have you heard about the Hit MMORPG FINAL FANTASY XIV

[voyagerchef]

HELLO FRIENDS WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE A FF14 MINGLE, LET'S DO THAT. Bring your wols and such and go ham. Maybe everyone is crammed into the Waking Sands or something I don't know I'm not your mom/dad/parent.

Or maybe you want to AU other characters into FF14? I'm also not your momdad, you can do that too.
Be mindful of spoilers! Just chuck a note in your subject line if you think it's getting into spoilers territory so other people can be all I Do Not See It.

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[forgesahead]

[someone has taken over the kitchen to bake, and the miqo'te responsible is currently aggressively kneading the bread dough she'd whipped up against the counter, clearly working out some tension with an otherwise scrunched up expression. occasionally she's grumbling to herself, tail flicking back and forth.]

[voyagerchef]

[ It's not odd to see Aster in what Ankhbayar would call 'her usual mood'. What is odd is that she's using the kitchen to do so, and that makes him curious.

He doesn't know much about Aster; what she likes, what she dislikes. He knows only that she's a friend of Ganzor's, which endears him already (more than he already is with most people he meets), but she doesn't seem to be the social type. ]

Oh! Aster! [ He says, with his usual sunny smile. ] What are you baking?

[forgesahead]

Ankhbayar.

[She offers by way of greeting, with a slight inclination of her head as she looks up from her furious handiwork. Aster lets out a soft huff through her nostrils and brushes her hands against her apron to clean them vaguely of excess flour as she turns to face him proper; her cheek is dusted with a smear of it, though she hasn't seemed to notice. With a bit of a shrug at his question, she glances down at her dough, tail still flicking back and forth every once in a while to betray the remaining irritations she was feeling, despite the calm voice.]

Nothing unusual. Just bread. Did you need the kitchen?

[He was the one usually calling the shots in here, after all, or so she had come to notice.]

[voyagerchef]

Ah! Not now. Don't worry. [ (Even with the Echo, the thing that facilitates communication between them, he insists on trying to speak Eorzean when he can, to practice. It makes his sentences a little clipped and clumsy, occasionally; the manner of someone trying to wrap their head around different sounds from the ones they've used all their life.)

He has plans for using the kitchen later, but he doesn't need to sit in the kitchen to form them. He thinks better when he's in the fresh air.

Sometimes that means he's thinking about recipes when he's being taught how to use an axe, but as long as he uses his axe properly, it's probably fine. ]

What kind? [ He's used to flatbread, things that are easy to make and store and travel with. Fluffier, lighter bread is something he only learned to make during his training in Limsa. ] Travel bread, or soft bread?

[ He shuffles over to peer at the dough Aster is pummeling, keeping a polite distance. ]

[forgesahead]

A softer bread, light and fluffy with not as hard a crust. Something good for a loaf tin.

[Growing up in the wilderness, even with the Sharlayan colonies nearby, she didn't really have a proper oven for this sort of bread in her youth, so it was something she'd picked up in her travels, as well. Something to make in an actual kitchen setting, when you have all the time in the world to let it rise and hungry bellies weren't growling at you to get it all done and over with so they could eat.

She almost tenses up when Ankh starts to approach, but her shoulders relax when he keeps his distance, not quite in the mood at the moment for close company. Begrudgingly though, she'd admit that having someone to idly chat with wasn't a terrible burden to bear right now, so she wasn't trying to dismiss him away or anything of the sort. Just... being a little standoffish, is all.]

Nothing too unusual. Yeast, flour, salt, water.

[voyagerchef]

Ah, then the ingredients are the same. [ He smiles at the point of commonality, but since he usually smiles, it just makes it bigger. ]

Do you decorate it? At home, we decorate ours before we bake them. Many, many patterns! [ If he'd had dough in front of him, he might demonstrate, but he keeps his hands tucked into his coat so he's not tempted. Nobody appreciates their dough being repurposed without permission, after all. ] For special occasions, though, or when we go to Reunion. Mostly we fry it in oil. It's faster.

But baking here is very different! I was surprised. [ If Aster doesn't want to talk, that's fine with him; Ankhbayar can talk more than enough, apparently...specifically about bread. ] Life moves much more slowly here, in some ways.