December Catch-All

[maximumcake]

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


Wildcard!
Suggest something or just jump right in. Let's go!

Comments

[knotawolf]

[He is making it worse by trying to smush this cookie back together so he puts his hands up and steps away.]

Not sick. Can't eat. Something is wrong with me inside since got here. Can eat ice, but not food. [But it led to him discovering he likes ice so there's that.] Yuuki showed me, am full of sand.

[Well technically he took a bite out of himself to prove he had blood, which as it turns out, he does not.]

[maximumcake]

[Max is unconcerned about the cookie. He'll eat that one himself if nothing else. He can't say the same about this new revelation.]

Full of sand? You mean... literally?

[knotawolf]

Yes. Would show but then I will leak. [He at least doesn't seem too bothered by that.] But don't feel like am made of sand... Is from a demon ritual.

[Totally normal conversational tone even though he just started talking about demons.]

[maximumcake]

Oh my God. H-how are you...?

[A demon ritual?? Holy shit.]

How did that happen?

[knotawolf]

Used candles and sand inside glass... [He holds his hands about 6 inches apart trying to figure out the word to explain an hourglass.] Sand going from one side to other? Were many of them in circle.

[He paces in a circle indicating where they were with his foot.] Here and here and here and then Yufei in center, and blood draining out. Then it [Crossing his arms and pointing.] Traded. Sand for blood.

Killed one of the demons! [He sounds so proud of himself.] Pushed into circle and it turned into green smoke. But then others pushed me into circle and now... sand.

[maximumcake]

An... hourglass? Like this?

[Max picks up his small tea-timer hourglass from its place on the counter to show.]

Yufei, did you agree to be part of their spell? Did you want to be changed like that?

[knotawolf]

Yes yes! [That should be accompanied by vigorous nodding but he hasn't quite learned human mannerisms yet.]

No! Did not know what was happening. They tried to take my food! [Which would have been Yufei. This is gonna be weird to explain without straight up saying what happened.] But this is not what they wanted to do, I ruined their ritual. They wanted to make this into one of them.

I think. Do not know much about demons.

[maximumcake]

Your... food?

[Why does he get the sense he will regret asking?]

I don't know a lot about demons, either, except I know they are evil. It's probably good that you ruined their plans. I'm sorry it changed you in the process.

[knotawolf]

Yes. This. [Pats his chest.] Me.

Ended up good after woke up. [After all the screaming he did anyway.] Have better hands now, can hold things without breaking. [Eyeing that crumbled cookie.] Most things. Am getting better. Siffleur showed me how to light candle!

[Said in the same tone a little kid would use to tell someone they saw a lion at the zoo.]

[maximumcake]

You...?

[He doesn't mean?]

Oh.

[That... well, if he can forgive Siffleur he can forgive Yufei.]

Don't worry about the cookie. Those are meant to break anyway. I remember the first time we met you didn't know a lot about human things. I'm glad you're happy with what you have now. I'd feel bad for you if you didn't.

Is there anything else you want to learn?

[knotawolf]

Yes is good! Have learned how to use fork and use phone and the machine that makes clothes smell good.

[Fortunately for everyone on board he did know how to shower, it just took him a while to figure out how to get his pants off. Who knew you needed to take the shoes off first? Learning something new every day here! That's why he wears flip flops now.

He thinks about things he's seen and wants to know about. And comes up with the most obtuse, conceptual question he could possible ask:]

What is time?

[maximumcake]

Time?

[Oh boy. He didn't know he'd be getting that deep today. But, okay. It's okay. He's got this.]

Time is... how we count the passing of... existence.

[No, it's okay, he can do this. Really.]

Watch this.

[Max picks up his kitchen timer and sets it to thirty seconds. The small white contraption makes a steady ticking sound as the arm slowly crawls back to the zero mark.]

That is a timer. It helps you measure how much time is going by. See the hand moving? It helps me cook my food because I don't want to leave it in the oven too long. If I cook it for too much time, it will burn.

[knotawolf]

[Passing of existence? This is deep. Things keep happening forever because that's how it works. Can't stop things forever.

His eyebrows shoot up as it starts ticking, he watches it go in a half circle, noting the little hash marks.]

When ticking stops know food is done? [He is going to jump about a mile when the alarm actually goes off.] How do you know how far to turn it to make sounds?

[maximumcake]

Well, yes. I know because I picked how long it ticks. I set it how much time it ticks for.

[Speaking of, that time is up. DING!]

[knotawolf]

[He's about to respond that he doesn't understand how you choose time, and then the thing starts a shrill ding ding ding and Yufei startles, and immediately brings his hand down on it, breaking it into a hundred pieces and squishing it with way more force than necessary.]

[maximumcake]

G-ah! ...ah...

[Well. Now he is very glad he didn't use the hourglass for this show and tell... rest in pieces kitchen timer, you brave soldier.]

Sorry. I should have warned you. The noise means the timer is...done.

[It's VERY done.]

MMMaybe we can try this a different way. Do you know how to count?

[knotawolf]

So time is over now. [He thinks he understands, pulling his palm up and looking at the pieces lodged in his hand now, picking them out as they talk.]

One, two, three, four? Yes. Can count.

[maximumcake]

No, time itself is never over. It keeps going. But that timer was helping me count it. Just like you were counting. That's how we keep track of it.

We have clocks that help us keep track of it, too, because it would be really hard to go about our day if we had to count it ourselves the entire time, you know?