Logs:Experts at Eating
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| RL Date: 25 April, 2012 |
| Who: Toren, Hypatia |
| Involves: High Reaches Weyr |
| Type: Log |
| What: Hypatia and Toren have lunch. |
| Where: Living Cavern, High Reaches Weyr |
| When: Day 9, Month 8, Turn 28 (Interval 10) |
| Mentions: Madilla/Mentions |
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| Living Cavern, High Reaches Weyr Stalactites hang high above this enormous cavern like a jagged chandelier or an inversion of the Spires themselves, but shadows cling to them instead of light. Below lie great tables arranged in rows, each large enough to serve a fighting wing, while in the nooks and alcoves around the cavern's edge sit more sensibly-sized tables, from six- and eight-seaters down to intimate spots for just a couple of diners. The only really open space is around the kitchen entrance, smelling of food and rarely quiet, and by the nearby serving tables with their long buffet of the day's offerings. Tapestries on the smooth walls -- some faded and others newly woven -- only slightly mute the sea of sound when a meal is in full swing, but they add cheerfulness augmented by the glowlight from wall sconces and the centerpieces of each table. Still, shadows always creep along the ceiling and into the mouths of the exits -- the myriad small hallways at one end of the cavern and, at the other, the twisting tunnel to the bowl near an array of coathooks and and hatracks -- and late at night, when the glows are allowed to dim, the chamber can seem very dark indeed.
Toren comes in to get some late lunch or early supper. He heads over towards the serving table to make himself a plate of food and than he heads to find a seat. He finds a within talking distance of Hypatia and he sits down to begin to eat. He gives her a polite and friendly smile before he gets back to his food. Well, Hypatia was trying to be inobtrusive and act as a fly on the wall -- but once someone addresses her, it's just too unlike her not to immediately engage. So she re-orients herself just slightly more in Toren's direction and says, "Hi," first. A child of about ten four tables away coughs, and Hypatia writes something down. Her attention flits back to Toren less than a minute later, and she's asking with the usual slight tilt to her head that comes with a question, "How's the food? -- What's the food, because I didn't look." Toren smiles back, "Hello I didn't mean to disturb you if you are working on something important please go ahead and ignore me." He looks down, "Roast Herdbeast sandwich with greens." He takes a couple of bites, "It's very good. You should have some if you didn't have any yet." "Oh, you're not bothering me at all," Hypatia replies, honest and welcoming. "I can multi-task. I never mind it if people talk to me unless I'm actually seeing a patient, in which case I will promptly yell at whoever -- whomever -- oh, I don't care, stupid words -- does that." No one has done anything relating to whatever her study is since she started talking, apparently, because while her visual focus doesn't so much remain on Toren but continue surveying the room, she hasn't written anything. "I probably should, you're right. I forget to eat." Toren nods a little bit, "I'll have to remember that if I'm ever in the infirmary, not to speak to you while you are with a patient." He will file that one way and he continues to eat, "I think they have some mashed tubers up there as well." "I would recommend," says Hypatia with a tiny little smile and a just-so-slightly cynical tone that isn't aiming for unfriendly so much as stating the obvious, "not actually talking to anyone while they're with a patient. Though if they're not cordoned off it's their own fault." Her look strays back to the buffet, but she's actually looking at the food this time in addition to the people. Hypatia's timing is ideal for her occasionally wicked spirit: someone ends up spilling meat down his front and she lets out a bark of a laugh before she's able to stop herself. Thankfully, it's a noisy room. Toren nods, "Good advice harpers don't like people talking when they are doing a performance, I suppose it's the same for all professions if you are doing something that requires concentration you don't want someone talking in your ear." He watches her go up and he sees the man spell meat down his front. He winces a little bit. Hypatia's nodding as she tries to pretend she didn't just laugh -- some people find that kind of thing offputting, she's learned, and it's not always a good idea to look like a total harpy in front of people she's only met once or twice -- and says, "Yeah, the big thing about