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 Posted: Sun Jan 19, 2014 1:50 am
In between setting things up in her new house and working out business plans for her future cafe with Gene, Xiu still found a lot of time to do some baking. Although she had written up a rough menu for baked goods a while back, upon review, she realized that a couple of things could have used a little bit of revising. Consistent practice throughout the past few months had resulted in her finding new and more effective methods for making and decorating her baked goods, and so she wanted to make a new menu to reflect her improving skills.
After baking up a number of cupcakes, Xiu decided to take them to the best critics she knew--her friends at Amityville. Despite the fact that she had already graduated, the ghoul frequently dropped by to visit. Wandering through those gates always left her with a bittersweet feeling--it honestly made her a little homesick whenever she saw the demon dorms--but she knew that the feelings would pass eventually.
Arriving in the afternoon, the ghoul spent the next two hours tracking down her friends, delivering cupcakes to them with a bright smile. She'd spend a little time talking to them and getting their opinion before heading off to find someone else.
When she had finally tracked everyone down on her mental list, the ghoul was surprised to find that she had miscalculated: there was still one cupcake left in her box. It was one of her personal favourites too, a subtle earl grey cupcake with a swirl of light icing and delicate gumdrop flowers that she had meticulously shaped from scratch. She would have liked to have gotten someone's opinion on it, but unfortunately--
It was then that she spotted a figure slowly making his way down the hall. He looked vaguely familiar--probably someone she had spotted during her time here--but she was pretty sure that they had never conversed before. Well...it was never too late to start, right?
"Excuse me!" Xiu called out, trotting towards him with a smile, "I um...this is terribly weird, I'm sure, but I'm planning to open a cafe in the near future and was handing out some samples to garner some critiques. I have one left, and you uh...wouldn't be interested in a cupcake, would you?"
Pink eyes round, she peered up at him and gave a tiny wag of her tail.kurotomato ............have an unnecessarily long intro idk I HAD TEA AND I CAN'T SLEEP /JITTERS OUO!!!!!
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Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2014 11:05 am
Xavier wasn't walking down a brightly lit hallway so much as he was drifting gloomily down a darkened passageway clearly representative of his inner turmoil, leaving behind a trail of black raven feathers in his wake. The morning had begun with him falling out of bed, and then had proceeded to continue with Xavier forgetting to turn in his homework and then accidentally dropping his notebook in a pile of something he would prefer not to name.
So, in other words, his day had gone exactly like the rest of his life.
Traipsing morosely down the hallway, it wasn't until Xavier was right in front of her that he even noticed the other ghoul, let alone realize that she was, in fact, talking to him. He blinked slowly, the action seeming to take eons, and lifted his gaze to meet hers, which was bright and expectant.
"Um," said Xavier, his brilliant wit clearly apparent in this eloquent reply. "Um."
There was a long pause and a vaguely awkward silence.
"...cupcake?" he finally said, as though the word confused him (which it probably did).
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Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2014 2:44 pm
In contrast to the aura of gloom and solemnity that the boil was carrying with him, Xiu might as well have been sparkling considering how bright and happy she seemed. She beamed up at him, expression patient as the boil hesitated with his answer, and even when he did answer her question—with a question of his own—the ghoul simply laughed.
”Yes, a cupcake,” She smiled, flipping back the lid of the box to show him said baked good, ”I have one more left, and I’d much rather share it than eat it myself or something.” Goodness knows that she had had her fair share of sweet foods with all the cooking that she did. Perking up then, her eyes went round, and she looked between the cupcake and the student before letting out a noise of surprise.
”Or do you not like sweets? You don’t have to feel inclined to take it if you don’t want to—II know it must be odd to be approached so abruptly like this.” She offered him an apologetic smile, ducking her head in embarrassment. She subtly lift her gaze then, blinking up at him curiously from beneath her lashes.
He seemed…uh. Not the most cheerful of people, to say the least. Not that anything was wrong with that—her “big brother” was the very poker-faced Shun Kuroda, after all—but she couldn’t help but wonder whether he was having a bad day or if that was just…how he was. If the former, she hoped that she could help brighten his day somewhat, and if the latter…well, she still hoped that she could brighten his day, even if only by a little bit.
