"This isn't exactly my idea of spending an afternoon, but if the reward's good enough..." Morgana told herself, glancing up at the mountain that she would be tasked with making her way up with. In her hands was one of the many magic grills and cools that would be present to keep her ingredients in during the ascent up the the very peak. Her blackened nails tapped against the wooden handle is disdain for the activity. She was only really here because somebody had called out and the reward for volunteering was surely worthwhile. So a little physical action was worth the suffering she was about to endure.

She sat in wait for her opponent to be, tapping her heeled foot against the ground as the goth idly rolled the stud in her tongue around her mouth a couple of times. After some time, they showed themselves to her. Tall, dark, maybe brooding a little. The white hair was a nice touch, contrasting against her own ebony color. "Took you long enough." she exhaled, hearing her stomach emit a growl. That's what she got for skipping lunch again. The idea of a free meal after some hellish climb would no doubt taste wonderful compared to her usual haul.

"Ready to get this over with?" she teased, beginning to limber up by stretching some. "This should be pretty easy for me. The smaller ones are usually quicker."

MISSION: Climbing Cookout - Sign Up
WC: 236 // 2000

Elijah glanced once more at the flyer to make sure he was reading it right, a cooking competition while climbing a mountain sounded very ambitious and also somehow not that smart, what if the mages participating weren't trained for something like that, then again it would have been their own fault if something happened since no one would have forced them to sign. He thought for a moment of ways to go about this, he was interested in the reward no doubt and the contestants would get to eat for free should they opt to, not a bad deal at all.

With a potential plan in mind he approached the sign-up desk and after he was given the necessary tools for cooking he made his way towards the appointed spot. The view was breathtaking for all the wrong reasons, the more he approached the mountainside the steeper and meaner it looked. It was towering above him, Elijah gulped theatrically rethinking his choice to get involved but kept going. He came to a halt when he saw his opponent, he assumed, he switched his brooding attitude for a more pleasant one, smiling and about to introduce himself to the woman before she cut him off with a "took you long enough" followed by a comment on how this competition would be easier for her.

Ugh the cheek, the nerve, the gall and the audacity of this young lady, he thought slightly annoyed but at the same time a bit amused. "Yeees, I suppose it would be pretty easy for your little body to fall off this cliffside, mmm?!" he said in a theatrical voice followed by a sarcastic smile. "Now why don't we start with the basics. I'm Elijah, it's amazing to meet you, love your make-up~" he said in a more genuine tone this time, waiting to see if the girl would offer her hand for a handshake so he could offer his back, if she wanted to play it cool he would play it cool.

With introductions out of the way he took a look at his equipment, a wok and a belt that held bottles of spices and packs of noodles, shrimps and vegetables. His food of choice was soba noodles, a staple of this place and one of the choices that presented the least hassle. That belt also had a clip to attach to the ropes hanging above them, all magicked of course for the contestants' safety but not providing any help with actually climbing the mountain. He wasn't exactly pressed about it as he was going to get a reward and free food at the end but the thrill of competing was there, and potentially getting to know this goth lady better. He attached the belt to the rope and when given the sound to begin, he started climbing.

WC: 480

His comment raised her eyebrow. By a first impression, she would have taken him for that strong, silent type of person. Yet here he was, snapping back at her little sassy remark with some pepper of his own. The disinterested goth remained silent for a moment until those blackened lips spread into a sly grin. She was already warming up to this man and it had only been a minute since they had met. How fortunate that she could be blessed this easily. "Touché." Morgana said while glancing upwards at her opponent for the cookoff slash mountain climbing expedition. He offered his hand to him, large and tanned, just as he himself was. She placed her hand inside his, the difference in color clashing against one another. The goth's own skin was pale, a stark contrast to Elijah's own. Even in the grasp of his fingers, her blackened nails stood out amongst the rest of the fingers.

