A warehouse called George - Thursday

[badassprodigy]

After work, Barry had spent most of his time cleaning up the warehouse and establishing a portal back to his world. The portal actually only took a minute and the cleaning was actually pretty needless but nevertheless, Barry was in high gear in preparation for tonight.

Not that he was nervous or anything.

Nope. Not at all. Not one bit.

[For that one.]

Comments

[badassprodigy]

"First of all the presentation is just stunning," Amanda said looking at the plate before diving in.

"I thought the sauerkraut would be off putting," Geoffrey said. "And it is but otherwise this dish is pretty much flawless."

"I disagree. I think the sauerkraut gives a nice acid finish which cuts the sweetness of the mango and pineaplle Jello," Tom said taking a few more bites. "Much better than Indra's dish."

“Oh *bleep* this *bleep*!” Indra declared as she took off her apron and threw it on the ground. “I’m *bleep*ing out of here!” She marched off stage and bodychecked a PA on her way out.

“Well I guess that means it’s time for the dessert round!” Ted said cheerfully. “Right after this commercial break!”


“One more thing! I have been informed by my producers that you must at least produce one dish of edible food in order to be a chopped champ. I'm sorry Chip, but you're going to have to do more than just look good. That being said... Chefs, please open you baskets. Inside you will find:”

Mascarpone cheese
Vietnamese iced coffee
Dragon fruit
Chocolate Truffles
And lemon jello.

“You have 30 minutes. Your time starts now."

[somethingwithturquoise]

There was a huge breath of relief from Summer at that news, because, yeah, Summer had been putting out some good shit here, but she was definitely going to be a goner if, like, abs came into the picture or something.

Not that she could necessarily complain, but, it was the final round, she'd actually really like to win this thing if she'd managed to get this far.

So, deep breath, a moment to focus, and shuffle through the basket.

Actually, she had no idea what Chip was even capable of making at this point, since he'd literally been getting by on his good looks, so she still couldn't just wing it. And there were a lot of fucking flavors going on with this one, jesus.

You know what? She was going to her specialty with this one. This was going to call for some cake flavored vodka...

[badassprodigy]

"It all comes down to this," Ted said, building the tension, "Chef vs Chef in the dessert round. Your ingredients were Mascarpone cheese, Vietnamese iced coffee, dragon fruit chocolate truffles, And lemon jello. Chef Chip? I see you actually made something this time. What do you have for us?"

Chip unbuttoned the top button of his chef coats to give his pecs a little room as he began to tell everyone about dessert. "Using the marscapone I blended it with the coffee creating a delicious topping. Using the dragon fruit and the chocolate I created a delicious chocolate and dragonfruit jello and then topped it with the marscapone coffee mixture. Then I blended sugar with the jello mixture and bruleed it on tome of the marscapone."

"Very delicious," Amanda said. "Though the dragon fruit made the jello a little watery.

"Other than that I can't fine any fault," Tom admitted.

"I can," Geoffrey said. "I found the jello and chocolate to be a little cloying to my tastes."

Was that a bead of sweat on Chip's perfect forehead?

Ted turned to Summer."Chef Summer, what do you have for us to close off this meal?"

[somethingwithturquoise]

There wasn't a whole lot of difference to their approaches, for the most part, but, then again, there were only a few directions where the mind could possibly go with all of that, but, needless to say, even though they were technically out of the kitchen, Summer was definitely feeling the heat, and not because of that unbuttoned button, either, CHIP.

"Layered lemon and chocolate cake jello shots," she announced, with a proud little lift of her chin. "Basically two laters lemon zest and blended dragonfruit with the lemon jello and cake flavored vodka between a thinner layer of the marcapone and the coffee whipped up like a pudding. With a nice chocolate truffle dusting around the rim."

[badassprodigy]

"The layers are a nice touch," Tom said as he took and tasted the shot gingerly

"It's good but I find the cake flavored vodka to be over the top," Geoffrey said as he also gingerly sipped the shot.

Was that a music stinger someone just played.

