I&#x27;ll Take It All

The only thing anybody is allowed to celebrate next friday is my birthday anything else is cancelled

That is the most important thing about the day.

TURKEYTIMETURKEYTIMETURKEYTIME I'M GONNA EAT THE BONESSSSS

toxic-excess

Yeah you eat those bones you funky little gargoyle

#No bones until after supper proper.

Stop encouraging them, you bone gremlin.

operative-j

Chickadee is a cute nickname, actually

toxic-excess

It really is! Did they come up with that themselves?

nO ITS NOT CUTE ITS CLEVER! IT'S A PUN BECAUSE I AM THE SMALL VERSION OF BIRB! AND ALSO EVIL!

I AM CLEVER AND SMART! NOT CUTE!

#And adorable.#Our little Chickadee.

You are the most smart and clever that there is, no contest.

operative-j

What did I do THIS time????

It's your fault the Air Fryer broke! Can't have SHIT in detroit!!!

#Replacing things too soon sometimes gets them caught up as the prior was.

We will replace it once James' period of exile has been served.

Until then the toaster oven will simply have to do.

I am the most dignified and powerful person ever in the history of the world I could fight god and win.

You could fight god and win, yes, but you would not ever have any need to. We hire people for that.

Against the wishes of my Fathers, I have obtained Social Media.

You may all now beg for my benevolence and mercy, but none shall be forthcoming.

operative-j

I'm blaming the grandiose monologuing on your other father I have nothing to do with whatever this is.

The negotiation was long, but terms were reached.

I see you are already conducting yourself with dignity and aplomb. Well done.

"Dry is fine."

He paused his peeling to pop the pills into his mouth before he swallowed with ease, then he got back to work.

"I suppose... What meals do you suggest?"

He glanced over at Vlad before he just smiled— This wasn't so bad... It was surprisingly easy to behave himself.

"Glad to see you happy, by the way..."

Ah, there it was again, that odd look in his eye. He shook his head and set down the ginger once it was peeled and picked back up his knife so he could slice it.

#((thank you for the art!!))#((they're chillin))#((vlad is so rambly one you get him going on one of His Topics))

Vlad considers dishes, putting genuine thought into what might work for Danny.

"Well, a lasagna is a relatively good one for that kind of prep. You can cook some meat and refrigerate it, stew the sauce and store it, slice the veggies and store them, and then when you're ready just layer all the pre-made bits together and bake. If you make a big one, you can cut it up into portions and freeze the leftovers, so you can easily reheat a bit at a time for hearty meals throughout the week." For Vlad, making such a dish is much more extravagant, and can turn into an all-day simmering and straining and boiling affair instead of spread out short bursts, but he still remembers the days he could hardly drag himself out of bed to stand (or float) for a few minutes at a time, and having to work around that. He remembers more recently finding tasks for small hands in his kitchen to do, so they can join in on prep, even if it meant making some of his recipes simpler.

"Similarly with other one-dish bakes. You can buy ingredients pre-prepared, or prepare them yourself a little at a time, with rests in between, and then bake them all on one sheet tray. A rice cooker can also help with bulking out meals, since you only have to do the rinse and putting things in it, and then the cooking will be handled on its own even if you wander off. And one can make other one-pot dishes in with the rice, by adding frozen vegetables or seasonings or eggs." Normally, he doesn't like to think of how he used to cook, before he got strong, before he had all the money the world could offer up to him. But... It isn't too bad if he can use that to help someone, perhaps. He knows this Danny is not his own but- Being able to teach things to a Danny, well. Perhaps it soothes an urge he had mostly put to rest a long time ago.

"I... am happy, thank you." Vlad ducks his head a little, feeling somewhat awkward at the overt friendliness. His life is good. He's built something real here, a family. Something he'd been seeking for a long time.

"Matchstick shaped cuts for the ginger, I think. Which are easiest done by cutting it into slices, and then stacking those slices and cutting through several sheets of them at once." Vlad gets back to the cooking talk to bring out his own confidence again, tucking away the awkwardness of that brief vulnerable feeling he'd had.

