Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Aug 11, 2021 15:15:30 GMT -5
Orpheus gave a small smile as L seemed to practically leap onto the distraction. He hadn’t known for sure that it would help, but… he had hoped. He knew L well enough by now that he was able to tell what sort of topics might serve as an appropriate distraction when his mind couldn’t let go of something unpleasant. It hadn’t happened often, but… Orpheus knew L dwelled on his regrets a lot more than anyone in his world thought he did. Not for the first time, Orpheus felt a pang of frustration directed towards everyone in L’s world. They were never willing to give L the benefit of the doubt. They were never willing to consider that he might actually be a decent person. “I see,” he commented softly, squeezing L’s hand as they walked. “I’ve only re-blinked into the same room more than once… maybe three times? It’s not a very common occurrence for me. If I’m in a room, either I blink out for good before I get out, or I blink out once the room is finished. The House doesn’t seem to like bringing me out and back in while things are going on.” Distantly, he wondered whether that meant something. He doubted it, but… he supposed it was possible. “Would you like to pick a door?”
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Aug 12, 2021 16:10:24 GMT -5
L nodded a little, allowing his brain to focus on that information, rather than the previous room. It had happened, and he couldn’t take it back. If he had to go back…he’d have still tried not to kill him, but better that than let Orpheus die. He had to admit that, however little he liked it, he would have killed Damon intentionally to save Orpheus. He hoped that didn’t give the House any interesting ideas. But he could hardly unthink it now. “That’s interesting,” he mused, shaking the thought off. “I don’t know why that is…I’ll have to think about it. Maybe you have different reactions….or…” He left it at that, shaking his head. He actually wasn’t sure. “Alright,” he agreed instead, looking at the doors. They were all the same, probably. He wondered if it made any impact on what room they got at all. It didn’t matter if they couldn’t tell. He stopped by one, tilting his head questioningly at Orpheus before he opened it and stepped inside, pulling the poet along behind him.
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Aug 12, 2021 16:41:21 GMT -5
Orpheus knew that he had it in him to kill if it was for L. He didn’t want to admit that out loud, but it was the truth. L was important to him. L deserved his protection, even if it meant sacrificing part of himself. Orpheus would always try to talk, first. He would prioritize friendliness and compromise, but if it came down to it… he had a feeling he would be able to kill. Especially if it meant protecting L. How many times had he dreamed of strangling Hades instead of compromising with him? How many times had he lost Eurydice to disgust in those dreams? He shuddered away from the thought. Evidently, his subconscious believed him capable of murder. He didn’t ever want to find out if it was right. In the House, though… he had a feeling it would find such a test interesting. Hopefully, that wasn’t what resided behind this door. Orpheus glanced over at the door L had picked, then gave a slight nod. It looked as good as any other door, which meant nothing at all. They all looked the same. Some led to wonders Orpheus would never forget. Others led straight into tragedy. Not for the first time, Orpheus wished he could tell which was which. That was, perhaps, the point of the House. How many risks would you take to keep yourself from boredom? How much pain could you undergo before you stopped looking for nice rooms? Nobody ever went into rooms to try to find a way out anymore. They had given that up long before Orpheus had started blinking in. Now people went into rooms for something to do. As Orpheus followed L into the room, his eyes widened. It was unlike anything he had ever seen, though he recognized many of the ingredients lining the counter. Flour. Eggs. Sugar. He had never seen them in this form, but… he had a feeling he knew what the goal of the room was.
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Aug 22, 2021 0:44:10 GMT -5
L knew he couldn’t tell what was behind a door until he went through it. He also knew that he couldn’t tell for sure if it mattered. The House could easily pick a room before they even blinked in and have every door lead to it. Or maybe it did matter, maybe there were options. The House wasn’t easy to understand. And still, they went into rooms. L had actually never met anyone who refused to. The closest he had seen was older members being annoyed that they had to follow the newer ones to make sure they didn’t go through any sort of trauma alone. Sometimes, he wondered why he didn’t just stop. It would have been smarter not to go in, probably. It wasn’t like he still thought the exit would be behind one. Why did he still willingly put himself and others in serious danger, when he wouldn’t even eat the food here? Curiosity, probably. And…maybe it was partially that he’d been blinking in with Orpheus more frequently lately, and they couldn’t have normal dates. They could probably just talk forever, but L wanted to do things with him, and the rooms certainly tended to count. He blinked as his eyes adjusted to the different lighting, searching the room for any signs of immediate danger. He didn’t see any…his eyes caught on the ingredients, and he stepped towards them, carefully stretching his neck out to try and see them better without getting too close. “Oh, a kitchen,” he realized out loud, looking back at Orpheus. “And supplies.”
