Backdate log: Liam & Darcy
Aug. 20th, 2023 08:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsLiam sleeps in a sunbeam and meets Darcy. They make enchiladas
Liam's parents had learned as soon as their son could get himself out of bed and move around the house with at least some level of autonomy that he didn't like sleeping alone in his bed. He liked sleeping curled up on the couch as they watched TV or on the floor of their bedroom. Wherever they were. It wasn't that he needed to sleep with his parents, he just wanted to be where the action was.
He also loved to nap in sunny places. Specifically warm sunbeams. Lacking that, he'd bring an electric blanket into the cold, winter sun beam and snuggle up there.
This didn't magically change once he arrived to Xavier's either. Now, he simply had new sunbeams to nap in. And different couches to stretch out on in different living rooms. His bed was fine, but this was so much better.
He'd found a great sunbeam near the kitchen and was curled up asleep, tail wrapped around his knees and over his face to block out too much sun. It was perfect.
Darcy was not really paying attention to the floor as she made her way into the kitchen, tapping away on her phone and automatically stepping around the things that might get in her way. She wasn't expecting the person-boy-cat on the floor, and tripped over him gracelessly, wobbling in midair before managing to get both of her feet back on the ground instead of collapsed in a heap on the floor. Her phone was less lucky, falling out of her hands with a bounce and clatter as she windmilled. "Shit, fuck, what?"
She looked down, realizing she'd tripped over... oh, one of the new kids. Sleeping on the floor. Why was he sleeping on the floor? "Hey, sorry about that!" She bent to scoop up her phone, then decided she might as well plop down next to the kid in case it was less sleeping, more medical emergency, and gently shook a shoulder. "You alright there, Daniel Tiger?"
Glaring sleepily, Liam rolled over and climbed gracefully to his feet in one continuous movement, "Don't you watch where you're going?" he asked grumpily, unhappy that he was disturbed and grumpy, not registering what she'd called him. Now he was awake. "What time is it anyways?"
"I do, but generally "person in middle of floor" isn't a thing. And it's about 6pm, sunshine, so I guess you get to be my lucky taste tester for dinner making tonight." Darcy wasn't at her best when she got abruptly woken up either, so she ignored the grump with the cheer of years of experience. She pushed to her feet, moving towards the sink with purpose and giving her hands a vigorous scrub. "Do you have any food allergies I need to be aware of?"
"Ugh," he groaned, following her to the kitchen and looking around for a glass for water. Aha! There we go. He wasn't complaining about helping, just complaining in general. "No allergies," Liam replied, drinking it all and then refilling the glass again, "What're you making? Are you the cook here? Chef?"
Darcy grinned. "We don't have a dedicated cook here, but my roommate and I do a fair bit of the bulk meals and bread." She poked her head into the fridge and pantry. "Hm, leftover chicken from grilling yesterday, so looks like I'm making something with that. Ooh, tortillas. Enchiladas!" She bustled around the kitchen, various items making their way to the countertop. "How's your knife skills, newbie? Good enough for rough chopping?"
He nodded, "My name's Liam," he added, going to wash his hands. No cook here? That seemed.... odd. "Shouldn't a place this size have a cook? And like...staff?"
"I'm Darcy. It's nice to meet you in person." She made sure they each had a cutting board set up, dropping a bowl of tomatillos next to Liam's along with a good knife. "I think there might have been, when this place was mostly students. But these days there are plenty of adults, and we tend to rotate around. And there are usually some bulk and individual meals in the freezers, so if you're in a hurry or you're wanting something specific you can thaw it and reheat. Otherwise... Kyle loves to grill when it's nice out, and I usually ask him to do a few extra chicken or sausage so they can be repurposed during the week for things like this. I take requests too, but if I don't know how to cook it you either have to show me or get me a really good recipe to follow." She grinned at the younger boy, forks shredding into the chicken as she talked. "You're expected to keep your personal spaces fairly clean and to clean up after yourself in the public spaces, just like you probably would anywhere else. It doesn't have to be pristine or even particularly tidy, but clean enough to not be inviting bugs or mold in."
"Oh," that made some level of sense, but also...."I shed. So I guess I'm going to be doing a lot of cleaning," he sighed dramatically, less than enthused as he chopped the tomatillos, unsure what he was actually cutting, but that wasn't important. He knew his parents would expect him to behave while here though, which apparently meant doing a lot of cleaning. This sucked. A lot. Maybe he'd shave his fur off. That was an idea. A terrible one.
