[Closed] Birthday Dinner With the Family

[be_seeing_you]

Who: Number 6, Ava, Ruby, Darcy
What: A quiet dinner to celebrate Number 6 turning 32
When: Evening of the 19th
Where: Ava and Number 6's new farm home
Warnings: Kinda Bland Food

It's a strange feeling to be standing in the kitchen of a new home, his new home, cooking something that amounts to a Sunday roast for a family dinner. Strange only because it is something he never quite envisioned for himself as a future. The road to get here has been long and fraught, and they've lost good souls along the way. He mourns them each and every day, but he'd like to think, if they could see him now, they would be glad for him. A little slice of normalcy at long last. A chance to live a life of relative peace. He always hoped he might have some small version of this. But he expected it to be alone, in hiding, with him looking forever over one shoulder just to be sure. He never, in his wildest dreams, imagined it would be a home he shares with a wife. A home where he can invite his adopted daughter and his, for now, he'll just say apprentice, in to celebrate something so simple and mundane and yet so monumental as the turning of another year in his life. Thirty-two? He could barely believe it when he got to thirty and now here he is. Not even Number 2 could take this from him.

"It may not be as perfectly cooked as we're used to," he says somewhat bashfully as he sets the roast down on the table in front of his guests. "But the ingredients are fresh. Please enjoy." With that, he will begin carving it and serving onto everyone's plates. Unless someone jumps up to stop him. It is his birthday after all.


[ooc: Just a lil' mingle thread. Feel free to write your characters arriving, offering to help cook, set the table, etc. I'm down for all of it.]

Comments

[decohere]

It's a lovely, cozy place. Quiet, and she enjoys the patch of sunshine that comes through the window in the early afternoon where she likes to read. But settling in to a new home has taken some adjusting, getting used to every corner of the layout and the space that doesn't quite feel like her own yet. She's used to far tighter quarters, so she's appreciative of having more rooms and even a kitchen of their own as she not-so-helpfully watches 6 cook and provides occasional commentary about how handsome he is. Instead she arranges some wildflowers upon the table, amongst the plates set for their guests.

But back on the ship, they had accumulated so many little knickknacks and mementos of their various expeditions and gifts from friends. Shells and drawings from Fio, 6's own artwork, cute stuffed animals including the giant bear he'd won for her at the carnival... On his birthday in particular, where she can't afford to go shopping for anything, it strikes her just how bare their new place is with the lack of sentimental belongings between them. Maybe that's what's preventing it from fully feeling like "home" yet, their history stripped away and trying to start fully anew. A blank canvas.

So she tries painting him something nice, using crushed flowers for watery pigments. It takes patience, with her unsteady hands, but Ava recreates a rather impressionistic scene of the Iguazu Falls where he proposed to her within a memory. Signed only with a little star in the corner. It's presented to him before dinner, and hung near the table before it's time to eat.

She does make sure to proudly point it out to Ruby and Darcy, though.

"At least it's actual... real food, with nutritional value," Ava points out. And politely searches for some like... salt or pepper.

[saltwaterlungs]

As for his 'apprentice', Darcy doesn't have much to offer him for his birthday. Unlike on the ship where thoughtful gifts would just arrive, she spends a good while agonising over things she can't afford and nearly- nearly, turns up empty-handed. At the last minute, however, she remembers something she can still give, and arrives on time in a high-collared jacket to stave off the last chill of winter. And a wide hat, which doesn't mean anything at all.

It's not much, but she rewrites the recipe cards that she gave them as a wedding gift. Hopefully it still comes across as thoughtful, since she knows they won't have come with them. And it's not a full cake but she spends a bit of time in the Oak and Iron kitchen sneaking the ingredients for a custard tart to share for dessert. Better than nothing, these are lean times for them all.

Watching Peter cook is like watching a train crash that she's powerless to stop, so she busies herself with helping to set up the table and just kind of poking around the house. It's nice. She's still at the inn when she's sleeping in an actual bed and not in the graveyard. It's an exercise in sheer poker face when she takes her first bite, and then follows Ava's searching for the seasoning very closely. This is why the Normans invaded.

"Mm. You can taste how it actually grew somewhere," are these carrots boiled? Just boiled? Jesus Christ.

[decohere]

"That's a really nice jacket," Ava admires. She's still in the same clothes she arrived in and doesn't seem too overly concerned about it, but she can always appreciate somebody with far more style.

[saltwaterlungs]

Darcy's ears go a little pink.

