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 Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 4:59 pm
Back when she lived at home, Tara had visited her relatives in Destiny City on occasion. It wasn’t that far from her hometown, so she’d sat through her fair share of family dinners as a kid. Since her move, though, her visits to the Caffreys had been fraught with tension and bitterness. The move had taken place after her falling out with Evelyn, and Tara avoided being in the same room with her cousin whenever possible, to the point of skipping such visits entirely when she could. It wasn’t exactly the most grown-up way to handle the situation, but running away was par for the course for her.
Now Evie had extended an olive branch, and Tara had accepted. It didn’t repair their relationship overnight, but it was a start. Still, when her uncle had invited Tara and Kent over for dinner, she couldn’t help but be nervous. The last one she could remember hadn’t ended on a nice note, and she was terrified that such a stressful setting could break their mending bond before it finished healing. It would have looked bad to decline, though. And Kent had responded to the invite before Tara could come up with a suitable excuse. So she was standing on the Caffreys’ doorstep, holding a narrow box with a bow on top and trying not to freak out.
“It’s been a while since we’ve had dinner at Uncle Charles’ house,” Kent commented, putting his keys away. “It’s kind of exciting.”
Exciting. Right. Tara nodded, too anxious over how things would go to talk.
“Did you ring the bell?”
Tara kept nodding, until she realized that she hadn’t actually done that. Oops. She thought about shaking her head, but shifted the box in her arms and rang the bell instead. Footsteps inside made her freeze up again, and she tried desperately to compose herself before whoever was coming could see her panicking. That wouldn’t help anything, panic never did. But knowing that didn’t make it any easier to face her problems, and it wouldn’t help her face Evie either.
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Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2013 5:36 am
Not too long after the doorbell rang the shouting started from inside the house in a cross-living room debate about who was supposed to get it. seconds later, Evie's little sister pulled the curtain back from the window by the door and stared at the two people standing there before making her way over and opening it.
"Who are you?" She asked with a suspicious, sidelong stare from behind the partially opened door until Evie's shout from the kitchen screeched, "DANA!"
Dana was unfazed, but she did suddenly switch from staring at them to pulling the video camera strapped to her wrist up to her eye to zoom in on their faces. "Introduce yourselves! You're new to the catastrophe, if I remember right. Well, newer." She hadn't seen them since she was about four, so obviously they needed fresh intros in her documentary. Or reality TV pilot, she hadn't quite decided what this footage would turn into.
By then the disembodied yell machine was Evie had managed to get whatever she was doing to a stopping point and rush over to practically tackle Dana's arm and force it down to her side. "Don't be rude, Dana," She hissed through gritted teeth, hoping earlier threats that were made would sink in and she'd stop before things got ugly. "Sorry, my dad's running late. But the food's just about done! Come in!"
Dana tried to wriggle free, but not too hard. Her camera was delicate and strapped to her wrist, but she didn't want to risk slamming it into a doorframe with a struggle. "Let me go, you're wasting precious memory card data on the floor!" Evie just tried tried to pull her out of the way without looking too awkward.
The Caffrey home was tiny and overstuffed, but was pleasantly atmospheric and full of the smells of various foods, most notably a pot roast that had been going all day long mostly because no one was really home during the day or got home early enough to cook, but that gave it plenty of time to invade the entire house with food smells.
Evie frantically ran back to the stove to finish up something, and it was seconds before Dana was moving her camera into Tara's personal space. "Any last words?"
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Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2013 8:44 pm
Tara and Kent exchanged a quizzical glance as a not unfamiliar girl peered at them from inside the house. "Are you sure we were expected?" Tara whispered accusingly. Kent could only shrug; before he thought up an explanation the door had been pulled open, and they were face to face with their cousin. Or, more accurately, face to lens.
The word 'catastrophe' caught Tara off-guard, and she froze. Yes, her life could quite accurately be described that way, even to a casual viewer. But was this viewer casual, or was that a way of hinting that she knew more than the others? Even if it was meant innocuously, the implication that she was a walking disaster area stung. She was trying to move away from that, and having it rubbed in didn't help. Clearly this whole thing was a mistake after all.
Not suffering from Tara's paranoia, Kent was able to study the girl more closely. "That can't be Dana," he gushed. "Dana was just a little pipsqueak last time we saw her, and this is a young lady! But you do look so much like-" He broke off before he could finish his sentence and changed gears abruptly. "Like your sister, when she was about your age."
