Linnea Selanne-Niemi (everflowing) wrote in light_of_may, @ 2010-02-07 18:50:00 |
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Entry tags: | 2009-07-03, linnea |
Always by the pool
Who: Bren, Dagmar (NPC), Linnea and Satu (NPC)
Where: Niemi House
When: 1:00 p.m.ish
Bren was pretty much chilling. Every so often the water would splash and she'd lift her head, expecting some kind of shenanigans to be happening, but the people in this house had long ago learned that the fire elemental did not go in the water, ever, and she was not afraid to brandish fire at you to make you go away. Bogart, a smallish Jack Russell Terrier, trotted over, panting, and clambered up onto the lounge with Bren, walking over her stomach to get to where there was room. "Ow! Bogart! Claws, belly!"
Sorry, he said, sounding remarkably unsorry, and nudged his way up under her arm to be petted.
"Hey, you're not fixed and that can easily change." But she petted him begrudgingly, looking faintly happier just at her familiar wanting attention. Because wanting attention meant he was giving her attention. "When was the last time I gave you a bath? Your coat is like, thick with oil. This is gross just petting you."
It was last week! I don't need a bath.
Bren frowned, lifting her head. Had it only been last week? But then she figured out he just didn't want a bath. "Uh huh. I hate baths too but you're getting one tonight."
It had been a hard day. The morning had begun with waking up before the sun and driving to Ann Arbor after a quick but hearty breakfast and then... well, Linnea preferred not thinking about what had happened then. A thick white bandage was wrapped around her stomach and the only reason she was in the same one-piece she had worn the previous day at the lake instead of changing into a different one. Normally she did not repeat her looks but it seemed almost necessary. She did not want her children - or Bren for that matter - to see. "No one should ever hate baths," Linnea remarked, giving a rather direct look to Bren's little familiar. As a water elemental with two water elemental children, Linnea was used to having very clean things around because they were always in the water. "Or at least showers. Being clean is wonderful." With that, the woman let her eyes close and relaxed back into her floating chair, sunglasses tipped over her eyes.
"So Bren, how's your week been? Anything interesting?"
"Yeah, but being wet sucks. I firmly maintain you water people are crazy. And I'm glad I don't sweat that much."
"Not really. I talked to my sister." The one who doesn't hate me, she added mentally. "Worked a couple days. Went out. Nearly broke my violin. It was, uh...um..." She trailed off as she sat up and started looking around, shaking her head and looking nonplussed. "What was I saying? Something about...my week..." This was a common thing for Bren, to lose the thread of what she was saying in the middle of saying it. She found what she was looking for, an old shampoo bottle that had become a chew toy, and picked it up. Bogart looked excited, perking up. You know this is sortof degrading, but it never gets old, he commented idly, and Bren threw it obligingly. Instinctively, Bogart took off after it, and landed straight in the pool because she had unthinkingly thrown it across.
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry!"
THAT WAS NOT FUNNY.
"I know, baby, I didn't even think oh my god. Are you okay!" The wet dog dragged himself miserably out of the pool.
Linnea was used to the fire elemental's dislike of the water. She would never understand it anymore than she understood the pull of fire, but she had accepted it much easier than her daughters. Poor Satu was still continously confused as to why Bren would not just jump in the water and play with her. Not to mention the dog. The little girl thought the terrier was the cutest thing ever and had expressed more than once that she would happily baby-sit, even though she knew that was unnecessary for a familiar, seeing as how she had a turtle of her own who was currently relaxed at the bottom of the pool.
And as used as she was to Bren disliking water, Linnea was even more used to her losing her train of thought. That had always been something she attributed to air elementals but it seemed like it had worked its way into Bren's personality along with her fiery traits. Which would normally just rub her the wrong way, but Linnea had gone out of her way to make sure that Dagmar got along with the girl and so she did as well. It was simple courtesy, and Bren needed it. Linnea was never the sort to turn down someone who needed help, whether they asked or not. "You were saying how you almost broke your violin," Linnea said encouragingly, fingers trailing through the water when she heard a sudden splash. Blinking her eyes open she caught sight of Bogart dragging himself back out of the pool, looking quite like a drowned rat. "If it was cold I'd offer a towel, but you should dry fast enough in this heat, Bogart. Now about your violin, Bren. What happened to it?" Linnea may have been unable to focus on herself or her own thoughts, but encouraging others was somehow easy for her.
Bren allowed Bogart to shake himself dry near her with only minimal squeaking and fuss, whereupon he finally ran off, around the pool this time, to get the toy. "Oh! I was getting really frustrated and wanted to break it. Whyyyyy can't violin be as easy as piano. Piano? Nothing. Cello is nothing! Violin just has to be hard. Violin is like, not different at all from guitar or cello or bass except being smaller. And oboe is pretty...well, no, okay, oboe's not small. And drums aren't small. And organ is really not small. And...oh my god, you know you play too many instruments when you can't even remember all of them. But maybe it's the smallness. Maybe I can't do small things. Except my handwriting is tiny so that doesn't work!" Bren pouted at not having an answer to why violin didn't come as easily to her as all her other instruments. Bogart arrived back with the toy, which Bren was careful to throw not over the pool this time. "Do you forgive me for making you fall in the pool?"