"The ehn, tailor lady made it. It's pretty warm."

[decohere]

"Aaah," she assume this tailor must have taken quite a liking to Darcy.

"Looks like you're ready to go all Van Helsing."

[saltwaterlungs]

"There's demons here. I might need to kick their ass."

Shrugs.

[Receiving the gifts]

[be_seeing_you]

Despite the raised brow hump he gives her when she arrives in that jacket and hat, she won't have to guess how thoughtful he finds her gifts when she presents them.

"Thank you, Darcy. Thank you," he says as he shuffles through them. He knows what they are immediately, and it's causing him to have to blink back some wetness from his eyes. "I was so sorry to leave these behind. And thank you for the tart as well. It looks divine."

[saltwaterlungs]

Shut Up It Doesn't Mean Anything.

"It wasn't any trouble. I have the recipies in my head and we have some time in between services."

She shrugs, clearly a little unsure of what to do with his sincere appreciation.

"Maybe I could come around some time to teach some of the more complicated ones?"

[be_seeing_you]

Sure. Sure. He believes you.

"Would you?" There's no mistaking that his interest is sincere. He regretted not spending more quality time with Darcy before but he can amend that here and now. "I would be much obliged. I'm afraid the finer details of cooking weren't part of MI6's curriculum."

[saltwaterlungs]

"Couldn't have anyone mistaking you for foreign spies," Darcy says and then almost instantly regrets it, wincing a little. 'British people are bad at cooking' jokes after they've done this dinner.

"But sure. Most of them aren't very hard, you just need to see how it's done, ehn. I've been making most of these since I was a kid."

[Closed for Ava pre-guest arrival]

[be_seeing_you]

"You painted this?" he asks with wide eyes and a hushed tone of awe. "Ava, it's beautiful. Almost as beautiful as you."

He knows how she must have struggled, her hands being so unsteady. It must have taken her much effort and determination. He would have cherished it either way, but knowing the struggle she overcame to bring him this gift makes it more valuable than any trinket she could buy.

"We must put this somewhere special. For all of them to see."

[decohere]

A nod, as she watches him scope out an appropriate place on the walls to hang the painting. "I know everything we lost is... material. But all the memories tied to them, you know?" She rubs lightly at where the ring is missing from around his finger. It isn't the monetary value of any of their belongings, but who they came from. Especially the people she's afraid they'll never see again.

"But I think I'm... ready to build new ones. Make this place feel like ours." She knows he's been more eager to settle in to this new world, has been patient with her trepidations and resistance to the sudden upheaval because she had become so accustomed to a certain lifestyle, however awful it had been. But she's opening her heart up to it now, wants him to know she's ready to put in the effort.

[be_seeing_you]

"I know," he answers somberly.

He misses the custom made quilts from their bed, both crafted by people that haven't arrived here yet. He misses Fio's drawings, the portrait he made of Ava, and the other sketches he did of people on the Serena, some who left long before any of this. He even misses that giant hello kitty PEZ dispenser. The house could use more color. Most of all, he misses the ring being on his finger right where she strokes. He's since figured out that was the thing allowing him to see her even when others could not. But it's more special than that. Memories. So many memories.

"I'm so happy to hear you say that, Ava," he tells her, lifting her fingers to his lips. "We'll build new ones together, and we'll cover this home, our home, in them. That is what our loved ones would want for us."

[decohere]

She nuzzles her face into the crook of his neck, floating a few inches off the ground. Her ability to fly had been diminished greatly over the last several months, unable to hold onto a happy feeling long enough to manage. But there's so much relief now, the beginnings of their shared dream finally being realized.

"We'll have plenty of time, I think. Imagine apples don't grow too fast..."

[be_seeing_you]

He smiles to himself feeling the extra height--she's floating. She's happy. Despite it all.

"No, they don't. We'll be waiting until the fall to see so much as a crabapple. But I've already been commissioned to do a few woodworking projects. Once I have the funds for proper paints, I could make up the shortfall as an artisan."

[littlefairytale]

For all that Ruby's been struggling to do things for her own sake since arriving in town, it's easier to drag herself up and out when there's others waiting on her. And this? Is something she wouldn't miss for the world.

Her silhouette is still all wrong. The basic clothes everyone arrives in aren't her style, and she doesn't feel herself in them, but she's yet to secure herself anything else. The only embellishments are a sword on her hip and a simple patch over her missing eye. None of the trinkets she used to wear around the ship. Not even a cloak.

