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 Posted: Sat May 07, 2016 4:40 pm
He brought cookies, he could have brought evil cupcakes but, he was saving those for …other people. So he made Snickerdoodles, they were one of the few things that was a dessert, that he felt he didn’t do a basic injustice to. Most of his other skills lay with diners and even breakfast. Still… Nasir honestly put him to shame even with his training by Jeremiah. Snickerdoodles though, they were like… squashed down semi chewy circles of buggery friendship. He also brought Mogget. Honestly as soon as he Mentioned Autumn the cat hadn’t given him a choice in the matter. Into the Shoulder bag, right on top of the protein bars and camping supplies, tail sticking out because it wasn’t raining and, he half thought that the cat had forgotten it. Sometimes he wondered if cats and their tails didn’t have minds that worked at least semi independently. He raised his hand and knocked. It would be nice to talk, nice to see how Autumn’s garden, curtesy of cat, had grown.
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Posted: Sat May 07, 2016 4:45 pm
Opening the door, Autumn SQUEALED and pulled the younger man into a chokehold. Noogie-ing Zac, she pulled him inside, grinning from ear to ear as she did.
Zac was like, basically her brother at this point. She didn't know everything about him, but she didn't need to. Your past didn't define you. What she DID know was that he was a sweet kid with a lot of luggage, a heart of gold, and a guiltier conscience over the stupidest things that weren't his fault. He was absolutely ******** precious and Autumn loved the s**t out of him.
"I'd offer you drinks but you're illegal as s**t, so you just get tea for now," Autumn teased, letting him go and trotting off to start them both a cup. On the sofa, Rosalinde sat up and meowed a greeting, having grown used to the small, poor-haired human.
"Rosalinde says hi, too! How have you been? How's school going, kid?"
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Posted: Sat May 07, 2016 5:12 pm
“AAAA! Boogies!” he protested, half defending himself with a tupperware of cookies and half heartedly putting up a fight. Autumn was, well, he’d never had siblings, but she made him feel comfortable, welcomed, at peace. These were feelings that once upon a time he’d thought he wouldn’t find away from Jeremiah, but here they were… and she was more than that. She was just… Autumn. There wasn’t another word for it, like the perfect season, she just seemed, perfect, colorful, filled with warm embraces like sweaters and fleece and that smile. Mogget mewed a greeting in return, and popped his head out of the shoulder bag, revealing a catnip toy, a cloth bag this time so there wouldn’t be a lot of eating it this time, just a lot of rolling. “I’ve been ok! I’m glad as anything you’re out of the hospital.” He admitted. “I brought, um I brought cookies, maybe thats on par with alcohol? Snickerdoodles!” He added and popped the corner of the lid so a waft of buttery-sugary cinnamon spread. It had Mogget’s attention immediately.
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Posted: Sat May 07, 2016 7:20 pm
"Cookies are almost as good as booze, baby. s**t, I'd even argue BETTER sometimes," she laughed, so glad to have his positive energy in her home. The apartment was small- suffocatingly so, sometimes, but with Zac's company it was full of light and sunshine. Autumn hummed to herself as she prepared the tea, pouring water from the Zojirushi she'd saved up for for YEARS.
It was a necessity, as much tea as she drank.
"But I'm glad to be out, too. Really glad. It's nice to feel like me again," she admitted, rolling her shoulders back with a satisfying pop. She had freedom, out of the hospital. New power AND freedom.
It was nice.
"I wanted to ask you something, kid. How's life been for you... you know. Since all this magical s**t came into your life? What were you like before?"
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Posted: Sat May 07, 2016 7:48 pm
“When I’m older, I swear to you I’ll master making Rum Balls so I can give them to you for christmas” He promised. “Man, that tea…smells amazing.” He said taking a deep breath, you could almost see the tension start to leave his shoulders. The question made him tip his head though, it was something he’d not really thought about, how the magic might have changed him. “… I think, I think I talk to… more people than I would have before, now that… now that I know we all have something in common, even if its something as strange as Magic. I’m …not sure if I hadn’t gotten pulled into all of this if we’d ever have started talking, you know?” He stared down at the tupperware before pulling the lid all the way off. “… So… I guess thats a good thing that came out of this? I feel like, finding things that are good is the only thing that might keep me sane sometimes.” "What about you? Do you... is it better or worse?"
