MHA #10 - Tuesday Afternoon

[notagoose]

Goose had woken up that morning after sleeping since Friday and he’d forgotten just how wonderful sleep was. Even if … as he had woken, had realised he had fallen asleep in the middle of the bed but he wasn’t too concerned about that … he had managed to fall asleep and … once he checked his wrist communicator, realised that he had slept for four days straight.

He bolted upright at that … he had missed his weekly report to Commander Walsh, actually that was twice in two weeks he’d missed it because the first time had been because he had turned into a small child and then he had spent the next few days being severely sleep deprived and even in that state had decided it was better to just ignore his report for the time being. There were messages from his team … and Commander Walsh and there was even one from Waldo? How much had he missed in the four days he’d been asleep.

After a shower and getting changed into a fresh uniform, Goose realised that he didn’t have much in his kitchen except for some takeaway Chinese food from last week, he was going to have to order more food in. Once he’d finished eating he pulled up his lesson plans for tomorrow and realised that in his sleep deprived state that he had already finished both this week’s and next week’s lesson plans, so now there was nothing to do except go over the messages that he’d missed and see just what had been happening while he was asleep.

[expecting a certain chocobro, but can be open before that]

Comments

[chef_chocobro]

It would seem that, last week, during his class, it was Ignis who had learned something, rather than his students. Well, he certainly hoped his students had learned something, as well, but the fact of the matter was that the whole thing had been rather illuminating on shedding some light on a few things about Goose. A few things that stuck to Ignis in a way that he couldn't quite shake, and his mother hen mode had been completely activated, and there was no turning back from that. It had been honed into a fine art pretty much since he was six years old, after all.

And because of that, he understood duty. He understood the importance of orders and directives and missions. But the way Goose had described it to him after he'd reprimanded the other man for his tired state in class, it had all sounded so disturbingly like everything he knew about the Nilfheim Empire, with their Magitek soldiers, that he couldn't help but feel he had to do something about it.

Which is why that Tuesday, he had made a decision, and he'd made a little extra time to come back to Fandom after training (this whole week was a little shot already, what with the holiday and Prompto's visit to Liz's world). He stood before Goose's apartment door with a small duffel in one hand and a grocery bag of fresh ingredients in the other and, despite having his arms and hands full, still somehow managed to illicit a knock.

[notagoose]

Goose glanced up from checking his news feed at the sound of the knock, he wasn’t expecting anyone that he knew off and when he went to check who it was, well Ignis was the last person he expected.

He opened the door, belatedly realising it had not been locked the entire time he had been asleep. “Ignis?” He blinked, staring at him in confusion and also unsure of why he seemed to be carrying groceries, maybe Ignis lived in the apartment building and he hadn't realised? “it is Tuesday isn’t it?” he glanced back down at his wrist communicator to confirm that it was fact the day he thought it was, “I didn’t miss class did I?” maybe he had slept through to Friday and not realised it.

Someone also hadn't quite remembered that they had revealed a lot more information than what would normally have been discussed about his home and background so it was going to take a bit longer for it to click.

[chef_chocobro]

"It is Tuesday," Ignis confirmed, "yes. You'll have to forgive me for being presumptuous, but, since we won't be having our usual class this week due to the holiday, and I had some time to spare this afternoon, I thought perhaps we could have a bit of an impromptu extra lesson."

Plus, he'd been worried about Goose since last Thursday, and couldn't merely leave it alone if he thought he might be helpful in light of recent revelations. And it was because of those revelations that his language shifted just slightly as he added:

"Besides, there are times when perhaps a more individual approach in training may be necessary to bring a...student," the emphasis there seemed to suggest he meant a different s-word entirely there, "up to speed. After all, it does no good to have one lagging behind, now, does it?

"May I come in?"

[notagoose]

"Oh yes sorry," Goose apologised, stepping aside to let Ignis in, still feeling very confused about the whole situation, "holiday, that's ... that's Thanksgiving right?" he was honestly lucky to keep track of the days of the week let alone when there were holidays, plus he was based in Australia and BETA didn't really go all out for Thanksgiving, only the Rangers who were American tended to celebrate.

