[Flashback] A Special Stew (Bob)

by **Aello** on January 17th, 2012, 10:21 pm

Aello rolled her eyes, "sure... they must have been real hard to pick off the ground or from a bush, or wherever you got them," the girl scowled as she got to her feet and headed back to her pot and other things. She looked around, until she found the wooden spoon, which she picked up and waved around in Bob's general direction. "You're such a slacker Bob, why don't you go and do something useful for once!" Aello hollered, just as the boy had backed away, after telling her to do some cooking.

Scowling, Aello approached the pot, and stared at the nuts on the bottom. "Those don't even look good. It's like they're burnt already," the girl muttered, as she dropped the wooden spoon in the pot, and turned back to her belongings. That which had been strewn across the bed of grass as though they were little more than trash. Sighing, Aello approached them, and gathered up each small container of herbs, before returning to the pot with the nuts. "Mamma always said to season things to make them taste good," Aello whispered to herself as she put the containers down, and sat beside the pot.

When she had gotten comfortable, Aello picked up one of the containers, and tore off the lid. Inside, she saw a deep red powder. Something that appeared as though it were ground up brick. The girl's brow furrowed as she lowered her nose to it, and sniffed it. It smelled strong, and tickled her nose a little. Shrugging, Aello pinched off a small portion, holding the powder between her fingertips, she flicked it against the nuts, before closing the lid and dry washing her hands.

With the tin of red powder resting in her lap, Aello reached for the next container, and opened it swiftly. Inside were small, white crystals. "Finally something I recognize," Aello muttered with a small smile, as she tipped the container over, spilling lots of salt into the pot. When she was done, she closed the lid, and reached for another, which she opened to find small black flakes. Sniffing it irritated her nose, shrugging again, she poured a tad of the strange stuff into the pot, before replacing the tin and reaching for another, which contained small green stalks. Like shredded grass, but far shorter. It smelled earthly, and a bit unpleasant to the girl, thinking little of it however, she dropped a few pinches into the pot, before reaching for one last container. Inside, she found dark green leaves. Many of them brittle and crushed. She dropped two into the pot, before putting all the containers back down.

"That should do for seasoning," Aello thought, as she pushed everything aside and reached for her waterskin, dropping the last of its contents into the pot before giving the mixture several strong stirs with the wooden spoon, swishing everything together. By then, Bob had returned causing the girl to look up from her work. As her eyes did a one-over, she noticed that his clothes clung to him in various places, and the fabric seemed darker in certain areas.

"Suppose you wet yourself then," Aello muttered, as she shook her head lightly and returned her gaze to her work. "No matter, you can make a fire for us. It'll help you dry off a bit better, and perhaps rid us both of your terrible smell."

OOCI figured the red powder was paprika. The white crystals salt. Black flakes pepper. The short green stalks dill. The leaves are bay leaves. With the amount of salt Aello used, the water we add to the mixture is probably going to make a sort of brine, making everything very salty.

by **Bob Barton** on January 19th, 2012, 6:44 am

What kind of smell would be terrible enough for Aello to complain about when it is she who has been standing over a pot and working spices all into it? Even Bob could smell it from where he was standing and "my mix was a lot better." The spiciness helped to clear the nasal cavities and allow him to breath better. The best thing they should have done is recreate the recipe and sell it to Uncle Marny. Now? It was salty stew with the nuts that "I had to look and identify them as the good nuts my uncle taught be about. You remember him as the doctor right? So believe me when I say he said that it is good for the digestion." How can Aello not know that some people, like "women would pay a nice amount of mizas for enough of these." Of course they were processed first but Bob did not know how so "we are lucky enough to have them in this...stew of yours."

At least little girls did not know enough to identify a failed attempt when it is dripping right in front of them. As if a victory that the nuts he found would be better than any stinky fish, Bob headed over to Aello's bag to see if he can find anything to start the fire with. One of those flint and steels would have worked a lot better than rubbing sticks but Bob could not find any of those. So he had to retry his first attempt again. "It shouldn't be too hard since I done it before" he told himself grabbing two sticks again. Bob clapped the sticks momentarily and then longer to rub them against each other but for some reason this time he knew that he was not going to make it. His wet hands softened and dampened the sticks which did not allow them to ignite at all but his already cold and slightly numb hands from being too long in the water could not tell the difference while he continued on for a while longer.

"Your mamma told you a watched pot never boils right?" So Bob got the saying wrong but it provided a better thing for the angry girl to correct than his failure yet again. Bob went back to the first fire to try and see what was different. There were still some red sparks there but nothing too strong to make Aello her stew. "Why don't you just feed more wood into this fire?" Bob asked still thinking. Since Aello did not want to use his fire then he just had to make an even more amazing fire, which was still the same as the old one since as Aello described him, Bob was a lazy Zelvitan man. Bob took a new stick putting it into his old fire and stirring it up a bit until the remains of the fire got into his new stick and started to burn it up but again his wet hands were an issue and this new fire died out just as fast. Bob tried a few more times with new sticks until he found out that his failures were because of his wet hands and the failure of "catching the fish is more trouble then its worth..." especially for Aello.

