20163/At Home

At Home
Date of Scene:	01 March 2025
Location:	Reed's Labs - Four Freedom Plaza
Synopsis:	Reed prepares dinner. Sue drinks a mysterious potion that's actually just vitamins.
Cast of Characters:	Reed Richards, Susan Richards

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Reed Richards has posed:
As always, Reed has been busy. Not only is there the current, world-threatening disaster hovering on the distant horizon, but there's troubles on Earth as well. Not to mention a wide array of experiments and potential solutions to old problems that can't be ignored simply because they cropped up at the wrong time. The children have grown up at this point, so there's not as much call for family time as there used to be, but the elder Doctor Richards still makes an effort to spend time outside the lab.

Sue helps him remember that commitment, too.

So, he's trying something new. Well, not new. They've been married for decades and together longer. Nothing is new. But he's in the kitchen and he's cooking. He stands over a pan where a pair of crumbed something-or-others are frying, stroking his chin thoughtfully. He's shaved, leaving a clean jaw and the grey hair at his temples. Outside, the setting sun casts orange rays across the modern-yet-somehow-retro kitchen.

" ... adjust the heat ... "

The stove, something he's tinkered with from time to time, produces heat with accuracy down to the individual kelvin unit. He adjusts it barely a few points, nodding in approval as he does.

Susan Richards has posed:
There were times that Sue enjoyed to cook for the family, and there were times that Sue enjoyed to let Herbie cook for the family. Tonight, she had been told Herbie was preparing a salmon dish, and an hour before it was to be ready, she arrived to check in.

The blonde haired woman appeared in the kitchen doorway, and instantly drew to a stop.

A smile touched her face that shined as golden as her hair in a column of sunshine. She stared at the back of her husband, and just leaned against the door frame. Her hands dipped her fingertips in to the pockets of her denim jeans, and her baggy light blue sweater bunched up around her elbows a bit, as she silently watched him.

"Are we still having salmon?" She finally asked, after a few seconds of just enjoying the view of her long beloved man working his magic in the kitchen. "Or is this just a radical new type of lab experiment that required kitchen ingredients?" She further asked, as she started to move in toward him, her blue eyes scanning what he had out, be it recipes, cooking tools, or said ingredients.

Reed Richards has posed:
"Not salmon," Reed answers, shaking his head while still staring critically at the food in the pan, "I'm still running the simulation on fish. It's harder to nail down the precise ... well, I'm calling it the 'pallatability factor' for now. I can see why some people don't consider it meat."

"This is chicken. Don't worry, there's a 23.5 percent increase in protein if you replace the salmon with chicken. More essential amino acids, too. Or are you low on folate and cobalamin? I can add a supplement, hang on."

He reaches a hand to the side and it simply keeps going, snaking and stretching across the room and out of it. It returns with a small beaker containing a liquid of some sort.

"This is dinner. Family dinner. I'm calling it Recipe G-25-02. There ... I haven't thought up a catchier name yet."

He pauses, finally looking over his shoulder at Sue.

"Hungry?"

Susan Richards has posed:
Sue ends up just leaning against the counter on her left ship, her hands leaving her pockets and her arms folding over her stomach. She had a reserved smile on her lips, her bottom lip being sucked in btween her teeth, as she watched his arm extend out out and out some more, but she trailed her eyes back to the profile of his face, as he explained in his very own style.

"You know me and my supplements. Keeping me from turning in to Betty White..." She gave him a lopsided grin, as she watched his arm retract, and bring in the clear vial of fluids.

She accepted it from him, and stepped over to peer at his chicken dish. "I'm very hungry. Did a Hot Yoga class, cycling, and a bit of swimming this morning. It's got me feeling absolutely famished." She glanced down at the vial. "Is this best with or without food?" She asked him, since he always knew best when to take stuff.

