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xp_logsKarolia and Julian meet up to make cocoa in the kitchen. (WAAAAY Backdated to the Wee hours of the morning on December 10th).
As soon as Stephen signed off for the night Karolina clicked off the suite's TV and crept out of the common room. She'd taken to wearing clothing that covered as much of her glow as possible and the hood of her sweatshirt framed a face at once pale and tinged with color. It was pretty late but that didn't mean there weren't a million people still awake. The mansion was never really silent. Still, she managed to make it down to the kitchen without incident--it just proved that the universe really did like good people. The pantry stood open but Kare took a seat on one of the stools at the counter instead and waited for Julian to arrive.
Upstairs, Julian was still in his room, studying- for once- but not making very much progress. He glanced at his clock and noticed that it was, in fact, midnight now, ‘I should probably head down to meet Karolina,’ he thought. He shut his books and put his computer to sleep before heading downstairs. Even after being here for a half-a-week, Julian was still getting used to the mansion; fortunately, things were getting easier to find and he arrived at the kitchen only a minute, or so, after midnight. It took him a moment to recognize Karolina, who had a hood drawn up around her face. Her light was dimmer than when he had first met her and she looked sadder too. “Hey, Karolina. Ready to get your soy on?” Julian asked with a smile.
She'd been tracing patterns on the counter when he walked in. Her head came up and instantly, as well as literally, her face brightened. "Julian, hey." She pushed her hood off her head, "I definitely am. Comfort food, here I come."
Julian clapped his hands together and tried to remember where he’d seen mugs when he’d been looking for plates for Noriko. After a couple of unsuccessful tries, he managed to find them and pull out two which looked to be uniform to the kitchen’s flatware. “Comfort food, huh? Guess you’re talking about what those asshats said on the journals?” He meandered to the stove and set the mugs down next to it.
She sighed, "Yeah, welcome to my life at this school. They all think I'm some spoiled Hollywood hippie without any clue about what 'life is really like'. Because apparently real life only happens if you've never been happy in your whole life and you're grateful for even the smallest bit of...gah! I'm not talking about this. I'm not. It's just so stupid." She hopped off the stool and went to help him with her soy milk. "Ignore me. You've been here a couple days now, are you settling in? I'll bet they're nicer to you."
The quickness at which Karolina disregarded her own emotions worried Julian a little, but he passed it off as someone who’d talked about it far too much. “Settling in fine, thank you,” he found the drawer with the silverware and grabbed two forks, two spoons and two knives- he was going to have to admit to it sooner or later…he chose later. “Had a visit from Jan tonight, she seems nice, yeah. I met Nori and Callie this weekend and you were right, they’re cool. Um…I met with Mister Morrow, er, Nathan,” it had been drilled into him since he started school to use the proper address with teachers, “about powers tutoring. All in all, it’s been good- except for having to actually finish my classes.” He set the silverware on the counter, “I have a tinsy little confession to make…” he paused and looked at her wish an innocent expression, “I have no idea how to make hot chocolate.”
Karolina stared at him for a few seconds then broke into a fit of giggles, rainbows dancing around her in response to the emotion--amused and relieved all at the same time. "I wondered what the knives were for," she admitted and reached out to take them away. "You're going to want milk and chocolate. I need soy milk, cocoa, stevia and vanilla." Normally she'd have tried to convince him not to have either the milk or the chocolate and just have her recipe but the point was to show him how much better it tasted when it was cruelty free so she'd bend for now.
Knives in hand, Julian headed to the refrigerator, making a stop by the cutlery and dropping the extra utensils there. The fridge was even more packed than when he’d helped put things away for Nori, but he was quickly able to find the milk. His dad had been forced to drink soy milk since he’d turned forty, so he knew what to look for. Still, Julian nearly made the mistake of grabbing a carton of eggnog instead- one mistake was enough for the night. He brought the two cartons over to the island, then set about rummaging through cupboards for the chocolate, cocoa, vanilla and steyeeah-or-whatever-the-hell-it-was. Cas had been a vegan when he’d met her, so he was familiar with some of the concepts, but the lingo had slowly died off as she slowly changed back to being an omnivore.
