A Little Hard Work Goes A long Way

[nori]

View of Nori
Participants: Nori, Sheriam the Mistress of the Kitchens, Bellana the Wearied Novice
Cameo: N/A
Honorable Mentions: N/A

An inside look at some of the chores a Wearied Novice is tasked with, a growing friendship, and finding success even when it's hard to come by.

The Kitchens
The smells of food fills this large, high ceilinged room, the scent of
meats mingling with those of fruits and vegetables. A long stone fireplace
with spits lies in the center of the eastern wall, the roasting spits being
turned by spit dogs running in their wicker baskets. Iron stoves and ovens
have been placed along other walls. Three large pairs of doors flank the
kitchen and a glimpse reveals they are large dining halls. Gray tiles cover
the floor and a large sink occupies a corner of the room.
[ obvious exits: E W ]
Zone: White Tower Ground Floor
A giant sink sits here, filled with many dirty dishes.
A pile of particularly dirty dishes are stacked neatly next to the sink.
A young girl in a plain white dress stands here.
An Accepted stands here, ready to fulfill any Aes Sedai request.
Laras the Mistress of the Kitchens is here directing the kitchen workers.

Nori wrinkled her nose as she twisted her face in reaction to a particularly dirty plate.

“Disgusting creatures” she murmured under her breath as she reached for a firmer sponge.

Nori leaned heavily on the granite countertop scrubbing plates in the deep sink of the Tower kitchens.

“I… will…. Not… stop until this scrubs out” said Nori to herself just outside of hearing distance of an aging Laras.

Nori could feel the needles on her back of the Mistress of Kitchens despite her rabbling to herself as she continued scrubbing last night’s plates.

Nori leaned heavily on the granite countertop, jockeying for leverage over the deep sink basin as she finally freed some particularly nasty stuck food from the aged porcelain.

Nori looked over her shoulder with a face filled with triumph only to be met with a mocking look from Laras and immediately deflated as she started in Nori’s direction.

“Move girl, let me show you something” barked Laras as she barged her way in towards the half-filled basin of dirty plates.

Nori made way for the Mistress of the Kitchens, without much to show for her tiny moment of success other than a hand on her side and a soaked white dress despite all her hard work.

Laras held up a particularly firm sponge she had dug from the bottom of the wash water and inspected it momentarily under the candle light.

Laras hunched over the sink, gripping a similarly dirty plate in her good hand and began freeing stuck food from the porcelain with ease.

Laras from time to time stopped to catch her breath as she breathed heavily from exerting herself over the sink and stared at Nori before shining yet another plate back to back.

“That, child.. Is how you do it”, said Laras in a proud tone.

Nori couldn’t help but crack a smile, she did find Laras particularly talented in terms of anything that fell within the realm of the Tower Kitchens.

“Now you do it” replied Laras as she regained her breath after clearly putting extra effort into returning the porcelain plates to their former greatness.

Laras stood back, water dripping from her apron as Nori slid in and leaned over the sink taking a bladed stance this time against her porcelain opponent.

Gripping the plate in her strong hand, Nori brandished a particularly firm and porous sponge and began to vigorously attack her opponent, which appeared to be some thick dark sauce that had hardened to a sap-like texture.

The sound of the white porcelain squeaked under pressure as her newly gained technique began to pay dividends, producing an exquisitely clean pearly white plate.

Laras clapped Nori on the back with a heavy hand, almost sending her into the basin with the rest of the dirty plates.

“Much better!” Laras replied from her perch where she hovered over the young Novice in training.

“Now finish those last few up, we have onions to chop before this evening” Laras barked as she turned back towards the larders, her large frame moving a hanging pan as she made her way through the tight corridor of the galley.

Nori continued to scrub until her entire front side of her white dress was drenched in dirty scrub water, but as she pulled the old cork in the deep wash basin she felt a sense of accomplishment as the sink drained.

Examine sink.

