Interlude - Chef Lucy

Interlude - Chef Lucy

Interlude - Chef Lucy

Lucy looked up and met her own eyes.

It was always strange to look at yourself through a camera while also looking through that camera with your augs. Slightly disorientating, though without any real dizziness or nausea. She blinked, then looked at the other camera. Yeah, they were all in focus. Good.

The table was set. There was a hotplate, plugged in and ready to warm up. They had all the pots and pans they needed. Water was in a jug nearby, the other things were just to the side. The main camera saw it all too. Good good.

She turned and took in the background. It wasnt much, just a plain window that overlooked one of the main roads of Burlington. Theyd put up curtains on the sides to mask it up a little. The main cameras angle would let people see the road and, more importantly, it would let someone enterprising enough to head outside prove that it was an actual livestream.

Which it wasn't. The window was placed in front of a high-definition screen filming another, actual window elsewhere.

Lucy didnt need someone smart firing a rocket at their back while they did this.

Cat was the best, but she was not even close to paranoid enough.

Myalis: Catherine is on her way up.

Lucy: Tks!Cheêck out latest novels at novelhall.com

She grinned. Almost time to start.

There were a few ways she could do this, but really, she wanted it to be a bit... a bit poorly done? There was just something about jank that pissed off the corporate types and made everything a little more genuine.

Across from her table were a few of the volunteer kittens that had some experience with this kind of stuff. She gave them a thumbs up, and then a quick count-down.

In one of her augs side-reels, she saw herself as the internet could now see her. A single dark skinned girl in a well-lit room in front of a bunch of cooking things, smiling at the camera and wearing some rather interesting cat-ear props on her head.

The caption across the seven different streaming platforms she was sending this to was all the same. Stray Cats Cooking Show! Feat. Lucy!

Her grin widened. Hello, everyone, she said. She currently has a hundred and seven viewers. Myalis helpfully showed her the number of actual, human viewers below that. It was more like just seven, but she could live with that number too. It would grow. This shows mostly for the fine people of Burlington, where Stray Cat, Gomorrah, and your three local samurai are hard at work keeping people safe. Today were adding to that by making sure youre fed and safe too!

She had a live chat. It was almost immediately bombarded with ads and fake messages.

And then Myalis struck, and Lucy could almost imagine some distant servers crashing and burning. It was like using a tank on a single ant, having an AI like Myalis on her side. In a blink, the chat was cleared of any interference.

There was a large computer monitor turned on its side next to the camera with the chats feed on it, not that she needed to look with her augs, but it helped the viewers if she looked at something before answering them. Made it more... real.

At least, that was her experience from watching this kind of stream before.

Every citizen of Burlington, heck, anyone within the Downtown region can order up a meal and have it delivered to your door for free. All you need to do is cook it up! So, to make that part easier, we decided to make this livestream to show you how!

Oh, shed just hit three figure human viewers, nice!

Rika: Whats this?

Abbatoth68: Wheres that?

MarchallGod: The titles a lie

BestFrenVenom: We?

Alan Martin: She cute tho

DaShoe: Show feet!

Lucy was looking forward to it.

So, Chef Stray Cat, Lucy said. As I was telling our viewers, today well be cooking up something easy to cook. We only have a few minutes with our brave samurai, everyone, so lets not waste her time, hmm?

Cat, still flushing, cleared her throat, then looked from one camera to the other. It was cute to see her so flustered. Yeah, right. So, what are we cooking? she asked.

She was quick to roll with the punches.

Mac and cheese, Lucy said.

Really? Were teaching people how to make that? Arent the instructions on the box? Cat asked.

They are, Lucy said. But you know how people are.

Cat rolled her eyes, something she was doing a lot now that she had two. Cat wasnt commenting on it a lot, but it was clear that she was silently appreciative of having two of those again.

Yeah, fine. So where do we start?

With the instructions, Lucy said. She smiled. Theyre on the box.

Cat bumped into her with her hip, and Lucy laughed as she stumbled closer to the ingredients. Right, Ill turn on this thing... like that. Are these pots clean?

No, I thought wed cook with dirty pots today, Lucy said.

Ah, yeah, get that real bachelor-chow taste going, rat droppings and all, Cat agreed as she picked up an obviously clean pan and spun it around before putting it on the hot plate.

Lucy handed Cat the water, which was in a large gallon jug. Every food order comes with a gallon of purified water, two boxes of noodles and a small container of milk, Lucy said to the nearest camera. The first step is setting your water to boil.

Kirania3: Oh no, theyre sassy

Jonah94: How water boil?

Arkimedes: Why water boil?

Racheet: Theyre cute

Majaguru: Sassy and sexy tho

Inle68: lmao

That ones hard to fuck up, Cat said.

Yeah, imagine someone forgetting that there was water in the pan and then leaving it to boil overnight? Lucy said.

Cat froze, then she turned a frown towards Lucy. Lucy, that was you.

Lucy laughed. But you got in trouble for it.

Only because that bitch didnt believe me! Cat said.

It was an argument theyd threaded a number of times. They each knew their part, what to say, which memories to bring up, and why, even if it was all said before, it still made them warm. It was comfortable complaining about an easier time, when an overworked orphanage worker and a bit of boiled-off water was their biggest worry.

They made mac and cheese, and it wasnt perfect. Lucy didnt measure the milk, and ended up not putting enough in. Cat added the macaroni before the water was boiling because she was too impatient to wait that long, and Cat complained at length about how only using one packet of cheese powder was for scrubs while Lucy tried to remind her of the times where theyd ended up eating mac-and-no-cheese because of that very habit.

It was nice, and in the end they got to enjoy a few bites of subpar food while a seven-figure audience watched and they both still pretended that it was just the two of them.

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