Exploring the Pit [Tarot Heirarchy] Part One

[Ioder]

‘The Tarot Pit’ or that was what Ioder had come to call his new home nestled underneath the earth in the center of the Red Forest. It wasn’t anything extravagant but it served as a very well protected bas for Leona and all her followers. Or as she liked to call us ‘her Cards’ but everyone here was truly special in their own way. Even we all have our own spaces within the pit much was still undiscovered.

Ioder sat at the end of his bed, his heavenly wings were far too large to freely have out at all times so today he was feeling like taking a load off. Ioder was in the form of his child self, his wings completely gone but his features were very similar to usual. Heavens I’m hungry. Ioder’s stomach was about to get the better of him.

‘Knock Knock’ there was somebody at his door. Ioder quickly sprung to his feet and raced to the door.

“Who’s there.” Ioder said disguising his voice to match his shape.

[Cards of Fate]

Vincent poked his head through the door and smiled at his friend warmly. "Ioder have you eaten yet?" the scholar asked cocking his head to one side slightly. "I just spent the last several hours so buried into my studies that I haven't had a bite to eat is ages!" he asked grinning. The angel had been Vincent's first mission partner and when they were at base instead of on the field they tended to send their free time together.

"I was just thinking about going to get some food actually!" Ioder replied smiling. "Sounds awesome!" Vincent replied backing away from the portal to clear a path for Ioder. "I'e only ever raided the larder for simple meals so I have no clue if we actually have a kitchen or not..." Vincent confessed. Ioder paused for a moment and looked at the scholar, "You haven't been to the mess hall either?" he asked incredulously. Both operatives stared at each other dazed and sighed. This was going to be a long, hungry process.

[Ioder]

Ioder and Vinent bother started the lovely process of exploration. The corridors of the Tarot base had plenty of lighting so they woudnt have any problem seeing. From what Ioder had figured out for himself on prior explorations is that there are at least tree corridors that run parallel to his own. His room was the closest to the secret entrance; he in fact chose to have the room nearest the entrance. He would be the first line of defense if there were any intruders stupid enough to barge in.

The pair walked down his hallway making sure to open each door when they came to it. Neither had any luck half way down the hall. The closest thing they found was the larder and that was about as picked thru as ever. Ioder knew he would be sent to town to restock it soon. He sighed

“So Vincent what is your favorite this to eat?”

[Cards of Fate]

Vincent had begun to grow increasingly discouraged as his stomach growled more and more with each wrong room. Finally Ioder had decided to fill the silence with at least somewhat meaningful conversation. "Well back where I came from we had this food called pizza..." he started, stopping when Ioder gave him a quizzical look. "That doesn't sound like anything I've ever heard of" the angel replied curious. "Where are you from anyways?" Vincent paused for a moment "I'm from another world known as earth." Vincent began cautiously. "It's a land without magic as far as I know, but our technology was far beyond anything I've seen from this world so far..." Vincent turned to see Ioder looking at him. "That's interesting, so what is pizza? How is it made?" Ioder asked as they walked.

"Well pizza starts out with a big lump of soft dough that you roll out into a big flat circle. You drizzle tomato sauce over the surface of it and then dust it with shredded cheese and bake it. I'm sure it's a lot harder to make than I described but I never actually got a chance to make it myself, I always ordered it from Papa Johns." Vincent droned on trying to fill the silence. "This Papa John must be a great chef then?" Ioder asked confused. "Uh, it's a company but I'm sure there was a Papa John at some point..."

[Ioder]

Vincent’s wondrous description of a food that Ioder could less than comprehend was marvelous. Now feeling even more hungry than before Ioder started to run down the hallway releasing only a trickle of his beautiful glimmer to trail him. “Last one to find whatever it is were looking for has to make Pizza!” Ioder yelled in a friendly manor back to Vincent.

Ioder dragged his hand against the wall and doorframes of the hallway playfully until he reached the corridor intersecting the others. Ioder turned down it and took the second left. He knew that the others mainly stayed near the center of the pit, but on the third corridor there were still many rooms yet to be opened.

