Closed Baking Day Open

Astra didn't really know what to do with herself. She didn't feel like music, which was extremely strange and off-putting, nor reading, which was practically impossible, and she sure as heck didn't want to clean her desk no matter how much it needed it.

So outside she went in the September breeze, her tie loose around her neck and her shirt sleeves rolled up. She planned on exploring the grounds of Hogwarts, starting with the Great Lake. Her family members who'd attended Hogwarts seemed to like the lake a fair bit, so she figured it'd be as good a place as any.

She heard a loud shriek as she drew close. Astra jumped in surprise, whipping around with her wand drawn. She was met with a sight that could be considered strange in this environment. A large tent was set up, the size of her grandma Marisol's kitchen. And that woman had a big kitchen.

Astra, looking very confused, crept toward the tent, which now had crashes and bangs and even more shrieking eminating from it.

"Fine. FINE! You want the cupcakes, you gotta take em outside!" she heard as she reached the tent's entrance. She jumped back quickly as a small baked treat flew out the window, closely followed by a black spider. Astra thought her eyes would pop out of her head this was so bizarre. "Go get the cupcakes! Go! Be free, you menace!" The distraught and rather angry-sounding male voice was very close to the tent flap now.

She made the mistake of stepping forward again, only to have to hit the deck. More cupcakes, a few measuring spoons, and yolky eggshells made their exodus from the tent. As Astra stood, cautiously, slowly, a high-speed metal measuring spoon hit her square in the nose.

"AUGH," she exclaimed, her hands flying up to protect her nose from any other missile as her eyes teared up by instinct. "Godric that huuurts..." Usually in possession of a very high pain tolerance, the nose was something that was exempt.

She looked up to find a rather tall, lanky Gryffindor boy with flour and icing and eggs all over his hands and clothes, frustration smoldering in his gaze and his body pitched forward like he had just thrown something.

@Elsian Cox

“You-!” The boy paused, surprise softening his features and mouth agape as he caught sight of certain innocents caught between the warpath of cupcakes and flying baking utensils.

“-just got hit by my measuring spoon. Sorry I-” Aw crap. Why had they-

Wait was she-

Teary eyes and nose carefully cradled like that. The 5th year jumped to the worst conclusion after realizing he’d thrown a rather heavy metal measuring spoon full force at the poor girl's nose of all things. “Are you bleeding?” There was no way, and yet.

What if he had?

“I can fix that.” He blurted out, walking over to his newest victim in a long line of hilarious ill timed meetings. “Maybe,” was tacked on quickly after as the boy fretted, hands lightly plucking at the others hands if she allowed or landing on her shoulder as he ducked to try and see the damage he’d caused, “not if it’s broken- oh, it’s not even bleeding.”

Of course it wasn’t bleeding. He had a weak throw! Merlin, why had he even worried in the first place…Actually no, it was a good thing he’d worried. With his luck the one time he didn’t double check would be the day he actually broke some poor sops nose simply by throwing measuring spoons of all things. “Guess it’s a good thing I got a weak throw…” He mused.

Though not even a minute after laying a hand on her shoulder did the sight of the frosting and flour coating his fingers and sleeves make the boy realize his newest mistake.

“Oh damn.” He lifted his hands away from the other upon remembering his horrible state, but it was too late. Frosting and flour would be covering the poor Slytherins shoulder and hands just like his own black pants and green shirt. A horrible mix really. “I can fix that,” he blurted out with a disgusted look towards himself and Astra. A wince followed by a very obviously sheepish grin replacing the disgust upon seeing Bea.

“Merlin, did I hit you too?” He demanded, “bloody hell it’s just a party out here isn’t it. Why did- no it doesn’t matter. I’m sorry if a cupcake smacked you in the face, Bea.”

Kitty had made quite the mess…In fact said mess kitty had been a part of could probably use a spell or 2 to clean the worst of it all before he even tried to continue baking. Just like the rest of them…

“I can fix the mess right now.” He said towards Astra, patting his pocket for his wand.

No wand.