healing is that it's meant to be confidential, so nobody should be close enough to be interrupting anyway -- I'm going to go actually grab some food, hopefully not get too close to that guy," there's the return of the wicked smile, oops, "and be right back. Babysit my notebook?" Not that she waits for a response before standing up and going to pick up a sandwich for herself. Toren nods a little bit, "I can understand why you don't want everyone to know you are sick it's bad enough being sick than having everyone know about it." He looks at the notebook, "Sure you go ahead and get some food and careful not to get any on yourself." On her way up to the buffet, Hypatia actually chortles; evidently she was able to hear Toren's parting comment even as she had already walked off. When she returns, it's with some of that roast herdbeast and greens, and as she plunks back into her seat she says, "I guess people should do incredibly stupid things with food more. That'll remind me to eat. Show them I can eat better than they can." She's grinning; this is obviously not a serious competition to her. Toren gives a smile, "And sometimes accidents happen. I'm sure you are an expert at eating, just make sure you don't have any holes in your lips." He chuckles as he continues to eat. "Yes, or chance the fact that food will fall out of my mouth as I attempt to consume it," Hypatia intones, her teasing sarcasm now out in full force. And that's the natural way of her, really; teasing and sarcastic. She picks up her pen, as if to note something -- hesitates -- sets it down. "Toren, right? I think E'gin called you that?" Toren smiles, "Yep I'm Toren, I know it's hard to recognize me without my guitar, but I don't bring it to the living cavern unless I plan to play it which I don't at least right now. Hypatia right? I believe E'gin mentioned your name as well." "Yep. Or Hy, or Paysh, or whatever, if the name's a little bit too long on the tongue for you. I don't mind much of any nickname except 'Tia' or 'Pat,' which usually come of people reading it and not hearing it out loud -- there's a T in 'Hypatia,' believe it or not, and no s. Although you're a Harper, it's probably not so unusual to you." Hypatia's smile is as close to a mirror of Toren's as she can possibly pull off, and she speaks while spinning the pen in her hands. She's gotten her food, but she hasn't begun to actually eat it yet. "Of course there's also whether you say it with three syllables or four, which I guess depends on acce--oh, never mind, my name wasn't the point. I wanted to know," and now she's serious-toned, all business, "have you gotten sick this summer? Stuffed up?" Toren smiles, "I prefer to call people by whatever name they like so Paysh sounds good to me. You can call me Tor if you want." He shakes his head, "Nope I haven't gotten sick this past winter or summer. I'm very fit, always have been, but I never wanted to miss any of my music classes." Hypatia lets out another very brief laugh at that, and only after looking at him bright-eyed does she pick up her sandwich and take a bite. "Very industrious of you. I've noticed there are people who can hold off illness on sheer force of will until they have time to be sick -- I tend to be one of them, actually. Lucky me, I can work with everyone who's ill and only after they're all better do I crash." A sip of water. "And I'll answer to anything but those two I don't like so long's I know it's me, and you wouldn't be the only one calling me Paysh. So there you go. You're right, it's good." Toren shrugs, "I don't know if it's willing it away or what I just am lucky. I don't ever want to get sick I'd rather stay healthy for as long as I can. Well you are allowed to crash after taking care of everyone. I'm glad you think so. I think they have bubblies for dessert." "Allowed, sure. Enjoying it -- not so much." Hypatia spins the pen around in her fingers again, then forces herself to put it down and keep eating. "Probably you're just fit and well put together and have a strong immune system and stay safe with your food and don't do things like eat dirt -- you can get really sick if you eat dirt, your entire body locks and can't move at all and then you can't breathe and you die -- which is kind of like being lucky, but better." Toren makes a face, "Ew who would want to eat dirt that's so disgusting. I do try to stay as fit as I can. I exercise every morning and I don't eat a lot of sweats and even though I don't like them I try to eat my vegetables and greens." A million-mark question that Hypatia is happy to answer: she actually just smiles more when Toren asks about the eating dirt, even if it was likely a rhetorical