Mission - Pancakes / Backdated to the morning of April 3rd

[oncedevil]

Who: Tony and anyone awake at Willow Ridge after the Kidnapping Incident
What: Demon be hungry, so that means pancakes for all.
Where: Willow Ridge kitchen
When: Morning of April 3rd, after Nathan's rescue
Warnings: Possibly some recollections of violence, but otherwise only pancakes. Maybe eggs. We'll see.

Dressed in jeans and a light T-shit, one could almost forget just the night before he'd been barely able to walk under his own power and bleeding all over himself. Quite the change, though watching closely it was still evident Tony was a little tender and sore. Moving stiff and careful while he cooked.

As it turned out, healing was hungry business. Fortunately Willow Ridge was equipped with a well enough stocked kitchen, and Tony with a little skill instilled by Hajime. Despite his best efforts, he still couldn't really use chopsticks with any kind of efficiency. Fortunately pancakes only required a spatula.

Stacks of them, in fact. The first attempts, under-cooked or over had already been eaten, but now he was on a roll. Why not ask him why he's cooked so much, or join in to help devour the abundance? Surely, he figured, the others would wake soon and they'd be hungry as well. Though likely Tony was far over-estimating their hunger by comparing it to his own.

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[chalicejoker]

Hajime's not even sure what he's doing here poking at a pancake. Sure, he wanted to check up on Shou and Tony, but sticking around for breakfast wasn't something he'd had in mind. But he's been teaching Tony how to cook; he should at least try one...

He's a little skittish around people he doesn't know, given the way things have been going lately, so don't mind him if walking into the room means you're treated to the sight of a cockroach man sloppily eating pancakes. (It's hard without lips, okay.)

[oncedevil]

Hajime showing up to check on them is a bit of a surprise, honestly, but a pleasant one. And in return Tony is more than happy to share pancakes with him. He got a little overzealous after all, and there's plenty to go around. When he's not shoving his own rather impressive stack down his throat like a starving man.

But Hajime, why are you a bug right now anyway? Doesn't make a lot of sense, but he won't argue. He's just delighted Hajime's humoring him and trying to eat his pancakes anyway. "Hah, s'like a party in here this mornin'. What d'you think, edible?" His mentor's input is very important here, try not to crush him too hard, Hajime.

[chalicejoker]

Look, Tony, Hajime's a stupidly skittish bug around reporters, and he knows Misa's a reporter. So sorry, he can't deal with these things like an actual adult.

But he can at least try to deal with his protege's attempt here, so he'll stuff a piece of pancake in his own mouth--which is kind of awkward and messy because he doesn't actually have lips right now, thanks, weird bug form--and see how it goes. "It's not bad!" And another bite. "You used a mix?"

[oncedevil]

She's not reporting right now, Hajime, she's dealing with a hangover. You need to relax and remember your human manners, not your slurping bug ones. Don't make Tony be the mature one he's the kid who gets himself shot more often than anyone should.

Eeeee although Tony does light up like the most delighted he's ever been when Hajime compliments him. "Yeah, so I know it's not the best but we didn't have enough stuff to make 'em from scratch. L doesn't stock the kitchen very well." Most of this stuff is the fault of other people cruising through and insisting it's food time.

You have made his day, Hajime.

[chalicejoker]

"Let me know next time you want to try; I'll get you some better stuff." Food: it's important. Even if Hajime sometimes makes things from mixes when it's just him, he still adds his own stuff to it.

[oncedevil]

"Mm? Sure, this was kind of an emergency anyway. Didn't need to be great." Just needed to be plentiful and available. No one wants to deal with a hungry demon, he's possibly more grumpy than hungry Shou when he's forced to wait too long. But hey, he wouldn't mind a better option for when he's not in a rush to fill his gut.

[chalicejoker]

"Still...food's important." Too important for just straight mixes. "And mixes are...I don't know, when it's just me, I don't like taking the easy way out. Like the food should be important, too."

[oncedevil]

"Heh, I get where you're coming from. 'Fraid that hasn't always been an option, so when I'm hungry enough I don't really think about it. Never had the liberty of being particular before."

It wasn't that food wasn't important, but it was viewed as a necessity rather than a luxury. With that mentality, you take what you can get.

[chalicejoker]

"Oh, right..." That comment about cooking fires and trash cans. "...I've always been lucky. You don't go hungry growing up above a restaurant." Which explains a certain amount of food snobbery, too.

[oncedevil]

Probably to Hajime's despair, Tony will probably never really understand his being so particular about food. To him, as long as it's edible it's fine. And if it's better than edible, excellent!

"Heh, can't say I know what that's like. Dumpsters behind restaurants are good places to forage though."

Look, it's disgusting but true. You're homeless long enough you figure out where to search for food that's not going to kill you. "But a mix sure beats that. You'll have to show me how to make it better sometime, when I don't feel like I need to eat seventeen horses."

[chalicejoker]

Hajime would make a face there if he weren't a giant bug right now. "I guess it's better than most places would be, yeah." There is such a sound of a wince in his voice. He can't even imagine having to do that.

"Don't worry, I will. Pancakes aren't my specialty, but I think we can get you cooking something that's still better than a mix."