He glanced over at the mention of pain killers. One that actually works on him? He and Frostbite had been trying for a while but nothing worked long term...

"... If you wouldn't mind, sure..."

He then began to peel the ginger like Vlad showed him.

"I tried to make one with Frostbite over the years but nothing ever worked long term so I got use to it and ignored it... It's nerve damage. From the accident— Uhm... Electricity follows the path of least resistance. Through my arm and down through my leg. Completed the circuit that flared the portal to life."

He wasn't sure if Vlad's Danny ever told him, but he knows he never told his Vlad. He never got a chance to.

"Back to the cooking— It is fun. I think my main issue is being able to focus long enough to finish cooking."

"I had the time and resources, and I was not about to tolerate a life where I could never get reliable pain relief again." He has already been well into engineering and some sciences before his accident, and had branched out quite a bit afterwards from his prior strong engineering leanings afterward.

And he had had many lonely years to fill.

Vlad moves to a cabinet on a wall, high enough to be out of the reach of a child's prying hands, but also locked with a code. Below it is a cabinet of first aid supplies, in comfortable reach for adults and kids, and not locked. He rifles through before selecting a bottle.

"This one is a good bit stronger than standard over the counter painkillers, but not quite as strong as narcotic painkillers. It is the strongest one I have that does not have any mental impact." Nerve damage from the accident sounds serious enough to warrant something of that strength. He... does not know if his own Danny suffers from the same. For himself, Vlad was blasted with energy that was nearly entirely ectoplasmic in nature, though corrupted. He doesn't doubt that if there had been a serious chunk of electricity in it, that it could have ended much worse for his brain.

He shakes his head to shake off the thoughts.

"Dry or would you like a drink?" He belatedly remembers to ask, after handing over the appropriate dose of pills. He got used to taking his own dry, after so many for so long in the hospital. Even if most of it ended up being useless for his changed body in the end.

"As to cooking, you might do well with food that allows you to work on prep in short bursts, and freeze or refrigerate it to come back later to finish, when your attention returns." Once upon a time, he would not have been... nearly so patient with attention span issues. He still doesn't entirely get how some people can't just... buckle down and focus on what they want to do until it is done. He can. He thinks it is simple. Pure willpower.

But... well, even an old set-in-his-ways dog can learn, when not learning would mean hurting people he holds dear.

sometiktoksarevalid

He nodded and added his to the bowl before he watched Vlad salt them. He stood a bit back at the salting before he stepped back up to watch him demonstrate the cutting before he picked up his knife to do the same thing.

Careful.

He did have to stop for a moment to calm down his arm, holding the upper arm tightly as the hand itself trembled.

He picked back up the knife and finished off the work before he placed them in a bowl, and he salted just as Vlad showed up.

He looked up at him with a smile.

"This is fun—"

Vlad frowns a bit at the pause, studying Danny's arm.

"Do you need painkillers? I have ones specifically formulated for hybrids." He'd had to develop and produce them himself, of course. With some mild refinement from James, he supposes. But it was worthwhile to have a stock on hand for himself and- Well, a family can need all sorts of medicine, really, and he's built up a decent range of stuff, all tested over the years on himself.

"This can be a bit like fun, I suppose." Vlad's expression softens to something almost reaching a smile. "Everything in it's place, all coming together with each action." He hums for a moment, considering.

"A spoon is best for peeling the ginger, it much more easily gets in all the strange shapes, without the risk of a blade, and it takes off less good flesh with the skin. Again, ginger, and also garlic, can be obtained pre-processed, so you could skip these steps when making your own, but I prefer this way." Vlad demonstrates scraping off some of the skin of the ginger, then hands it over.

"The ginger, garlic, and green onion will essentially be flavoring the oil that cooks the other ingredients, and then will be combined with the soy, vinegar to make a sauce, which we'll add depth and kick too with the pepper flakes, and round off some of the sharp acids with a bit of honey. If it's not thick enough, we'll use a corn starch slurry to make sure it forms a luxurious glaze on the finished dish, clinging to the noodles." Vlad explains a bit more of the theory of building a stir fry, while he makes sure everything is settled in the appropriate bowls on the correct tray as it's prepared.

bunny-rp-memes

Reblog if you don’t mind random inbox starters that aren’t memes

His eyes darted between every action, his hands resting against the counter as he took in all the information the best he could. He did wash his hands, though—

Vlad was a good teacher, he supposed... Hopefully he could be a good student.

