64 Final Call to Action (1/2)

At least by post-apocalyptic standards. It looked like she’d borrowed a dress from Kessiah or Torix, considering the quality. It was stylish, fitted dress made of black fabric. A pretty normal garb though a slight split up the left leg and a split down the chest gave it an edgy vibe. It showed a little more skin than normal. She still had on a pair of leather shoes instead of heels. It made it obvious how uncomfortable she was in the dress.

I grinned, “You’re beautiful.”

Althea blushed, glancing down at her feet. I continued, my grin turning mischievous,

“But, yenno, maybe a tad over dressed for the occasion. It’s just lunch after all.”

She glanced up, a subtle smile tracing her lips. She shoved me, more playful than forceful, “I don’t get an opportunity to dress up often. Cut me some slack. Besides, what’s with the haircut? I’m not the only one to dress up.”

I hadn’t even thought about it, but it was a good point. I’d prepped myself a bit for the lunch as well. We’d crossed into date category by now. I shrugged,

“Well fuck…you got me there.” I turned and picked up the supplies. Althea’s smile turned into a deep frown at the sight of the deer skin and bent out of shape shopping cart.

She crossed her arms, “What is this?”

“Lunch, it’s just unmade.”

She leaned towards the deer skin and sniffed. Leaning back, she put out a palm to it,

“Yeah, that smells terrible.”

I laughed, “Of course it does. It hasn’t been cooked yet.”

I walked into the tent, making telekinetic pads for my feet. The oversized tents had been something you’d expect a family would own, room for several people. Althea moved several small utilities into the open space since the last time I’d been here. A small, electric stove, a giant block of granite she’d polished, even a sink with tiny plastic wrap beside it filled with water. It looked like a tiny bath she liked soaking in I guessed.

I walked over and set my supplies onto the block of granite. The rock already busted through the tent, reminding me why I kept my feet from doing so as well. It did the job as a cutting board and prepping area for the meat, however.

Before I got started, I glanced around the room, exploring for a few seconds. I’d never glanced that close to the inside of the place. It felt rude, since she never really invited me in. Now I had the perfect excuse to see inside.

There was a place she slept and lounged in, a bunkbed carried into here. The blue sheets were unmade, more like she didn’t know how to make a bed rather than just being messy. I didn’t comment, knowing it was rude. The other painful part of the place was the books and magazines scattered about. They were unfolded, along with quite a collection of clothing.

That was the problem with her whole place. She just didn’t know how the hell to organize anything. It made a piece of my brain writhe in discomfort. I wasn’t someone with ocd, but I still hated inefficiency. This place was marred with it. It wasn’t filthy though. She didn’t leave food out or dirty dishes everywhere. From what I knew about cleanliness, that was the deciding difference between being filthy and just being cluttered.

Still, prepping the meal would take some time, so I got started. Under a nearby lamp’s light, I set the vegetables, herbs, and seasonings to the side of the granite block. I set the meat of the deer out onto the boulder. It looked like was very recently polished, making it squeaky clean. It was perfect for a cutting board.

After that, I grabbed a few packs of the lemon powder and olive oil. I set them beside the meat. After growing out a knife from a palm, I broke the object. After washing it and my hands in some soap and water Althea had nearby, I grabbed slabs of meat. With my right hand holding them down, I started slicing the meat down the grain of it.

It’s a pretty simple way of making tough cuts more tender. You slice the meat in the same order as the fibers of the meat. This breaks of some of the tougher fibers, making the meat take better to margination. With how precise and quickly I could move, this process took about two minutes. A few slabs of meat later, and the cuts were ready.

“Althea, do you have any paper towels or something like that?”

“Uh, oh…Yeah, of course.”

Althea was waiting for me, looking closely from her bed. After looking in a burlap bag beside her bed, she handed a bundle of them to me. This let me grab the olive oil with my hand without getting blood on it. Taking another bundle of paper towels, I grabbed a glass bowl behind the block of granite. Althea had gathered a few cooking dishes and stuff for me, making this process much simpler.

