smash_logs | Assassins with Oven Mitts

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Assassins with Oven Mitts

Who: Connor, Eirika, Gordon, Ziio
What: A nice holiday "family" dinner
Where: Gordon and Ziio's apartment
When: Sunday afternoon
Warnings: House fires, family drama, pregnancy tests, depleted uranium

Gordon hadn't been sure if this was a good idea when Ziio suggested they dine together at their place. Now that he'd asked Eirika, he KNEW it was a bad idea, if only because the princess hadn't yet met the would-be tribe-leader before then and it seemed to terrify her. Granted, Ziio was one hell of a mother-in-law, but she wasn't someone to fear unless you've screwed up massively in some way. In fact, in her current situation Ziio was the perfect person to talk to... And anyway were things they all had to talk about, things they all needed to know.

...Well, except for Gordon himself, but he usually knew everything. Or at least, he was convinced of that.

In any case, they're adults. No one's going to lunge at anyone's throats tonight, no matter HOW many knives are available in the kitchen, and everything else can be settled with calm discussion.

"...She's been cooking all day. And don't worry, Ziio caught it herself." Gordon's voice murmurs from the other side of the door, talking to Eirika and Connor and fumbling with his dorm keys. "Everything caught in the woods is clean, looks like. It's probably how she's stayed so healthy during the poison scare, so I have every reason to believe that it's perfectly safe."

The words PERFECTLY SAFE are, ironically, the very words that he opens the door to and is greeted by a belch of smoke, and the scent of burnt venison. Gordon makes a noise of surprise and alarm and waves it away, coughing.

"GH, what OH NOT AGAIN--Ziio!?" He splutters, vanishing into the hallway to deal with this botched experiment in thermodynamics. "Are you okay in here!?"

Yup. This dinner was off to a great start.

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Gordon, you were talking to the guy who hunted daily with your girlfriend. Even if Ziio didn't have her camp set up yet one of the things he did almost every day was hunt in those woods. The food he caught never led him astray. But seriously Gordon, they were from the same village and were of the same blood.

Anyway.

Connor was mostly quiet, not even really paying attention to Gordon, not directly. He darted his eyes his way a few times trying to listen to what he said. But then, he just found himself looking toward Eirika, who he didn't know how to start speaking to just yet. He was amazed this was still going on, and Eirika came and agreed to this. Connor wanted to try to get through with this, for everyone's sake.

He had a feeling what Gordon was trying to do, considering everything was a horrific mess. Eirika knew everything, and he was sure Gordon did know or would know later. It was all inevitable now, Gordon and Ziio lived together. Gordon would have no choice but to know all that he told Eirika, it was only fair logic.

How to make of tonight, of all of this, Connor couldn't begin to know. But he was here and tried to respect the party's wishes. Tried to, being key words.

He snapped awake when he was welcomed by smoke, from the kitchen, that Ziio cooked in. So, Ziio had cooked in a modern kitchen; and it was now on fire.

"Mother?!" Connor made a dart into Gordon's dorm. "Mother, are you alright? Mother?!"

It was a reflex, admittedly.

Of all certainty, Ziio had early on decided the modern technology was not something she was very fond of. Mostly because there was something about being too close to fire that always made her think of what Connor and Haytham had said. She had been lost to flame and misfortune. Some would have said that Fate could not be interrupted. Since she had escaped the razing of the village of her people, perhaps it implied that she could just as easily meet her end at the academy.

At some point.
Perhaps by way of trying to cook with infuriating stoves.

Ziio's attention turned from what promised to be a mostly ruined dinner of spider crab and rabbit stew, and onto Gordon. "I am well," she said firmly for the sake of the scientist and her son. "Simply not on good terms with Gordon's kitchen." She turned the heat down to the lowest setting on the stove and moved to pause at Gordon's side in favour of giving her son a close look over and a nod. Just to reassure him.

"I remain convinced that living in the forest was a wiser decision." At least until it was exploded to Hell and beyond. Thank you for that, boys.

HE SAID HE WAS SORRY ABOUT THAT, GEEZ.

"But you've improved a lot already." He adds helpfully, opening the window across from the kitchen and returning to the group and the stew, peering into the pot.

"This only happens every other week or so now... I don't know, it still looks pretty good."

...Ironically things were off to a promising start. At least in the way there was a healthy amount of quiet sarcasm that threatened to emanate off of Eirika when she still accepted Gordon's invitation. It grew fifty fold more so when there came the impending threat of fire and flame. An all-consuming barrage of fire would certainly put the dinner to an end if it got out of hand.

And yet it didn't.

