Iron Fandom, Wednesday, period 3

[tigerundercover]

The Danger Shop this week had shed its arena-esque look for a lovely event tent in a large, verdant field. The interior still had large individual cooking areas for each student, and the programmed sous chefs were waiting patiently by each student's station.

Pinkie's sous chef even still had the braids.

Raven and Kathy were at the front with their very special guest judge of the week, who was staring suspiciously at the sous chefs and giving Kathy a major case of side-eye.

"What do you think," Raven asked. "Should I turn into him, too? Or will that break his brain a little too much?"

"No, no," Kathy said, looking at least a little less panicked than she had before. "Less is more. Let's use the subtle approach." Because anything about this class could be considered 'subtle.' Sure.

"Just tell me they don't speak with horrible 'southern' accents," Eliot said.

"Don't be silly," Raven told him. "They don't speak at all."

Ignoring Eliot's expression at that tidbit, Kathy turned to address the class, swallowing back a laugh. "Welcome class, to your second week of Iron Fandom!" She paused for the obligatory sting--thank you, Raven--before continuing. "As today is your first real competition day, it's only fair that you meet the first guest judge of the semester! Cooking for over a decade now, he's the owner of Luke's Diner in town and best landlord ever, Eliot Spencer!" A blinking APPLAUSE sign was lowered from the tent's ceiling, encouraging the class to join Kathy and Raven in clapping for their guest.

And he'd had the nerve to think they didn't prepare for this class. Ha!

"Eliot will be assisting us in judging your three culinary creations today, which must all include. . . ." Pause for drumroll, dramatic tension, and close-ups of the contestants looking worried/excited/blankly off into the distance. ". . . Cherries! Black cherries, tart cherries, dried cherries, marischino cherries, doesn't matter. So long as it's a cherry, and it's in each of your three courses."

"Eliot," Kathy said, turning to him. "Did you want to introduce yourself, or would you prefer to do that later, while the class is working, more one-on-one?"

Eliot blinked at her, then looked between the two teachers. ". . . I mean, you kinda already covered that, darlin'. Name, bonafides, what else you expectin' me to say? I'm kinda just here for the food."

"You didn't prepare remarks?" Kathy asked, pretending to be shocked before breaking into another grin.

"Okay, since this is a competition class, you're going to need as much time as possible. So cooks, Get ready..."

"Get set. . . ." Raven added.

"COOK!" they said together, and then gave each other a not-at-all-surreptitious low-five. Eliot just rolled his eyes and folded his arms to watch the proceedings and make sure nothing got set inappropriately on fire.

Comments

Re: Talk to the judges

[spin_kick_snap]

Whereas Kathy'd had two whole Driver's Ed. lessons on the subject and a couple of hours racked up riding behind Dante.

"But think of how cook it would look flapping behind you in the wind!"

Re: Talk to the judges

[tigerundercover]

"Flapping in the wind, getting caught in the spokes of your wheel. . . ." Actually, she was kind of curious what would happen after that. Would the jacket rip? would you get yanked backwards off the bike? In her head there was a whole cascade of possible events, each bloodier and nastier than the last.

The fact that this was rather entertaining was exactly why Kathy pledging to always have her back made her a little bit sad.

Re: Talk to the judges

[spin_kick_snap]

"If it's flapping in the wind, I don't think it can also get caught in your wheel," Kathy said, thinking about the physics because of course she was. "They'd have to be hanging down over the sides to get bound up that way. Though there's always tangled in the exhaust or whatever to worry about instead."

Re: Talk to the judges

[tigerundercover]

"But aren't there, like, wind sheers?" Raven asked. "Either way, it just doesn't sound like a great idea."

Re: Talk to the judges

[spin_kick_snap]

"Probably not," Kathy said, reluctantly consigning a that mental image to the 'unlikely' pile. "Looks like we're back to leather. That's cool. We'll look badass."

Well, Raven would. Kathy would try.

Re: Talk to the judges

[tigerundercover]

"Besides," Raven said. "Short jackets are in."

She had no idea if that was true. She hadn't followed fashion in more than a year.

Re: Talk to the judges

[spin_kick_snap]

Worked for Kathy!

"We make anything we want look good," Kathy said. She nudged Raven again. "Especially you."

Re: Talk to the judges

[tigerundercover]

"Yes, well. Being able to change shape to make the clothes look good is a pretty big advantage."

Re: Talk to the judges

[spin_kick_snap]

"I know," Kathy said with a wistful sigh. "I'm jealous. You also get to make the clothes in the first place, which is a guarantee they'll look exactly the way you want."

Re: Talk to the judges

[tigerundercover]

"True," Raven said. "But that also means that the coat getting caught in the exhaust on the bike would have nerve endings in it."

Ow.

Re: Talk to the judges

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy winced. "Eeee, no thanks. Not ever. Because all kinds of no."