ic Castle Dining

[Thunder King]

Mali loved the castle kitchen. It was big enough to move around in, had all the pans she might need, and a commercial grade dishwasher. True, she had to go perusing various Asian markets to get the supplies she liked, but that was fine. Nobody minded if she added a little spice to the pantries. 

 

Her mis en place was already in place. Pans, pots, spices, herbs and knives worthy of a chef. 

 

So there she was, rocking to the music in her headphones while her knife slid effortlessly through the vegetables. She was wearing a pair of jeans and a t-shirt with a rock band logo on it, swaying to the beat. Tofu pad thai, with varying levels of heat. She herself could handle a lot, others not so much.

 

She had bowls set aside and the best rice noodles she could find. 

 

She mused, more than once, that if she hadn't been a superhero, she likely would have been a chef. Not that she was as good as a chef, just that she had the passion and drive to become one. 

 

She sure hoped people liked dinner, she was told they'd have guests. 

Edited April 27, 2019 by Thunder King

[Avenger Assembled]

The dish was called Pla Tod Cumin - it was made by soaking a fish in juices and spices, and then frying the whole thing at once! It had been far more interesting to make than the fish dishes people usually ate in Freedom City, and Aquaria was very excited. She'd used her biggest pot and a big fish she'd caught herself, with enough juicy meat on it to feed her and several other people at the party. 

 

She was carrying the dish while Jessie carried her own contribution to the party when the two of them entered together to the sound of Aquaria's bass bellow, "Hello, Mali! We have fish!" The serving tray and lid she'd brought the fish in were from a nearby secondhand store, so she carried them gently as she delicately padded into Mali's apartment. It had been a necessity to bring her own food. While she could technically eat and digest the plant protein that Mali ate, it tasted awful and did awful things to the digestion. 

[Tiffany Korta]

Miss Grue

Daphne didn’t need to eat as she could recharge easily from any power source, though she enjoyed doing it best in her ship, though she enjoyed trying all sorts of human foods. Really she preferred the sugary foods, something about them was enjoyable to her Grue pallette.

 

She also enjoyed being around other as they enjoyed food, the flood of emotions for (mostly) good foods was a very pleasant thing for her to enjoy. Obviously just the company of everyone else was a bonus all in itself.

 

 

“I’m sorry I didn’t bring anything to eat as well! I’m not very good with cooking myself, I tried it once and things did not go... well!”

[Thunder King]

Mali smiled and took the headphones out of her ears. "Oo that sounds interesting, Aquaria. Think I'll try it. Don't worry, Daphne. I got this. I like to cook. Hey Jessie, do you like spicy food? I'm making batches with different levels of spice, so just let me know what you'd like. Say, one to ten where one has no spice at all, and ten is as hot as I can take it."

 

She switched to a different vegetable, and continued to cut. "Cooking is how I unwind." She grinned and shrugged even as her hands worked. "Pad thai scales really well, too. Once you have enough ingredients, it's just a matter of making more."

 

She had been doing more training than usual lately, too. Her young protege was learning quickly, and she was working out a training regiment for him. That, and her work on her clinic was going well. She needed this chance to relax. 

 

Edited April 27, 2019 by Thunder King

[Electra]

Jessie slipped in behind Aquaria, nearly unnoticeable behind her boisterous roommate. She held a pan of decorated cupcakes with pale blue and yellow swirls of frosting on them and looked like she was mentally only half-prepared to be attending a party. Still she smiled at Mali, then at Daphne. "Spice is fine," she told Mali, "Hot foods don't bother me. Moderately spicy with lots of peanuts is probably my favorite, though. Here, cupcakes." She set her pan down on the nearest clear surface and stepped away. "Is anyone else coming tonight?" 

[Avenger Assembled]

Inside Mali's apartment, Aquaria let Jessie talk to Mali while she padded her way through the room. The place was full of scents, and sounds, and other things that she wondered if the powerless Surfacer could even perceive. She padded her way over one corner and settled down, back against the wall, and crouched with her limbs beneath her in the fashion to which she was the most comfortable. She sang to herself, a soft, thrumming sound, as she listened to the sounds of the Surfacers in the kitchen and smelled the good things being cooked there. Up close, Daphne could feel Aquaria's usual well of emotions; the unique entanglement of happiness and sadness that so often seemed to follow the Deep One like swirling thoughts of the sea. Aquaria opened her eyes and looked at Daphne as she approached, listening to the soft inner sounds of the Grue's liquid movements. "I did not put sugar in it," she croaked softly to Daphne, "but you could."

