Posted by Civilian Ragna Idun McKenzie (Future Citizen) in Lunching with Lai

Posted by Civilian Lai Kitrian (Independent Operator) in Lunching with Lai

Posted by Civilian Ragna Idun McKenzie (Future Citizen) in Lunching with Lai
Posted by… suppressed (11) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Lai looked down at the pan where several vegetables were sizzling away. She wasn’t entirely convinced about her plan, but having come this far along already she figured she might as well see how it all turned up.

It had been a little while since she ran into Ragna, but Lai and Akem had had some things to deal with first. What possessed her to follow through on the lunch invite, she wasn’t entirely sure but the half-Tyrellian guessed it might have something to do with feeling a little lonely on this busy colony. Everywhere they went there was a reminder that this was not their home, not the place they came from. In many ways, it was a relief, but given that their status was still ‘in progress’, she had this sinking feeling that any moment now someone would burst into their place and take them away somewhere never to be heard from again. Reality? Maybe not, but such fears were hard to dispel.

Their little apartment was at least clean and tidy and it wasn’t quite so bare anymore, but until she knew for sure what her future looked like on Oed, she didn’t want to get too comfortable.

~Lai Kitrian

Ragna had given up on hearing from Lai. At first she hadn’t expected it, seeing the fear and hesitancy in the woman. But as things spiraled down hill for her, and she felt more and more isolated she had hoped she might. So when Lai sent an invitation, Ragna was eager to accept.

She was very glad Lai had invited her to their apartment. The penthouse suite was not their home. It was temporary and extravagant. Ragna was well off, so was Seamus, but they lived simply. Ragna was embarrassed by their temporary accommodations.

She arrived exactly on time and knocked on the door of their apartment.

Ragna

Turning the pan down, Lai padded to the door, her wide legged pants floating as she twisted one lock and unbolted another. Puling the door open and stepping to the side, she gave Ragna a small smile and gestured for her to come in. “Hi. I’m glad you could make it. Don’t mind our place. It’s small but it’s been more than functional., which is more than I can say for other places I’ve lived.”

Ragna shook her head, “I like it, but all that matters is if you like it.” Ragna really did like it. The close space. Ot was still bigger than their home in Scotland. She missed Scotland.

The furnished and open plan one-bedroom apartment was small and very basic, and they hadn’t been there long so there was little amounting to personal touches, but then again Lai and Akem really hadn’t known if they were staying or not. A tiny kitchen was along one corner with an induction cooktop, oven, sink and fridge. The sink looked out a window on the short side of the L. Past a two-person wood dining table and chairs, was a sitting area with a little blue sofa, armchair and ottoman. Two doors adjacent to the front door area led to the bedroom and a ‘fresher. But despite it’s tiny size, there was balcony just big enough for a bistro set. What touches of residents that could be seen amounted to a set of handmade pottery mugs on the counter and a small painting of the Oed rockscape no bigger than both her hands together. It rested above the sofa.

Steam rose from the sizzling pan on the stove and there was something in the oven that smelled baked. She looked around and gave a tiny shrug to Ragna. “I’d give you a tour, but this is it. If you need the facilities, it’s the first door on the left.”

~Lai Kitrian

“Thank you.” She held out a small package. “How have you been? No more trouble from uppity shop clerks?” Ragna was uneasy. It was custom to bring a gift when invited somewhere, but she remembered how upset Kai had been at the store when she gifted her the bread. So Ragna had come without anything.

Ragna

Lai gave a wan smile as she took the package. “Thankfully, no, but I have ventured to other shops. And I suppose the longer I am here and the colony starts to fel less overwhelming, the less suspicious I probably seem in places. Less darting glances and that sort,” she said with a shrug.

She glanced at the package in her hands. “What’s this?”

~Lai Kitrian

“Oh,” Ragna glanced at it. “It’s a spice sampler. I remembered we had talked about cooking and trying new things.” She hoped she wouldn’t offend Lai.

Ragna

While Lai was still wary of anything offered freely by strangers, she didn’t consider Ragna a stranger. Perhaps a friend in time, but that notion still felt dangerous. She looked down at the package and gave a small smile before lifting her gaze to her guest. “That is very kind of you. Spices will be nice to have.” It made sense too. Spices made food infinitely more interesting and it wasn’t hard to intuit from their first meeting that Lai and Akem were not exactly swimming in currency, credits or others.

“Come on in and make yourself comfortable,” she said, moving across the space to set the box on the counter and check on her vegetables. “I forgot to ask if you had any allergies or things you couldn’t eat.”

