strangetrip | Cooking in the Kitchen (OTA/MW)

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Cooking in the Kitchen (OTA/MW)

Samirah missed the home cooking of her grandparents. She decided to take matters into her own hands and, on a recent trip to one of the Otherworlds, managed to purchase the right spices that at least mimicked the taste of home. She was in the kitchen Thursday afternoon. The smell of spice and heat emanated from the kitchen while she cooked. She was just about done. On the table cooling were samosas, falafels, homemade hummus and tabuouli, and rice. She was finished up garlic sauce and grilling chicken for shawarma as well. Samirah felt happy to have the smell of home surround her again. She missed her grandparents and with the presence of Falafel, she missed Magnus as well, but if she were stuck here, at least she had some touchstone to her home right now.

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Almost like Pavlov's dog, when there was a scent of food in the air, Dean could be found following it. His nose took him toward the kitchen and he just followed it inside.

"Is that for anyone?" Not that he wasn't above talking his way into food, but at least he asked first.

She turned at the voice and smiled. She instinctively tugged her hijab tighter, but it wasn't anything against Dean and everything about herself.

"For everyone. I don't think I could eat this much on my own. Would you like a plate?"

Without waiting, Samirah found an empty plate and held it out.

"The Samosas are a bit spicy, in case you're not good with spice."

Dean took the plate eagerly, which was his normal mode when there was food around. "I'm good with spicy." That normally would have come out sounding flirtatious except this time it was truth and about food.

"I'm Dean by the way." He introduced himself though he'd seen her around the inn. The plate began to fill up and he didn't waste time trying out the samosa. He popped one in his mouth and closed his eyes savoring it.

"My name is Samirah... is it good?"

He seemed to be enjoying it, but she wanted to make sure. There was something to be said for watching someone enjoy the food you made. It was a very satisfying feeling.

"You have someone who looks like you here in the inn, do you not?"

"Yeah but I'm cuter." Dean smirked. It was the ongoing joke between him and Alec. "And these are delicious." He assured her, since he was probably the best judge of that. He ate almost anything.

"You know Alec?" Not that he was surprised at that. Alec and Dean were a lot alike and would have definitely sought out new people. New feminine people at that.

"Only a little. It's hard not to know people in this place after a while."

She thought the two men had some things in common, but the more she regarded Dean, the more she could see their differences.

Samirah watched him eat and then laughed.

"The way you eat reminds me of my friend Magnus back home."

Dean popped another bite into his mouth and smiled around the chewing. "I have a feeling I'd like your friend." A pause but an impish light still in his eyes. "Unless I had to fight him for food."

"He can be pretty fiery when he needs to be," She replied with a soft laugh.

She went to the sink and filled up a cup with water and brought it back to Dean. She then picked up a falafel and took a bite, smiling.

"I know someone back home who can make this better than me," She said. "It's strange how one food can both make you miss something and give you fond memories at the same time."

Dean took a sip from the cup of water and nodded in agreement. "Yeah that happens a lot to me. I'm on the road a lot back home." He still missed being able to travel and he DEFINITELY missed his baby.

"Anytime I make mac and cheese here it reminds me of when Sam and I were kids and on the road with our dad, but it also makes me miss being back home now."

"Being on the road can be tough.... sometimes I travel for long periods with my work. This looks like it's going to be the longest time away from home for me yet. Hopefully there's another me to replace me back home so I don't worry my Jid and Bibi."

She took another bite of her falafel.

"Mac and Cheese is a classic. I've always wanted to try it out of that blue box."

"Good with an ax, good with the spice rack," Valkyrie opened with a tone of relief as she claimed a seat front and center of the counter. Even if she'd been en route to an Otherworlds, she was drawn to cafe by Samirah's presence and the scent of something novel. The last few weeks had been extraordinarily kind as far as all things went--new sights, new adventures, a new fiancé and she wore the sentiment proudly in the presence of the younger Valkyrie.

"A celebration, or just because?" Valkyrie asked as she eyed the dishes curiously, resisting the urge to touch with respect to decorum.

Samirah smiled widely when she saw Valkyrie. She gestured to the food to silently ask if she wanted to partake in some of it.

"Just because," She admitted. "I was starting to miss home, so I thought I'd make something that reminded me of it. It's comforting, but also a little sad. Bittersweet, I guess."

"No luck with any arrivals, I take." Not that Valkyrie had heard of many--many had disappeared, only a few had arrived. She ran a finger over the crisp skin of a samosa and took a bite out of half. "You've acclimated well."

"I didn't really have a choice, did I? You'd go mad if you didn't accept this place after a little bit."

She watched Valkyrie take a bite and Sam hoped Valkyrie liked it.

"I do miss home a lot. I'm using the food to try and remember them."

"Come with me sometime." Valkyrie nodded towards the doors out. "The Otherworlds. Many have lead to earth. I could do with a guide."

"Has any found their way to Boston?"

She was surprised to learn that about the new Otherworlds, but Samirah wouldn't put much pass the Inn at this point.

