3345/Culinary Carnage

Culinary Carnage
Date of Scene:	07 November 2015
Location:	New York-199999
Synopsis:	Saturday breakfast doesn't turn out like it should have.
Cast of Characters:	20, 857

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Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Waking up in the weekends is a nice feeling, really. No lessons, most of the multiverse seems quiet and she can get up when she wants. Still, it's not too late when Toph rolls out of bed with a mighty yawn.

    "It's 8.30 am, Miss Beifong. Miss Potts is away on a meeting, and Mister Stark is still asleep," Jarvis intones from a speaker in the wall, helpful as always. "All right, I'll make some breakfast for myself then." If Tony's asleep right now, it means he was probably up late working on something. Maybe he'll be awake for lunch later. Either way, she'll be a good daughter and be quiet. It seems the Union channel is quiet as well, so after some brief chatter she heads on out to the kitchen, still clad in her pjs, her hair still a massive mess like it is before she's combed and put it up into its usual hair bun.

    While there are some things she can't do in the kitchen, the determined teenager does know how to prepare some things, and soon enough she's well underway in preparing some bacon and eggs as the day begins in sunny Malibu. This might just be a nice and quiet day where she can focus on her bending, who knows?

Eve (857) has posed:
Weekend. Weekend BREAKFAST. Bacon and eggs. Eve is vaguely aware of these things, or at least what all the words mean. Like so many things though, she's not exactly sure how the words fit together, or what the combination might result in.

    This, of course, has nothing to do with food. Well, little to do with food. Food is a necessary and not-unpleasant distraction from important things, as long as it's not ice cream. Ice cream isn't FOOD after all. And while she had all kinds of good food growing up, if perhaps not quite in the quantities needed for a growing girl who also expends abnormal amounts of energy with nanomachine manipulation, she was never spoiled for choice. She ate what she was given, which was what the servants were told was appropriate to the nutritional needs of a child. Is it any wonder Eve's first experience with hot dogs and ice cream were so eye-opening?

    Malibu is not exactly a shock to Eve's system, considering she's used to Sapidor. Well, to the air-conditioned indoors at least. Still it's winter, and it's not too hot nor the sun too intense for her overly-fair skin. A little scared, though trying not to show it, she approaches the estate. No doubt JARVIS will announce her.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    "Miss Beifong, your guest is here." Jarvis does indeed announce the girl, and Toph nods as she pops some more bacon into the pan. "Show her in, I'm busy with breakfast here."

    As Eve approaches the gates, they seemingly swing open of their own accord, and a calm, British voice can be heard from a nearby speaker. "Welcome, Miss Eve. Miss Beifong is currently in the kitchen preparing breakfast for the two of you. If you would be so kind to walk up to the main entrance I will guide you along the way." It's certainly a fancy place, that's for sure. Jarvis opens the front door for Eve, and the entire house seems to be rather quiet at the moment. Though when Eve enters the hallway she will hear Toph's voice call out from the nearby kitchen. "In here!"

    All in all, the kitchen looks like a mess. A bowl with eggs seems to be dripping, there's a pack of bacon that's mostly empty, and she's sliced some uneven slices of bread. Add in that she's sliced up an orange into boats, and she seems to have some stuff she has to clean up later.

    But the blind girl sounds like she's in a good mood as she raises her hand in greeting where she stands by the stove, not turning around. "Heya Evie, you got here just in time."

Eve (857) has posed:
    Eve looks around uncertainly at being addressed by name by an invisible thing. Well, maybe invisible. Maybe it's just speakers. She's not about to judge what's likely or even possible. She just thanks Jarvis and pads onwards to the kitchen as directed. The house... is both familiar to her and unfamiliar. Familiar in that she grew up in a mansion. Unfamiliar in that it's much more technological and has many MANY more windows. This pleases her.

    Eve peeks in, then advances on the older girl. "It was not difficult." she explains, peering about at all the mess. Were she the type, she'd probably tsk. Instead she just rolls her eyes and gets to work, with a deadpan comment "Just in time indeed." murmured almost under her breath. The dripping bowl gets set to rights quickly, and the bacon gets set in a somewhat less messy place. The bread... she can do nothing about. Not unless she wants to get nano-creative anyways.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Perhaps it's a good thing Toph can't see Eve rolling her eyes. And she doesn't mind Eve sorting the other stuff. "Hey, you mind making some scrambled eggs or something? There's spices and stuff in the cupboard over there," Toph points. "I think the bacon is nearly done too..." It certainly smells like it. "It's getting the right colour, Miss Beifong. I suggest taking it out before it gets burnt and inedible," Jarvis says overhead. "Yeah yeah, I hear you." Toph snorts slightly before she uses the spatula to move the pieces of bacon over onto a plate. It's... a lot of bacon.