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Aug 26, 2021 1:01:38 GMT -5
L didn’t believe the House would ever try to change. He didn’t think it was likely to listen to any of them, unless it was somehow forced to. Maybe he’d been dealing with criminals for too long, but he didn’t think that was particularly inhuman of it, either. It was in a position of power, and there were no apparent consequences to anything it did, so of course it did whatever it wanted to do. That was how a lot of humans acted when they believed they were safe from any consequences. He knew Orpheus was still trying to make it even. He believed that if anyone could do it, it would be Orpheus. Did he believe it would happen? He didn’t really know. If it did…he thought there would have to be things he had no knowledge of to make it happen. With all the information he had now, it didn’t see likely. But for now, he was more interested in seeing what this particular room would be. He slipped deeper inside too, looking at the walls and the ceiling, eyes searching the less obvious parts. He glanced over at Orpheus, finding nothing of interest. “What sort of cake?” He asked with interest, heading closer to the kitchen itself.
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Aug 27, 2021 19:47:13 GMT -5
Orpheus didn’t know for sure whether the House would try, he just knew that if he didn’t try to make it… what kind of person would he be? He couldn’t assume the answer would be no before he had even asked the question. He had to believe there was a possibility the House would be willing to change. That wasn’t, however, at the forefront of his mind as he began to move towards the ingredients, touching each as he read it on the recipe. Cake. He had eaten L’s version of cake before, and though it was different from the cake that he had in his world, it was equally as good. Better, actually – there were more options to make things sweeter in L’s world. Orpheus wasn’t jealous necessarily, he just… wished he could experience food from L’s world a little more often. He was lucky he had even gotten to try it at all. “It says here it’s marble cake,” he said after a moment, reading over the directions. “Which means we have to make two different cake batters and swirl them together at the very end. Have you ever had marble cake?” Orpheus had a hard time believing there was a sweet in L’s world that the detective hadn’t tried, but he had to ask.
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Aug 29, 2021 14:19:45 GMT -5
L moved closer to the counter, starting on the other side from Orpheus so he could look at the ingredients too. There were quite a few things, most of which he recognized and understood, though not all. He picked up an egg gingerly, his method of holding things proving less than useful on the smooth, rounded surface. He put it down, not wanting to drop it. He didn’t know how many they’d need, and he didn’t see anything to clean with. “Oh, marble,” he replied, not looking up as he considered the term. “Yes, I’ve eaten marble cake. It’s good. I think it’s supposed to be because vanilla enhances chocolate…you put vanilla extract into most chocolate dishes, actually, so this is very similar, only half instead of just a little.” He narrowed his eyes at the ingredients, then crouched and opened the cabinet underneath it. “We should probably choose a pan…dish? Something to bake it in first, so we know how much batter to make.”
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Aug 29, 2021 22:41:10 GMT -5
Orpheus glanced over, a tiny smile crossing his lips as he watched L try to pick up the egg. It seemed like something he likely wasn’t familiar with, in a way that could only be endearing. Or perhaps Orpheus was just ridiculously endeared by everything L did. That was a distinct possibility. He gave a small smile, lightly brushing against L as he moved to set the recipe down. He was grateful that the House provided them with some explanation of what they were supposed to do. Orpheus had never been bad at making food (he forgot to do it a lot, but that didn’t mean he was bad at it), but he had no idea how to even begin when it came to making things from L’s world. Especially cake. It was so foreign to him that he had no idea how to proportion the ingredients or in what order to add them. “I didn’t know that,” Orpheus mused, brow raising as he took L’s suggestion in. That sounded like a good idea… he moved to open one of the cupboards, pulling out the pans the House had offered them. “They’re all circular,” he informed L, setting them out. “And they’re all different sizes. This one… is really small. Do you think we need to choose a size?”
