poly_chromatic | ♦ ♦ 20th Contract - Video/Action For Housemates

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♦ ♦ 20th Contract - Video/Action For Housemates

[ The feed clicks on to a familiar sight. 'Li' being 'Li' -- placidly preoccupied with cooking. A spread of ingredients -- a slab of dough, grated vegetables, minced beef -- are in bowls on the kitchen counter. But it's apparent that the kitchen isn't his. It's too large, too well-appointed. But Li opens shelves, takes out pots and utensils, as if he's familiar with the setting. Moving to the fridge, he cracks it open to peer inside. ]

[ And scowls. ]

[ Pitching his voice to a yell -- ] You forgot the milk. Again [ -- he reaches inside to withdraw two eggs. ] One simple task. And she can't do that right...

[ Such a sweet-tempered hubby. Whatever dish he's making is surely filled with love. Halfway to the counter, he nearly trips over something lying on the floor. Glowering, he stoops to collect a child's colorful softball. ] ...It's like living in a damn toybox... [ Grumblegrumble. Hopefully he's not this charming all the time. (Spoiler: he is.) ]

[ (Ain't family life grand?) ]

[ OOC: Hit with Family Day! Mad Hatter, July, Yin and Hei are a merry (dysfunctional :|) fambly bunch. Threadjacking is mightily encouraged! Go forth and spread chaos! ^^ ]

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[Hi daddy.

Your son is sitting here on his stool watching you make food.]

[She was somewhat behind the fridge door, off to the side, more noticeable at an angle, when the door is closed. Yin mostly just watches Hei, but doesn't miss his complaint.]

[It's not the curse that causes it, but she can take some initiative and understand the lack of milk is a problem, because it's a problem for Hei.]

Should I go get some?

[And out of respect for their "guests" and because ne knows it annoys him, ne enters the kitchen before answering. A quick walk behind him, an even quicker pat to his ass...]

Darling, if you had remembered to put it on the list, the delivery boy would have brought it along with everything else.

[ Well, hello son. ]

[ Pretend you didn't hear Daddy swearing. (Part of him wonders if the wifey sent the boy to keep an eye on him. But it doesn't matter either way.) He schools his expression to something a bit more pleasantly neutral, ]

Did you need something, July? [ Juice? A sandwich, maybe? ]

[ So blissful is their state of wedlock that everything she does annoys him. Especially that pat on the ass. He shoots her a frigid look in passing -- Don't do that. But he doesn't say anything because. Oh, right. Kids are around. (How can they be their kids? She must've acquired them somewhow.) ]

If you'd handle the list yourself instead of putting everything on me, we wouldn't keep having this problem.

[ Yep. Someone has binged on bitchflakes this morning. ]

[ He glances up at the quiet voice. Oh, there you are. His favorite little angel. (Well, naturally she can't really be his. He'd have fathered her when he was like, 5, or something. ]

It's fine. I'll get it myself when I go out later. [ Want something done right, etc etc. ]

[Shaking his head. Nope, he's good, daddy.]

[She goes very quiet - quieter - to that. Rather still. For a moment Yin just looks around, then she puts a can of cat food in Mao's bowl, even though he's not there at the moment.]

[That settled, she seats herself at the table and decides to just watch, much like July is doing. What wonderful things she will learn from watching him interact with Hatter.]

Edited 2013-02-23 05:45 (UTC)

[ He puts the softball on the table and returns to the counter, glancing at July over his shoulder as he does. The boy's always like that. Watching everything so quietly. It would almost be creepy. But he's used to it from Yin. (He's used to it in a spectrum that has nothing to do with the curse, too.) ]

[ Anyway. It's preferable to the wife's ever-running mouth. ]

Want to give me a hand with the pelmeni?

[What did he expect? He has the libido of a mud puddle and ne's in the prime of nir life. If anyone has a right to be bitchy it would be nem. Ne had to get some form of affection even if it was like this.]

Well, you know how hopeless in the kitchen I am.

[He hops down from his stool and moves it over to get up close to the counter then goes to stand on it, looking up to see what they are going to do. Pelmeni? What are those?]