Eirika stepped in behind Connor, peered around him curiously, and had to wonder idly what kind of place Gordon had since adopting to his new living partner, for she imagined it couldn't have been too much the same from when she and Kiyotaka were learning to 'frag.'

"...Is there anything I can do to help?" she asked politely, thinking it better to make a good impression, if such a thing was even possible. But who even really knew if it would make a difference. She wasn't convinced. At least not yet.

Oh thank, thank the heavens.

Connor could only breathe a sigh of some relief and smile just a little, only for Mother. It wasn't like he was actually happy though. "You at least attempted cooking in one of these kitchens, I have not," he replied, nose wrinkling at the stench. Poor meat. Maybe it could be salvaged yet, now that Gordon was here to help along.

It took that little voice to knock him back, to which Connor very quickly went to where he assumed was where Gordon kept his cleaning supplies.

Cleaning supplies, what Connor dealt with daily here. Possibly was what he felt the most comfortable with, modern-wise. "I can at least help with the...cleaning."

King of Clean, Janitorman.

Her son received something of a subtle smile in return. Larger than it normally was, because to be fair, Ziio was close to overjoyed to have Connor for dinner. A bonus to have his princess, who Ziio had never been able to get behind closed doors for she was often too quick to dart out on her way. It was going to prove an educational evening at the very least. Even though it wasn't difficult for her to sense some kind of tension.

She looked between Connor and Eirika and shook her head.

"No. I will handle it," she said, trying to sound a little more reassuring than she normally would. As she eyed Gordon, she gave him an inconspicuous little nudge with her elbow. "They don't need to clean. Make them sit down. I have some to finish."

"Nf." Gordon says when she subtly elbows him. Then he straightens and sets the lid back on the pot. A couple of gestures start his herding the others towards away. "Right. Sure. Come on, let's get out of her way.

The space that they call a living room is a rather schizophrenic one. Ziio's tools and artisan bits, stowed on shelves next to stacks of scientific papers and faintly-glowing rocks that are better off not asked about. A whiteboard stands in the corner, scrawled with equations and a feathered, fringed leather bag hung on its side. Gordon gestures to the overstuffed leather couch in the middle of it all.

"Sit down. Thanks for coming over, by the way." He sits, pauses, shifts and pulls a controller from the cushions and tosses it onto the coffee table. "I'd offer a game, but maybe later."

Sit down, he says. Like it's the most calming thing to do. Eirika glances over to Connor and as if she can't hide her nerves, she stays close to the Native. But it doesn't take her long to glance back to the kitchen where Ziio's busying herself. Eirika's not really used to home cooking and it's been a few years at least since she's had a familial dinner.

It's almost like she's forgotten how to have one.

"...Does... it matter where we sit?" she finally asks as she casts an investigative glance around. "I mean, do you mind?"

Connor never saw Ziio as the type to really do this sort of thing, unless if she did when she was together with his father briefly. Obviously, he just remembered her raising him herself. There was a delayed uneasiness coming from that sort of notion which Connor still had to bring himself to ignore.

These kind of get togethers weren't his strong suit, large or small parties, but this one felt particularly weird.

Especially with Eirika still keeping close to him, so he was trying to be supportive and not be so awkward at the same time. With all that has happened, that was hard. He glanced over to her, waiting to hear a response himself.

Gordon has to take a moment to parse the question, unsure he heard that right. She wants to know where they should sit? Maybe he'd overestimated how familiar they would be. Again, a culture gap is leading to one hell of an awkward meeting...

"What? No, no, you can sit anywhere, really." He quickly corrects with a handwave around the sitting room. "Don't worry, Eirika, our apartment is your apartment! Although I, ah, don't recommend the office chair next to that desk; it nearly capsized on us yesterday." He adds hurriedly.

They could sit anywhere, said Gordon. Except the office chair next to the desk. Which was evidently broken. And she thought about asking, but realised that it was very much none of her business. Gordon and Ziio and their private life was somewhere Eirika didn't want to be.

So she looked over to Connor and raised her eyebrows in consideration. Wherever he sat she imagined would determine where she was sitting. It was nice that they were both indecisive. Except not.

"Er... thank you for your hospitality. I appreciate it... We... appreciate it." At least she was pretty sure Connor appreciated it.

Connor felt it in his stomach, he didn't have to know about the office chair. You could say he "listened to his gut feeling".

Eirika turned to him and he couldn't help but give her the attention. She was really going through with this, no matter how awkward it was going to be. It was brave, possibly. No, she WAS brave. Connor was going to stick around too, but Eirika trying was more motivation.

Everything had to be put aside if they were to survive.

He nodded to her, "We do," he agreed with her, somewhat trying to smile Gordon's way.

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Assassins with Oven Mitts

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