milliways_bar | (no subject)

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peter parker (spider-man)

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Yamato is stressed, which means Yamato is cooking.

He spends a few hours monopolising the kitchen, making a dizzying variety of the most technically challenging hors d'oeuvres he can think of, warding off any waitrats trying to make food with a combination of quick growls and sharp temperature drops.

Later, he can be found at one of the tables, with a few platters of food and a sign saying 'FREE HORS D'OEUVRES, I CAN'T EAT ALL OF THESE' set up.

Catch him in the kitchen or in the bar.

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"Oh, don't mind if I do," Lucifer says, leaning in to look at the offerings.

"That looks scrumptious."

"I recommend the sun-dried tomato and basil cream cheese roll-ups first," Yamato says, sliding a platter over. "But I made a lot of different varieties. It was a whole -- cooking frenzy. Thing."

"That sounds delightful," Lucifer enthuses, taking a bite.

"Mmm, mmm. That is scrumptous."

A delighted Devil is very delighted.

"I'm glad you approve," Yamato says. After a moment, he adds: "Actually, something tells me you're probably a pretty experienced foodie, so that means a lot."

After all, indulgence does seem to be one of Lucifer's things.

Lucifer beams at him. "I do consider myself a bit of a gourmand," he agrees. "And trying new things is always good."

"Here, these ones are brie, fig, and prosciutto crostinis," Yamato says, sliding another platter over. "Trying to get the appropriate balance of sweet, creamy, and savoury for them."

"I adore figs," Lucifer says, before popping one I'm his mouth.

"Oh yes. Oh, yes. That is good."

He smiles at Yamato. "Do you do catering? "

"I've never been much of a fig guy myself, but I figured I'd try them out," Yamato says. "And, er, no, this is mostly just a hobby. I do the cooking on missions, but that mostly involves a campfire and whatever we can forage."

"I've thought about taking cooking up as a hobby," Lucifer muses. "But then I went with the detective gig instead."

As you do.

"I'm not sure those are quite in the same league as hobbies," Yamato remarks. "At the very least, the detective gig has higher stakes."

"On the other hand - soufflés," Lucifer replies, nodding sagely.

Super tricky and high stakes, soufflés.

"I mean, nobody's going to die if a souffle collapses."

Beat.

"Okay, someone might die if a souffle collapses. The chef might die of embarrassment."

"Exactly."
Lucifer nods, glad to have found someone who sees the similarities.

"Ooh, what's that one?"

"Those are crustless mini ham and vegetable quiches," Yamato says, sliding the plate over. "They're not bad, but they might work better if they were hot."

"You had me at crustless," Lucifer quips. "These would go well with a beer. Even cold."

"Not a fan of crusts? Some people say they're the best part," Yamato says, wisely. "I hadn't thought about combining them with beer. I might try that -- drinks pairings are a thing, after all, right? Wine pairings are definitely a thing, stands to reason it'd apply to other drinks too."

"Just let me know if you want any suggestions," Lucifer offers. "I'm quite the expert when it comes to drink choices."

Yamato considers this for a moment. Then: "I guess that's fair. I mean, you're immortal, you've definitely had plenty of time to try drinks from around the world."

"I have. I like drinking," Lucifer replies brightly.

"Last time I got drunk, someone here tried to give me a stern 'no drinking until you're older' talk," Yamato says, a little sourly. "So you definitely know a lot more than me."

Well, stern-ish. They were trying not to laugh.

"What?" Lucifer says, offended.
"That's just stupid. Aren't you like - twenty-four?"

Lucifer, it must be said, is not good with age.
Or appropriateness.

"Man, what are you doing back here?" He's leaning in the doorway. There's little chance some growling or cold will scare him away.

Doorway is good. People in doorways aren't getting in the way of the cooking process.

"Cooking. Er, cooking lots of small things. For reasons," Yamato says, carefully arranging his tenth brie, fig, and prosciutto crostini. "You know, normal stuff."

"I think you passed 'normal' a few exits back. Is there a purpose to all of this?" Usually 'furious doing of one thing over and over' is a sign of things being 'wrong'.

"I think your face passed normal a few exits back," Yamato mutters. "It's just -- making food is good. It's a good distraction. Nothing wrong with making food."

He's very confused for several seconds, then laughs. Definitely not the worst insult he's faced.

"True. Making food is good. But distractions can be bad things. I've seen it happen."

"Only if there's something urgent to be distracted from. Besides, there's nobody around to fight, so this is the best distraction I can come up with."

There's a little bit of a whine to his voice for a moment there, less human and more 'wolf puppy who has nobody to play with.'

Edited 2021-12-24 01:26 (UTC)

"Fight? Like fight-fight or sparring-fight?" he asks, head tilting a little to one side.

"Sparring-fight," Yamato clarifies.

