Seasonings of Love

[inflictwounds]

Who: Hieke, Primrose, & Open!
What: Chocolate making for fun and profit.
Where: The kitchens
When: 2/4-2/8

Early in February, the kitchens are opened to the students for a very special occasion - making chocolate! Tis the season, after all, and what’s a better way to woo your special someone than specialty chocolate? You have a wide variety of molds available, as well as ingredients to flavor your chocolates. Go as wild as you want!

Just try not to do anything untoward. This is a supervised event, after all, and if you try anything shady (like adding a love potion) or cruel (like cursing your chocolates), you won't get away with it. You're welcome to try, but do you really want Hieke or Primrose noticing? They might not be the strictest teachers, but... Still. Come on, kids.

Comments

hieke | ota

[inflictwounds]

[Hieke is there every day, of course. He’s volunteered to keep an eye on things and he just likes cooking. He’s open for advice, pestering, and people willing to taste-test the things he himself is making.

And, you know, first aid in case anyone is that clumsy in the kitchen…]

[yokeye]

[Toki has several cans of assorted expensive catfood, tuna, and salmon in a basket. He waves at Hieke excitedly.]

Good afternoon~! How can you make chocolate shells around something like this without making it all blend into each other~!? Do you have fish molds~!?

[inflictwounds]

[...Toki. Toki, what are you planning on doing?]

You can make the shells and let them set before putting the filling in, if you wanted to. [Why he wants to put all of that into chocolate, he's not going to ask.]

But I think we might have some molds that look like fish, yes.

[Give him a moment to rummage through what the school has available...]

[compendiem]

[ Minato looks like he has no business being here, really, tending to hang out near the back of the class and watch everybody make their chocolates— it's almost as if he'd meant to just observe, if not for the fact that he's watching people's faces and not their hands or their works.

Sometimes, he wanders around and offers to taste-test, and this is what he proposes to Hieke once he passes by his bench. Having the school nurse here is lucky? It's very lucky. Minato has no fear of food poisoning with Hieke here. ]

[inflictwounds]

[Hieke isn't bothered by being watched - or if he is, he's good at hiding it. Truthfully, he doesn't mind if not every kid who shows up is here to make chocolates or not. He volunteered partly because he enjoys cooking, and partly because disasters seem to be following all of the kids around nowadays.

Might as well start at ground zero.]

You want some?

[Gotta double check - and while Hieke doesn't have any Valentine to give any chocolates to, he has been keeping himself busy.]

[hippocarnival]

[Milk]

Yuya's in the workshop a few days on and off (mainly, whenever Gongenzaka isn't there). He's attentive to the instructions, but he has recipes pulled up on his phone and his sleeves pulled back as he gets to work making lots of little milk chocolate hearts. It's a lot of mixing, measuring, melting, molding, and occasionally popping one into his mouth to 'taste test'.

He's filling up a bowl of them to the side, not entirely attentive of it until it's time to start packaging them into bags and handwriting the tag. Occasionally, while he works, he mutters to himself--something about the name, or the way it just tasted, or how much sugar he needs.

[Dark]

Dozens of chocolate hearts, it turns out, is actually the easiest part of this project. The hard one? Making a chocolate that someone who doesn't really like sweets will enjoy. There's a growing pile of failed chocolate attempts--some of them too bitter, some of them too sweet--that he'll happily pass off onto anyone who wants them before going back to the next batch. While he should be needing to make a lot less chocolate this way, it somehow feels like it's taking longer.

Especially grating oranges for zest. But it has to be special! But his arms hurt.

He holds one orange up to inspect it. "Have I really only shaved that much?"

dark;

[inflictwounds]

"You don't want to shave too deeply," Hieke says from over Yuya's shoulder. He's curious about all of the kid's progress - is maybe being a bit too nosy, admittedly - and he has one of the failed attempts in his hand and is nibbling away at them. "The white bit can be really bitter."

Is really bitter... That might be the problem, Yuya.

[hippocarnival]

"Not the white part?" Yuya tilts his orange and the grater, looking down at his shavings.

And then he groans, tilting his head back. "Noooo..."

It's all mixed up and he has to start again. A teaspoon is so much right now.

dark

[compendiem]

[ Hell yes, free chocolate... Minato doesn't particularly have a sweet tooth, but growing up never really having chocolate, it's a treat now and dark is always preferable to milk or otherwise.

Bitter... Minato doesn't say anything about the piece he'd nabbed from the latest batch Yuya slides over to the side, but his nose wrinkles in disgust and that probably gives him away. ]

Can you use the juice in chocolate at all...?

