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xp_logsSooraya, David and Jessica prepare to have dinner. It takes some getting used too...
Jessica stared at the knife in her hand. How had her life come to this? She was innocent. Nothing in her experience had prepared her for this.
She glanced at Sooraya, then back at the cucumber in front of her, with an expression like she'd just been asked to murder someone and hadn't been given instructions on exactly how. "Uh . . . " She paused, stalling, the knife hovering over the vegetable uncertainly. "How big do you want these?"
"Oh..." Sooraya looked up from the flatbreads she was arranging on a tray. "Dice it in small cubes. One centimeter max." Sooraya swung by the cutlery drawer and retrieved a spoon before handing it to Jess. "This will go easier for the seeds."
If Sooraya had been looking, she might have seen the expression on Jess's face clearly telegraphing what the fuck am I supposed to do with this? and how big is a damn centimeter?, but Jess had turned away, the better to hide her puzzlement. With absolutely no idea of how to proceed, she set grimly to her task.
"Jess, no. I don't know if what you're doing to that salad is a war crime, but it's at least a human right's violation."
Jess absolutely jumped. "Jesus fucking Christ." Deeply and viscerally irritated, yet somehow not bleeding despite her best efforts, Jessica turned on her heel to glare at the telepath behind her. "I don't know why I have to say this sixteen times a week, but make a - " She glanced at Sooraya, and edited herself - "Noise." She glanced back behind her at what was not starting to look like salad, and held out the knife - handle forward. "Please, go ahead." That, at least, came out sincerely.
"Gladly." Jim accepted the knife smoothly and took her place at the cutting board, declining to mention that an accidental stab was not something you had to worry about around a telekinetic. It only took a few seconds to slice the cucumber down the middle and slide the lip of the spoon beneath the seeds.
"Jessica doesn't cook," he explained to Sooraya as he began to dice. The cubes weren't perfect, but they did have the advantage of approximating a square centimeter rather than a trapezoidal inch.
Pulling the spoon out of the pot of lamb stew and slipping the lid back in place Sooraya turned towards the duo, a dismayed look on her face: "Oh Jess, why didn't you say so? I'd have helped."
"I was kind of hoping I could figure it out," Jess said, rubbing her face. She paused, then added plaintively, "I'm from New York." Even her mother had rarely taken up a cutting board, in Jess's imperfect memory.
"We have scurvy in New York, too," Jim pointed out.
"Be nice, David." Sooraya gently admonished him, swinging behind and unobtrusively brushing his shoulder with her hand as she headed to the fridge. #What are you up to, Jim?# she quickly asked, before continuing out loud: "And since you are making the salad now, you are joining us for dinner, right?"
"Sure, I can do that." Unseen by Jessica, Jim raised an eyebrow. #What do you mean?# he asked.
Jessica, both shooting Haller a look for the scurvy comment and moving herself out of the way with somewhat petulant but otherwise heartfelt relief at not having to ruin Sooraya's salad, missed this interaction entirely.
Two plump tomatoes hit David's chopping board as Sooraya passed on her way back to the oven, lightly touching his arm as she did so. "These can go in the salad as well." #Just that you are awfully sassy? Is there something behind it?# "Jess, would you be okay with setting the table while I get the bread in the oven?"
"Sure," Jessica said, relieved; a task even she could manage, and something to do, so that she didn't have to focus on how immensely uncomfortable the prospect of this dinner now felt to her.
Jim didn't respond, only gave Sooraya a look of mild puzzlement as he started to slice the tomatoes. "Anything else for the salad?" he asked instead.
"Let's see... I've got some Romaine, there are carrots and a bit of red onion..." Sooraya opened the oven and slid in the tray with flatbread. "If you add those, we can dress it with some mint and lime... probably put some cilantro on the side?"
"Sounds good to me," he said, scraping the now-slice tomatoes into the bowl and going in search of the carrots. He glanced towards the other woman. "Jess, are you finding everything okay?"
