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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Sept 26, 2021 2:10:12 GMT -5
Somehow, this…this was peace. L knew that Orpheus had changed him, over time, and he was okay with that. It had been a good sort of change. Even if he hadn’t ever expected it to happen to him. Standing here, brushing against Orpheus, their hands on either side of the egg with their other arms still intertwined…this was peace. How odd to have found it here, kn a room that could turn on him at any second. He was far from safe, but…he felt safe. Maybe he didn’t care if this room turned bad, as long as he enjoyed this part first. The fact that they were once again standing like this, Orpheus on L’s right and L on Orpheus’ left, holding hands while they tried to so the House’s room…pressed against each other…L considering the dangers…it wasn’t lost on him. Was it intentional? Had the House meant it to be that way? He didn’t see how it could have. It hadn’t forced them to stand here, after all. A coincidence, probably. Hopefully…hopefully, all it meant was that they didn’t have any more secrets to be dramatically uncovered after one of them died. He pulled his attention back to the egg and gave a determined nod. “Alright, then. One…two…” His eyes flicked up to Orpheus’. “Three.”
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Sept 26, 2021 20:10:08 GMT -5
If only one of them had changed, Orpheus may have been a little bit concerned. But… it wasn’t like that. They had both changed each other. They weren’t the same people who had met in the living room that very first time. Orpheus was still the soft spoken musician, and L was still the curious detective, but… something about knowing each other had made them both more. Not that they had been incomplete before, it was just… now they had become more themselves than they had ever even imagined. Orpheus gave a small smile, pressing up against L for a second as the thought settled over him. The two of them were not the same. They would never be the same again, but Orpheus wouldn’t go back for all the world. He loved L. He loved getting to hold hands with him, he loved standing next to him and just… existing next to each other as though it was the most natural thing in the world. It didn’t matter if it shouldn’t have been possible. Both of them defied the impossible all the time. “Three,” Orpheus whispered with L, pulling the other half of the eggshell apart. The egg broke easily and evenly, plopping into the bowl with the other ingredients. There was no trace of eggshell with it. “There,” Orpheus murmured, shifting just enough to pull the garbage can out for the eggshells. “You cracked your first egg.”
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Sept 28, 2021 22:49:55 GMT -5
So far…L had to admit that the room was peaceful. He may not have trusted it, and now and then his eyes shifted over his shoulder to make sure nothing had changed where he couldn’t see it, but that was just the way he interacted with the universe. Paranoia was second nature to him. Even watching for danger didn’t necessarily mean he wasn’t relaxed. He pulled his side apart, trying to do it quickly without being too abrupt. And then… “Oh, it worked,” he noted, eyes widening as he took in the…well…egg part of the egg. “It’s odd,” he added, speaking before he could decide whether the thought made any real sense. Orpheus had that effect on him, sometimes. It was much easier not to second guess everything he might say with them. “It’s odd that there’s no real way to refer to that part of the egg in particular. When it’s how it was a moment ago, it’s just called an egg. Then you have the eggshell, but…what do you call this part? You could call it the yolk and white, I suppose, but what if you want to refer to them both as a single object…? Do you just say egg, again?”
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Sept 28, 2021 22:58:57 GMT -5
“Hmm,” Orpheus mused, tilting his head as he took in the sight of the egg on top of the ingredients. He had to admit that it was a good question. It was made of the yolk and the white, but L was right. There wasn’t really a word for it. “Well, when you make eggs, you say that you’re making eggs. Most people know that you’re referring to the inner part of the eggs, unless you’re boiling the egg, in which case you just say you’re boiling and egg, and then people know what you’re talking about. I guess… it depends entirely on context. Which is… odd. It’s sort of like bananas, isn’t it? You look at a banana, and you know it’s a banana, but when you peel it, is it still a banana? Is there a word for a banana that’s just the inside part? Because if you say ‘banana’ to someone, they’re probably just going to think of the version with the peel on it. So maybe it would be a peeled banana and an unshelled egg?” It wasn’t a very important conversation, which was, perhaps, why Orpheus was enjoying it so much. It was just a chance for the two of them to enjoy each other’s company and talk about nothing at all. It didn’t have to be a life changing conversation. They didn’t have to make every moment as important as possible. These moments… the moments where they could just sit and talk about nonsense… those were important, too. Orpheus knew he hadn’t gotten as many of those as he would have liked with L.
