come_sailaway | December Catch-All

Who: Max & Open
What: Max stayed behind on the ship so now he's stress baking + It's his birthday + reactions to people being home by Christmas + closed starters
When: Thru December, Birthday on Dec 20
Where: All over, technically, but let's be real, mostly the kitchen
Warnings: Stress baking and sadness, one prompt will be NSFW, others could follow because it's Max.

Stress Baking
It's fine. It will be fine. Ash and Valdis have each other. They'll watch each other's backs. He knows it. And Security will protect Helena while she makes sure it takes care of itself. Phil went, so Cassandra will be okay, right? And Klaus is... Klaus. Nothing keeps them down for long. He envies how they can float through so much without letting it touch them.

If only Max could find some of that calm for himself right now. They've been gone for so long. These things didn't usually last so long, did they? How long were they at that winter hotel?

In his distress, he's turned to the one thing that always soothes him--baking. He's not doing it quite as obsessively as the last time, but that doesn't mean the kitchen isn't rapidly filling up with cookies decorated in an assortment of winter and Christmas themes. There are some fruitcakes mixed in, too, and gingerbread. At the rate he's going, he'll have two dozen cookies to give to each and every person on this ship. He's already started bundling them into little gift bags if for no other reason than to get them out of the way and organized.

Among the batch are two very special containers--cakes he made specifically for the Captain and Sparkles. They can best be described as a diabetic coma in pastry form. One bite might be enough sugar to put even the Captain into a sugar coma. Good luck to any poor unsuspecting passenger on this ship who accidentally tries to sample one of these.

But why would they open a Tupperware that's been marked as "For The Captain" and "For Sparkles" when there are plenty of nice normal cookies all around? All anyone has to do is catch Max in the kitchen during one of his many long baking stints. Hopefully, those times he isn't in are because he's getting some normal food to eat or he's sleeping. That's what he's doing, right? He wouldn't subsist on only cookies for two weeks, surely? (He would.)

Happy Birthday
They still aren't back. When he told them it was okay to go, he never imagined they'd be gone long enough to miss his birthday. And yet...

Still, he should do something, right? Ylva is on board. So are Edgar and Daisy. Maybe they could all use a little something to brighten their day while they are all stuck waiting. So, today, instead of cookies, he's making an elaborate birthday cake for himself. And, because it's him, he's making golden Macarons to go on top as a garnish. At least it's giving him something to focus on today besides the fact that he's another year older and things are still... not as good as he wished.

Later on in the day, he goes around the ship looking for anyone and everyone he can find. He'll hand them a hand-written card he's made:

Max's Birthday Party! Tonight starting at 6:00 PM At Playback Join me for a casual night of games and cake? (No gifts expected)

He hopes people will come just so he won't feel so alone right now. They don't have to know him well, he welcomes them all.

For Grace-NSFW
It took him some trial and error to get these visual aids just right for Grace. Well, okay, so maybe he was being extra, extra careful to make them accurate and generally representative because he didn't want to give her any false ideas. He takes his job as a teacher here very seriously. Grace is counting on him... no matter how awkward this is gonna feel.

He's texted to let Grace know to come meet him, where else? The kitchen. In front of him are two objects lovingly sculpted out of modeling chocolate. One is an anatomically correct penis and balls, colored and painted with extreme attention to detail and even decorated with small strands of candy "hair". Beside that sits an equally detailed sculpture of a vulva with a long canal for the vagina attached. It has "hair" too. Along with those is a bowl of melted white icing, and an unopened condom package. Let the lessons begin.

Homecoming
Placeholder for when we get to the event end. I'll write this later. :p

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I can totally do that. Team effort." He's so charmed by the whole idea, grinning like a kid on Christmas morning.

That grin turns decidedly less child-friendly when her face heats up while describing a dress for later.

"Ylva, I want to see it so bad I have half a mind to leave my own party early just to get to that faster."

She genuinely, honestly hadn't expected that response, though in retrospect maybe it shouldn't be surprising.

