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[REG] Cookie For Your Thoughts (Ursula + Janice) Goto Page: 1 2 [>] [»|]

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Ghouliboo


Hopeless Memory

PostPosted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 8:57 am


It was Christmas time in the Killingworth household.

Okay, so technically it was still Killingworth and Johnson household, but a certain flame-haired twenty-two year old had already begun to toy with the last name as her own (after all, it would be her own soon enough, right?).

The apartment itself looked nothing as it did the previous day. Garland was strung, mistletoe was hung (in multiple locations, no less), and scents of cinnamon candles filled the air, along with the harmony of Christmas music that continued to blare from the newly-moved-back stereo system.

It had taken far less time to decorate than Ursula had expected, so now she sat on the couch among half a dozen Christmas-themed cushions as she waited on the arrival of her assistant. She'd grown quite bored after finishing with the decorating and was insistent that the tree only be put up once her beloved returned so they could have quality time together (It had nothing to do with the fact she hadn't the faintest clue how to put together the tree she'd bought). Decorations were set up, but it would still be hours until he returned home. So, in a moment of nostalgic weakness, she'd called upon her handmaiden for her first official civilian duty.

Assistant cookie decorator.

PostPosted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 9:58 am


Janice had been occupying herself with some paperwork when Ursula called - transferring back to Meadowview had turned out to be a bit more of a bureaucratic ordeal than she had expected it to be, especially considering that it was supposed to be a public school. It was extremely irritating. She should not have had to fill out half a dozen forms to ensure she would get back into all of her advanced placement classes; it was making her miss class. She just knew that Franz would be so amused by this example of the counter-productivity of the public educational syste--

The phone ringing was a welcome distraction from her frustration over the small stack of paper spread out over her desk.

Her features drew into a smug grin when she heard Ursula's voice on the other line, but promptly dimmed a bit when she was given the reason why she was being called. No important Negaverse duties for Janice to carry out today; instead she was given an address and asked in a honeyed tone to please pick up some gumdrops and other confectionery paraphernalia on the way there. At least it wasn't another excursion to the mall. Her arms were still sore from the first time.

She had no idea what to expect from the apartment of Gunn Killingworth - but would not have guessed the sight that was soon to greet her, as she politely rapped on the door.

cibarium

Noob



Ghouliboo


Hopeless Memory

PostPosted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 11:19 am


Hands clapped as the door knocked, and off the couch she flew, quickly flinging open the door and exposing a very startled high school student.

"Janny!"

The exclamation was soon followed by a bag snatch, Ursula ushering both the decorations and the girl into the apartment, closing the door behind them. Once inside, she abandoned the girl in the living room, dashing off to deliver the goodies into the kitchen, laying the bag alongside the cooling rack and cookie cutters. The cookies themselves were nearly done, the aroma from the oven infiltrating the entire apartment (though Ursula wasn't about to confess to using premade dough; she'd let everyone assume she put actual effort into the baking!).

Grabbing the adorable apron from off of the hook on the wall, she threw it over her head and began to tie the strings behind her eagerly. After all, she'd never had a use for it before now, and she wasn't about to miss out on the chance to look as domestic as she felt!

"I hope this wasn't too much trouble," she called out to the other girl, "I've just been dying to make some gingerbread men. Have you ever cooked before, Janny?"

Her head poked out from the kitchen briefly, waving the girl over to her as she began humming to the Alvin and the Chipmunks Christmas song the radio began to play.
PostPosted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 12:02 pm


As the door flew open and Janice was herded inside, her senses were immediately assaulted first by the pleasant smell of cinnamon and gingerbread, second by the high, stringy voices of Alvin, Simon and Theodore belting carols from the radio, and third by how the tiny apartment was crammed with enough holiday decorations to put a generous layer of Christmas cheer on the interior of a two-story house. There was mistletoe nailed to the top of literally every doorway.

"Ursula," she started, somewhat cautiously. "Does he know you did this?"