Tilting her head to the side, she let out a quiet hum. ”You’re a…first year? I think I’ve seen you around before, but this is the first time we’ve actually spoken!”kurotomato IDK EITHER /stares at hands
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Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2014 7:54 am
There was a long moment in which Xavier did nothing but stare at Xiu in what was apparently an extremely bewildered state of mind.
"I've, erm," he said, shuffling his feet. A few stray feathers fluttered away from his long hair and twirled merrily to the ground; a stark contrast to the doom and gloom expression on the demon's face as he stared at the sweet confections in the ghoul's hand. "...never had one before, I don't think."
His face flushed a little. "First year, yes," Xavier mumbled, clearly very ashamed by this; after all, it had been a year already since he'd been admitted to the school and he had yet to actually do anything of worth which was of course just how his life went and that meant he was utterly useless.
Xavier coughed."...I'm...Xavier..."
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Posted: Tue Jan 28, 2014 2:24 pm
Xiu blinked back at him with wide eyes, head slowly tilting to the side at his quiet confession. Never had one…? Really?! The thought almost seemed inconceivable considering how the baku spent so much time baking and having to sample her creations. Still, it wasn’t like there was anything to be ashamed of, and she offered the boil a kind smile. ”Here’s your chance to try it for the first time then, I suppose,” She chirped brightly, setting the box down on the floor. Carefully picking up the cupcake, she reached out to take one of Xavier’s hands, turning it open and setting the sweet in his palm, careful not to smear any icing on him.
She just hoped that it would leave a good first impression on him. Even if earl grey wasn’t his thing, there were always other flavours to choose from.
He seemed to be a little nervous, so she made and active effort to appear as pleasant and non-threatening as possible (which wasn’t too hard considering her natural disposition). Clasping her hands behind her, her tail flicked back and forth, a small smile tugging at her lips. Hmm, so he was a first year! And Xavier, was it?
”It’s nice to meet you!” Xiu bobbed her head in a shallow bow and then gestured to herself. ”My name is Xiuying, but please just call me Xiu. I’m a recent graduate from Amityville.”
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Posted: Tue Jan 28, 2014 9:18 pm
Xavier nearly jumped a foot in the air as she took his hand, but managed to keep all feet on the ground, as well as not actually shifting into his other form, which happened occasionally when he was, ahem, in stressful situations. Xavier stared at the confectionery in his hand as though it might explode, leaning in to give it a suspicious sniff.
After a short pause, he nibbled a tiny bit off the edge.
It was sweet. Very sweet.
Also good.
Xavier decided this was really a very okay thing to have been given and carefully bit off just a little bit more, trying not to look as though he actually knew what he was doing. He gave the ghoul - Xiu, she had called herself - a wary, bemused look.
He nearly dropped the cupcake again."I-if you're graduated then why are you here...dealing with me..."
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Posted: Wed Jan 29, 2014 11:36 am
Considering how skittish the boil seemed to be, Xiu took care not to stare, but she did glance at him expectantly when he took the first bite of the cupcake. Expression hopeful, her face lit up slightly when he took a second bite. Well, he wasn't saying anything, but at least he wasn't spitting out or tossing the cupcake to the ground, right? She assumed then that he thought it was passable.
His question earned a startled blink, and then she laughed, stooping down to pick up the now-empty cupcake box. "I may have graduated, but I still like to visit since I have friends who still attend the school." She needed to take a break from all that cafe planning too, and visiting her friends helped ease some of that stress.
"As for why I'm talking to you...why not?" The baku beamed at him, lips curling into a friendly smile, "I like meeting new people, though--ah."
The smile suddenly dropped from her face, brows creasing. Suddenly looking apologetic, she lifted a hand to rub at the back of her neck. "Am I bothering you? Please do let me know if you have something to do, or if you're just uncomfortable." She had, after all, approached him completely out of the blue.She could definitely understand if he was feeling at all awkward in her presence.
