Video to All | Bassoon day 28 | also action welcome!

[myblueskies]

[Romeo's face grins through the screens. It's been a pretty scary few days and he's been trying to keep his spirits up as much as he can and to help everyone else do the same. It had been pretty tricky though!

But then there had been a message on the screens and Romeo had gone to investigate and found the pumpkins, he knew what they were because he had asked when they had first found them on the platform! But he hadn't known you could make faces out of them!]

Does anyone's world have the tradition about putting faces in pumpkins? I don't think my world did! I didn't know what a pumpkin was before so I guess we didn't! How do you do it?

Also what can you make with pumpkins? They are vegetables right so we could make soup or mash it? Does it taste good mashed? Or we could fry it and eat it with rice or noodles. I'm not sure it would go well with fish but there's still a lot of fish in the store rooms.

I know it's not Blue teams time to cook but tasty food always makes me feel better so if anyone wants to come and have some food I am going to try and make something with a pumpkin and make a face with one as well!

Comments

[happyends]

[ That face is still so cute. But Madoka will try to focus on what she's supposed to do here - it's probably hard for Romeo to hold that face, considering how quickly he had to give up on it last time around. So she tries to draw it as quickly as possible onto the pumpkin, only giving short glances in his direction between the drawing.

It still takes a few moments, but.. ]

There! I've got it!

[ It's not the most realistic rendering of that grumpy face - it's honestly made a lot cuter, because that's the only way Madoka knows how to draw things. But it's definitely still recognizable on the pumpkin! ]

[myblueskies]

[It was hard to hold onto the grumpy face for so long! Especially as he wasn't feeling grumpy at all! He was feeling happy and glad to be here with Madoka making pumpkin faces.

But he did his best and soon she was finished drawing. The moment she told him he could stop he grinned, wider than before as if making up for all that time looking grumpy!]

That's such a good face Madoka! It's going to be the scariest grumpy pumpkin around!

[happyends]

You think so? [ As usually, she doesn't think it's anything amazing.. But at the very least she can acknowledge this as decent, which is already a huge step with Madoka's level of self esteem. (Read: none at all.)

But she smiles at him. ] Thank you!

Now we just have to carve the face out. Do you want to do that?

[myblueskies]

I do! It's really great! [He grinned again and then nodded.] How do we do it? Do we got to cut all the way through? There's a lot of pumpkin!

[happyends]

.. Oh, you're right..

[ It's been a while since Madoka did it in school too, so she doesn't even seem to realise that she's still missing a step. It would be a lot of effort to cut through a big pumpkin like this, right? ]

Maybe.. we should take some of the pumpkin out? Some of the inside.

[myblueskies]

Take some of it out? So we got to make a hole? We could cut it's mouth first and take some of the pumpkin out through that hole. [The space for the mouth was bigger than the space for an eye, so that might work...]

[happyends]

[ She stares at the pumpkin as Romeo suggests that and nods. ]

Yes, I think we could do that..! You're so smart. [ Hey, she genuinely means that, okay. Even simple ideas seem pretty amazing to an easily impressed girl like Madoka. ] Can you see if you can try to cut out the mouth? I'll try to find a bowl to put the pumpkin insides in..!

[myblueskies]

[Romeo grinned happily, glad to be called smart. He was used to not knowing things and being around people much smarter than him. So it feels nice to have a clever idea!]

Right I will cut out the mouth. [He grabbed a knife and looked at the scary face. So if he just stabbed through the mouth and made a hole to start cutting the shape? That might work!

He pressed the knife to the mouth and with one hand on the top of the pumpkin pushed the knife in. He gritted his teeth as he tried to move the knife to the side to start cutting.]

[happyends]

[ Madoka definitely thinks he's smart! And she also has enough faith in him to not worry too much about him getting into an accident with that knife while she's looking away for a moment. So she turns around, looking through the kitchen to try and find a proper bowl before grabbing it and taking it back over to the pumpkins. ]

How's it going? Is it not too hard?

[ At school they did have the teacher helping them, after all, so she's not sure if it isn't too much work for someone practically just as young as she is. ]

[myblueskies]

It's quite tricky! But I think I'm getting it! [It was very tricky indeed but he had managed a jagged hole in the mouth of the pumpkin.] Maybe I need a spoon or something to scoop out the inside bit...

[happyends]

A spoon?