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Posted: Sat May 07, 2016 8:30 pm
"This is one of my finest greens. I figure, special guest, special tea. You'd better ******** enjoy it or I'll knock the s**t out of you, okay?" Her tone was soft. Jovial. Clearly joking. She was so, so at ease with Zac. It was like the family she had always needed was slowly but surely being given to her. She hummed softly to herself, pouring the hot water off of the leaves.
"We probably wouldn't have met, no," She agreed, taking the two cups and bringing them to the living room. Autumn handed one of them to Zac, still smiling despite the seriousness of the topic.
"You're what, eight years younger than me? People would've given me weird-a** looks. I mean, they still are. But only now, I don't give a s**t." Autumn laughed richly, and took a sip of her tea.
"I... don't know. I feel like I've seen too much, too soon. Like it's kind of taking away my ability to live," She said, joviality dropping just a touch. "Like I'm older than I need to be. More jaded, more broken." Autumn sighed.
"But it's not the worst trade off? I like to feel like I'm making a difference, somehow."
She stilled a little more.
"...I have a new power, Zac. I met this... creature. A beautiful spider, who'd taken too much pain. I can heal people now. I feel the hurt, intensely, but I don't TAKE it. It's... It's terrifying." Autumn admitted, biting her lip.
"But I think... all in all, it's for the best?"
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Posted: Sat May 07, 2016 8:50 pm
He just, looked at her. There was this expression on his face like he felt like he should be older than her, defender her, protecting her. It wasn’t a -new- expression per say, but just then it was really hitting home. “… When you say, taken too much pain.” He said hesitating. He thought he knew exactly what she meant, that maybe that power had killed her. “IT… taking the pain, does it… it doesn’t… Autumn… you aren’t, you aren’t going to die if you do that are you?” He leaned forward, face utter anxiety. “I mean, healing is good but, please…please Autumn, I don’t want you to be back in the hospital, I don’t want to…” He trailed to a stop, his face pure anxiety. “…I can’t loose you… I’m sorry.”
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Posted: Sat May 07, 2016 9:34 pm
"Aw s**t baby, no!" Autumn panicked, setting her teacup down and rushing over to Zac. She scooped him up into a bear-hug, tea be damned, and snuggled the s**t out of the kid.
"I asked her that, specifically. It won't kill me. Not like that. What she gave me was different." Autumn mulled it over a minute, then set him down. Quickly she went back to the kitchen, and returned with one of her cooking knives and paper towels.
"It's... it's actually pretty cool. So get this," very gently, Autumn took Zac's hand, and with the tip of the blade pricked his finger. Enough to bleed- like getting a small shot- but not enough to be serious pain. Just a little nick of it. She quickly slapped the paper towels onto his finger, covered it entirely with them, and closed her eyes.
In her mind, she willed away the pain. Thought of saving Zac, of keeping him from harm, of ending this whole mess so they could just be friends. Very faintly, she felt the p***k of pain on her finger- she focused on that, on dispelling it. Of ridding the world of that pain.
And when she opened her eyes and pulled the paper towel away, the p***k was gone. The only proof it had ever existed was the minor amount of blood on the paper towels. Smiling, Autumn went to put the knife in the sink, and returned again.
".......Our fears aside, that's pretty ******** cool, right?"
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Posted: Sun May 08, 2016 2:28 pm
He stared at the place where the small injury had been, a very tiny wound, but it was, all the same…gone. “Wow” He admitted. “But… it hurts…you when you heal it? It doesn’t like just…transfer it -to- you right?” Ok yeah he might be a little over cautious but still. “… but wow…that’s…amazing. I mean I’d worry if you healed something super huge, stress and all but… WOW.” He marveled. “… Man… you ARE the Disney Princess of Ashdown.”