Amanda Frietag however just slammed the shot down 'cuz she's a beast and awesome. "I disagree," Amanda said. "I think the lemon and the dragon fruit cut through that. Maybe you would notice if you didn't sip it like a wimp."

The chefs were escorted back to the supposed chamber where they couldn't "hear" anything the judges were saying.

"You're good," Chip said unbuttoning another button on his chef coat. "We'll just have to see what triumphs. Hotness or cuisine."

[somethingwithturquoise]

Dammit, Chip! She was supposed to be on a date here! Sure, she'd barely spoken to said date in well over an hour of this whole process, but come on!

But she was on a date, with a pretty amazing guy who put all this together, and she'd put out an amazing performance either way, so that (and okay, okay, maybe all those undone buttons) gave her the confidence to retort, "Clearly the one with both."

Don't even try to tell her she didn't look super cute in this chef's coat.

[badassprodigy]

Well who would let that scene play out longer with that kind of snarky tagline available to close it out?

The chefs were escorted back to face the judges. Intense music was playing. The judges were stone faced, betraying nothing of their conversation.

"Two chef enters, One chef leaves... with $10,000," Ted intoned seriously. "And the Chopped Chef is-"

The Cloche was raised. Cameras went into full facial close up. And Chip bowed his head in defeat.

"Chip, I'm sorry. Judges?"

"Sorry Chip. Your dessert is fantastic and so is your physique," Amanda said sympathetically. "However as judges we had to take all three dishes into account as well as Summer's hotness. And she won."

"FUCK YEAH SHE DID!"

"QUIET ON THE SET GOD DAMN IT!"

Chip strutted out of the kitchen area, giving Summer a congratulatory hug if she allowed it. As he walked out you could hear him say. "I lost but I so hot. Yeeeeeah."

"Congratulations Summer," Ted said cheerfully. "What do you plan on doing with the money?"

[somethingwithturquoise]

It would just be rude and she'd totally come off as a pompous ass if she didn't hug her fiercest competitor back, riiiight? And it was a hug that definitely made even her wonder if Chip totally got robbed. Damn.

But then that question hit and the first thing Summer could think to say was, "Oh, shit, I still get the money, too?"

Sorry, her brain sort of defaulted into Danger Shop mode and may have forgotten that this was, like, legit reality.

[badassprodigy]

"You do," Amanda said warmly. "Especially if you pour us another one of those shots."

"I still have mind," Geoffrey said, upon which Amanda slammed it down without hesitation."

"You and Padme would get along so well," Tom chuckled.

[somethingwithturquoise]

Yeah, pretty hard not to dig that style.

"Then I guess..." said Summer, who just spent this whole time trying to think quick and was maybe starting to feel that satisfactory exhaustion that had been discussed earlier regarding this whole thing creep in, "put it towards my next business venture. I've had it suggested to me recently that maybe I should consider shifting my focus to something with pancakes."

[badassprodigy]

"Well, we look forward to your next venture," Ted said leading the judges in a round of applause as the camera's did the traditional victory close of Summer looking triumphant.

Barry was hanging back watching the whole thing with a smile and his arms crossed. "Pancakes, huh?" he said when she was finally free of the studio stuff. "Is that the breakfast food or some kind of venture for your cat?"

And he was totally not jealous of that hug you gave Chip, Summer. Nope. Not at all.

[somethingwithturquoise]

She was just trying to be a good sport!

"A little bit of both, actually," Summer grinned, tried to temper her grin, and then realized she couldn't stop smiling, and may have bounced a little in joining Barry. "Long story. And, okay, be honest, how much did it cost you to pay off the judges and those total hacks at the beginning?"

[badassprodigy]

"I paid off the contestant who you took the place of," Barry said honestly. "I did that so they had to pick up your application in a not-so-random fashion. I did make sure that the concept was Jello which took a little technical maneuvering. I also paid for Tom Collichio to make an appearance because I think he's fucking cool."

He looked her straight into her eyes. "But I swear to you I didn't pay off the judges," he promised. "That's all you. Plus the other guys fucking sucked."

