DECEMBER EVENT PART ONE: ALL IS CALM

[sailmods]

early morning on the 23rd, Friday makes an announcement over the speaker system, cheerfully asking everyone who signed up for the excursion to gather in the atrium. when they arrive, they will find Friday, very seasonally dressed, who takes them down to the tender, which it appears she will be “driving” this time. during this particular trip, none of them lose consciousness, nor suffer any sort of physical aftereffects. however, it does feel like the trip takes about five hours of just. sitting in the tender in utter silence, with little light and still air. so maybe stop being little babies about the anesthesia???

when Friday opens the tender door for them, they find themselves stepping out into the lobby of a hotel - though, if they turn around, they’ll find there was no door at all, and any passengers they see after that will appear as if they are appearing out of the ether.

there is a clone Friday manning the front desk, and though, like the others, she isn’t much for conversation, she is very snappily dressed! she helpfully hands out keys to everyone who approaches her; they aren’t numbered, and are actually entirely physically indistinguishable from each other, but they seem to open up whatever room you want easily enough, and don’t seem to work for any others. weird. the dressers and closets in the rooms also contain suitably sized winter clothing, enough to last the few days they’ll spend there, and then some. weird.

once they’ve situated themselves, they’ll find that what lies before them is a realm much larger than others they’ve encountered; the land extends for miles in any direction, including upwards, though you’re more likely to hit a cliff before the hard barrier. there’s about a foot and a half of snow on the ground, and it continues to fall steadily. the forests lack all signs of life, but the foliage is rather attractive, as long as you don’t examine it too closely; coniferous trees are just easier.

all of the amenities are seemingly staffed by ghosts, though they give off even less of a presence than the ones aboard the ship do. there is also an industrial kitchen attached to one of the dining areas, though the meals served don’t seem to come from it, and it has a distinctly different feel than everything else around it, as if added in slapdash at the very last second.

there is one last oddity, however. every night, at about 2AM, the entire reality goes mute. voices don’t sound. snow doesn’t crunch under footsteps. even the winds are quiet. the effect ends at about 6AM. it’s probably fine.

happy holidays.

Comments

2

[littlefairytale]

In the kitchen there is a Ruby, currently sat on the floor in front of one of the ovens rather than cleaning up her baking equipment that sits on one of the counters. On her lap is a tray of finished cookies that she's eating from.

She catches sight of Cassandra out of the corner of her eye and turns, flashing a smile. "Hey, Cassandra. Want a cookie? They're totally edible," you'd hope so considering the one she'd holding with a bite taken out of it, "they're just not quite right."

Re: 2

[not_the_last]

Cassandra's a little startled to find Ruby sitting on the floor, but the cookies seem self-explanatory. "Hi, Ruby. Sure -- what do you mean, not quite right?"

She's not going to sit on the floor herself, at least not yet, but she'll crouch down to take one of the offered cookies.

[littlefairytale]

Ruby holds the tray up away from her lap so Cassandra can grab a cookie. "I'm trying to recreate a specific recipe from memory. But it's been years and I usually wasn't the one doing the measuring and stuff when we made them? Soooo I haven't got it quite right yet."

[not_the_last]

"Do you have any idea what isn't right yet?"

She picks one up and takes a cautious bite, trying not to be too insultingly obvious about the caution.

[littlefairytale]

"There's just... something missing. The flavour isn't the same. I don't know if it's because I've not put enough of something in, or too much, or none at all, but..."

A little shrug. She stuffs the rest of her own cookie in her mouth, but has the decency to finish chewing before she speaks again.

"It's been a couple years since I even ate any, but I think I'd know if it was right."

[not_the_last]

"They're quite good," Cassandra offers, "though naturally I can't tell how close they are to what you're trying to recreate. I suspect you've come much closer than I could, if I were trying."

She leans against the counter and takes another bite.

[littlefairytale]

"I guess you don't do a lot of your own cooking and stuff in your position, huh?" Ruby rests the tray back on her lap properly and leans a little forward to squint at the cookies currently baking. "My sister did most of the cooking that dad didn't do. I got distracted too easily, or made a mess. But I always got to help during the holidays. Or, well. Specifically with mom's old recipe."

[not_the_last]

"No, we never did. I think it might have been nice to learn, but ..." A sigh, resigned and not all that displeased. "My parents never did either, as far as I know. The household recipes were the chief cook's domain."