There was a pause, "I'm ... I don't have a kitchen table at the moment, only the bench space," he said sheepishly, "I turned into an alien cat about a month ago and ate some of my furniture, it took a bit to get some funds organised so the replacement hasn't arrived yet,"

[chef_chocobro]

There was...the slightest incredulous tilt of Ignis' head as Goose explained what had happened to the table, before taking a subtle glance around on entering, and realizing that Noctis had some pretty heavy competition when it came to the keeping of sad and disheveled apartments.

Which was not at all surprising, of course, but Ignis could at times be a bit foolish in his optimism.

"Well, I should certain hope," he finally said, "you have, at the very least, some kitchen counter space."

He was starting to have doubts.

He was suddenly not feeling confident that Goose would even have a working oven.

(It would, after all, have been a wise move on the part of the landlord to make sure of it...)

[notagoose]

Goose really hadn't done much by way of decorating aside from those couple of plants that he'd bought and that he'd somehow manage to not kill.

"Uh ... there's counter space," he confirmed, "my kitchen ... uh," his voice trailed off, even though he was now starting to get an idea as to why Ignis had the groceries because he'd suspected that Goose wouldn't have them.

"I don't really have much in the way of food, I usually order in," he said with a bit of grimace, "Doc did cook when he was here over Parents Weekend, I think that was the last time I actually had food in my kitchen," honestly if Goose didn't go home every now and then and hadn't been to Boston, he wouldn't have had proper food at all.

You also weren't helping with Ignis' assessment that you needed help Goose or at the least constant adult supervision.

[chef_chocobro]

This was, indeed, setting off every one of Ignis' deeply rooted inclinations to fuss and instruct even more than he had already been expecting, with an added bonus of suddenly feeling like Goose made Noctis appear to be a downright paragon of maturity by comparrison.

"Hardly surprisingly," he noted wryly, "if you've had to resort to eating a table, apparently."

Ignis was...not even sure how exactly that worked, but he also did not intended to find out. In fact, he was already making his way to the kitchen with his bags.

"But I suppose," he added, "this works out in our favor. Without much food in the place, I would suspect you've at least got an appetite on you already."

[notagoose]

Goose had been about to protest that he was fine and that he had eaten today when his stomach decided to betray him, choosing that moment to rumble loudly.

“Uh…maybe I’m a bit hungry,” he allowed sheepishly.

[chef_chocobro]

Despite himself, Ignis had to grin...very slightly, you really did kind of have to look at it...at that, even if all it did was making him think about what Goose had said last week regarding showing weaknesses, and wondering if that had actually been a little difficult for him to admit. And if that was the case, well, then, he felt they were already heading out on the right track.

"Excellent to hear," he said, finding a spot to set down the bags and start pulling out a few ingredients from within one. "I thought we could indulge in a bit of pie two ways: one savory, one sweet."

Was it bold of him to dive right into something that would require the use of the oven? Perhaps. But that was rather the point.

[notagoose]

This was Goose we were talking about, hopefully there would be minimal damage to the apartment or Jon was probably going to have to raise the insurance on Goose’s apartment. Even though the odds were pretty good of that happening regardless.

“I don’t understand,” he finally said as nothing was coming to him about why Ignis was in his kitchen about to give him an extra cooking lesson, “I mean … I appreciate the help,” because yes Goose did realise he needed all the help in the kitchen, even if at this point it was a lost cause, “but um … why? I mean … did something happen Thursday?”

Maybe he had finally burned down the community centre? Even though he had a feeling he probably wouldn’t be about to have a cooking lesson if that had happened and also Walsh would have definitely read him the riot act if that had been the case.

Did he say something? He stared at Ignis, tilting his head slightly … what had he said that would have caused this to happen?

Then he remembered flashes of conversation and … had he given Ignis a salute when he left Thursday? But before that … “Oh,” realisation sank in.

He really had told Ignis everything, hadn’t he?

