Guess Who's Coming to Dinner [semi-open]

[fantasticforcefields]

Date & Time: Ju...ly?
Location: Suite 101 (Sue, Medusa, and Crystal's apartment)
Characters: Sue Richards (fantasticforcefields) and various
Summary: Sue will feed pretty much anyone who's not actively afraid she put arsenic in the potatoes.
Warnings: God, I hope not.
Notes:: If the character's had an even remotely positive interaction with Sue, chances are good they could score a dinner invitation. If you're not sure, PM me and we can handwave some additional CR. I prefer action, but if you love prose, go for it.

[At home, Sue does the cooking. In Exsilium, it's no different. Even if it hadn't been a necessity, living first with Tony and Ivy, and then with the Inhuman royals (though Crystal has picked up a few things in her years in the human world) it's familiar, comforting--and frankly, considering the limited selection of food available even with the Initiative's efforts, it takes a chef of Sue's experience to make it appetizing day after day. She even remembers not to make enough to feed twenty people every night...usually.

Though she's not feeding the menagerie she has in New York--and she tries not to think about just how much she'd rather be doing that--it's as easy to cook for a few more as it is for just herself on nights when her roommates have other plans, and rather than eat alone, she's gotten into the habit of inviting friends or friendly acquaintances to share a meal, and providing dinner has a way of converting the latter to the former in cases where Sue's personality alone isn't quite enough.]

Comments

[fantasticforcefields]

That's my brother's department. I'm just making sure the sauce doesn't separate. It still tastes fine, but the texture leaves something to be desired.

[Sizzling in a frying pan on a rear burner, a pair of butterflied chicken breasts flip themselves. Sue doesn't dirty a lot of utensils in the kitchen.]

[reconnaissance]

Wow. You can actually cook stuff.

( This is cool. And it's nice, with the way Leonard left so suddenly. She's not sure she's processed yet, and trying not to just lash out and fight because he's just about one of the major constants she's had since she got here. He could cook okay, too. So, places set out, she's wandering back over.

Being around adults always feels like a relief, when they aren't condescending as all hell. )

It smells really good. ( Hi Sue this is Ellie probably getting in the way because investigating. ) Thanks for inviting me over.

[fantasticforcefields]

That rates a "wow?"

[If not for their family's accident, Sue would have been perfectly happy as a stay-at-home mom. It had been the plan, even. For her, cooking is unremarkable, something she's been doing since she suddenly found herself responsible for a troublesome younger brother before she was even in high school.]

Chicken broccoli alfredo. The broccoli's a little sad, I'm afraid, but the sauce should hide that.

[Ellie is free to enjoy the sight of a saucepan, boiling pot of pasta, and a frying pan full of chicken. The broccoli's still sitting in the microwave where it was steamed.]

You're welcome.

[reconnaissance]

Best I can do is a stir fry. Or toast. My mum's a heaps good cook, I mean she did competitions and stuff, at the regional show? But uh, I dunno. Kitchens are intimidating.

( Blowing up a harbour, fine. Cooking? No. No no. ) This is just fancier than what I've gotten for a while.

( Because with Steph on patrol and Leonard being at the clinic and Jim being-- Jim, Ellie was the cook, most nights. Eternal stir fry. She wasn't sure what they'd done when she was sick. ) Do you like cooking?

[fantasticforcefields]

All it takes is practice...but for some reason, telling Reed "it's just chemistry" still doesn't get him into the kitchen.

[Sue and Reed have very normative gender roles, at least until Sue hits the limit of her patience, and she doesn't resent it. It works for them, but sometimes she wonders if the Fantastic Four would have gained such rapid public acceptance if the group hadn't been so entirely unthreatening on a cultural level. Just as well--they made it easier for the less picture-perfect teams that followed.

Ellie's question gives her pause. Does she like cooking?]

I like having my family and my friends around the table. I like making my home a refuge in a chaotic world. Cooking's part of that.

[reconnaissance]

Chemistry is where the explosions happen, but. I think he sounds smart.

( She's being obnoxious, of course.

Except, Sue's answer makes her grin slip a little, gaze dropping as she suddenly finds double checking the buttons on her shirt incredibly important, smoothing it over. ) Yeah.

( She misses her family a lot. She has some friends here, she's-- God, dating someone here, or something, but it's not the same at the group back home. ) It makes sense. It's why there's comfort food, right? Makes us feel better.

[fantasticforcefields]

Oh, my husband can cause explosions with any number of common household items. He's very talented.

[And by "talented," Sue means "exasperating," if her expression's anything to go by.]

Is there anything you particularly like? I could make it sometime.

[She knows better than to pry. Ellie will talk if she wants to.]

[reconnaissance]

Maybe it's better he's out of the kitchen, then. What kinda damage do you reckon he could do scrambling eggs?

( Idly, Ellie contemplates hauling herself up on the counter to sit, if there's the barest bit of clear space, lays her hands on the bench to do it, and stops short about a half-second into the motion. Manners and all that, right? She might be a little sheepish as she tries to pretend that isn't what she was about to do. )

Roast lamb's pretty good. ( And by "pretty good" she means "the best thing in life." ) Any kinda lamb, to be honest. My mate Homer, his mum made this great Greek stuff.

( she does not remember many names, because she is hopeless. ) But roast lambs the best. ( She spent a lot of time thinking about food in Hell, it's a problem.

A beat, and then rather abruptly, ) You all fixed up from that virus?