Tara mentally facepalmed, sufficiently distracted from her own conspiracy theories. She knew that Kent was a sentimental creampuff, and had become accustomed to being the target of his histrionics, but hearing him talk that way to other people was just plain weird. Evie and Dana's mini-wrestling match was actually comforting, since it gave her a moment to get her own thoughts in order, and to surreptitiously elbow Kent in the side. She accompanied the jab with a look that clearly told him to cool it.
Kent rolled his eyes at her, but smiled graciously at Evie. "Thanks so much for having us! It's been way too long since we've done something like this. Maybe next time we can do it when Mom and Dad are in town, that'd be nice. Everyone together." Well, almost everyone. "Is there anything I can do to help?" he added, trying to stay to neutral conversation topics.
At least he had toned down the emotional stuff a bit. Tara sighed and turned slightly, nearly walking into the camera. "Last words?" she repeated blankly. "Why, planning on killing me?" That she was able to joke at all about her own demise was a big step for Tara, but she shivered slightly as she spoke. "It wouldn't make for very good footage. If you've seen one murder, you've seen them all." Now she was positively shaking. "Chilly tonight, huh? So can I come in, or do I have to play Twenty Questions first?"
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Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2013 9:19 pm
Dana stared up at her gushing cousin with a look of determinedly unamused scrutiny. Someday, when she was a highly sought out cinematographer living in a castle, he had better not be so embarrassing or there would be consequences outside of the look of utmost seriousness she gave him back.
"Possibly," She said when Tara asked if she was planning on killing her. "How's your death rattle? If it's not dramatic enough you may need to be killed off screen or thrown in the Sarlacc pit."
"Oh come inside," Evie said, sounding exasperated and needing to return to push her sister out of the way and wave them in, otherwise Dana would probably stand at the door being weird until they left. She always had to be weird, and Evie was 80% sure it was just to make her own, personal life harder.
But once they were in, Dana just followed them, filming the entire walk.
"Don't sit there!" She shrieked at the top of her lungs when they hit the living room which admittedly had more space to sit than stand anyway.
Evie facepalmed. "Ignore her, please."
Dana was just cackling at the fact she was getting a reaction, not just out of Evie, but Tara too, who seemed deliciously uncomfortable.
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Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2013 9:25 pm
Perfectly used to getting the sort of look he was getting from Dana, Kent smiled good-naturedly and ruffled her hair. "What're you working on? A documentary, or more of a realistic fiction sort of thing? Whatever it is, I'd rather you not kill her." He jerked his thumb at Tara, who stuck her tongue out at him in return. "She can be annoying sometimes, but she has her uses."
"Oh, but I have a fantastic death rattle," Tara countered, partly to get back at Kent, partly because being dramatic was the only way she could deal with thoughts of her own demise. "I've had tons of practice at it, after all." Whoops. That was more information than they needed. She ignored Kent's quizzical glance and pushed her way into the house, and was just about to sit on the couch when Dana's shriek practically made her hit the ceiling.
Kent was also startled, but better at dealing with it. He was both amused and slightly terrified that some of Dana's behavior reminded him of Tara when she was younger. Or at least less traumatized. As if to humor her, he remained standing, but Tara, once she had recovered from her mild coronary, let herself fall onto the sofa dramatically, flailing a bit once she was there for good measure.
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Posted: Sat Jan 12, 2013 4:22 pm
"Are you sure? She looks about as useful as a walrus," Dana said, blowing strands of hair out of her face as they settled from being ruffled and watching Tara flail, deciding this was excellent material for editing into some other scene. Maybe Tara could be the tragic, mentally ill cousin they were selflessly taking care of, or something.
"I haven't decided," She said, turning her head, and subsequently her lens on Kent. "I figure I'll decide in the editing process."
"And when dad stops locking you out of the internet," Evie interjected. Which wasn't hard since there was just a cutaway wall separating the living room from the kitchen she was flailing around in herself trying to make sure everything wasn't undercooked, burnt, or somehow both. "At least you can take solace in the fact she won't be putting it on youtube."
