cetrary: famira (QaqqmP1)
Aerith Gainsborough ([personal profile] cetrary) wrote in [community profile] aterat2022-06-25 01:47 am

It's a Watts party! (Just don't tell him)

Who; Aerith + YOU
What; Potluck party
Where; Gray building's downstairs common room
When; Sunday June 26th; after 4pm
Warnings; None


Aerith co-opted the common room of the gray building starting on Saturday when she began the process of decoration. The most important part of any decoration (especially for Watts) was the flowers and Aerith had put together a few center pieces for tables. Each flower that she'd chosen had symbolized friendship in some way and they were set up in the center of small tables that had been brought inside. Of course she wasn't the one that moved those tables, she had a trust bodyguard for things like that, but she did the decorating!

And the cooking! The main attraction was a pretzel bar in the center of the room. Please, thank Cloud for bringing it in and Jacob for making the pretzel rack at Aerith's request. The soft pretzels were premade and there were plenty for everyone who may come through to have several (if not more). In addition to that there were also several dipping sauces to choose from including cheese, caramel, cinnamon sugar, honey mustard, and a spicy ginger sauce with chili flakes (eat at your own risk).

A table next to it had Materia Xiaolongbao. Yellow is crab flavor, black is soybean, blue is pork, green is cilantro, and red is spicy shrimp. Next to those are tiny moogle sweet bean buns. They fit in the palm of your hand but some of the moogles look...a lot better than others. She did her best!

There was another table with a few drinks set up for people to grab including a materia bomb cocktail with a bit of alcohol and different flavored materia ice (peach, strawberry, and blueberry) and bright green bubble tea with pop bubbles in the bottom. The green tea is flavored like something very different than one might expect it to be, it's a bit bit bitter and yet also a bit sharp, almost biting. It's meant to be the flavor of wind, whatever that's supposed to be. The pop bubbles are extremely sour and explode in the mouth with the sourness. The drink is also somehow fizzy, don't ask how.

A third table was empty save for the friendship bouquet at it's center. There was a little handwritten note on the table saying:

Leave your dishes here! Complete with a heart.


Aerith herself can be found wandering around and paying close attention to the drink table, making sure to run back to the kitchen quickly to grab more drinks if they run low.

OOC: Feel free to use this log as an open thing for anyone to mingle and get to know each other. Characters are welcome even if they didn't bring a dish themselves, but the more dishes the better! Anyone is welcome to come even if they didn't know she was throwing this party, it'd be pretty obvious that there was something going on in the Gray Building and she'll be leaving the door open with a small table that has a friendship flower bouquet on it. Please have some fun!
castoredux: (shinji_018)

[personal profile] castoredux 2022-07-05 04:48 am (UTC)(link)
Even considering the point of this exercise, Shinjiro hadn't expected Mitsuru to come. While it was meant to bring the community closer together, it wasn't a business meeting. Granted, he couldn't really criticize her anymore than he could himself. He didn't fit in here, either. He was pretty good at keeping people at bay, usually (though that was proving to be inaccurate today), but Mitsuru didn't know how to intimidate people into leaving her alone.

And what's more, he actually participated. He hadn't expected that. He watched as she left the dish she'd prepared at the table, and waited until she wandered away slightly to check it out. His eyebrows raised when he noted what it was, and smiled to himself. It was singed at the edges, but she'd done her best. He honestly hadn't known Mitsuru knew how to cook at all. Being burned slightly didn't necessarily ruin honey toast's flavor anyway.

It didn't here, either. It was actually pretty good and he walked in her direction, looking to tell her just that when she turned suddenly into him and he touched her shoulder briefly to let her know it was him.

"Don't worry about it." He glanced back toward the table before looking back to her. "You brought honey toast." He didn't sound surprised. "It was good." And that wasn't even a lie.
bufus: (mitsurukirijo2_5)

[personal profile] bufus 2022-07-06 02:40 am (UTC)(link)
Had it been anyone else she would have tensed at the touch, but she knew Shinjiro too well for a reaction like that. In fact, her reaction ended up being the exact opposite: she relaxed a bit. Though, not nearly as much as one might expect someone to relax at a party. Mitsuru was used to gatherings with elderly business men in a world where every movement could be seen as an answer to unspoken challenges. A simple gathering like this was an unheard of endeavor and somehow it was much more stressful than she'd have thought.

The briefest hint of a smile tugged at her lips and she ducked her head down at his observation. "It was all I trusted myself to make." Despite her tone implying that she was joking she actually wasn't. It'd taken her far longer than she would have ever admitted to think of what to bring. She'd thought of a few other popular desserts, like mochi, but in the end she'd figured those were far too advanced. There would be absolutely no way she could make those without completely messing up and ending up with nothing to show for it. Honey toast at least promised she'd have something to bring unless she completely burnt it beyond salvage.

