The instructions were simple enough, though she was overstating his ability to cook a fair bit. He was entirely an amateur at this, retaining only some amount of skill at the art from his time in college when self sufficiency was a necessity. "On it." He stated confidently, removing his jacket and rolling his sleeves up before getting to work as per her instructions. At least so far as cutting vegetables was concerned, his technique was passable. Though he quietly hoped she wouldn't ask him to do anything too intensive. "It's interesting to me how I'm a part of your experiences toward that goal now." Though a little slow and cautious with the knife at first, it wouldn't take him long before everything was cut up the way she requested.
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Sun watches him carefully with the knife, not out of fear that he may stab her at any second but just to make sure he is cutting correctly, she adds curry powder to the now chocolate colour mix in the saucepan. She then adds a teaspoon of masala and a quarter teaspoon of cayenne pepper continuing to stir "If you take that as a offence I do apologise, others do not talk with people who may be seen as ugly. I choose to see the beauty in people. People think I'm foolish but I" she pauses in the stirring looking up to Damien with a sweet smile "I have hope and compassion, I see the beautiful potential in all beings, well except the Nomads" her mood darkens briefly before she goes back to her serene self.
She continues to mix the saucepan well, looking over at a kabocha and a carrot "Cut the kabocha into 1-inch cubes please and cut up the bell peppers into small strips" she asks of Damien
Kaboocha was not something he was familiar with, evident from his reaction and the fact that he took a few moments to look at the thing before proceeding to actually start cutting it up. He had no way of making sure the measurements were exact, so he made do by eyeballing it, naturally producing somewhat inconsistent but acceptable results. Thankfully, cutting the bell peppers into strips was a less complicated thing to do, and they were items he was familiar enough with. "I'm not offended, nothing to be offended by." When he was halfway done with the peppers he looked over to see how she was doing and how the food was coming along, curiosity clear on his face. This definitely included more ingredients than he was used to in his food, even if he had experience of what the high life entailed. "Never really eaten anything like this before." It looked tasty enough and seemed to be slowly coming together, with that in mind he made sure to finish with what he was doing and then present her with the freshly cut ingredients. At least so far, this had been a pleasant time despite Sun's initial awkwardness and nerves.
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Sun looks at him as he examines the kabocha and cuts it up, she does a small chuckle at his antics before responding "Kusari Vegetarian Curry, my father used to make me it when we got real vegetables, although he made his with real meat" she comments as she continues to mix the saucepan with her cheery attitude "Right, well next if you would please discard the bottom of the asparaguses and cut them diagonally and then cut the eggplant into wedges and soak them in a bowl of water" she asks of her Xeno friend before continuing "It is a rich meal but, I thought it would be different from what you are used to. I'm curious what a Xeno meal is though" she says with a smile.
He shrugs at her intrigue about Xeno cuisine, it was a necessarily spartan affair and there wasn't even much to clarify. "Synth Paste or hastily reheated rations either stolen from a supply convoy or supplied to us by benefactors."
Without much else to really talk about, and since Sun had mentioned her parents already, he decides to do the same. "My Dad was really into steaks and would cook a few every weekend. He's been doing that for years, even back when Mom and him were roommates fresh out of college, she always made a bowl of mashed potatoes to go with it. Think that's how they got so close to begin with - cooking together." It was a quaint story which made for quite the coincidence given what they were currently doing. Though it didn't seem like he was trying to make any implications in the way he told it. Though there was nothing to stop Sun from seeing one if she wanted to.
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Sun is usually hard to read beneath her cheery and serene disposition but Damien picks up a disgusted look briefly when he mentions Synth Paste "Synth Paste? Goodness, I detest it. There is nothing like real food, that you grow yourself and cook yourself" she says with a smile. She finishes off the mixture and puts it into a clay-bowl for now, she carefully takes out a knife and cuts off the end of a king oyster mushroom and cuts it into 1-2 inch pieces as she listens to Damien talk about his parents.
Sun smiles warmly at his suggestion of getting close "My father was a Algae farmer, he maintained equipment on Junyo on one of the artificial islands for Samura and my mother also worked for Samura, they both eeked out a living for me. Growing up it was mainly Algae and Synth paste, but I do remember the first time I had strawberries" she says with a smile, reminiscing as she discarded the bottom of a shimeji mushrooms and cuts the button mushroom in half.
With no further instructions on things to cut up or anything else to do, Morreti wraps up with his end of preparing the meal and uses the lull of his involvement to watch the food be cooked closely. It admittedly looked quite appetizing, even if there were elements of him which found the ingredients being used strange in their appearance. "Maybe we'll get rid of our stock of paste when we have the ability to actually grow and cook our own food. For now though, we manage with what we can get. Which isn't much." While not particularly averse to eating paste himself, it wasn't as if Morreti found it to be pleasant at this point, and he sincerely doubted any other xeno felt spoiled for the options their "cafeterias" provided them with.
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Sun cuts the tomatoes into 6 wedges before adding the onions, potatoes, kabocha and the carrot into a large bowl and adding oil to the bowl, beginning to mix the vegetables together in the pot. Sun next adds grated ginger and and mixes some more, closing up the pot with a lid putting it over medium heat. She looks at the pot, then towards Damien "Well we have some time, I can teach you how to grow fruits and vegetables under artificial light" she says with a smile "I've collected seeds, could give you some" she says as she puts on a egg-timer for 20 minutes.
The gesture isn't lost on him, far from it. "That would be helpful, though I have to admit agriculture isn't anywhere near what my specialty is. I can always document what you teach me and see if anyone in the Alliance or wider movement can put knowledge like that to more substantial use than I can." He didn't mention it, but at one point his advisors were pushing for a fishing operation on Planet Wichita, an idea which had since fallen through on account of necessary hostilities with the Insurgency. Plans were still being laid, patiently awaiting for the day circumstances would change, or perhaps most ideally for when the Insurgency was destroyed.
"I might not do the best job of documenting it right now though, more distracted by how attractive your tattoos are." Despite this being an actual date, there had been very little in the way of harmless flirting, he felt changing that was a fair course of action in order to help the mood. While being taught something useful would most certainly help, it was something better suited to more professional circumstances than these. So at least for now, he allowed himself to look over what he was able to see and admire the level of detail to the art that adorned her skin.
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Sun does a smile at Damien on him being open to learning, perhaps the Xeno wasn't as brutish as rumoured "I'll write something down, I'm sure Moral for your men will improve with actual fruit and vegetables. Not that I wish to fuel a army of course" she says towards Damien with a brief chuckle. She looks down at herself as he mentions her tattoos, she blushes slightly feeling along her arm, her whole body had these koi-themed tattoos a reminder of her old life. Sun rubs the back of her head, feeling the newest Buddhist themed tattoo, a reminder of her new life.
Sun takes a breath and nods towards Damien with a small blush "Thankyou- these tattoos they are from my past. I was raised correctly but to, live on artificial islands I fell in with a bad element." She says as she reminisces, she doesn't seem embarrassed or ashamed of her past, infact Sun is radiant and forthcoming, but a little hesitant "I was a prostitute at first, but then a smuggler, a killer...I earned these tattoos in my life then" she says with a broad smile nodding to Damien "It was a different life, 10 years ago" Sun says as she folds her arms.
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