“It’s not my fault really,” he said, finding the cocoa and setting it on the counter, “we had cooks to do this sort of stuff for us. After my dad made his first billion, he said my mom would never have to cook again.” Julian smiled, “what was life like for you back home? Oh, and what was that wacky-earthy-vegan thing you wanted?”
Karolina wrinkled her nose at him, laughing, "Stevia. It's a sugar substitute. I don't know, home is...it's like home. When my parents are home, they both like to cook. We have dinner together every night and they're always good about making sure I can eat. The staff is really only around if I'm by myself and they try not to do that. It's always been really...normal? I guess that's the word for it." She leaned against the counter, watching him work, "Do you want any help? I'm pretty good in the kitchen, the whole vegan thing."
As it turned out, the sugar substitute was hiding behind a can of coffee grindings, but with that in hand, he quickly found his other ingredients. “I wouldn’t mind it, particularly if you’re good with this sort of thing. I know how to turn on a coffee maker- but that’s really the extent of my culinary abilities.” In truth he could grill meat extremely well, but he somehow doubted Karolina would take that very well. “Your home sounds a lot nicer than mine.” Julian frowned and set about following the instructions on the tin of cocoa.
Karolina shrugged, taking over the cocoa making process, "They're both from very normal backgrounds and they really get enough of the pampered treatment when they're working. They've always been really honest about wanting me to have as normal a childhood as I could and that meant cleaning my room and doing chores and going to a normal school." It was true but it was also publicist approved. She'd been walking that line for years. "It's funny, everyone here treats me like I'm a Hilton or something and I've been spoiled since the day I was born but I really...I mean, I don't think I'm spoiled?"
“You don’t sound entirely certain,” Julian commented, fully welcoming her intervention to his train wreck of an attempt. “And I’m guessing Paris doesn’t think she’s spoiled either- but from what I know about you, you’re not.” Julian smiled and leaned against the counter. “Spoiled people I know, believe me.” He wondered for a moment if he was counting himself amongst that number- then quickly decided he wasn’t.
Kare chuckled, "You'd be surprised what Paris knows about herself. But, I don't know, like, this place just makes me second guess myself, you know? I always thought I was pretty normal anyway. Not, like, a total freak." She handed Julian a pot, "Pour some milk in there and set it on the stove. I'll help but I'm not encouraging your..." she waved her hand, "animal eating."
He smiled and turned on the burner. “I appreciate it, you’re being much cooler than other vegans I’ve known. They always came across as,” he paused for thought, “pushy.” Julian poured a generous amount of the creamy, white liquid into the pot before putting it back in the fridge. “I wouldn’t say you’re anymore a freak than the rest of us- I mean, you do have the whole rainbow skin thingy.” He smiled at her, “Badass. How’s it work anyway?”
"Being a mutant doesn't make you a freak and eating animals doesn't make you automatically evil. Besides, you catch more flies with honey," she grinned and floated up to sit on the counter. "Uh, I'm kind of like those glow in the dark paints. I absorb sunlight, convert it into energy and some of that is emitted back as the rainbow. The rest of it can be used for whatever, flight, shields. The flight's the best part really. Since I don't have my car here, it's the easiest way to get around places."
Julian sighed inwardly, “I wasn’t saying it did make you a freak- or any of us- or maybe I was?” He looked to her and shrugged, “I meant it in an endearing way at least,” hopefully that counted for something. “It’s so cool that you have that understanding of how your powers work. I can’t wait to learn how to fly- and don’t worry, I’m not going to try again right now since we’re in a room with hot and pointy objects.” He grabbed the chocolate off the counter, “When do we add this?”
She laughed, "I'm not offended. I'm just saying that I don't think of it like that. Some people here do because they're fundamentally self-loathing." Kare hopped off the counter and found him a fine grater. "Grate that up some, you can melt it into the milk a little at a time." For herself, it was easiest just to pour the soymilk into a mug and pop it into the microwave, adding cocoa, stevia and vanilla in small quantities until it tasted right. "They'll teach you about how your powers work too. It's part of the curriculum."
