fandomhigh | This Sh*t is Bananas; Tuesday, Third Period [06/11].

This Sh*t is Bananas; Tuesday, Third Period [06/11].

"Today's featured recipe," Summer, who had brought a very large bottle of presumably water with her to class today, was so pleased to announce her lesson for today that she totally skipped right over the preamble to get right to it, "is not actually all that weird or disgusting,. I know, I know, who even am I anymore? But sometimes, I just come across something simply too good to not share with you guys, even if it goes outside the criteria of my whole disgusting oeuvre, so, yes, even though we're in the middle of June, we're getting a little Halloween-y as I present you..."

She dramatically removed the cloche.

"The banana spook cake! Ooo~ooooh! Isn't it spoooooky? And kind of ridiculous, right? This actually comes to us from the National Banana Association, because, look, they were pushing bananas hard in the mid-20th century, I'm sure that's something we can delve into and talk about if anyone really wants to, but this was yet another 'creative,'" she of course did the finger quotes, "way of making your bananas more fun and frightening! Plus it actually sounds kind of delicious? And I know you weirdos are going to have fun decorating your own bananas for ghosts. So we're doing it. We're making the banana spook cake.

"However," Summer gave a significant pause and a look toward the fact that there were two cloches, actually, "I can't let you guys think I'm getting soft, so we're also going to be making..."

Off went the cloche.

"tomato-banana tarts. Literally just bananas on tomatoes, probably with, like, mayo to hold them in place. Because why not? Two recipes, both scary in their own right, both for different reasons. Let's begin."

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Like it's Halloween in June!

Stewart

Stark

Hannibal Lecter

Summer is hoping her pure enjoyment of the concept behind the banana spook cake is enough to convince people that there isn't some sort of hidden trick to all this. Just treats!

Well, except the banana tart. But that's how you know she's sincere, right?

There's plenty of moddable ingredients to help you make your banana spook cake your own!

And the tomato banana tarts as well! Though no points for skipping either the tomato or the mayo. Otherwise, what's the whole point?

Discussion and commentary on either dish are very welcome.

"These are very cute," Stark said as he worked on his cake with its little ghosts.

He had nothing complimentary to say about the tarts.

And if he was giving some odd and suspicious looks to a fellow student... well, so what?

There was a moment, where Stewart seemed a little bit at....an impasse. On the one hand, the obvious and easy choice was to just keep with a theme and decorate his banana ghosts to essentially continue to just be boldly obvious in their most phallic interpretations. On the other hand...

With a little bit of a curl of his lip and slip of his eyes toward Summer, he then looked back at his cake in progress with a huff of a sigh.

On the other hand, he didn't really feel like the obvious and easy would cut it today, and was finding himself....regrettable, reluctantly, revolutionarily....inspired to be more original and creative. Of course, it would all be for naught if they didn't even have what he was looking for in the pantry, and so, with slouching stomps, he went to inspect his options, and, lo and behold, almost as if it knew it would be needed, he found what he was looking for.

Slightly disgrunted, he grabbed a bag of cotton candy and a bag of mini marshmallows that also seemed like a good idea, marched back to his cake, and started dressing his banana ghosts up in them, cloaking them carefully in swatches of light, ephemeral candy floss to give them more of that spectral, ghostly appearance.

And he thought they looked pretty good, too, thank you, but please, let the stern look of unwilling discontentment fool you otherwise.

Those were supposed to be spooky ghosts?

Hannibal was absolutely carving his bananas into skulls and screaming faces.

If this left him with very little time to waste on the tomato monstrosity, such was life.

Look, sometimes cute novelty definitely got to win out over just plain weird gross fuckery, okay?

"I like the ghosts," Stark told her at the end of class. "They were very cute. Are very cute. And not at all gross."

That still seemed a little sus but ok.

"No, I know," said Summer, with a faintly pleased smile as she tilted her head a little at Stark, after taking another big swig of water from her absurdly large water bottle and generally taking this observation as a mild complaint, "but they were really too adorable to pass up, you know? Every once in a while, it's probably good to throw in a palate cleanser against the gross stuff. And there was still the tomato tarts! I mean, how weird are those, right?"

"I wasn't going to say anything about the tarts."

Lest Summer get horrible ideas from a mild complaint!

"That seemed safer."

He was watching her carefully right now. Trying to determine if anything worse than a need to hydrate was occurring after a night of space drugs and video games (not a euphemism!).

