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]

"...I might try to get one, then. All that sounds easy. I don't know if Toriel will want one, though. She's who I'm going to live with," they add, because that would be extra confusing without context, and they realize it. "She's here, and I'll ask soon."

Frisk is nearly finished with theirs already. They don't know if they'll get seconds, but they appreciate what they've been given, if the pat on their stomach is any indication.

A little TV knowledge is better than nothing, Frisk guesses. They nod. "TVs have lots of stuff on them. Movies, shows, those are like...stories, with moving pictures. And there's commercials in the middle of them for people to show off things that you can buy. Like dog food."

[lovetheme]

Frisk's stomach-pat earns a small smile from Lucas--the compliment might as well be loud and clear, with a gesture like that, and he certainly appreciates it. But the further talk of TVs has it quickly fading again. He listens carefully.

"...That does sound like a lot of stuff...for a box to have." Lucas's eyes shift to stare down at his soup as he slowly stirs his spoon back and forth in the bowl. His eyebrows come together slightly. "...Doesn't sound so bad. I never--looked at the TVs back home for too long, when they were turned on. They look a lot like Happy Boxes, with the screens. Couldn't be sure if they were okay to watch..."

But maybe they were after all. If they just had things like movies, and dog food. Or maybe that's just the TVs in Frisk's world. ...Who knows? Lucas twists his spoon absently between his fingers, but with a visible effort he tries to pull away from those thoughts, looking back up at Frisk.

"Toriel? I think I've met her...she's really nice." He supposes it would make sense for Frisk to want to live with such a nice person. "That's a good idea--asking who you're going to live with first. Not everybody is a dog person, I guess. But if she doesn't mind, I'm sure you guys could make a dog pretty happy."

[dustless]

"...Happy Boxes?" Frisk has no idea what those are, but Lucas's tone makes them not entirely believe that name. It reminds them of friendliness pellets. And then they think of screens and of their fight with the horrible thing Flowey turned into. Ew.

"Adults say watching TV too much can rot your brain, but I think that's just trying to keep kids from doing it all the time. Why'd people buy them if they can hurt you?"

Anyway, moving on from that a bit-- "She is! But yes, she might not be. She might want a cat instead. Or something else." Despite their words, they look proud Lucas seems to believe in them.

[lovetheme]

"Rotting your brain...that doesn't sound too nice, even if it might not be true." Lucas looks faintly troubled by such a metaphor, to say the least. "I don't know, though. If they could hurt you...some people might still buy them, I think. Some people seem to like buying things just because they can."

He's still not sure he understands that, either, even with three years to watch various members of Tazmily fall into such habits. Talk of pets still serves to be fairly distracting anyway, though. "Yes, maybe she might be a cat person. Either way--I don't think a cat would mind you guys either."

And then Lucas is quiet for several moments after that, spooning down some more soup in thoughtful silence. The edge of his earlier hunger is finally wearing off a good deal with the soup sinking in, which is nice. He might get seconds later.

But he still remembers Frisk's very first query too, just now--about Happy Boxes. And he almost wants to let that bit slide, really, but...Frisk has also been perfectly willing to explain so many other things from their world, too. It probably wouldn't be very fair for him to try holding back. Lucas stares down steadily at his bowl when he finally speaks again.

"Happy Boxes are...well. I'm still not really sure what they are. They were the first sort of...technology, to get brought into Tazmily. The guy who brought them, he told the other villagers the boxes would make them happy. Told them they'd never be happy enough without them. The screens on them are on all the time. All colorful." As far as he could remember, anyway. Lucas never looked too closely, since... "Looking into them for too long, though...they made people start to forget about things. Care less. Always talk about how much happier they could be."

He scrapes at the bottom of his bowl with his spoon, a bit. "Seemed like they were never happy enough, anymore. Nobody'd ever thought that way before the boxes showed up, but..."

[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."