    "So... you never got to eat proper weekend breakfast before, huh? That's a shame. Then again, I never got to eat food like this before I joined the Union either. Bacon isn't that popular in the world I come from," the blind girl explains.

Eve (857) has posed:
    "It must not be popular where I'm from either." Eve notes, feeling this is a fair enough statement. She doesn't really want to get into her bad situation, both because she's not seeking pity and because she doesn't want to berate Toph for not reading about it earlier. Well, she doesn't want to very much at least.

    "Scrambled eggs." Eve muses thoughtfully. Well, it's not like that's hard? She's read about them. Broken eggs and milk. How hard can it be? She's uncertain about the spices, but figures that's something she can work out as she goes along.

    Eve's a bit worried that Jarvis appears to be an actual disembodied voice AND can see the colour of Toph's bacon. That suggests a real invisible person rather than someone speaking through house speakers. But if Toph's not concerned she isn't about to show worry!

    A shame the eggs are already broken and set in a bowl. Eve's confident about her ability to crack eggs. She's... less confident about her ability to add milk or spices in appropriate quantities. Still, cereal has a cup or two of milk. Cereal is a breakfast thing. Milk's also good to drink for breakfast, and THAT at least she's had plenty of. And these eggs are meant for a large breakfast! So... two cups of milk added to the bowl of eggs it is. Or maybe a bit more. This IS for two people after all. Now... spices. Spices. "What kind of spices do you prefer?" she asks casually.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Satisfied with the bacon, Toph adds some more butter to the pan so Eve can use it for the scrambled eggs next. And well, perhaps if she could see, then she would know just how much milk Eve is adding. Another person, or rather, AI, does see it however...

    "Miss Eve, the scrambled eggs will be rather runny with that much milk in them. Might I suggest you remedy it?" Jarvis sounds as calm as ever, fortunately. While he's no chef, he does have access to a great deal of knowledge.

    The question regarding spices does make Toph narrow her eyes. "Hmmm, some pepper and salt? Pepper always adds some cloves and basil too when she's cooking. What matters is that it's not raw or burnt, really..." she shrugs, then walks over to butter up the slices of bread. "What do you want to drink for breakfast? We have juice, smoothies, iced tea, milk, tea..."

Eve (857) has posed:
    Remedy the problem. Hmmm. Eve peers at the eggs, considering. How to solve the problem? Well, she could always add more eggs. That would rebalance the situation. Possibly. She's a bit distraught about having messed up, but makes haste to solve the situation appropriately.

    Adding eggs seems a wasteful solution, even assuming there are any to add. But there's bread! Bread is very spongey, and can soak up all kinds of things. Right? Eve scans Toph's bread slices, and picks out the least-even of them. A couple of quick handblade-slices, and she's carved off a little excess grain product, leaving rather properly even slices behind. The shaved excess gets dumped into the scrambled egg bowl. There, totally not runny. Of course she probably should have added the bread AFTER mixing the egg and milk combination. As it stands the bread will disintegrate. But hey, it'll be yummy! And not at all runny, probably. Not bad for a mere second's worth of problem-solving thought!

    She's confused for slightly more than a second, however, when Toph speaks about adding pepper and Pepper adding cloves and basil. Pepper and Pepper. She figures it out though. Okay, pepper, salt, cloves and basil. What's added doesn't matter, right? Only how well the whole thing is cooked. Eve examines the spices, acquires the appropriate ones due to reading, and then applies them to the mixture. Hopefully not TOO much of anything. She tries to put even amounts of everything inside. That means few cloves, a reasonable amount of basil, somewhat too much salt, and WAY too much pepper. Oops.

    Eve peers at her mess, beginning to mix it up delicately. With a spoon, not with her nanomachines. THAT'S a lesson she's learned! No getting fingers gooey. Cutting bread is fine, but mixing eggs isn't. "I think we have enough milk." she says cryptically. And of course they have orange wedges, so juice is fine. "Tea, I think." she says carefully.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    There, the bread slices are done and buttered, so Toph moves over to the fridge to open it and grab some juice for herself while Eve prepares the scrambled eggs. "Is green tea okay?" Toph asks when Eve gives her reply.

    The whole pan is starting to look rather... unique. The bread is indeed dissolving in all the milk and eggs, and parts of the dish looks black from the pepper applied. It does look somewhat less horrendous after being mixed, with some bread pieces bobbing in the milk as it begins to boil. And it begins to smell a bit...

