( open-ish )

[tenminutes]

WHO: House A and/or visitors
WHERE: House A Kitchen
WHEN: Dinner time
WHAT: NPC!Yuri decides to try her hand at making dinner for the house. Family dinners are normal after all. Also getting turned back to normal, but this is open so more than one person may reply!
WARNINGS: Bad cooking.

[ Anyone in House A might have been a little confused about the cheerful humming coming from the kitchen, clearly from the only girl in the house. As a matter of fact, she's humming as she puts a layer of cake on the window sill to cool off. Yuri turns around and wipes off the counter off with a cloth to get excess flour off of the surface, then brushes her apron off and goes to start cooking something else.

That something else would be boiling vegetables in plain water for probably longer than they should be. And mixing ingredients together to make fresh udon noodles (flour, salt, water), then when it gets firm after only a bit of kneading she pushes in the parts that are sticking out and gets a bit of water to smooth out the surface. Time to roll it out with a rolling pin, so she tosses a little more flour on top and starts trying to roll the dough, which keeps sticking to the rolling pin despite that she put flour on so she just adds some more flour... more and more flour until it's not sticking and she's putting all of her body weight in to try to roll it out. Vegetables still boiling.

Once she gets it flat enough (there are only a couple of ten tears or so) she takes a knife and starts cutting it into thick strips. (Too thick? Nah, no way. It's more noodle flavor.) Even though it's supposed to sit for hours, dinner's much sooner, so she just puts the noodles in the same pot as the vegetables. No point in wasting water, they're going together anyway.

That said, most of what she could find in her trip to the convenience store was soy sauce and dried spices, so she just starts putting about a tablespoon of everything into the boiling pot and about half a bottle of soy sauce. More spices is more flavor. Yuri prods at the noodles with chopsticks like she's trying to test if they're done.

..Someone should probably 86 this whole situation. ]

Comments

[onewayroad]

[The smell of something weird, herby, and possibly revolting wafting from the kitchen makes Accelerator stop, narrow his eyes in a squint, and pull an unpleasant face, as if having just caught wind of something worth avoiding. It's not enough to make him gag, but it's clear that whatever is cooking is questionable, which sucks since his last meal was a while ago. Schooling his features back to his usual neutrality, he pokes his head in looks around for the culprit.

Of course it's her. Unless Hinata secretly was a cooking type, he didn't expect it to be anyone else. He watches for a couple moments before leaning against the inside of the doorway with arms crossed.]

What exactly are you trying to do?

[tenminutes]

[ Yuri turned to look at Accelerator after he spoke, holding up a wood spoon that's covered in little bits of broccoli that floated off of the already overboiled vegetables. ]

I'm making dinner!

[onewayroad]

It may look like that, but it sure doesn't smell like it.

[tenminutes]

It's just because there's different things cooking at the same time, it'll be fine once it's done!

[onewayroad]

Forgive me for being skeptical.

[sighs and pulls away from the doorway to head over, not liking the smell of things. This calls for an investigation. If this is something he'd rather not subject his stomach to, he'd rather know in advance.]

That many spice bottles on the counter doesn't look promising.

[tenminutes]

[ Because of how many spices are in the water, it mostly just looks like a grayish-brown fog with the occasional vegetable or noodle peeking out. ]

It's extra flavorful, that's all.

[onewayroad]

Extra "flavorful," huh?

What's it supposed to be?

[He does get a good look at the murky dark spice fog in the water, but that's not enough to crank up the alarms. Not to Accelerator, someone whose only experiences with home cooking he can remember are from the last few months of memories. No, it just comes off looking... heavily spiced. He wrinkles his nose and turns toward the spice bottles he'd been looking at before the top of the pot caught his attention. Geez, some of these together just seem... ugh.]

[tenminutes]

Udon, obviously.

[ Her basic logic on the spices was Spice A goes with Spice B and Spice B goes well with Spice C, therefore Spice C should go well with Spice A no matter what-- except with all of the spices, further corrupting the line of flavor the further down the line she went. ]

[onewayroad]

[narrows his eyes at a bottle of something that clearly shouldn't go in udon]

There's this thing called sticking to the standard recipe. [flicks his gaze over toward Yuri now.] Maybe you've heard of it.

[tenminutes]

There wasn't a recipe, and when you're cooking-cooking, it's all about the heart!

[ Not that her heart's really in it either.. ]

[onewayroad]

[Such a :| face.]

You could've looked one up.

Anyway, sorry, but give my share to the idiots. I'm not hungry.

[This is the perfect moment for his stomach to let loose a small, low gurgle.]

For udon. Not hungry for... udon.

[His eyebrow twitches.]

[tenminutes]

I can pick the noodles out and you can just have vegetables then, or I can make you something else.

[ If she wasn't NPC'd, he'd probably be able to easily conclude that she was trying to torture him. ]

[onewayroad]

Don't bother. I'll find something myself.

