I saw crickets and they were cheap so I bought them~

[no_dejare_de_quererte]

Who: Imelda, open (Please feel free to also make your own otas!)
What: It's the weekend before mid-terms, and Imelda decides to surprise her kids with a homemade lunch... Provided they're here to study. Or at least look like they're studying.
When: Backdated to Saturday Feb 16th (Two days before midterms begin)
Where: Lumière, third floor common room
Warnings: Uh, bugs? No pictures, but bugs are a food here. Otherwise, probably none, but please warn for content in your headers if it comes up!


[Like most mornings, Imelda rises with the sun, prepared to make the most of each new day ahead of her. And on this particular day, she starts by hanging some fliers around the dorm--primarily on floor 3, but also a couple on the other floors as well. The fliers read:]

Midterm Study Session

Where: Third floor common room
When: Saturday February 16th, 11AM until 4PM
Lunch will be provided at 1PM.

Come and go as you like, but please be mindful that this will be a space for studying.
You may bring class supplies and talk quietly among yourselves,
But overly disruptive students will be asked to leave.

[Does bringing music count as being a disruptive student? Most likely. But it might be worth it to not cause trouble today because there are some delectable smells coming from the third floor's kitchen already...]


[A: What's Cooking?]

[Starting from about six in the morning, Imelda can be found in the kitchen, cooking and chopping and stirring various foods. Arranged on the counter are tomatoes, onions, various kinds of peppers, a few corn cobs, carrots, several small squashes, some cactus fruits, limes, potatoes, green beans, a large cluster of bananas, some cilantro, and a number of different bottles of spices. She's already got a pot of pork stewing in the oven, but her current task might involve frying some chapulines--or grasshoppers--over the stove with some chopped garlic and onions, a diced serrano chile, and a couple wedges of lime. Or maybe you've caught her chopping up vegetables for not one, but two salsas. Or dumping a rather wide variety of chopped and diced vegetables into a savory looking soup.]

[Whatever you happen to catch her doing, she looks very busy. There's a lot of food making going on. Maybe you're wise enough to make yourself known before snooping around the kitchen? Or maybe you're looking to sneak a taste of something while she's looking the other way...]


[B: Order up!]

[The chairs in the common room have been moved around to create convenient clusters of seating for groups; while some tables close to the kitchen area have been laid out with the finished dishes. The main meal is a collection of dishes sitting close together--soft corn tortillas laid out with the pot of pulled pork and the fried-up chapulines in separate dishes nearby. There's also two different salsas--a mild pico de gallo and a spicy salsa rojo--that are positioned just beyond that, and some cilantro and chopped onions close by for toppings. Further down is a mole de olla soup made with cactus fruits and other assorted vegetables, and beyond that a tray of pan-fried bananas, dashed with cinnamon and drizzled with milk.]

[With her work done, Imelda is free to finally settle into a chair of her own with a rather advanced textbook on outlands magic propped open nearby--but not without first fixing her own plate of spoils after such an intense cooking session.]


[[Please feel free to make your own prompts or whatever you like! This is meant to be a general mingle for anyone attending (whether to study or not) with a sidebar of fun food stuffs. Thanks!]]

Comments

A

[redcarmen]

[ 'sup, have a Carmen lounging nearby early in the morning at the kitchens. ]

That's an awful lot of food you're cooking there. Enough vegetables for a couple salsas, pork, chapulines... How many people are you planning on feeding?

B

[eudaimonikos]

[At some point during the study session, Michael appears! How did he get in? He doesn't live here! He's not even a student!

Regardless, he's over by the food, noshing on some of those pan-fried bananas like he owns the place. For the moment, he doesn't seem at all moved to participate in the studying part of the gathering.]

b;OTA

[suddenlybees]

[ It's already pretty late into the afternoon when Kano finally exits his room, letters swimming on the paper he picks up from underneath his door and blinking dumbly before they settle into place and make sense. Midterms. Haha... He'd forgotten all about midterms, and can't imagine being in the mood to study at the last minute, let alone have the appetite to eat anything. He'll force himself to eat, though; this'll have to be his first meal of the day, one of the leftover tortillas that's been broken apart and no good for holding fillings, but that's fine with him so he can tear off little pieces and eat it plain.

Mostly he flits around here and there, staring people uncomfortably close in the face while they eat, to watch their reactions to all this food he isn't even sure what their names are.

Or, if they're actually studying, he has a very innocent, not at all suspicious request: ]

Hey, hey, when you're done with your notes, can I have 'em?

A

[prisoneroffate]

[Ren sees Imelda hard at work as he walks in]

Did you need any help with that?

A

[playitagain]

[Nana is there pretty early. She's definitely eating and studying later. But cooking? Cooking is basically a way to summon Nana in an instant. She pokes her head inside the kitchen first, and then raises her hand, waving once.]

Hello, Miss Rivera!

[She's looking it all over. Nana is, visibly, impressed. She does know how to cook things besides banana desserts (because one cannot just eat those for all meals) so it catches her eye almost instantly.]

You're making a lot of food! Aah, and it smells good!

B

[deafleppard]

[Honestly, she was there for the food. Studying was fine, too, and she was getting that part done. But again...

Food.

She shoves a tortilla in her mouth and Gwen's eyes immediately pop open.]

Oh my god.

[made_up_names]

It's amazing, right?