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Aug 30, 2021 15:22:08 GMT -5
Orpheus was almost certainly better at making food than L was, even if L was the one who was familiar with this in particular. He hadn’t ever actually baked…he had watched Watari do it often enough, especially when he’d been younger, but he hadn’t tried to do it himself. Maybe, in hindsight, he should have. He leaned over to look at the recipe. It didn’t look all that complicated. He didn’t know if that was deceptive or not, but there was only one way to find out. He glanced at the pans, noting the sizes. “That surprises me a little,” he mused, eyeing them. “I expected the House to make that harder. It should say what size we need in the recipe…it probably isn’t that important, even if we get it wrong. He glanced over the recipe one more time before he looked at Orpheus again. “Perhaps I could make one flavor, and you could make the other?”
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Aug 30, 2021 17:10:18 GMT -5
Orpheus tilted his head a little bit, looking the ingredients over once more before turning back to L. “That will work. You probably have more of an idea of what you’re doing than I do,” he admitted, giving a quiet laugh. L had experience with these ingredients, and Orpheus had experience making food. They were probably fairly evenly matched. Orpheus didn’t want to make it a competition, though, so he hoped L was okay with not comparing their final efforts at the end. They were just… making two parts of a whole. It was almost a romantic thought. He linked his arm in L’s as he reached for one of the mixing bowls the House had set out for them, getting ready to pour out the necessary amount of flour. He may not have understood any of the measurements, but there were tools. As long as everything was relatively proportionate it would be okay. “I’ll make the vanilla,” he decided, gaze catching on the vanilla extract. “You like chocolate cake more, right?”
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Aug 30, 2021 19:56:34 GMT -5
L didn’t think this would be very fun as a competition. He may have been a lot more naturally competitive than Orpheus was, but neither of them was very practiced at this. L would have an unfair advantage, since he knew how the oven worked and was used to the ingredients. He’d even watched similar things be made, so he had some idea of how to do it. Besides…it was fun to just work together, sometimes. He wasn’t against destroying his opponents, but he was always going to be more inclined to be on Orpheus’ team than on an opposing one. He smiled a little as Orpheus linked their arms, which might make baking hard, but not impossible. Orpheus was right handed, and L was left handed, which meant their dominant arms were both still free. He shifted, leaning a fraction of his weight against Orpheus before he looked at the ingredients again. “Yes,” he agreed, giving a small nod. “I do. Usually. It’s too bad there isn’t any ice cream, that’s good with cake.” He reached for the flour, pulling it closer and opening it, still one handed.
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Aug 31, 2021 2:10:34 GMT -5
“I remember ice cream!” Orpheus replied, pleased that he did. There were a number of things that L had showed him that he remembered the taste but couldn’t put a name to it. He had liked ice cream, though he had been overwhelmed by the vast number of flavors available. It seemed as though people in L’s time had a huge variety of choices available to them. Orpheus couldn’t imagine that. He wasn’t a very indecisive person, but he had a feeling that he would be paralyzed at having to make so many choices over the course of just a day if he were to spend a significant amount of time in L’s world. He wanted to. He wanted the House to blink him in so he could see it. So he could live with L, so they could share a life together. They had been robbed of that ability by the House, and the solutions they had come up with to make up for it were sub-par. Doing this one handed wasn’t going to be ideal, but Orpheus found he didn’t want to let go of L’s arm. He was comfortable, and it had been a while before he’d been able to be quite this pressed up against L. It was comforting. Orpheus began to measure out his wet ingredients first, figuring that L could do the dry ingredients first and then they could switch so that they weren’t reaching for the same ingredients at the same time.
