Dante Giovanni
Weapon
Demon Rapier
Among thorns grow roses.
Posts: 122
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Post by Dante Giovanni on Feb 28, 2013 0:13:50 GMT -5
Classes had taken far longer than Dante would have liked, but then that was usually the case. As soon as the lectures got monotonous, the blonde had a tendency to let his mind go to the punch bowl and contemplate other things he could be doing besides being stuck indoors. He’d managed to avoid dozing off but only by substituting actual sleep for daydreaming, mostly about that fire escape belonging to that new apartment complex he had yet to try and conquer. He wasn’t’ t usually one to be too daring, usually sticking to running over rooftops no higher than three stories high, but it was just so alluring! He’d only snapped out of his trance when the teacher had nailed him between the eyes with a piece of chalk, much to the amusement of his peers. After the final bell had rung, he’d snuck through the hallways with his head down if only to avoid his sisters. Knowing the two to be practical speed demons, he knew that they’d beat him home but he saw no reason for having to run into them beforehand. He got enough grief from them on a day to day basis from having to live with them. School was, in a sense, a sanctuary, one where he didn’t necessarily have to see them unless they were determined enough to track him down. On occasion they would ambush him by his locker or in the cafeteria, but not often enough that it became a nuisance. After some consideration, Dante had ruled that leaving the book he’d borrowed on Weapons could be left in his locker. He could study it between classes, and having that cookbook was more than enough to make his backpack feel like it was full of bricks already. Once outside in the sunlight, though, the blonde already felt a million times better. Yes, the afternoon was looking up for him, and Nate would be there soon! With cooking adventures on the horizon, there was very little that could have dampened to Italian’s mood. Not spying the gentle giant anywhere nearby, he wandered to the set meeting point maybe ten feet from the giant staircase leading down to the rest of Death City. Shrugging his backpack off for the moment, Dante couldn’t just stand still to wait for his newfound friend. The blonde had lost the ability to stand to the side like a normal person somewhere around the age of twelve, but that was because he’d started learning parkour and then everything else just kinda turned into ‘how can I do a backflip without landing on my head?’ and ‘I bet I could make that jump!’. He wouldn’t be doing anything too fancy so near to the giant steps that would be absolute hell to fall down, but he could certainly do something other than be boring and simply stand still. Handstands were effortless for Dante, but it never hurt to practice. Bouncing on his heels a few times first and being sure to triple check his distance from any bystanders as well as the Shibusen steps, he then bent his knees and flipped backwards. Landing on his hands, the blonde did wobble a bit, but he maintained his balance. Letting out a sigh of relief, Dante ignored the fact that his shirt was trying to fall over his face and very carefully walked forward a bit on his heads. He was getting better at this! Maybe he could flip back and land on his feet? He thought it was worth a try. Steeling himself, Dante took a deep breath before bending at the elbows and attempting to throw himself forward onto his feet. The second his hands left the ground, he knew he’d miscalculated. Squeezing his eyes shut, he braced for impact. The back of his heels just barely touched the ground before skidding out from under him, landing the blonde flat on his back. Well, it could have ended worse. He could have won dup with the wind knocked out of him. Thankfully, he still had his breath, even if the back of his head was currently complaining quite loudly alongside his shoulders and back. Alright so that hadn’t been the best idea after all. Sighing, Dante winced but made no move to sit up, content to simply lie there in his current state of defeat by the hands of gravity.
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Post by Nathaniel Zsoldos on Mar 6, 2013 15:28:53 GMT -5
Nathaniel's face popped into Dante's line of vision. "What are you doing?" He said, laughing not unkindly as he talked. The tall blonde had happened to walk out of the school just as Dante had fallen on his back, and he'd be lying if he said the image was a bit silly.
His timing there had been good, although he had been worried about being late. Nathaniel had really tried his hardest to leave class on time, but in his class there was a gaggle of girls who tended to swarm around the available males and occupy all their attention. Last week had been some green-haired guy, but this week the pack had moved on to him. It wouldn't have normally bothered him much, and the girls were harmless enough, but when people were waiting on you it was fairly inconvenient. Nathaniel hated being rude, but summoning his will power he had rushed to the steps as soon as he could extract himself from the conversation, and had thankfully encountered little to no difficulty afterwards. His tall frame meant that navigating through crowds was no real challenge, as he stood almost a head taller than some of his classmates. His mood sank slightly when he realized he'd have to deal with the girls tomorrow, but he'd worry about that later. His spirits lifted just thinking about cooking.