question. She's going to answer it anyway, with no concern as to whether it actually was one: "There's a condition that makes people want to eat dirt. Disturbingly it happens more often in pregnancy than at any other time, even if it is very rare. Also, young children. They just eat dirt sometimes. A thing they do." Toren hmms, "Well I don't ever remember eating dirt I'll have to ask my mom about if I ever did that." He hmms, "I guess I don't have to worry about eating dirt since I can't get pregnant." "Ha, well, you might not want to know," is Hypatia's advice, given seriously as she taps pen on paper and then writes something else down. "About strange things you have eaten as a child. Though -- I would hope you can't get pregnant! And I think there are old texts about it happening in people who aren't pregnant, but I've never seen it. Honestly, I've never seen it period. Except when it's little kids eating mud." She's never truly seen what Old Earth called 'tetanus,' either, but she's not giving that secret away. Toren nods, "True I might not want to know all the disgusting things that I might have done that I don't remember. Best leave things in the past. Little kids can be really gross sometimes." "Sometimes," is repeated with a bit of a snort: Hypatia's opinion doesn't seem to be too high when it comes to little kids. "I probably shouldn't be having this conversation while eating. But I've never been very good at knowing what other people find appropriate to discuss while consuming food." Which at least she is doing, albeit very, very slowly -- tiny bites every couple of sentences, washed down with more water. Toren hmms softly, "Well normally they talk about their day, so how has your day been so far, I noticed you had your notebook out, what are you working on? Is it a secret?" Schooling Hypatia in social graces: maybe a futile effort, but she certainly seems to take to Toren's comments positively enough. "Pretty boring. It's not top secret or anything, no, it just works better when people don't notice me -- observations, basically. Of how people handle their food. And of who's sick and if they do things like cover their hands when they cough or if they're sneezing on people or sharing forks. I study communicability and infection rate and boring numerical healing stuff." Toren ahs, "That's interesting you don't think about it much but simple things like washing hands and not eating food off the floor or a spoon that fell on the floor. I bet you are going to see a lot of gross things." "I generally do, yeah." Another laugh from Hypatia, but this one's a little bittersweet. "It's incredible what you can see when you sit in one spot all day and watch people eat. The disgusting things they don't even realize they're doing. We don't really understand, as a population, how certain things work -- but sharing food with a sick person is usually a pretty good way to get sick, and so is eating food off the floor. Only I haven't seen any of that today. Yet." Toren nods, "yes, or the most distrusting thing people do, pick their noses. Ugh I hate with the little kids in class do it. I wish there was some soapsand or something that didn't need water that would sanitize their hands, something they could just rub on." "Have you tried -- sand?" Hypatia questions and suggests, that tiny head-tilt from earlier making a reappearance. "I mean, it doesn't -- actually clean, so much, but it does get gobs of gross to stick to it and then you can just wipe the sand off on a towel or something. Might pick up more than just a dry towel. I'm sure I would gag if I had to teach a bunch of kids like that. There are probably some very expensive oils that do what you want, derived from very expensive plants, but you know. Expensive. Madilla might know, she's amazing with herbs." Toren nods, 'I'll have to ask her I know there is redwort, but I'd rather not have red hands all the times. I suppose I'll have to keep washing them. I don't know how my mother does it all the time and year after year class after class. She really loves teaching." Hypatia moves the water away from her lips, and then the bit of hair that's fallen into her eyes away from it, before answering, "Well. Yeah. I figured you wouldn't want to use redwort -- I've also heard people say you can eventually get immune to it protecting you from numbweed, but I think that's probably total rot. And I don't either. I hate teaching. I mean, I like teaching adults things like here's how to best care for yourself with this fever, but children? No. No thanks." Toren hmms, "Sometimes adults can be worse than children because adults think that they know it all all ready and they won't listen." He