It's a party for your taste buds. Or maybe torture. OTA (foreward date for tonight really)

[magnetic_magpie]

It's entirely possible the person who had caused this little challenge wasn't going to show up - that didn't matter. Really after the fun of having a third puberty - grant it only the second he remembered - he needed a distraction. So he'd been cooking more and when challenge to make something "really hot" he'd worked at it until he had something not only incredibly spicy - probably far more than most people could eat - but also flavorful. There was actual flavor, not just heat to the pasta he'd created.

And then he'd send word that this dish was ready and he'd put it together in Ten Forward. Over the last few days, he'd mentioned it here and there and towards the evening, he popped his cooktop into a girdle-type base and set up on a table to start cooking.

Winner gets bragging rights. It's only a moderately sized plate of pasta, how bad can it be right?

It's probably just food prep safety that has Magneto and Annie wearing gloves. Couldn't be the spice levels at all. And the cooler to the side that contains ice cream? Also not a warning.

Comments

[treadswater]

"Oh, hi, Peeta."

Annie isn't pretending to be friendly and familiar - she was never any good at doing that - so her cheerfulness is genuine. Mostly, it's mischief. Mischief and delight and barely repressed giggles turning her usually fairly ordinary face lovely and lighting up her sea-green eyes.

Eyes which, currently, are sporting some rather fetching eyeliner in the style of a District Four woman. She's dressed pretty too, albeit district, although the prettiness of her blouse's short sleeves are a bit off-set by the gloves.

"I, um. I think I'll let Erik explain. And. I'll Serve people."

Mostly because Erik can explain it better.

A little because she's still not sure where she stands with Peeta just yet.

Okay. Maybe a bit more the latter, if she's being honest. (But it is good to see the boy around and looking curious.)

[real_or_notreal]

Peeta's rapture at his discovery is plastered over everything. Every part of the room and the people in it. Even his reaction to Annie speaking to him. Polite, even in the hesitations, and the rather quick announcement for retreat. He might have been about to say her name, but she added the last part and all he said was, "Okay," while looking over to the man.

Still all over a little dazed by this new thing, so that his voice came out rather understandingly amiable about being busy.

[treadswater]

His sheer delight is nice to see. None of the district kids are particularly young, except maybe some merchant children or other children who have managed somehow to be coddled and protected. He's never struck her as one of those, and the scared boy from the reaping had all too soon retreated behind his affable charm on the television.

The best masks are made from something real, she knows, but that doesn't mean that they are always entirely honest. This, this delight that lights him up and makes him seem like a boy is...

It's nice to see.

She's not inclined to disturb it, and it's only partially strategic. Everyone needs something to be happy about, it's the only way to cope. So, instead, she just watches him as he talks to Erik, sometimes. Listens in sometimes.

Mostly, she busies herself with challenging the people who come over, and helping them with ice-cream as they fail to eat the pasta.