goneawayworld | 🟆002🟆

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🟆002🟆

Who: Catra, Dave, and Tenten
What: Late night kitchen shenanigans!
Where: The Rig's cafeteria
When: Weh
Warnings/Notes: I mean, Dave's involved, so there oughta be something here.

Tenten had meant to do a bit of recon. She really had. But her free time had been eaten up by extra chores, a result of an unfortunate incident where she'd managed to throw a rather swollen Stuff-body into a group of middle-managers having a smoke break. They didn't appreciate the splatter zone, so she'd been stuck out there for the past two days, doing more grunt work than anything else. Really, she just wants to sleep.

But she'd told Catra "One or two nights" and there they were.

She'd mentioned to Catra to be ready beforehand, she didn't want to wake up Setsuna by accident, and now they were wandering the dark halls at night. Tenten couldn't see, the light levels were just too low even if she used chakra, but she'd already memorized the way there. Just about two more turns and then they could worry about finding a way from the cafeteria into the kitchen.

...Wait, was that the glow of the mess lights on 'low' there?

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"Slow down. Right." Catra grimaces a little behind her face mask. She's not sure quite what she's doing but hey... she's managing, she thinks? As the minutes tick past she hurriedly reaches over to add the ingredients at Tenten's cue, then steps back to watch as everything starts to simmer.

"Um. I'm okay? It's a lot..."

She waves her hands to dismiss those worries. "You're doing great. All we're going to do now is just cover it with the lid," which she does, "...and let that sit for fifteen minutes. Now we're going to work on the eggdrop soup. By the time this is done, that'll be ready for the other ingredients and we'll be all finished."

She moves over to the pot. The flame's on, but it's not quite boiling yet. "Soup is really easy. You've got water. You've got stock, we're using chicken. It's basically all the stuff that they boiled out of bones to add a lot of flavor." She pours it in, then some ginger, soy sauce, white pepper, salt, and some of the mushrooms and onions Catra cut up. "Now, all of these are going to come up to a boil. That's getting all of the flavor and nutrients out of everything you've cut up and letting it soak into the water, turning it into a good broth."

While that's working, she gets the corn starch nice and slurried up with some water and pours that in, stirring everything up while watches the other pan, just in case. She slows down as the soup reaches a boil, then reduces the heat. "So you see how slowly I'm stirring now?" She steps back, then holds the spoon out to Catra. "Give it a go. While you're doing that, take the bowl of eggs with one hand and slowly pour it in. You want a stream a little thinner than a pencil, okay? Just pour and stir slowly. And once you've emptied the bowl, give it maybe thirty seconds, then turn the heat off and that's going to be done and ready to eat. I'm going to be right back."

...She'd forgotten the tomatoes for the chicken. Whoops. Tenten dashes over to grab some and hurriedly dices them, keeping an eye on Catra to make sure she's still feeling fine about all of this. It was sounding like she was getting overwhelmed, but they were so close to being finished. Hopefully the realization that they were there would be enough. She lifts the lid on the chicken, then dumps in the tomatoes, the sliced peppers, and the mushrooms, and starts folding that on in, turning up the heat just a tad so that everything ought to be finished at the same time.

Catra seems a little intimidated by a whole new barrage of information and her biggest response is a muted noted as she watches Tenten do, well. Everything. She does her best with the eggs, but her impatience wins the day as she accidentally dumps most of the bowl in her first go. Oops. Maybe Tenten won't notice.

Too late. That little 'glump' noise is missable, but not when you're listening for any problems. She reaches out, waving her hand urgently while not moving away from her pot. "Ah! Stir! Fastfastfast! Don't let it cook into one big clump!"

...Also don't spill most of the soup!

"Agh--!" Tenten is attentive. Catra hurriedly stirs the pot as quickly as she can--which means that a glop of soup splatters on the counter and the stove, setting the burner to hissing and spitting. Catra yelps.

"It's making noise!"

Can't spell attentive without ten! Unless, you know, you're doing it in Japanese.

Jeez, they were so close to calling this done without any major mishaps. Then again... Well, close enough, that egg drop soup would finish anyway. Assuming it wasn't one big glob of semi-poached egg in a tasty broth. "All right! Heat off, set the pot on a counter. We can wipe up that little mess later."

Just in time, too, because it looked like Catra's panic was beginning to snowball a little. Maybe she should have done the second dish herself? Too late now. "You okay? You can probably take all of that off now, we're done."

"I'm fine," Catra says a touch peevishly as she turns the heat off on the stove and steps back to set the pot on the counter. Ugh. She crossed her arms, looking snootily displeased with the preceding events.

As it turns out, all the time powers in the world don't do shit for one's internal clock, and Dave's was fucked up even before spending three years in a lightless spacelike void. So yeah, he is up and about past bedtime, poking his head into the kitchen to see what can be snagged.

He expects the kitchen staff. This isn't the first night he's slipped in and he knows by now that they don't give a shit. The two girls getting their Martha Stewart on are a surprise, though.