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Posted: Sun May 08, 2016 2:34 pm
Autumn offered out her hand to him, completely injury free, for him to expect. She was grinning from ear to ear, and barked in laughter at the Disney Princess comment.
"Do you know," she sighed melodramatically, clearly not as put out as she was pretending, "how much I have gotten that joke recently? This Lucas guy just. Latched right onto it. Same with the Chief," She shook her head, but was still smiling.
"It's... it's pretty ******** funny, even if it is stupid. Some people can disappear, like you, or other s**t. I talk to animals and birds, I sing to them, and now, I can heal people. I'm just glad the healing doesn't take me singing."
Christ. She'd NEVER live that one down. Even without all the teasing, Autumn could hear the jokes anyway. It didn't help that this healing s**t put her a hop skip and a jump away from Rapunzel, anyway.
"I'm... glad this brought us together, Zac. Even if I'm scared for us. I wanna look out for you." She said, and despite the confidence Zac had grown used to in Autumn, she looked... embarrassed.
"I kind of uh. You're basically my brother now? So you'd better be cool with that s**t, or I'll kick your a**."
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Posted: Sun May 08, 2016 2:51 pm
He blinked in surprise and then laughed, warm and honest and delighted. “Alright.” He nodded. “Alright, I think I can deal with that.” He said his mouth still wide with a grin. “I mean, I’m warning you now if we find that your hair starts growing at an alarming rate, we’re going to find someone in other Ashdown so you don’t have a… 200 foot braid ok? I mean, I draw the line at braiding that. Though I bet that Rosalinde would happily provide the flowers.” He grinned. “..B…Brothers have to draw the line somewhere.”
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Posted: Sun May 08, 2016 2:54 pm
"If my hair gets that long, we're putting it in dreads. But be warned, man," She said, very serious when she looked at Zac, "Good dreads take nine to twelve hours. We will be at the salon the whole day. You'd better bring snacks and video games, or some s**t."
Having no other way to appropriately demonstrate affection, she noogied the s**t out of Zac again.
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Posted: Sun May 08, 2016 3:57 pm
“AAA!! I surrender!! I’ll bring all the books and snacks and… I’ll find video games aaa!” He said half defending himself but laughing all the same. “Sorry, the only thing I sort of know about hair is how to… kinda keep the blue and the purple in after I bleach the ever loving tar out of it.” He admitted, which was also admitting that on some level he might understand that he was doing god awful things to his hair. Trying to get black hair, or blue black hair to be light enough to accept bold colors was… not fun. “… could we bead the dreads?” He asked with a slightly silly hopeful grin. “We could put little bells on them…the I’ll know when you’re about to Noogie me.”
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Posted: Mon May 09, 2016 4:00 pm
"Okay yeah, about that- that whole. Hair tar thing," Autumn put her hands on her hips, giving a mock-glare at Zac.
"YOU ARE ******** DESTROYING YOUR HAIR. Jesus christ, stupid-a** kid, you are going to dye yourself BALD using that s**t on your scalp. Your hair did NOTHING WRONG and DOESN'T DESERVE THAT s**t." She tapped her foot, shaking her head and quietly 'tutting' in disappointment. In reality, hair care was hard s**t, and most people weren't taught about it. They didn't know how bad they were ******** up their hair at home, with all the incorrect chemicals and blending. Different hairs took dyes differently. It was a thing.
"So one of these days, I'm booking you an appointment at the salon, and we're fixing that nasty-a** s**t. On me, of course." Autumn smiled.
"AND HELL NO YOU ARE NO PUTTING BELLS IN MY DREADS, YOU LITTLE s**t. I'M NOT A CAT, WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU."
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Posted: Mon May 09, 2016 5:58 pm
He cringes back into his seat, eyes wide with alarm. Even with a MOCK glare her voice is enough to give him pause. “I…Uh… sorry?” He stammers. “ I mean…I tried…looking it up…I use…conditioner and stuff.” He stutters turning hot in the cheeks. “And um… Um…Bells would be pretty?” He adds hopefully with a sort of cheesy grin. “… is it that bad? My bangs I mean?” He asked nervously.
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