Experimental Toast // The Bar

[halftwinkly]

THEN: Arthur made a brilliant discovery.

AND THEN: Arthur had tried to make toast. Literally, produce toast, on a plate. No matter how hard he tried, screwing up his face like someone trying to remember an answer in Trivial Pursuit, he couldn't even create a crumb. However, he could put bread in the toaster and have it come out as perfect toast, even after he noticed the toaster wasn't plugged in.

NOW: Arthur is in the Bar. Well, sort of. The Bar, on the basis that she isn't stupid, has put him in a little side room with tiled walls and floor. There are a number of objects in the room. Right now, Arthur is looking at a piece of bread very hard.

"Abracadabra!"

The bread explodes into croutons.

"...Oh dear."

There's a pile of similarly dispatched bread in a bowl next to him. The squid might like it, later on.

Comments

[missnicegirl]

The way Arthur does magic is really, really interesting. She can't wait to talk to Jim about it. It reminds her of Miss Trunchbull only cute instead of evil.

For now, though... first, she makes a Popsicle out of pure ice. That's comparatively easy; all she has to worry about is the shape.

[halftwinkly]

"What flavour is it?" Arthur asks eagerly. He puts Matilda's toast and his own almost-toast by the squid bowl and turns his attention to this new thing.

[missnicegirl]

"It isn't any yet," she says. "The flavour's the hard part. I was just practicing."

[halftwinkly]

"Oh, sorry." Arthur says, abashed. "I thought it looked a bit pale, I thought maybe it was lemonade flavour. Um, are you going to just ask it to be a flavour?"

[missnicegirl]

"I'm not sure," Matilda says thoughtfully. "Why don't you try?"

[halftwinkly]

Arthur hesitates, giving the ice his own hard look. Then he points at it.

"Please be raspberry. Abracadabra!"

The lolly goes acid green.

"Um...?"

[missnicegirl]

"...I'm kind of tempted to keep that for chemical analysis," she says. "My turn."

Raspberry sounds like a good idea, so that's what she tries for. What she gets, unfortunately, looks for all the world like pure ice again.

[halftwinkly]

"It didn't change colour. But that's okay! Sometimes you get that water that tastes like things but looks like water. Or vodka. That looks like water but its definitely not."

Arthur gives the lolly a suspicious look. "One of us should try it. For science."

[missnicegirl]

"I will," Matilda decides. She essays a tentative nibble.

After a moment: "Nope. Ice."

[halftwinkly]

"Maybe you need a different magic word?" Arthur waits till Matilda's clean. "Uhm. Reparo!"

The ice lolly turns into a raspberry.

[missnicegirl]

...

She laughs.

[halftwinkly]

Arthur catches her laughter, giggling like a loon.

"Does it taste like raspberry though?" He reaches out and breaks off a bit (it's quite a big raspberry). "...It tastes kind of... Blue..."

[missnicegirl]

"Like blue Gatorade?" she asks curiously, and takes a bit of raspberry for herself. "Hmm. I'm not sure."

[halftwinkly]

"I don't know, what's Gatorade?" Arthur asks absently. He's picked up another lolly stick, concentrating hard. The stick cracks and blossoms ice.

"Oooh, that's really cold!" Arthur tries to put it down and comes away with a small amount of ice stuck to his fist. "This is really tricky, isn't it?"

[missnicegirl]

"Yep," says Matilda. "Are you okay? You didn't freeze your fingers, did you?"

[halftwinkly]

"Oh, it's fine, I think," Arthur says, examining the reddened patch of skin. "I've had worse. I once got stuck to the side of an aeroplane. Go on, you have another go."

He wouldn't dare tell her, but this is the most fun he's had in ages.

[missnicegirl]

"...How did you get stuck to the side of an airplane?" she wonders as she summons another popsicle stick. This time the ice that forms around it is appropriately pink, but she gives it a critical look and shakes her head. "I don't think it's right."

[halftwinkly]

"I took my glove off and it was really really cold." Arthur explains, as though that's something happens to everyone. As far as Arthur's concerned, it is.

"Why don't you think it's right? It looks right to me."

[missnicegirl]

"I'm not sure," she says. "Want to try it? It's probably not toxic."

[halftwinkly]

"Alright!" Arthur nibbles at it. "...I think that's okay. I mean, it's more banana than raspberry, but that's okay! It's like a surprise."

[missnicegirl]

"That explains the colour, too," she says, looking pleased. "Here, I'll try again."

The next popsicle she creates is the same shade of pink as the first—a little too light and not purple enough for unadulterated raspberry—and when she tries it, it is indeed raspberry-banana. Emphasis on the banana.

"That's a really weird way for a spell to go wrong," she says thoughtfully. "But at least it's a tasty one!"

[halftwinkly]

"Yeah, definitely!" Arthur applies himself enthusiastically to the ice-lolly, sucking all the juice out until the ice is white. "It's kind of odd though. You can make toast but only if you have bread. In the books they just whizz it up out of nowhere."

[missnicegirl]

"Well, now I know I can conjure popsicles," says Matilda. "So it's possible to conjure toast. We just need to figure out how."

But her first priority is eating the rest of her banana-raspberry popsicle.

[halftwinkly]

Arthur sucks on his own lolly thoughtfully.

"What would you conjure? Toast is sort of boring on it's own."

[missnicegirl]

"Well... anything," she says, shrugging. "How about cake?"