Ioder kicked down a door as he heard Vincent’s footsteps just behind him. The seraphim’s confidence was shot as the door flew open and he saw nothing but a small closet like room.

[Cards of Fate]

Vincent seeing Ioder's room from behind him was empty he shot past of him and threw open another door to find a large empty room that was dimply lit. Ancient planks laying strewn about the floor hinted at some form of furniture once being there. As he walked through the room, careful not to step on anything harmful, he found another door at the opposite side of the room aside a large opening in the wall that looked like...it couldn't be...

He opened the door and several orbs of light flickered to life illuminating a large room with several old and dusty tables, stoves, and ovens. "Found it Iodee!" Vincent called over his shoulder as he went to check out the kitchen. Behind him was in fact the remnants of a lunch line. Whatever group had once housed themselves here had used this room as a cafeteria.

[Ioder]

“Blast!” Ioder exclaimed as he entered Vincent’s room and realizing that he had lost. Ioder walked over to Vincent and gave him a friendly punch in the arm. “This place looks ancient.” He said as he looked around noticing the many cobwebs decorating the lifeless room. The oven looked almost as old as Ioder, and the fire pit was all but up in working function. Ioder walked over to the old looking oven and bent over checking the inside to better assess its condition.

“It looks like I won.” Vincent said with a grin pasted across his face.

“Yeah but it doesn’t look like we are making anything until we clean this place up.” Ioder said as he rose and blew on the top of the oven letting a cloud of dust fly off of it. “What ya say? Why don’t we get to work Leona would appreciate it.”

[Cards of Fate]

Vincent and Ioder proceeded to spend the next hour or so bringing life back into the kitchen, cleaning away years of dust and decay making the room somewhat sanitary to prepare food in. Vincent also spent part of that time checking the status of what appeared to be sinks and stoves. "It appears this place once had running water, but I doubt that we could fix the plumbing up ourselves..." Vincent growled fiddling with with some nobs on the sinks before moving to the stoves. "That would be super useful when it comes to cooking" Ioder replied sweeping up some dust.

"Some of these seem to be woodburning stoves, if we cleaned out some of the soot we could manage to get some of the stoves working" he said standing up and wiping his brow. This is a lot of hard work for a meal... Vincent found himself thinking. "Do we even have anything in the larder we could cook?" Vincent asked Ioder slightly confused.

[Ioder]

Ioder didn’t quite know, last he looked there wasn’t much of anything left in the larder. “Not sure Vinnie but I could go check.” Ioder said and went all in a flash. Getting back to the larder was easy; take a left then a right at the end of the hall. It was your first door on the left and it had a giant oval on the door itself. Once in Ioder found very little like expected but managed to rustle up some Raiaera yak cheese, some tomatoes that still looked good and the last of the dough. He managed to bring all the ingredients back to Vincent quickly and put them on the island counter in the middle of the room.

“Really? You just so happen to have the basics.” Vincent said in almost disbelief.

“Yes, yes I do.” He said unsure but hopeful. “I would like to help you make a pizza. It sounds like fun.”

[Cards of Fate]

Vincent looked at the ingrediants and paused for a moment. "Alright...I'll work on getting the doe flattened and rounded out..." Vince said grabbing the dough and kneading it to loosen it up a bit. "You should...find someway to turn those tomatoes into a sauce..." Vincent said glaring at the red fruits. "I have no idea how the process actually works, but you may want to add some spices or something to it to give it more flavor...does oregano exist in this world?" Vincent asked as he began to lightly toss the dough, spinning it in the air to make a thin circle. "Gotcha Vince, I'll go see if we have any spices to add to the sauce." Ioder said as he once more duked out of the kitchen to shortly return with his arms filled with all sorts of stage jars with ground spices. While he was gone Vincent had stoked a fire in one of the ovens and was letting it heat up while he grated some of the cheese. "I have no idea how this will turn out bud so be warned..." Vincent said glancing to the angel who was busy mashing tomatoes into some strange sauce like concoction as he added some of the spices that he had found and stirred it together.

