|
Post by ashestoApples on Mar 11, 2015 2:56:31 GMT -6
Lorna rolled her eye, far too used to Skylar's antics to care anymore, and Rick (who was thoroughly prepared) gave her two more pancakes, both shaped like kitty heads.
"Well I hope that's enough for you, kitty cat, but if it's not there'll be a few extra in the microwave." He picked up three for himself, slathering them in an unhealthy amount of syrup before putting another on Lorna's plate and eyeing her carefully.
"A'rright, le'ss go," he said, satisfied that he'd used the rest of the batter in record time. He patted Lorna on the back meaningfully and she followed him off into the living room where she joined the crowd around the coffee table with Rick.
Alicia squealed at the pancakes and at the water bottle and Conrad remembered he'd left his drink in the kitchen. Deciding it wasn't worth it, he dug into his pancakes instead. Lorna and Rick put their water bottles on the coffee table as well and Alicia cut off a piece of the shield pancake on her plate to give to the cat now pawing at her leg.
|
|
|
Post by kryss on Mar 11, 2015 3:04:24 GMT -6
Skylar: She wiggled in glee at the kitty pancakes, carefully and expertly drizzling them in syrup. As she left, she filled a glass of water for herself, and noticed an abandoned one sitting on the counter. With a wry smile, she stacked her plate on top of her cup and grabbed the spare, bringing it out with her. She handed it to Conrad, then sat next to him, dismantling her little tower and settling in.
"Alright, who wants a drink? I've still got three fruit punch, a couple cherry, three lemonade, one kiwi strawberry, and two lemon limes." she said, feeling like a hawker on the side of the street. She offered to Conrad first, definitely because he was closest and not because he was the cutest one there.
Okay, maybe because he was the cutest one there.
Ace: He ate his pancakes quietly, his own drink already decided for him, and divided his attention between his plate and keeping Alicia from feeding pancakes to the already rotund cat.
|
|
|
Post by ashestoApples on Mar 11, 2015 3:14:33 GMT -6
Conrad grinned at her in thanks and pondered over his choices. "Hmmmmm, how about fruit punch for me?" He took the packet and poured the mix in his bottle before shaking it up liberally. He sighed when the heater FINALLY kicked on and his toes started to unfreeze from his escapade with the generator.
Rick held up a hand and said, "Cherry please, kitty cat."
Lorna was quiet until she remembered, "Kiwi strawberry?"
|
|
|
Post by kryss on Mar 11, 2015 3:23:46 GMT -6
Skylar: She grinned and passed out the drink packets. She added lemon lime to her own, shaking it thoroughly before sipping. Once that was all settled, she settled into the couch, wiggling to get as comfortable as possible. When the heater kicked on she winced a little as her feet ached from thawing out. The temperature change actually made her shiver at first, but she knew it would get better soon!
For the moment she just enjoyed the atmosphere. The tree and lights gave the air the perfect Christmasy feel, not to mention scenting it lightly with pine. Everyone around felt more relaxed than they had... maybe ever, actually. And eating pancakes, it seemed almost too perfect. Then, as she looked around at every face, it hit her with a pang again, who was missing. Then she had a harsh wave of nostalgia for her own family, and their own Christmases. Then a flashback to how she had spent last Christmas. All together she felt one tear slip from her eye. She sniffed quickly and went back to eating her pancakes.
Almost as if he sensed her distress (or, far more likely, her refreshed store of pancakes,) Mr Whiskers found his way over to her, jumped up next to her on the couch, and started purring. With that unreasonable display, she was forced to give him a corner off one of her pancakes. She continued eating. After a couple more sniffs, partially from warming up, partially from heavy emotions, she put her plate with still roughly a quarter of a pancake on the floor. Before anyone could blink, Mr Whiskers had jumped down and was busily eating it, purring louder than an entire box of honeybees.