"You guys are gonna be so miserable," Dana said, seemingly ignoring Evie's comments. Except she was leading up to an insult so not really, it was just seemingly unrelated retaliation. "Evie's a vegetable-tarian now so it's all mushrooms and salads tonight."
"They can smell the pot roast, Dana!" Evie half yelled like she was being accused of something. She was wound up, irrationality was on the menu in like four different places tonight.
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Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2013 6:51 pm
"Uuuuuuuuhn," Tara moaned pointedly, clapping the sides of her hands together slowly. Hardly the world's best imitation, but she wasn't aiming for an Oscar here. Dana's description of her was startlingly accurate, but lucky for her, she didn't know that anyone had come so close to the truth.
Kent sat on the arm of the sofa Tara was flopped on and tugged her braid gently. "You'd be surprised! She's pretty good with her hands, and has a knack with numbers. I've always thought she was a gifted chemist. But not," he amended, "in the kitchen. So if you need any help in there, Evie, let me know and I'll do it. I don't want Uncle Charles to come home to find his kitchen demolished or-"
Whatever he was about to say was cut off as Tara hit him with one of the couch cushions. While she had heard of company manners, and was willing to behave more nicely than usual for her cousins, her brother was not spared in that way. They wrestled over the cushion for a minute before Kent, remembering that he was oldest and therefore supposed to be more responsible, let it drop, ignoring Tara's grin of satisfaction.
"It's for the best that your masterpiece not be revealed to the world too soon anyway," he told Dana, managing to keep a straight face. "I take it you're going for a realistic approach, or are you a director as well as a cinematographer?"
Tara rolled her eyes. "Why can't you just say cameraman like a normal person?" The mention of vegetarian cuisine made her freeze momentarily- though she had nothing against a good salad, mushrooms were hardly her favorites. Evie's talk of pot roast made her relax again, knowing she wouldn't have to make some crazy excuse to explain why she wasn't eating. As if they needed any more stress right now.
"Because Dana isn't a man," Kent replied, as if this was obvious. "Besides, a cinematographer isn't just a cameraperson. They're in charge of lighting, filters, the whole look of the image." Kent was one of those people who watched the technical parts of the Academy Awards and actually understood what they were talking about, while Tara mostly watched to make fun of the crazy clothes people wore.
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Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2013 7:40 pm
"I've got it!" Evie half squeaked, pulling a casserole pan from the oven and having a moment of panic and relief when she almost dropped it right into her chest. Ow.
But that crisis was averted.
Dana was grinning giddily at Tara's walrus imitation, though. She would treasure this footage until the day she figured out the wifi password. And then she dropped her camera and looked at Kent with lidded eyes and her mouth pressed into a hilariously serious straight line. "No," She said in a flat monotone. "Like my opus is going to be filmed with a shitty Sony Handycam, god." Get with the program, Kent.
"Dana, language," Evie hissed. Though Evie could be just as foul mouthed, she never passed up the opportunity to be the mom in the room. Ever. Dana just flopped on the couch dejectedly and stuck her tongue out at her. And then there was a tense moment of staring where they were both daring the other to do something before it was broken by the phone ringing.
Evie picked it up, leaving Dana to roll her eyes with a scoff. Evie was so not her mom. She didn't need a mom.
"Yeah okay," Evie sighed after silently listening to the voice on the other line, grimacing at the guests in the living room as she put one hand on her hip. "Yeah they're here. I'll tell 'em. Bye, dad." Click. "Dad sends his love but says don't wait up, so I guess dinner's ready," She said, suddenly sounding as unenthusiastic as the rest of them.
Dana perked right up, though. "Finally," She dashed into the dining room to flop in a place setting like she was racing Tara and Kent without telling them there was a race afoot. "Sorry veggie-lady I am a carnivore so slice me off a piece of that dead cow please," She said, holding up her plate like an orphan. She'd gotten these digs in at Evie's life choices a long time ago, but she didn't have an audience then, and so they needed to be made again, even though Evie looked like she was one more hitch in the road away from cracking.
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Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2013 6:26 pm
"Hey, don't sell yourself short. The Blair Witch Project looked like it was filmed by a five-year-old, and it became a cult classic. So who knows? You might have a winner on there already." Kent tapped the camera gently and winked, simultaneously amused and horrified at the fact that Dana seemed, to him at least, like a miniature Tara. Or at least a Tara from before she was kidnapped and tortured, or whatever had happened to her.