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Sept 28, 2021 23:24:13 GMT -5
L nodded, warmed by his thought being both understood and built on. He knew it didn’t really matter, but…wasn’t that a part of being close to someone, too? Being able to talk about the little things, even if they didn’t actually matter? Conversations they might never even remember, but even so, they meant something. Or maybe he liked them because he knew they didn’t mean anything at all. “I suppose that means the question is how much of something is needed to make that thing remain what it was before,” he mused, a thoughtful frown slipping over his features. The dark shadows under his eyes always seemed a little more pronounced when he was thinking, though that was probably more because of the way his eyes tended to narrow than anything else. “It’s also interesting that when you split them up, one of them gets a new name, and the other doesn’t,” he added. “Eggshell. Banana peel. The other part is still what it was before. Egg. Banana. I wonder what would happen if you said either one to a group of strangers, and then asked them to tell you which they thought of first.” He stared at the ingredients for a long moment, letting himself follow the thought as far as it would go. Which was further than he’d expected at the start, but…that wasn’t too unusual. Things were always more complicated when you thought about them.
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Sept 29, 2021 0:09:31 GMT -5
Orpheus had reached for the baking powder, but he put it back down as he looked over at L. The detective was always quite distracting when he was thinking. Orpheus couldn’t help but wonder if he’d ever be able to do anything productive while in the same room as L. He had a feeling he would always get distracted trying to make L laugh or even just think, as he was doing now. Maybe it was just because Orpheus loved every bit of L. He wasn’t L without the musing and pondering and theorizing. Orpheus wouldn’t trade that for the world.” “Next time I blink in with a stranger, I’ll ask them what they think of when I say egg. And then what they think of when I say banana. They might think it’s a little bit odd, but… I don’t mind.” This conversation didn’t matter past this moment. He doubted either of them really cared what people thought of when they thought of eggs or bananas, but it was fun to think about. L spent so much of his time thinking about how to save lives, and Orpheus spent most of his trying to figure out how to change hearts, so having something so trivial to ponder felt… refreshing. They were both used to dealing with extreme, high pressure situations. They were both used to people counting on them, though the people that counted on Orpheus didn’t know they did. Nobody was counting on them now. It was just the two of them, existing. “I think after I put in the baking powder I’m done with mixing my part,” he commented softly, looking back over at his batter.
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Sept 29, 2021 0:20:22 GMT -5
L nodded a little, glancing up again as Orpheus replied. Asking people was there only way to test that, after all. L, too, would make a note of asking anyone else he happened to blink on with. Of course, whichever one he asked first would probably be the most accurate reply (once he’d asked it once the person in question could catch on and let it influence their reply, even unintentionally) but that was alright. He would just switch between whichever one he asked. The results were likely to mirror each other anyway, since it was the same idea. He liked this. He didn’t get that many breaks from his work, and he didn’t get any without intervention, which tended to come in the form of either the House or sleep. This was…well, it definitely counted as a break. If this was what people meant by that, he might have been wrong about thinking he didn’t like them. “I’ll do that too,” he replied, realizing abruptly that he had stopped making his part. “I think…I’m finished with this part now.”
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Sept 29, 2021 1:20:15 GMT -5
L thought he knew what swirling the two batters together was supposed to look like after it had been done, and was already baked. The problem was going to be actually doing it…he wasn’t sure how, or if there was a specific method he needed to follow. Still. It wasn’t like they’d get to find out how it tasted at the end. Which…was a little bit sad, but he pushed it away. The cake tasting good wasn’t the main point of the room, in his opinion. There were better things to think about. He gave a small nod, beginning to mix the batter he had been working on together. He supposed it didn’t matter who mixed which kind, though they had switched halfway through…they didn’t really have any claim to either one in particular. He thought he liked it better that way. It felt more like they’d collaborated than it would have otherwise. “Are you ready to try swirling it?” He asked a moment later, glancing at Orpheus again.