Jessica narrowed her eyes at him; she didn't detect any sarcasm in his voice, which didn't fit with her experience of him at all. "It's fine," she said, fairly defensively for a woman who had comprehensively failed at dicing a cucumber. She had, in fact, found utensils and plates. "Chop your - vegetables." The swear word, omitted again in Sooraya's honour, was not missed in context.
"Could you also add two coasters for the pans, Jess?" Sooraya had moved over to the fridge, moving around various dishes till she found what she was looking for. "I still have some yoghurt sauce left. That should cut the spice nicely if you need it."
Sensing that Haller could only use it against her, Jess did not ask about the spice level of the food, trusting that she could suffer through it if it turned out to be more than her limited palate could handle. "Sure," she said, opening cupboards mostly at random before spotting what could be coasters on the top shelf of one. Reaching up proved to be more difficult than she'd thought; she winced and shifted her weight, intending to stretch up on her toes.
Jim heard a sharp intake of breath and looked over to see Jessica grimacing. "Hey, let me get that for you," he said, momentarily abandoning the salad. At well over six feet Jim had been engineered to be one of nature to be the man always called upon to reach the top shelf, and he used that talent now. He handed the coasters to Jessica with a lopsided smile. "Don't hurt yourself, okay?"
Jessica bristled like a cat in the presence of flowing water, suspicious of this sudden change in someone who had consistently sassed her throughout their entire short acquaintance. "I was fine," she said, grabbing the coasters.
The telepath snorted. "Yeah, doubling over in pain whenever you lift your arm over your head is definitely something fine people do," Jim replied, his tone abruptly dry as the surface of Mars.
She threw him a fierce look as Sooraya headed over to them and quickly, yet very deliberately grabbed his hand. #Again, what's behind the sass? And don't give me that vague look again.#
Maya entered this tableau completely unaware of any context, having followed her nose toward the smell of food and currently unable to hear at all due to the removal of her hearing aids.
She paused as she sighted them all, looked between the current group inside and then held up her hands as she backed back through the door.
“Um. Yes. No need to interrupt whatever,” Maya waved her hand vaguely between all of them. “This is. I’ll just go bug Darcy for dinner.”
Maya made a run for it as the door closed, quickly tapping out a question to Darcy as she went.
[OMG! Does Haller have a Harem?]
Jim, oblivious, gave Maya's retreating back an automatic wave. #The sa- oh. Oh, that.# He paused, trying to decide how to put it into words.
#Jessica doesn't . . . trust kindness, I think. It makes her feel off balance.# Because she'd barely experienced it. Because she didn't think she deserved it. Because, after the unrelenting horror that had been her life for nearly ten years, anything good now could only be some kind of trap waiting to be sprung later.
But he couldn't tell that to Sooraya. The why was not his to share.
#It's not intentional,# he continued, giving Sooraya's hand a reassuring squeeze in return. #I just feel how uncomfortable she is when she doesn't know how she's supposed to react, so I fall into something that's easier for her to deal with.# He added, resignedly, #Which is apparently snark.#
#I understand.# Sooraya simply ignored Maya's quick entrance and retreat as she further considered what Jim had shared. #But even if she doesn't know kindness, any person in her situation deserves kindness.# The timer from the oven suddenly rang and startled, she dropped his hand. "Looks like the flatbread is ready."
She headed towards the oven, retrieving oven gloves along the way, quickly removed the bread and brought it to the table. "That's one thing done." Putting the away the gloves, she brushed Jim's hand again: #Am I making her that uncomfortable?#
(What in the weird mutant nonsense was all this hand-holding? Were these two a couple? Jess was a literal professional at sussing out couples, and the vibes were completely off, but maybe someone as dorky as Haller just had no clue. At least nobody seemed interested in touching her.)
Jim gave Sooraya a lopsided smile. #Not in a bad way. Just keep doing what you do. Like you said, she deserves kindness. Whether she thinks so or not.# "Salad's ready too, I think -- wait, the carrots." Those had been pre-cut, at least. Jim shook a few from their tupperware and made a kneading motion with one hand, his right eye briefly leeching to grey. The salad roiled in the bowl, tossing itself of its own accord.
