paixaorpg | The Mechanic and the Princess [Active]

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The Mechanic and the Princess [Active]

Character(s): Cid Highwind and Yorda
Content: Yorda meets Cid.
Setting: Cid's shop
Time: Afternoon
Warnings: Knowing Cid, foul language.

It was a warm and mellow afternoon, and Yorda had been walking about the city as usual. She hadn't seen Cora, Hamel, or Sonic in a while, and the shadow that had chased her wasn't around - nor, thankfully, were its fellows. The girl walked over to the place where she had met Sonic and sat down on the pavement, watching the glittering city and the people going by.

She wondered if she was going to see them again; the boy who had saved her hadn't, after all, appeared anywhere within the city, as far as Yorda knew. She sighed a little, missing him, but was mostly content to stay in the artificial sunlight of the domed city.

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"Why not?" Yorda asked after she'd swallowed. She took another bite, savoring the unfamiliar flavors as she chewed carefully. She would listen to the pilot, however, and she didn't try to eat the plate again. The sandwich was much more interesting, anyway.

"Because it ain't..." there was a brief pause as he realized that he might end up having to define the word 'edible' and changed what he was planning on saying mid-sentence "...made of anything you can eat. It's for keeping the mess off of things."

Like the table, the tablecloth, or, in extreme cases, clothing.

Yorda nodded, ceasing the questions for the moment as she ate. The girl was delicate and unsure in her movements, mostly going off what Ivan had taught her about eating and instinct. At any rate, it appeared to be working, and before long the sandwich was finished, and Yorda was staring at the plate in her lap, unsure of what to do with it. Should she try and find its fellows? Should she put it away?

Her timing could hardly have been better, if you'd asked Cid - the teakettle whistling the shrill pitch that announced that the water was ready shortly after she finished the last bite. They'd still have to wait for the tea to actually steep, but hell, she'd probably keep at him with questions for long enough for that,

"I can take that," he commented, nodding in the general direction of the plate.

Yorda blinked and offered Cid the plate, jumping slightly at the whistle and looking around confusedly, startled. "What is that?" she asked, shivering a little at how shrill it was. She didn't like it, whatever it was - and it certainly didn't sound like any birds she'd heard from the castle. "What does it mean?"

There were still so many things she had to learn.

"Teakettle," Cid answered, without missing a beat. He'd been expecting the question, this time. "Means the water's done boiling."

Which would, he had doubt, lead to question of why he was boiling the water in the first place, but hell. He could answer that when it came up. For now he'd simply take the plate and put it somewhere near where it would need to be to get washed before taking the kettle off the stove.

"What is a tea kettle?" Yorda asked, standing up and following the man. "What is 'boiling'?" The castle had only had the windmill (not that Yorda knew what it was for; it looked as though it hadn't been used for years) and various streams that ran about on the island. She watched the man move the strange thing off another strange thing and reached for the kettle, stopping short of touching it. "What is that?"

And right on cue, the next wave. At least she was predictable if nothing else. Clearly he wasn't going to be bored any time soon. Just annoyed

"Teakettle's something you use to make tea - I'm holding it. You don't wanna touch it, 'cause it's hot. Boiling water is when you make it hot enough to turn it to steam."

Science made easy. Or so he desperately hoped.

More things to know - and with them came more questions. Being new to the outside world came with many things Yorda knew nothing about, at least not yet. "What is tea?" Yorda asked, obediently withdrawing her hand as she did so to avoid hurting herself - at least she knew the meaning of 'hot'. "What is steam?" Her curiosity peaked and her attention held, she watched the man as he worked.

The first question was easy enough to answer, at the least. It wasn't going to be a very eloquent description of tea but this was hardly surprising, considering that it was Cid doing the explaining.

"It's a drink," he answered as he fetched a pair of mugs and teabags to match.

The second question, on the other hand, wasn't quite so easy.

"See that white misty stuff?" he asked, pointing at the steam rising from one of the mugs. "That's steam."

Yorda nodded, watching Cid move about curiously. Everything was so new to her, especially in a strange place such as this, and she walked around the kitchen, curiously looking (and occasionally lightly touching things to feel them) about her, occasionally smiling at the odd gadgets she found in the room.

She stopped asking questions for the moment, as interested in everything as she was.