"You okay? Or are you just cloud gazing?" He asked, holding out a hand for Dante to grab so he could help his friend up. Nathaniel wasn't going to mention that he had seen Dante take the tumble. He didn't think Dante would be too embarrassed to know someone was watching - his handstand before was impressive and practiced, and he was so close to making it to his feet with the flip! - but Nathaniel didn't want to risk bringing it up, although he'd never make fun of someone for something like this. Generally poking fun at failure wasn't in Nathaniel's personality. He preferred to praise people for their successes than laugh over the failures, no matter how funny it was.
When Dante was on his feet, Nathaniel nodded in the direction of the stairs. "You ready to cook?" He pulled out a small but thick cookbook from his bag. He had missed half of class to go back and get it, but the teacher had left Nathaniel off with a warning for his lateness, and he had the family recipe for derelye, so everything was going quite well so far. "Or we could watch the clouds a little longer," he added, teasing just a little. Okay, sometimes poking fun a little could be all right.
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Dante Giovanni
Weapon
Demon Rapier
Among thorns grow roses.
Posts: 122
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Post by Dante Giovanni on Mar 8, 2013 23:06:36 GMT -5
Dante remained generally passive as Nate appeared over him like a punk rock angel sent from above to console him on his downfall. If he’d seen him royally fuck up that landing then the gentle giant said nothing. Sighing, the Italian shrugged at his question and gave his new friend a bit of a weary smile,
“Oh nothing, just lying here in an invisible puddle of self-pity and failed acrobatics. Y’know, the usual.”
But he’d moped enough. There would be time to contemplate exactly what had gone wrong. He’d felt his feet graze the ground so he’d at least been close. Either the angle or the amount of force he’d pushed with was off, but he could find out which of those was the actual cause later somewhere out of sight in case he wound up failing miserably again. Besides, he had better things to do. No that Nate was here, the cooking adventures could begin, and that was definitely something to be excited about!
Taking Nate’s hand, Dante pulled himself to his feet and dusting himself off. The back of his head hurt a bit and his shoulders felt like they would be protesting quite loudly at some point later in the day, but for the most part he was no worse for wear. Giving the other blonde present a grin, he nodded,
“I’ll be alright, I’ve had worse falls.”
That previous statement couldn’t have been more true, but he doubted Nate wanted to hear about the multiple times Dante had damn near killed himself falling from various heights. There was the fall from the roof of his house after they’d first moved to Death City, the cliff jumping, the nearly getting hit by a car, and of course that one time he’d nearly broken his neck falling out of that bell tower. Of course he’d be happy to tell him such glorious tales of survival, but that would have to wait. With the cookbook, Nate definitely had Dante’s attention. Oh the fun that would be had this afternoon! Hopefully his sisters wouldn’t be too terrible. Their levels of trolling tended to fluctuate between tolerable and totally over the top depending on the day. If they were lucky, they’d make drive by taunts and then leave them alone. Nodding towards the staircase, Dante managed a bit of a laugh at the gentle teasing,
“Nah, clouds aren’t really my thing. Way too relaxing. Let’s hurry and get to my place so we can start cooking!”
To say that Dante was excited was an understatement, made evident by the fact that the blonde all but skipped towards the stairs, waiting to be sure that Nate was right behind him before starting down them. He had a cooking buddy! At long last! Granted he could always cook with his mother but that was out of the question. For one she was never home until dinner and for another thing, she hovered too much and constantly felt the need to triple check everything when Dante knew very well what he was doing. As they made their way down the steps, the Italian looked up at Nate with quite the cheery smile on his face,
“So, any recipes in particular I should be prepared for? You mentioned something earlier at the library, right?”
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Post by Nathaniel Zsoldos on Mar 14, 2013 13:15:33 GMT -5
Nate followed Dante down the steps, and he couldn't help but grin at how excited the Italian looked. But how could he blame him? Other male cooking buddies, especially at this age, weren't exactly common. Back at home, Nathaniel had only known one of his guy friends who could even be bothered to make cereal for himself. It wasn't really a bad thing, because they all had different hobbies that they excelled at, but it was nice to have someone to share your passions with. Cooking with his family had been fun, but after 17 years of it, he was definitely open to some change.