In the meantime, Jess had finished setting the table - not without some thought, lest she be victim to more sass. Was she regretting agreeing to this? Absolutely, but the only way out of it - other than faking a seizure of some kind - was getting through it. "Do you need anything else?" she asked Sooraya.
"Looks like we got everything. Thanks Jess." Sooraya shot her a quick smile before turning to retrieve the lamb stew from the stove and setting it on the table. As soon as the lid was removed, a cloud of aromatic steam was released. "There are some whole cardamom pods in there, so you might want to be a little careful of those." She warned as she took Jess her plate and ladled on a large scoop of stew.
Jess tried not to look dubious as she accepted her plate; it wasn't like she was a picky eater, she just had a limited budget for premade bodega food. "Sure," she said cautiously, wondering what a cardamom pod was and what it might look like covered in stew.
"Something brownish-yellow and the approximate shape and texture of a fossilized raisin rose from Jess' portion and rotated briefly before landing back into the stew with a little plop. "Those," Jim said, helpfully.
"Thank you, David. No more TK at the table please though. Especially when you're playing with other people's food." Sooraya shook her head drolly, though she gave Jess a quick wink as she filled both remaining plates and took her own seat. She tore a piece of the flatbread, scooped up a little stew and drizzled a little of the yoghurt sauce on it, all with her right hand. "Have a great meal!"
"If you're going to touch someone else's food, telekinesis is as sanitary as you can get," Jim pointed out as he moved to join them. As he passed Sooraya's seat he briefly rested a hand on her shoulder. There was no telepathy behind it this time, just simple, familial affection. He took a seat and smiled at Jessica. "Enjoy."
Deeply discomfited by all this normalcy, not to mention someone’s brain touching her food, Jessica simply nodded cautiously, directing a brief, “Thanks,” to Sooraya out of a delayed instinct for minimal politeness.
"Well, don't wait any longer... go ahead and eat!" Sooraya urged her companions, digging in herself as well.
Jessica stared at the knife in her hand. How had her life come to this? She was innocent. Nothing in her experience had prepared her for this.
She glanced at Sooraya, then back at the cucumber in front of her, with an expression like she'd just been asked to murder someone and hadn't been given instructions on exactly how. "Uh . . . " She paused, stalling, the knife hovering over the vegetable uncertainly. "How big do you want these?"
"Oh..." Sooraya looked up from the flatbreads she was arranging on a tray. "Dice it in small cubes. One centimeter max." Sooraya swung by the cutlery drawer and retrieved a spoon before handing it to Jess. "This will go easier for the seeds."
If Sooraya had been looking, she might have seen the expression on Jess's face clearly telegraphing what the fuck am I supposed to do with this? and how big is a damn centimeter?, but Jess had turned away, the better to hide her puzzlement. With absolutely no idea of how to proceed, she set grimly to her task.
"Jess, no. I don't know if what you're doing to that salad is a war crime, but it's at least a human right's violation."
Jess absolutely jumped. "Jesus fucking Christ." Deeply and viscerally irritated, yet somehow not bleeding despite her best efforts, Jessica turned on her heel to glare at the telepath behind her. "I don't know why I have to say this sixteen times a week, but make a - " She glanced at Sooraya, and edited herself - "Noise." She glanced back behind her at what was not starting to look like salad, and held out the knife - handle forward. "Please, go ahead." That, at least, came out sincerely.
"Gladly." Jim accepted the knife smoothly and took her place at the cutting board, declining to mention that an accidental stab was not something you had to worry about around a telekinetic. It only took a few seconds to slice the cucumber down the middle and slide the lip of the spoon beneath the seeds.
"Jessica doesn't cook," he explained to Sooraya as he began to dice. The cubes weren't perfect, but they did have the advantage of approximating a square centimeter rather than a trapezoidal inch.
Pulling the spoon out of the pot of lamb stew and slipping the lid back in place Sooraya turned towards the duo, a dismayed look on her face: "Oh Jess, why didn't you say so? I'd have helped."