“It can’t be all that complicated, I mean, I think about something, it gets all glowwy and then it moves,” Julian said as he took the chocolate and began to shred it over the slowly warming milk. “I mean, I guess I kind of wonder what is up with the glowing thing, but,” he shrugged, “it doesn’t keep me up at night.” He wasn’t doing very well with this cocoa making project, the chocolate was coming off the block more in chunks than shreds and more of it was landing on the stove than in the pot. He stopped after a moment, frustrated, “I’m guessing you can tell I haven’t spent a lot of time in a kitchen.”
Kare looked over to see his mess in progress and shook her head, "Grate it over a plate and dump it in after. You'll have better control." Her cocoa was already warm and ready but she was happy to wait. "You might want to stir that or it'll burn."
Indeed, the milk was already a bit singed- or as singed as a liquid could be- but Julian grabbed a wooden spoon from a drawer and began to stir the now steaming liquid up. Once he was satisfied that it wouldn’t start ablaze immediately after he set down the spoon, he went over the cupboard with plates and took Karolina’s preparation advice. “I’ve been trying to get caught up on all the school work they give us here. Is it just me or is this place a lot tougher than back home?” Once he had a satisfyingly large pile of chocolate shavings on his plate, Julian dumped them into the milk, all at once and began to stir.
"Some of it is. Some of it's easier. Used to be totally unbearable but, I don't know, graduate from here and you'll get into a good school. So that's something." She tucked her hair behind her ears. "I think the best thing about here is that eventually it's over."
“There is at least one other good thing though,” Julian smiled and continued to stir the pot. “At least there’s someone else here from L.A.” he winked at her and turned back to the stove. “You no longer suffer alone, Karolina,” Julian said, grabbing the pot by its handle and moving it off the burner. He held the pot toward Kare, “Does this look good?”
She raised her eyebrows at him, wondering if he was really serious, "It looks hot and chocolaty. That's probably good enough." It was definitely good to have him here. Someone from home, who understood her, even if he didn't necessarily agree. "Ready to taste test?"
“Ready as I’m ever going to be, I guess,” he said, pouring the chocolaty liquid into his mug. He raised it toward her and gave a tentative sniff, causing him to wince. “Oh, that smells…ugh…. To new friends and new opportunities?”
She tapped her mug against his, "Good call."
As soon as Stephen signed off for the night Karolina clicked off the suite's TV and crept out of the common room. She'd taken to wearing clothing that covered as much of her glow as possible and the hood of her sweatshirt framed a face at once pale and tinged with color. It was pretty late but that didn't mean there weren't a million people still awake. The mansion was never really silent. Still, she managed to make it down to the kitchen without incident--it just proved that the universe really did like good people. The pantry stood open but Kare took a seat on one of the stools at the counter instead and waited for Julian to arrive.
Upstairs, Julian was still in his room, studying- for once- but not making very much progress. He glanced at his clock and noticed that it was, in fact, midnight now, ‘I should probably head down to meet Karolina,’ he thought. He shut his books and put his computer to sleep before heading downstairs. Even after being here for a half-a-week, Julian was still getting used to the mansion; fortunately, things were getting easier to find and he arrived at the kitchen only a minute, or so, after midnight. It took him a moment to recognize Karolina, who had a hood drawn up around her face. Her light was dimmer than when he had first met her and she looked sadder too. “Hey, Karolina. Ready to get your soy on?” Julian asked with a smile.
She'd been tracing patterns on the counter when he walked in. Her head came up and instantly, as well as literally, her face brightened. "Julian, hey." She pushed her hood off her head, "I definitely am. Comfort food, here I come."
Julian clapped his hands together and tried to remember where he’d seen mugs when he’d been looking for plates for Noriko. After a couple of unsuccessful tries, he managed to find them and pull out two which looked to be uniform to the kitchen’s flatware. “Comfort food, huh? Guess you’re talking about what those asshats said on the journals?” He meandered to the stove and set the mugs down next to it.
She sighed, "Yeah, welcome to my life at this school. They all think I'm some spoiled Hollywood hippie without any clue about what 'life is really like'. Because apparently real life only happens if you've never been happy in your whole life and you're grateful for even the smallest bit of...gah! I'm not talking about this. I'm not. It's just so stupid." She hopped off the stool and went to help him with her soy milk. "Ignore me. You've been here a couple days now, are you settling in? I'll bet they're nicer to you."
