#pendips

So, I didn’t exactly have a day 2 because I didn’t really like the topic, and couldn’t think of a good one to replace it. But, anyways here’s day 3:

3) Choose a location, be it fictional or real, from your own imagination or from another’s. Wait until you are hungry. Then, describe the most stereotypical yet high-quality meal that place could possibly provide.

There was a candy on the arm of her chair. It was a stick of sugar, mostly white save for a slightly purple pink stripe winding around it and wrapped entirely in plastic. There was no note or anything else to explain why it was there or who had left it. There was just the candy stick and its horrible plastic wrapper.

The Lady grimaced as she picked the candy stick up. Plastic was so… tasteless, especially here in Fairy. Everything in Her demesne was natural. Clothes were made of silk and cotton and wool, none of that dreadful nylon or polyester, and items and food were stored in wood or metal or fabric bags. Plastics had no place here.

The plastic didn’t even have anything useful on it. It had a white rectangle with black stripes on it, and something that said “American Fork”, though She had no idea what “UT” meant. A person’s initials, perhaps? Then the plastic wrapper declared that the candy stick was supposed to be pomegranate flavoured, though nothing in the ingredients list mentioned the fruit. The main thing in the stick appeared to be sugar, and the fourth thing mentioned was “natural flavours”. That seemed like an awfully useless description to Her. Lots of things had natural flavours. The stick could taste like strawberries or apples or like nothing but sugar.

The Lady called for one of the humans. A young woman with dark hair answered the summons, and the Lady held up the candy stick.

“Who was in here last night?”

The human looked blankly at the stick candy for a moment. “Nobody should have been here, My Lady,” she said. “We were in the kitchens most of the night, preparing for this evening.”

The Lady put the candy stick in the human’s hand. “Dispose of this outside Fairy, then return to your duties.” She wasn’t accepting it. The plastic needed to go and She didn’t accept treats that appeared from nowhere. She certainly didn’t accept treats where the giver just left it there before leaving without saying a word about what was expected in return. Accepting it could open her up to all sorts of trouble.

“Fucking hell...” Kent stared out the window, not sure what to think. Something had happened overnight. All the deciduous trees he could see had suddenly lost all their leaves, and not a one of them looked like they were still alive. Buildings didn’t look quite as straight or real as they were supposed to. Grass had turned brown, the neighbour’s giant spider decoration was now a real giant spider, and despite the clear skies and the rising sun, everything felt slightly grey. The air smelled like a terrible mix of sugar and decay.

It almost made him want to visit a Bath & Bodyworks store to over up the smell. The sweetness reminded him of Fairy.

“What?” Lucy asked as she made her way into the kitchen. “Why’re you swearing?” She yawned.

“Have you looked outside yet?” Kent asked. He turned away from the window. Lucy looked like she’d only just gotten up, and she was headed straight for the kettle.

“No. What happened?”

“It looks like the neighbourhood’s trying to be Halloween Town,” Kent said, motioning to the window.

“Hmm?” Lucy stopped at the stove and turned her head. “Well. That’s… unexpected.” She frowned. “I guess I know what we’re doing today then.”

“I really hope this is just a Halloween thing.” Kent looked back out the window. One of the neighbour teens, dressed up in a pair of jeans and an orange T-shirt with something black on it, had left their house and started menacing the giant spider with a broom. The spider crawled up into a tree and looked down at the teen. The teen put a hand on their hip and glared up at the spider.

“Is that today?” Lucy asked. “That might be it. If somebody wanted Halloween to look a certain way, it might just end at midnight.”

“You sure you don’t want to try a sip?” Aisling sat down next to Kent on the sofa, holding her coffee close. He moved over slightly, drinking his own drink. She was pretty sure it was hot cocoa. Once she was settled down, he picked up the remote.

“I can smell the coffee from here,” he said. Aisling looked down at her drink for a moment, then up at him. All she could smell at the moment was the pumpkin spice. She’d probably gone a little heavy one it.

“Still not a coffee fan?” She leaned into his side.

