If You Give a Bee a Cookie

[Yeva]

Say Goodbye to These

Darius came bounding down the stairs half naked and Yeva, distracted by the math she was calculating in her mind, was slow to look up until he was only a few feet away. Her mouth dropped, "Wha-ah," she looked past him, giving a small shake of her head to rid the scattered thoughts. What had she asked? "Okay, yes.. I... uh- Yeah, looks good," she stiffened, realizing a little too late her horrifying verbal slip up. "Sounds good. Sounds right..." Was this nausea she felt? Yeva looked back and forth between the kitchen doorway and him somewhat helplessly, ".....I'm just gonna... um," she cleared her throat, chuckling nervously at her own blanking mind, inching away bit by bit. It was just a shirtless man, she had seen plenty, especially in Rharne tavern brawls, but it didn't mean it hadn't caught her off guard. Her and Dari's previous encounters had very much been clothed, "Y-you go bathe. I'll take care of this. S-sorry..."

Yeva turned on her heel and began heading back to the safety of the other room where she could think clearly. A last glimpse at Darius bare shoulders and dip of his back disappearing to the second story made her walk to the counter and stare blankly at the ingredients. The recipe waited her attention and she reached out for it, trying to remember what she had been doing.

"Oh, shi-" she bit her tongue, wincing. She had forgotten what Darius had even told her. 2 and something? Groaning at herself, she buried her face in her hands.

Two... two and what? What was this for? The sugar? Thankfully, she had started the list modifications in her journal and returned back to it, comparing it to the original recipe. Brown sugar, she realized. The recipe called for two separate types. "Okay, I can do this... Let's see... making three batches... that's 3 times 3/4ths... is... 9... 9/4ths..." That sounded vaguely familiar.

She chewed her lip, hunching over the writing to refocus, "Four goes into Nine... twice... so since... two times four is eight.... Nine.. minus eight is... one... over four?"

2 and 1/4ths?

She circled the answer and blinked, realizing that Dari managed to do that calculation in his head, in a matter on ticks. He had kept track of all those steps! Was he a genius? She laughed, her confidence returning as she began to ease back into the act of baking. She was back on track.

Yeva read over the recipe again and began reaching for the ingredients as she seperated a mixing bowl and began the first step:

• In a large bowl, whisk together the sugars, salt, and butter until a paste forms with no lumps.

With her measuring cups, she used her new calculations to gather the appropriate amount for three batches and dumped them one by one into the bowl. From her trek from market to his house, and the rest atop the counter, her butter was nicely softened. According to her notes, it was better for creaming the fat with sugars and the temperature could affect the texture.

Beating the mixture, she was determined to follow the words exactly, scraping the sides, surprised by how much she felt the action in her biceps. The kitchen was warming considerably, and she brushed some hair out of her face with the back of her hand. A bit breathlessly, she craned back over the paper, "Step two..."

• Whisk in the egg and vanilla, beating until light ribbons fall off the whisk and remain for a short while before falling back into the mixture.

"Step two, caaaan doooo," she sang, smiling to herself as she measured and poured in the vanilla. Yeva, perhaps a bit too confidently, smacked the egg against the table and tried to crack it with one hand, but it ended up exploding in her grasp and she gasped in horror, rushing to catch the oozing yellow goo and salvage the mixture from shards of broken egg shell. Frantically, Yeva began running around the kitchen, looking for someplace she could throw the mess away, little droplets trailing after her.

[Darius Baer]

Darius doubted his cheeks could redden any more than they already had, but the increasing warmth he felt in them when Yeva reacted to his semi-naked form suggested that they were doing their best to defy the odds.

This was not a situation he was used to. The encounter was so awkward that the broad-shouldered human silently scolded himself for putting himself in such a position. But what else could he have done? No host worth their salt would simply abandon their guest, and yet he couldn't remain dressed in clothes that were a mixture of sweat and wood shavings.

But it was ultimately his own fault. If he hadn't lost track of time, and had simply ensured he had bathed before Yeva's arrival, he wouldn't be standing with his hands in his armpits and wishing he was anywhere else.

