alas, it's not omelettes

[lovetheme]

His stay in this castle has gotten a lot longer than expected.

Which is a bit worrying for a variety of different reasons. But then there's the more practical concerns of being trapped in a magical castle, too--like the fact that most of the food to be found so far consists of either fruits from the garden or cakes from the ballroom, mostly. (Cakes with strange not-edible things inside them...) And that's just...not enough, honestly. A growing boy is a perpetually hungry one, and there's a lot to be said for the lack of actual meals lately.

But today Lucas finally stumbles into a kitchen in his wanderings. It's disappointingly ghost-free, much the way the rest of the castle has been--he wonders what Duster would think of all this--but still, the room is large, and there are pots and utensils hung across the walls, and vegetables in the cabinets. ...Perfectly fresh vegetables. Which is pretty odd, but...everything else about this place is odd already. Lucas sets them out on the counter anyway.

Because he does know how to cook, a bit. Flint would often be away for multiple days at a time, and so Lucas is mostly self-taught, using advice from fellow villagers and experimenting a bit on his own...after three years, putting together a decent vegetable stew isn't too hard at all. There's a wood stove that's easy enough to light a fire in, and there's water here and a large pot there...

And so visitors might be drawn in by a faint but pleasant smell, wafting through the open kitchen doorway. Lucas is found standing at a counter (on top of a tall stool, so that he can actually reach everything), carefully chopping more assorted vegetables with a knife while a large pot simmers gently on the stove nearby. He's humming to himself very softly, but is otherwise absorbed in deep concentration as he tries to get these vegetable chunks just the right size, and doesn't notice anyone coming in or watching just yet.

Comments

[dustless]

"People like having lots of stuff, I guess." Frisk doesn't entirely get that either. Some stuff is fine, but you can't exactly carry a huge TV or a ton of cool toys around when there's stuff to do, so what's the point?

"Met a couple cat monsters, too. They sold stuff. They were a little weirder than the dogs." Frisk finds they miss Catty (and Bratty) and Burgerpants sometimes, even though they didn't know each other very much. They were fun to talk to.

Their spoon idly taps against the edge of their empty bowl. "...sounds like...they were hyt--hyp--boxes with mind control? Like TV commercials but a lot worse." They don't care for how the subject makes Lucas look. "'F there are any ever here somehow, we can throw 'em off the edge."

[lovetheme]

"Hmm...normal cats are weirder than normal dogs too. Guess it'd make sense for cat monsters to be the same way." And they sell things as monsters too, apparently--but Lucas can see that pretty easily too. Normal mole crickets corner most of the sales market back home; cat monsters probably have it even easier, being bigger and all.

Lucas pauses as Frisk tries to work out that word for a moment, though, blinking when what they mean finally clicks. "Hypnosis, you mean? Oh...yes, maybe..." Sure, the PSI skill Hypnosis puts things to sleep generally--but who's to say other versions of Hypnosis can't do other things? Messing with people's heads in general...and that would be another rather sobering thought to chew on, but Frisk's conclusion on a plan to action should Happy Boxes ever appear in the castle earns some surprise. Lucas looks back up to Frisk over his bowl, troubled expression finally slipping into a small smile despite himself. When you put it like that... "--Yeah, we can do that. Get rid of them before anybody gets attached. That's a good idea."

And it's almost as if a slight weight's been lifted, really. Thinking about anything from home feels terribly...heavy anymore. But he isn't there now, Lucas reminds himself--not for a little while, anyway. He draws in a breath and straightens in his seat, placing his spoon in the bowl and pushing it aside slightly so he can fold his arms on the table. "--But. Anyway. Got distracted...I said I was going to teach you how to cook things, didn't I? We should talk about that. Is there any kind of food you've ever wanted to try cooking, before?"

[dustless]

They don't have much experience with normal cats either, but Frisk doesn't really doubt him. "One of the cat monsters wanted a cat, too. That seems extra weird." In the way the bunnies in Snowdin--specifically the one that was walking her brother--seemed weird. Then again, Catty hadn't known what a real cat looked like, so she might just be extra strange for even a cat monster...

"Hypnosis! Yeah. It...hypnotism. That's the word. Don't need mind control stuff here." Especially if Undyne might show up. That's why Frisk thought of that solution, admittedly, since mind control makes them think of her, and that's what her proposed idea to keep them from being a problem would be. Probably. "...Though someone might want to take them apart and see how they work." They shrug.

"Well...mmmaybe something with pasta? Or even just pasta itself. I don't know how that's made." They want to learn to make something genuinely edible to help Papyrus and Undyne sometime. Or S-4. "But anything we can make here is fine. Just so we can have stuff that isn't what the castle already...made...for us, 'cause just eating that's getting old."

[lovetheme]

Admittedly there aren't a lot of cats to be found in Nowhere either. But the few Lucas has ever met were strange and cryptic little things, and Boney was always equally confused. He figures it must be a cat thing in general. Though a cat wanting to own a cat does seem even weirder than the normal weird levels, and Lucas makes a bit of a face at that.

He frowns faintly at the idea of someone messing around with a Happy Box in any capacity. "We'll have to--throw them over before anybody tries taking them apart, then. There's nothing in a Happy Box worth looking for." He sounds very certain of this.

But talk of food eases any of that earlier concern. Pasta.....ah. Lucas's eyebrows come together a bit. "Something with pasta? Hm....like--pasta with a past?"

[dustless]

Frisk isn't sure if Catty would be a responsible pet owner, anyway. She seems like the type of monster to forget to feed one sometimes.

"Okay." They assume Lucas knows best. But they kind of doubt those things are going to show up, anyway.

"Pasta with a past? I don't know what that is. Is that...like...aged spaghetti?"

[lovetheme]

"Mm, no, not aged...not really? It wasn't very old, I think. But it was..." Lucas pauses, and then leans forward a bit almost conspiratorially, voice actually dropping slightly. "A pasta of--unspeakable circumstance."

It might sound like a joke, and yet his expression is entirely serious--before he sits back again, relaxing almost immediately and rubbing at one of his arms thoughtfully.

"Had some, before. Only kind of pasta I've had, I think? It was pretty good...I don't know how they cooked in the unspeakable circumstances, though." It sounds sort of difficult...he's pretty sure he's not at that kind of skill level yet. "But--there's noodles, and a sauce with tomato in it, right? Maybe we could make the pasta without the past, too..." A beat. Lucas glances up at Frisk as the thought finally occurs to him. "--Are there--a lot of other kinds of pasta?"

[dustless]

Frisk doesn't quite lean back, but there's definitely an urge to for a moment. But--it still sounds like a joke, or at least sounds funny, so they don't quite muffle a snicker.

"That name sounds really weird. Wouldn't be surprised if there was some of that somewhere here, though! Castle seems like the type."

For a moment, they're slightly distracted by considering trying to balance the spoon on their nose. It's not a trick they've managed before, though, and it's kind of dirty, so never mind.

"I think so? Noodles and spaghetti are pretty close. Then there's lasagna, which is...flat pasta, with cheese and meat and stuff between...parts of it? Like a weird cake. And macaroni and cheese, which has pieces of tube-looking pasta shaped like--" they make the shape with their hand. "And other things, too. There's a kind that looks sort of like seashells, but I don't remember what they're called."