But ooh, her pie looks good! Who: Adelle and Zania Where: Berry Days Festival When: Early afternoon
Adelle was really late in entering a recipe in one of the contests for the Berry Days Festival, but today? Today she had actually gotten something done in time that didn't taste half bad and was an original recipe. Blueberry and strawberry be damned, because the girl was taking blackberry head on and nobody was going to stop her. So with several pies in several containers in several bags, the little brunette made her way on over to the Festival, signed herself up, and laid her pies out on the table that she was assigned. Thank God somebody had provided little tent things for shade because it was hot, and the little thing's skin was glistening with sweat by the time she got a chance to sit.
Of course, the tasting wasn't until hours from then, but she'd already turned in her pie, and then donated another to the pie-eating contest, because if she wasn't going to get to eat all that fattening pie then holy hell she was going to witness somebody enjoy it. So with sunglasses atop her head and several pies, paper plates and forks, Adelle waited for somebody, anybody to try her blackberry pie.
And if nobody does, that'll suck. But ooh, her pie looks good! And her tart looks amazing. OH MY GOD MY MOUTH IS WATERING JUST FROM LOOKING AT ALL OF THESE. ARE THOSE DONUTS? HOMEMADE DONUTS? CALM DOWN, THEY'RE JUST SWEETS! Yeah right. They were some of the most amazing sweets she'd ever seen. The little siren began wondering just how she'd gotten through that visit to Snow White Sweets without inhaling the entire store. Oh yeah, there was that cutie, Oz, to talk to. "Blackberry pie! One of the many, many blackberry pies, but mine's made by me! Would anybody like a slice?" Somebody please want some of my pie...
Zania wasn't one to turn down free pie, so long as it wasn't cherry pie, which reminded her of animal entrails and put the lyrics 'she's my cherry pie' in a whole different light. There was little that squicked her, but the idea of eating raw intestines was just yuck. Blackberry though? Delicious. And completely worth sampling, even if being advertised by a little brunette that needed her mouth sewn shut. She stopped in front of the booth and stuck her finger into the pie before popping it in her mouth. Okay, then. The bitch could cook. "Yum," she said, removing her finger with a pop. "I'll have some."
What?! Did that girl really just put her finger into the pie? Adelle looked from the girl to the pie and then to the girl again. Seriously? Hours of hard work went into baking them all, and the first person to come over and take an interest deems it totally cool to stuff her finger into the little brunette's pie. "Dude, you just totally fingered my pie. Not cool." Her brows knit together angrily and her mouth twisted into a pout. "I don't know where your finger's been, what kind of like, germs you're totally giving people by raping pies." Adelle took a second of time out from her anger to giggle at what she'd said when the other girl asked for a piece. It had been a long time since she'd made something so serious so full of innuendos. Expertly, she cut out the piece that had a big hole in it and presented it with a plastic fork. "I'm Adelle, and after six different recipes, this one's the best yet."
"If I was fingering your pie, you wouldn't be complaining about it," Zania said. Adelle would probably be horrified if she knew where Zania's hands had been and what they'd been up to, but since Zania didn't feel like scarring the girl for life, she kept her mouth shut... at least until she had a piece of pie to herself. "Don't worry. I licked my fingers between sessions," she said, forking herself a bite and popping it in her mouth. It wasn't the best blackberry pie she'd ever had, but it was pretty damn good. "Besides, who's to say your hands are any cleaner than mine? Have you had blood on your hands lately?" There were plenty of other unsanitary things she could have named, but blood was what she most often worked with.
"I'd complain if you left a hole like that in it. Which you kinda did." Likewise, if Zania knew how many lives had ended due to the little brunette's hands, she might be a little more concerned about who had baked the pie she was enjoying. As petite and seemingly unknowing as the little siren was, there were some things that were better left unsaid. "Another joke, I'm hoping." Adelle gave one of her brightest smiles as the other girl chewed, as if she could make it taste better with her cute smile and similarly sparkling hazel eyes. "Well I used some hand sanitizer before I got here and then some lotion. And yes, I have. I cut myself earlier in the week, but it healed pretty quickly. What about you?" She looked down at the finger she'd sliced, as if expecting it to suddenly be bleeding again. Of course, the blood of other people had coated those hands too, but she kept that fact to herself. "You do have a point though. Not many people wash their hands often enough. But it doesn't mean you can go around shoving fingers into pies."