    Trust the blind girl to notice that, at least. She sniffs the air, making a face. "Make sure you don't burn it, mix the eggs so they don't get stuck," she says. Still... that doesn't smell like burnt eggs, does it?

    Water is boiled, and Toph prepares two large mugs with green tea and honey, and then she pours two glasses of orange juice. "So anyway, what do you think of the house? Been living here for one and half year now. There's a beach outside, and we also have the chocobos there."

Eve (857) has posed:
    Eve nods to Toph's question, either forgetting she's blind or assuming she can 'see' the gesture just fine. She takes care of the pan of 'scrambled eggs' as well, stirring the mass in a way that should keep it from burning any more than it already has. If it should turn black, well, chances are that's the pepper, or possibly the bread. It should probably taste just fine, as long as you like pepper anyways.

    Cooking is... interesting. It's like chemistry, Eve supposes. A subject which doesn't exactly fascinate her, but one that intrigues her nonetheless. Like many subjects, admittedly. She has a bit of an odd perspective. And, in that vein... "I like the windows." Eve replies pleasantly. The luxury of the Malibu beach house, the exclusivity of the location and the private beach... nope. It's the wall-sized windows that pleases the girl most. She stares out the windows, likely forgetting to stir the eggs while she does so, at least until she smells something charring or is reminded.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    "Good to hear that somebody likes the view!" Toph grins. "Well, Goldie and Pepper like the view, but eh, when you've never seen one sunset you've never seen them all," she adds with a shrug. "Since the nearest neighbours are far away it's not like we have to worry about people staring in through the windows either. Are you staying at Njorun nowadays?" It's something Toph remembers quite well, her own little place at Njorun that she only stayed at for some months before she just... happened to spend more and more time here until she officially joined the Stark family.

    "How's the eggs looking? Almost done?"

Eve (857) has posed:
    Toph's humor is somewhat lost on Eve, or at least she doesn't react to it. She's fairly sure the earthbender's making a joke, but she figured it out intellectually rather than as something that'd provoke a laugh. Humor is one of those things likely to give her some trouble for a long time yet.

    "I'm staying... at my old home. In Sapidor." Eve admits. She doesn't own the property, but she's probably got the best claim on it now. Besides, she's chased off any criminals who would try to claim the place. The authorities aren't about to involve themselves, and if they do the Union needs exert trivial pressure only to legally recognize Eve's unofficial claim. The servants don't return, of course. No one to pay them. "There's not many windows." she explains disparagingly. Yep, windows definitely seem a thing for this girl. And it's not like she objects to Njorun, but... well, her apartment there wasn't very nice, nor did it have a view. She just couldn't be comfortable. Probably says something that she returned somewhere she couldn't have been at all happy about, though.

    Eve starts, and turns her attention back to the eggs. "Hmmm." she says, prodding them with the flipper. "About done." she says dubiously. That is, they're a tiny bit runny in parts, somewhat scorched in others. Very colorful, but she's not sure cooking further will improve matters. She begins scooping eggs out, setting them onto a serving plate carefully. Seems like scrambled eggs to her... who is admittedly only familiar with them through the written word.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Man, Eve doesn't have any sense of humour, does she...? Toph sighs. "It's a joke, and you're supposed to laugh. It's okay, I joke about my blindness all the time."

    "It's true. Miss Beifong particularly enjoys making fun of her handicap."

    "See? Even Jarvis knows it by now," she adds and points up at the ceiling.

    "So what's Sapidor like? Wasn't that were you lived before you joined us? And why not just have them add some windows if there aren't enough?" she suggests. Windows aren't exactly something she cares much for herself, except to open them to get some fresh air inside. Since the eggs are done however, Toph helps Eve with getting the plates ready, and then she carries the tea and juice over to the seats by the kitchen island. "Man, I'm starving..." she says, then moves into her seat and picks up her fork, using it to poke at the eggs. Which immediately makes her blink. "Eh... they feel a bit runny...?" she says, arching an eyebrow. Though she does scoop up some of the less runny parts and stuffs it into her mouth...

    A loud sound leaves Toph as she abruptly spits the food out, her eyes wide and tearing up as runny eggs drip down her chin. "WHAT THE CRUD?!" It's followed by some rough coughing as she leans over and reaches for her juice.

Eve (857) has posed:
    Eve laughs dutifully. Of course it sounds absolutely terrible and fake, but she's at least trying. Forcing humor generally doesn't work out that well... either you find something funny or you don't.