But why was he here in his apartment? Instead of … running as far away as he could in the other direction.

[chef_chocobro]

Because Ignis was contractually obligated to be a mother hen to clueless, wayward awkward men bound to circumstances beyond their control, obviously.

And because none of this was unfamiliar territory to him, Ignis just kept placidly removing ingredients from the bag until it was empty, feeling as though Goose just needed some time to sort through the situation himself, and when that 'oh' of realization hit, Ignis felt a small bit of satisfaction in his appraisal that perhaps Goose was not entirely hopeless after all.

But, of course, he was also well trained in dancing delicately around topics that need not necessarily be outwardly discussed as well.

"Crimes against baking were what occured on Thursday," he stated, moving the now empty grocery bag and onto the duffel, which contained a plethora of tools that he had assumed Goose would not have on hand. "War crimes, no less, if radio is to be believed. I thought we might take an opportunity to atone for our sins."

[notagoose]

It was a safe bet that Goose didn't have a lot of normal kitchen supplies.

Goose winced, "I didn't burn the place down right?" he thought he should at least clarify that because honestly it really only was a matter of time before that probably happened.

There was another pause and, "it doesn't bother you? About ... I mean ... most people think all I'm good for is being a lab experiment," he said quietly, "or ..." his voice trailed off uncertainly. He was not used to talking about this at all not even with Commander Walsh, who had basically shipped him off to Fandom at the first available opportunity.

[chef_chocobro]

"Despite your best efforts," said Ignis, with an almost cheeky sort of lift of his brow at Goose, "no, you did not burn the place down."

The briefest of effective pauses.

"Yet," he added. "And, hopefully, with today's lesson, we will reduce the odds of that happening in the future substantially. Either that, or I suppose I will soon be having a rather awkward discussion with your landlord by the end of the day, but let's at least try to avoid that, if we can."

Everything they should need now set out before them, he nodded toward the oven.

"Let's go ahead and preheat to 425," he said. "No more, no less. I trust it's actually in working order?"

He suspected there was a good chance that Goose had never even tried enough to know the answer to that.

And while Goose did that, Ignis began to seperate a few of the ingredients for their first recipe, setting to the sink to wash off some potatoes.

"And I daresay," he said, "if that's all someone is good for, then it isn't a very good experiment at all, is it?"

Then, in what likely might seem like a bit of a nonsequitor, but, clearly, they were juggling quite a few topics at the moment, but Ignis suspected, like the ingredients laid out before them now, their seeming irrelevence to each other would come together in a perfectly crafted dish in due time. "Have I told you," he asked, "much about the war back home, between my nation of Lucis and the Niflheim Empire?"

[notagoose]

He looked a bit sheepish at that, "uh it was when Doc cooked over a month ago but um .. I haven't tried it since," he went to the oven and despite his temptation to actually just turn it up all the way like he usually did, he did manage to get it to sit at 425, which was probably the first time that had ever actually happened.

"No I guess not," he said softly, "it's...I mean I'm used to it..the looks, the remarks ... .ever since Wolf Den, uh that was the name of the barracks where I was created, most people just see the reminder of the failure, then there are the other Supertroopers, at least the ones who weren't put on ice," he added, "I'm not exactly popular with them either, most of them think I'm a traitor to our kind," he thought back to that one and only time he encountered Darkstar that very first Parents Weekend while he had been a student. "I guess I haven't really figured out where I'm supposed to belong,"

"I don't believe so," he said as he considered Ignis' final question as he tried to recall, "I believe you mentioned you were in the military though,"

[chef_chocobro]

Well, if that all didn't just confirm Ignis' suspicions that he should try and find a way for Goose and Prompto to become more acquainted. Of course, Prompto was not nearly as open to talking about his own status in that regard, but, also, even knowing there was a common thread there was still pretty new to him, having been protected from it his entire life until Fandom decided to change that, while it was clearly something that Goose had been living with directly for most of his.