"A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Elijah...and thanks." It was her first time somebody had taken note of the make up and really complimented her about it. The situation made her hesitate, even almost saying that she may have liked ELijah a tad more now. "I'm Morgana, one of the new mages running about in Earthland. I've been preparing to scour the world in search of secrets to unearth, left behind by the annuals of history." Her prose was flowery, if not just a performance for the eyes and ears. She recalled her hand as she tossed some loose bangs back in place. Her mouth opened to continue the stream of adjectives and more before she was so rudely interrupted by the staff of the event to get them both ready to begin the climb. Morgana scoffed at the other members scurrying about, making sure both people had their things ready. She rolled her eyes and walked to her part of the area as the signal was given to commence the competition. Confetti fired into the air, filled the arena behind them filled with colors of all shades and hues.

Morgana lacked the strength that Elijah likely had for obvious reasons. There wasn't too much muscle or tone to her own body, but she wasn't completely out of this race just yet. The gothic mage heaved and ho'd while stomping up the incline of the mountain and checking out her reserves of food and ingredients. The main central part of the cooler was filled to the brim with all sorts of meats, vegetables and who knows what else? It was a nice selection, but weighed her down considerably, as every step was akin to moving a mountain with her plain physique. A bead of sweat went down the side of her head as she continued to push her way up the side of the mountain.

"What to make..." Morgana asked herself as the hoist holding everything together began to sway. She wasn't truly aware of what exactly it was that caught her eye, but she did remember one dish from the restaurant back home that she had always enjoyed. Her mouth salivated a little just from remembering how it could be made. "Stir fry it is. First, we'll just makes things a little bit easier..." She reached into the cooler and began to start throwing things out she didn't really see herself needing. Steak parts, tenderloin, pork and more were thrown off of her shoulder. The morsels fell back down to earth as the goth felt a little bit better from the weight adjustment.

Not too much better, but at least she could actually feel her back for a change.

She set up quickly, working on digging through some of the sauces still present in her holding container while firing up the grill and beginning work on creating the sauce first and foremost. The vegetables and filler would cooker quicker than that, so it would make more sense to throw everything together and introduce ingredients to sauce when the time came. Pale hands grew cold as they lingered in the ice to fetch all of what she needed. Sure it was her first time cooking something pretty complex for herself, but there was a first time for everything, wasn't there?

MISSION: Climbing Cookout - Sign Up
WC: 707
TWC: 943 // 2000

"How positively interesting!" he exclaimed when Morgana told him about her goal, searching for secrets of old to unearth certainly seemed like an interesting hobby. He himself wanted to search for theological scriptures that pointed perhaps towards a certain deity that he could study further, commonalities between different religions were his forte but it was often times difficult to commune with each religion's gods while for others the gods were present and would hear their devotee's prayers granting them miracles. His mind wandered further and further only looking skeptical until the staff members interrupted his train of thought and his rival's monologue of adjectives "Now how rude, this lady was talking." he said slightly annoyed at first by them interrupting them both but at the same time he could understand why they wanted to be quick about it so he didn't pursue the matter further.

As he was ready to begin ascending some of the confetti from the starting signal ended up on his hair putting him in a whiny mood as he had just shampooed and took care of his long hair. Who would he curse at though, the breeze? That would be certainly distasteful especially in front of someone he just met so he just sighed looking somewhat defeated. He wished good luck to Morgana and began climbing. Despite his toned physique he didn't really possess enough strength to climb this whole thing while cooking which is why he was glad the rules permitted them to use their magic for their own ascension. He used his left hand first gripping the rope tight then used the right one to pull himself up putting as much energy as he could to get a small lead before stopping and securing himself to start cooking.