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Sept 4, 2021 2:27:11 GMT -5
L got the sense there were a lot more small decisions in his world than there were in Orpheus’. Things that didn’t matter in the long run, but still took up energy to decide. With the number of things that made no difference, but drained you to choose…well, it would exhaust anyone. Orpheus wasn’t used to that sort of world. Of course, most of L’s decisions really did matter in the long run, but…that wasn’t how it was for most people. It wouldn’t be like that for Orpheus if he ever made it to L’s world. He couldn’t really blame the House for the fact that they couldn’t live together. It could have made this easier, naturally, but…it was the reason they had met. It was the reason they even knew the other existed. He wasn’t sure whether this was going to be completely possible with one arm, but he was willing to try it. He reached for the dry ingredients and pulled them a little closer, beginning to measure them out as best he could with one arm trapped. He didn’t want to pull away, but…measuring properly was admittedly a little hard. It wasn’t too important, though. He caught sight of the small scale a second later and perked up, pulling it over and beginning to weigh the ingredients. That was even more exact, anyway, and only needed one arm.
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Sept 6, 2021 14:04:04 GMT -5
Orpheus wasn’t entirely certain that baking was possible with one arm, either, but he wasn’t going to squander any opportunity he had to make physical contact with L. If he had to take that much longer baking, then they wouldn’t be able to finish the room as quickly. The House likely wouldn’t blink them out until they had made their cake, so it just meant that Orpheus would be able to hold onto L longer. Overall, it seemed like a pretty good deal to him, even if the baking was inconvenient. He glanced over at the scale L was using, deciding that might make things easier when it was his turn to do the dry ingredients. They could switch off. Maybe… maybe it would work if Orpheus did the wet ingredients for both cakes and L did the dry, and then they could mix the cake they had each decided to make. It was definitely convenient that L was left-handed and Orpheus right. It meant they still had their dominant hand to grab things and weigh them out. Orpheus couldn’t imagine having to do this all with his left hand, especially when it came to cracking the eggs. Somehow, he managed to not get any eggshell in the bowl. “How do you know that you’re getting the right amount with that thing?” Orpheus asked, glancing over at the scale. “Does it measure cups and… tablespoons… like these plastic things do?” The word ‘tablespoon’ was said with an accent. There was no direct translation of it in Greek.
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Sept 6, 2021 19:00:07 GMT -5
If the cake didn’t turn out, it wasn’t the end of the world. L would prefer to be close to Orpheus than to have cake anyway, so the House would have to try harder to make them do it separately. If it even wanted them to…he didn’t know if it did or not. He did his best to weigh the flour and sugar, which was harder than it looked. It took a moment, but he succeeded in getting it exact, and dumped them both into the bowl. “It weighs it,” he explained, glancing up at Orpheus again. “Which is actually a very precise way to measure it. It’s not in cups and tablespoons, though.” He noticed the accent, as he always did when it came out. It was so unmistakably Orpheus to him, he couldn’t help the way his heart sort of seemed to jolt a little at the sound of it. It was a good sort of jolt, though. Like falling in love. “I can help you open the lid on the milk if you want,” he added, glancing at it. “I can hold it in place while you twist it.”
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Sept 6, 2021 21:15:04 GMT -5
“How do you convert between them?” Orpheus asked, looking at his recipe. The measurements were written out in cups and tablespoons, and there were numbers off to the side in some unit he didn’t recognize. “uhlbs? Is that a unit of weight?” Brow furrowing, Orpheus looked up at L for an explanation. It seemed like an odd unit of measurement to him, but he also didn’t know what a tablespoon was. At least he sort of recognized the words ‘table’ and ‘spoon,’ even if they were unfamiliar to him when put together. “Is it more precise than cups and table spoons?” Orpheus asked, looking doubtfully at the array of measuring cups he had before them. At least he could read them and determine which one was supposed to correlate with which measurement in the recipe. He frowned at it for another long second before shaking his head and glancing at the milk. “Hm? Oh… yes, please!” Orpheus gave a tiny smile, squeezing L’s arm lightly with his free hand before placing it on the top of the milk, carefully unscrewing it before pouring out the designated amount into one of the cups. He almost spilled some, but he was able to put the milk carton down before that happened. “Is there anything you need help opening?”
