Second Floor Common Room [Wednesday evening]

[thegirl-onfire.livejournal.com]

Katniss had been here for a full term now. And really, all things considered, she thought she had experimented fairly well with the options available to her. She'd tried a multitude of foods, she'd become deeply familiar with the woods surrounding the school -- she'd even learned to work some of the electronics here.

What she had not done sufficiently, of course, was watch the television. Once she'd learned that there were multiple channels, she'd buzzed through them, concentrating on news stations and sports (as these were the things that appealed to her.)

Tonight, though, Katniss had discovered something special. Katniss had discovered that people cooked competitively on the television. So she was plunked in front of the television with a gallon of ice cream (all hers unless you asked nicely, thank you), enraptured by...Top Chef.

(She was gratified to see people eating the food, though the structure reminded her a little of the Games. At least, though, it was much...gentler. Or seemed to be.)

[come distract me from dreary WWII memoirs, omg!]

Comments

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

She and Blind Seer had had their last Teevee class today. As such, the device was on Firekeeper's mind as she wandered in to the common room, Blind Seer at her heels.

"What is?" she tilted her head curiously at the screen. She hadn't seen much in the way of reality television in her time here, no.

[thegirl-onfire.livejournal.com]

"These people are competing based on the deliciousness of their food," Katniss said, still somewhere between mystified and fascinated. "I think whoever's food tastes the best wins. That seems to be the rule."

Sort of.

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

"There is competitions for food?" Firekeeper asked as she and Blind Seer settled on the floor, leaning up against the couch. She shook her head in fond amusement. "Wolves like to compete too," she observed. "Though then is more about how fast or how much one can hunt. Wolves have little use for cooking." Unless, of course, they were the two-legged kind such as herself.

[thegirl-onfire.livejournal.com]

"That's more the kind of competition for food that I'm used to," Katniss admitted, smiling a tiny bit. "This reminds me a bit of one of my friends at home -- he's the baker's son, and his shop is the only one in town where the food actually looks and tastes lovely. But I just like food enough that I'll accept it in any form."

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

Blind Seer's ears twitched and Firekeeper rolled her eyes before translating dutifully.

"He say you would probably find wolf saying wise, then," she said. "'Hunt when hungry, sleep when not, for hunger always returns.'"

[thegirl-onfire.livejournal.com]

Katniss looked over at Blind Seer, smiling a little wider. "Words to live by. I do," she admitted. "I didn't know animals had sayings like that, honestly. The ones in my world are...different."

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

"Wolves have many sayings," Firekeeper informed Katniss. "Though I think some," she gave Blind Seer a friendly shove, "he just make up and say these is old sayings. Most worlds I learn of here do not have Royal Beasts," she shrugged, "and many humans from my world did not even know such existed until me and Blind Seer come down from the mountains."

[thegirl-onfire.livejournal.com]

"We just have human-created animals, and then the natural, dumb ones, where I'm from," Katniss admitted. "It makes me think twice about what I hunt, these Royal Beasts of yours."

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

"Royal Beasts, even the kind like deer that would be prey were they Cousins, are smart enough to not be caught even by the cleverest of hunters," Firekeeper explained. "Cousins... they may not be able to speak and form thoughts the same way as humans or Royal Beasts, but they understand predator and prey. They may fear a predator but there is no malice in that fear. It is the way things are."

[thegirl-onfire.livejournal.com]

"It doesn't bother me enough to keep me from hunting," Katniss replied. "But it is nice to hear. I've seen enough life lost. I don't need to worry that I'm killing sentient squirrels in order for people to eat."

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

Firekeeper nodded. "I avoid the blue deer," she confided. "They just seem... too strange."

[thegirl-onfire.livejournal.com]

"They're blue," Katniss agreed, eyes wide. "They could be poisonous, for all I know. I'm sure someone here would be able to tell me if they were but the point stands."

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

"And there is enough other things to hunt besides," Firekeeper said easily. "Not that hunting is truly needed in this place, but..." she shrugged again, fairly confident that Katniss understood why she would anyway.

[thegirl-onfire.livejournal.com]

"But it's part of who you are," Katniss finished knowingly.

[momslilassassin]

Ben wasn't tired, so he poked his head into the common room. "Hello," he said, smiling. "What are you watching?"

[thegirl-onfire.livejournal.com]

"It's some kind of thing where people compete based on how their food tastes," Katniss mused.

