2019-08-29 - Culinary Science

It's early evening, and the library is quiet. With the 2019 Fall semester only having started a couple days ago, students are not yet descending upon this palace of knowledge and/or internet connectivity, though this surely is but the calm before the storm. Or maybe not, given the state of the computers.

Corey is beating the rush, but without much success given he's at one of the reading tables with five largeish books in front of him, leafing through one of them with a slightly despondent expression. There is muttering, only just on the quiet-enough-not-to-be-shushed side.

"Look, G, I volunteered! Nobody said you had to tag along with me," Elise keeps her voice down to respectable library levels as she walks through the colorful archway that is between the 'adult' side of the library and the 'kids' side. About five minutes ago, a gaggle of toddlers and their mothers rushed out the door, having just finished story time. Now it was Elise's turn to make her exit into the library proper, turning back towards the man that was following her out with a huge smile on her lips. "But you look damn adorable in those wolf ears. I think the kids really liked you," she teases.

Of course, she's talking in an otherwise quiet library, which is probably going to be annoying for the guy with the despondent expresion.

"Look, El, all I heard was 'library' and 'kids.' In my mind..." Graham makes sure there are none of those toddlers around before he makes a circle out of the thumb and forefinger of his left hand, then puts the index finger of his left hand through that circle, Ye Olde Hand Gesture for Sex. "I didn't realize you meant telling stories to other people's kids and not, like, making a bunch of our own." He sulks along behind Elise, looking damn adorable but not exactly thrilled about it. "Y'know what we need? An unbiased opinion."

His attention zeroes in on Corey. "Hey, you wanna solve a dispute?" He has an inside voice, but he's going to get told to shush in a minute anyway, because rebel or something.

There's a loud huff from Corey as he sits back, closing the book ungently. That'll probably earn him -3 library points, but whatever. Then as Elise and Graham come through he turns his head to watch them walk through, brows raising a bit as his unbiased opinion is solicited. "Sure, man," he agrees. "Gotta be better than doing this." A vague hand-wave at the books indicates 'this', and for those who take a glance at the covers and titles, they all seem to be books on French baking. Who knew the library even had five of those?

Elise is totally rolling her eyes at the blonde pretty boy in wolf ears, but the grin on her lips suggests she's not as annoyed as she may be letting on. "I could say we're gonna go visit my dying grandma in the hospital and the first place your mind would go to is.." Elise makes her own circle and sticks her finger into it, before she scoffs and looks aside to Corey, whom Graham is soliciting opinions from. She promptly throws up her hands. "Ugh, no. No, don't listen to him. He's wrong," she insists. "You can feel free to tell him he's wrong."

Helpfully, Graham slides the book out from in front of Corey and spins it on the table so he can read the spine. Not that he cares, but he's just that kind of obnoxious person that's all up in people's business. "So your girlfriend says, 'hey baby, something about kids, I'm going to the library, you wanna come?'" Yes, he stresses the come more than is strictly necessary, and does so while he holds up a finger in Elise's direction - quiet, woman! - and focuses his attention on Corey entirely. He also smiles his best 'hi, old buddy, be a good bro' smile at Corey while he does this. "Where's your head at? Definitely not 'Three Little Pigs,' right?"

Fixing bright blue eyes on Elise for a moment, head tilting a little, Corey then shifts his attention to Graham. He solemnly considers the information he is given, mostly managing to quash the grin that threatens to bloom as he delivers his completely unbiased judgement. "Totally some reading-room sex," he agrees with the guy in the wolf-ears, his tone suggesting this should be obvious. "No little pigs in sight. Anyway, who'd have thought there would be kids here at this hour? Shouldn't they be like.. asleep, or something by now?" Clearly, he's not a parent.

At least Elise manages to take this all in stride and doesn't like, die of embarrassment or whatever. She fixes a stare on Graham that transfers almost immediately over to Corey, and oh! There her eyes go again, rolling so hard they might pop out of her head and roll out of the library entirely. "Men," she decides, huffing as she plops into the nearest chair at Corey's table. He's engaged in their conversation, which means she was invited. "First of all, I didn't say it like that. I said, I'm going to the library to volunteer and you don't have a job so you should get off the sofa and come with me," she beams a pleasant smile to Graham. No emphasis on 'come' here. Then it's back to Corey, and she shrugs. "What time is it even? It's probably the 'parents that work but still want to get their kids read to' crew or whatever. You're.. Corey, right?" she remembers names.