It was easy to guess who exactly he was in this context. Janice was attempting to convey a very clear mental image to Ursula by asking this question: it was of the General-King, standing stiffly in the threshold of the door to his apartment, absentmindedly allowing a cigarette to smolder away in one hand as he tried very hard to not have an aneurysm. She could not imagine that man appreciating Ursula's hard work in any other way. She also wasn't aware of to the cushion barrage the small living space had gone under before this, but she were it probably would not have changed her opinion on the matter much.

"The school's forcing me to take a home economics class if I want to graduate with all my honors," she stiffly replied. "So... yes... but it looks as if you have the cooking part of the equation taken care of already."

cibarium

Noob



Ghouliboo


Hopeless Memory

PostPosted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 1:34 pm


"If he knew then I would be very disappointed." came the huffy response, the older woman turning on the sink to begin washing her hands, "It's not a surprise if he knows about it! Do you think I used enough tinsel? I still have some leftover. Hm."

Turning off the water, she grabbed the nearby dishtowel to dry her hands. Ursula was quite happy with how the apartment was looking, at least, in her opinion. She was more than certain that this would be Gunn's first celebrated Christmas, and she was going to make sure that it was memorable and that it was special.

After all, not only was it his first Christmas to celebrate, but it'd be their first Christmas to celebrate together. Ergo, perfection was required!

"Oh I don't know when the cookies are done or not," she confessed freely, her head motioning towards the oven, "That's why I asked; I always burn mine. Do you mind checking to see if they're ready to come out yet or not?"

Without waiting for a response, she wandered into the bedroom, yanking out the stool she'd placed in front of the dresser vanity. Tugging it out, she closed the bedroom door once more and brought the stool over to the counter, promptly sitting down on it as she watched for the other girl to retrieve the gingerbread men.
PostPosted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 7:51 pm


Janice took another disbelieving, cursory glance around past the kitchen doorway into the living room beyond. This was supposed to be a surprise-- really-- was Ursula honestly expecting this change in the look of his living space to be met well? Killingworth struck her as the type who pointedly regarded Christmas as just another day in the year if he didn't outright hate it.

"I think," she responded, "if you used more, it might... draw attention away from everything else." Which was an honest answer. As far as the decorating went it was apparent Ursula had an eye for design... it was the place the eye was trained on that set off the mental alarm bells.

She let her attention be pulled back towards the oven, and said, while leaning over in front of it, "Usually the recipe or instructions tell you how long these things should take, how long have these been in there?" And, tentatively opening the door a crack, "Do you have oven mitts somewhere?"

The radio had switched over to a swing version of Frosty the Snowman, which actually ended up helping the atmosphere a lot more than it hurt it.

cibarium

Noob



Ghouliboo


Hopeless Memory

PostPosted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 8:52 pm


"Hmmm, you're probably right," she mused, her nose scrunching as she pulled open the plastic bag and dumped the contents out unceremoniously onto the counter. Licorice whips, gumdrops, sprinkles, red hots and a rainbow array of icing tubes tumbled out, Ursula immediately reaching for the first tube, unwrapping the plastic off of it.

Her mind was so focused on rearranging the Christmas candelabras on the dinner table that she'd nearly missed the younger woman's request for oven mitts.

"Oh, over there!" One finger moved to point at the area closet to Janice. Shaped like reindeer heads, it came as no surprise that the poor student wouldn't recognize the fabric for what it was. "Instructions?"

Her head finally looked up from her icing opening to give her assistant a confused look. "Recip--oh! Um."

Eyes darted around and her bottom lip habitually slipped into her mouth, her teeth biting down as she thought of how to respond. "I'm... not sure? Maybe fifteen minutes? Twenty? I don't think it could have been more than twenty-five, honestly."

Once again losing focus, she returned to icing opening, taking a brief moment to squeeze out a bit of light blue on the side of the wax paper laid out. Testing out another tube or two, it didn't take long for Ursula to be highly satisfied with the brand Janice had chosen; these would certainly work well for the task at hand.