Reed Richards has posed:
"No danger of that happening," Reed answers when Sue mentions turning into an old lady, "Even if you weren't exercising like it was a religion, you know we've got a warehouse full of pharmacological alternatives. The only reason we don't sell them is because they wouldn't be distributed fairly. That and it doesn't do anything for cellular degeneration on a more subtle level. Did you know - "

There's a beeping from the stove, and he turns around to gingerly turn the sizzling chicken over with a spatula. He splashes some of the vial he's holding into the chicken in the pan, somehow managing to turn the kind of inaccurate kitchen act of adding a 'dash' of something into a precise chemical addition.

"It's tasteless and odorless, don't worry. Or it should be ... "

Susan Richards has posed:
Sue has a slow grin cross her ljips, as she was called out for her dedication to her exercise routine. She passed around Reed, moving behind him, to come around to his other side, as she leaned back against the counter in the corner of the L-shaped shift in its design. "It also just makes me feel good, to make my body move and have to work to stay active. Let me know if you create a safe alternative to Runner's High." She said, holding her grin, before her sky hued eyes looked to his dash of seasoning to the chicken. "Smells good. Are we expecting anyone else tonight? Johnny? Ben?" she asked, before she looked down to the vial again, and raised it up to sniff at it. He was right, there was no sign of a scent, and after a moment, she took a shot of it, downing it all without any real hesitation. Her genius husband, of all people, likely wanted his wife to stay as beautiful as possible... maybe that was why she married him? Eternal youth? What a dream.

Sue set the vial aside, and moved to wash her hands at the raised spout over the large multi-basin sink.

Reed Richards has posed:
"Well, a runner's high is just a release of euphoriants ... phenethylamine, anandaminde ... beta-endorphin ... I can replicate that just fine, but why mess with the classics, as they say?"

He looks around the kitchen, empty save for the pair of them: "I don't know. I did tell them about it. Though I also mentioned I was cooking and they probably thought it was going to be some sort of experimental pseudo-food. But it's real chicken, I promise. Ethically sourced. Perhaps the most ethically sourced."

He doesn't elaborate on that, and it could mean anything for a man with access to a myriad of alternate dimensions. He watches her drink the vial, tilting his head to the side thoughtfully.

"If you want all your food in odorless, tasteless, liquid form I can do that, too."

Susan Richards has posed:
The mention of the others finding Reed's cooking to be questionable, and thus maybe not coming, just has Sue showing a slight smirk. "Well, they're lucky it isn't Sunday. Nobody misses family night, or else..." She says, simulating a dark tone to her voice upon saying it.

At his offer, she stepped around him, and laughed, as she leaned up against him, and put her chin on his right shoulder. "That's alright. I like most food that I eat, and the only ones I would ask that of would be pickles, probably. But, the rest of the world seems to love them, so they can keep them."

Her hands were on his sides, as she stood behind him in an affectionately close way.

"I like you taking charge in the kitchen. It is very ... modern day. But, don't worry, I have no plans to take over the lab."

Reed Richards has posed:
"Well, I've been telling you since the beginning that we could automate this whole affair," Reed answers, still carefully monitoring the food, "But I can see the fun in it, honestly. Though I don't know if it'll become a common occurence."

There's so much going on with him, after all, and it's rare that he can take a moment away. Unless they played around more with time dilation, which he's promised not to do in the house.

Susan Richards has posed:
Sue stepped back from him, a laugh coming from between her lips, as she moved toward the silvery refrigerator. she pulled it open, and reached for a glass bottle of water. "I might take you up on the fully automated kitchen some day, but I'd rather keep making our food, so long as I can. It has a therapeutic effect all itself. Though, some of it is just having such a wonderful kitchen, and a robot who'll do the cleaning afteward. Cleaning after is always the actual worst part of the experience."

She twisted the cap, and took a drink, as he continued preparing the meal. When she capped the water once more, she placed it on the counter, and moved toward the dining room. "I'll setup some places for us, and hey... if you're up for it, we should go for a walk afterward. And yes, that is me continuing my New Years resolution of getting you outside for at least thirty minutes a day... I think I'm at least at an hour in the past two months so far." She teased him.