"Wow," is all he says to announce his presence. For a guy who never shuts up, he moves hella quietly. There's just suddenly a Dave there, arching an eyebrow at their much more ambitious take on late night snacking. "Someone was feeling productive, huh? Just woke up at 1AM with a burning desire for some culinary girltime?"

Okay, that? She hadn't quite been expecting. Between being caught up in trying to figure out how to soothe Catra's nerves and the anticipation of eating, her attention is well and truly split. So, congrats Dave. You snuck up on a ninja. Your reward?

Tenten lets out an involuntary shriek of surprise and whirls, chucking the wooden spoon at his forehead.

Catra's ears flick back towards Dave's footfalls as he enters the room before she even turns to look at him. She's a bit of an odd duck at the moment, too: gloves, hairnet, and one of those beardnets that she's wearing awkwardly stretched across most of her lower face too. She's about to make a smart remark when Tenten simply hurls a spoon in his direction and instead she doubles over laughing.

If there's anything he can thank Bro for, it's making him really good at handling unexpected projectiles. The spoons comes whipping at him faster than he can catch – goddamn actual ninjas – so he only just barely manages to sidestep it on pure instinct. He winces at the sound of the spoon impacting a cabinet door and clattering to the floor, but his hands stubbornly remain in his pockets, all cool and definitely not recovering from a brief heart attack.

"Jesus, shit. I figured she'd be the one throwing crap at me." He inclines his head towards Catra, and then as if just noting the hairnet and shit, tacks on a quick, "Nice look, by the way."

"You startled me," she snaps, ears burning in embarrassment. At least it'd been a spoon and knot a knife or something, she'd hate to have to explain that to the night staff. She folds her arms over her chest and glances away sulkily.

Tenten managed to skip all that food service clothing. Mainly because she wasn't, you know. Covered in fur. She pauses, gives Catra another glance, and turns her head away. At least it wasn't just her thinking it looked silly.

"Shut it, smartass," Catra snaps at Dave. His amusement at her attire kills her amused laughter and she hurriedly shucks off gloves, hairnet, and so forth to be dropped into the nearest trash can.

"They said they didn't want me to get fur in the food, that's all," she adds after a moment. Then:

"I've never cooked before. Tenten was showing me."

The look Dave shoots Tenten is exasperated, almost helpless, as Catra's mood sours and she dumps all her cooking attire.

"I did say 'nice', didn't I? I'm pretty sure that's the word that came out of my mouth. Does 'nice' mean something else around here? You gotta let me know right now before I really step in some shit and get something worse than a wooden spoon chucked at me."

He shrugs and just leans in to peer at their handiwork. It's way more homey and cozy-looking than any meal he's ever eaten, at least. His stomach suddenly reminds him of what he actually came here for and he fights to keep an impassive face.

"I mean, y'all did better than I would have," he says. "Not like I've ever managed anything fancier than a Hot Pocket. You used a stove and everything, damn."

"It did sound a little sarcastic." Just a smidge. A tad. But, and this is just going off of her limited exposure to him, she's pretty sure that whatever he says is going to sound slightly sarcastic half the time. He probably couldn't help it.

"Anyhow, I mainly just helped a bit. Catra did most of the work on this one." It was true! Mostly. Sure, Tenten had separated some stuff, but Catra did do a load of grunt work. "We were just finishing up and, well." There's a slight shrug. There's not a whole lot of question as to what's on Dave's mind now, even as impassive as he was. What other reason would someone have for coming to the kitchen at night?

...Wait a minute. "Say, Dave. How long have you known that the night staff was totally fine with us being in here?"

"Pretty sure we have to offer some up to the staff as tribute," Catra says with a drawl, "but I don't think we can eat this whole thing between us. Since I assume you're gonna ask if you can have some." As she speaks a couple members of staff are already helping themselves to samples of both chicken and soup and making approving noises between themselves.

"Wait, yeah, good question. We thought we were going to have to sneak in here."

Edited 2020-05-11 04:01 (UTC)

He shrinks back a bit under the combined callouts, frowning. He lifts his hands all I am defenseless here, chill out as he sidesteps to let the staff better access the food.

"Woah, hey. I only realized they didn't care like, yesterday," he says. "I was sneaking around like a goddamn French orphan before that, all snaggin' unattended bags of chips and fucking off into the night before Inspector Javert can beat my ass. Turns out none of the regular staff around here give a shit. At least y'all figured it out right away, I spent a few nights being all stealthy about it and probably looking like an asshole, stealing shit literally no one was trying to prevent from getting stolen. Good job, Dave, master criminal right there, those kitchen staffers never knew what hit them or particlarly cared."

The night staff isn't full of big eaters, at least, they just want a sample. Whether to steal ideas or just because they're so bored of the current menus that any change is new and interesting, it's not clear. And it probably doesn't matter.

Tenten sighs a little, massaging the bridge of her nose. Dave's story has a few holes in it, sure, but why would anyone just make themselves seem that pathetic? It was honestly a little sad. She gives Catra a look and shrugs. Tenten wasn't going to complain about her offering Dave any. It was a whole lot of food. "Well, we can let Catra have first picks out of our part since she did most of the work. But if she's fine with it, feel free to get something more nutritious than a potato chip. I swear, it feels like someone's into those wherever I turn..."