~Lai Kitrian

The spices weren’t really expensive and she hadn’t been (nor was she now) thinking of their finances. Just something she thought Lai might like. She moved over and sat down on the couch. “I have a few health issues, but not anything related to food, luckily. Whatever your making smells wonderful.”

Ragna

Lai gave a hesitant smile. “Don’t get too excited. I’m finding my cooking skills less than what I’d like them to be, but I’m hoping it will be edible.” Ideally it would taste good too, but she’d settle for not harming her guest.

“I’m trying to make a variation on something my grandmother used to make and is a very common dish on my world,” Lai said. “Nothing fancy, but it’s been a long time and I’m using entirely different ingredients.”

~Lai Kitrian

Ragna grinned, “Well, not all skills stay sharp over time, they need use. If the aroma is any indication, it will taste good.” She gave that last comment a moment. Ragna only knew they weren’t from Oed, she had no idea about the other. “There are so many shops around, and a farmers’ market on Saturdays at Sloane Square. Maybe you could find what you wanted?”

Ragna

A thread of pain wound through her and Lai had to pause to gather herself. She turned back to the stove and stirred the pan a little. It was mostly a cover to give herself a moment to figure out why a simple comment could be so difficult. “Maybe,” she said, turning back to offer Ragna a smile. It wasn’t as full as she would have liked and Lai chided herself for it.

Slipping an oven mitt on her hand, she opened the door, and the heady smell of some sort of bread product filled the small apartment. She pulled out the tray that had little rolls, but they lacked the smell of a yeasted bread. They were something else. Setting the tray on the unused side of the stove, Lai left them to cool a bit and began pulling ingredients from her fridge to make a sauce.

It was all a distraction though. As much as she was glad to never go back, when she thought of home it was that safe place of her childhood that she could never get back. She could never return. Each day here Lai was reminded how different things were, even when on the surface some of it seemed the same. “Do… do you think Oed will become home for you?” she asked, pausing in her mixing to turn and gaze at Ragna.

~Lai Kitrian

It was Ragna’s turn to force a smile. “It has to. Our chiefs sent my husband and I here to set the groundwork for our clan to move here. If it does not become home, I will still reside here from now on.” It didn’t sound very hopeful coming from her lips, or very enthusiastic. She wasn’t sure how much of a home she would have when she’d acted so childishly and dishonored Seamus with the behavior. “There are good things about it. It’s not home yet, but there are things I like.”

Ragna

Her eyes showed a hunger for something, and her korsiolo flared within her. As always, if she didn’t have a specific question in her mind, then she was guessing and interpreting the guidance she was being given. But like their first meeting in the supermarket, she knew she could trust Ragna. Her question had been pitched with many layers, some Lai was certain were not visible even to herself. “We’ve been running… Akem and I. Fleeing, really. For each our own reasons, but for a very long time now nowhere has been safe, Ragna. Nowhere. And then we find ourselves here, and a part of me wants to believe that maybe we can truly stop running. That we’ll be safer here than anywhere we’ve been before. But it’s also very likely that it’s one big trap.” She turned back to making her sauce.

~Lai Kitrian

Ragna had a viscous temper, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t a compassionate person. “We have a saying on Earth, ‘You’ve been through the wars.’ Sometimes literal wars, and sometimes meaning you’ve seen the very worst in humanity, and then even darker things. You’ve fought for every second of every day. That it’s hard to stop fighting. Safety seems an illusion, a trick to trap you.” Ragna wasn’t sure how much to offer, knowing that sometimes those offers sent people running because they couldn’t trust it. “I’ve never experienced such things, but I know people who have.”

Ragna

Lai sliced a lemon and squeezed the juice into the bowl, sieving seeds through her fingers. “If you stop running, it’s over, you’ve lost. But sometimes I can think back to when I was younger, before I had to run, and I can think about the place I once called home. How beautiful it was. How beautiful the people were… are still. The family I had to leave behind so they could stay safe. And I can never go back, not even if I was safe to and I think that it’s only just starting to hit me. It started the day I ran into you at the shop. It was that brief moment where I could remember that sometimes people can be good. For me, the only person I can trust is Akem. Or rather… that’s how it *was.”

She turned at the hip and rested her hand on the box of spices and looked over at Ragna, her gold-ringed brown eyes intense. That gold ring marked her as non-Human and it was the most obvious sign of her Tyrellian heritage. It was the thing she counted on people to notice, hoping their observations ended there. “But this place is strange. I don’t know why I trust you,” she said, patting the box once. “I shouldn’t. Too risky. But I have to, because if I don’t I’m ignoring who I am, and trying to pretend is exhausting.”

~Lai Kitrian