At Dante's question, Nathaniel nodded and opened the cookbook he held. "Yeah, derelye! This cookbook has a lot more stuff, though. Like homemade curry sauce recipes and...baked macaroni...pound cake...cake you can bake in a mug..." Nathaniel flipped through the cookbook quickly, reading out some of the recipes he saw. "It's got a pretty good variety. I made it myself," he added, a touch of pride in his voice. "I just write down things whenever I see them. I'm almost out of blank pages," he added, flipping to the very back. He had started the cookbook several years ago, a present from his mom one birthday. Over the years, he just kept adding to it, checking out books from the library and jotting down the more promising entries. He had stickers for every recipe he tried, courtesy of his sister, who had once bought about 1,500 miniature unicorn stickers and had insisted he stick them everywhere. He had complied, using them to track his progress through the cookbook, but she hadn't been satisfied, since he was the only one who looked at them. It had resulted in him going to school with a binder covered in sparkly unicorn stickers, a day that lived in infamy among his classmates.
Closing the book and putting it back in his bag, Nathaniel posed a question of his own to Dante. "How far is it to your house? Not that I mind a walk," he added hastily. "I'm just mostly curious, is all." Nate was half hoping it was a bit lengthy. He liked walking through the city, although he had a miserable sense of direction, and any sightseeing he got to do was welcomed.
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Dante Giovanni
Weapon
Demon Rapier
Among thorns grow roses.
Posts: 122
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Post by Dante Giovanni on Mar 14, 2013 22:47:13 GMT -5
Ah yes, derelye! Dante knew Nate had suggested something back in the library; he just hadn’t been able to remember the exact name. Nodding as he heard it, he was instantly wracking his brain to try and remember if he’d made it before but had just forgotten. Given that all he came up with were blank thought bubbles, he guessed that the answer was no, he had not made derelye before, but that would just make things all the more interesting!
Even better, Nate had a whole damn cookbook with him! Listening to him list a few things, Dante’s smile turned into a delighted grin. God, this was going to be awesome! He hadn’t been this excited about anything in a while. The only comparable thing was probably the Snow Ball but that had come with such a heaping side of anxiety that he didn’t count it. No, he was just downright happy at the moment. Shoving his hands in his pockets, he snickered,
“I know how that goes. I don’t even want to try and count the number of cookbooks we’ve got stockpiled at my house, especially when you get into the older family recipes.”
He turned a moment and walked backwards down the steps for a spell,
“I’m pretty sure we’ve got enough family recipes to feed the entire Italian army for a good half century to be perfectly honest.”
Wobbling a bit, he pivoted on his heel and walked forwards again like a normal person. Backwards walking down the Shibusen steps: maybe not the best idea right now. He’d already fallen down once today, no need to make it twice with an added certainty of a concussion or broken neck. After the whole madness laden screeching bird incident, he didn’t really want to deal with either.
Dante’s hands left his pockets to gesture out in front of the two, waving this way in that but referencing no real direction in particular at the mention of where he lived,
“It isn’t too far. I walk ever day unless it’s raining, then my sisters usually insist that I drive us all so their hair doesn’t get ruined.”
Not that Dante wasn’t just as guilty. God forbid someone ever find out that his hair was naturally curly. Shrugging, he nodded to the west,
“It’s over in that little suburban area that way. You can just barely see it from up here.”
The blonde tucked his hands back in his pockets and continued walking, the area he was talking about just then disappearing from view at they continued their descent down the great staircase. Still, the two made good time in getting down the steps, Dante jumping down from the last five before pausing to wait for Nate and wandering off to the right,
“What about you? Are you set up in your dorms or do you live around here?”
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Post by Nathaniel Zsoldos on Mar 28, 2013 12:24:33 GMT -5
"Me? Yeah, just in the dorms," Nate said, following Dante easily. "I didn't realize you lived in-city! That must make it easier." In all actuality, Nathaniel was a little bit envious. Having all your family nearby sounded wonderful. He wasn't homesick, not quite, but he did miss his parents and his sister. They called a couple times a week, but it was different when you could talk to them face to face.
Something Dante had said earlier surfaced in Nathaniel's mind. "Wait, you don't walk in the rain?" He asked, surprised, but then he broke into laughter. At home, it rained so much there was really no other choice but to walk around in the rain, although Nate did have an umbrella. "I'm still not used to how dry it is here," he said as way of explanation to Dante. "It's really gorgeous, though," he added, looking up at the sun and smiling back before turning his attention back to following his friend.
"So, you said you had sisters - and they sound delightful - but do you live with your parents as well?" And then, another question came to mind. "Do they cook too? I mean, sorry, your sisters. Do they cook, or is that mostly you?" Nathaniel was unabashedly the cook of the family. His mother was the sort that had a usual order from a take-out restaraunt, and his father could only make grilled cheese sandwiches, and Angie generally helped whoever was at the stove, but whenever anyone tried to make anything the whole family (or whoever was home) pitched in. Nate's mother often said that he got his cooking skills from his grandmother, and he'd laugh and agree, although he knew as well as she did that there was no blood relation. It was still flattering, considering Nana Zsoldos had won awards for her homemade jam and pies.