Mercifully, even though it felt like a dozen arcs had passed, Yeva found a way to extricate herself. Darius was finally told to return to the bath; it was an instruction he was only too relieved to follow.

The water was tepid by the time he stepped back into it. That, and the fact that he had a guest juggling bowls in his kitchen, ensured he cleaned himself hastily. And despite the rush, the release in tension brought a sense of respite.

By the time he returned to the kitchen, he was barefoot but otherwise clothed. His tunic had spots of moisture from his blond hair which he was still drying, and the redness in his cheeks had faded.

"How are the cookies?" he asked, just in time to hear the crack of an egg being hit against the table.

The resulting yoke fountain sent both he and Yeva into a panicked rush. Darius initially ran towards the table, his towel falling to the ground as he covered the small distance. But upon arrival, he realised that he had no means of helping his friend, and he immediately turned and ran back into the kitchen.

Dark grey eyes hastily scanned the bench, only stopping to rest upon the first bowl he saw, which he grabbed without a moment's thought, and scrambled to get back to the table, diving to the ground and crashing his knees and elbows onto the wooden floor to get underneath Yeva's hands.

It was only as the mixture of yellow goo and broken eggshell began to drop into the bowl that he noticed it already appeared to have a mixture of ingredients within it.

[Yeva]

An Egg-cellent Job

What a mess!

Driblets of murky goo slithered from the spaces between her fingers, speckling her feet as poor Yeva struggled to decide where to throw it. And, in the worst timing, Darius appeared fresh and ready for proper baking, only to be met with her making an absolute mess of his kitchen. In an attempt to placate her failure, he produced a bowl and she gasped, eagerly dropping the egg into it, only to freeze in realization that it was the wrong one, "That's-" she struggled to find the words, looking at her hands which were covered in a slimy sheen. They had thrown it in along with the sugar - the dry ingredients - and it puddled across the granulated powder. Face twisting, she was struck with the realization of how absolutely ridiculous they must have looked, racing around in circles, dancing to a song of clumsiness and awkward solution.

She began to giggle, and it grew in sound and power, turning into full fledged laughter that made her ribs hurt from lack of breath, "Oh my gods," she managed, sucking in a deep breath as she wiped her hands off on her apron, "We're quite the pair, eh?" She giggled again, looking around to assess the damage and grab a cloth to dampen, "Sorry for making a mess. Your face-" she pressed her lips together, exhaling rather amused breaths to keep from being overcome by another round of mirth, "You dropped your towel and everything."

There was nothing quite like breaking the tension like humor, and the remnants of memory surrounding the earlier shirtless haze seemed to be forgotten. Yeva was refreshed, and she worked with a grin in cleaning it up. A fond moment, she wouldn't soon forget their baking efforts. Once surfaces were wiped down and hands rewashed, she made her way back to the mixing bowls to assess the damage, "I just need to fix this really quick..."

Definition of quick to be decided. Yeva found a spoon and began to do her best to extrapolate the haphazard remains of egg back to the bowl with the other wet ingredients with mixed success. At the end of it, she decided to just go ahead and make sure no bits of shell lingered and then nodded, "If you want to try to throw in two more eggs, that might best. I'll go check the recipe again," Yeva stepped out of the way and meandered back to her writings. If Darius was whisking, that meant she could prepare the next step.

"Sift the flour and pearl ash..." she muttered, brightening once read, "Perfect! Okay!"

"All we need to do is finish whisking the eggs till its ribbon-y," Whatever that meant, "-and then mix it with the sugars" she scurried off to grab the flour and a sifter, "We'll fold in the flour and then chocolate!"

"When you're done, can you cut the chocolate chunks? There's a few bars on the table with the rest of the ingredients. I'll do this and then..." she smiled to herself, although Darius may have noticed the bit of childish mischief in her brown eyes, "Taste test."

Did you know...?

In the late 18th century, saleratus, or pearl ash was discovered and used as a leavening agent. This was a precursor to baking soda. It was used in cookies, biscuits and quick breads.

