Logs:Apprentice Aiden
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| RL Date: 26 September, 2015 |
| Who: Aiden, Leova, Via |
| Involves: High Reaches Weyr |
| Type: Log |
| What: Aiden is an apprentice. Leova has a daughter who's close to apprenticing age. |
| Where: Kitchen, High Reaches Weyr |
| When: Day 4, Month 12, Turn 38 (Interval 10) |
| Mentions: Varian/Mentions, Veylin2/Mentions |
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| Aiden is cleaning up his workspace, though his apron still has spots of flour and fruit filling. While his cleaning seems very thorough, he is frowning. Presumably he's not mad at the countertop, so there appears to be something else on his mind. In one of those out-of-the-way nooks, a greenrider and a dark-haired girl have been sharing a late snack: winter-stored apples, sour bread, wafer-thin yellow cheese. Their talk is quiet. They don't get in the way. But the girl, perhaps ten by the look of her, glances at Aiden every now and again. They keep talking, interspersed with silences. It's after one of those that the girl's startling amber eyes lift to her mother, who isn't startled, but smiles. She shoos her on, and Via goes, all coltish long legs and a swing of dark hair. It's Leova who gets up and buses the dishes, crossing near Aiden's workspace along the way, and giving him a look of her own. Aiden finishes cleaning the counter off and looks up in time to see the departing girl and the look from Leova. "Good day", he says to the rider before uncovering turning to another counter and then back again, this time carrying a tray of bubblies. They seem to not be just out of the oven from the thin towel he's using to hold the tray with. He sighs in relief as he sets them on the table. It's only once he sees the condition of the bubblies on the tray that he looks up at the lucky passing rider to say, "Would you like a fresh bubbly?" He frowns. "Although I should probably test one out first before I get too excited." "Good day, aye." While he's dealing with the bubblies, Leova's handling the dishes, careful to not let the glasses clink when she sets the lot into the tray. Upon their crossing once more, though, she regards the apprentice as though he'd said something foreign. Then, a near-blink later, glances past. But. Via's long gone, now. Looking back, "Can't say as I wouldn't. Thanks." And then looking once more at his knot, abruptly, "So. Apprentice. What's your name?" Aiden smiles. "My name is Aiden, ma'am." He brings over a plate and uses a spatula to put a bubbly on it before putting it before Leova. "It's got a redfruit center. I'm more used to meat dishes, so I've been working on getting better at the delicate work." He brings over a second plate and puts a second bubbly on it, and takes a bit of it. "Finally, something I can show the Journeyman." He hmms. "Though I think next time I'll make it better with some spices." He jots down a few notes, taking curious looks at Leova to see how she likes the bubbly. "More of a luxury, this," the greenrider acknowledges. "Leova, Vrianth's. Well met, Aiden." She breaks off the corner of the bubbly and lets it sit there, cooling. She nods for the journeyman. Nods for spices. Meets his look with a wry, "Burnt my tongue too many times," to risk it now. "How long you been apprenticed, Aiden? Always knew you wanted it, or fell into it somehow?" Aiden nods. "Well met, Leova. It's definitely a luxury, but good to know how to do it." He grins. "Required actually, though It's not where my main interests lie. I like maying entrees and meat dishes most. The necessities over the luxuries, I guess." He smiles when Leova asks about his apprenticeship. "I've only been apprenticed a couple of months now, right before coming to the Weyr. I've known for awhile that I liked to cook. It seems like everyone's on equal footing in the kitchen. But my father had other ideas, so it took me longer to go for it than it otherwise would have." "All the more appreciated for it, I'd reckon. By those as run the place, anyhow." Leova lifts the small plate to where she can blow on it, now and again, but keeps looking at him. "Equal footing, how's that? I'd have thought, hm. The Bakers. Them as cook without being bakers. The choppers and the dish-washers. No?" Aiden smiles, he seems to like to talk about cooking. "Well, I am short and a little clumsy, so I wasn't as good at things as the other kids my age. And I'm more reserved than some too. But in the kitchen anybody with the knowledge and the desire can be good at cooking. When you're cooking something, it dosn't matter what else is happening other times, I can put that aside and make something people like." "Mm." A thinking sound, then an approving sound. "Appreciate that we got people as can cook well here," Leova says. "Not just keeping skin and bone together, but nobody's as cranky as when they're hungry on top of the rest." She gives the bubbly a look, but doesn't see fit to bite yet. Wryly, "Don't seem so reserved now, but maybe that's more about talking to someone older? Or finding your place." Aiden nods. "I think you're right. I think it's about doing what I like doing, not doing what I'm supposed to be doing. Not that I can't do what I'm supposed to do - but when it comes to what you're going to be doing for the rest of your life, it's best to do what's right for you and take the consequences. At least hopefully, life is a long time not to do something you enjoy." He starts putting the rest of the bubblies on a larger plate. "Starting over might have an effect too. No expectations maybe? Besides being good at baking." Leova laughs when he gets to doing what he's supposed to, explaining, "Was about to ask about that." Her nod for consequences is firm indeed. But starting over... her hand lingers on the bubbly before she finally picks it up to bite. Her evaluation waits for some chewing. Aiden nods. "Yeah, I'm most comfortable when I'm cooking. Not that I couldn't do the steward work that my father had me training for. He wanted me to follow in his footsteps. So for now the consequence of not doing that is he's not talking to me. I'm hoping that's just temporary. But at least I don't think the time I spent doing something else is a waste either. Being organized and keeping good records and all the math skills he drilled into me will help be cook better." He shrugs. "I think what I like most is doing something that makes people feel good that has nothing to do with me. It's not like when someone in the Living Cavern takes some food that the cook's name is on it or anything. It's not about me, it's about the food and if people like it." He glances over a little anxiously when Leova finally bites into the bubbly. "It's good," Leova confirms. "Half like that you don't have much in the way of spices: redfruit tastes well enough on its own, this soon after the harvest. This well-preserved." She samples more, but doesn't vary her conclusion. Instead, "Glad to hear you recognize that, that all that was useful too. And something not about you? Can see why you didn't aim for Harper." Aiden grins and shook his head. "I can't sing and I certainly can't compose. I like music quite a bit, but I enjoy it more when it's someone else I'm listening to." He smiles brightly when Leova talks about the bubbly. "I'll keep that in mind, thank you. Eventually I'll want to have a lot of filling ideas just in case I need to make some in the future, though part of that will be reviewing the recipes that are already out there. I also want to familiarize myself with a lot of different dishes so I don't need a recipe for each step, and eventually I hope to make something completely new." "What kind of new?" Leova asks, after a nod for reviewing what is out there. "Or just: new." She's careful with the crumbs, the bubbly one bite a way from being finished off altogether. Aiden shugs with a smile. "I don't know yet. There's a lot I don't know, and I feel that you have to learn the basics and what came before you before you should make changes of your own. But I'd like to make a dish in a new way that hasn't been done before. I just don't know what that is yet." "If you can make something palatable and energy-giving for even the most delicate of five-Turn-old bellies, I'd be in your debt." It's dry. And dark. "Make that six, give you a little time to finish." Speaking of time. "Shouldn't keep you, Aiden. But. Thanks for sharing." Leova gives him a nod, and pops in that last before she's on her way. |
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