hmms, "That does sound like rot to me, they've been using redwort and numbweed forever." "The things people spread around," is Hypatia's dismissal of that particular brand of rot with a careless shrug. "And you're right. They often enough don't listen, and then take eternity to get better when they could've just been bedridden for a couple of days. The most common thing people do is insist they need to work, and then they end up out of work longer. Psh. Whatever. It's their funeral." Toren nods, "I hope it's not the funeral, but if I was sick I'd listen to the healer taking care of me, even if it was someone that was younger than me. I mean if you go to an expert to get something fixed you should listen to them." "I wish more people thought like you did," Hypatia replies in a wistful tone, shaking her head. "So many don't. They want the medicine, the magical cure that fixes everything in seconds so they can go back to their lives. Not enough understand it doesn't work that way. Nothing in life works that way; there's no panacea for existence." The notes she starts to make then move quickly, but are almost completely unreadable -- perhaps a doodle. Toren nods, "I suppose if more people thought like I did you wouldn't be at busy so that wouldn't be too bad." He shakes his head, "There is no such thing as a magic cure, best advice is to listen to the healers, can't go wrong there." Hypatia quips, "Spread that around, why don't you?" with a winning smile and goes to reach for her sandwich again just to discover that it is actually gone. Her face falls, microscopically. She plays it off as intending to write more, though she doesn't actually do that so much as continue fiddling with the pen. Toren smiles, "I'll do my best to spread the word around." He finishes his greens and he gets up, "Up for some dessert?" He asks he picks up his plate and mug, "Or would you like some more klah?" "Water's fine," Hypatia says with a smile that is rather uncharacteristic; it's quiet, and almost hidden and secret. "But I -- dessert. Sure. I won't refuse, if you're offering." She does have to push hair from her face again, which results in giving up and starting to just rebraid the entire thing. "Maybe I'll even get my head to behave, once you're back." Toren smiles, "I think it's bubblies." He heads up and gets a water, a klah and two bubbly pies. He brings them back and sets down the water and bubbly in front of Hypatia, "You have really pretty hair. You don't have to behave on my account, just be yourself." "Trust me," is Hypatia's response, with more of a coy, conspiratory sort of expression, "I don't behave on anyone's account. There's no need to worry about that. Thanks, though, about the hair -- when it listens to me and brushes out all right, it's okay. I like it, at least. I'd have hacked it off if I didn't. Oh, and for the delivery, as well," is tossed out before she takes a taste and a sip. Toren smiles, "You're welcome. Good I don't like it when people are fake with me." He starts to eat and he mms softly, "Mmm the bubblies are good nice and hot." He takes a sip of his klah, "So what are you going to do today just sit here and watch people?" "That is my plan, yes. This evening I'll probably be in the infirmary proper seeing patients, and I've got courses tomorrow -- but today, I intend to sit." Hypatia does at least sound genuinely determined and proud of this plan of hers, as much as she seems to be enjoying hot, gooey pie, even going so far as to lick the end of her fork. "I can't stand phony people." Toren nods, "I'm sure you'll get lot of observing in. Myself I've got practice until dinner and than more practice after dinner, can't ever practice too much. If you like I can practice here so you have someone to keep you company." Hypatia seems to consider it for a moment, swirling her water around in the glass as it's something to look at she won't have to write down -- a focus for her eyes while the cogs in her brain turn on decision-making. "That could be nice," she eventually agrees, with a single short nod. "As long as you're not playing something to attract too much attention. I'm not meant to be noticed too much. People might attack me for taking notes." Toren smiles, "Well if you want to keep taking note maybe I'll play a bit away from you so that people are focused on me and not you." "And I'll enjoy the tunes from afar," Hypatia agrees, raising her glass in his direction. And, after a time, that is what they do -- the Living Cavern so serenaded with Toren's dulcet tones and enthusiastic guitar that no one really seems to notice the healer, in the corner, spying. |
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