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Summary: Sage talks to Rashmi about the difficulties of adjusting at Xavier's.
Date: July 18, 2011
Log Title: Curry Comforts
Rating:PG
Xavier Mansion - Kitchen
This kitchen was designed to feed large numbers of people, and looks it with its bright white walls and stainless steel appliances. The stove, refrigerator, and dishwasher are all larger than normal. There is an island with stools around it for people to sit and eat around along with a table for twelve by the windows in back. Along the wall is a hole in the wall looking into the dining room so food can be passed back and fourth. Anything you want to cook or eat in the kitchen you will find the food and supplies to do so.
Early evening, and the kitchen is awash in fragrant smells. With the general business of the day completed, reports mailed in, and Forge set to work on SHIELD's gift, Rashmi has decided to attend to her own worries for awhile, the best way she knows how; in the cooking of far too much comfort food. Thus rice is steaming, masala simmering, and vegetable samosas nearly ready to fry.
Walking into the kitchen with his dreads still damp from a recent shower is Sage. He's dressed in a pair of jeans with a green tunic style shirt over them. He's barefoot as usual as he pads across the floor with a few squash from upstiars. "Good evening Ma'am." Sage says as he looks at the stove. "I've never smelt anything like that, what are you cooking?"
Rashmi blinks, looking over her shoulder and smiling. "Oh, hello… Sage, right? Um. Food from the Old Country. Mom's recipes. If you want some, you're perfectly welcome." Pausing a moment, she tilts her head. "…Mind if I ask why the ma'am, out of curiosity?"
"I'm sorry but I couldn't remember your name. And I figured you were a teacher here." Sage says as he doesn't remember that she's going to another school. "The old country? I do a lot of cooking with my Mum's recipes as well. I was planning on cooking up a light salad but as long as it's organic I'll try some." It's always good to accept food when offered, especially when it's home cooked.
"It's Rashmi," the redhead says, smiling, "and no, I'm not a teacher. I graduated a little over a year ago, I just like to come back and help out when I can." Turning to stir at the chicken-and-vegetable-laden sauce for a bit, she moves on to assembling the fresh vegetables in the pastry. "…Um. The Old Country. India. West Bengal, specifically, it's where Mami and Papi moved here from."
"I don't know much about India. I've seen it on a map." Sage says as world history isn't one of his strong points. Not many areas of academics are his strong point. "My Mum and Dad are still home in England. "Since you're cooking tonight, I'll have to make you a home cooked meal from England some time."
Rashmi chuckles, bobbing her head. "That'd be nice, I think." The fryer is opened, and the little stuffed pastry triangles dropped in, one after another. "Y'know, ordinalrily I'd be surprised you'd never heard of India. Since, y'know, England did a lot of imperialism a century or so ago, and so many migrated to the UK proper… but if I remember right, you lived on a commune? And homeschooled… so I guess it's not all that unusual, considering." Smiling at the dreadlocked boy, she shuts off the steamer, popping open the lid and fetching a shallow, wide salad bowl. "So what's it like, where you come from?"
"I wouldn't call it a commune." Sage says furrowing his brow a bit. "It was more just a lot of us on the farm and we ran the place." It's obvious he's unsure of the meaning of the word. "It was absolutely lovely. Everyday there was something to do and I was surrounded by friends and family. After a days work my brothers and cousins would run around and go hunting for Knardrums or play a little foot ball, play music there was always something to do."
Rashmi bobs her head. "That's a commune," she says. "A bunch of people all living self-sufficiently in one area, usually a few extended families." Some of the rice is scooped into the bowl, a generous portion of buttery golden masala sauce, thick with chicken and vegetables on top. "…What are Knardrums, out of curiosity?"
"Oh." Sage says. "We never really called ourselves that. My great grandparents and a few of their friends decided to start the farm in the nineteen fourties and it's still going. About half the people there are family." He explains before taking a deep breath. "Knardrums they live inside the walls of your house and are responsible for leaving dust everywhere. It's their idea of mischief and it works as dull as it sounds for a prank. I mean how many times have you dusted a room only to have the Knardurms ruin your cleaning a few days later?"