The quickness at which Karolina disregarded her own emotions worried Julian a little, but he passed it off as someone who’d talked about it far too much. “Settling in fine, thank you,” he found the drawer with the silverware and grabbed two forks, two spoons and two knives- he was going to have to admit to it sooner or later…he chose later. “Had a visit from Jan tonight, she seems nice, yeah. I met Nori and Callie this weekend and you were right, they’re cool. Um…I met with Mister Morrow, er, Nathan,” it had been drilled into him since he started school to use the proper address with teachers, “about powers tutoring. All in all, it’s been good- except for having to actually finish my classes.” He set the silverware on the counter, “I have a tinsy little confession to make…” he paused and looked at her wish an innocent expression, “I have no idea how to make hot chocolate.”
Karolina stared at him for a few seconds then broke into a fit of giggles, rainbows dancing around her in response to the emotion--amused and relieved all at the same time. "I wondered what the knives were for," she admitted and reached out to take them away. "You're going to want milk and chocolate. I need soy milk, cocoa, stevia and vanilla." Normally she'd have tried to convince him not to have either the milk or the chocolate and just have her recipe but the point was to show him how much better it tasted when it was cruelty free so she'd bend for now.
Knives in hand, Julian headed to the refrigerator, making a stop by the cutlery and dropping the extra utensils there. The fridge was even more packed than when he’d helped put things away for Nori, but he was quickly able to find the milk. His dad had been forced to drink soy milk since he’d turned forty, so he knew what to look for. Still, Julian nearly made the mistake of grabbing a carton of eggnog instead- one mistake was enough for the night. He brought the two cartons over to the island, then set about rummaging through cupboards for the chocolate, cocoa, vanilla and steyeeah-or-whatever-the-hell-it-was. Cas had been a vegan when he’d met her, so he was familiar with some of the concepts, but the lingo had slowly died off as she slowly changed back to being an omnivore.
“It’s not my fault really,” he said, finding the cocoa and setting it on the counter, “we had cooks to do this sort of stuff for us. After my dad made his first billion, he said my mom would never have to cook again.” Julian smiled, “what was life like for you back home? Oh, and what was that wacky-earthy-vegan thing you wanted?”
Karolina wrinkled her nose at him, laughing, "Stevia. It's a sugar substitute. I don't know, home is...it's like home. When my parents are home, they both like to cook. We have dinner together every night and they're always good about making sure I can eat. The staff is really only around if I'm by myself and they try not to do that. It's always been really...normal? I guess that's the word for it." She leaned against the counter, watching him work, "Do you want any help? I'm pretty good in the kitchen, the whole vegan thing."
As it turned out, the sugar substitute was hiding behind a can of coffee grindings, but with that in hand, he quickly found his other ingredients. “I wouldn’t mind it, particularly if you’re good with this sort of thing. I know how to turn on a coffee maker- but that’s really the extent of my culinary abilities.” In truth he could grill meat extremely well, but he somehow doubted Karolina would take that very well. “Your home sounds a lot nicer than mine.” Julian frowned and set about following the instructions on the tin of cocoa.
Karolina shrugged, taking over the cocoa making process, "They're both from very normal backgrounds and they really get enough of the pampered treatment when they're working. They've always been really honest about wanting me to have as normal a childhood as I could and that meant cleaning my room and doing chores and going to a normal school." It was true but it was also publicist approved. She'd been walking that line for years. "It's funny, everyone here treats me like I'm a Hilton or something and I've been spoiled since the day I was born but I really...I mean, I don't think I'm spoiled?"
“You don’t sound entirely certain,” Julian commented, fully welcoming her intervention to his train wreck of an attempt. “And I’m guessing Paris doesn’t think she’s spoiled either- but from what I know about you, you’re not.” Julian smiled and leaned against the counter. “Spoiled people I know, believe me.” He wondered for a moment if he was counting himself amongst that number- then quickly decided he wasn’t.
Kare chuckled, "You'd be surprised what Paris knows about herself. But, I don't know, like, this place just makes me second guess myself, you know? I always thought I was pretty normal anyway. Not, like, a total freak." She handed Julian a pot, "Pour some milk in there and set it on the stove. I'll help but I'm not encouraging your..." she waved her hand, "animal eating."