"There's an inspector here? I better watch myself," Catra says laconically as she leans against the counter.

"But yeah. You can have some if you want. Not like I can eat it all myself--and where am I gonna stash it?" At the mention that she gets 'first pick' Catra is off like a shot to fetch herself a plate, bowl, and nother necessary utensils. She returns with enough for all three (how thoughtful). Leaving the others to divvy up the remaining plates and bowls between them, she gives herself a heaping spoonful of chicken and digs in without preamble. Nomf.

"S'good," she mutters around the mouthful. "This is the best thing I've ever eaten..."

"My heroes." He's as deadpan as ever, but the subtle way he perks up suggests excitement despite his tone. Still, he waits for Catra to take her pick first. He's a gentleman like that.

As soon as she's got her serving, though, it's free game. Dave skips the plate and bowl rigamarole and just snags a leftover fork one of the kitchen staffers had been using to sample shit. Less dishes to wash afterwards anyway, right? He just snags a mouthful straight off the serving platter.

"Fuck," he mumbles through a mouthful. It's not rude if Catra did it first. "Be my mom. Or moms, I guess. Plural. Is marriage a requirement for multi-parent scenarios? Y'all are down for that, right? I'll happily wear a suit and toss some flower petals around if it means this happens more often."

In case his rambling didn't quite communicate the point to people not used to his brand of nonsense, the eager second and third forkfuls suggest that yeah, he agrees with Catra's assessment of the meal.

"I guess Jorgmund needs someone to do the detective work on broken rules." She hadn't seen Javert, but he's probably around somewhere and she just hadn't met him. Tenten makes a note to keep an eye out.

Tenten opts to go for a bowl of soup first. The egg is thick and lumped, not the thin, delicate ribbons she'd wanted at all, but mistakes happened. And it was still tasty. She takes a little bit of pride in the compliments, as exaggerated as they probably were, and gives a little shrug. She couldn't take too much credit, not when Catra had done so much of the work. "I don't marry people on the first date, sorry Catra." She offers a little half-smile and shrugs, sipping at her soup again. "But, yeah, sometimes the simple things are the best after a long day."

She pauses, staring wistfully in the direction of their food storage areas. "...I wonder how strict their inventories are?"

"Not saying I don't like you Tenten, but you're not my type." Small and slender and all that. Really, tall girls are where it's at. Not that she would ever say it out loud, but hey. That train of thought slips away as she continues to dig into her food with haste.

"Besides, I'm not really a 'mom' type. I don't even know what it's like to have one let alone be one," Catra says to Dave with a shrug of shoulders.

"Can't believe I made this," She mutters after a moment, laughs. "And probably strict enough that if we do this every night they'll catch on quick. I know what you're thinking, though..."

Huh. Tactfully (for once), he lets the 'mom' bit drop. That's just...y'know. Kinda heavy for a spontaneous late night chowdown. Maybe in better circumstances that would actually be ideal for some deep bonding time, but it just seems kinda awkward to get into that kind of thing with these kitchen staffers still puttering about.

"Oh shit," Dave deadpans instead. "Rejected. It's cool, though. Better you hear it now than later. Plenty of fish in the sea and all that, even considering the sea in this case is a post-apocalyptic forced labor caravan."

Nabbing an abandoned spoon, Dave clearly doesn't seem to mind the lumpy eggs as he steals a mouthful from the pot. It still absorbed the soup flavor and all that. Still more effort than he's ever put into a meal before.

"But yeah. Probably better off saving the five star meals for special occasions. Stifle that urge to just go full Food Network in here and settle for little shit that'll last if you wanna stock it away for later." Another slurping spoonful, and he adds pointedly, "Y'know. Like chips."

Tenten places a hand on her chest as if wounded and sighs. "I'll die an old maid, then. Alone and unloved." Which, well, was probably going to be true anyway, except the 'old' part, but she can still say it with a smile.

She drains her bowl, letting the mom conversation slide around her. Sounded like none of them had a whole lot of experience in that area, so why underline it? It wasn't like it would change anything, after all. Instead, she'll move on to the chicken stir fry.

Dave's comment, though, gets a blank little stare. "Why would it go bad?" She forks a bit of tomato and mushroom into her mouth and chews, swallowing quickly. "I'm a ninja." Why did people not get what that entailed? She waves at the remaining food with her fork. "If I store it somewhere, it'll stay fresh until I need it. It's not like I'd be just hiding a head of cabbage in a closet or something."

Edited 2020-05-13 02:53 (UTC)

"Neat," Catra says. "Being able to keep food fresh is useful."

"I should probably pinch some stuff to hide in my room. Even if I can get here to make food I, uh..." She pauses. Admitting that she had a weakness seemed dangerous, usually. But not knowing how to cook wasn't that big a deal and it would probably make these two underestimate her.

"I'm not sure about cooking alone yet," she finally says as she slurps down a spoonful of soup (which is actually really good? Damn!).

sorry for slow

No rush.

Re: No rush.

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