"I boiled blood this morning, just before snacking on fruit loops. Don't worry, I washed my hands," Zania smiled. Hand sanitizer just made her feel like she was adding one more chemical into the mix, so she preferred good old soap and water. "How will I know if I want a piece of your pie if I can't taste it first?" Adelle could have always given her the piece of pie with a hole in it, but that might have resulted in Zania poking holes in all her pies. With all the pies Adelle had out, if Zania poked a hole in each of them, the pieces she might get might make a whole pie! This might be a plan... Or she could just steal a pie and run. That would always be easier, but maybe not as much fun. "How did you cut yourself?"
Okay, so it was obviously a joke. Nobody boiled blood and then sat down to eat some cereal. Nobody. Right? "Well, I'm gonna go with, you ask somebody for a piece and then you eat it? I dunno, I'm kinda new to this whole thing. I only moved here a few weeks ago but it seemed like fun, my best friends are currently unavailable or not answering their phones, and I have to admit, I never give up a chance to look cute for an occasion because, yeah." Adelle held up the finger to show it off, but there was nothing to show. It had healed perfectly, no scar or even a trace of what had happened. "Chopping some strawberries for pies." Because she wasn't about to come out and say that she killed people for her cuteness. Who said that anyway? "You're joking about the blood, right? I mean, you're not like a... witch, are you?"
"Sometimes, yes," Zania smirked. "But if you'd chopped your finger off, there wouldn't be much I could do. I'm not good at healing and people don't regenerate. Unless you're a were-starfish. Then maybe you could grow a finger back." It was fun being able to admit and have people believe her, rather than think she was crazy just for saying so. Now they were curious or scared, both reactions she enjoyed. Being able to acquire work was an added bonus, since 'witch for hire' didn't sell so well before magic was public knowledge. "You're not looking to lose a finger are you? Because I could always do with extras. Just in case."
So she was actually a witch, and she was so open about it too! Somehow, the little brunette figured that all magic wielders were secretive about their abilities, but this was post-May so maybe everybody's views had changed. Or at least some of them because when Adelle thought magic, she thought fire and brimstone and Kikuya. Well, there went part of her good mood. Who wanted to ever be reminded of that crazy model and her blood magic. But Zania had come out with the magic thing after the mention of blood, several bloody comments at that. An alarm went off in Adelle's mind and she could feel her smile dim as she formed her next question. "Blood... witch? I met a blood witch a couple of times and she's nothing like you. You're too happy and... well, jokey?" Blood magic was bad, right? "Is curiosity going to kill the cat here?"
"I like cats," Zania said with a blink. As if one cue, Riddle circled around beneath Adelle's booth, rubbing around her legs, begging for attention. He'd been sitting at her feet watching quietly, until it seemed a good time to make an entrance. You sure know how to play it, Zania thought in amusement. She couldn't bring herself to kill cats for magic, though that didn't seem to exclude anything else. "And I don't run around chopping people's fingers off, if that's what you're asking. Magic's magic. I do what I can do without discrimination," she shrugged. Except that white shit, Riddle pointed out. You don't do that. Which was completely and totally true. Zania didn't practice white magic and couldn't even if she wanted to. "Sounds like you had a run in with someone who wanted to bleed you or something," Zania said, forking another mouthful of pie. "This is good," she pointed out, more impressed the more she ate.
"Oh!" Adelle exclaimed softly as something brushed against her leg. These days you couldn't been too certain of what anything was, and she was glad to see that it was a cat rather than a stranger creature's bristly arm. But-- oh! That cat looked a lot like Kikuya's evil little thing. The one that just loved to stare at her. Oh God, please let this be this girl's cat. The smaller of the two girls bent to pet the cat, but before she actually did, she looked up at Zania and then back down at it. Who did she ask to pet a familiar? "Magic's magic. That's a pretty different uh... view? Than what I've come across so far. But like, the other witch isn't a happy one at all." Which bolstered Adelle's confidence in the trade considerably. If magic was neutral, then she could use it neutrally. A smile crept back up onto her lips as she zoned out, petting the Siamese. Zania's pie comment brought her back to reality with a few blinks, "oh? Oh, yeah? Thanks! How long have you been doing magic?"