Once he was safe he reached for the wok that he had strapped on his back taking it with his left hand as he reached for his bag of vegetables hanging from his tool belt with his right hand. He would use the aromatics first the onion, garlic and for a pinch of good health, ginger despite him not being a big fan of it. But what was this, the ingredients weren't even cut, he thought that at least they wouldn't have to go through cutting midair and yet that appeared to be the case. He reached for the pocket that he had just noticed on the toolbelt and it turned out to be a dimensional pouch, housing all manners of pots, pans and cutlery. So that's why almost no one else carried cooking utensils with them, he thought and was on the verge of laughing at himself. He placed the wok back in the pouch and proceeded to get a chopping board out and an appropriate knife. Before starting however he noticed Morgana throwing various pieces of meat outside of the cooler she was carrying and on to the ground "Oh look your meat landed in the shape of an animal!" he said laughing as he pointed towards the ground, the meat had indeed fallen right in place depicting a four legged meat abomination "Now that's what I call pièce de résistance, bravo!" he exclaimed wanting to clap but he couldn't have both hands free.

He then returned to creating his food; after chopping the aromatics he continued with the firmer ones, bell peppers, zucchini, eggplant, baby corn, green beans and broccoli. Then he threw everything in the wok and reached for the spices and sauces, this time he was going for the more traditional teriyaki sauce. With all of this done he turned on the self heating wok, really a marvel of magitechnology, to make the stir fry. As he was holding it with his left hand he used his right hand to summon his angelic partner in climbing as it was finally time to keep ascending. He whispered his name "Sahaqiel." after finishing the invocation in Lucian, gold coins appeared in his hand as they burst in light, seconds later the angel hovered beside him. His form ethereal like the sky and clouds that he represented, with a wave of his hand the wind picked up from underneath Elijah and allowed him to easily and gracefully climb faster than usual and with only one hand. "Easy, breezy~" he giggled then turning his attention to Morgana "See you later lovely~" he said in a singsong voice.

Sahaqiel:

WC: 744 | 1224

Morgana's head peaked down at what Elijah had been talking about, as a piece of meat taking the shape of an animal was quite the sight that wasn't seen everyday. Much to her surprised, there in the middle of her pile of meat that had been discarded, was a beast...at least, she thought it was. The older man had at least taken some humor in it, and who was she to put a damper on good fun? "Kinda. Like a real fucked up one." Morgana chuckled to herself, something the usually stoic woman rarely did. A coy smiled planted itself on her face as she continued her climb up the mountain while looking inside of her own little dimensional pouch after watching Elijah pull some stuff out of his own.

Her fingers pried open her bag and rummaged inside for some utensils that she might have needed. "Let's see. What've we got?" The first item was a large flat pan, somewhat used for large dishes that didn't need constant supervision. "Eh, no." Back inside of the pouch it went. She felt around a little more for something that felt large and deep. Something inside of here did feel like it was going to be a pretty good tool for this, though she couldn't find the handle any. Pales hands grabbed the edge of whatever utensil she had and pulled outwards. After a bit of budging out, Morgana managed to pull out a...deep fryer? Her eyes poured over the open compartment before groaning to herself and shoving it back down inside of the bag. "C'mon you stupid thing..." She came to a complete stop and dedicated herself to fully shove her torso into the bag to explore around. The sight of which must have been pretty weird all things considered. Inside of the bag, she pushed aside everything before she found what she was looking for.

A few moments later, Morgana had reclaimed a large wok pan from the little bag of holding and put it down on her little "cooking station" that was just a bunch of ropes fashioned into a flat surface. Next in the ingredient bag, she started digging around and pulling out any kind of little thing that could be useful in this little stir fry. A bottle of soy sauce, some brown sugar, garlic and ginger, and sesame seed oil. A large spoon on the side of her belt was used to stir everything together for a moment until it was well mixed. It was a teensy bit watery but she was busy climbing up a mountain to bother with perfection here. She set it aside in one of the wok holders to focus on getting a cutting board before looking up to be greeted by Elijah being carried away on some weird ass looking metal cloud genie thing. That taunting smile he gave was met with a look of indignation. Blackened lips pursed together as she grit her teeth.