Damn.

“Never mind, I can fix it in there!” A gesture to the tent followed the statement, “after I find my wand. C’mon.” He twisted on his heel, reaching the tent entrance in a few long strides. Throwing the flap of the tent to the side he disappeared within, leaving Astra & possibly Bea amidst the disaster outside to either gather their wits about them and run off or follow in the Gryffindors' wake.

Upon entering, if one entered that was, the mess and delicious progress of baking would be revealed, alongside the tents enchanted nature. For no matter how normal & small the tent looked on the outside, it was, in fact, enchanted to be quite large within. One could say wizard society took the saying, ‘it’s what’s inside that counts’, very seriously if you took into account their tents.

“Where did I put it…aha!” Elsian wandered to the table, scooping up the wand gingerly. Pinched between 2 clean fingers he waved it with a quick “Scourgify.” aimed at the mess covering part of the floor and table.

@Beatrice Langstreth
@Astra Norrick

Interacting with @Elsian Cox and @Beatrice Langstreth
Astra speaking: #136323
Thoughts: Italics
Others: Bold

Astra went a little cross-eyed trying to look at her nose. It stung, but the pain was slowly abating. The boy seemed to panic and asked if it was bleeding or- oh horror, broken. "It's fine, I don't thi-" Astra began before he tapped her hands away and looked, answering his own question. She was relieved. "Just sensitive I think," she said with a sniff, wiping her eyes. She wasn't crying, of course, the human reaction to being hit in the nose was tears since it was such a sensitive spot.

The boy had accidentally gotten flour on her shoulder. He hurriedly said he could fix it, seemed to be scrambling while Astra just kind of stood there blinking. There was another girl who she hadn't noticed yet, also hit by the flying baking supplies.

The boy beckoned for her to follow him into the tent. She blinked in surprise again, seemingly at
a loss for words as she saw the chaos in the tent. It was also huge! It looks like the size of my house! she thought, looking around in surprise and confusion. Astra watched the boy cast a cleaning spell, making a note of how it sounded just in case she ever needed it (which was likely). I wonder if Roderick knows that one?

"Nice tent," she said, touching her nose gently. The pain was already gone she was happy to note. "You bake a lot?"

Everything was a mess. The frosting, over half the cupcakes had been lost…He’d be basically starting over again.

Which was fine. It wasn’t the end of the world. He was experimenting for a reason, cookbook followed halfheartedly at best as he mixed different flavors and the odd spell for a pinch of different coloring for prettier, more fun, exciting new ideas! It was just that Elsian had kinda been hoping to be able to taste test some of it before Kitty had decided to dip her little spidery hands into his work…

Make his own opinion and all that. See if it tasted just as horrible as the last batch.

Who was he kidding?

It probably had! He could never seem to get the lemon right. Maybe he was just bad with sour flavors, cursed.

“Thanks!” He said, turning to her with a boyish grin, “it’s great for hiding away.” His eyes caught on the mess covering her clothing though, and the Gryffindor was reminded of the whole reason he’d basically spirited her away. “Oh yeah! Let me-” Carefully the wand was aimed at her clothing, a quick cleaning spell later leaving nary a trace of flour and frosting.

“There, I told you I could fix it,” he joked, wandering over to the simple mismatched kitchen space. The boy fiddled with his sleeves, rolling them back up from where they’d come loose in the chaos before solemnly plucking the ruined bowl of icing, “unlike my ruined icing.”

Ugh. He’d accidentally knocked a bunch of vanilla extract into the bowl.

He mixed it once, twice, lifting up the spoon to bring up the ruined mix up to his face only to pull an agonized look when the overwhelming scent of vanilla smacked into his face. He dropped the spoon with a disgusted sound, shoving the bowl away.

“Damn. No fixing that.” He sighed, whipping out his wand to cast a quick “lavabit” to the ‘sink’, which was really more like a large wooden bucket or basin, holding the other dirty dishes. He paused though, looking thoughtful at her question as he made his way to the ‘sink’, slowly putting the bowl into the water before quickly plucking his hand away when the spell took hold, making the dishes clean themselves.