"Hm." Darcy thought about it for a minute. "Do you have a favorite movie character? Doug likes to customize roombas. It'd be easy enough to add another one to the collective. We've got... an R2D2, C-3PO, Lieutenant Stabby, at least one pirate..." Her eyes twinkled a bit as she continued. "He's very into memes, so we might have a nyancat somewhere too. They're helpful for everyday stuff like shedding and crumbs on the floor."
Fancy way to sweep the floor. Though also, convenient. Man, if they'd had a roomba at home, that would've been sweet. Or maybe sweep. "Uh....I dunno. Nyancat is kinda cool if there's not one already. Or maybe something from Star Wars?" He had no idea who this Doug person was or what they could do, so better to keep it simple. "But anything is fine so long as I don't have to sweep the floor every day."
"Once we get dinner in the oven and my hands clean, I'll shoot him a text, see what we can do about a roomba and a little place for it to dump the debris so you only have to clean it out once a week or so instead, yeah? Because I don't even sweep every day, and I shed almost as badly as some of the actual pets here." Darcy had finished the chicken, and glanced over to check Liam's progress. "That looks great. How are you at handling peppers? We've got gloves if you don't want to bare hand them, but if you could slice and seed... two of these," she asked, leaving a pair of hatch chiles on his cutting board. "I'll take care of the onions."
"Oh, I've got these," Liam set the knife down and popped his claws carefully slicing them open and de-seeding them before using the knife to chop them into slightly uneven pieces. "Are they hot?"
"A little less than an average seeded jalapeno, but since we've got some people that can't handle much heat at all I err on the side of caution for the cooked dish. There's a whole host of hot sauces and pickled items or fresh pepper slices they can add themselves. And if you're a very, very no heat person, I can make part of it with just a pinch of chili powder or smoked paprika. If you are a very heat person, I will direct you to Doug for hot sauces that make me flinch." Darcy chopped the onions into big chunks with minimal tearing as she watched him use his claws. "That is an extremely handy thing, always having your own box cutters around."
"Huh. I guess...I like spicy things? But maybe not as much as Doug?" he didn't know this Doug guy, but he was curious now how he had taste buds that could handle hot sauces that hot. "Is that part of his powers?"
Darcy let out a loud laugh. "No, he just enjoys waging war on his taste buds. And I like being an enabler, so I find recipes for things that are ridiculously spicy but supposedly taste good and make it for him sometimes."
She dropped the various ingredients into a blender, adding some salt and other things until she was satisfied enough to lock the lid on and flip the switch. "So, cat person. Do you full shift, or just have the atavistic traits?"
"Ata-what?" Liam turned, confused. "No, I don't shift. This is just...me? Should I post that on the journals so I don't get asked 1000 times?" he gestured to himself, tail wound around one leg to stay out of the way in the kitchen. .
"Atavistic. Traits that evoke more primal forms than what most people imagine when they picture a human. Retractable claws, for one. Tails. Hand and foot adaptations more suited for climbing, swimming, running on all four limbs instead of just two. Fur. Sometimes there's a full or partial shifting involved as well. I just wanted to make sure I didn't see Liam-the-Housecat, mistake him for a stray, and take him to the vet for a neuter and microchip."
"Oh." So basically, him. "No. What you see is what you get," what was with the shifting thing? Like, change his shape? Mutant powers were so weird. "I have retractable claws on my toes though, too. Makes climbing easier. But then I mess them up and ugh, that sucks," he had a whole little kit his mom had put together through trial and error years ago and one of her friends had come over to teach him how to use everything properly because she was a nail tech. "I don't use my claws on people, but if anyone tries to neuter or chip me, I will not hesitate. That's not cool."
Darcy laughed. "Well, since you can't shift into housecat size, it shouldn't be an issue. And if you have issues with your claws... hm. Kyle might be able to help you out, but if it's just a trimming and smoothing issue feel free to ask. Crookshanks – he's my old man of a cat – lets me keep his claws in shape. He doesn't usually leave the 2nd floor these days, but if you chase a sunbeam into one of the lounges on that floor you might end up with him as a companion."
Liam had a scratching block, not that he wanted to admit that. But it helped a lot to maintain his claws and it felt good when he scratched it. Mostly, that took care of the majority of it and he could trim them as needed, the only real issue was if he broke one and had to glue it back together. That meant he'd really messed up somehow. "I do attract other cats. They make great nap partners."