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Posted: Wed Jan 29, 2014 9:24 pm
Xavier shrank a little into himself, a few more feathers drifting free of his long hair and twirling towards the ground, where they lay in a heap beside his feet. He shuffled them, trying to hide them from view, and gave the ghoul a slightly wary look that mingled with something akin to embarrassment.
"No!" he said quickly, and shook his head so that even more feathers fluttered away. Xavier hastily reeled in his voice again, lowering the volume to a more appropriate one. "No, you're, um, not bothering me, um, I just...am not used to talking to people, you see..."Xavier shoved the rest of the cupcake into his mouth, his cheeks scarlet.
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Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2014 2:41 pm
The ghoul’s first instinct was to crouch down and gather his fallen feathers to return them to him, but in the end she resisted the urge, simply blinking at them as they drifted down one after another. She had turned her attention away from them at his quiet reply though, lifting a hand to her mouth to hide her smile at his answer. Aw. She was glad that she wasn’t bothering him then, and perhaps, if she was lucky, she could make him feel a little more at ease.
”Oh, good,” Xiu chirped, smiling warmly, ”I was worried that I had disturbed you, but I’m happy to hear that that isn’t the case.” She cocked her head thoughtfully to the side then, humming quietly in thought. Was there anything she could talk to him about in particular to make him feel a little more comfortable right now? Maybe if she could draw some of his interests out of him?
Well, maybe it’d work this way. ”I love to bake,” She piped up suddenly, grinning down at the box that had contained all of the cupcakes, ”I’m always proud when I manage to make something beautiful and tasty, and it makes other people happy , which in turn makes me happy. That’s probably why I like to cook too, actually. Even if I’m a little better at making sweets than meals.” She let out a laugh, and the turned her pink eyes to him, her tag wagging behind her.
”What do you like to do to pass the time?”kurotomato AW Xavier u qt lksdfjahsdf
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Posted: Fri Jan 31, 2014 7:56 pm
Xavier was now flushed the same color scarlet as the carpet in his room (which was too bright for his liking, but he hadn't picked it out himself). He looked down, the cheerful glow of the ghoul much too bright for him to actually see close up. "No, I just...can't...talk to people...very well..." Xavier mumbled to the floor, and he felt horribly inadequate compared to this lovely being standing in front of him. How could there be people as bright as this person without stumbling? He could hardly make it through a day talking to someone, but this ghoul was talking to him as if they were old friends.
It was mind boggling.
"I, um," said Xavier brilliantly, still talking to the floor. "I like...reading...and um...cooking I...guess...though I'm not very good at it..."
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Posted: Mon Feb 03, 2014 11:18 am
This boil, Xiu decided, was very sweet. Whether or not that was entirely true could be up for debate, but as it was, she found his timid nature to be endearing more than anything. She knew what it was like to be shy—Jack, she had come a long way from when she first entered Amity—and so she felt that she could sympathize with him a little. ”I think you talk perfectly fine,” She assured him, rocking on her heels. ”After all, we’re speaking right now, right? Though please don’t force yourself if it makes you too uneasy—I think I’m chattery enough for both of us.”
Laughing, she seemed a little embarrassed as she lifted a hand to scratch at her cheek. Indeed, once she had gotten over that initial roadblock of shyness a few years back, she had grown increasingly confident and social until she just…couldn’t shut up. She wasn’t entirely sure that that was a good thing, but what could you do? This was the kind of person that she had become.
Her pink eyes visibly lit up upon hearing his answer, tapir-shaped ears twitching slightly. ”Oh! You like cooking too?” The little baku ghoul seemed genuinely excited upon hearing this, her tail swaying back and forth, ”And it’s okay—practice makes perfect! I’m still not the best, but I’ve definitely improved since my first few attempts…especially since my very first time ended with me accidentally setting the kitchen curtains on fire.”
Xiu grimaced, but inwardly, she was hoping to prompt some kind of smile from the boil or to at least have him relax some.
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