Merlin, he loved magic.

“Not really, or-” Well that was actually a bit of a lie wasn’t it? He hadn’t ever thought of himself as much of a baker before but it’d slowly become something of a hobby. Albeit one that mostly involved experimenting and shenanigans. “Well I guess I kinda do now. But it’s mostly me just messing around or having fun with the recipes.” He turned the wand on himself. A quick spell on the tip of his tongue to clean the worst of the mess off even knowing he’d just get messy again one way or another. It was a bit unpleasant, his magic tended to feel that way, but it was better than spreading more flour everywhere. “I fail a lot but it’s half the fun.”

Elsian wasn’t always the best at it. Not compared to someone like Kim or a professional, but he tried, and he experimented, and he knew his ideas might not work but he was dumb enough to try. But half the fun of baking in his opinion wasn’t the end result but actually making the damn thing.


“I’m Elsian by the way, sorry again for hitting you with a spoon.” He held out a hand over the counter with a grin, green eyes glinting with an idea. “Hey-” Fingers tapped at the counter softly, fiddling.

“Do you wanna try? Make something I mean.” The grin became a bit more sharp at the corners, a promise for fun and possibly failure of the best kind. “You don’t have to but it’s always fun baking with others. We can make a little challenge of it.”

Then more flippantly, teasingly, “unless you don’t think you can handle it of course. My half burnt cupcakes are pretty amazing, I understand if you're intimidated.”

@Astra Norrick

[ september 9, 2023 ] ♥ outfit

And so for the very first time, Xin found herself out in the Great Lake. She didn't have any plans for today. No homework, no dueling practice, nothing.

Just chilling away in some random patch of grass.

Thinking about everything and everyone.

She thought of Chen and his heavy rock music, Cheshire Cats and the Queen of Hearts. She thought of the breeze that tingled ever so slightly on her cheeks, WALL-E curling up inside an empty crisp packet...

The quiet were idled away, as she sprawled on the grass. She kinda lost the time in all truthfulness. Random sounds that came sailing in the breeze; the birdsong came so sweetly, almost tangible, as if it were softly spun sugar. She wished to sit there upon the clouds that were her thoughts until, as the ones above are so prone to do, they condensed to form the random ideas that quenched her mind. However long this peace might last...

She would have just continued staring up at the blue blue sky, playing Lemon Tree over and over again, until crashes and shouts seemed to cut away the silence like knife on butter.

What on earth? Noise…so much noise. Was the outdoors always this loud or was it her fault? Someone had to interrupt the peace didn't they?

She stalked towards the source of the chaos.

It was a tent. What's in the tent to be specific. There was a disgruntled boyish voice shouting at someone called 'Kitty', and cupcakes pelting out from the flaps like bullets, hitting some unfortunate students. A few whizzed over her head, grazing her hair, landing icing-first on the bushes.

And then something wet landed on her face - an egg. A ROTTEN EGG! The yolk dripped down her nose and smeared all over her robes. And it was slimy. Revolting. And it smelled.

Xin was close to pulling whoever inside out by his collar and stick the fuck up his ass.

"Are you STUPID!" she hollered at whoever was inside the tent, "If you don't know how to cook, don't cook!"

Boys.

WHY ARE THEY SO STUPID?

@elsian cox & @astra norrick –––––– ♥

Interacting with @Elsian Cox and @Fang Yun-Xin
Astra speaking: #136323
Thoughts: Italics
Others: Bold

Astra was greatly pleased with magic in this moment. She was almost never displeased with it, to be fair, but this particular spell in this particular moment caused her to appreciate it even more than she already did.

As the boy began to tidy up, she heard someone yelling outside. "Are you STUPID! If you don't know how to cook, don't cook!"

"Rude," she remarked, looking with furrowed brow to the entrance flap and wondering who was shouting such things as the boy attended to the dusting of flour and icing on her shirt.

"There, I told you I could fix it," he said with a joking tone.