[Thunder King]

"A few people, at least, not sure exactly who. I love plenty of peanuts in my pad thai, so don't worry about that." Mali smiled at the cupcakes. "Oooh, cupcakes." She mentally ticked Jessie at 'moderate spice' and kept working. "It's nice to get people together for a thing, you know? Get friends together, eat food, the usual." 

 

She started to assemble her spices and gather pans. Three pans, she figured. Extra mild, medium, and hot. That would work well. 

[April]

Abigail had only been to the castle once before, or at least the private portion of it, but she was taking her foster sister up on the invite to stop in for dinner.  Not that Kimber ate food, but the opportunity to get away from Claremont and meet other people was one that was deemed good for the young mage.

 

In either case, despite her one time visit Abigail had no problem finding her way to the kitchen, she simply had to follow her nose.  She poked her head in, saw a number of people and suddenly became very self-conscious.  "Uh, hello!" she called out after working up the courage to speak, "Has anyone seen Kimber?  I was supposed to meet her for.. dinner?  Which I guess sounds silly that she doesn't eat but.. I'm rambling.  Sorry.  Hi, I'm Abigail.  Storm.  Abigail Storm, Kimber's sister."

[Tiffany Korta]

Miss Grue

Daphne wasn’t phased by Aquaria’s comments, she was pretty cool with the Deep One and whilst humans were nice she also enjoyed the company of other inhabitants of the Earth. It was funny that as a native of the planet she knew less of human pop culture as an alien.

 

“Thank you, I’m sure it will be quite pleasant as it was. And I’m sure those lovely cupcake will have enough sugars for my sweet tooth. Do your people not have their own dishes? My own really don’t have food the same way most humanoids do.”

 

Daphne gave a little wave to the arriving Abigail, pretending to surprised by her entering.

 

“I think she said she’d be here in a minute, please join us we have plenty to go round!”

[Avenger Assembled]

From where she crouched in the corner next to Daphne, forelegs and backlegs beneath her, Aquaria could hear the new arrival (and smell her) but not catch more than a fleeting glimpse of Kimber's sister. They did not look very much alike to her eyes, but she knew a few things about finding your family. She concentrated, hearing a brief dissonance around the girl that she couldn't quite identify, then dismissed it by reaching up to scratch behind her ear canal with her back leg. Her song wasn't so strange, just...different. And Aquaria had heard all sorts of different songs on the Surface. In answer to Daphne's question, she spoke animatedly, trusting the conversation in the kitchen to sort itself out on its own. I think Jessie met her before - oh, it is so hard to remember when they all look the same! "Oh, we have dishes! But they are not to Surface palates. There is the one where you take a great fish and pull off its head, then bury it in the sand, and then when it is done you dry it and eat it in strips!" She shook herself like a wet dog, then said, "But it smells like a cat voided on the fish, so I do not eat it so much." 

[Gizmo]

"Sorry! Lost track of time!" a voice called with odd reverberation just before Kimber appeared floated through the nearest wall, schooling her mussed hair back into place with both hands. The poltergeist had picked out a sky blue pantsuit with wide flared pant legs and sleeves, the neckline of the closed jacket plunging down to the base of her translucent sternum. "Abby, you made it!" She zipped over to give the teen a big hug before turning around, one arm over Abigail's shoulders. "Mali, this was such a good idea! Can I help with anything? Does anyone need anything?"

[Avenger Assembled]

Aquaria hopped to the kitchen door and called cheerfully, "Jessie! They are here!" She knew from previous experience that Jessie would spend the whole party in the kitchen and that her friends would leave her there - Jessie still might stay in there the whole time, but at least this way she would remember that there were people outside who loved her. She turned to Abby and looked up at the young Surfacer that was Kimber's guest and sister, Aquaria herself a squatting hominid that looked both fish and frog at the same time, instantly recognizable as a Deep One to one of Abby's sorcerous training. "Hello," she throbbed socially to Abby. "I am Aquaria Innsmouth! I do not remember you," she confessed, remembering not to say Your smell. "Welcome to this place. Is is true you eat plants?" 

