Talk to self
Speaking to Ghost
Joseph opens his capsule case and grabs capsule number 9, and tosses it to the floor as a cabinet full of dry ingredients. Joseph reaches for bonito flakes and a thin slab of kombu and puts it on his table.
"Joseph," said Naofumi
Joseph turns to his right, "Yeah?" he said.
"Can you pass me the salt and- wait, is that a cabinet full of spices?" Naofumi asked.
"Yeah, I was just grabbing some fish flakes and kelp. You need anything?" Joseph asked.
"Yeah." Naofumi said. "Hey Raphtalia, can you watch the stew for me please?" he asked.
"Yeah sure," Raphtalia said as she took Naofumi's place as she stirred the stew.
Naofumi looks at the spice shelf and grabs rosemary, garlic powder and salt. "Thanks Joseph," he said.
"Woah, before you go, catch." Joseph grabs a glass jar and tosses it to Joseph.
Naofumi catches the jar and reads the label, "bay leaves," he said. He chuckles, as he gestures a wave, "thanks." Naofumi said as he walked back to Raphtalia.
Joseph gestures back as he closes the cabinet, presses a button as the cabinet returns into a capsule. Joseph picks up the capsule and puts it back in the case.
Few minutes pass as the one of the pots of water that Joseph has under the fire begins to boil. He wipes his kombu slab with a damp towel as he puts the kelp in the boiling pot. After a few minutes pass, Joseph grabs long kitchen tongs and takes out the slab of kelp and puts it on the side. Joseph then opens three packages of bonito flakes, puts it into the pot of boiling water and removes the pot from the fire and puts it on the side. As the broth begins to cool, Joseph grabs a dozen eggs and cracks them into a large silver bowl. Joseph slowly whisks the eggs, trying his best not to incorporate any air into the eggs. After the eggs are whisked, Joseph puts it on the side and starts to pour the benito broth in a larger pot with a strainer basket on top of the pot to catch any bonito flakes.
After Joseph washed the strainer, Joseph grabbed the pot full of broth and placed the strainer on top of the pot and began to pour in the whisked eggs, catching anything that did not flow through the strainer. Joseph mixes the eggs and broth together making a smooth silky liquid.
Filo and Melty came out of nowhere as they saw Joseph stirring the mixture. "Oooh!" said Filo
"This smells good Joseph." said Filo as she watches the motion of the ladle
"What is this?" asked Melty
"Steamed eggs," said Naofumi as he walks to the three
"Done with the stew already?" asked Joseph
He shakes his head, "not yet, the carrots and potatoes as still yet to soften." said Naofumi
"What are steamed eggs?" asked Melty
"It's a dish I haven't had since I was a kid." said Naofumi
"The dish contains eggs from chickens and a broth from katsuobushi flakes, to put it simply, it's another way of saying smoked and dried fish flakes." Joseph said.
"In our world and country, we call it 'chawanmushi.'" Naofumi said.
"What a weird name." Filo said
Joseph chuckles, "better than the word 'balut'" Joseph remarks, he begins to gag as he thinks about the dish. Joseph snaps his fingers, "but, dinuguan though, delicious!" Joseph said.
"No one knows what you are saying right now," Xeno said.
Joseph chuckles, "heh, sorry." Joseph said. He puts the ladle away and places tea bowls enough for everyone. Joseph scoops a ladle-full of the egg mixture and pours it into a teacup and continues to do it for the next 8 other tea bowls and begins to place the tea bowls into the pot with a steam pot and covers the pot.
"You're not going to add anything in?" asked Naofumi
Joseph quickly looks back at the pot and looks at his other ingredients he did not cut, he facepalms and sighs, "shit, I can't believe I forgot to cut the mushrooms, chicken and green onions…" Joseph gestures a thanks to Naofumi and heads back to the cutting board.
Joseph takes a slab of chicken breast and begins to cut the breast in thin slices then cutting the slices in half to make them smaller. Joseph than takes six shiitake mushrooms and begins to take off the stem and begins to rinse the mushrooms. One-by-one, Joseph thinly slices the mushrooms and places them to the side and grabs a bunch of green onions. Joseph then proceeds to chop the green onions thinly until there is only half of the bunch of green onions left.