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Sept 29, 2021 1:41:25 GMT -5
Orpheus glanced down at his batter, then gave it another few solid mixes to make sure that all of the ingredients were properly folded in. It looked good, though… slightly more goopy than he had expected cake batter to look based on what he knew of the finished product. He had only made bread dough in the past, though, and the consistency of that was very different from cake batter. If this seemed wrong, he had a feeling L would have informed him already. L wasn’t the type to keep that kind of thing to himself, especially not when Orpheus was in the room. So they had probably done a halfway decent job based on L's experience with cake batter. “I think so,” he said after a moment, pushing his bowl a little bit closer to L’s. “How do we want to swirl it? Because… we could do it in your bowl, or we could do it in my bowl, or we could maybe even do it in the special pan, right? Or… would that make it difficult to bake it?” It really was a pity that they wouldn’t get to eat it. Orpheus couldn’t help but wonder if one taste would really be all that dangerous. They knew what they had put in the cake… the House could poison it, of course, but… it could kill them any number of other ways. It didn’t need to poison their cake to get that done.
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Sept 29, 2021 1:55:50 GMT -5
L considered their options, looking between the two batters as he thought it through. The main thing was not accidentally mixing it so much that it wasn’t swirled anymore. He didn’t know sure sure how possible that was, but he guessed it could happen, because they had mixed a lot of other things into the batter that had disappeared when they’d mixed it enough. So, probably, the key was going to be controlling that. “Maybe we should do it in the same pan we’re going to bake it in,” he suggested, glancing at Orpheus to catch his reaction to the idea, “it’s supposed to still be different colors…I don’t know if it would if we mixed it and then poured it. I don’t think I’ve ever seem this part done, though, so I’m not entirely sure.” Rationally speaking, L was semi aware that his concerns about the poison weren’t really…well, rational. The House, if it wanted to effect them, didn’t need to use food to do so. He had argued back that no, it didn’t need to, but there was no telling if it would enjoy giving them something optional to see if it could get them to affect themselves, so it still wasn’t safe, but…it was a flimsy argument. Mostly, he was just afraid of being poisoned in general.
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Sept 29, 2021 2:02:39 GMT -5
“That makes sense,” Orpheus conceded, loosening his grip on L’s arm just enough that he was able to pull away to grab the pan they needed. He almost immediately scooted back just as close as he had been before, not wanting to be separated from L even a little bit. They had fought for the time they had together, and he didn’t want to spend that time an inch further from L than he had to be. Maybe he wouldn’t feel the urge to be so close to him all the time if they had unlimited time together, but somehow he doubted it. He just… thoroughly enjoyed being in L’s company, and he had always been a physically affectionate person… he didn’t want to separate from L. “Maybe… we can poor it in a little bit at a time? And then we can use something we mixed with to swirl it a little bit before we pour a little bit more in? I don’t know how much we’re supposed to swirl it, but I don’t think we want two separate layers of colors, either.” He hoped he was getting the right idea in his head. L would probably be able to confirm or deny it. There was a difference between being careful and being paranoid. In the House, it was a very, very thin line. The House was unpredictable. Something innocent could turn into something dangerous on a dime. Still… Orpheus thought he might be willing to try the cake. If he ate it and nothing happened, then L would be able to try it for himself. After all the work they both put in to make it, they both deserved to at least give it a taste.
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Sept 29, 2021 2:23:16 GMT -5
L waited, not moving a muscle until Orpheus returned to his position at L’s side. Which was a bit ridiculous of him, he had to admit, but he found he didn’t care. Maybe, under the circumstances, he was allowed to be a bit ridiculous. Maybe he would rather that than waste even a moment of their time. He didn’t let himself follow that thought…his mind tended to turn dark when he let it go too long, a side effect of the life he had led, most likely. That didn’t mean he had to just let it, though. He nodded a little bit as he though the idea over. “That makes sense,” he decided. “We should be careful, though. If we do too little, we might accidentally mix it too much. Perhaps…half at a time would work?” He was trying not to think about what they’d do when the cake was finished. He wanted to be able to eat something Orpheus had had a hand in making…truthfully, he sort of wanted to eat something he himself had had a hand in making. But…theoretically…the House would know if he chose to. It could easily poison it jusr because he had made such a point of not eating its food. In his attempt to stay safer, he might have made it even more dangerous to try it, it seemed.