[littlefairytale]

"And here there's no real way to learn because there's never usually kitchens. Though this is the second time there's been an actual kitchen on an excursion..."

The first being at camp, her first ever excursion, but she hadn't done anything with it then. It's entirely winter nostalgia getting her to try now.

Ruby tilts her head a little, glancing up at her. "Do you want to watch and maybe help if I have to make another batch after the ones in now are done?"

It's... honestly pretty likely she does...

[not_the_last]

The look on Cassandra's face is a complicated kind of surprised pleasure at being asked.

"Yes, please. I'd like that. You'd have to tell me what to do ..."

[littlefairytale]

"That's okay! I've actually been finding it pretty fun teaching stuff? And this isn't super complicated." She's been giving Erin lessons about her Aura and that's more involved than something like this, but it's been nice.

A timer dings. Ruby offers the tray she's holding up to Cassandra so she can then shuffle back and open the oven to pull out the new batch.

[not_the_last]

Cassandra takes the tray, and casts about for a place to set it down while she waits for Ruby to check the freshly finished cookies.

"How do they seem?"

[littlefairytale]

Ruby, lacking some amount of her self-preservation instincts in all corners of her life, straight up takes a bite from a just-out-of-the-oven cookie. Despite the clear instantaneous regret in her eyes, she chews, swallows, and talks only momentarily like she's burned her tongue which she absolutely did.

But you know, thank the Gods for Aura healing minor injuries.

"They are..... still not quite right, gah. Guess we will be making that new batch."

[not_the_last]

"Let me try one?"

She'll juggle the hot cookie for a moment between her hands, before breaking off a piece and blowing on it to cool it a little before putting it in her mouth.

"These are good, even if they're not right yet. Are you any closer to being able to pinpoint what's wrong?"

[littlefairytale]

"I think... I'm on the right track with the cinnamon I added this time. I don't think I used the right amount, though. I only added a little in case it turned out I'd misremembered and hated it."

She is not good with unfamiliar tastes. She did not want to overwhelm herself. But this was closer, so she hops fully up to her feet at last, clapping her hands together.

[not_the_last]

"So, more cinnamon it is?" She smiles; it's almost a grin, at Ruby's enthusiasm.

[littlefairytale]

"More cinnamon it is! Okay, let's do this."

All of the stuff needed is still out on another counter, so she beckons Cassandra over that way, offers her an apron on account of possible mess, and will start explaining the first couple steps of baking cookies with equal enthusiasm as she reorganises the equipment and ingredients.

[not_the_last]

Cassandra ties the apron over her dress with a bemused sort of happiness, and stands ready to assist. The processes are new to her, but none of them are particularly difficult once explained, and there's actually something rather cathartic about beating sugar and butter together with all the force she can muster.

[littlefairytale]

There's a certain clarity that comes with seeing how Ruby handles baking cookies, in that anyone watching or helping her can immediately see why she was always supervised. She's a bit messy. But! She does know what she's doing, and she is getting good at guiding people through learning things, so despite that it goes alright.

She plonks herself down on the floor in front of the oven as soon as they're in again. She's really just like this. "There. That was fun and hopefully this batch will be right. Or really close to it. I am going to have so many cookies to offer people..."

[not_the_last]

Cassandra, for her part, leans against a counter and dusts off her hands.

"How well do they keep? You could bring them back to the ship and have cookies for weeks."

[littlefairytale]

"Oh that's— a good point, actually, food around here doesn't actually. Uh. It kinda keeps forever. So I could bring them back."

Could, were she actually around to do so...

[not_the_last]

Cassandra beams. "And you could share them with other people there as well. I know the food at the buffet keeps changing, but somehow there's a difference to something that people made themselves."

[littlefairytale]

Ruby nods firmly. "There's more love in something you make yourself. Plus it's something we actually chose to make. On the ship we just have to make do."

[not_the_last]

"Maybe that's it. It's nice not to have to just make do for a little while."

[littlefairytale]

"Yeah, even a brief respite where we can have things like this... it's nice."

When the timer goes off again, Ruby... still does not have the restraint to let the cookies cool before she tries one. But despite risking burning her tongue again, she does light up.

"—now that's almost exactly right."