"So it's more like a gradual ramp-up that rewards patience and follow-through and care? Kinda like training, that way. Cooking has been the only thing it's easy to stay still for, too, for a while now."

Wiggle hand. 

"That's really more about the curve for the resources put in? But that's kinda true as well - it really rewards putting your heart into it." 

She hums quietly. 

"Maybe giving you the full alchemy comparison run down could help? Can dig into some of our other notes or just field questions or...?"

Hailey bit her lip as she considered for a moment (definitely not because she was noticing her Senior's pretty blue eyes), then nodded. "Yeah, I think that comparison would help. Cooking definitely is the only still thing I can put my heart into, though. That much I'm sure of."

I laugh quietly. 

"Okay!" 

I place my hands together and slide them down to my lap. 

"So." 

"You're just starting out, and you want to become an alchemist. The sort of thing that you'll start out with is grabbing a decent pill furnace, a basic pill refining method, and a bunch of recipes, alingside a bunch of normal medicinal herbs and a small bunch of low-grade spirit plants - Maybe just some Wash Water Lilies and a few other basic weeds. You'll throw them in the furnace at just the right time, control the flame as you need to, make your spiritual energy work the process, distill the ingredients down to their essence, and pop it all together into a pill. You can't do alchemy without spiritual ingredients - though you can do it without a special technique or any cultivation at all, which is why there's that warning in senior Tourmaline's post. There's a lot of other things that go into it.- just the start is how good your cultivation is on a bunch of dimensions, how well you comprehend the laws of the energies you use, the quality of your pill flame, how good your technique is, the quality of your recipe, the degree of refinement you achieved - but a lot of what determines how good your end product is just the quality of the materials you put in." 

"You follow?"

Hailey nodded, frowning a bit. "It makes sense, yeah. But there doesn't feel like there's much... heart in it, or something. Makes sense, but doesn't draw me."

She smiles broadly. 

"Yeah... Really, the heart in most alchemists is in... cultivating their mastery of the elements through the rest of their foundation, and going out exploring to find more ingredients to make part of their practice." 

"There's a whole seperate cultivation system for Immortal Chefs, for one, and... people just really care about subtle things in food. It's normal to like foods that are exactly in season, or have just the right color or crispness or softness, even if it's the same product, fundamentally - a decent amount of basic fruits you'll see in the store are literally all clones of each other, but there's still a substantial difference between all the ones on the shelf, if you look. You can make something basic with mundane ingredients, and yes you can get better results if you have better ones, but what's the most important is that you manage everything front start to finish to make it the best for you, and do it all skillfully and lovingly, with an understanding of what you want out of the dish and how the inputs matter! Affinities obviously help too, but a lot less then if you are an alchemist." 

"Yes! Cooking is the only non-movement thing I ever feel like that about — carefully putting everything together, preparing it over days if you have to, or even longer, all to make the result just what you want. I was putting up with school so I could work in storms, but this is so much better."

She paused.

"Wait, did you say Chefs have a whole 'nother cultivation system?"

"Yep~!"

I smile brightly.

Hailey's mouth dropped open for a moment, and she stared.

"Wow. How does that even work? This just keeps sounding better."

She laughs brightly. 

"Basically, you follow a chef cultivation technique, and you condense a 'chef heart' - which is kinda like a classical 'core' which adds this extra capacity to you based on your love of cooking and your understanding of the trade to be able to work wonders. The more of them you have, the better your dishes will turn out. The theoretical limit is about a chef heart per realm you advance, in most cases, and I've gotten that done, but it's still pretty forgiving as long as you keep on working on perfecting your craft and collecting more options for how to make things, and there's no tribulation system inherent in being an immortal chef, which is nice." 

She grinned. "That does sound pretty great. It really sounds like a way to compound my investment, kinda, and it all runs on love of and dedication to the craft? I just love this more the more you tell me about it."

She took another sip of the supernaturally clear water.

"This really is impressively refreshing. And here I thought just adding that filter was an improvement!"

She smiles softly, and reaches out to stroke her head again. 

"I'm glad you like it!"

A half-remembered reaction, hands reaching far faster than that in the past, and a quick flinch took her, but she stilled it, staying put to accept the petting.

She lets her hand draw back, slowly, petting her hair lightly before she rests her hand against hers. 

"I know this can be a lot, just... take the time to note how this can be nice too, ok?"

The petting did feel pretty good. She leaned her head back away after it stopped though.

When Romana rested her hand against Hailey's own... she paused a moment, and then turned her hand and held her mentor's.

"Yeah, it really is nice. That's honestly what throws me the most. Cultivating is nice, Immortal Cooking sounds nice, you're really nice..."

"...I don't know how to handle that much niceness yet."

She smiles softly, and strokes her finger down across her ear. 

"That's alright. If you'd like, I can go? I could set up a sparring spot or book a nicer kitchen around here or just take some time to find a good spot to cultivate, and you can text me when you want me back here. There's no rush."

What, leave? Why?

Did she do somethi—

No. That was more niceness, wasn't it? Romana was offering to give her space to process.

Did she want space to process?

She wanted to do. To experience. She'd just stew in the stillness if Romana left.

"Walk into the fire," she muttered under her breath.

She squeezed her mentor's hand. "I'd rather you stay, if you don't mind."

She smiles softly, and squeezes her hand. 

"I don't mind at all." 

She took a deep breath, letting the moment — and the response — sink in.

"What would you suggest we do now?"

"It really depends? I can talk to you about your options for housing, about the sort of things that you can do with your supplies here, talk about what you want to get out of your cultivation and internship, how comfortable you are with the risks of tribulations, when that comes around, and just about your life plans, overall? There's a lot that I can teach you, and a lot of things that naturally end up kind of frontloaded, unforunately, just because the Rivers and Lakes of the cultivation world are so vast." 

Her thumb runs tenderly over the meat of hers. 

Hailey hummed thoughtfully and considered the first few points, looking around at the tools she'd collected and repaired over her time in Toronto. They were hers. She'd spent time finding them at junkyards and flea markets and thrift stores, money buying them and their replacement parts, and sweat repairing them to their admirably-functional states.

And as much as she'd put into them, they didn't justify staying here. Maybe she could take them or maybe not, but she couldn't pass up leaving this place.

Wait, had she missed something? Romana was talking about life plans?

She shivered a bit, finally noticing the ongoing thumb-caress, and looked down to see her hand still clasped with Romana's.

She looked up, after a beat, eyes wide. "Bwuh— Romana?"

"Yes Hailey~?"

"Wh—"

She looked down at their joined hands again, then looked back up.

"Why are you rubbing your thumb across my hand like that?"

She swallowed.