Accidental Valentine's Dinner

[the_fourteenth]

WHO: Open log for one and all
WHAT: Raidou is making you all dinner.
WHERE: Base cafeteria and commons
WHEN: Evening of Feb. 14th
WARNINGS: N/A

Everyone could use something nice after that kaiju fight, and what better than a real meal? It won't be easy to cook for so many people, but Raidou is willing to try. He makes sure to get permission to use the kitchen and the commons space, and recruits a few friends to help get it all together.

It's not an easy feat to get all the ingredients together, especially in the aftermath of a kaiju attack, so it won't be the most resplendent meal the Outsiders ever had. But if nothing else, he can make the broth and noodles for some ramen, and get as many vegetables together as he can to fill it out. It takes him several days to make what he hopes is enough, and hopefully no one raiding the fridges will take any of it in the meanwhile. He's not the world's greatest cook, but this surprisingly domestic devil summoner is good enough to make something delicious. It's not like Narumi was ever doing any of the cooking back home, so someone had to do it.

Early on Wednesday, everyone would have gotten a text saying that dinner will be at 1900 hours in the common area, and he comes straight home from school to work on putting it all together. Anyone is welcome to help cook or set the tables, and once it's ready, people can line up to get a bowl of their own to take. People are also welcome to bring their own food or drink if they have any they want contribute. Who's got dessert?

After dinner entertainment will be provided by Yuji Itadori, who has managed to find a small projector to use on the commons wall. All the tables and chairs will get rearranged to cram everyone in. Get close, okay? The first feature will be a comedy, and the second will be a horror movie.



OOC: Happy Valentine's Day, Outsiders. Raidou only just learned today what that is, whoops. If your character doesn't have any hot dates planned in a city recently smashed by monsters and tsunamis, then drop in a top-level comment, have a seat and enjoy some soup and some team bonding. Check up on your teammates after their first big battle.

Comments

Raidou Kuzunoha XIV | Devil Summoner | Everlight

[the_fourteenth]

▶001. Kitchen
[If you want to help in the kitchen, Raidou is busy stirring, chopping, and pouring, and you might have to try a few times to get his attention. In typical fashion, he gives a slight bow in apology for his rudeness, and is grateful for anyone who wants to help.]

Thank you. Whatever you'd like to do... just jump in.


▶002. Commons
[Of course, Raidou will be serving himself last, waiting for everyone else to get their fill first. By the time most people are finishing up, he's finally sitting down with his own ramen bowl.

He might not have had time to make dessert, but at the end of one table is what looks to be some Valentine's Day chocolates. Raidou got handed them by some girls at school, having no idea what it was all about, since he's about 30 years out from it ever becoming a thing in Japan. While he does have a sweet tooth, it seemed only right to share. A few still have cards attached, made out to his civilian name, Johei Narumi. Feel free to have some, or maybe tell him he's being rude to these lovely gifters!]


▶003. Movies
[Raidou can count on one hand how many movies he'd seen in his life before getting to Neo Tokyo. He's still getting caught up culturally, so a lot of the jokes sail right past him. While others are laughing, he just blinks a little.

It's not much different when it comes to the horror movie. Raidou is impervious to all these ridiculous attempts at scares. This boy is too cold for his own good. If someone near by him jumps or screams, he leans over and whispers quietly.]

... Was that really that surprising?

[This is not sarcasm. It's never sarcasm with him.]

003

[eyescar]

[ Yuji, for his part, also isn't that scared by the film - the horrors of reality far outpace anything that fiction could come up with. It means he ends up sitting beside Raidou, leaning back in his chair and sighing softly. ]

Maybe I should've tried to find Human Earthworm...

[ What a horrifying statement. ]

Are you enjoying it even a little, Johei?

[the_fourteenth]

[Raidou blinks at that title, trying to imagine that.

He looks back to the screen, thinking about it. It's always hard to tell with Raidou, with his neutral facade, if he's ever enjoy a lot of things. Two months in and no one here would have ever heard him laugh.]

... The story is interesting. But you could tell that ghost was going to be behind him...

[Jump scares have no effect on him.]

[eyescar]

[ It's a true romance story...

Nodding, Yuji lifts his hand and points. ]

You can tell who's gonna live, too. That person has all the traits of someone who won't die at all.

[ The 'Final Girl'. ]

[the_fourteenth]

Is that so?

