faderift | Semi-Open

Entry tags:

Semi-Open

WHO: Cosima Niehaus, Ruby Lucas, Avery, Lexa, Herian Amsel, Raymond Gibbs, you?
WHAT: Various odds and ends for Harvestmere
WHEN: Covering the last twoish weeks or so of the month
WHERE: Various
NOTES: Not going to set up open hooks this time. HOWEVER if I a) forgot a thing we said we were going to do or b) You'd like to do something with Cosima this month and aren't elsewhere, hit me by DM or Plurk. ETA: note the warning for discussion of torture in one of the threads.

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"Don't tell me you made these."

Yes, she is inspecting one of the gourds suspiciously after that conversation they had. Isn't she just the most pleasant roommate and the best at making people feel appreciated for the effort they put into things? It's probably why she has so much knowledge and experience with this custom called "girl's night" and is absolutely not mildly to moderately uncomfortable right now and more than a little afraid of what is to come.

For her part, Ruby is smiling a little at the gourds. Oh, sure it's not the bright, easy smile of months times past, but it's still as smile as her fingers trace over the outline. "Seems like a gourd idea to me," she says softly, before glancing at Cosima with a conspiratorial raising of her brow. "Too bad we can't put on The Golden Girls and paint each other's nails."

She's seen stains, but it's just not the same as pinks and purples and greens, all vibrant and shiny.

"It's seriously awesome, Cosima."

"We'll throw out anything organic after tonight, I promise we won't get ants," she says to Avery. Then she turns to Ruby and smiles. If someone in this room were to suggest Cosima's good cheer is, at least somewhat, conjured for the benefit of her roommates, well... she'd say they didn't know what they were talking about.

(And it really is good to have Ruby back where, in Cosima's opinion, she firmly belongs. She doesn't need to fake being happy about that.)

"Yeah, DVDs were impossible and spa supplies weren't exactly easy to come by, but I figured refreshments we could do, at least. Welcome back. And," she adds, moving to grab them, "I managed to get us a deck of cards, if we want either games or fake fortune telling, so."

Avery has turned from the gourd now to just... look back and forth between the two of them blankly.

"Right," she says slowly. "Well, I understood half of that at least."

"We could start making things up just to see if you'd notice," Ruby starts, smile bordering apologetic - but only just, "except I think you might just judge us to an early grave."

Ruby, for her part, turns to claim a place on her bed, drawing her feet up to rest on the edge. "Oh, fortune telling? That's bold. Do any of us actually know how to read fortunes from cards?"

Cosima laughs a little. "If either of you secretly do, I guess speak now, but it's not like that ever stopped someone from trying at a girls night before." She leaves the deck on Ruby's bed, and moves to start on the drinks. "And I solemnly promise, Avery, I may be shit at explaining our culture, but I see no need to make anything about it up. There's too much real weird stuff to pick from."

Enjoy this doubtful look and quiet hmm sound.

It's all those particular comments are earning either of them before she just says, "The only fortune-telling I've ever learnt is that if someone has convinced you they can see your future in a deck of cards, there's a good chance you're about to be swindled."

"That is very wise," Ruby replies, grinning a little. She's still easing back into the whole smiles and sunshine thing. It's only partly facade, now, but she couldn't tell you entirely certainly what elements are sincere and which are done for the sake of other. At least she's brighter than she was in the dungeon, and definitely more sincere than then.

Idly, she picks up the cards and starts shuffling them, to occupy her hands, keep them from any more nervous seeming habits. "Honestly, I've tried to explain it while having the culture shock perspective, and it still doesn't make it any easier. Maybe we can just make up our own new, innovative method of fortune telling. Reading the stains left from red wine on a white shirt, or something."

"I mean, as someone who didn't believe in magic before Thedas, one way was as good as another. Though god knows you don't get through dating a few women in California without getting your Tarot cards read. Or someone who's very, very concerned about your aura."

