Mission End: Day 12/13

[voidtreckermods]

Return of the Void Trecker.

By the sixth day since being dropped off at the foot of Ciyesia hopefully everyone has reached the summit. For those at the the top of the mountain there is an almighty gust of wind and a roar as the Void Trecker Express appears in the sky above them and comes down to land on the mountain. The doors open. "Welcome back heroes."

For those on top of the mountain already there Safety Control Apparatus flashes with the colour of the void. A screen pops up in front of them Congratulations on completing practice mission #43. The Void Trecker Express will remain on Ciyesia until tomorrow morning where we will depart. Please enjoy your last evening on Hub World#5739.

The doors remain unlocked throughout the evening and so you can chose whether to board the train once more or spend one last night out under the stars.

Back to the Void

The next morning, a few hours after sunrise the horn of the Void Trecker sounds, it seems it is time to depart once more. There is about ten minutes to gather all your things before the horn sounds again and the doors begin to close.

Once everyone is on board the train begins to move, driving straight off the shear edge of the crag, climbing higher and higher as if following invisible tracks to the clouds. Higher and higher until the mountain is a tiny molehill below you.

"Entrance into Voidspace imminent." Hopefully you all learned from last time and hold on tight. A jerk, a jolt, a flash of light and once again the ever changing void swirls outside the windows.

Comments

[hibana_incursa]

Thankfully, she doesn’t believe a word he said. She’s gonna roll with it, sure. But only in that way teenagers do when there is an adult that’s full of shit they’re trying to sell.

“Gotcha. My compliments to the baker, then. They smell amazing.”

She’s gonna wait until they cool down to eat one. Plus she jasper project to check on. Heading to one of the cabinets and pulling down a covered bowl, a note taped to the side with feeding instructions that Gwen neglected due to being elsewhere, she sets it on the counter and peers inside with a frown.

“Damn.” It’s dead starter, just a pool of flour paste that’s clearly not viable.

“So what’s with the sudden baking? And where did you get chocolate?”

[runs_on_batteries]

A smile slips onto his lips at the compliment before he can bring it back to a 'cooler than this shirt' smirk. He finds some cayenne and cinnamon. He adds the tiniest amount of the cayenne before looking at her curiously. "I found some cocoa powder. Can you and Peter handle cinnamon?"

He shrugs at the question. "Seems we're about to get stuck on this train again. I figured I might as well welcome everyone back. Plus.. I know you and Peter love your sweets." He nods to the brownies. "Plain or with frosting are his favorites. Not that you care, but.." He gives her a knowing smile. He knows what they mean to each other.

[hibana_incursa]

Gwen dumps the dead starter in the trash and heads to the nearest sink to wash the bowl out, back to him as he speaks. She turns a bit red at the comment about her and Peter, practically seeing the smirk on Mr Starks face. It’s all in the tone of voice and it’s pretty much confirming things for Gwen.

Once she’s sure she’s not still a tad red (spoiler: she still kinda is) she turns around as she’s drying the bowl in her hands and tries to play ‘unaffected teen girl’ but it’s not going half as well as she’d like.

“Cinnamon is the least problematic for me. Just kinda gives me a small itch in my throat. Nothing as exciting as lavender or mint. But that’s good to know about the kind of brownies Peter likes. If I knew how to bake, I’d like to know what people like so that I could surprise them.”

[runs_on_batteries]

He can't help it, he chuckles seeing her stiffen up at his remark. It wasn't nice to tease the kids, but it was so much fun. Did they think they were being subtle?

When she turns around, he still is visibly humored by the situation but there was also warmth and affection. He wasn't teasing her to put her down in the least. She was important to him if she was important to Peter- and god could he tell she was important to Peter.

The news about cinnamon has him hesitating. It really made the flavor pop but he didn't feel great at the idea it would affect Gwen and Peter at all. He hasn't turned on the heat just yet so he has a few moments to decide. Her answer steals his attention though.