Tara rolled her eyes again. "Don't mind him, Dana. I think he's just coming to terms with the fact that he missed his true calling as a motivational speaker. It's not too late, Kent! You can still suck thousands of people in with that mind control mumbo-jumbo. It just doesn't work on me because," here she sat up straighter and deepened her voice, "I am protected by the Force."
There was a brief moment where it looked like Kent was about to pick up the wrestling match where he'd left off. Tara watched him curiously to see if he'd let his immature playfulness get the better of his need to be the Adult in the room. Before the battle could be decided, they were both distracted by the ringing phone, and exchanged a quizzical glance as Evie spoke to the person on the other end.
"Uncle Charles can't make it?" Kent was trying not to sound disappointed, but he really could have used some advice from a sane adult figure right then. Now he was stuck babysitting, which he didn't mind under most circumstances, but it wasn't what he had come for. "Should we go? I don't want to impose on you, especially if you'll be stuck doing all the work."
It was hard for Tara to tell if she should be happy or dissappointed about this new development, so she decided to leave it in Kent's hands. But not before yelling "don't eat that whole thing by yourself!" after Dana. If they did end up staying, she wanted something to eat that wasn't green.
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Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2013 5:11 am
If Evie could read Kent's thoughts she'd probably be insulted beyond belief, if only because she considered herself to be the sane adult figure here. Not that the good reverend himself wasn't sane. He was probably a little too sane and sober for his own good, even. But he was busy, and his frequent absences had, even if not consciously, led Evie to decide this was her household to run.
"No it's fine," She told Kent, even if she was focusing a pretty unamused glare towards Dana even as she complied with her request to dish her up, even if she was perfectly capable of dong it herself. "I'm sure he'd be disappointed to know you guys left because he couldn't make it." Evie tried to smile. It was not a convincing smile. She was tired in so many ways, tonight was just starting to feel like one more weight added to the pile.
"I coulif I wanned to," Dana announced, mouth full, and entirely oblivious to anything unpleasant. And luckily she managed to swallow at some point. "Evie never cooks meat. It's awful. This is why my growth is stunted." Not that her growth was stunted. Dana was tall. Maybe not six feet like Evie, but pretty tall in comparison to most kids her age, even if she was gangly and flat as a board.
"It's really unfair because sometimes you just need to rip into the flesh of your conquered prey and tear into it with your teeth to absorb it's life force or something," She said overdramatically before picking up a piece of meat with her hands and gnawing on it like a little savage.
"You're not funny," Evie said coolly, hoping the lack of reaction would at least get Dana to use a fork. "You didn't conquer anything, dad bought it at the grocery store."
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Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 6:51 pm
This was a pickle. If they left, it would basically hurt the people who had invited them in the first place. If they stayed, things were guaranteed to be awkward, moreso than they already were. Kent weighed his options for a moment. "As long as we're not inconveniencing you..."
"So we're staying?" Tara looked up at Kent, nodded, and then made a beeline for the table. "Sure you could, kid, but think about it- if we weren't here, you wouldn't have this meal at all. So be nice, or we won't come back." With that, she took a seat and began to serve herself before the good stuff was all gone.
Kent went more slowly, frowning at Tara's comments. "Of course we'll come back," he said quickly. "If we're invited. Or we could do dinner at our place next time. It's a bit small, but I'm sure we could manage. Besides," he went on, changing the subject, "there's plenty of vegetarian sources of protein. Did you know that avocados have more complete protein than meat does?" Not that that stopped him from taking a piece of the pot roast before it disappeared. Evie had gone through the trouble of making it, and it would be rude not to have any.
Tara shook her head, about to say that she neither knew nor cared, but Dana's comments put her off her food a bit. "Seriously, why would you say that when someone's eating? If it's some kind of tactic to try to get it all to yourself, it won't work." She would clean her plate, even if she had to wait for her stomach to settle down first. Or she could always throw up on Dana. Might teach the kid a lesson or two. It would probably make things sour with Evie again though, and Tara wasn't willing to do that, so she settled for a simple glare.
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Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2013 5:35 am
Clearly in the overstuffed Caffrey home, a small amount of space mattered even less. Evie just smiled and nodded at Kent's notion of doing dinner at their place, and backed up his random trivia just to poke at Dana. "Ha, I told you."