"Ugh, What the fuck, dude? Seriously?!" Morgana called up to him as she began to climb faster. It was still behind Elijah and his friend, but she wasn't going to be taken out in total defeat. "I don't even have a cool spell yet! When do I get that?!" Another annoyed goth noise later, she started slowly pull herself up and chop up the vegetables simultaneously. It was easier said that done, given how she stopped every now and again to slice a piece of broccoli or carrots into enough pieces before throwing them into a nearby bowl and moving onto preparing the next thing. Her ascent and gaining traction surely but slowly. It was going to be a long ass setup, but once everything needed to cook, she'd be free to continue to work her way up the side of this mountain. For now, the sounds of her knife hitting the magic hovering cutting board was all that she could focus on. Every step, the contents of the woke sloshed around beside her. It was likely hot enough to burn had she tipped it over enough on herself. More enough motivation to get off this pully system and ride up to the top as quickly as possible.

"Come...on. We're almost there. I can see the peak." Morgana's cheeks were red from the physical activity she had put her body through. It was normally an evening walk that did her in, so climbing a mountain was going to wipe her off the map for the remainder of the day for certain. "Stupid...*huff* game shows and their stupid gimmicks and this stupid actor for making me fill in." The complaints carried her up the mountain.

MISSION: Climbing Cookout - Sign Up
WC: 778
TWC: 1721 // 2000

The delightful gust of wind, courtesy of Elijah's angel, made everything so much easier and fun, he giggled all the way almost making it to the top and the cooking was going great, everything mixed together and let out all those mouthwatering aromas, simply to die for. This was only meant figuratively but his food had another idea, Elijah hit an air pocket -who'd think it possible in such low altitude- and the turbulence caused him to flip and spin getting all tied up with the ropes as the wok slipped from his hand spilling most of its contents downwards and making the nephilim gasp in horror as his lunch was about to eat dirt. He lamented over the seasoned vegetables and the noodles with shrimps that he still hadn't managed to add and that divine smell that made his stomach growl in anticipation. But that wasn't the end of it, the food's trajectory was aimed directly towards Morgana's head and even if she would move to dodge it; first the sudden movement could prove harmful to her due to her cooking as well and having everything set up, second part of the scalding food would still hit her as it wasn't just a straight thin line or something easily avoidable.

Well now we can't have all that, he thought. "Sahaqiel dear, bring back the food and the wok and untie me please~" he said in the angelic tongue as the summon obliged with a nod. At this point the nephilim looked like bondage art and despite being into artful sports like that he needed the situation handled as best as possible. With a small wave of the angel's hand the wind spun the white haired man again until he was untied and sitting on the ropes just right with his hair flowing flawlessly, it caught all the food together in a small air sphere bringing it back together with the wok and gently letting it down the culinary tool before placing it in Elijah's hand. One tiny broccoli part did manage to escape the angel's attention however, but luckily shoot just past Morgana's right cheek.

"Sorry about that sweetheart, are you ok?" he asked Morgana with a worried smile hoping he gave her only just a slight fright. He then noticed that the whole wind situation had actually cooled off the food and he had to heat it up again before putting in the last ingredients. "What a drag." he said in an annoyed tone, he wouldn't even be here if he didn't want free lunch and the ice cream he was promised afterwards. The things I do for the culinary world, he thought and giggled as it had nothing to do with that, only with his stomach.

Climbing up some more he saw the finish line some meters above him as his food had already been heated up again and he had now added the noodles and shrimps making him drool slightly. "This smells delicious!" he said excitedly as he then looked towards his competitor whose food also looked very appetizing "I could say the same for yours, maybe we can share once we finish~" he said with a giggle unable to stop thinking about lunch. "Now now, chop chop~" he said as he looked at Morgana and smiled "Let's finish this silly competition so we can enjoy some good food!". Elijah quickly commanded Sahaqiel to take them both closer to the finish line and put them on even height even though he had an advantage from the previous wind shenanigans, he didn't care who won this and if they could both win even better.