"What?" Zania asked, then leaned over the front of the booth to see what Adelle was looking at. "Oh. That's Riddle. He's an attention whore." Don't bite her. I'm playing. She couldn't keep her familiar away from a day like this, where there were so many sights and sounds and things to eat. People to meet! And Riddle liked people that were willing to pet him. "What, was she a sad witch? A scary witch?" she asked with a laugh. "I've got pie. Why shouldn't I be happy?" Riddle began to purr loudly and Zania took another bite of pie. Happy now? They both were, which was impressive. "I started learning when I was, like, four or five. Something like that. I don't remember not knowing magic of some sort. Do you know any?" This girl seemed like the sort to get into white magic, but she could be wrong.
"Well, as long as he's cute he's going to get my attention." Adelle all but disappeared behind her table as she pet the cat with both hands. She loved animals, but rarely got a chance to see any these days. Something about the heat and wanting to be inside almost all the time made it impossible to enjoy the world. It wasn't even like she wasn't accustomed to heat living in California previously, it was that it felt so much hotter here without beaches. Yes, she could swim in the river, but to be honest the idea of things living in it now was a little scary. You could never know when an angry mermaid might be living down there. "I'm glad the pie is good. I don't expect to win or anything, but I like cooking, so yeah." Adelle stood up to answer the other girl's question, abandoning petting Riddle for the time being. "Nope, none at all. Wish I did, but I didn't really know where to get started until recently. I'd love to learn. I totally want to be like, bam! And then spells and all that." For the sort of person the siren was, white magic would suit her. But she was smart enough to know now that she was better off with an offensive type.
While she enjoyed eating Adelle's pie, she'd had better and didn't think it was likely to win the contest. The berries were good, but the crust needed some work, and in Zania's mind that was half the battle. She'd tell Adelle what to change, but baking wasn't really her thing. As good as she was with mixing up spells, work in the kitchen often blew up in her face. "It doesn't really work like that," Zania said. "I mean, if you try something too advanced, you're gonna get that BAM, but it's more likely blowing up back at you. You've got to start small and work your way up, and that means nothing spectacular in the beginning." Licking the last bit of berry juice off her fork, Zania considered another piece before deciding against it. As good as it was, there were other pies out there waiting to be tasted. "What would you like to do if you could do anything at all?" she asked, trying to get a feel for what sort of spells Adelle would go for.
"Oh." So there was going to be years and years and years and years of work as a witch before she got to do really big 'bam!' spells? Lame. She considered herself fairly patient since she'd been dancing since she was little and was barely even moderate by her own standards. She still couldn't top the pirouette record, and that was annoying to all hell. One of these days, she was going to top it and then it was off to Guinness to do it live and have it recorded. "Well, I've danced for 21 years so I'd really like to think that I have that kind of devotion." And I can't keep a guy around, so there goes that. Adelle smiled brightly at the redhead as she finished her piece. "I wanna say protect my friends, the people I care about. Buuuut, I think it would be waaay smarter to learn offensive magic. So if somebody with powers or like a werelion or you know, a real lion, because who even knows these days, if one of those attacks me, I'm not small, little, helpless Adi. Oh! By the way, you never gave me your name, and I like to be able to have something to call my friends. Well, other than girl-that-fingers-pies."
So they were friends now? Lovely. Zania doubted Adelle would want anything to do with her if she knew her better, but that's what secrets and first impressions were good for. Giving her the whole picture would ruin Zania's chance at having fun. "There's a big difference between protecting and fighting back," Zania smirked. "Neither one renders you helpless, so think about what you really want to invest time in. Most people tend to be better at one or the other." And in her case, white magic was pretty much out of the question. There were times when Zania wished she could heal people, but otherwise she was happy with what she knew. It suited her and her lifestyle. "I'm Zania," she said. "Do you really find yourself fearing that lion's might attack? Or is that a Scarlet Oak type fear?" It seemed a little far fetched as far as fears went.