[oncedevil]

He'd almost have to laugh at the irony of a giant cockroach having an issue with eating out of dumpsters, if it weren't so depressing. See, he told you his conversations are depressing Hajime, you were warned. "S'not so bad, sometimes they throw away perfectly good food. You'd be surprised how much people waste."

But it was good for the scavengers like him, who had to find the places that wasted so much. Soup kitchens were risky business, fights could break out at any time. You didn't want to risk that too much. But, he certainly learned to never take things for granted.

"Sure, that'll be nice. Then maybe you won't want to turn your nose up at it," He smirks over his shoulder, casting Hajime a wink. Yes, yes, he knows this isn't up to your standards bug brother, but there's only so much he can do. Food sharing is a Big Deal for someone who had lived with scarcity for so long. It's something he's happy he's able to do, even if it isn't gourmet.

[chalicejoker]

"I think I've got a pretty good idea. Some of the stuff we clear off of tables when people get more food than they can eat..."

Now Hajime's feeling kind of like an ass over that, so he'll shovel an entire half pancake into his gaping bug maw. (This is probably a big mistake, for no lips makes for a really messy and awkward dining experience.) "But these are good, really."

[solvethepuzzle]

Nathan is about the last person anybody should feel skittish around. He's small, pale, thin . . . easily mistaken for a preteen or young teenager despite his real age. He's sitting across the table, utterly unobtrusive . . . while watching Hajime intently with dark, glassy eyes -- eerily similar eyes to those of Lazarus, to anyone accustomed to the man.

Nathan had paid attention to media reports before becoming Numbered. He'd reviewed backlogs of the networks activity after it. It isn't as though he hasn't seen the 'Lord of Bugmen' before. But this is the first time in person, and watching him poke at pancakes is surreal.

"... They taste fine."

They really do. All that prodding at them seems unnecessary to him.

[chalicejoker]

Dark, glassy eyes that have a strange resemblance to Lazarus's don't seem to bother Hajime any. This is because his bug self is very inexpressive, save for the occasional antenna twitch.

"You sure?" More prodding. "He used a mix, right? I...don't really trust mixes." Such a picky cockroach.

[solvethepuzzle]

Should cockroaches be picky? One of the reasons they survive so well is that they'll eat so many things . . . Should Nathan be applying this logic to a cockroach that is also humanoid? He has no idea.

"I ate them; they're fine. I don't understand what is wrong with a mix."

Granted, Nathan is not picky. He could never afford to be.

[chalicejoker]

Roaches shouldn't be picky, but this one had a long history in the restaurant business. Food snobbery just came naturally. "A mix doesn't have a whole lot of heart in it. You follow the directions, something edible comes out. It's just...there."

[solvethepuzzle]

Blink, blink. Nathan completely and utterly fails to see the problem here. What other requirement does food need other than to be edible? This is baffling.

"Why is that not enough?" There has to be some logical reasoning behind this, doesn't there? It doesn't make sense otherwise.

[chalicejoker]

"It's hard to say...it's like...if you care more when you make the food, it shows. It'll taste a lot better. And it's probably going to be better for you, too."

[solvethepuzzle]

Headtilt. "Emotion does not change the composition of food."

Nathan, stop taking this literally.

[chalicejoker]

"If you care more, you're going to put more effort into making it," Hajime insists. "And more effort means it'll taste better."

[solvethepuzzle]

"More effort does not guarantee success."

Rain all over the parade, why don't you, Nathan. But he isn't wrong. Sometimes strong efforts still lead to failure. And there is still the main point of all this even if he were incorrect.

"And you acknowledged yourself that even the base effort is edible. Anything above may be nice, but the distrust of a perfectly serviceable result makes no sense."

[chalicejoker]

"You don't have anything you're passionate about? Something you want to be the best at?" Hajime asks, trying to think of some possible way he can make this make sense. "I'm in the restaurant business." Which is quite possibly the most reassuring thing in the world that a giant cockroach can say, right? "When I cook, I want my food to be the best. Because if I'm serving food to people, I want them to be able to share in the best stuff--especially because they could go somewhere else if mine isn't good enough."

[solvethepuzzle]

In the restaurant business. Is that sanitary? There are health codes . . . But then, this is a conversation in which the cockroach is the picky one. Nothing really makes sense.

"Not particularly, no." Nathan . . . is not a passionate person, really. And while he likes to be good at things, being the very best is not something he bothers to worry about. He does what he does. If he is the best, then so be it; same for if he isn't. "It still does not explain the distrust." A finger winds into his hair. "Not everyone has the luxury of options."

He hadn't. There's a reason Nathan is so tiny and it isn't genetics.

[chalicejoker]

"Nothing you really want to do like that? That's...kind of sad." Hajime's quiet for a moment, and there's an antenna twitch at the question. When he next speaks, he sounds kind of sheepish. "Look, you grow up around a restaurant surrounded by other people who get excited about food, it...happens. You don't trust something you haven't made yourself, or something you can't identify every ingredient in. And you...kind of don't think about luxury too much, because that's what you're doing to get by. Cooking for other people."