[ Surprising no one, Peter's already got, like, five tortillas on his plate. ]

[deafleppard]

I'm gonna need like, more.

Way more.

[Someone stop the spider kids from eating everything.

Or don't.]

[yokeye]

[Toki's not here for the study part either. And Michael is, unfortunately, who he considers the authority on insect-based foods at the moment.]

I never did try that cricket latte! Are the grasshoppers good!?

[eudaimonikos]

You know, I'm not sure they taste very different from crickets at all. Just a little bigger. So yeah, they're fine - these bananas, though!

[SO GOOD]

[yokeye]

[Toki has had enough of bananas for a while (sorry, Nana). He wanders away to find the grasshoppers. He's never had tortillas either, so that's what he's going to put them in. He can't tell the difference between the salsas; both of those get put on top of the mound of grasshoppers. He thinks he's finished, but the soup catches his eye. In homage to Orihime's weird food preferences, he ladles some of the soup on top of the rolled up tortilla, like a sauce. Toki returns to Michael by the bananas.]

Do you want half!?

[The tortillas are kind of big, and he probably can't eat it all. Grasshoppers are sliding out of the sides in an oozing mess of salsa.]

[made_up_names]

[ Can't stop won't stop!! ]

I'd feel bad but I'm pretty sure Imelda wants us to help her eat this food.

[eudaimonikos]

Sure.

[That looks fucking disgusting and he reaches out to take it.]

[yokeye]

[Just as planned. Toki waits for Michael to try it first, because it does look disgusting and completely unappetizing.]

As good as the cricket latte?

[eudaimonikos]

Oh, definitely not!

[Surprise! It's vile!]

I think the two different salsas were unnecessary.

[yokeye]

I've never had salsa, so I didn't know which one would be better! Might as well try both!

[Which he does. But, no. Michael's right. One bite was enough, and he abandons the plate on the table, opting instead for the bananas as first suggested.]

When are we going to New York~!?

[deafleppard]

She put it out here for a reason? Can you imagine if it cold and lonely?

That'd be the worst.

[eudaimonikos]

Maybe three weeks? I'll send out announcements soon.

[yokeye]

Awesome~! I'm so excited~! But I should go now because I've been here too long and someone will notice and try and get me to study or something~!

[He waves and wanders away. The grasshoppers were not worth coming all the way up to the 3rd floor.]

[made_up_names]

Right? And we're, like, superheroes. Can't leave something in need like this.

[deafleppard]

Yes, in need. Very in need.

In need of some more.

[Life is hard when you're bonded to a daemon.]

[made_up_names]

I'm on it.

[ He's sort of wondering that now. Not that he can talk - his own metabolism is crazy fast too. Anyway, he's just gonna heap this plate up and bring it back for the both of them. ]

Are you technically eating for two people?

[deafleppard]

I wouldn't really say two people.

More like one person and one hellspawn.

[no_dejare_de_quererte]

[Imelda glances back at the other RA, lifting a brow and smiling. Despite all the work, she seems to be in a good mood.]

At least seven teenagers... and whoever else shows up. I'm more worried that I haven't made enough.

[Teenagers have such huge appetites... and some of these kids even more so.]

[no_dejare_de_quererte]

[Are you really mooching off the food that she made for the kids, Michael? Is that how this is going to be?]

[She comes over to the tables where he's snacking on those bananas and smiles sweetly at him. That should probably be his first warning.]

Michael. I didn't realize you were interested in assisting with this study session. That is so thoughtful of you.

[eudaimonikos]

[Michael, finishing a banana, cases the joint. Studying. Right.]

I just came to check things out. Looks like it's all going well, very well done, Imelda.

[no_dejare_de_quererte]

[If Kano thinks he's going to escape Imelda's attention, he's got another thing coming. Considering one of the meals was prepared specifically with him in mind, she's been looking for him to show up since the start.]

You're supposed to put something in those, you know. [She lifts a brow at him and gestures to the shell that he's pulling apart and eating plain.]

[suddenlybees]

[ He knows!! But he'd come down halfway through mealtime with the expectation that a floor full of hungry teenagers would have wolfed everything down already, so he'd contented himself with a plain tortilla— really all he prefers, and all he can really stomach at the moment.

But even he can recognize all the work and time and effort Imelda had put into this, so he wears a smile on his face and doesn't let up in tearing the tortilla into smaller pieces. ]

I was thinking more of nachos than tacos, tonight~ And I was waiting for you, you know? For your expert opinion on what to eat~

[ To tell him wtf is what ]

[no_dejare_de_quererte]

[Imelda looks up from where she's stirring a pot on the stove, lifting a brow at Ren.]

I wouldn't mind help, if you're not busy with studying.

[Midterms are next week, Ren. Are you ready?]

[prisoneroffate]

[He massages his temples slightly at the mention of "studying"]

I just finished a session, so I'm taking a break. Helping cook should clear my head.

Where did you want me?

[no_dejare_de_quererte]

Hola, Nana.

[She greets the girl warmly, smiling at the compliment.]

I'm glad you like it. Everyone is studying hard this weekend, so I thought I'd make something to keep those brains going.

[Can't study well if you're hungry, after all.]

[playitagain]

That sounds like a wonderful idea!

[Nana steps into the room, her hands clasping in front of her. She peers over the cooking dishes, not entirely sure that she knows any of the dishes by heart.

Still...]

Do you need any help? I love to cook, and I'm at a point where I can take a break.