|
|
|
Post by ashestoApples on Mar 11, 2015 14:08:27 GMT -6
Lorna was having her own difficult time of dealing with the very painfully familiar surroundings, reminding her of the last several Christmases before the incident when she was too stubborn even to come home for it. She was doing a fairly decent job of keeping herself quiet while she ate as to not disturb the (still very charming) mood, though. She was much more concerned about the fact that while she couldn't PROVE that Skylar had stolen the other drink packets, she could damn well prove she stole the strawberry-kiwi ones from her. Those were her favorite and she had tried to be careful to reserve them. She wondered if Skylar had anymore hidden anywhere, along with the other things Skylar had taken from her various stashes around the house and re-stashed in probably very good hiding places. She knew she was missing a few things- a stale package of oreos and a couple bottles of wine came to mind- but past that she couldn't prove much other than the vague suspicion that she WASN'T eating everything as fast as it looked like.
She'd drop that for now. Filing it away to accuse her later, she got up from her spot around the coffee table and muttered, 'Be right back,' to Rick, who nodded. She ascended the stairs for several minutes and descended the stairs with the few presents she could find, because a tree without many presents under it looked sad. She had saved a couple things but mostly she just knew she had a few things that she could give away- things she wasn't using and things she'd grabbed knowing certain people would need them and others would want them. She did end up with a gift for everyone, but probably half of them were rather small.
At this point, Conrad remembered he had three- no, stop that, TWO, presents hiding in his room and he excused himself long enough to go and get them. While Lorna had managed to find nondescript bags (tan ones mostly) to put hers in, he knew he'd have to try harder. After a few minutes he had figured it out though and he descended the staircase with one sort-of-wrapped, smallish present and another unwrapped present that he tucked behind the tree while Alicia wasn't looking. He moved back to his seat and picked up the blanket Lorna had thrown at him earlier to drape over his lap and Skylar's lap while they finished eating.
|
|
|
Post by kryss on Mar 11, 2015 20:49:37 GMT -6
Skylar: "It looks like we're ready to go!" she said, clapping her hands together. She was, in fact, assuming that no one ELSE had any presents stored away, but neither Rick or Ace spoke up, so she carried on. "I'd ask who wants to play Santa, but it looks like most of them are unmarked, so I guess we have to give them out ourselves!"
She gathered up her presents and began handing them out one by one. To Alicia went the thee little tutus she'd found, one of which was red and blue, one black and sparkly, and the other purple with pink stars, all wrapped around a white t-shirt with a hardcore watercolor version of Captain America's shield on it. It was an adult small, certainly too big for her, but she would grow into it, and could wear it for a few years (assuming it didn't get too stained or fall apart or worn out or everything else that happened to clothes in the apocalypse).
To Rick went two baseballs and two gloves she'd found in one of the neighbor's houses. The bat had, sadly, broken the first time she'd tested it out.
To Conrad went three different pairs of novelty underarmor, gathered painstakingly from various sporting goods stores. One was normal camo, one a striking pink camo, and one rainbow striped.
To Ace went a set of weights (that had NOT been easy to so much as carry into her room, so she'd just copped out and wrapped a tiny card with a doodle of him lifting said weights and an explanation of the gift)
To Lorna went a pirate hat and hook stolen from a costume shop and (hidden under the couch for the sake of surprise) a coffeemaker stolen from a neighbor's house, tested to make sure it worked, to replace the one that had broken months earlier, and coffee beans a year and a half past their expiration date lifted from a thoroughly looted Starbucks.
And lastly, to Mr. Whiskers, went a jingly ball and three stuffed mice, all scavenged from various houses.
She sat excitedly curled, waiting to see the other's faces as they unwrapped their presents.
|
|
|
Post by ashestoApples on Mar 11, 2015 21:53:57 GMT -6
Lorna raised an eyebrow at her. "By my calendar Christmas is six days away- are these early presents?" In response, Skylar showed her her iPod (too excited to actually explain- this was quicker) and Lorna stared at it as if Skylar had been hiding a huge secret all along. She immediately dug out her notebook and pen and started editing dates and the calendar pages in the back she'd been filling in as she handed out the rest of the presents.