The kitchen was, sadly, not the cleanest; Cid wasn't exactly good at domestic life. That was what Shera had been best at. He was just the guy who spent most of time working on his ships.

But at least it meant a moment of quiet as he let the tea steep.

Yorda didn't know many things, but she did know dust when she saw it, and after a few more moments of staring, she picked up a rag and began playing at getting the kitchen clean. She didn't really know what she was doing, of course, but she wanted to do something for this man, who had fed her and answered her questions.

Cid wasn't exactly the greatest at housework, but he figured he might as well keep an eye on what she was doing. He'd much rather things didn't get broken, after all. Or burnt, or otherwise destroyed. Luckily, though, she started in on things that couldn't be destroyed so easily.

Not to mention the tea was just about done, Cid picking the teabags out and dropping them in the trash before bringing one of the mugs over to Yorda.

"Here."

Yorda, it turned out, was having fun cleaning. It fascinated her to see the dirt and grime going away; something she had never seen before - and, once clean, the kitchen would actually look nice. Unfortunately for Yorda, she neglected to notice that her hands were getting dirty until Cid offered Yorda the tea. She blinked down at her dirty hands, unsure of what to do with them (although she bathed, she had never gotten her hands dirty until just then).

Oh for fuck's sake. How sheltered a life had she led, to not know something that basic? Right. Back to explaining it was. Just what he'd wanted to spend his afternoon.

With a sigh, he carefully put the mugs down, and gestured her over to the sink. "You wash those off over here."

Hopefully she understood 'wash'.

Yorda had never needed to bathe after she had awakened in the cage, but she still understood what it was, even if she and her dress had never gotten dirty. The princess nodded at him and set the rag aside, moving to the sink. She had learned what washing was easily, and cleaned up her hands before looking for something to dry them off on.

Again, that was easy enough to expect. And conveniently enough there was a towel around. It had something of a tendency to wander about the kitchen, but it wasn't far enough away to keep Cid from grabbing it and handing it on over. She knew what washing was, so she probably knew about drying, too.

And then they could try this tea thing again.

Yorda smiled at Cid as she dried her hands and offered the towel to the man again. She then looked curiously at the tea again, wondering what the man had done and what those strange little things he had dipped into the mugs were. She simply looked around the kitchen for the moment as various things caught her eye and smiled little to herself. The mechanic was definitely strange to her, but he didn't seem like a bad person. So far, the girl rather liked him.

Alright. Hands satisfactorily cleaned, check. Trying to remember to keep his temper, also check, not that she was making that easy. There'd been a hell of lot more questions then he'd signed up for.

Not that he was going to stop answering them. Wasn't any good reason to. So instead, he just offered her one of the pair of mugs again, silently this time.

Yorda accepted the mug with another smile, curiously sniffing at the strange liquid in the cup and starting slightly in surprise at the way it smelled. She took a curious sniff and blinked again, feeling warmth and flavor flood her mouth, and smiled brilliantly at Cid once she'd swallowed. Whatever this 'tea' was (and although Cid had vaguely explained what it was, she was still unsure of it), she liked it.

Well, good. There would have been harsh words if she hadn't; in Cid's opinion people who didn't appreciate a good cup of tea were people you couldn't exactly trust. Or at least people to keep an eye on.

But since she seemed to like it the only problem was that they were still standing in the damned kitchen.

"We don't have to stand here."

Yorda blinked at Cid, unaware that she had to do anything in particular. "What do we have to do?" she asked, tilting her head to one side as she cupped her mug of tea. She sipped again as she waited for an answer, looking around the room. The girl really had no idea what Cid was talking about; Yorda in particular didn't pay attention as to whether she ate standing up or sitting down, not knowing (or caring, perhaps) which was normal.

"There's chairs," Cid grumbled. Chairs that were there for a reason and not just because he liked have things to accidentally bang his shins on while stumbling around in the dark. They were meant to be sat on and dammit it all, the kitchen was hardly the place to stand around and talk.

Not that you couldn't, of course, but it was the principle of the thing.

Yorda nodded silently and moved to the chair where she had eaten, managing to sit down without spilling a drop. She watched the strange liquid in the mug for a while, fascinated by the way it moved, and decided to swirl the liquid around the mug a little to see what it did. Luckily, it didn't spill, and Yorda laughed a little to herself as she drank it again.

"Where do you come from?"

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The Mechanic and the Princess [Active]

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