He gave a soft, thoughtful hum, glancing over to the oven to see if Goose actually did set it right, nodded with satisfaction to see that he had, and then gestured toward where he'd set up a cutting board and knife, and placed the potatoes nearby. "Next," he instructed, "we'll want to cut the potatoes into cubes. Some recipes will suggest peeling them, but I've always been rather fond of the texture and nuitrients added by leaving the skins on. It also adds just a rather appealing rustic charm, if you ask me...

"And, yes, military," he added, "Kingsglaive specifically, which is a regiment focused mainly on being bodyguards to the king, or, in my case, the crown prince. A very close-knit group, which consists of myself, Gladio, and Prompto, who are both also teaching with me here, although, clearly, not in my community center class. The Crownsguard, our military as a whole, has always prided themselves in the strength of that the individual might offer to the group as a whole. We aren't a large army, but we are a proud and fiercely loyal sort, and have been for centuries.

"The Empire, on the other hand," and here was the meat of this particular point, even if they hadn't gotten yet to the meat of the dish, "approaches their armed forces in a way that you might be a bit more familiar with. 'Supertroopers,' as you call them. Only back home, they're Magitek troopers, or MTs, for short, which is a rather effective commentary on their supposedly empty nature, as they are regarded little more than robotic fodder, soulless drones to be expendible and dispensible and innumerable."

[notagoose]

Goose listened as Ignis explained about cutting the potatoes and attempted to cut his, even though his didn’t really look like cubes, they were were a mix of uneven shapes that were more like squares or rectangles. His cutting skills clearly needed work.

“I suppose that was supposed to be the plan with us in my world,” he said as Ignis explained his role in the military and his world’s experience with genetically engineered soldiers , “they never got the chance to complete the program, to replace us once we outlived our usefulness,” he considered, “there have been attempts to recreate the program, to get it up and running again, my most recent mission I swear I can write, really involved trying to hunt down mobsters who broke into our main research lab and stole one of the formulas, it was only fortunate that it was an early model and couldn’t be effective - “

Even though as he said it, he kept thinking back to those weekends where he’d had children show up and one of them had been his daughter with Darkstar, who had revealed that she’d been created in a lab using their DNA - at some point they were going to be able to recreate the formula, at least enough that they’d create his daughter. That was of course assuming it hadn’t already happened yet if it was going to happen at all.

[chef_chocobro]

"There's no need to rush into dicing," Ignis offered mildly, as he considered both Goose's words and his potatoes. "Be sure to take care to make consistent, even cuts. That way, the potatoes will cook more evenly, and make for a more cohesive meal."

A metaphor to life that he felt would be entirely lost to Goose, at least at this point in his life, but that wasn't going to stop him from making it, especially if they worked as little breadcrumbs along the way to eventually lead him to the realization.

As for the rest, well...

...he was certainly not doing anything to tamper down potential machinations of bringing Goose and Prompto together somehow.

"We had spies actually break into a Niflheim facility about twenty years ago," Ignis noted. "They were able to steal much more than a simple formula, though. They managed to liberate an entire specimen.

"Once you're finished with the potatoes, let's put some water on the stove to boil for them."

[notagoose]

Goose tried to take it much slower, which ... as Ignis no doubt had already figured out, he wasn't known for his patience so it did take him a bit longer to figure out the cutting but he did eventually figure out how to get them cut so that they at least resembled cubes this time.

He tilted his head as he listened, "we never had anyone break into Wolf Den, well there was a doctor who looked after us when we were kids and he spoke up about how we were treated but ... it didn't end well for him," he said softly as he remembered Max, who had been executed on trumped up treason charges.

Even though it was only cause a further identity crisis when he eventually found out that not only Max was still alive at this point, Commander Walsh had also helped him fake his death in addition to the whole whole secretly being his father thing.

"What happened to the specimen your spies found?" he was curious, wondering what happened to someone when they were freed like that.

[chef_chocobro]

Ignis smiled a little softly, maybe a little wryly, at realizing the trap he'd inadvertently created for himself there. He was certainly not about to reveal Prompto's secrets to someone he didn't know, but he supposed his answer could be sufficiently vague enough to satisfy Goose's natural curiosity on the topic.