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Sept 6, 2021 21:35:04 GMT -5
“There are tables for it, that tell you how much of one can go into the other, and the other way around,” L replied, gesturing to the various measuring cups. “Some people have them memorized, especially if they use them a lot, but it’s not hard to look it up if you don’t…assuming you have a computer, naturally. It is a bit more precise, but not by any significant amount, and mostly for things like flour. Eggs aren’t very precise, because they can be different sizes, but it doesn’t seem to make much of a difference.” He reached over, holding the milk so Orpheus could take the lid off, then let go and glanced at his own ingredients. Most of them were easy enough to open, but… “I think the baking powder might take two hands,” he replied seriously. “If you could hold it so I can get the lid off…?” He had to wonder what this would be like outside the House. If they could just…do this in their own kitchen, with no fear that it would turn into a death trap or make them disappear before they were ready. To just be able to do things together in their own space on their own time. He probably needed to stop thinking about it so much. Even if Orpheus did find him…they’d be a ghost. It was never going to be entirely normal.
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Sept 6, 2021 23:41:41 GMT -5
“Right,” Orpheus replied, looking at the way L had measured out the flour and the sugar. It made sense, though he wasn’t sure how well he would be able to follow the tables, assuming there were even tables available. He didn’t think L baked very much, but he had a feeling Watari did. L must have watched him enough times to be able to more or less translate between different proportions on his own. Besides that, L was clearly better at math than Orpheus was. He needed it for his job more than Orpheus did, but Orpheus didn’t think the difference was just in how much they had practiced. L’s brain seemed much more well suited for math than Orpheus felt his own was, but it didn’t matter. They seemed to even each other out in that, as they did in many other things. Once again, Orpheus was struck by how lucky he was to know L. How lucky he had been to meet him and fall in love with him… he set the milk aside, resisting the urge to lean against L. If they started leaning against each other, they were never going to stop. “Sounds good,” Orpheus replied, holding the baking powder steady so that L could screw it open. “Do you just want to do all of the dry ingredients for both cakes now that we have them open, or would you like me to do the flour and sugar and baking powder for mine, and you do the milk and eggs and vanilla and stuff for yours?”
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Sept 8, 2021 17:26:12 GMT -5
Numbers tended to stick in L’s head fairly well, which was convenient for a lot of things. Baking wasn’t exactly at the top of fhst list, but still, it worked. He could help Orpheus with the numbers too, if he was asked, since Orpheus really didn’t have any way of knowing how to translate between the scale and the measuring cups. He measured out more of the dry ingredients, enjoying the feeling of standing close to Orpheus at he Sam’s time. It was a little distracting, of course, but he didn’t mind. It was only a cake, and not even one they were going to eat. At least, he wasn’t, and he assumed Orpheus wouldn’t either. He didn’t eat House food. Orpheus had in the past, but not recently, as far as L knew. Maybe he was rubbing off on him. “Let’s switch. You can try doing the dry ingredients, so you technically did both parts, and you can say you’ve baked a cake,” he decided after a moment, glancing at Orpheus. “If you want to, of course.”
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Sept 8, 2021 18:25:07 GMT -5
Orpheus gave a wide smile, taking the dry ingredients from L and beginning to take flour out of the bag. He did his best to weigh it on the scale, but he had no idea how much he was actually supposed to put in. He trusted L to stop him when he got to the right amount, though he knew he would need to learn the conversions eventually. At least that way he could… maybe… bake L cakes when he was haunting him. He didn’t know the rules of being a ghost. Could he still touch things? It would be unfortunate if he did all the work of getting back to L but without being able to bake him a celebratory cake, especially since the House was taking the time to teach them how to bake. “I like that idea,” he added, though it was a few seconds delayed. “I like that I’ll be able to say I made an entire cake. And then I’ll have the practice so maybe I’ll be able to do it again with whatever ingredients are available to me in my world. There must be something similar, at least.” He gave a shy smile, lightly nudging L with his shoulder. He didn’t know if he was going to eat the cake, but… he trusted it more if the two of them were making it. Maybe that was what the House wanted him to think. Maybe the two of them making it was actually more dangerous.