He pauses for a moment, delicately sprinkling parmesan.

Then: "I mean, I'd take an actual fight if that was all that was being offered, but sparring's preferable."

"Dude, I'm not gonna fight you for real." He points toward the bar. "Rules, man."

He gives a shrug. "But if you wanna spar..."

Okay, so he hasn't told Yamato that he could fling him across the entire landscape out back, but, it's not entirely relevant yet, right?

"I thought the question was hypothetical, I didn't realise you were offering."

Yamato considers this, carefully arranging some food.

"Didn't realise you knew how to fight, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised. There's a boxing ring upstairs," he says, thoughtfully. "It'd have to be a no-powers bout, though. My powers aren't made for friendly competition."

He doesn't know if Peter even has powers, or what they'd involve, but a lot of patrons do.

"Well, if you'd said 'fight-fight', it would've been hypothetical. Because I'd need a really good reason to fight you for real. And I don't have one."

He watches Yamato playing with the food.

"Well, I've never boxed before, but if you wanna show me..." This is not a lie. He has not boxed before. It does leave out the 'I fought Captain America' part of his history.

"People here are so full of self-restraint," Yamato says wryly. "But I appreciate that. If you were out to kill me or something, it'd make things difficult."

He picks up the tray, slotting it inside the fridge, then strides over to Peter, slapping him on the shoulder and flashing a fanged grin.

"All right then, follow me and we'll see what we're working with."

The gym's not all that far -- a walk up the stairs, and down a few corridors, with Yamato grabbing a sports bag from the Bar as they pass -- and once they're there, Yamato makes a beeline for the boxing ring near the back of the room, picking two pairs of gloves out of the box next to it.

Edited 2021-12-30 22:41 (UTC)

He follows up to the gym - this bar really does seem to have everything. He should bring Mr. Stark here. He'd be fascinated.

"Okay, seriously though - I've never boxed before, so you're gonna have to start all the way at zero for me here." He'll pick it up pretty quick though.

"That's easy enough to do. I taught my team's medic how to fight, and he was pretty firmly in the 'flail his arms and yell at things until they go away' camp before. I'm guessing you've at least held your own in fights before."

He tosses one pair of gloves over to Peter, then climbs inside the ring, tugging his own pair on.

"Well, I think I'm a little better than flailing my arms," he says. Probably a bit better, but he doesn't really have a lot of practice fighting.

He easily catches the gloves and tugs them on as he climbs into the ring.

"I know less than zero about boxing, so you're gonna have to start at the beginning."

"It's ninety-percent just knowing how to throw a punch," Yamato says. "So -- feet apart about hip width, right hand just in front of your chin, left hand extended a little way in front of that. Tuck your chin in. That makes for a good basic stance for throwing punches."

He demonstrates, settling into the stance described.

"From there, stay light on your feet and remember to keep moving. Left hand's good for quicker punches like jabs, where you just snap out your arm," he snaps out his left hand a few times, firing off a couple of rapid-fire jabs at the air, "right hand's good for slower, stronger punches, like straights and hooks." He snaps out his right hand in a straight punch, then brings it back and curves it into a hook.

"So -- mostly just knowing how to punch things, knowing how to block, and remembering to stay moving."

Edited 2022-01-13 08:21 (UTC)

He gets into the stance Yamato demonstrates, trying to stay light as instructed. Some of it is more affected than real. He actually is very light on his feet. When they get to actually throwing punches, he'll have to pull - a LOT.

"Okay..." he says and practices the different types of punches as well.

"Right. Punches, blocks, and keep moving. Got it. Are there like 'no hit' areas in boxing?" He knows baseball and hockey, not so much boxing.

Yamato watches, with an unreadable expression that's probably approval, given how extremely readable it is when he disapproves of things.

"Just don't punch me in the groin, and we're fine," he says, with a little bit of a chuckle.

"Fair enough. Wasn't planning to punch there anyway - that's just bad form." He gets his hands up in the initial guard position. He'll have to keep his strength in check so he doesn't end up breaking his teacher here. Or throwing him across the room. Either of those would be bad.

"Exactly," Yamato says, flashing a quick grin. He lifts his own hands, settling into a fighting stance, and takes a careful step in, jabbing just lightly at Peter's guard. It's less a serious attack and more of an attempt to just test his guard.

Peter's reflexes have him moving an arm to block the jab before he remembers he shouldn't be that good. He'll play it off as luck. And knowing that Yamato wasn't really trying to punch him. "So, like this," he says and mimics the jab back.

If Yamato notices (and he does), it doesn't really show on his face, but since his expression always has an inhumanly lupine, sharply-watching, rather intent quality anyway, how would anyone even tell.

He moves an arm to block Peter's jab in return, giving him a quick nod. "Exactly like that."

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