"Was it?" she tilted her head clearly not quite certain if she believed him. "It was nothing compared to the things others brought."
castoredux: (shinji_026)

[personal profile] castoredux 2022-07-06 10:49 pm (UTC)(link)
"Shoulda mentioned you were comin'. Maybe...we could've done somethin' together." He rubbed the back of his neck self-consciously at even voicing such an idea, but she had expressed an interest in learning more about how people did things, and most people made their own food more often than not. It was way less expensive than eating out all the time, and usually it was also better for you.

He nodded. "Little burnt around the edges, but it was good, and it fit what Aerith was lookin' for. She wanted us to bring food from home. Not everybody got the memo."
bufus: (tumblr_f052a952fb94ef8f4ebea9eba8b7a647_)

[personal profile] bufus 2022-07-07 05:49 am (UTC)(link)
"I...saw you were cooking something for it. I didn't want to intrude." So, she'd set out to make something herself and come herself. Despite how incredibly awkward she'd felt about the entire thing. A small blush formed on her cheeks at his suggestion that she desperately tried to hide by looking over at her toast and then back again. "Together? That...probably would have been a much better idea." The blush stayed but a smile did touch her lips. "You know, perhaps you should have done that prior to you leaving us. We never did find another dorm mother and...well, needless to say none of us learned to cook. Though, I think Fuuka has been trying." With less than successful results. A lot of them just existed on instant ramen, or (in her case alone) food brought by personal chefs. Though, the food did lose something in the process of reheating it.

"This was the third batch..." And she'd still burnt them around the edges. At least he hadn't seen the first two attempts. That was...well...even the giant rats would probably avoid that. It was utterly humiliating how terribly burnt the first batch was. It could probably be thrown as a weapon. Luckily, hopefully, nobody would ever find the pieces she'd thrown away. She sighed. "To be honest, I wasn't even certain what to make with that criteria. Nothing that I would have eaten from home is within my abilities."
castoredux: (shinji_017)

[personal profile] castoredux 2022-07-10 12:27 am (UTC)(link)
"Maybe so." He shook his head, though, already knowing how that would have gone. He'd taken too much for granted for too long to have been that open. "And next time, we'll figure something out. Together." That was a promise he was more than willing to keep. "Ain't like Aki's around to throw his protein shit into everything, anyway." Which, to be honest, was exactly why he never cooked for Akihiko.

He smiled, though, encouraging. "Practice is how you get better at everything, Mitsuru, even cooking. I ain't anything special, though. Just watched a few cooking shows." Religiously. Every week. "Picked up a few things." And it's one of the few things he's intensely passionate about that isn't just protecting everyone.
bufus: (tumblr_inline_pkgpbyr1Qn1tqk132_100)

[personal profile] bufus 2022-07-11 07:43 am (UTC)(link)
A part of her had been slightly afraid he might take the statement in a negative way and her shoulders relaxed at his response. It was quite a relief that they were able to bring things up without the added tension and bitterness hidden behind it. Perhaps there really was something to be said about discussing things. She rubbed the bridge of her nose and shook her head. "He puts it in absolutely everything." It was...quite honestly a bit disgusting. "Would you believe he's even attempted to get me to try it?" Did he get threatened with an execution if he ever put it in her food? Perhaps. There was no way to prove it ever. Strangely though, she did find herself missing even that strange trait of her friend.

"Is that how practice works?" Does she sound completely serious? Yup. "I had no idea you watched those." Had he...hid it from them? But why?
castoredux: (Default)

[personal profile] castoredux 2022-07-15 02:30 am (UTC)(link)
"I really don't get what he thinks it'll solve. You can get plenty of protein by just, you know, eating."

And there it was, that awkwardness he'd been trying to avoid and failing miserably. Looking back, it seemed such a silly thing to hide from anyone, and yet he was embarrassed to admit it. In anything else, he didn't really care whether anyone thought he was good at something or not. They could fuck off for all he cared, but the food? It was something he wanted to do well, and something he feared judgement over. It left him wondering what people would think of it, and it was such a strange concern he simply defaulted to hiding it.

"Yeah, I, uh...I did it when you guys weren't around." He cleared his throat awkwardly, not sure how she'd take that, and shook his head. "I got a reputation, you know?" He scoffed. "Seems pretty stupid, thinkin' about it now."
bufus: (29547156exe3)

[personal profile] bufus 2022-07-16 05:33 am (UTC)(link)
"Your guess is as good as mine. Trying to discuss anything with him seems...fruitless after a while." There were some things that were simply better left dropped and this was one of them. After all, she'd had her hands full with trying to keep him from rushing into fight after he'd been injured. Trying to add that to the mix just wasn't worth it.