[Electra]

Jessie came out of the kitchen, albeit slightly reluctantly, carrying the tray of cupcakes again. She offered them around the room, sort of half-heartedly, as though hoping somebody would take a cupcake and that would count as social interaction. A few years of school had gotten her slightly better at interacting socially with friends and strangers, but most of the people in the room right now fell in the sticky area right between, not quite strangers, but not quite familiar either. It was a lot easier when she had a job to do. "Do you need something to drink?" she asked Aquaria, who could forget and start to dry out if she got very busy talking. 

[April]

Abigail had a big grin on her face upon seeing her ghostly big fosster sister, feeling some of the anxiety over being in an unfamiiar place abate, and she had reciprocated the big hug with one of her own.  She bobbed her head in greeting to Daphne and Aquaria and choose to answer the latter's question first.  

 

"Well, I eat eggs and some dairy products, like cheese too, but yes I mostly restrict myself to plants."  She shrugged and made a small throwing away gesture.  "I don't really like the smell of meat.  Especially cooked meat."

 

She gave an involuntary little shudder at some distant memory.

[Thunder King]

Mali smiled. "Thanks, Kimber. I got it, you guys just enjoy yourselves. I already have bowls stacked up. Oh, um, well if someone wants to gather some drinks, I just realized I forgot. Abigail, nice to meet you! Don't worry about meat. I know plenty of Buddhists who are vegetarians, and vegans. I'm not, but I've learned to cook both ways. No cooked meat here, I promise. You like Tofu?" 

 

She started cooking. "I'll have three bowls of pad thai. Hot, medium and mild. Pick whichever you'd prefer. Now if you're not sure, feel free to sample until you pick the heat level you like. I like it hot myself."

 

She loved cooking. Almost as much as she liked training.

[Avenger Assembled]

At the table with a dish of fish, Aquaria crouched on a stool, keeping her big eyes on the Surfacers as they filled up their plates. They seemed to be taking Jessie's cupcakes with their meals, much to Aquaria's satisfaction. Good! Bonding with the other females with their meals will be good for Jessie. Technically it was supposed to be the male's job to bring the meat to the females, but none of these females had a male mate so they had to catch what they could. She throbbed at her own pun, a noisy croak at the table, then burst out with "Kimber, I wanted to say something!" She took a drink from the very large mug of water in front of her (she preferred rain but would drink tap without complaining) "Daniel Storm is very clever to have raised so many children!" Surfacers tended to obsess over blood when it came to their relations. 

[Tiffany Korta]

Miss Grue

It was always nice when everyone got a chance to get back together, or even better meet new people. Just the general psychic buzz was good enough, but to see peoples happy faces was an added bonus. And she was secure enough that she could sit back and let everyone catch up, this was an ensemble show after all!

 

Whilst they did she decided to try on of those delicious looking cupcakes, extended her arm outstretching to grab one without having to get out of her seat and interrupt anybody. She tried to be subtle, as subtle as you could be with stretching arms. Sweet sugary things were her favourite after all!

[Gizmo]

"He'd probably say he's just the one dumb enough to always be in the room when they're looking for volunteers," Kimber laughed brightly, floating by the kitchen counter with her legs crossed, "but that's just because he's bad at taking compliments, so thank you, Aquaria. He does pretty well." The poltergeist telekinetically ruffled Abby's hair from across the room, sticking her tongue out at her foster sister. "How's class? You finish any homework? Abby's always done really well in school," she told the rest of the room, sliding a little through the air to make room for Daphne's stretching arm, even if it would have passed through her immaterial form without issue. "And she's a writer."

[April]

Abigail laughed, "Yeah, that sounds like dad."

 

She was poking her nose at the various dishes, not quite ready to sit down yet or grab something, just getting a feel for the offerings.  She steered clear of the meat based dishes, though she had a less obvious aversion to some of the seafood dishes, and just mingled.

 

"I always finish my homework," Abby said primly, though she flashed a grin at Kimber.  "Unlike some mischievous older sisters that liked to sneak off Academy grounds," she teased.  But the mention of her writing made her freckles stand out as her mocha hued skin turned a deep red when she considered what her mischievous older sister might have read in her journals.