"I was kind of hoping I could figure it out," Jess said, rubbing her face. She paused, then added plaintively, "I'm from New York." Even her mother had rarely taken up a cutting board, in Jess's imperfect memory.
"We have scurvy in New York, too," Jim pointed out.
"Be nice, David." Sooraya gently admonished him, swinging behind and unobtrusively brushing his shoulder with her hand as she headed to the fridge. #What are you up to, Jim?# she quickly asked, before continuing out loud: "And since you are making the salad now, you are joining us for dinner, right?"
"Sure, I can do that." Unseen by Jessica, Jim raised an eyebrow. #What do you mean?# he asked.
Jessica, both shooting Haller a look for the scurvy comment and moving herself out of the way with somewhat petulant but otherwise heartfelt relief at not having to ruin Sooraya's salad, missed this interaction entirely.
Two plump tomatoes hit David's chopping board as Sooraya passed on her way back to the oven, lightly touching his arm as she did so. "These can go in the salad as well." #Just that you are awfully sassy? Is there something behind it?# "Jess, would you be okay with setting the table while I get the bread in the oven?"
"Sure," Jessica said, relieved; a task even she could manage, and something to do, so that she didn't have to focus on how immensely uncomfortable the prospect of this dinner now felt to her.
Jim didn't respond, only gave Sooraya a look of mild puzzlement as he started to slice the tomatoes. "Anything else for the salad?" he asked instead.
"Let's see... I've got some Romaine, there are carrots and a bit of red onion..." Sooraya opened the oven and slid in the tray with flatbread. "If you add those, we can dress it with some mint and lime... probably put some cilantro on the side?"
"Sounds good to me," he said, scraping the now-slice tomatoes into the bowl and going in search of the carrots. He glanced towards the other woman. "Jess, are you finding everything okay?"
Jessica narrowed her eyes at him; she didn't detect any sarcasm in his voice, which didn't fit with her experience of him at all. "It's fine," she said, fairly defensively for a woman who had comprehensively failed at dicing a cucumber. She had, in fact, found utensils and plates. "Chop your - vegetables." The swear word, omitted again in Sooraya's honour, was not missed in context.
"Could you also add two coasters for the pans, Jess?" Sooraya had moved over to the fridge, moving around various dishes till she found what she was looking for. "I still have some yoghurt sauce left. That should cut the spice nicely if you need it."
Sensing that Haller could only use it against her, Jess did not ask about the spice level of the food, trusting that she could suffer through it if it turned out to be more than her limited palate could handle. "Sure," she said, opening cupboards mostly at random before spotting what could be coasters on the top shelf of one. Reaching up proved to be more difficult than she'd thought; she winced and shifted her weight, intending to stretch up on her toes.
Jim heard a sharp intake of breath and looked over to see Jessica grimacing. "Hey, let me get that for you," he said, momentarily abandoning the salad. At well over six feet Jim had been engineered to be one of nature to be the man always called upon to reach the top shelf, and he used that talent now. He handed the coasters to Jessica with a lopsided smile. "Don't hurt yourself, okay?"
Jessica bristled like a cat in the presence of flowing water, suspicious of this sudden change in someone who had consistently sassed her throughout their entire short acquaintance. "I was fine," she said, grabbing the coasters.
The telepath snorted. "Yeah, doubling over in pain whenever you lift your arm over your head is definitely something fine people do," Jim replied, his tone abruptly dry as the surface of Mars.
She threw him a fierce look as Sooraya headed over to them and quickly, yet very deliberately grabbed his hand. #Again, what's behind the sass? And don't give me that vague look again.#
Maya entered this tableau completely unaware of any context, having followed her nose toward the smell of food and currently unable to hear at all due to the removal of her hearing aids.
She paused as she sighted them all, looked between the current group inside and then held up her hands as she backed back through the door.
“Um. Yes. No need to interrupt whatever,” Maya waved her hand vaguely between all of them. “This is. I’ll just go bug Darcy for dinner.”