[ Juice is sweet, and maybe it'd pair well with dark chocolate? It might be worth a try. ]

[hippocarnival]

Yeah, but the recipe said zest was better. [And he is going to use only the best for this stupid chocolate. He doesn't even know why it's better, he assumes it's flavor, but he's not about to assume he knows more than the cookbook and screw it up.

He turns the orange to another side and starts carefully scraping again.] The last one was way too bitter, wasn't it? I guess I need more sugar this time.

Jade | ota

[atomicultimatum]

A. [Lumiere and Aube]

Jade has been making big batches, one of white chocolate, one of dark, into little circles and squares for each of the two dorms. She only really knows and is friends with those in Lumiere right now but that's only because she hasn't spent a lot of time with anyone from Aube. Both sets will, eventually, have around two dozen pieces each for her to wrap up or put into boxes to send out.

She may also be taste testing as she goes along, and may end up with more than two dozen by the end.


B. [The special ones]

Jade has also been molding some milk chocolate pieces to look like tiny wolves and foxes. These ones she won't be giving out to just anyone and everyone. These ones also, after some trial and error, have a bit of a minty taste to them too.

a

[compendiem]

[ Minato's from the other dorm, and has been splitting his time outside of class between his room and the music building across campus, and he's only been at school for a month now, marveling at just how rich this school is, to be able to afford a workshop to this extent. ]

That's pretty amazing... [ He mumbles his words a little, soft, like he's breathing out as he speaks. ] To know that many people to give chocolates to?

[ One of the popular kids... He can believe it. ]

GONGENZAKA | OTA | Prompts are in bold!

[betheman]

[Gongenzaka is in the workshop at least twice- the first time to actually figure out how to make chocolate, and the second after he's done Exactly As Much Research as needed to make sure what he makes is perfect. He needs to do this properly after all.

Notably never there the same day that Yuuya is, Gongenzaka can thus be seen in 'two' modes so to speak.

The first mode being extremely studious. Does it feel like you're being watched? You are.

The second is extremely Focused. Does he feel like he's being watched? Maybe, but also please don't make him spill this molten chocolate all over everything, he'll be very sad.

Whatever he's making, he seems to have a calligraphic drawing of sorts as a reference on that second day, carefully stood up against a book for reference. Good luck Gon?

...

Who is this even for?]

2nd

[compendiem]

[ Minato's here nearly every day the workshop is open, capitalizing on the free taste-test batches of chocolates— sometimes this works out in his favor; sometimes it doesn't. But with how much time and energy Gongenzaka seems to be putting into his chocolate making, Minato's going to bank on his turning out well. You know. Whatever he's making.

At least Minato's quiet in his watching, for the most part, peeking Gongenzaka to stare at the calligraphy until curiosity gets the better of him and he clears his throat a little as prior warning. ]

What's this...?

[betheman]

MNH-!

[Woof-! It's a good thing Gongenzaka wasn't holding that icing tube too tightly- as it is, a bit of white chocolate drips onto the counter.

Shaking himself off from the surprise, he turns to Minato.] Auh-

Oh, the paper, you mean? [he asks in broken English.] It is, my 'guide'! I am going to create the pattern, using white chocolate!

Ekkehardt | OTA

[spelleton]

A.

[ Ekkehardt has his hair-veil-it's all the same anyway tied back, and has an apron over his normal clothes, and he appears to be actually making something of his own today.

There's a tray of lemon and orange slices set out to cool on the bench nearby. He's busily melting chocolate on the stove. He appears completely engrossed in his work.

If you come back on another day, the slices are gone, and he appears to be working over something else with knife in hand. It looks like...chocolate fish...? ]

B.

[ When he's not making something of his own, he's cleaning up and keeping a eye on proceedings. If you need someone to bounce ideas off, or advice, or just another pair of hands, he'll gladly assist.

Or if you burned yourself or hurt yourself somehow, of course. He's here for that too. ]

C.

[ Wildcard? I'm open for anything. ]

b

[compendiem]

[ Eventually, Minato's been told he can't just loiter around and watch and eat, he's got to sit himself down and make something by the end of the day to be allowed to come back, so there he is, staring down the chocolates in front of him and thinking he'd be just as happy eating the raw materials than the finished product of fancy chocolates poured into molds.

Ekkehardt... bench partner... hey... ]

Is this not good enough for Valentines?

