#he thinks he's seen her getting pierogies for lunch on the odd time she eats in public

[softquietsteadylove]

Hello beautiful! ✨🖤

I have an idea for a new AU with Thena and Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh starts at an elite culinary school where the food in each lesson is judged by strict critics.

The students in the higher classes warn the new ones that one specific critic (Thena) can never be satisfied and never gives a good review. Many students have dropped out of school because of this. But Gilgamesh wants to see for himself.

🖤✨ Hgs and Love! ✨🖤

"I heard she made everyone in her class cry in their first lesson."

"I heard that she subs in for real food critics sometimes."

"I heard that the dean himself gave her a full-ride scholarship she's so good."

Gil rolls his eyes at the classmates of his whispering - loudly - about their expected panel of judges. He doesn't think this critic can possibly be as frightening as people are making her out to be. She's just a student, like them, right?

"Can't they just put us out of our misery?" Druig grumbles next to him, shifting nervously on his feet as he looks down at his dish.

"Hey," Gil nudges his shorter, more nervous friend, "don't look so freaked out. "It's a great dish."

Druig sighs, "thanks, man. But it's not you I gotta impress, is it? It's 'em."

The door opens and three senior students step into the room.

Sersi is the top student in the Molecular Gastronomy course. She makes creations that seem transmuted right down to the atomic level, it seems sometimes. They look stunning, they're always delicious, and the way she can make one thing taste entirely different from how it looks is always a showstopper.

Phastos all but wrote the bible by which the school acts. He doesn't cook, but his knowledge of biology, chemistry, physics--is so all-encompassing that there's basically nothing he doesn't know. It is just a rumour, but supposedly he has written all the recipes the courses use for instructing students since he arrived.

Thena is last, and by far the scariest. She looks like she's never seen the sun or eaten a morsel of food, at that. Her reputation precedes her, and her perfect palette is as terrifying as it is rare. She doesn't cook either, but if there is any sort of flaw in any way, she will detect it. And she won't have the smile on her face that Sersi does when she breaks the news.

Thena stands between the other two, eyeing the class with an expression that already screams that she's not looking forward to this. "Please present your dishes."

The first two come up, their trays rattling from their nerves.

Gil watches from his table a little further in the back. Sersi and Phastos try first, giving their praise as well as gentle critiques and advice. Once Thena is done sniffing it, she takes a bite.

"You lack identity."

The whole class practically keels over. It may seem small, and maybe even nitpicky. But to hear that you - as a chef - have no identity in your food?--it's devastating.

"I would say you lack creativity, but that is not what this is," she states and sets her spoon down after the one bite. "You have replicated a family recipe in the hopes that it would convey an emotion. But the balance has been put off by your muddled intentions. It's over-seasoned, and the flavours battling for dominance has overpowered what would actually make it shine if you weren't so clumsy."

The class is practically crying for their fallen comrade. And this is round one!

Druig blows out a breath as they watch their fellow student shuffle back to his table in shame (borderline in tears). "And the Ice Queen strikes again."

Gil stares straight ahead. He shrugs, "she did give him advice, though."

Druig looks at him with wide eyes. "If I shove you into a lion's den and tell you not to die, that's advice, I s'pose."

Gil chuckles just a little, still watching eagerly, "shut up."

The critique goes on, many falling to the Ice Queen's sharp words along the way. It's not that she has nothing nice to say at all, it's just that the bad seems to always outweigh the good for her.

Sersi and Phastos offer sympathetic smiles and waves; obviously they're used to this.

"Next."

Gil and Druig approach with their trays, a plate for each judge. Druig goes first.

He clears his throat, "I-I've made a confit salmon with swiss chard gelee and potato mousseline."

Sersi smiles brightly at them, showing off what's made her such a darling of the culinary world already. "That's very impressive, Druig!"

"A lot of technique," Phastos murmurs as he takes a bite. "The textures are right, although it's maybe a little soft overall."

Druig nods, taking the criticism at face value, "thank you."

"You have too much to prove."