Alicia waited patiently until she was informed she could in fact open her present, what was she even waiting for? and she tore into it with glee. Not even knowing what she was looking at entirely, she squealed and shrieked in delight, and when she had figured everything out she immediately put on one of the tutus and only didn't put on the shirt immediately because of her immense shyness for that sort of thing and also because the shirt she was wearing at the moment was dirty and Ace hadn't wanted her to immediately dirty the shirt by putting it over a shirt that currently had syrup on it.
"THANK YOU SKYWORD," she exclaimed before Ace could even remind her. She pranced over to Skylar to give her a hug and she sat down in front of her to play with the other tutus and look at the shirt.
Rick had already started opening his present (he started opening it basically as soon as it was in his hands) and he leapt up to nearly curse, correct himself (small children were nearby and as much as he had a rivalry toward Ace he could respect that cursing in front of Alicia was a wish he should respect) and make his way over to Skylar to noogie her and plant a big fat sticky (syrup, what could you do) kiss on her head. Needless to say, he was very pleased and also had to give the girl props. She'd clearly been planning this for a while.
Conrad was so shocked to receive a present that he had waited until Lorna was done opening hers, actually mustering a laugh as she did. "Only a year and a half expired! Not bad!" She was being 100% sincere. She'd missed having coffee. She set the coffeemaker down with the package of coffee to find the hat and hook. She did roll her eye, but... it was Christmas. She wouldn't put it ON, but she could at least ignore it-- that is, until Rick jammed it on her head and hooted and hollered at the sight.
At this point Conrad had braved opening his present and was so happy to have extra sets of under armor that he didn't even care that two of them were basically jokes. By golly, he would wear the shit out of them anyway.
"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU FOUND THESE- in complete sets too! Just because you're that great I'll wear the pink set first. You can't stop me- no one can stop me!" He put an arm around her and hugged her tightly, finding himself actually kind of wanting to give her a friendly kiss on the cheek, but finding he couldn't force himself. "Seriously, thank you so much!"
"Yeah, I'll echo that," Lorna said finally, raising her water bottle, the pink liquid inside sloshing around. She took a drink of it before getting up and going to the kitchen to make a cup of coffee for anyone who wanted it- she even proclaimed it once she'd plugged it in and found it was working. Rick joined her and he too hollered that anyone else who wanted coffee should come and get it- these new machines made coffee so fast that no one would be waiting long.
Can't forget Mr. Whiskers, though who was batting at the undone edges of the present before Alicia was informed she could open it for him. He played with the toys with gleeful abandon, almost immediately losing one under the couch. Whether him retrieving it instantly instead of abandoning it was evidence that he somehow knew he'd likely never see anymore of these for QUITE some time or not, Conrad wasn't sure, but he found it funny regardless.
Coffee mug and one extra in hand, Lorna came back to the living room to take a deep drink of her coffee, set it and the extra mug on the coffee table and pass out her presents. She had a feeling none of them would be as well received as Skylar's, but she could still pride herself on being able to rustle up one for everyone. Conrad (who couldn't drink coffee unless it had a pound of sugar in it) didn't take the coffee, instead giving Skylar the (sort of) wrapped present (he'd used the comics he'd saved from a random 2022 newspaper) and putting Alicia's red, white and blue stuffed cat with a bow around its neck at Ace's feet for when she returned from ogling her last present.
For Ace, Lorna had found a decent looking watch that was tough enough to withstand hopefully most situations, and she'd given Conrad the same only because the watch he currently had (a Batman watch that was probably made for husky children) was a joke and she knew he had to know it. The watches she'd given them were identical only because they were basically the only in tact ones she'd found in the place.
To Rick she'd given her last half-box of cigarettes and a pair of jeans she'd found in his size (the ones he was attached to were falling apart so badly that she couldn't believe they were still in one piece).
For Alicia she had a small bundle of clothes that she was pretty sure were actually in her size- nothing too fancy (she definitely couldn't outdo Skylar in the Captain America department), but she was sure that even if Alicia didn't like them, Ace would be thankful.
Finally, to Skylar, she gave her circa. 2018 laptop computer that still ran semi-well and, more importantly, had all of her old music on it. Obviously it was useless for most anything other than the very few games she'd had installed and the music, but she hoped the sentiment remained.