[momslilassassin]

"Like Iron Chef?" Ben asked, heading over to the fridge. "Watching food shows makes me hungry," he admitted. "Would you like a snack?"

[thegirl-onfire.livejournal.com]

"I don't know what that is," Katniss admitted. "And I have iced cream," she added, holding up her gallon.

She still didn't quite have the terminology down.

[momslilassassin]

"That's why I couldn't find it," Ben teased. "Ice cream is my snack of choice, too. What flavor do you have?"

[thegirl-onfire.livejournal.com]

"Mint?" Katniss said, actually lifting up the carton to see. "Mint with chocolate. Is there actually enough mint in it to make it this green? It's wonderful."

[momslilassassin]

"They probably added some food dye to it as well, but I love mint chocolate," he said. "I've been in a chocolate phase for a few months now. There's a shop in town that has about a thousand flavors."

[thegirl-onfire.livejournal.com]

"...there's more than one flavor of chocolate?"

No, Katniss.

[momslilassassin]

"Sort of?" Ben said. "There's darker stuff and lighter and an abomination known as white chocolate that is much better avoided. But mostly they mix different things with chocolate--cherries, nuts, sometimes chile..."

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

"I would say something strange, but I think all these shows is 'something strange'," Firekeeper confided in Ben with a smirk.

[momslilassassin]

He laughed. "Have you seen the ones where they re-dress people?"

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

"No!" Firekeeper laughed. "...Truly?" she gave Ben a 'you're not just screwing with me, are you?' look.

[momslilassassin]

"Truly," Ben promised. "Sometimes they get haircuts, too, and threats to have their wardrobes burned."

[willbethenight.livejournal.com]

Bruce had been through half of his finals so far. He felt it probably couldn't hurt to spend an evening doing something semi-social.

Some people watching other people cook on TV counted. "Which cooking show is this?" Bruce asked.

[thegirl-onfire.livejournal.com]

"I think it's called Top Chef. I didn't even know there were any -- let alone more than one -- cooking shows until tonight," Katniss admitted.

[willbethenight.livejournal.com]

"There's a channel with nothing but cooking shows. I know someone who's mildly obsessed with them." Yes, Alfred picked up some tricks from TV shows. It was one of the reasons he was always improving as a chef. "Personally, I do my best not to watch too many. They might start to give me ideas."

[thegirl-onfire.livejournal.com]

Katniss cocked a brow. "What kind of ideas? Ideas about eating? I've already had those." She indicated her carton of ice cream.

[willbethenight.livejournal.com]

"Ideas about cooking. Honestly, that's not something I really need to spend too much of my time on," Bruce said. Again, he had Alfred. And if he didn't, he would live on simpler foods as he spent more time training. "Just eating takes up a lot less time."

[thegirl-onfire.livejournal.com]

She almost smiled, just a tiny bit, and offered, "I'm a horrible cook, so I can't fault you there. I've never had the patience."

[willbethenight.livejournal.com]

"I think most of the student body has that in common. Fortunately, Fandom seems to make it easy for us non-chefs," Bruce said. "You usually don't have to wait too long before you find a common room filled with food."

[thegirl-onfire.livejournal.com]

"Or at least something sweet to tide you over. And television to help," Katniss added.

[willbethenight.livejournal.com]

"Absolutely," Bruce said. Not that he ate sweets or watched television much. Being social meant that he lied. "You know, I don't think we've met before. I'm Bruce."

[thegirl-onfire.livejournal.com]

"Katniss," she offered with a vague little wave. "Have you been here long?"

[willbethenight.livejournal.com]

"Since January," Bruce said. "You must be newer than me, right?"

[thegirl-onfire.livejournal.com]

"Very new," she said, poking her spoon into the ice cream. "Only since the last group of new people. From what I hear, though, I won't be so new for so much longer."

[willbethenight.livejournal.com]

"You're right. The fall semester starts in a couple weeks. Even newer students will come to town for it," Bruce said. "And then you'll have the chance to share anything you've learned about Fandom over the last two months with them. It's a familiar pattern by now."

[thegirl-onfire.livejournal.com]

"I've learned," Katniss ventured, "that you should try not to fall out of trees when hunting, because sometimes you will fall into another world. That is about the most useful thing I've learned this summer, here."

[willbethenight.livejournal.com]

"It's probably impractical. Most of the time you'll just hurt yourself when you land," Bruce mused. "But it is a possibility to be aware of, just in case."