July OTA

[heypartner]

WHO: Cobb Vanth & Others
WHERE: The Diner/Glownie Ranch/The Forge area
WHAT: Some open prompts for July.
WHEN: Various times.
WARNINGS: Cobb's general bad language. Mentions of animal slaughter.



Cooking Breakfast - OTA

It was shortly after sunrise in the diner and drifting from the kitchen was the pleasant smell of spices and baking bread. Also, soft singing.

Cobb was at the stove singing to himself as he carefully sliced up various fruits. On the counter he had already laid out a few dishes already since he’d been here for a while. There was a plate of thin sliced pan seared glownie, A bowl of arisha, fried dough balls that were savory, heavily spiced, and very common on Tatooine, and some thick slices of tigertubers mixed with chopped baconrooms.

He sang in Booce a soft song with a flowing melody that - if someone knew the language - would know was actually a terribly sad song about leaving a lover behind. Cobb was in a good mood despite the sad song and felt like singing. He kept his voice low just because it was early and if someone wandered into the diner he didn’t want to disturb them.

After arranging the various fruits on a plate he pushed it over to the counter where it join the rest of the breakfast spread. He considered the presentation for a moment and then nudged a few things. Happy with that he nodded to himself and went to the oven.

He carefully pulled out small flatbreads and laid those on a plate as well. Then it was on to making a quick dipping sauce from cumatos and spices to dip everything or drizzle over everything if people wanted.

Cobb had made enough to share.

Glownie Trouble - OTA

Cobb stood in the middle of the glownie corral with his hands braced on his thighs, breathing hard. The glownies themselves were keeping their distance from Cobb and eyeing him with suspicion. They were familiar with him, aware he fed them and looked after them but also aware when he came around one of them might leave the herd and not come back.

It was a tricky thing looking after animals for slaughter. Cobb hadn’t done it hands on like this but he had talked with Mallik and bantha herders often enough to know a thing or two about it. He had thought he’d done well making sure the glownies wouldn’t catch on about the slaughtering but they were plenty nervous around him now.

He stood up straight and put his hands on his hips looking over the herd. One watched him while the others got back to their grazing.

“Look,” he said, his tone mildly frustrated while trying to be reasonable with the herd. “I ain’t here to hurt anyone. I’m just here to do a little grooming. I want some wool. That’s it, you walkin’ light bulbs.”

He even had a comb. It was in his right hand. Nothing to worry about if the dumb animals would stop being so paranoid. Maybe he should’ve thought about this and waited for when they were in the barn but he hadn’t expected them to be so flighty.

Cobb might need a helper.

Tinkering - OTA

Cobb hadn’t spent much time in the forge section of the city which he found slightly amusing considering his background as a mechanic and general fixer. He hadn’t had a good reason lately but after these folks made him a grill and some kabob skewers an idea had been growing in the back of his head and he figured he might as well try it himself instead of asking for help again. Surely, all these folks had their own projects they were working on.

So, if he wanted a smoker to preserve meat and make some jerky he figured he had to make it himself. How hard could it be? Just needed something to make smoke, then get that smoke to the meat, and keep it trapped.

Having never been in this part of the city before Cobb was a little uncertain, actually. He had no idea if he could take any of the scrap he saw lying around. There were a few things he saw that could probably work, some tubing and some metal sheets he could weld together… if they had the means for that.

Cobb had no idea, actually, what sort of machining tools they had lying around.

“Well, kriff,” he muttered to himself.

Maybe he should’ve asked for help after all.

Comments

Breakfast

[kree_soldieress]

Lauri-Ell was not one highly able to feed herself. This was just an inherent truth that derived from the fact that Lauri-Ell happened to be a soldier, one who had been provided for.

Often Tommy had laid out things for her to eat when she arrived first thing, but to have new people here meant they weren't always cooking early enough for her rounds. But this morning, coming in to smell the wonder of scents, the towering warrior gasped in delight.

"Something smells more amazing than pizza!"

[heypartner]

Cobb thought he remembered pizza from his time in Billy's world. It tickled some memory in the back of his mind but he couldn't remember the taste of it very well. Maybe he hadn't eaten it just had memories of eating it.

"Well, you can come find out for yourself," he said stirring the sauce with one hand while he waved at the collection of plates with another. "Just leave enough for other folks. It'll be better in a minute when I finish this."

There was a lot of food but not the same abundance as the beach party. He figured the early morning folks would go through it but Lauri-Ell was big enough to eat it all herself, he assumed.

[kree_soldieress]

Well of course she would not eat everything. That would be very rude.