As a house gift, Lorna unveiled the PS5 (circa. 2020 and outdated by the PS6 and the PS7) she had in the garage with a list of rules as to when they could play it and when they couldn't. Rick reacted strongly to all of his presents combined (only not smoking immediately because the snow had picked up outside and because Lorna had just finished finding all the cords to the PS5 he'd found several weeks back and hadn't even TOLD him until now). Conrad threw his watch directly in the trash and put on his new one, thanking Lorna while he changed the date that she had pre-programmed in now that he was aware it had been wrong.
Alicia opened her last present and was PLENTY excited for more clothes, well exceeding Lorna's expectation, but Skylar's shirt and the stuffed cat (which she immediately named Steve) stole the show in her eyes.
|
|
|
Post by kryss on Mar 12, 2015 2:33:53 GMT -6
Skylar: She squealed at Alicia's hug, squishing her back and whisking her up, wiggling her around a little before releasing her. She laughed and wiggled under Rick's grasp, trying to wipe away the sticky when he was done. She beamed at the other's responses, tingling at Conrad's hug.
Opening Lorna's gift, her eyes went wide and she sat, speechless.
"Lor... lor... lorna. Thank you!!!! Thank you thank you!" she turned it over carefully in her hands. It was pretty old and outdated, but it was still respectfully powerful, definitely enough for some experiments and messing around. Plus at the very least it would have Solitaire and Minesweeper??? And if she could find other computer games (if there were any that didn't require a freakin' internet connection to download, that is.) Freaking awesome!!
She laughed at the comic-wrapped present from Conrad. She was honestly surprised to get presents at all! Lorna's she suspected was spur of the moment, but Conrad's looked prepared! She let out a shriek when she saw what it was, a beautiful wide-necked sweater in light and dark blue, with purple music notes dancing across it. She tackled him, wrapping both arms tightly around his torso.
"EeeEEEE THANK YOU THANKYOUTHANKYOU!!!!" she said, hugging him for quite some time before finally letting go. She almost rolled off the couch before righting herself and pulling the sweater on right then and there. "I love it!!" she said, beaming down.
Ace: When he opened Skylar's present, he gave a bemused look at it, getting the message but still unable to get over the doodle of himself. Was he... why were his lips puckered like that? His muscles weren't THAT big..... and was that a... sparkle by his face?
Lorna's present was much easier to accept. He nodded to her with a straight, "Thank you." he strapped the watch on. It fit nicely, and now it would be much easier to coordinate activities and missions. He leaned back, giving a smile at Alicia, who was still in transports of delight over her presents. He patted her head as she played with her new cat, her new tutu ruffled out around her legs.
|
|
|
Post by ashestoApples on Mar 12, 2015 3:12:56 GMT -6
Lorna smiled at Skylar in a silent 'you're welcome'. Rick, on the other hand, was examining the PS5 as if it was mana from heaven. And in a way, it was. He was ready to load it up and hit the back living room, or as Lorna called it, the 'TV room.'
Alicia continued playing with her cat, babbling nonsense to Mr. Whiskers in a different tone of voice. She was very extra certain that he had a new cat friend to play with!
Conrad was actually really glad she liked it, and even happier when she put it on a few moments later that it fit. That was him- the guy who sort of understood girl sizes now! He laughed and hugged her back tightly before she nearly fell off the couch in her excitement. At this point he was actually a bit saddened that the hug was over.
"You're welcome," he said sweetly, still fighting off the blush on his face. He was tempted to follow Lorna and Rick to examine the PS5, but instead he thought he'd clean up a bit and lollygag around in Skylar's company as long as possible. He was in a good enough mood to be happy cleaning, too! He stacked plates and kicked wrapping paper and bags into a pile, eventually getting all the dishes minus a few mugs. He managed to make it to the kitchen and put them in the sink before he grabbed a plastic bag to take care of the wrapping paper. He bunched it all up in the bag and tossed it in the garage to take care of later, like when the snow stopped coming down in chunks each with a diameter of two inches or something equally crazy.
|
|
|
Post by kryss on Mar 12, 2015 3:38:44 GMT -6
Skylar: She smiled up at him as Conrad began cleaning. She contemplated following the others to play the PS5, but instead she decided to help him. She rolled off the couch properly this time, landing with a thud. She picked herself up and moved over to the kitchen, rinsing off the dishes he'd brought in, silently thanking the universe that they had soap in the dishwand currently. She scrubbed them lightly, humming as she did. She was feeling very happy, warm, and fuzzy, and for once she didn't mind the dishes, instead enjoying the sensation of warm water washing over her hands.