Not one to stay silent for long, she took to opening the candy packages as she glanced back over towards the other woman. "So, Janny, is there anyone in particular you're going to be spending Christmas with? Maybe a certain boy?"

She paused, an idea coming to mind before Janice even had time to reply.

"You're totally going to take some of these cookies back to him, so you better spill. And don't tell me there's no one because I refuse to believe that, Miss Fitzpatrick."
PostPosted: Tue Dec 15, 2009 7:00 pm


The reindeer-head oven mitts retrieved, Janice put them on slowly and methodically (really, the action was completely identical to how she handled her gloves as Uranophane), her eyes on Ursula as she gave her response. "That-- hmm... no offense intended, Ursula, but part of cooking is keeping track of time." She smirked a bit, in a manner that one could almost think of as playful. "How would you know when to take them out if you didn't know when you put them in?"

As the reindeer duo ventured valiantly into the fiery chamber of the oven, she continued, "It looks as if there's no harm done, at least... as long as you don't mind them being a little crispy. But that's what the frosting's for."

It was starting to sound like Janice was loosening up a bit, her voice was shifting from its typical tone of beige to actually show a bit of personality. That was promising, at least.

She took it upon herself to locate a spatula as the older woman dealt with the frosting and candy, and was in the process of transferring the gingerbread men from the cookie sheet over to the cooling rack. The careful, dexterous rhythm she had assumed for this literally ground to a halt the moment Ursula's boy rang into the air, however-- the spatula's edge dragged noisily against the metal of the sheet as the girl's knuckles whitened against the handle.

That was sort of telling.

"What," and she forced a laugh, "do you just assume everyone in high school is so eager to pair themselves off?"

cibarium

Noob



Ghouliboo


Hopeless Memory

PostPosted: Tue Dec 15, 2009 8:09 pm


Eyebrows rose, a telling smile growing across Ursula Johnson's face. A smile similar to that of a cat who'd just found a crippled mouse yards upon yards away from it's home. A lioness circling a sickly gazelle. The predator gazing upon its prey.

The spatula, the laugh, the defensive question. Everything led to one conclusion, one conclusion that Ursula was going to get right down to the bottom of.

"I don't make assumptions, dear," she said, her voice sounding far too happy for its own good. It was almost sing-song. "I was the original information gatherer for the General-King, I remind you, back when you could still count the number of members we had on two hands. Hell, one hand, even. I make it a point to know things and I make it a point to figure out what I want to know."

Setting down her icing, eyes moved to settle on the slightly burnt cookies and then towards the younger woman, her feet swinging around to face her directly.

"So no, I don't figure everyone is so eager, and judging by your carefully picked words, Miss Fitzpatrick, I'd say you weren't eager. Weren't being the key term here."

Eyes narrowed, the predator ready to pounce.

"But there is someone, isn't there, Janice?"
PostPosted: Wed Dec 16, 2009 12:24 pm


Janice was not used to this.

Well, that wasn't entirely true. She was used to many aspects of it-- the smile that radiated feelings of schadenfreude, the feeling of a trap firmly and beautifully snapping, the smug tone of voice and oh-so-carefully crafted words with perfectly placed emphases. These were all very familiar things to her--

--but it was rare she was ever on the receiving end of these things. Ursula was good. Very good. Underneath everything else about this conversation, Janice couldn't help but develop more respect for the woman, be less surprised she was her Queen.

And despite being so cornered and feeling so very exposed, she was allowing her own smile to stretch into something wicked and Cheshire. They were mirrors of each other in expression and demeanor, as Janice continued her spatula work as if ignoring her mistake had happened even though the knowledge of it was very real and obvious to them both.

There was something particularly exciting about being on this side of a psychological skirmish. It almost made Janice not mind. Almost.

