it's ya birthday

[blackestwitch]

Who: Maddie Curie + Open
What: Baking and eating a belated birthday cake
When: 5/27 (PRESENT DAY, PRESENT TIME)
Where: Kitchen + Common Area
Warnings: nah fam


[ It starts out in the kitchen. Maddie has ingredients spread out on one of the counters; cake ingredients. Flour, eggs, baking powder, salt, sugar, unsalted butter, some freeze-dried strawberries, and a gallon of milk that says "LUKE NO" on the side for some reason. A number of baking pans and utensils are also out.

There's also a large sheet of paper with a lot of raised dots along the surface, and no visible ink or other writing. She runs her hand over the paper. ] All right. I can do this...

[ Feel free to pop in at any point of the baking process. With a cat supervising from the countertop, she slowly follows the instructions she had copied down onto the sheet. Mixing ingredients, baking. It's being made into a large sheet cake because she's not sure how many people will show up.

She makes the frosting while waiting for the baking to finish, then once it's done, it decorate time. Plain white frosting over the cake, the sliced strawberries around the edges, and... ⠼⠁ ⠋ in the center, in strawberry.


After the cake is finished, a mass text goes out over the network. ] Hey guys, I'm sixteen. That means cake in the common room, come by and grab some.

[ Then, separately to Mai and Izunia, ] Hey seriously come by, we need to talk.


[ As promised, the cake is placed in the common room. It's large enough to feed a bunch so help yourself to a slice. Maddie or a helper have brought out enough plates and forks. The cake itself is a bit of a mess, as if made by a blind girl, but it tastes well enough.

The birthday girl herself is sitting on a chair, leaning against one armrest with her legs over the other. She's also got a bowl of strawberry ice cream with her? That's cheating it's not even your cake, Maddie. On the back of the chair is Zel, her cat, eying people as they come in. Maddie offers everybody a wave, assuming she hears them enter. ] Hey! Welcome to the party. Help yourself.


[ Maddie outfit container: Shirt, flannel, OH GOD WHY ]

Comments

[fistsofchange]

Hi Maddie. I brou-

[A pause, as Lin takes in the pants. What the fuck.]

uh...I brought chips.

[The bag of chips she has is labeled "bacon and bits". There is no indication what the "bits" are. Not that Maddie can see that.]

[blackestwitch]

Chips? Oh, cool. Not really sure if they go with cake, but people like chips.

[ She... eats a spoonful of ice cream. Maddie ur not even eating ur own cake. ]

You sound confused by something though. What's up?

text->action

[founderinglight]

Give me ten and I'll be there.

[And sure enough, ten minutes later Izunia wanders into the common room from the direction of his room - with a faint ruffling sound, as he rubs a towel over his hair. Looks like he was caught in the shower today.]

Heard you were looking for me.

[And, okay, there's an emphasis on 'looking' that makes it clear that it's the gentle tease that it is.]

[fistsofchange]

Well, um.

I don't know how else to put this but you forgot to wear pants.

[blackestwitch]

I've been keeping my eyes open for you, at least. [ She tries not to smirk at her own bad joke.

Such brevity fades after a moment. ] But yeah, I need to. Talk about my world. [ Emphasis on need. ]

[blackestwitch]

I'm wearing shorts.

Are shorts not a thing where you're from? [ She adjust her position a bit, leaning to the side. See? Shorts. At least in this position all that's really visible is shiny purple metallic fabric, and not, say, the words. ]

[founderinglight]

By all means, unless you'd prefer somewhere with more privacy? In which case we can probably snag one of the meeting rooms or such.

[Hey Zel. Izunia's gonna give you a quick nod and then snatch himself some of that cake.]

[blackestwitch]

[ Maddie didn't keep a secret identity by being dumb about it. She nods. ]

A meeting room would be good. Those are up by the labs, right?

[fistsofchange]

Sure they are, just not...

[Lin trails off. Well, if Maddie's comfortable with it, who is she to argue?]

...ANYWAYS. Chips. And cake. Happy Birthday.

[founderinglight]

The half-level directly above, but close enough.

[He slides the towel off his shoulders and unceremoniously into the Armiger it goes.]

Shall we?

[blackestwitch]

That's "by" enough for me. Let's go. [ Maddie stands up, stretching a bit. Zel jumps onto her shoulder. ] Lead the way.

[founderinglight]

Fair enough.

[And we're just gonna zoom our way to said meeting room with a bit of cake munching on the way. Success!]

Oh, good, there's still chairs in this one.

[Flop!]