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Sept 29, 2021 2:37:52 GMT -5
Orpheus rested his chin lightly against L’s shoulder for a few moments, feeling the rumble of his voice as much as he listened to it (which did, of course, obfuscate some of its meaning, but that didn’t really matter). He gave a quiet hum, then nodded, straightening up so he could look between the bowls and then into the pan. “That makes sense,” he repeated. “We can both tip half of our bowls in and then swirl them around a little bit, and then we can both pour the rest of our bowls in. That… should work.” If it didn’t look perfect, Orpheus wasn’t entirely certain he cared. This whole room had been perfection, as far as he was concerned. If the cake turned out looking perfect, then they would have a pretty cake. If it didn’t, it wouldn’t detract from the experience they had already had. “Maybe… on three?” he suggested, beginning to lift his bowl up so he would be prepared to pour part of it into the pan. All he knew was that they probably didn’t want layers. If the batters mixed a little bit from pouring them at the same time… that was sort of the point, wasn’t it? He looked up at L, a small smile on his face as he did so. He could never get tired of looking at L. He would never have enough of the line of his nose, the tilt of his chin, or the look in those dark eyes.
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Sept 30, 2021 21:27:47 GMT -5
L picked up his own bowl, preparing to pour it in. He had to admit, it was interesting that he seemed more worried about overmixing the batter and losing the swirl effect, and Orpheus seemed more worried about pouring them on top of each other and getting layers. He supposed there was probably some deeper personality difference there he could find, but he let it go. He was always going to want to learn all he could about Orpheus, and the way his mind worked, but this time…this time, maybe it would be more fun to just let himself exist in the moment without trying to find anything more to it. “On three,” he agreed, meeting his eyes as he looked up. He couldn’t help loving when they happened to catch each other’s eye…it was one of the few things that seemed to be able to make time completely stop. He lifted his own bowl, but he didn’t look away. “One…two…” he began, counting slowly. Preparing himself to pour at the same moment Orpheus did.
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Sept 30, 2021 23:07:23 GMT -5
There was always something more to every choice and every situation. That was just… how humans worked. But that didn’t mean they needed to be psychoanalyzing everything the other did. That would get them nowhere. They would learn more about each other over time, of course, but they didn’t need to be trying to squeeze every piece of information out of every moment. With any luck, they would have all the time in both their worlds to get to know each other even better. Orpheus already knew L better than he had ever known anyone else. He was just going to get to know him better as time went on. It was a future to look forward to. He couldn’t wait until they got to live in the same space, even if Orpheus wouldn’t technically be alive for that. If he could, he would make the House blink him home with L now. “Three,” Orpheus replied, holding L’s gaze until he had to divert his own to better control the cake as it poured out. It mixed surprisingly evenly, swirling together without much effort on their parts. Orpheus slowly brought his bowl closer to L’s, trying to make the pattern just a little bit more intricate. They would have to make adjustments, but… it was a start.
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Oct 1, 2021 0:20:43 GMT -5
L watched the batter swirl, eyes widening as it seemed almost to do it all by itself. That hadn’t been what he’d expected, but he couldn’t say he wasn’t pleased. Apparently…this was actually something that worked. Maybe that meant they’d done it right, then? He watched Orpheus shift his bowl, but he didn’t move his own. He didn’t know if it would make the pattern better or worse, and he didn’t want to mess it up when it was already looking very good. He put his bowl down, glancing up at Orpheus again. “I think we did it,” he murmured, sounding just a little bit awed at the prospect. “I think we just need to bake it now. Unless there’s anything else on the instructions…?”