"I prefer a light breakfast with protein paste after my rounds," she promised him, moving to take up a plate. "What is this food you have made here? Is it something like native to your owrld?"

[heypartner]

"Those are." He pointed to the ahrisa. "They're a little spicy but really good."

That was sort of how Tatooine food was. Spicy. Cobb had toned down some of it when he cooked for others out of politeness. Most folks here had liked it at the beach party though so he hadn't tone it down this time.

"Everythin' else I just made up from what I know about cookin'." There was plenty to work with from the greenhouse and still a little bit of meat left over. They really needed to get herd numbers up for regular slaughter.

Or some of those little naked ground birds. Those probably bred faster than the glownies.

[kree_soldieress]

"Spicy sounds lovely," Lauri-Ell promised, and she took some flatbread to consider it before starting to add some fruit to her plate.

"I thought cooking meant you worked on a list of rules. I am clearly mistaken. I thank you for this food and ask if there is anything I might do to assist?"

[heypartner]

It took Cobb a minute to figure out what she meant by that. "Oh! A recipe! Well, yeah, you can cook that way. If you don't know how to cook somethin'. I've been cookin' a long time. I don't need one."

And nothing he ever learned about cooking came from a recipe either. He had very fond memories of sitting around his mom and aunties watching them cook. That was how he had learned.

"With this? No, I'm almost done. Appreciate the offer though." Cobb had it well in hand now.

[kree_soldieress]

Ah yes, that is the word for it. A recipe. What a nice word.

"Yes, you look wise and experienced. It is true that hair of your color marks you as a more experienced human in most situations, yes?"

She didn't always know the most about humans.

"Not even in the future?" she asked, watching him. Once he was done she would want some of what he was finishing.

breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

[kyley_b]

Kyle comes into the diner through the back entrance, because he's there to work - he was not expecting anybody else to be in already. Which explains why as he opens the rear door, arms loaded with a box of produce from the greenhouse, he's singing to himself. Not well - whatever mediocre musical talent Kyle possesses is not vocal in nature - but what he lacks in ability he makes up in volume.

Cobb might be singing something sad, and melodic, but that's not where one twenty-something earthling's tastes lie.

--Flexing on bitches as hard as I can, eating halal, driving the Lam'
Told that bitch I'm sorry,
'Bout my coins like Mario,
Yeah, they call me Cardi B
I run this shit like cardioohhhhhhhh HI!"

This last is startled out of him as he notices that yeah, he's not alone, Cobb's right there up front.

"Cobb! Hey, uh. Guess I didn't... check the kitchen roster..." Deflect, Kyle. "Wow, you cooked all this already?!"

[heypartner]

That did not sound like singing. It sounded more like chanting to Cobb. He did stop singing himself to watch as the singing appeared. Kyle. Not who Cobb would've picked to sing like that but the kid was full of surprises.

"I'm not on the roster." Cobb didn't know there was a roster, actually. He just felt like cooking this morning. "That'd be why you didn't see me."

He lazily stirred the sauce he was working on, clearly amused by Kyle's singing and startled reaction. "I got here pretty early."

[kyley_b]

Kyle misses Spotify. A lot.

"Oh, well. Okay, I feel a little less stupid." But only a little, because of his entrance. Ugh.

"Yeah, I guess so! Shit, it's still pretty early. I guess you're a morning person." He inhales and grins. "That smells awesome, dude. What is it?"

[heypartner]

"You're havin' a good morning. Nothing to feel stupid over." Cobb shrugged, hoping that would put Kyle at ease. No reason to feel silly about singing. It was fun.

"Some glownie I had left over, ahrisa which is a dish from home, and some tubers with the real good mushrooms. Fruit too." He pointed to each dish as he spoke about it. "Give me two shakes and I'll have a sauce for the flatbread and everything else."

Nothing he made took that much time. It was quick, easy stuff, made for folks to grab and go sot hey could get to work. The ahrisa probably took the longest.

[kyley_b]

Kyle nodded. "I am," he admitted. "That's partly 'cause of you, actually! I had no idea how different it would feel to have an actual house to live in." He smiled widely. "It's fucking awesome, dude. All private and shit. So thank you, like... so much."

He peered at the ahrisa with delight. "Dude, I gotta try those. It's not every day you get to try home cooking from another planet, you know? Can I do anything to help?"

[heypartner]

Cobb actually knew how Kyle felt a little bit. When he got his home, even though it wasn't much, it had felt like a miracle, something he always thought beyond him. "Ah, it's nothin'. Glad you're settlin' in."

He was polite enough not to mention that everything they ate on this planet was home cooking from another planet.