No.
Bren pouted. "Fuck my life."
Fine, yes.
Bren grinned. "Yay!"
Directing a small flow of water to move her chair nearer the edge of the pool where Bren was, Linnea nodded as she listened. Musical instruments had never been her strong suit so she did not have much of a knowledge in how easy they were or were not, but listening to Bren ramble put ideas in her head. Even if it all did get confusing when Bren talked so fast about it. Definitely the fastest fire elemental I've ever known, Linnea thought to her familiar, who was curled up on one of the ladders, his tail dipping into the water. Don't you think? Strike only gave his equivalent of a shrug, an undulation of his coils that ended with him much the same as he began. Hardly anyone would have even noticed the change. Not that Linnea had hoped for much of an answer, he was as lethargic as she was, and mad at her for not allowing him to bite Jokull.
"If the violin gives you so much trouble then perhaps you should not practice it," Linnea suggested. "Not because I think that you're incapable, but because I wouldn't want you to lose your temper." Fire elementals tempers could be a dangerous thing and she hated the idea of having to put it out. Which she could do, in multiple ways. But it would upset Bren and therefore Dagmar and being on her daughter's bad side was not high on her list of things to do. It was, actually, quite low on there. It's a slight disturbing to have a child of fire so close to the water, you know, the water thought out to Linnea sullenly. Pleased as it was with the presence of the water elementals, she was nonetheless nonplussed that a fire elemental would be so close and still dry. The element itself did not adjust so easily as the elementals. "Though if you find yourself in need of a new one... you know you only have to ask."
Bren blushed a little, shrugging and looking down. She wasn't used to accepting such generosity -- she'd grown up the youngest of five in a family that, for all of her life, had had only one moderate income. "I've got enough saved I could buy a cheap one without too much trouble," she said.
You have got to get better at this trust thing, girlfriend, Bogart told her, bringing the bottle back again. It's just how she's showing she cares.
Bren nodded a little bit, somewhat lacking the concentration and experience with having a familiar that would be required to think silently to him. At least in a way that she'd be confident he was hearing, and only him. She pulled a smile into place, even if thoughts of her family tended to not make her smile at all. It would be a perfect facade, to anyone who didn't know her well enough. She wasn't quite sure if Linnea and Dagmar and the family were fooled by it anymore, they were sortof right on the cusp where most people worked it out. "Dry shampoo is the best invention ever," she commented, throwing the toy again.
A cheap one? Linnea raised an eyebrow at just the thought, hearing Dagmar snicker from where she was trying to help Satu figure out how to move water without touching it. If Bren was still too proud to just accept the gifts outright then she was going to have to take a different route. Money was never an object with Linnea, the one good thing about who she was married to, and sharing with those she cared for was a common thing. Seeing as how Bren was Dagmar's friend and roommate and, for all intents and purposes as far as Linnea was concerned, a member of the family who just happened to be extremely odd with her affinity for fire she deserved the same treatment as the others. But she left it alone, not wanting to make Bren more uncomfortable than she already might be.
"Dry shampoo is an abomination," Linnea remarked, unable to have any sting behind the comment. She was drifting in the water and far too lethargic to stir up any sort of emotion other than complete relaxation. "If I can manage to deal with the occasional candle." No matter how much it makes me shudder to have fire in my home. "Then surely you can handle a shower like everyone else. The water isn't out to get you, I promise, Bren." That's what you think, her element all-but sang, earning a raised eyebrow directed at the pool for the voice only Linnea heard. "Besides, a shower just feels so good, washing the dirt away."
"A wet wipe gets the dirt off just as well. They're a good invention too." Bren could think of one time in her life she'd willingly taken a long shower and that was a day she didn't like thinking about. Left to her own devices she probably wouldn't shower more than once a week, but she was practical enough to realize that once every two or three days at the very least was necessary. She didn't overheat like others, so sweat wasn't really a problem, but she happened to know from a biology class that body odor was generally caused by bacteria more than sweat. "Water probably is out to get me. Fire's probably out to get you. Don't lie, you don't burn candles when I'm not around. Wait, do you? Cause that would be weird."
Wet wipes. No, those were not a good invention so far as Linnea was concerned. Washing one's hands worked so much better and did not leave a strange odor behind. Though Linnea did not really like thinking about Bren's personal hygeine habits because they were probably far different from her own. Dagmar had mentioned something about thinking that the fire elemental avoided showers more than any person should. Another one of those differences that could not help but cause clashes on occasion. Look, she's smart, she knows that I don't like her. Linnea was, not for the first time, quite glad that her element was unable to speak to anyone but her or other master water's. Otherwise she had a feeling that getting along with Bren would have been that much more difficult. "No, we burn candles occasionally when you're not around." Linnea pushed her sunglasses onto the top of her head. "But not by my choice. Jokull enjoys them when he is home." Probably just to annoy her and the girls. "I suppose that you must feel as though you're being put out in the shower, so I cannot blame you. I just can't understand it either."
