New Plan, Step One: Provide For My Community [open]

[summerdude]

Magnus needs something to change, so when a Mansion calendar helpfully informs him that it's International Falafel Day back on Earth, he goes to the library for some cookbooks, and then to the kitchen.

He lays out ten different falafel recipes. He gathers the ingredients they list, as best as he can understand them. He has canned chickpeas and fresh chickpeas and dried chickpeas and chickpea flour and box mixes of falafel that say 'just add water!'

Cripes.

"I can do this," he says, peering at the assorted recipes intently for a good ten minutes, and then takes the dried chickpeas over to the sink to rinse and soak.

Comments

[lightbearinglord]

"I don't know that dish," Lan Wangji says, but he says it a little bit gently. He glances toward the assemblage of recipes. "Which of these are you using?"

[summerdude]

"Um. All of them?"

[lightbearinglord]

"Mn," Lan Wangji says, as noncommittal as possible about it. In his case, that is a fairly extraordinary achievement of neutrality. He picks up the recipes and leafs through them, reading them over. "Dried chickpeas should be soaked overnight."

[summerdude]

"Wait, really? But I have--" secret. Secret!! Training is a secret. "Stuff this afternoon." Magnus goes over to peer at the recipes over Hanguang-jun's shoulder.

[lightbearinglord]

Luckily for Magnus, it is not in Lan Wangji's nature to question him about the stuff. He shows Magnus the recipe and where it is written, near the beginning, that dried chickpeas must be soaked for several hours.

[summerdude]

"Huh." How had he missed that sentence?

[lightbearinglord]

"You have several sets of instructions," Lan Wangji points out. "Will another suit?"

[summerdude]

Magnus stops trying to jump up and down on his tiptoes to see the recipes. "Oh yeah," he says. "I'm gonna make each one. I guess I could start with fresh or canned."

[lightbearinglord]

"You are making all of these?" Lan Wangji fans out the various recipes. He is carefully not skeptical.

[summerdude]

"I don't know Mr. Fadlan's recipe," Magnus explains.

[lightbearinglord]

"Mr. Fadlan?" Lan Wangji prompts him.

[summerdude]

"From Fadlan's Falafel back home? Sam is betrothed to his son Amir. They'd give me leftovers for free when I was homeless."

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji softens. Around Magnus, it's an easy thing to do. He doesn't know whether Magnus and Wei Ying have spoken about this, and Wei Ying was much younger than Magnus when he lived on the streets. But Wei Ying has spoken to him of it, of the way that hunger was all he could think of most days. "Then choose one, and I will help you."

[summerdude]

Right. Closing his eyes and pointing has never served Magnus poorly before, except maybe every single time he's done it in recent memory, so he closes his eyes and points.

The recipe he lands on is one that uses a bunch of cans, with flour as a binder, and only a few spices. He squints at it suspiciously for a moment -- something seems off about something there -- and then shrugs. Time to do like Ms. Frizzle and take chances, make mistakes, and get messy.

[lightbearinglord]

Solemn, Lan Wangji scans over the recipe Magnus has chosen. He has no familiarity with falafel, so he has no choice but to presume that whoever compiled these instructions will not lead them astray.

"This is your dish," he says to Magnus when he has finished. "Would you like to take the lead?"

[summerdude]

"Oh, sure. You can be Backseat Driver Guy," Magnus says, and goes to retrieve some of the cans he's pulled. It feels wrong to open them without Sunny there to supply her teeth, but the one thing he has learned from his reading so far is that you shouldn't wake a sleeping baby.

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji, largely, has been quite stubborn about keeping to his old ways when it comes to cooking, but Dark necessitated some adjustment of his habits. This is, at least, not the first time he has contended with a can opener. He fetches one from a drawer.

[summerdude]

"Apparently it's, like, International Falafel Day or something," Magnus tells Lan Wangji, as he hands over the cans. "So I figured why not make a lot for everyone?"

[lightbearinglord]

With all of his typical serious focus, Lan Wangji sets to opening the cans of chickpeas. "Mn," he says, fond again at Magnus' generosity of spirit. "I have thought of sharing our festivals with the mansion, too."

[summerdude]

"Yeah? Like what?" Magnus asks, digging out a measuring spoon and squinting at the spices.

[lightbearinglord]

"The mid-autumn festival was not long after my arrival." Lan Wangji methodically opens one can after another.

[summerdude]

"What's that?"

[lightbearinglord]

"It is for the harvest, when the moon is brightest. Offerings are made to Chang'e, the moon goddess."

[summerdude]

"Like what?"

[lightbearinglord]

"Mooncakes and fruit. Incense." He discards the top of the last can and then turns to Magnus for further instruction.