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 Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2014 11:41 am
Arkady looked up, and folded her hands under her unbelievably pointy chin, although she didn’t actually straighten up. “Life is terrible,” she said, glumly, but--it wasn’t really. The muffins smelled delicious and Tallulah was nice, even if she was kinda mean sometimes. Finn smelled really good and there were birds and she could sing songs to herself whenever she wanted. Arkady was just a frustrating person, that was all. Maybe she should just… not, sometimes.
She sighed. “I’m sorry, too.” Although what if Finn only ever wanted to hug her? What if he never wanted to kiss him on his own, only when she started it? That would be the worst thing ever. She wanted to ask Tallulah about it, but she was going to try her new strategy of just not-ing and save it for Finn. Or, like, someone not being really nice to her when she didn’t have to be.
Would changing tack help? The muffins were going to ring in two minutes, by her estimation. So a simple question. “Why doesn’t Nick like me? Is it because of the song? I wouldn’t really slice anyone’s throat with a rusty cleaver, or shoot them in the heart. Finn would be upset and the blood would never come out of the carpet. I would burn the world down if he wanted it. But he wouldn’t want me to hurt anyone, not even a drunken sailor.”
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Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2014 11:41 am
Tallulah peered through the oven window at the muffins, which were plumping up nicely. “Uh,” she said, debating the best way to answer Arkady’s question. She wasn’t sure how much Arkady knew about her corruption, and she didn’t want to be the one to break all that news to her if Finn had other plans - after all, Finn had gone and ******** up how she was going to ease Nick into it, and that had turned into a huge ******** mess. At least Arkady already knew, in broad strokes, what had happened to her.
“So, you know how I said you and Nick both used to be corrupt?” she asked, rooting around for a pair of potholders. “You were his supervising officer.” She found the potholders and looked back at Arkady. “And he was fed up with the Negaverse and he wanted to leave and you were loyal to them and you wanted him to straighten up and fly right. So you spent a lot of time punishing him for misbehavior, and when we still managed to get him out, well, you were really mad?”
Which was, of course, adding a necessary coating of sugar to everything. Tallulah didn’t know the full details and nor did she want to. “He doesn’t remember any of what you did to him,” she said. “Not consciously, at least. But you still give him an uneasy feeling, and that song especially gives him an uneasy feeling.” The oven timer dinged, and Tallulah took the muffins out to cool. She smiled sympathetically at Arkady. “It’s nothing against you now,” she said. “Just… he’s got to process stuff in his own time. He’s been through a lot.’
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Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2014 11:41 am
There were a lot of words said, and she tried to parse them all as quickly as possible, but she didn’t really… get it. Supervising officer… like a boss? Punishing people? Like how, was she taking away their, their birds or something, Arkady couldn’t think of many bad things she could even do to someone. And furthermore! The Negaverse? Someone was going to have to explain that one to her.
Still, there was a bigger problem. “Can you tell him I’m sorry,” she asked, finally straightening up to make room for the cupcakes. Her hands went straight to her hair, fussing unevenly with a chunk of it. Finn would want her to apologize, even if she wasn’t sure what she was sorry for. He would want her to be a bigger person, he was a good person, so… she would try and live up to his example. “I really am. Finn would be unhappy if I hurt Nick, so I won’t do it, ever again.”
She reached out to the muffins and tapped her finger on the fluffy tops. “Ow! Hot,” she whined, sticking her index finger in her mouth. It did not make the heat any better.
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Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2014 11:41 am
Tallulah nodded, and quickly turned the tap on cold and pushed Arkady’s hand under it. “They need to cool,” she scolded gently. “But that might help a little. Are you okay?”
Apologizing to Nick, well, that was a bit of a bigger issue. “I’ll tell him,” she said, holding a hand above the muffins - no, not cool enough yet. “But I think that, eventually, he’ll need to hear it from you. It would mean a lot to him if you did that.”
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Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2014 11:42 am
“Yeah,” she said, submitting to Tallulah sticking her hand under the water. She wiggled her fingers and hummed a bar of a song, sad and atonal. “It didn’t really hurt. I was just surprised.”
She didn’t know that she could tell him. He sort of was avoiding her, as she’d noticed when she’d gone looking for him--once, twice, three times, she didn’t know how many. “He won’t talk to me,” she said. “I would apologize, but he’s not talking to me, so how can I?” She brightened a little as something occurred to her--“I could write him a note! Like, a very nice and polite one. Would that be alright? Would that make him more scared?”
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Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2014 11:42 am
“Hum,” said Tallulah, not humming but actually saying the word out loud as she thought. She didn’t exactly know how to continue from here and she didn’t want to make things worse than they already were. “Let me talk to him first, okay?” But she did have to concede that writing Nick a note was a very good idea. It might ease him into the idea of talking to Arkady.
She pulled a knife out of the silverware drawer and gently eased a muffin out of the pan. When she cracked it open, steam rose from the inside, and Tallulah handed half to Arkady. “The fruits of our labor!” she crowed. “Here.”
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Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2014 11:43 am
The muffin was fluffy and warm. Arkady held her half of it for a moment, letting the heat seep through her fingers. Muffins were a foreign experience to her, but she took a risk on them anyway, tentatively nibbling on the crusty edges. “It’s good,” she said, pleased at the fruity, buttery flavor.
A few small bites later, she leaned on the counter again. “You really will talk to him about it? I don’t want him to not like me.”
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Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2014 11:44 am
“Sure,” said Tallulah, picking at her own half of the muffin. Of course she’d made her favorite flavor, because she was the baking master and she made the rules. “I want him to like you, too. You’re cool.” Which was, again, sugar-coating things - but it would be much better for her own mental health and comfort in the long run if Nick and Arkady could, at the very least, get along,
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