in order to eat your feelings, you have to make them first

[avanture_time]

WHO: Avan and Popp
WHAT: If you're 16 and I'm 16, then who's driving the mentorship???
WHERE: The kitchen of their shared cottage
WHEN: A day or two after arrival
WARNINGS: Allusions to death

SUMMARY:


---

Avan is stress-baking. If he were alone in the cottage, he'd be dedicating more active brainpower to processing his apparent eventual demise, but Popp's been kind of... clingy. Understandably so, really, given the aforementioned apparent demise. But it does mean he has to make sure to keep his apparent mood cheery, and so, baking. Cookies, specifically, though he's only just started the dough at this point. Maybe a cake or two later.

Ahh, maybe more information would help him come to grips with the existentiality of it all. Popp's hanging around anyway, might as well take advantage of it.

"Say, Popp, how did you meet your Master?"

Comments

[avanture_time]

It's good training for controlling your magic output. Avan's done it before himself, not that he's about to tell Popp as much. He kneels in front of the oven and holds his hand out to check the temperature. Hmmm....

"A little more." He makes an up gesture with his free hand. This is... probably the most focused Popp has seen Avan this entire time. Go figure.

[snapp_crackle]

They're both focused. They're ~collaborating on a project~, just like professionals. Only one of them can conjure fire and only one of them can make cookie dough. Just like Master Avan himself wrote, it's all about surrounding yourself with people who can do what you can't.

Popp pours a little more magic in and kicks it up. It's not particularly hard to make it hotter, but it is a little harder to control. Fire likes being fire. Deep, even breaths. Just like meditating.

[avanture_time]

"Very good!" Once Avan's satisfied that the temperature is at the right level and staying there, he pops up to grab his sheet of cookies and slide it into the oven.

"Now hold it there for twenty minutes!"

[snapp_crackle]

"No problem!"

Twenty minutes?! Oh no!

[avanture_time]

Avan smiles brightly and gets started on bustling about cleaning up, leaving Popp to it. Ganbatte, Popp.

Concentration Check: NAT 20

[snapp_crackle]

This is pretty similar to meditation after all, just with a constant expense of active magical power. Not even that much, now that it's hot! All he has to do is keep the magic balanced and steady. And hey, he does have the magic reserves to back it up these days. Twenty minutes proves to be legitimately easy.

Plus, it feels pretty good being next to a warm oven that smells of cookies on a cold day. The scent's less of a distraction and more of an additional focus, being tied directly into the task at hand.

[avanture_time]

Twenty minutes pass and the cottage doesn't burn down, grand success. Avan gets his cookies back out of the oven and they are, naturally, perfect.

"Great work! They'll need some time to cool down, but once they do, you can have as many as you like!"

[snapp_crackle]

Floor time and magic time at an end, Popp gets up and stretches. He feels a little tired, but not as tired as he was expecting? He claps Avan on the shoulder as he observes the cookies. If he did not know exactly how hot they are right now, he'd go for it on the spot...

"All right! It's no high-stakes battle, but that was some good teamwork!"

[avanture_time]

victory theme plays faintly in the distance