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?

[deadly_ned]

[He gives a shrug, still looking down in his lap, and spreads his arm out behind him; come and try for yourself]

[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]

'Bon.'

[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]

[itstopped]

What does bon appetite mean? [He pronounces the second word, of course, the English -- or Colonial -- way as well.]

[deadly_ned]

Good appetite.

It's. French.

[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? ]

[itstopped]

Is that a language? [He sounds sort of skeptical.]

[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]

[deadly_ned]

[He nods, suddenly and overwhelmingly self-conscious at the line of questioning. Maybe it was better not to correct Felix at all]

[deadly_ned]

[With a mute shrug that also spoke of the hopefulness that doing so would lead Young Ned on the fast track to friendship, he reached over, stuck a fork in the closest pie, and pushed it Bruce's way]

[justplaying]

You a mute or somethin'?

[Victor: always full of manners.

Either way he's on his way. He'll follow his nose.]

[deadly_ned]

No.

[Just that; a simple, quiet word. Young Ned hates talking; will not talk if he doesn't have to]

[justplaying]

Coulda fooled me.

[Give him about ten minutes and he'll prowl in, still in full tracking mode, meaning periodic stops to sniff.

And then there's pie. Goal located, he leaves off "hunting" to skulk over to investigate.]

You make all this yourself?

[deadly_ned]

[Young Ned sits motionless on the countertop, apprehensively watching Victor in the hopes that this is a friend and not a bully. He nods in deference to the question, holding a mixing bowl tight to his chest]

[itstopped]

From where? [It's not your fault he's slightly oblivious to social cues, Ned.]

[deadly_ned]

....France.

[itstopped]

I've never heard of a planet called France.