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

[tanteiotaku]

He glances over between Finnick and Annie. Okay, he thought he had an idea of what was going on here. And even if he were interested in Annie in that kind of way, there was no way he could compete with Cheekbones over here.

"Something like this came from Earth?" he jabbed a finger toward the chili part, his other hand on his hip. Wasn't Philip chattering about a Scoville scale at some point?

Sure it took his breath away if he breathed too deep, but that was because there was a whole pot here. How bad could one bowl be?

[fishermansweater]

"You didn't tell me that," Finnick complains, twisting the fork between his fingers so it flashes and whirls, then straightening so he's not quite so much in between the guy and Annie.

"I thought this was an exciting alien thing."

He doesn't say anything to the guy, but the lash-lowered way he's looking at Annie and the amused pursing of his lips are as much a way of saying she's taken and well-protected as if he actually had.

[treadswater]

"It's plenty exciting!" Annie protests, and now her gaze is a bit more evenly split between the two men.

The way Finnick's looking at her, he's never really been allowed to back home, back on Earth. It's...

Well, it's Finnick, being a peacock, and, really, she's sure now that the other guy - Shotaro, she thinks she's heard his name now she thinks about it - meant nothing of it, but...

It's a competition, isn't it. A competition because someone dared Erik, and any other person would have been cackling the way his eyes light up over cooking this. And Finnick's there, being protective and oddly adoring until it's making her feel a bit tipsy, and all of those things combine with a large streak of complete impulsivity.

She makes Shotaro a bowl, and holds it out to him.

"I mean. Excitin' for me. But, you're right. Not an alien spice. Think you can eat a bowl?"

She pauses and then, well. Once upon a time, she'd run with a pack of incredibly competitive teenagers.

"There's ice-cream, if you can't hack it."

[tanteiotaku]

That wormed right in under his skin. It didn't even matter if her fanboy or boyfriend or whoever this was was around. "Of course I can hack it! A hard-boiled detective can take something like this!" It was a shame that was not a thing he was.

It was just noodles and chili. How bad could it be?

He was about to find out. He jabbed the fork in and got what was likely quite a bit too large of a bite of the stuff. He'd barely swallowed before his eyes got big and he dropped the fork. He shouted again, and grabbed hold of his throat. "What the hell?!" he bent over double and coughed again. Tears were streaming down his face.

[fishermansweater]

If both Annie and Finnick can, at times, have a childishly impulsive sense of humor, it's perhaps not entirely a surprise. It had been Finnick, after all, who'd had the idea for him and Katniss to wake Peeta up in the arena with faces smeared with medicine that made them look like corpses. And it had been Finnick who had spent quite some time rolling on the sand in laughter at the results. And, well. Sometimes, a little childishness is the only recourse they have.

Honestly, the guy's brought this on himself. The smell of the stuff made him choke and he still took a huge bite of it just because Annie egged him on.

(Egging people on is something Careers are very good at.)

"Are you sure you don't want that ice-cream?" Finnick asks, grinning.

[treadswater]

"It's just from Earth," Annie says, in a delightedly appalled whisper. Shotaro's not the first to wind up choking, crying, and while her first impulse is still to apologize, her second...

Well, there's a reason she stuck with the Careers as long as she did.

Still, the first impulse is still there, behind the giggles, and she gives Finnick a little shove. "C'mon, Finnick, give the man some help."

[tanteiotaku]

He would tell you yes he does want it, but he currently can't talk right now. This was more painful than Akiko's cooking. A different kind of painful, though. She was just terrible, this was molten lava.

He was in such a sad, sorry state. He made a grabbing hand motion toward the cooler, but he still couldn't form words around the occasional shouting.

[fishermansweater]

He's not, actually, as much of a jerk as he plays on television. Mostly. And the guy seems harmless enough now they've chatted a bit, even if he did bring this on himself by letting Annie goad him into eating the stuff. (Then again, Finnick knows just how hard it is to resist Annie when she's in that sort of a mood.)

And the guy is choking so much on the stuff that he can't even admit he was wrong and ask for some ice-cream, so Finnick, smirking, is just about to reach for the cooler anyway when Annie pushes him towards it.

"Okay, okay," he laughs, and bends down to get the guy some, offering it out to the wildly gesturing hand.

[treadswater]

And Annie, so often so shy and nervous in this place (always), who had just not two minutes earlier almost stepped behind her fiance to hide, is giggling.

Not hysterically. That is higher, scratchier, eerie.

No, this is genuine laughter.

[tanteiotaku]

He weathers the giggles and is only too happy to accept the ice cream bar. He makes a moan of relief after a moment and drops into a nearby chair. He rests his arms on the table top and the side of his head on top of them. He made another whiny moan.

[fishermansweater]

This guy really cannot hold his spicy food.

Of course, Finnick can't entirely comment on that, since he's been kept carefully away from eating any of the stuff by his solicitous girlfriend. (Whom he's been trying to tempt with the ice cream just about since he walked in.)

"That better?" he asks.

He's not, by any means, without sympathy. He's also still grinning.

[treadswater]

(Ice-cream later, Finnick. No need to give people an additional prior warning.)

"Are you okay?" Annie echoes, still giggly but also concerned. A little concerned.

Shotaro could just be playing it up, after all. Some people are like that. Play up for sympathy.

But then, that doesn't really fit in with his previous behaviour.

[tanteiotaku]

After a moment, he nodded to the both of their questions. He prised the ice cream from his mouth. "I have never seen anything like that before in my life and I never want to again."