Measure with your Heart

Teyo looked at the time, before he knew it it was already six in the morning. He finished with his videos then then uploaded them. He sat back in his chair, dead tired. Now that he was no longer preoccupied with a task the wave of exhaustion hit him and he felt it was time to go to sleep. Teyo got up and went to brush his teeth.

While brushing his teeth he heard a loud clanging and the shatter of glass come from downstairs. He paused and listened before yelling out down the stairs with a mouth dripping toothpaste. " Herlllooo??"

He then quickly spat out and rinsed his mouth and ran downstairs. In the kitchen his mom was sweeping up a cup of coffee that seemed to be the cause of the sounds.

Teyo's mom look up at him, clearly still half awake and upset. " Sorry did I wake you?"

" Oh uhm no, I was just brushing my teeth, are you okay you need help?"

" No I got it I just grabbed the cup and it was to hot, so I set it down to quickly and well.. I need to wake up more. You look tired as well want a cup?"

Teyo knew that if he told his mom he had stayed up he would be in for a bit of a trouble. Not only that but he has some homework he has to turn in this evening that would require a few hours of work. He played it off as if the day had just began. " Yeah I'll take a cup. Here give me that." He said as he took the broom and dustpan and swept up the cup's pieces. Coffee was also splattered all over the floor so he quickly grabbed a roll of towels and lay them down. While he began to take over cleaning up the mess and grabbed the mop his mother made them some cup of coffee and sat at the table. After cleaning it up Teyo say down with his mom who was just scrolling through her phone.

She looked over at him and thanked him.

" Thanks hun. Also why are you up so early on Sunday? You're not usually up this early, you feeling okay?"

Teyo chuckled he obviously looked like he should go to bed but he continued to feign ignorance. " No I'm good, I don't know just woke up and was wide awake. I am tired but I'll get over it." A second after speaking his stomach growled loudly and he remembered a few days prior. " Hey Mom can you make something to eat? If I don't eat something with this coffee I will end up on the toilet. I can help."

She looked at Teyo and chuckled. " Oh yeah help me how? What do you want? Are you still cooking dinner tonight I bought you the taco stuff you wanted. You better help with the dishes."

" Uh I don't know let's keep it simple. Something that a dishwasher could cook."

" A dishwasher? Teyo.. what do you mean?"

" You know like if a dishwasher at a restaurant had to cook something... I think. Like easy for them."

" Ohh so something anyone that isn't a chef could make okay. Well I sure hope you're not meaning to say you cook like a dishwasher, cause if that's the case I'm cooking dinner."

Teyo dropped his smile and looked at her dejectedly. Inwardly he complained " Even she's a critic! I need to get better." He put on a simple smile and responded. " So yea something someone who sucks can cook. Ever made anything with tongue ears or eyes and stuff? "

His mom looked at him with an questionable gaze. " What? I think you need to back up a bit. Why? you know what nevermind, let's just start with the basics. For breakfast why don't we just make egg salad sandwich's. Get a pot add some water and put it on the stove."

Teyo hopped up and got right to it. After a few minutes the water began to boil and his mom went to the fridge. She pulled out a bunch of ingredients and then placed half a dozen eggs in the water to boil. " Okay these eggs should be just about ready in no more than 10 minutes, you could even soft boil them by taking them out around 7 okay?" Teyo nodded and she continued. " Okay so while that is being cooked we have prep time for our other ingredients. First, wash your hands and use a clean knife to cut thes pickles, celery, and chives. Mince the pickle into that of a relish." She basically did the work half way for him and showed him as she described the steps. " The thinly slice the celery and chives. Add that to a large mixing bowl. Grab yourself some mayo and mustard, if you don't want to use those you can use just the juice from the pickle jar and soft boil the eggs. And put an appropriate amount in the bowl."

Teyo stopped her there. " Wait, hold on, what's an appropriate amount your not measuring anything."

" First rule of cooking, measure with your heart! Unless your baking. If your baking get good at it, then measure with your heart. Think about it like this. If I made eggs the same way every time eventually all eggs would taste the same. I would get bored or disgusted. Remembering the exact amount of things only matters when cooking conservatively. When you cook from your soul for people you care for, break the rules, taste is more important than calories. Okay so now that I have most of my stuff in the bowl I'm going to grab seasonings. Pepper, Dill, Onion powder, a little bit of salt. I like to add a little spice with some paprika. And perfect. Now the bowl is kind of a sloppy mess, but now we get the eggs." She then took the eggs off the heat after they waited just a couple more minutes. "Rinsing them in the sink under cold water helps cool the egg's which helps you peel them. After we are done with these you get a fork, and mash each of them in the bowl as you mix." She began mashing everything.