"Noooo," Ylva laughs when she's gotten over her momentary confusion, "you can't leave early, not just for me. Anyway I gotta... uh, well. I might need some time to work up to it."

She is nervous, but also determined.

"I'd do a lot of things just for you, but you're right, we should stay and have fun here first."

Max leans in and plants a wet kiss on her cheek. That's for being so cute.

"You can take all the time you need. Always. Want some cake?"

"Yes," she says, at once, because she has never quite got used to the sheer availability of refined sugar on the boat, and also it's boyfriend cake, which is even better, and also she's a little relieved for the change in topic. "Who's coming, do you know?"

Ylva continues to hang off of Max like a climbing vine.

"Not sure. I gave out those invitations but I told everyone it's okay if they don't feel up to it right now. So, we'll have to wait and see."

Max is tempted to ask her if she wants a piggyback ride. He loves her hanging close. The more physical comfort, the better. It does make moving closer to the cake table just slightly more awkward but that's a price he's more than willing to pay.

"Is it a little mean if I feel like it doesn't matter as much who else on the ship right now shows up since I have my girlfriend here?"

"A little, but I won't tell," she promises.

Ylva rubs her face on his arm, inhaling his scent and warmth. "It's always... kind of weird, staying back here. Always feel a bit guilty for it. But, I mean. I had to be here for your birthday, right?"

"Our little secret."

He nods in agreement with her. "I know what you mean. But, yeah, you had to be here. I needed you here. I don't how I could get through this without you." As evidenced by how he just can't seem to let her out of his arms. He needs to cling to her for grounding.

"And when they get back, they're going to need us, too. So it will be good for us to be rested and ready to comfort them. We shouldn't feel guilty about it."

She kisses him, more gently than anything else, something slow and lingering and careful.

"I hate this place so much sometimes," Ylva says. This is vast understatement; at the end of the day, this place isn't entirely real (by her standards) and she can feel that in her blood. "But at least we all have each other. And you have me, whenever you need me."

He closes his eyes and leans into the kiss, his lips sucking gently at her, savoring the tender slowness, shutting out the world in his mind until it's just the two of them until the kiss ends.

"I know," he answers sadly. For him, this ship is better than where he came from, but for someone like her it's not the same kind of paradise. She deserves to be connected to nature, to have trees and grass and dirt to frolic in. He presses his forehead to hers. "I'm so glad I have you. And you have me. One day, I'd really love it if we could all go somewhere else where no one has to go away and get hurt anymore. I want to see you run through a forest. I want to run through one with you, howling the whole time."

"I want that so much," she murmurs. "I want to hunt something down and then see you make something amazing out of it. Oh, I want to teach you how to hunt yourself."

Ylva pulls herself up to kiss his forehead, and then buries her face in his neck so that he is all she can smell and see in this moment. "I have you, I have Erin, I am so lucky for that, but I feel so cut off from everything here, sometimes."

"I want that too. I want to see you thriving in a place that you belong. I want to learn to hunt with you so we can catch and cook it all together. You deserve to live in a place that doesn't make you feel so cut off. I wish I...knew how to get us there."

If they could go away from here, he wouldn't care where as long as she can have the connection to nature she needs. Erin, Ash, and Valdis, too. They all have something wild in them and he can tell they feel cooped up on this ship. It isn't fair. He could live anywhere as long as he has them, he doesn't need much but he wants the world for them.

"You know, Siffleur told me one time that he misses having wild animals running around. H says the Tommy Bahama is almost like a forest but it's missing that. He said he'd even like it if we all went running as a pack of wolves through the clothes. That it would make it feel more like home."

"He wouldn't mind?"

She looks thoughtful. Her animosity towards Siffleur, while one-sided, still comes from a place of deep suspicion about other large predators, and also a very clear disgust with the whole cannibalism thing. She does not trust him, vague truce or not.

"It would be nice, though, to run as a pack."

"The opposite. He said he'd like that. He wouldn't mind at all. We should do it. When everyone comes back, we should all go together. I want to know what that feels like. I've never gotten to."

December Catch-All

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