WC: 623 | 1847

The winds were starting to grow stronger the higher they went. Morgana wasn't any kind of scientist or really good with predicting weather patterns, but perhaps the lack of things to shield from the wind up here enabled this? It was just another obstacle in the way of her victory, no doubt. She pulled herself upwards alongside Elijah, lagging just a bit behind him as her dish would continue to simmer and cook. Everything seemed to be going pretty alright so far as she stopped to assess her dish and started looking at how everything was cooking along. The cooking utensil moved things around to keep the vegetables from burning in the heat while adding a couple of more spices. Meanwhile overhead, Elijah's little fumble due to the air pocket had not been detected by her just yet. For all she knew, he was busy gloating about his accent directly above her Gothic head.

Morgana’s stomach let out a fierce growl as the scent of spiced broccoli, carrots and noddles filled her nose with memories of the restaurant back home. The many nights she sat down after class and gorged herself full of food before falling asleep in a happy but full state. "I'm fucking starving." She groaned, allowing herself to take a bit of a sample of her delicacy for moral support. The cookware she used dipped into her concoction and brought a spoonful of stir fry into her mouth. As the food hit her tongue, her mouth began to water at the delicious taste. Maybe not on the level of a professional chef, but she was pretty damn close.

Just before she could be proud of herself, the winds pushed her station around so, causing some minor spillage of her wok, but nothing major. She looked up just in time to catch the full brunt of Elijah’s food speeding down towards her. "Shit!" She raised her wok above her head in an effort to shield herself from the incoming culinary projectile and braced herself for the intense burn that was soon to follow.

But then just as fast, Elijah had yet another trick up his sleeve, commanding his summon or pet to encapsulate the majority of the falling food that was headed straight towards her. A stray piece of broccoli had grazed by her pale cheek, falling to the ground below them both. "I'm fine." She said, feeling a little unsure of how she felt about the nickname. "Might want to watch your hair doesn't next, handsome.” Was that being playful? She wasn't too sure about if it crossed the line into flirting? Wait, did she just flirt? Augh, this was confusing!

A short time after Elijah had reached the finish line before her, Morgana pulled herself up and onto solid ground. Her dish was hot and ready, with steam billowing out from the wok as the goth slipped out of her harness and onto the mountain's peak. Despite being so high up and unfettered by the natural wind, the air was thinner than she had expected up here. Still, the food took precedence over everything else. Morgana smiled up at that tanned little angel that matched her vibes pretty well. He was slowly growing on her, for about as much as somebody who had almost dumped hot grease over her.

"Heh, yours is pretty good too. Wanna take a sample?" Morgana offered to split her dinner with his, complete with her own stir fry. Once his weird ass pet angel thing took them both on even ground, she sat down with the woke and just began to quietly wait for it to cool down enough. "Help yourself to the win. I'll be over here enjoying my food."


MISSION: Climbing Cookout - Sign Up
WC: 620
TWC: 2341 // 2000

Now that was just nonsense, completely unacceptable "Help myself to the win, oh no dear, we do it together food can wait." he said in a hurry but then turned towards his creation "Well for just a few seconds anyway~" his stomach growled after finishing that sentence. He lovingly shoved the petite goth girl towards the finish line with one hand while holding his wok with the other. There was no reason for her hard work not to be recognized and him taking first place. Once they were past that banal white and black line they were showered with confetti from two severely unamused staff members as they had to crown them both winners of their duo race. Then the nephilim pointed towards a bench they could sit and enjoy their food that was now placed in plates so they didn't have to eat out of the pan, both occasionally taking bites from each other's plate per their vocal arrangement. Food came first, as it seemed to be the best reward for both of them but then the actual reward came second as the duo accepted the prize for completing the food while ascending the mountainside. Truly what a day to be alive, eating for -almost- free and getting to go home with extra money while having met a nice little grumbling girl.


WC: 224 | 2071