"I have no interest in romance," the girl said, with an easy shrug. "As far as I'm concerned it's just a sugarcoated way of saying 'co-dependency,' which does not appeal to me at all."

cibarium

Noob



Ghouliboo


Hopeless Memory

PostPosted: Wed Dec 16, 2009 12:49 pm


"Oh Janny," Ursula said with a sigh, the grin still remaining, "You can go on and on about how you aren't interested in romance all you like, but you're still avoiding answering my question."

Turning back around to the cookies, she lifted one up, winced, and dropped it back down as her hand flailed slightly, stinging from the heat of the cookie. Goddamn baked goods.

Scowling, she shot an evil look at the treats before returning to plastic opening, popping open the lid on the confectionary sprinkles as the smile quickly returned to her face, the conversation continuing.

"Doesn't appeal to you. No interest. Not eager. Phrase it all you like, Janny darling, but there is someone, and I'd advise you to spill the beans or else you're going to have to be forced to endure my pestering for a long long while, and I'm not too sure you'd find much enjoyment out of that."

Pausing, she looked up and gave the girl a wink. "After all, it took me over a year to finally get the attention of the General-King. Cracking this mystery shouldn't take me more than a few days, with or without your cooperation."
PostPosted: Wed Dec 16, 2009 5:13 pm


Dammit, that was supposed to be a red herring to lead Ursula away from the conversation and it had failed at its job spectacularly. Janice should have known better, should have expected her to be able to cut straight past the fluff without any hesitation like that. But she was strangely desperate to not talk about this-- talking about it meant admitting it (admitting what? she chided herself), and Janice was not about to-- consider the possibility-- that she was romantically interested in anyone or even had the capacity to.

After all, she'd been telling herself for weeks that the reason he'd been on her mind so much was because she hated him.

Her mind raced with the possibilities of what she could say next. Responses like and what if there is? or why would you care anyway? would only help the older woman more, and any attempt at outright denying it would be futile.

But-- there was nothing to deny, nothing to hide.

There wasn't.

There wasn't, god damn it.

"Your pestering isn't going to get you anywhere. I don't. Have. Anyone."

cibarium

Noob



Ghouliboo


Hopeless Memory

PostPosted: Wed Dec 16, 2009 6:06 pm


One finger twirled itself absentmindedly as her head tilted, watching the girl's expression as she stood there in silence. It was amusing, honestly, to see Janice in such a state. The girl had the same emotional range as the cookies they'd just baked and watching her break out of that mold and actually expressing herself was amazing in itself. Even if that expressing just so happened to be Ultra Defensive Mode.

"So you and he aren't together." she mused, her cheek now resting against her hand, elbow propped up on the counter, ".... yet."

Still grinning (oh how delightful this was), she moved to turn towards the cookies, taking the spatula away from the frigid Janice. Grabbing the spare cooling rack, she began to separate the cookies into two sets, mindful not to burn yet another finger.

"That's alright, Janny, I'm sure a few of these cookies can convince him to give you a shot. I mean, you're a bright girl, I'm sure you can dazzle him with your..." She paused to glance over the younger woman, expression exhibiting pity as well as puzzlement. Then, shaking her head, she turned back towards the cookies, ".... intelligence. Why, I'd even venture to say you're the one playing hard to get, aren't you?"

After the cookies had been equally divvied out (okay so perhaps Ursula had kept a few more on her half - she was certain Gunn's appetite was larger than Janice's mystery lover's), she placed the second rack in front of Janice, scooting her stool over to allow more space for the girl. Her hands motioned towards the decorating supplies, silently insisting that her assistant get to work as she herself reached over for the black icing.

Pressing against the tube, the icing began to slowly ooze out, and she used one of the nearby knives to smooth out the blob. Her first on the To Do list was the Charonite gingerbread man, naturally.

After a minute or two of silence as the two girls began their decorating, she decided to drop the first of what could potentially be dozens of idle comments, depending on the other woman's reaction.