"Well, there are several around. The barn cats are semi-feral, but inside the house there's Crooks, Shamu - also an old man, his human is Kyle. Desdemona and Midnight are both black cats. Midnight is Topaz's girl, Desdemona belongs to Scott. There's dogs, too. I'm sure they'll all be interested in sniffing you out at some point." As she talked, Darcy put the finishing touches on the enchiladas and slid them into the oven, then set a timer and moved to wash her hands. "I'll give Doug a poke about getting you a decorated roomba, and he'll probably head down to eat. Don't forget to wash the pepper off your hands." She reached out with a dry hand, ruffling and gently scritching the fur behind one ear. "You're welcome to stick around and eat with us, or I can make you a plate for later if you're not hungry yet."
His ear twitching at the scratches, Liam reluctantly pulled away to go wash his hands before he did something really dumb. "I can eat," he reassured Darcy. He was 16. He ate a pretty good amount. "Don't think I've had this before though. Looks good. And thanks, the roomba thing sounds awesome."
"I try not to assume every teenager is a walking black hole for food, even though my experience says that it's mostly true," Darcy replied with a grin. "And you're welcome. He likes tinkering with them, and they're very helpful to have here. Oh, and if you ever stop being okay with ear scritches please let me know and I'll stop."
But every teenager was a walking black hole for food. That was one of the best parts about being a teenager! "It's fine. Not....I don't let very many touch them. Because that was actually a rule at school, not to randomly pet me. Which....I really appreciated," not so much when he was younger, but it was a rule since he had started school in all his classes. And while he had friends, he wasn't really close enough with many people to casually let them do it other times.
"That makes sense. I apologize for overstepping, then. But if you want them, I'm happy to provide. Headpats are very soothing... I enjoy them too, and will shamelessly sprawl on my friends until they give in and massage my scalp for me." She punched out a text to Doug, telling him to head downstairs for dinner. "Dinner's about done. You mind grabbing silverware and napkins for the table? Three places for now."
Nodding, Liam went to do as asked. She had asked and he agreed, this was a new place and mutants had different rules, right? Sort of? Maybe? "It smells good."
Liam's parents had learned as soon as their son could get himself out of bed and move around the house with at least some level of autonomy that he didn't like sleeping alone in his bed. He liked sleeping curled up on the couch as they watched TV or on the floor of their bedroom. Wherever they were. It wasn't that he needed to sleep with his parents, he just wanted to be where the action was.
He also loved to nap in sunny places. Specifically warm sunbeams. Lacking that, he'd bring an electric blanket into the cold, winter sun beam and snuggle up there.
This didn't magically change once he arrived to Xavier's either. Now, he simply had new sunbeams to nap in. And different couches to stretch out on in different living rooms. His bed was fine, but this was so much better.
He'd found a great sunbeam near the kitchen and was curled up asleep, tail wrapped around his knees and over his face to block out too much sun. It was perfect.
Darcy was not really paying attention to the floor as she made her way into the kitchen, tapping away on her phone and automatically stepping around the things that might get in her way. She wasn't expecting the person-boy-cat on the floor, and tripped over him gracelessly, wobbling in midair before managing to get both of her feet back on the ground instead of collapsed in a heap on the floor. Her phone was less lucky, falling out of her hands with a bounce and clatter as she windmilled. "Shit, fuck, what?"
She looked down, realizing she'd tripped over... oh, one of the new kids. Sleeping on the floor. Why was he sleeping on the floor? "Hey, sorry about that!" She bent to scoop up her phone, then decided she might as well plop down next to the kid in case it was less sleeping, more medical emergency, and gently shook a shoulder. "You alright there, Daniel Tiger?"
Glaring sleepily, Liam rolled over and climbed gracefully to his feet in one continuous movement, "Don't you watch where you're going?" he asked grumpily, unhappy that he was disturbed and grumpy, not registering what she'd called him. Now he was awake. "What time is it anyways?"
"I do, but generally "person in middle of floor" isn't a thing. And it's about 6pm, sunshine, so I guess you get to be my lucky taste tester for dinner making tonight." Darcy wasn't at her best when she got abruptly woken up either, so she ignored the grump with the cheer of years of experience. She pushed to her feet, moving towards the sink with purpose and giving her hands a vigorous scrub. "Do you have any food allergies I need to be aware of?"