[No no no no absolutely not. Without seeing others safely eat her cooking, he refuses to so much as stick a utensil into a meal prepared by her.]

[tenminutes]

Nonsense, if I've already got this it's almost ready so you shouldn't worry about it!

[onewayroad]

[He was about to go looking in the cupboards and refrigerator of the kitchen to see what was actually already here, but at that line he flashes daggers at her, lip curling as he points emphatically in his reply:]

Listen when people fucking say something. Don't. Bother.

[He knows he can't expect much from an NPCed Yuri, someone who's simply obeying what little personality has been programmed into her, but that doesn't mean he can't find it annoying. With a small sigh, he turns to start looking through the (probably) mostly kitchen's storage.]

[tenminutes]

[ Yuri tenses at that, seeming to actually show some recognition of him being intense for once instead of her usual attitude about him glaring. ]

Fine, fine. I won't do you any favors.

[onewayroad]

[The cupboards are mostly barren aside from a few random ingredients that aren't suitable for a quick fix of some sort. he makes a small sound of annoyance as he closes yet another cupboard door and turns to glance at her over his shoulder.]

I've never been big on favors anyway, so it's just as well.

[tenminutes]

I used most of the ingredients already here though.

[ You might have to go out to save yourself from this one. ]

[onewayroad]

Just as well. Not much of it would have interested me, if it's the sort of shit that goes in udon.

[yep, looks like that's his only option. he closes the last cupboard after a quick visual scanning of the shelves and heads for the doorway out of the kitchen.]

Try not to give everyone food poisoning while you're at it.

[tenminutes]

I won't! It's not going to be horrible!

[ She's still stubborn, even as an NPC.. ]

[onewayroad]

Right, I believe you so much.

[His final words over his shoulder as he heads out. jfc Yuri.]

[violined]

[ Kohaku had been hiding out in his room most of the time past getting de-NPCed, not really ready to face people head-on when he didn't even know who he was. Still, it was kind of impossible to constantly avoid people in the house so he gradually gave up on that, making his housemates an involuntary circle of trust.

Passing by the kitchen, he can't help and wonder what this girl is doing inside. His normal self can cook pretty well, but without any concrete memories only a general feeling for it remains. He enters to take a peek inside her pot. ]

Looks kind of messy.

[tenminutes]

I'm trying..

[ She didn't really remember her previous cooking disasters, only having her NPC false life inside of her right now. ]

I haven't taken home ec yet, but it looks okay, doesn't it? Just because it's a little messy doesn't mean it won't taste good!

[ No, the fact that you're doing horrible things is what makes it taste bad. ]

[violined]

[ There is a long moment of doubtful silence in response as he continues to study the contents of the pot. ]

I don't even fucking know if I've ever taken home ec, but what I wonder is if those aren't... too many spices?

[ He has a feeling there is more that is off but not even having an NPC life to look back on, how can he be sure? ]

[tenminutes]

How do you not know?

[ She definitely doesn't get the whole amnesia thing. Hell, even if he explains it, if she's still an NPC it won't really even matter the next day. ]

It just adds extra flavor.

[violined]

Because I don't remember anything more than three days ago, ugh. We've been over this. Maybe your memory's suffered a bit as well, huh?

[ Meanwhile memoryless Kohaku is still not entirely understanding how NPCs work. And how much he hates them. ]

Have you ever tried any of that mess to check how it tastes?

[tenminutes]

My memory's just fine!

[ Why does she sound proud about that? ]

I tried the vegetables. [ Before she put them in. ]

But the water's boiling hot, I can't try it now.

[violined]

Don't be a coward, if you cool a spoon down a little that should work.

[ And to prove he is not a coward, he is now looking around for a spoon. His situation can't get worse than it already is by trying some over-spiced food, right? ]

[tenminutes]

You try it then. I don't like things that are too hot. I was going to let it cool before serving it.

[violined]

[ There's a spoon. Looking inside the pot before taking out a spoon full, Kohaku already kind of regrets this choice. What a pointless thing to do.

He only waits a short moment for it to cool down and maybe that's good because burning your mouth at the same time as tasting something at least kind of distracts from the taste. Not enough. ]

Wha--- I'm not even sure 'flavour' is the word for this anymore!!

[tenminutes]

It can't be that bad! You're just distracted because it's too hot!

[violined]

If it's already this... taste intensive when I'm 'distracted' then I'm not sure I wanna know the real taste!

[tenminutes]

Well heat makes flavors stronger so once it cools down it'll be fine!

[violined]

You have an explanation for everything, huh...

[tenminutes]

It'll be fine.

[ She seems very determined about that.. ]

[violined]

If people start breaking down around dinner table, don't ask why.

[tenminutes]

I won't have to ask why because it won't happen.

[violined]

Dinner will be full of suspense today....

[ Indicating that yeah, he might actually show up for the finished dish just to see how it goes. ]

[tenminutes]

[ It almost looks like something just moved inside the boiling water.. A swamp monster perhaps.. or just the imagination..? ]

It'll be fun.