Cosima's tone is more fond than condescending. After all, who is she to judge? Maybe her aura said clone destined to get sucked into another world, which would, indeed, be concerning.

For Avery's benefit, she adds, "The region I grew up in has a reputation for being very in touch with spirituality and things you can't strictly prove with observable data. It's kind of a thing."

She's frowning. She's definitely frowning, but what about this exchange is making her frown is a little unclear. There are a lot of new concepts shooting past her at the moment, and there are a lot of questions she could be asking about any of them.

Instead, she's just silent for a long moment, making the face of someone trying to work out a difficult math problem in their head, then sighs and asks, "So you want to do some sort of fortune-telling when you know it's fake and I know it's fake and it's all just made up... Why, exactly?"

"For fun, mostly." She leans towards Avery, conspiratorial. "It's part of the whole whimsical, ridiculous package. When you signed up to be our roommate you kinda committed to to it."

After all, the first time they met was when Ruby was running a giant snowfight in July. Good times for all.

And she grins at Cosima, before clarifying: "She means they're a bunch of free-loving hippies who think crystals will give them all the answers to life's problems." Not, mind you, that saying that will necessarily clarify anything, or be an accurate representation of San Francisco.

Cosima laughs, "Okay, well, some of us are convinced our collection of sensitive guitar-driven ballads will give us all the answers, and then there are like, the people obsessed with kale. I told Avery about kale earlier," she adds. Helpful!

She comes to give Avery a drink first, because Avery seems to need it more.

"This kind of fortune-telling, it's just... play. Like kids blowing dandelion fuzz to see how many kids they'll have, which as I'm saying it, I realize may not be a thing here either."

Avery just takes the drink and sits down with it. She has nothing to say to any of this. Doesn't know what she would if she tried. She's not used to people trying to include her in things that are "social" or "fun" (at least not for very long), and this whole... whatever this situation is remains totally uncharted territory for her.

The two of them can sustain the banter without her, right?

"I don't think that was a thing where I was from," Ruby replies with a bemused smile. "We used them to tell the time. Not the most effective method, as it turns out." And, equally helpful, "kale is overrated."

Ruby just turns and flops against the bed a little, still holding herself up on her side so she can speak to the others.

"Is palm reading a thing in Thedas?"

Cosima gives Avery a mischievous smile that suggests she will be no help at all in checking Ruby's propensity to tease her.

Instead, she just adds, "That's a common clumsy teenage seduction technique in some circles, you know. 'Oh, yeah. Let me look at your palm. Wow, you've got a really long love line, that's amazing.'" She catches Ruby's palm and feigns fascination, peering at it closely.

Yeah, you know what? She's just going to have a healthy swallow of her drink and continue to eye them with disbelief and mild discomfort.

"Not a line, I've heard before, no," she answers eventually. "Maybe up north."

...okay, realistically it could be a thing in her hometown and she might just not be aware of it. 'Seduction techniques' are not exactly her area of expertise.

"Everything happens up north," Ruby agrees wryly, even as she tilts forward to peer at her palm with false dramatics. "Woah. Forget the love line, Cosima. You're ignoring that giant seeing through that bullshit line, there."

It's said with so much dramatic sincerity, too, as she gently nudges Cosima, and looks to Avery with a grin. "Well, are there any lines you can warn us about? I mean, we're kind of unprepared, here. We might need to arm ourselves against some smooth operators."

"Hey," she says, laughing, "I did specify clumsy. Also teenagers. I never tried it, but it was tried on me."

A short pause, then she adds, "I generally find even bad lines work well if you're attracted to the person offering them, and vice versa, so warnings are only kind of useful."

"Yeah, I'm not really the person to ask," Avery is quick to shut down.

She shifts in place so that she's sitting more comfortably but also angled slightly away from where the two of them are goofing around, and her attention goes almost completely to the drink in her hands. Clearly there are mysteries within to be pondered. Why else would she give it such intense regard?

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Semi-Open

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slides in ten years late with pumpkin spice lattes

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punches inbox into the sun

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