teleios | { open | event, and for the month! }

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{ open | event, and for the month! }

THE WEEK OF THE TRIFFIDS |

It's Jazz who notices that things aren't as they should be, a fact which he'd certainly try to parade around if he could speak. As it happens, he spots something amiss as Fortescue is on a morning walk into the city. Movement snakes at the corner of his green eyes, and he shifts on Fortescue's shoulders to watch it. She pays no mind, humming a bit of The Magic Flute; he watches birds in the same manner.

But she absolutely notices when a section of vine suddenly extends from a planter and wraps around her ankle, yanking her off of her feet. Jazz leaps to safety, snarling and hissing, keeping his distance as he was trained to do.

Fortescue, meanwhile, grits her teeth and taps into her pyromancy. Flames dance along her skin, avoiding her skin but not the vines that are trying to drag her bodily into the planter for... whatever the vines are attached to. She isn't too certain.

"Oh, just get off," she manages. The vines make a whining sound -- how on Earth or any other world do plants make sounds? -- and retreat, but not before a section of one burns off. Fortescue doesn't get up immediately, watching with narrowed eyes. "...just where did you..."

The thought is abandoned as two more sections of plant life suddenly lurch out, one around her right wrist and one around her other ankle. Fortescue's yanked a few more feet along before she huffs out an angry, "All right then," and ignites all of her body. This time, though it hurts the vines the same, the plant seems just as angry and sends out as many vines as she can burn. A deeper noise starts coming out of the planter, something bigger wriggling forward -- something which looks like a person-sized, yellow bulb.

THE THINGS FROM ANOTHER WORLD |

When she isn't being grabbed by enthusiastic greenery, and when other people aren't, Fortescue can be found in the library looking at cookbooks. She's curious about other things she could make which would be feasible for a beginning cook, and the library does have a good selection. Jazz lounges in the sun on the floor, often right in the way of other readers. Some of her experiments are done in the temple's kitchen as well as her own, and when they turn out well she sets them out in offering to those who still bunk down in the temple. She's experimenting with various pasta dishes, slowly amping up the difficulty.

She can also be found in the temple training rooms ever so often, dressed simply and taking out any excessive energy on a punching bag. Everything about her form and stance indicates a seasoned fighter. Jazz curls on the shoulders of a training dummy, and purrs smugly at anyone who approaches it and needs to use it.

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"Yes. Completely lost, but looking." Wesley offered her a smile, if a shy one, thinking she was cute in a way, and promptly stumbled over one foot while distracted, only to manage to plant face-first into the bookshelf he was in front of.

Wesley straightened up, facepalmed, gently, and sighed. Yep. That was his luck.

"Just, ah, something simple."

Politely, she simply gives him a sympathetic look when he faceplants into the bookshelf -- rather than smile or chuckle. Fortescue's known quite a few clumsy people, and Luke can be clumsy when he's preoccupied.

"Are you all right?" Fortescue nods at the thick book in her arms. Good thing the new kitchen is big. It wouldn't have fit on the old counter at the homestead, she's sure. "That's exactly what I'm here for. I thought I'd try some Italian cooking."

Perhaps, when she gets better, she can approach French recipes.

"I'm rubbish," she adds. "I used to burn everything as a child."

"Agh, yes, just my dignity hurt." He smiled a little, then nodded.

"I just want... anything. I mostly used advanced tech to make my food, then learned real low tech, as in fire pits, and nothing inbetween." He shook his head.

"I just want to make a few things." He peered at the shelves, taking down a book. "Now if I can find something simple, and get the ingredients, maybe I can cook it without burning down the house."

Fortescue grins, thumbing over a recipe which sounds delicious but has several large paragraphs worth of instructions. She can work up to that, perhaps. For now, she needs something simple. Something to help build up her confidence.

"That's the goal, isn't it? Cooking without causing a disaster." She eyes the next recipe. "Or something that ends so terribly that someone else has to cook dinner."

Though she loves it when Luke cooks for her, she'd rather not scar their new kitchen.

"Exactly that." He peered at a recipe that had words in it he didn't even know how to pronounce, and sighed, flipping to another, and then another. "Which might be harder than I thought."

He chuckled. "I wonder if there are cooking classes here." He could definitely stand to learn, for sure.

Hmming softly, she approaches Wesley and turns to a specific page in her tome. It may be an unwieldy sort of book, but at least it's easy for two people to look at it. This is a recipe she's tried recently, and it turned out decently enough. Then again, it's easy enough as far as pasta is concerned.

"This is cacio e pepe," she explains. "It's the epitome of warm, delicious comfort food, I think. Not too difficult, either. Just cooking pasta and then folding it into butter and cheese. Something for you to consider?"

She nods wryly.

"If there were cooking classes around here, I'd sign up in an instant. That sounds like a fun use of Teleios time, both for the teacher and the students."

Wesley peered at her book, and he blinked, and smiled. "Aha! That looks pretty cool. I wonder if they have pen and paper around here so I could copy it." He glanced around.

Then he nodded to her.

"I think it could be fun, too. Maybe even with several teachers, teaching foods from different places." That would be kind of awesome.

Fortescue bites her lower lip, doing a similar sweep, before she shrugs and instead offers the giant tome to Wesley. "Here, you go ahead. I'd say your needs are greater than mine, if you're planning on surprising a special someone."

She needs to expand her own horizons, anyway, she figures. Or that's the intent. Hopefully it will pan out. So far her experiments have been successes, but she hasn't been all that bold in her choices. So perhaps this will benefit the both of them. She smiles.

"Learning cooking from an entirely different world would be exciting. So far I've only found Earth cookbooks. I'm... not entirely possible how you'd even set up cooking classes 'round here. Perhaps through the temple staff?"