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Oct 1, 2021 0:33:55 GMT -5
Orpheus searched L’s expression for a few moments before he put down the bowl, a smile touching his lips as he looked at the now empty bowl. Well… almost empty. Orpheus picked up the utensil he had used to mix his ingredients, scraping it along the side of the bowl so he got as much of the batter that was left as possible. He gave a small smile, then held it up in L’s general direction. “We should taste it, first,” he murmured, gesturing with the utensil. “Normally I would honor you with the first taste, but… this is the House. And since I’m the one who suggested it, I think I need to take the risk, here.” He didn’t know the exact odds of the food being harmless, but they were probably about fifty-fifty. He held L’s gaze for just a moment, giving his arm a quick squeeze before he lifted the utensil to his lips and took the smallest taste of batter he could. “It’s good,” he murmured. “Sweet. I can’t wait to see what it’s like when we bake it.”
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Oct 1, 2021 0:45:57 GMT -5
It had been a long time since their first ever lodge room. L remembered it, of course…he remembered being worried it could turn out to be a repeat of the room they’d nearly frozen in. And that was when he’d first mentioned to Orpheus - or anyone else - his decision not to trust food in the House. It had been a long time, but he still didn’t trust it. He barely trusted food that had blinked in with him, though he would eat that, if it happened. Just…not without a bit of worry. He understood what Orpheus was going to do a moment before he did it, and his eyes widened, his heart seeming to miss about three beats at once as he tasted it. “Orpheus!” He said sharply, fear flooding his expression as he searched their face for any sign that they’d been affected by it. Poison would give clues, usually, but not always, and this was the House, who knew what it would do in the House, it might not even act like a normal poison if it wasn’t intended to harm or kill him, just change him instead, or maybe it was a long term thing, did that happen, could the House affect you in a future room based on a past one, of course if Orpheus was now incapacitated L would need to find the cure and soon, that was probably the goal here, what might be a cure, it wouldn’t be the cake he’d need to think outside the box, and -
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Oct 1, 2021 1:22:39 GMT -5
Orpheus hadn’t expected L’s reaction to be quite so… extreme. He had known it was a risk, but L took risks all the time. Going into a room was, itself, a risk. He hadn’t, perhaps, realized that this wasn’t the same kind of risk. When they’d picnicked together, it had all been food from L’s world. Food that he had chosen, food that he knew all the ingredients of. The House could have changed some things, of course, but it hadn’t. Orpheus hadn’t thought of this as entirely different, but seeing the look on L’s face… he had misjudged. “Hey,” Orpheus whispered, placing the utensil back in the bowl and moving so his free hand gently cupped L’s cheek. “Look at me, love. I’m okay. I feel perfectly fine.” He gently pushed a strand of hair out of L’s face, making sure not to look away for even a moment. “I’m sorry. I should have realized how serious the risk was. But right now, I’m okay. I promise I’ll let you know if that changes.” He took a deep breath, then stood on his tiptoes so he could press a kiss to L’s forehead. “I’m okay.” He lowered himself back down to his heels, gently tracing the line of L’s cheekbone before pulling him into a full embrace. “I’m sorry for scaring you.”
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Oct 1, 2021 1:39:42 GMT -5
L’s thoughts were racing, trying to make sure he could stop anything bad from happening before it happened, even though he knew Orpheus might not be poisoned. It wasn’t as though it was a guarantee, just a risk, and Orpheus was right, they already both took risks all the time. Walking into a room was probably a lot more dangerous than eating the food in an otherwise peaceful room, and yet L still did it, even if he had to wonder why sometimes. It was one thing to know that, deep down where it had a hard time influencing his actions. It was another thing to have decided it was too dangerous to eat the food in the House for years and then watch someone he loved very deeply take that same risk. He focused on Orpheus, his voice and touch both cutting through his frantic thoughts. He looked okay. He hadn’t collapsed or anything like that…he didn’t know how long a poison in the House would take to set in. He closed his eyes for a moment, breathing out slowly to try and even out his heartbeat as he let himself be folded into the hug. It was alright. Orpheus was alright. L would be able to tell if anything happened to him, even something too subtle for Orpheus to be able to tell him about. “It’s alright,” he replied after a long moment, his already soft voice muffled as he pressed a little closer. “I know my world is influencing how I see the House. I know the House doesn’t need poison to hurt us. I just didn’t expect it, that’s all. You’re sure you’re feeling alright? You can breathe?”