Not for the first time, Nathaniel wondered what his birth parents had been like. Were they good cooks? His dad said that Nathaniel's birth father had liked to cook, but it didn't speak for how delicious his food was. Nathaniel didn't often get sad thinking of them, but now he felt a small pang of regret that he'd never get to meet these mysterious people that lived on only in memory and pictures.
Shaking himself to clear him of the thoughts, he turned to Dante, desperate to get on a different subject. "Anyways, how much cooking were you thinking of doing tonight? A dinner, as much as we can, a couple recipes each..?
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Dante Giovanni
Weapon
Demon Rapier
Among thorns grow roses.
Posts: 122
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Post by Dante Giovanni on Mar 28, 2013 20:14:42 GMT -5
Dante wondered vaguely what dorm living was like. He’d never really had the experience of going to a school that required him to move in, granted that could have easily happened had his family not decided to just haul everyone and their second cousins to Nevada. Then again with three kids that would all need to attend Shibusen, he could easily understand why. He shrugged at Nate’s comment,
“I guess. I mean we’re close enough that we can walk pretty much everywhere which is nice, but we’re far away enough so that traffic doesn’t really bother us too much.”
A bit closer to Shibusen would have been better as far as the walk to school went, but Dante wasn’t about to complain. Every once in a while the blonde would glance at a fire escape as they passed some of the taller buildings. No, he could run around and creep along windowsills later. For now the sidewalk would have to do. Dante didn’t actually have a shortcut back to his house that he could access via his parkour, but that was mainly because of the abrupt change from apartment complexes, to empty park space, and then to the suburbs. If it was more gradual than maybe, but not having a roof to land on bit by bit wasn’t exactly something he was skilled enough to work with, not to mention there was no way he’d fall six stories and get back up unscathed.
Speaking of the apartment buildings, they were starting to peter off now, getting a bit smaller and a bit more green that had obviously been planted to contrast with the surrounding desert working its way into their peripheral vision. Dante wasn’t sure why Nate was laughing at the rain comment. Ruined hair was no laughing matter, especially when one’s reputation was at stake. Still, it made the blonde wonder. Looking up at the giant, Dante tilted his head a bit,
“Where are you from exactly? Somewhere it rains a lot, I presume, at least from what you’ve said. We’re all from Sicily at my house, moved here from Palermo if you want to get specific. We’re used to the heat.”
Dante hoped he wasn’t prying. In truth, he was merely curious. Turning to walk backwards again, he folded his hands behind his head and grinned, answering his friend’s other question,
“Yup! My parents most definitely live with us unless that worrisome woman and mountain of a man are imposters. They usually aren’t home until just before dinner, though. We see each other at meals for the most part during weekdays, but we try to do at least one thing together as a family on weekends to make up for that.”
Dante personally didn’t mind his parents being out most of the time. His mother coddled him far too much for his liking for being her only son and his father took to teasing him rather relentlessly. Plus it meant that if his sisters happened to skip coming home to hang out with friends, it meant that Dante would occasionally get an entire afternoon of peace and quiet to himself, a rare thing indeed. Silence was something he was fond of, as he didn’t get to hear it often. For the most part he slept on those days, lazy as it probably made him seem. The next question made him pause. His sisters? Cooking? Dante had to stop and lean on a nearby fire hydrant as peels of hysterical laughter suddenly erupted from his lips. That was a good one! Oh wait, Nate probably didn’t know why that was so funny. Composing himself, Dante wiped a tear from his eye and shook his head,
“Sorry Nate, it’s just that you couldn’t get those girls to touch a frying pan with a ten foot pole. The whole reason my mom taught me to cook in the first place was because they had no interest in it, although they certainly take to eating well enough. It’s why I got to learn all the family recipes. They’re loss in the end, eh?”
He lighting nudged Nate in the side with his elbow as he said this. They were coming up on his street now. Hanging a right, they were now surrounded by your run of the mil suburban neighborhood filled with quaint two story houses and manicured lawns. On the subject of what they should cook, Dante had to think a moment. Placing his hands on his hips, he looked up at the sky as he walked before turning sharply up the walkway to a two story house with light blue siding and a white roof. He paused to look at Nate and smiled,
“Here’s an idea: what if we make derelye first as a sort of adventure and then you can help me cook dinner? You’re welcome to stay and eat with us too, I mean it wouldn’t be fair to ask for your help and then send you home. That’d just be plain cruel!”
