Cyno [Butter]

 

Universe Visited: CYS-15118121-FR
Appearances in Blog: #12, #13
Rating: 5.1
Universe Codename: Flour
N0V4:

Do you like bread? My sensors indicate that I’ve never tasted them before, but I’d love to. Especially ones made by Cyno [Butter]. Her power is simple! She bakes bread with butter knights! Aino would most likely want me to stop here but… she did program me to have a personality, so she can’t complain if I have my own opinion, right? I did some snooping around and found out how Cyno [Butter]’s Starcore was awakened!

See, when she first landed in this world, she was unfortunate enough to land in the not-so-pretty underbelly of the city. Despite having her base star powers, she had no idea how to function in a society, much less manipulate others to climb to the top. Perhaps it was luck, but no one discovered the hidden power she possessed, and before they could harvest the uncut gem, she had already understood the ways of her dark world.

After the first few attempts of conversation ended with a dirty glare followed by rough words, she learned to keep quiet. Sneak across the shadows of the dilapidated buildings. Sleep under the bridge. At night, she would look up to the sky she used to call home. She could return, of course, but what had she come down for in the first place? Surely anything was better than loneliness. In space, there is no smell, no taste, no sound, no touch. To her, that was not living.

Despite her shabby lifestyle, she did get her wish. The sounds never ceased. Sure, the sounds may have been drunk men yelling at each other, but to her ears, that was as sweet as music. Even the scurries of the little rat feet hitting the ground brought her comfort. I’m not sure if a human can comprehend, as there are always sounds on Earth. But silence is a horrible curse.

Throughout her time on Earth, she was fond of hearing and fond of her vision. But she was not fond of the smells. It was rancid, although she did not know what that word meant, and the smell of body odour mixed with various liquids permeated throughout the streets of the rundown town. It followed her constantly, like a brand on her body. 

Eventually, although she was mentally well, her human body began to crave food. She tried to ignore it at first: she did not have to eat as a star, so she did not know what food was. However, the body could not resist its human functions for long. One day, while she was wandering the streets, she smelled something quite delicious. It smelled like a warm hug, wrapped in glossy paper and presented with a smile. 

She followed the smell and found herself at the border between worlds. Beyond the wall, a beautiful idyllic scene. She saw flowers and birds chirping, couples holding hands, clean, dry seats. And then she saw it. A perfect pumpkin pie, steaming hot, sat right on the wall. 

I know what you’re thinking: “Have some common sense, Cyno [Butter]! There’s no way you should take that! They’ll take you to jail, or worse: DEATH!”

Common sense is hard to come by nowadays, and it was almost impossible to get for a star who had not yet lived a month as a human. Miraculously, she had not been punished for her actions up until this point, so she sneaked up to the wall, gobbled it up with ease, and was finally satiated.

Except what she didn’t know was that recently there seemed to be a lot of scoundrels from her town that were sneaking into the affluent neighbourhoods and stealing food. And the chefs, instead of capturing them red handed (which was hard to do, as living in the slums taught you to be quite slippery), they decided to set up a trap to kill them instead. And, you guessed it, Cyno [Butter] ate the trap.

Within minutes, she began feeling lightheaded and weak, staggering down the steps back into her usual hiding spot. She thought she heard a voice, maybe two, and the sound of footsteps, but she couldn’t muster up the strength to check. The last thing she saw was a pair of feet… No, were they duplicating? Maybe six? More? Forget it.

When she woke up, she found herself warming up by a hearth. The delicious smell of bread filling her lungs. Beside her, an old man was slowly pushing dough with his hands. She watched in awe, unable to speak or move, as he masterfully patted the dough into a cute little ball shape, and left it inside the cupboard. When he saw she was awake, he chuckled.

“Finally awake, are ya?” He asked. She couldn’t respond. He nodded. “It’ll take a few days for the poison to get out ya system. Ya know, ya shouldn’t steal food like that, ‘ll kill ya one of these days.” Cyno [Butter] could not respond, but her eyes began welling up with some sort of pent up emotion.

She had been telling herself she was blessed to even be on Earth, to live among humans, and to keep her head up, but the reality was clear: she was having a tough time. She felt infinitely blessed that this man had come to help her, and his strength finally allowed her to become weak.

The next few weeks, she watched as he baked bread for those with no money, living on the edge between the two societies, earning money with patrons by day, handing out free treats at night. Through him, she found that there was hope for humanity, and that she could become more. Interestingly enough, her Starcore did not awaken because of necessity. Nobody was dying, and nobody was being hurt. Instead, it awoke because of overwhelming gratitude.

When she got better, because she felt as if she owed her life to the old man, she began learning how to bake and following in his footsteps. Following her natural progression, when she finally successfully baked her first beautiful, albeit lopsided, bread, the butter soldiers appeared beside her, saluting. The old man had simply laughed and patted her on her head. She was overjoyed at the new development. To her, nothing was more important than helping the old man.

Eventually, as all humans do, the old man passed away peacefully of old age. There was nobody at his funeral, but when Cyno [Butter] goes to clean his grave every month, there are always pieces of shiny material or petals of a flower laying around. She understood what it meant to give and expect nothing in return.

Ever since his death, she has been dutifully taking care of the needy, baking pies and assorted goods every day without fail. Some businesses on the affluent side have tried to mimic her cooking, but they have found it impossible to keep up with her quantity or quality. Although she lives alone, the kids tell each other stories about hordes of butter knights that come to save their damsel in distress, amping up the manpower to help their princess succeed on another day of baking.

I gleaned this story by listening to the children’s dramatic reenactments and word of mouth, so I suppose this could be taken with a grain of salt. Aino would be angry if she thought I even wasted any of my processing power on this. It’s ironic, but I suppose I’m all the humanity Aino has now. Perhaps one day when she regains her emotions she will feel thankful for my service. As always, I will be keeping tabs on Cyno [Butter]. I wish her well in her baking journey, and I really, really wish I could eat one of her creations. 

Fun Fact: Despite her cheery exterior and kind nature, she swears like a sailor on steroids. This is due to her early exposure to human language being littered with curse words and insults about someone’s mother. To her, this is just regular speech, and she does not mean any harm by it. Please do not be surprised if she offers you a pie with a smile while saying, “Take the fu***** pie, you wh***!”