Ace: He helped Conrad, gathering up the last bits of trash into his bag. After that he scooped Alicia up, doll and all, and carried her into the living room with Lorna and Rick. Before she could protest too loudly, Mr. Whiskers followed, weaving around Ace's heels. The cat didn't normally pay him much attention, but when Alicia was in his arms he got vicarious affection.
|
|
|
Post by ashestoApples on Mar 12, 2015 3:46:41 GMT -6
Conrad found himself in an empty room suddenly and decided to peek into the kitchen to help Skylar if he could. He ended up drying the dishes and putting them away and honestly, he was happy to do it. Eventually he ran out of dishes to dry as she finished the last few and he basically twiddled his thumbs until he could dry the rest.
Making sure she was aware of him moving behind her, he put his hands on her shoulders and started giving her a massage- he wasn't sure why, really, but he felt like she deserved one. "Are there any other plans for today?" he asked, working into the stress he felt toward her shoulderblades.
|
|
|
Post by kryss on Mar 12, 2015 3:49:56 GMT -6
Skylar: "Uum," she said, her voice not quite breaking, but definitely sounding odd as he started massaging her shoulders. Her knees twitched and she leaned back heavily, encouraging him. "Not anymore," she mumbled. She hadn't anticipated how good this would feel! Was he a freakin' professional or something? She hummed as he continued, her eyes half-closing. She did not want to move from this spot, possibly ever, definitely for the next several hours, or at least until his hands gave out.
|
|
|
Post by ashestoApples on Mar 12, 2015 4:00:07 GMT -6
Conrad had not anticipated her leaning into him so fiercely and he froze for a split second as he got his bearings. Um? He was certainly glad that she enjoyed the massage and he HAD been told before that he was good at them, but he hadn't anticipated this. He ended up laughing when she made a noise.
"I didn't realize it was going to be an hour appointment. Let me pencil you in, I've got this," he said jokingly, only basing his 'spa' knowledge on TV. He lead her over to a bar stool so she wouldn't fall over and he coaxed her into sitting.
|
|
|
Post by kryss on Mar 12, 2015 4:04:34 GMT -6
Skylar: "Good," she mumbled, "I can pay well. I'll have my father pull some strings," Some of her speech was hard to understand, but she gladly sat in the stool. She really did try to contain herself, but when he got to her particular stress point, she made another noise of contentment and pressed back harder, ignoring the fact that it almost hurt a little, sending spikes of pain through her shoulder blade. It was a good kind of pain!
|
|
|
Post by ashestoApples on Mar 12, 2015 4:14:00 GMT -6
Conrad laughed, wondering what kind of money he could have gotten from tips alone doing anything for Skylar's family. He bet their pizza delivery guy got good tips.
He worked on her shoulders a bit longer and he was starting to get to the point that he was feeling pretty good about how much he'd managed to loosen her up, and this was exactly when Rick walked in.
"HEY, do ya wanna play-- OOOOHHHHhhhh shiiiit, sorry ta walk in on yer.... intimate moment there. Nice one, Connie boy!" He left the way he came in, cackling while Conrad let go and held Skylar up to be sure she didn't divebomb over the barstool. He was red from the top of his head to the bottom of his neck as he cleared his throat and started moving toward the TV room. "YOU diDN'T-- f-forget it. How about, uh, we head in there?" he asked, pointing with his thumb toward the entrance to the TV room that was in the back of the kitchen.
INTIMATE MOMENT HAHA like I could get an intimate moment in THIS house in THIS setting if I even wanted one which I probably maybe don't.
|
|