“Don’t think I ever will be.” Kent started the movie. “Too bitter.” He set the remote back down and leaned back. “You ready for tomorrow?”

“Costume’s been ready for a week,” she confirmed. She was tempted to just stay home though. She wasn’t really needed at the party, and gods knew she wouldn’t be the first person from her family to skip out on a Halloween thing to spend time with their significant other.

The opening narration started, and Aisling sipped at her drink. “We could go as Sally and Jack next year, y’know. You’d be welcome at the Halloween party too.”

He wrapped an arm around her and hmmed. “I’m not sure that’s what I’d want to be doing together on Halloween...”

She raised an eyebrow. “Oh?” The narration stopped, and the first song started.

“We don’t really get to spend many holidays alone together.” She glanced up at him. There was a faint smile on his face, though he was looking at the screen and not her.

“Well if that’s what you’d like,” she said, “I think I can do something about that.” She reached up to kiss his cheek. “And probably sooner than next Halloween, too.” Definitely skipping the party then. She sipped her coffee and smiled.

“Maybe we can have New Year’s all to ourselves this time?” He looked down at her. “I do like your family, but...”

“You like having me alone better?”

The cat couldn’t believe his luck. Yes, the first human had brought him inside after finding him in the snow near their large metal thing, and inside was dry and warm and had food, but the house smelled faintly like dog and there had been a bath. At least after he had been dried off he had been allowed to claim a piece of furniture and sleep.

Now another human, one who smelled faintly like dog and the places in the woods that were to be avoided, had just entered the house. The cat couldn’t see the human, but they apparently knew he was there.

“We have a cat now?” he asked.

“Found him under the car when I got the mail,” the first human said. “He doesn’t have a collar, and he looks like he’s been outside for a while.”

As the cat watched, the pair of humans appeared in the doorway to the room. The new one one at him, meeting his eyes for a few seconds before looking away. “Well, I’m fine with him. You want me to go get cat stuff? And did you have any name ideas?”

The cat closed his eyes and buried his nose in his tail. They were going to let him stay then. Good. He didn’t want to go back out in the snow.

“We could call him Shadow,” the first human said. “Or Blake?” The cat opened one eye to look at the humans. Shadow? Really?

“Anthony?” That was different, at least. A previous human had called him Midnight. The first human he’d been with had called him Shade.

“Why--?”

“Give me a few and I’ll figure out the trail of logic for that. So do you want to get cat supplies or should I? And have you called the vet? We should make sure the guy’s okay.” The second human glanced at him. “Should make sure he doesn’t have a chip, now that I think about it.”

“He’s got an appointment for tomorrow.” The first human wrapped an arm around the second one. “I can go out in a few and get food to last ‘til then. We can always get more.”

She lay there, looking up at the sky. She’d given up on ever getting up again already. She hadn’t been able to feel her legs for what felt like ages, and despite the sun on her face, she didn’t feel warm. She didn’t feel much of anything, really. Not her legs, not her fingertips, not the wind… Not even the chill in the air or the rocks and twigs she was sure she was lying on. She was in the woods, after all, there should’ve been rocks and bits of trees digging into her back.

Someone nearby said, “Oh, you poor little thing…”

She raised her hand up over her face. Her fingertips were gone, her hands slowly flaking away.

She didn’t have the energy to care.

“What’s a dear like you doing out here?” Someone leaned over her, looking down at her like this was perfectly normal. “Don’t you know it’s not safe to be here all alone?” They crouched down and smiled at her with too sharp teeth. “The forest is old, you know. Things that live here don’t necessarily want humans here.”

Mel opened her eyes. Sunlight was streaming in through the windows, and the house smelled like breakfast. She groaned and rolled over onto her stomach, burying her face into her pillow. Morning already? She didn’t feel at all rested.

“Mel?” Alex called. “You awake?” The door creaked open. “Peyton’s made French toast.”

“Gimme five,” Mel mumbled. “Feel like I jus’ fell ‘sleep.”

