Mushroom Soup (attn:Isla)

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Alianora
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Mushroom Soup (attn:Isla)

Post by Alianora » July 7th, 2017, 1:51 am

Amaranie
Amaranie thrust both hands into the soapy water, scrubbing furiously at the pot that lay below. She bent her head over it, bringing it out and examining it for spots. The tip of her nose nearly touched its rim, and the novice would have stuck her whole head inside if she could. The closer she got to her work, the easier it was to pretend to herself that she was back at work in her parents' inn and not stuck in an unfamiliar place, surrounded by witches. She kept her head down, trying not to look at the others as she continued to work. Soon enough, she lifted the pot out again and found it perfectly clean. Reluctantly, Amaranie lifted her head from the water and was forced to bring her attention back to the kitchens in the Grey Tower. The kitchen itself was not so very strange, much like the ones she was used to, if larger. It was one of the few comforts she'd found here. Other girls in white, just like she now wore, hurried around her, and Amaranie pressed herself closer to the sink. She couldn't bring herself to get too near to any of them. Who knew what one might to do her, if provoked?

She placed the pot upside down for the next novice to dry, carefully avoiding looking at the other woman, and picked up the next one, wrinkling her nose. A look into the pot showed that some of the soup from lunch still remained, and in Amaranie's opinion, it smelled like dirt. She could have done better, had she been allowed, but cooking was not something novices did, which she had found rather disappointing. The novice turned, hands barely touching around the pot. She had thought she had enough of a grip on it to get to the sink, but as Amaranie turned, she caught her foot on the edge of one of the floor tiles. The pot tipped forward, its brown contents splashing out onto the white skirt she had not noticed was there. Panicked, Amaranie gasped out an apology. "I'm sorry!" She repeated herself twice more before she realized she was babbling and stopped. She couldn't bring herself to look up and into the face of the wearer of the white skirt. What would the girl do to her? Just from walking outside, she'd seen fireballs flying, earth being hurled at targets, and multiple other impossibilities. Any of those could be turned against her, and Amaranie expected that, regardless of the rule she'd been given about novices not channeling. She did not believe for a minute that all or any of then would obey it. The novice cowered against the far wall of the kitchen and shook, wishing she could just run away.

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Bella
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Re: Mushroom Soup (attn:Isla)

Post by Bella » July 18th, 2017, 1:43 am

The unavoidable truth of it was that Isla had spent precious little--read, none at all--time cleaning dishes in her life.

It wasn't that she was a stranger to hard work, but she was a stranger to this brand of work. She had not been raised as many women had; the hard work she'd most often known was "man's work." She had trained alongside the men of her unit, learning the art of combat and of riding and preparing for battles...

...against the very people she was now scrubbing pots for. Ironic, perhaps.

She was moving through the kitchen in a haze of one task to the next, not really paying much attention to her surroundings past the bare minimum, when another Novice turned and tripped. Before Isla could even register what has happened, there was old soup...all over her. She had been trained for the reflexes of a soldier, but sparring against soup had not ever been on the agenda.

I'm sorry! The girl cried out the words, repeating them over and over.

Isla was busy looking at her dress. She now smelled ridiculous. "It's...alright..." she managed to push the words through her teeth as her nose wrinkled with disgust. That was when she looked up and saw the girl outright cowering. Why the fear? Well, the Mistress of the Kitchens was a force to be reckoned with...

Then a worse thought dawned on her. Did this girl know who she was? Or, that was, who she used to be? Was she afraid of her because of her history among the Children of the Light?

The soup-covered Novice sighed. "It's okay," she said, a little less strained although her nose still twitched. "It...was clearly an accident. I am not going to do anything to you." It certainly wasn't the reputation she needed to have here; there was enough to overcome just being in the building.

Alianora
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Re: Mushroom Soup (attn:Isla)

Post by Alianora » July 20th, 2017, 1:29 am

Amaranie
Amaranie pressed her back against the wall, looking down at her slippers and waiting for the white clad girl to come after her. Surely she would. She had always been told that Aes Sedai were evil, capable of doing great harm, and though she wasn't sure she believed that anymore, the Amadician girl still couldn't help but wonder if the stories told to scare childen in her country were true. A minute passed, then two, and yet, nothing happened, even though the other novice had gotten closer to her. She heard the other girl insist that it was all right, but the voice didn't sound sincere, and Amaranie couldn't make herself move. She knew she should. With her eyes on the floor, she could see the brown stuff running down it, and that was only the mess she could see. The pot had been heavy, and Amaranie suspected there would be more waiting for her on the counters and cabinets.