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Sept 10, 2021 22:59:16 GMT -5
L watched as Orpheus began to measure out the flour, eyes on the number, which wouldn’t mean anything to Orpheus, most likely. He didn’t have any way of knowing how much was the right amount. Unless he’d seen the number L had used, of course, but a little bit of help wouldn’t hurt. “That’s right,” he said as it reached the amount the recipe called for. “It’s the same for both cakes, not surprisingly. They’re very similar recipes. He hoped, when Orpheus did haunt him, if would be in a way that didn’t stop him from being…present. Physically as well as mentally. L didn’t have any idea how ghosts worked. Most pieces of fiction said they couldn’t touch or be touched, but not all. It wasn’t a universally known fact. It was entirely possible that Orpheus would be almost indistinguishable from his living self. “I’m sure you’ll be able to find something to practice with,” he replied, offering s small smile on return. “There have to be things that are close enough to this, even if it isn’t really the same.” He got started on the wet ingredients. Which went smoothly, until the eggs. Which he still didn’t seem to have much of a handle on holding, much less breaking efficiently.
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Sept 12, 2021 2:29:35 GMT -5
Orpheus was just as clueless about how haunting worked. He just knew that, if it was possible, he was going to be there for L. He was going to do everything he could to make himself tangible, and maybe he would make cake. Maybe he wouldn’t. He supposed it partially depended on how well the cakes in this room turned out. If it wasn’t something he was good at, he might tend to lean towards things he was actually good at making. He hadn’t ever made baklava, but he had made something incredibly similar to it, so he figured he would be able to pull off baklava just fine. L preferred that to cake, anyway. Still… he wanted to be able to do things like this with L in his world. He wanted to be able to make cakes together without having to worry about whether they were poisoned by the end. “I’ll do my best to practice,” Orpheus returned gently, leaning his head against L’s shoulder for a brief moment before he pulled to the side, grabbing a small bowl for L. “You should crack your egg into there,” he explained, turning to catch L’s gaze. “That way if you get any shell in it, you can pull it out instead of having to pull eggshell out of your whole cake mix.”
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Sept 16, 2021 12:13:57 GMT -5
Making the cake seemed about as pleasant as eating it, when they were doing it together. L got to stand next to Orpheus as he figured out how to pull it off, and he had to advantage (disadvantage?) of not being immediately good at it. If they had done cases together, or tried to write a song together, he guessed they may have gotten frustrated. L solved cases for a living, and so he was very used to working in his own head, not sharing his thoughts or conclusions with others until he had something solid. He guessed Orpheus may have been similar with his music. He did like sharing his thoughts on cases, of course, and he knew it was helpful, it was just that…he didn’t think them trying to take over each other’s talents would have ended very well. So, neutral activities where they were on the same level were sort of nice. He felt he should try and think of more of them. He glanced at the bowl, egg in hand. Or in fingers. He was trying to hold onto it without letting it slip, but it had a very smooth, very curved surface, and there wasn’t as much traction as he was used to. He held it over the bowl for a long moment, staring at it as he tried to strategize…and tapped it gently on the counter. It failed to crack. He narrowed his eyes slightly.
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Sept 17, 2021 3:27:22 GMT -5
The process of creating something had always been special to Orpheus. Songs had come most easily to him, of course, but he could appreciate other types of art. In a way, he figured, cooking was just… art. A different kind of art, perhaps, but still art. A smile broke across his face at the thought. He remembered what the first thing he had ever tried to draw looked like. It hadn’t been good in the slightest. That didn’t mean that the cakes were going to be a disaster, but it did mean that it wasn’t the end of the world if they were. It wasn’t as though L was going to eat the cake, anyway. The only difference if the cook failed was that Orpheus wasn’t even going to try a bite. While Orpheus’ thoughts didn’t follow the same track L’s did, he did find himself enjoying the activity. If they were going to fail, they were going to fail arm in arm. That was, in his opinion, the best way to fail. Perhaps even the only enjoyable way to fail. “You have to hit it a little bit harder,” Orpheus murmured, looking at the way L was trying to crack the egg. “Sometimes you have to crack it against the bowl you’re using, not the hard surface underneath. That might… be easier?” It wasn’t the end of the world if some eggshell ended up in the cake batter. There were ways to get it out.
