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vier: ein Moment der Ruhe
6/3/14 21:33Friday was Chores Day.
The custom was not indigenous to the Corps' headquarters; it had started with the Garrison and been imported to the Corps on the back of some frivolous effort to enhance fellowship between the two forces. Painlessly enough it became an ongoing thing, an excuse to corral the multitude of washing and preparation tasks for the week ahead into one unified team effort. Tack was scrubbed and oiled, the stables thoroughly swept, the stone of the castle floors was scrubbed, gas tanks and weapons were refreshed and maintained, so on and so forth, all the way down to the preparation of huge tureens of stock and foods to be preserved in jars.
Soldiers were naturally assigned to those duties which fitted well with their strengths. Sasha, for example, was kept to the stables, well away from the kitchen; Eren was assigned to earnest scrubbing and other things which took more energy than sense. For tasks which required an abundance of strength and stamina, yet which were also exacting and detail-oriented, there were really only two candidates.
So laundry fell to Levi and Mikasa.
It began at the crack of dawn with building a fire (Mikasa) and dragging out (Levi) the cauldron and the big wooden tubs that would be used - one for soaping, two for rinsing. They would have to be refreshed continually throughout the day with water drawn from the well by various recruits; but the first filling was Mikasa's, which she undertook as Levi strung the drying-lines and, in his meticulous, serious way, set out the soap, bleach, pins, rags, and other necessities. Water in the cauldron was set on to boil as the sun began to rise. Bleary-eyed members of the Corps (their arms full of clothes) would come one by one to sort and set their clothing on the big canvas tarp staked to the ground for that purpose.
Usually there was a moment for breakfast at this point, before the water was hot enough to use. But this was the first laundry day since they had returned from the expedition. How this made a difference, Mikasa couldn't say, but it did. A peculiar feeling, like the air was too clear. She brushed her knees off and stood up next to the fire.
"Levi," She called at his back as he worked. "...I'll get breakfast."
The custom was not indigenous to the Corps' headquarters; it had started with the Garrison and been imported to the Corps on the back of some frivolous effort to enhance fellowship between the two forces. Painlessly enough it became an ongoing thing, an excuse to corral the multitude of washing and preparation tasks for the week ahead into one unified team effort. Tack was scrubbed and oiled, the stables thoroughly swept, the stone of the castle floors was scrubbed, gas tanks and weapons were refreshed and maintained, so on and so forth, all the way down to the preparation of huge tureens of stock and foods to be preserved in jars.
Soldiers were naturally assigned to those duties which fitted well with their strengths. Sasha, for example, was kept to the stables, well away from the kitchen; Eren was assigned to earnest scrubbing and other things which took more energy than sense. For tasks which required an abundance of strength and stamina, yet which were also exacting and detail-oriented, there were really only two candidates.
So laundry fell to Levi and Mikasa.
It began at the crack of dawn with building a fire (Mikasa) and dragging out (Levi) the cauldron and the big wooden tubs that would be used - one for soaping, two for rinsing. They would have to be refreshed continually throughout the day with water drawn from the well by various recruits; but the first filling was Mikasa's, which she undertook as Levi strung the drying-lines and, in his meticulous, serious way, set out the soap, bleach, pins, rags, and other necessities. Water in the cauldron was set on to boil as the sun began to rise. Bleary-eyed members of the Corps (their arms full of clothes) would come one by one to sort and set their clothing on the big canvas tarp staked to the ground for that purpose.
Usually there was a moment for breakfast at this point, before the water was hot enough to use. But this was the first laundry day since they had returned from the expedition. How this made a difference, Mikasa couldn't say, but it did. A peculiar feeling, like the air was too clear. She brushed her knees off and stood up next to the fire.
"Levi," She called at his back as he worked. "...I'll get breakfast."