[blackestwitch]

[ Zel hops down once they enter the meeting room and the door closes behind them. And then up onto a chair. ] The chair's over here. It's a swivel chair, by careful. [ His voice is the same as when he was a monster - just as deep even though he's in a more cat-like form now. ]

Yeah, yeah. [ She quickly takes a seat, Zel leaping up onto the back of the chair as she does. She tests the chair a moment, swiveling back and forth, before stopping to face Izunia....'s general direction. ]

Okay! So. Now that my secret's out with you, I really needed to go over the situation in my world. Because otherwise, me and my friends could end up looking really bad if somebody else shows up and talks their own talk.

[founderinglight]

[Hey, general direction's good enough, it's not like he isn't a two-thousand-year-old child who spun his in a full circle immediately when he sat down.]

That kind of conflict, is it?

[He'll judge carefully... But, really, he has a hard time imagining Maddie as a truly bad person. People as young as her rarely are, and those that are hide it poorly.]

Of course I'll listen.

[blackestwitch]

[ You don't argue with the RNG. The shorts were meant to be worn. ]

Thanks! Though technically it's a bit late, but people were gearing up for the Fissure, and... anyway, friends from home showed up, so it worked out better this way.

Anyway, what kind of chips did you bring?

[fistsofchange]

[She looks at the bag.]

"Bacon 'n' bits" potato chips, apparently.

1/2

[blackestwitch]

Okay, I'll start off with the simplest stuff. I'm pretty sure I've told you some of this but. Not the truth.

[ Deep breath. Aaand... go. ]

In my world, animal companions [ she gestures at Zel ] show up to children with high magical potential. They tell them - us - that their power is needed to fight off thaumivores, the monsters that have been showing up in my world with increasing frequency. So we become mages, to protect the planet.

Then they tell us that we can only keep our power for a while. Once we turn eighteen, we have to give up our magic. Magic is a finite resource, so only by giving it up can the next generation of mages fight the thaumivores. That part... is a lie.

[blackestwitch]

There's a group that calls themselves the Hand. They're a group of mages from long ago. They've told lies that have been accepted as common knowledge.

Magic is not finite.

The animal companions are sent by them.

And when we give up our magic, it doesn't get.. recycled back into the system for the next generation of mages. The companions take all of our power and bring it to the Hand.

They use it to stop their aging, and increase their own power. And when they can't take any more, they hoard it, even when it's doing nothing for them, just so they can have it.

[ She's getting. A little worked up. So she pauses, takes a deep breath. Gives Izunia time to ask questions if he has any before she continues. ]

[blackestwitch]

. . . . What are the "bits"?

[fistsofchange]

Not a clue!

[founderinglight]

...How utterly loathsome.

[The primarily emotion of his voice is a sort of distanced disgust. But there's the faint undercurrent of anger in his voice.

No questions, for now. Though Zel at least will notice that he folds his right hand over his left, over the red marks there that weren't there a few days prior.]

Hearing about worlds such as this, I begin to think that magic is more trouble than it's worth.

[blackestwitch]

[ Zel notices, but doesn't say anything. This is Maddie's turn, he'll chime in when appropriate. ]

The thaumivores, they're a real threat. That's not a lie. But the thing is, they're only attacking our world because they sense the magic there. Not... the normal magic, inside of mages. They sense the enormous amount that the Hand has been hoarding. That's why attacks have been increasing.

The Hand knows this. It's literally dooming the world, but they don't. Care.

Instead, they take the thaumivores that attack them and...

[ This is his cue. ] They use their own magic to turn us into cute little creatures, like cats. So that we might sense the magic in children and mentor them, until such a point that we might bring that power to the Hand.

It gives us some measure of... not intelligence, not more than we already had, but ability to think in ways that seem more human.

To ensure our cooperation, they magically bind us to their will. Should we fail to follow their orders, we can either be killed, or they simply release their magic. The initial transformation back into thaumivore is maddening, and most of the time, we would kill the mages we would be mentoring. Then in turn be killed by other mages, ensuring no loose ends.

[blackestwitch]

...I'm not sure I trust like that.

[founderinglight]

Makes sense enough. I'm somewhat familiar with how magic can affect someone's cognition.

[Somewhat personally familiar.]

I take it that wasn't the case for you two.

[blackestwitch]

Zel told me everything.

An "unfortunate" side effect of altering our cognition means we're quite capable of gaining bonds and affection for our charges. And make decisions that are best for them.

And I was able to find somebody who could break the Hand's control over him. After that, we stayed off the radar for a while, but then we kind of got drawn into fighting the Hand.

Which is really the main point. Because of the way they've manipulated information, anybody from my world who sees Zel's other form will think he's either a mindless monster, or a rogue companion that's a danger to everybody. If they recognize me, it would probably be as a criminal, because they don't know what I'm fighting against.

And if one of the Hand shows up. Their entire thing is manipulating information. They'd say that magic girl and her monster are a threat, and try to turn the Station against us.