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Oct 1, 2021 1:59:19 GMT -5
Orpheus saw nothing wrong with L’s world influencing the way he saw the House. Both places were extraordinarily dangerous. Both places would stop at almost nothing to hurt L, but it was all arbitrary and unpredictable. Orpheus knew what the spotlight felt like, of course, but the spotlight had never made him a target of trained guns and clever poisons. The lives they lead were incredibly different, and Orpheus had to remind himself that L never ate food given to him in his world, either, unless it had been supplied by Watari. Eating was something that L had to second guess every moment of every day. That wasn’t something Orpheus had to think about except in the House. Except with L. It had been a bad misjudgment, but Orpheus didn’t want to let it ruin this room. Orpheus’ fingers gently stroked L’s back as he held him close, making sure that L felt as safe as he possibly could while in a room in the House. It wasn’t L in danger here, though. It was Orpheus. The risk, in his mind, had been comparatively low, but it was hard to tell what the House would do. Would it find it amusing to poison Orpheus, or had it sincerely been trying to give them a nice room? If the House were even, it may have been easier to predict. Once again Orpheus was reminded that he was asking the House to be even, not kind. Kindness might have been too big a request. Even, though? That was just… right. “I can breathe,” Orpheus whispered, exhaling lightly against L’s head. “I’m okay. What do you say we get the cake baking, and then you can watch me to make sure nothing bad happens?”
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Oct 1, 2021 2:26:55 GMT -5
It was the unpredictability of it that probably made it as stressful as it was. L was in danger all the time, which did make him used to taking risks, but also meant he was constantly calculating how bad those risks were and whether they were worth it. It was like walking across a tightrope…you were at much greater risk of falling than most people were, but that didn’t mean you felt so used to the possibility that you were less careful about how you balanced, it meant you had to pay attention to keep the chances as low as you could. Only, for L, there was often no safety net. If he wasn’t willing to risk himself with the food, the thought of Orpheus being at risk was just as frightening if not more. He couldn’t actually tell him not to, of course. He could warn him, but if Orpheus wanted to, it was his choice. Even if L couldn’t help being alarmed if he did choose to take that risk. He was beginning to relax again, though. It had only been a tiny taste, and even if something bad was going to happen as a result, there was no undoing it now. He didn’t want to let the possibility ruin this room when it had been going as well as it had…he could keep a close eye on Orpheus and enjoy the rest at the same time. He was good at multitasking. “Alright. I can do that,” he agreed, pulling back a little and scanning Orpheus’ face one more time for any hint of swelling around his throat, or anything different about his eyes, among other things. He breathed out as he found nothing. So far…it seemed like the cake might be safe after all.” “But I need to be holding your hand,” he added after a moment, his tone serious. “I can monitor your pulse that way.”
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Oct 1, 2021 2:47:24 GMT -5
Orpheus searched L’s eyes, doing his best to reassure him that he was okay. He poured everything he could into that look, then tapped the words once more for good measure. He felt fine, and he had purposefully only taken a tiny taste. If something was going to happen, it was because the House had wanted it to happen, not because Orpheus had taken a small taste of the cake. Although… he had a feeling that they weren’t going to be eating the baked cake. Even if the unbaked version didn’t cause any reaction in Orpheus, L was right that the House could add poison at any point. There was good reason to be wary. The House, however, got what it wanted when it wanted it. It could make the air toxic, if it really wanted them dead. That didn’t make the odds of the food being safe any better. “Of course,” Orpheus replied, amusement coating his voice. “You can’t be as effective in your evaluation if we aren’t holding hands. It makes perfect sense.” He was only partially joking. He knew the reason L wanted to stay holding hands was at least partially to track symptoms. It would be easier than holding a hand to Orpheus’ heart. Orpheus also knew that it was an endearing attempt at flirtation. Or… could it be called an attempt anymore if it was successful? Orpheus was indeed endeared. “Can you open the oven for me?” Orpheus asked, trying his best to lift the cake pan they had set up with one hand. It wasn’t as easy as he was expecting, but he wasn’t going to drop it, and he wasn’t going to let go of L’s hand. He had a feeling they’d need both of them to take it out when it was hot. Was there more than one oven mitt? There had to be, but Orpheus could only find one. The other would pop up… hopefully.