"Yeah. You act really nervous when there's a candle going. Which only kindof makes sense because all those old religions say that water rules fire, so I should be more afraid of water than you should be of fire. I love having candles. I want the dorm to allow them. Not that it, like. Stops me." Bren had a stash of candles she kept under her bed at school, that she would light only when she really needed to be in the presence of her element. Fire was, arguably, the hardest of the four to come by in Michigan. Plenty of water, plenty of nature for the earth junkies, plenty of weather. Lord was there ever weather. But sun and blazes and dryness, not so much. "I'm pretty sure the desert is the only thing I miss about Vegas. I would move back there after I graduate if I didn't, like, think my parents had a fifty-mile Brenna Finn Wilson detector. And know basically every Mormon in Vegas. There is like, a mess of Mormons in Vegas, man. You would not expect to find them there but they're like ants or something. I don't know, I don't have a good metaphor for Mormons."
Crazy people?
"That's not even kindof a metaphor, because they are crazy people. Sink showering works pretty well."
If Linnea had not been so relaxed then she might have felt the need to go for her medication just from listening to Bren go on. It was much like listening to Dagmar and Kajsa when they got together, only those two rarely talked about things like candles. They just talked. "Candles aren't allowed in the dorms for a reason, Bren," Linnea remarked disapprovingly, earning another snicker from her daughters. Satu tossed in a remark about not understanding why they were desirable anyhow. "And it isn't that I fear fire, I just... don't like it very much." Something about all of the heat. Being too close to something that burned so hot and knowing that it burned only because there was no moisture - it stole the moisture, the water right out of things - was what made her so nervous. Linnea had experienced hot blazes before, courtesy of her husband, and sometimes she had nightmares about them. It was not a pleasant thing.
There's no fire here, Strike pointed out, sensing her unease. Only the elemental and she doesn't mean any of you harm. Relax. Now is not the time for a breakdown.
He was right, of course. Linnea's familiar somehow possessed a level head that she herself lacked. "I am sorry about your parents, you know, and they just don't know a good thing when they see it." Linnea could never imagine turning any of her children out, nor Bren for that matter. "And sinks are for washing your hands... silly fire girl. Perhaps you would like a jacuzzi since the water is so hot it's practically like liquid fire."
"Nope, still wet!" she chirped. She did a thing with the chair, nearly falling off it and breaking herself, but managing to make it lay flat, then stretching out so her back could tan a bit. In a combination of being, as Linnea said, a fire girl, and having a Hawaiian mother, she never burned, but she could tan nicely. She had her head at the foot of the chair so she was facing Linnea and the girls. "I did kindof light their son on fire. Even if the motherfucker...definitely deserved it."
He did, Bogart agreed, trotting over and sitting, then laying in front of Bren on the ground in front of the lounger. She reached down to pet him idly. It's good you don't worry about it, or think about him so much. He said something else to her, that only she would hear, something which she responded to with a nod and a soft "yeah, I know."
"But a delightful wet," Linnea sighed. Truly, she was not going to understand that. Ever. Even if she tried. And she had tried for the girl's sake and the sake of finding out a way for her and Dagmar to get along. She did wince a little, not at what Bren said but at how she said it. Linnea had never really approved of swearing and her children abided by that dislike, but Bren had never seemed to catch on and since she was not her child... "Tone down the swearing at least around Satu, Bren." Linnea's voice was low, but the warning was there. She did not want her youngest picking up on any bad language courtesy of a girl she - sort of - looked up to the same way she did her other sisters. "You lit him on fire for a reason and that's all that matters. Don't think on it much right now, just enjoy the sun and company."
"If you'd come and play with me," Satu tossed in, her voice a chirp, "then you'd definitely not think about anything that makes you swear and mom all prickly." Her eyes sparkled almost deviously, but she did not move closer. She was the reason they'd learned that pulling Bren into the pool was not a good idea and had been on the other end of quite a few talking-to's for it. "We'd have fuuuuuun, Bren."
"Sorry," Bren said, having the grace to blush a little bit. She looked up at Satu and her mischief-eyes, raising one eyebrow. "Nuh-uh, kid. I was not born yesterday." Bogart lifted his head suspiciously to reinforce the point. He got up and ran in a few circles, because Jack Russells need to burn off energy every so often, then laid back down. She pushed herself up on her elbows, clapping her hands together and rubbing them back and forth, carefully peeking between to see if she'd done what she was attempting, and grinning brightly. She kept her hands cupped protectively around something that was giving off a little light, but after a few seconds it seemed to disappear. She pouted briefly, then folded her arms under her head again, making the "I'm watching you" motion at Satu, completely straight-faced.