Zucchini and Squash first, due to the water content... Yes—

He was silent as he watched him slice first. Seems simple enough... He took hold of the knife in his left hand and moved to mimic what he had seen.

His fingers curled as he tried to slice it like Vlad, focusing harder than perhaps necessary—

"Like this?"

He was a bit shakey, his cuts weren't as neat or even, but at least he didn't cut himself!

Vlad observes the cutting silently, his gaze as keen as ever. He always looks like he's judging someone, mostly because he usually is.

"That will do. As you do it more, you will get better control over the evenness when you gain more confidence with it. Put them in this bowl here." Vlad puts the ones he'd cut in a mesh strainer he's settles on a larger bowl, and waits for Danny to add his as well. It's a stir fry, so as long as everything is roughly the same size, some messy cuts aren't an issue.

"When removing moisture from vegetables it is important to salt them, as that will draw out the most moisture, as well as seasoning the vegetables." Vlad puts some generous pinches of kosher salt and flicks his wrist holding the bowl to toss it all together and coat everything, before setting it aside.

"Now on to the other vegetables." Vlad splits the squash, mushrooms, and green onions roughly evenly between the two of them. "I will do one ingredient to show you, and then you will do yours right afterward, for each of these. They are very similar, with only minor variations for size and shape, so it is good practice." Vlad explains, before getting right into it. He lets himself go a little bit faster than last time, but not much. He does find the rhythm of the prep to be soothing.

Normally, his ADHD would zone him out mid-ramble... But he was listening intently. He didn't mind the lack of peanut options—

There was plenty of meals that could be made without peanuts!

He thought about the options while Vlad spoke before he made a decision, nodding his head.

"What I own doesn't really matter at this point— But I think I've made a decision. Stir fry sounds pretty good... One with noodles, steak, and mixed veggies? Oh! Squash and Zucchini, and mushrooms—"

His eyes seemed to sparkle as he pressed his hands together, a grin forming across his lips. He was serious about learning, too. It'll give him something to do between his jobs Clockwork gives him.

"Stir fry it is." Vlad pulls out a pan and sets it on the stove. he could use a wok, but decided against it, as this is for a beginner. "Wash your hands." He's already washed his own, but he washes them again, out of courtesy.

"Now, we could make or cook our own noodles, but usually small markets or shops will sell them already made and tender, and that is plenty good for a stir fry." He pulls out a packet of pre-steamed noodles with standard food text in Chinese on it.

"For the vegetables, however, you should learn proper knifework even though you can buy them pre-sliced." Vlad takes out a cutting board, and begins laying out the ingredients Danny had listed, "Squash and especially zucchini will release a lot of water, so we want to handle those first to give them time to drain out, so they cook and char instead of sogging everything. But before starting to cook anything, one should get all the ingredients needed and lay them out. That way one does not get caught unaware in the middle of cooking, missing a vital ingredient."

Vlad uses a tray on the counter to hold the ingredients he's pulling out. Steak from the fridge, lush and thick, spaghetti squash, zucchini, white button and shiitake mushrooms, the previously mentioned noodles, some garlic, green onions, ginger, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, gochugaru flakes, a bit of corn starch, and some beef stock. His cabinets and refrigerator are meticulously organized and impeccably well stocked with whatever he could want for cooking or baking.

He takes out a wood cutting board and a pair of knives, identical to one another.

"Once you have everything out, then you begin preparing everything. Again, this should be done before a single ingredient touches heat. For stir fry especially, many parts of it will go quite quickly. So you need everything to hand in the quantity and form it will be going in, so you can drop it into the pot at the right time so that it will all finish cooking at the same time." Vlad takes out little bowls, setting them on a new tray, so that processed ingredients can go in them. It's his system, all neat and orderly. If he is going to teach someone, he is not going to cut corners on best practices. There are a lot of different skills that can be learned from this meal and applied elsewhere in simpler forms.