I took the glass and poured the oil into it. After that, I mixed in the packets of lemon substitute. From my experience with cooking, this worked better than real lemon juice. The packets mixed into the oil better, because lemon juice had water in it. After that, I washed my hands in the sink.

Reaching back to the granite, I grabbed a few pinches of lemongrass and mint to throw into the marinade. I took a bundle of cilantro, and reached out a hand towards Althea.

She stared at me, confused. I shook the bundle, and she reached out a hand before I pinching some off.

“Taste this and tell me what it tastes like.”

She tried some, nodding as she chewed, “It’s good. I can’t really describe it.”

I frowned, “Does it taste like soap?”

“What, no. Why are you asking?”

I turned back to the marinade, pouring some cilantro in, “Some people say cilantro tastes like soap. I didn’t want to ruin the meat for you, so I checked before adding it.”

She blinked, “Oh.”

I mixed in some pepper, salt, and dill from there. After stirring it with my hands, I dipped the meat into the solution. Making sure to work the marinade into the tiny cuts I made, I squeezed the meat until it was saturated in the solution.

After that, I walked over towards the sink and washed my hands with soap. I made sure to wash the bottle of soap as well, because leaving bloody gunk on the bottle was disgusting. Cross contamination was a serious problem in restaurants, and I wasn’t about to let it happen under my watch.

After that, I walked over and cleaned the granite with a few antibacterial wipes I had on hand. I let the antibacterial solution soak in, cleaning my new knife in the soap as well. After that, I cleaned the boulder with water twice, making sure to get the antibacterial stuff off it. Otherwise the salad would taste like complete and utter shit.

After preheating the oven, I set the vegetables onto the granite, lining up the tomatoes, cucumbers, and herbs. After grabbing a wooden bowl from behind the granite boulder, I cubed the tomatoes and sliced the cucumbers into thin slices. Tossing them into the bowl, I grabbed oregano, thyme, and a bit of basil and tossed them onto the salad.

Skill unlocked! Cooking(lvl 1) - Some craft symphonies with sound. For you, the ingredients are your notes and the meal is your chorus.

After that, I poured a bit of olive oil and lemon juice onto the vegetables. After adding a generous portion of salt, I stirred with a wooden spoon grabbed from behind the granite boulder. Althea had piled up as many kitchen wares as she could. It looked like she just grabbed a whole aisle of them and piled them behind the boulder.

I chuckled a bit at them before Althea frowned at me,

“What’s so funny?”

“Nothing. You just took a whole store’s worth of kitchen stuff. It’s kind of funny is all.”

She blushed a bit before watching me stir the salad. After I set that aside, I handed it to her with a fork,

“Taste it and tell me what you think. I can make something else if you don’t like it.”

She grabbed the dish from me, tasting it with an almost ravenous look on her face. After the first bite, she recoiled back for a second before taking another. A few bites later and she set the dish onto her lap. She threw her hands up,

“This tastes so good. How is this so good? I tried eating this green stuff before and it tastes like dirt.”

I busted out laughing, “That’s lettuce, not cucumbers and tomatoes. If you don’t rinse lettuce off, it keeps some of the grit on it. That makes it taste like dirt.”

She blinked, “Why didn’t you ever tell me you were a chef?”

With an irrepressible grin on my face, I went back to work on the granite table top,

“I wouldn’t say I’m a chef. I just know my way around a kitchen. No one cooked for me when I was younger, so I learned to cook for myself. It was fun, so I just kind of kept at it until I had a couple of dishes I liked. This is one of them.”

I pointed at the venison, “Most meat is expensive for example, so I have to get the tougher, leaner kinds of pork.” I gestured a hand out to my side, still holding the knife, “The thing is, they’re barely edible if you don’t learn a few tricks for eating them. After that, I just wanted something lighter like a salad for the meal. That-“

I picked up a pack of rice, “And something like this to fill me up.”

As I poured some water into a pot, Althea frowned, “Do you need any help?”