He smiled and turned on the burner. “I appreciate it, you’re being much cooler than other vegans I’ve known. They always came across as,” he paused for thought, “pushy.” Julian poured a generous amount of the creamy, white liquid into the pot before putting it back in the fridge. “I wouldn’t say you’re anymore a freak than the rest of us- I mean, you do have the whole rainbow skin thingy.” He smiled at her, “Badass. How’s it work anyway?”
"Being a mutant doesn't make you a freak and eating animals doesn't make you automatically evil. Besides, you catch more flies with honey," she grinned and floated up to sit on the counter. "Uh, I'm kind of like those glow in the dark paints. I absorb sunlight, convert it into energy and some of that is emitted back as the rainbow. The rest of it can be used for whatever, flight, shields. The flight's the best part really. Since I don't have my car here, it's the easiest way to get around places."
Julian sighed inwardly, “I wasn’t saying it did make you a freak- or any of us- or maybe I was?” He looked to her and shrugged, “I meant it in an endearing way at least,” hopefully that counted for something. “It’s so cool that you have that understanding of how your powers work. I can’t wait to learn how to fly- and don’t worry, I’m not going to try again right now since we’re in a room with hot and pointy objects.” He grabbed the chocolate off the counter, “When do we add this?”
She laughed, "I'm not offended. I'm just saying that I don't think of it like that. Some people here do because they're fundamentally self-loathing." Kare hopped off the counter and found him a fine grater. "Grate that up some, you can melt it into the milk a little at a time." For herself, it was easiest just to pour the soymilk into a mug and pop it into the microwave, adding cocoa, stevia and vanilla in small quantities until it tasted right. "They'll teach you about how your powers work too. It's part of the curriculum."
“It can’t be all that complicated, I mean, I think about something, it gets all glowwy and then it moves,” Julian said as he took the chocolate and began to shred it over the slowly warming milk. “I mean, I guess I kind of wonder what is up with the glowing thing, but,” he shrugged, “it doesn’t keep me up at night.” He wasn’t doing very well with this cocoa making project, the chocolate was coming off the block more in chunks than shreds and more of it was landing on the stove than in the pot. He stopped after a moment, frustrated, “I’m guessing you can tell I haven’t spent a lot of time in a kitchen.”
Kare looked over to see his mess in progress and shook her head, "Grate it over a plate and dump it in after. You'll have better control." Her cocoa was already warm and ready but she was happy to wait. "You might want to stir that or it'll burn."
Indeed, the milk was already a bit singed- or as singed as a liquid could be- but Julian grabbed a wooden spoon from a drawer and began to stir the now steaming liquid up. Once he was satisfied that it wouldn’t start ablaze immediately after he set down the spoon, he went over the cupboard with plates and took Karolina’s preparation advice. “I’ve been trying to get caught up on all the school work they give us here. Is it just me or is this place a lot tougher than back home?” Once he had a satisfyingly large pile of chocolate shavings on his plate, Julian dumped them into the milk, all at once and began to stir.
"Some of it is. Some of it's easier. Used to be totally unbearable but, I don't know, graduate from here and you'll get into a good school. So that's something." She tucked her hair behind her ears. "I think the best thing about here is that eventually it's over."
“There is at least one other good thing though,” Julian smiled and continued to stir the pot. “At least there’s someone else here from L.A.” he winked at her and turned back to the stove. “You no longer suffer alone, Karolina,” Julian said, grabbing the pot by its handle and moving it off the burner. He held the pot toward Kare, “Does this look good?”
She raised her eyebrows at him, wondering if he was really serious, "It looks hot and chocolaty. That's probably good enough." It was definitely good to have him here. Someone from home, who understood her, even if he didn't necessarily agree. "Ready to taste test?"
“Ready as I’m ever going to be, I guess,” he said, pouring the chocolaty liquid into his mug. He raised it toward her and gave a tentative sniff, causing him to wince. “Oh, that smells…ugh…. To new friends and new opportunities?”
She tapped her mug against his, "Good call."
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