"You know, I used to be in denial over liking Mr. Killingworth."
PostPosted: Thu Dec 17, 2009 12:25 pm


The yet should not have made her react. It should not have affected her at all, shouldn't have made her spoiled mood sour even more. But it did, and Ursula would see her... flinch a bit, the surgical fingers she usually wielded with such care and finesse only ever-so-slightly faltering around the handle of the spatula before it was freed from her grip.

Ursula was still talking but Janice was trying to tell herself she was not listening, busying her mental efforts with attempts at repairing the damage to the wall she'd built around herself. It was a poor defense; the childish tactic of pointedly avoiding eye contact -- out of sight and out of mind, except not really.

In spite of herself she watched her hands reaching to grab frosting tubes and bits of candy, directing her focus at the vaguely human-shaped edible template she'd been given to work with. If Ursula cared to look over she would note that Janice had taken a tube of white and was starting the careful rendition of a beard, and... was that a toga?

The idle comment did not fall on deaf ears.

"Let me guess," she started darkly, "I'm supposed to ask about what happened next, and then you would use yourself as an example of what I should do."

cibarium

Noob



Ghouliboo


Hopeless Memory

PostPosted: Thu Dec 17, 2009 1:23 pm


Ursula, who had reached over to pause and sip from her glass of tea, promptly began to choke on the raspberry flavored liquid, her hand balling in a fist to hit against her chest. She coughed and smacked herself again, clearing up her wind pipes.

"Oh, ugh, oh for the love of God, no Janny, I... oh Lord."

Her sputtering turned into giggles, the sound unfamiliar to Janice's ears. It was normally a chuckle, or hell, even a laugh, but never giggling. It was like time had turned back several years and Ursula was in high school all over again, gossiping and spreading the most current rumor of who-likes-who.

Wiping a small tear from her eye as her breathing once again returned to normal, the older girl replaced her glass and once again took up the tube of icing, her head shaking. "God, no. I mean, I'm certain that I'm a perfect role model to follow after and all, but Jesus Christ, you're in for one helluva bumpy ride if he's as hard to get as Gunn Killingworth."

Black icing done, she moved on to add sugary purple dreadlocks to surround the tiny black icing glasses on her current masterpiece.

"I mean, once I finally realized I wanted him, it literally took me sacrificing myself to get that first kiss, of all things. No, what I was trying to imply is that you're not the only one who has gone through something similar?"

Cookie finished, complete with grim expression, she picked up the next one and proceeded to create the spitting image of an angsty Khaldun.

"It took me a few months for it to finally click for me, and even a fair amount of time after that before I even started trying to do anything about it. I wasted essentially a year of my life when I could have possibly been spending it as happy as I am now. Well. That is, assuming he wasn't nearly as dense as my darling is when it comes to romance."

Nimble fingers drew a long exaggerated frown on the cookie and Ursula glanced over at Janice's artwork, one eyebrow raising slightly. "But, what I'm getting at, Janny, is that life is precious. You know, like all those sappy Hallmark cards and Oxygen shows say. When you work in the career that you and I do, though, things... happen. Accidents are possible, and we don't exactly keep ourselves out of dangerous situations, if you know what I mean. So if you have the opportunity, now is as good a time as ever to show it, because it sounds like you're letting yourself get in the way of something good. Something that could possibly be the best thing that ever happened to you."

Icing strayed off the cookie and one finger scooped it up and gingerly brought it up to her mouth, then snagged the dishtowel and wiped her hands clean, her second cookie finished.

"I figured I was better off doing everything on my own, but being as... what did you call it? Co-dependant? Being as co-dependant as I am now, I've never been happier. I've finally found someone who understands me, or at least tries to, and makes me happy to wake up each morning. I wouldn't knock it until you've tried it, Janny. You might find you like it more than you think you would. I mean, really, in the long run... what do you have to lose?"
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♥ In the Name of the Moon! ♥

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