But she still smiles in greeting, and though she's of no use in the kitchen yet she'll pitch in with set-up where she can before doing much as Darcy does in poking around the house a little. This town really does remind her of Patch. Of the family home she left behind so long ago.

It's nice. It's nice to see Peter and Ava get a chance at the life they want.

[For 6] Of course, Ruby's as lacking in resources as any of the new arrivals, but what few strides she's made towards fixing that have paid off well enough that she still comes bearing a gift.

It's rougher, than her last attempt. She's still getting used to the tools in River's forge. But the emblem she holds out is still recognisable for what it is.

[decohere]

In the way that the plain clothes look ill-suited to Ruby, Ava seems comfortable enough in her own. Basic in style and color has always been the extent of her fashion. In the short time she's been there, they already give the appearance of being well-worn. The edges of the sleeves poked through with thumb holes, the hem of the shirt beginning to fray from all the twisting and worrying.

She tries not to fret so much now, when she approaches. "Would you... like a small tour of the place?" There isn't much to it, of course, but it's at least a chance to start talking.

[littlefairytale]

Ruby straightens up a little, hand falling away from where she herself was fussing with the strap her sword is attached to, and though the smile she manages is a lot more subdued than it once was, it is genuine, "Oh, uh, sure, that'd be nice."

[decohere]

"So that's the kitchen," obviously, she waves at Peter. The floor layout is open, so most of it is rather visible from the spot they stand.

"And this is the dining room." Also obviously, because there's a small table with chairs. But Ava seems rather proud of the small space. It's a lot more than the cramped cabins on the ship.

"And a place to sit!" She wanders over to the sitting area, which doesn't have much actual furnishings yet.

[littlefairytale]

Ruby follows on her heel, looking around with genuine curiosity at how they've been setting things up so far. "It bet nice having real personal space now, huh? The cabins were kind of all we had before..."

And Ruby's cabin never really felt like hers, if she's honest. It was always Clarke's first, filled with her survival hoards and the walls pasted with her red-string theories. Even when Clarke vanished, for a while, she never really adjusted.

The room at the Oak & Iron isn't really hers, either, but it still feels more comfortable for now than the cabin did.

[decohere]

"Mn. Now we have far more space than things..." she leads Ruby to the first bedroom, which is as tidily kept as one would imagine. A nice big window above their bed where a light breeze flows through, trees and the stars in full view.

"Oh, here's the restroom if you need. But... yes, I do like having the privacy. A bit off from the rest of town. Knowing those who want to visit," nod toward Ruby, "are welcome anytime."

;_; ruby

[be_seeing_you]

The moment he realizes what this gift is, his wings flap open and wrap around her in a hug. "Ruby, thank you. I was so sorry to leave your last one behind. I'll keep this with me always."

:3

[littlefairytale]

Ruby lets herself be drawn into by his wings and wraps her arms around him in turn, squeezing. "It's hardly your fault, I haven't— I haven't even got my own anymore."

Though she lost that before she ended up here. Or, more accurately, she gave it away to return her friends to normal.

"I've sort of started working at a forge, and— this seemed like the right thing to start with."

[be_seeing_you]

She hasn't got her own, and yet she made his first. Well, that just won't do. He'll have to start carving her a wooden one as a placeholder, just until she can create a sufficient one for herself. He's certain he can manage it using the one she's just given him and his memory to fill in the differences.

"Have you?" He pulls back enough that he can look down at her face. "That's wonderful news. You'll be a great help to them, I have no doubt. What do you think of my new profession, eh? Do I seem like a farmer?" Not yet, but he'll have to go buy some clothes to look the part, soon.

"I do a little woodworking, as well. So, if you are ever in need of good wooden stocks for your weapons, think of me, won't you?" He winks to make sure she knows it's a tease. Though, he would genuinely take orders like those.

[littlefairytale]

The fact is she won't make her own. The original feels irreplaceable by her hands alone, a gift imbued with a mother's promise and a legacy she could never live up to. She has no right to it. Even if she did, she couldn't recreate what she really lost if she tried.

But another gift will be different.

She looks up at him and pulls a playful thinking face, "Hmmm. You're kinda pasty for a farmer, but you've usually got the patience." She snicker-giggles a little. "And obviously I'll remember your woodworking skills, though, honestly, a lot of the work's more... domestic. Which is cool! Though every time someone mentions nails the other apprentices act really weird..."