"Okay. Okay. Okay." John takes a deep breath and pushes the wine glass away from him, and feels a profound sense of relief. "Can... can you tell the house I don't want any more wine, or something?" he asks. In theory it might be easier if neither of them have any more but if Rosy wants to try some he doesn't want to get in her way. (In theory she offered to abstain with him but he doesn't want to make her not do it because part of his reason is that he's scared she'll get drunk... but he's supposed to trust her and not lie to her and he has no idea how truthful he'll be about good reasons when saying he doesn't want her to either and it'll be easier to just let her do what she wants.) 

"Sure," she says. "House, John doesn't drink alcohol. Please don't serve him any more."

John's wineglass takes off and flies away, with his remaining empty glass trailing behind it.

"Thank you, house."

"Thank you house," John says after hers, wishing he could thank (and apologize) to it for real. Oh well. He breathed a sigh of relief. He still feels kinda like a failure or a fool, but... at least he has one less thing to worry about now. "Sorry about that," he says to Rosy, and takes another bite of tasty fish and jam. 

"Nothing to be sorry for!" Om nom fish.

It doesn't feel that way to him, but it's probably good that it feels that way to her. He eats a few more bites of fish, trying to get his brain back into a reasonable place. (He's doing fun and hot things tonight! He should be excited! Okay, maybe he is, a little. Gosh. She's gonna be his. And soon!!) 

And this fish is delicious!!

It really, truly is. John is looking forward to the next course (now that his head is more or less on straight). Which is a good thing, because he's almost done with this one. 

Rosy is once again a little slower. She does in fact try a sip of wine with her last few bites of fish, and looks thoughtful about it but doesn't comment aloud.

John is... curious, but also doesn't want to be tempted. (Also if Rosy told the house he doesn't drink wine then he shouldn't drink any anyways. Or even do things that might tempt him.) "So, next course?" John asks. 

"I assume so!"

And indeed, the cart comes out to clear their plates and fish-related cutlery, and returns a moment later with the third course, which appears to be some sort of bird.

A very small bird! So small that there are in fact two of them, one each plate, their tiny drumsticks raised high in the air. Their skin is a burnished brown, crackled and shiny, and the actual body (or whatever it's called) part of the bird is big and round, still small compared to a chicken or something like that, but a lot bigger than what seems to make sense to him given the size of the tiny drumsticks and wings (which he can see now that the cart is closer). But possibly that's how whatever this tiny bird is works? John hasn't had anything other than chicken and duck before, and these are wild, not farmed, so he has no idea how they should work. 

The plates sail onto the table. Rosy inspects her bird. "It's so small," she says, enchanted. "And round?? I am mystified and delighted."

"It very much is all those things," John says, similarly confused (and grinning about her delight. It's so good when she's delighted). "How do we go about... eating it?" He had intended to ask her, but she just said she was mystified, which means she probably doesn't know, and then he asked her anyways... he really should be thinking better before he says things. 

"I'm not sure but I'm not about to let that stop me!"

She attempts maneuver Attack Bird With Cutlery.

It turns out using cutlery on the bird works pretty well! The round part of the bird is boneless, so a knife goes through it without difficulty. Inside the thin shell of bird meat is some kind of paste, speckled with tiny chunks of various substances; John cuts into his own to get a better look. It's a very... brown paste, whatever it is, and the (comparatively) larger chunks seem to bits of nut and fruit and vegetable. John, slightly apprehensive (though it's perhaps silly to be, given how well the last two foods turned out), puts a little bit of the paste on his fork to try it. 

As far as John can tell, it's some kind of hearty paste of fruit and nut and vegetable, delicious and savory. He's pretty sure there's apple in there, and onion, but he's not sure what the rest is, other than tasty. He tries a larger chunk, this time with some of the bird meat. Whatever the bird is tastes not exactly like chicken, though it's similar, but stronger, with additional flavors he can't identify. It all goes well with the paste (or filling, or stuffing, or whatever it is), though. "This is... different," John says. "I kinda like it!" It's not quite as incredible as the last two, but that's probably because he's not used to it. Or something. It is, however, still very tasty.

"Yeah, I'm into it!" Nom.

John nods and eats more himself. 

There's less of this course than there was for the last two, even with all the stuffing increasing the size of it (which does explain John's earlier observations, now that he thinks about it). It won't be long before they've had the whole thing. "There's a lot more... I don't know, I'm not used to mixing stuff you might normally have for dessert with stuff you'd have for dinner," John says thoughtfully (and wishing he'd taken a moment to think about his words to phrase things better.) "Like, fruit and meat at the same time. I haven't really had that kind of thing before, I think. It's a lot tastier than I would have expected."

"Yeah, it's neat! I want to introduce the house to modern recipes but it's going to have so much trouble using the Internet."

"Because of the talking and words thing, right?" he asks. 

"Yeah! I'm really not sure how that's going to work. I might have to browse the recipe websites and read things out to it. Maybe I should learn to cook so I can deliver a more nuanced understanding."

John... wants to help but has no avenue to do so. If he learns to cook that won't help him read recipes to the house. (Though, maybe if he waits...) "I could do the same, maybe?" he proposes. "Assuming the house gets used to me enough that I can talk to it, that is." (He still wishes he could.) 

"I mean, it definitely will, it'll just take a little while. If you keep visiting, it'll happen."

"Okay." Then he... should probably learn to cook, then. He's not entirely sure how to go about doing that, but the internet should probably know? If there are recipe videos, as Rosy said, there are probably guides, or something. The better question is where to actually do so. His parents probably won't mind him cooking... well, as long as he doesn't ruin the food that is... drat. "Would the house, like, mind at all if I practiced here, I guess?" 

"I bet it would love that. And we could learn together!"

"We could!" something to do on dates with Rosy. (One of many, many things to do on dates with Rosy, there are so many things to do. Even if he'd rather do fun outfits...) John has the sudden image in his mind of he and Rosy cooking together, with her wearing absolutely nothing but an apron, and his smile gets a little wider, and he might be staring at her just a bit. (It's okay that he's doing that though, right? She's about to be his, and even if she wasn't, she likes that sort of thing, right?)