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Oct 1, 2021 3:12:05 GMT -5
The problem with the House was that it could definitely kill you any number of ways, but it also clearly had other things it wanted to accomplish, or you’d just be dead. It had no reason to bother blinking you in the first place if all it wanted was to poison the air…the rooms, though often random and impossible to predict, had themes. Rules. Expectations, though they were almost always wrong. That was another reason L had for avoiding the food. It clearly wanted more than to just kill them all. Since he didn’t know what he did want, he couldn’t predict it, and since he couldn’t predict it, he had to do all he could to stay safe, even in ways that seemed pointless. It was possible to argue back and forth for days on what the Hosie might do, but…if L had learned anything at all from his time as a blinker, it was that trying to predict the House was almost always going to backfire on you. He had to, still, to some extent, but it was less about knowing what it was going to do as it was considering what it could do, and then acting in the way that could cause the least overall damage. He couldn’t do anything about breathing, but he didn’t need to eat, so why give the House more options than he had to? He couldn’t help feeling quiet a stab of happiness as Orpheus replied. Once, he had never imagined he might do anything even distantly related to flirting. Now, it was sometimes difficult to resist the urge, when Orpheus was right there in front of him, and he knew he could probably get him to smile if he did. And he actually did want to monitor their pulse anyway. He moved over, opening the oven and stepping back to give Orpheus room to slide the cake in, all without letting go of his hand. That done… “Do you see any frosting?” He asked, glancing up as it occurred to him. “I don’t think this sort of cake always has it, but it does sometimes…”
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Oct 1, 2021 13:44:18 GMT -5
Orpheus would be more careful next time. He would make sure that he didn’t do anything that might worry L more than necessary. They were taking risks every moment of every day, but there were some risks that were acceptable, and some that just… weren’t necessary. They went into rooms because the House was going to force them into rooms anyway if they chose not to. It could always blink them right into rooms. Sometimes it was nice to go into rooms so they could guarantee themselves a little bit of time in the living room the next time around. In that way, at least, the House seemed to follow a pattern. The more time they spent in the living room, the more likely it was that the next blink they had would lead right into a room. Perhaps they influenced the House’s decisions in that way. It had happened too often for it just to be random chance. Eating the food the House provided wasn’t a necessary risk. Unless, of course, they ended up starving and the House food was the only thing they had access to. Orpheus doubted that L would complain in that situation. He pushed the thought away, instead focusing on L. “Did… we preheat the oven?” he asked after a moment, looking at the oven. It had felt hot, but he didn’t actually know what the instructions meant by ‘preheat.’ How did they know that it was at the right temperature? Orpheus set his concerns aside as L mentioned frosting. His only experience with frosting had been food that L had brought into the House. That was to say, it was incredibly limited. “Maybe we have to make our own frosting?” he asked, tilting his head. “I mean… do you know how to do that? Is it something we can do?” He squeezed L’s hand as he looked around for instructions, or, perhaps more conveniently, a tub labelled ‘frosting.’ It seemed more likely they would find instructions. There were, after all, more bowls and ingredients that they hadn’t needed to use for the cake. Orpheus doubted they were there just for decoration. The House probably meant for them to use them.