She straightened up slowly, still not quite sure the other girl meant her no harm. It was only when the girl insisted that she wouldn't do anything to her that Amaranie was able to look up."I really am sorry," she said quietly. The other girl's dress should have been white like her own, but it was now far closer to brown. Amaranie wasn't sure it would ever come clean, but she felt she had to do something to try to clean up the enormous mess she'd made. She walked back to the sink, grateful she'd had several washrags there. She took all of them, then handed most of the pile to the other novice. She prayed to the Light that they would be enough as she pulled up her own white skirts and knelt down to wipe the soup from off the floor.

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Bella
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Re: Mushroom Soup (attn:Isla)

Post by Bella » July 20th, 2017, 2:30 am

Isla took the damp rags and tried to keep a straight face. She set them on a small counter near by, taking one and started to wipe off as many...chunks as she could. Had people actually eaten this? Had she? Her stomach roiled slightly at the thought of having consumed this mess that was adorning her dress.

"I believe you," she said in reply to the latest apology. Little by little, her dress looked more like smooth smears than a landscape. If that was an improvement or not, however... She wasn't going anywhere but to her rooms after this. She'd have to change.

As she cleaned, she glanced up and considered the girl before her. The other Novice's fear seemed to eclipse even her own when she looked at the Aes Sedai. Not to mention the Asha'man... And was that a faint accent? A tonal quality in the voice that was familiar to Isla, although she didn't know if she should ask.

"It's really okay," she said again, dropping another dirty cloth aside and using one last one to wipe off the last of it. For a moment, she contemplated leaving, but then thought her already soiled dress could be of use. She took the last clean cloth and knelt beside the other girl, helping clean up the splattered soup. "I'm Isla."

Alianora
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Re: Mushroom Soup (attn:Isla)

Post by Alianora » July 21st, 2017, 1:57 am

Amaranie
Amaranie tried as best she could to keep her eyes focused on the floor. This wasn't a difficult task, considering the large size of the spill. From her viewpoint, kneeling on the floor, she thought it might cover the whole kitchen. It hadn't seemed nearly as extensive when she'd been standing over it. The novice sighed, rubbed her back, and kept working. Her progress was steady, but slow, and by the time she was halfway done, Amaranie couldn't stand her aching knees anymore.

She stood up and stretched, really looking at the other novice for the first time. The girl certainly didn't look like the fearsome creature she'd been taught all channelers were. In fact, the brown hair and light eyes were quite similar to the coloring of some of the neighbors her family had had back home. In Amadicia, she corrected herself. The country of her birth could never be a home to her again, and Amaranie knew it. It wasn't something she wanted to think about, and instead she focused on the other girl's fomerly white dress. It looked better than it had, but it was nowhere near the white it should have been. Amaranie winced, and quickly returned to her work on the floors.

She was almost done when something dropped to the floor beside her. A look to her side informed her that it was not a something, but a someone. The other girl had knelt down beside her and was helping her clean the floor. Amaranie didn't have a chance to protest before the girl introduced herself. "I'm Mara," she responded automatically, then, thinking better of it, added, "Amaranie." She wasn't sure if she could stand being called the familiar nickname in this unfamiliar place. "You don't have to help me," she told her. "I'm the one who made the mess."

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Bella
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Re: Mushroom Soup (attn:Isla)

Post by Bella » July 22nd, 2017, 2:05 am

Isla was almost surprised, given the girl's initial frightened reaction, that she introduced herself in return and even continued to speak. It certainly wasn't that she blamed her--not in the least! Isla felt much the same way half the time...or all of the time when dealing with the fully raised ones, and then some of the time when dealing with all the rest.

Only other Novices didn't seem so bad, but she was still always wary.

"Well, we're all in this together, one could say," Isla said. "Besides, I'm the one with the evidence all over my dress. The quicker we get this cleaned up, the less likely it will be seen at all by one of those bloody roving Accepted." She paused and pressed her lips together, glancing up at Amaranie. "I suppose that's saying too much." She bit her lip.

Alianora
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Re: Mushroom Soup (attn:Isla)

Post by Alianora » July 23rd, 2017, 7:00 pm

Amaranie
Working closely beside Isla made Amaranie feel nervous, but she had to admit, the work went much faster with two, something she needed. She didn’t know what task Isla had been assigned, but the pot that had caused all this trouble still awaited her attention by the sink, and there were more where it had come from. Though she said nothing as she worked, the novice couldn’t help but wonder about Isla. She seemed nice enough, a direct contradiction to what she’d been told Aes Sedai were supposed to be. Of course, Isla was not an Aes Sedai anymore than Amaranie herself was. Perhaps she hadn’t turned to the Shadow yet? That could be a possibility. After all, she knew she herself walked in the Light, and Keegan had also, regardless of what anyone said. The novice reached up and pushed a piece of dark brown hair out of her face, leaving a smear of soup on her forehead. Light, but living here is confusing! She’d never felt more isolated in her life, and though part of her wanted to reach out to Isla, Amaranie knew there was a good chance that the other girl’s kindness was all an act, and that she might just as easily turn out to be as evil as all Aes Sedai were said to be. She wished there were some way to know for sure.

