Flavor Science is Afoot!

[chocolatechipbadass]

There's a wisp of smoke curling through the Plaza today.

Strange. Spring is supposed to be wet and fresh. A fire this early seems rather suspect, doesn't it? The closer to the source of the smoke the thicker it gets and the smell of burning food or something sweet soon fills the air. It's thick over by the vending machines where a young lady is seated on a picnic table watching with growing frustration as a box of something or other shoots plumes of smoke and fire into the sky.

Next to the flaming box is a plate of misshapen and charred man-hole covers, but they may have once been an attempt at a baked good. Tina eventually looks up from her mess and gives a lopsided shrug of her shoulders.

"Did y'all know non dairy creamer is flammable? Sheeeeyit how's a girl supposed to bake with something if it bursts into flames in the oven?"

Comments

[rekindledtitan]

"Tina." Blaze sounds bemused, with just a touch of disappointment all the smoke wasn't leading her to a firefight. The Guardian settles her weight and takes in the scene before she looks to the kid. Any spark of concern is swiftly quenched: she's seen Tina disassemble a landmine the size of a warsat and rework it to her liking before Blaze could even get close enough to pull her away. A flaming box that's just giving off some weird-smelling smoke? Not much to get upset about. Comparatively speaking.

She makes a better attempt at sounding stern when she asks, "Just what were you trying to cook up, kid?"

[chocolatechipbadass]

"Ohmygawd! It's Blazeblaze an' Sir Ghost~!!"

Tina bounces off her seat as though it were a rubberized repelling grenade and hurries over to offer the Guardian and bot hugs for their trouble if they'll let her give them. It's some of her favoritest people ever in the Nexus! Also some of the least squishable, but that's alright.

Once greetings are given, Tina looks back over her shoulder than up at Blaze with a shrug.

"So Lils told th'delivery guy that I get my crumpets from not to give me no more on account of 'Tina you can't just eat crumpets how are you alive?' so I figured I'd learn how t'make my own. Cept th'recipe calls for warm milk and son we ain't got none of that shit. I figured if I added warm water to non dairy creamer it'd work well enough so Brick brought me a box of th'stuff. Cept I mighta forgot to put it away an a spark got into it and now...well...

She getures to the pluming box of fire and smoke.

"Non dairy creamer burns real well, yo. I oughta use it in bombs."

[rekindledtitan]

Blaze isn't carrying much good cheer lately, but of course she leans down to return Tina's hug before Ghost gets one too. There's been no time spared for unnecessary repairs lately: the Titan's armor is worn and battered, and there's a dark, ragged hunk of cloth belted at her hip.

"It's good to see you, Tina." Ghost's quiet voice is muffled by the hug. Blaze, meanwhile, nods with approval as soon as Tina starts to explain. Not that she's an expert on feeding kids, but even she knows there are some basic nutritional requirements. Too bad trying to enforce them hasn't gone as intended...

"It'd make the explosions smell worse, I'll say that. Good thing you got it out of your base." She gives Tina a weighty poke in the chest. "But that's what you get for trying to get around the rules, kid."

[chocolatechipbadass]

Tina puts on her best put out childish sulk at the poke.

"Awwww come onnnnnn don't be like that why you gotta take shots at me Shawty? I'm wounded, wounded madam. Naw I'm jus' kiddin' who knew baking would be so much trouble?"

She could never be upset at Blaze even if the bot isn't agreeing with her. Blaze and Ghost are on her short list of Very Important People.

"Look, y'all can argue rules over what I do an' don't eat when you get me a reliable source of food, alright? I eat what I find and what I can get."

[rekindledtitan]

Blaze chuckles, and it masks the uncertain feelings she gets when Tina pulls those faces or calls her names or acts so undeniably cute. Her fellow Guardians (certain ones most especially) act childishly all the time and she's used to that, but somehow it's an entirely different thing coming from an actual kid. There are conflicting feelings. Complicated reactions. She's never good at figuring those out, though perhaps she ought to be trying more often.

Tina's right though. Baking does appear to be more exciting than the Guardian would have thought.

"Can't your supplier get anything else for you?" Ghost is asking. "Humans can eat so many kinds of food. I think most of you enjoy that."

"You're missing out on half the fun of being human," Blaze admits. "There's whole worlds of stuff you could be trying right now, kid. And it can't all be that flammable. Probably."

[chocolatechipbadass]

"Well, I mean people is an option. But I really don' wanna eat nobody. You ever smelled the psychos that try to get into my camp? I don't think there's enough barbecue sauce in the world to make me want to put that in my mouth. I mean, MAYBE if the alternative was broccoli or starving I'd try it."

Cannibalism is pretty far down there on Tina's list of options for food.

"Though lately if I'm gettin' hungry I come here first and scavenge around. A lot of the coffee stands have free nearly fresh stuff just layin' around."

[rekindledtitan]

"Eugh. No cannibalism." Blaze wants to shove that a little farther down the list. She's got to give Tina credit for doing what she can to scavenge, but the idea that the kid - the kid she's trying to look out for - is scouting around the Nexus for scraps sets her circuits buzzing with outrage and some degree of shame. She's not Tina's parent - how could she be? - but a Guardian has a responsibility regardless of the details.

"Better if we set you up with a new food supply," she says. "Food's not the main vector for trouble round here but you shouldn't have to rely on freebies."

[chocolatechipbadass]

"Riiiiiight? It's like ewwwww ew eww, naw son. NO bueno. Y'all don't know where that's been."

Though on Pandora, Tina can hazard more than a couple of guesses. None of them make the idea of eating someone any more appetizing to no one's surprise. Much better to come here and take advantage of the free food just laying around here. The Nexus is a pretty great thing if for no other reason than it helps a kid not go to bed hungry.

"I mean you can try to talk Lils outta being a spoilsport but I didn't get anywhere tryin' ta talk to her none. What do you guys eat anyhow? You never touch the food I serve at my tea parties."

[rekindledtitan]

"We don't need to eat anything," Blaze says with an apologetic kind of shrug. (Could, maybe, in her case, but that's a whole other crate of harpies she has no interest in opening.) "Ghost is powered by the Light and I guess I've got some weird ancient reactor in my guts. I can drink, but getting buzzed ain't exactly appropriate behavior for a tea party, right?"

"Sorry, Tina. I guess we're not as good at being guests as you are at being a hostess."

[chocolatechipbadass]

"Naw, no worries guys!"

Tina waves her hands back and forth as if trying to clear the air between them. She doesn't want two make two of her most favoritest people in the Nexus feel bad over her bein' a human that needs to eat and all that jazz.

"I was just curious, more'n anything. If there was an easier way to get food, yanno?"