[Raidou sounds a little surprised, since he has no genre savvyness to fall back on. But really, if this whole thing was supposed to be scary, it's not doing it for him. This is a guy who befriends all the weird spirits and cryptids of the world.

Also that ghost totally just killed that guy. Raidou nods.]

Ah. Well we knew it wasn't going to be him to survive this.

[eyescar]

He didn't even think to take a weapon with him.

[ What a dumbass! Yuji sighs, leaning back with a little pout. ]

These movies were more fun when I wasn't used to all the fighting and monsters.

[the_fourteenth]

He might not have able to have hurt it anyway.

[Not all humans can interact with spirits! Poor schmuck didn't know what he was getting himself into.

Raidou can agree to the latter, nodding. Even he's recognizing now he knows too much about this sort of stuff to enjoy a movie like this.

He watches for a few more moments, looking like he's trying to say something.]

Ah. Thank you for the gift earlier. I, um, wasn't prepared for this holiday, so I apologize for not having anything in return.

[eyescar]

[ Yuji nods; there has to be someone in the movies who can't handle the creatures so that other people can figure it out, right? That's how these things work.

He lets himself get drawn back into the film, only paying a little bit of attention to Raidou's discomfort - he's going to give the guy some space. When he speaks, though...

Yuji laughs, waving his hand. ]

It's fine, I wasn't expecting anything! I know Valentine's Day is normally for girls, but I wanted to do something anyway.

[the_fourteenth]

That's what I've heard. Then the boys' turn in a month, something like that?

[There are going to be people expecting it from him at school. Maybe he can say he got distracted by their impending graduation and forgot...]

They didn't have this in my time, but, I went to an all boys school anyway.

▶001. Kitchen

[blastedass]

Oy, Shashou. Where'd you put the carrots and potatoes?

[While he had intended to spend the post-kaiju battle recuperating, an alternation of rest and training, as well as writing down notes and reviewing the battle + talking with scientists, someone had another idea. How the hell does the stoic guy with zero emotion manage to piss him off guilt/challenge enough to pitch in for shopping and preparations?! Who knows. Either way, Bakugo's among the ranks enlisted to help. It's not like it's any different from Everlight being in charge of the soup kitchens after the tsunamis.]

Shashou! [Seems that finally got his attention. Bakugo's all glares when the summoner turns around to address the question. Ugh, formal bow and everthing.] Didja go deaf? Tch. Carrots. Potatoes. Where?

[He's already got a cutting board, knives, and bowls over at the table to start working on the roots once he gets their location. Just cause he helped procure them doesn't mean he saw where Raidou and Yuji put them away.]

[the_fourteenth]

Oh, I--

[Raidou rummages around the counter until he spots where the vegetables got covered up by a tossed kitchen towel. He brings the bowl to where Bakugo is standing and sets it down in front of him.]

Here. Sorry, I was-- focused.

[blastedass]

[Bakugo slides the bowl closer to him and pulls a carrot out to make sure they've been washed off first. At least that step was taken care of, so no yelling about that. Cause he would have.]

If you're gonna run this, you can't get distracted.

[Dinner Leader-san. And proceeds to make instant expert work on the carrot. It's like a fucking dicing machine.]

Did you hear back yet about whether we can eat the kaiju meat?

[the_fourteenth]

This is a group effort. I'm not in charge.

[Debatable. He doesn't want to be in charge, though. He turns to see the speed at which Bakugo is cutting, and blinks. It distracts him for a moment.]

Oh. Uh. I haven't, but to be honest, I'd rather not. They might look like orcas, but they're not.

[Orca is edible, sure. But kaiju? Not unless they were actually starving, thanks.]

[blastedass]

You and Gari Head came up with the entire thing.

[So he's expecting those two to lead the entire thing. If they can't (or don't want to) then let someone else take the reins! Group efforts are fine, but someone has to at least take the lead for stability sake!

Hey at least he didn't comment and then get yelled at, like Uraraka did.]

If it's not poisonous to eat, then it's food and we should treat it like that.

[He knows for damn sure they're not going to be eating those toxic sewer plants, because no. But in a place with food shortages and shit, if there's a surplus of meat from unknown origin, then they should at least test it and see if it's edible!

Besides, are kaiju really going to want to come to a place if they realize they're also on the fucking menu?]

[the_fourteenth]

I suppose... Then, just keep doing what you're doing.

[Those are orders enough, and Bakugo was getting them caught up fast.]

Ah... yes, but... [Well, he's right, even if Raidou loathed the idea.] I suppose we would have to check with LILITH and see if they tested it or something.

