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 Posted: Tue May 03, 2011 3:14 pm
Penny had been born and raised in Destiny City by Gilbert and Karen Figgins. Her father had been a bigwig at DCNN back in the day, and her mother worked as a secretary at a local law firm. Somewhere in all the work parties and community gatherings, the Figgins met the Drakes who lived in the same neighborhood, and a family friendship was forged.
Despite being seven years older, Penny had always considered Sebastian a friend, even if she spent most of her life treating him like a little brother. They kept each other company at stuffy adult socials. Penny was even his unofficial babysitter for a period of time during junior high and beginning of high school. Now that Sebastian was 20, Penny had come to find that she had quite a bit more in common with the boy than she did when he was 10 and she was 17.
That night, Penny had invited Sebastian over for dinner. Cooking had never been her forte, but she knew Sebastian well enough to use him as a guinea pig. The pair had been chatting for a bit so far. Penny bobbed around in the kitchen poking at chicken and checking on the potatoes. It was a little comical with the dark blue sling keeping one of her arms pinned to her body.
Her apartment was nicely sized for a one bedroom. The downside was that the entire place smelled like cigarette smoke -- a nasty habit the the 5'0" woman did absolutely nothing to disguise. The kitchen had a floating counter with two bar stools on one side, and even now, there was an ash tray with a smashed cigarette perched on the edge.
Penny was poised by the stove, cooking away while she made small talk with Sebastian. A half-empty beer sat by the stove top. She picked it up and then turned to face him. "So, Sebby," she said, lifting the beer to her lips, "what is new with today's youth? Spin me a yarn while I slave away for our sustenance." She took a sip.
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Posted: Sat May 07, 2011 3:34 pm
Sebastian was an indifferent cook, surviving mostly on take-out and anything that could be made in under thirty minutes, preferably in a microwave. Penny's invitation had been perfectly timed, as he was currently in between grocery runs and hadn't yet found out if Matthew enjoyed cooking, or was any good at it.
It was always nice spending time with her and being treated like an adult; his parents hadn't quite let go of the notion that he was still in high school, a situation hardly helped by the fact that they were still covering the majority of his expenses.
He'd offered to help out with the cooking once her bandaged arm had been noticed, but the offer had been declined (the point of this whole evening was that Penny was cooking, after all). So he perched on one of the barstools instead, sipping at a glass of water, content to be in the company of someone he'd long regarded as a friend.
"You expect me to know?" he asked with all the lofty superiority that only someone just out of their teens could muster. "There's weird s**t going on around town, which you probably know more about than I do," he continued, referencing her position with DCNN, "And a lot of kids these days seem to have broken bones or other injuries." He groaned internally; had he really just uttered the words 'kids these days' in a non-sarcastic manner? "Much like your own," Sebastian added quickly in an attempt to change the topic.
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Posted: Mon May 09, 2011 7:22 am
Weird s**t going on -- and she was part of it. This alienation from those she had once held dear was strange for Penny. She had always seen herself as a budding Voice of the People, but now she was one of the things that went bump in the night. On one hand, there was the rush of superiority that came with being special, but on the other, there was a crippling feeling that the things that had happened to her had changed the course of her life in an unplanned, unwanted way.
The thoughts weighed heavily on her so she turned instead to poke at the potatoes roasting on the stove. "But most kids don't dislocate their shoulders pulling pregnant women from the path of speeding cars," she said. "Or falling down the ******** stairs outside of their apartments." Penny had gone with the latter story as her excuse. At first, she had dreamed up a big, fancy lie, but it was too easy to get lost in the details. So instead she went with the simpler 'oh I'm a ******** clumsy idiot' anecdote that wouldn't send off any alarm bells.
She sent her beer down and dragged her finger along one perspiring side, turning back to face Sebastian. "I'm a crack journalist, Sebby," she said, pointing a wooden spoon at him. "I am an expert at getting people to spill. So spill. Tell me something interesting. Entertain me while I attempt to entertain you with a dinner... meal... party... thing." She paused and then leveled her eyes at him. "I'll give you a beer if you make me laugh." One hand lifted the brown bottle and waved it at him.
Because 20-year-olds totally love beer, right?
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Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2011 5:26 pm
"There must be a lot of bad stairs in Destiny City then," he said with a touch of seriousness. There really were a lot more of people around town sporting a cast or minor injury these days, and they tended to be younger than Penny or Sebastian. Which was probably why he'd bought her story that the stairs had mysteriously attacked her (actually, on second thought, maybe they had; stranger things had been rumored) - Penny was outside the age range his vague suspicions were about.
He held his hands up in mock surrender as she waved the spoon in his direction. "Okay, okay." A frown briefly crossed his face as he thought of something to tell her. "Ummm. You know I moved, right? Well," he said, waving one hand airily, "My second day there, not even fully unpacked, I was ambushed by a girl bearing muffins."
...That wasn't really funny, come to think of it. Well, maybe; someone actually using muffins as a weapon would be pretty hilarious to watch.
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Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2011 8:28 pm
"Those stairs," she said, lifting her beer to her lips. "They'll get you." Penny took a sip and then set it back down on the counter with a hollow click. The food needed her attention. She bounced between that, her beer, and eye contact with her guest. These were special nights, she reasoned -- if she was cooking, it had to be pretty special.
When Sebby said something about a "girl" and "muffins," Penny spun suddenly, spoon clutched in her hand. "Is this some kind of euphemism I do not recognize? I believe a girl offering her muffins to the new neighbor boy has been the plot for many a porno flick." Her eyes grew serious. "Don't tell your parents I make porn jokes to you," she added offhandedly. The spoon appeared to be her new favorite tool.
Moving back toward the stove, Penny asked over her shoulder, "Where did you move to? I can't remember." She had a lot of things on her mind lately, ranging from her normal crazy workload to that whole superhero business.
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Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2011 5:46 pm
He was content to sit in silence for a moment, drinking his water while Penny paid attention to the food (he agreed entirely with the notion that food demanded attention, which he was prepared to give it once it was done cooking). "What?" he spluttered at the next question, spraying a fine mist of water in front of him.
"No, I," he continued, growing quite red in the face. "She works at a bakery near the complex and stopped by with the muffins as a house warming gift." The thought briefly crossed his mind - what kind of porn was she watching, where that was a plot - although this was followed by an immediate attempt to bleach his brain. With a small shudder once her back was turned, he gratefully moved on to another topic of conversation.
"Complex closer to school, there seem to be quite a few DCU students there." He shrugged a bit. "Or if they're not students, all around my same age?" Sebastian hadn't really made any effort to get to know the other people living in the complex; the apartment down the hall was occupied by one person who loved music was about all he could say.
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Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2011 3:48 pm
Penny held up the spoon in front of her face as a last-minute effort to afford the spray of mist from Sebby's lips. "Splash zone," she murmured, shaking out the spoon but not bothering to rinse it off before plopping it back into the food she was preparing.
As the younger boy went on, the petite woman continued to bop around the kitchen, stopping every so often to take a swig of beer. "Does this 'she' have a name? You're being goddamn coy. You know how I feel about people being coy." She paused, then gave him a thumbs down.
The school thing was cool and all, but it was obvious Penny was more concerned with grilling him about this girl. "Make yourself useful and set up the table," she added as an aside.
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