Joseph then adds in the chicken and mushrooms in all of the tea bowls and then pours in the egg mixture in all the tea bowls. By the time Joseph is finished with pouring in the rest of the mixture, the first batch has finished cooking. Joseph walks to the pot and takes out the first batch and places the next batch.
Filo was watching as he put the teacups in the pot and asked Joseph a question, "Joseph, how long do you cook the eggs for?" she asked
Joseph puts away his cooking utensils as he begins cleaning up his work space, "for about thirteen minutes without any chicken but will have to make it an additional four minutes if there is to make sure that the chicken is cooked." Joseph explained. Joseph begins to sigh and stretch his back as he watches the other thirty-six tea bowls that he needs to cook. "Gotta make sure the rest of these guys don't spoil in this hot sun, so good thing I came prepared." Joseph said. He walks to an open space and calls over Naofumi, "Naofumi, help me with this real quick," Joseph said.
Naofumi walks to Joseph and watches him take out Xeno and have him scan an open space as a white truck with a tonneau (a cover for the bed of a truck).
"I need help carrying out this cooler," Joseph said.
The two work together as they haul a large cooler out of the bed of the truck and set it next to the floor. "Thanks man," Joseph said. He opens the cooler and proceeds to put the chawanmushi cups in the cooler while adding a warm damp cloth covering the cups.
Joseph proceeds to cook the rest of the cups for the next forty-five minutes, every round of cups that have been finished, he serves to the filolials.
As Joseph finished his final round of his chawanmushi cups, he placed them on a serving tray and carried them to the table that they were eating on. He passes the hot chawanmushi cups to everyone on the cup and goes back to his seat, "Whew!" Joseph said. "That, took a while"
"Thanks Joseph!" said Raphtalia
"No problem," Joseph put his hands together and everyone said "thanks for the food!" Everyone begins to dig in.
"This stew is pretty good Naofumi, it has a nice kick of spice whilst keeping that tomato-like taste. That dragon sure does have a gamey taste to it, good thing that the carrots and potatoes mitigate that overwhelmingly flavor." Joseph complimented.
"Thanks, the chawanmushi taste good as well. Reminds me of my childhood back in Japan." he said.
Joseph sighs, "ah, childhood memories. I remembered as a child I was a sucker for this dish in a sushi restaurant called Sushi Bay. The dish was called Garlic Ebi, they put this garlic mayo on top of the ebi and torched it. So good." Joseph chuckles. As it dies down he looks at his stew as distorted image reflects "Ever since my whole family was murdered I was blinded in vengence and grief. As I killed my first Blood Devil in my school, I gained fleeting satisfaction. When I joined the military at the age of thirteen, I lost my normal life that I could've lived. And when I died and resurrected as a Guardian, I traded parts of my humanity to fight forever." Joseph takes a bite of his stew and looks at his reflection from his metal spoon, "as much as I lost so much, I am still glad that I'm still me. People like you guys, makes me know that this lifestyle I live in, is not in vain" Joseph said.
"We're glad to have you as a friend Joseph." said Raphtalia
"Yeah!" said Filo "You're so fun to talk to Joseph! Talking about your worlds is very interesting" said Filo
"You are very caring Joseph. Even if your methods are dangerous, you are very considerate of all of our safety." said Melty.
"When we met on that ghost ship during the Wave of Catastrophe, you healed me and even allowed us to escape the ship while you stayed and fought Glass." Naofumi said, "She was stronger than all of us combined and yet you stayed and fight, that's some strength and bravery. For that, I owe you." said Naofumi
"Thanks guys, truly." Said Joseph, "Fitoria if you don't mind, could I ask you some of my questions?" asked Joseph
Fitoria nods, "Yes you may. What is it you want to know?" asked Fitoria
"Have you ever seen any disturbances? Like something out of this world?" asked Joseph
"Not that I know of. Why?" she asked
"You see, I entered this world from a book, this book also froze time in the world I live in. The cause is unknown but the origin of this issue is caused by a robotic alien called the Vex. A Guardian ally as well as a legend to others named Osiris and his Ghost, Sagira are hunting down a Vex Axis Mind that is causing our world to freeze in time." Joseph explains.
Joseph looks at Xeno as he nods and displays a holographic video of Joseph battling Panoptes with multiple Osirises.
