fandomtownies | Community Center Class: Beyond Cup Noodle; Thursday Evening [11/18].

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!ccclass: cooking

Community Center Class: Beyond Cup Noodle; Thursday Evening [11/18].

Ignis knew the lesson for today was going to be a big risk, but, so help him, he kept finding himself feeling reluctantly optimistic that, maybe, just maybe, this might be the lesson where everything finally fell into place and he started seeing improvement over the repeated mistakes he kept seeing some of his students make time and time again.

He was, after all, a patient man, though perhaps that patience was wearing thing. Perhaps this was one last effort to keep true to the spirit of the class without compromise, before finally giving in and focusing on recipes that even a child would be able to execute with far better success rate than this class.

"One of the most ubiquitous and convenient foods out there, especially around here and in this culture," he began, and then let out a slight sigh before continuing, the sort of sigh a man made when he knew he was likely about to make a huge mistake but was going to do it anyway, "is pizza. There are many excellent options out there in the realm of pizza, though it's a bit of a catch-22. The ones regarded with any sort of quality can be quite a strain on one's budget, and the ones that are cheap are usually quite terrible for you when consumed in excess. Thankfully, making a pizza at home can be one of the easiest things to do, provides you with the opportunity to make it precisely as you like, and usually winds up being quite a bit heartier and more filling than their take-out conterparts. And so that is what I would like to focus on today.

"Now, obviously, making pizza dough from scratch is optimal, but since we are focusing on convenience and time with this course, we will be using pre-made dough."

And also because the thought of teaching this class about perfecting pizza dough was literal nightmare fuel for Ignis.

"This cuts out a significant amount of time, and, from there, it is simply a matter of building it with your sauce, cheese, and toppings, then into..." Excuse him a moment to steel himself, "the over, where we will take excpetional care to pay attention to the heat and the time it is in there to prevent turning out pizzas into black burning discs of failure."

A pointed pause, a lift of his eyebrow. Certainly not directed at anyone in particular, no.

"Won't we? Now, building it is simple. You simply choose your sauce, spread it evenly and generously around the crust, and then the toppings and cheese of your choice. Simple enough, right? But there may be more to truly making an excellent pizza at home, which will include the following tips, so please, pay heed and take note:

"If you have the time, preheating the surface of your pizza pan will yeild excellent results, and, if available to you, a heavier material is best. You can do this merely by preheating both surface and oven together if you are short on time. Parchment paper is also an excellent resource, as it will help make it easier to remove your pizza without it getting burned onto the surface of your pan. High temperatures are...unfortunately...optimal, especially when one considers how hot a pizza oven at a restaurant is likely to be...but do keep an eye on it so that it does not burn so easily. If you're including a protein that you are cooking before hand, be sure to undercook it, as it will cook a little more with the pizza, and then you do not have burned meats on an otherwise well-cooked pizza. And though the temptation may be strong to load your pizza up as much as possible, you will find that a sparser distribution of toppings will lead to a more even bake as well as a more balanced final product. And, finally, at the very end, do not be afraid to add seasonings or a little drizzle of oil at the end, as it will be an easy and effectie way to elevate your pizza to the next level."

And with that, he considered the classroom with a bit of wary anticipation.

"Any questions? If not... I think we may be ready to..." Gods save them all, "...begin."

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It's pizza time.

Tisarwat

Dwight Hendrickson

Shane Gooseman

As delivered by a man who is clearly standing on the precipice of something and is perhaps mildly terrified of what he might find after peering into the abyss beyond.

Please make pizza.

That's all Ignis wants in the world right now, is for this class to successfully make pizzas.

Though he knows that this is an awful lot to ask.

If anyone was ever curious about what a 7 foot, severely sleep deprived Supertrooper looked like they would get their answer when Goose showed up for cooking class tonight. He looked awful and honestly should not have even been there but he needed something to focus on until he could finally fall asleep.

Goose couldn’t cook when he was wide awake and had a normal sleeping schedule, after three nights of not being able to sleep … this could only end in disaster.

Of course Goose likely would have managed to burn the pizza anyway regardless if he had slept or not so was it any surprise really when smoke started coming out of the oven again this week?

“Oh,” he blinked tiredly and then stared at the oven.