"No. That's what'll make us the first." She speared another samosa with a knife, devouring it whole with the utmost confidence.

Samirah smiled at her sister's confidence. She could feel herself being certain of it just by being around her. She nodded.

"Alright. I like the challenge of it. I doubt it will be the same world as I am from, but similar might make me miss home less.... have you found your Asgard yet?"

"Not yet." A dull pang hit her chest. She simply smiled. "When shall we set out?"

Loki rarely spent much time shapeshifted, lately. Unlike his earliest weeks at the Inn, he had no real reason to isolate himself. He shifted for his own amusement or Valkyrie’s, and that was that.

Today was for his amusement, tooling around the Inn in the kitten form that most people now recognized as him. Letting the kitten body drive, as he usually did absent a reason not to, meant that he got distracted from chasing dust motes by the smells coming from the kitchen. Where Samirah appeared to be cooking,

The interesting smells were on the table, so he jumped up and started weaving around the plates, sniffing.

When she saw the cat, her first reaction was to smile. It was a strange sensation to have in regards to Loki, but she found the more she spent time at the Madonna Inn, the more accustomed to him she was becoming.

"You've come to have some food, have you Loki?"

Cats didn't really shrug, but Loki managed to indicate one with a ripple of fur and flick of tail. After a few more seconds investigating the food, he hopped off the table and onto a chair, then shifted back into his usual shape. "Cats are rather smell-focused, but in general food artistry is wasted on me, I'm afraid."

"You're saying my food is art, then?"

She looked amused as she walked up to the table and offered Loki a plate filled with various samosas an falafel.

"I'm assuming you're accustomed to some spice?"

"I'm saying food artistry is generally taken as a compliment, so it's a sure method of not picking a fight when I don't want to." He smiled easily and accepted the plate. "I could be so accustomed, certainly. Thank you."

"I noticed you prefer turning into a cat than other forms, is there a particular reason?"

Samirah was still reluctant to change. She knew she needed to get over that.

"I spent my first two weeks or so here as a kitten. It's a thoroughly non-suspicious shape, and most people feel compelled to defend and take care of kittens. It was therefore an excellent shape for listening and snooping." Loki considered her for a moment.

She'd admitted some time before that she could shapeshift as part of being a child of her Loki, and also that he could control any of his children. It didn't take much of a leap to think those two things were connected, in her mind.

In that respect, asking him questions about shapeshifting might help with her own efforts to take control of her talent for herself. "Form shapes mentality and function. Cats are naturally stealthy, independent predators, that's in line with myself, so it's a relaxing sort of shape. Snakes are also a preference. Creatures in opposition to my view are more difficult, in varying ways, and certain creatures are to be avoided at all times."

"Certain creatures?"

That caught her interest. She wondered if her Loki would ever be so forth coming to advice. She reached for a bowl to mix some spices together and stood thoughtfully. Should she ask him for training, she wondered?

“Rabbits, for example.” Loki shrugged. “They’re very intensely body-driven in addition to being quite counter to my personality.” Gentle, frightened, prey animal. “I’d have to fight all of the body’s instincts instead of just some, while also letting coordination and senses work naturally. It’s a bad combination, there’s a risk I’d lose and end up just a rabbit. Bees are risky, too, for different reasons.”

She looked down at the mixture of spices thoughtfully.

"I've been a horsefly, a deer, and a lion."

Samirah had only become those things out of necessity, but she had not experienced the sensation of losing herself to the animal form. She wondered if it was due to the fact she feared her connection with her father more.

A flying creature, a fast creature, and a fast predator. “That makes sense, from what I know of you. Let me ask, when you were the horsefly - how did you fly? Did you have to pay attention, crash a lot at first or did you just do it?”

She thought about his question carefully.

"I had a goal. I needed to distract a dwarf and did so by biting him when he needed to be precise or other similar forms of sabotage... I didn't think too much on it though. I just... knew what I needed to do to be successful."

Loki nodded. "You just did it. Now, consider that as a human, you're a bipedal, sight-based mammal, while a horsefly has six legs, wings, and is an insect. Consider also that it takes years for a human to learn to walk on those two legs. The fact that we," since it was both of them, "can just adapt to new forms is something I tend to call 'letting the body drive'. Form guides function, so the magic that changes your shape also fills in the basic skills required to use it properly. The danger is that that means we don't have what you might call full control of that shape. I wouldn't be surprised if that's a small part of what your father exploits to control you."

She took in his words and she contemplated his theory. She thought about Alex and how Alex seemed in full control, but her sister also decided a lot time ago to full accept who he was.

Sam looked at Loki with a sudden, determined expression.

"Will you teach me? Not only how to shapeshift better, but help me learn to fight the control, if you have the ability to do it."

“Of course.” Loki flashed a smile at her. “I’m frequently my own favorite target... not that I’ll admit I said that to Thor if you tell him. I’m happy to mess with myself in a way I don’t then have to deal with.”

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Cooking in the Kitchen (OTA/MW)

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