it's a piece of cake to bake a pretty cake

[allconsumed]

Who: Velvet Crowe & Waver Velvet (aka The Victim)
Where: Floor 6, Room 1 of the apartment building
When: Day 178-ish
Open/Closed: Closed

[The kitchenette doesn't offer much counter space, but it shouldn't be an issue; Velvet has cooked with much worse conditions to contend with. She has most of the dry ingredients out and ready, along with the butter, which has been softening outside of the fridge. The oven is in the process of preheating, and Velvet has a nice shiny pan for them to use. It's all arranged rather neatly.

There's nothing left to prepare, so Velvet folds her arms and waits for The Victim to arrive. It ought to be an entertaining, and perhaps messy, afternoon.]

Comments

[teratias]

[Waver glares, unamused and insulted.]

Thanks for the vote of confidence, jerk.

[allconsumed]

[She waves a dismissive hand.]

You should be proud that you're exceeding my expectations.

[teratias]

How low were they?! Did you just drop them on the floor?

[allconsumed]

Look, don't get so defensive. Not everybody is given a chance to prove themselves like this, so consider yourself lucky.

[Can he tell that she's enjoying herself? The shit-eating grin probably gives it away.]

[teratias]

[Waver just growls, and huffs! Fuck this! He's going back to mixing the stupid cake!]

Why do you care anyway?

[allconsumed]

[Hey, the cake didn't do anything wrong.]

I have my reasons. Do you really need to know?

[teratias]

...I mean, I've been wondering for a while.

[allconsumed]

Maybe I just enjoy having a masochist around.

[OK, OK. A real-ish answer, even though she's going to keep it vague.]

… I suppose it's good that you're still spending time with Magilou. She could use it.

[teratias]

I'm not a masochist! How can you assume that about someone?!

[The realish answer is....actually satisfying though. Waver blinks, slowing the anger roll.]

Well...we...yeah. I like spending time with her too.

[allconsumed]

That's what makes you a masochist. There's other evidence, too.

[Turns out she's not really so great at helping him calm down.]

[teratias]

[Waver rolled his eyes, overexaggerated and clearly annoyed.]

Like what?

[allconsumed]

The first time we met.

[Maybe she's risking him storming out by bringing that up.]

[teratias]

...I don't like being bullied, that's all. And you did assault me!

[allconsumed]

I would say that you asked for it.

… Maybe I went a bit overboard.

[teratias]

Yeah. Maybe you did.

[He'll accept that as an apology! Victory.]

C'mere, is this well mixed enough?

[allconsumed]

[Fine. Fine. He deserves as much. Velvet peers over his shoulder.]

Looks good. Oil, eggs, milk and vanilla next in a separate bowl – those are our wet ingredients. Make sure they're well combined, then add the water last and mix it in.

[teratias]

Got it.

[The next part goes pretty fast. It's just mixing stuff together, just not in a lab. Waver is quiet as he works, all too concentrated on the work in front of him. When he does finish, he waves Velvet over.]

Okay, the whole batter's been brought together.

[And because the other topic still interests him:]

How long have you known our mutual pink friend?

[allconsumed]

[It seems to her that this work suits him. Maybe she should take him on as her cooking apprentice.

Nah, kidding.]

Now it goes in the pan, then into the oven.

[She's still holding the pan in question, so she sets it down in front of him. To answer his question…]

I don't know. Around a year. [They were busy doing all sorts of nasty things. Velvet wasn't really keeping track of time.] Feels longer than that, though. I ran into her while breaking out of prison.

[teratias]

[Waver can figure that he needs a good spoon or scraper, so he grabs one of the spatulas he sees sitting over on the counter. It's easy to scrape, at least.]

She...kinda has that effect, I guess. [He is not asking about prison. He is not he is not he is not...]

Was she helping with that or...?

[allconsumed]

[A spatula should work, so she doesn't comment. She's pretty sure Magilou wouldn't care, but Velvet still hesitates, not wanting to get into details that are too sordid taking behind her back.]

It was coincidence. Ask her if you're curious.

[He won't actually, will he?]

[teratias]

I...got it. It does seem pretty in character for her to be involved somehow.

[Waver has terrible taste in people, period.

He has also finished scraping out the bowl, and putting it all into the cake pan.]

There we go. That's all of it.

[allconsumed]

True. She attracts all kinds of trouble.

[Like Velvet is one to talk.]

Stick it in the oven and then we can put the chocolate you brought to use for the icing.

[teratias]

....That says a lot about us, doesn't it?

[Whatever, he's getting to that darn oven!]

There, it's in.

[allconsumed]

[No comment.]

Alright. It should take about thirty minutes, but we'll check on it before that.

[She clears the counter save for a few select ingredients, then pulls out a cutting board and a good-sized knife.]

You'll need to chop the chocolate into pieces before you melt it. The smaller, the better. Don't cut yourself and get blood on my counter.

[teratias]

Well the blood's dark, so you probably wouldn't notice it anyway.

[For once, he's straight faced. Is that an attempt at a joke?

Probably.]