"Ugh," he groaned, following her to the kitchen and looking around for a glass for water. Aha! There we go. He wasn't complaining about helping, just complaining in general. "No allergies," Liam replied, drinking it all and then refilling the glass again, "What're you making? Are you the cook here? Chef?"
Darcy grinned. "We don't have a dedicated cook here, but my roommate and I do a fair bit of the bulk meals and bread." She poked her head into the fridge and pantry. "Hm, leftover chicken from grilling yesterday, so looks like I'm making something with that. Ooh, tortillas. Enchiladas!" She bustled around the kitchen, various items making their way to the countertop. "How's your knife skills, newbie? Good enough for rough chopping?"
He nodded, "My name's Liam," he added, going to wash his hands. No cook here? That seemed.... odd. "Shouldn't a place this size have a cook? And like...staff?"
"I'm Darcy. It's nice to meet you in person." She made sure they each had a cutting board set up, dropping a bowl of tomatillos next to Liam's along with a good knife. "I think there might have been, when this place was mostly students. But these days there are plenty of adults, and we tend to rotate around. And there are usually some bulk and individual meals in the freezers, so if you're in a hurry or you're wanting something specific you can thaw it and reheat. Otherwise... Kyle loves to grill when it's nice out, and I usually ask him to do a few extra chicken or sausage so they can be repurposed during the week for things like this. I take requests too, but if I don't know how to cook it you either have to show me or get me a really good recipe to follow." She grinned at the younger boy, forks shredding into the chicken as she talked. "You're expected to keep your personal spaces fairly clean and to clean up after yourself in the public spaces, just like you probably would anywhere else. It doesn't have to be pristine or even particularly tidy, but clean enough to not be inviting bugs or mold in."
"Oh," that made some level of sense, but also...."I shed. So I guess I'm going to be doing a lot of cleaning," he sighed dramatically, less than enthused as he chopped the tomatillos, unsure what he was actually cutting, but that wasn't important. He knew his parents would expect him to behave while here though, which apparently meant doing a lot of cleaning. This sucked. A lot. Maybe he'd shave his fur off. That was an idea. A terrible one.
"Hm." Darcy thought about it for a minute. "Do you have a favorite movie character? Doug likes to customize roombas. It'd be easy enough to add another one to the collective. We've got... an R2D2, C-3PO, Lieutenant Stabby, at least one pirate..." Her eyes twinkled a bit as she continued. "He's very into memes, so we might have a nyancat somewhere too. They're helpful for everyday stuff like shedding and crumbs on the floor."
Fancy way to sweep the floor. Though also, convenient. Man, if they'd had a roomba at home, that would've been sweet. Or maybe sweep. "Uh....I dunno. Nyancat is kinda cool if there's not one already. Or maybe something from Star Wars?" He had no idea who this Doug person was or what they could do, so better to keep it simple. "But anything is fine so long as I don't have to sweep the floor every day."
"Once we get dinner in the oven and my hands clean, I'll shoot him a text, see what we can do about a roomba and a little place for it to dump the debris so you only have to clean it out once a week or so instead, yeah? Because I don't even sweep every day, and I shed almost as badly as some of the actual pets here." Darcy had finished the chicken, and glanced over to check Liam's progress. "That looks great. How are you at handling peppers? We've got gloves if you don't want to bare hand them, but if you could slice and seed... two of these," she asked, leaving a pair of hatch chiles on his cutting board. "I'll take care of the onions."
"Oh, I've got these," Liam set the knife down and popped his claws carefully slicing them open and de-seeding them before using the knife to chop them into slightly uneven pieces. "Are they hot?"
"A little less than an average seeded jalapeno, but since we've got some people that can't handle much heat at all I err on the side of caution for the cooked dish. There's a whole host of hot sauces and pickled items or fresh pepper slices they can add themselves. And if you're a very, very no heat person, I can make part of it with just a pinch of chili powder or smoked paprika. If you are a very heat person, I will direct you to Doug for hot sauces that make me flinch." Darcy chopped the onions into big chunks with minimal tearing as she watched him use his claws. "That is an extremely handy thing, always having your own box cutters around."
"Huh. I guess...I like spicy things? But maybe not as much as Doug?" he didn't know this Doug guy, but he was curious now how he had taste buds that could handle hot sauces that hot. "Is that part of his powers?"