Rashmi blinks, slowly shaking her head. "…Actually, I've never heard of Knardrums before," she says carefully, but shrugs. "Of course that doesn't mean anything, really. I mean, England's a whole lot different from America, and there's probably all sorts of magical creatures you won't find over here. I'll have to ask my Supernatural Studies teacher about them, sometime…"
"It's quite different. The food is even different to me." Sage says. "There are tons of magical creatures such as fae back home. I've tried to look for them here too but I've never been good at spotting them. I've a few students give me funny looks for talking about them and tell me fairies aren't real but I know they are." Sage says grinning as he's quite convinced they do.
Rashmi bobs her head, getting a smaller plate and arranging some of the samosas on it, snatching up a fork and spoon and carrying the food to the table. "Well you'd have trouble telling *me* they're not real," she says, lips quirking up at the corners, "after all… that teacher I was talking about? An actual, honest-to-goodness pixie, butterfly wings and all."
"Really?" Sage asks with a kind of surprise. "How does she teach the class when she's so small? I'd love to meet a real pixie but I'd almost be frightened on the tricks they might play." He's heard the stories. "So what is all this food you made? None of it really looks familiar."
"Actually she can get normal sized if she likes… Which, y'know, helps a lot when you're teaching," Rashmi says with a chuckle. "Okay… This," she says, sticking a fork in the bowl, "is tikka masala, with basmati rice with a little saffron steamed in. Chicken, vegetables, butter sauce, a little spicy but not enough to actually be *called* spicy. And those are vegetable samosas. Potatoes, carrots, garlic, peas, a little curry powder, wrapped in pastry dough and fried. Really it's pretty simple stuff, and the kids here seem to like it."
"Saffron, that's my sister's name." Sage says as he follows Rashmi. "And simple stuff is bread and butter or tea and biscuits this here isn't simple stuff." He says chuckling as he cautiously reaches for a samosa to try ti. "Actually these sound a bit similar to meat pies except we don't fry them and put meat in instead of curry powder. I don't think I've ever had curry powder." He says before taking a small bite.
"Well, what's simple in India isn't so much in England," Rashmi answers, chuckling. "I call this simple because there's not a whole lot to it; just put the ingredients together right, and the ingredients aren't *too* out there. So… how d'you like it?"
After finishing the first bite, Sage looks at the samosa. "I've never tasted anything like this. We don't use things like curry back home. More Rosemary, Sage, Thyme, salt, garlic, things like that but this is quite yummy. I think I'm going to have to send some home to my Mum and Dad." He says chuckling as he goes to take another bite. "I'm a big fan of simple cooking and simple foods."
Rashmi chuckles, nodding. "Indian food uses a lot of the same things, actually. …Also saffron, coriander, curry, and a couple other little spices." Pausing, she tilts her head. "…How about next time I go into the City, I pick up a cookbook and some spices to send to your family? Y'think they'd like that?"
"Coriander is another I'm familiar with. My youngest brother is Coriander." There's a general theme in names in Sage's family. "That sounds like it could be interesting. Every Sunday night it's my families dinner night. All seven us prepare and cook dinner together. I miss doing that, it was a lot of fun and we could get quite silly."
Rashmi chuckles, nodding. "Yeah, it sounds like it. I'm an only child, myself, so mostly it was just me and Mami in the kitchen, when I got old enough to see over the stove."
"I'm the second oldest. My brother Clover is older and my sister Violet is a year younger. Saffron and Coriander are the youngest. Then I had my four cousins that also lived with us." Sage explains. "My Mum and their Dad are siblings and my Dad and their Mum are siblings." He says as they're related on both sides of the family. "My Dad likes to cook as well. He's good at making desserts."
Rashmi's eyebrows rise, lips pursing at the glimpse in Sage's family tree. "….Huh! Wow, that's a lot of family all in one place. Now I think I really understand why you're a little homesick… Maybe you could talk to Christopher about helping him out in the kitchen when he cooks, sometime? It's not the same, I know, but he's a *really* good cook, and he's a lot of fun besides."
"Our family is quite large. There are about a hundred and fifty of us back home and I think I'm related to about half of them?" Sage knows that his parents have several siblings. "I think I'm more than a little homesick honestly. Everything here is just so different that I hardly think I'll be able to get used to it all. Everyone is also different and they all loved to talk about the horrible room downstairs and how brilliant it is."
Rashmi snorts, shaking her head. "The Danger Room, yeah…" Dishing up her own dinner, she sets it aside, fetching Tupperware containers to store the leftover in the fridge. "Let me guess, Sage… you seem a pretty gentle guy. Youre a pacifist, right?"