Gil keeps a careful eye on his tablemate. Druig is stubborn, and younger than the rest of them. She's right, she just doesn't have to say it like that.

Druig stands tall against it, though. He looks the Ice Queen in the eye as he says, "and?"

Thena raises her eyes to him. Gil sees that they're green for the first time. "You've selected the most advanced techniques you've mastered thus far, but as Phastos said, there is no cohesion to the presentation of all of them in one dish. You didn't have to make a mousse of the potatoes--in fact, potatoes are not what I would have served with salmon in the first place."

Druig crosses his arms.

"The salmon is cooked perfectly," Thena says just as cut and dry as the negative stuff. She places her fork down, again, needing only one bite of each element to make her assessment. "It only brings out that, had you leaned into your strengths instead of showcasing your weaknesses, this could be perfect."

Druig has his arguing face on, and Gil almost wonders if he should drag him back from the judging table to cool off. He rolls his eyes, though, going back into his dismissive and pouty shell for the time being. He huffs, "I'll take it."

Gil is left alone as Druig moves back to the table.

Sersi smiles, "and what have you made today?"

"Chicken and dumplings!"

A poor man's dish. Chicken stew with dumplings in it: something that needs no technique to put forth. The whole room is silent, not even trying to hide the overall horror that has descended over them.

Even Sersi strains a little to smile at him as they pull their bowls closer. "How...interesting."

"I know, I know," Gil laughs, watching as Thena draws her spoon up to smell everything. "Just hear me out."

"I made a really quick chicken stock and let it simmer while I was preparing everything else. I made it more ramen style than country chicken soup style, but I also added some cinnamon and star anise to kind of have an element of what makes pho so comforting."

"Then while that was simmering I was roasting some veg with the other half of the carcass. I mashed up and then pan fried some potatoes and there's actually a little something in those dumplings."

"Well, that certainly sounds..." Sersi trails off, looking to her left as she holds a dumpling in hand, "impressive."

Thena is smiling.

She licks her lips as she puts her spoon down, still smiling at the shimmering bowl of broth. She picks up a dumpling and her eyes spark.

"You already know, don't you?" Gil smiles sheepishly. She looks at him as she takes a bite, pulling out the cheese he put in the centre. He snickers at the look on her face. "I made a simple mash and then turned it in to a dough with some flour and a little duck egg for some bite to it. Then I added a little more potato with some butter and the little piece of cheese curd for some chew. Like a-"

"Pierogi."

Phastos pushes his glasses up his nose as Thena utters something that isn't a direct review of the food.

Gil beams, his whole chest swelling with warmth from the inside out. "You order them for lunch all the time, right? You must have made them when you were little."

Thena smiles, taking a second bite of the fried mashed potatoes and their filling. "I did."

Gil celebrates to himself a little, clenching his fist. He looks over his shoulder and gives Druig a big thumb's up.

Thena takes another bite of the soup, too, her lashes fluttering as she savours the small but deliberate spoonful. "Hm."

Gil inches forward.

"It's not...perfect."

The class lets out a collective sigh.

"But," Thena is still smiling, taking a third bite. "I think it's about as close as I've ever had."

#Thenamesh AU #okay I love this prompt though #Gil hears about this terrifying student and her critiques #and thinks bring it on #either she's gonna love it or she'll hate it #but he's gonna make a dish he's proud of #they hear that they're getting the scary critics this time around #and they all pull out all the stops #Druig is all technique #Gil thinks hm...what would they like #and probably he's thinking about the hardest critic to please #he thinks about the solitary student who keeps to herself all the time #he thinks he's seen her getting pierogies for lunch on the odd time she eats in public #maybe her family is slavic or Polish or something #funfact pierogi origins are untraceable but they think they might be something from the old days of Kievan Rus #anyway he makes a stew that will feel warm and comforting #and he thinks about making just a flour dumpling and sticking them in the broth to steam #then he thinks about the beautiful Ice Queen and her pierogi #and goes...potato dumplings #I must #also this is very food wars #and if you don't know what this already #I am begging on my hands and knees don't look it up #I saw it with a friend who legitimately likes cooking I swear