[ It's a wrapped, 10 pound block of baking chocolate that he holds in his hands, meant to be broken apart or shaved off or such, but chocolate is chocolate. He bets Minako would love 10 pounds of solid chocolate. ]

[spelleton]

[ Oh, someone's asking his advice. He glances over and --ah, well. It's not a bad idea, in theory, but... ]

The size of the block isn't an issue, but baking chocolate isn't exactly the same as normal chocolate...

[ He sounds faintly amused. ] Though if you don't want to take my word for it, you can always try some yourself and see how it tastes.

A

[hattersgonnahat]

[There was something lurking right beside Ekkehardt as he cooked. ...Too short to make it that far above the counter even.]

[If he was going to keep watching every time Puella worked on something, then you better believe it she was going to start doing the same thing back. That'll teach him how annoying it was.]

[...Either that or she was curious how his chocolates were. But that's neither a statement here or there.]

[spelleton]

[ He doesn't even really have to look to know who it is.

He keeps turning his current piece of chocolate in hand, shaving it with quick, practiced motions.

And then, without even stopping or looking away from his work: ]

And what can I do for you today, miss Tempus?

Puella | OTA

[hattersgonnahat]

[a1]

[There might not be any magic involved in this, but it also wasn't an ordinary after school project either...okay maybe it could be but it was still chocolate. You'd have to be a heartless being not to love chocolate.]

[The small hat child could be seen in the kitchen periodically trying to make as many chocolate variations as possible. Not that she had many people to give it to, they were mostly ones to try out herself.]

[And perhaps it's best that way too, some of the later combinations started to get a little weird. Can't imagine many were willing to try chocolate covered tomatoes, chocolate pasta, chocolate and cheese, and whatever else that child brain could think of.]


[a2]

[Puella felt kind of empty without her special hat. The last thing she wanted was getting melted chocolate stained on it so it had to stay somewhere safe, and a mini chef hat could only fill the void so much. But at some point a thought crossed her as she picked up a fresh clean pan to use, inspecting the bottom of it.]

...'wonder if anyone's done that before. [They weren't allowed to tamper with the chocolates, but no one said anything about the equipment they're using. It would be easy to slap some runes onto this. Just imagine it: Pans that made chocolate on their own! ...It could take a bit of work.]

a1

[spelleton]

[ He keeps an eye on her more out of habit than anything, and then she starts dipping tomatoes in chocolate and eating them and he's almost immediately puzzled. ]

...Is that actually enjoyable...? [ Sure, chocolate went with a lot of things, and maybe he can't talk about taste considering it's been like sixteen years since he could taste things like a normal human being, but... ]

[hattersgonnahat]

...Sort of. [Though that cringe almost says otherwise.]

It's still missing something.

[That something seems to be applying salt to the next one.]

[...Puella, who hurt you?]

Alt | OTA

[aduration]

[It seems he didn't have to supervise labs this week, so the petite young man is making bon bons and chocolate lollipops, with some rather unorthodox ingredients - including sprinkling pinches of sparkly silvery dust into the melting chocolate - Pixie dust: 100% sure to lift someone's mood]

Hmmh-hm...hehe.

[Alt snickers to himself as he sets the magically delicious treats aside. He's normally brew it all up in his cauldron, but he rather have not it react to magic critter dusting. He sighs, he suppose while he's here, might as well make more mundane treats - such as Creme de Minthe-filled chocolates for the faculty]

Orihime | OTA

[leekspins]

[Orihime is hard at work crafting homemade chocolates. She boiled her own caramel with cream and sugar on the stove, cooled it in the fridge, scooped it into bite-sized balls, then froze them so they could be dipped in melted chocolate. She also made her own truffle fillings, separating each batch and flavoring them with extracts or stirring in chopped nuts, enough that she can make eight different types. The ninth type is her pride and joy: the spicy danger chocolate that belongs in every box of Roulette Chocolates. She's careful to make these last, and uses red-tinted white chocolate to paint a red dot on the very bottom just in case other people aren't quite as adventurous as she is.]

[While she works, her long hair is caught up in a ponytail that hangs down her back. Her apron is surprisingly clean, even if her hands are streaked and smudged with chocolate as she works her culinary magic.]

[It's the decorating where she really takes her time to make the candy shine. Every person she knows has some type of animal they like, or at least a fondness for a certain color or element, that she can use to decorate. Making animals isn't hard, but it does require a steady hand to pipe on the melted chocolate.]

[All the while she works, she hums cheerfully to herself, only stopping occasionally to roll her shoulders or work her neck to the side. It's hard work, but it's worth it!]