Sage plays with one of his dreadlocks for a bit and shrugs. "I just don't like fighting. Not even fighting with words. My Mum and Dad always had us talk things out when one of or more of us was peeved at something. All my great grandfathers fought in World War II and they keep talking about the horrors that went on during it. My Grandpa remembered a bit cause he was a child when they had to move to where we are now. Nothing is worth fighting over."
Rashmi nods slowly, setting the containers in the fridge. "Y'know what, Sage? That's a good way to think. I *mean* that, I really do wish more people felt that way. If that were true? Who knows, maybe the rest of the world would be like your family's place. Which… would be nice. *Really* nice."
"And now I'm at a school that forces us to fight and I just want to go home because of it." Sage confesses. "I mean the other kids here try to be nice but it's quite difficult. I guess." He says looking down at his half eaten samosa. "I mean it's not bad here. I love that they have horses and they are nice just, everything will take getting used to. My Grandpa told me not to be afraid."
Rashmi nods slowly. "I can understand why that'd be so hard," she says gently, "but the problem is? Most of the world doesn't think the way you and your family does. Which… well, it makes me understand *why* they all closed themselves off to begin with. Fighting is a horrible thing, honestly… Nobody should ever have to hurt one another. The problem is… Some of those people who *do* want to hurt others… They want to hurt us, specifically. Mutants. Because we're different, and scary. It's a hard, hard thing to learn, Sage, and I wish you didn't have to understand it. … …But it's also the truth."
Sage is quiet for quite some time, his hair even seems to get tense. "This is exactly why I want to go home." He mutters. "Conflict just creates more conflict and if you keep fighting over it what does it really solve?" He asks. "That next time you hope that you beat them? I don't know it's all bloody foolish. The truth is I come to this country and find out it's so barbaric here. There are people whose parents are evil and I just don't understand it."
"It *is,*" Rashmi says, with feeling, "it really *is* foolish. It's horrible and stupid and people should just *know better* than to even *think* about hurting each other. Trust me, Sage, I know how you feel about everything. I really do. … …But one day, not really all that long ago, I had to ask myself… Even if I don't like the idea of people hurting people, does that mean I should just look away and pretend it isn't happening? Or do I want to do my best to make sure people don't *have* to be hurt, if I can keep it from happening?"
"But when does what's wrong become what's right?" Sage asks. "Where do you draw the line then if you say it's not okay but it's okay under these conditions?" He just doesn't get it. "And the more people that think like that, the more fighting there is and it ever stops. It doesn't end."
Rashmi lifts a shoulder. "I don't know, Sage… I don't know where it ends. But I *do* know that I want that end to come. Even if I'm not alive to see it. That's why maybe I know how to fight… but I only know that because *I* want to be safe. When people who want to hurt others, try to hurt *me.* Sometimes it's possible to talk them out of it, and I pray that I can manage it. Other times… It's not. And then it's either fight or die." Shaking her head slowly, she sighs, lifting a forkful of food into her mouth. "Just… if you can, try to understand something, Sage. The school doesn't *want* you to get into fights. They don't *want* you to look for people to hurt. They just want to be sure that if there are people who try to hurt *you,* then, they won't be able to. But whether or not you can fight isn't who you are, Sage… It's what's in your heart. And, honestly…? We could use more people like you out in the world. I think humanity could only be stronger, if they believed anything like what you do."
"Then why do they make us fight thinks like fake bears down in that magic room?" Sage asks. "I just don't understand it at all. It's hard for me." He says standing up. "They don't explain any of that here, they just throw you in a room and send a bear after you." He takes a deep breath and shrugs. "I think I'm going to go for a walk, try to clear my head a bit. Thank you so much for the food. It was quite delicious. Cheers Rashmi."
"All right," Rashmi says, nodding. "But do me a favor? *Ask* someone. Preferably an adult, really… They can tell you more than I can about the why. Anyway… ENjoy your walk, Sage. I'll be here if you want to talk agai, okay?"
Sage nods. "Okay. Well thanks again Rashmi. You have a good night. And I still owe you a dinner. We can cook together, it's more fun that way." He says giving her a smile before heading out of the kitchen and outside for a walk outside under the stars.
