[closed post: a task]

[ravkanwitch]

Nina has been feeling more like herself recently. It's taken a few weeks of self care, a failed waffle experiment, many naps with Khitka, a history lesson from Kade, quality time with friends, and a few mildly distressing conversations with alternate versions of people that she knows – but she's okay. She'll be much better once Shen Yuan is back of course, but for now, she'll do what she does best and weather the storm.

There are few things she's considering in her mind but right now, she's flipping through some language books with Khitka curled around the back of her neck, dozing.

Comments

[futaille]

"Let's go!"

[ravkanwitch]

They eventually do make it to the greenhouse -- probably with a side distraction or two -- and Nina looks around expectantly. "It's a small, bright red pepper. Probably about the size of your thumb. I'll know it when I see it, some of the vendors in Ketterdam sold it grilled in the gambling district since they knew the people there were there for an adrenaline rush..."

[futaille]

Grantaire nods solemnly. "We split up and look. If I see something that looks close, I'll call you over to check." He holds up a thumb to have a handy comparison tool.

[ravkanwitch]

"Perfect," Nina tells him. She starts looking down one of the aisles; there are so many plants that she's never seen before, but no peppers. "Peppers, peppers, peppers," she mutters to herself, as if trying to will them into existence.

[futaille]

He's moving in a way nobody would ever describe as systematic, keeping his thumb out. "Mansion spirits, don't fail us now.... that is a lovely flower." He turns a corner and stops. "Nina, is this it?"

[ravkanwitch]

She scurries over to where he is, stooping down to look at the plant. It's a red colored pepper about the size of a thumb. "I don't know what the plant looks like, but the pepper itself looks like the right thing."

[futaille]

"Well, the worst that could happen is that it ends up being another pepper instead."

[ravkanwitch]

"Hmm. It looks pretty legitimate," she says, picking one pepper off the plant to examine it. "…Do you think we should try it?"

[futaille]

"Clearly, or what's the point of the search?"

[ravkanwitch]

She picks another one then pauses again. "What if it's toxic? They wouldn't give us toxic peppers, though, would they?"

[futaille]

"I doubt it. But just in case, I'll try it first. If I keel over dead, don't eat yours."

[ravkanwitch]

Nina considers this for a moment. It seems, on the outside looking in, like a terrible plan. But -- she's not on the outside, she's on the inside of the plan, with Grantaire. "Alright, let's do it. You can try yours one second before I try mine. If you keel over, I'll spit mine out." It's not certain how much she's joking. She hands him a pepper.

[futaille]

"That's fair." He knocks his pepper against Nina's in a twisted facsimile of a toast and takes a giant bite of it.

[ravkanwitch]

Nina does wait one second - but only one second - and then takes a bite of hers as well.

[futaille]

The spice hits almost immediately and it belatedly occurs to Grantaire that maybe they should have had something to drink on standby. Nevertheless, he presses on, chewing rapidly in hopes of getting the pepper broken down quickly so he can swallow and get it out of his mouth.

[ravkanwitch]

Nina feels like her tongue is on fire. She's eaten spicy foods before, mostly in Ketterdam (Ravkan and Fjerdan foods lack spice, for the most part) and she's taken a tiny bite of the grilled version of this pepper when Jesper had bought one from a vendor -- but she's never eaten a fresh hot pepper before. Why are they doing this again? "S'hot," she says, quite obviously, breathing in through her teeth.

[futaille]

It is almost impressive how something can be burning and numb at the same time, but his tongue has achieved this rare feat. "Uh-huh," he manages by way of agreement. He swallows the pepper in one gigantic gulp and as his esophagus starts to protest, he looks around frantically, grabs a nearby watering can, opens his mouth, and starts to pour water over his face. Hopefully some might even make it inside.

[ravkanwitch]

Nina briefly wonders, if she could still heal, would she be able to heal what feels like burning in her mouth? It’s tingling! As Grantaire waterboards himself, she swallows the rest of the bits of pepper in her mouth and closes her eyes, thinking about ice cream and sugared ice and even the Ice Court, trying to will her mouth cool again.

[futaille]

Grantaire straightens pretty quickly, spluttering with his hair and flushed face both soaked. "That... didn't help much."

[ravkanwitch]

The cold thoughts also aren't helping much either. Nina starts coughing, laughing as she's coughing at Grantaire standing there dripping wet and similarly struggling. "Wh--" She cough-giggles again. "Why did we do this?"

[futaille]

Grantaire works on scraping his tongue with his teeth. "Adventure." He pauses. "Dare me to have another one?"

[ravkanwitch]

"I dare you tohaveanother," Nina manages to choke out. She's not going to, but he most certainly can.

[futaille]

He promptly plucks another from the plant and has a big bite. He doesn't regret it, but judging from his expression as he chews, he kind of also regrets it.

[ravkanwitch]

Nina just mouths why at him. The spice is finally starting to recede from her mouth and tongue.

[futaille]

Grantaire sniffles, his eyes watering. He shrugs at the question, poking at his cheeks.