[ Say no more! Madoka is already fetching one right after she says it, returning to hand it over to him. ]

Here! I'll hold up the bowl near the mouth so we won't spill anything. [ Got to be easy on the people who have to clean up the kitchen as part of their chores later, right? ]

[myblueskies]

Right! That's a good idea, then we won't make too much of a mess! [They can clean up afterwards but it will be better if the floor isn't all pumpkiny!

He took the spoon with a grin and began scraping at the mouth to get the pumpkin insides out!]

[happyends]

[ Romeo and Madoka are the best kids, clearly. They'll keep this whole train clean by themselves if they have to.

Madoka happily stares though as he starts to hollow out the pumpkin. Her gaze glides off to the bowl that's slowly filling up, and then her expression turns more pensive. ]

Hmm.. It'd be a waste to throw this all away, right? I wonder if we can make something else with this..

[myblueskies]

Yes we shouldn't throw food away! That's really bad! [Food was for eating! He can't imagine anyone wanting to throw it away!] I bet we can think of something, do you know any good things to cook with pumpkin, Madoka!

[happyends]

I'm not sure, I've never tried before..

[ But she sounds like she's thinking about it even as she's saying it. ]

Papa usually did the cooking back home, so he knew all the recipes.. I just did what he said.

[myblueskies]

Your papa? [Once again it occurred to him that the people on this train all have worlds and families that they are far away from. That's quite a sad thing. Madoka isn't dead, so her family won't have any idea where she is. They probably miss her a lot! He tries to imagine a papa for Madoka, he imagines a tall man, pink hair like she has and a big smile as he cooks.]

I bet he made super tasty food!

[happyends]

[ Madoka smiles widely at him. ]

You're right! Papa is so good at cooking.. Anything he made was super yummy. [ Her smile doesn't fully fade, but it returns to something a little smaller, a little softer. She's fond of the thought of her parents, but does miss them terribly.

She almost asks him what his parents are like, but then remembers the whole heaven thing. That.. probably makes the family status a little Complicated, right.. ]

I wish you could met him. I'm sure papa would have loved to cook for you too.

[myblueskies]

And I would love to try his food! I like trying new food. What's your favourite food, Madoka?

[He'd like to know more about her family but he can tell that she might be a bit sad about not seeing them and probably misses them, just like he misses Elfnein. So he asks a different question instead, to keep her spirits up.]

[happyends]

My favourite food..?

[ She glances down at the bowl slowly filling up with pumpkin innards goo. Her favourite food is definitely not anything with pumpkin, since she hasn't tried it enough yet, but.. ]

I think if I had to name one, I'd say cream stew..? What about you?

[myblueskies]

Oh I've had cream stew! It's really tasty. My favourite is churros. It was the first food I ever tasted but they are so yummy! Have you ever had them?

[happyends]

[ Although Madoka seems to have to think about it, she slowly nods. ]

I think I've had them before with my friends.. We liked to go visit cafes and other places to eat if we had time after school.

[myblueskies]

You did? That sounds really fun! [All of it, going to school, having friends and eating in cafes and having churros. It sounds like Madoka had a lot of fun before coming here.]

[happyends]

Hmm, it was.

[ She smiles as she remembers all those times. Even though Madoka knows she won't get those times back even once she goes home with how everything back there went straight to hell, the memories are sweet enough that the smile doesn't seem sad. ]

Did you have a lot of friends you did fun stuff with too..? [ She doesn't add "before you came here", because then he can decide for himself whether to see that question as asking "in heaven" or "when you were still alive." ]

[myblueskies]

I did! There were lots of really nice people and we did fun things! We got to go to lots of festivals in the human world in Japan. There was always fun things to do! We played with kites a lot and saw pretty flowers and there were always stalls with tasty food. I had lots of friends. [He misses them all, especially Elfnein.]

But there's lots of nice people here so I'm sure soon we will have lots and lots of friends here too!

[happyends]

All of that does sound like fun..! [ Madoka has been to festivals too, after all, so she knows from experience. But it feels even better to hear Romeo say it, since.. you know. She was a little worried about what kind of stuff to have fun with there even would be in heaven..

The latter part makes her smile more thinly though. ]

And.. ehehe, I think so too.. Especially you. You don't seem like you're as shy as me at all..

[ So he must easily make friends, right? Especially since Romeo is so nice, Madoka can't imagine anyone not wanting to be friends with him. ]