Linnea chuckled as Satu pouted at Bren, an expression mimicked by Dagmar, before the two burst into gales of laughter. "I don't know how you manage to be around us without losing your mind," Linnea admitted to Bren as she flicked her sunglasses back down and laid back. She knew that she could never be in the presence of more than one fire elemental without feeling overwhelmed. Especially not when she was just a young woman. Strike did spot what Brenna was doing and, expressing a spark of curiosity, slithered off of the ladder and closer to get a better view. She's playing with fire. Linnea raised an eyebrow at her familiar. As though she could be expected not to do that. Dagmar was forever playing with the water and Satu trying. It was their nature.
Satu stuck her tongue out at Bren before slipping under the water and surfacing on the edge of the pool, arms propped up on the ledge despite a warning from Linnea. "Playing with fire?" the little girl asked. "What can you do, Bren? You've never shown me and I'm curious." As was Linnea, though she would never say it. It was easier to watch flames from the comfort of the water, a thought that her daughters no doubt shared.
Bren grinned brightly at the chance to show off. "Well, the thing is I'm not so great at controlling it," she said. "Like...see, Dagmar knows, I'll make random fires on accident when I'm freaking out or really upset or having a nightmare or something. She THREATENED TO TELL RESLIFE A FEW TIMES," she said, calling the second part so Dagmar would hear it and know she was being...mocked, or scolded, or whatever she was being. "But I'm practicing." She clapped her hands and rubbed them together again, biting her lip and concentrating as best she could -- it was a little easier to concentrate on fire than it was on, say, English homework. She rubbed them together longer this time, with a motion that became like rolling dice. She peeked, then opened her hands, showing her creation. Her palms and fingers were pretty much covered in small flames, flickering and licking at each other.
Bogart looked incredibly proud.
Linnea pushed herself further away from the edge, closer to Dagmar, almost tempted to tell Satu to come away as well. But it was a natural reaction, not something that she did because she did not trust Bren. Though the young woman had admitted that she was not all that good at controlling it and Linnea had recieved more than one phonecall from a panicked Dagmar about fires in her room that she had needed to put out. The other young water elemental only rolled her eyes at the mocking and floated on her back, having seen the spectacle enough times to no longer be entertained by them, but Satu watched with wide eyes. Linnea could see the slight tremble though. Her water elemental side wanting the fire to be gone, Linnea felt it as well. And now you're letting her play with fire right there. Really, are you trying to give your daughters a terrible view of the world? Her element sounded disgusted, but thankfully it could not just reach out and soak the girl itself. "Very impressive, Bren," Linnea called out. "Now be a good girl and put it out, please. It makes us nervous."
"If not for the fact that it was fire that'd be pretty cool," Satu declared. "But I still think that it'd be cooler if you could, say... do it in the water. Can you do it in the water, Bren?" Linnea's eyes narrowed behind her dark lenses. Satu's voice sounded perfectly innocent, sure... but she was Linnea's daughter and Linnea knew her children.
By the time Linnea finished the sentence, Bren had been distracted by the shadow of a passing bird and the fire had flickered out. She looked briefly sad, then laid her head down again. "No, I can't. And I also can't swim, so like, don't even try it." While Dagmar was making those panicked calls, Bren was usually, for once, being the clear-headed one and just putting said fires out with her hands. It wasn't like she'd get burned, and the flames actually felt really nice on her hands (even if it felt like a shame sometimes to kill them). "It's not as bad when like, you can't see it, right? Like when I've got it hidden with my hands or whatever? Or can you still sense it?" She suspected Linnea could sense it, being a master, but she didn't know about Dagmar or Satu, and in truth she didn't know all that much about what she was. Only what Linnea and the family had taught her. She was asking, though, to try to remember for the future whether she could practice more subtly in front of them or just keep it at her own place, the tiny little studio apartment she rented by the week during breaks from school. And even if she forgot, once she was told Bogart would remember and remind her.
"You can't even swim!" Satu sounded shocked, possibly even scandalized, by this admission though Dagmar clearly was already aware and just floated, unamused and unimpressed. "Mom, isn't that a crime to not be able to swim by the time you're in college? I think it should be. We could teach you, you know, it might come in handy even for you." Of course she would, as a water elemental it was perfectly natural for her to think. So far as Linnea was concerned it should be required.
Linnea shook her head. "So long as we don't see it or feel it we're usually much better." Sometimes she thought that she could sense the flickers if they were near to water, but if they were not then she was as clueless as everyone else. Unless they were large enough to suck moisture right out of the air and leave her feeling dry. Then she knew. "And it's not that I don't trust you, sweetheart, you're just... not so practiced as you've admitted and I wouldn't want something hurting anyone. Poor Valterri is inside and would lose his mind if he looked outside and saw something blazing." Or he might just think it was the coolest thing ever and rush out for a better look. He could be odd like that at times. "You do seem to be getting better though, right? Practice makes perfect."
"I know," Bren said, nodding. She sucked at controlling herself, she'd accepted it, getting huffy was pretty pointless. "I can put it out on my own pretty easily though," she pointed out. "I'm getting better slowly."
