D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

--- Kamiko --- (Directly follows on from last chapter time wise)

Kamiko couldn't help but muse on the amount of cooking she'd been doing recently as she put down two plates of steak and vegetables. It wasn't fancy, and compared to even the more basic stuff she'd been doing later but she needed to feed quite a few people.

The exact number wasn't clear, as she didn't know if her own group was hungry or not but that was still twelve or thirteen people depending on if Pip had another meal or not.

Kamiko had decided just to set things up to do a big lot of twenty. She'd brought out some of the steak from her ring, a way to give the group something new and different. A taste of the outside you might say… without going overboard with a bunch of flavours and spices. Kamiko wasn't entirely sure they could even eat meat, but their draconic ancestry did imply it would be fine.

Kamiko had warned them all.

For the vegetables, Kamiko had gotten help from the workout crew minus Pip. Who was more than a touch annoyed she wasn't allowed to go into the kitchen. Apparently she was too young, at least according to Ben. Kamiko was pretty sure the younger girl had been making her own meals for quite a while but Pip wasn't willing to fight over a chance to avoid work.

The workout crew handled the vegetables, much more familiar with the specifics of the ingredients here then Kamiko was, while she worked on all of the steaks. Sure they didn't really have meat here anymore, but the facility was clearly set up to deal with it. Kamiko did have a bit of an issue juggling it all.

She'd put on the steaks in four big lots of five… which in theory wasn't too bad but she was the only one who knew what they were doing in regards to them.

She had to constantly shoo away the others lest they be splashed with hot oil from the pan or disrupt the cooking in other minor ways. They were all clearly quite curious, and while that would normally be a good thing she may wish to encourage at the moment it was annoying because she was nominally 'in charge' of the lot.

Bower had poked his head in at one point but Kamiko was firmly in 'fight' mode and glared him out of the room before he'd spoken up. There was technically space for him to help with the steaks but Kamiko was already watching the entire kitchen to ensure none of the other occupants did anything silly. Excessive? Most definitely.

They'd clearly chopped vegetables before but Kamiko couldn't help but put them in a box labelled 'don't trust in kitchen' simply due to their lacking understanding of steak.

"Is it wrong that I want to eat that?" asked one of the twins. Kamiko had never really worked out which was which and she'd lost track of them at a few points so she wasn't even certain what name she'd assigned the one talking as they'd fixed up their outfit somewhat and they were both a bit sweaty now. Perhaps if she had a better understanding of how to use her sense of smell she could work it out…

"Um… er… what's wrong with it?" asked Kamiko as she glanced over at the plates she'd just set down. As far as she could tell it looked good to her. Medium rare, which might not be to everyone's taste but it was standard and a good enough place to start. "It looks like it should… I mean I could cut into it and check but this isn't my first time cooking steak…"Nôv(el)B\\jnn

"Right I know it's just… that was a thing once right?" asked… Kamiko was going to just go with Chen.

"It's from an animal yes?" said Kamiko confused.

"Right but… like it could think though? Isn't that sort of weird?" offered the other twin "Shen".

Kamiko glanced over at the steak. "I mean… in some ways? It can't think like you and I can. The level of intelligence is… an order of magnitude lower, or several actually?"

"Right but like… we've seen videos and stuff of animals talking, and while we know most of them were just that… stories… some seemed to be true, or close enough to it. So like… what makes it ok?" asked Chen the first twin.

Kamiko shrugged, "Um… for demons we tend to go based on our translation ability? If we can work out that… it has… intent? Like we can almost always understand someONE, even if they can't speak. If they don't meet that threshold then they a something and not afforded… well much if any consideration by most demons. I mean we have pets and stuff but that's obviously different,"

"Right… so like it isn't weird?" asked Shen as she went to poke at the steak on the table. Kamiko glared at the digit as she quickly took the steaks back and put them in her ring. "Hey!"

"They're not gone forever, I'm just abusing the fact time slows down to nearly nothing inside of my storage ring… and as for if it's weird? Um… not for me? I'm sure if you got Hunter or Meg in here they'd have something more… profound to say about it? They hunt things for a living so… hunting and eating their food is a much bigger part of their culture.

I um… I don't normally eat much meat at all, or not quite as directly. Sometimes its helps makes up the food?

"Err… how do I put this. No it doesn't bother me. It's just how things have always been? I mean… I know some vegetarians but I also know some PEOPLE who are more plant then animal, and I know Kat knows more than a few. So like… maybe that helps? Because I imagine you would be a lot less interested in eating a thinking plant then a non-thinking boar," explained Kamiko.

"Wait plants can think?" asked Malt.

"Err… some of them? Some more than others? The line between plant and animal is… fairly blurry when magic and monsters get mixed in. It's worse in some places then in others too… but um… yeah sentience has always been the big one for me.

I know the thing that made up those steaks never had a single complex thought and likely had limited if any ability to remember things longer then like… a month tops?" offered Kamiko.

"I guess… that's… still weird?" answered Chen. "I mean, I'm still going to try it because it smells really good… or it did before you took it away from us!"

Kamiko glared at them as she put on another set of five steaks to cook. "I understand why you all think it's weird but I'm really not the one to have this discussion with. I'm not offering steak to everyone because I particularly like it, nor make it particularly well. If I never had a chance to have steak ever again in my likely to be long life? Like longer then Corela long?

I wouldn't be the slightest bit upset. My family mostly eat jelly. Specialised so we don't lack in nutrients and likely including meat at some part in the process, but still jelly at the end of the day.

"The reason I'm handing it out? It's because this sort of thing is quite normal on the outside. Some people won't eat meat… but usually because of the cost. If you guys become adventurers or even just profitable merchants? Eating meat will be considered quite normal and you might get more than a few odd looks if you avoid it.

I'm really not sure… what the culture of this planet is in particular so it might be more or less weird here then elsewhere.

"I guess… what I'm really trying to provide is a literal taste of the surface. A way to show you all, in a small way at least, that things outside are going to be different. Perhaps you'll love it… perhaps you'll hate it… but it WILL be different and steak is just the start of things. I'm only offering you like… some of the cheapest meat I have.

Not bad necessarily but common so like… I don't know what I'm trying to get at…" finished Kamiko trailing off with a pout.

"No, no, I think I get it," said Malt. "This is a good but subtle way to show us that we're missing out on a lot of stuff, perhaps even a major amount of things. None of us have ever… tried steak before. We've seen it in old movie clips but I guess we've never thought about what that actually MEANS for us all here. Plus, if we can't handle it we've got privacy to throw up,"

Kamiko winced. "Um… yeah even if you all DO like it I wouldn't be surprised if someone throws up. You've all gone your entire lives without any meat and it means that even if your stomach is capable of processing it in theory… it has no practice at it. So um… just make sure to let everyone know that again before they dig in?

I'd hate for someone to devour the whole thing and then have issues so… maybe just go slow,"

The three of them just laughed, as if they already knew there'd be no chance of that.