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Post by Nathaniel Zsoldos on Apr 16, 2013 21:38:37 GMT -5
"Me? Oh, I'm just from the northwest. Washington, actually. Freemont specifically." He shrugged, smiling. "If we didn't walk in the rain at home, we'd get nowhere. Not as exciting a place as Italy, though," he added, interested. He had figured that Dante Giovanni was Italian just from the name, but he didn't realize that Dante had actually moved from there. "When'd you move to the states?"
It was Nathaniel's turn to hope he wasn't prying. But considering the fact that Dante talked fairly easily about his family, the tall meister wasn't terribly worried. He listened to Dante describe his parents, but was taken slightly aback when Dante broke into laughter, doubled up over a fire hydrant. Nathaniel stood there, hands in his pockets, face a mask of confusion, until Dante calmed down to explain.
"O-o-oh," Nathaniel said, finally understanding. "That's a bummer. But the only thing better than cooking is having people eat it, right?" He grinned, following closely as Dante walked up to what Nathaniel assumed was his house. It was blue and white, a really cute color scheme, and looked about as normal as you'd expect.
"Nice," he said, taking a moment to look the place over, but turned back as Dante addressed him with the plan for the afternoon. Nate nodded along, looking excited. "No, that sounds really nice, actually," he said. "I had nothing going on tonight anyways. It'd be my pleasure to have dinner with you guys." He paused. "I mean, if that's okay." To be honest, he didn't have any problems with cooking and then going home. He was slightly embarrassed to say it, but he was certain he'd get lost if he tried to leave for home without good directions anyways, so getting a ride back to the Shibusen dorms would be a bonus that he made a mental note to ask about.
"Anyways, let's get the show on the road! Plan Derelye and Dinner is on!"
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Dante Giovanni
Weapon
Demon Rapier
Among thorns grow roses.
Posts: 122
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Post by Dante Giovanni on May 5, 2013 17:32:31 GMT -5
And suddenly the rain comments made sense. Dante didn’t know much of Washington, but he knew that the area of the states it was in happened to be rather wet all year round. He was suddenly thankful Nevada didn’t have much of a rainy season. He couldn’t imagine living somewhere with so much rain. The blonde would have either had to constantly keep his hood up and wear hats or simply deal with the fact that his curly hair would be apparent. The latter would never happen if he could help it, so he made a note in his head to take his collection of silly hats with him if he ever found himself in or around Washington. Hopping up the three steps leading to the porch, Dante glanced back at the other blonde present,
“We moved here…let’s see I was fourteen, so that’d be three years ago. Most of the family followed us. We’re pretty close knit so the thought of one piece of the Giovannis moving without the others seemed out of the question. My aunts live three doors down and a few other uncles and cousins aren’t even three blocks from here. It’s crazy but it’s nice if we ever get into trouble and need family close by.”
Nate seemed cool with the idea of derelye and dinner. Dante rolled his eyes though as he asked if it was okay that he stay for dinner,
“No Nate, we’re going to leave you outside to eat grass. Yes, of course it’s okay that you stay for dinner. I’m not gonna ask you to help and then kick you out!”
Dante pumped one fist in the air and grinned,
“Now then, onward!”
Yes, onward into potential hell as he remembered Felicia and Guiliana. Crap. They would most certainly be home and would more than likely ambush him as soon as he set foot in the door. Nevertheless, better to get it over with as quickly and painlessly as possible. The door was unlocked seeing as the sisters were already home. Dante held it open for Nate and crept along silently, peering around a bit before sighing. No sign of them yet. Turning and holding his arms out in the most theatrically pleasing way possible, he gave Nate a bright smile,
“Well, Nate, welcome to la casa di Giovanni.”
Welcomes over and done with, Dante left his school bag neatly by the foot of the stairs which were almost immediately to the right of the door. Venturing inward, Dante peered around the corner of the hallway. No sisters there either. Another sigh of relief left him only to replaced by a sudden feeling of dread. The rapid pitter patter of size five feet reached his ears and he barely had time enough to plant himself properly to the floor before Guiliana suddenly appeared at his side, supposedly having run from the living room just to tackle him. The blonde wobbled a bit but didn’t fall, arms catching her before he spun her around once and set her back down,
“Did you really miss me that much or are you just hungry?”
The sound of her stomach growling filled the hallway and Dante sighed. That answered that question,
“Well you’re gonna have to wait. We have a guest so please try to keep your sociopathic tendencies to a minimum.”