She sighed, wrinkled her nose, and stood to study the floor. The tiles she’d been cleaning nearly sparkled, though she had created quite a pile of laundry in the process and would have to take them to the laundry area herself, a task that would not be pleasant. For now, she picked them up and piled them on the counter, and went back to the pots. The big one she’d dropped went in first, and she scrubbed for some time before turning her head to see what Isla was doing. She hadn’t seen whether the other girl had finished her section of the floor yet, and if she hadn’t, Amaranie decided that she should offer to do that for her. It was her mess, after all, and even if she was a witch, Isla shouldn’t have to suffer for her own clumsiness.

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Bella
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Re: Mushroom Soup (attn:Isla)

Post by Bella » July 27th, 2017, 2:17 am

By the time Amaranie had finished and turned away to handle her pile of rags, Isla was just about done as well. When she'd come to the Tower, she'd had absolutely no experience with scrubbing floors. In her short time since arrival, that experience had grown in leaps and bounds and she was almost good at it.

She leaned back on her heels and let out a long breath, examining her work before collecting the stinking rags. Please tell me that I didn't eat any of this... Who can tell...

"I was actually due to aid your efforts in the kitchen anyways," Isla said with a weak half-smile. "That is, scrub pots. I...would rather not function in my sodden dress. I need to go change. Can you tell them that I just left for the facilities if they notice my absence? I will be back as swiftly as possible."

Alianora
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Re: Mushroom Soup (attn:Isla)

Post by Alianora » July 31st, 2017, 1:09 am

Amaranie
Amaranie nodded, surprised that Isla had even asked her. She could hardly object to the other novice going to change when she was the reason for the other girl's soiled dress. Isla left, and Amaranie returned to the sinks. Not much time had passed before the novice heard footsteps. She looked up from her work, expecting Isla to be back, but she felt her stomach drop as soon as she saw the banded hem the approaching woman wore. She was quick to bend her head over her work, hoping that if she appeared busy enough the Accepted wouldn't speak to her. She was preoccupied enough that she didn't notice the Accepted coming up beside her until the black haired woman spoke.

"Why haven't you finished those pots yet, child?" Amaranie flinched and turned to face the Accepted. She was unpleasantly surprised to find that she recognized her. She couldn't say she was fond of any of the Accepted, but Accepted Mareli, standing in front of her, was even worse than most. The Accepted seemed to be looking down at her somehow, though she was much shorter than Amaranie. The novice squirmed and looked down at her own slippers. "I spilled some soup, Accepted," she admitted in a near whisper. "I only just finished with the floors."

"You need to be more careful with those!" the Accepted snapped. Amaranie was sure she was turning red with her embarrassment. "Wasn't there another novice working with you?"Amaranie nodded, not sure she could manage even a simple yes or no response. "Well, where is she?" Amaranie trembled, afraid to respond. There was no rule about not leaving to change that she knew of, but Accepted Mareli never seemed even remotely content unless she was scolding someone. The novice did not look up when she finally managed to speak. "She went to the facilities," Amaranie said, having struggled to remember exactly what Isla had told her to say.

"She'd best get back here soon," the Accepted muttered. "Get back to work, and move faster! Even if you spilled something, that's no excuse for not finishing on time." The banded skirt swirled, and Amaranie thought the other woman was finally walking away. The novice plunged her hands back into the dishwater and tried her best to speed up while still getting the pots really clean, which alone was no easy task. She sniffled, trying not to cry, but a couple of tears rolled down her cheeks anyways, dripping into the water.

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Bella
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Re: Mushroom Soup (attn:Isla)

Post by Bella » August 2nd, 2017, 2:23 am

It was a somewhat...troubling walk back to her quarters. She was uncomfortable because of her wet dress, embarrassed for the few people who saw her and more so for the one who asked, running when she could but having to cut herself to a walk when there were others, and then the nerves of getting into trouble for the whole thing.

By the time she actually reached her room, she thought she might just pass out...but she didn't. It was not, of course, any great loyalty to the dishes, but she didn't want to leave the other Novice to the possible ire of their overseers.

Isla practically tore her dirty dress off and tossed it into the corner. It would be gathered for laundering later. For now, it was more important to put on a new one and get back out of there. She did this in what she had to think was record time. She didn't take the time to wash off so she was still a little sticky to the skin, but at least her dress was clean and dry.

She hurried back to the kitchen, barely looking at anything as she hurried to the sinks beside Amaranie. She was out of breath as she rolled her sleeves up. "I was as fast as I could b--" She hesitated when she saw the moisture on the other girl's cheek. It wasn't sweat, likely. Steam? Tears? "Are you okay?"

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