I think fire will accept her soon, Bogart offered, bouncing in a few circles excitedly and sounding proud. He'd only come to her a few months ago, briefly before the Light of May, but she'd come a long way in that time. Bren smiled shyly. The idea of reaching that new level was a little scary for her, but incredibly exciting. Like losing her virginity or something. She started to think that didn't make sense, then realized it actually did in a lot of ways. Hey, check her out. Not a totally useless brain after all.
Bren started rubbing her hands together again, feeling the fire form between her palms and letting it die there, then re-form. Being next to the pool was always a bit of a nervous prospect for her, she only hung around to soak up the sun and because she needed to be around people. She tended to feel a little lost on school breaks -- in a dorm there was always someone around and bored, always some drama happening, always people to be around, friends to be found, and if Bren was anything, it was emotionally needy social.
Satu perked up at what boggart said. "Really? That'd be exciting! Really big step in the life of an elemental, I remember when Dagmar got accepted and she was so excited. It was only a few... oh, right you'd know that." Satu trailed off when Dagmar fixed a Look on her, sinking back into the water and muttering in Finnish. Which was something Linnea had told her not to do in front of company. But if she mentioned it then she had a feeling Satu would shoot back a smart remark about how she was supposed to treat Bren like family. Satu may have only been twelve but she was quite the mouth, moreso than most of her siblings. Maybe it had something to do with being the youngest, Linnea was not sure. She had been the youngest and nothing like that.
Suddenly, Linnea's stomach gave a quiet rumble and she remembered that she had not eaten anything since that morning. And she probably should, even if there was a lovely dinner prospect later with Kajsa, who was would be there sometime around three or four to her and Dagmar's delight. "I think that perhaps it's time to get something to eat... anyone else hungry?" Linnea asked, directing her small stream to the ladder so that she could climb out, not even wincing as Strike coiled himself around her ankle. the small snake was no threat to her. "Bren? I know you'd probably like to get away from the pool for a time."
Bren smiled and nodded, sitting up. "I think I'll go home after, we wanted to get to the park sometime today," she said, grabbing her shorts and pulling them on over the bikini bottoms she wore. "Where did..." Bogart ran over to where she'd dropped her shirt and brought it back. Bren smiled and scratched under his chin, shrugging it on. "You can head home if you want, Bogart, I'll be there." Normally she'd accompany him, but...she was pretty sure she had like, some mustard in her fridge. Period. Bren was not very good at taking care of herself. She'd definitely need to get groceries before dinner, but she didn't want to try to get from here to said store at this time of the day.
Linnea nodded. It was pleasant to have Bren around but she knew the girl would not stay. And since she was usually uncomfortable even accepting things that Linnea viewed as small, she doubted that she would accept an offer of a place to stay and eat at every day. It was not like they lacked the room with Leif and Kajsa moved out now. "What would you like to eat?" Linnea asked, sliding the door open and stepping inside. This was the indoor pool, connected to the outdoor one, because a family with three water elementals simply needed an indoor pool as well, but the kitchen was just off of it. "I think we have pretty much everything. I'm craving a spinach salad myself." The iron would be good for her. Red meat may have been a better idea but she was just not feeling it right then. A salad would work. "And to drink?"
Which, of course, Bren just found weird. She followed the group inside, falling in a step behind Dagmar, saying something quietly to her usually-roommate that made them both giggle. Part of it was the discomfort thing, and part of it was being pretty much treated like she was worthless for so long by the people who were supposed to love her. Her sister had always been on her side, reminding her that she was not worthless, but she was still proving that to herself. It's a safe bet that Bren is basically a lot more fucked up than anyone knows right now, she's just exceptionally good at faking it. Notice how there's never any thought processes here? Yeah. She paused at the door to kneel, kissing Bogart on the forehead and getting a few licks in return, and he trotted off, wiggling under the fence to head on back to the apartment -- it wasn't far at all from the last-name-I-can't-spell residence. Brenna came inside, making sure the door was shut behind her, and came to the kitchen. "Ummm...ooh, do you have those, like, the chicken nuggets things, in the little box, that's usually those boxes have the TV dinners in them but there's the one flavor that's chicken nuggets and fries and it's called snackers or something. That was a really complicated way to say that."
Blinking, Linnea had no idea what Bren was talking about, she turned to look at her middle child. "Do you know what she wants?" Dagmar nodded, grinning widely as she turned for the freezer. "Well there you go, Bren, we do have them. Whatever they are. You and Dagmar can make them - no open flames in the kitchen! - while I make salad for Satu and I." The youngest had stayed out in the pool with her turtle, but she would trudge in soon enough to beg for food and Linnea intended on having something made so that she did not go begging junkfood. She knew her youngest all too well to fall for those same old tricks. New ones were a different story. Letting her youngest daughter flow out of her mind, Linnea watched Bren out of the corner of her eye as she went about making her salad. Now that she was out of the water it was easier to actually string thoughts together that had actual depth to them. Something was not quite right there, of course that was always the case but it still bothered her. Quite a bit actually and it almost showed without the water washing it away. Since no one had stated a preference on drink, Linnea just pulled out a pitcher of iced tea along with extra ice cubes for each cup. "Those won't take forever will they? I'm hungry but won't start eating until you're done." Salads were remarkably simple like that. No cook or real prep involved at all so long as the vegetables came pre-cut.