Graham looks up from the spine of the book (in which he has zero interest) with no efforts made to quash his own grin. He wears that bad boy proudly, turning it from Corey to Elise with triumph writ large in his bright eyes. "For the record, I wasn't on the sofa." Mumble mumble he was next to the sofa, playing video games. Leaning against Corey's table to attend the answer to what time is it and whether or not that's Corey's name, he tacks on, "I think I went to high school with you." Take a drink.

"Six-ish?" Corey's sense of time is more or less right, and the answer is delivered with a lopsided smile when Elise exclaims her exasperation with his gender. "Corey, yeah. You're Elise, right?" he then confirms, before turning his gaze back to Mr Wolf-Ears. "Annd... Gray? Graham?" Clearly, he took more notice of one of them than the other during their collective high school days.

"Yeah," Elise brightens when he gets her name, absolutely oblivious to Corey getting hers right and mis-stepping on Graham's own. She reaches for the book that Graham abandons, letting him handle the name snafu. "Are you studying?" she tips her head curiously, paying far more attention on the name of the book than Graham did. "I don't miss this. I used to spend forever in the library," she sighs. Lame.

Graham leeeeeans away from Corey when he says 'Gray' at him, side-eyeing the guy like he's not so sure that he wants to be bros, after all! This continues while Elise is getting all cheerful for being properly recognized, though he drums up a proper smile immediately afterward, like he's not over here trying to figure out how to stalk this dude to his car and slash his tires. "Graham, yep. How you been man," is not a real question, it's just conversational fluff. He's waiting to hear the answer to Elise's question, about studying.

"Yeah, been okay," Corey confirms to Graham's not-really-a-question question, making another vague gesture at the books in front of him. To the comment about studying he confirms, "Yeah, sorta. Trying to drum up inspiration for a dessert that'll both work for class projects and maybe get over my boss' insanely high bar for perfection." Despite the lack of success, he does sound at least a little invested in what he's doing. "Google failed me. So I figured trying it old-school would help." It didn't.

"Ohh, you cook? Me too!" Elise sets the book aside and sticks her elbow on the table, chin-propping onto her knuckles while she looks Corey over in a whole new light~. "I mean, not officially or anything. But just for fun, and really only Thai food," is her own level of cooking skills. "Do you just make desserts, or other stuff? I made mango pudding the other day."

Watch Graham fail to have even the faintest, foggiest notion what Corey could possibly be talking about. His brows knit deeply, and he makes the table bear the majority of his weight while he listens to this talk of class projects and desserts. "Hold up, you're in the library 'cause you're studying desserts?" He looks between Elise and Corey, searching for signs that one or both of them are fucking with him, and then decides with a smile, "Being unemployed kicks ass." Out of the side of his mouth, he shares with Corey, "The mango pudding did not." And pulls a face.

"I'm studying Culinary Science," Corey imparts to Elise when she asks about the whole cooking and dessert thing, maybe also clearing up Graham's confusion. "So, the whole shebang." When mango pudding is mentioned, he gets a thoughtful expression, seeming to make a mental note about that. Hmmm. "It didn't kick ass?" he wonders, turning to Graham, brows raised as if to prompt for further details of how it failed to deliver.

Elise whips her attention back up to Graham, steadying him with a stare. If looks could kill, Graham would have two to the temple right now. "My mango pudding was delicious and you ate the whole thing. Don't let him tell lies, Corey," she huffs, about to launch into some kind of tirade about her kick-ass amazing mango pudding when her phone buzzes in her pocket. It makes her jump, and then frown when she sees the number. "Sorry, I gotta take this," the apologetic look is for Corey only, though Graham gets a quick peck before she hops out of her seat. The rapid-fire Thai that comes out of Elise once she answers the phone - along with the look of utter irritation - should give Graham at least some indication of who is on the other line while Elise walks away.