Yes they were friends now! Anybody that talked to Adelle for more than ten minutes and didn't send her running scared or being downright mean to her was a friend. Try as she might, Zania wasn't escaping her newest little friend unless she did something like shove the little thing's face into the pie. But unbeknown to the redhead, her secrets wouldn't scare the siren. As of late, there were just too many things that should have been scary that she'd experienced that one more witch or murderer wouldn't exactly faze her. "White magic, then. Are the starting thingies for different kinds of magic the same? Like, if I started learning one, could I switch to another easily, or would it be like sewing and I have to undo all of my stitching? God, that would suck so bad. Oh my gosh, could I do both?" Which was the new question of the moment. Trying both and seeing what she could excel at would be a very, very awesome way of seeing if she was cut out for magic at all. "It's more like a fear that stuff will go crazy in this like, totally crazy world. I'm not from here, California born and raised!" And mighty proud of it too.
"You could do both, but they're not really the same," Zania answered. "Progressing at one doesn't mean you've progressed at the other either. Just because you can heal a paper cut doesn't mean you can start a fire by rubbing your fingers together, or some shit. Make sense?" She wasn't sure she got the comparison to sewing, since it seemed like if something was sewn together then how was it ever wrong? Were there different ways to sew? "Well, there's realistic fears and then there's the sort that have a snowball's chance in hell of happening. Like, I suppose Scarlet Oak could be invaded by aliens, but I'm not preparing for that because there are better things to worry about than an alien invasion. Like vampire attacks. Those seem to be high on the list lately." It was definitely something Scarlet Oak needed to get a hold on. "So are there lion attacks in California?"
"Well that sucks. And makes me want to just focus on one. It would mean less time for dancing, and cooking, and dancing. My life is like 95% dance. I danced when I made this pie, I danced in the car on the way over here, and I'm only not dancing right now because it would freak people out, and cats totally don't like dodging feet all the time." Adelle thought on what Zania said, cutting herself a piece of pie in the process. She was a sucker for sweets, what could she say. Even if she was there to give out her pie and persuade the judges that hers was the best, she still wanted a piece. She wanted a piece of that one, and that one, that one too, that one over there looked sooo amazing. The little thing's mouth was practically drooling at the thought. But screw that, she had one slice, and one slice was enough... for now. "Okay, so a vampire attack could happen more often than not right now. But seriously, who knows if there's a bitten lion in town that may or may not lose control one night and I'm somewhere close by? I might be worried for nothing, but hey, it could like, really happen. And nope, no lion attacks in Cali. Penguin attacks, yeah, but that's an entirely different story."
Penguin attacks were another thing Zania didn't think she needed to worry about. Adelle certainly had some odd concerns when it came to her protection, but at least they were interesting. Zania would have wandered off long ago if they weren't so bizarre, but now she was getting curious about the other pies at the fair. "Well, I'm gonna go samples some more pies, but if you ever want to talk magic or something, you can call me here," she said, dishing a card out of her purse. it had very little on it other than her name and number, lacking an explanation for why it existed in the first place. Zania didn't like to be that obvious in her advertising, so it was always better just to leave it blank. "I'm also the DJ at Heme, so if I can promise good dancing if you ever want to venture out that direction. Catch you later?"
Adelle giggled to herself. She totally had Zania wondering just what the heck was going on in her head, and for once, she wasn't racing to explain what she meant. She had definitely talked the girl's ear off when all she came for was a piece of pie, but that was how the little siren made friends. The only way you escaped being a friend of hers was to run on sight. If you could avoid conversation or be mean to the brunette, then you were entirely safe. "Oh, I totally kept you from enjoying everything there is here. I'd say I was sorry but it was really nice talking to you. Oh, and Riddle!" Adelle smiled as she bent to give the familiar one more rub. "Ooh, you have a card. Means you're like, important. I take that back, you're a DJ so that means you're one of my new best friends." And it was Heme of all places. It was like she was inviting the shorter girl to go indulge in her vampire fetish. Maybe she could meet up with one of her vampire "acquaintances" there.
Looking down at the card in her hand, Adelle nodded to show her enthusiasm. "Yeah, definitely." She beamed her best smile as Zania wandered off, reading the card again and again like there was something hidden between the letters. She was already looking forward to seeing the odd redhead again. Definitely.