"Watch me slice this zuchinni. Take note of my grip on the blade, and the control of the food using the other hand, as well as the curled fingers on that hand to prevent injuries." Vlad makes sure he moves more slowly than usual with his slicing, giving Danny time and space to observe.

"Now, you try." He moves aside, to give Danny room at the cutting board.

orcposts

do not go gentle into that good night

orcposts

be a bit of a bitch about it

#James.

Unnecessary for now, yes.

"Uhm, just no raw tomatoes."

He looked up at the taller hybrid for a moment before he looked around the kitchen again, rolling up the sleeves of his own button down.

"I'm not picky unless it's tomatoes."

He glanced down at his arm before he rubbed over the scarred skin and lowered them.

What first... Oh!

"What's all beginner friendly—"

"Noted. As an additional note, we do not cook with peanuts here." Vlad says it casually, and it is indeed true that the entire kitchen is completely peanut-free. He does not ask if the tomato thing is a preference, intolerance, or allergy. There was a time when he'd have considered using it against Danny- Well, he hopes his guest will not give him cause to rethink his position on the matter.

"There are several levels of beginner friendly, depending on exactly how much of a beginner you are. Cooked sandwiches, like grilled cheese are an extremely basic possible starting point. Stir fry is a very flexible option that needs little in the way of cooking vessels. Tacos are also quite simple on a basic level, as long as you have the spices. Or one could take it more modular, breaking it down to the basics of that a meal should have at least one protein, at least one vegetable, and at least one starch. If you pick one or two of each to learn how to make, you can mix and match them into many different meals, and expand slowly from there. What to learn will also depend on what cookware you own or can acquire, as it will do no good to teach you to cook in a pan or an oven if you do not have that to cook with yourself." Vlad fires off that entire ramble and just expects Danny to keep up. One might even get the impression there is just a bit of real passion behind his cooking.

He made a slight face when his mumbling was called out. Yeah... That is something he has to work on if he's to be around other people.

"Sorry, it's been... a very long time since I've actively interacted with someone..."

There was a heaviness to his comment... Perhaps even a sadness.

"Huh... Has time messed with my memory, or did you chill with the Packers merch around every corner?"

He just looked around with an odd curiosity—

Or Well... Oddity overall. His human form didn't even seem all that human anymore. His freckles were littered with star-like sparkles, like his ghost form was leaking through.

"I was also gonna ask, if I behaved, could you also teach me to cook?"

Why can't he ask his own Vlad—

The apology does give Vlad a brief moment of pause, having expected a quip instead. He smooths that over quickly enough, though. The oddity of the words does stick slightly in his memory, though he cannot identify the emotion attached to them.

"Then you have many things to practice." Vlad shrugs. He knew that already, what is one more thing on the pile?

"Hm? Oh, that. I am indulging the whims of some other residents currently, with regards to creative freedom with decor." Vlad makes it sound like he's doing James and Char an indulgent favor with the mansion not looking like a top to bottom green and gold nightmare. Which, well, he thinks that he is.

"That was not a question." Vlad brushes off the question. He turns to a cabinet, and then pulls out two aprons, putting one on himself and handing the other to Danny. "There are no idle hands in the kitchen." It's a philosophy he's held firm on for quite some time now. People either help or they get out of his kitchen. Even if he has to teach them how to help.

"Now, did you have any input to the night's meal?" He notes the strangeness of his guest's... Human? form, but does not comment on it for now. It is not relevant, not when he's looking to hear about any food allergies or preferences relevant to the cooking.

{ @covetousdimidiation }

Free dinner is free dinner, what can he say—

Though... Maybe if he asks nicely, Vlad can teach him how to cook... Maybe.

A portal was opened up just outside the Manor's door before he stepped out, straightening out his shirt. Then he knocked.

He wasn't gonna just walk in like he owned the place, clearly—

He promised good behavior for food, and he was gonna be on his best behavior!

He was even presentable, not wearing dingey jeans and T-shirt.

"Gotta be nice... No pranks... And be respectful."