"It's spicy so watch yourself." Just in case Kyle didn't realize by now after helping him at the grill that Cobb liked everything spicy. He hadn't spiced the fruit but he had thought about it.

Glownie trouble

[ezra_of_lothal]

Ezra tries to swing by the glownie heard nearly every day, even when it's not turn to do the caretaking chores. Sometimes he just sits with the creatures and relaxes.

As he wanders up, he can feel Cobb radiating frustration and unease from the glownies scattered around is even stronger.

"Uh, what's up, Cobb?" he asks, pauses outside the paddock fence.

[heypartner]

"They're smarter than I gave 'em credit for." Cobb glares at the glownies before he walks away from them towards Ezra. "Think they know I'm a murderer."

He didn't smell like blood. He didn't have the same clothes he butchered in on. Maybe they could smell something on his boots? Cobb didn't know.

He runs a hand through his hair. "Just want some wool for Miss Lark to spin. That's all."

Nothing they needed to be afraid of but they didn't like him anymore.

[ezra_of_lothal]

"This is part of why I said I wanted to stay away from the slaughtering," Ezra admits."They have to be able to trust someone and even communicating with the Force, I want to do as much asking and as little compelling as possible."

He easily hops the fence, using just enough Force behind it to land with unnatural lightness.

[heypartner]

"Bantha must be stupider because they don't care if you comb 'em and kill 'em. We don't do it often. They're too valuable." Cobb held out the comb to Ezra since he would probably have no problem getting close to the glownies. They all adored him.

He would keep his distance. Maybe with a little time the glownies would relax around him again.

"I don't plan to slaughter them often. We don't have a stable enough herd yet. I think." He wasn't Agriculture. He was going off wha the knew from Tatooine and they were real conservative.

[ezra_of_lothal]

"That sounds right," Ezra agrees as he takes the comb. "I'm thinking about trying to start to milk them, too, but uh. I think that's gonna take some trial and error." Hopefully not much kicking, or other injury.

He lets some of his presence in the Force bleed out more, project calm and safety as he gets closer to a cluster of the glownies, humming a little as he does. Sure enough, they don't run from him. He even gets gently nosed by one as he sidles up to another to start combing out some wool.

[heypartner]

"You'd know more about that than me." Cobb had no idea what milking glownies might entail besides a lot of trust and patience. He was happy to leave that in Ezra's hands. He had come close to getting kicked a few times this morning and had no intention of experiencing it for real.

He keeps his distance while Ezra does his thing, leaning back against the fence. The kid's got a power, that's for sure. He still doesn't understand the Force that well but he's glad it's useful right now.

Silence of the Glownies plz

[thesepreciousthings]

Clarice approached the ranch with a cooler swinging from one elbow, her other hand shielding her eyes against the sun.

"Hey there, Cobb!"

[heypartner]

Cobb huffed out a breath and left the glownies to their wary grazing for now. He'd win their trust back somehow, damn it.

"Hey there, Starling." He walked towards the fence and away from the herd which made them relax even further. "You off to somewhere?"

He nodded his chin towards the bag on her arm. Looked like she had packed something.

[thesepreciousthings]

"Yeah, right here." She beamed, holding it out to him. Inside were three carefully packed cans of fresh ice cream: one for him, one for Din, and one for Grogu, along with the written recipe so he could try his hand at refilling them once they'd been emptied.

"Hot work out here. Thought you could use a little refreshment."

[heypartner]

Cobb chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck with a hand. He was used to the townsfolk giving him things when they couldn't pay in credits for his work as Marshal but he hadn't expected it from Starling.

"Well, thank you kindly." Cobb took out the written recipe to read over. It was slow going. He was never the best reader even though he knew how. Luckily, recipes were short things.

"Still wish there was a cheap way to make this back home. All that ice and sugar, though." He shook his head and tucked the recipe back into the cooler. "Gotta enjoy this while I can, I guess."

[thesepreciousthings]

"You're quite welcome." She beamed. "And who knows? If you share a bit more about Tattooine with me, we might be able to come up with something." Even something more like an Italian Ice with a fruit juice could do, if they could figure out a way to generate the ice in a desert climate. It almost sounded like something she could run by Tony for engineering ideas.

"What'cha got goin' on today? More house renovation?"

[heypartner]

"The most expensive item on the planet is ice," he said dryly. Really, he did appreciate Starling making him such a treat. It's a real nice gesture and he loves the stuff but there was no way he could ever make it back home. It was just too much. He'd enjoy it while he had it.

"I might have to. They aren't cooperating with me." He gestured towards the glownies all keeping their distance from him. "Wanted to get Lark some wool to spin with but they won't have any of it."