The Ranch

Chef Raphael (2)

Tih follows the uncomfortable worked to the fifth floor. It has the same layout but relatively fewer people, creating a quieter atmosphere. For some reason, the worker felt obligated to bring the child to the best floor. Why? He wasn't sure.

Although Tih has no preferences, he's used to a quieter environment and immediately takes a liking to the top floor of the cafeteria. The worker directed him to the much softer line, and he waited to be served.

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The moment he stepped in line and stopped following me, I dashed into the fifth level's kitchen, and collapsed to the floor, wheezing. The slamming of the doors was louder than I wanted it to be and I ended up drawing everyone's attention. Everyone's actions paused as they looked at the lifeless me.

A coworker I was familiar with came up to me,"Woah, are you okay man? You're a white as a sheet of paper."

The chef of Floor five also noticed the commotion, he came over,"What's with all the ruckus?"

"Ah...sorry Instructor Raphael. I just needed to catch my breath." I answer.

"Hmm? Why? What happened?" My coworker asked.

It's a little embarrassing that a newbie could put pressure on me, but," I was leading one of the newbies to this floor. I was fine at first, but the longer I was around him, the more suffocating the air turned." I explain myself so I don't get in trouble for disrupting the workflow.

"Eh? Why would you bring a newbie to the fifth floor?" My coworker questioned.

I myself wasn't sure either. Although there's no rule against it, it's common knowledge that only instructors and other higher ranked people eat here and even if they're not, they are at least respected in some way on the island. So, why did my brain automatically bring a newbie here.

While I was trying to thing of an excuse, I hear Instructor Raphael mumble something about a newbie. Seeming to remember something, he peeks through the kitchen door to look at the soldiers in line. I hear him say in surprise,"Ah! It really is him!" I turn around to see Instructor Raphael hastily walks out of the room.

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Instructor Raphael waddles out of the door, eyes trained on the newbie he saw yesterday. He walks in front of child,"Tih, right? Have you given any thought about culinary?"

Tih, who was still waiting in line, turned to face the familiar chubby man. He recalls the new information he gained from the lesson without any kind of emotion. He stares at the man talking to him without answering.

Being stared at by the child gives people an unsettling feeling, the instructor included. But remembering how attentive he and the other kid were in his class, he wanted to see if the child had any potential. "Do you want to look around the back? Working in a kitchen is a whole new experience." He tries to hype up his profession, when in fact some soldier on the island looked down on professions that weren't fighting related. He knows the child in front of him is a new recruit and tries to use that to his advantage, making his job seem more appealing. He adds on,"I'll give you a free meal."

When Tih heard "new experience" he was already prepared to follow the man, after adding the words "free meal", he immediately accepted by following the instructor into the kitchen. The child learned back at the orphanage that anything free was good. The child is an easy target to swindle.

Instructor Raphael is put into a good mood seeing how easy it is to sway a naive newbie. The moment he takes Tih into the kitchen, everyone stops what they're doing to stare at the two. Chef Raphael is known for not having the most amiable personality, so to see him in a good mood frightens the workers. Seeing their pause, the instructor yells,"What are you looking at! Get back to work!"

He then turned to Tih,"I want to test your abilities before I decide on anything." He wants to make sure the child knows this is just a quick trial. In all honesty, he doesn't have high hopes for the newbie, with him not willing to speak and communicate with his potential coworkers, but his gut feeling is telling him to give the kid a go."

Tih, who's been ignoring the chef's words, focuses on the much more important environment. He looks around at the shiny metal tools and pots. The smooth counter with a sheen. The harmonious atmosphere among the people in the room. The way they move and work together like cogs in a machine.

Tih is absentmindedly taken to the corner of the room. A worker is sitting on a stool next to a large mound of potatoes. He skins the potato by hand before tossing it into another basket. Tih's eyes are attracted to the weird looking knife in the man's hand that has two thin lines running down the middle of the knife.

Chef Raphael calls the worker out,"Hand me the peeler and move to dish duty."

Hearing these words, the worker sighs in relieve and delight. It would have taken him multiple hours of labor to peel all of those potatoes. He was just here to earn some side cash, he didn't want to put that much effort into the job.

Chef Raphael hands the peeler to Tih,"Start peeling these potatoes. I'll come back in half an hour to see how much you can do." The instructor wanted to test the child's perseverance. He left the child alone to work on something else.

Left alone with a potential weapon, Tih listens to instructions and sits on the stool. He inspects the weird knife called a peeler. Tih picks up a potato and tries to copy the worker before him. His movements seem to be wrong, because the brown part of the potato is not coming off. Not understanding what he's doing wrong, Tih comes to the conclusion that it's the weird knife's fault. Tih used to carve wood and rocks all the time at the orphanage. Carving and peeling used similar movements, so he concluded it must be the tool, not the user.

Tih look around the room and spotted a knife next to a chopping board. He walked over and picked it up without anyone noticing his movement. Picking up the potato, he started snipping little parts off the potato like he would do to the wood. Then he recalled how the worker used the weird knife to swirl around the potato in a fluid manner. He copied the workers movement, using the adult sized knife easily, he effectively started plopping skinned potatoes into the other basket.