[Darius Baer]

Darius opened his mouth to say something, but no words came out. Instead, his eyes widened, and he watched in a panic as the egg mixture slowly crept through Yeva's grasp and dripped ever so slowly into the bowl. He knew he'd grabbed the wrong bowl, for whatever ingredients the redhead had prepared were nestled comfortable within it, but he couldn't get up from the ground and find a replacement before yoke and shell slowly coated itself over the mixture.

He stared at the unintentional concoction for a few moments, before lifting his gaze to find Yeva and, he assumed, to face the music. The melodic noise he did hear instead was his friend's giggling, and after initially furrowing his brow in confusion, he soon found himself joining in on her laughter.

The mirth was a good tonic, enabling him to ignore the pain in his knees and elbows as he clumsily regained his feet, bowl in hand. With one bare foot, he kicked his towel across the room, and it landed by the door to the hallway. His hands were full and it had done most of its job already; he would have to be content with slightly wet hair and the occasional patch of moisture on his tunic.

Their shared laughter came easily, and it was one of the first times he'd found humour in the previous few trials. His time on Ishallr had meant bracing himself against the cold and fighting for his life.

There had been positives there, too, and he was excited to share with Yeva what he'd been able to arrange on her behalf. But there were more important priorities to deal with first: those cookies wouldn't bake themselves.

As the least experienced baker in the kitchen - which, going by Yeva's bowl juggling and egg fountain antics, was saying something - Darius was content to follow her lead, letting her determine which tasks he was responsible for. Such tasks were carried out dutifully, with the bearded blond more than once seeking clarification on precisely how his friend wanted things done.

He occasionally stopped to watch whatever the redhead was doing, hoping to pick up a new trick or two. The Baer boys hadn't eaten so extravagantly since his mother had passed, and it felt good to have the kitchen being used to make food that was more interesting than stew.

By the time he had managed to cut the chunks of chocolate - and eaten a misshapen one on the sly - he was able to stand back and admire his small contribution.

"So," he beamed, disproportionately proud of his efforts, "you said something about a taste test?"

[Yeva]

Salivating for Salmonella

"Between you and me, you're not supposed to eat anything with raw egg in it. They say it can make you sick... But," Yeva hummed, sifting in the flour, bit of white particles flying into the air, "Some risks are worth taking and I'm a doctor, so...."

She grinned, "I don't mind a little danger."

It was a funny thought that made her chuckle. Noticing how he seemed to follow her hands, she slipped into simple instruction,"Right now I'm just working through the flour," each tap of the metal against her hand caused a plume of white powder to snow upon the bowl, "This keeps out clumps, helps combine the ingredients a bit." There were a few other benefits according to her cookbook. Aeration and accurate measuring, for a start, "Let's see..."

Yeva managed to get a cohesive mixture, adding the chocolate last. The pieces were lovely and uneven and she could already imagine the gooey golden crust. Yeva fetched a wooden spoon and began to finagle a scoop free. While it might have some effect in the baking process, she could hardly tell they had made a mistake in the mixing madness, it all finishing up into one bowl. When a portion of dough was balanced on the end of the spoon, she used her fingers to pinch it, passing the utensil to Darius if he should be so inclined, "Shall we make a toast?" she teased, trying to think of something clever to say.

Almost immediately, she was reminded of something she had heard the men and women in Rharne say, particularly the fishermen who went out on the lake, "Some ships are wooden ships, but those ships may sink," Yeva would have to modify the rhyme since it was not alcohol they were consuming, "The best ships are friendships, and to those ships, we eat. Cheers."

Yeva reached out to brush her knuckles against his own, popping the little ball of cookie dough into her mouth. It was sweet with fat pieces of chocolate that crunched between her teeth, eliciting a smile, and raised brows from the girl, "Mm!" She turned to reach for a baking sheet while she clapped her hands in pride. They were doing good! "Now we have to do is manage not to burn them."

Skimming the recipe, she noted that they needed to coat the pan so the cookies wouldn't stick and that they would expand in the oven, so they needed to be spaced evenly apart, "So, Darius," They would have some time once the first batch went into the oven, a little conversation never hurt, "Tell me something about yourself. How long have you lived here? This house, that is."

