COOKING SHOW - 5PM PST - Heart Soldier Senshi

[idolpro]

[ Your unit-colored kitchen has all the basic necessities for cooking, but strangely, there's no refrigerator. There's just a table full of pebble-sized crystals. . . There are candies available in bins next to the crystals as well.

Though you can technically turn the stove on, you can't actually hurt yourself on it. It's like the flames are illusions. Huh.

Upon entering your unit-colored kitchen, you'll find that you can't see or hear anyone from any other kitchen. You're aware that this whole area is magically sight- and sound-proofed; no other unit will hear or see any conversation you have. ]

Comments

Re: Sweet (Optional Ingredient)

[crossmyheartandhope]

Huh... was the name thing bugging you that much?

[The emotional equivalent of a ?, pressed out his way]

Re: Sweet (Optional Ingredient)

[skyshard]

...Yeah. Names are important... but I didnt want to steal away affections anyone had for sometime else.

[ admittedly Zhongli didn't help with his weird explanation of the situation (and he obviously didn't intend to make Aether have doubts and concerns over it) otherwise Aether probably would have never really thought about it on his own. ]

I met some more people that are from home, and it's like ... I don't know how to explain it, but that person, if it wasn't me and I was just taking friendships they earned, what would be left for them? Did I even earn it?

[ there's a really hard to follow and flawed logic that is probably coming from something deeper that he hasn't yet been able to remember. It's really weird how hooked up over it he's been, there no doubt about it. ] Like, kind of with my sister earlier, I thought if I wasn't the same person, would this other Aether from back then had been able to do what I couldn't? Did I rob Lumine of that comfort ?

I can't tell.

Re: Sweet (Optional Ingredient)

[crossmyheartandhope]

Hey... hey. Don't beat yourself up over something you couldn't do nothing about.

[Cautious reassurance, and something surprisingly like understanding]

Ain't no one here's the same person they were back then. If you ain't comfortable thinking of you as him, no one's gonna make you.

Re: Sweet (Optional Ingredient)

[skyshard]

I just don't want to let anyone down from expectations. But, I guess we're all in the same boat so that's unrealistic, right?

Re: Sweet (Optional Ingredient)

[crossmyheartandhope]

You ain't gonna let anyone down. Just be you, and get to know em here.

Think of it like a chance to end up important to each other all over again.

Re: Sweet (Optional Ingredient)

[skyshard]

.. Ha, you're good at this stuff! You know just what to say. You should open up a business for pep talk classes or prositive thinking. A lot of people here could use that.

Re: Sweet (Optional Ingredient)

[crossmyheartandhope]

[A tinge of disbelief, and a small surge of fondness at the unexpected compliment; he ducks his head a little]

Dude, you kidding? I put my foot in it like 24-7. Its got its own parking spot in there.

Re: Sweet (Optional Ingredient)

[skyshard]

[ he laughs, and it feels contagious with the slight kick of elation it emits. ]

Maybe it deserves a ticket for illegal parking, then.

Re: Sweet (Optional Ingredient)

[crossmyheartandhope]

Oh my god, dude, I'd be broke like all the time.

[It's a feedback loop; a bright spark of joy shivers up in response, and some of the anxiety he's been carrying around sicne the game first started begins to fall away]