So I have a few OCs and sometimes instead of actually writing story I just find a situation and imagine them in it without proper writing, or maybe even just in dialogue. And without proper introduction to any one of them, I’m gonna put a new thing I thought of here.
“Hey, hey! Look at this!” As usual when returning from a big market, Jesse bounded along like he was a child, despite how much his purchases rattled and clanked and generally became slightly damaged by this.
Tris rolled his eyes and looked away. “What did you find this time?” Jesse dropped his packages and bags as the others tried to pick them up and start organizing, and dove into one, pulling out a glass jar of a familiar brown paste.
Imogen’s jaw dropped. “Is that peanut butter?”
“Yes! Apparently it’s all the rage out in Winland, and there’s a salesman from there trying to get the shops into it and he said it’s got dozens of uses, and -“ Jesse paused in his excited tirade. “Are you crying, Imogen? A-are you okay?!”
“I’m fine! I just haven’t had peanut butter in forever.”
“Oh… it’s something you have in your world?! Is… is it bad?”
Hikaru smiled as she looked up from unloading a stack of cans into a box in their cart. “Miss Imogen is just feeling… nostalgic, right?” Imogen nodded at the girl, unsure how to take the constant emotional translations she made for the man.
“I-I’m afraid I only got one jar of it… I don’t really know what to do with it…”
“Here, get me a knife and I’ll stir it up.” He handed over the jar and Imogen went for his pack of cooking implements instead of actually waiting for a knife. “Do we still have that jam you made?”
“Sure!” He ran over to the cart and grabbed the jar as Tris glided over to the packages and started loading the cart with Hikaru. Imogen swore the huge bird gave them all a dirty look, as if to say, “stupid humans, carry your own luggage and stop making me pull it.”
“And you got bread right?”
“Yup! I even got a loaf of white bread just like you like, Miss!” It was sometimes a little much with how Jesse fawned at her… but frankly, he did the same and worse to Tris, and almost babied Hikaru.
“It’s almost time for dinner right?”
“Well, about that…”
“We’re staying until tomorrow right?”
“Sure.” Tris injected. He was the one calling the shots in this mess, wasn’t he? “You got some coffee, Jesse?”
“Yes!” He bobbed over and opened the little bag, breathing deeply. “Smell that, Sir, isn’t it lovely?”
Tris smelled it too, unaffected. “Let’s have some tomorrow.”
Hikaru giggled and whispered to Imogen. “My brother is really happy that Jesse’s so excited.”
“How can you tell? He looks annoyed.”
“I know he looks like a void, but he’s letting out some yellow right now!” Her answer only confused the woman even more.
“It’s okay, Miss Imogen. It’s really hard to read Tristram, even for me.”
“Okay.” Imogen focused on stirring the peanut butter. “Hey can one of you slice some bread?”
“I can do that!”
“So, uh, what’s the idea with this?” Imogen sat down next to Hikaru, and waited for the bread slices to accumulate. They usually didn’t have any sort of loaf, especially not a relatively smooth sourdough like this. Sourdough wasn’t exactly great for a peanut butter and jelly, but it would have to do.
“That’ll be plenty, thank you!”
“You’re welcome!” Hikaru hurriedly set the rest of the bread into a basket hung from the top of the cart. Imogen spread peanut butter on four of the slices, wiping off the knife with one of them carefully. Then she took the half-used jar of jam and spread some of it onto the rest of the bread, while the others watched in fascination. For once, Tris looked interested in something that wasn’t a rumor about treasure.
“Here…” Imogen passed the sandwiches around, tearing back up as she took her own. She bit in. It was rough, kind of gritty, the best part was probably the cherry jam… but it tasted like getting home before her parents, and letting out her dog. Like racing into her room and turning on the computer to see if she could catch her favorite tuber’s new video before anyone else commented. Like she’d forgotten a field trip and Mom had to rush her out the door with something.
And then she opened her eyes and looked and there she was, with that self-styled author, and the weird girl who seemed to see feelings, and the cart drawn by the weird giant turkey-thing, and that guy who creeped her out but they all followed anyways because he actually knew what he was doing. And her heart sunk. Her dog was gone, and her parents had no clue what she did, and now, frankly, she didn’t either. Hikaru nudged her and cuddled into her side, clearly skeptical about peanut butter and jelly. A lot of people Imogen met since she first moved away from home were, so of course someone from some alleged other world would be too. Tris’s usually stone cold face was softened as he let Jesse lean on him, and Jesse was eagerly licking jam off his fingers, making little happy sounds and squirming. This was reality now.
