016 - Cookie Cake

[deadly_ned]

[Young Ned did not know how to make friends. His best and only friend Chuck had moved away not a few weeks before when Young Ned had inadvertently, accidentally killed her father and his mother.

He did know how to make pies.

With a flour-covered hand, he turns the camera to face him, a naturally quiet, listening boy of ten. Behind him, covering the floor, the countertops, the tables, and all the chairs he piled together in the mess hall are pies.

All kinds of pies.

As his beloved dog Digby sat behind him eating out of a pie tray, young Ned scribbled onto a piece of paper, and eventually turned it around to show the camera]


Bon Appetite

(Free Food)

Comments

[justplaying]

[...oooh. Pie. Well you have Victor's attention.]

It's spelled--

[Ugh. Now he has to think. He comes up empty, and just scowls.]

That ain't right. You got too many letters.

[deadly_ned]

[Young Ned turns the sign to look at it, and then, flushing, puts it down in his lap, dejected. He doesn't want to look at his mistakes]

[justplaying]

What kinda pie you got?

[itstopped]

Whoa... [Felix doesn't really know how to make friends, either, although he's had a run of bizarrely good luck here so far. He certainly doesn't have any friends who can make pies, though.]

What does that mean?

[deadly_ned]

[Young Ned sets his papers down, looking quizzical;

"What does what mean?"]

[itstopped]

I mean what you wrote. Bone... that's not Colonial, is it?

[iwonttell]

[ Bruce, equally silent, appears eventually. There's pie and he hasn't had pie in some time. Also, Ned doesn't speak, and that 'speaks' to Bruce. So there he is, looking at the spread and trying not to salivate. ]

[deadly_ned]

[Young Ned doesn't speak much; he's electively mute, since he's found that most people don't listen to what he says anyway and because now he'd rather not get close to people at all. He stares back quietly, watching Bruce]

[iwonttell]

[ Bruce circles the tables, eyes on the prize (pies). He glances to Ned, before he tilts his head, looks at the pies, and then back to Ned. The question is unspoken, but there: You did all this? ]

[unnumberedson]

[Huh. Okay. Free food is basically the best thing ever.]

What do I have to do to get it?

[That is: free is not always free.]

[deadly_ned]

[Young Ned did not understand. Free, to him, meant free. He took his sign out and tapped the word again, glancing back to the other little boy]

[clockworkflower]

[YAY PIES. As far as Lilith is concerned, everything she can pick up unnoticed or wheedle someone into giving her is free, so she doesn't take issue with the sign or even especially notice it; she just wanders in and helps herself.

She only takes a tiny slice from each pie on offer, because she doesn't want to miss out on any of them. Some she puts down after a bite, some (lemon meringue, spiced peach) she goes for seconds. Ned doesn't talk to her, so she doesn't talk to him, but she smiles cheerfully whenever she can catch his eye and watches his work with great interest.

Digby, though, seems a bit more extroverted, so she addresses her remarks to him instead.]

Hello, beautiful. I'm Lilith. The good witch says we don't have to go home if we don't want. I hope you and your boy will stay.

[deadly_ned]

[Digby was, in fact, far more extroverted than Young Ned. The dog follows after Lilith as she goes from pie to pie, wagging his tail. He knows that his master is really just over thirty years old, but for now he'll enjoy the ten year old version he once knew.

Young Ned watches from the kitchen island, hesitant]

video;

[some_kinda_hero]

[Claire's blinking and wide-eyed in wonder.] Wow. That is a lot of pie, but it looks like you and me think alike. I baked too, yesterday. It's a good distraction, huh?

Re: video;

[deadly_ned]

[It wasn't a distraction to Young Ned. It was a cure for homesickness, and a way to fill the gap left behind by his absent parents. But to Claire Ned only nodded and continued to stir, watching her to see if she was coming by to eat]

spam

[surrenders]

[It takes Lua a second to realize what's going on when she walks in, but then she thinks back to who else has keys and it all makes sense.]

Guess that's where you been.

spam

[deadly_ned]

[Giving Lua a quietly alarmed look, Young Ned drops down from the counter and backs away. He's in trouble now, isn't he?]

video;

[little_red_wolf]

You made a lot.

video;

[deadly_ned]

...There were a lot of people.

[unnumberedson]

[Nodding again, decisively, he shut off the feed and made his way down to the kitchens. He knew where they were, of course, he'd taken food earlier, but now he smelled pie on the way down.]

[He stuck his head in the door cautiously, in case it was a trap.]

[deadly_ned]

[But Ned - Young Ned - is alone in the kitchen, save for Digby. The two sit side by side on the floor, Digby eating his way through a pie plate and Ned with a book in his lap]

[composited]

[ Eventually, Alpha appears. ]

[ He takes up a slice of pie, and fork and sits down at a table, watching his shrunken warden with empty eyes. He does this for a span of seconds, as he takes a bite, enjoys it, and then begins to cut up another one. ]

I want you to know this, because later you won't understand: I like pie just fine, Piemaker.

[deadly_ned]

[Young Ned watches Alpha eat from his spot on the floor, staring silently up at him.

That's good. Liking pie is good.

He picks up a ball of dough and starts kneading it with his hands, still watching Alpha]

[little_red_wolf]

That many people? [She's staring at those pies.]

[deadly_ned]

...Yes?