Darcy let out a loud laugh. "No, he just enjoys waging war on his taste buds. And I like being an enabler, so I find recipes for things that are ridiculously spicy but supposedly taste good and make it for him sometimes."
She dropped the various ingredients into a blender, adding some salt and other things until she was satisfied enough to lock the lid on and flip the switch. "So, cat person. Do you full shift, or just have the atavistic traits?"
"Ata-what?" Liam turned, confused. "No, I don't shift. This is just...me? Should I post that on the journals so I don't get asked 1000 times?" he gestured to himself, tail wound around one leg to stay out of the way in the kitchen. .
"Atavistic. Traits that evoke more primal forms than what most people imagine when they picture a human. Retractable claws, for one. Tails. Hand and foot adaptations more suited for climbing, swimming, running on all four limbs instead of just two. Fur. Sometimes there's a full or partial shifting involved as well. I just wanted to make sure I didn't see Liam-the-Housecat, mistake him for a stray, and take him to the vet for a neuter and microchip."
"Oh." So basically, him. "No. What you see is what you get," what was with the shifting thing? Like, change his shape? Mutant powers were so weird. "I have retractable claws on my toes though, too. Makes climbing easier. But then I mess them up and ugh, that sucks," he had a whole little kit his mom had put together through trial and error years ago and one of her friends had come over to teach him how to use everything properly because she was a nail tech. "I don't use my claws on people, but if anyone tries to neuter or chip me, I will not hesitate. That's not cool."
Darcy laughed. "Well, since you can't shift into housecat size, it shouldn't be an issue. And if you have issues with your claws... hm. Kyle might be able to help you out, but if it's just a trimming and smoothing issue feel free to ask. Crookshanks – he's my old man of a cat – lets me keep his claws in shape. He doesn't usually leave the 2nd floor these days, but if you chase a sunbeam into one of the lounges on that floor you might end up with him as a companion."
Liam had a scratching block, not that he wanted to admit that. But it helped a lot to maintain his claws and it felt good when he scratched it. Mostly, that took care of the majority of it and he could trim them as needed, the only real issue was if he broke one and had to glue it back together. That meant he'd really messed up somehow. "I do attract other cats. They make great nap partners."
"Well, there are several around. The barn cats are semi-feral, but inside the house there's Crooks, Shamu - also an old man, his human is Kyle. Desdemona and Midnight are both black cats. Midnight is Topaz's girl, Desdemona belongs to Scott. There's dogs, too. I'm sure they'll all be interested in sniffing you out at some point." As she talked, Darcy put the finishing touches on the enchiladas and slid them into the oven, then set a timer and moved to wash her hands. "I'll give Doug a poke about getting you a decorated roomba, and he'll probably head down to eat. Don't forget to wash the pepper off your hands." She reached out with a dry hand, ruffling and gently scritching the fur behind one ear. "You're welcome to stick around and eat with us, or I can make you a plate for later if you're not hungry yet."
His ear twitching at the scratches, Liam reluctantly pulled away to go wash his hands before he did something really dumb. "I can eat," he reassured Darcy. He was 16. He ate a pretty good amount. "Don't think I've had this before though. Looks good. And thanks, the roomba thing sounds awesome."
"I try not to assume every teenager is a walking black hole for food, even though my experience says that it's mostly true," Darcy replied with a grin. "And you're welcome. He likes tinkering with them, and they're very helpful to have here. Oh, and if you ever stop being okay with ear scritches please let me know and I'll stop."
But every teenager was a walking black hole for food. That was one of the best parts about being a teenager! "It's fine. Not....I don't let very many touch them. Because that was actually a rule at school, not to randomly pet me. Which....I really appreciated," not so much when he was younger, but it was a rule since he had started school in all his classes. And while he had friends, he wasn't really close enough with many people to casually let them do it other times.
"That makes sense. I apologize for overstepping, then. But if you want them, I'm happy to provide. Headpats are very soothing... I enjoy them too, and will shamelessly sprawl on my friends until they give in and massage my scalp for me." She punched out a text to Doug, telling him to head downstairs for dinner. "Dinner's about done. You mind grabbing silverware and napkins for the table? Three places for now."
Nodding, Liam went to do as asked. She had asked and he agreed, this was a new place and mutants had different rules, right? Sort of? Maybe? "It smells good."
