notimeforfailure: (Pout)
Lysithea von Ordelia ([personal profile] notimeforfailure) wrote in [community profile] deernet2021-09-30 08:49 pm

video, un:charon

Good evening, all. I think this is what is termed a 'bandwagon.' However, as I imagine we will all be busy dead, dying, or in the process of resurrecting soon, I thought I had better commit before October.

I'm opening a bakery and sweets shop.

[Lysithea pans the camera to a table that is covered with pans filled with dozens of buns, cakes, and confections of different colors. It really looks extremely well done. One would imagine that Lysithea applies herself with the same intensity to any task she undertakes.]

Everything will be sourced from traditional Fódlan desserts, passed down through family histories and collected by hand in this book. I've realized that if I'm not the one who makes these treats, I'm... never going to taste them again. So I thought I should share.

[The view changes to an enormous tome currently open to a page titled Saghert and Cream in script prominently displaying a luscious picture of some kind of fruit and cream concoction. It really looks like this was drawn by hand.]

I'm baking from my room for now. If you want anything here, you can drop by or I'll bring it over. If you want delivery, you've got to get at least a dozen, because frankly, I'm not running all over town to give you one sweet bun. I'll open a proper location when it's not Death Month.

...Thanks.

[She signs off after a moment's awkward hesitation, as if she's not sure what to do next.]

[video pt 2, ten minutes later]

It's -- me again. Upon further reflection, I have no idea how to run a business, at all, apart from the portion where you confidently declare it in public.

I would... appreciate advice.

And help. If you are willing to be paid in cake.
payingfordeliverance: (Bleh: Why this)

[personal profile] payingfordeliverance 2021-10-01 03:24 am (UTC)(link)
Scoot your snoot, you, she's still talki -- I -- oh.

[The omni finally rights itself to show Break mostly onscreen, in his pajamas and half out of a blanketfort, making a face like he has just been caught. They are both embarrassed now.]

I see that I have pushed a button. Mm, but -- that's really great, right? To decide to do such a thing, and then...be able to...?
payingfordeliverance: (Pensive: Yes well)

[personal profile] payingfordeliverance 2021-10-01 10:16 pm (UTC)(link)
Two.

[This answer is immediate, because it is obvious. Well, if he was going to end up having a conversation when he was just trying to eavesdrop on the network, at least he is getting baked goods out of it.]

Baltus is content, however. We've found pumpkins are excellent for chewing when one has many sharp teeth. [A pause.] Then, how shall I return the favor?
payingfordeliverance: (Pensive: Food for thought)

[personal profile] payingfordeliverance 2021-10-02 02:47 am (UTC)(link)
Being the brutish sort, I excel at picking up heavy things and putting them down again. When you really get going, you'll be moving about pounds and pounds of flour and things, isn't that so?

[Says the slender, dainty, elegant fellow who likes to have baubles on his cravat. Trust him. He can totally carry all of the groceries inside in only one trip.]

Mm, but -- my household has taken to collecting gems and things for bartering with, so that bit should never be any trouble. I wonder, however, if you might be interested in a more longterm deal...?
payingfordeliverance: (Smile: I know something you don't know)

[personal profile] payingfordeliverance 2021-10-02 03:20 am (UTC)(link)
[This gets a genuine, if sardonic, smile out of him. Did she seriously miss all those hints? That's terribly funny.]

That goes without saying. I'll be after a regular supply regardless of whether this offer suits you, so never you worry about that.

[Break is a bottomless pit. The more resources he has, the happier he is, and he won't be offended a bit if her preference is to shove baked goods in his face and shoo him out the door.]

I, too, have an idea now of how I ought to spend my time in this place. Having found myself the sole guardian of four teenagers who are all either useless nobility or never knew a true home at all -- I need to learn my way around a kitchen.
payingfordeliverance: (Pensive: The last thing you'll ever see)

[personal profile] payingfordeliverance 2021-10-02 06:01 pm (UTC)(link)
They should learn to be themselves, first. [Break is firm on this.] Our own world burdened them with saving it, from problems that should never have been forced upon them. For all its faults, being here in this place is the first time any of them are able to choose who and what they'll be.

I have already enjoyed a full life of my own -- and, with so many fighters here stronger and in possession of more interesting skills than I, there's no need to worry I'm not doing my part against all the monsters and things if I retire. Since that's the case, giving these kids the opportunity to simply be kids who have a safe place to come home to is what suits me best of all.