“Dream again?”

“Unfortunately.” She hated that dream. It had been over twenty years now, couldn’t her brain come up with a new thing for her? Even just a new location? Though really, she just wanted that damned fairy out of her dreams. She’d already spent far too long with him, he didn’t need to take up her time dreaming as well.

“Will French toast and bacon make you feel better?”

Mel lifted her head and squinted at Alex. The him-shaped blur was standing in the doorway with what was probably a plate. Mel reached for her glasses. “Maybe. She over her cold then?” she asked as she put them on.

“Looks it.” Alex took a bite of his own French toast. “Yours is on the table, so you’ll want to hurry if you don’t want Peyton or Zoe to eat it for you.”

“You left it where the cat could get to it?” Mel sat up in a hurry. “Why?”

Mark uses his hands to express emotion. When he’s bored he plays around with a pen or pencil, and when he’s anxious or nervous he’ll tap his fingers on something, usually his leg or a table or desk. He gestures when he talks, especially when emotions are running strong. He’s still spilled fewer drinks than Kent though.

Kent mostly expresses emotion through posture and his eyes. He pretty much only stands up straight when he’s having to pretend he knows what he’s doing or when he’s anxious. He slouches a lot, partially in an attempt to not tower as much over everyone else. He’ll cross his arms over his chest when he’s annoyed or exasperated. If you can’t tell exactly what his current posture says, you need to look at his face. His eyes are normally the best way to tell how he’s feeling. He usually tries really hard to not gesture tons, since that’s how he’s lost several drinks and a few glasses. He’s usually pretty good about it unless he’s really excited about something.

Del uses her hands a lot too, but that’s mostly because she’s pretty much always tapping on something or playing with one of her instruments. You can get an idea of her mood by the tempo of her tapping or by listening to whatever she’s playing.

The werewolves use their entire body when human shaped, and when wolf shaped they mostly use their ears. A pretty good measure of how any of them are feeling at any given moment is how much they’re moving. They have a hard time sitting still when they’re happy or excited.

“Yeah, I might be a day late gettin’ home,” Mark said into his phone. “I’m not sure how quickly this can get cleaned up or how much it interferes with driving.”

“Oh?” Mel asked. “What’s up? Car accident?”

Mark looked out the window. “No… I think this might be as just as bad though.” The ground was covered in white stuff, but it wasn’t snow. “It’s, ah… It’s rainin’ spiders.” There was an alarming amount of spider webbing on the ground and plants and roofs. Mark hated it. That was too many spiders and spiders weren’t supposed to fall from the sky.

“Sorry, what?” Justin chimed in. “What?”

“Ah.” Mel sounded much less surprised than Justin did. “Yeah, that can happen. Must’ve been windy where they originally were.”

“No.” Mark raised an eyebrow at the phone. “Fuck that,” Justin said. “Fuck that.”

“Well it doesn’t happen here,” Mel said.

Mark looked back out the window. A few people were working on clearing the roads. Another person was trying very hard to not actually touch anything except the broom they were holding.

“I’m going to have to clear the car off soon,” Mark said. “I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t decide to just bike around here.”

“Oh gods,” Justin said. “Biking through that many spiders? No.”

“I think they’re still fallin’.” Mark watched a spider climb down the window. “I hope this is mostly web and not completely full of spiders.”

“There might be lots of little spider corpses,” Mel said, “but most of that is probably just webbing. There are still gonna be a lot of live ones though.”

“Why do you know this?” Mark asked.

“I saw a video. Then I googled it, and it turns out this happens more often than you’d think.”

“Where?” Justin demanded.

“Well, most of the videos I found were from Brazil, but as Mark’s discovered, it can happen in Australia too.” Outside the window, Mark could see Jack start clearing the path from the door to the driveway.

“I think I need to go soon,” Mark said. “Looks like they’re workin’ on clearin’ the webs, and I should probably help.”

“Call us if you end up late,” Mel said. “If not, we’ll talk to you when we pick you up from the airport.”