"See, we're college kids. We have our own food vernacular. Foodacular. That's my word and I'm happy with it." She nodded for good measure, sticking Dagmar's in the microwave first since hers would be done quicker. Bren liked hers ridiculously hot. "Nope, not long at all," she said, setting the microwave to the precise optimal time they'd worked out sometime around February. She went to the fridge and grabbed the ketchup for their nuggets and fries whatever the hell they were. "So are you still talking to that guy?" she asked Dagmar, bending over slightly with her hands on her knees to watch the food in the microwave. "He's a moron if he never texted back, just saying."
Propping one elbow on the table, Linnea leaned her chin on her hand as she listened to Bren and Dagmar chatter while waiting for the microwave. It was nice to see her daughter having someone to get along with with Kajsa moved out. Much better than the whininy, fit throwing girl who had called almost daily to claim that she hated her roommate with a passion unbefitting a water elemental. "Yeah, sort of," Dagmar shrugged as the microwave went off, pulling out her plate. "Don't really care much for him though, kinda lame." It was so nice to hear them talking about who they did and did not like. Linnea was not the sort to live vicariously through her children but she definitely appreciated seeing them able to make their own choices. It lifted her mood considerably and even let her forget for a time why her stomach hurt.
"A boyfriend, Dagmar?" Linnea asked, perking a brow. "Do you have one as well, Bren?"
There were minor catcalls from Dagmar, and Bren poked at her. "Shut up, oh my god! I will so burn your food!" She put her own food in and set it to a higher time. It was tough for food to taste overcooked to her. "Not really. I'm kindof, like. Well. Okay, so, there's this majorette, and this trumpet player. The majorette, is like, yeah, you do not even know, okay. Like. Yeah. But she's not a music major. And the trumpet player is, and he's totally got this like, sweet guy thing going on, and he's just all, you know. And I don't even know, okay, you can just shut up!" she said, pointing wildly at Dagmar, who was laughing her face off now. The microwave beeped again and she grabbed her food, pulling the top off the thing and pushing the contents to the side slightly so there was room for some ketchup. "You're a meanieface."
Linnea hid a smile. This was the sort of thing she had missed when she was their age and soaked it up like a plant did water. That and it was pleasant to see Dagmar in such a good mood when the girl could be so prone to her fits of depression and less-than-pleasant attitudes. But understanding Bren... well, that was a different story completely. Sometimes Linnea wondered if maybe she spoke in a foreign language that she had gone and made up one day when she was bored. Only Dagmar seemed to understand because she was laughing so hard she looked like she was going to pass out. "Breathe, Dagmar."
"Can't help it," Dagmar choked out, dropping into the chair next to Linnea. "Way too funny. She doesn't even... ahhh, yeah. Okay, I'm good." Drawing in a deep breathe she managed to stop laughing, though she was still grinning and prodding at Bren. "You burn my food and I swear I'll drench you. See if I don't."
"Be nice, Dagmar," Linnea chided, stabbing a forkful of salad. "I'm sure that either of them would be very lucky to have you, sweetheart."
She does. It's called "teenager." Bren perched herself on the counter to leave the last chair for Satu. "Oh yeah? Try it. I know where your clothes are." She grinned sweetly. "I'll dry out. Wonder how you'll un-burn your wardrobe..." she said, with a slightly exaggerated 'wondering' face.
"Thanks," she said to Linnea, blushing a little and looking down at her food. "Watch, with my luck neither of them will be back this year. Or the music major will have switched to Spanish and the majorette will have broken a hip. That would be truly tragic, because her hips hi Satu!" she chirped as the youngest child entered. Even she knew better than to go on about the hot girl's assets with the little one in the room.
Sitting on the counter. Only Bren was going to get away with that and only because Linnea was too drained to say anything. And amused at the banter. "If you burn my clothes so help me you will never sleep dry another night in your life," Dagmar promised, her eyes flashing with that same little glint Satu had had earlier. "Or be dry ever for that matter. Try impressing someone when you look like a drowned rat." Living with those two would probably be a headache, Linnea decided. An entertaining one.
Satu's entrance saved anymore interesting stories, to Linnea's hidden disappointment. Not that she wanted to picture teens her daughter's age - very wrong - but she did not mind listening every now and again. Especially after a bad morning. "Here, Satu, I made you a salad. And don't look at me like that, I know that Dagmar eats whatever you want when I'm not here so when I am you're eating healthy." Her youngest attempted sulking for a little longer before shrugging and digging in. "And Bren... Dagmar... don't make each other's lives miserable again, please? Undoing that once was enough for any liftetime."