"You did it while we were out...? Did you really think any of us would judge you?" At least he recognized how foolish it seemed now that he was talking about it. "Thinking that much about your reputation is foolish."
castoredux: (♞ I'll face myself)

[personal profile] castoredux 2022-07-20 05:58 am (UTC)(link)
"Yeah, he's a stubborn bastard alright." And he's good at wearing a guy do, too, whenever he wanted things to go his way.

He knew she was right, of course, about the reputation and all of it. If he were completely honest, he was a little self-conscious about it, too. Did he care about weather or not his friends thought he was good at something? Maybe. He rubbed the back of his neck and cleared his throat. "I just didn't want all the questions." And maybe that was to keep them at a distance. He really had had his head up this ass the whole time he'd been back, hadn't he?

"I'm sorry. Maybe...I should've let you guys in more."
bufus: (mitsuruk28_2)

[personal profile] bufus 2022-07-20 11:36 am (UTC)(link)
"Something you both have in common." Perhaps something they all had in common when it come down to it. Some might claim she was rather stubborn herself, though she might argue. Then again, if she did argue, wouldn't that just prove the point that she was stubborn? What a circle to go in.

"What kind of questions did you suspect we might ask?" There was something vaguely irritating about the knowledge that he had ideas in his head about what they might ask or say about him watching cooking shows. Did he think they would have made fun of him? She let out a sigh and shook her head.

"We all could probably say that. But...I doubt anyone would have mocked you for enjoying cooking. If anything, it would have been helpful."
castoredux: (♞ I'll face myself)

[personal profile] castoredux 2022-07-26 04:56 am (UTC)(link)
"Eh, it ain't a big deal." When it came down to it, a lot of the things he'd made a problem weren't. Maybe things would have been different if he'd seen that sooner, though he'd sealed his fate long before he made the decision to protect Ken with his life. He'd been killing himself slowly for two years instead of letting his friends help him, out of a misguided need to protect them from himself.

Damn, he really had been an idiot. "And there ain't no changin' it, so don't worry about it."
bufus: (pic#15627750)

[personal profile] bufus 2022-07-26 06:21 am (UTC)(link)
"I suppose not in the grand scheme of it all." Strange how she could look back at it all and see each mistake they'd made every step of the way. Hindsight truly could be quite unfortunate. The even stranger thing was how odd she felt about this place in particular. There was no denying that she wanted to get back to her own world to handle the disaster her company had created. Yet at the same time this place seemed to offer second chances she never even fully realized she'd wanted.

"True. The only way here is forward." She turned her head to him and smiled. "Maybe that should start with you making up for having not cooked for us in the past?"
castoredux: (♞ Now that's actually funny)

[personal profile] castoredux 2022-07-27 12:43 am (UTC)(link)
She wasn't the only person to have put it that way. In fact, the host of this party had said the very same thing to him not a week ago. Taking advantage of the time given to you, looking forward instead of back, that really did seem to be the point of this place when all was said and done.

"That an order?" There was a very faint quality of playfulness in his voice, so little in fact if you didn't know him, you probably wouldn't notice it was there.
bufus: (29547156exe3)

[personal profile] bufus 2022-07-27 03:15 am (UTC)(link)
Was that...playfulness? It'd been quite a long time since she'd heard that from him. Well, she could counter that playfulness with a bit of her own. "More like a ...suggestion.
castoredux: (shinji_017)

[personal profile] castoredux 2022-07-30 04:01 am (UTC)(link)
"Oh, okay." He smirked slightly. "I'll take the suggestion under consideration."
bufus: (Default)

[personal profile] bufus 2022-07-30 04:33 am (UTC)(link)
"Only under consideration?" She sounded completely serious herself. "You do have a talent for being rather difficult. Don't you?"
castoredux: (♞ Now that's actually funny)

[personal profile] castoredux 2022-08-03 03:36 am (UTC)(link)
He chuckled at her reaction. "Yep." He was quiet for a moment, thoughtful, before adding, "tell you what. I'll put together some dishes we can work on, and I'll let you know. We can work on 'em together."
bufus: (pic#15627735)

[personal profile] bufus 2022-08-03 09:33 am (UTC)(link)
There was a hint of awkwardness in her smile that she tried to obscure by ducking her head down. "That sounds like an idea I can agree to."
castoredux: (shinji_058)

[personal profile] castoredux 2022-08-06 04:02 am (UTC)(link)
He nodded, clearing his throat and shoving his hands into the pockets of his trousers in lieu of his coat.

"Great. Then we've got a plan."

[OOC: Awkwardly cute end to this thread?]
Edited 2022-08-06 04:02 (UTC)