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Oct 1, 2021 16:14:48 GMT -5
L did wish that Orpheus having tasted it, as frightening as it had been, had meant the cake itself would be safe to eat. He would have liked to be able to try it and see if they had made something edible after all…he wasn’t sure how well they’d done it, but he did think they’d followed the instructions pretty well. It was probably a good cake. He knew it didn’t work that way. The poison could have simply not started affecting Orpheus yet. As long as they were in the room, there was a chance it would kick in at any second. They’d be much safer once the room itself actually ended, but of course, then the cake wouldn’t be there anymore. Besides, the House could easily make it poisonous after Orpheus tasted it. It could make a poison that didn’t hurt Orpheus at all, but that L was vulnerable to. There were just…too many options in the House for him to think trying the cake was a good idea. Even if it was a bit sad not to. “I don’t think so,” he admitted, narrowing his eyes at the oven. “But if it’s already on, perhaps the House did it. I’m not sure how to check the temperature…does it say how to use the oven?” He glanced at the counter again, searching the supplies for something that would do as frosting. They likely did need to make their own. He knew it was possible to do that…he squeezed Orpheus’ hand a little, then moved two fingers to his wrist, checking his pulse for any changes. He was lucky he was good at noticing changes, or he might not have been able to tell how fast it eas meant to be beating. As it was, he was relieved to find it was still within the range of normal speeds. He slipped his fingers back into place and squeezed their hand again. “I know it’s possible to make frosting,” he replied, moving a little closer to see the recipe again. “I just don’t know how, unless it gives us instructions here. Oh, it does…that must be what the powdered sugar is for.”
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Oct 1, 2021 18:33:29 GMT -5
It was a shame to put so much time and effort into something only to not reap the rewards. Orpheus wanted to taste the cake, but he knew that he likely wouldn’t be able to. It wasn’t safe, and the last thing he wanted to do was scare L like that again. The expression on the detective’s face had been nothing short of pure panic, and Orpheus never wanted to be the cause of that again. So he wouldn’t eat the cake. They would just decorate it, hopefully, and they would enjoy the time they could spend together making it, even if they didn’t get to indulge in it. One day, they would be able to make a cake together that they could actually eat. If ghosts could eat. He hoped they could. Nothing in their lives was going to be ideal. Perhaps that was the cruelest part of falling in love in the House. They couldn’t have normal. Neither of their lives were normal, of course, but… in another world, their relationship could be. They could go on dates and make cake together and fall asleep in each other’s arms. Orpheus thought he might hate the House just a little bit for not allowing them that. “If I make the House even,” Orpheus whispered, squeezing L’s hand lightly, “What are the odds the food will still be poisoned?” Orpheus knew he couldn’t stop the House from lying or tricking them, but… maybe he could negotiate warnings. Maybe he could get the House to at least tell them when a room was going to be kind or cruel. Unless the House didn’t think of any rooms as cruel… it hadn’t occurred to him that that may be a possibility, but… who had defined cruel for the House? Did it even know they considered its actions to be cruel? “Powdered sugar?” Orpheus asked, reaching for the jar that contained… well, he assumed it was powdered sugar. It looked like white powder. “What do the instructions say?” He peered over L’s shoulder, his heart racing just a little bit more at the shift of L’s hand. It was as though L touching his vein was electrifying. He wanted to feel L’s fingertips against his chest, feeling for his heartbeat there… but that wasn’t going to happen here.
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Oct 1, 2021 18:48:31 GMT -5
The fact that they would almost certainly never have normal, exactly, was one L couldn’t ignore. Not that his life in general was all that normal…but was it so wrong to wish that he could have this part the same way so many others did? To be able to have enough of Orpheus’ presence that it became odd not to feel him there? He never wanted to forget how much it meant to him, of course, but…maybe he wouldn’t have minded if it had been normal enough that he didn’t have to hoard every moment he could get. Enough that missing even a second he could have had didn’t feel like a wound. He hesitated, considering that possibility. Of course, if the House were even, then the food would be safer…but it depended on a lot of things, didn’t it?> “I suppose…that depends on how you make it even,” he replied just as quietly, searching his eyes, both to check for any changes and just to see his expression. “And what the House agrees to. It’s a complicated question…even if it were even, if it caused as much harm as it did good, then…well, it has caused a lot of good already. For me personally, but for plenty of others too. There are some things it’s done that I don’t believe can be balanced, but…the truth is that the House may not agree. Technically, if you killed someone, and then saved someone else, you would think it would be balanced, wouldn’t you? But to our minds, that doesn’t make killing acceptable.” He glanced over the instructions as he thought about it, eyes scanning the words. “I think we need to mix the butter and sugar,” he replied, narrowing his eyes at the sugar. “Is the butter soft already?”
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