    Eve nods. "Sapidor is... I don't know how to describe it. Perhaps you should visit." she suggests. "It's home to me though, and I can get to Njorun easily, so there's no reason to let the villa go to ruin." she says. "As for windows... hm. I'm not sure if I could do that myself. Perhaps I should hire carpenters." she says. Or perhaps she should have the covered-over roof construction, long abandoned, done over in a skylight. That would be nice. And perhaps it should be done before hurricane season.

    She considers this, weighing options, calculating finances versus her expenses and the purchases she also wants to make... mostly books. She continues doing so until Toph begins to cough. She blinks in surprise, spears some eggs, tastes them. She makes a face, but her mouthful is small enough that she doesn't break into a teary-eyed coughing fit. "Hmmm. Too spicy?" she suggests. She's not really sure. Having never had scrambled eggs and bacon, at least not in this particular weekend breakfast fashion, she isn't sure what to expect.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    "Yeah, we'll get to working on that," Toph says in a deadpan manner. "And yeah, I could visit that place... doesn't hurt getting to know more of the multiverse." Though she arches an eyebrow when Eve comments on carpenters. Seriously... is this girl for real? It's hard to imagine that there are other girls who have been more sheltered than what she herself was.

    For now though, Toph has enough problems with the overly salty and peppered food. Most of the mouthful is now on the tabletop in front of the blind girl, and she downs her juice glass before she grabs the buttered bread slice and stuffs it into her mouth, anything to get rid of that intense taste! Some tears are running down her cheeks at this point, and she's still coughing when Eve asks whether the food was indeed too spicy. "YOU THINK?!" She brings her hand up in front of her mouth, and she spits some more. "Ugh... just how much salt and pepper did you add? Haven't you made food before?"

Eve (857) has posed:
    Eve would like to show off her home. It's a nice little banana republic, though the city's rather modern compared to the rest of the nation. It's generally hot, hotter than Malibu, and fairly civilized. But her home... well, it's a bit of a wreck considering the state MORDRED and the others left it in when raiding the place for advanced weapons plans. Fortunately, Eve simply doesn't need to live in the damaged parts of the estate. She prefers the few places with, you guessed it, windows.

    "You don't need to be sad, Toph." Eve says gently, mistaking the tears. "I just... haven't made eggs and bacon. Remember?" she asks, rather defensively. She hasn't actually COOKED before either. She can prepare food, and has done so on a few occasions. But anything that doesn't come out of a package and a microwave, or requires more than one bowl or pan with specific timing and instructions... is a bit beyond her experience. Even if she HAS read cookbooks.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    If she wasn't coughing and trying to breathe, Toph could so correct Eve. After a few seconds she does push herself upright in her seat however, and she focuses on breathing. "These... are not eggs anymore," she states, then prods at them with her fork. "How did you get them so soggy and runny at the same time? And you're just supposed to add a little salt and pepper! Even I know that, and I suck at cooking!" Toph clearly states with a huff. Great, breakfast is ruined.

    "I'm so not eating this crud," she grumbles, then grabs the plate and heads on over to the garbage can. "Let's go to Ihop instead, come on." They can clean up this mess later.

Eve (857) has posed:
    Eve looks down at her eggs, considering the question. "I... added milk." she finally decides. Yes, that's why they're soggy. And possibly why they're runny. "And how much is 'a little'?" she asks in honest curiousity. Seems she honestly doesn't know. She's never used spices. Eaten them, sure, but never added them. She's fairly sure black is not an appropriate color for scrambled eggs, but it's only black in PLACES!

    She shrugs, and sets down her fork after trying some more of the bacon. It's good. Actually, it's really good. Much better than the eggs... she's forced to admit. "I suppose... we could try again?" she offers. Now that she knows not to use so much salt and pepper. And milk. Ahem. And probably bread, come to think of it, though she knows milk plus eggs plus bread is supposed to be good too...

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    "Obviously too much milk," Toph mutters. Though when Eve suggests they try cooking again? The blind girl shudders. "Nope. It's too early in the morning, and you don't want me teaching you to cook. I'm an earthbending teacher, and besides, my teaching style doesn't apply to the kitchen." If she tried that, then Pepper would have a fit.

    "Why don't you wait here while I go get dressed," she suggests, then heads out to the hallway and towards her room. So much for a quiet breakfast and lazying about at home.

Eve (857) has posed:
    Eve should probably be offended by that shudder, but she says nothing. She scowls at Toph's back however. Cooking should be easy! She's read about cooking. Admittedly she's never read how to make scrambled eggs, not a recipe at least, or she'd have done better. Probably. She just had a few fragments from books that mentioned the foodstuff, not actual instructions. With proper instructions, she's sure she can do fine! She'll make Toph EAT HER WORDS! Or at least her breakfast.