"Really? Are you sure?" He smiled at her, taking the book. "Do they even let us check these out?" He peered at the pages, then back at her, smiling.

"Yeah, I'd like that. Maybe finding something new." And he nodded again. "Maybe? Is there a school around here, at all?"

She shrugs. "I'm sure I've met a teacher, but I think that's just for the children that the Two brought here."

Which is a subject she's not thrilled with, to say the least. It seems cruel, to her, that children are punished by the Two. Surely judging children so harshly is beneath what beings the Two are supposed to be. But apparently not. They keep showing up, alongside the adults.

"No, you go ahead," Fortescue adds, smiling. "I'll try something else. I should branch out, anyway."

Pausing, she offers a hand.

"I'm Fortescue, by the way." She nods at the cat sleeping in the pane of sunlight on the ground. "And that's Jazz."

Wesley nodded, then smiled to her. "Thanks. You are awesome!" He was glad to meet her, and glad to see that someone was interested in some of the same things he was.

"I'm Wesley Crusher." he shook her hand, and smiled at her cat. "Seems to be a lot of cats around. My mom has adopted one or two, too." And yes, he lived with his mom, but only because, heck, yeah, a house away from the Temple!

Fortescue grins, chuckling softly. When she's about to open her mouth to say some sort of smart comment about that, his name derails things. Or rather, his last name. She's never heard of many Crushers before, and the fact that his last name resembles that of a dear friend...

"Jazz came with me, from my universe," she says, before canting her head to the side. "Your mother wouldn't happen to be Beverly Crusher, would she?"

"Yeah, she is. You know her? Wait... is Jazz her cat?" He bounced, grinning. "Man! That is so cool!"

And then, unless she dodged, she would get hugged. Sorry!

Getting caught in a hug is certainly no trouble, and Fortescue chuckles softly as she returns it. It's good to meet Wesley. She's heard about him quite a bit from Beverly. No doubt she's over the moon that he's back here.

"No, Jazz is mine, but he certainly likes your mother. So do I, for that matter. She's one of my oldest friends in Teleios," she explains, with a warm smile as she withdraws from the hug.

"Ahhh! Okay! Cool!" He stepped back some, and smiled, then put the book away in his bag, nodding. "Very cool meeting someone who knows her." He nodded again.

"She's who i want to cook for. She took me in when I got here, and i know, she is family, but... she didn't have to. She's always been my biggest supporter, and I just want to give something back, you know?"

Fortescue nods. It's part of the same reason she wants to cook for Luke. She's enjoyed the cooking that he's done for her, especially in the early days of their relationship when she'd spent the night over and he'd made her breakfast in the morning. She wants to give something back. And hopefully, that something won't taste too bad.

"That's lovely of you. I'm sure she's ever so relieved to have you back here, with her. It gets hard, staying here when people keep coming and going."

Though Beverly, herself, had recently come and gone -- and there had been a large amount of time spent back home. But she's sure that they've already spoken about... where they've both come from. Just part of the standard 'when are you from' Teleios welcome conversation.

She'd had plenty of them when she had come and gone, herself, months ago.

"Are you in Starfleet as well?"

"I'm just glad to be with her. Frankly, I don't miss home as much as I think I should." He chuckled, through his words had a streak of sorrow in them, just a little. "Back home, she was always the one who supported me, despite me being less than always the best son, or best Starfleet officer."

"I am. I'm an engineer on a Starship out on the frontier." Which was mostly what he wanted all his life. But then he was here, and now... he had no idea what he wanted.

"How long have you been here, in this place?"

There's an understanding quirk in Fortescue's smile when he says that he doesn't miss home as much as he thinks he should -- she knows all about that. She misses Cash, her sole remaining friend, but there's nothing else there for her. Imperium wants her head, figuratively speaking. Or perhaps literally now. If she's ever unfortunate enough to return, she'll find out which it is.

"Oh, it's been..." She has to think for a moment. "...almost two years, now. A few months shy of it. A while, give or take a few months when I was sent back home and then came back."

Which makes time more difficult to judge, for her. A while about covers it.

"This is quite different from where you were, then," she adds, with a soft chuckle.

"Wow. That's...wow." He grinned at her about that. "Do you like it here, at least?" He was curious.

Wesley nodded. "Yes, ma'am. Very much so. I feel like I've gone back in time, in a way, or landed on a planet not contacted by the Federation. Different culture, different people... it's fun! Only down side, next to nothing to put my actual skills to use on."

Fortescue nods, smiling back at him. "I do, thankfully. I imagine I'd feel differently if I had more to return to. But I've made plenty of friends here. A little family, if you will. And it's... not great that people come here and can't return to where they belong, and that children are punished by coming here alone. But it has good things, along with the bad."

As for what the future holds, who knows. She could return at any time. It's a danger that plagues her mind quite a bit, along with the worry that those she loves will suddenly disappear and she'll be stuck here on her own. But whatever happens, happens; it isn't as though they can do anything about it. Not even the Agents can... as long as they're being truthful about that.

"I'm sure you'll find something to occupy your time with," she adds. Beverly's mentioned Wesley's cleverness many times.

Wesley smiled. "Yeah, I'm still meeting people, but I like it too." He thought, then nodded.

"Maybe someday it will be different."

Then he nodded to the book and grinned. "Maybe I'll become a cook. Who knows? But I should get back to the house to try this recipe. Thank you again."

She chuckles. There are worse things to become, here in Teleios, but she's sure he'll find something that suits his interests a bit more. "Quite. I'll stop holding you up, now. Good luck! And say hello to your mum for me."

"Thank you, and I will!" Wesley nabbed his bag on the way and went to go, clutching the book in his arms and almost bouncing on his feet. This was awesome!

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