Maya made a run for it as the door closed, quickly tapping out a question to Darcy as she went.
[OMG! Does Haller have a Harem?]
Jim, oblivious, gave Maya's retreating back an automatic wave. #The sa- oh. Oh, that.# He paused, trying to decide how to put it into words.
#Jessica doesn't . . . trust kindness, I think. It makes her feel off balance.# Because she'd barely experienced it. Because she didn't think she deserved it. Because, after the unrelenting horror that had been her life for nearly ten years, anything good now could only be some kind of trap waiting to be sprung later.
But he couldn't tell that to Sooraya. The why was not his to share.
#It's not intentional,# he continued, giving Sooraya's hand a reassuring squeeze in return. #I just feel how uncomfortable she is when she doesn't know how she's supposed to react, so I fall into something that's easier for her to deal with.# He added, resignedly, #Which is apparently snark.#
#I understand.# Sooraya simply ignored Maya's quick entrance and retreat as she further considered what Jim had shared. #But even if she doesn't know kindness, any person in her situation deserves kindness.# The timer from the oven suddenly rang and startled, she dropped his hand. "Looks like the flatbread is ready."
She headed towards the oven, retrieving oven gloves along the way, quickly removed the bread and brought it to the table. "That's one thing done." Putting the away the gloves, she brushed Jim's hand again: #Am I making her that uncomfortable?#
(What in the weird mutant nonsense was all this hand-holding? Were these two a couple? Jess was a literal professional at sussing out couples, and the vibes were completely off, but maybe someone as dorky as Haller just had no clue. At least nobody seemed interested in touching her.)
Jim gave Sooraya a lopsided smile. #Not in a bad way. Just keep doing what you do. Like you said, she deserves kindness. Whether she thinks so or not.# "Salad's ready too, I think -- wait, the carrots." Those had been pre-cut, at least. Jim shook a few from their tupperware and made a kneading motion with one hand, his right eye briefly leeching to grey. The salad roiled in the bowl, tossing itself of its own accord.
In the meantime, Jess had finished setting the table - not without some thought, lest she be victim to more sass. Was she regretting agreeing to this? Absolutely, but the only way out of it - other than faking a seizure of some kind - was getting through it. "Do you need anything else?" she asked Sooraya.
"Looks like we got everything. Thanks Jess." Sooraya shot her a quick smile before turning to retrieve the lamb stew from the stove and setting it on the table. As soon as the lid was removed, a cloud of aromatic steam was released. "There are some whole cardamom pods in there, so you might want to be a little careful of those." She warned as she took Jess her plate and ladled on a large scoop of stew.
Jess tried not to look dubious as she accepted her plate; it wasn't like she was a picky eater, she just had a limited budget for premade bodega food. "Sure," she said cautiously, wondering what a cardamom pod was and what it might look like covered in stew.
"Something brownish-yellow and the approximate shape and texture of a fossilized raisin rose from Jess' portion and rotated briefly before landing back into the stew with a little plop. "Those," Jim said, helpfully.
"Thank you, David. No more TK at the table please though. Especially when you're playing with other people's food." Sooraya shook her head drolly, though she gave Jess a quick wink as she filled both remaining plates and took her own seat. She tore a piece of the flatbread, scooped up a little stew and drizzled a little of the yoghurt sauce on it, all with her right hand. "Have a great meal!"
"If you're going to touch someone else's food, telekinesis is as sanitary as you can get," Jim pointed out as he moved to join them. As he passed Sooraya's seat he briefly rested a hand on her shoulder. There was no telepathy behind it this time, just simple, familial affection. He took a seat and smiled at Jessica. "Enjoy."
Deeply discomfited by all this normalcy, not to mention someone’s brain touching her food, Jessica simply nodded cautiously, directing a brief, “Thanks,” to Sooraya out of a delayed instinct for minimal politeness.
"Well, don't wait any longer... go ahead and eat!" Sooraya urged her companions, digging in herself as well.
