It's a wonderful day in the neighborhood, won't you be my multiversal friend?

[basic_powers]

Parents were off taking Toby out for dinner, and Cecil was covering the excuse for him. He had a spare of the knock-out capsules, body armor, and some opened cans of tuna out for his guest, just so she wouldn't attack food in the grocery store.

It was a late Saturday afternoon and just beginning to ease into the evening hours outside, the inside of the home was neatly furnished and well kept, not a mote of dust anywhere. And given that this was only a fascade house for coverstories that was some accomplishment of cleaning in itself for a living room that size.

Which is what the linen closet door opens up into.

Welcome to Earth.

Comments

[basic_powers]

"Inside, there's a freezer on top of the fridge." Tyler says once he's got the door open and picks up the bag of ice cream. The rest can wait a bit, really.

"That went really well. The trip to the store I mean."

[nepetaleijon]

Nepeta beams proudly. "Did I do a good job purrtending to be human?"

[basic_powers]

"Yeah, save for that one snarfing down of all the samples bit, and that could just be truthfully said as you really like that brand of sausages."

[nepetaleijon]

She giggles. "They were just so good!"

[basic_powers]

Stuff that needs to be frozen has been put away! ...Now Tyler's just setting out some of the contents from the other bag onto the counter and rummaging into another cupboard for an onion.

"I'm kinda hungry after that... you ever have mac and cheese before?"

[nepetaleijon]

"What's mac?"

It involves cheese. She's totally ready to try it.

(Nepeta will be very lucky to emerge from this expedition without a bad case of overeating.)

[basic_powers]

Eh, they'll probably both end up running off all the calories in the next day or so.

"Macaroni noodles." Tyler's got the onion peeled and giving it a rough chop before putting it into a saucepan with the meat. A pot lined with a wire cage gets filled with water before getting set onto a burner next to the saucepan. Both burners get turned on while Tyler finds a step-stool to stand on before the saucepan starts sizzling.

"Janine, the lady who works with Uncle Ray showed me how to do this..."

[nepetaleijon]

Her nose twitches at the onion, and she sneezes a little, but the stinging goes away once the onion starts to cook.

"Can I help?"

[basic_powers]

"Sure!" It was a bugger getting that pot of water onto the stove! He's just breaking up the beef into tiny potions now, just enough to be bite sized...ahh the smell of cooking meat.

"Add a little bit of salt to the water? A quarter teaspoon should be enough."

[nepetaleijon]

It takes her a moment to find the spoon measures, but once she does, she very carefully adds just exactly a quarter teaspoon of salt to the water.

She is going to do this RIGHT.

[basic_powers]

When she does, there will be an interesting chemical reaction where the salt sinks into the water. There will be fizzing.

And then slowly it's starting to reach a boil, just as Tyler's trying to drain the fat from the cooked meat. Oddly enough the cooked onions add a pleasant aroma to the meat.

"The water's about ready for the noodles, they're in those two blue boxes. Dump em in, but make sure you take out the little white packets first."

[nepetaleijon]

She fishes out the white packets and eyes them dubiously. "What are they?"

[basic_powers]

"They're the dry sauce mix packets." Tyler explains. "I'm going to add a bunch of cream-based stuff to em and the beef to make the cheese sauce."

"They don't taste that good dry."

[nepetaleijon]

She's sniffing them, evidently entirely ready to try them dry -- but shrugs and hands them over willingly enough.

[basic_powers]

They go into the sauce pan! along with a lot of butter, heavy cream, sour cream and...

"Close your eyes, I'm gonna add a cheese to this and I want it to be a surprise."

[nepetaleijon]

Her eyes go wide, and she has to actually cover her eyes with both hands to keep from peeking.

"If you really want it to be a surpurrise," she tells him, "then I should cover my nose too."

[basic_powers]

"Or I could wave some peppermint under your nose." Or have the cheese itself be pretty scentless too!

There's some sounds of clattering, cutting and mixing going on after the minty smell comes in under her nose.

"A werewolf told me about the peppermint thing."

Soon enough, there's scraping noises and the sounds of full bowls being set out.

"All done!"

[nepetaleijon]

Nepeta opens her eyes, and waves away the mint.



The only word for the look on her face is OOOOOH.

(Or possibly WANT.)

[basic_powers]

Tyler's going to wait until she gets the first smell of it. Because there's four kinds of cream-based deliciousness in there.

...and yes he's already grabbed a spoon to start scarfing down a bowlful.

[nepetaleijon]

Nepeta is not far behind.

The mac-and-cheeseburger is demolished in short order. At least, most of it; she's starting to get a little full.

"Will this still be good if it sits till tomorrow?"

[basic_powers]

"Yeah, you can keep it in a refridgerator and reheat it pretty good. Tastes best fresh I think though."

Tyler's bowl is pretty well gone, and he's scraping what's left of the mac-and-cheezburger into a clear container. "It'll keep for about seven days in the fridge."

[nepetaleijon]

"Okay!" She beams.

"Do we need to do anything else for the purrthday party?"

[basic_powers]

"I think I can handle getting the firewood, and the disposable plates, utensils, cups and cake. Those don't really need much taste-testing." Tyler says, picking up the container and heading for the linen closet.

"The only thing left would be the people you'd want to invite to the party. Is it okay if I invite some friends from school who know about Milliways?"

[nepetaleijon]

She nods. "And can I invite people from Milliways? If they can appurr human? -- do they have to look human?"

She can always alchemize more copies of the HOLO KITTY, if she has to!

[basic_powers]

"Yeah, and if they can look human would be best, it'd cause the least fuss anyways." Tyler says as he opens the door