"Never doubted you," she quipped as the boy went about his business, checking his unfortunately ruined icing and doing a few other cleaning spells.

In response to her question, Elsian gave a bit of a muddied reply, but that was quite alright. Astra was the same way, though generally her voice was able to sort through her thoughts and pick out the ones that were correct. She waved off his apology. "It's fine, no harm no foul," she said.

Astra eyed the newly cleaned kitchen tent when he asked her if she'd like to bake. She wasn't a terrible cook/baker, but definitely not the most experienced even at the very elderly age of eleven. "Sure," she said after a moment's deliberation. She couldn't help but smile at Elsian's teasing. "Indeed, quite the formidable opponent you are. I'll do my very best to push through. Let's hope a crispy Snickerdoodle won't be your demise."

“A little,” he admitted aloud. Didn’t even hesitate.

But it was just a smidge. Which was a perfectly healthy amount of stupidity because didn’t everyone have their moments? “Like this much,” he held up a measuring cup with a joking grin towards Astra before moving towards the flap of the tent. The cup was brandished beyond the tent's flap, only a single arm of the boy being visible to Fang as he wiggled the cup.

Staring at the ceiling of the tent with a long, hard stare he contemplated the likelihood of the person outside being just as nice and charming and a good sport as Astra. Of course it’d been too good to be true to only hit nice, mild mannered people. He stuck out his other hand out of the tent-

“Half a cup. Maybe 3/4ths.” A gesture to the half line, making a so-so gesture as he spoke.

He held back a laugh, lips pinned in a thin line. There was at least a 20% chance he was about to get smacked through the thin fabric but he wasn’t letting that stop him from keeping this baking day on the right, semi positive track.

Hands plucked back, disappearing back into the tent Elsian aimed a grimm look at Astra. “Should I go outside to apologize?” He stage whispered, just loud enough for the two of them to hear. But wait, wasn’t that actually a horrible idea? What if they threw a cupcake at him? “Nevermind, that's a stupid idea. I should make a sign. ‘No violence allowed, only baking and sabotage’.” In a mix of creative genius and possibly spite he quickly scrambled with his bag shoved into a corner to pull out paper and a quill writing a messy, scribbled sign of, ‘Only Bakers Allowed,’ followed by, ‘Violence Forbidden Only Sabotage’, and a doodle of a cake of course.



How was this his life? When did his newly realized baking hobby become so violent and consistently dramatic?

Was it karma for all the pranked food?

He snapped his fingers with a grin, wiggling the cup and new crappy paper sign at Astra. “Can you take this just in case I’m about to get tackled? I’d prefer not to lose a cup before I get to put those Snickerdoodles you bragged about to shame.” He only half joked, the cup carefully placed in the other's hands if she allowed, or otherwise put on the counter in a quick, shaky move.

It was with a fake seriousness that Elsian clutched the flap of the tent and spelled the paper to part of the tent's entrance fabric with a quick “Epoximise” and stuck his head out, carefully clutching the fabric around his shoulders so as to not crinkle the paper now stuck to it. “Sorry, but I think I'm gonna pass on your words of ‘wisdom’,” his lips twitched into a humored smile, “I rather like my mediocre baking after all.” But the smile twisted into a small grimace that barely hid the boy's amusement once he caught sight of the right mess that covered the girl, “Sorry, sorry. I can fix that mess though.”

He thought for a moment, squinting at the other.

“Maybe. You aren’t gonna try and murder me if I try right? I have witnesses-” The fabric was thrown to the side to reveal Astra within as he craned his neck to look back towards the Slytherin, “right baking buddy? You’ll tattle if they kill me, yeah?”

It was a joke but also not.

You could never be sure, for all he knew the small girl covered in egg could be a future killer. This could’ve been the others villain arc. And he the 1st victim. What a way to go.

“I’d bribe you with sweets but we need to bake some first.” He added solemnly.