[It's the first time he's verbalized this, but the wheels in his head have been surging in this direction since he was kidnapped by a flock of ravens, tossed into a boat with a relative stranger, and forced to use illusions of corpses as inspiration to bat around painful secrets. The discovery of just how horribly Trench is going to wind up hurting the kids has shown him what his real fight is, now. He's the only one of the lot who has ever known a truly loving home. The kindest thing he can do for them is to recreate it, and he's woefully unprepared.]

I imagine it's a troublesome thing, to teach a blind man to bake, and there will turn out to be things I simply must have an extra set of eyes about for. I'm bothering several people about it, so that I can learn as many different kitchen things as possible. However, I'm certainly capable of handling the washing up for you in return, and likely a few other annoying chores as well.

[Baltus chooses this moment to leap back onto the bed behind him and drape his head over Break's shoulder, the better to put his entire long face back into the frame with the small pumpkin he has indeed been chewing on hanging out of his mouth. Look, Lysithea! Here is Baltus's current pumpkin, and given the tooth marks shredding the sides of it, he has been enjoying it very much.]

...I would, of course, have this one with me. Every time.
payingfordeliverance: (Smile: Once upon a better time)

[personal profile] payingfordeliverance 2021-10-06 04:06 am (UTC)(link)
I am merely a simple swordsman. It may well be that my true kitchen talents lie in dicing up soup fixings.

[He pauses to (lovingly) shove his omen out of his face.]

If it doesn't work out, that's quite alright. Just so long as someone is making sweets for me to eat in the end.


[The youthful facade is a swiftly fading magical lie. He just turned forty like. Right now, actually. That's like a hundred and twelve in Break years and he will complain.]
payingfordeliverance: (Smile: Once upon a time)

[personal profile] payingfordeliverance 2021-10-07 12:24 am (UTC)(link)
I am known to be rather precise.

[He's not stupid enough to try to use a sword in the kitchen. Incidentally, once things really get going, Break will prove to be immediately great with a similarly violent kitchen tool: the rolling pin. A couple of wooden slats on either side of the dough to help him keep the thickness even, and he'll be the quickest and most efficient croissant lamination machine she's ever encountered.

It's the little things.]


That, I'll leave up to you. As I've only just begun acquiring teachers, my schedule is still open as of yet, and -- I'm not the one learning to run a whole business just this second.
payingfordeliverance: (Smile: Cutest of all)

[personal profile] payingfordeliverance 2021-10-07 01:30 am (UTC)(link)
[Break perks up visibly.]

Oh, I'm wonderful at that! In this place, I've had great luck pulling the "dotty old blind man" shtick, but I can shmooze with aristocrats and pubcrawlers and everything in between.

[Is she seriously going to pay him in sweets and kitchen knowledge to go bother people??? She is his new favorite now, he's definitely keeping her.]
payingfordeliverance: (Smile: I might accidentally kill you)

[personal profile] payingfordeliverance 2021-10-09 01:24 am (UTC)(link)
I am already blind, so it's fine.

[Because of course he caught that. Bonus points because the whole reason Break is down an eyeball is that someone freaking stole it --]

Don't worry, don't worry. I may be a decrepit old squid now, but I could handle petty thieves in my sleep. You hear that, Baltus? The Stygian Deep, remember that.
payingfordeliverance: (Atmosphere: Gold star for you)

[personal profile] payingfordeliverance 2021-10-09 03:07 am (UTC)(link)
Certainly. Then, I will be in touch with you soon.

[A profitable first foray onto the network for one Xerxes Break. Fast forward a couple days and he does indeed turn up with two rather hefty well-sealed jars of ground cinnamon, which should last some while even with Lysithea baking in bulk -- and a small pile vanilla beans which he has been assured you can steep in booze to make baking things with, and a cute pan that will produce wee cakelets shaped like autumn leaves and acorns which amused him very much. His vague answers as to how the hell he managed this imply that he may have gotten himself involved in some sort of baking mafia, and also that his cane has a sword in it. He also has a scrap of paper upon which is written a half-remembered recipe for some dock worker's grandmother's snickerdoodles, which comes with a promise that if Lysithea is able to perfect it, she will know any and all details about relevant shipments a solid week in advance.

Break enjoys quests, and also winning at them. A happy ending for all...!]