Oh, but Ignis really should not have been surprised. He should have known that, in this instance, his hope and pride would wind up just as burnt as Goose's poor pizza.

At this point, he wondered if there was anything he could do but sigh, because, by now, surely, Goose knew what to do when that smoke started up again.

He did, however, start waving a cookbook as if to start clearing some of it away.

"Oh," he repeated as he got closer in case the pizza did need rescuing, as he'd noticed Goose was seeming somehow even more sluggish and slow than usual, "indeed..."

“Uh…sorry,” he said rather sheepishly, the fact that he’d even gotten the pizza in the oven at all was a bit of a feat, considering.

He turned the oven off from where he had turned it all the way up and opened it to see the damage, that poor pizza had never stood a chance, “I …haven’t slept since Monday,” he said by way of excuse, which anyone else might have explained it but this was Goose we were talking about.

Shane Gooseman. Sir. You did not speak to mother hen Ignis Scientia about not having slept for four days and not expect him to go into a faint shock and forget entirely about pizzas, burning or otherwise!

"Since Monday?" he said, and immediately started shaking his head, because this would simply not do. "Whatever are you even doing here? Is it insomnia? Have you tried taking something for it, or consulting a doctor? Or even some tea? I daresay, man, fumbling about trying to cook pizza should be the least of your concerns right now!"

Goose blinked a lot because that had not been the reaction he was expecting, “uh…” he stopped and started. He was also very tired so he was blaming that on why he was staring at Ignis rather blankly instead of you know responding at first.

“Too much sugar and caffeine,” he sighed when he remembered that words were a thing, “I’m not supposed to have too much of them for pretty much this exact reason only my younger self took that as a challenge not having parental supervision to have as much as he could,”

Goose you still needed adult supervision and you were 19.

“It’s normally only 24 hours though it’s never been this long,” he sighed and then he considered Ignis’ last question, “why wouldn’t I be here?” someone had been extremely conditioned that showing signs of weakness was bad …the fact that Ignis got this much out of him was both tiredness and progress.

Ignis, designated adult supervision since the age of six, huffed, somewhat indignant, and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Because," he chided, "I suspect you should be in bed. I swear, even worse than Noctis and Prompto when they fall too deeply into their video games. Well, let's at least get you some tea or maybe just some water, see if that helps flush it out of your system faster." Already he was making his way through some cabinets. "I could have sworn I saw some jasmine in here, and chamomile, they're said to have relaxing, soporific effects--ah, yes! Good. Here we are, then."

Edited 2021-11-18 17:51 (UTC)

Goose was still staring, not really comprehending why Ignis was doing this for him, “I don’t understand?” he said finally, “isn’t that a sign of weakness …my commanding officer signed me up if I missed class, I’m disobeying orders,”

Of course Commander Walsh also expected Goose to be able to cook without burning the kitchen down so he more than likely wouldn’t have minded in this case.

"Then I would greatly enjoy to have a discussion with your commanding officer," Ignis stated, as he rooted out a kettle and filled it to put on the stove, "about whether or not an exhausted soldier is somehow more useful because he can cook a pizza."

There was a small pause where he found something to fuss with, even though there wasn't much to be fussed with.

"Or at least tries to," he amended.

That got a small tired smile out of Goose, “I did try to bake cookies with my Captain’s kids once, I was babysitting,” yes Captain Foxx had been desperate to ask Goose, “I blew up his oven, I’m currently on a lifetime ban from his kitchen,” he didn’t know if that story would help or make it worse.

There was a pause and then, “it’s …the situations kind of complicated at home,” he hesitated, would he sharing this much if he wasn’t this sleep deprived, “my commanding officer ..he tries but he answers to more powerful people and …”

(apparently you get all my sad angsty characters today, I swear this wasn’t done deliberately)

At least Ignis had enough control over his mouth to not ask if Goose's captain maybe hated his kids, in this particular situation. But for now, he just sighed, waiting for the kettle to reach temp.

"I do have to admit," he said, "I question the priorities of these more powerful people. But that is certainly nothing I am a stranger to, nor am I unfamiliar with the necessity of following questionable orders from higher ups. That said, I maintain firmly that an exhausted soldier is a useless soldier, and I'd hope," there was a moment of appreciation for the timing on the kettle which now whistled so that he could have poured the tea, "your officers would agree. And if not?"

