Sibling Rivalries: Chili Edition

[brave_heart_verity]

Flyers have been going up around the Forum and Commercial District for the last week or so. This morning,the lights in the VSW Meadhall came on. By noon, anyone getting close enough to an open door would know: chili's on!

Inside, everything's set up and waiting for the hungry and the curious: Clint's cooking in one corner, and Verity's in the other. Between them, tables are laid out with the necessities: bowls, plates, spoons, and plenty of napkins. There's beer and iced tea, some lovely tres leches cakes provided by the Nexus' favorite Japanese detective, and various toppings for the chili: bottles of sriracha and sweet Thai chili sauce, red pepper flakes, green onions and red, lime wedges, diced bell peppers and jalapeños, crumbled bacon, shredded cheddar cheese and sour cream. Cornbread and tortilla chips round things out.

Long tables with a mix of benches and chairs fill the hall on either side of the fire pits. One has board and card games stacked neatly at one end (they were neat when they were put out, at least). Another has two boxes, one wrapped in purple paper and one in pink, for depositing voting slips.

Poll #17301 1st Annual Chili Cook-Off

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 7

View Respondents

Who gets your vote?

View Answers

Clint--Avengers Assemble!
3 (42.9%)

Truthfully? Verity.
4 (57.1%)

The fire pits are lit, the food is waiting, and there are games in want of players. What are you waiting for?
((There will doubtless be further Cupid-based shenanigans, but this weekend, it's all about the platonic relationships. Bromances, BFFs, and family ties rule the day! Let's celebrate! Threadhopping, tangents, games, and mischief are all encouraged. Just don't start a food fight or Verity will have to yell.))

Comments

[aw_hawkguy]

"Aliens from, like, outside the multiverse basically wanted to see what happened if they blew it all up. As a science experiment. Dicks."

[hellburger]

"A-alright. Well, that's the shittiest thing I've heard all day."

Miller resumes progress on his chili. He snags a napkin to deal with the sinus-clearing effects of those spices. "Are these aliens still out there? Plotting to run another trial of their 'experiment'?"

[aw_hawkguy]

"Probably. We figured out how to stabilize our universe, keep any others from crashing into it--that's how they'd do it, they'd smash two universes into each other and they'd cancel out. So now that we're not directly under the knife, we're trying to find 'em and apply some size-ten attitude adjustments to space-godly backsides."

[hellburger]

Miller shakes his head in disbelief.

"Who's 'we'? An ex-circus archer can only do so much in this situation, right?"

[aw_hawkguy]

"Uh, heroes. The Avengers, the Fantastic Four..." He pauses. "You don't have people with superpowers and bright costumes where you're from, huh?"

[hellburger]

"Sure. In comic books," he says with a snort.

"You know, with Captain Kirk wandering around, I'm not surprised to hear there's an alternate reality with superheroes."

[aw_hawkguy]

"You know Jim?"

[hellburger]

"Yeah. I've bumped into him a couple of times. Nice guy. Hope I didn't freak him out too much with Star Trek talk. Not sure if that's some kind of faux pas."

[aw_hawkguy]

"Maybe a little, yeah. I mean, I read the pamphlet, too, but it's still hard to think, 'hey, I might be fiction to somebody here.'"

[hellburger]

"Hey, it might be kind of flattering?" He shrugs. "I mean, Jim apparently got to bang a bunch of hot alien girls, if his fiction is remotely close to the truth."

[aw_hawkguy]

"Maybe." Clint opts to remain silent on his adoptive brother's romantic habits. "Not sure I'd want to know what a show would say about me."

[hellburger]

"Should be action-packed, at least."

Miller snatches some corn bread to cut the heat on the remaining chili. "So what's your superhero alter ego? Or is that a secret?"

[aw_hawkguy]

"Hawkeye," he answers. "World's greatest marksman. On a good day, I'm an Avenger. On a bad day, I'm just a hardcore neighborhood watch." On a really bad day, he's in the hospital. Really bad days tend to come after either good or bad days.

[hellburger]

He raises his eyebrows. "Is your expertise strictly in bows, or does it extend to firearms?"

[aw_hawkguy]

"I can do guns," he answers, "but I like bows better. More control, less noise. My hearing's bad enough already." If Kaz is paying attention, he might notice Clint wears hearing aids in both ears, and it's not like he looks all that old.