"It doesn't matter, avocados are gross," Dana announced. "They're moldy green mush, it's icky." And then she turned her eyes on Tara, looking thoroughly amused she had been affected enough to pull a line like 'why would you say that'. "Well why not? Are you squeamish?" She asked, chomping down her teeth in the airspace near her cousin. Or at least as near as she could lean before Evie grabbed her head and wiped off her face with a small, flailing struggle from the preteen.
"Blech," Was just Dana's response when she finally pushed her away and set her sights back on Tara, who was glaring, and only encouraging her. "Maybe you should give your share to me and go eat side dishes."
Evie had started cutting up Dana's food after wiping her face off, but had been relegated to background noise as far as Dana was concerned. At least until she looked up at Tara with, "Don't mind her, really, we're considering investing in a muzzle."
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Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2013 8:19 pm
"Avocados aren't moldy," Tara countered. Not that she really cared about protecting Kent- he was a big boy, as he constantly reminded her, and could take care of himself. She just didn't like scientific fallacies. "Mushrooms, on the other hand, are a crime against food." Why people liked eating fungi was absolutely beyond her.
She would have pressed the point, but then Dana made with the chomping and she froze again. Harmless though the action was, it brought back memories of a hunger she'd tried to forget. Of the taste of human flesh, and the driving need for more, never being satisfied, until-
"Squeamish? Me? No way." Still, Tara folded her napkin and put it on the table, unable to continue eating. "I'm just saving room for dessert. That muzzle sounds like a great idea, I'm surprised you haven't gotten one already." That was safe, right? If Evie was making those kinds of comments, agreeing with them wouldn't be offensive, would it?
Kent continued to eat, but frowned at Tara when it appeared that she wasn't having anymore. "Yes, let me know if those come in adult sizes-"
"Hey!"
"- for some of the guys I work with," he finished, smirking at Tara. "Not everything's about you, sister dear. Though, if you keep this up, maybe I should buy two."
Tara's only response was to jab her fork into what was left of her pot roast. Not that she wanted to eat it anymore, but there was a certain joy in stabbing a piece of meat.
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Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 9:19 pm
"Well they're still ugly," Dana said with her nose in the air. Really, who cared if they were moldy? "And mushrooms are also ugly. And weird. And squi--" She was cut off by Evie stabbing a piece of potato with Dana's fork and sticking it in her mouth. The realization her food was properly cut up and even separated from touching just the way she needed it before eating distracted Dana from continuing as she took the fork from her sister's hands and got to devouring.
Dana was babied, Evie was the mommy, and there was this weird barrier that kept either of them from registering it. It was simply the natural order of things.
"If only," Evie sighed, resting her chin in her palm and glanced between Kent and Tara before daring to awkwardly laugh at Kent's teasing. "You don't have to eat if you don't want to," She added quickly like she needed to slap a band aid over her transgression against Tara for some reason. "I mean there is cake and... and stuff."
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Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2013 2:39 pm
"No arguments there." Why did some weird vegetable have more protein than meat? It baffled the mind! "Guacamole's good though, 'specially when it's homemade. With cheese and salsa and lots of corn chips." Tara would never be a healthy eater, but nachos were yummy, not healthy. Although they were kind of healthy too.
Kent polished off his pot roast and rubbed his stomach. "That was fantastic, Evie. Best dinner I've had in ages." He glared at Tara again, trying to signal her to clean her plate. "I've only barely got room for dessert, but I made sure to save a little-"
"Yeah, I want to save room," Tara said quickly, pushing her plate away from her. "I mean, it was totally yummy and everything, I just, uh, had a big lunch." Anything to keep her from having to finish off the chunks of meat left on her plate.
"I told you not to eat too much before you came," Kent scolded, still trying to signal. He knew better than to accuse her of lying, but still had a feeling that she was making excuses, and had no idea why.
Tara shrugged. "I forgot." She did realize that she was being rude, though, and winced as she looked at Evie. "It really is great, I'm just more of a dessert person myself-"
"That's definitely true," Kent interjected, not at all pleased with how this was going.
"- and I don't want to miss it. What kind of cake, anyway?" Since she seemed to have won the battle of the plate, Tara had perked up slightly and her stomach had settled- though not enough to make her want to tackle the pot roast anytime soon.
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