[Surely they've got some kind of tech that can determine that before the meat's gone bad, yes?]

Otherwise, for now, vegetables are just fine.

[blastedass]

Good job, "Taisho".

[Giving him that kind of order... It deserves a sarcastic response.]

I already asked them. They could've made a general announcement. [Though it's unlikely Bakugo would've missed something like that. He still figured it'd be good to check with Raidou, just in case he heard something during the war. Scientists were there. Scientists will always science.

And yeah, it'd be good for them to figure that out before they ended up with a bay full of rotting kaiju corpses no one could do anything with. The bodies had to be useful for something.]

Mushrooms or tofu can stand in for meat.

[the_fourteenth]

[He'll ignore that.]

We have both, so we can split it. Need to make as much of it go around as possible. Tofu is in the fridge, already drained, and, ah--

[He scrounges for a moment around the counters until he spots the mushrooms.] The mushrooms are here. Excuse me. [He's got to slide past to get the eggs off the stove, since their timer has just gone off.]

kitchen

[stresspoint]

[ There are plenty of people cooking, so Nanami doesn't mind limiting himself to small tasks and organizing the dishware so people can get food more easily. He even buys some toppings that they can easily prep and share with the group so everyone can pick out what they like.

While Raidou is cooking, he comes to check up on him, finding him while he's preparing some of the noodles. ]

You should eat too. I can take over for a while.

[the_fourteenth]

[Raidou looks up from his work for a moment, blinking at Nanami, before taking a quick look around to see where they were at in the process. Enough people have shown up to help that things went faster than he anticipated.]

Oh? Are you sure? Have enough people gotten theirs?

[Because of course everyone else should get their serving first.]

[stresspoint]

[Raidou once again is focused entirely on his service, not taking any breaks. It's a good gesture, but a kid shouldn't be that worried about everyone else. You only get to be young once. Nanami steps in and pushes Raidou aside, shouldering him out of the way.]

Go eat. Rest. Stop worrying about it. I'll take it from here.

[He can't stand the overly responsible and worrying nature of the young man. Probably because it's too nostalgic and in the end only left him alone.]

Just listen to your elders.

[the_fourteenth]

[In his defense, this was all Raidou's idea, so he wants to make sure everything has gone well. But at the same time, enough of the others have participated that this is no longer just his project.

He's a little surprised to be physically moved out of the way, though, and being told to listen to his elders earns Nanami a slight huff. Mature as he is, he's still a teen too.]

If you insist. [He'll look around for a nearby empty bowl and start preparing his own.] Have you tried any yet? Seems to have turned out well.

[stresspoint]

[As usual, Nanami is another fussy adult worrying too much about the younger people around him. He's too pushy, too ready to move in on things that he really doesn't have to, but that's part of his protective and caring side. He wants to make sure the kids worry less about responsibilities because they have enough on their minds as it is. He just has more trouble communicating what he feels when he treats it all as obligation and work.]

You're a good cook. I don't see why it wouldn't.

[Despite the initial pushing, Nanami's posture softens slightly as he continues the routine. Raidou is getting his own meal and he looks as satisfied as Nanami has ever seen him. That's good enough.]

It was a good idea. I'm glad you started this.

[Yes, everyone participated and it's nice that they got together for something other than a mission, but Nanami is giving credit where it is due. He doesn't want to admit it, but the atmosphere is relaxing for him too.]

[the_fourteenth]

[He shoots Nanami a momentary look over his shoulder.] Does that mean you haven't eaten yet yourself?

[He smiles to himself at the praise though.]

Thank you. I just thought everyone could use something besides cafeteria food after everything. I'm glad people are enjoying it, though.

[stresspoint]

[He doesn't reply to the question, because Nanami isn't about to let Raidou find a way to make an excuse to keep serving. He knows him well enough after fighting alongside him not to let him get away with that.]

They look happy. You can see for yourself.

[He turns enough to nod toward the tables in the next room where everyone is gathered and eating together, talking and finally getting to focus on something other than kaiju.]

You're taking care of your team.

[the_fourteenth]

[Raidou was so busy hadn't realized so many had filtered in. It was nice to see.

Working on a team this large was still so foreign to him, but he's trying. Everyone really pulled together for the kaiju attack, and everyone came back in one piece.

He smiles, happy to see everyone there.

He turns to Nanami again, picking up his food to go find a seat nearby.]

Thank you. But I'll be back as soon as I'm done.