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.

Comments

[oncedevil]

Well, suit yourself. Tony meanwhile will be happy to devour his mess with great gusto. His table manners still require a little work, he's getting better but when he's particularly hungry he forgets himself.

"Yeah..." He pauses, chewing thoughtfully. "Y'know I hadn't thought about it but I have been hungrier since I echoed that back. Makes sense, gotta get that boost from somewhere." In this case it comes from piles of pancakes.

[solvethepuzzle]

Nathan isn't going to put up a fuss; he isn't really that bothered. As for himself, he continues to eat neatly enough to more than make up for how Tony is doing. Nobody should eat pancakes as neatly as Nathan does. It's unnatural.

"It does make sense." And there's something else that makes sense, when he thinks back to last night's set-up. "So. Demon?"

Nathan, there had to be a better way to bring that up.

[oncedevil]

It really is, and almost wrong, but there's bound to be a balance somewhere between them. Surely that is what's keeping the universe from imploding on itself from the wrongness of Nathan's too-neat pancake eating.

Though it probably shouldn't have, the question came as a bit of a surprise and Tony ends up in a fit of coughing from actually inhaled pancake. That's not how you eat them, Tony, slow down. He wanted to ask Nathan how he'd figured it out, but he was too busy coughing and the question was clear enough the moment he thought it.

Doppel Cesar chose a church, used holy water, and though he didn't know about the crucifix that was all more than enough to tip off what Tony was. After a few moments of coughing and clearing his throat, then drinking a small sip of orange juice to try to get his voice back. "...Yeah." Cough. There, that's better. "That's not a problem, is it?"

With how casually he asked the question it's hard to think that it would be.

[solvethepuzzle]

... Oops. That had been unintentional. Perhaps this hadn't been the best timing. He pauses in his eating while Tony composes himself.

"I'm sorry." An apology for the timing. That had been a little unfortunate. "No, it isn't a problem. Just a theory based on last night's set-up that I wanted to confirm."

[oncedevil]

It's what Tony gets for inhaling his food. This is a good reminder to eat more carefully. Not that he'll necessarily take it.

"S'all right," He murmurs between coughs. His own fault he knows it. "Yeah, he got word of it and figured out the holy water thing. Honestly I had no idea about it until he doused me the first time. Asshole." Grumbled into his plate. The next bite of pancake is eaten with much more care. No more choking.

[solvethepuzzle]

He just nods. Confirmation is legitimately all he'd been looking for. The word 'demon' certainly carries a lot of baggage, but it isn't something that Tony chooses to be. Nathan can't fault him for something he has no control over.

"He was . . . very misguided."

The double had surely thought that some measure of good would have come from achieving his ends, no matter the harm and distress they caused. He doesn't know what; he'd never gotten that answer. But that the double had known it would cause pain and continued regardless clearly suggests that he'd believed there to be benefit to it all.

[oncedevil]

It does, hence Tony's reluctance to voice it. Even vampires don't have as bad a rap, sure they drink blood and hunt humans for food but so many stories make them out to be dangerous and sexy that they're rather cool in comparison. Demons? Outright, unforgivable evil.

Tony would very much like to think he isn't inherently evil.

"Shit... you got that right."

Probably putting it mildly, honestly, but there wasn't a point in dragging his name through the dirt now. He wouldn't be showing back up to cause them any more problems. Not that Tony really felt like bringing up that either.

[solvethepuzzle]

For all that he has a tendency toward innocent bluntness, Nathan prefers to put things mildly if he can. To minimize negativity. He even glosses over his father's actions on the very rare occasions that he speaks of the man.

"Unfortunate business all around, really."

[oncedevil]

Tony is really the least intimidating demon, heck Nathan managed to intimidate him enough to make him run away. Most terrifying demon in the world, this one right here devouring his weight in pancakes.

"Mm, at least it didn't end as badly as it could. I'd really hate to be dead, promised L I wouldn't die on him you know. Can't be breaking promises."

It's true, he's promised L he's going to keep striving no matter how hard it gets.

[solvethepuzzle]

Nathan fails to understand how he'd managed to intimidate anyone -- human, demon, or whatever else. He's such a fragile, tiny thing who probably needs to devour his weight in pancakes, but won't.

"Yes, it could have been much worse."

He'd prefer not to think of the way the double had wanted things to play out.

[oncedevil]

Tony, like Nathan, has a past of violence and trauma. A person expressing rage at him is likely to frighten him away just as someone expressing aggression makes Nathan shut down. Different methods but similar reasons. Even if Tony was capable of breaking him before he turned into a demon, he never would.

"After that I think I need a good cartoon marathon. After sleep, you want in?"

Cartoons make everything better. He doesn't want to think too hard about how it could have played out, he just wants to forget Cesar's melted face. Horrific.

[solvethepuzzle]

He'd only had a small glimpse of that awful sight before turning away. Perhaps trying to scrub it from his mind before his feelings switch back on is a good idea.

"Okay."

[oncedevil]

Thank goodness, that was bad. The smell was even worse, though Nathan didn't have the nose to pick it up like Tony did. He would be more than happy to never encounter a man melting by acid ever again.

But yes, cartoons. A nap, and then cartoons.

"Sounds good."