"Maybe there should be more cute fruits in our lives."

(Or was it???)

"I think most fruits are pretty cute as it is," Summer decided. "But if I do a Christmas in July thing, there's at least those cute little strawberry santa hats I always do. And then there's the citrus shots that use the peels, I always like those. I bet if I looked into it, I could find a lot of things, there's a whole bunch of stuff from back then of trying to make food more appealing to kids or whatever.

"And then you have stuff like the liver pineapple, which I'm sure someone thought was cute."

They were wrong, of course, but, you know...at least they tried?

(Careful, narrative, or Stark might develop a new complex!)

Surely something could be done with peaches, Summer.

"Is liver ever cute?" he asked skeptically. "To anyone?"

(Surely, there must be some kind of limit to that sort of thing).

There was a long pause of consideration.

"Everything," Summer countered, "is cute to someone out there, probably."

But, that aphorism delivered soundly, she did, suddenly, have her phone and was quickly typing something into it.

"Top result for 'cute liver,'" she reported, and turned her phone toward Stark so he could see.

(Not so far!)

"That's a cute drawing," Stark allowed. "But real liver isn't cute. Necessary for life, maybe, but not cute. Definitely not cute when shaped like a pineapple. Then it's just..."

He grinned at her.

"Gross."

Summer's attempt to meet that with a straight face were short lived, but, in her defense, she wasn't exactly trying, either. But she smirked faintly and shook her head.

"You know this is just making me wonder if next session my class needs to be 'How to Cute-ify your Liver', right?"

"Do you think anyone would sign up for that?" Stark asked. "I would, of course, but would anyone else?"

He paused then.

"Perhaps I should get liver for your birthday?"

"I mean," said Summer, with a moment of looking out into the far distance that held her grandfather as an example, "with the way I drink, that might not be the worst idea..."

And who even knew what the space drugs were doing to it! But anyway, that moment of the reality of the weakness of corporeal mortal human bodies out of the way, she then flashed Stark a brilliant smile.

"And now I almost want to do it just to see who does sign up! Although, honestly, now I'm starting to think it could be a clever title for something that's basically how to better take care of your liver, but I'd definitely need to do some research before I feel confident about doing something like that."

"I didn't mean I'd find you a liver to use I was thinking more that I might find some horrible recipe to cook for you."

Maybe a space liver though? Robot liver?

"I'll take whatever you offer," Stark said.

Rick absolutely had a robot liver.

Rick was honestly mostly robot at this point.

And should Summer be worried that that was where her brain went first?

...naaaah.

"If you wanted to skip the liver and the horrible recipe but still cook me dinner for my birthday," she said, with a soft smile that she probably could have made more sacchirin and sweet, but didn't, "I'd be okay with that."

"I'd love to make you dinner," Stark said. "Or lunch that day instead since you were still going to work?"

He was easy, Summer. But you knew that.

"I'm looking forward to your birthday. And our trip."

"Lunch probably does make more sense, yeah," Summer agreed, and then her smile grew a little more. "And yeah?" As if Stark wouldn't be looking forward to doing most things with her, or something. "Me, too. It'll be nice, to just kind of get away somewhere together for a few days..."

"I think you'll like what I've planned."

Stark did, in fact, think that. He was feeling fairly confident about the whole trip right now.

"And it will be nice to be somewhere new. With you."

And honestly? Summer loved to see it. That confidence, with no second-guessing or handwringing or executive dysfunction alone meant that Stark could have done an absolute shit job of planning the trip and she'd still probably like it, because he'd actually just gone for it.

Well. Okay, well. Depending on just how shit it was, she might not love it, sure, but she could at least (she felt) pretend enough like she did to not make all that confidence come crashing down. It would be almost impressive, though, if he somehow managed to fuck this up.

"I hope you like it, too," she said, with another smile, and a reach for his hand. "I know going places on Earth can be a little daunting for you, so I really do appreciate it. And know that if anyone gives you shit, I'll totally kick their ass. But they won't, because you'll be with me."

It was not going to be a shit trip!

Stark smiled softly and squeezed her hand. "I do know. And it helps knowing that you would. I don't think you'll have to but it's much easier going places with you than alone."

Unless things went really badly one evening...

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This Sh*t is Bananas; Tuesday, Third Period [06/11].

Sign In - Bananas, 06/11.

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