024

[contract_star]

[The Plane smells good today! Why is that, you might ask? Well, because Hei has been making good use of the Astral Kitchen for the past several hours. He still looks tired, but he looks substantially better than before. Mostly right now he's just intent on cooking.]

[There's already quite a lot of food, as well as a lot of variety. So far he has made chicken fried rice, beef and broccoli, sesame chicken, won ton soup, egg rolls; various kinds of sushi, vegetable tempura, ramen and udon; pad thai and chicken satay; several different kinds of Indian curry as well as naan; couscous, spanakopita, souvlakis, spaghetti and lasagna. And some desserts--cookies, custards and puddings.]

[There's also a strawberry theme going on--strawberry soup, strawberry cheesecake, strawberry shortcake, strawberry mousse, strawberry muffins, strawberry cannolis, and chocolate-dipped strawberries.]

[So, yeah, he's been busy! Come bother him~]


[ooc: Not really a party post, but feel free to threadhop~!]

Comments

[contract_star]

Maybe, but you wouldn't really have to be a housewife. You could--well, you could keep singing. You can make a very comfortable living that way.

[Little smile that's a bit sad.] But it's...nice to dream, I guess. Since I've been able to come here I've...been thinking about that sort of stuff more often. Even though it'll probably never happen.

[madamemoiselle]

Oh, of course I could do that. That would be fun too, but...Well, for me, the thing that I would love most would be to live...normally. If I could live quietly, get married to the one I love, and become a mother, that'd be perfect, I think. Even if I had nothing else, being able to be with people that love me for me, that'd be wonderful. {Softly} Ne, that's what Riku was for after all. But I shouldn't have done what I thought my Chevalier would approve of.

{Warmly} But even if it's unlikely, it's hope all the same! Hope is important, after all. Because as long as you have hope, then it's possible to keep going forward, no matter how bad things may be. Ne, it's a funny thing to hear from me, both of those, but...well, those are secrets, kind of. I think my Chevalier know about both, but...it's not them who will help with either.

[contract_star]

It does sound nice. A normal life like that.

You know, I've...always kind of thought that hope was pointless. A Contractor doesn't really have much use for it. But...I'm starting to think differently.

[madamemoiselle]

It'd be wonderful. It's what I'd really like, but...for me, it's not possible.

You should! Living without hope...It's really sad. The saddest.

[contract_star]

It...but it might be, at this point. This place...it seems to make anything possible.

You might be right about that.

[madamemoiselle]

No. When I say it's impossible, in this case, it is. Maybe living normally is possible, but...I can't be a mother. Only Saya's Chevalier can give me my children.

[contract_star]

Ah...right, I think you told me about that.

Although...I suppose you could adopt. It's not quite the same, but... [But it really fricking sucks to be an orphan, but he's not going to say that.]

[madamemoiselle]

Adopt...I guess, but...{She places her hand on her stomach} to have my own children, that'd be such a joy.

{She laughs} It's an option, but I don't think I could settle down anyways!

[contract_star]

I wouldn't really know. But I suppose it must be.

[Smiles.] Don't really think I could, either.

[madamemoiselle]

Of course not. Hei is a boy, after all. {Giggles}

Ne, but if Hei could, what would it be like?

[contract_star]

[Chuckles a little.]

It--well--I don't really know. I haven't really thought about it much. But...[Pauses.] I'd probably end up somewhere out in the country. Go back to China, maybe. It'd be nice if I could work in a restaurant or something like that...just as long as it's quiet.

[madamemoiselle]

That sounds like a nice thing too. So what's China like? Or, where you lived, I guess. You said you were from there, right?

[contract_star]

It's...it's nice. Parts of it are really busy, but...you get out in the countryside and it's wide and open and green. Very peaceful. The town I'm from--well, more like a village, really--it was sort of out in the middle of nowhere. There was this lake nearby where I could set up my telescope. [Nostalgic smile.] Bai loved it there.

[madamemoiselle]

Ah, how lovely! It sounds like France. Though, I doubt it's like that at all. But the place you call home, it's always the most beautiful place in the world, right? Even if...Well, I haven't spent a lot of time there, but France is my home. I'm sure of that.

Bai? Who is Bai?

[contract_star]

Home? No, that village isn't my home, not anymore. I'd like to go back someday, but living there...wouldn't feel right. I don't really have a place that I think of as home.

[Blinks, because he hadn't really meant to let that slip.] O-oh. Bai is...was...she's my sister.

[madamemoiselle]

...That's not home? That's sad, isn't it? Even Chateau Duel, the place where I was born and killed again and again...That tower is my home. When we went there last year, it was...scary, in a way, but it was more familiar than anything else. All that had changed was the moss growing on the stones and the smell. Everything else was exactly like I remembered. So that's "home". I wouldn't live there, of course, but...that's all I can remember as home, you know?

Ah! I didn't know Hei had siblings! Ne, what was she like? Was she pretty?

[contract_star]

Well, I feel like...I just feel like "home" is a place you can always go back to and always feel comfortable at. It's a place you can make your own and...just be in. And no place really feels that way to me.

Ah...[nostalgic smile] yeah, she was.

[madamemoiselle]

Ah, if that's what "home" is, I guess that's a problem for me. There's no place that's ever felt that way for me. Never.

{Quietly} But...you said "was". Did she...die?

[contract_star]

Well. I think everyone has a different concept of home.

Not...I don't...it wasn't...she disappeared. I don't...I don't know what happened to her.

[madamemoiselle]

Oh...Hei...Ne, I'm really sorry, I shouldn't have brought that up.

[contract_star]

No, it's...it's alright.