Looking to Nate, Dante gestured to the youngest of his sisters,
“Nate, this is Guiliana, she’s the youngest little sister. Guiliana, this is my friend Nate. He’s a Meister like you.”
Guiliana was considerably shorter than her brother at only five feet tall. Her blonde hair hung short to her chin in a bob with a ribbon tying back part of her bangs. The difference here was in the eyes, her being hazel while Dante’s were brown. Blinking up at Nate, she gave a wave,
“Saluti. Please forgive my puttana of a brother in advance for any ridiculous songs he may sing or for crying his way through The Holiday like a little bitch.”
Dante audibly wheezed and clapped both hands over his sisters mouth, giving a nervous laugh and unceremoniously nudging her down the hall,
“What’s that Guiliana, you have a ton of homework to do? Well, better get on that, best of luck!”
The youngest of the Giovanni children turned once to give her brother a middle fingered salute before disappearing back towards the living room. Heaving a sigh and rolling her eyes, Dante glanced at Nate and flashed a pained smile,
“One down, one to go.”
At last they reached the kitchen. It was a spacious, exactly what their family needed. Pots and pans hung above the island in a rack above a stove. Counter space was all around them and there were two ovens stacked on top of each other. The microwave was shoved into a corner and the fridge looked like it belonged in a restaurant, taking up almost an entire wall. Leaning against the kitchen island stirring crème into a cup of coffee was Felicia. Drastically different from the youngest, Felicia was a bit taller and thinner. Her hair fell to just past her shoulders, hanging messily about her face although the blue of her eyes was still plainly visible. She spotted the two and grinned like a fox. Oh boy, here we go. Dante rolled his eyes at the wink she gave Nate and gestured to her,
“Nate this is Felicia, the older little sister and the third Weapon of the house. Felicia, this is Nate. Before you ask the answer is no, you can’t keep him.”
Felicia left the coffee where it was and slowly wandered over to them, looking Nate up and down before grinning and glancing at her brother,
“Beh ciao bello! What’s a hunk like him doing with a stupido like you?”
And there it was. Dante tried not to turn completely red and sighed,
“Felicia he’s my friend. He’s going to help me cook dinner so I suggest you behave or I may forget to make you a serving.”
The sister feigned a look of mock pity and hugged Dante, holding him far too tightly and causing him to flail his arms. The grin never left her face, though,
“It’s okay, fratello. I accept you for who you are. You don’t have to hide from me.”
Dante gave up covering his now completely red face, he sighed deeply,
“Felicia Sofia Giovanni, you have five seconds to get out of the kitchen or so help me God you’ll never see me making gelato over the summer ever again.”
His sister had released him and was trotting out the door with her coffee in less than three seconds. Clearing his throat, Dante willed the flush to drain from his face and waved Nate further into the kitchen,
“Well, now that those two seem to be done tormenting us for the moment, how exactly do we go about making Derelye?”
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Post by Nathaniel Zsoldos on Jun 10, 2013 19:32:23 GMT -5
Nate set his bag by Dante's, giving the place a once-over. It was a fairly big house (but then again, Dante did say he had a big family), but it was wide and spacious and there was a lot of light. It felt comfortable. Realizing Dante had continued into the house, Nate took a few hop-skip-run steps to keep up, and found him in the hall looking annoyed with someone who could only be another Giovanni. They had the same hair. She was shortly introduced as Guiliana, and Nathaniel held a hand up in greeting.
"Nice to meet you," he said. The youngest Giovanni was very cute, with a button nose and a blonde bob. There was a ribbon in her hair and a wicked smile on her face, one Nate had seen on Dante's face briefly. The next words out of her mouth were profane, which took Nate slightly by surprise. He just stared, blinking in confusion as the words registered in his mind, but he grinned good naturedly. He liked her, he decided. She seemed the kind of girl that kept people on their toes. Despite her proclivity for swearing, she seemed pretty nice. Dante shooed her away and the girl flounced down the hall, and Dante seemed extra motivated to move the show along.
"That wasn't too bad," Nate said reassuringly, but once he hit the kitchen he couldn't help but smile. It was big and open, and looked like it was equipped to cook for a high-end restaurant. Nate was so busy looking at everything that he missed the other Giovanni sister in the room and the wink she gave him, only noticing after Dante began introductions.