"He was adopted by a nice Lucian family and raised to be a fine young man," he offered, "even earning himself a position of high regard within the Crownsguard. Surprisingly proficient with guns and tech, although perhaps not actually that surprising at all. All things considered, one might go so far as to say it's rather in his blood."

There was a faint, considering pause.

"He was not aware of any of it, though, until a few years ago. It was, needless to say, quite the shock..."

[notagoose]

“Oh,” Goose said softly as he listened to what happened, he had only ever known Wolf Den and being trained for one sole purpose, he wondered what that would have been like, experiencing a normal life.

“It …I …it would have been,” he said softly, “I never …” he stopped, “I mean we knew what we were, what was expected ..if we didn’t excel, well … I knew Supertroopers who didn’t make it because they weren’t strong enough,”

He paused, “I suppose the closest I’ve got to a family is my team …I never thought that was possible before,”

[chef_chocobro]

"The world," said Ignis, drawling it slightly, "or, I suppose, more appropriately, the multiverse...is full of possibilities, Mr. Gooseman. And it's a shame that so many of use find ourselves in situations where we don't realize it until much, much later..."

He then gave a nod to the pot on the stove. "Check and see if the water is boiling yet," he instructed mildly. "If it is, it's time to throw the potatoes in to soften."

[notagoose]

Goose considered Ignis’ words as he glanced at the pot, almost surprised to see it bubbling and so far his walls hadn’t caught fire, “oh Doc was right, it does boil,” he remarked a bit sheepishly as he put in the potatoes, “last time I was home Doc tried to teach Niko…she’s …she’s,” Goose definitely fumbled a bit there at the mention of her name and could feel himself blushing, someone had a bit of a crush there, “um she’s part of my team,” he finally finished, “…he uh tried to teach us how to cook, my uh apartment walls got a bit singed from boiling water,” because of course it had.

[chef_chocobro]

Ignis, after a moment of being quietly amused by the awkward and telling catches in Goose's explanation there, took a moment to observe the walls of the kitchen, opened his mouth to say something, then closed it and tilted his head with a concerned look on his face.

Rare were the times when Ignis Sciencia was rendered speechless for even the briefest of moments, Goose. Consider yourself lucky.

"I...." he finally managed, "am far more curious as to how that might even be possible than I should be, and yet I am, simultaneously, not in the least bit surprised. But they do say a watched pot never boils, so let us merely attribute our success to the engaging conversation we've been having in the meantime.

"The potatoes shouldn't take long," he said. "Only about five minutes, so," he handed Goose a small cooking timer that he'd brought along, "set this so we don't merely trust ourselves to fate and intuition."

[notagoose]

It was Goose we were talking about after all, the man was a complete disaster, no one knew how he managed to do half the things that he did.

Goose was really fascinated by the small timer, “you can use this to time things?” said the guy who had just admitted that between him and Niko they had managed to singe the walls of his apartment mostly because they had been impatient and had definitely tried Doc’s patience, more than once. Doc completely sympathised with you Ignis.

[chef_chocobro]

"Correct," Ignis confirmed with a nod, now feeling the need to throw literally every task-management device to be found in a kitchen at Goose in a desperate attempt to eck some sort of control and success out of him. "You simply turn the dial to the amount of time required and set it aside, so you need not be worried about forgetting while attending to something else. A little bell will ring when the time is up, reminding one to stay on task. So, as I said, set it for five minutes, and while we wait on that, we can start to prepare some ground beef for the filling of our savory pie."

A bold move, indeed, introducing elements of multitasking into this kitchen.

[notagoose]

Goose and control did not really go in the same sentence.

His eyes were wide as he set the timer as instructed, there was almost something child like as watched the timer set. Well in a way he was still very much a child, since he did not actually have a childhood so there were still many new concepts that he was learning and figuring out.

He managed to avoid the temptation of resetting the timer though, so maybe he did have a bit of self control …maybe if you looked hard enough.

“You can do multiple things at once?” Goose had not heard of the concept of multitasking it seemed.