his arm, and he turns to look at it before he takes it in his arms in a hug. The scene shifts and then there's nothing there and Taako stares at the empty space like he's looking for something - some sort of comfort that will never come. Biting back tears, he stuffs what he can into a bag and then descends the ladder again. Then with one look back at the house, he turns and runs down the road into the dark forest - alone - as the scene bleeds away.

The wagon comes back and the recipe book is out of Mikleo's hand, back on the shelf. The door at the back of the wagon is open now, and outside someone is moving, putting a cake into the oven attached off the back.]

[Mikleo's surprised for a moment to see the book gone, and he can't help glancing around for it even if it's served its purpose. Once he spots it on the shelf, he relaxes and heads to the doorway of the wagon, peering outside. That's... oh, an oven, really? Out here?]

This set-up is pretty impressive. It's yours?

[Silly question, he knows. The room belongs to the person, that's usually how it works with these dreams.]

Bought and paid for.

[Taako straightens after putting the cake pans in the oven, hipchecking the door closed as he dusts his hands off. He's not wearing his usual wizard's hat for once, and is wearing a ridiculous apron that reads: "Caution: Extremely Hot".

He glances over at Mikleo and seems surprised for a moment, before something clicks in his head and he relaxes.]

So what're you doin' here, Mickey? Came for the grand tour of one whole wagon?

[Okay, the apron gets a smile out of him. He hasn't known the elf for very long but it feels very Taako.]

I can't say that my arrival was by choice, but... if you're giving out tours, then sure.

Sure thing. I got uh.... [He looks at the oven and shrugs.] Time. I guess.

[Taako makes a grand motion of tossing his apron off, throwing it toward the door where it lands on a hook nearby.]

So to the left you got the stove, the right is the prep counter. We got the oven out here. Sazed's shitty wagon is somewhere- [He vaguely gestures behind the wagon out of view.] -and the sink's out there too. Out front we have the merch table and that's?

[He shrugs.]

That's about it. Not a huge place, my man. The tour's pretty much done if you've been inside.

[He's not wrong, there, and it's about what Mikleo expected. That's not really his reason for asking.]

What is it, though? Some sort of traveling restaurant?

You're close.

[Taako wanders to the front of the wagon and grabs a t-shirt from the table, coming back to toss it in Mikleo's direction.]

Traveling cooking show - live entertainment with all the pizazz of a wizard chef. It was my brand, what made me famous. Hell of an ego trip having people shouting your name, y'know?

[Mikleo catches the shirt and holds it out to get a better look. Sure enough, there's that name again. Sizzle It Up with Taako was the name of a show, then. A magic cooking show... Rose would like this idea, if she were here.]

I can only imagine- invisible people tend to not get that sort of reception. Sounds like it was a lot of fun for you, though.

Yeah that's--

[He pauses suddenly, tilting his head to the side.]

Guess you're appearing 'cause I already know what you look like. What a headtrip.

[Taako snorts with laughter and goes back to the oven, leaning down to check the temperature.]

But yeah, it was a fuckload of fun. I built the brand from the ground up, had fans in a buncha cities, loads of merch sold, competed against the highest rated shows at the time. Nice draw of people filled in the audience - Taako's cooking appealed to people of all ages, ya dig?

...Oh, I didn't even think about it. Maybe because this is a dream? Or your resonance is just stronger, now.

[His brows lift. Has he really gotten that used to people seeing him that it's no longer such a big event? Funny how much things have changed like that. He'll have to make sure once morning comes; he hasn't seen Taako for a while, since he was recovering for so long.]

Yeah, a crowd around your food wouldn't surprise me. Everything I've tried of yours so far has been delicious.

[It reminds him of Lailah's cooking sometimes, though nothing beats her cakes. People like her or Taako who have clearly lived much longer than him have had time to gain that experience, so it makes sense that it would be tastier than he's used to. As proud as he is with his cold treats, he still has a long way to go with everything else.]

All kindsa weird shit going on in here so you never know.

[Taako shrugs easily and steps back from the oven.]

I mean this place hasn't existed in, uh....like five years? But it's where I'm meant to be. Not surprised it showed up like this.

[Even if it being where it is makes Taako's stomach turn a little. No one's here though, so other than it being an empty stage, he can deal.]

So. How'd you get into cooking anyway? I never really asked, but being- [He gestures to Mikleo from head to toe and back again.] -is eating even a thing you need to do?

Five years, huh...

[He'll just put a pin in that for now. It could just be his imagination, but that sounds a little like evasion, and for Taako to lose something that he clearly holds a lot of passion for must be a longer story.]