She quickly gave him elevator eyes, and Nate felt slightly embarrassed. His ears turned pink and he bashfully threw a hand behind his head at her next words - a hunk? Really? Well, if that didn't boost his self esteem a few notches! - but it seemed normal behavior from her due to Dante's expression. Within a few minutes, Felicia had also toddled away, and it was just Nate and Dante in the kitchen, both boys feeling distinctly embarrassed.
Dante thankfully had turned the conversation back to food, and Nate jumped on it gratefully. "Well, derelye is basically ravioli with jam. It's hard to explain, but it's pretty simple to make." He backtracked to get the recipe book, opening it to the right page and putting it on the counter, following the ingredient list with his finger. "We make the dough and then we can make the pasta stuff! We need...3 cups flour, 4 eggs, salt, egg whites, butter, breadcrumbs, and túró, which is the jam filling, but we can use any other thick jam or - yeah, there's a cottage cheese thing we can do. Whatever's easiest," he added.
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Dante Giovanni
Weapon
Demon Rapier
Among thorns grow roses.
Posts: 122
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Post by Dante Giovanni on Jul 18, 2013 16:11:18 GMT -5
Dante was thankful that Nate didn’t seem too put off by his sisters and their rather unique way of existing. With the kitchen to themselves, it was time to get down to business. While Nate listed off the ingredients they would need, Dante repeated them over in his head as he began to move about the room. His first stop was exchanging his hoodie for an apron. Shrugging it off, he skidded to the doorway that opened right up into the living room and tossed the hoodie away. It landed over Guiliana’s head, who grumbled and shot him a look after shaking it off. Thankfully she merely returned to looking over the pages of her Kishin Egg studies. She could get her brother back for that later.
His mother had a tendency to collect aprons, and a drawer beside the oven held no shortage of them. Dante sifted through them and gave up trying to avoid frills, settling for something red with patchwork pockets on the front in the shape of hearts. The blond then nodded to signal that Nate was welcome to one as well before gravitating towards the sink and washing his hands,
“Sounds like a simple enough recipe. If you’re not too daunted by the size of the fridge, why don’t you gather the ingredients and I can get mixing bowls and anything else we may need so you don’t have to deal with the hassle of finding out which cabinet holds what?”
Moving aside so Nate could have a turn with the sink; Dante leaned back against the counters and tried to think,
“I don’t think we’ve got any túró, but if any kind of thicker jam works there should still be some my mom made a week or so ago in the fridge. She likes to do that whenever fresh berries are available at the market. I think it’s strawberry?”
Ravioli with jam was how Nate had put it. Dante instantly had a set of culinary tools they would need, mainly for making the dough. At least there was no yeast involved so it didn’t sound like the recipe would be terribly time consuming. Counting off things on his fingers with a distant look in his eyes, the blond went over the list in his head twice before smiling,
“Alright, let’s see now…”
Dante ventured to the cabinets across the kitchen and removed to of the more medium sized mixing bowls, setting them down on the counter. Next was a whisk which was nestled into a small tin containing most of the mixing spoons and spatulas near the stove. He plucked it from its resting place and then paused to think. What else was there? There was the pasta maker that had a crank, but it had been a bit of a hassle lately what with the gears getting stuck. Dante had thought perhaps Tori could take a look at it, but then he wasn’t sure if her thing was fixing kitchen appliances. Deciding a rolling pin and a circular cookie cutter would be easier and less time consuming, the blond retrieved them from their respective drawers and placed them atop the counter as well,
“I think that’s it as far as actual tools go, but I’ll let you be the judge of that. You’re teaching me, after all.”
Dante grinned at Nate as he said this. They weren’t even cooking yet and he was already having fun!
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Post by Nathaniel Zsoldos on Dec 27, 2013 17:46:11 GMT -5
Nate tied an apron around his torso, not minding the copious frills that decorated it. It looked hilarious on him - his piercings and spiked hair coupled with the pale blue apron trimmed with sage green. It was strangely fitting, though.Things like this had always delighted him.
"I'll look around then," he agreed, opening the fridge and finding most things he needed right away. The cupboards held the rest. He sat all the dry ingredients aside, focusing first on the egg whites. That was going to be the trickiest part. The jam Dante had mentioned had been in the door of the fridge, and Nate's expert eye had judged it to be fine in a pinch. For a spur-of-the-moment thing, it didn't seem like it would take too long to make. Nate was incredibly glad it was Dante he was cooking with, since his kitchen was amazing. Nate kind of just wanted to sit and look around for a bit, but there were egg whites to separate.
Nate handed the recipe book to Dante. "Why don't we start on the actual pasta, and we can get this ball rolling," he said, grinning. "I mean, after I wash my hands."