The new stick caught some sparks and was thrown into the new spot burning up after a while. "I did what I needed to and what about you?" Bob asked taking a spoon and heading over to the pot for a taste unless Aello stopped him and since he is going to find it "too salty!" Bob was going to have to add some things of his own preference as well. He took some of the other spices from Aello's bag and started sampling them one by one together with whatever spoonfuls he could get a hold of finding it "still too salty...not bitter enough...hmmm...sour...sweet?" until he found the combination he was looking for. It was some powder which was spicy and bitter at the same time that only during the next time he found himself cooking will discover as tumeric. "Since the stew in the pot is a lot more than in the spoon..." Bob used what seemed to be more like a handful than a pinch in it potentially making things worse than before depending on how salty Aello already made it but until he himself tasted it he will claim that "it should taste a lot better now."

by **Aello** on January 21st, 2012, 12:18 am

Aello shook her head as Bob rambled on and on about everything and nothing. As he started flicking various herbs, and dumping numerous spices into her mixture, the girl scowled, as she lifted her spoon out of the broth, and swatted his hands with it. Splashing each of them with droplets of seasoned water, before she put it away. "Oh would you cut it out! It was fine before!" Aello scolded, as she pulled her mother's spices out of Bob's hands, and gathered everything up. When she had, she struggled to get up, and keep ahold of everything which threatened to fall from her grasp.

Slowly but steadily, Aello moved over to her bag, and stuffed everything inside, before plucking it off the ground, and filling it with other scattered items, such as her waterskin. "Not that you would know, being more than used to having your silly uncle's slop," Aello went on. "Fit for pigs that stuff is. Nothing more," Aello commented as she watched Bob working on a fire, all too close to her pan for her liking.

Sighing, Aello strung the pack onto her shoulders, before approaching her pot, and taking her first good look at what Bob had done. She noticed only a multitude of different colored powders gliding across her broth's surface. Gathering moisture, until it slowly sank to the bottom of the pot. Again, the girl scowled, she didn't recognize any of it, and couldn't think it any better than what she had done. Bob being an idiot and all. A lazy Zeltivan man.

Growling, Aello lifted the pot and got to her feet. When she neared Bob, she took ahold of the wooden spoon, and then tipped the pot over, hoping to get the majority of its contents on him. At times, it splashed her feet too, as it cascaded towards the ground, and leapt away, before finally sinking into small, slimy looking pools. "You know what, forget it!" Aello yelled. "You obviously don't know how to cook, and neither does your uncle. So, I am going home. Maybe my mother will show me something useful. She actually knows how to cook," Aello finished, as she turned the empty pot back over, and dumped the wooden spoon back inside, before storming off towards her family's cottage, somewhat swiftly so that Bob would not follow.

OOCFeel free to wrap up.

by **Bob Barton** on January 21st, 2012, 5:26 am

At least things went bad enough for both Aello and Bob to not suffer through that horrible, ruined stew. But Bob was not aware of the damage that he had done already with the spices that he threw into the concoction before Aello could stop him and still believing that he could do a better job, he told her that "it was fine, but obviously I made it better." Bob watched while she gathered all of her things and struggled along not offering her any help at all since "you treat people who only try to help you badly" and from the tone of his voice, anyone could tell that he was rather bitter and frustrated about this treatment. If there ever was a next time he was dragged into helping her, he was going to do his best to try and sabotage her attempts. Maybe instead of using the knowledge of vegetation that Uncle Marny taught him like today he should ask his uncle to teach him something in poisons. The idea was tempting enough.

And Uncle Marny would agree too especially after all he had done. "You know that it was some of my silly uncle's work that helped fixed you up after that stupid ghost thing right?" With that, Bob with a grin of satisfaction that he might have caught Aello told her that "you're a pig since you had the stuff?" It was one of the many other qualities which made her the same like pigs being very ungrateful to their betters as well. Bob was a lot better since he figured out that the sweet and sour seasonings would help Aello's salty stew a lot and using his great instincts as a gambler put in the amount he felt was proper into it, not that she would show any form of appreciation.

Not unless appreciation was the completely predictable actions that the childish Aello did. Bob suspected something was up when the girl who was already so annoyed and prepared to leave came to approach him with that pot. Even if he did not expect that she would dump it all over him he knew that he was supposed to expect something and slowly tried to back away, preparing to run if anything sudden happened. When she tipped it over, Bob found himself reacting quickly by taking a short hop back. Good enough for dodging the initial dumping but not enough for the splash when it got all over his pants. Looking with disbelief, Bob yelled back that "maybe your mother can teach you some manners too!" as Aello tried to leave. After a while of questioning "the nerve of that girl" Bob started to head after her because he demanded some retribution.

He quickly ran towards the general direction of Zeltiva since he did not have anything of his own he had to waste time packing to give the chase. After a while passing through a lot of similar looking trees and bushes Bob saw the small figure of the girl. Really small since she was so far it was as if she disappeared. Seeing her increased the intensity of his feelings as he ran harder, his sights set on Aello but he should have kept an eye on the ground instead. Bob's foot got caught on a hole and "petch the idiots who leave shykeing holes around" more than girls who go dumping stew on other people. He lost sight of Aello and found the ground instead taking a great fall. It took him some time to recover from the exertion he accumulated throughout the day from running away from the sailors, running to find Aello's ingredients and running after her and even his anger was not enough for him to forget it. By the time he got to running again, he reached Zeltiva without finding Aello but "next time...next time you will be on the experiencing end instead" he said waving his fist towards the city with a promise. Right until a group of sailors which he suspects were the ones he has been trying to escape called out to him and then he was off running again through the streets of Zeltiva.

by **Paragon** on January 23rd, 2012, 12:13 am

Aello :

Bob :

Great thread, I enjoyed all the banter between this pair of reprobates! Aello: just a quick note. I've noticed you use a lot of OOC notes in your threads. Perhaps in future, keep them to a minimum, as they detract a little from the thread. You don't need to tell the other player what to do or expect. It's roleplay, so expect the unexpected, or keep planning for PM's. Overall, good job guys - if you have ANY questions or concerns about this grading, don't hesitate to PM me.