2nd Floor Common Room

[wildgalegirl]

Arden had called Charlie and asked if tonight would be a good night to come over and cook, and hello, yes! So Charlie had basically done a 'someone's doing home-cooking tonight, come eat if you want' charm and sent it around and then went down to let Arden in and see if there was anything she needed to carry.

"I warn you, though," she said as she met Arden. "I like seriously can't help with the cooking, just so you know. We want the dorms to still be standing and livable at the end of the night."

She'd happily remain a lazy non-helper whenever she was allowed anyway, but in this case she actually couldn't help beyond the most basics.


Arden's cooking, all are welcome, come make the porg happy!

Comments

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Yeah, so ass-kicking class had left Arden in a mood for a real homecooked meal and also disinclined to eat by herself again. And so, here she was, carrying grocery bags - or, well, a bag now that she'd passed one off to Charlie with a grateful smile - and following along to the common room and its appropriate kitchen.

"Not even, like, chopping and stirring and stuff?" Arden asked. "Is it magic?"

[wildgalegirl]

"Especially not stirring stuff," CHarlie said. "Super easy to sketch out a charm that way - stirring, pouring, whipping - and apparently something about my Wild magic gets out of hand and... it gets ugly. Even chopping, if you do it in a pattern..."

She shrugged. "So you know, I can heat stuff up, but much beyond that and you're taking your life - or house and yard - into your hands."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Then you can be in charge of doing the dishes," Arden teased. "But yeah, it's no big deal. We used to have to do shifts of KP duty in my foster homes, so I'm used to cooking for a buncha people. I figure whatever's left, I'll take half with me and leave half here."

Unless people didn't like Southern cooking, in which case she'd happily take home all of it and y'all could be left with the shame of having wrong tastebuds.

"Do you know if there's any vegetarians or vegans in the dorms? I gotta coupla recipes I can adjust for folks at need."

[wildgalegirl]

Washing dishes was easy with charms.

"Sounds good to me," Charlie said, "Though I'm sure going to be happy with whatever you make."

She had to think more about the vegetarian question. "Not that I know of, but I haven't exactly paid much attention to what people eat," she admitted, "So, I can't really say."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Well, I've a couple of things that'll be vegetarian friendly, but I can't really make them vegan," Arden said apologetically, already moving to start washing and prepping the collard greens. "Even the fried green tomatoes use buttermilk."

[wildgalegirl]

"Only so much you can do," Charlie said. "It's a free home-cooked meal, they can eat it or not. I'm just glad I'll eat pretty much anything."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Class today got me into the mood," she admitted. "We had to pretend we were at some weird, pass-agg holiday family meal. Fortunately missed out on all of that stuff growing up, but I just really wanted a good home-cooked meal like you said."

[wildgalegirl]

Charlie nodded. "I mean, I guess there's some of that at our gatherings, but probably a lot less passive and just regular say what you say, stuff. But hey, if I get a good meal out of it I'm happy."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Have you had much Southern cooking?" Arden asked, moving competently through the prep of multiple dishes at once.

[wildgalegirl]

"Nope," Charlie said easily. "But I'm sure if you're making it I'll love it."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Arden glanced up and grinned. "See, now that just feels like a dare," she laughed. "Like I should increase the heat on the gumbo and maybe sub proper ham hocks in for the bacon in the greens."

[wildgalegirl]

Charlie grinned back. "Bring it on!"

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"We'll see how many folks show up," Arden said with a laugh. "If it turns out it's just you and me, I'll spice it up some."

But for the first night, she was playing it safe.

[wildgalegirl]

"Fair enough," Charlie said, "Though I can pretty much guarantee at least Graham will show up."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Three people's a dinner party," Arden declared. "Everybody knows that."

It would be amazing if they did, considering she'd just made it up, but shh.

[wildgalegirl]

"Works for me," Charlie said with an easy smile. "And if it were just two it could be a date."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Arden's cheeks flushed, and she bobbled her onion, before smiling a bit and saying, "Maybe it will be? Who knows."

And she sounded very cool until a second later when she accidentally touched an eye with one of her oniony hands.

[wildgalegirl]

"Ooh, hang on," Charlie said, "That's gonna sting." And she moved in to sketch a charm to fix that if Arden would let her. She might also be tempted to sketch a 'mine' charm on her too, but there was something that made her hesitate.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Arden closed her eyes, hissing because Charlie was correct about the stinging. "Okay, if you're gonna do magic to make this hurt less like a bitch, that would be great."