[ Prime of her life, his ass. What is she, like a hundred thousand years old? (Part of him still can't fathom the logic of this union. There is none. Which is precisely why it makes no sense. Was he drugged, or is this an assignment gone haywire?) ]

[ At her words, he quirks a humorless brow, ]

I'm well aware of your hopelessness. [ In this, as in all things. ]

[ He watches Yin do her thing, and can't repress the rueful thought: Why can't Hatter be more like that? Except it's not a particularly paternal whim to be entertaining. (None of this makes sense. Part of him feels like this is routine, normal and fitting with his life. The other part feels like he's in a weird dream, like Alice tumbling down the rabbit-hole). ]

[ She won't learn anything useful watching Mommy and Daddy interact. Except maybe how to not be like them. ]

Should I drop you off at the Welcome Center later today, Yin? Or are you taking the day off? [ Please say no. He needs the excuse to get out of the house. ]

[Does he have any idea how long devils live? Ne's nowhere near the end.

Amusing isn't it though how all of this seems just perfectly normal in nir mind? Even his lack of love and affection. All is right in the world, or would be if ne knew where the kids came from.]

There was no hiding that before we were wed and yet you had no complaints on some things.

[ By way of explanation, (although July never asked), he says, ] They're dumplings. Like the gyoza I made last week. [ Or that the curse tells him he did, anyway. He has a tray of the first batch laid out, thin little dough circles with a mound of meat in the center, ready to be wrapped up. ]

[ He edges the tray closer to July, ] Just fold each circle over in half. And squeeze the edges together until they're shut. Almost like a braid-shape. [ He demonstrates with one piece for the boy's benefit. ]

[Gyoza that are not gyoza? July tilts his head to watch daddy make the dumpling then picks one up to do it too before holding it up to show to his father.

Did he do a good job, daddy?]

[Because Hatter has personality~! And Yin is quiet, and slow. Unobtrusive. Easy to look past.]

[Yin takes no preference on the first question and skips answering it all together.] I hadn't considered taking the day off.

Would you like me to?

[ Where did the kids come from? He can't escape the sense that he's lost a chunk of time in his memory. Like he -- everyone -- has suffered a stroke. (Curse. It's all a curse. His subconscious keeps trilling that, but he ignores it. The entire scenario seems much too normal for such an unnatural possibility.) ]

Or maybe I just kept the complaints to myself. [ If he sounds disinterested, it's because he is. She was a mark. Part of an assignment. That's the only reason he'd ever put himself near the entanglements of legal contracts and wedding rings. ]

[ (He's never been interested in marriage. He still isn't.) ]

[ A bit slapdash, but not bad for a beginner. The boy has nimble little fingers. 'Li' nods his approval. ] That's great. Can you handle folding the others while I make the soup?

[As if ne was? Well, ne was but ne isn't good enough to marry him. Must be how ne ended up stuck with Li.]

As much as you voice them now? Doubtful.

Yes, daddy.

[Setting the dumpling down, he goes about folding the rest and setting them up. It's clear he's improving as he goes, getting them closer and closer to matching the one his father did first.]

[ Is that what they're calling mental issues these days? (Granted, with Hei's baggage, he's not one to squawk.) Quiet and unobtrusive -- or, in his opinion, discreet and calm. Much more preferable company. ]

[ He considers that request for a moment, then says, ] All right. I'll take you and July out for the grocery run. Then maybe to the park or the mall. [ Hatter can go do ...whatever it is devils do by themselves when the hubby and kids are gone. ]

[Yes. It's called having personality, now.]

[Yin doesn't even consider what might they do at the park, or the mall, and simply nods. She will take the day off to spend with family, then. And when they get to the store...Yin will go straight to the milk section and pick out a gallon.]

[ Everyone is someone else's leftovers. That, not love, is the real definition of marriage. And pooling resources. ]

Think what you like. [ He doesn't care, one way or the other. ]

[On her way to sit down at the kitchen table, Yin passes July. While it's almost absently, and not very skilled, and her hand doesn't quite completely connect, she gives July a pat on his head.]

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♦ ♦ 20th Contract - Video/Action For Housemates

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