"Just saying!" she said, lifting her hands in a mock-gesture of surrender. "We'll see who comes out on top of that one. I mean, mess me up too much and who knows what could light on fire." Bren was the youngest of five, and she'd developed the ability to hold her own in any manner of contest, as a matter of necessity. "Don't laugh so much and I won't have to burn the school down." She smiled innocently.
"Or I could compromise and I could just put ketchup in your hair. You're water, you can wash it out, right?"
"I could compromise and just... I don't know... flood every one of your classrooms and make sure that fire never ever wanted to be around you because-"
"Enough," Linnea's voice was firm and the look she directed at Dagmar and then Bren was that of a mother who had made a decree and expected it to be followed. She had raised three children and was in the process of two more, she had a way with this sort of thing. "It's not even funny to joke about burning the school down, Bren, people get in a lot of trouble for things like that and they're coming up with new ways to detect whose done what every day. I really wouldn't want to see you going to jail." It would actually break her heart and, she knew, Dagmar's as well. She did not want that for any of her children but especially not the one most prone to follow in her footsteps.
"I could put ketchup in your hair," Satu chirped suddenly, eyes huge. "I mean, maybe then you'd take a real shower, riiiiight?"
Bren nodded a little, chastised. She hadn't really thought about it until Dagmar had talked about depriving her of her element, because that wasn't funny, especially as she grew a little more dependent on it every day. She heard Satu and narrowed her eyes, but she was trying not to smirk. "You, I am not afraid to dunk in ashes, you little squirt." She made the "I'm watching you" motion again. "Do you have any of those tiny little burnt fries you hate?" she asked Dagmar. "I'll take them, I have a big soft one." She picked up one of said tiny burnt fries and popped it in her mouth, rocking side to side slightly where she sat in a happy little tasty-dance. "Everyone kindof progresses in different ways, right?" she asked Linnea. "Like, it's like puberty, and the control issue...wow, I sound like a teenage boy with...that problem," she said, glancing at Satu. "I wanna refer to it as my prematurity now. But like, that's not really crazy weird right?" Bren suspected this sort of thing didn't quite apply to water as it did to fire, but Linnea was really her only source of information on elementals of any kind.
Satu perked up visibly. These were the kind of conversations that some of her friends had started having and she was undeniably curious, but Linnea shook her head at her. "Really, Satu, you'll hit puberty soon enough. Don't be so eager for it." Then it would be all her children past childhood and Linnea was not fond of thinking of those times. Satu only rolled her eyes and went back to her salad, apparently subdued by the threat of being dunked in ashes. Dagmar was shaking her head at Bren's removal of her fries, but Linnea could tell she was not really bothered by it. If anything it seemed like a comfortable sort of behavior between the two. "Everyone does progress differently, yes. Some go nice and smoothly, some take more time... some never master and some become masters in their twenties." Linnea had grown up around elementals and so these things were not all that strange to her. She had asked such questions as well and heard them from her daughters. "And you've got that whole problem with control so it might be different for you still. Perhaps we should find you a master fire elemental, see if they'll teach you since I can't really do anything more than guess." Water could not teacher fire.
Bren nodded, biting her lip. "Maybe," she said muching slowly on a chicken nugget. In truth, the idea of telling anyone what she was outside the family terrified her, even another fire elemental. "Bogart was saying it's, um...the..." She blinked a few times.
"The control thing," Dagmar supplied.
"The control thing isn't something he's heard of but it's not really that weird in theory. Thank you. And I can definitely do more with the creation than most people at my level, so it makes sense I'd be a little delayed in something else. Then he started making shortbus jokes and I had to throw something at him, but yeah. He told me not to stress about it and just practice and it would probably get better when fire accepts me. My theory is that it's cause of the ADHD, cause like, that's supposedly more an air thing than a fire thing and fire is actually meant to be really focused but I'm just weird so my theory is that like, It's all like, what the fuuu-um. Hell is this when it like, finds ADHD in my brain, and it's all like, this is not supposed to be here, but like it can't do anything about it cause I'm supposed to be providing the focus, but I'm not, so it goes crazy." She nodded once, happy with that explanation.
"Oh it was only a suggestion," Linnea smiled reassuringly. She would never want Bren to go and do something she did not want to. That would be cruel. Much like forcing one of her own children to have a teacher who was not her. She did not think that either of them would do very well that way, even though Valterri was going to need one since she could not help him anymore than she could Bren... okay, less. At least with Bren she had some basic ideas of how to possibly help her. At least a little. "Familiars are quite intelligent and know more than we give them credit for." A smug sense of self-satisfaction from where Strike had curled. "But they don't know everyhing. If you think the ADHD is a problem and would like it remedied, then I know of a very good doctor. I would go with you." There was no shame in that. Linnea still took medicatinos for her depression and knew that Dagmar did as well. Sometimes. "Other than that... I've really not meant many people with a control issue. It could stem from how you were raised, how you learn... any manner of things. But since it's you, I'll think that you know best what it might be."
