taraincognita

[she feels out of place here. a little more than out of place; it's a feeling that she hasn't had since first coming to the united states. culture shock.

she hadn't thought that she could stumble into a household here in heropa and feel so acutely that she was in a different place, but here she was. it was no fun sitting quietly and awkwardly in the corner with charley jr., either. which meant she had to put on her friendliest face and find something to do. hopefully without bothering anyone.

jovially, she sticks her head in the kitchen, grinning at--oh, it's kidou! cool.]

Hey, dude. Whatcha doin'?

[Next, an onion- or rather, Kidou pulls an onion out of the hanging bag of them by the sink, then pauses before pulling out the knife. Ah, Tara... odd question, but he'll grant that it might not be obvious to someone like her. He has no idea what would be obvious or standard to someone like her. Or what 'someone like her' even means anymore. Nonetheless, he keeps his tone calm and steady as ever, as if she'd asked about the weather or some other functionally trivial question. There's not a hint of the mild confusion that's accompanied everything he's done since finding out she walked through their door.]

Starting dinner. Can I get you something?

[Why else would she have poked her head in here? All the water cups and any access to things like tea come from here. Of course, that would probably come with the tacit implication that she's invited to this, but there's no way to not do that, and Kidou wouldn't try even if there was one. It wouldn't do to just. Not invite her. If she is a guest in their home at that hour.

But that will be later. For now, it's a matter of finding out what she wants so he can clear her out of the kitchen and get to work.]

Ooh, dinner. What're you making?

[she walks over, having no idea exactly how unwanted she is in here. or maybe she is aware, and trying very hard to rectify the situation. she peers down at the ingredients and spices, glancing from bottle to bottle and finding that she can pronounce only about half of them. the other half, it takes her a bit to read.]

Uh, wow. That's a lot of. Stuff. And tea, you guys have a lot of tea.

[she glances over at the tea, swallowing a little. seeing it is...nostalgic. it reminds her of ~~raven.~~ someone.]

Curry.

[That's the least specific kind of answer Kidou could possibly give. It's so generically vague that it could serve as a shutdown... if she knew anything about this. He gets to work on the onion. He doesn't mind people helping him cook if they had agreed on cooking together. He doesn't mind helping out under the same circumstances.

Fun fact: goggles protect against onions. Fun fact: only one person in this kitchen is actually wearing them. But surely she's not close enough to suffer, right..? ]

And yeah, we do. It wouldn't do to run out, after all.

[That's threatening to become a burgeoning collection rather than a stockpile, at this point....]

Huh. I've never had curry before. That's, like, Indian, right?

[she honestly doesn't know. the titans had been into pizza above all else, ad she was a pretty habitual dumpster diver before that. she swipes at her eyes, a little. fuck. what is that. after a moment of sheer bewilderment, she puts two and two together. onions make you cry, tara. good job.]

Fuck, that hurts.

Yeah, sort of. [He's pretty sure it originated there, anyway.] Japan, Malaysia, Thai, Indonesia... are just some of the other countries that have curry.

[Kidou only looks up at Tara's added statement - and then remembers oh right, onion. They've never bothered him. He's been wearing these goggles longer than he's been cooking.]

Well, it helps if you have protection.

Oh. Wow, that's a lot of countries.

[she's talking too much, probably. but she can't stop herself, sometimes. she really can't stand it when people don't seem to like her.][she snaps her own goggles on over her eyes! good thing her character design is convenient.]

Why do you keep goggles? I mean, mine are because of dirt stuff.

['Put these on. You'll see the flow of the game better.'
'But with these, my field of vision is narrowed.'
'Oh, really?'

Kidou's eyebrows dip down just a little. His hand pauses, then continues to work on prep as if nothing happened, and any fleeting shadow is gone as quickly as it came. It's not a question that many people ask him, and it's a question that he's never answered, not once. It won't be a question he answers here, either; but the substitute answer he'll give is with a forced smile. It's a lot harder to be read that way.

With his eyes hidden, who'd ever know the difference?]

You could say they're my trademark.

[Or that he's brushing off the question as airily as possible.]

You're a soccer player, not a superhero. I mean, most heroes where I'm from wear like, capes and goggles, among other things. But you're--I dunno. Kind of more normal.

[tara, you have no idea what normal is. she peers towards the food, watering eyes now protected by her own goggles, before reaching out and pointing at a spice that looks particularly interesting.]

Never seen that before.

[Not a superhero, huh...? He'd agree with her, though maybe not so blatantly at the moment. She has no idea just how right she is. No part of his appearance has ever meant 'hero.' It means emperor of the field, or a precision instrument, someone who can see they way to cut straight through the opposition's weak points. It means so many things... but that someone could think it means 'hero' is still almost wishful thinking. Hero can describe the team he belongs to, but he's a little separate. Just the guide to that path, no matter how much he wishes he could step further into the light.

But he'll leave that topic to his ongoing internal monologue, brooding over it in peace. No need getting into that. She's moved close enough he doesn't even have to tilt his head to see where her hand is going, meaning she is far closer than she needs to be to his workstation.]

It's turmeric.

[.... and that's it? Really? Apparently, yes. He's not going to be here identifying what turmeric does. Instead, he's adding these onions to the pan to start sauteeing while he works on ginger root next. He's a little rushing this, but it'll work out.]

Please don't reach over things with unwashed hands.

[Or at all. Don't do that at all is even better.]

Turmeric?

[huh. seems weird, to be honest, but whatever. she'll eat literally. anything.]

I showered, so, shouldn't my hands be kind of washed?

[she's pretty sure that counts. it's not like she's been touching nonsense all over the place; around these guys, she feels out of place. awkward, and tense. they don't like her. they should; she's good at getting people to like her, normally. of course, talking back probably isn't the right way to get him to like her.]

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