We don't have to eat to live, no. But I was raised in a seraph village alongside a human, and everyone felt that it would be unfair to make him feel othered as the only one who had to eat or sleep or live in a house, so we sort of... played human, in a sense. I learned to cook for myself and for him. The secret is out now, so I don't have to pretend anymore, but...

[He shrugs.]

I like it because food tastes good.

Well yeah, kinda hard to keep a secret like that when you're invisible to 99% of people.

[But it was habit and preference then, huh? Makes sense. Get used to doing something and it's hard to just stop doing it. And he can't fault Mikleo for wanting to keep eating. Food was a fucking amazing luxury and when it was cooked well and by people who cared, it was even better. Vegetarian dishes or no, Taako could understand why Mikleo chose to keep eating.]

So who's a better cook then - you or that guy? What was his name? Uh... [He starts snapping his fingers, trying to remember. Mikleo mentioned him sometimes.] Soren? Sora? Sorry?

Oh, no, he knew we weren't human. We just didn't tell him that seraphim bodies don't function the same way. [A pause, and then-] Wait, did I tell you it was malak- malakhim? I can't keep track anymore. Anyway, it's the same thing, and he knew about it.

[His brows furrow.]

It's Sorey, and I'm definitely the better cook. He can't pay attention long enough to avoid burning everything half the time... he's an excellent hunter, though, and he can do some impressive work with leather.

Honestly? You might've and I probably wasn't paying attention.

[Taako shrugs easily because it's not a far stretch for him to think he's been told something and then just forgot it because it wasn't important to him. The word sounds familiar? But he could just be thinking of malachite which is not at all like a malakhim.]

I'm dumb as hell, remember?

Also right, Sorey. [Nerd names that he has to remember. He hasn't even really properly met the guy yet though so give it five minutes and he'll forget again.] Glad to know you kept his dumb human ass alive. You'd think someone who required food would actually learn to cook.

Hmm. If you say so.

[Taako hasn't come across as all that dumb to him, so either his standards are too low or it's a lot of bluster over nothing. Regardless, he knows better than to argue for his intelligence and give the elf room to brag.]

He does know how, technically, he's just lacking in finesse. He at least knows enough that he won't starve if left to his own devices.

Can't really call that cooking so much as uh, y'know, surviving. I mean, people can live off burnt toast and bland watery soup, doesn't mean I'd deign to call any of that "cooking."

[But point taken. As long as Sorey isn't a straight up disaster in the kitchen, Taako can abide him.]

So, how's a guy end up living in a village full of spirits anyway?

Mm... it's a long story, but the short version is that a war destroyed the human town where he was born. And... me too, I guess. There was no one else to look after us, so Gramps took us in and raised us together in Elysia, the village of seraphim.

[A very short story, but the extended version isn't something so easily shared. Even that much is still weird to talk about.]

["And me too?" Huh. Taako raises an eyebrow at that because spirits shouldn't have bodies capable of being destroyed in wars.

But maybe he meant a construct of some sort?]

So a seraphim and a human got raised right alongside each other, huh? This "gramps" guy sounds nice. Sucks about the village going- [He mimes an explosion with one hand.] -but uh, guess that's why war is so shitty, huh?

[Little does he know...]

Yeah, he was. And it is.

[And there's a lot to unpack there, so rather than letting that happen he forges onward-]

I've read books about it, growing up, but experiencing it is a completely different story. It's horrible. I don't understand how anyone can want it to happen, but conflict happens so often...

People're greedy little bitches, that's how.

[Taako shrugs as if what he said was the same as commenting on the weather. It's true and since he'd apparently lived through those nasty Relic Wars? Yeah, he knew war was shit. The wars were memories that he owned now that still seemed detached somehow. Like, he knew he'd lost people to them, had seen people die in them, but it didn't...matter? He didn't feel like he lost anyone of any real import to the relics, more like he'd been observing them from a safe distance.

Which tracked considering how very little Taako ever wanted to be in an actual war.]

So's Taako, but unless someone's being a real prick about it, I got other methods of getting what I want than causing some dumb war.

[It's more crude than Mikleo would have phrased it, but... not incorrect, either, so he just frowns.]

Based on what I've seen, these conflicts arise because of selfish people in seats of power. And of course the ones who actually suffer are those who live and work beneath them.

People want things, other people have to fight and die because of it - tale as old as time, minus a teapot and a pretty ending.

[Taako knew.

You didn't have to be in a seat of power in order to cause maximum damage. He'd been selfish, had maybe driven Sazed to do what he did, but Sazed wasn't in any position of power. He'd just been jealous of it, wanted it, craved it enough to do what he did.

Taako frowns, looking down at oven, then over at the empty seats all around them.]

Sometimes all it takes is one person who wants something so much they don't care about the collateral damage.

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