"This is one of the Axis Minds known as Panoptes." Joseph said
"That is a Vex?" asked Raphtalia
"It's made out of metal! And it's huge!" said Melty
The video shows Joseph and the help of Osirises holograms deal the final flow to Panoptes with a golden gun.
"Osiris's holograms allowed me to see Panoptes core which allowed me to kill the Axis Mind." Joseph said, "but I guess it turns out that there is another Axis Mind in my world's Sol System. Of course Osiris and Sagira can take down this Axis Mind since this one is much weaker than Panoptes but something is preventing them to get to this Axis Mind." said Joseph
Xeno ends the hologram "something from this world is preventing the two to fight this Axis Mind." he said.
"I see…" said Fitoria, "From what I can remember, during the wave of catastrophe, I have seen this weird thing, it was a glowing blue cube and it was in mid air and when it appeared it made a weird sound like-"
Osiris's voice began to emit from Xeno, "Joseph! Are you there? This is Osiris!" he said
"Osiris? Great timing!" Joseph said
Both Osiris and Joseph began to speak, "I know what's causing the interference!" they both said
"Wait-" Joseph said in confusion
Everyone started to hear Sagira laughing, "that's adorable, both of you said the same thing. As we wandered around Mercury, Osiris was fighting some Vex as we noticed oracles roaming around. When Osiris shot some of them down, I noticed the integrity of this shield protecting the Axis Mind had decreased." Sagira explained
"So it's true…" Joseph said
"Joseph and I talked to a friend of ours and she said that she spotted a oracle" said Xeno
"Great!" Said Sagira, "that should be the last one and once you've dealt with the oracle, Osiris and I can deal with the Axis Mind." She said,
"And all of this mess will be over." Said Osiris
"Remember Joseph, the Oracle can move. If you can't take it out within a few seconds, it will teleport elsewhere, so you need to be quick." Sagira said.
"Got it. I'll see you guys around. Good luck on taking on that Axis Mind. Joseph out." Joseph said as Xeno ended the call. "Xeno you think you can predict the movements of the oracles?" asked Joseph.
Xeno nods, "I can but we need a Gate Lord's eye. With it, we can follow the movements of the oracle." he said.
Joseph chuckles, "heh, just like running that arrend for Uldren huh?"
"Yeah, just like that arrend to get to the Black Garden." Said Xeno "to think we have to go back there to take on another god…"
"A god? You fought a god?" said Melty
"Yeah, we faced gods. Most of the gods that I faced and killed were all bad," Joseph said. Joseph looked at Xeno, "how the hell are we going to find a Gate Lord?" he asked
"I don't know we may have to just-"
Suddenly everyone hears a whooshing sound which is all too familiar to Joseph and Xeno.
Joseph gets off his seat and readies his materialized Xenophage
"What's wrong Joseph?" asked Raphtalia
A portal emits from the sky and behind the portal is the Black Garden. Fog emits and Joseph aimed forward
"A Vex invasion." Joseph said.
Idol is dead. Good riddance. How many Demi-Human children did he torture? How many children succumb to their injuries being here? When we went to the cells keeping the captured Demi-Humans, there were only three alive… one of them was Raphtalia's childhood friend Keel. It Also turns out that one of Raphtalia's childhood friends Rifana died. We were too late… Death is so god damn unforgiving yet forgiving for Lightbearers… like me.
After the death of that fat bastard, we need to get out of here fast. We need to get these children to safety and we need to figure out our next plan.
Xeno and I need to find a way to help Osiris to open that field to face that Axis Mind so that we can finally go home.
Gone for too long. Six months to be exact. The reason for this is just me being lazy which leads to being too unmotivated to do any story writing. I wonder if you guys can see this in my writing…
man, six months, that's half a year! And so much has happened during that time. Back to school, getting better grades than being online, getting a better prescription for my glasses, skipped Raiden Shogun (worst decision I made), as much as there were many great things there were sad times as well. My dog who was with me since the year I was born, just recently passed away. I do miss her.
Not sure what else to say but I also plan on posting my first chapter for my Genshin and Destiny story. It'll be like a pilot chapter to get things started but before I continue that story, I plan on completing this story first.
I hope you guys enjoy your morning, day or night wherever you live.