[somethingwithturquoise]

The evening had been filled with a lot of tense moments where Summer felt her breath would be stuck on pause of a long time, but none of them compared to the moment when he looked er straight in the eyes like that. She wasn't even sure she heard half of what he said after that, except that she was able to catch the last part enough to kickstart her breathing back up again with a soft laugh.

"They really fucking did," she agreed emphatically. "I'd almost be mad about it if it weren't for the fact that I'm pretty sure I'm okay with not doing that again for a while. You weren't kidding when you said it would be an exhausting and emotional, but ultiamtely satisfying experience."

[badassprodigy]

Barry couldn't help but laugh a little nervously as he remembered the conversation from earlier this week. Or at least when he remembered the context.

He simply held out his hand. "You look like a woman who could use a drink. Can I buy you one?"

[somethingwithturquoise]

Summer was never forgetting that conversation.

And took that offered hand with a little thrill, and her other hand joined it, too, as she moved to lean in against him. Because just how much she'd done in these last few hours was creeping up on her fast and it would just be...nice.

"I think," she said, "you've dumped enough money on this venture already, and I've just been handed a pretty decent chunk of change, apparently. How about I buy you one?"

[badassprodigy]

"I would like that," Barry said feeling Summer lean in and for once not flinching when someone came into his personal space. In fact he didn't want to move really.

Strange.

"I know a place around the corner," he suggested. "No jello shots though."

[somethingwithturquoise]

Yup. This was definitely nice it was official.

"Yeah." Summer laughed a little. "I can't believe this is me saying this, but I think I could use a break from jello right now, for sure."

[badassprodigy]

"Fuuuuuuck," he said in genuine amazement.

Yes. That statement deserved that response.

"Listen," he said trying to lead her away without trying to pull away from her. "Can I make a suggestion for our next date? How about pizza and bad action movies. This one-upping thing is going to fucking kill us."

[somethingwithturquoise]

"I was actually going to suggest the same thing," Summer snorted softly, pulling away just enough to make moving and grinning over at him easier. "Plus, you still need to meet my cat."

[badassprodigy]

"Mmmm. I don't know," Barry joked. "That's a lot of fucking pressure. What if Pancakes doesn't like me?"

[somethingwithturquoise]

Summer gave a thoughtful little hum in response. "Then it's a sign, I'm afraid," she said, her tone exaggerated in its regretfulness. "Pancakes is an excellent judge of character."

Was she just saying that because Pancakes had technically chosen Summer and not the other way around?

Oh, yeah, she was definitely saying that because Pancakes had technically chosen Summer and not the other way around.

[badassprodigy]

"Shit."

Was Barry considering using a modified form of catnip or cat pheromones to ensure that pancakes liked him?

Maybe.

"Well, I'll burn that bridge when I come to it," he joked as he led her out of the building and towards a nearby bar that he had scouted out online as a potential location. "In the meantime you need some alcohol."

[somethingwithturquoise]

Summer really couldn't help a warm, pleased feeling and a smile to match at the sound of that shit, and she was just about to say something to suggest that she probably needed all the alcohol when she stopped and let out a small "shit" of her own.

Then hesitated a little, because so far, they'd managed to sort of keep her whole particular, uh....youthfulness out of things, but it was probably better to address this sudden realization now than have it get super awkward at the bar.

"Uhhh, hold on," she said, "you don't, uh, just happen to know what the actual drinking age in this dimension is, do you?"

Please just let it be at least twenty because Barry was a super genius who had thought of literally everything so far do it was already covered when he picked this dimension and god Fandom had really spoiled her about this sort of thing, hadn't it?


[[ lol, and thank you, brain, for waiting until just this moment to remind me of this particular little detail XD ]]

[badassprodigy]

Barry just smiled and from his pocket pulled out a card between his index and middle finger with his free hand. He held it out to Summer which was a fake ID with a picture of Summer on it.

"I wasn't sure of your birthday so I made one up," Barry admitted. "But even then I don't know what year it is in your dimension so for at least this place you are 21."

He smiled a bit before adding. "By the way this is my home planet/dimension. I was tempted to have my friends meet you here but since I haven't met your cat yet it's probably best we hold that off for another day."