[Darius Baer]

As a boy, Darius had never been the best student. That wasn't to say he never tried his hardest, or that he was a truant, but he did not find it particularly easy to learn from books. While many of his fellow young Scalvorians seemed content to read dusty tomes and be instructed by dusty tutors, the young Baer boy had spent many lessons dreaming of climbing trees and joining his father on fishing expeditions.

But he tried his best to learn, because his mother Jean had insisted that it was important to know how to read, write, and count.

In the arcs since, he had discovered that he was a tactile learner, more capable of taking on new knowledge by carrying out tasks than by simply being told what to do.

And so, with the mathematics of fractions out of the way - and the awkward, blushing, topless mathematics of fractions, at that - Darius was able to follow Yeva's explanation of her use of the flour, and why it was so essential.

"In woodworking, we have a type of glue that gets made from fish," he commented, figuring that he could provide a little teaching of his own. "We use it to keep pieces of wood together or to fill in gaps, so I suppose it's a little bit like the flour, in a sense."

The bearded human shrugged his shoulders lightly.

"I used it to fix a rowboat a couple of arcs ago, and it hasn't sunk yet!"

Darius grinned slightly at his own jest, before turning his focus back to what Yeva was doing.

His grin grew as the redhead 'braved' a taste test of the dough, and he dutifully followed suit, taking a pinch of the mixture and chuckling lightly at his friend's toast.

"Cheers!"

He put the small piece of dough into his mouth. His eyes widened at the taste, and he relished the sweetness of the mixture.

"Delicious!" he declared triumphantly. "Go us!"

Once the oven fire was running and the pan of cookies was beginning to bake, Darius took a pair of wooden cups that he had made - replicas of one he had crafted for the Gifting Trial - and filled them with cool water. Then he sat down at the nearby table and used a foot to push one of the other chairs back from the table so that Yeva would have somewhere to sit. He took a sip, then leant back in his seat as his baking tutor asked him a very non-baking question.

"I've lived in Scalv all my life," he stated, the tone of his gravelly voice having relaxed significantly since their egg incident. "And in this house? About three arcs. I used to live with my Ma and Da, closer to the docks. Da was a fisherman and sailor when I grew up, so it made sense to be near the water. I quite enjoy the views from up here, though."

He turned, casting a gaze out of his window towards the Hollow Sea, and the glimpses of Faldrass and Ishallr beyond.

"The hill climb makes for good exercise, too," he grinned, turning back to Yeva, a mischievous glint in his eye. "How are those legs of yours holding up?'

[Yeva]

The Waiting Game

Darius swooped down to take a seat and Yeva grinned when the chair opposite seemed to push back in invitation. She happily slid into the chair and leaned forward to rest her elbows against the table, "It's a good house," she commented, smiling, "I think it matches you well."

Speaking of, he looked awfully amused, "The hill climb makes for good exercise, too," he said. Such an understatement. Yeva snorted in response, raising a brow as he continued his subtle teasing, "How are those legs of yours holding up?'

Finally, she chuckled, "You know you could have warned me! Carrying all those groceries, I was convinced I had started climbing a mountain," She returned his mischievous look with one of her own, "Then again... the next time you have a lady over, you can fool them into think you're the one making those knees go weak. And by the time they get here, they'll hardly be able to run for the hills if you already live there. Very clever, Mr. Baer."

She laughed again and rolled the wooden glass between her flour dusted hands. Yeva took a drink of the refreshment and assessed the damage to the kitchen. Outside of a bit of fussing from their blunder, and the dishes they had used, it wasn't in much of a state. She'd help clean before she left but for now, enjoyed her company and admired the view. The sea looked vibrant in the sunlight, sparkling and aquamarine, all the way until the shores of Faldrass and Ishallr, "Do you ever get to use the garden? I saw it outside before you came out of the shop. I've always wanted to be able to grow my own food... Or catch it, I guess. I just like the idea of being self sufficient."

She let the silence drift between them. It was comfortable. After finishing her water, she thought she'd tell him a bit about herself.