It is a large sink.
When you look inside, you see:
sink (here) :


Look rack
[25] A rack of pristine looking white porcelain plates gleamed under the candle light.

Nori took a moment to appreciate her work once more before drying her hands on a mostly soaked white dress of the Weared Novice and turned to go help Laras with her next culinary quest.

…

Tears ran freely like water in the south harbor as Nori ran a sharp knife through the soft side of a particularly large onion.

The vein in the onion had been cut due to a novice’s amateur knife work and now Nori was left paying the toll of slicing through yet another plump white onion.

She had signed up for "extra chores" when she had heard Bellana was stuck doing all the vegetable preparation this evening.

Wiping the tears from her eyes Nori stood back from the old butcher block she had been amassing neatly diced portions of white onions for a moment of reprieve.

Her eyes calmed for a moment as the draft from the main hall wafted in, but they were quickly admitted back to the onion gauntlet she had signed up for on her own accord in order to make an impression on Laras and some of the other girls.

Look.

The Kitchens
The smells of food fills this large, high ceilinged room, the scent of
meats mingling with those of fruits and vegetables. A long stone fireplace
with spits lies in the center of the eastern wall, the roasting spits being
turned by spit dogs running in their wicker baskets. Iron stoves and ovens
have been placed along other walls. Three large pairs of doors flank the
kitchen and a glimpse reveals they are large dining halls. Gray tiles cover
the floor and a large sink occupies a corner of the room.
[ obvious exits: E W ]
Zone: White Tower Ground Floor
A giant sink sits here, filled with many dirty dishes.
A quiet servant awaits instructions from his master.
Bellana is here, wearing a plain white dress.

Glancing across the galley Nori spotted Bellana crying her way through her portion of onions.

The girls made eye contact briefly before making a face at one another and returning to their work, sobbing as their tear glands endured the onslaught of tonight’s chores.

Nori couldn’t help but giggle to herself, Bellana was so silly. It really helped to have a friend in the White Tower, someone to suffer through all the little things together.

Bellana had come from Illian on a boat just a few months after Nori had arrived. Bellana was well spoken and loved to study, perhaps even more than Nori even with her new routine.

Laras the Mistress of Novices has arrived from the west.

Laras craned her neck over the cutting boards admiring the girl's handy work.

Laras chuckled at the sight of the two girls weeping from what had felt like an eternity of onion lopping.

“Wait until we get to the peppers girls, just wait!” laughed Laras, her stained apron shaking with mirth.

The two novices just smiled through the pain, allowing themselves to laugh a little with Laras.

Laras turned abruptly, her gaze no longer warranting any free giggling and signaling it was time to get back to those vegetables if they knew what was good for them before turning and carrying on barking out orders to others in the galley.

Bellana winked at Nori from across the room as they both quieted down the last of their laughs under their breath.

The hissing sound of large cauldrons rumbled over an open fire on the other side of the kitchens as the girls made several trips dumping in the onions as one of the key ingredients in tonight’s stew.

Their work would not go unnoticed nor was it in vain. Cleaning porcelain and cutting onions were just one of many tasks designed to teach a Novice the meaning of persistence, hard work, the ability to work through hard times for the greater good of others. The stew was particularly delicious that evening, and as Laras sipped quietly from a recently cleaned porcelain piece she could not help but admire the texture of the onions that had been so meticulously chopped in the kitchens by the two novices present earlier that afternoon.

“Hmm. I suppose this will do” murmured Laras the Mistress of Kitchens under her breath.

That was close to as high of praise a novice would ever receive coming from Laras. Sure there was room for improvement, and the girls were far from becoming the next head chef in Valon, but at the heart of things, Laras’s approval held some weight and the girls were dismissed with the satisfaction that they had helped make a great meal served in the dining hall that evening.

[Chloro]

Rplizer +1 qps : 1
Extra meticulous edit +1 qps : 1
Length bonus +1-2 qps : 1
Summary: +1 qps : 0


Awards:
Nori: 3 qps



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