[wildgalegirl]

And as easy as a brush of Charlie's fingers and it was gone. "There," she said, "Easy as pie. For one of the other Gale girls."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Another Gale girl, huh?" Arden opened her eyes and gave Charlie a grateful smile. "This your way of putting an Auntie target on me, I'm going to have to regretfully decline."

[wildgalegirl]

Charlie laughed. And made a decision. "That? Not a chance. Besides, they'll be so grateful you kept me from cooking you don't have to worry." She reached out and tucked a hair behind Arden's ear, sketching a little 'mine' charm there. "And now your hair will stay out of your eyes too."

So sue her, she wanted to put the charm there.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Oh man, that might be the most useful charm I've ever heard of," Arden said with a laugh. "Especially with curls like mine."

Yeah, that was a brag. Arden loved her hair.

[wildgalegirl]

Charlie's grin had a bit of a smirk to it. "Gorgeous curls. I'd love to run my fingers through them."

She ran a hand through her own hair. "Dead straight, which makes it easier, and I can change it to whatever color I like." Purple still at the moment.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

On instinct, Arden flinched away, bringing her hand protectively up to shield her curls, then relaxed as she realized that Charlie wasn't asking. At least, not like that. In a flirty way, probably! But that was different!

She moved back to where she was and then leaned in a little so Charlie could run her fingers through. "A fair trade," she said with a soft laugh. "For the charm."

[wildgalegirl]

Charlie noted the flinch, but didn't alter her smile, just being there patiently.

But when Arden offered her hair... Well, then.

"Mmmm," Charlie said, gently running her fingers through the curls. "Feels even nicer than I'd imagined."

[pun_king]

So, Graham didn't exactly come floating into the room lead by his nose in a literal sense, but it was a very near things.

"Zooounds," he gushed upon arrival, looking around wide-eyed and eager at what those aromas might entail, "it smells amazing in here! What are we making?"

And now, even if that was as far as he managed to get with it, he won't have to bemoan missing on radio tomorrow morning!

[wildgalegirl]

"Dunno," Charlie said cheerfully, "But I bet it's gonna be good!"

[pun_king]

"Only if you're steering clear of the stove, anyway, right, Charlie?" asked Graham, but there was definitely a nervousness to his chuckle, an awkwardness to the elbow that nudged not her, exactly, but more like the air near her jauntily. He was pretty sure they were at a point where joking about her notorious cooking skills was safe, but you never knew!

And, let's be real, Charlie could give him the most charred, burnt-up, unidentifiable fruits of her labors and he would break his teeth trying to chew it enough to force it down with a big old smile on his face if he had to, just to make her happy.

And was incredibly grateful that Charlie was a kind enough soul to never knowingly do that to another human being....or at least not this one!

[wildgalegirl]

"Oh no fear there!" Charlie assured him. "I'm on clean-up crew. We all want to be able to have someplace to sleep tonight!"

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Well, for the main event, we got us some an easy seafood gumbo made with shrimp and andouille sausage, served over rice and with a side of cornbread, cooked in an iron skillet as is right and proper." She seemed very stern about that, on the off-chance that anyone was about to argue for the oven like an ignorant Yankee heathen. "And since I didn't know if there were vegetarians, I made North Carolina's own fried green tomatoes and collard greens both with bacon and without."

She looked around at the kitchen which was still in a state of mid-cooking with pride. "If anyone here likes Southern cooking, they should have plenty to eat."

[pun_king]

"If that's what Southern cooking is," said Graham, following Arden's proud look around with a clearly approving look of his own, and maybe, just maybe, an anticipatory lick of his lips and a hand on his stomach, which let out a harmonious rumble of agreement with the forthcoming statement, "then I'll definitely like it!"

Hard to find a food he didn't, really!

"That all sounds amazing, Arden! Did you need any help?"

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Arden paused and glanced a look at Charlie. "You're not magically going to destroy the kitchen by helping, right?"

Look, she had to check.

[pun_king]

"Oh, no," said Graham, cheerfully, without missing a beat, "if I destroy the kitchen by helping, it will be entitely by non-magical means!"

He was....probably joking.

And also not being entirely truthful, either, but not intentionally.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Goddess help them all.

"All right," she said, shifting over in clear welcome to have him help. "I've got the collards and the gumbo both going and I'm about to start prepping the tomatoes. Do you know how to devein shrimp? The shrimp goes into the gumbo in about a half an hour and I'd like them all prepped by then. If not, we'll swap, I'll devein, you slice tomatoes?"