"I could teach you if you're interested."

[hibana_incursa]

"I am very interested." Hold on. "In the brownies. To...I'd like to learn how to make them."

Oh, God. Someone shut her up. Or maybe throw her into the void where she belongs. Either way, she feels like she's said too much, even if she knows it's very obvious she has her crush on Peter.

She starts gathering things to make Sour Dough Starter 2.0, focusing on mixing things and not at all about how she's an embarrassment to herself and probably others.

"Hey, you don't know anything about baking sour dough bread, do you? Because I can make a good starter, but the actual baking of isn't something I know how to do."

[runs_on_batteries]

Her slip up makes him laugh outright. Teenagers were so awkward! "It's okay, I get it. Just invite me to the wedding whenever that happens, okay?"

God help them all if they're here long enough for that!

He decides against the cinnamon. It would still taste good with the buttery sugary goodness of caramel without using ingredients that could hurt the kids. He flips on the burner. He watches as she starts putting together something else. His eyebrows rise when she says what it is. He laughs again. "So, you know the hard part but not the part where you stick it in the oven and let it do the work for you?"

[hibana_incursa]

Tony, why are you like this? She slouches where she's standing, a sigh escaping her mouth as she rubs a hand across her forehead. This guy was just insufferable. She likes him, sure. She thinks he's amazing. But this is just getting stupid. She chooses to ignore the comment he made about getting married.

Tony, they aren't even dating yet. Why do you have to be like this?

"I always thought this part was the most fun. Taking care of a starter for a week before getting to use it. But the rest of it? I never really got to do that part. That was always mom while I was at school."

[runs_on_batteries]

They were close enough. No one but a teenager wouldn't recognize they were in a relationship yet. Or so he thinks. He didn't date seriously all that much growing up. It was a lot, a lot of third-style first dates and if it was really good, maybe a second. Pepper had showed him a different way.

He didn't want to think of her right now.

"I wouldn't have the patience for that kind of thing," Tony admits, shaking his head. She had to wait a week before she could use it? That sounded really annoying. What he was making was also kind of annoying since he had to keep stirring it, but at least it wasn't a week of waiting before step number two. "Maybe one of the others knows what you do after it's hung out for a week."

[hibana_incursa]

"Maybe. I'll ask later," Gwen states, finally putting the starter back in it's dark cupboard, and the written instructions go on, too. There are times marked off with check boxes next to them, just in case someone else got to it before she did. But she's hoping they don't.

"See, but the waiting makes it worth it. Especially when it's baking. But in general, I'm kinda bad with patience. It's a learning process."

[runs_on_batteries]

Tony gets out another bowl- thank goodness there were several of these- and sets it in between them. He sets out the ingredients he'd had when he started his project. "I'm going to have to take your word for it." He wasn't convinced it was worth it at all, but Gwen clearly thought so.

"We can make this batch with something else on top if you'd like." He explains she needs a certain ratio of bonding agents (egg) to the staple (flour) to the rest of it. The recipe sounds a whole lot more like a chemistry assignment coming from Tony, plus extra information like why each ingredient is needed and how it makes the rest of the dough react properly.

[hibana_incursa]

"My youngest brother likes bacon on top," Gwen states, watching Tony and moving stuff out of the way for him. "I just like brownies straight."

She listens to the instructions, filing away every bit of information as she goes. It's an enjoyable chemistry lesson, something she greatly appreciates.

"How do you like your brownies?"

[runs_on_batteries]

Tony chuckles at the idea of putting bacon on the brownies. It was unique enough he might just have to try it sometime. Right now though, these were for someone else.

"I don't usually eat brownies," he explains and nods to the candied pecans he was making. "Those are for me. We can just make a second batch of the plain ones if you don't think we should add anything else to them."

He moves to get the candied nuts off the burner and onto a cookie sheet. "I assume Peter has talked to you about the Avengers from our world, right? Is there anything like that in yours?"