Teyo had begun to just stand there. He didn't understand how offering to help cook turned into a lecture about making a sandwich. He enjoyed it, but he hadn't realized his mother would take control over everything and just have him watch. Seeing Teyo crossing his arms and in thought she handed him the fork. " Here, mash and mix it up." He began while she grabbed the loaf of bread and a plate.

She came over and spread the mixture on the bread and made them a couple sandwiches.

They sat down and ate. Teyo was happy, the sandwich and the lesson were easy to grasp and the simple rules she told him made him begin to understand a bit more about why his grading for food was so poor. Thinking back only once had he washed and cleaned everything, including the meat. The small things created a better outcome. After eating the sandwich Teyo thanked his mom and went upstairs. With his new caffeine boost he quickly got to work on his homework.

He finished his homework around mid-day and leaned far back into his chair with a deep stretch and yawned. It was finally time to sleep. Just as his eyes began to drift close he heard a notification come from his computer that he hadn't heard before. It startled just enough to rouse his attention. Looking at his monitor a new app popped up.

It was a launcher for his Specter 3 Console. In the launcher he noticed that it came equipped with a messenger tab as well as a console browser for the console store and other apps. The notification came from the messenger tab. Courage and Valora both sent friend requests. Courage had also sent a message.

" Yo Teyo! Dude that new video you put out was awesome thanks so much for including me! I was thinking we should get together and go over some ideas I had for future video's! Also the ladies and I chatted and we are going to wait for you to get here. There's some stuff you ought to know but soon after this we are going to get some new clothes made, so you know, you don't get targeted by folks you play with. Anyways best of luck see you in two days! "

" Huh.. Well I can't say I'm against that idea. Maybe it's best I take off the bat leather's... I lose two whole defense but maybe I can make it up somehow. Problem is I don't have spare pants.. And I'm keeping my boots. Shoot the damn sac on my head people are gonna think I'm a monster or something.. Jeez this messenger app is kind of neat though this just came out ? Did it automatically install?"

" No I have been here since your initial launch of the Specter software. Hello Teyo." The helmet on the desk began to light up a gentle amber glow as it spoke, the speakers in the helmet were amplified due to the helmets emptiness. For a quick moment Teyo was startled but then Teyo realized it was Spex. For a second he was a bit off put that it only became known to him now.

" Wait so I can access the console from a screen, I obviously can't play but I can use all the other apps. Can I access anything from Wish Legacy?"

" You can only access the items list stored within your 'Tavern' tab. It also seems your mailbox is accessible. Otherwise it is only the marketplace, which can also be accessible through the Specter Store."

Teyo began to click through the guided menus and quickly found a listed inventory of his items. It was so small it made him chuckle. But the overall cleanliness of it compared to it's value to him made him happy.

Inventory List

7 Pairs of goblin Ears

6 Goblin Tongue's

3 Cave Bat Talons

8 Small Dull Exp Gems

2 Sticks

1 Goblin Sharpening Stone

1 Large (Slime Prince) Mana Geode

Excluding Teyo's character gear and what he didn't want to get rid of.( Valora's mace etc. ) Teyo felt quite happy. He even still had one unopened Praise Tier gatcha in his mailbox. He could certainly find decent trade or even use his gems to purchase things on the marketplace. His first thought. A Pan.

Teyo began to look through the list of items in the shame tier and to his surprise there weren't any good choices. It seemed pans in particular held a higher price than most basic Shame tier items because people began use for them with basic survival, but due to the significance of Teyo's online personality The Dungeon Chef others began to wield them in belief that they held some specific benefits.

" Great I inflated the price of the only item I can use with a skill." He wanted to slap himself but then realized it was just out of his control. He then browsed the Praise tier items and the only thing he could find that was still categorized as a pan was a large wok.

" Ork's Wok"

Praise Tier

+1 Damage

+4 Defense

Description: A sharp edged dark steel wok forged by the heavy blows of an orc smith, the crude thickness of the pan was tempered to hold heat, may require the strength of an Ork to wield.

Value: 3 Dull Experience gems.

" Shiit that's expensive. But it actually does damage this is perfect I'm gonna buy this right now!" Teyo clicked purchase and got the notification for the transfer of items. " That was potentially an entire level of experience to trade right? I should save the rest of my gems and farm tomorrow. I wonder if I can do the dungeon solo..." Teyo hopped off before he found anything else that would make him want to spend his gems. He quickly lied down, it was already the afternoon and he had stayed awake far past his initial sleep schedule.