A problem with food (Tag: Any one but particularly Karolina)

[princeoftarnax]

If anything was clear to Xavin it was that she was not familiar with earth customs. It had taken her several hours to realize what the refrigerator functioned as, and still longer to find something remotely edible.

Oddly enough, she found a very desirable food known as "Cheez-its" behind the refrigerator. Why one would put Cheez-its in such a

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[burningpainting]

Karolina made a face at the Cheez-It box. Growing up, she hadn't eaten much in the way of processed junk foods. Vegan diets didn't leave much room for snacks of questionable content (or cheese!) so she'd never acquired the taste for them.

"I'm beat," she confessed, fishing out an assortment of veggies. "But we finally got the last of those crashed shuttles out of the sidewalk. Spiderwoman had to boot a coupla homeless guys out of one. Would you grab me the wok from that cabinet? It'll be the big, shallow bowl looking thing with an extension cord."

Between the happy accomplishments of the day and her natural confidence in the kitchen, Karolina was beginning to slip into dictator-mode. Luckily her friends had always respected her meals enough to let it slide. But then, they'd also accepted that she wouldn't (or couldn't) cook meat. She paused in the act of washing a head of broccoli and looked over at Xavin, who was sorting through the appliances.

"Is vegetarian stuff 'agreeable'?" she asked tentatively. "I mean, I make a pretty good veggie-stirfry, but I'd understand if you wanted something with meat."

[princeoftarnax]

Xavin discerned which item was the "wok" and offered it to Karolina. "I am sure I will like whatever you make." She said, admiring Karolina's cooking skills. Xavin had, not surprisingly, never learned how to cook.

[burningpainting]

"Thanks," she said, taking the wok and plugging it into the wall to preheat. "But if you don't like it, that's cool. Don't force yourself. Vegan food isn't for everybody. I couldn't eat meat now even if I wanted to, I'm just not used to it."

Sometimes she wondered if Majesdanians as a whole were vegetarian, or if it was just a quirk her parents had picked up on Earth. Nevertheless, she was surprisingly anxious to be cooking for Xavin. It felt oddly intimate (which was ridiculous; she cooked for everyone all the time!), and they hadn't seen or spoken much to each other in the past week. Karolina wasn't sure how she'd take it if Xavin didn't like the food.

Oh God, stop being so dramatic, she scolded herself as she chopped vegetables with more force than was really necessary, You can't possibly take food preference as a rejection!

[princeoftarnax]

Xavin watched Karolina prepare the food intently. Truthfully she couldn't compare earth cooking with Skrullos cooking. It struck her that really, she didn't know as much about her own culture as she should. Things like cooking never seemed important before, and now it was too late to find out about it.

[burningpainting]

The vegetables went first, sizzling in canola oil, ginger and garlic. Karolina stirred them around until their colors began to pop out, brighter and more vibrant than before. The rice noodles, which she'd been soaking in a bowl nearby, were quickly added. The whole thing took only ten minutes to fry up, quick and easy.

"Okay!" she declared triumphantly as she poured the noodley mass back into the now empty bowl. "Normally I'd make you eat this with chopsticks, but I think that might be a little advanced, so stick with a fork." Still, she fished around in the silverware drawer until she found a pair of plastic chopsticks for herself, most likely stolen from a P.F. Chang's somewhere. She served up two bowls and slid one along the counter to Xavin, deftly pinching a moutfull of noodles and an ear of baby-corn between her utensils.

[princeoftarnax]

Xavin poked the noodles with the fork and managed to snath some. She lifted the fork to her mouth and leaned forward to eat it when the noodles fell back down into the bowl. She frowned and glared at the noodles, poking them some more until they were trapped on the fork. This time she managed to slurp a few down while the rest fell into the bowl.

[burningpainting]

"Here," Karolina giggled, leaning forward to take Xavin's fork. "It helps if you twirl them a bit," she demonstrated, easily maneuvering the fork between her thumb and forefinger, winding the noodles around the tines. "That should work."

[princeoftarnax]

Xavin smiled. "Thank you." She ate the noodles on the fork, then imitated Karolina's demonstration and succeeded at capturing the noodles. "These are good."

[burningpainting]

"I'm glad you like them," Karolina beamed. "I take it there isn't really anything similar in Skrull cuisine? Or do you guys just not have fork-like utensils?"

It was kind of hard to imagine a world in which nothing edible was noodle-shaped. Plenty of cultures on earth didn't use forks (observe, her chopsticks), but most had noodly things.

[princeoftarnax]

"No, there are similar foods, but this- fork- is unfamiliar." Xavin twirled the fork in the noodles again and took another bite. She smiled. Karolina was talented, she more than compensated for Xavin's own lack of culinary skills.

[burningpainting]

"Really?" Karolina tilted her head to the side as she slurped up another tangle of noodles. She'd always thought chopsticks were kind of silly, if very cool. The fork just made the most sense; it was a tiny, three-pronged spear. "What do you use?"

She hoped discussing little bits of Skrull culture wouldn't be upsetting. The whole situation felt like tapdancing on eggshells. Luckily, she could fly.

[princeoftarnax]

"It is round and-" Xavin opened the drawer Karolina had taken the fork from. "Remarkably like that." She pointed at the spoon. "But usually we don't use utensils." They were a race of shapeshifters, practically anything was a "finger food."

[burningpainting]

That sounded an awful lot like a spork to her. Somehow the idea of the spork as the intergalactic utensil of choice cheered her immensly.

"If you ever get nostalgic for home cooking," she offered carefully, "We can try to reproduce some of the stuff you're used to. Some of the things my parents taught me to make must be similar to food they ate on Majesdane."

((Sorry for the radio silence; midterms hammered hard. I am one big mental bruise.))

[princeoftarnax]

"Thank you," Xavin said. "But I have no idea how Skrullos food is prepared." She twirled more of the noodles. "Besides, I prefer this food." Which was surprisingly the truth, perhaps because Karolina had made it for her, or perhaps Xavin simply never paid much attention to food before.

((You need say no more))

[burningpainting]

She blushed, grateful she had her glow to hide it. Xavin might not even have meant it as a compliment. Sometimes it was hard to tell, she could be so straightforward.

"I'm glad," she said instead, "Since you'll probably be eating a lot of it in the future."

And you can take that however you want.

((*crawls onto the nearest soft surface and enters a comatose state*))