He made a beeline for the sink, shaking his head and smiling. He hadn't predicted that Shibusen would be full of cooking enthusiasts as well as fighters, but he was glad to see that it wasn't all the military types he had predicted. Nate could already tell he and Dante were going to be good pals. Cooking had a funny way of bringing people together.
"Okay, all clean," he said, rinsing the soap suds away and wiping his hands dry. "Time for the dough, since we have to let it sit for, like, a half an hour." He grabbed the measuring cups. "So, right. Three cups flour..." He grabbed the big bowl Dante had put out and began scooping the right amount in. "Here, you get the four eggs and start cracking them in here. I'll get the salt and then you can knead this stuff."
Nathaniel was having a lot of fun, even though they had just started. He hadn't had a lot of opportunities to cook with friends like this at home.
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Dante Giovanni
Weapon
Demon Rapier
Among thorns grow roses.
Posts: 122
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Post by Dante Giovanni on May 3, 2014 22:38:40 GMT -5
Nate found what they needed easily, which was a relief in and of itself. The fridge could be daunting, after all it was enormous. It could house at least one human, Dante knowing from personal experience after Guiliana removed several shelves and then waited for him to find her and scared the living daylights out of him after they’d first moved in. With everything laid out on the counter, though, it was time to begin kitchen adventures, and Dante couldn’t have been more excited.
Anything with pasta was good in Dante’s mind, so starting with that seemed simple enough. He’d made pasta dough dozens of times before, after all. Once Nate was finished washing his hands, the two stood side by side, Dante nodding along to his instructions. Gold eyes sought out the carton of eggs Nate had pulled from the fridge. The blonde retrieved four as he was told and carefully cracked them one by one, holding the shells carefully between his fingers while Nate handled the flour.
He disappeared for a moment to throw the shells in the trash and return to the sink to wash the egg white that has stuck to his hands off. Salmonella was not a thing Dante wanted to deal with, plus by now it was just habit. Quickly toweling off his hands, he trotted back to Nate’s side. Dante stood by and watched Nate work for now, leaning lightly on the counter. “Next?” he asked simply, a loose smile playing on his lips. To say the blonde was a touch jittery was an understatement. He didn’t have many friends that also happened to love cooking as much as he did. Dante was truly happy about being able to do so with Nate.
A familiar, shorter blonde popped her head into the kitchen from the direction of the living room, only her eyes and nose visible. Guiliana stared at the two until Dante felt a distend chill in the air and looked around. Rolling his eyes, he peered around Nate. “We just started, sorellina,” he said in a flat tone, his accent coming through loud and clear the moment he spoke a word of Italian. “Is your homework done yet?”
Hazel eyes narrowed and she slowly disappeared from view. She would be back, though. If there was food in the making, Guiliana was never far away. Dante sighed and shook his head. It could be worse, he thought, Felicia could be single. The blonde didn’t even want to think of the older little sister trying to flirt with his friend, or any of his friends for that matter. It just stuck out as weird in his mind. Dante turned his attention back to the task at hand, preferring to think about a future with delicious food instead.
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Post by Nathaniel Zsoldos on Jan 23, 2015 17:54:09 GMT -5
“Okay, next is-“
Dante was talking. Nate looked up, cutting himself off, to see a blonde head pop into view. Nate looked at Dante, then over at the rapidly disappearing person. He raised his hand in greeting a little too late.
“Is that your sister? Does she want to help?” Nate asked, suddenly feeling homesick and wishing his own little sister was here. Derelye was among her favorite dishes, and it felt weird to make it when Nate knew she wouldn’t be stuffing her face with them in a couple hours.
“Well, anyways,” he pressed on, “all we gotta do is knead this now.” He passed the bowl over to Dante, pointing inside the bowl at the dough when Dante had everything in front of him. “When that’s done, we’ll roll it into a ball and put plastic wrap on it and leave it for 30 minutes or so? I can get the filling ready while you’re doing that.”
The rest of the cooking went fast. Roll out the dough, cut it into shape. Make the filling, make the squares, fold the dough over the filling. Boil the pata. Before long, nate was straining the homemade derelye in a colander. He slid the pasta into a bowl Dante had needed Nate to get due to its hight, recoiling from the steam and grinning.
“These look good! Good job us,” Nate said, holding his hand up for a high five, realizing he was still holding the colander, and putting that down before raising his hand once again. “Hungarian ravioli! High five!" He looked slightly bashful as he went to grab the butter. "I really hope it tastes good. I'd hate to have your first experience with this stuff be bad."
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