Fourth floor common room: Thursday evening

[vkandis-son.livejournal.com]

Karal was cooking. No, the common room wasn't on fire. No, the stove hadn't exploded, or the fridge. There were no broken plates or twisted spoons. Or eggy books.

That would be because what he was cooking, or rather about to cook, were pancakes. He was hungry, he was starting to become quite bored, and - really - pancakes were perhaps the universal food. Flour and water and apply heat. Simple.

Applying heat was to be done via frypan, and the flour and water had been mixed, with only a little bit of mess, in a bowl.

:This should be entertaining.: Altra was watching from a safe distance away.

"Glory, how difficult can it be?" Karal replied as he spooned some into the pan, then frowned at the sudden sizzle. "Maybe I should turn the heat down."

[ooc: open as common rooms are wont to be.]

Comments

[southernbender.livejournal.com]

Katara found her way into the Common Room after a long day of not doing much at all except for waterbending in the morning. "Hi - is everything alright?" she asked, eyeing the mess and the sizzling warily.

[vkandis-son.livejournal.com]

"Katara!" Karal greeted her with a smile, then frowned down at the frypan and the now rather dark pancake. "I'm attempting to make dinner. I think I'm not doing well at all."

[southernbender.livejournal.com]

She looked just a little bit amused. ...or a lot. "I think the heat's too high maybe. They're burning before they can cook." She smiled happily at Altra. "Hi Altra. Are you enjoying this?"

[vkandis-son.livejournal.com]

:It's not quite as entertaining as I hoped, but I can't complain.: He stretched up and slid off the couch, padding over to sit next to her.

Karal rolled his eyes at Altra. "I think you're right," he decided, turning the heat down. Right down. Probably too low. "Are you well?"

[southernbender.livejournal.com]

Katara reached out to offer scratches to Altra's ears.

"Very," she replied, raising her hand to cover a grin at the heat adjustment. "I love the cold. How are you?" She paused then pointed out. "You do actually have to cook them you know. This is why fires are better. No knobs to fiddle with."

[vkandis-son.livejournal.com]

Altra accepted the scratches which were his due and purred with content.

"I think I would prefer a fire, to be honest. I at least know how to make tea over one of those. Even the stoves in my world are heated by fire. You can see how hot it is and not have to guess." He scowled at the stove, then shook his head. "I'm well, I think. I was enjoying the quiet, but you can have too much of it, I'm learning." He poked the not-quite-a-pancake again. "I wanted to thank you for coming to the Fire Kindling ceremony."

[southernbender.livejournal.com]

"It was beautiful," she said softly, trying not to feel weird about saying that about a ceremony that was supposed to be honouring fire. "Are all your ceremonies at home like that?" Katara tilted her head thoughtfully. "It IS too quiet. That's the problem. I was trying to figure out why everything felt weird."

[saltandammo.livejournal.com]

Dean was bored so he wandered down to see if anything was happening in the common room. "Oh hey Karal."

[vkandis-son.livejournal.com]

"Dean, hello!" The frying pan let out a spitting protest as Karal tried to scrape the pancake up enough so he could turn it. "How are you?"

[saltandammo.livejournal.com]

"I'm good." Dean eyed the frying pan warily. "I don't think that's ready to turn yet."

[vkandis-son.livejournal.com]

"Cooking is not one of the skills of a Sun-priest." He frowned down at the mess in the pan and poked it with the spatula. "There were cooks and servants at the Temple, so it's not something I ever had to learn. I'm beginning to wish I had."

[saltandammo.livejournal.com]

"Let it sit for a little and cook," Dean advised. "If you keep poking it, it's never going to set enough to turn." He smiled. "No cooks or servants when you're on the road hunting so I had to learn how to cook pretty young if we wanted to eat something other than cold cereal when Dad was away."

[vkandis-son.livejournal.com]

Karal brightened. "Would you show me?" he asked, setting aside the spatula obediently. "It's almost embarrassing not even knowing how to make pancakes."

[goodgirlmeg.livejournal.com]

Meg checked out each common room floor until she found one that had people on it. She scrunched up her nose at the smell coming from the kitchen.

"What's going on?" she asked.

[vkandis-son.livejournal.com]

"I'm failing to make dinner," Karal replied, then looked up and smiled. "Hello, Meg. How are you?"

[goodgirlmeg.livejournal.com]

"It's not that bad. Really." she said, looking over at the frying pan. "I'm doing well. How has your break been?"

[vkandis-son.livejournal.com]

"Dean is helping me, thankfully. We should be able to avoid burning anything down. I hope," he said. "And it's been good, overall. Quiet, but enjoyable. Did you go away for the holiday?"

[goodgirlmeg.livejournal.com]

"No, I spent it with Dean's family. It was fun, different from what I usually do for Christmas." she said. "What about you?"

[vkandis-son.livejournal.com]

"I stayed here. Christmas is a very new thing to me, it's not celebrated on my world, so I spent most of the time reading or with my horse."

[saltandammo.livejournal.com]

"Hey Meg," Dean said, smiling at her over his shoulder from where he was trying to salvage Karal's cooking. "Just trying to keep the sun priest here from burning down the place."

[goodgirlmeg.livejournal.com]

"It does smell like burnt...something in here," she said. "I think you should be in a fire fighter's uniform though."

[saltandammo.livejournal.com]

Dean grinned. "Did I ever tell you I wanted to be a fireman when I grew up when I was really little?"

[goodgirlmeg.livejournal.com]

"I can see you wanting to do that," she said. "You'd be saving people still. And chicks dig the firemen."

[saltandammo.livejournal.com]

Dean waggled his eyebrows at her. "Wanna come back to my room later and I'll let you play with my hose?"

[inthereflexes.livejournal.com]

Jack. Food. Really now, this should be simple maths. "Hey!" he said, waving as he entered The Place With The Food Smells.