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Sept 18, 2021 23:19:33 GMT -5
L had never been much of a creator. He wasn’t an artist, of any sort, really…it wasn’t so much that he couldn’t as it was that it had never appealed to him very strongly. What he did like to do was fix things. Or break them, depending on who you asked. Hacking, for example, was a way of fixing a security system, but did require a bit of breaking and entering first. Solving crime fixed the crime, but broke into the perpetrator’s life. Mostly, l preferred to deal with things that were already there. It was easier, somehow. “I thought so,” he replied, lifting the egg a little bit again. “I’ve only broken one egg in my life, and I did it too hard and got egg everywhere. I was trying to avoid that, this time, but I may have overcompensated a bit…” He held it over the bowl, preparing himself for a moment before he tapped it again, a little harder this time. Which did successfully crack it…a little.
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Sept 19, 2021 2:23:53 GMT -5
“One day,” Orpheus mused, setting down his bowl and moving close enough to L that he could rest his chin on L’s shoulder as he watched the detective attempt to break the egg, “I will watch you break an egg perfectly, and we will laugh together about the amount of times you broke an egg with too much force or too little force. And after that moment, you’ll know how to break an egg perfectly. Maybe it will be an inside joke. Maybe I’ll make you crack all of my eggs for me because you’ve perfected the method.” He gave a quiet laugh, not caring that he wasn’t being productive at the moment. If the House wanted to question it, he could argue that he was helping. He was, in theory, teaching L how to break an egg. He was also letting himself drift into a little bit of a reverie as he thought about what their life could be like together. It wouldn’t be perfect, but they didn’t need perfect. They just needed together. “Tap it once more, with the strength you used the first time, when it didn’t crack.”
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Sept 20, 2021 8:14:03 GMT -5
Every time L didn’t think he could feel any more content in the moment he was in, Orpheus did something else that just made it even better. It was only an egg, and yet…and yet here he was, listening to Orpheus imagine what it could mean, and here was Orpheus, somehow making his heart skip a beat about an egg, of all things. He thought he understood why people said they were melting. It did feel like melting. He couldn’t have explained why, but it did. He took a moment to give into the impulse to turn his head just a little, in order to press a tiny kiss to the side of Orpheus’ head, right above his ear. It felt right, and he wasn’t sure any of his words could have communicated it the same way. Then he pulled his attention back to the egg. When left alone together for too long, they seemed incapable of accomplishing anything at all. He wasn’t confident that this cake would ever be made, but he was going to try. He tapped it again, trying to mimic the strength he’s used on his first try. A crack spread and he froze, holding it very still, as though he could stop it from exploding as long as he didn’t breathe.
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Sept 21, 2021 22:46:27 GMT -5
Orpheus seemed about to say something else when he froze, the feeling of L’s lips against his temple sending something warm rushing through him. The best he could describe it was like drinking warm tea on a cold day, chasing away the last of the chill that seemed to cling to your fingers. It felt… it felt like love, pure and undiluted, raising blood to his cheeks and causing his heart to thud in his chest like someone had just attached a motor to it. “Oh,” Orpheus whispered, turning to catch L’s gaze. L was right. There were some things that words just couldn’t say, and that… that had said it all. And more, probably. Orpheus didn’t have any words to respond, he just pulled L a little bit closer, careful not to disrupt what he was doing with the egg. It wasn’t as eloquent a declaration of love, but maybe they didn’t have to be eloquent all the time. Maybe they could just exist together. “You’re almost there,” he whispered, glancing at the crack that had started spreading across the egg. “I can… be your other hand, if you would like. We can pull it apart together, right at the crack. And with two people we can control where it goes a little bit better.”
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Sept 21, 2021 23:14:09 GMT -5
L hadn’t even known what he was going to do before he did it. It had just felt impossible not to react to the flood of warmth he’d felt towards Orpheus, and it had worked better than words would have to express the feeling. He caught Orpheus’ eye as the other blinker looked at him, a tiny, breathless smile pulling at the edges of his lips before he looked at the egg again to make sure it hadn’t shattered while he wasn’t paying attention to it. “I’d like that,” he whispered back, shifting his grip a little to make it easier for Orpheus’ hand to join his on the egg. I’d like you to be my other hand in general, too, He added in his head, but he kept the thought to himself, not wanting to be any more distracting than he already had been. Orpheus had definitely rubbed off on him, he mused, half amused at the way his own thoughts moved. He may not have been much of a poet, but he seemed to be a bit more of a romantic than he’d ever given himself credit for.
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