Thanksgiving Dinner

[sharp_as_knives]

With as much prep done as possible the day before, Hannibal...was still up plenty early, due to both inclination and all the food still left to cook. He believed in doing everything right, and he also believed that the host should not spend their entire party in the kitchen.

So, with Sparkle's help, by early afternoon everything was done and being kept warm or cold, only the final just-before-plating flourishes left, and he was relaxing with a nice glass of mulled wine, ready for the guests.


[OOC: Open post! OCD up! Have at! If your character would be here but you'll be afk, feel free to just ping in an intro! SP is love!]

Comments

Re: Arrive and greet your host!

[myownface]

Sparkle nodded a little at that, managing, barely, to refrain from scuffing his toe on the floor awkwardly.

"Yeah, I know," he replied. "I mean, if this ends up being what I want to do. I've still got... half a year or so to figure it out, I guess, anyway. I should get on that."

'Should' was such a funny word.

Re: Arrive and greet your host!

[sharp_as_knives]

"Also true." Hannibal nodded. "You may yet decide on accountancy."

There was always math!

Re: Arrive and greet your host!

[myownface]

"Riiight. Just let me go back in time and steal the brain out of weird me-in-the-spring kid that got adopted," Sparkle snorted. "God, math makes my head hurt."

He was so not made for that sort of thing. Nope. No way.

Re: Arrive and greet your host!

[sharp_as_knives]

"I'm sure there are some other options between acting and accounting," Hannibal said, still amused. Then, because "from a to a" wasn't really a thing, "Zookeeping."

With all the animals you kept trying to steal, maybe you should have a place to put them!

Re: Arrive and greet your host!

[myownface]

"I think I stand a pretty good chance with zookeeping," Sparkle laughed. "I mean, I haven't killed my cat yet, right? That practically makes me a pro. I'll be hand-feeding tigers in no time."

Re: Arrive and greet your host!

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal joined the laughter. "I confess I've no idea what training might be required, but I'm sure we could find out. Although I imagine the hand-feeding of predators might be something it's best to be careful with."

Re: Arrive and greet your host!

[myownface]

And Hannibal would know!

"Trust me, I've learned my lesson about carnivores that are bigger and faster than me," Sparkle promised. "Maybe I'll lay off on the tiger feeding, at least for now."

Re: Arrive and greet your host!

[sharp_as_knives]

"It's good to have a survival instinct," Hannibal answered, grinning.

Re: Arrive and greet your host!

[myownface]

"I've spent a lot of time cultivating it," Sparkle shared. "I'd hate to screw it up now, so close to being free of this stupid place."

He wanted to keep his 'being eaten' incidents to a bare minimum. Once, maybe twice a year, max.

Re: Arrive and greet your host!

[sharp_as_knives]

"It's good to have no matter where you are," Hannibal pointed out.

And so far he wasn't close to being eaten.

Not like that, either. Sorry, Sparkle.

Re: Arrive and greet your host!

[myownface]

"Well, I'm not planning on losing it," Sparkle shared. "But damn, it would suck to mostly survive this place, and then get actually, permanently done in, like, this close to graduation. I'm already almost done the first half of my last year here."

And that was kind of shocking to him, honestly.

Re: Arrive and greet your host!

[sharp_as_knives]

"True," Hannibal agreed. "By the way, I'm thinking of teaching baking next semester. Would you enjoy that your last session, do you think?"

Re: Arrive and greet your host!

[myownface]

"Baking?" Sparkle blinked, and then took a moment to think that one over. "Like, bread and cakes and pastries and things? I think I would, yeah. We didn't spend much time on that in your other cooking classes, after all. And... if I do end up doing party stuff, that'll be kind of important, too."

At this rate, Sparkle was going to just run away and join a Food Network cooking show or something.

Re: Arrive and greet your host!

[sharp_as_knives]

That would be an excellent career choice - acting and food!

"I thought it was an omission I should remedy." Because as cheerful as Pinkie Pie was, Hannibal still hated to think she was the only experience of baking the students would have.

Re: Arrive and greet your host!

[myownface]

Yeah, much as Sparkle liked googly eyes and confetti, he could really only do so much with that in a real-world career scenario.

"Looking forward to it," he decided, grinning. "One normal, useful class to take with me when I go."

Out of however many that inevitably wouldn't be.

Re: Arrive and greet your host!

[sharp_as_knives]

"Only one?" Hannibal asked, mock-offended. "You've had several of mine now. Including one about...financial complications, should we call it?"

For values of "financial complications" equaling "cooking books for the Lithuanian mob".

Re: Arrive and greet your host!

[myownface]

"I was hoping for a useful class that didn't come with a risk of broken kneecaps," Sparkle replied, smirking. "I mean, learning more about that would make for a pretty memorable last semester, too..."

Re: Arrive and greet your host!

[sharp_as_knives]

"Harder than it looks, and you're generally better off not getting so close to someone who wants to hurt you," Hannibal answered, smirking right back.

Because you'd meant a class on breaking kneecaps, right?

Re: Arrive and greet your host!

[myownface]

"I'm pretty sure I'd want to start with, like, a sledgehammer," Sparkle mused. "I mean, once that thing gets going, not much is going to stop it."

A beat.

"Aiming would kind of suck, though. Maybe a crowbar."

Sparkle, stop thinking about this.

Re: Arrive and greet your host!

[sharp_as_knives]

"Best to start with something you can lift," Hannibal pointed out. "And there are better ways to damage someone, if you're determined enough."

Not that he'd ever do such a thing! He was just saying, as a doctor.

Re: Arrive and greet your host!

[myownface]

"Really, once I get back home, all it'll really take is being better at running on ice than they are. Doesn't take much to break a few bones when you're being an idiot outside in the winter in Canada."

Survival tips from street kids. In case you wanted or needed Sparkle's input, there.

"I guess I could, like, take up karate or something. That would work too."

Re: Arrive and greet your host!

[sharp_as_knives]

"It would," Hannibal agreed, "particularly in summer. I'm sure there are any number of people around here who would be willing to teach you some form of self-defense."

Re: Arrive and greet your host!

[myownface]

Sparkle nodded a little.

"Atton's taught me how to shoot, a little," he shared. "And I can fire an arrow from a bow if, like, for any reason I suddenly find myself stuck in Sherwood Forest and the Sheriff of Nottingham is hot on my trail or something. But neither of those are super helpful at, like, point blank when I'm unarmed. It's not like I actually own a gun."

Re: Arrive and greet your host!

[sharp_as_knives]

"True." Hannibal shrugged. "And even if you had one, you couldn't rely on always having it with you. I know a few principles that might help, but I'm no martial artist. It rather surprises me that there isn't an ongoing class at the school, given the history of this place."

Re: Arrive and greet your host!

[myownface]

"Yeah, Fandom," Sparkle sighed, rolling his eyes toward the ceiling. "It's the same reason there's no proper evacuation plan around the school. If you're screwed, here, you're totally screwed, or so people figure. Kind of sucks, since it means that the only people who really stand a chance are either the ones with powers, or the ones that came here already knowing how to hurt people, and the rest of us are, I don't know, expected to just be in the way all the frigging time?"

... Sparkle had a lot of feelings, here.