Culinary Science. "Fancy." Graham says that with a la-di-dah tone, might have had some kind of follow-up, but Elise is frowning at her phone. His expression opens questioningly, then out comes the Thai, and he ahhs, sinking back down to how he was leaning before, weight resting on Corey's table. "Her mom's a pain the ass," he shares irritably, and will spend the entire rest of this scene glancing over to be sure Elise is still fine, so just assume that keeps happening. Back to the pudding: "I dunno what mango pudding is supposed to be like, but it was mushy. And not, like, the good kinda mushy. What's the Culinary Science solution for mushy pudding?"

"I mean, it should have like a.. very light texture. That's not mushy. Sort of like how a crème caramel holds it's shape, but feels soft on the spoon," Corey ponders. "Maybe she needed more gelatine?" Not having sampled the pudding himself, he's unable to do a real post-mortem of it, but that's his suggestion. "So how's shit been, anyway? You still play cards?"

"Right. Jell-O. I'll tell her." Graham drops a knuckle against his temple briefly, physically assuring Corey that he's made this mental note about the pudding problem. The chances that he even knows what a creme caramel is? Pretty slim. "Nah, I gave up poker. Turns out? Gambling is illegal." The lie is totally credible, delivered with a straight-on look back at Corey. "Why? You hunting for a game?"

There's a lazy smile from Corey. "Nah, just making conversation, man. I don't have time for poker between classes, studying, working and gettin' some. Besides, my poker face is non-existant." He seems to accept that Graham isn't playing any more, or at least doesn't challenge the assertion.

With a hand opened to the list of things that Corey has to occupy his time, Graham shares, "See? This is why I think college is a waste of perfectly good money." And also why he doesn't have a job. "You gotta job already, right? You said you gotta boss that you have to impress with dessert? So what's the point of college if you're already in the industry that you're going to college to break into?"

"Because that ain't what I want to do forever," the student explains. "And for what I want to do - which is working in a research and development kitchen - I need this degree." Corey's tone is matter-of-fact. "Besides, the classes are good, and college girls are fun."

"What the fuck is a research and development kitchen?" Yes, yes. Graham heard the bit about college girls, but a) his girlfriend is like right over there (still talking to her mom in Thai) and b) that really threw him. He eyes Corey like the dude just grew a third arm out of his nostril.

"It's where chefs experiment, learn more about food. How do you imagine people figured out that salted caramel was amazing? Or that you have to store bananas above other fruit? Or that you could make a cake without gluten?" There's a hint of pride in Corey's voice as he explains about his hopeful career of choice. "Besides, experimenting with food is great when it works."

He listens attentively, mind you, but it should be obvious by the dimness that veils Graham's baby-blues that not even one of the three culinary marvels that Corey cites has impressed him. "'Cause some dude they knew in high school told them?" he guesses, gesturing with his fingers between himself and Corey as an example. "Yeah? What is it when it doesn't work? 'Cause I'm pretty sure the answer is 'poison.'"

There's a faint, amused snort from Corey. "Well, they had to learn all that first by experimenting, so the rest of the world gets to enjoy it," he summarises. "When it doesn't work it's frustrating, but then when it goes right, it's amazing. Like any kind of experiment, I guess." Hazier on that, because he's never been a particularly good student of the traditional sciences. "Poison, not so much. Unless you're working on something like pufferfish, I imagine. Worst we usually get is something that doesn't taste so great."

"Sounds to me like you're missing an opportunity here." Graham has only just remembered his wolf-ears because he reaches up to scratch the back of his head and knocks them askew. He spends a moment fixing them, feeling with both palms to be sure they're arranged fine, never mind he could just take the damn things off now. "You could invite over all your enemies, serve them an experiment-gone-awry, and laugh and laugh while they vomit till their eyes bleed. Food for thought." His grin twitches deeper for a second, 'cause he was funny just now. Food for thought? Anyway.

That gets a proper laugh, and Corey pushes up out of his chair, gathering the five large books to take back to the book return. "I'll keep that in mind. Maybe next time someone fucks with my sister or something," he agrees, then tilts his head towards the way out. "Gotta get going. It's been good, man."

Graham makes appropriate noises about it having been good to see Corey, too. Then he has to wait for Elise to get off the fucking phone so he can get the library-sex that he feels he's entitled to.