"My family used to live on a farm... An orchard, more like. We moved more into the city proper when I was just a young girl, so I've been quite sheltered from that sort of labor. Back home, children are often taught through apprenticeships - a lot of schooling is privatized - so when I was old enough, getting to receive medical training in Rharne was a big deal... This was before the Order had made its branch there and that experience is what inspired me to join. Still, sometimes, I wonder what life would have been like if I chose a different path... Maybe I'd be baker. Who knows?"

She smiled and pulled her attention from the window to look back at Darius, "If you could do anything in the world, what would it be?"

[Darius Baer]

The grin that had accompanied Darius' light teasing of Yeva grew as she played into the joke, but he soon felt the heat of a blush burning at his cheeks when she returned the favour. The notion of 'having a lady over' was almost entirely foreign to him. In fact, Yeva was the first woman who had been to his home, and he wondered she might be the last. He wasn't exactly adept at navigating romantic relationships, and in fact it was his first encounter with Yeva - accompanied by a dose of alcohol - that had probably come closest to any form of flirtation.

The redhead asked about his garden, and Darius had to admit that he used it for very little, outside of claiming a few herbs and providing a home for too many weeds. Perhaps, in time, he might learn to make better use of it.

And she spoke of her upbringing on a farm. It was hard to imagine Yeva picking fruit from an orchard all trial long, and yet he was convinced that she would give every ounce of energy she had in order to get the job done.

When she asked Darius her question about what he could be, his answer came quickly: "A ship captain."

Perhaps a little too quickly.

"Actually, it depends on how realistic we're talking," he added. "If I'm allowed to be anything at all, I'd be someone who does good for others."

He paused briefly, and a smile stretched across his face.

"Speaking of which," he added, "I have a treat for you. Think of it as a thank you gift for your amazing cookies."

His smile grew, and he put down his cup and waited until he had Yeva's full attention. And when he did, with the cookies almost ready to be pulled from the oven, he held his breath for a moment before he told her the good news.

"On the morrow, you're going to meet Faith Augustin!"

[Doran]

Darius:

Knowledge:
Athletics: Diving to catch a falling item.
Cooking: Following a recipe is important.
Cooking: Wash your hands before you start.
Cooking: Using flint to fire up the oven.
Cooking: Broken eggs can be messy!
Cooking: Basic ingredient preparation.
Cooking: Enjoying a taste test.
Discipline: Maintaining a semblance of decency in the face of mutual attraction.
Endurance: Enduring the pain of a bumpy landing.
Etiquette: Hosting someone in your own home.
Etiquette: Birthtrials are important!
Mathematics: Basic multiplication.
Mathematics: Converting fractions to whole numbers.
Storytelling: Explaining your projects to a friend.

Loot: -
Lost: -
Wealth: -
Injuries: Bruised knees and elbows.
Renown: -
Magic XP: -
Skill Review: Appropriate to level.
Points: 15

Yeva:

Knowledge: -
Loot: -
Lost: -
Wealth: -
Injuries: -
Renown: -
Magic XP: -
Skill Review: -
Points: 15

- - -

Comments: This was such an entertaining thread! I loved the first post where Yeva walked up to Darius’ house. The way that she described it made it sound lovely in my opinion, and I really enjoyed the interaction between Yeva and Darius. Your writing styles complement each other well in my opinion!

I like that you paid attention to Scalvoris’ traditions, such as the Gifting Trial and birth trials (and the fact that you give other people a gift on your birth trial in Scalvoris). You even mentioned the star signs! I love it when players pay attention to the lore, and what more, those things really make Darius sound like a native Scalvorian in my opinion!

I don’t think I’ve ever read a thread where Darius bakes something before. I really like the way that Yeva and Darius worked together – and those occasional moments of awkwardness. I have to admit, the scene where Darius stood next to the pretty Yeva of Rharne without a top on made me grin!

I wonder what would have become of their friendship if Yeva hadn’t left. Yeva and Darius were so cute together!

Thank you for the opportunity to review this little trip into the past. I enjoyed reading about a time when Yeva and Darius were still close, and Darius wasn’t a settlement leader yet and lived in Scalvoris Town!

Enjoy your rewards!

P.S.: Yeva, if you come back, let me know if you want any knowledges for this thread, please!