Of course the choice would ultimately be left to Fang. If they agreed or otherwise didn’t immediately try to murder the boy from his spot half hiding in the tent entrance he’d grab his wand and spell the worst of the mess clean, leaving the other as if she’d never been wrongfully attacked by flying eggs on this very nice day. He would even offer an olive branch in the form of inviting the other in for some baking of their own with a muttered, “maybe if we all bake at least one of our creations will survive the baking process.”

If she did choose violence and try to murder him right then and there in cold blood despite the witnesses? The boy would shriek in a totally dignified way as he scurried back within and a yelled, “only friendly bakers are allowed!” Leaving the other to fume and curse to their heart's content outside as he and his new baking buddy tried to out bake one another.


In the end, no matter what happened, he'd return to Astra's side. Ready to bake.

He shuffled to the table, cranking up the radio with a dramatic gesture to the ingredients and supplies before them. “Now that I’ve faced the angry mob…I hear your snickerdoodles and raise you cinnamon and caramel cupcakes! But-” he held up a finger, a look of utmost seriousness on his face. “I propose a challenge.”

A dramatic pause.

“I propose our treats must be entirely pink or blue. Whoevers treat is the most colorful and delicious wins bragging rights.”

He grabbed a blue mixing bowl, aiming a challenging look at his newest baking rival as he began to measure ingredients, plucking the bag of sugar up. “Unless you wanna forfeit now?”

@Astra Norrick
@Fang Yun-Xin

Interacting with @Elsian Cox and @Fang Yun-Xin
Astra speaking: #136323
Thoughts: Italics
Others: Bold

Astra covered her mouth, a laugh threatening to spill out as Elsian responded to the person outside in a hilarious manner.

Her eyes widened when he asked if he should go out to apologize. Astra shook her head adamantly, there was enough rage in that voice to fuel an entire Gryffindor-Slytherin battle (something her father had participated in multiple times over multiple food fights).

"I would hate for the poor cup to miss out on the action," she said, taking the measuring cup from Elsian only to brandish it a moment later when he revealed her. Go figure, a rude Gryffindor. Unlike Elsian, who was, in fact, a nice and very agreeable Gryffindor who she had grown to like in a very short time, but hey. Roderick was her standard when it came to Gryffindors, and it didn't take much to beat that. "It is my duty as an at least mediocre citizen to report murders and maimings," she would say in response to Elsian's question of tattling, holding the cup over her heart and attempting to look regal. A strand of hair flopped in her face. Apparently, it had other ideas.

As the choice would be left to the angry girl, to either join in on the baking madness and sabotage about to occur or to react in violence. Astra would welcome her if she joined, saying "Welcome to the chaos in advance."

Or she would scramble back to make way for the definitely not shrieking Elsian and make a comment along the lines of "How uncivilized."

After that, however, it was time to bake.

She smiled at the challenge, picking up another mixing bowl and dropping a stick of soft butter in. "Challenge accepted, good sir. May the best baker win, or at least not explode anything, and let the games begin!"

What was it about being near Elsian Cox and getting hurt? First the Spring Ball and now this... She sighed and counted to 10 as what looked to be coloured, sweet frosting glittered the front of her jumper. Seriously! There was nothing sweet about being covered with smeared food. She'd even had a couple cupcakes land on her person before crumbling onto the ground. Kitty, Elsians spider seemed intent on gathering all the cupcakes into some sort of tower and Bea was fine with that. Whipping her head towards the tent flap, she scowled.

Whilst she'd been counting, other had also exclaimed out, hit with the flying missiles that was the corrupt culinary delights. Elsian had some explaining to do. Storming past the disgruntled Gryffindor girl, not even checking to make sure the girl was alright (something she would not be proud of later on), Bea pushed the flap open to reveal Elsi and a girl. Younger by the looks of things. Why had Elsi thrown the things? Surely the girl could have corralled him into behaving for even just a moment.

Outright scowling at them both, she stood at the entrance. She didn't dare to go in further in case of more missiles coming her way. Taking a deep breath, she tried to quell her anger. But she was a teapot boiling, ready to screech. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

Forgive me for taking so long Elsi