He handed the mug over.

"Well, they're not exactly here, are they?"

[[ do you want all your characters adopted by chocobros? Because this is how you you get all your characters adopted by chocobros. ]]

"I'm a ...reminder of a failure and my existence back home is somewhat controversial," Goose said softly, major understatement, "they would use this to justify that I should be put on ice or worse,"

He sighed and gratefully accepted the mug, "I know my team have my back, the rest of the officers ... I'm never quite sure, my appointment to the Series 5 Taskforce was a controversial one,"

[lol please adopt them, they need as many people as they can get to look out for them :)]

"Mmm." Ignis gave a thoughtful hum at that, sparing a glance at the other students to make sure they weren't also about to burn down the community center, and then poured himself some of the tea, as well, and refocused his attention on Goose.

"I can see why that might put a bit more pressure on you to do well," he mused, considering him a little more now. "If I may ask, though..." He sipped from the mug. "What about your placement makes it so controversial?"

"I'm..." he took a sip of his tea and then considered, “I’m not human, I was created as part of a program that was designed to bring about the ultimate super solder but failed …I’m..." another pause, "we're called Supertroopers ...I was the youngest ... we were only a few weeks out from our first assignments and one of the Board of Leaders wanted us to be ready sooner and injected a gas into the mess hall where the others were ...I was in the shooting range at the time," he stared at his mug, "the gas drove them insane, they're some of the most feared criminals our galaxy has ever seen and ... then there's me, I was sent to Fandom because no one knew what to do with me, I was to young to enlist at the time and Commander Walsh, my CO - well he was my guardian at the time, was able to stop them forcing me to immediately hunt down the other Supertroopers to bring them in but now that I'm old enough ... he was in charge of creating the Series 5 Taskforce and he assigned a Supertrooper to the team and that upset the same people that caused the failure of the original program," he took another sip of tea.

There was a pause.

"So I'm back in Fandom again until things have cooled down back home, if they ever will, I'm still part of the Taskforce but my current assignment is here," he said softly and then stared at his tea, not really daring to look up.

Hmmm. An army of attempted supersoldiers through unnatural means, you say? Now why did that all sound familiar?

Poor move on Ignis for just assuming Goose's faction would be the good guys, but, well, he was Lucian. He had his biases.

And he sipped his tea, long and thoughtful, before answering.

"Where I come from," he said, "a failure of that magnitude would fall on the shoulders of the commanders who instigated it, not the soldiers who were merely following orders..."

But that was the thing, with manufactured infantry, wasn't it? They were fodder, they were excuses, they were....dispensible.

He considered Goose thoughtfully again. "If your current assignment is here," he reasoned, "and I am your instructor, then that would mean that, at least in my classroom, that makes me your direct officer. And, as such, I am telling you that I'll not abide any cooks in my kitchen who are not in optimal condition. And if there is any issue with that? Well. They're welcome to bring it to my attention."

If there was one thing that Goose knew and could follow was the chain of command …and that instinct kicked in when Ignis had told him that he was his superior in the classroom.

“Yes sir,” he said softly, finally daring to look back up at Ignis, it was the first time he’d openly discussed Wolf Den … his team knew bits and pieces but he had never fully explained what happened that day. “I …” he hesitated, “thank you sir,”

Well, that's what you get, Goose, activating the mother hen mode on a man who was pretty much dyed in the wool to handle situations like these. He was just glad that his instincts were right on that move, and that perhaps all it was was a matter of having the right language for it.

But for now, he just nodded, took another sip from his tea.

"You're dismissed, Gooseman," he said. "I trust we'll see you again next week in better condition."

“Yes sir,” Goose snapped to attention. Had Ignis expected the salute as well? because he was getting a salute. Goose was blaming this on the sleep deprivation. “I will be sir,” and then he left as quickly as he could before he said or did anything else that was mortifying.

He is already half-planning to just come in next week with a stack of take-out menues. He knows how to choose his battles, after all.

My brain, the entire time while writing this class:

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Community Center Class: Beyond Cup Noodle; Thursday Evening [11/18].

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