"I'm sure with the Hierophant at the helm of our cooking excursion nothing can possibly go wrong bud!" Ioder exclaimed passing Vincent his sauce. "Im sure whatever we make is going to blow this Papa John out of the water!" Vincent gulped as he found a baking stone to set the dough on and carefully coated the topside with an even amount of tomato paste and then dusted the top with cheese. He gingerly slid the pizza into the oven and prayed. "I have no idea how long we should cook this for so let's watch it carefully" Vincent stated as he pulled himself into a sitting position on one of the counters.

[Ioder]

The smell of bread baking filled the air along with hints of melting cheese and roasting tomatoes. Ioder had no smell to compare this to but to him it smelt like the most amazing culinary exploit ever. The cleanup wasn’t as bad as he expected, actually it felt quick as the idle chit chatted together. They talked mostly about nothing, exchanging a laugh or two like old chums. It’s been a while since Ioder had someone that he could call friend but Vincent was different. Vincent was fun and caring, just what Ioder was lacking.

It’s rough being a warrior, having to hone your skills so you can take lives. It places a large burden upon one’s shoulders. Ioder knows this better than the next spending years upon years training and killing. This time spent with Vinnie took his mind off of all that. And for what it’s worth it was fun, and they got something in common.

“So do you think our cooking will get Leona to find us?” Ioder asked smiling as he leaned against the stone wall. “I’m sure she having a hard time trying to fight it. Up till now we haven’t really been a group that ‘hangs out’.”

“I’m sorry to hear that Ioder. But as long as I’m here well at least have this.” He said as he opened the oven door.

[Cards of Fate]

The pizza looked for a lack of a better word, fantastic. The cheese had turned a light golden color and the crust was a deep golden color. Vincent had found oven mits that looked older than his grandmother to pull the stone he had cooked it on and set it on a counter. Hot steam wafted off the pie and filled the whole base with it's delicious smell. "It looks amazing! " Ioder exclaimed drooling reaching a hand to the pie. Vincent rapped his knuckles and the angel yelped in suprise and pulled his hand back. "One, it's super hot." Vincent chided. "And two I need to slice it bud," Vincent said pulling out a rather large knife. He paused for a moment and turned to Ioder. "Can you cut this like you would a circular cake Ioder?" Vincent asked. "I'm not very good with a knife as you might be aware."

Ioder rubbed his sore knuckles and took the knife from his friend. "Im surprised you didn't run from the oven when you lit it," Ioder chuckled. He carefully sliced the pie apart and the two chatted while it cooled. When it seemed cool enough to eat the two grinned ear to ear and reached each for a slice only to be beaten by Leona who had walked in without them noticing. "I've been waiting for you to do this for months now Vincent" she said smirking slightly, as she nibbled on her slice. Ioder and Vincent both stared at their boss dumbfounded. "Thanks for finding the kitchen too by the way, I was meaning to send someone to do this." she said as she took another slice "for the road" as she walked out. "How did you..." Vincent began. "You know my rule about questions Vince..." Leona called out as she walked away. Vince found himself pondering the butt of his employer as she walked out. Damn... Vincent though to himself slightly as he bit into his slice.

[Philomel]

Name of Thread: Exploring the Pit {Tarot Hierarchy} 2 Electric Bugaloo (http://www.althanas.com/world/showthread.php?28654-Exploring-the-Pit-Tarot-Hierarchy-2-Electric-Bugaloo)
Type of Judgement: No Judgement
Participants: Ioder and Cards of Fate

Rewards:

Ioder (http://www.althanas.com/world/member.php?17424-Ioder) receives:
240 EXP
22 GP

Cards of Fate (http://www.althanas.com/world/member.php?17720-Cards-of-Fate) receives:
205 EXP
22 GP

Due to this thread having less than 500 words per post, EXP and GP are awarded on a post count of 5 posts all together.
Total Word Count: 2488

[Lye]

EXP & GP Added!