"I don't know. I mean, it sounds like a good idea, like to get it looked at, even though like I've talked to school psychologists and they've all been like, yeah, no question, textbook ADHD and really severe too. But I mean, with the homeschooling we had the flexibility to work around it, and I just sortof struggled through high school, so I've never taken a pill for it in my life. So like, it just makes me a little nervous. I don't know, it sounds like a good idea though. The ADHD is just my theory, I'm just mad I didn't grow out of it like most people do. Like by my age I should not even need meds, especially if I've never been on them. The college students still taking meds are the ones who've been on it since elementary school, your brain gets dependent on it to be replacing those chemicals and so but if you never take it then you're supposed to not need it by college age. And if I was gonna grow out of it I would have by now. I guess the like, social influences how I was raised thing makes sense. After I made a whole bunch of fire that one time it got worse. But like, a lot of things got worse so I don't know." She shrugged awkwardly, looking down at her food. "I think I'm almost done. Dagmar, are we still going to that party tomorrow? Wait, it's friday, right?"
Did she breathe anywhere in there? Linnea felt a little suffocated just listening, leaving off eating her food for a moment so that she could pay full attention. Satu had already zoned out, muttering to herself and sneaking - or so she thought - her spinach under the table to her turtle. Dagmar was listening, but she had one of those looks on her face. "Everyone's different," Linnea said. "And there's nothing wrong with being an adult on medication. I'm on my own, depression comes far too easily for us water elementals. And you know Dagmar. My offer to take you still stands." Linnea shrugged and went back to eating. Bren would either except it or not, she could not likely change her mind.
"Yeah it's Friday," Dagmar replied, taking a long drink of her tea. "And sure, I'm still game to go. Don't have anything else planned. I don't think. Do I?" Linnea shook her head. Tomorrow she would stay in so that Dagmar could go.
"Awesome." Bren grinned happily. "Maria might be therrre," she said, grinning and bouncing from foot to foot and trying not to fangirl too hard. "That's the majorette," she said, for Linnea's benefit, ignoring Dagmar's dramatics, whatever form they are taking, because you know they're there. Like the invisible man. Only obvious. "I'm gonna wait and see if it's still a problem when fire accepts me. If it is we can go, because at that point, like, I'm pretty sure it's gonna get a lot easier to create a lot more fire and that's not a very good idea, it seems like, when I'm creating it randomly. Or, well, not random. When I'm upset and whatever. But like, I can usually manage to get most everything done in terms of like schoolwork and work work so the fire is really the only problem." She'd hopped off the counter awhile ago and now was standing next to it, leaning on it as she ate the last bits of her food. "Even if english, like, totally needs to die."
Linnea was not blind, she usually caught onto other people's actions and feelings easily, and so it was not hard for her to realize that Dagmar was not excited at the prospect of this Maria being there. Hmm... and why was that? Perhaps it was time for another one of those mother-daughter chats that had been so popular with Kajsa. Especially since Dagmar was now stabbing a little harder at the ketchup than she had to, and muttering in Finnish. Those were not pleasant things. "English is quite fun I always thought." Or her English lessons had been. But then those lessons were the reason Kajsa existed at all and Linnea would always think fondly of them. She did not think of things the same way as most people because she had never finished school and had wanted to once she hit a certain age. "Though I suppose a music major must think it pointless."
"Kinda. Like, Dagmar will tell you, you like do not even see me during the week. Music major is a lot of work and it takes you a long time...wait. I don't know where that came from, it's a lot of work, and I am not so good with the words, and apparently I'm still on like a twelfth grade reading level and my professor was all, like, judgy, because I'm honors but I can't read according to her standards, and I was like, hello, I'm an honors music major and this is not even the honors English class, so like, shut up. I didn't really say that. Should have! But yeah, like, I can spell my name, and I can read a menu, and I can transcribe music like nobody's business so what's your excuse, lady."
Choking back a laugh, Linnea dabbed at her mouth with a napkin. Perhaps fire elementals were a little too, well, fiery for lack of a better word, but she admired Bren's passion and the heat she spoke with even about things like this. It was nothing like her own behavior or any of her daughters so it was a pleasant change, like an odd breath of fresh air that happened to be really hot. "Honors music major is nothing to be ashamed of." Kajsa had been an honors student as well, though Dagmar was not. Not that the middle child seemed to mind, she just went to college and passed like she did high school. "I think that you should be proud of being an honors student at all."
"I am, for sure, just like, my sister when I was growing up was always on about like, it's so much pressure being smart everyone's always like you can do more, well, I totally get her now." Bren threw the box away that had held her food. "Okay, I'm out. I will see you guys later," she said, giving hugs to Linnea and Satu. "Text me and we'll work out how we're getting there, okay?" she told Dagmar, and hugged her too with a kiss to the cheek, then headed out with a wave and big grin.
"Bye Bren, be well," Linnea said, hugging the girl quickly. Dagmar still had that look on her face and remained in her seat. "Always nice when she comes over, don't you think?"
"Yeah. Nice," Dagmar agreed and Satu was suddenly off with a spiel about her familiar's latest antics.